Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio

One of the things I hate about Melbourne is RAINY WEATHER DURING SUMMER OR SUNNY WEATHER DURING WINTER. MAKE UP YOUR MIND, MOTHER NATURE. I was looking forward to coming back to uni with a nice glow, but I'm still yellow as ever. So what does Lisa do when the weather is intolerable? She eats and shops, obviously. We started the day with Yum Cha at New Royal Garden where the food was subpar but the customer service was excellent. You wouldn't expect genuine hospitality from any Asian restaurant, anywhere! We waddled out of the restaurant and made our way to South Yarra to do some Chap Lapzzz. I hadn't been there in such a long time so I'm glad I did today. We parked in the Woolworths underground parking and was given a ticket (that lasted until 9pm) by a complete stranger, saving us $6+. Thank you, kind sir! Hope you get good karma :)

The weather picked itself up and the sun was shining which put me in an EVEN BETTER mood and allowed me to concentrate on my shopping. I picked up a pair of sandals for $10 from Top Shop which I was verrrry happy about! At first I didn't like the fact that you couldn't see my toes but they are so comfortable and I love the material. I'm planning on throwing out / selling my ENTIRE wardrobe and buying a couple of expensive pieces that I can wear all the time. I get sucked in by sales and it's not a healthy habit. 

Speaking of unhealthy habits...............

Considering I had resisted the urge to buy everything in Chapel Street, I felt as though I deserved a treat to end my day. What better way than to celebrate with cake???????? I'll be honest, I've eaten cake everyday since my birthday (a week ago today), but I swear I'll stop today! Eating out is hurting my back pocket and my birthday week is NOW DECLARED OVER (a special mention to everyone who made my birthday super excellent because I owe all my smiles to you).

As soon as I walked in to Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio, I was pretty disappointed that there were no seating areas. The two walls were filled with sweet goodies such as honeycomb, homemade icecream and handmade chocolate eggs and animal shapes, in preparation for Easter. The back of the little studio was a room full of pastry chefs hard at work. Le Petit Gâteau and LuxBite have the cooking studio in the back but they still offer seats and tables for their patrons....... I expected Burch & Purchese to have tables and seats, where there is coffee and tea to order. I loved the cake layout but I didn't have a personal feel towards the place.

I probably wouldn't recommend Burch & Purchese unless you were buying a whole cake for a reaaaally special occasion. It costs an arm and a leg to eat there - $9~ for a slice of cake and $8 for the homemade ice cream that is the size of a Magnum. Not only were the cakes overpriced, the girls behind the counters were unfriendly and not helpful at all. Smile more, it doesn't cost you.

^ Yes, that is ALL MADE BY CHOCOLATE. Isn't it beautiful?

^ the newest craze going around - cake pops! Coles sell them too, and the last time I checked they were $1 each because no one was buying them. Awks.

^ Looking for something to buy your gal / boy? Don't buy roses, buy some edible cake pops that look devine. I didn't buy any because I'm pretty sick of them at this moment, I'll love them again soon. 

Boo, I'm still getting used to my new camera. I am NO LONGER using my Canon point and shoot, but I am slowwwwly learning how to effectively use my new Sony NEX F3 :) Giraffe bought it for my birthday and I'm still getting used to all the functions so I apologise that this photo is blurry, I'm actually so annoyed about it. ANYWAYS... this was the Pineapple / Mango / Chocolate cake. Weird combination, right? I really enjoyed it until the chocolate part started coming up. I felt like I was in the Masterchef Professional episode where Zumbo made them remake the V8 cake. There was too much going on and you lose sight of the important flavours. The texture of the cake was great, don't get me wrong. Very airy and easy to push through with your spoon. However, I probably wouldn't pay $9 for it every again. I guess I'll have to come back and try the other cakes.

Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio

Address: 647 Chapel Street South Yarra VIC 3141

Contact Number: 9827 7060

Hours: Everyday 10am-6:30pm
Price Range: $$$
Website: http://www.burchandpurchese.com/

Golden Fields ♥

Some people see Valentine's Day as trivial, unnecessary and even a crook of a day. Others see it as a celebration of love and passion. I can see it both ways... but as a mushy typical emotional girl, I'm more of the latter ;) After working full time for the last couple of weeks, I asked to take half the day off to spend it with the boy. I'm glad I did. I finished work at 12pm, only to receive a text from him at 11am saying that he just woke up (meaning he would be late). He's done this to me before, resulting in a major troll. I was oblivious to this one and thought he was serious, but lo and behold... he was downstairs the entire time with a rose from Flower Temple and my favourite cupcake from Cupcake Central. For those who know Giraffe, you would know that it would take a lot of effort for him to get out of bed before 12pm. Thanks for an amazing day bb :)

Moving on... we've been meaning to go to Golden Fields for quite some time now. As you can tell from my previous blog posts, I haven't been fine dining in a while (which I'm very upset about). We originally went to Golden Fields in September for our one year anniversary but it was way tooooooo packed, resulting in a two hour wait. Fortunately for us, they now take BOOKINGS! Giraffe made a booking at 3pm which I was glad about because it wouldn't be busy and our food will come out relatively quicker. But when we arrived there were only two other couples, and I really missed hustle and bustle of night time dining.

