Bites: Atomic @ Mends Street, South Perth.

It has been ages, since I last had a cuppa.  The usual places would be Tiamo @ Nedlands or Dome  @ anywhere.  Or perhaps, after dinner over coffee talk.  Just yesterday, the little darling and I decided to head over to South Perth for a drink before coming back home.  Dome would have been an automated choice, but something different would be good aye?  Yea? Yea?  Haha!!  But this time around, we decided to go to Atomic Cafe @ Mends street.  It is just opposite Dome.  The drinks there tasted OK.  Xin Ling had an orange juice.  Sugar free, 100% orange.  This and that but jeez.  It was sour.  Upon tasting it my hair spiked & balls dropped.  But it is ok, girls have their reasons for enjoying the acidity I’d reckon?

But for me, I will do it the kids way..

Iced Chocolate @ Atomic. Made by IPhone, Nursed by Instagram.

 

With the mercury topping temperatures this spring paired with a century-long heat record broken, this remedy was divine.  But sadly, I’m not Aussie enough to appreciate the finesse in a barrister’s effort.  Froth.  I enjoy a thick layer of froth though :D!  Does that count?

 

WenY

Kelvin’s Birthday: Ciao Italia!!

It’s been almost three years since I first met Kelvin and oh boy time does pass real quickly.  It’s the 2nd I’m celebrating his birthday, the first being a middle of the night bang into his room to give him his present, an event in which he could barely comprehend with his sleepy face.  But the character however is not much of a mover, other than a few peculiar periods he is still pretty much the same guy.  We celebrated his birthday on the study week before we hit full throttle for the period.  After a few short moments of thinking I was thought, hey why not go to Ciao Italia since we have not been there for ages.

The chef putting his full attention to detail for a soon to be served Mussel in Pesto sauce.

It seems like the place has become a whole lot bigger with the addition of the new dining area on the left.  With weird Italian granddads taking orders coming together with really good food, this place really is a nice place to eat. Minus the waiting time and queue that is.  There are several favourites among the crowd and that would me the Fettuccini Ciao Italia and the Calzone.  God the Calzone is massive taste.  But the my winner of the night was not something served on regular basis.  It was a special.

The Mussels cook in a basil pesto sauce.  Loved it to bits.  Would have coated fresh pasta with its delicious sauce if it was provided.  Massive stuff.  Unfortunately Ciao Italia does not serve this on a regular basis.

Fresh tomato salad was heavenly with its zesty flavour.  The filling of the calzone is a hidden weapon.

The Fettuccini Ciao Italia was a tale of two standards.  My table had an overcooked cream feel while Kelvin’s was perfectly cooked! Damn! Nonetheless, two serves had them tummies filled bottoms up!

Penne Vodka was nothing much to shout about.  I did not really get the taste.  Maybe I was too busy indulging in the other dishes. =X can’t blame me considering the already plenty number of delicious food on the table.

The Sweet Chilli King Prawn pizza was Yvonne’s favourite and I can see why with Ciao Italia’s generous portions of toppings :D!

After having our main, we had Ciao Italia’s crew do a birthday quickie for Kelvin!

Shy with the S was his reaction.  But obviously granddad is having one hell of a time. ahaha

Dessert followed soon after.  No one should give the Tiramisu a miss regardless of how full you are.  A bit drenched in alcohol on that day but its taste still held the word divine in its place.

Xin Ling one the other hand tried something creative with strawberries overkill.

You decide the overkill.  But truth be said, the overkill lies in the inside where too much custard killed the dessert.  But I guess I’m just not used to it!!

Ciao Italia is awesome.  No doubt!  Looking forward to a NEXT time.  And truth be said.  With a timely group of people, waits are not all that bad :P!

Exams are over so chow outside *****!

WenY

Sister’s Birthday!: Spaghi’s @ South Perth

Yesterday night I celebrated my sister’s birthday with Jim, Feng and Vil.  She’s so lucky to have 4 capable engineers with her that night.  But on our side, she gave us the honour to celebrate it with her ahah.  Felt funny xD! Four of my buddies hanging out with my sister, but truth to be said she knows them very well since we normally have dinner together on Fridays, Saturdays and whichever days that are suitable!! And really, with her getting younger each year, there really isn’t any evident age gap between us. 

Jim and I met up in the city before pickin up some icy cool drinks.  I had a Strawberry Daiquiri mocktail from Boost juice while Jim got some BBT from Utopia.  Definitely a must have on a scorching summer’s day!  We then headed down to the pier near the Esplanade to catch a ferry across the river to South Perth.

Delicacies hmm WenY Wonders..

We were the first to reach the restaurant, but of course with the requirement of having all guests present before being seated we were pretty much left stranded on the other side of Perth @@!  Not much of a problem, Jim and I just chatted the 20 minutes advantage we scored against them for being early.  Feng was next, while sista and Vil pretty much got there the same time!  When we went in the restaurant, we were greeted in a respected manner which is quite different from what I’ve heard from the internet which claims that the lady boss is unfriendly.  Really decent if you’d ask me.  But then again I mean coming from Italy if they were a bit showy I guess I can’t blame them.  The green-white-red flag nation hosts the origins of great designer stuff, automobiles and super chic models ahah.  Their daughter was uh-ohhhh! Chick material!  But Feng thought she looked weird ahah.

5 of us shared an appetizer called Pizza Bianca, something that definitely doesn’t fit into your typical everyday pizza description;

I lol’ed even though I expected it to look like that ahah.

