N2 Extreme Gelato @ Brunswick St

N2 Extreme Gelato

Very interesting and had been trending like crazy lately especially among dessert lovers is the N2 Extreme Gelato on Brunswick Street. They are famous for their unique flavour combination of gelato and you can even find mind blowing flavours such as strawberry black pepper and miso caramel. Besides that, their gelato are made by using liquid nitrogen and this results in creamy smooth texture. So for the past few weeks, whenever I open up my Instagram I kept on seeing posts about N2 and wondered if it is really that special. I asked a few friends of mine, some said its really good and some said it is just gelato nothing special. So today after dinner at Dumpling Den, my friend and I head out on foot from Carlton to Brunswick to try it out. Took us around 30 minutes to get there on foot and we were lucky that there were not many customers at that time. 

At Work

So next to the counter you see a row high tech glossy white machines operated by the stuff.  So it works like this. You place your order at the counter and pay the bill of course, then the workers will work on your order on one of these machines. So basically your order is freshly made unlike those gelato out there where you choose which flavour you want and they scoop it up for you in a cone or a cup. 

Menu

Hmm, speaking about flavours, the menu is changed every week with different varieties of flavours. One of the previous weeks they actually had a flavour called "Kaya Toast" which is a Malaysian local delicacy. I forgot to mention that the founders of N2 are Malaysians as well. So the menu is visible on the wall the moment you step in the shop. I was lucky today that the very popular "Creme Brûlée" flavour was available this week. Due to it's popularity I decided to go with it since creme brulee is actually a hot dessert and I was curious how it tasted in ice cold gelato form. My friend went for the "French Earl Grey Dulce De Leche" which is basically Earl Gray flavour which was very popular as well. So after placing our order we waited in front of the machines and watched the staff at work making our gelato with liquid nitrogen. Very interesting indeed and since photos tell a better story in this case, here are some photos of the progress. 

After pouring in the liquid nitrogen

One of the workers in action

Finishing touch of the Earl Grey

Finishing touch on my creme brûlée to give it the layer of hard caramel

Watching the whole process was very interesting and I am impressed at how professional they are. Since there were a few orders ahead of us we waited for around 10 minutes which is worth the wait in my opinion. So after putting on a great nitrogen show for us, here came the most important part - the quality and taste. I actually put my expectations quite high for them since there were so many good reviews about it and considering how unique they are. So before we start digging in, I snapped a shot of both cups of gelato. Just an advise for those photographers out there, the lighting in the shop at night is not very good as it was not well lit and there were harsh yellow lighting here and there, so if you photographers are considering taking some good pictures there at night, you might want to consider about the lighting conditions and maybe perhaps bring along a fast aperture lens. 

Creme Brûlée (Left) & French Earl Grey (Right)

Alrighty back to our main topic today which is the taste. So finally after trying hard to get a well lit and steady shot, I started digging in. So I cracked the hard layer on top of my creme brûlée and mixed it with the gelato underneath and took a spoonful. Just as expected, the texture of the gelato was really smooth and soft. The moment it entered my mouth it started melting inside. The flavour was thick enough and I love it that it was not sweet. I guess I've mentioned a few times before in my previous posts that I'm not a fan of sweet stuff and this is definitely something I would enjoy. The hard layer on top had a tiny bit of "burnt" taste and mixed perfectly with the creme brûlée flavour. Definitely a thumbs up and something worth coming for.

I'm loving it!

I also tasted a bit of my friend's Earl Grey flavour. One interesting that we noticed is that there were actually bits of visible earl grey tea leaves inside the gelato. They appeared as dots and we are guessing that the tea leaves were made into powder and mixed into the gelato to give it a good flavour. The same awesome thing about this flavour is that it is really not sweet and the flavouring was very aromatic. On top of that, the super smooth texture melts in your mouth and the flavour immediately "bursts" out and I call that "AWESOME". Definitely another thumbs up!

Thumbs up!

Despite the fact that the cup looks small, you will be amazed at the amount of gelato that was squeezed into that small cup. Definitely more than enough. So in conclusion, N2 Extreme Gelato, absolutely something special and worth coming for with your family and friends. 

Graffiti at the carpark

329 Brunswick StreetFitzroy,

VIC 3065.

Photography by Canon EOS 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4

Dumpling Den @ Grattan St

Dumpling Den

Here comes the term break. So I have one week break and basically my plans for this holiday is to take this opportunity to study and catch up with my assignments. Oh, and of course I will spend some time food hunting as well haha. So tonight I tried 2 places with my friend. One of them is Dumpling Den, the chinese dumpling restaurant along Grattan St in Carlton, and after that we went for dessert at N2 Extreme Gelato in Brunswick St. Stay tuned I will make a review about N2 Extreme Gelato shortly after this post. So for now let's focus on some dumpling action!

So, the name tells it all - Dumpling Den, so we expect the signature dish here is dumplings, well to be precise, Chinese style dumplings. We decided not to have a heavy meal so as we dig in the menu, we decided to order 2 dishes to share among the 2 of us. Staff were friendly and quickly took our order of 1 Special Fried Rice and 1 serve of Steamed Pork Dumplings (12pcs). I normally don't put high expectations on chinese dumplings as I personally do no like their strong ginger taste and juicy filly, but however, never try never know, so give we gave it a try. The waiting time was quite long, took around 20 minutes if not mistaken until the Special Fried Rice was served.

