Green Tea Daifuku with Red Bean Filling

I heart Daifukus!
I love their chewy texture and the different types of fillings that they can come in.
Daifuku, meaning 'great luck' in Japanese, is a confection comprised of mochi (glutinous rice cake) stuffed with a sweet filling. I've always been hesitant to make daifuku as i was scared to stuff things up. The closest thing I've ever made was Tang yuan (glutinous rice balls) with sesame filling which only involves boiling and not steaming and handling hot mochi.

Artespresso for Breakfast

One of the things that i enjoy doing on a beautiful Saturday morning is to wake up late and have a beautiful brunch at a nice cafe. This time we headed to Artespresso (31 Giles Street, Kingston (02) 6295 8055) which is located in the nice and calm surrounds of Kingston. Artespresso features a trendy and modern decor and has balconies where you can choose to seat as well. The staff wasn't very attentive and took them a while to take our orders. 

We ordered a cup of Mocha and two breakfast dishes: Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict (poached eggs, hollandaise, English muffins and smoked salmon) and Arte's Big Breakfast (Poached, scrambled or fried eggs, sausages, bacon, confit tomato, spinach, sweet potato rosti, sourdough).

Pho Phu Quoc

Pho Phu Quoc (6 Cape St, Dickson (02) 6249 6662) is one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants here in Canberra. It's unpretentious, simple and focuses mainly on serving great food to those who visit. I can't believe that i have not blogged about it although i've been there on countless occasions (i guess they were all impromptu, thus no camera in hand). On my last visit, i was pleased to see that they've done a few upgrades to the restaurant by adding more decorations with a Vietnamese flare to its walls. We started our meal with a Vietnamese Three Colour Drink which was nice and refreshing. It is made with herbal jelly, red bean, green jelly strips, red jelly strips, ice and coconut milk and my favorite part? The green jelly strips.

Grill'd - Belconnen Westfield

I must tell you that the newly refurbished Belconnen Westfield is truly stunning. It looks brighter and better with more shops, eateries and beautiful 'artsy' seating areas that i immediately fell in love with. I'm glad that i no longer have to take 3 hours trip down to Sydney to satisfy my cravings for asian bread and bubble tea, as they have Top Bread and EasyWay there. That's a great improvements for Canberra! YEY!

Oo..sorry for going off-topic and not mentioning what i was doing in Belconned Westfield. I was there for a Media Launch for Grill'd (Westfield Belconnen, Level 3 - Next to Target (02) 6251 1588) which only opened on the 31st March. Grill'd has some energetic vibe that just makes the whole place very inviting. It is well furnished with nice wooden tables, colourful chairs and fun wall arts (designed by a Melbourne artist) which altogether guarantees a fun and relaxing dining experience for both adults and children.

The event started with a few introductions, an overview of the company and its vision - to deliver tasty and yet healthy burgers which are 'made with love'. We were first introduced to the Thick-cut Hot Chips which came out pipping hot and accompanied by three different dips: Herbed Mayo, Tomato Relish and Sweet Chilli Mayo. My favorite dip out of the three was the tomato relish as it went the best with the chips; herbed mayo and sweet chilli mayo were good but they didn't blend as well with the chips.

Hot Chips with 3, erm...only 2 sauces in this photo (1st: sweet chilli mayo 2nd: herbed mayo and the tomato relish is missing)