Mia's Review: The Tiramisu Hero (& Fluff Bakery)

Just last weekend, I met up with the girlies for a dinner gathering, mainly to distribute souvenirs to them. But, all thanks to my forgetfulness, all those lovely scented handmade soaps and candles from Australia are still sitting nicely in my bedroom right now. 

Anyway, from A's suggestion, we decided to try out the new cafe opened by the blogger, Peggy Chang, The Tiramisu Hero.

This picture was taken when as I left the cafe, and very much in a haste, so I was unable to get a nice shot of the shop front. I must admit this picture totally didn't do the cafe outlook any justice. The entrance to the cafe was made into a lawn, with an extremely simplistic wood-over-stand kind of bench at the side, that leads to the two outside-seating tables as seen. It's quite a cute and unique idea.

We were greeted by cute doodles of Sir Antonio the Cat all over the wall (there's a 3D art piece of Sir Antonio's head on the wall as well, which I was unable to snap a picture of due to customers seated right there) and ladders hanging from the ceilings with pretty starry lights wrapped around them.

There's Sir Antonio gracing the cover of their Menu with his cute face.

And I was really disappointed as I flipped through the menu. Their choices of food was really limited, with merely 5 (rather common-sounding) mains. 

But before we get to the actual food, I really have to rant on their level of service. I'm not sure if it's because my friends and I were just less pleasing to their eyes or what, but the service we were rendered was really, oh well... nowhere near acceptable. Bad, to be exact.

First up, PS and I were the first to arrive and we asked for a table of 5. The staff (aunty) at the counter was still pretty welcoming as she pointed at the table inside the cafe while the younger staff showed us to our seat. Menu was also promptly given to us, with no further information given. It was really just a drop-and-go. It was only when we waved for staff to take our order did that particular staff informed us that all orders are to be made by ourselves at the counter. 

This piece of information should have been given to the customers upon showing them to their table and handing them the menu.

Upon reaching the counter, PS and I wanted to make some clarification to the drinks menu before ordering and throughout the whole question-conversation, that aunty at the counter didn't bother to turn over to look at us. Her eyes were totally transfixed on the lists of drink orders she has laid out in front of her while she 'acted busy'. Come on, how much of your precious time can we, your customers, waste by asking just 2 questions? 

"Is the Honey Milk served Hot or Cold?"

"Since it's meant to be served cold, can we request for it to be hot?"

Just that! She didn't even bothered to give us any form of eye contact, no acknowledgement towards our questions even. 

It literally went like this:

"Erm, we will like to check if the honey milk is hot or cold."

-Eyes only on the pieces of order lists- 

"Cold."

"Then, can we have a hot one?"

-Eyes still fixed on the order lists- 

"Eh, XXX (another staff at the counter) eh sai bo?" (Can or not, in Hokkien)

Then it simply just died out in mumblings and we were just left hanging there, our question unanswered. Nobody bothered to give us a second look. Oh wait, there wasn't a 'first look' in the first place. It seemed like we were only worthy of her attention when we spoke the golden words: Can we order.... 

Upon hearing that, the aunty immediately dropped her on-hand tasks and turned to us, her fingers positioned over the tablet meant for keying in orders. Our question of whether the honey milk can be made hot was only answered properly then.

Later on, while PS and I were having our food, the rest of the girls came. The staff all saw them coming in and acknowledged their arrival. Nobody handed them any menu. But then again, since we have to make our own order at the counter, we decided that it's not important and off they went to make their own orders at the counter. When they came back, J obviously didn't look very happy. Guess what, exact same kind of service from that aunty. This time, she was totally engrossed in pressing something on her phone when J wanted to get her attention. 

"Excuse me.... "

-Continues to press, customer ignored.-

"Err, excuse me?"

-Customer still ignored. Pressing phone is way more important.-

"I want to order Mac & Cheese."

"Orh!"

-Immediately keyed in orders-

Needless to say, when your customers were already upset (by your poor service) even before they were served the food, your food quality will NEVER meet their expectations. 

So here's my take on the food we had for the night.

 Bangers & Mashed - $15
Alternatively, you can have the bangers with Mac & Cheese for $17.

I have to say that the dish is really cute, being served on a pink plate even! But sadly, it looked much better than it tasted. The sausages were really, just sausages, with only the middle sausage (I reckon is pork) being a better, more standard taste of a "gourmet sausage". The cutie-sized white sausage was kind of... too squishy for my liking and also by the time I got to the final sausage, I got too sick of them to even manage more than just a few mouthful of it.
The mashed potatoes were definitely self-cooked and not those ready-made ones, because there were quite a lot of chunky bits of un-mashed potatoes lying within. I can't exactly pinpoint if it's a good thing, or not. But of course, being a potato-lover, I have nothing to complain about the mashed potatoes.

