Coffee Break

I really need to practice perspective lines! But I'm happy with how Ris and Irutha turned out, and that's what's important to me.

I loved my original picture back in 2015 too, but I wanted to do a redraw of it, which turned out well enough for me to polish!

Tora Sushi

Over the past few years, I've really only been visiting the same places over again. Same cafes, on rotation.

I decided it was high time I branch out and try a few new things, and so far, my food and coffee discoveries have been great!

Then I noticed Tora Sushi had opened, a place with signage I had noticed while visiting Abacus coffee, but not open yet, until I read about it again in the news a couple of weeks ago. I am fairly certain that this is the first omakase sushi restaurant in Perth (Nobu notwithstanding?), and it feels very much like the omakase boom vibe that Sydney has right now. Which actually made me a little nervous - is omakase so ubiquitous these days, is it even an "experience" to chase anymore?

The price point was also "low" at $150 per person for food. I think these days the cost of an omakase sits roughly at the $250 mark on the east coast for some really high quality and luxurious ingredients. I don't think $150 is bad, but I was curious about how the menu would be constructed based on the price. It was also supposedly booked out for 2 months straight, but in a moment of serendipity I managed to find an empty spot one day while randomly checking their website, so here we go!

I booked at 6PM timeslot, and still carrying some shame from being (unavoidably) late to my Minamishima booking all those years ago (because of a tram breakdown), I made an effort to be slightly early. If I remember correctly, at Minamishima, they track each diner separately so each person starts as soon as they arrive, but at Waku Ghin it may have been a synchronised start. Alas, one of the guests was running super late! The staff were pretty confident we would still be able to complete the meal even though we would be starting 15-20 minutes late.

Here's the first dish - Coffin Bay oyster with kombu and finger lime. During the introduction, the staff explained that for now, they were showcasing a wide range of dishes, and would fine tune them as the seasons changed. That was good, I like getting an idea of a restaurant's culinary range!

Hokkaido scallops with jerusalem artichoke chips! Ah I don't miss the days of attempting to make my own chips! I love the crispness of the chips against the softness of the scallops!

Yes, it's chawan mushi time! I love any restaurant that features a chawan mushi, and this one tasted great! Great texture too. I think it was a clam broth chawan mushi, but what was interesting about it was that inside was a piece of chicken. I was totally used to and expecting prawn, crab, or other type of seafood, so seeing the chicken was unexpected. It still tasted good, but I was starting to see where the $150 price tag comes from!

Before serving the sashimi course, the chef showed the tray of fresh fish fillets to everyone. I didn't take a photo of it and I wondered almost immediately if the chef was expecting me to take a picture, which may have been why he displayed it? I almost felt bad, but then the people next to me did take pictures. Sorry, it's just that I've taken so many photos of sushi and fish that I guess I wanted to try and not be too intrusive. I've even mostly streamlined my camera plus phone snaps to take as little time as possible.

Anyway, this was really yummy! Tuna, kingfish, and goldband snapper. I love white fish where I can actually feel the sinew (am I weird for that?), so the snapper was actually my favourite bit! I love that chew! I also ate the seaweed garnish because it's so hard to get that kind of seaweed!

Here's something interesting - the wasabi, I discovered, was not hot at all! I could pile it on and not get any kind of burn or nose fuzz. I didn't really think much of it, except that I did want some of that burn that never came.

Here we go with some nigiri! They space out the nigiri throughout the meal, which was quite interesting! The selection was small and simple, and definitely from local fish - again, reflective of the price point. Red emperor, and tuna.

The chef made a special mention that this tuna was aged for two days, which was interesting to note! It was definitely much more tender than the sashimi version.

Here I learned more about why the wasabi didn't pack the punch I expected! The nigiri was made without a dab of wasabi under the fish. Instead, the chef asked if I wanted wasabi on top of the fish. Turns out, he himself doesn't like the spiciness from wasabi so he checks in with everyone and adds accordingly!

Look at this cute little teapot! This was a lovely warming soup, and the format here actually resembles what I had at Komeyui! I really love soup "intermissions" though I guess these are actually so good that I shouldn't really call them intermissions. It was a bit awkward to dig out the food inside the teapot so I asked before I did it, but apparently that's the intention!

Wagyu nigiri time! This time with a yuzu kosho topping.

Yakimono time! This was actually unexpected for me - grilled rankin cod with maple miso. When I first saw it, I thought, it must be some kind of miso toothfish dish, cause that's what everyone does. The rankin cod comes in significantly cheaper, but I reckon it was a very good choice, I really enjoyed the texture of the cod, and the sweetness from the maple made it quite unique too! Now I want to try making my own maple miso foods!

