Super easy, but fantastic Martini

Ingredients:
1 double shot of of gin
1 double shot of  sweet vermouth

Mix the two together in a nice Martini glass and you have a very tasty drink. You don't need to go hard out and use a cocktail shaker, so don't worry if you don't have one. Here in Wellington it's sometimes difficult to get your hands on one. That's because Wellington is a booze town. I remember drinking these after work when I was flatting about 3 years ago, great times. Add 1 or 2 olives on a toothpick for a touch of class.

New Kum Den Restaurant (Melbourne) - Review

Moved to: 
323 Rathdowne St
Carlton

Victoria, Australia
Ph: (03) 9639 9857


Open every day: 11am–3pm, 5pm–11pm
Licensed and BYO.
Yum Cha: Sat/Sun/Holiday 11am–3pm

New Kum Den is Chinese Restaurant that used to be hidden away down on Heffernan Lane in the Melbourne CBD, Chinatown (note they have moved since then to the address shown above!). You can find China town on Little Bourke St just off Swanston st. When we arrived here on Thursday night the place was completely packed. They had two large tables in the middle and smaller four people tables around the perimeter. The noise level was extremely loud from everybody talking and laughing. The presentation of the restaurant is nice.

All the tables and chairs are timber with a glossy dark finish - nothing fancy but nice. It also has a fantastically large bar. This restaurant definitely does not feel like a cheap take-away joint that's for sure. The dinner menu prices ranged from $10 to $27 (AUD). On top of that there is also a lunch, appetisers and Yum Cha menu. The appetisers and Yum Cha cost around 5$ per dish, while lunch meals cost around 10$. Overall if you selected carefully you can eat at this place quite affordably.

The service here was good. We were given a table immediately and the waiter asked what we wanted to drink at first. Our jasmine tea and Heineken beer arrived almost instantly, and the waiter asked me if I wanted another Heineken shortly after I had finished it.

For our meals we ordered stir fried mixed seasonal vegetables, and stir fried roast duck fillet with mixed vegetables with ginger, spring onion, and snow pea.

For appetisers we ordered two sets of fried dumplings. We must have waited for about 30 minutes before our mains arrived. I think this is reasonable given that the place was flat out busy. However before that the waiter asked if our dumplings had arrived yet. When we said no the waiter brought them to us almost immediately.

Our meals finally arrived. The roast duck was cooked superb and the veggies with it tasted fresh and crunchy. The other mixed seasonable vegetable dish tasted a bit strange to us however, the baby corn tasted like it had gone bad. The broccoli also had a funny aftertaste similar to the baby corn. Maybe it is just me. I have not tried baby corn in over a year so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

Quality of Food: 7/10 stars
Quality of Services: 8/10 stars
Atmosphere and Presentation: 7/10 stars
Value for money: 6.5/10 stars
Average rating: 7.1/10 stars

Following photos from New Kum Den website:

Cafe Corretto, Melbourne (Australia)

225/227-229 Lygon Street, 
Carlton VIC 3053, Australia
PH: +61 3 9347 2300

Cafe Corretto is an Italian restaurant located in the middle of Little Italy, an area of Melbourne renowned for its restaurants with Italian heritage. It was a Friday night and we were starving. Our craving for good food was further fueled by alcohol. Wandering the streets like a couple of hungry wolves, we stumbled upon this little cafe, Cafe Correto. The place looked great, and it felt Italian. You can tell that everything including the tables, chairs, lighting, and the decorations were carefully selected to set the mood of the restaurant unapologetically naff. It was 8pm and almost every 
table was full. The service here was quick and friendly. We were seated right away, and shortly after our orders were taken. The prices here are higher than your average takeaways. You can expect to pay from $15 - 35 (AUD) for a main dish.

We ordered clam fettuccine and shrimp risotto. The food portions were reasonable, not too stingy but also enough to satisfy even those that are starving (and missed their lunch!). It all tasted amazing. Probably the finest food I've tasted so far in Melbourne. Even though the place was packed full, our meals arrived in only 20 minutes too. I think besides being a bit pricey this place pushes all the right buttons for me, and I would love to come back here again.

