chicken

Waldecks makes food?! – Lunch at Lakeview Cafe, Kingsley

by Sab on April 27, 2012

My mind was a little blown when I found out there was a place that served food in Waldecks. I had been told that the chicken burger had a ridiculous amount of bacon in it, so T and I went to grab lunch at Lakeview Cafe inside Waldecks off Wanneroo Road, Kingsley. After surveying the many tasty options, I decided to order the chicken burger, which came with 2 tenderloins, lashings of bacon, fresh lettuce, cucumber, caramelised onion, beetroot and tomato. These are possibly the best burgers I’ve ever had, although I may have been biased as I was ravenous by the time we got there.

Chicken burger with bacon, beetroot, onion and lettuce from Lakeview Cafe

For those of you who are food hipsters, there’s not too much in the way of novel or gourmet food at this place, however it was good, decent food and portion sizes were more than adequate!

Chicken burger with bacon, beetroot, onion and lettuce from Lakeview Cafe

T ordered the beef burger which was good too, but I suspect he was jealous of my chicken burger. There’s something about those juicy, warm tenderloins that made the chicken burger super-delicious.

Our burgers from Lakeview Cafe, Waldecks

Here’s the view from the cafe, not quite a lake view, but pretty and serene nonetheless with lots of plant life!

The view from the cafe - Lakeview Cafe Kingsley

I’ve got to try breakfast at this place. Did I mention they also had giant bowls of wedges?

{ 0 comments }

Dinner at Phong Vinh – Northbridge Vietnamese

by Sab on March 28, 2012

As most of my friends know, I’m currently obsessed with Vietnamese food. On recommendation from a Vietnamese person, I visited Phong Vinh on William St, Northbridge. My friend was running late, so I sat in the restaurant for 20 minutes waiting which the staff did not seem to mind. The service was friendly and when we finally got to order, the food and drinks came very quickly.

We started with the stuffed chicken wings (one each) which were nice and crispy on the outside. They were $8, which seemed pricey but there was a decent amount of meat and other things in there so I didn’t mind the cost once I had consumed them, they were surprisingly filling. I’m getting hungry thinking about them now.

Stuffed chicken wings from Phong Vinh

As a main, I ordered the Raw Beef Hofan soup, which I had no complaints with flavour-wise. The only thing that bothered me was the beef in the soup which was full of tough sinewy bits, which made it very difficult to eat :( I liked the soup otherwise, there was lots of bean sprouts, mint etc so if I ate there again, I would try a different dish.

Raw Beef Hofan Soup from Phong Vinh

My friend ordered the dry egg noodle with crispy chicken, which she ate most of and she took the rest away to eat for lunch the next day.

Egg noodle with crispy chicken from Phong Vinh

We both ordered drinks that I didn’t take photos of because they arrived last and I was too hungry. I ordered the young coconut juice, which always tastes the same wherever I go – it tastes like the canned stuff you can buy from chinese supermarkets ;) My friend had a jackfruit shake and she seemed to enjoy that!

What is your favourite place for Vietnamese food and what’s your favourite dish there? :)

{ 5 comments }

Playing with my food… angles

by Sab on December 7, 2011

I’m liking this top-down angle of food lately. Often with food photos, there’s no context required, I just want to capture the food itself. In this case, katsu chicken from Yuki Japanese Restaurant in Willeton.

Here’s the only other photo I took that evening that I like:

Prefer the top-down angle as it captures more detail in the delicious fried coating. It’s rather awkward to take top-down photographs in restaurants though, because you need to be vertically over the food…

{ 0 comments }

Dinner at ToTo Vietnamese – Victoria Park

by Sab on November 29, 2011

The restaurant was pleasantly quiet around 6:30pm on a Saturday evening. After we placed our order, the food came astonishingly fast. We ordered sizzling beef and lemon chicken with steamed rice to share between two people. I usually order Pho and/or rice paper rolls at a Vietnamese restaurant, but unfortunately I had already had a brothy soup for lunch that day and couldn’t bear the thought of more soup.

The sizzling beef was tender and served on a hot plate, slathered in tasty sauce and came with water chestnuts, baby corn, onion and celery (forming the vegetable component of the meal). The lemon chicken had a crispy coating with a thin-consistency sweet sauce that was not too overpowering.

I ordered the lychee drink with crushed ice but was not as impressed with it as the syrup was not easy to drink and was likely diluted canned lychee syrup. However, there was a whole host of colourful drinks to choose from on the menu, I would be keen to try something else next time.

Just a short post today, busy with other things unfortunately. I keep finding great resources online but I do not have time to try them :( There’s a cosplay photoshoot in the works…

{ 2 comments }

Guilty pleasure – Chicken Rice

by Sab on November 16, 2011

Favourite asian takeaway of the moment: Boneless chicken rice from Hawker’s Food at Broadway Fair, Nedlands. There was a choice between leg or breast meat. The tender chicken came drowned in sauce, topped with fresh coriander and slices of cucumber, hidden beneath the meat.