Ah yes the big wagyu beef dish! I'm sorry - when I was eating this I was reminiscing about the steak I had at Chaco Bar instead of this. Komeyui's beef dish was also a standout that stopped me from fully appreciating this dish. Nothing on Tora, it's just, I've been extremely spoilt with beef. I was even giggling on the inside at myself because I was the only person who ate the beef first and then moved onto the lotus chips and salad - everyone else left the beef for last. Pyschologically, they valued the beef more so saved it, where as I ate it first? My own mind is fascinating.

The end of a meal usually ends with a tamogoyaki or a temaki, here it's temaki! A great combo of tuna, uni, and ikura!

And of course, dessert. This two toned matcha panna cotta was really cute! And I'm so glad they added mochi balls because I love mochi!

Overall this place satisfies my omakase cravings, so any time I want to eat Japanese art, I have a place now instead of always pining for my next Sydney trip and how to get into Sokyo. It's close, and it's relatively affordable. I am definitely keen to go back and see how the menu changes over the seasons!

Hayman Island adventure!

I never thought I'd ever visit Queensland again, and especially not the Whitsundays! But I had the good fortune to get this opportunity from work, which was pretty amazing! Never would I have ever imagined that I'd work for a company who could provide an all expenses paid trip like this! Especially because I could take a friend!

We flew out from Sydney, to Hamilton Island, which then had a boat transfer to Hayman Island. I'd done some preliminary research that showed it was a fancy boat, not dissimilar to the posh pit on the boat to MONA.

Hahaha ok first impression - this was nowhere near the calibre of the MR-1's posh pit food presentation! That being said, I still ate it all! There's nothing that'll tempt me to enjoy food quite like a French breakfast radish!

Look at the size of this room! It's huge! Super fancy! Though the mattress was far too soft for me and my bad back XD

The view from the balcony!

Oh wow, haha, it looks just like a resort! Lol, obvious me is obvious.

The infinity pool is pretty awesome!

We had two days here with a bunch of other workmates, but luckily, there weren't any corporate bonding exercises or anything, we actually were allowed to do whatever we wanted! The only requirement was to attend the two dinners with other workmates, but again, thank goodness, no one talked about work! Yay, we know how to have a good time!

The first night, we had a seafood buffet on the beach, and it was actually great! I was sooooo full. I tried most things, the sushi was so so and most of us were puzzled as to how to get soy sauce onto the sushi without spoons or little sauce dishes, so I had mine without any sauce haha. The rice was not great though. The gravalax, on the other hand, was extremely good and I kept going back for more!

The oysters were also good (and didn't run out early!), the moreton bay bug was surprisingly tasty; that actually impressed me! I did eat some of the vegetables too, which were also very good!

Dessert came out when everyone was far too tired (some people who flew in from Hobart had 3AM starts!), but I still sampled some fruit, cheese and sweets!

WOW this breakfast buffet! Good thing I'd digested all the food from the night before, this is the biggest range I've ever seen! There's just so many different types of food, there's something for everyone!

I took a little bit of most things, that roast ham was the best thing! I absolutely loved it! The chicken dumplings (the white ones) weren't bad either!

The cockatoos here love to snack on human food too!

Most of the paid activities were booked out (including massages!) so my friend and I did the free stuff! This was the fish feeding, and it was actually pretty cool! I got splashed on repeatedly by the giant trevally that would jump out to catch fish. Plus look at the greedy seagulls that would wait around and chomp on the fish food after we were done!

It turns out one of the pools here is one of the largest in the southern hemisphere! And, this resort is pretty cool in that some of the rooms have a balcony that lead straight into the pool - no fence, nothing! Amazing! My friend and I took our spots on the deckchairs, went for a dip, and waitstaff came around to take our order for food which was super convenient! This is the life! The seagull thought so too, and we had a bit of a standoff! Luckily I am partially trained in reading the body language of birds thanks to the pigeons, so I mainly just talked them down haha!

The oysters were really good, and my poke bowl was far too big, but it was a good feed!

Look at this little curlew! We called them the night patrol because on the first night, we saw a pair walking around and check in on every hotel room door. How cute!

We also went on a small nature walk around the island, where we learned a lot about the history of Hayman Island, including how it came to be a resort! Not only that, but I realised that the place is full of giant houseplants in their natural habitat! Everywhere I looked, I saw what I only knew as indoor plants, in their full outdoor glory. Plus there are green ants here (no one at any lol), honeysuckle (which I successfully took the stem out and licked the nectar!), and we learned about the smart cheeky cockatoos that would roll coconuts around so that they bake in the sun, and the water inside would ferment, and then they'd crack them open and get drunk on alcoholic coconut water!