Quality of Service: 8/10
Quality of Food: 9/10
Atmosphere and Presentation:9/10
Value for Money: 6.5/10

Overall rating: 8.1/10

Lamb On Chapel, Melbourne (Australia) - Review

394 Chapel Street,
South Yarra
VIC 3141
(03) 9826 2442

Hungry for a night walk and a kebab, chapel street came to the rescue with what we heard was the best kebab place in Melbourne, complete with its own tandoor oven, all hot steam and loud buzziness, this intoxicating kebab house kept me from midweek meltdown. 

Quality of Service - 6.5 / 10 stars

Quality of Food -  8.5 / 10 stars

Atmosphere and Presentation- 6.0 / 10 stars

Value for Money - 8.0 / 10 stars

Overall rating - 7.3 / 10

Kanteen Cafe (Mlbourne, Australia) - Review

154 Alexandra Avenue, 
South Yarra, VIC 3141
(03) 9827 0488
Open Mon-Sat 7am-3pm; Sun 8am-3pm

  ‎

Ah, the muddy Yarra River, with all its bohemian charm. Being from New Zealand and used to lush green native ferns and mossy trunks with plenty of oxygen, the murky yellow moors of the yarra reminded us of the dry unpredictable terror of the Australian terrain. But also just how innovative these people actually are. 
This modern "Kanteen" is a lovely example situated on the bank of the Yarra River. 

Further testament to the imagination of the victorians, its considered how lovely a sunday bike ride must be, destination: Kanteen. You can rent these bikes for something like $2.50 and ride along the river bank all the way to the cafe. Its a very pleasant journey and the cafe your reward. 

The food here will cost about $7 to $13 and ranges from breakfast to lunch dishes. You can check out their menu here. You will find that it is simple, and delicately made with excellent quality ingredients. I cannot say how good the coffee is as its was a scorcher of a day and all we could think of was buying an ice cold drink. 

The cafe sets the mood perfectly by playing lounge music. Combine that with the nature views, the simple but elegant architecture, and you have yourself a very enjoyable atmosphere.

Presentation & Atmosphere: 8.5/10 stars
Quality of Service: 7/10 stars
Value for Money: 6.5/10 stars
Quality of Drinks: 7/10 stars

Overall rating:  7.3/10 stars

Sammy's Trattoria Bar & Pizzeria Melbourne (Australia) - Review

246 Sydney Road,
Brunswick
Tel: 9380 6311

Sammy's restaurant is located down the charming suburb of Brunswick. Besides what some may call tacky architecture this area of Melbourne is also known for its Middle Eastern cuisine, quirky shops, and cosy cafes. On the day though we did not eat kebabs, but instead decided to try out Italian. 

Sammy's does not look fancy but you get the feeling these people know how to make great home cooked style Italian food. Price wise this restaurant is not cheap. We paid roughly $38 for a medium sized The Works pizza, and Caesar salad. However what you can expect is a descent sized feed. The chef made sure to put in plenty of topping on the pizza, and tonnes of chicken into the salad. The anchovies in the salad was a strange choice I thought. You either love them or hate them. 

Both meals were well prepared and tasted delicious, but I would not say that it blew my socks off or anything crazy like that. They were just  satisfying, home down, dependable cooked meals. If you are terribly hungry and don't mind spending 20 bucks on a single meal then this place will make you happy. But if you are one of those people that expects exquisite fine dining experience than perhaps you should look elsewhere.

