Blaq Piq

Some things are just better not shared, and I think these pancakes are better if you have them all to yourself! Been wanting to come here since summer last year, but haven't had time until recently for a spontaneous brunch. The daily specials sounded good on paper, but really I was just here for the pancakes. Couldn't decide which photos to upload, so just put them all here.

Pandan buttermilk pancakes w/ coconut ice cream, fresh berries, nata de coco, pecan crumble, salted coconut sugar syrup-$16

flower

the never ending sauce

vibrant green inside

The pancakes were so good! Loved the fragrant pandan smell, and not overpowering flavour. The pancakes weren't really fluffly or thick so could've had more buttermilk, but they weren't too dense either. The other standout was the coconut ice cream-so much creamy coconut flavour in that scoop. If I could buy a tub of that stuff I would. Not sure if they made it themselves since the texture was kind of similar to stuff from tubs, but even if they did source it from somewhere, I'll still buy a tub. I also loved those jelly like things which are kind of flavourless, but the chewiness in them is fun. The syrup was really nice as well. Initially salty then you have the sweet-ish coconut after taste. I kept pouring it for almost every bite, but still had some syrup left at the end. Don't add too much since it does become syrupy and sweet, but a little bit at time time gives it a nice saltiness and balance. Fruits were fresh raspberries, strawberries and grapes, and who doesn't love edible flavours sprinkled on top. There was also crunchiness from the granola as well.

It took over 15min for this to come out even though ti wasn't very busy, but all the textures and flavours balanced perfectly. Can't comment on the savoury dishes or coffee, but definitely come here to try the pancakes (:

almost there

i can't believe i finished it! never ever thought i would.

writing a 4000+ word report in 3 days with work from until 4 or 5pm, then a family dinner on one night which i couldn't skip since they asked ask a few times to go over for dinner...i already had to skip meeting up with the group, and missed another family dinner, since i was that screwed. couldn't really start the assignment until saturday since we had to collect info for three days. the lecturer said if you spent 10 hours on it on sunday, then you could actually enjoy your monday public holiday. no way, all of us (well those in my group) fully kept going, where some people actually did all nighters...

if i didn't have work, it meant approx extra 8 hours each day, which is another day to spend the assignment, but i couldn't skip work...the assignment wasn't super hard, it was just very long and since the instructions were quite broad, you could focus on anything, and then keep talking about it. probably rambled on, but on the day/morning it was due, submitted it at 2am. first time staying up that late for an assignment. luckily i didn't have to pull my first all nighter, and survived on 5 hours of sleep on monday night.

then tuesday day/night was the first time i ever started another 30% assessment the day before it was due. it was group work where our tutor assigned another random into our group, but since he didn't reply to us, i emailed the lecturer and tutor and got permission to kick him out of the group. he didn't turn up to presentations today, so he lost 30%. then we are only allowed to skip 1 tute without any medical certificates, but he's already skipped two, so i'm pretty sure he failed the course. i mean, why would you even do a summer course? it's not cheap at over 1000 compared to our other subjects during semester. and he was an international student, so would have easily wasted 4k or something. don't even know why summer courses are so expensive for 7 days worth of learning.

presentations were ok i guess. people interacted, well kind of i guess...even brought my laptop to work since i was scared i wouldn't finish. but just the amount of stress chucking a random person into out group and not sure if he would even turn up... but i don't think it should be worth 30% since i only spent a few hours compared to the other assignment where i spend a few days with heaps of hours.

now another assessment due next week, another 30%. well actually, i only have 2 days to do it, since i'm working sat and sun, then next week i'm going on a road trip and as if i would bring my laptop with me. yes, busy busy. after i get back then there's 3 weeks which is mainly filled with work, then uni starts again. that's why i have no time in the holidays (again). no time to even bake when i have all the ingredients at home. and kind of have to book in advance to meet up with people since i', busy, but so is everyone else...

it's kind of weird, this last assessment you only write 1000 words, but you have a whole week (must finish in 2 days), while the other one is 4x the amount of words, and that's not even including the extra stuff we needed to record and calculate, and that needed to be done in 3 days, whilst todays presentations technically only had 1 day to do...i should actually do the CATEI for the course.

