The Factory 30 by Just Want Coffee @ Mount Austin

Have been hearing people saying or blogging about The Factory 30... I wonder what so attractive about it and so Chris and I finally decided to have a visit to this well known cafe.

Well, a reason why the cafe is named The Factory 30 is that the cafe is actually located in an industrial area and yes, IT IS built up of a semi-D factory! Nice idea to have a cafe in the industrial area - (i) bigger area to serve more customers; (ii) quite convenient for those craving for coffee during working hours; (iii) of course, very creative idea!

Nice ambiance in the cafe; well designed and decorated. The owner done some renovation and modified it into 2 levels cafe.

You can see many equipments which are needed for a Barista to brew a good coffee aligned nicely on the bar. Good material + Good Equipments + Good Barista =  Good Coffee

Browsing through the food and beverage menu.
I love cafe, I love smelling coffee but I don't drink coffee (too bad that I have a bad gastric)... So as usual I'll just skip every pages of coffee to tea or chocolate lol

Camwhoring while waiting for our orders to be served

Cold Earl Grey Tea - RM10
 My all-time favourite tea - first time trying the cold one. With it's nice scent, I guaranteed this Earl Grey is definitely a premium one! Chris tried a few sips and he loves it too!
 

Christmas special - Nicholas Sangria Coffee + Strawberry Shortcake - RM26/set
Special creation only available from 1-31 December. 

Nicholas Sangria Coffee - Dark chocolate surrounded by a mild coffee aroma and lingering with Earl Grey taste.

Strawberry Shortcake - Spongy shortcake layered with Mascarpone cheese whipped cream and fresh strawberry slices.

This strawberry shortcake is superb! The shortcake's texture is smooth, with thick and creamy whipped cream; the combination of strawberry light sourness and the sweetness of cake and cream definitely brings an aftertaste to my mouth ~

Smoked Ham and Egg Sandwich - RM26.90

Home made bagel serving with smoked ham, omelette, mushrooms, nachos & salad topped with grated Parmesan cheese. The bagel is really nice - crispy outside and soft inside

Such a nice place to hang out and tea...!

The Factory 30 by Just Want Coffee
30, Jalan Mutiara Emas 5/3,
Taman Mount Austin, 
81100 Johor Bahru.
Operating hours:  2pm - 6.30pm / 7.30pm - 12am

Post exam celebration (not really =P)

Yay! Finally it's the day for my first exam (it's already the second exam week and I normally finished by the second week >.<)!!!Family-centred practice subject... had been reading it for the whole week, seriously so sien already! Couldn't wait to 'vomit' all out from my brain onto the paper haha!

And yea, I'm done with that subject (hooray)! One more final ever exam next Monday and I'm so can't wait for that day to come!!!
Anyway... Just went for lunch with Tanya at Macquarie Centre after finished the paper. First try at this cafe or restaurant (thanks to Tanya because of her craving for burger after watching Masterchef last night lol)

Nick's Diner Burgers & Pancakes, Macquarie Shopping Centre

The Menu.
Let's see what to eat first!

The restaurant and its ambience

As usual, chocolate milkshake 
(there are a few choices though: chocolate, strawberry, vanilla and banana).
Both Tanya and I love chocolate!
$6.50

Tomato and Basil Bruschetta... $7.90
 I don't really like basil but I don't mind eating it.
And seriously, this starter is SOOOOO NICE!!!

Grilled Atlantic Salmon Burger... $17.90

OMG!!! Tell you what! This is GREAT!
Honestly, I have never tried burger before (I mean these types of American style burger, not McD's or KFC's burgers).
SO SO SO different from those McD's and KFC's burgers man!

Apparently, there are many steps you need to do to make a burger and to fry that chips (information from Tanya after she watched Masterchef ^^)

Yum yum~ Can't wait for next week to come when all the papers are finally finish EVER!!! And we can have huge celebration Yay!

Graduation, Kansai Japanese Restaurant, Vivid Sydney

Many things happened yesterday, so busy... Well, busy having fun haha!!!

It was Claire's graduation, as usual, the big gang got together and shared the joy with Claire!

Congratulations Claire!

Claire's always favouorite pose - the jumping pose!
It' so cool to have a big group jumping together at the same time! You'll get to see diferrent jumping styles and some really funny poses ^^
Isn't it super cool?

