Wedding Dance-Tango

Ahh the wedding dance... For two people with absolutely no experience or prior interest in dancing, this was one formality however, that we didn't want to skip for our wedding. Previously, I had simply assumed we would do a simple wedding waltz-easy and elegant and be done with it.  We wanted to avoid elaborate choregraphed dances where the couple suddenly burst from a slow romantic dance to something more fun and fast. This is simply because our skills will not allow us to. Anyway, one day, Mr HSH suggested that we dance the tango. Now, my impression of the tango was lots of sharp movement and lots of heads being turned back and forth and of walking towards your audience like a flamingo. Alas, it was not quite as I had imagined.

Mr HSH made me watch a few videos of the tango on you tube and I became quite taken with the dance. The Tango, for those who don't know is a sensual ball room dance that originated in South America and is normally danced by a man and a woman in synchronised movements that symbolises their love for each other.

I am particularly besotted with a scene from "Scent of  Woman" where a blind Al Pacino leads a young woman in a charming display of the dance. Now he's a man!


                    

Anyway, we've looked into a few places that offer dancing lessons. Marshere and Dancesports Kingdom seems quite promising. They all cost about 600 dollars plus for 10 x 1 hour lessons. I think Mr HSH and I will start learning, then take a break then have a few refreshers as the wedding comes closer...

Etsy purchase-OOOAKjewelz

I received a package in the mail today and had to blog (and rave) about it.

Whilst surfing ETSY for wedding related ideas. I came across a Etsy seller called OOOAKjewelz. They market themselves as selling "Unique bridal wedding jewery and Bohemian Chic." As of the month of June, they are having a store wide sell of 30 percent off.

I had OOOAK saved in my favourite Etsy store for a while simply because I found the their pieces very unique. They are indeed quite Bohemian and also quite vintage in their presentation. I initially toyed with the idea of wearing their hair combs (more colourful and vintage) instead of the more traditional sparkling ones with pearls and rhinestones. I am still undecided but feel that I will probably stay on the side of traditional for my hair piece.

Regardless, the 30 percent off was too good to be true and I jumped at the chance of buying one of their "wedding" bracelets. I loved the colour combinations and vintage look of the bracelet. Although I probably wouldn't be wearing it for the wedding, it will provide a much needed boost to be currently drabe wardrobe. Altogether, including postage, I think I spend about 60 AUD on the bracelet after the discount was taken off.

I ordered the bracelet two weeks ago and it arrived in the mail today. It arrived simply packaged with wrapping paper, bubble wrap, a business card and a couple of spare parts for the bracelet.

The bracelet was beautiful and as advertised. In fact, I think the stones and jewels on it look better in real life than on their pictures. The item looks of very high quality. The wrist band was custom made to my size.

It fits very snuggly. I hope I don't get any fatter in the near future or else this bracelet will not fit me for much longer.

Anyway, overall I was very happy with my purchase and I can't wait to wear it out once the opportunity arises. I thought perhaps I could wear this for my engagement photos in November...

Eating out in Melbourne

Mr HSH and I have been out a fair bit recently and thought we'd talk about a few of our favourite local food hunts. They're all cheap, quick and easily acessible in different parts of the eastern suburbs.

Let's Bab-Katsu don with Curry sauce

 

Let's Bab-Sukiyaki

Let's Bab-Tofu

Let's Bab on Warrigal Road, Chadstone, is a homesglen student's hunt. Cheap food, prompt service, great value for money and nice, tasty korean and japanese food. It has some really nice side dishes, especially the Tofu.  I particularly like their Sukiyaki and Soon do bu. Mr HSH is partial to the Katsu Don...

Dumpling Plus-Grill dumplings.

Dumpling Plus-Combination Curry Laksa

Previously known as "Jia" (meaning Home in Chinese), Dumpling Plus located in the food court of Chadstone shopping center has the best grilled dumpling, Mr HSH and I have had in Australia. Their laksas are also quite tasty, although Laksa King in Flemington takes the crown for having the best Laksa in Melbourne.