Quality of Food: 7/10 stars
Quality of Services: 7/10 stars
Atmosphere and Presentation: 4.5/10 stars
Value for money: 7/10 stars

Average rating: 6.4/10 stars

Da Hu Peking Duck Restaurant (Melbourne, VIC) - Review

171 Little Bourke Street, 
Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9663 3868

The Da Hu Peking Duck Restaurant is located in the heart of the Melbourne CBD Chinatown on Little Bourke street. A couple of our friends invited us for dinner in hope of ordering a whole Peking duck dish. We could not resist the temptation of engulfing an entire duck and gladly accepted the invitation. After walking a flight of stairs you enter a large size restaurant with roughly 20 - 30 tables. Everything from the clean white table cloths, to the delicately laid out cutlery and tissues has been well thought out and intricately presented. Here you can expect to pay 20-40$ for a main meal and 6-15$ for an entree or an appetiser.

We were seating right away and from my point of view I could see the awesome Chinese red gate that marks the China Town area just outside the front window, increasing my anticipation that this was going to be a truly authentic Chinese cuisine experience. For the mains we ordered one whole Peking duck, very spicy kung pow chicken, and for an appetiser I ordered cold chicken marinated in white wine sauce.

The food began to arrive after about 20 minutes. Interestingly for the Peking duck the chef actually came out next to our table and began carving it up in-front of our eyes. To me it looked like there was still plenty of meat left on that duck but for some reason the chef waved for the waiter to take it back. The amount of duck meat strips that were than presented at our table did not look like it came from a whole duck but more like only half a duck.

Nonetheless the waitress also placed a tray with what looked like very thin pancakes, a small bowl of specially made sauce for Peking duck, and various other bowls with salads. She than showed us how to take the duck strips and place it on a pancake, top with the sauce and the salad, and then wrap the pancake right around. The duck tasted amazing. It had the right amount of juiciness and the skin was perfectly browned and crispy. Make no mistake this was good duck!

In additional to the duck, the kung pow chicken and the black bean beef were also prepared very well. The flavours were wonderful, and the meat was cooked just right to the point when it was still tender, juicy and not too dry, whilst soaked in the complicated flavours of the red peppers, and black bean sauces. The only thing I was not too impressed with was the cold chicken marinated in white wine sauce appetiser. The chef just took his cleaver and cut the chicken into several slices, right through all the bones underneath the meat. This dish would have been much nicer to eat if the chef had bothered to remove the collection of bones from the meat.

The food portions here are moderate. Provided you order a single meal WITH rice you should be satisfied. I found that what we ordered was plenty for the four of us. In general this is an excellent, well presented restaurant that I would love to come back to again to taste some more of their authentic traditional Chinese food but only on occasions because of the hefty price tag.

Quality of Food: 8.5/10 stars
Quality of Service: 8/10 stars
Atmosphere and Presentation: 8/10 stars
Value of Money: 5/10

Overall Rating: 7.4/10 stars

A trip to Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne (Australia)

155 Victoria St,
(Corner of Elizabeth st, and Victoria st)
Melbourne Victoria 3000,
Australia PH: +61 3 9320 5822  

Trading Hours
Tuesday: 6am - 2pm
Thursday: 6am - 2pm
Friday: 6am - 5pm (general merchandise to 4pm)
Saturday: 6am - 3pm Sunday:
9am - 4pm  

CLOSED: Mondays, Wednesdays, Good Friday, Anzac Day, Melbourne Cup Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

Yesterday I took a trip to the Queen Victoria Market for the very first time. We badly need to stock up on fruits and veggies and I also just wanted to see it. It was 12noon and we were on a tram heading towards Victoria st. Getting there is easy. Where you are staying in Melbourne, make your way to the Melbourne CBD. The market is located right on the corner of Elizabeth st and Victoria st. Once you are in the city just jump on a tram that is heading in that general direction and you will be ok. Make sure to get some cash out as nobody at the market takes credit card

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, perfect day to go exploring the market. We first went through the dairy section, which is probably my favourite section. Here you can buy all sorts of cheeses, creams, salami, sausages, and much more. Its all premium quality

Next we made it out to the fruit and veggie section. This section tends to go forever, and as you walk across the road at the back of this section, you will find more fruit and veggies stalls. The service here tends to be a bit crazy, especially as the market starts to wind down and the stalls begin to close. People selling their goods begin to yell their heads, almost desperate to sell their stock before they head home. It becomes a yelling contest. They seem to think that the loudest stall will sell the most stock.