Then once again night came around for an obligatory work dinner, in which I had a fight with a padron pepper and lost! That is, I ate one, thought it was fine, but then I ate parts with seeds, and started dying, and a fellow work colleague found this hilarious!

I am the most terrible person. All that choice at the buffet, with some new things on rotation, and I was already bored on day 2?! I'm just really not a resort person haha. I need to earn my food through exploration! That being said, their curry of the day was really good, I should have had that earlier too, and the poppadum are so good! I had to get the roast ham again cause that was so tasty! And a waffle again because why not.

Oh, that's right - we saw rambutans on the buffet! So we had to try them. I heard other people exclaim about the rambutans as well - it turns out people in the know realise it's an expensive and hard to obtain fruit, so they also treated themselves to that here! Rambutans have an interesting texture to them, their flesh seems more defined than lychees, and the skin between the seed and flesh seems to stick more on rambutans? With a slightly more mild flavour. Was fun to eat, but currently I still prefer lychees more. Too bad there weren't any mangosteens to sample!

Aah you cheeky cockatoos! You know human food, especially AN ENTIRE KNOB OF PEPE SAYA BUTTER isn't good for you right???

And we were done. That was it, two days of great relaxation! Even though it's not my type of holiday, it was definitely fun to experience!

One fun thing I discovered on this trip - since it was organised via work, I couldn't select seats on some of my flights. Turns out if you go to the counter and ask nicely, they sometimes can indeed give you better seats if there's room! I asked for seats closer to the front of the plane and I got really lucky many times! The more you know!

Melbourne 2023

Carried on from my Sydney 2023 post (finally making some time in between drawings!), my first stop in Melbourne is almost always Brother Baba Budan. Having a 5PM closing time is handy!

Cumulus Inc is also generally my first meal stop! It's a bit different from what I remember in terms of opening times; it seems to not be open for breakfast these days? That's ok, I understand. Not sure if they're still doing half serves either but I managed to eat all the food I ordered! It was too late for lunch, too early for dinner. Some oysters, the tuna tartar, a cucumber salad which looked super interesting. And some mussels escabeche, because their seafood is always done so well, and this was no exception! Also managed to fit in a strawberry panna cotta!

Even though I was mostly full, I wanted to try one of the chinatown shops, just for something small, so that I wouldn't be starving at night. I liked the look of a shop called Crazy Wings, and I only learned later that apparently they had a fire recently! I also didn't realise I went in on a day when there was a buy one get one free on exactly the skewer I ordered, so I ended up with more food than I was expecting. Some really tasty chicken bits here! Wings, probably giblets, thigh, and some other things! The seasoning was a tad spicy so I had to chug the "plum juice", which turned out to be prune juice, which was also delicious. The chicken feet were also spicy but I really wanted chicken wings, and I was so full I had to take most of the feet back to my hotel.

There was a person next to me who also got skewers and this massive plate of fried rice that looked so good. This was funny because she got asked a few questions about the fried rice she was eating, and then some people also asked me for recommendations! What should I do? Should I say this is my first time and I have no idea what I'm doing? But I gathered enough from what the other person was saying that I managed to say similar things and then also give my own opinion! Definitely a place I'd want to eat at again!

The next morning I was off hunting for onigiri. 279 Victoria St is a musubi shop that came up on my feed a long time ago, and then my brother also visited recently and said it was really good. So, here I am! I wanted to not overcaffeinate so I went for a houjicha, even though they had an interesting line up of coffees. And oh my goodness, that is one delicious rice ball! Saba shio kombu is so good! I also saw kuzu mochi on the menu, so I had to have that too - though I was expecting arrowroot powder, and a triangular cut mochi - I am still haunted by the memory of that one time in Japan I didn't buy kuzu mochi after enquiring about it because it wasn't what I wanted at the time??? But I really need to know what kuzu mochi is like! And what I got looked more like warabi mochi, but it tasted so good! I love warabi mochi, so I was super happy!

I was a bit awkward and tried to ask about their kuzu mochi after I ate, hoping to find out how it was made. The chef came out and brought out an allergens booklet, but I tried to clarify and wanted to know more about the ingredients, and she mentioned tapioca starch, and so I want to try making warabi mochi with tapioca starch at some point! My only previous experience was using what I believe was sweet potato powder, which also turned out really well, but I guess everyone mostly uses tapioca starch so I want to try too!