Honey Milk (Special request to be warm) - (about) $4
This drink has got to be the best of what I've had in this cafe. The honey added a subtle, perfect sweetness to the warm and frothy milk, which wasn't too rich. Just nice for my liking!
However, on a 2nd though, it's really just steamed milk and honey.

And that's PS's Baked Cheesy Chicken - $17

This was served in less than 5 minutes after PS and I returned to our table after we made our order. In record time! It's so fast, both of us got very suspicious of it. I reckon it was probably a cancelled order cooked a while ago. The portobello mushrooms were lukewarm, the layer of cheese were in a state of re-solidifying after being melted, while the chicken remains piping hot. And even though I've read the  review from Chikumama that she found hers a little too bland, PS's one was extremely salty! All of us (5 sets of tastebuds) concurred that it was very salty. The chicken wasn't exactly tender, either.
 To be fair, it was definitely not till the extent of being un-tasty, but just... the quality of food was hardly worth the money spent.

ZH's ChefChef Curry Baked Rice - $12.50

First impression - Aircraft food! *rofl*
They could have at least served it in a cute baking dish or something to go along with their brilliant cafe interior design. Why disposable aluminium baking tray?
As for the actual food taste, ZH found it rather nice but I didn't like it at all. The curry was the very distinctively Indian kind of curry, the very strong taste of spices that I don't really enjoy. But of course, this is really just my own taste preference.

On top of that, ZH topped up an additional $5 to get a small bowl of mushroom soup and this mini cupcake sized original flavoured tiramisu, called MiniHero. Look at that shy-smiley face, it's mad cute!
But once again, it looked much better than it tasted. This should be a tiramisu, but I could hardly taste the coffee or liquor at all. It tasted much more like a cheesecake. Not just me, but J also shook her head and just said, "Not good, no taste."
But one (very) good thing about their tiramisu is that they use a no egg recipe! Thumbs up for that! :)

J's Mac & Cheese - Price unknown

We were all expecting the Kenny Roger's style of Mac & Cheese, with well cooked pasta drenched in the distinctively bright orange Cheddar. But it ended up looking more like a cream sauce macaroni. Once again, the taste was mediocre. Not bad, but nothing fantastic either. I would have preferred the dish to have more cheese, and made runnier, too.

-The Tiramisu Hero is located at 121 Tyrwhitt Road-

And besides visiting The Tiramisu Hero, I also dropped by a new place earlier. Yes, it was actually 2nd November and Fluff Bakery officially opened their own bakery at 12 Jalan Pisang. Even though I've RSVP and supposedly can get a box of 6 assorted flavours at $20 instead of $24, by the time I got there at almost 6pm, the entire bakery was left with nothing except for a final batch of Salted Caramel, which they had previously left in the fridge and forgotten about it. Thank goodness for their forgetfulness! If not, I would have dropped by and left empty-handed.

 These cupcakes were simply divine! The vanilla cake was extremely soft and fluffy, almost falling apart as we bite on the cupcake, and there's also a surprise centre for their cupcakes! For the salted caramel flavour, the filling was a generous glob of thick salted caramel sauce, that not only add on a surprise factor to the cupcake but also the 'punch' to this amazing sweet treat.
Bought a box of 6 as a treat to the girlies as well, and they all enjoyed it, even though most of them aren't cupcake monster like me. :)

And just sharing some badly taken shots of their other flavours, which I've bought a while ago while they were still selling at Penny University. That Red Velvet with Nutella centre is also a must try!

-Fluff Bakery is located at 12 Jalan Pisang-

Till then,
Mia

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AgeLoc TR90 Tracker: 2nd Week's Update

First up, this will be a backdated entry, dated 30th October 2013. I've chosen not to post this entry first because I didn't want to 'intrude' in my series of Australia getaway posts. So yup, here's my updated as of 30th October!

For a foodie like me, especially one with a sweet tooth. TR 90 is tough, especially when the agent who sold you your set doesn't do any follow up with you. I got this set from my cousin, not sure if she's a distributing agent or what, though. My guess is a no because she mentioned she bought a few sets at one shot to be a member and is just selling away her extra sets. So I'm left without any agents to follow up with my progress and looking at reviews from all over the place, your agent plays a huge part in the success of TR 90 because while on the programme it's extremely important that you eat well. A lack of nutrient intake will actually hinder your weight loss progress. From the look of it, I'm not doing very well with the diet. 

