BLACK by Ezard
I love bread! Especially complimentary bread served at restaurants. It's always one of the highlights of my meal and Black didn't disappoint. 

We were given a soft, warm and buttery brioche to share between 3 and lucky for me, both my dining companions weren't huge fans of the brioche so...more for me XD

Roasted duck breast, braised and crispy kale, confit leg 
cannelloni, foie gras sauce. The duck was perfect!

Poached Hapuka, calamari, chorizo, celery, onion sago.  I've never had sago in a savoury dish before but it was really good. As much as I loved my duck, I actually suffered from a small bout of dish envy because of the Hapuka. 

Corn fed chicken with parmesan custard, broccoli angelotti and roasted jus

Crispy potato with crème fraiche, smoked bacon, aged cheddar. This is seriously addictive. We were fighting over the little small pieces of bacon and crispy potato left on the plate. 

 L:Mac and cheese. This was the disappointment of the evening. The mac was quite bland and it didn't taste very cheesy.
R: Cos, chorizo, piquillo pepper, heirloom carrot. Really light and refreshing salad. 

Lemon meringue tart. The lemon tart had a nice tang to it without being too sweet. The 6 mini meringues were very soft and marshmallowish and they were shared perfectly between 3. 

Guangzhou - Part 2, Finding an apartment in Guangzhou
We were given two weeks to familiarize ourselves with Guangzhou as well as find an apartment. Our initial two weeks were spent at Vili International Apartment, No. 167 Linhe West Road. Below are photos from one of our favourite restaurants in the area. It's family run and located on the main road opposite the train station. 


We ordered the fish head everytime and each time it sent us into tears and sweat!

Sharing is caring...The Sharing House

We went for a drive today and not knowing where Mr Hippo was planning on taking me, my best guess was the new stretch of restaurants on South Wharf. And that's where we went.eventually.after a brief pit stop at the aquarium!

Awwww, are they not the most adorable things ever!! Perfect timing for us because we arrived just as the penguins were being fed sardines so they were all very active. Below is what happens when feeding ends :)

Moving on, as the concept at The Sharing House is to share the dishes, the portions are quite small so the waitress recommended we order 3 dishes each.

Bondi Chai - $6 and Mr Hippo had the Iced Coffee with a scoop of housemade ice-cream - $6

Rabbit and cauliflower popcorn - confit rabbit and cauliflower in a parmesan breadcrumb served with roasted garlic aioli -$12

This stuff is seriously addictive. I love how it arrives in a paper bag. I loved the cauliflower and aioli but wasn't a huge fan of the pieces of rabbit. Mr Hippo on the other hand loved the rabbit!

Raw Meat - classic steak tartare served with chips -$15

You can't go wrong with steak tartare!

Surf and Turf - Roasted potato gnocchi with spanner crab and crispy veal sweetbreads and a brown butter jus - $15

Liked all the flavours but I wasn't a huge fan of the texture of the gnocchi. It was quite mushy.

5 inch pizza (comes in 6 flavours)- We chose the Porcini and roasted king brown mushrooms, farmhouse goats cheese and fresh lemon thyme - $13

Loved all the flavours with the goats cheese and the crust was perfect.

Duck A L'orange - Duck bread prosciutto wrapped around confit duck leg and crispy sprout salad - $24

This was my first time having duck a 'lorange. The duck was cooked perfectly and we both fought (civilly of course) over the remaining bits of sprout!

The ice-cream man - Ice creams served in mini cornettos (mint choc chip, pistachio, coco nib, vanilla bean, pedro ximenez, wild strawberry and limoncello) - $14

This dessert was more for the novelty factor. Like how they presented it.

According to the newspapers the bar consists of $12,000 worth of Lego! (We saw a waitress attaching more lego pieces as we were leaving)

Guess what the bill arrives in...

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The Sharing House, 35 Dukes Walk, South Wharf VIC

Farmer's market - Bundoora


Who loves waking up nice and early, walking out the door with no makeup and being surrounded by food, food and more food!. I do. 
This was my first time at Bundoora Park farmers market and I loved it! There's around 40 stalls and unlike some markets, there's plenty of free parking. There is however a $2 donation fee for every adult as you walk in :)


First up, coffee :) 
($3.50 each and an extra $0.50 for soy milk)

Followed by a breakfast of Dutch pancakes in maple syrup ($6), a steak and mushroom pies and a steak and pepper pie (pictured later).

There are also other breakfast options including gourmet sausages, bacon and egg sandwiches, meat pies, scones and noodles. 
We did a grocery haul yesterday at Preston Markets so we didn't really need to buy much. Below is what we left with. Both cheeses are amazing and the Blue Bay stall also sell their own yoghurt, milk drink, many other types of cheeses and they had fig paste this week. The rye loaf is from a lovely lady with two dogs sitting outside her stall (I forgot the name of the stall) but I'm definitely going back there for more bread next time.  

If anyone's going, please make sure you look for the stall with these two cuties outside.

Bundoora Park Farmer's Market is located on Plenty Rd in Bundoora and are on the 1st Saturday of every month.

Vegan 

I've been stalking reading a few vegan food blogs for a few years and it inspires me to eat healthier (sometimes). It was also through these blogs that I was introduced to oat milk, rice milk, almond milk, cashew butter, tempeh etc.


I went through a phase where I tried to eat vegan (lasted roughly less than a week) but I've never actually been to a vegan restaurant until now.


Met up with a friend who suggested we go to The Vegie Bar which serve vegetarian, vegan and raw food. Don't be confused by the most obvious door at the corner of Brunswick and Rose because you'll realise after a minute of pushing and tugging, it just doesn't open and everyone in the restaurants just sitting there staring at you. Oops! Instead walk to the next door which opens to reveal a bustling world of people clearly enjoying their meat free meals of choice. The furniture consists of bits and pieces of mismatched tables, chairs and benches. 


My friend ordered a fresh juice whilst I ordered a raw cocoa nibs smoothie with almond milk. It was quite grainy and slightly bitter but I guess I shouldn't of expected it to taste like a chocolate milkshake. 

For lunch my friend ordered the Mexican Burrito, can't remember what went into it but it looked really good.

Myself ordered the Raw Stack. It was a stack in the following order - mushroom, pesto, zucchini, carrot, spinach, dehydrated slices of tomato and a side of more lettuce with two stripes of some dehydrated vegie thing which tasted quite good. I definitely felt really healthy after that lunch and will definitely be back. 

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