Brew, I'm so in love with Brewtown Newtown

Firstly, I'm sorry for the title but it was a pun just waiting to happen and I decided to seize the opportunity. My strange obsession with tea puns aside, I'm honestly so in love with this new little discovery. I kind of feel like Brewtown Newtown to me is like what a new boyfriend is like to other (less... hmm, lets go with "eclectic") 19 year old girl - why? Because if you've been even just an earshot away from me over the last two weeks then you've probably been victim to my non-stop gushing about this place. 

Brewtown is currently, one of the Top 10 eateries according to Urbanspoon and I can see why. For one, your ordinary cafe would definitely not serve every table and every customer with a glass of sparkling water by default but Brewtown does. That is of course, only after you've been taken to your table following a 40 minute wait, but you can't really blame them for the wait because it is worth it.

Secondly, I've always had this ridiculous theory that only the best cafes provides palm sugar as their sugar of choice because man.. they're amazing and once you've poured them into your cuppa, you will never EVER want to use brown, raw or white sugar ever again.

If you know me (even only a little bit), you'd know that I'd never have brunch without a cup of tea so of course I ordered a pot of Earl Grey Tea. While the Earl Grey looseleaf used by Brewtown is no match for Harney and Sons, the tea cups made up for it and you all know how much I love my tea knick-knacks.

Now, to the thing that actually matters most and the culprit of my incessant salivation... the food.

We ordered the spanish sausage (above), the salmon (right) and the corned beef (bottom). I rarely go to cafes where every single dish hits it out of the ballpark but, continuing with the metaphor, Brewtown did not only hit it out of the field, it hit it out of the goddamn city with every single dish. All a winner, all amazing.

The Salmon was divine. It was moist and flavoursome but not to the point that it was over seasoned. The creamy egg oozed as soon as you poked your knife through it and the quinoa was cooked to absolute perfection. 

The Spanish sausage was definitely the pisssaz of the menu. It was flavoursome, had a kick to it but when combined with the half-boiled egg, it was still appropriate for breakfast and wasn't too heavy. Definitely for the adventurous breakfast-goer and not for those who wants something less "hello" to start out their day.

My personal favourite thought was the Corned Beef. Seasoned to absolute perfection, it was just the right balance of savoury, creamy and cheesy when combined with the peas, half-poached eggs and polenta cubes. Could really be a heart attack special but I'd happily take the #yolo route on this matter.

But honestly, the star of the morning was definitely the cronuts - fusion between donut and croissant. If you've never heard of them? Welcome to the New York experimental food scene. Invented in New York by Dominique Ansel Bakery, the Cronut is a gift from the desert gods cause goddamn...

Brewtown's Cronut is absolute perfection, just like everything else on its menu. The glazed cronut is sweet but not sickening and has the crunch of a croissant and the doughy taste of a donut. Just divine!

Would I come back to Brewtown? Heck yes... I've already made plans with my friends and they can't get out of it #soznotsoz. They'll thank me later.

All my love,

Nisa

Purely delish dinner at Pu'er and Updates

Hello fooshioners, long time no blog!


Don't worry, you're not hallucinating... your favourite (albeit, slightly slack) fooshiner is back in action. Before we get into the important part of this post I wanted to sincerely apologise for neglecting you over the past few months! As much as I love food and fashion sometimes life gets in the way and writing becomes the furthest thing from my mind but just because I've been an atrocious blogger doesn't mean that my passion for you and this blog has washed away! I'm back baby and just try to get rid of me.

Now, now... I know you're all salivating and itching to find out more about Pu'er but before we delve into the sinfully delicious world that is Pu'er I thought I'd update you on what you should be looking out for over the next few weeks. Being a tea connoisseur and having a serious tea-a-holic problem (I honestly think I need therapy), I thought I'd share and give you a review of my tea collection so expect a T2, Harney & Sons and Miscellaneous review in the not so distant future. So that's what I have planned for the 'foo' part of this blog but what about the 'shion' and 'trinkets' part?! Don't fret, I've got you covered. As it is currently Winter (aka my favourite season ever), I thought it would be fitting to do an OOTW or Winter collection fashion post because, I'm not going to lie... I've made a lot of winter purchases over the past two months - I might even dabble with YouTube just for the hell of it and make it into a video form... release my inner Ingrid Nilsen (who happens to be my girl crush just fyi) but we'll see! As for the 'trinkets'? Well.. I will show my fellow tea lovers my tea pot/cup/paraphernalia collection because who doesn't love teariffic tea stuff! So keep your eyes glued to this blog because I'm planning to make up for my slackiness (that's not even a word!).