After Claire's graduation, we decided to head to city for Vivid Sydney! Vivid Sydney is festival of light, music and ideas where the colourful and creative lights will be projected on the Sydney Opera House! Well before that, we gotta go and feed ourselves =P

Went to this restaurant where they have a special deal - All you can eat deal and it only costs $28. Sound really worthy! So how does this deal works? You pay $28 and you can order anything from the menu except the sashimi (there is another option if you wanna have sashimi, just add $10 = $38). There are so many things on the  menu which making us hard to decide what to get. The guys, of course, got the $28 all you can eat deal! Rina and I didn't go for that deal cause their meals are all quite big and it would be less worthy for us to pay $28 (since we can't eat that much, might as well just order a set meal!).

The restaurant - Kansai Japanese Restaurant.

My dinner - Terriyaki chicken & sushi.
I like the salad on the terriyaki chicken plate, so nice!
So big right!!! I couldn't even finish them, for the sushi, I only ate those sashimi on top man haha!!!

Not too bad! The guys could really eat man! I felt full for them ok!!! 

So if you think you are a big eater then I suggest you to visit this restaurant la!

Kansai Japanese Restaurant

Shop B1, Hunter Connection

7-13 Hunter Street, Sydney

Okey Dokey, done with dinner. It's now the highlight of the night! Here comes the Vivid Sydney~ (special thanks to Trevor for awesome photos! You are genius!!!)

At Circular Quay.
Great night scenery

Opera House with lights

Don't think this light projected to the Opera House are all still o!
They are actually moving! Can imagine that?

More lights...
I think the patterns changed every one minute??? Not sure, just guessing didn't really look at the timer =P

WARNING: The following section is rated as R18+

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R18+??? Not sure...
Continue seeing the photos!

Super hero also came!!!???
R18+ O_o
See More...

Why are they standing so still???

Another super women??? Some fighting is it???
Too violent for 18 and under???

Excuse me!!! Don't poo on the street!!! Go toilet!

Oh DEAR!!! Someone's dead on the street!!!

R18+!? Yes definitely YES!!! Too STUPID that I don't want this stupidity to be spreaded to the young ones. These were so stupid!!! Tell you why! As you could see some of them photos were blur, some blur half and some were really clear! Know why? I have no idea idea how they call it, but it's like taking a photo without flash in the dark and keep really still (really really still, if you move a little, even tiny movement then your photo will be blur) for like 10 seconds. It's so hard seriously!!! The last photo was really funny! Someone (can't tell the name here, it's confidential) lied on the street like a dead and Gavin used the light to trace arround the dead. It was so stupid! All the people were looking at us man!!! 

A very kind uncle used his green laser to project on us and we became part of the Vivid la!
So cool la!

Had really GREAT fun with great people! And a group photo before we went off. Smile~

Suwahre Rice Cake @ Eastwood

Have always LOVE to eat hot and spicy food. Went to but some groceries today and got my lunch as well. And my lunch was Ddeokbokki (Korean style rice cake in hot chili paste, gochujang). If you have had chance trying Korean food, you will know how hot their food are! Even myself (who can really take hot) can't stop 'crying' from eating them haha!

I don't know how spicy you can tell from the photo... Anyway... Just have a try (any Korean Restaurant with this dish and then tell me how it tastes ok lol)!

Ddeokbokki - A popular Korean dish of rice cake with vegie and fish cake in hot chili paste. 맛있는 (Delicious)!!!

Here's the restaurant! It's a small shop that fits a small group of people dining in, people normally take away though. They also sell other Korean street food, snacks and all kind of rice cakes. Walk in and have a look if you are nearby ^^

Suwahre Rice Cakes
18 Railway Pde, Eastwood NSW 2122

Bon Appetit

Weather is getting colder and colder... I've always think of ways to keep myself warm. You know, add more clothes, quilt...all basic stuff. And people always say that red meat (beef and mutton) keep you warm...Too bad, I don't eat either! That's why I have to think other ways...haha! And my very special way of keeping myself warm is eating hot dessert!!! Very logical... when you feel cold, will you still eat cold thing to make yourself even colder (well, I do sometimes. I love eating ice-cream when it's cold! I thought it's really exciting  =P)? For sure, most people choose hot stuff over cold stuff! My second logic...dessert is sweet, sweet gives you energy and it's quite filling!