My sister’s pasta:

A super strong resemblance to the clam filled spicy pasta @ Zanmai but this one was different.  Generous on clams this dish actually looks good. Didn’t really ask my sister how was it @@!

Jim’s;

Hard to make out what his dish actually is.  But its actually sunflower shaped pasta filled with bacon, bla bla bla! Had quite a lot of things in it.  Asparagus was also used.  Hmm now that I think of it, I really didn’t ask the peeps how the meal was today omg @@!

Vil’s';

Crumbled Veal with roasted vegetable and savour rice or was it saffron hmmm?

Shao Feng and I ordered the same thing;

Pollo Alla Griglia (half chicken marinated and charcoal grilled)

On mine, I think the chicken was pretty good and I really like the roasted vegetables and the rice.  But the chicken needs more marinade.  The breast meat is totally bleakkkk! OK only. Could have been better ahha.  But one thing is for sure, their half a chicken is really large than a normal half a chicken.  Generous serving!

And ok since most people say my blog is mainly dominated by food pics I’ll get some human pictures up too! :P

Vil & Feng

Sista & Jim!

The End!

P/S: Sherlock Holmes is omg, not as good as I expected it to be!

WenY

Friday: Buddy Meet Up @ Ciao Italia :)

 

So busy for the past few days! Had so many assignments to hand in and so much other stuff to do as well! My blog has not been updated for like err?? 3 weeks? SO sad ahah. Not like my work load has decreased in any way but oh well at least most of them are half done or more than half done. After a busy week, Yobi asked me out for dinner at a place well known among Perth-lings for its ridiculous queue as well as pretty good Italian food. ahah The place is Ciao Italia located just at the very end of Mill Pt road in South Perth which I would regard as the most superb suburb in Perth ahahah. The foreshore is totally awesome and nice! Ok!! Enough about South Perth and more about my outing!  We were supposed to go and pick up Amanda along with Yobi at 6 but we were about 15 minutes late because we kinda got stuck in a jam earlier on when we went to a warehouse sale in Osborne Park. As a result we reached Ciao Italia only at 6.30p.m. Pretty early truth to be said. However the queue was not very kind to us. We waited outside for 1 and a half hours before they could make space for 5 people. I also met other friends from uni there haha. It’s pretty popular as I’ve said before.

 

This was us cramped in between a column and the side wall =.=!!  Wah I can see my chipmunk cheeks so clearly! Oh dammmmnnn!! We chit chatted for awhile and thank god our food did not take too long to reach! The long queue outside was probably due to the way some people eat!! While I waiting outside I saw this couple wtf. Eat pizza with fork and knife cut small piece one by one! YES VERY CONSIDERATE YEA? Bloody asians!! Hoho! An Asian calling another Asian! Truly Malaysian ~

 

The waiter told us that he would serve us the pizza first because the pasta chefs very overly busy with both the takeaway and the eat in orders so first up was the Calzone a.k.a the folded pizza! I first learnt what it was when I went to Michelangelo @ Pavilion with my parents and sister for “fine dining” couple years ago.

Calzone @ 20 bucks!

 

 

My slice of Calzone! The pizza was really big and could easily fill up 2 people! For 20 bucks that is a steal! Loved the tomato salad that came with it. It’s like eating a bruschetta without the bread haha. Slurps!

After the pizza came it was another 20 minutes wait for our pasta to arrive :D

The Fettucini Ciao Italia was the highlight of the night @ $25.50. The serving was pretty ok in my opinion. Something that can be shared with other food ordered.  Loved the cream sauce which reminds me of the Tagliatelle el Prosciutto from Il Padrino. Kelvin however though that the sauce at Il Padrino was nicer! Nonetheless, this pasta is a must try or must have if anyone goes there. Sun dried tomatoes, grilled chicken, chives and parsley in cream sauce! Yumm!

 

Also in the house was the Spaghetti Marinara @ $28.50! One of the most expensive Marinara’s around aha! This one had fish slices, prawns, mussels, and I think there was a scallop or two? I found the Marinara here pretty ok as it was not an overkill of seafood which would make me go “I can FEEL the SEA in my MOUTH”.  Fishman however commented that the prawn was not of sufficient quality :( EMOoooo! But oh well it was not frozen for sure hehe.

 

After eating all three of the main, the five of us were not full enough. Kinda expected once I saw the pasta size hehe. But it was ok, the night was not to end just yet. One of the highlights at Ciao Italia frequenters mention often is the Tiramisu dessert @ $8.50 each. And because we were still hungry we each ordered ONE!

I’m not sure how most of you would comment on the size of the cake but if you think it’s pretty small then I’m sorry that my picture is a misrepresentation but HELL! SERIOUSLY it was LARGE, definitely enough for 2-3 ppl. I had a quarter left after downing as much as I could! But I must insist that I enjoyed the Tiramisu! Looks so pretty! Amanda was so funny! She said she did not like the cream and started spooning the Mascarpone cheese away. Yobi the told her that she should just eat sponge cake or something I think HAhahahaah.

 

Great outing, manage to  catch up with my friends! Should do it more when holidays comes!The food in Ciao Italia is something to shout about if it was not for the wait. Since it’s my first time here I guess, without taking the horrendous queue into consideration, the food here is quite nice. Perhaps next time we’ll drop by at 5.30 for early dinner :)!

 

That’s all for now! Need to go comb my sister’s dog’s hair! Her pup is under my care because she went back to M’sia for holidays!

 

WenY