Anyways besides food there are loads of other stuff you can buy here, like clothing, pot plants, random merchandise, and much more. The price of fruit and veggies here is much lower than the supermarket rates, sometimes only a $1 (AUD) per kg. You won't find any good deals on bananas here though. Australia does not allow imported bananas so the cheapest price you will find here will be around 7$ a kg. The price of dairy and meat tends to be the same as at the supermarket, but sometimes you can find some good deals. We found a 500g of lamb steak for $7 (AUD), which we ate the same day after marinating with some Moroccan spices (also bought at the market)

Here are a few photos of our trip to give you a bit of an idea:

Cafe L'Incontro, Melbourne (Austalia) - Review

Cnr Swanston and Lt Collins Streets
Melbourne CBD, 3000  
(03) 9654 6075

Cafe L'Incontro can be easily found along Swanston st as you walk into the Melbourne CBD away from the Flinders train station. It will be on you right. We had just won some money at the casino and were happily spending it on some food and alcohol. It was 10pm on Thursday night and this place was one of the few that was still open. The place was still packed with people, most of whom appeared to be Asians who were just passing through the country and did not speak much English. We ordered a bottle of pinot noir, lamb shanks, and calamari. All that cost us exactly $66 (AUD), which is not too bad considering that the bottle was half of that price.

The service was good. The guy at the counter was keen to crack a few jokes and was a bit of a quirky character. The girl who gave us the bill though did not even know what pinot noir was :P. Our wine arrived almost immediately. The food arrived about ten minutes later, which seemed surprising because the piece of lamb was quite large and thick. I'm not sure how they managed to cook such a massive piece of meat so quick and so tender.

We suspected that it was precooked reheated lamb. Anyway, the lamb tasted OK. It was tender and moist, but just lacking something. I'm not sure what it is, just seemed like it was not fresh. The mashed potatoes were good. Nothing special here. Mashed potatoes is not rocket science - even a 10 year old can make a decent pot of mash so I'm not going to rant about the potatoes. The calamari tasted OK, just OK. It was dry and lacked any real flavour. I had tasted far better calamari before.

The cafe atmosphere seemed average. It appears to be one of those places through which different people pass by all the time. It did not feel like a place which had a loyal following, and I can see why. The cafe was missing soul, a feeling of a cafe, a place where you want to sit down and enjoy the coffee and the atmosphere - the real essence of cafe culture was lacking. However if I was the boss of this cafe I would not care much for this because at such a central location you are always going to get customers. If you are sitting at one of the tables outside you are also bound to smell some horse poo every once in a while as this area often has the city tourist horses with their carriages pass by. I have not tried the coffee at this place, but do not see a reason why I would want too. Overall this cafe is disappointing.

Quality of service: 6.5/10
Quality of food: 5/10
Atmosphere and presentation: 4/10
Value for money: 6/10

Overall rating: 5.3/10

Cafe La Citta, Melbourne (Australia) - Review

Source: Google Maps

11 Degraves St
Melbourne
VIC, Australia
Website

La Citta is a beautiful cafe situated in the colourful Degraves st. Degraves is normally bustling with activity as it is literally packed with a variety of fine restaurants and cozy cafes. The first thing that will lure you in to La Citta is the gorgeous décor. Everything here has been intricately and immaculately designed and built to perfection to create a stylish, clean, and comfortable cafe environment.

We ordered a flat white, a mochachino, a brownie dessert, followed by 2 glasses of 10 year old whisky on the rocks. The services is fast and extremely friendly. Pity we did not feel very hungry at the time because I bet they do good food as well as good coffee. However I do plan to come back here again in the near future. It is simply a must for me.

This is primarily a cafe but they do also serve several mains like steaks, roast chicken, and fish dishes for which you can expect to pay in the order of 30 to 40$ per dish. They also provide breakfast dishes which are reasonably priced at 10 to 17$ per dish.

