perth city

took a leisurely afternoon start on our last day and our first meal was lunch. he'd the yummiest seafood linguine with the freshest ingredients. loved the saffron colour of the dish and the delicate handling of an otherwise overtly creamy creation. it also sparked a carbonara craving in me that i'm not entirely appreciative of...

tried to walk off lunch along the beach but somehow only made it as far as trigg beach cafe, where we stopped for scones and hot chocolate.

finally headed to the city to meet jeanne outside corica where he bagged the last non-ordered apple strudel. jeanne and i made the mistake of buying cupcakes that the boss woman was only too quick to get rid off (A$1 each) and found to our dismay, that they were stale. not that the gulls seemed to mind.

because we wanted to see the city, we hoofed it from aberdeen street to beaufort street and made ourselves comfortable at queen's bar. waited for A to be done with uni and assuaged the impatience with bees kneez beer and fries, before a hearty italian dinner at martino's. and all too soon it was time to head to the airport and bid the lovelies farewell.

thank you for being impeccable hosts, you're missed :(

fremantle

freo was a feeding frenzy if i ever had one. we went to the market early to run some errands and in the space of four short hours, had miraculously consumed a steak&kidney pie, a chicken d'aquilla crepe, an apple strudel crepe, fish&chips with extra fish at cicerello's, tomato chilli mussels at little creatures brewery and washed everything down with little creatures pipsqueak cider (me) and bright ale (him).

we stumbled on michelle's creperie and boy are we glad the aromatherapy lady recommended it! initially put off by the queue, we were all ready to pass it by when kate (whom i was tasked to buy A$130 of essential oil from...)  told us that she'd eat their crepes breakfast lunch and dinner if she could. seeing how her store was right opposite michelle's, this wasn't a case of familiarity breeds contempt. so after hearing her heap glowing praise, we had to try the crepes. ordered a savoury crepe and hunkered down for the 20minute wait (yes, 20minutes for one crepe) but it was soooo good and well worth the wait that as we reached the tail end of the first crepe, we very greedily ordered second, rationalising that if we'd ordered it any earlier, it'd get cold. and then we proceeded to patiently wait another 20minutes for our second crepe. and by the time we finished that, we realised we'd been perched on the stools watching the little crepe elves churn out crepes for over an hour! time flies when you're having fun haha.

fresh from our crepe meal, we moved on to the water and squeezed into the last available table at cicerello's. it's not freo without a fish&chip meal :)

so cute! i felt compelled to create junk just so i could toss it into jaws.

met the crew at little creatures and there was such a buzz inside the microbrewery. good times!

need i add that this is one of the many reasons i adore A? i don't know anyone else who'd randomly hop into giant boots with a straight face.

bye simon! 

(we're so bad with awkward farewells that we live in denial instead.)

and after the feasting, we had kebabs for dinner at peter's by the sea.

swan valley

began with a breakfast run to yelo, a charming cafe on along the coast. i've never had such yummy wraps. my chicken wrap with banana chutney was insane...

and after we filled our bellies, it was off to the swan valley for some wine.

at this vineyard, A$2.50 was all it took to have a full tasting of over 10 different wines. 

and after savouring the gorgeous wines (well, more misses than hits but what can one expect for A$2.50?!) we went on to support local farms by stocking up on freshly plucked strawberries, more wine (this time with complementing cheese), chocolate from the margaret river chocolate factory and local ice cream. we ate our way through the valley, then again, quite embarrassingly, we seem to eat our way through everywhere.

and after a little too much free wine, we started to take flying photos over the vineyard. do note that A is too tall to fit the camera frame.

A brought us on a scenic drive around the swan river in the city and we passed the governor's boatshed that is the most popular wedding photo spot. takes a bit of imagination, doesn't it.

A went to work in the evening and simon fetched us from casa mcfaull and brought us to grill'd. grill'd serves the best burgers ever, and believe it if you will, they are healthy. healthy burger sounds a bit oxymoronic until you take a bite of these babies and i suddenly understood why they're promoted to be 95% fat free. well, the patty at least. it felt like i was eating good quality steak, albeit in ground form. in fact, i even deconstructed my burger and ate it layer by layer so as to enjoy each aroma and sensation individually. the avocado and bun made a nice avocado sandwich, the veggie tasted like a salad and the patty like high-grade beef. mhmm :) did attract strange looks though but i maintain that my mouth and hands are too tiny for the monsters they served up. so there!

and we rolled out of grill'd and into helvetica, a bar named after the font. one of the nicest bars i've been into, crowded but not packed on a saturday night and with a great selection of whiskey for the whiskey fans out there.

