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Maha Bar and Grill, Melbourne - Australia

dine-out, friends, travel 1 Response »
Sep 182012

** un-edited. Post first. :P

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If you know me well, i’m usually too busy to even blog my stuff, let alone, a review for a restaurant in a foreign country?!?

But yes, that’s exactly what i’m doing right now, a review for Maha Bar and Grill, on my own free will. (This is not a media invite)

WHY? You may ask.

Well, *shrugs*.. because the food is really good and it’s worth blogging about it even with no-standard(iPhone)-photos. :P

The gf and i wanted Vue De Monde initially, but alas.. reservation at VDM advance is needed, like a good couple of months, especially if you’re looking at dining on Friday or Saturday night. After combing through a short list of other restaurant reviews and menus, we decided on Maha, because it sounded pretty awesome for the price that we’d be paying. Uh huh, pretty affordable for a 9-10 course meal.

First up – drinks!

Gf’s : Turkish Delight
Mine : Pomegranate something something with Egg White. *giggles* Yeah, i forgot! It has been a few months already! But damn, this drink was gooood. It was so delicious, so so delicious that i almost ordered another, and another and another if not for my tight budget! If you do go, PLEASE, PLEASE, order this lip-smacking-good-drink please. If you don’t like it, come claim from Mama (read : me). I’ll reimburse you!

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So.

WHY THE HELL DOES THE COMPLIMENTARY BREAD DESERVE A SPACE IN THE WRITE UP TOO?

Because they were also SO DAMN GOOD that’s why.

We totally committed the very same boo-boo like (almost) all diners did (occasionally) which is, stuffing ourselves silly with complimentary bread. BUT. We’d very good reason. These breads were simply irresistible — i want their recipes!! You can’t stop at one each. In fact, i think we had 3 refills, with some gorgeously whipped butter no less! o.O

If you go, don’t say i didn’t warn you. Try sticking to 1 each okaaayyy? Oh alright, 2. 2 each and that’s that. Trust me and you won’t regret it, unless you can eat really a lot, like that guy in Man VS Food.

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Smoked Pork Hock Broth, Quail Eggs, Beans, Silverbeet : the broth was a tad salty otherwise, very flavourful! I finished every single drop and morsels.

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Corn fed chicken tagine, broken egg, corn bread, saffron, Iranian figs, sucuk oil : Again, impressive. Very well put together. Everything marries well with one another. If not for the limited stomach space, i would have loved to wipe clean the gravy with the corn bread. Yummeehh!

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John Dory fillet, raw greens, preserved lemons, mushroom cream, almond mayo : Fish was well executed. Juicy and all, but with the limited stomach space (yeah, the breads’ fault!), i could only ate 3 bites. Almond mayo didn’t leave much impression though.

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My customized swordfish course because erm, i refused to eat rabbit (just a personal preference though i’m no longer a pescetarian).

Verdict : not outstanding. I rather swordfish sashimi anytime.

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Gf’s rabbit loin, morels, angel hair, braised legs, peas, foie gras foam, hazelnut coco nibs bastilla, in case you wanna know how the rabbit dish looks like. :P

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Our table was all filled up, with the sides, the mains, the drinks, the breads, whoaa, so much food… At this point of time, we just stared at the table and sighed. How to go on? We both agreed that we were too greedy, way too greedy, to order the Sultans Menu instead of the Soufras but we soldiered on. Deep breaths in.. and we were ready again!

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Next up : 12 hour roasted mt leura lamb shoulder, pistachio and green olive tabouleh – to be honest, i’ve got zero impression on this one. All i know is that it wasn’t stinky, it wasn’t dry and we barely touched it. Too full!

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David Blackmore rib eye cap marble score 9+, honey, coriander seed, roast garlic parfait, shaved roots : Woohooooo, finally, the course that we’d been waiting for! David Blackmore’s rib eye!! Dear DB’s fans, don’t kill me please but i think it might be overrated? Slapping the steak with honey didn’t work for me. As for the steak, to quote my mother, Nothing special leh!

Sumac, tomato, cucumber, mint, leaves, roast garlic : complimentary salad but, mmmmmmMMmm.. it was good. After ingesting that much of meat, we welcomed this with open arms. If i remember correctly, i think we finished this. Teeheeeheeee!

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Peanut butter parfait, baklava crumb, salted caramel, chocolate sorbet, orange blossom foam : Let’s just put it this way, i whacked everything and wanted another.

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SO friggin’ good! Not exactly pleasing to the eyes, but trust me, detailed thoughts were put in into making this dessert. From the way the peanuts were stuck around the glass, all the way to the positioning of the foam, sorbet.. surprises abound at every turn as you hold the glass, eat, turn, eat, turn, repeat. So good.

