Revisiting Chin Mee Chin Confectionary

Been a long time since we were last here at Chin Mee Chin Confectionary.

It's no longer that capsule in time even though vestiges remain.

They kaya toast appears to have changed for the better. It's not longer served like a regular sandwich. It's now an open faced one which created a more favourable kaya butter to bread ratio. I like this current rendition. Kaya's lumpy yet a smooth spread. Pretty eggy too.

There's a kaya custard puff done in the style of old custard puffs from local bakeries. I like that kaya & custard filling in it. Puff's soft and lightly chewy like the old school ones. In spite of appearances, they aren't crusty or crunchy.

The gula melaka chiffon is what it is. The palm sugar flavour's there but not in your face. But it's a chiffon and that's meant to be lightweight.

Got their kopi tid lo today. Same sentiments as the last time I was here. I rather Toast Box anytime. 

Recently at Sushiro

Some recent eats at Sushiro (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九,十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七, 十八) again.

Aburi nodoguro in season. This was fatty-ish and nice. Had seconds.

Shoyu aburi mehikari. I've had this fish once a long time ago and I don't remember much of it. Not a bad tasting one but also not memorable.

Their aburi engawa has always been a quiet MVP for me. My only gripe is that the aburi is often inconsistent. Sometimes, it's a light hand like this and other times, more toasty. But that melting in the mouth part along with the flavour keeps me coming back for them.

Tempura tobiuo. Or flying fish. Not bad tasting but there wasn't anything about it that was particularly distinctive about the fish. That's also the fish were we get tobiko from.

Fugu shirako with ponzu jelly. Pufferfish milt if anyone was wondering. Torched and creamy. Nice.

Mediterranean bluefin kamatoro. Kamatoro is meat from the jaw/collar/gill area. Nice and fatty.

This was called soft shell shrimp bisque dry ramen. I'm not sure if it's "soft shell shrimp bisque" or was it a soft shell shrimp with "bisque ramen". It was a soft shell shrimp in there though where the entire fried shrimp could be eaten. The yellow cream was the bisque which tasted pretty prawny. Not bad.

Shio koji albacore tuna karaage - a little gingery fried chicken from the sea.

Moon moon dorayaki - a tiny dorayaki with anko, cream and condensed milk. This was so good. Needs to be part of the permanent menu.

Banana Pudding Oreo

 

So I came across these at Cold Storage.

I can only imagine how banana pudding might taste like. Artificial flavouring of bananas which I usually don't mind.

Might be one layer of regular Oreo cream and another of that banana pudding flavour.

Too sweet. Banana flavour tasted...nothing like I imagined. Didn't like this one.

Pandan mango cake from Chalk Farm

Came across this pandan mango cake from Chalk Farm. I liked this. There're more mangoes in the cream than what could be seen. A little less cream would be nice.

Pie & Mighty, Pakenham, Melbourne

Surprise pie breakfast from Pie & Mighty (24 Lakeside Blvd, Pakenham, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 5940 5588)

I have yet to master the runes emblazoned on these pies.

Perhaps someday I will.

Spicy Mexican - has some nice heat from the chili inside. There's beans, sour cream and cheese in it. I think the sour cream did it for me. Nice.

Chunky Beef's pretty decent. Meat's relatively tender. I think I like the plain beef one from Country Cob Bakery a little bit more though.

This one as goat's cheese, mushroom and beef. I liked it mostly for the flavour that goat's cheese brought to it.

Beef Vindaloo's not bad tasting with the tangy heat from their vindaloo gravy.

Couldn't tell the difference between this vanilla slice and the one from Country Cob Bakery.

Not bad apple and rhubarb crumble. The tart was stuffed. Wasn't as sweet as I thought might have been as well.

As a whole I had the impression that Pie & Mighty seemed to be of better quality than the other pie shops we've tried so far, keeping in mind that we're new to Aussie pies.

Operator Diner, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD

Operator Diner (Shop 2/130 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 8395 6341) is an American styled diner in the CBD.

Long black's sour. Flat white was......ok.

Got ourselves a breakfast muffin call Usual Suspect. Went big with the bacon and sausage combo which is topped with poached egg, cheese, their BBQ bacon chutney and a hash brown on the side.

Muffin was too wobbly to eat by hand. Not bad tasting. The sausage was pretty tasty.

Had an order of their Love Me Tender (chicken tenders) because they mentioned blue cheese sauce. Sauce was cheesy but we didn't get any blue cheese flavour and it was pre-mixed. How did we know it was pre-mixed? We asked if they could have it with more blue cheese and they told us so. Pretty disappointing. The tenders and fries were nicely done though.

Some drink called The Big Apple - single origin coffee (not that I could tell), apple juice, spiced chai, brown sugar foam and cinnamon. Not bad.

Pecan pie was too sweet. Didn't think much of it.

Apparently, Zac Efron was here. Filming. Pretty sure they marked the seat he was at just like what was done when Harry met Sally at Katz's Deli. I just never found out which one was it.

Revisiting Otter & Pebbles

I was drawn back to Otter & Pebbles by their PB & Otter mostly.

Osmanthus jasmine with cheese foam. This was nice. Light yet flavourful with nice velvety texture.

Otter's Minty Choco which was basically hot chocolate with mint. Starbucks has nicer hot chocolate and the mint was kinda weak.

I liked the soy milk udon for the broth which was savoury/umami. Pretty sure the salmon contributed to the flavour. Udon was ordinary. So was the salmon.

Like I mentioned, this was what got me back.

Blue cheese soufflé pancake again.

Their black sesame oat latte with an extra shot of espresso was pretty darn good. Loads of black sesame flavour on top of that thick coffee. Note to self: one shot will suffice.