But that aside, for this first fornightly update in my 3 months of TR 90 experience, there are 3 aspects in me that I've experienced some noticeable changes.

1. My pee turned bright, highlighter shade of yellow initially (due to Vit B) and has since gotten better with more intake of water.

2. Constipation problems... Huh, what constipation? *rofl* Ever since starting on TR90, I've been moving my bowels regularly, once to twice a day. On days when I "shelf off" such toilet visits, I will end up visiting the toilet 3 to 4 times the next day. And yes, unlike other detox products (B*cough*&*cough*H from *coughcough* LFI) which gave me acute tummyache and uncontrollable diarrhoea throughout my entire bottle (which last 1 mth!), TR 90 actually gives me controllable bowel movement!

3. Total weight loss of 1.5kg. 

I know my weight loss is shamelessly little because nobody is monitoring my progress and I eat everything. Be it curry chicken with 2 hand size full of white rice, or fried rice, nasi briyani, kfc, mcdonald's.... Anything but the "recommended diet". 

Swallowing 16 pills a day and having that yucky shakes for dinner every single day is also a huge challenge for me. It's been only 2 weeks out of the 3 months and I'm already nauseated by it. The water and pills basically has already filled up my tummy and I can hardly stomach more 'nutritious' food, and as brought up previously we need to eat well while on TR90 in order to lose more.  The shakes too, has reached a point of nauseating for me. The recommended amount of milk to be added is 300 ml and I'm always pouring away about 100ml of the mixture every night. But I guess that's because I now finish my veggies first before I have the shake, so basically I'm already half full when I drink them. 

But oh well, the financial damage has been done so what else can I do other than to hold on for the 3 mths? 

So stick around for my next fornightly update. And if you're also currently on TR90, do share with me your experience, I could really do with some help here. :)

Till then,

Mia

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Mia's Weekend Getaway: Mia Eats Australia - Sweet Treats!

As I've mentioned so many times in my previous Australia trip posts that I'll do a separate entry about sweet treats, here it is! Just in case you haven't noticed, I have a major sweet tooth! 

And my current obsession?  Macarons, AKA French Macaroons. 

Yup, these 3 macarons were from The Acland Cake Shop at St. Kilda, and they were at $2.50 AUD per piece if I'm not wrong. I've gotten them in Chocolate, Coffee, and Earl Grey (a flavour I always wanted to try). These macarons were somehow rather disappointing. Very sweet, especially the Earl Grey, which has this medicine kind of sickening sweetness to it (yikes!), and the macaron shells were all the way crunchy and very airy. IMO, a good macaron shell needs to be crunchy on the outside yet turns chewy on the inside. These macarons has failed to make the cut. Taste wise, were mediocre as well.

Next up was the oversized macarons at Queen Victoria Market, obviously selling at $2.80 AUD per piece unless distressed. I only bought one, and also my favourite salted caramel, to try out. Frankly speaking, they didn't look like a macaron at all because they're so big! They looked more like a mini-burger or a melting moment biscuit. Eating it was pretty tough too, because i couldn't crunch down in one bite. In the end I gotta bite off the top shell first then bite the bottom shell and felt like a kid eating a Big Mac, no joke.

Taste wise, they were definitely better than those at St. Kilda. The texture was more similar to macarons at Pique Nique, more solid and more 'cakey'. Taste wise, it's a pretty standard salted caramel taste. However, due to its size, I'll say it's pretty worth the money. *rofl*

Finally, my last macaron from the trip, La Belle at Chadstone Shopping Centre. 

 

The store reminded me of Laduree, very similar! 

 If i'm not wrong it was $3 to $3.20 AUD per piece (YS's treat so I didn't know how much it was!) and I got their Raspberry Chocolate. Selection of flavours wise, they were pretty similar with Laduree as well. And the taste too! A little too sweet (just like how Laduree is, to me) but texture wise was perfect. As you can see from the picture the outside of the macaron shell was crunchy and slightly crumbly while the insides were dense and slightly airy, moist and chewy. 

But then again, $3.20AUD/$3.80 SGD per piece? I'll rather go back to Canele, no doubts about it.