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White chocolate and honey soufflè : i had many many bad relationships with soufflè, but gawddd, this one here, the very plain, boring looking one here, yup that’s right, this one, completely changed my mind about soufflè. I’m now a convert and i cannot wait to make my own soon. Needless to say, i too, finished this course. Dearest friends would know that no matter how stuffed i am, i’ll always have an extra stomach for desserts, just for desserts and nothing else. *wink*

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Thankfully it wasn’t that chilly that night like other nights where i’d shiver non-stop because all i had on was a LBD, stockings and a jacket — what’s with women and vanity right, sigh :P I know, can’t quite tell what i wore but oh well, i was merely showing off my new 4″ nude color heels, scored during one of the crazy sales i walked past when i was there. :D

Need i say some more?

Go to Maha and dine already!

————————————–

Maha Bar & Grill

21 Bond Street
Melbourne Vic 3000
Australia
t +61 3 9629 5900
f +61 3 9629 5911

http://www.mahabg.com.au/

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Traipsing Huangshan -- Part 2

friends, travel 5 Responses »
Jul 122012

Continued from Traipsing Huangshan — Part 1

Day 7

Hotel : Baiyun

Route of the day : Purple Cloud Peak for sunrise – hotel – Refreshing Terrace – Stone Monkey Watching The Sea – Lion Peak – hotel – Flying Over Rock (Feilai Stone) – Bright Top – Baiyun Hotel

Today, we woke up super early to catch the famous Huangshan sunrise. Okayyy, not as early as we’d planned to but still OK-larr. The reason we slept in for another 15 minutes was, “Too early! Too cold! Let’s sleep in for another 15 minutes. It might not be that cold then”, and in unison, we all agreed to it. HAHAHA! Lame.

The best part of sleeping in?

We still managed to trek to the viewing site before the sunrise! YAY! In fact, i think we waited for a good 10 minutes before the first ray of the gorgeous golden sunlight broke out. All that while during the wait, no chattering, no noise, no nothing, occasionally  some foot steps and whispering but that’s about it. Nice.

After witnessing one of the most gorgeous sunrises on Earth, we lingered on while the rest of the humans slowly disappeared. I, as usual, must have my Snickers. Grin. Yeahhh, i’ve no idea why as well but every time i’m on a mountain top especially after sunrise, i’d wanna have Snickers. *wrinkles nose & shrugs* Rewarding oneself, perhaps? Comfort food? I really don’t know.

While the rest of the gfs, well… i’m pretty sure you can already guess what we would be up to. Hahahahaaa! After all, we are all born in the year of monkeys.. so expect nothing less! :P

from the friend’s camera, who didn’t allow me to swallow my mouthful of Snickers before snapping. Babi.

After we had enough fun, we then carefully made our way down back to the hotel. Long day ahead!

But not without accidents though. I have no idea how i can slip and fall so easily!!! Not once, not twice but thrice, despite having my snow spikes on! AIYOH. Luckily, all three times, i landed on my poor (but otherwise, well padded) buttocks and hurt the wrists a teeny weeny bit but that was all. No biggie. The gfs were mean! They couldn’t stop laughing lor.. hmphh. However, after my third fall, they decided that it wasn’t funny anymore and made me walked in front and they held my jacket from behind, just in case. :)

See that layer of ice on the stairs?

Perhaps now you can fathom why i fell after all! Riiiiight?

Aaaaiihssss.. i am so gonna make sure that i give the girls ‘How to use a DSLR’ crash course on our next trip. Like seriously!

Stone Monkey Watching The Sea

After our breakfast at the hotel and final packing, we headed out to play again!

This time, we headed to Refreshing Terrace, Stone Monkey Watching The Sea and Lion Peak before calling it a day. It was almost noon by then. Before checking out, we had our fill of food once more.

Nope, it’s not a myth. There *is* a basketball court on top of the mountain! Check out the photo (left) below.

The journey to our next hotel was not an easy one (think stairs, endless ones). It took us a couple of hours and i’d to make sure we were on track and not stray off for a long time. No one (well, i know i don’t, especially after my Mt Rinjani’s experience) likes trekking in the dark, especially in this sorta weather. So, staying focus was a must. Having said that, we still managed to monkey around quite a bit tho. Heh!

i like how the rubbish bin is not your usual plastic rubbish bin. ;)

and

can you spot anything unusual in one of the photos? eg, say, squirrel?

Isn’t Huangshan clean?

