Mecca Cafe, Viaduct & The Occidental on Vulcan Lane

Last night I met up with my two MR group mates, since it would probably be our last chance catching up. Tomo is heading to Queenstown for the fourth time this year (!!), and then will disappear to Tokyo where he will probably be a stuffed suit commuting to work everyday, and Kyung Eun, well, will while her summer away in summer school (!) and probably tell me all about the random documentaries she will download over the next three months. Also, it served as Kyung Eun's belated 21st and end of exams celebration. A good dinner was much deserved!

We strolled along the Viaduct, checking out the various menus. We finally decided on Mecca. It had a comfortable crowd of diners outside and everyone looked like they were enjoying their meal. Attentive waiters promptly seated the three of us inside.


For starters we had half a dozen fresh pacific oysters with a tomato pomegranate sauce to share. The oysters were fresh, but I wished they were a bit more juicy and succulent.

I decided on the beef iskendaar: traditional Turkish dish of roasted sirloin strips on grilled turkish bread with a rich tomato and yoghurt sauce served with rice pilaf. It was much tastier than it looks lol (to my delight). I thought the turkish bread would come as a whole piece by itself, but it took the form of a bed of croutons, and soaked up the sauces very nicely with a slight crunch. The beef was done nicely too, the three of us agreed (Tomo stole another piece).


Kyung Eun went with the baked chicken: whole baked chicken breast stuffed with pine nuts, spinach, mozzarella, served on kumara mash with cream and pernod sauce. I had a small bit and liked how tender the chicken was, and the sauce wasn't too overpowering.

Tomo had the lamb shank: slow simmered with tomato, rosemary and thyme served on garlic mash with caramelised onions. I tried a tiny bit as well, not enough to comment on how it tastes, but Tomo seemed to really enjoy it.

After each of us had our fill of our individual choice of meat, we decided a walk would be necessary to aid digestion. I suggested Vulcan lane for drinks, and so it was off to the iconic Occidental Belgian Bar.

Kyung Eun with her Kriek (cherry) beer. "This is so yummy!"

The rest of the night we drank beer and admired Tomo's SLR camera and the photos he has of his extensive NZ traveling. Kyung Eun has a DSLR but she doesn't know how to properly use the functions lol. My Lumix point-and-shoot suffered low self-esteem at this point, but it's okay.. I'll upgrade in good time!


So the grand not-so-distant-future plan is Kyung Eun and I will make plans to go to Fiji and get a fabulous tan, and then visit Tomo since he has a spare bedroom in central Tokyo.

We'll see how that turns out lol.

Chinese bakery style sponge cake

With fruits and whipped cream!


Followed this recipe, but omitted the custard filling. I like the texture of the cake layer - very light and fluffy. This packs a lot of calories and cholesterol (sigh) but I tell myself the fruits make up for fibre and general nutrition :)

Toto's One Metre Long Pizza

On Saturday night we got a metre-long pizza from Toto's. It's $35 for a metre of pizza with free delivery, so it's a pretty good deal I say. There are 16 slices a metre! There were four of us, and we still had leftovers. Taste-wise it was definitely very fresh and 'healthy', but I would prefer a little more oomph and flavour.

Dinner, two-two-oh-nine-oh-nine

Last night the housemates (see how I use plural now haha) and I had a bit of fun deciding what toppings to put on store-bought pizza bases. We'd been saying we wanted to make our pizzas since.. last year. Finally got around to it! Pizza on the left was pesto-based, with eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes and pine nuts. On the right was tomato-based with ham, bacon and onions (and a few basil leaves for 'presentation', said kirby). Both had liberal oodles of grated tasty and colby cheeses. Served with lettuce and avocado salad at the side.

Notice Droolie at the corner of the table :)

The thing about sandwiches

..is that they are possibly the best things since, well, as sliced bread really.

Today's lunch: salami, cheese, tomato and mixed salad in between two slices of sunflower and barley toast. Not in the photo: a steaming mug of black coffee and a homemade (baked two nights ago) banana and poppy seed muffin. Yums.

A weekend at the kitchen

Some of the things the housemate and I whipped up over the past two days.

Home-made char siew..

in kon loh mein

Not the best looking mixed berry tart lol, but it tasted decent

Individual servings of chicken pie in the making

Chicken pie, coleslaw and white wine for tonight's dinner

Fergburger Queenstown

Queenstown is my favourite city in New Zealand thus far. Even though it averaged 1 or 2 celcius for the 3 days I was there, I loved every minute of being surrounded by snowy mountains and crystal clear lakes. And ducking every now and then into warm snuggly cafes and retail stores to escape the chill.