Then there's the melting moment biscuit from Hope Bakery at Sovereign Hill. I couldn't quite remember how much it was, but it should be $2+ AUD. Have always heard of this Australian sweet treat (along with their Lemington Cake) but couldn't seem to find any in Singapore. I'll say they tasted pretty good! It's like a layer of lemon-flavoured cream sandwiched in two pieces of buttery, crumbly shortbread biscuits. Rather filling for a sweet treat, too! I wouldn't mind having them again if I ever find them in SG. :)

And then, more Churros! This was the churros from the Spanish Doughnuts franchise with one of the branch at Southern Cross Station. They had a wide range of selection of churros (at different prices) and I just went for the simple, glazed churros at about $2+ AUD. This churros is definitely a better churros than the one I had at L'Olivio. I can definitely taste that it's made from a Choux pastry, and they were fried until crispy on the outside and still slightly moist on the inside. However, the sugar glaze was too much and it felt like my churros was totally drenched in sugar syrup. Would have better preferred a cinnamon sugar one, but I didn't seem to find it there.

Lastly, this was my final sweet treat/meal I had in Melbourne. French Crepes! The small cafe was located at a small alley near Flinder's Station, just 5 to 10 minutes away. Can't remember the name of the cafe nor their price listing, sorry about that. 

 First up, their coffee. I remembered ranting about their bad coffee standards and finally I found a better one.  But that's because I went for a strong brew (double shot, perhaps) of their Mocha, and comparing this to any other coffee in Singapore, they're still bad. I really gotta taste it really carefully to find the coffee taste 'hidden' within this strong brew. Else, I'll just think of it as an unsweetened hot milo. Melbourne is definitely not my coffee place. 

 My choice of crepes for the day, Chocolate Banana crepes! There's definitely a generous serving of sliced fresh bananas and a huge drizzle of good chocolate sauce. However, I'll very much prefer those Japanese style crepes with a much thinner crepe skin. These french crepes are made very very much thicker, about 2 to 3x as thick, and so feels kinda 'mushy' and 'uncooked' in the middle. Well, I'm definitely not much of a crepes person and YS insisted that this was a very well done french crepes. I could hardly finish the crepes in the end because the texture of the crepes just got increasingly sickening to me. 

And that's YS's plain butter crepes, which really looked like a badly made roti prata to me.

And this basically concludes my entire series of entries for my weekend getaway to Australia. :) 

Till then,

Mia

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Mia's Weekend Getaway: Australia - Queen Victoria Market & Immigration Museum

 And so it was decided that today (my last full day in Melbourne) shall be Museum day! If you don't know me, I actually love 'spamming' museums while on oversea trips. Don't ask me why, I just do. And it has been decided since the day I touched down that we shall kick-start the day with some Spanish cuisine. Paella and Churros. :)

And so we popped by L'Olivo, the restaurant near YS's apt for brunch.

 Pretty obvious that we were their first customer of the day. 

 And there, our paella (which obviously serves 2 even though it wasn't specifically stated on the menu) - roughly about $26 AUD. 

I was pretty disappointed the moment it was served. You probably can't see the reason from the picture, though. It looks more like a risotto, being very moist, creamy and cheesy. The rice was also overcooked for a paella, missing the good bite of a medium cooked rice (though will be fine for a risotto), and the traditional layer of 'burnt rice' (MY FAVOURITE PART OF A PAELLA!) was also missing. 

If I'm not wrong, saffron should also be used in paella, which gives it the distinctive taste and yellow colour. (Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken.) But with all the overdose of creamy cheese, I can't tell whether saffron was used at all. 

It was tasty though, extremely tasty. The seafood were all well done. Nothing was overcooked, not even the squid! The rice was (as I've said) thick and creamy, flavourful and savoury. However, the distinctive saffron & spice taste of a paella was missing, probably due to all the creamy cheese. And so were my favourite rice crust supposedly to be found in abundance at the bottom of the plate. 

All in all, I felt I was eating risotto when I ordered a paella.

Tasty, yes. But I was hardly satisfied. 

And then, our Churros - roughly $9 AUD. And if you haven't read my review on Kaixo, I've spend $14 SGD on an amount equivalent to just 1 stick of this churros I had at L'Olivo.

Once again, the Churros were disappointing. I would have preferred the ones I had at Southern Cross Station, which I shall touch on in my sweet treats entry. They're really just huge sticks of doughnuts drenched in icing sugar and served with some chocolate sauce. 

Where is the cinnamon?

Where is the distinctive 'star shaped' sticks?

 Once again, I ordered Churros and was served normal doughnut sticks with chocolate dip. 