Pu'er... How do I even begin. So, I live in walking distance from cafes and restaurants that herald the new (though some say tired) avant-garde/hipster/fusion food movement and one day in the summertime as I was driving down to my local Coles, a quirky little restaurant on the corner of Danks St caught my eye. You guessed it, that quirky little restaurant is Pu'er. I had no idea what kind of restaurant it was until I read a review by my favourite food blogger, NQN, but the interior caught my eye and if you know me well, then you'd know that before I decided to pursue what some may call  'a more sensible career path' and put down Media/Law in my UAC application, I wanted to be an artist of some sort, namely a Graphic or Interior designer of some sort, so even to this date, I eat with my eyes just as much as I do with my tastebuds.

Pu'er serves an eclectic fusion of Japanese/Chinese/Western food and it's amazing. Firstly, shall we marvel al the beautiful interior before we even consider the delicious food?!

I mean, seriously.... that beauty!

As far as the menu goes, the food at Pu'er is pretty much what you would expect at a Chinese restaurant but with a modern twist. After doing my research (aka drooling over 5 star reviews of the restaurant), I decided to opt for three of their most popular dumplings: The spicy prawn, chicken and scallop siomai and the scallop dumpling.

Unfortunately the lighting in Pu'er isn't exactly conducive to beautiful photography but trust me when I say that the food is just as beautiful as it tastes. I think my favourite would have to be the scallop and chicken siomai. The scallop melts in your mouth just as good scallop should and the chicken is well cooked and well seasoned; needless to say, it was a halleluja moment.

Coming a close second would be the Spicy Prawn Har Gow. When I was in Kindergarten and lived in Indonesia, every Saturday my parents and I would have dumplings for breakfast at a swanky little dumpling restaurant in Pondok Indah (one of my favourite suburbs in Jakarta and where most of my memories from my short time living in Indonesia was made). Being a fussy little 4 or 5 year old, I would NEVER try anything new on the menu and resorted to Har Gow every time so this choice was a no brainer. While I'm a lover of spice and a lover of Har Gow, plain, non-spicy Har Gow definitely has my heart though this spicy 'adult' version of Har Gow was lovely too. It has a kick to it and  the prawn filling melts in your mouth which is fabulous so I'll definitely come back for more but it definitely has not dethrone, plain boring Har Gow.

The scallop dumpling was scrumptious too and worth its price in my opinion but it would probably be my least favourite out of the three dumplings. The thing I love about dumplings is that they're slightly chewy, melts in your mouth and tender all at the same time and this dumpling, being made from scallop, lacks the chewy tenderness that I love. Nevertheless, it was definitely worth a try but the next time I visit Pu'er, I don't think this will make my order list.

While dumplings are delicious, they're hardly filling, especially for dinner so we opted for two main dishes: The Crispy Chicken and the Crispy Noodle with Soft Shell Crab.

Soft-shell crab is my life and so any dish that incorporates it will be a winner in my eyes (not to mention tastebuds) and this was the case with the crispy noodles. The soft-shell crab was flavoursome and tender as were the scallops that were scattered on the sauce underneath crispy noodle goodness. I'd definitely come back for this dish, it was delish!

I wasn't a big fan of the crispy chicken however. I found the sauce a little too tangy and while the chicken was indeed crispy, it lacked a kick of flavour and honestly tasted rather bland. Definitely the worst dish of the night, especially for its price.

Overall, Pu'er was definitely an aesthetically pleasing experience. Will I come back? For the dumplings - OF COURSE!

All my love,

Nisa