Han Palace

Han Palace is not the same as Hans Cafe, in fact it's the opposite of Hans Cafe. It's opposite in the sense that it's not bad asian food with bad service. The restaurant is hidden amongst other houses along Bennett street in East Perth, the only way to distinguish it the chinese style roofing and the chinese style entrance.

The restaurant is not your average Chinese restaurant, it is far from the cheap and cheerful Chinese restaurants that aspire to the same style of Chinese cooking, in fact, Han Palace is an upmarket eatery. The food is rich in flavours, an art form, the interior has  traditional and rather decadent decor and a atmosphere that is well refined for a Chinese restaurant.

The service of the place has improved dramatically, and the food is exceptionally good for Chinese food. In fact it's up there on the Chinese eatery. The best one I still reckon is Grand Palace on the esplanade. But that's another story.

We had a banquet dinner, 11 dishes or so in total, but I was too busy eating so forgot to take photos of some of them.

Sang Chow Bow - very generous portion - 

a lot larger than most of the other restuarants 

where they have a massive cabbage leaf and not enough filling

Scallops in their shell with vemicelli noodles

- nice and flavoursome

Crab

Chilli Prawns

Claypot filled with seafood and vegetables

Crispy chicken

Duck
 

Eagle's Nest

Fish - I can't remember what fish.

To finish off our dinner there was fresh fruit served - slices of rockmelon, watermelon, and oranges.

Overall, the dinner was very satisfying, everything was delicious and the service was fantastic. A new plate was given at each messy dish and of course there was also rice.

I think I will go there again for just a simple dinner. The food was just fantastic.

coughing my lung out..

argh i hate being sick.

i haven't felt this crap in ages.

my lungs hurt.

it feels like my rib cage is about to break.

and to top it all of i can't stop being anxious about work so i can't even rest properly!

ARGH.

what is wrong with me? i should be in pjs and sleeping instead of being on the computer and stressing about work.

i should be trying to get better.

FML

Diary of a Bridesmaid - Engagment party for the two families...

One of the most important things about and engagement party is of course the meeting of two families. Having it at a restaurant that's meaningful for both the parties (groom and bride) and then making sure the seating arrangements allow both sides of the families to socialise and get to know one another.

My cousin had her's at Hans Palace, it was one of the first restaurants that she and her fiance went together on a date and then subsequently met his parents there, it was full of good memories, and of course the restaurant made rather delicious chinese food.

It was a lovely dinner and getting to know D's family was kind of nice (more than just knowing his brother!). The food was great, the engagment cake was lovely and the ambience was great - our group was somewhat secluded from the rest of the restaurant and it was great to see everyone getting to know one another.

Of course the most important bit was that the bride-to-be and the groom-to-be were having fun.

Perth Food Festival - Food Market at Forrest Chase

The Perth Food Festival has been around for a few years but it hasn't been one whole month, it's been extended from one week to one month and has now included more than just Claisbrooke and hardly anyone knowing about it. This year the Perth mayor has done a great job promoting the food festival and getting people into the city to experience foods from different cultures.

Forrest Chase in the city was turned into an outdoor food festival filled with stalls from India, Marocco, China, Romania, Greek and vegan food and of course desserts, all decked out with white plastic chairs, with perfomers like an accordian player, a mime and a guy on a unicycle all around the place for people to enjoy while their taste the food.

Churros been sugar coated

 Churros stuffed with chocolate (or caramel)

A vegan stall - the raw kitchen is located in Fremantle - it's amazing the "milkshakes" and "cheesecake" has no cheese or milk but is so delicious!

It was a really good effort and a rather good turnout from the people of Perth, although I wish they spread out the stalls a bit more, it makes lining up hard! Hopefully next year the market will be on and there be a lot more stalls, because I don't think there was enough variety and was a little small, but hey it is in its first year!

William Street Festival

Sunday was the perfect day to host the Northbridge William Street Festival. A street festival heralding the cultures and artistic diversity that resides in Northbridge.

There were two stages that showcased an eclectic mix of local and global performance, dance, contemporary music and comedy, as well as roving performers and artisitic displays. Throughout the street there were food stalls, art and craft stalls, performers and places to sit to soak in the atmosphere and try some of the food.

Dancing in the street

Dragon Dancing - the ones that you usually see at Chinese resturant is lion dancing

I love things like this and am open to more of it because it brings the community together and shows that Perth does have a lot going on you just have to make an effort to go out and see and experience some of it.

The Imp

We ventured into the Imp cafe in Victoria Park one late afternoon after a long day of playing in the sun. It's a cute little cafe packed with a decent range of salads, small meals, sandwiches, cakes, teas and not-tragic coffee.

On this occasion the place was packed, so it was noisy and wasn't exactly the most relaxing of cafes to just sit, chill and talk. It felt like if you sat in the cafe for longer than 10 minutes you were taking too long as there were people eyeing your seats - not exactly the best ambience to chill out in.

The food wasn't fantastic, the banana cake was dry and hard (it's most likely to have been sitting there for a while)

the "cheesecake" was definitely not cheesecake,

the greek salad was probably the only decent thing.
 
As for the teas and coffee? well, coffee wasn't tragic, slightly burnt and the beans are definitely not well looked after, I was watching the barista the whole time and I'm pretty sure from what I've learnt from my barista course he's killing the coffee beans!

and teas are well tea. They did come in really cute tea cossies.

I think there is definitely better cafes to hang out than at the Imp. Ones that are just as busy but doesn't make you feel as though you've taken up space.