It came with a generously packed circular container of chicken rice which I emptied into the chicken container to soak up all the deliciously salty sauce. There’s also chilli usually, however I do not like to add chilli to my food so there’s none depicted here.

Chicken Rice II

Everything about this meal was delicious except the chicken skins, which are easy to remove. I’ve eaten this dish many times and it has never given me any weird gastrointestinal symptoms afterwards which is more than I can say about a lot of other asian takeaway places!

{ 0 comments }

Pizza from Little Caesar’s – Leederville

by Sab on November 4, 2011

Joss and I arrived at Leederville on Friday afternoon and were overjoyed to find that Little Caesar’s Leederville was open for lunch (Friday is the only weekday Little Caesar’s Leederville is open for lunch). However, their lunch opening was only from 11:30am to 2pm and they were closing shortly so only takeaway was available, rather than dining in. We were so ravenous that this option was more than fine. After we got our pizza, we headed back to the car to consume the deliciousness within our brown cardboard box. After all, car parks are really classy places to eat lunch.

We ordered one large pizza with two different toppings; chicken fettucine and spanakopita. Both types of pizza toppings were moist and delicious; see for yourself below! First, here are some photos of the chicken fettucine (Sundried tomato, fettucine, cream sauce, chicken, bacon, parmesan, mozzarella).

You’d think that one type of carb was enough for a meal, however, this pasta-on-pizza dish really works. The cream sauce keeps the pizza moist without being runny and the bacon adds salty, meaty deliciousness. The pieces of chicken breast help to bulk out the dish with some protein and together with slivers of fettucine on the pizza, you will be feeling satisfied and full after a few pieces and yet strangely, also wanting more.

Our second pizza topping choice (we got half and half, a large pizza) was the spanakopita (Spinach, mozarella, onion, garlic, fetta, cream sauce, dill). I am a huge fan of garlic as well as greenery so this pizza went down extremely well with me. Garlicky deliciousness, with lots of finely chopped spinach. Mmmm garLICKy.

Here’s a closer look at a piece of partially consumed spanakopita, with Joss’ face appropriately blurred out.

That’s all for now!

What’s your favourite topping at Little Caesar’s? :)

{ 6 comments }

The day of the ball

by Sab on October 3, 2011

Starting with the afternoon’s preparatory activities, I got out my makeup box. This is a clear stationery box from Officeworks. This is a great way to store makeup – everything is easily accessible, and makeup can be sorted into different drawers.

No more digging through a makeup bag to find what you need! Please note: I have accumulated these products over recent years, not all at once.

Here is a cheap brush set I am using, I found it on Cents of Style.

When I placed an order for these brushes, I don’t think they’d ever shipped to Australia before so it took a bit of negotiation to get it here. I don’t know if this set is comparable with brand name brushes but I love having a range of brush ends to choose from for placing colour / blending, etc! Back to the actual ball…

The ball was held at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, which is an impressively large venue for an impressively large number of people. Here is what the line looked like by the time I got in – it was at least two or three times this long to start with.

Shot of the table setting.

I seemed to be the only person who had brought a touchup mirror in my handbag, it’s really handy to carry one around with you, four other girls at my table used it to reapply their lipstick!

Overall, I was pretty happy with the food. The mains were excellent and well portioned. I don’t remember the exact menu but there was a choice between lamb and chicken, and those little square blocks of cream were potato. Tasty, tasty potato.

Dessert was chocolate fondant, which was amazing – warm, soft and gooey on the inside and went well with the vanilla bean icecream and pastelle-looking thing in the middle.

My gluten-intolerant friends to either side of me were served this dessert dish, which was neatly arranged fruit.

At the end of the night before bed, I got a quick snap of my jewellery. Flower hairclip and earrings from Forever New. I love the floral, lace, flowy girliness that oozes from every corner of that store.

In some ways, the part I enjoy most about a formal event is the planning that goes into it, creating a look with makeup, hair and accessories. When I get to the event, I really like to look around at what other people have done with their outfits, how they’ve put it all together.

Having makeup and hair done professionally will obviously look great, but there is something really satisfying and fun about planning, researching and doing it yourself. What do you enjoy most about dressy events?

{ 2 comments }

Lunch at Grill’d – Claremont Quarter

by Sab on June 23, 2011

There are a few options for lunch at Claremont Quarter but so far, I think Grill’d is the best! They have so many delicious “healthy” burgers to choose from and the store itself is relaxing to sit in, with plenty of natural light spilling through the large glass wall and wooden tables.

