Category Archives: Gastronomy

Yarra Valley Dairy – Yarra Valley, Melbourne Australia

26 Wednesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Australia, Gastronomy, Oversea Restaurants, Travel

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I love driving to Yarra Valley Dairy whenever I drop by Melbourne. Why?

Cheese !!! Of course. :p

Not to mention the fabulous scenic drive along the way. I love the amazing trees, off-road tracks and miles of beautiful vineyards scattered across this part of the countryside. The drive from Melbourne City to Yarra Valley Dairy probably only took us about an hour plus with one or two toilet breaks along the way. So, it makes a great day trip / road trip.

Be prepared to veer off the proper road into some really bumpy roads to get to the destination. Hub took a wrong turn unfortunately due to a ‘slight-error’ made by the navigator (me). But, thankfully – we got back right on track immediately because my friend who was supposedly trailing us took the right turn after seeing the sign board. LOL.Yarra Dairy TurnoffRight on Track

The shop has definitely expanded since my last trip there (maybe 4 years ago…). The dairy farm produces their own cheese and is mainly the fresh and soft varieties either from cow’s milk or goat’s milk.

We have Arrived !

Inside their cheese shop (which is the original 100 year old milking shed), the cheese tastings are complimentary. I think we tried about 6 -7 types of cheeses that day. ALL the cheese was really good (Personally, I prefer the cow’s milk ones). I was really in love with one of the cheeses and was tempted to get a tub back. Unfortunately, we still had some roads to cover and it’s not too good to leave the cheese without refrigeration for more than an hour or 2.

Cheese Selections for Dine-in Other Platters

So, the next option I have is to sit myself down and wallop the whole plate of cheese platter as compensation. Nom. Nom. Nom…

Our Cheese Platter 01 Our Cheese Platter 02

Aside from the cheese, there’s also quite a selection of desserts available. They have Ice-cream too !!! Personally, I think you should have at least ONE cheese platter if you are there. Come on… It’s a dairy ! ;p

Yummy desserts

What a beautiful rustic ambience to share an amazing cheese platter with friends and family, Chatting and chomping away. This is what life is about…Can’t wait till I’m back again.

Rustic Ambience inside Cheese shop

 

Cucumber drink – healthy

25 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by in Gastronomy, Home Cook Food

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When we were younger, my mum used to grate a jar of cucumber and leave it in the fridge for us during the hazy season. She claims that it will help to detox and re-hydrates our body, keeping us healthy. If you Google the health benefit of cucumber, you’ll be quite surprise how good this humble vegetable is for us.

So last weekend, I decided to make myself a jar of the cucumber. It took me only 10 mins to finish grating 3 large cucumbers (the local variety). Use the thickess grating setting you have and store it in a clean jar. Remember to keep the juice you got during grating. I think this jar can easily last me and hub for a week!

Jar of grated CucumberLast night going home after work was scary. The visibility was quite bad. Even in my car, I felt as if dust were clogging my throat up… I saw some people even wearing mask inside their car. I did thought of wearing one but I get a bit dizzy wearing mask for more than 30mins. No choice. The only alternative solution is to make sure I keep myself as healthy as possible.

Reaching home, I made myself a large glass of cucumber juice.

  • 2 large spoon of the grated cucumber
  • 1 spoon of the cucumber juice
  • some sugar syrup for taste
  • fill it up with nice cold water.

Quite refreshing and yummy too.

Refreshing drinkCucumber pieces Sometimes, I use honey instead of the sugar syrup. But, hubby hates honey (weird guy)… It’s really good for children too (I think), as we drank this stuff since we are wee lass… And, we are still healthy alive and kicking. LOL.

Please keep well everyone. Drink plentiful water…

Shucked Oyster and Seafood bar – Publika, KL Malaysia

20 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in Gastronomy, Local Restaurants

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Few days back, I had a sudden craving for Oysters. Must be from all the browsing I did at some of the oyster pictures during my recent trip to Melbourne. LOL…

Normally, if I want to get my hand on some nice fresh oysters in Malaysia, the only choice I have is to head to a western restaurant (like Ship / Monte and etc) Or Japanese restaurant. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like having either of the mains in these restaurant. I just want oyster (full stop).

Shucked

Hence, I was super grateful for Oyster bar such as Shucked in Publika. Here… I get to satisfy my oyster cravings without the stress of ordering mains. I could just walk off after having my oysters. Awesome !

Hub and I decided to go for 3 pcs of Irish Premium (recommended by the ‘oyster-bartender’) and 3 pcs Tasmanian Prime. The Irish premium are the fatter ones on the right side in the picture.

Oysters

The taste of these both are so different. These Tassie-ones are quite similar to the Coffin-bay (south Australia) variety in terms of the after taste. It carries the same salty-iron-like after taste except that it has less bite compare to the coffin-bay. I was actually quite surprise that these Tassie ones are kind of small in size. I remember the last time when we were in Tasmanian, the oysters (Barilla Bay) we had there was freakingly huge…

The Irish Premium was a delightful surprise. At first bite, it was a bit salty. But after that, you get a burst of creaminess flooding your whole mouth ending on a sweet note. Very interesting.

Yum… yum. Craving satisfied.