Tarts anon also came up on my radar, so I had to try that. The agony of choice though! I needed the original custard tart, but also another flavour, so I think this was a white peach one, and then also a savoury one, which had chorizo in it, and all three were so good! Why do I want to eat so much food all the time! I love it when food tastes good and also has such a technically perfect structure and presentation!

And I managed to hang out with a friend and his dog! Isn't Tofu so cute???

I had some time to kill before dinner, so I figured, hey why not visit Melbourne Zoo!

Having worked up an appetite from exploring the zoo, I then headed to Komeyui for a delicious dining experience! It was a place that was on my list for a while, but Minamishima had taken precedence on my last visit, so finally this place made it to the top of my list!

And a cheeky crepe! I love the Petite Creperie! A classic lemon and sugar!

Wow, what a downpour! I was travelling super light so I didn't pack any rain boots, just regular boots that were okay for heavy rain but not super storms! I was absolutely drenched and my boots were wet for days after this! But I will trek through anything for food, and successfully made it to Hector's Deli for a beef sandwich. It was super comforting to eat!

The show had to go on, and luckily, the thunderstorm cleared up for the rest of the day.

The next coffee adventure was the most interesting one for this trip, my barista recommended that I go to the Zest Coffee tasting studio, and while the website seemed to indicate it required a booking, I decided to try my luck as a walk in. Ah, it's not a cafe! It's literally a "studio"! They do classes, sensory flights, etc here, and yes, it really is best to pre-book! But since it was a terrible and gloomy day, it was empty, so I managed to sit down and choose a tasting experience.

There are some wild price points here! The cheapest flight was $35, the mid range being $50, and ninetyplus costing $75. For three coffees. I actually didn't mind which set I tried, and after talking to the barista/owner, we settled on the Granja Paraiso 92 tasting (which was the $50 one). I'd had a Granja Paraiso 92 before at Blacklist, but this was a set of three different varietals which underwent the same processing method (thermoshock!). It was so good! The coffees were experimental and full of flavour, orange bourbon was my favourite varietal! I would have loved to have tried the sudan rume varietal too, but they were out. But that's ok, I was definitely very happy with my experience! We talked a lot about the coffee, he even had a book with photos about the farm visit they had. We then went on to talk about where I'd seen Zest coffee in other states, which was pretty fun!

Definitely a good visit, next time, I'll have to take a trip to Manta Ray coffee roasters!

Oh no. Zest Coffee Tasting Studio is near Collingwood, I kind of had to pass through it on the way back, oh no....

And so I ended up back at Proud Mary, only because I was too caffeinated to go to Aunty Peg's! I'm so silly like that. I got my short mac, because the east coast can do a proper mac (none of this Perth topped up stuff!), and the food was very welcome after so much coffee, this small prawn roll was good!

Hey it's Fluffy Torpedo! I had the strangest feeling I saw this place last time I was in Melbourne, but I don't think that's possible because it didn't exist??? I am not too sure. But this place is great for all of the crazy flavours it has! Think vegemite white chocolate! That's the scoop on top! I couldn't decide what other interesting flavour I wanted. I was going to go with a fruity/berry (maybe aeroplane jelly?) type but after tasting it and finding that it tasted pretty much like what I expected, I decided that the most interesting flavour to have was actually the liquorice, and wow, it was GOOD. I'm not exactly a liquorice superfan, so it did become a bit too much towards the end, but it was definitely amazing. Would recommend!!!

I don't remember what I had for dinner that night, but I am pretty sure it was trashy because I didn't want to spend too much money, and, I wanted to try different things. Somehow, that ended up being a Hot Star fried chicken, because the ones in Perth got rebranded, and my brother said that the Melbourne Hot Star was better than Sydney's. It's interesting because the fried chicken is coated in what feels like tapioca starch? It had a nice sweetness and chew!

And the morning before my fly out - a cute little cafe in the city called Hikari! This was a pretty good shokupan and the coffee was so good! It was a Glitch coffee so I couldn't resist - the barista was apologising for how long it would take to make my coffee due to their staffing levels, but it was totally okay! I felt bad that they were apologising so much.

Other noteworthy things from the trip that weren't pictured - right around the corner from Hikari, are Bakemono Bakers and Little Rogue - both are very good! Bakemono is extremely amazing; Lune is the whole "you have to try it at least once" but Bakemono is for people in the know. Little Rogue also does nice coffee, but what place doesn't!

It was such a great adventure!

Just another typical drawing day

I can't draw him lol. I've tried and tried and something is always off. This is mouth attempt number 3...