Ito En O-cha // Tea time! (*^▽^*)

Now we've all heard of the amazing benefits that green tea has on our health and how it has made its way through to the food and beauty world. Numerous studies show that green tea is able to lower cancer risks, improve brain function, reduce blood glucose and cholesterol, aid in weight loss and fat loss, anti-ageing, etc. 

Lovers of Matcha : Café Cre Asion // Green Tea Tart & Dried Flowers ໒( ♥ ◡ ♥ )७

Last Friday, I headed out to congratulate my lionbro, Tony, at his graduation, but I needed to get some flowers. I remembered seeing some beautiful dried flower bouquets at Café CreAsion, so I decided to pop by for some coffee too.

I purchased a bouquet of dried flowers first, but I did have a tough time picking which one to get, as they are all so lovely. Plus, there is still a sweet floral scent that lingers around these dried flowers too. The bouquets are made by Ohana Flowers Sydney. 

I ordered a soy Chai latté(AUD$4.50), which was served warm. However, I must say their matcha drinks are much better as their Chai latté smells wonderful, there wasn't enough spice flavours in the drink itself. 

I also ordered a Green Tea tart(AUD$4.50) which was absolutely divine! I loved this tart from my top to bottom! It had a supper smooth, rich and creamy texture and that authentic matcha bitterness with a hint of sweetness to mellow it out. It is so far my favourite matcha dish at Café CreAsion.

Café Cre Asion

21 Alberta St, CBD, Sydney

Opening Hours: Mon-Fri: 8am - 4pm,
Sat: 9am - 4pm, Sun: CLOSED

Ph: (02) 8021 1629

INSTAGRAM

FACEBOOK

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I realised I haven't blogged about my other experience at Café CreAsion, so I will be getting them up soon! However, I have been coming to this café for quite some time now and they have come a long way. 

As for today I would say is my most relaxing day yet, I had an interview in the morning, then a gym session after before coming home to relax. I also got a call, informing that I got one of the position that I had applied for! Super excited about this, but I am waiting for one more interview on Friday (which I hopefully get too!) as I do want this job a little bit more. Regardless, I am happy I at least have one position secured and ready for me to begin my adult life! 

Remember to like my facebook page, subscribe to my youtube channel, follow my instagram:"lazypandah" & LOOKBOOK:lazypandah for daily updates! 

Comments are love ♥

-LAZYPANDAH

 

Matcha Crossiant // Top Impression Bakery (•ө•)♡

Here's some matcha news for your Monday blues! Over the weekend I met up with my girlie's, Stephy and Virginia, as we hadn't met up in a while due to our busy working and studying schedules! We decided to go try the instafamous Matcha croissants at the Top Impression Bakery in Wolli Creek. 

There was quite a queue when we arrived, as people were either buying takeaway or eating in, it was busy! We decided to grab lunch, since we got there around 12:30 in the afternoon. We all ordered our own meals and had to pre-order our matcha croissants as they just sold out, but were in the process of making a fresh batch.

I ordered their Bruschetta ($11.50), which came with tomato, red onion salsa, basil pesto and a poached egg on sourdough. The salsa was very refreshing and seasoned well and the egg was perfectly poached.

Virginia ordered their TOP IMPRESSION Mixed Platter ($14.50), which came with smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, chorizo sausage, feta salad, tomato, avocado salsa and sourdough. 

Stephy ordered their Smoke Salmon Florentine on sourdough ($10.80), which came with a poached egg, mixed salad and mayonnaise. 

After finishing our meal, the croissants were finally ready after 1.5 hours!! They had the best freshly baked buttery aroma when they were placed in front of us and we couldn't wait to try them out, but first...PHOTOS! Matcha Croissants ($5/each)

  

When I cut opened the croissants, the matcha filling was just sitting nicely in the centre without any of it falling out. The croissant itself was very crispy on the outer surface and the matcha filling was quite nice. However, I wouldn't say I was crazy in love with this matcha product. I guess the main reason was, yes it had heaps of matcha filling and all, but I feel there wasn't enough of that matcha intensity. I couldn't taste the matcha in the croissant bread itself as the buttery-ness was more overpowering that you start to get a tad bored of the flavours. 