Dessert Story

Dessert Story

We recently discovered Dessert Story, which seems to be popping up in Glen Waverley and the CBD. They specialise in Hong Kong and Taiwanese desserts. So far, I have found a few of their desserts to be quite tasty and authentic. In particular the ones shown above, although forgive me, I have forgotten the name. They were both advertised as "recommended" on their menus. One word of advise, some of their desserts can be ordered as "hot" or "cold". We recommend that you taken the cold option.

Homemade Yogurt, Egg and Mayo hair mask

Homemade yogurt, egg and mayo hair mask

I've suddenly found an interest in skincare and haircare that are natural, organic and DIY. For example, I've been reading about the amazing benefits of using Rose Hip Oil and have just purchased Kosmea's Skin Clnic Certified Organic Rose Hip Oil.

It's advertised as a super light and easily absorbed treatment oil that is packed full of essential fatty acids, vitamins and antioxidants. It claims to smooth out wrinkles, help even out skin tone, moisturise dry skin, nourish and hydrate aging skin etc. Sounds wonderful. Sounds simple. I was sold and bought a 20ml bottle from David Jones with a 25 percent off discount. It came down to around 18 dollars. Pretty damn good if it really does what it advertises. As I'm now in my late 20s, I have really noticed that my skin is no longer as smooth or even toned as before. Fine lines are also appearing around my eyes. Hence, I think it's time I become a bit more serious about my skin care routine. Anyway, I will report back in a few weeks re: the condition of my skin.

A few days ago, I used a homemade yoghurt, egg and mayo mask on my hair. It's easy, cheap and not as messy as you may think. As a regular user of big salon brands such as KMS, Redken and Kérastas, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the beneficial effects of my homemade hair mask was on par with some of the products I have bought and used in the past, but within the big price tag.

The key ingredient of my hair mask are yogurt, egg and mayo. I will discuss some benefits I have found on the Internet about each of the following.

Yogurt is high in lactic acid which has a natural anti fungal and antibacterial properties, hence helping to fight dandruff. It also stimulates hair growth, cleans the pores on the scalp, soothes and reduces itchiness, as well as moisturise and tame fly aways. What's more, it also helps to strengthen hair follicles s it's full of the good old protein.


The 2nd ingredient in the hair mask is egg. Egg is used as a conditioning agent in the hair mask. Again, it is chock full of protein and other nutrients which aids hair growth and strengthens hair follicles as well as moisturise and promote shine.

Mayo is great for hair because its 3 core ingredients, eggs, vinegar and oil are ideal for restoring the hair's moisture by providing volume, shine and hydration.

So there you go. It all sounds very promising. There are numerous recipe on the Internet for homemade hair masks. The one I use involves mixing 1/4 cup of mayo (full fat), 1/4 cup of yogurt (organic natural yogurt) and 1 egg. This is then applied to the hair after a quick rinse to wet it and then wrapped up in cling wrap or shower cap for 1-2 hours. BTW, avoid using very hot water to rinse your hair as it can cook the egg and leave you with bits of egg in your hair to clean out.

Anyway, I personally found this mask to be fabulous. The mixture looked so good I could eat it! I lathered my hair up and sat tight for an hour before having a shower to wash it out. It required a couple of shampoos to get all of the mask out. Afterwards, I let my hair dry naturally. Once dried, I found it was noticeably softer, tangle free and possibly even shinier. Also, there was no significant residue smell from the products of the hair mask.

Of course, I'm no expert on the topic of homemade DIY remedies but I think it's worth a try if you are game! I've got some coconut oil left over from my trip to Fiji. I think I will try that on my hair next time!

Royal Mail Hotel-Dunkeld, Southern Grampians

Mount Stapleton

I've been away for the last 4 days having the time of my life at the Grampians with Mr HSH and a close group of friends. We had an awesome time traversing the forbidden trail from Mount Stapleton to Mount Hollow. We also visited the always popular Pinnacles trek at Halls Gap and enjoyed a less scary time navigating the Grand Canyon, Silent Street and finally the Pinnacles.

In between our adventures in the rugged outdoors, Mr HSH and I found some time to enjoy some fine dining at the Royal Mail Hotel at Dunkeld.

The Royal Mail Hotel is located about 1 hours drive from Halls Gap, which was where we were staying. We drove through deserted country roads for an hour, watching out the window for any signs of kangaroos (you do not want to hit one of these going 100km/hr), before finally arriving safely at the restaurant.

