Shanghai Noodle with Pork Mince ~ 炸酱面

When you keep buying the same types of meat every week you always have to think what to cook so that we are nore eating the same dishes week after week. For many of us who just started cooking not long ago, our ideas becomes quite limited. Now I know how difficult it was when my mum cooked every single day and each day was various different dishes. It is  when they are not beside you, you start to appreciate them more than ever. I really truley admire "mothers" to a whole new level these days.  I guess that's part of growing up!

So for tonight's dinner, I thought I'll try something I haven't cooked before again,  Shanghai Noodle with Pork Mince  - (炸酱面) in chinese.  This is a northern china dish and the recipe I used is adapted from Blisstree. 

Singaporean Chilli Crab

This is going to be my debut recipe for this blog, like I said I'm not a very good cook so if i can make it all of you out there can definitely succeed. I was buying my weekly groceries at the market on saturday and came across some crabs and thought I should try this dish out since I've always wanted to try making it. Singaporean Chilli Crab has always been one of my favourite crab dish because it is so full of flavour and the sauce with the deep fried mantou (chinese sweet buns) is so delicious and I'm not a sauce lover!

There are lots of ways in achieving this dish, you could buy the instant sauce packet from asian groceries store or you can make the sauce from scratch. I always had a impression that it would be very difficult to make this dish from scratch but after some scavaging on the net I have adapted a recipe from Rasa Malaysia - Easy Asian Recipes and it was unbelievably easy and according to Mr Syu & Miss Choco they absolutely love it!

Takumi - Japanese Yakiniku

Mr Syu has been craving for Yakiniku - Japanese BBQ for weeks.  We at first wanted to go to Wooga a korean BBQ that was not that pricey and close by with quite good quality bbq meat for its price. Fortunately for us, Miss Choco was attending a birthday dinner there and we felt it was a bit wierd to be at the same place so we decided to go to Takumi recommended by one of our friends ages ago but we haven't yet tried because it was quite pricey.  We wanted to enjoy our dinner so what the hell, we made a last minute booking and by 8:30 we were seated and very excited about the the food we were about to taste.

One of the features the resturant is very proud of is the the smoke-free experience. I overheard the owner talking to some customers, saying how they have invested a bit more to import all the equipments from Japan that allows this experience. Even the coal they use is imported from Japan!

We started off with drinks, and Mr Syu ordered Asahi on the tap, saying " when you eat Yakiniku you always drink beer with it"  I myself do not really fancy beer with my meals ordered a very refreshing Umeshu (Plum wine)

    

Unexpected Suprise @ Degrave Street

This year Valentine's Day, I have agreed with Mr Syu to not do anything big, no presents no extravangant dinner just a quiet one to save some money for our upcoming months as there are so many holidays and weddings we need to attend. So on V day after work we decided to go find a restaurant to have a nice quiet dinner. For those who knows Melbourne knows that most famous or good places to eat probably needs like 1 month in advance book or the even famous ones 3 months in advance with many rules applicable. So we pretty much expected to go into somewhere that may not be that great.

So we wandered off to Degrave street and went into this little restaurant. Unfortunately I can't remember the name but its near the Flinder Street side and its like one of the first restaurant opposite the little cupcake shop.

We began with a little tapas to share, Chargrilled quail with lemon and oregano.  The lemon dressing gave it a bit of a tangy taste to the nicely grilled quail, and it was really appetizing definitely a good dish to start the dinner wish. 

~ Happy Valentine's Day - Chocolate & Crepes Seduction ~

Fraus Crepes & Chocolat

Happy Valentine's Day! Some people may think Valentine's day is just an excuse for chocolates and gifts but I personally quite enjoy this day. Although everyday should be a Valentine day as people may say it, but what's the harm of appreciating this day.

I just thought chocolates being a big link to Valentine's Day it'll be a great opportunity to share this little place near my house that I have recently tried.

This is a little cafe that specialise in european hot chocolate and crepes which I found from the internet. So one day  Miss Choco ( Mr Syu's Sis -   a chocolate fanatic who LOVES anything with chocolate and I think she would replace water with chocolate if you could.) said she felt like crepes for our afternoon tea, so we gave this place a try.

My Own "Huxtabling" Experience

Huxtable
131 Smith Street
Collingwood



After reading many reviews on Huxtable a restaurant raved by many fellow bloggers, I have finally nagged Mr Syu enough to go there for lunch on a lovely sunny saturday.  When we arrived there we were greeted by friendly staff and was offered three options as to where we want to sit; sitting outside, a quiet table in a corner and at the bar table overlooking the kitchen.  Mr Syu chose the bar table and I am so glad he did, it had gave us the opportunity to see what goes on in the kitchen, and what an eye opening experience it is.  Mr Syu being a very curious 'little boy' he is deep inside, could not stop looking from one chef to another and consistently asking " Is this ours? Is this ours?"  and the fact we were able to see many of the different dishes that came out made us promise ourselves to come back and try them all because they all look so good. I definitely recommend this spot for seating option.

I won't go so much into the decor of the restaurant as it has been described many times in different reviews, Huxtable gives you a very laid back feeling with simple designs. It is an excellent place to go for a lunch gossip session with the girls, or a casual lunch or dinner with your companion. 

We started off our meal with the complimentary bread, the bread was delicious. I'm not so much of a bread eater myself but the softness of the bread with the butter was divine. It was a great start to our meal.

Welcome to Tiny's Wandering Mouth

I am super excited to start this blog to share with all of you the experience and memories from all my food & restaurant encounters.  The motivation behind this blog is very simple, I just wanted to keep track of where I've been to, what I have tried at that time, what I've cooked  to see (if I have improved over time) and share it at the same time to similar people who might be interested. 

I have recently moved to Melbourne with Mr Syu and with the extra time we have and our love for food we've been wandering around to many places recommended by other amazing bloggers or fellow friends to satisfy our ever changing cravings.  So I thought,  why not share our thoughts to people and provide an extra opinion to all those who may have came across a review and needed second opinion with pictures to see for themselves?  I personally look at multiple blogs before I choose the place I want to try with Mr Syu.