Overall their lunch dishes were nothing special in flavour or appearance. You can definitely give those a miss unless you are really hungry because you have to wait for a new batch of matcha croissants to be made.
As for these #instafamous matcha croissant, is it worth the hype? To me, NO! I know it is a tough comparison, but in Japan I had the BEST ever tasting Hoji-cha (roasted tea) flavoured croissant which had the perfect balance of buttery-ness and hoji-cha! The croissant itself was soft and fluffy on the inside and crunchy on the outer layers, but still bringing forth the aromatic and flavourful tastes of hoji-cha. These matcha croissant just don't do the same, sorry! 
However, I can understand why it would be popular, it is after all, the first and currently, only bakery, that are doing matcha croissants with matcha filling. In the future, I hope they do a black sesame flavoured one, as that will be the time I will be back.

Top Impression Bakery Cafe
5/6 Discovery Point Pl, Wolli Creek, 2205

Opening Hours: Mon-Fri: 6am - 7pm, Sat: 6am - 5pm, Sun: 8am - 4pm

Ph: n/a

INSTAGRAM

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Good morning guys!! I cannot believe I only have 3 weeks of uni left! Well the next few weeks I will be super busy with a quiz, 1 major essay and 1 major report to do by the end of semester! I will try to get some more photos and videos edited, so I can still have some content to share with you guys on my blog and youtube channel! Anyway I am off to the gym for a quick session, BYE!!!

Remember to like my facebook page, subscribe to my youtube channel, follow my instagram:"lazypandah" & LOOKBOOK:lazypandah for daily updates! 

Comments are love ♥

-LAZYPANDAH

 

Kahii Cafe - Pork Katsu Sandwich & Matcha // Sydney CBD eats ┌[ ʘ̆ ۝ ʘ̆ ]┐

Two weeks ago, (24/3/2016) I went to Kahii Cafe, which just opened up in the heart of Sydney CBD on Kent St. I was going to head there on the weekend for the instafoodie launch that week, but I had work so I knew I wouldn't be able to attend. I still wanted to try out the cafe so I thought I'd go try it out first. The cafe looked quite cute but the amount of seating was very very limited due to their space. It was only half the space of the lobby section of an office building.

Despite this I got a seat on the high bar table and ordered a matcha latte and their pork katsu sandwich. I waited a good 30 minutes before my dish came out but I guess this was because they were just setting up their system and all. The presentation of the dish and coffee was lovely. The pork katsu and matcha late were both served on a ceramic plate. 

The pork katsu sandwich, AUD$13.50, is served on two slices of white crust-less bread, with a thick piece of pork, crumbed and fried and sriracha, japanese mayo and hot mustard sauce. The flavours were quite lovely and I loved the refreshing wasabi-like taste of the mustard. 

On the otherhand, their matcha latte, AUD$5.50, was not to my liking. There wasn't enough matcha flavour to it, making it taste a bit bland. I recommend a touch of honey to make up for that though, otherwise go to CreAsion if you want matcha drinks!

In general this place was not bad so I couldn't wait to come again to try their other dishes that they had on their menu. I came again today and brought my dear lovely childhood friend Stephy along to try it out. She scrolled through their instagram account as she made her way out, so she knew a general idea of what to expect. 

Once we got there though, we were slightly disappointed. They only had the pork/chicken katsu sandwich and avocado smash toast. Plus their matcha drinks were quite pricey. However we didn't let that get to us and went ahead and had lunch there anyway. We both ordered right after one another and got the same, pork katsu sandwich and matcha frappe.

We waited about 15 minutes for the first pork katsu sandwich to arrive. The second order of the sandwich took another 20 minutes to arrive and our drinks arrived about 20 minutes after ordering. 

We finally got to dig in, but sadly my pork katsu sandwich had gotten cold, while waiting for Stephy's sandwich. The flavours were just as I remembered it to be, but not as much hot mustard this time but the pork was juicer compared to the first time.

The green tea frappé was a huge disappointment though. It cost AUD$8.50 and it came in a tiny glass cup. Also, it was ridiculously sweetened with honey, so you couldn't taste the bitterness of the matcha anymore. I guess the only plus side was that it was made with real matcha powder but other than that I didn't really enjoy the frappé.