as if helvetica wasn't enough, we'd a toss up between going to green's (?) for cake or the wembley to see A. of course we picked A over dessert and swung by to watch the bar pro at work. was fun to go, 'hi A, i'd like a sweet cocktail please.' and watch the cogs in his mind turn as he went to work concocting something special. i'd 'the A special' and if i tell you what went into it, i'd have to kill you. but i felt special all right :) and my +1 had some export quality tiger from the tap which left us swearing never to have tiger back home. not like he drinks tiger, anyway.

scarborough beach etc

started the day bright and early with A and jeanne. A brought us to this delightful roadside eatery called the wild fig with a gorgeous view of the ocean. we played with the iPad, fantasied about breakfast and had a very hearty start with the wholesome mains. i can't get over how fresh produce tastes in perth. the eggs and milk have a distinct 'something extra' about them. could have also been the very attractive company that gave our breakfast that added boost.

i'd never seen a pink potato, much less a pink potato patty, before this!

all ready to soak some rays at brighton beach

doesn't the surf look so inviting, minus the bone-chilling wind...

occupational hazard. growl.

definitely more baywatch than the pratice.

back to A's for some double coated tim tams. i realised, with absolute horror, that i've just wasted innumerable calories on regular tim tams. the best or nothing!!!

a sight for sore eyes. nick and his wheels :)

and then nick brought us from A's to simon's,

and from simon's to boubar.

incidentally, it was at boubar that we received the fateful email on the afore-maligned crackberry that tkx had scored us a dinner reservation at restaurant amuse and it was celebrations all the way.

but before dinner, nick and simon gave us tourists a tour of the city by night from the vantage point that is king's park. sweet :)

restaurant amuse was a life-changing experience in and of itself. we were changed people when we met up with the gang at greenhouse bar along st. george's terrace and saw the poncho man who was wooing sheilas with tomatoes.

an action-packed first day and we wouldn't have had it any other way. i cannot stress how good it was to be with my friends again :) i, for one, was just happy to be in perth, in their city, exploring their streets and seeing their homes. you know it's for keeps when almost a year has lapsed and when you meet up, it's as if no time had passed. we picked up where we left off and that was it :)

restaurant amuse in perth

this is jumping the gun a little but i just had to post about restaurant amuse before the rest of the holiday.

my ever-resourceful and extremely convincing man-friend (he's too old to be a boy, isn't he) managed to get us a friday night reservation on 24h notice. apparently, weekend reservations require three months advanced booking - and we most definitely see why! but carolynne the owner was a real sweetie and squeezed us in (on a four-top, no less!) when there was a last minute cancellation. so with some fortuitous timing and empty bellies, we did something i'm not so proud of (we flaked on my friends, who to their credit, were most understanding and who i like to think would've done the same...)

dramatic evening aside (you should've seen us when carolynne emailed with the good news!!!) we rolled into amuse just after 730pm (thank you nick for the ride) and smacked our lips in anticipation of a long-awaited dinner, little did we know that dinner would stretch to a glorious four hours :)))))

dinner at restaurant amuse ranks way up there on my list of memorable meals and is possibly my new favourite restaurant in the southern hemisphere. the restaurant is done up in what i term casual luxury. the chairs were all eames (!!!) and it was understated elegance at its relaxed best. we were very comfortable in our flannel shirts and jeans, oops and there wasn't that snooty stuffiness you find in other less acclaimed establishments. what struck me was the sheer innovation and creativity evident from the menu. who'd have thought to pair beetroot cooked in cranberry juice? and served on a cocoa-coffee crunch to balance the tartness of the juices with a little bitter. the freshness of the produce made a world of difference too!

potato chips served with salt-vinegar foam. a reinvention of salt&vinegar chips!

even the bread was fantabulous!

the beetroot cooked in cranberry juice and served on a bed of cocoa-coffee with feta

crab with bacon, corn puree and bacon broth (!!!) served with the yummiest shrimp toast ever

snapper done just-so and with a very deft japanese touch (nori and mirin)

pork belly with seared scallop and crackling

duck on a springroll of duck confit with leek puree

passionfruit palate cleanser

pre-dessert of cotton candy and mascarpone with strawberry
(one slice was candied as a surprise!)

and the pre-dessert was doused in blood orange juice for the candied sugar to dissolve and take the bite out of the juice!

milk-coated honeycomb with thyme ice cream and honey cake :)

peppermint marshmellow, baileys truffle and financier petit fours

if you have just one night in perth, this is the place to spend it :) i'm definitely revisiting at first opportunity.