Quality of Coffee: 7.5/10
Quality of Services: 9.5/10
Atmosphere and Presentation: 9.5/10
Value for money: 6.5/10

Overall rating: 8.3/10


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Pop Restaurant, Melbourne (Australia) - Review

68 Hardware Lane,
Melbourne VIC 3000
PH: (03) 9642 1341

Opening Times:
Monday - Saturday 12 pm - 11 pm
Sunday 3 pm - 11 pm

Website: poprestaurant.com.au/ 

Pop restaurant is located down Hardware Lane neatly tucked away in the busy Melbourne City centre. Hardware lane is literally packed with gorgeous restaurants. When you arrive during dinner hour you will find that every restaurant owner is trying very hard to persuade you to come in. They will offer you free rounds of wine, appetisers and god know what else, anything so they can get their hands on your hard earned dollars. 

One waiter thought that the group of people behind us was with us and offered 2 bottles of wine for free. When I told him that it was just me and my girlfriend he quickly downgraded our free round to just two glasses of wine and a small appetiser with a very stingy amount of salami and olives. Nevertheless it was FREE.

Down to the food then - we ordered Barramundi Fillet for 29.50$, which according to their menu is a pan seared fillet served with sautéed potatoes and onions together in lemon beurre blanc sauce. We also ordered Ocean Trout for 28$, which is salmon with with carrot puree, rocket salad, and roasted chat potatoes. By this time the hunger is making me lose my mind and I order a bottle of house red.

The waiter that served us was nice but also not pretentious like you find in most poncy places (ahem Southbank...). When we asked if we could smoke at our outdoor table he quickly said I CAN'T smoke but YOU can.

I have to say the Barramundi was the best fish I have ever tasted. It was prepared exquisitely that not a single drop of delicious juice was lost. It simply melted in my mouth and with each bite I was taken to another place, a place somewhere up in the clouds. With this dish you want to prolong the taste for as long as you possibly can so I took my utter most time chewing. By this time I was happily drunk and slightly dazed from the cigarette smoke, and this food was the perfect icing on the cake. 

The salmon was also great but in my opinion as much as my girlfriend would like to disagree was a tad dry than it should have been. Call me fussy or anal or whatever... I think the salmon lost a lot of its juicy goodness in the kitchen. If you have not tried salmon many times before though you might feel different. 

This place has everything; chilled and not too poncy atmosphere, excellent service, and mouth watering food. My only complaint on the day would be that I did not eat enough...

Quality of Food: 9/10 stars
Quality of Services: 8/10 stars
Atmosphere and Presentation: 8/10 stars
Value for money: 5.0/10 stars

Average rating: 7.5/10 stars

Rose Garden BBQ Restaurant, Melbourne (Australia) - Review

435 Elizabeth Street,
Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9329 1560

The Rose Garden can be found on Elizabeth St near the Franklin St Tram Stop. From the outside the place is not much to look at and feast your eyes on.

Outside the restaurant, there are a few very simple and cheap looking plastic tables sitting under a couple of bright yellow umbrellas. When you walk inside the first thing you'll notice is how busy the place is. Most of the tables are always full and there is constant hectic traffic of food and empty plates in and out of the kitchen.

Inside the restaurant the owners have decided to dress up the place a bit by decorating the walls with bright pink, blue, yellow, and minty green colour sheets of papers glued to the otherwise dull hospital like walls. Each sheet of paper has what appears to be traditional Chinese writing symbols. Maybe these are transcripts from wise Chinese philosophy. Although I would not know. It could be just the menu.

Even though the place decorations are a bit on the tacky side, I was still impressed the owners of the restaurant at least went to some effort to give the place a bit of charm. When you walk inside and suddenly find yourself confronted with all the random colours you feel a bit like you've walked into a Japanese cartoon.

I ordered  Kway Teow while my partner ordered BBQ pork on rice. To my surprise the food arrived in what seemed less than 5 minutes. They must have things running very efficiently in the kitchen. The food here is very cheap.