Here I had the best burger in my entire 21years+ of existence. It might have been the combination of a very very cold night and a very very eager stomach, but I'm telling you, nothing satisfies better than a good burger (probably bigger than the size of your face) and a handful of steaming hot chunky chips.


Fergburger was always jampacked with people - famished skiiers and snowboarders after a long day on the slopes, curious tourists drawn by the crowd, and even just plain hungry locals needing nourishment. We decided to be kiasu Malaysians and get a headstart of the queue, but when we got there around 5.30pm, there was already a line snaking outside the door. We managed to inch our way towards the counter (with some difficulty) and placed our orders.


Wanting something a bit different, I decided to go with the Sweet Bambi: Wild New Zealand deer with a thai plum chutney, lettuce, tomato, red onion and aioli. It was gorgeous!


The bun was crispy enough on the outside, buttery and soft on the inside. The sauces were not excessive, so it didn't flood the pattie and make everything soggy and messy. The meat pattie was so good! I was never a fan of deer (and with a name like Sweet Bambi, how can one not conjure images of cute prancing things with doe eyes?), but this won me over. It wasn't too thick, so it didn't feel too rich. It was just tender, sweet and flavourful. Beautiful. And I love burgers with foliage, and this certainly had enough greens for that daily recommended fibre intake.


A must-eat in Queenstown! Really good value for money, in terms of what you get in quality and portion. And pretty good customer service too, considering how many people walked in and out of that door. I'd fly down just to eat again. That's how good it is. Mmm.

Durbanville Hills Shiraz 2006

Not too bad for the price. I did quite enjoy the 'smoky plum palate with pepper and spice aromas'. Wasn't too dry, in fact I polished this whole bottle myself in two seatings.

Post-Exam Sushi

Bought lunch after an exam just now, in the form of much-needed comfort food (sushi = rice = carbs = happiness) slash 'reward' (for surviving two mind-numbing economics exams so far). Made my own chrysanthemum tea - they are actual flowers in teabags, bought by a friend in Korea.

Carrot Cupcakes with (Sloppy) Cream Cheese Frosting

Grating 3 cups of carrots by hand was a bitch, but my right arm felt slightly more toned after.

I don't remember which recipe I used, but I left out cinnamon and it was still good.

For the frosting, I nuked some spreadable cream cheese in the microwave for a quick bit to just soften it. Stirred in golden syrup (that explains the colour) and icing sugar. Got a bit too lazy to properly spread it after the third cupcake haha.

Couldn't resist adding some 100's and 1000's on top (ok, they are going to expire soon, might as well..).

Cafe Melba, Vulcan Lane

Who wakes up at 8.45am on a Sunday?!


Well, ok I did. In any other circumstances Sundays are for stumbling out of bed with a horrible hangover. But this morning I hauled my sorry self out to eat 'breakfast'. (Until quite recently breakfast was a myth. Like unicorns.)

I really like Vulcan Lane. It felt very Melbournesque sitting by the window in Cafe Melba, and soon after our lattes arrived I was contented and at peace with the world.


Jian had a BAT on five grain toast. He chomped it down quite happily I thought.

The photo came out a bit dodgy here. Took it in a hurry because I wanted to eat. I had pancakes with bananas, bacon and maple syrup. The pancakes were nice and fluffy, the bacon just salty enough, the grilled bananas were very fragrant and the sweetness of the maple syrup topped everything off nicely (I liberally drizzled it on after the picture was taken). And yes I actually finished all of that.

I'd definitely recommend this place. Sit outside if it's not crazy windy or cold or get a table by the window if you're inside. Great service and food quality, although it is a bit pricey for sad poor students such as us. We did however use the Entertainment Book voucher so it actually came down to $23 for both of us, which is reasonable for $11.50 per person. Plus I'm still full at 3pm now so that's counting for two meals for me, each being $5.75 (I reiterate: sad poor student).

Big Ben M&C Pie

When all else fails, there is pie.

I usually stock up on frozen pie when I'm at the supermarket, because they make easy lunches when you can't be arsed thinking about what to prepare.

Just plonk it in microwave for 2.5 minutes on high, chuck a bit of salad on the side, and there you have it.
Oh and dollops of ketchup too. :)

Anzac Biscuits

Happy Anzac Day!


Whipped up two batches of Anzac biscuits this morning. I used this recipe. But in the end, I had to add a wee amount of milk because I couldn't roll the mixture into balls without them crumbling over into a unsightly pile on the baking paper.


OK, they don't look particularly pretty. I just squished them into indiscernible blobs. One looked a bit like Australia though!

The first batch turned out a tad too soft, and the second was too crunchy. Oh well, makes for a range of texture.


These are a great snack with coffee.