Between the two of us, we had six dishes. The ordering system is quite similar to that of Longrain, meaning that you had to continually order more and more dishes as the portions are quite small (but nothing short of amazing).

Amateur photography. Ignore my reflection hehe :)

Left: Lemon Lime & Bitters. Right: Fresh raspberry lemonade.

Perfect weather for some refreshing drinks. My raspberry lemonade tasted like Charlie's but more bitter.

Empty tables

Raw: Moonlight Flat Clair de Lune Oyster - $4 each

I've always wondered how and why people do not enjoy seafood. I had a friend in high school who ate seafood even though she had allergies to it! It's one of the best foods in the world, and oysters are aphrodisiacs ;) If you're not a fan of raw oysters then I highly suggest you get used to them because they taste amazing!

A favourite!!! New England Lobster roll, hot buttered bun, cold poached crayfish, watercress and Kewpie - $15 for one.

I'm a sucker for lobster. It's something you eat every once in a while for special occasions and is really fun and messy to eat. I am very used to eating lobster with noodles and XO sauce. This time, it was in between two buns, and it tasted absolutely amazing. This was definitely Giraffe's favourite dish, and this photo does not give it justice. There was a lovely combination having warm buns with cold lobster meat. I don't usually like having two temperatures with my meal, it should be either cold all around or warm all around. If you're going to pay Golden Fields a visit, don't hesitate to order this because of the price, you'd be damned to walk out without trying it.

Mains: Steamed wild barramundi, mussels, dashi, cured ham threads - $38

As I was reading through the main options, the barramundi really stood out to me. When we go to a restaurant we generally always order a meat dish. I'm glad we didn't yesterday. Mum makes the best steamed barramundi, which I usually eat with white rice. Giraffe and I annihilated the main, so we had to order two extra sides as well as mixed greens to keep us full.

The ham was too salty for my liking, and took away the flavour of the fish dipped in dashi. This plate really speaks for itself, the layout and colours are magnificent. And not to mention the addition of mussels, seafood seafood seafood... can't get enough of it.

Salads & Veggies: Sauted mixed greens & XO sauce - $15

One word - salty!!! Bokchoy and Chinese broccoli tastes amazing with oyster sauce, so eating it with a Westernised XO sauce was a bit of a shock. I hardly ate this dish but we needed a salad side with the main.

Raw: Duckfish, salmon roe, scud chilli, ginger and lime - $15

Even though I don't like ginger, this dish was one of my favourites. The raw fish tasted amazing with the caviar. It was chewy and tough, but sweet and succulent. We ordered this and the mini pork belly rolls after the main because we weren't full enough. Although it only looks like six small pieces of raw fish, to understand the concept you really need to appreciate fine dining. I used to hate the idea of fine dining... I thought to myself 'why waste heaps and heaps of money for a small portion of food?' Then thanks to Giraffe I started getting into it, and I now am revolted by the idea of fast food chains. I love scrolling down on all my newsfeeds and seeing people embracing the food culture, visiting new places and trying new things out of their comfort zones. And to those who hate people who upload photos of food, get over it! Food is life.

To start: Rolled pork belly, white kimchi, yuxiang sauce - $15 for four pieces.

Yeeeee pork belleh pork belleh!!! Slow roasted or crispy roast, either way is perfect. Golden Fields is an Asian inspired restaurant, so having white kimchi and lots of coriander really brought out the Asian aspect of this dish. I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped I would have. It was very average compared to the duckfish and wild barramundi. 

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Golden Fields. The waiters were prompt, friendly and efficient. They removed our plates as soon as finished eating, they replaced our cutlery after the main and replaced our water regularly. The drinks menu was a bit annoying for me to flick through. Golden Fields is really big on wines, for people who enjoy a glass with their meal. I probably wouldn't recommend this for a date night, but more for catching up or to try Westernised Asian cuisine. Andrew McConnell has several other restaurants which I am dying to pay a visit to.

Golden Fields
Address: 2/157 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda
Contact: 9525 4488
Hours: Everyday midday-midnight.
Price Range: $$$$$
Website: http://goldenfields.com.au/