The Royal Mail Hotel was very different from the other small town businesses located in Dunkeld. It was almost out of place in an otherwise sleepy township. Nonetheless, the minute we arrived, we were served with the same professionalism and efficiency that any big city restaurant would have provided.

We opted for the Omnivore degustation which was $170 per head. We did not go with matching wines, instead choosing to share two large bottles of ciders between the 3 of us. 

A copy of the menu

Limitless supply of sourdough-rye or wholewheat with smokey butter. 

We were first presented with two different types of sourdough bread, served with smokey butter. Admittedly, although nice enough, I found the bread a bit heavy and dense. I would have preferred something a bit lighter pre dinner. The butter was nice, but I did not detect any smokiness within it's buttery goodness.

rice paper, finger lime and salmon roe

rainbow trout, coffee, black treacle, and chicken crisp.

The amuse bouche was interesting but lacking the wow factor. However, I did particularly like the rainbow trout, coffee and black treacle. I believe, the Chicken crisp was simply fried chicken skin and I suspect that many people who don't like eating skin, will not enjoy this part of the meal.

tomato and prawn, cinnamon basil, daikon ice

egg yolk and new potatoes, salt cod, fish crackling

pancetta and spanner crab, rye cream, candied radish

The entrees were all very pleasant. I found the tomato and prawn, cinnamon basil, daikon ice especially delicious and refreshing. The other two entrees were all of very high quality. However, one thing I found with a lot of the dishes at the Royal Mail Hotel which I would regard as a fault, was that, some of  the produce/key ingredient was very hard to detect in the dish. For example, I couldn't find the spanner crab anywhere in the last entree. Nor did I know that I had salt cod with the egg yolk and new potatoes, fish crackling. Anyway, not a big issue, but I found myself often puzzled through the meal as I tried to find the ingredients named. However, perhaps this mysterious element was one of the appeals of the meal.

Sand flathead and tomatillo, mustard, toasted nori

eel and bone marrow, eggplant, pickled vegetables

Pigeon, salsify and medlar, cabbage braised in pecorino

Again, the mains were of equally high quality. My favourite was the pigeon which was perfectly cooked. The sand flathead, although beautifully cooked, lacked seasoning and flavour to me. The eel and bone marrow was nice, but I could not find the eel anywhere in the dish. I suspect, the chefs have become some culinary skilled that sometimes this gets away with them and the true star of the dish is lost in the process of molecular gastronomey.

fallen fruit; apple, almond, caramel, chamomile

quice and coffee, pumpkin, plum, aniseed

pitachio, hazelnut, honeycomb, chocolate

Lastly, the desserts. I observe a deliberate process to transition the customer from the savoury to sweet as the first dessert-fallen fruit was more savoury than sweet. This is then followed by the quince (which looked more like scallops) and a gorgeous scope of pumpkin ice cream and finally the pitachio and hazelnut, honeycomb and chocolate. As I have a sweet tooth, I found the more traditional dessert at the very end of the meal the most appealing.

We had wonderful service the Royal Mail Hotel. The restaurant is quite simple and had modern decor. The dishes were generally well paced and we felt we had time to eat and breathe and chat inbetween courses. The wait staff was efficient but non obtrusive. Whilst at the restaurant on Sunday 3rd of June, there were some issues with the fire place, causing some leakage of smoke into the dining area. I thought the smoke I was smelling was due to the chefs cooking the pigeon! Little did I know. However, I did notice the wait staff repeatedly opening the front door which I thought was odd. Also, we had lots of cold air rushing into the otherwise warm room.

At the end of the night, we were happy to find that 10 percent have been taken off our bill for the fireplace mishap.We were also pleasant surprised that our friend who asked for sparkling water, was not charged for this service.

Overall, I can highly recommend the Royal Mail Hotel as a foodies location.  Despite the flaws I have mentioned, the food were all of very high quality. Each dish was gloriously presented and impeccable. It was a labour of love indeed from the chefs in the kitchen. I have nothing to complain about, nor did any of the dishes wow me or sent me raving to others. If you are in the area, it is certainly worth the visit but I probably will not be visiting again due to the distance. It was a meal I thoroughly enjoyed, but not one that I will reminise.