Fun Ma Cafe

I know i had the longest hiatus period ever...*apologies!

I have been really busy with heaps of things and hopefully it will be a bit better by March *fingers crossed.

I have a few places lined up for reviews so bear with me =)

***

Just as the heading already says, I will be reviewing Fun Ma Cafe today. It is a small family-owned restaurant located near the ANU and to be honest, its location could be quite tricky for those who are not local. The staff is friendly and the place looks simple with a fair bit of menu item posters (in both writing and photo form) stuck to the walls.

Fun Ma Cafe serves a variety of popular Taiwanese dishes and drinks at an affordable price and i would say that its cooking style makes you feel like you are eating at home.

On this particular visit we ordered  a Taiwanese Sausage to share, a Taiwanese Style Beef Noodle Soup, a Taiwanese Style Fried Chicken with rice (which came with a winter melon tea) and a Homemade Taro Milk Tea. 

One dish that i was particularly looking forward to, was the Taiwanese beef noodle soup which, sadly, left me greatly disappointed. I had tried this dish in various places but never ever I was served with udon noodles. The beef was nicely seasoned but as a whole, the elements didn't go well together and it didn't impress me at all.

Močan & Green Grout

Met up with a friend for lunch and we decided to check out Močan & Green Grout, a little cafe that has recently expanded from their hole-in-a-wall-coffee-takeaway business. 

When you first set your feet into Močan & Green Grout, it almost feels like you are going into someone's home. It's a small, rustic and cozy cafe with an open kitchen right in the middle of it.  Thus, you can choose to seat by the kitchen island and enjoy the makings of your food or alternatively, you can seat at the comfortable seats spread around the cafe. 

Tongue & Groove - New Menu Tasting

A few weeks back, I was privileged to be invited to try Tongue & Groove's new menu by their new head chef, Ayhan Erkoc, who has previously worked at The Manse, Noma and Celcius. I haven't been back for a while (previous visit blog post) but the atmosphere at T&G remains relaxed, modern and chic. I would also like to thank the friendly team at T&G especially Andrew Duong (Senior Restaurant Manager), Luke Cathcart (Restaurant Manager) and Sophia for their attentiveness and the awesome service on the night! 

We started out the night with some lovely tapas and drinks. Since I could not have any alcohol, T&G made some lovely mocktails for me instead!

From left to right: Lychee Delight, Berry Mojito & Espresso Martini (I didn't actually have this as it contained alcohol)

Simply Pho

Although winter is officially over...it doesn't seem to be the case here in Canberra!

Apart from last Friday's unusually hot day, Canberra has been either cold, windy, rainy or all of those combined *sigh

Well...winter has got its benefits too. That means i am able to savour pipping hot noodle soups without sweating like a pig! On this occasion we happened to stumble upon Simply Pho in Gungahlin - a small place with clean surrounds and an relaxed atmosphere. The staff was super friendly and efficient.

We started out with some Rice Paper Rolls (Pork) which were alright but nothing fancy.

We then proceeded to devour our pho(s): Simply Pho (premium rare beef and meat balls) and Pho Combo (rare beef, brisket, soft tendon, tripe and meat balls). Since they both looked almost identical, I only took a photo of one Pho dish. The rare beef was served quite rare (as pictured below) and I had to wait for a bit until it was semi-rare to enjoy it (if you like your beef cooked through then you will have to wait a bit longer). The components in the Pho Combo were good and the soft tendon was my favorite. The meat balls were quite nice as well and overall the bowl of pho felt quite light and clean as opposed to the hearty and filling-feel that I usually get from having phos.
Veredict: I am not sure if I liked it or not but it felt healthier though. Although next time in Gungahlin I would certainly take away their Saigon Roll which seemed quite popular =)

Ladurée - Sydney

Here it is!

Ladurée has finally arrived in Australia (around mid-September) and with much excitement, I was able to get hold of a box of macarons *yey! Being one of the oldest makers of macarons in the world with 150 years of history, I couldn't wait to try these little gems.
Just FYI, one needs to queue for about 1 hour to buy these (I heard it was worse when it first opened up). O_O"

I got a box of 12 macarons ($3.20/ea) and these were the flavours in it:

Salted Caramel (x2), Pistachio, Raspberry, Blackcurrant Violet, Orange Blossom, Coffee, Ghana Chocolate, Liquorice, Lemon Lime Marshmallow, Almond Marshmallow and Strawberry Marshmallow.

Most flavours that I got were quite 'safe' as the more 'exciting ones' were not yet available or have run out: cherry blossom and basil lime, for example.

The ones that I was particularly excited to try were the marshmallow ones and they were quite nice. I liked that 'spring-y' texture from the marshmallow and Lemon Lime Marshmallow was my favorite.

In my humble opinion, I thought that the macarons were OK. I wasn't sure if that was because of the high expectations that I had or what, but they were not WOW and the texture wasn't the best either. The macarons crumbled easily and for some of them, I couldn't even taste anything but sweet - i.e. liquorice

Out of all the macarons that I tried, Blackcurrant Violet, Ghana Chocolate, Salted Caramel and Lemon Lime Marshmallow were my favorites.

Verdict: Not sure if I'd be willing to travel 3 hrs down to Sydney, queue up for an hour and pay $3.20 for a macaron that wouldn't WOW me.