Tom ordered the Wild Wild West which was described on the menu as “grilled 100% lean beef, tasty cheese, cripsy trim bacon, free range egg, a couple of slices of beetroot with salad, relish and herbed mayo”. I’ve had this myself before and it is delicious! How can you go wrong with three different types of meat in one burger!? Not sure about how healthy this particular choice is, purely due to the burger contents, but it’s well worth the calories. The burgers are relatively healthy compared to fast food – they are made from good quality, fresh produce and it tastes a lot cleaner and less oily than a burger usually does.

Here are some more shots of the Wild Wild West burger as it is devoured:

I ordered the Caesar’s Palace: “grilled chicken breast, cripsy trim bacon, free range egg, shaved parmesan, baby coss & caesar dressing”. Not healthier at all but I really enjoyed this burger conversion of caesar salad. It had the taste of caesar salad without the salad issue of boring endless mouthfuls of lettuce.

Looking at the layers of my burger:

By the way, the burgers are large but may appear small in my man-hands. The burger size is more than adequate – I could only eat half of it :D

If you want to know how I edited these images see my Grill’d photoshop tutorial with screenshots!

Here’s a shot of the store to finish up; it’s usually packed on Saturdays but we were here mid-Friday afternoon so there were plenty of places to sit as most had finished their lunches.

I really enjoy Claremont Quarter. It feels expensive and luxurious, and it’s fun to wander around and look at things. I enjoy the clean lines of Kikki K, watching the chefs make chocolate treats through the viewing window at Koko Black, the free tea samples in T2 and the luxurious pink carpet and over-the-top girly stylings of Alannah Hill. Sass and Bide is particularly funny – not the clothes, but the store decorations. The last time I visited, they had a creepy looking, ratty-haired barbie dressed in rags complete with a jewel-encrusted face in the jewellery cabinet.

{ 3 comments }

Lunch at Last Drop Tavern – Kalamunda

by Sab on June 20, 2011

Tom and I went on a little adventure to Kalamunda to try Little Miss Cupcakes, however, we required lunch before the cupcake feast could begin. After walking around to some of the local cafes we settled on the prominent Last Drop Tavern. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted by a friendly face. She explained that we could take a seat anywhere we liked as menus were on the tables and ordering could be done at the food counter or bar for food and drinks respectively.

Tom ordered the barramundi with potatoes, broccolini and some sort of butter. I really need to start making notes on the menu items we order at the restaurant instead of assuming I will be able to find them online later ^^;

Tom enjoyed the barramundi, he said it was well cooked, succulent and tasted fresh. I tried a little of it and I would agree :D

I ordered the chicken salad with pumpkin, spinach, fetta and cherry tomatoes and vinaigrette on the side. I always order salad dressing on the side, there’s nothing more pointless than ordering a salad to be healthy when it is drenched in oil/fat and not only that, but the flavour of vegetables are obliterated by dressing.

The chicken was delicious, exactly how I like it – breast pieces that were pan seared so they had great flavour and were still tender and warm. The pumpkin was a good consistency, not too mushy or hard. All the flavours went together great, I barely touched the vinaigrette.

I only ate half the salad, but that wasn’t because it wasn’t good – I needed to leave space for the cupcakes! I put it into a plastic container (very classy) and ate it later :)

{ 1 comment }

Dinner at Arigataya Ramen – Northbridge

by Sab on December 21, 2010

Last night, I went to Arigataya Ramen on Roe St in Northbridge. I walked in the door and was motioned to a table where I awaited the arrival of my dinner partner for the evening, Lee.

While I was waiting, one of the Japanese female staff working there started speaking to me in Japanese. I’m not sure if it was the way I looked or my shy and nervous manner which contributed to the mistaken assumption about my nationality, but I took it as a compliment.

When Lee arrived, we shared the Gyoza as a starter, it was quite nice. It came with a bunch of small bottles we could use to flavour our food.

Special ramen

Lee had the “Special Ramen”, it looked really tasty.

Chicken teriyaki dipping sauce

I ordered the “Chicken Teriyaki Dipping Sauce”, which is a noddle dish that comes with separate sauce bowl in which to dip the noodles. It clearly states on the menu, with the help of additional demonstrative images, not to pour the dipping sauce into the noodle bowl, as the soup will get cold. I mostly ordered this dish for the novelty of having a noddle dipping sauce. Unfortunately, my chopstick skills are extremely ungainly and I found the taste of the dipping sauce strange. These two factors destroyed somewhat the novelty of having to dip noodles before ingesting them.

Chicken Teriyaki

The noodle part of my dish was great though; the egg was slightly soft in the middle, noodles were good and the chicken teriyaki was fantastic: it had been fried so it was slightly crunchy and had a strong sweet and salty teriyaki flavour to it. I’d be keen to go back another time and try something else from the menu!