Sweets for the sweet spirited

by strawbeari3

Last weekend we celebrated Mother’s Day to honour the mothers and mother-figures in our midst. We put up a spread of sweets in church for the enjoyment of the mothers. It is a special day for them and we wanted them to feel likewise.

The sweets menu for the day was:
Coconut Ice
Milk and White Chocolate Rocky Road
Coffee Truffle Ball
Heart-shaped Jelly
Brownies (thanks to Corlin)

Mother's Day Desserts

I glanced at the dessert table after it was set up and thought, ‘That is one big sugar hit for the mums!’ I suppose after a year of constant giving and looking after the family, the sweet-spirited deserved something back.

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M-O-T-H-E-R
“M” is for the million things she gave me,
“O” means only that she’s growing old,
“T” is for the tears she shed to save me,
“H” is for her heart of purest gold;
“E” is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
“R” means right, and right she’ll always be,
Put them all together, they spell “MOTHER,”
A word that means the world to me.
Quoted from http://sayingimages.com/happy-mothers-day-inspiration-quotes-sayings-cards/

Top Hot Pot

by strawbeari3

It’s that time of the year again, winter is coming and we are craving for hotpot.  We were tossing up between a few hot pot places in Sunnybank and ended up going to Top Hot Pot.

There were 5 of us and it was easier to have an individual soup each.  The hot pot buffet ($25.90 pp) includes an individual pot of soup per person, a range of meat and vegetables, noodles and canned drinks.

Hot Pot

Drinks at Top Hot Pot

The idea behind the buffet is that you can keep ordering until you’ve had enough. We started with a range of fish & prawn balls, mushrooms, meat slices and vegetables – we soon realised that was more than enough!

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There was also a self service section for dipping sauces.  Love the variety!

Sauces

Sauces

The soup was tasty but to be honest, it’s more or less the same as every other hot pot place.  However, this would be a great choice if you like your own soup and don’t want to worry about what others might or might not like.

Top Hot Pot on Urbanspoon

Road Trip to Coffs Harbour

by strawbeari3

I recently went for a road trip to Coffs Harbour with the extended family.  While searching for places to go on our long weekend, I decided on Coffs Harbour simply because I hadn’t been there.  Accommodations were slightly more affordable than other more ‘touristy’ places (e.g.: Byron Bay, Noosa) as well.

The drive took about 4 ½ hours in total and it was definitely my longest road trip (just beat Bundaberg by about 15 minutes).  The journey was mostly surrounded by bushland.  There wasn’t as much coastal view as I expected.

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I made sure we didn’t miss the town’s icon which was the Big Banana.  It’s just off the Pacific Highway and hard to miss.

The Big Banana

The unexpected highlight was The Clog Barn.  We went at the right time when they were doing a clog making demonstration.  It was interesting to see how machinery has improved the speed of clog manufacture  from one pair per day to less than a ½ hour.   The owner gave away the clog that was made during the demonstration to the furthest travelled visitor and we just marginally missed it as the other couple from Brisbane lived slightly further away.  However, since they had purchased a few pairs of clogs already, they kindly offered to give us the demo clog.   I was thrilled and now own a single clog which I am yet to decide what to do with.

The Clog Barn

The Carobana Chocolate Factory was a bit of a letdown.  It was simply an old building with a range of containers of chocolates for testing and packets of chocolates for sale.  I have never heard of carob before this, so it was an educational visit for me.  Apparently carob is a alternative for cocoa bean in chocolate.  It has a slightly different taste, containing less fat but more sugar than chocolate – I wonder which is really healthier?

Carobana Factory

In addition to the icons of Coffs Harbour, we did get to enjoy some beautiful sights as well.

The Jetty

The Jetty

Mutton Island Natural Reserve

Mutton Island Natural Reserve

Sealy's Lookout

Sealy’s Lookout

Cafe Les Amoureux

by strawbeari3

Cafe Lex Amourex is the only non-Asian restaurant at Market Square.  Being a frequent food hunter at Market Square, it is strange that I never considered going to Cafe Lex Amourex.

I changed my mind when I recently had to organise a get together a.k.a. reunion for a group of friends with a couple of kids.  We wanted to go somewhere local, kid-friendly, that can accommodate a big group and not too noisy.  I decided to be brave and picked this new venue.  It turned out that everyone in the group were in the same boat as me – all frequent diners at Market Square who’d never visited Cafe Lex Amourex.

The staff were friendly and accommodating to our group.  We had a few dropouts as it appeared that it was a bad night for the kids and the two families with kids could not stay.  The staff did not make any fuss at all about that even offered to reorganise our table for a more comfortable seating (in other words, free up a table for the more customers).

Only one of friends ordered an entree so it did take a while for food to arrive, but we didn’t mind as we were too busy chatting with each other.  Everyone’s mains were served at the same time, so there were no awkward moments waiting for each other.

The favourite of the night was the Lamb Shank.  It came with a generous serving of mashed potatoes, beans and carrots.  Three of my friends ordered that and all loved it.  According to them, the meat was very tender and tasty.

Lamb Shank ($20.95)

I had the eye fillet with green peppercorn sauce and French fries which I really enjoyed.  The steak was tender and cooked to my liking (medium).

Steak Au Poivre ($29)

Steak Au Poivre ($29)

D had confit duck leg served with garden salad, braised cabbage and french fries.  According to him the duck was beautifully cooked and very tasty.

Confit Duck ($25.95)

Confit Duck ($25.95)

We were also pleasantly surprised with the price – most mains are less than $30 with many options under $20 as well. Everyone in the group unanimously agreed that the food was great and that we would come back again.

Red Wine Chicken ($17.95)

Red Wine Chicken ($17.95)

Mushroom Steak ($29)

Mushroom Steak ($29)

Swiss Chicken ($17.95)

Swiss Chicken ($17.95)

Cafe Les Amoureux on Urbanspoon

Flute Fine Food

by strawbeari3

One lazy Saturday morning, we headed off to Flute Fine Food (Coorparoo) in search of food.  There were a few groups of people in the line ahead of us but the waitstaff were very friendly and came every few minutes to assure us we hadn’t been forgotten. Overall, we only waited for about 10 minutes.

We started with a cappuccino ($4) and mocha ($4.5). I must say I was very impressed with the mocha. It came with a small cup of melted chocolate for us to mix with the coffee. At least we know that they are using real chocolate & not just cocoa powder :)

Mocha

Cappuccino

For food, we ordered Flute Signature Breakfast ($22) and Breakfast Complete ($24).  The Flute Signature Breakfast came with Turkish pide, bacon, spiced tomato jam, avocado, poached eggs, potato gallette with white wine sauce.  It was scrumptious!

Flute Signature Breakfast

The Breakfast Complete was amazing too!  It was similar to Flute Signature Breakfast with the addition of a whole chorizo sliced into half and fries with aioli, minus the avocado.  They ran out of fries that morning and offered us an extra serve of potato gallette.

Breakfast Complete

There was definitely no shortage of food on the table.  Both meals combined were large enough to feed 4 people.  Looks like we have ordered more than we can chew :)

We also noticed that they were very generous with chocolates. Even the bill came with a few slices of chocolates… a nice touch!

 
Flute Fine Food on Urbanspoon