City Gardens @ Wednesday, December 31, 2014















Chocolate Prague Cake from Dish'd @ Tuesday, December 30, 2014


Hello Beautiful Cake








Made in Czech Republic



With a recipe dating back to 1879, this chocolate ‘Prague Cake’ is still one of the most popular cakes in Prague today. This version is expertly crafted with layers of light chocolate sponge and chocolate cream by pastry chefs in the Czech Republic. It is then covered in delicate crunchy chocolate curls making it a wonderful celebration cake to share with family and friends!


It arrived frozen and in one piece.




But don't pick it up with one hand! Because it cracked!



Sneak peak of the inside. :P



We defrosted it for 18hrs overnight in the fridge. 



And covered the crack with a generous sprinkling of choc curls (50% dark).
When we took it out of the box some of the curls came off, when frozen. 



I was going to do swirls of cream, but that failed....



We bought a dessert package for $20, as a promo offer.



It says it serves 12 but we cut it up into cubes, without cleaning the knife in between (ain't no body got time for that) and it now serves 31. It was for a dance party on a Friday Night.


To attach the raspberries I stuck a toothpick through each cube/serve. 



Then it sprinkled Violet Crumble dust (whoops) over it. 




In hindsight all it needed was something green, like mint. 




Someone got distracted looking for mint... flowers didn't taste good, unlike the cake which was rich, moist and delicious! Being quite rich I wouldn't eat more than two cubes at a time though. They were a hit! And the half that wasn't consumed during class I froze in sets of 2/4, and sent them to friends (1 confirmed the other is work in progress) who missed the class. Mr WIP said it was delicious too!

Would I recommend it? Yes - but only for a big party. If you live alone on the house on the hill like me, then no. It'll take you a year to finish this! If it's not for an event I wouldn't get it, especially as it's $35 and frozen, made god knows how long ago, and it's not exactly supporting local businesses. But I do love cake...


Winter Wedding Inspiration @ Monday, December 29, 2014

We haven't progressed much on wedding planning as it all stems from a theme, from there the next step is a venue and catering follows. I just have so many ideas I don't know what to do, and there's the what I like vs what suits me. Some of our theme ideas are: 
  • Tudors/English Historical (era undefined atm) that would be a day wedding
  • Getting married at sunset with our phantom of the opera theme, but with no phantom
  • Midnight Halloween wedding, could go with the POTO theme still
  • Outdoor night wedding, in an amazing garden, dancing under the stars
  • An Edwardian lunch with the them of lavender, Tiffany blue and gold at a park, or mansion with a pool, the water feature here is a must
  • A winter wedding that will cost as much as a peak season wedding, due to the elaborate decorations and all. I shall be the Snow Queen. We will dress in black & white, and I might wear a blue dress that lights up with fairy lights or something
Here's some very inspiring pictures for a winter wedding set on stage, a very big stage.  













Peking Duck @ Good Luck Tea House @ Saturday, December 27, 2014


This week's adventure was a trip to Good Luck Tea House on Chapel St, opposite Coles, a few blocks away from B&P, for Peking Duck. 



We both love duck! And so ordered the Peking Duck Banquet with Wine which is $45 for two people. Unlike most places you can get something else if you don't drink wine. 



Inside it was nice and clean, with a warm red glow omitting from the light shades above, a nod to the red lanterns that are very popular in China Town.




A glass of Shiraz for him and apple juice for me.


Shredded Duck with Mushroom $7
For the first time in forever I forget to take a picture!

Starting off we had shredded duck mushroom soup, which had great flavours, and bamboo shoots. Not a fan of shitaki mushroom, but I do like the flavours, just not eating this mushroom itself. As it does start off dry in a packet and you soak them overnight. 





Peking Duck (Full) With Pancake, (16pc) $50

Next we had Peking duck pancakes (8 each) which was duck and cucumber wrapped up in a thin savory pancake served dipped in hoisin sauce. It was delicious! And probably designed as an entree for a family of four too, for we were too full to continue! 

The pancakes were wrapped by two people as we could tell as half of them were wrapped tighter than the well looser half. Service was good, the girl who served us was friendly though also gave us space.




Wok Fried Egg Noodles $18-ish

As we got the noddles take-away, we had to buy a take-away container which was $1.50. Normally it's 50c or free, so I can this is the most I've ever paid for one. Asians (most it seems to me) are like that, everything costs extra, like if you ordered a drink with no ice that could cost you up to $2 extra. 

The noddles were 90% noddles and 10% duck, though I do believe that through the three dishes we ate they used a whole duck, as they aren't as big as chickens, in terms of serving size. Noodles were very oily, which I didn't like. 



Overall we don't like Chinese food, due to the emphasis on noodles and all the oils, also my bias towards them. But we do love buns, dumplings, Peking duck and yum cha!




A view upstairs looking down, no there isn't seating upstairs, 
but the bathroom is up here. And those aren't cut outs, they're paper lanterns.

Would I recommend this place? Hmm... I'm indifferent, the duck was delicious! And there was nothing wrong with it, but $50 for this dish does seem a lot to spend on one dish, even if it serves two+. Though that and the soup would be a meal to me, no noodles required.



Are there any cheaper (and single serve) but still great duck places around? I heard Simon's in Box Hill's great but it comes with a side of attitude, but there's also Old Kingdom on Smith Street. 

Where do you go for duck?

Good Luck Tea House on Urbanspoon


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