So all my logics make this dessert! Let see what we've got~

Red Bean Paste + Glutinous Rice Ball  红豆汤圆甜品

As chinese, we normally eat glutinous rice ball during Winter (lunar calendar)and every year after you have eaten glutinous rice ball, you are 1 year older. Glutinous rice ball which is tang yuan 汤圆 in Mandarin also mean reunion, people also eat it when someone's getting married - tuan yuan, tuan yuan (reunion) is a good sight! 

Erm, I know  it's still not Winter but I really feel like tang yuan BUT BUT BUT doesn't mean that I get 1 year older after I eat them ok!!! Eating tang yuan with red bean paste...first time making it this way...wonder if it's gonna be nice...

YES YES YES, it's super nice! Very satisfied yum~

DO YOU WANNA MAKE ONE???

You know I'm very kind, I'm more than happy to share my love~

And here's my love!

Ingredients: (2 people)

• 1/2 cup of red bean 
• 3-4 cup of water
• crystal sugar (depend on you preferred sweetness)

• glutinous rice ball (any flavour you like, I have black sesame and peanut) or you can make it yourself with glutinous rice flour + water (just mix them and make into small balls)

Steps:

1. Wash red bean and soak in water for ~30minutes (this saves your time in boiling the red bean, the longer you soak it, the faster you can get it cooked and soft).
2. Boil red bean for around 1 hour or until the red beans are cooked and soft. Check and stir every 15 minutes so the water don't dry out. 
3. Add crystal sugar into the red bean paste and stir.
4. Add glutinous rice ball. Cook until they float on the surface (means it's cooked!). Turn off the heat and it's done!'
5. Serve while it's hot~~~

Bon Appetit ❤

All you like Udon

Ever think of begin cooking with just a simple dish? Tell you what. I think the easiest cooking is stir fry or fried rice or noodles or something similar. Know why? ...... Because the only thing you need to do when cooking is putting everything into the wok or pan! Sounds reasonable? Haha, anyway that's just personal view. You might say 'well, the easiest cooking is INSTANT NOODLE!' - Ermmm, agree with that but you know, something easy other than instant noodle :P

Presenting you my yummy lunch~ Fried Udon - Quick and Easy! Wanna try cooking yourself?

What you need:

• Udon noodles
• Crab meat stick
• Corn
• Seaweed
• Garlic (1-2 cloves, chopped)
• Oyster sauce
• Pepper
• Sesame oil

You can choose any ingredients that you like, the list above was what I used in my udon. You can always use meat and vegetables (Tips: if you are using meat -pork or chicken, you may wanna mix a very little cornstarch - this makes the meat tender when you bite).

Finished choosing your ingredients? Let's move on to the next step!

How? 

1. Boil water and cook the udon for around 8 minutes or until it's cooked. You can add some salt into the boiled water.
2. Strain the udon with cold water and leave aside for later use.
3. Heat oil in your wok/ pan and fry garlic.
4. Add your ingredients (crab meat stick, corn etc) into the wok/ pan and fry with the garlic.
5. Add seasoning (oyster sauce, pepper, sesame oil) and little water - making sauce to the udon.
6. When the sauce boiled, add the udon into the wok/ pan and mix them well.
7. If it's too watery, turn to high heat and keep frying until the noodles have soaked all the sauce.
8. Add seaweed for decoration (well of course, you can eat it! Seaweed brings a really nice taste to the noodles) and it's ready to be served! 
9. Serve while it's hot.

Tadah~ Here's my fried Udon ❤

First time cooking? No problem, this is easy! Try it today ^v^

Cook. Love. Food.

Well, if you know me well then you would know I'm a food person. I love eating, well, I think most people do! I don't mind eating cheap or expensive food, as long as they are yummy, I'm more than happy to spend that money. Right, I mean I choose quality over price O(∩_∩)O

Yes, when I say I'm a food person, I also mean that I love to cook (still learning to be a good cook though), from appetiser to dessert, any cuisine, as long as I think that's new to me, I'll try doing it! So throw me with any food recipe, I'll come out with something for sure (may not be super yummy but come on, be confident =P).

