This is the Kit Kat Torokeru Zeitaku Kaoru Koucha, or “To be enchanted with fragrant black tea”. This deluxe version comes two to a box, in a thicker finger individually wrapped in foil. The taste? Well, I kind of like it! It’s quite strong and most certainly fragrant, with the heady aroma of a steaming cup of black tea with milk and two sugars (to be precise).  It also has a thick core of similiarly flavoured crème on top of the wafer. Sugoi!

I also have a somewhat embarrasing confession to make.  My freakish obssession with Japanese Kit Kats has led me into placing an order at napaJapan’s store on ebay.  So stay tuned for futher Kit-Katting fun.

You can look at my other Kit Kat posts here, here, here and oh yes, here.

Corner Hardware Lane & Little Bourke Streets
Phone 9670 7070

When a new place opens it often takes a while to hit its stride. Last time I visited Sette Bello, the menu was non-existant and the choices limitied, although at the time I didn’t know if this was actually the case or by design. Our most recent visit revealed that they now have a menu - and a particularly gorgeous one at that - with a larger range of breakfast items now available.

EG went the breakfast pizette with verdura (vegetable greens) and a poached egg. Apart from being huge, it was also absolutely spot on. Yeasty crunchy base, good quaity toppings, and an egg which bordered on the googy.

I on the other hand was feeling somewhat virtuous, and went with toasted slices of brioche topped with ricotta and drizzled with miele (honey). Growing up in an Italian household, I practically grew up on ricotta - on bread (mostly with a sprinkle of sugar), with pasta and parmesan, or just eaten as is. When I was a young girl I used to accompany Nonna down to the cheese factory in Hawthorn on “ricotta day”, just to pick up fresh ice-cream tubs full of still-warm curds, their perforated sides leeching out sweet smelling whey. We’d take it home and sit around the table with just a couple of spoons and just dig in. Yum. Don’t you just love when food triggers a memory like that?

EG’s Mum is the best. She spent two days last week preparing the individual elements of this Hokkien/Singaporean dish, Lor Mee, and we devoured it in one fell appreciative swoop.

The dish starts with a flavoursome stock which is thickened to a gravy consistency with cornstarch and egg. Then come the addins - thick yellow noodles, beanshoots, slices of fish cake, slices of pork and some steamed fillets of snapper. Occassionally, EG’s Mum makes pork dumplings as well, although this version didn’t have them. To garnish, arse-burningly-hot slices of red chilli, raw minced garlic, celery leaves (an important and essential addition I’m told) and a couple of dashes of vinegar.

Oh yes. This is Hokkien comfort food at its finest.

I have written about Shoya before (refer here and here), but this is the spring rall (sic) of scampi which is part of the matsu special lunch set ($33). Inside the spring roll wrapping is a de-shelled butterflied scampi stuffed with a delicate mix of pork mince and fragrant herbs.  An ume and mentaiko mayonnaise adds sharp and refreshing contrast to the deep fried spring roll pastry.  Speaking of which, they must hold this thing by its antennae in the hot oil to cook the pastry, as the top remains cooked, but certainly untouched by the scathing oil. Neat.

Anyway, I digress.  I also wanted to draw your attention to the rest of this delightful matsu set, or should I say, the menu description of this set. You get:

Sashimi, Sushi, Grilled fish, Spring Rall (sic) of Scampi, Savory Egg Cutard (sic), Small Bowl of Dish (sic), Mixed Steamed Rice, Miso Soup, Dessert.

WTF is a small bowl of dish? 

tummyrumbles.com is getting a facelift (yeah I know…about bloody time! :-))

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Thanks!

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