Too clean in fact!

Cleaners were everywhere sweeping the paths diligently and the toilets… well, let’s just put it this way, Singapore, shame on ya! :P

After a couple of hours, we finally reached Bright Top, the highest point on Huangshan. YAY! — Because that simply meant, we were near our next hotel!

At this point of time, no snow was visible anymore. *pouts* No more breathtaking and stunning views. Not much greens too (but better than Tibet though, like 1000x! :P)

One of the first few things that we’d do when we reached the hotel room was chope (reserve) our beds. HAHAHAA! And that doc, she’d go one step further, she’ll jump on them to make sure we cannot exchange with her sneakily when she was in shower or something. Lol! This gf of mine is a truly a gem (a nicer word for stone!) –>  won’t lift a finger to boil water, or do anything. All she does is, park herself on the bed permanently and demand us (mostly the engineer) to serve her. HAHA! But whaddaya know, we still love her all the same and sometimes, we really wonder why. *giggles*

Perhaps, like the macho gf said, In exchange, we get free entertainment 24/7!

Not too shabby eh? ;P

We wanted to check out the area around this hotel initially but unfortunately, it was that time of the day again when Papa Sun goes to sleep once more. Aiyah!

Yeah, that’s right, this weird bestie of mine, she brushes her teeth EVERYWHERE!! (more pics on this later!)

ps : but the girls are always sweet to me. knowing my tolerance for cold, i always get the bed nearest to the heater while the macho gf, who’s forever in the least layers, will get the bed nearest to the window. *smile* aren’t they the sweetest? :)

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Melbourne -- Day 4

friends, travel 3 Responses »
Jun 092012

* Quickie with iPhone

Saw this quote online and I really like it…

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And, Metscard will be in used till end of this year. After that, it’s the new Mykii card all the way. I’ll miss buying my tickets on the tram. :(

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Anyway.

We started our day with hanging out at Lygon St, which used to be our ‘playground’. I’m really a sentimental person so if you must, please excuse me and my nonsense. :p

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College Square, where we used to stay 12 years ago. *happy sigh* Some of the best months in my life were spent here. :))

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First stop : Koko Black @ Lygon St.

One of the few places in Melbourne that is well known for its hot chocolate and truffles. Hot chocolate ; methinks that there’s coconut milk in there! Really. That ‘santan’ taste, is definitely not subtle but I could be wrong of course. It’s rich and creamy no doubt but not my cuppa hot choc. Heh. But the flourless chocolate cake was omg. So light, fluffy and rich! We finished that within a minute can u imagine? Greedy goose us. Haha!

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Because of my silly boo boo, we had to drop by Melbourne Central to settle some stuff. Since we were there, I thought why not check out the Cupcake Central too?

I had (cos the boy wasn’t even a tiny bit interested) Vanilla, Salted Caramel and Chocolate Malt Milkshake. The cake was good, fluffy and not too sweet but the frosting, was another story altogether. It was wayyyyyy too sweet for me. When I told the gf about it, she recommended Cupcake Family which was supposed to be stingier with their sugar, opened by Indonesian.

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Next stop : Brunetti @ Lygon St.

Met up with Pick Yin and partner here for coffee. Initially, we weren’t in the mood for any cakes but since we were already here at Brunetti, might as well. Haha. (tell me, how not to grow sideways right?!) Perhaps we didn’t order the right cake or pastry but we both came to a conclusion, Brunetti is overrated, in our humble opinion.

At about 6ish, it was time for dinner. I was looking forward to it since the date was planned. We were meeting up with Anh, from A Food Lover’s Journal whom I’ve been reading since 2007! And of course, the fact that we would be having Pho Bo for dinner also played a part. Grin. It’s been 2 years since I had it.

Dinner at Pho Dzung – Russell St, was great! We had so much to talk, laugh and cringe (dog meat in Hanoi) about. *smile* Anh was lovely in person. It’s a pity that I will not be able to join the girls on Sunday. I’m sure they will have a blast!

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Because the night was still young (it was barely 8pm!), we decided to skip down to Lygon St again to have gelato. Yeah, are we mad or what right? Gelato in the middle of the winter night?!?! Lol! But it was great! It wasn’t so much about the ice cream, it was more for walking down the street and hanging out with the friends for a little longer. Gelato is so secondary!

And apparently we weren’t the only crazy ones having gelato at this time of the year, I mean, check out the queue man. Il Dolce Freddo is definitely something because I didn’t see any line formed at other gelato shops.

Looking back, Day 4 is no doubt ‘Sugar Day’, fueled by sugar, almost, and as sweet too!

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