Macaron or Macaroons

Many people often misunderstood that both macaron and macaroons are refering to the same thing. According to Google definition, Macaron is sweet confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring while Macaroon is a cookie made with egg white, sugar, and ground almonds or coconut.

Macaron has been one of the popular sweets is Australia in recent couple of years. You can find macaron at most of the cafes in Melbourne. On last weekend during tea time, i was brought to this little cafe in Toorak Road to try out their "special" macaron. The cafe owner were both from Malaysia and they have this "special" macaron with Kaya & Butter. I have not favour macaron all these while as i found that they are too sweet for me liking. But after i tried the Kaya & Butter Macaron, it was just nice and perfect. I like it! =)

Supersized Macaron =)

Besides Kaya & Butter macaron, Lux Bite ( the cafe's name) also has few special flavor macaron such as pandan, peanut butter, salted caramel and many more. On top of that, they also have series of creatively decorated cakes which i adored it much.

Caramel Slice with Salted Caramel Macaron

LuxBite: http://www.luxbite.com.au/

Koala Close Encounter =)

According to weather forecast earlier, Saturday will be a sunny day. Yippie!! We headed for a short roadtrip to Ballarat wildlife park in the morning. Based on some studies from other blogger, in the wildlife park, visitors get to get close to koala and even can pat on them.


This is pretty unusual as each states in Australia has its own rules in protecting this special and cute marsupials. It used to be rule in Victoria state that public is not allowed to pat or to handle koala. Guess the rules has been changing slowly whereby public is allowed to pat the koala with their keeper around and also the koala did not show any sign of stress.

It was a great experince for me today at the wildlife park to get so close, realllyyyy close to the koala, Milton. He was so cute! I have been to Melbourne Zoo and Koala Conservation Park before early this year whereby they do have koalas in the park. However none of them allowed public to get close to it. Thus, anyone that wish to have a gentle feel on this cute animal, you can visit the Ballarat Wildlife Park. Koala show starts at 2pm daily where the keeper will bring the koala for public to pat and explain some of the bio-details.

The park have few sections of the Australian animal exhibits such as the reptiles, wombats, tasmanian devils, koala and open enclosure of kangaroos whereby visitors can puchase some of the kangaroo's food to feed them. Although the park is not too big, but it is definitely worth to visit especially you can get close and pat the animals!

Entrance fee: AUD 24
http://www.wildlifepark.com.au/

Breakfast again...=)

Melbourne is indeed a place with vast choices of nice and sumptous breakfast. Felt really blessed to be here with my loved ones. Thank God. =)


We were to this small little cafe at Seddon, West Melbourne after attending a house auction nearby. The cafe was built with attractive exterior with it's theme Gravy Train. It has both outdoor and indoor space for it's customer and the food was great with reasonable price.


On that day, we ordered a Roma poached eggs and spinach omelette with toast that are listed in their "Special" menu. For drinks, we go for the "fresh" cranberry and raspberry shakes for a healthy boost of the day. Beside, we also ordered their bacon and chicken pasta for sharing basis. Turn out to be very tasty and rich in flavour. Yummy!

Definitely will visit the cafe again!

Gravy Train Cafe
83 Gamon Street
Yarraville Vic 3013
Ph: (03) 9687 9866

Breakfast@ Kanteen, South Yarra, Melbourne

Finally it is weekend after 5 days of tiring working day. It is a sunny Saturday with light shower in the morning. We have made our plan to go for a nice breakfast and a visit to the famous Prahran market day before.

We went to a cafe that is located in South Yarra and the cafe was just beside the Yarra river. The enviroment was just perfect for a nice breakfast with the nice breeze from the surrounding.

The cafe name was "Kanteen" which reminds me the Malay word "Kantin". Hehe. Initially we wanted to try their big breakfast and lastly we opted for other food in the menu after considering the serving size (often served in huge size).


We started the day with a cup of Mocha and then followed by a croissant served with homemade organic jam. After that, we also ordered one of the Spanish dish in the menu which comes in a baked tray with goat cheese, egg and some salami. It was very yummy with the full flavour from the goat cheese. The goat cheese still linger in the mouth after the meal.

New Item - Handmade Cute Hoot Pillow

Hi all my blog visitors, i would like to introduce this new item for sale,the "Homemade Cute Owl Pillow".

This pillow is specially designed with hoot pattern, suitable as a gifts for family and friends!

Pillow Name:Spring Owl Family (1 piece only!)

Dimension(From the horns to bottom):13"x10"

Prefer hand wash...

This hoot is baby-friendly.No choking hazard parts

This item is 100% handmade and do email me at tomato_celery@yahoo.com if interested.

Price: USD 45 / AUD 45 (including shipping)

Payment: Paypal

Royal Melbourne Show 2011

Royal Melbourne Show is a signature annual event in Melbourne since the year 1848. Award winning food, crafts, pets, livestock, carnival rides, showbags, free live entertainment and much more fun filled activities were the activities in this show. Last Sunday with a sunny day, we planned to drop by to the Royal Melbourne Show for the first time.

A special limited express train that directly to the showground is available from Flinders Station & Southern Cross Station. My childhood memories reflashed back upon reaching the fairground. The placed was filled with people and coloufull carnival rides. It is exactly looks like the fun fair that my dad used to bring us go when we a small. The only differerence is this time there are MORE rides!

Besides carvinal rides, there is also the well known "Grand Ribbon" livestock championships for cows and rams. This is the first time i came across the cows judging session during the Royal Melbourne Show and was overwhelmed with the size of the australian cows. It was HUGE! =) It is indeed a good exposure for us as there are different kind of breeds that participated in the show. Beside competitions, there are also cows for sale by the exhibitors at the fairground.


Cows for sale. Anyone?

Living in Australia

Last week was major change in my life as i headed to Melbourne on Friday night to unite with my fiancee. Being a youngest child in the family and always pampered by family members, feeling of missing home appears immediately the day i arrived in Country of Down Under. Sob sob.

Early this year July, i went to Australia Embassy in KL to apply for Working Holiday Visa. The embassy only offers 100 visa per year and the visa has been "hot cakes" since the past years. We are told day earlier that people will start queing in front of the embassy early in the morning to get the queue number before it ends. We could not believe it not until we reached the embassy the next day around 7am with thought that we are early enough. When we reached the embassy, there are about 80 people queing in front of the embassy. The first applicant start waiting at the embassy about 5am in morning! OMG.

Living permenantly in Australia is totally different (emotionally) compared with tourist. There are many things that you need to cop to continue the life here at a place that is new to you. Of course there always will be sweetness and bitterness and definitely it will be one of the memorable and great experince in our life. Ganbatte!

For those who are planning to apply for work and holiday visa, the application will open on next year July and for more information, you can visit Australia Embassy website below:

http://www.immi.gov.au/visitors/working-holiday/462/malaysia/