Duchess of Cambridge in Australia

The royal family (Prince William, Princess Catherine and Prince George) visited Australia earlier this month. For the Duchess of Cambridge and the little Prince George, it was their first visit to Australia. I always adore Kate's style and her choices of clothes during her visit here were gorgeous! I have collected some pictures from Vogue Australia to share. She's flawless!

Which one is my favourite look? I can't really choose to be honest!


Love, Carol

Easter Roadtrip

Hello! I hope you had a good Easter (if you celebrate Easter. I personally don't celebrate Easter but embracing the holidays!). So, long story short, we bought a car, it was at Byron Bay, we flew to Byron Bay to get the car and drove it down to Melbourne. Technically, it is a small holiday for us!

Day 1, we flew up to Ballina Byron Airport from Melbourne via Jetstar (did not know there is an airport there and it took us just about one and a half hour). Weather was great, sun was shining and perfect temperature for me (about 25degree). We spent our very short time in Byron Bay, strolling by the beach, it was very busy as expected since it is peak season (Easter holidays!).

We had lunch with Keith's aunt and uncle at the Byron Beach Cafe. Facing the sea, it is a great cafe to dine in. Casual, relaxing and very busy in the mean time (who doesn't want to dine facing the great sea view?! Especially their food was awesome!). I had the slow cooked pork belly and Keith had their BBQ Mahi-mahi, we were totally blown away, the food was divine! It's always great to walk after a big meal. We walked to the local beach-side market and bought ourselves some chocolate dipped frozen strawberries. Perfect for the warm weather we had there (about 29 degree)!

We hit the road to Coffs Harbour after our dessert.

Spent a night at Royal Palms Motor Inn in Coffs Harbour. We were thinking of spending a night at Byron Bay but all booked out (it is Easter Holiday after all).

We start our journey to Sydney at 6am in the morning (after our coffee and breakfast).

We arrived Sydney at about 1pm after the 6 hours drive! After checking into the Hyde Park Inn (where we spent our night in Sydney), we walked to Pitt St and had our lunch at 3 Mama Chef's. It is a Thai restaurant and we loved the food there (probably one of the best we have tried so far! Highly recommend it!). We strolled around the city and took some pictures, we had a great day! We realized there's Din Tai Fung near us in Sydney, we had our dinner there (we have been missing their dumplings!).

After a night sleep, we started our journey to home - Melbourne! It was a 9 hour drive trip. We packed the car with some drinks and snacks, just in case.

We turned into Yass, a nice little town that is over 150 years old! We didn't really have any proper breakfast and we didn't want any fast food drive-thru on the highway. Wonder around in the town to stretch out those legs, we spotted Cafe Dolcetto! We had our breakfast there and wow! The food was so fresh, simple and yummy (another place we highly recommend!)! Then we continue our trip back with a satisfied and full stomach!

We arrived home finally! Tiring but it was a great experience!! That is how we spent our Easter weekend on the road. 

Love, Carol

Beef Wombok Wrap

Wombok is also known as Chinese cabbage, it has large crisp leaves but it will be easy to roll when it's poached. One of my favourite vegetable and using it to wrap beef mince or your choice of filling (could be egg salad or your choice of vegetable salad for a vegan version) popped in my head when I saw cabbage roll recipes. I used the recipe I found online for the cabbage roll but switch the cabbage to wombok instead. I made it a few times, still trying to adjust the consistency of the sauce and this is the best version.

Ingredient:

12-14 Wombok Leaves

The Filling:
500g beef mince
3/4 cup cooked rice
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 egg
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 cup milk

The Sauce:
1 cup tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes (undrained)
3 tablespoons sugar (I used raw sugar)
2 tablespoons white vinegar
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons corn flour (mixed with 1/4 cup cold water)

Cooking Method: 

1. Drop wombok leaves into boiling salted water (don't be rough to the leaves, they are crisp leaves and they break/snap easily so handle with care). Cover and cook for 3 minutes.
2. Drain the leaves and place them flat on kitchen paper towel to suck the moisture out while you're doing other steps.
3. Preheat the oven at 180 Celsius (no fan).
4. For the filling, mix all the ingredient from the filling section and make sure they all mix well.
5. Place each portions into each leaves (make sure you can wrap the leaf and not too much fillings). Roll the leaf around filling to wrap them up (like wrapping presents). 
6. Place the beef wombok rolls in a baking dish (that can fit all your rolls). Mine looked like this when I place all of them in. 
   
7. For sauce, mix all the ingredient from the sauce section EXCEPT the corn flour that mixed with 1/4 cup cold water. Pour the sauce over the beef wombok rolls (make sure the sauce cover each of the rolls). 
8. Bake covered for 40 to 45 minutes.
9. Once the beef wombok rolls are ready, transfer the sauce/juice from the baking dish to a saucepan. Over medium heat, stir in the corn flour cold water mixture. Bring to boil and cook until thickened. 
10. Serve the beef wombok rolls with the thickened sauce.

For me, this recipe could feed 5 people. Happy Easter everyone!

Love, Carol

My Current Favourite TV Show

I am that kind of a person who likes to have TV shows on during dinner time (I know it's unhealthy but when is the best time to catch up some good TV series?). Keith and I don't really have the 'eat at the dining table' habit, we just sit on the couch, eat our dinner and watch TV. Other that that, I usually will pop a TV show on when I'm at home and need a break from whatever I was doing (or when I wanted to watch the latest episode really bad). There's a lot of TV Shows out there (I can't keep up!) and these are the ones that stood out (to me) and got me addicted to them! In no particular order, I will start with the ones that Keith and I both love!