Special Fried Rice

Firstly I would like to ask you guys about your opinion about this dish just by looking at it. What comes into your mind straight away? Well for both of us, our first thought was "WALAO!!!Got apa special about it??!!!" Yes the special fried rice doesn't look special at all and as I took a spoonful and tasted it, it proved us correct. There is seriously nothing special about it and it tasted just like what an average home cooked fried rice would taste like, and sometimes home cook fried rice taste even better. The ingredients used were barely simple like frozen vege, a TINY amount of shrimps, chinese sausage and eggs, and maybe some light soy sauce and MSG. I personally would think that if you are going to call your dish "Special Fried Rice", mate you better make an effort to at least make your dish taste special or at least not something we can easily cook at home. So definitely not worth it.

Steamed Pork Dumplings

The dumplings on the other hand took longer until it was served. By looking at it the skin reminded me of the "Har Gao" which is the local pork dumplings I had back home in Kuching. I took a bite of the pork dumpling and to my surprise, it was too juicy which is unlike those dumplings that will have juice oozing out of them as you bite them, and you end up making a mess because you've got the juice spraying all over your face and clothes. These ones are totally different. There's no juice in them and yet they are not dry at all. I love them and the ginger taste wasn't too strong for me. Definitely loving it! So that's a thumbs up for the steamed pork dumplings. Simple dinner that costed us $20. Stay tuned for review on N2 Extreme Gelato!

Photography by Canon EOS 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4

Spicy Beef Don @ Rakuzen Simple Japanese Melbourne

Spicy Beef Don

Rakuzen Simple Japanese located just next to Domino's Pizza on Grattan St is just the popular place for those who are craving for Japanese food and often hang around the Melbourne University area. Generally I've been there quite a lot of times and the food was above average. Just want to review the Spicy Beef Don I had today for my lunch. Just as the name mentions, it was really spicy for me and I actually liked it that way. The spiciness of the dish gave me a "damn shiokk" feeling and though it kind of made me sweat, I kept on wanting more of it. The only downside of this dish I would say is that the beef slices was lacking flavour and did not had the "char" or pan fried/grilled taste that we would get when eating pan fried food. Overall I will give it a 7/10.

Caramel Macchiato at Melbourne Law School

Photography by Samsung Galaxy Note II.

Craving for Malaysian Food Satisfied

So in craving for some good Malaysian food lately. To be specific, had been craving for Hainanese Chicken Rice and Wanton Mee these few days. So went to two different places to satisfy my craving today. Firstly, PapaRich at QV. I hardly go there as to be honest the food there is expensive yet tasted not that good. There's always an exception to everything, and it is the Papa Chicken Rice which is actually Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Teh C Peng Special (3 Color Milk Tea)

Before the main meal, to start with I had the Teh C Peng special. Normally this is what Malaysians miss as it is a very popular drink back home. The drink was alright I would like it thicker though.

Papa Chicken Rice

Now to the main attraction, normally this is what I will order and this only whenever I come to Papa Rich. Their chicken is the one that I can find which taste almost the same as what I can get back home, though there's still quite some difference, it is the best I can find here. One thing that I really like about it is that there's coriander on the chicken and coriander to me makes a big difference to the dish because of it's awesome fragrance. Besides that, the chilli sauce is very nice, just not spicy enough. For us Malaysians, chicken rice without good chilli sauce is not considered as chicken rice. That is how important the quality of the chilli sauce it. The chicken was nicely steamed and the skin was very chewy and slippery. The gravy was very appetising as well. Furthermore, the soup was very nice and yet it is not dead salty. So overall I love this dish!

Beef and Chicken Mix Satay

Haha just something that caught our eye when looking through the menu. Long time I hadn't been eating any satay, even when I was back in Malaysia for semester breaks, I can't recall having any satay. The satay at Papa Rich was alright, not the best ones I tried but was quite good. The satay sauce was okay as well however I would once again prefer it to taste thicker and more spicy.

So that was lunch. Dinner today was at Shophouse Kitchen also at QV. I ordered the BBQ Pork and Fried Wantan Noodles with Sichuan Sauce Base.

BBQ Pork and Fried Wantan Noodles

So called "Wantan Mee" is a typical west Malaysian hawker dish. Since I'm from East Malaysia I hardly ever eat something like this back home, it is just not mee. However as I was watching some hawker food show on YouTube last night, I craved for it and the only place that I can think of to satisfy my craving is Shophouse Kitchen. I've been there a lot of times but I never ordered this dish before, so today I was "brave" enough to try it out. When I ordered it, in my mind it went like "I will never order something like this again here if it turned out to be bad". To my surprise, I really really loved it. I chosen the Sichuan Spicy sauce base and it went well with the noodles and everything. The noodles was not lumped and did not stick together which is a very important aspect to this dish. The noodles had a good taste too. I tried a few similar dishes where to noodles was just tasteless. The BBQ pork had a nice "BBQed" taste and was not too sweet. Now for the fried wantan or fried pork dumplings, usually I get sick of them after 1 or 2 because those I tried mostly were just plain oily and tasteless. However today it was really awesome. I can feel the meat inside and I was surprised there were prawns in there too. After having the 3 fried wantans I literally wanted for more. Just an awesome dish.

Photography by Samsung Galaxy Note II.

Quick Dinner at Coconut House, Melbourne CBD

Fried Chicken Chop Mee Pok

Went in to Coconut House on Elizabeth St this evening to get some quick dinner after a long day. One of the most popular dish there was the Fried Chicken Chop Mee Pok, so I ordered it. It's kind of like the Malaysian "Pan Mee" type of dish. Many people loved it however for me, it was just so so and I kind of got bored and turned off by the taste after eating quite an amount of it. The minced pork was tasteless to be honest and nothing special about the fried chicken. However, I ordered an extra pork ball soup and I liked it. The pork ball had a good texture and the soup was light and refreshing. I'm normally not a fan of Coconut House so I guess I won't be visiting it much. Worth a try? Tell me what do you think.

Pork Ball Soup

Photography by Samsung Galaxy Note 2.