You can expect to pay less than 10$ for a whole meal. They also provide free herbal tea, which adds a nice touch. The food quality was more than adequate, especially considering the price we paid.

The BBQ pork although not as succulent as one would hope was still crisp and satisfying. The noodles were very flavoursome and the veggies tasted fresh and crunchy. 

The menu here consists of what seems like over 50 different dishes. I would be more than happy to come back to this place again and again until I have tried everything on their menu. Sadly I know this will never happen because for one I'm not rich enough to eat out every night, and two there are so many places to eat in Melbourne that one can easily get distracted. It seems like no matter where you go in this town you're bound to stumble on a little foody gem.

Quality of Food: 7/10 stars
Quality of Service: 7/10 tars
Atmosphere and Presentation: 6/10 stars
Value for Money: 8/10 stars

Overall Rating: 7/10 stars

Cafe Brown Sugar, Melbourne (Australia) - A Review

25 Block Place,
Melbourne VIC 3000,
PH: (+61) 3 9639 7577   

Brown Sugar Cafe is located on Block Place, a small alley situated between Collins and Little Collins st. Block Place is a beautiful little alley full of cafes. We were very hungry and craving good coffee. Every corner of this alley was packed with people so you just have to take it easy as you make your way through the crowd.

It has just been raining and some of the tables and chairs were still wet. We found a table but the waiter kindly showed us to another table which was dry. Having a look at the menu the prices seamed reasonable., 15$ - 25$ (AUD) a meal. I ordered a cappuccino and Margarita pizza, while my partner ordered a mochachino with Eggs Benedict. The service was very nice and prompt. Our coffees arrived shortly after we made the order. The quality of the coffee was very satisfying, and seemed to quench our desperate craving for caffeine.

The food arrived about 20 minutes later. The Margarita pizza resembled a pizza bread sprinkled with some salad leaves, and tasted like bread with canned tomatoes and cheese. The Eggs Benedict looked good, like what you would get at any other half descent cafe. Over the last two years in Wellington, New Zealand, I have eaten many Eggs benedict dishes, and after a while they all start to look the same. Both meals tasted pretty good, although I expected the pizza to taste a bit more like an actual pizza rather than a pizza bread. I was too hungry to really care though, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The food portion sizes were quite small for the amount that we paid. Each meal was roughly $15. I cannot remember how much the coffee price was, but I can remember that it was reasonable, same as what majority of the other cafes charge around Melbourne. Overall I would definitely come back to the place for the coffee but probably not for the food given the portion sizes. But that's just me though as my stomach tends to be a bottomless pit.

Quality of Food: 6.5/10
Quality of Coffee: 7.5/10
Quality of Services: 8/10
Atmosphere and Presentation: 7.5/10
Value for money: 6/10
Average rating: 7.1/10

Melbourne (Australia) City China Town

China town is located on Little Bourke street just off Swanston street in the Melbourne CBD. The easiest way to find it is to walk along Swanston st and look for the large red gate, the same one shown in the above photo. Melbourne Chinatown dates back to the gold rush period of the 1850s. Today this area houses a huge variety of various Chinese shops and restaurants. If you are looking for authentic Chinese food, Asian goods, or just want to feel like you've landed in China this is a good place to be.

For more information you can go here to visit the Melbourne Chinatown website.

Shanghai Street Dumpling Restaurant (Melbourne, Australia) - the best hand made dumplings in Melbourne CBD..unless you can think of better?

342 Little Bourke Street, 
Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9600 2250

This cozy Chinese take-away/restaurant is located on the corner of Little Bourke St and Elizabeth st. I have been here once before and ever since been meaning to come back. When you arrive here, almost every time you will have to wait in line for at least half an hour before there is a free table available. The food here is that great, and that's not all. The prices here are very affordable. You can expect to pay in the range of 7-10$ a meal. The food portions are more than generous, which are bound to satisfy just about every foody. 