the good thing is that there are no finals, hence the lecturer is really friendly and the stuff we learn is quite general. but never been so stressed about assignments before, not even for optom. only super stressed about failing in optom...i guess what puts more pressure for this summer course is the aim for at least a d since i really need to pull up my wam before end of third year.

stress food. so stressed i didn't have time to eat it lol

went to green peppercorn as a reward. wasn't going to go and go home to start on the next assessment, but i figured i won't get anything done tonight since i am way too dead, running on 5/6 hours of sleep for over a week (and helped out with church the week before), so i haven't slept in for a while...and after talking about food and nutrition for over a week, i really needed some good food!

it's really lovely to have friend's friends who drive back from uni to city, especially with sydney's now bipolar weather. walking to the car it was sunny, some blue skies. 10mins later in the city, fully pouring, then sometime later fully sunny.

no idea how much each dish was, didn't even care what we ordered since i just needed down time. didn't stay out too late due to my hourly buses back home =/ some dishes:

the new fried apple pie dessert. so yum! apple pie filling and pastry deep fried with some cream on top and thinly sliced apple prices.

dessert! the best part

wasn't cheap, spent around $27, but we ordered heaps. on our side of the table were 5 people, and we ordered around 9 dishes between us. destressing.

nice to see other people alive as well with blogs popping up!

oh, did i mention the last assessment is a blog post? too bad i don't post good english here, can't practice proper blogging skills lol.

Green Peppercorn

this was one of the places that i've been wanting to go to in the latter half of this semester, to the point where you can't stop thinking about their food (well desserts to be precise), and have to eat it before finals, or else i can't concentrate on study...

after messina last week, we walked to green peppercorn. it's on level 1, but it's quite nice inside, since it's still relatively new.

pad see ew and pad thai with chicken 12.90

didn't try the pad se www, but we had 4 people between 1 pad thai since we were mainly here for a dessert run and just needed a bite to eat. tha pad thai here was pretty average, and noticeably smaller than it's competitors. it's also not as flavourful, and wasn't as steaming hot (temperature wise). would have preferred more flavour, but then again, it means more msg or whatever unhealthy sodium thing they use to flavour it...the bean sprouts were raw, not that i mind, it just made the dish look bigger than it really was...not a lot of chicken or tofu either ):

service was pretty good. and additional spoons were provided for desserts. some places are cheap, and they make you use the same spoon for your savoury dishes and dessert...

dessert (:

Sweet warm coconut sticky rice served with fresh mango, vanilla ice-cream, coconut museli and coconut sauce $14

quite good, again, the whole "where did the fresh mango come from?" question popped up, and their menu also says "fresh" so 99% sure it's imported. there was enough coconut sauce with the rice, and not very sweet. muesli have it a nice texture.

pandan creme brûlée $14

one of their most popular dishes, and yes indeed, it was so yum. it's not deep, but quite a large ramekin. it had the "crack" and was a very thin sugar layer on top, which is suitable since the dish is quite thin. it wasn't too sweet and the pandan flavour came through. possibly may attempt it myself once i have time to bake/buy some pandan extract. the tuile on top was crazily hard to break. we all tried hammering it, but in the end you have to use to teeth to bite it, so not really sharable. it's super duper thick, which explains why it landed in someone's hair when we tried to smash it with our spoons...

Pandan & coconut flavoured waffles served with pandan sauce, coconut museli and coconut gelato $13

so green! don't know if they used real pandan, since i don't think you can get that green flavour that you get from the extract

felt like more dessert (even though i was pretty full at this stage). the waffles were nice, but not amazing. i think i still prefer belgium waffles. probably a bit too much muesli, and would have preferred a larger hit of pandan flavour. gelato was more on the ice cream side. the coconut flavour came through, but it may have been from coconut extract...

and i managed to catch the last express bus back home. i guess early dinners are good since the food comes out fast. will have to try the pandan sticky rice next time. didn't get it this time since we though 3 pandan desserts would be too much. i think the original store at Fairfield would probs be better, but who has the time to drive/trek it there?