A Brunch: Typika Artisan Roasters

A couple of weeks ago, I went with two of my highschool friends to Typika Artisan Roasters at Claremont. The place is a little tucked away but very close to Claremont Quarter. We all wanted to try a few different things so we decided to order 3 meals from their lunch menu and share it between the three of us.

My main worry when ordering at a relatively western restaurants or cafes is the taste. I grew up in Asia and I am very used to stronger tastes and western cooking usually taste a little bland to me. However, this worry was a useless one at Typika! The presentation of their dishes is definitely very nice and I love all three of the dishes that we ordered.

Here’s what we got:

Pork and Crab Gyoza $16.00

Free-range pork and Shark Bay Blue Swimmer Crab fried and steamed dumplings with a soy and red vinegar dipping sauce.

The gyoza is definitely delicious and I’d go back and eat it though I don’t think it is at all Japanese nor if it is supposed to be real Japanese gyoza. It’s yummy and that’s all I care about.

Pulled Pork Quesadillas $20.00

Shoulder of pork, marinated in spices and slow cooked in sarsparilla, shredded and served in a grilled tortilla with cheddar and BBQ sauce, accompanied by a BBQ corn, capsicum and avocado salsa.

This is the first time I have tried anything like this. The shredded pork is so fine, soft and smooth that the texture reminded me of canned tuna – in a good way (I love tuna!). The taste is sweet and I am hungry just thinking about it now.

Petite Steak Sandwiches $25.00

Three mini steak sandwiches on garlic croutes, succulent grilled fillet steak, cream cheese, bacon, asparagus and harissa hollandaise, served with beer battered onion rings and aioli.

Yet another yummy dish. All I can say is yum yum yum.

I would definitely go back to this place. Although the price is a little high for me to visit and eat often but it’ll be somewhere to go to for when I feel a little fancy.

Have you been to Typika?

Lots of Smiles,

Sita

Times Square Claremont Blogger Gathering

Yesterday, I went to my first ever blogger gathering.

What is a blogger gathering? I asked myself that same question when I was trying to decide what to wear. It’s a fairly informal event where bloggers just come together, sit around, get to know each other and have a massive social media frenzy. I attended one that Times Square Claremont (TSC) organised. Here’s what happened during the day:

The only gathering where being on your phone is not rude but rather, highly encouraged.

Thank You Cookie Dough Biscuits for our yummy nibbles!

We met up at Cookie Dough Biscuits where we talked and got to know one another as well as nibbled on yummy nibbles.

Of course, bloggers being bloggers, we all had to take pictures of EVERYTHING. Food being a high priority for most of us.

Here’s a few girls I met – Vanessa from Nezuki, Dar from Call Me Dazzle, Meg from Darling, We’re the Young Ones and Joy from The Perthian. I also got to meet fellow Indonesian blogger Angeline from Love Thread! You might have seen her last year at the Perth Fashion Festival for Restyle!

Here’s a red sign that everybody loves. Am I right?

We then went to the stores around Times Square Claremont and took photos. We went to shops such as Lost Souls, Breathless, Jomay Cao, Sana Boutique, Poppy Lissiman Addition, Betty Tran, Tarvydas, and even L’Amour Kids.

Some amazing Jewellery at Betty Tran (and I love the display!)

Jomay Chao’s Shop Display

The back of the infinity dress on Jomay Cao’s display window

Some amazing Jewellery by Alicia Sarra at Jomay Cao

Tiny Shoes at L’amour Kids

Who can resist looking at cute little tiny things? everything is so pretty and cute and tiny and I just wish that I could still wear them sometimes.

Lastly, another first for me – my outfit of the day. Basic plain white tee, elastic skirt (Indonesia), lace-up-detailed flat shoes (Indonesia), brown messenger bag (Indonesia) and of course, my Camera!

More photos from the event on Instagram (#tscbloggercatchup)

I met with so many wonderful people – fellow bloggers, fellow Indonesian, fellow photographers. Thank you to Nikola from Times Square Claremont and Cookie Dough Biscuit for the event yesterday and Cindy from Rose Gold Whimsy for the invite!

Lots of Smiles,

Sita

Sally Hansen Nail Polish Haul [Indonesia]

So I went to Indonesia for 2 months. That explained my “disappearance” in December and January. But don’t worry, I’m back.

In Indonesia, I bought some nail polishes. A set of 3 Sally Hansen nail polish and also their acrylic base coat, which I have been wanting to try for a while. I knew that some Guardian stores (a drugstore in Indonesia) sells Sally Hansen products but I only just found out that Sogo (a major department store) actually sells them. The price is significantly lower than Australia so I had to get a few.

Nail Polishes

The three Complete Salon Manicure polishes came in a box set for Rp. 290 000,- or about AUD $29.

Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure

I wore Wine Not and Golden Rule for Chinese New Year:

Chinese New Year Nails – Wine Not & Golden Rule

And I wore Cherry Up for Valentine’s Day:

Valentine’s Day Nails – Cherry Up

I absolutely love the consistency and brush of this Sally Hansen line for doing an all-over colour since the brush is flat and wide. So if you’re not into flat, wide nail polish brushes, you might not be into this.

The line also claims that it is a base coat as well as a top coat. Though I always use a base coat and top coat still even when using the complete salon manicure.

Sally Hansen – Hard as Nails Hard as Wraps Powerful Acrylic Gel Base Coat

I used this base coat underneath my valentine’s day nails and I’m not sure if it was the base coat or some outside-forces (i.e. I may have been working more with water, etc lately) but the staying power is not as great as my usual manicures. I will have to try it again and make up my mind later…

Have you gone nail polish shopping lately?

Lots of Smiles,

Sita

I Love Coconuts!

It’s no secret to my family that I LOVE COCONUT. I always have since I was very very young. And I’m talking about 5 years old young. It was all well and good when I was living in Indonesia. Coconuts are everywhere there! When I moved to Australia, I couldn’t enjoy coconuts whenever I want anymore, and when I can, the price is steep!

So over the years I’ve come across several different types of coconuts here.

Bottled Coconut Drink

Cap of Bottled Coconut Drink

I had heard from a few people that this bottle of coconut drink is really good. The packaging is certainly attractive and I especially love how the cap says “Happiness in a bottle”. However I have to say that this is one of the worst coconut drink I’ve tasted. It’s sweet and does not taste like young coconut. There is “meat” (pulp) in it but it’s hard and very small…

Frozen Coconut from Asian Grocery Store

This is my favourite on-the-go coconut drink. You get these things from some asian grocery store. We found some at Lucky in North Bridge the other day. You keep these cups in the freezer and there’s instructions on the cup on how to prepare it. What I usually do is put the opened cup in the microwave for about a minute.

There’s also frozen coconut drink that comes in little baggies. I feel like this kind irritates my throat so I stopped buying that.

Real fresh coconut

Nothing beats the actual thing of course so here’s a real fresh coconut. It’s a Thai coconut that you can find in markets and I believe some supermarkets or Asian grocers. They’re still different from the green coconut back home but hey, this is all I got for now!

This particular one was my coconut drink at a restaurant here in Perth, so they opened it for me but it was very pricey. However you can easily buy these coconuts for a lot cheaper ($3 for 2 coconuts rather than the $4.90 coconut in the picture above) at grocery stores and markets and  open it yourself! I admit I tried to open it without instructions and oh dear it didn’t go well at all. However after watching a youtube video, it turned out to be pretty easy 🙂

How to open a coconut? Watch this video:

 

Who else loves coconuts?

Lots of smiles,

-Sita