I've started collecting recipe books or any online recipes few years ago. Well of course, I've cooked or made or baked some of them. Am currently very interested to the recipes by Kit Mak (麥潔兒) - you might heard about her before. Yes, she was one of the judges in the HK show, Beautiful Cooking 2.

Introducing Kit Mak. Gosh, she is definitely a pretty chef!

Kit Mak also published a few recipe books to share her cooking ideas. She is very well-known with new ideas on cooking; incorporating traditional ways of cooking, she brings in new ideas to make different tastes to the 'traditional' dishes. Here are some of her books which I really hope I have them (apparently they only sell them in Hong Kong >.<). I only see them only and didn't really have the chance to look inside the book T-T. Well, not promoting these books, just to let the other cook person who also interested in Kit Mak's cooking (like me) and is living in Hong Kong, know about them.

This is interesting. Kit Mak worked with another writer to actually linking her cuisine to love stories and I heard (well not really heard, these are all what I read from the book description) that there are 40 recipes in it which have been decribed through romantic love stories ❤

Right, all I know about this book is making desserts with all kinds of flowers. People normally use flowers as gift, decorations, fragrance or tea, this is the first time I know that we can actually make desserts with flowers. Interesting~

Kit Mak gave this book with the name of 'The Taste of First Love' so I guess there must be something that make you feel 'in love' when you're making or tasting it. So wanna have one too!!!

Ok, here are some recipes that I searched online. Someone was very kind to share these online *thank you*. I'm not sharing the recipes here cuz it will take me very long time to edit them (as the picture sizes are really small and there are many of them) but I'm more than happy to share a few of them if you are interested ^v^

Show you some pictures here... How is it? Feeling hungry already?

Molten Chocolate Cake (巧克力心太软)
Yes, this was the one I made few weeks ago. I have the recipe in another post if you are interested.

Chicken Diavola (魔鬼烧鸡)

Rich Tomato Soup (番茄浓汤)

Chicken Steak with Apple and Herbs (苹果香草鸡扒)

Wow! Making me so hungry *drooling*

Yum Cha English Style @ Crossroads Bar, Swissôtel Sydney

Last minute decision of our (Tanya and I) high tea session and location -----> The Crossroads Bar at Swissôtel~

Two hours all you can eat high tea buffet brought out the old, the new and the ancient cameras clicking everywhere before any single things had been eaten.

Welcome to the Swissôtel~

Chocolate fondue with a selction of fruits ❤

Meringue~ Didn't get this on my plate (am not a big fan meringue) but they look really GOOD!

This pyramid-like thingy with lotsa macaroons, creme brulee, puffs, cupcakes and jellies attracted me alot! Not because of the sweets but the way they presented it. Pardon my lousy camera...didn't really get the beauty of it with my cam

Creme caramel, tiramisu and apricot slice (i guess)

Bluberry cheese cakes, choc mudcakes and fruit tarts. Gosh, these three are BOMBS!!! Especially ❤ that blueberry cheese cake

Savoury~ A selection of sandwiches --> ham & cheese, smoked salmon, tuna, egg mayo, chicken and some rolls. Good to have these when you feel really stuffed after all the sweets! I guess it neutralised the SWEETS abit.... SO YOU CAN EAT MORE =P

A glass of champagne comes with the buffet. Cheers~

First, having some savoury... My plate

A lil' sweets after some yummy sandwiches~ My plate again.

Time to have some fun with the chocolate fountain~~~

Marshmallow and strawberry with chocolate... AND have some fruit salad! Great! Too much chocolate really stuffed me up *burp*

Don't worry, rest for a while, have some savoury and then CONTINUE!!! Don't forget we have 2 hours to really taste everything. Well, we didn't really taste everything. There were too many sweets!!!

Yes, don't doubt! It's my plate AGAIN!!! Just tasted everything with small bites. Love the scones ^^

*burp* So full! Here, cheers~ To our weight gained after today XD

Awww~ Glad that we came! Great service, great food and fair price ($55/person with a glass of champagne), very worth eating! Looking for place to have high tea? Don't be hesitate! Swissotel is simply a good place to have an afternoon relax and enjoy good foood ❤