Harvest

We decided to have breakfast on a sunny warm autumn Saturday at Harvest and after spending a good 5 minutes being confused as to which end of Harvest road I should be on I managed to find the little quaint restaurant/cafe. It wasn't that I was confused as to the numbering, it was more I couldn't find Number 1. It turns out that the road is split in two with 1-5 being on the other side of Stirling highway on the old bridge side - so I had to do a loop to get on the right side (why must the roadworks authority do something ridiculous like that??).

Anyway.. apart from the weirdness of the road, the cafe is housed in a charming heritage home, it has a whimsical, old-world, rustic charm about the place. The front yard is packed with chairs and tables all different shapes, sizes and style. We were given one of the ones inside. There were 10 of us. We had a large wooden possibly jarrah but definitely vintage design dining table. One side of the room's wall was filled up to the ceiling with a collection of red wines from around Australia. The whole room felt like a family dining room, perhaps minus the collection of wines and possibly more deco and better lighting in a family's home.

The service at the Harvest wasn't brilliant as the waiter mixed up our coffee orders, was a little flustered and the food didn't come out until at least 45 minutes after we ordered. We forgave them as they were rather busy and we were happy to keep on chatting, that was until we got really hungry.

But the food, when it came out, it was beautiful, well worth the wait (to a degree). The aroma was fantastic, the serving portion decent (if not the healthy portion you should be consuming), the presentation was as nice as possible for breakfast food.

Avocado, tomato, spinach and fetta on toasted bread

- looked deliciously fresh and healthy

 The Huevos Ranchos - a spanish breakfast

The tomatoes were refreshing start to your day. The eggs done to perfection.

Souffle cakes, poached quince, chocolate mousse

- Deliciously sweet and the perfect fluffy pancakes

 

Creamy corn, polenta hashbrown, poached eggs and silverbeet

Good mix of creamy corn, perfect eggs, cheesy hashbrown with a hit of zest.

 

B's “The Freo” scramble, mushies, spinach, tomato, breaky potatoes with extra bacon

- delicious traditional breakfast

 

Everybody was so happy with the meal and completely satisfied and with it being on the entertainment card, the food being fabulous, the problems of finding the place, parking and somewhat absent minded waiters (although he was so pleasant), it was a great start to the weekend - a hearty satisfying breakfast (and coffees/teas) with great company (the two most important things - food and company!)

Explainable Hiatus

I've been a little absent from the here mainly because I've been recovering, and having recovered and all I've been unable to blog about things because for some unexplainable reason my phone's camera is able to take photos but all the photos that gets saved on the phone are all saved in an file that is crypted and can't be seen - no idea how that happened considering that none of the settings has changed. Secondly I can't find the charger to my camera so the battery is flat. As a result, all the inspirational things I've been seeing, buying, tasting, smelling, the aromas of life has not been accounted, this has lead to me being quite uninspired to write. I guess the other main reason is I've been exhausted. Work is tiring and seems to be taking over slightly. It's only after my flu that I've been able to get back onto balancing my life. It's been toppled for a while.

I shall be writing again very soon.

immune failure

Symptoms:

Runny nose                   check
Sore throat                   check
coughing up lungs          check
fever                             check
lungs hurting                   check

OH JUST FIGHT IT ALREADY IMMUNE SYSTEM!

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.