Any Night is a Good Night for Nunam - Northbridge

A long and difficult day at work can get me pretty down, but on a particular Monday night, nothing was going to dampen my excitement of catching up with friends and trying out a restaurant I've been wanting to try for a while. That restaurant was Nunam. I've driven past it many-a-times, have seen photos and have read positive things about it, I couldn't wait to try it for myself. 

When I arrived at the restaurant, I was a little surprised by the atmosphere. The place felt a lot more "fine-dining" than I expected and I instantly felt under-dressed. However, my worries were quickly squashed as the maitre'd greeted us in a very friendly manner and efficiently seated us and brought water.

Sardine - Seminyak

For the rest of our Bali trip:
1. Bali Day One
2. Bali Day Two
3. Bali Day Three

As some of you may have realised the layout of this blog has changed slightly! As I was moving things over to the new layout, I realised this post has yet to see the light of day! I then also realised that I don't remember the flavours of the dishes we had! =( Anyway, below are the photos of the dishes we had and from what I can remember, the photos don't do them justice.

Amuse-bouche (Complimentary)

Deep Fried Chicken as Golden as the Sun BBQ - Northbridge

The Korean fried chicken trend has taken Perth by storm. Well, who wouldn't love a crispy deep fried battered chicken smothered with tasty sauce? One fried chicken restaurant that has caught my eye was Sun BBQ. I first saw pictures of their fried chicken on Inexology's Instagram feed and it looked amazing! I couldn't wait for the opportunity to try it out for myself.

That opportunity finally came not too long ago. Just to illustrate how keen I was, Sun BBQ opens at 4pm on Saturdays, I was outside the door by 3:50pm! What I didn't realise was, they also have a cafe, Sun Cafe, and they open much earlier in the day! So I think I would've been able to arrive much sooner!

Anyway, we were quickly seated and given menus to ponder over. After we ordered they served this small bowl of crispy snacks. I'm not sure what it is or what it's made of, but it was tasty. Well it better be, seeing as it was covered in sugar. The sweet and savoury mix of flavours was nice, but the texture was a little tougher than what I would've liked. 

Tim Tam Cheesecake

What to do with excess Tim Tams? This was the question I was asking myself when I realised that I had bought too many Tim Tam bulk packs! When I bought them, I had the full intention of bringing them to work or to youth group to share, and I did! I just bought too many. I thought about bringing them some more, but I wanted to seem like I was bringing them something totally original, rather than just something out of my pantry.

This brought me to research Tim Tam recipes and the one that was the simplest and seemed the tastiest was the Tim Tam Cheesecake. I borrowed the recipe from bestrecipes.com.au and tweaked it ever so slightly to suit my time and ingredient limitations. Below is what I came up with.

Ingredients

• 10 Tim Tams
• 200g cream cheese
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp gelatin
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 200g chocolate cookies
• 70g butter
• 150g thickened cream
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. In a food processor blitz the chocolate cookies into a fine crumb. (For this batch I used Tiny Teddy chocolate cookies.)
2. Pour the melted butter into the food processor and mix until well combined
3. Pour the cookie mixture into the tin and press down well with a spoon or tumbler
4. Chop 8 tim tams roughly
5. In a mixing bowl, mix together the thickened cream and sugar.
6. To the mixture add the cream cheese, and vanilla essence and mix well with the beater.
7. In a separate small bowl mix the boiling water and the gelatin. Stir well, until the gelatin has all dissolved.
8. Add the gelatin into the cream mixture and mix well.
9. Add the roughly chopped tim tams into the cream mixture and mix well.
10. Pour the mixture into the tin.
11. Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours.
12. Once ready to serve, chop up the remaining Tim Tams and sprinkle on top for decoration. 

Disclaimer: Original recipe obtained from http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Tim-Tam-Cheesecake-L2950.html

Expresso Breakfast at Sapore Espresso - Belmont

One word people may use to describe me would be, punctual. Tardiness is actually one of my biggest pet peeves. Personally, I feel everyone's time is valuable, so if you've made a plan to be somewhere at a certain time, be there on the dot, or even earlier! So, I get very anxious if I'm running late, I usually end up calling the other person every few minutes to give them live updates on where I am and how long I'll be from arriving. Mr. T does not have my standard of punctuality, but on this particular Saturday morning he forgot the time on an invitation and we ended up arriving one hour earlier. So on this particular occasion Mr. T was inadvertently more punctual than me!

Making his mistake into a triumph, we decided to drive to a not so far cafe, which I've been wanting to try, Sapore Espresso Bar. Those gourmet shakes have been calling me on social media and I wanted to try one for myself.

Choc-Peanut Butter Gourmet Shake ($8.50)

Is Don is Good, IS Donburi Is Amazing - Northbridge

IS Donburi is certainly the place to be on a Saturday night. Even though there's nearly always a queue for dinner there, customers don't seem to mind one bit about waiting to be seated. I think that's a testament of the quality of food and great flavours on offer at IS Donburi. I, for one, am always excited at the prospect of going to IS Donburi.

On this fine Saturday night, we only queued for about 15 minutes before being given a table. For the past few days I've been craving for chirashi, so I knew immediately what I was going to order. As there was a large crowd, we were expecting to wait for a  while for our food, which we didn't mind at all. But, what made us love IS Donburi even more was the fact they served us free miso soup! Such a bonus. 

Knife and Fork, the only tools needed in The Hardware Store - Scarborough

There's just something about waking up on a Saturday morning and knowing you're going to be in great company while checking out a hip cafe! Well, that was the amazing feeling I had on this particular Saturday morning. Due to our busy schedules, we had to plan this brunch three weeks in advance, but it was certainly worth the wait. 

We had decided on The Hardware Store cafe, a place that had not made it onto my radar yet (not due to lack of popularity though!). After checking them out on social media and their website, I already knew what I was going to try and I could hardly wait.