1. The Modern Family: The best comedy ever! This is one funny and interesting modern family with the mix of a sexy Latina stepmother, gay couple with an adopted Asian daughter, a family with cheeky mischievous teenagers and so on. I didn't start watching them till mid last year and I was hooked and so did Keith! My favourite is Gloria!
   
   
2. The Big Bang Theory: At first, I always skipped them when I was browsing the TV channel, looking for stuff to watch when I was in my uni time. One day, Keith put this on and got me hooked and yes it is one of his favourite TV show. My favourite is Sheldon!
   
   
3. 2 Broke Girls : These 2 ladies are phenomenal! Lots of dirty jokes (for those who doesn't like it, you might like them from this show!) and other jokes of course. Never can have my straight face on when this show is on. Love it. My favourite is Max! 
   
   
4. Archer: Keith's top favourite show! He's the one got super excited whenever there's a new season or episode. I got to admit it's pretty awesome after I gave it a go since Keith will never shut up about it. It's about a spy agency and it's funny. My favourite is Lana! 
   
5. New Girl: Another of my favourite to watch! It's a comedy about the roommates. My favourite is Schmidt! 
   
6. Cougar Town: Courtney Cox was funny in F.R.I.E.N.D.S and so do this one! It is about friends in a small town who acted like they are a big family. A good show to watch with a glass of wine! My favourite is Ellie!
   
   
7. Scandal : Even Michelle Obama love this show! It's about politics in the states, secret government agency and their dirty little secrets. Very juicy and addictive! My favourite in this show is Olivia (hands down Kerry Washington did a great job!).
   
8. The Walking Dead: I think everyone heard of this successful drama series as they are a very popular one. Zombie apocalypse drama, the walking dead is very addictive as the story line is well written. Talking about surviving the zombie apocalypse, a group of people keep moving on to stay alive from the zombies and other harmful human being. My favourite is Daryl!
   
   
9. Love Child: An Australian TV show about the life of the single pregnant ladies who were sent to a 'home' to hide their pregnancy in the sixties. It is based on the real life stories of the forced adoption policies back then. My favourite is Joan, the caring and sophisticated mid-wife.
   
   
10. Fat Tony & Co: Another series from the Underbelly family. This series focus on the true story about Tony Mokbel, the drug dealer who managed to be on the run that lasted 18 months. You may find most of the characters you familiar with if you watch the first Underbelly.
    
    
11. Once Upon A Time: I got addicted to this series when I was in Singapore (watched a lot of TV when I was there). Fairy tales from Snow White to Little Mermaid to the Wicked Witch from OZ, this is a drama that put all the fairy tales together. If you like fairy tales (cartoon version or not), this would be your kind of TV shows.
    
    
12. Mom: A new TV shows here in Australia, sold to me already after watching the trailer here and there. It's about single mothers in a family, it's like a chain of getting pregnant at young age and raising kid alone.
    
    
    
    What is your favourite TV show?
    
    
    Love, Carol

Inside L'ORÉAL Goodie Bag

l'Oréal Paris Australia was one of the major partners for Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival (VAMFF) 2014. During the festival, they had a powder room and pop-up store set up at the Central Pier, Docklands where the main events were. All the guests were given a l'Oréal exciting goodie bag and I'm lucky enough to have one to myself. I love l'Oréal products! The last goodie bag I got from them was packed with their makeup products that I'm still using now.

As one of the main highlights of Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival, the L’Oreal Paris Powder Room has undergone exciting new changes for VAMFF 2014 and has this year been re-launched as the L’Oreal Powder Room and Pop-Up store. - See more at: http://www.stylehunter.com/beauty/loreal-paris-unveils-the-loreal-powder-room-and-pop-up-store/#sthash.sxt0hdNl.dpuf

As one of the main highlights of Virgin Australia Melbourne Fashion Festival, the L’Oreal Paris Powder Room has undergone exciting new changes for VAMFF 2014 and has this year been re-launched as the L’Oreal Powder Room and Pop-Up store. - See more at: http://www.stylehunter.com/beauty/loreal-paris-unveils-the-loreal-powder-room-and-pop-up-store/#sthash.sxt0hdNl.dpuf

The items inside the goodie bag are:

1. Arginine Resist x3 Anti Hair Fall Shampoo 250ml
2. Arginine Resist x3 Anti Hair Fall Conditioner 250ml
3. Arginine Resist x3 Instant Miracle Anti Hair Fall Treatment 200ml
4. Revitalift Magic Blur Finishing Cream Sample
5. Hair Expertise EverPure Moisture Shampoo Sample 10ml
6. Hair Expertise EverPure Moisture Conditioner Sample 10ml
7. Hair Expertise EverPure Moisture Leave-In Conditioner Sample 10ml
8. Youth Code Luminosity Hydrating Day Cream 50ml
9. Youth Code Luminosity Correcting Serum 30ml

Jam packed full with goodies indeed. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to walk into their powder room or their pop-up store since I was out of the country traveling. Another success event from l'Oréal again I heard, everyone was quite pleased! Because you're worth it!

Have a great weekend!

Love, Carol