They were good, but.... bleah, I wanted Churros. Not the doughnuts I can find in my local bakeries. 

After brunch, we travelled to Queen Victoria Market for a quick look. And guess what I saw upon stepping into the market (apart from the store at the corner selling all sorts of tea)? Some huge ass macarons!

 

 And they sell unpretty, distressed macarons at $9 AUD for a box of 5 or 6, can't remember the exact number of macarons in that box. Else, it's $2.80 AUD per piece.

Basically I got pretty bored at the market because it's all food, food, and more food products. The Paella and Churros were still fighting for space in my stomach. So nothing caught my attention, even though I did buy a piece of the oversized salted caramel macaron. I can never walk by a store selling macarons and buy nothing. heehee....

So after introducing the paella and churros to their new friend, salted caramel macaron, we hopped onto the tram again and got off at Flinder's Station.

Reminds me of Harry Potter, somehow. Don't ask me why.

And our 2nd destination for the day is just right down the street. Immigration Museum :)

Adult admission will be $10 AUD but with a student pass, you can get a concession entry, which is FOC.

Other than the permanent exhibitions, which educate us on the history of Australia relating to the migrants' diversified cultural background (hence the name, Immigration Museum, duh!), we were also lucky to see two temporary exhibitions, 'Seeking Refuge in Nhill', which is a photographic exhibition exploring the struggles and achievement of the Karen community in Nhill, and 'Faith Fashion Fusion', an exhibition exploring the fashion, faith and identity of the Muslim community.

My favourite exhibition of the permanent exhibitions has to be 'Journeys of a Lifetime'. 

No matter when they arrived, all immigrants are linked by the common experience of a journey.

Over the past two centuries the immigration journey to Australia has changed from a perilous sea voyage of up to 3 months to a routine flight lasting up to 24 hours. Changing transport has not only shortened the journey, but made it more comfortable and affordable.
The journey remains one of the most memorable aspects of any immigration experience.
The Journeys Gallery, also known as the Long Room of Old Customs House, features a 17-metre replica ship where visitors can experience the changes in sea travel first hand from the 1840s to 1950s.
-Credits to Immigration Museum-

 As you walked through the 'ship' from one end to the other, you can really see the difference on board the ship from the older days of 1840s to the later days of 1950s.

Other than the 'boathouse', I also quite enjoyed the exhibition of 'Getting In'.
Getting In was developed in response to market research conducted at the Immigration Museum that found visitors wanted to know more about the process of getting in to Australia, what people went through, who was accepted and who wasn't, and the effect this had on society.
The exhibition does this by exploring the history of immigration policy and how it has changed dramatically over the past two hundred years. Four timeframes outline the main threads in immigration policy: the gold rush days of the 1840s to 1900, Federation to the end of the Second World War (1901 to 1945), then post-war to the early seventies (1946 to 1972) and finally 1973 to the present day.
-Credits to Immigration Museum-

I enjoyed the interview room the most, as you really get to 'interview' applicants who are applying to get in to Australia, and vet through their applications. It also kind of serves as a rough gauge to how much you of their immigration policies you have understood from the exhibition.

As for the temporary exhibitions, I enjoyed 'Faith Fashion Fusion' more than the other. Even though the Nhill exhibition showcased some really brilliant photographs, the interviews of the ladies of the Australian Muslim community, which touched on their experiences and achievements, exhibited at FFF was really enjoyable and worth watching.

And now some random snippets at the museum. There was this corner whereby the walls were stuck with passports from all over the world. 

But we couldn't find Singapore! :(

And guess what's on the menu for dinner?
KOREAN FOOD! :) We came to this korean restaurant in the vicinity of Flinder's Station. (Sorry, can't remember the name of the restaurant) 

And as usual, I always order my favourite Yuzu tea.....

 

Some pajeon (seafood korean pancakes)....  

 My favourite korean food ever, jjigae! This time I got some soft beancurd seafood stew. 

And YS's chicken bulgogi.

Not going to do much review on this. It's just pretty standard korean food, just with a bigger quantity at (of course) a slightly higher price as compared to Korean food in Singapore. The ingredients (seafood for my stew) were also much fresher in comparison. But taste wise, I can safely say it's the same standards. However, I'll much prefer the pancakes I can find in Singapore. The pajeon we had there was much thicker than I would like them to be, and very "floury".

Next up will be my final post on my Aussie getaway, a combined entry on all sweet treats I've eaten! It'll be like a macaron galore. So do stick around!

Till then,
Mia

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