The restaurant on its own is not much to look at. The seating arrangement is tight but not so cramped that you might find yourself seating right next to a stranger. The tables and chairs are simple and functional. This restaurant does not feel cheap like most Asian take-away/restaurants I have been too. You can see clean lines, tidy finishes, and simple but eye pleasing lighting, making this an enjoyable place to sit down. You can also sit right next to the windows and enjoy people watching as you indulge on their delicately made dumplings. They also provide outdoor seating, which is not as comfortable, but you can choose to sit there if you are too impatient to wait for a table to free up indoor.

Our eyes once again proved much bigger than what our stomachs could handle. Somehow when you think that you're starving and could literally eat an entire horse you drift into the mindset that just the one main meal will not be enough to satisfy one's hunger. We ordered boiled Peking dumplings, fried vegetable dumplings, and pork and chicken dim sums. The service here is friendly and quick. The staff are polite and smile a lot, which is what is always good to see. After waiting for about 20 minutes our food arrived. 

The dumplings tasted fresh and juicy, prepared and cooked to perfection., much better than the frozen ones that you can purchase at any Asian groceries store. It is hard to pick which was the best dish on the table, but I would have to say the vegetable dumplings mainly because the vegetables tasted very fresh and juicy, and tended to almost melt in your mouth. It was just pure delight. 

After eating for about 30 minutes, the gradual realisation became apparent that we were not going to be able to finish all of the dumplings. With a dozen dumplings still on the plate my stomach was on the verge of exploding. However being in this situation many times before, one eventually learns how to master the art of eating a ridiculous amount without exploding on the spot. Pacing myself as I ate one dumpling after another while giving myself room to breath in between, eventually all of the dumplings were gone. 

For me this place pushes all the correct buttons. The service is friendly, the food is fantastic, the restaurant decor is simple but pleasant, and very importantly the prices are more than reasonable even for a student. So far this place is the most impressive dumplings restaurant I have been too and will most definitely come back to eat again.

Quality of Food: 8.5/10 stars
Quality of Service: 7.5/10 stars
Presentation and Atmosphere: 7/10 stars
Value for Money: 9/10 stars'

Overall Rating: 8/10 stars

Cucumber, Red Capsicum, Onion, Feta Cheese Summer Salad

This salad is quick to knock up in under 5 minutes. Perfect to go with a stodgy meal, like BBQ steaks, sausages, etc.

Ingredients
1/4 White Onion - chopped
1/2 Cucumber - chopped
1/2 Capsicum - chopped
Feta cheese - as much as you like
Olive oil - 1 tsp.
Cracked pepper - to taste

Mix all the ingredients together and serve. When mixing you can squash the cucumber slices gently with your hands to get some of the juices out and mix with the onion flavor to give its own dressing. You can add heaps of other ingredients to suit your taste like olives, lemon juice, cherry tomatoes, red onion.

Risotto with Canned Tomatoes

To make this you will need the following 

ingredients:
1/2 can of pealed tomatoes in sauce
1 whole Onion - finely diced
4-5 cups of rice
Smoked chicken - shredded
5 tablespoons of olive oil
Parmesan cheese
Water
Salt
Cayenne pepper
2-3 bay leaves
A nob of butter
thyme - 4 table spoons

First preheat a pan on medium high heat. Throw in the rice and the olive oil. Keep stirring the rice around so that it does not burn. Now add the shredded smoked chicken, the onion, thyme, and the bay leaves and mix well. You can use shallots instead of onions here if you like that taste better. If you cannot find smoked chicken you can used chicken stock instead.

Next pour in a some water into the pan so that all of the rice is just soaked in it. Leave the pan to simmer on medium-high heat. When the water begins to reduce, add the canned tomatoes and mix well. Try how it tastes and add salt as desired. To give it that kick add some cayenne pepper until you are happy with the spicy flavour. Next add some Parmesan cheese and mix together. You can add as much as you like.

Continue to cook the rice until it softens up and fully absorbs the water. If it is still dry and all the water is absorbed, add some more water. Finally mix in the butter, when you are happy with the taste of the rice (usually after cooking it for about 30 minutes) you can serve.