I ate my first whole, baked cheese in a french restaurant in Guangzhou last year and after seeing something similar on Masterchef, decided to try and recreate it for Mr HHM's lunch . It was quick and simple and I'll definitely be making more of this!

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!

Guangzhou - Part 1, Jusco
Supermarkets in China are HUGE!! I loved wondering around them and picking up odd pieces here and there.

Few shots of Jusco (supermarket chain) selling your normal supermarket products as well as a variety of sushi, hot foods including skewers, various flavours of bbq chicken, duck and goose. Various hot dumplings, rice, noodles etc. Most supermarkets also have a live seafood section where you scoop your own fish and ask the fish monger to weigh and clean it for you.

Penny Farthing - High st, Northcote
One of the things I love about Melbourne, are the cafes with their mismatched furniture and changing daily menu's depending on produce (Kinsfolk located outside Southern Cross station is my favourite so far). You can find plenty of these cafes everywhere in Melbourne but a friend suggested I would love Northcote with all their vintage shops and bohemian vibe. 
We met up for lunch at Penny Farthing's and I will always remember this cafe as the place I finally fell in love with french toast!

(L-R,T-B, French toast, African hot chocolate, Chai tea, Tofu scramble)

Penny Farthing - High St, Northcote

Breakfast
What I've been eating for breakfast recently. Also, I've recently come back from working in China for nearly a year so will be posting up all the places we visited focusing on the food, scenery and what to watch out for!
(L-R,T-B, Omelette, loving flavoured water right now, homemade almond milk with dragonfruit and avocado smoothie, egg and cheese breakfast muffins)

Breakfast

Bought these Woolworth macarons to satisfy that macaron craving.

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