As of today, it was not such a great impression and they have definitely misled both my friends and I. My friend, Max, who works nearby, has actually been coming down for a few days now to get his hands on some cute desserts, but told him they will get some in this week. While we were waiting for our dishes we actually bumped into Max and the staff said they no longer get the cute desserts in and to contact the pâtissier personally if he wanted some. 

Their instagram account or tags display all these wonderful matcha products available and also different food, however when I asked the staff about the soba dish, she mentioned it as ONLY for a food blogger event (aka. the instafoodie event that I was invited to). I mean what is the point of having a launch party with all these different dishes when you are only going to present ONE of these dishes in the actual menu. Even the size of the matcha frappe looks different on their instagram compared to real life.

Another thing would be their service, it is still very slow! The first time I went, they just opened so I could understand that their system would be running a bit slow here and there, but after 3 weeks you already have a good flow of how things would work, right?

Anyway, I do think their pork katsu sandwiches are quite lovely, but I would probably only go back there if I cannot be bothered to travel to Redfern for Cafe Oratnek's pork katsu sandwich.

Kahii
Lobby 364 Kent St, Sydney, 2000, NSW

Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri: 7am - 4pm

Ph: (02) 9290 1889

INSTAGRAM

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It was a really hot day at 32 degree! After lunch I pretty much just studied for an hour at Tom 'n' Toms with Stephy before heading to the gym. It has been a while since I went to the gym but definitely feels good to be back! I will try and film a workout video for you guys in the near future. As for now I will be getting back to my studies. Oh also did any of you guys manage to purchase any of the KylieCosmetic lip kits today?? I didn't post up the date and time as no-one wanted to know, but if you do, comment below and I'll keep you up to date when the next release date is! 

Remember to like my facebook page, subscribe to my youtube channel, follow my instagram:"lazypandah" & LOOKBOOK:lazypandah for daily updates! 

Comments are love ♥

-LAZYPANDAH

 

One Tea Lounge & Grill // Chatswood - Hawker Lane (❁´▽`❁)*✲ﾟ*

One Tea Lounge & Grill is a modern Japanese Restaurant and is the home of the first ramen burger in Sydney. They started off as a small food stall during the Night Noodle Market festival, which happens once a year. They soon expanded and established their first restaurant in the heart of Sydney CBD. 

Last year they decided to open their second store in the newly refurbished Chatswood Westfield Hawker Lane food court. I decided to try the place out, with my friends, since I haven't been to the restaurant and I haven't seen they newly renovated Chatswood Westfield.

We all ordered a burger each which included two matcha burgers with wagyu beef and one ramen burger with braised pork. 

The Wagyu beef matcha burger ($15) included green tea mayonnaise, sriracha chilli sauce, lettuce, corn, spanish onion, tomato which were wedged between two soft pillowy steam bun, topped off with matcha powder. The wagyu patty was juicy and tender and the flavors worked well, however the matcha powder does disrupt the texture and enjoyment of eating the burger itself. Nevertheless it does taste great! 

The Braised Pork Ramen Burger ($15) also included green tea mayonnaise, sriracha chilli sauce, lettuce, corn, spanish onion, tomato which are placed in-between two ramen noodle buns infused with ramen soup sauce where it is crispy on the outside & soft in the middle. The braised pork was delicious and I did enjoy the different textures of this burger, but it was a messy process to eat!

Overall, first experience eating at the Chatswood One Tea Lounge & Grill was not bad, as the flavors for the burgers were quite nice. However, it may seem like a fast food store, was catered like a fast food store. However, price-wise, I would say price wise is out of younger student's budget and catered towards from uni students and young adults. Unless they have a student special their burger are not worth $15, after all, Chatswood is a place that is filled with primary & high school students on weekday afternoons.

One Tea Lounge & Grill
Hawker Lane, Chatswood Westfield

Opening Hours:
[Lunch] Mon-Fri; 11am- 3pm, Sat: &Sun: CLOSED
[Dinner] Mon-Wed; 5:30pm-10pm, Thurs-Sat; 5:30pm-12am, Sun: CLOSED

INSTAGRAM

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Remember to like my facebook page, subscribe to my youtube channel, follow my instagram:"lazypandah" & LOOKBOOK:lazypandah for daily updates! 

Comments are love ♥

-LAZYPANDAH