Hooked at Glenferrie

With Happy Leandro bloggers

A Zilla and Brook invite so I did not have to pay

Hooked is a healthy seafood place and they have a new shop on Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn. I couldn't really make it to their evening so I went last night instead. I also dragged Happy Leandro along.

Hooked is a stones throw away from Glenferrie station.

Ray the owner said that it used to be a kebab shop. This is the same Ray that used to be a DJ.

Their motto is about being healthy and enjoying good seafood at reasonable prices.

The service was lovely and the place was clean. Ray's coworker served us.

We had
1) Tacos- they were really messy to eat so I had to wash my hands out the back. I loved the fried fish one but there was too much salsa.

2) Calamari- it was just right, not too rubbery and I loved the batter.

3) Squid- that was just right as well.

4) Fish and Chips
It was crunchy and not oily. Given the amount of sauces on the table I didn't need the tartare. The tartare was too eggy for me. The tartare was bland as well. Akira agreed with me on that

Fish and chips- look how cute the tartare jar is.

Slaw

5) Salads- Asian slaw and superfoods. The slaw was a tad bit sweet. Akira said he loved the superfood salad.
6) Fish- this dish was a bit of a letdown for me. It dry and tough, probably from being overcooked.

Sauces that we can use

We also had healthy lemonade

We were going to try the burgers, but we were too full.

Its great that there is such a place nearby Swinburne Uni. I would love to come back any day to try their lunch packs. As a student you get a 10% discount. Just flash your ID when you come

Bioglan's coconut powder

 Bioglan is a health food and living company. This year they have released a new product designed to replace the key nutrients. They did this with coconut, a superfood which is known to help restore electrolytes.

"An electrolyte is a substance that ionizes when dissolved in suitable ionizing solvents such as water. This includes most soluble salts, acids, and bases" Wikipedia 2014

I bought the product one day just to try it. I was feeling down, tired and dehydrated during week 6 of the semester. It was from all that study and not enough water

It didn't have a lot of taste but it is good for you. It is good for your digestive system as well as your liver. They have a lot of electrolytes in there.

Simply add two teaspoons to food or drinks each day. You can mix it in with meals if you want.

Already I am beginning to feel better and much more hydrated thanks to the electrolytes.

Available at all chemists and health food stores

Just Griffiths Fair Coffee

Just Griffiths is a coffee brand which is from Sydney. Last year they released the Just fair organic espresso which is fair trade.
I had received two samples of this, one was at a media event and the other was at Taste of Melbourne last year

This is a plunger coffee. It tastes chocolatey and smells nutty. It is also acidic.

You put the coffee in the plunger, add the water and then you let it brew for a few minutes.

It is available at Coles and Woolworths and it might be available at the Good Food and Wine Show.

Korea Festival

The Korea Festival was in Melbourne this year. This is the first time that it has ever arrived in Melbourne. It was on one Saturday afternoon in May. This afternoon was sunny. So of course naturally lots of people and kids came to the free festival in Federation Square. It was more of a carnival style there with heaps of balloons.

Dancing

Hanabok display

Commonwealth Bank loves International students and kids

Kids activity booth

Korean crafts

Raffle where people won dinners and Samsung items

I loved the Korean drumming performance. It added to the party atmosphere.

I also loved looking at the Hanbok (Korean dress costumes) as they were very pretty.

More drinks on sale

Some sort of Korean tea

Tea

Free tastings

A new drink that Cacao Green will soon sell

samplings

Explanation of a Korean drink

Juice

Two minute noodles

tastings

Rice noodle products

Drinks on sale

Drink toppings

Cacao Green was a sponsor of the festival

Korean mandoo dumplings

Kimchi

A not for profit migrant association selling food to raise funds.

There were heaps of free samples and things from the sponsors and tasting kitchen. Everyone got a bit of Korean culture in them when they tried the Japchae and the bibimbab. We also tried some weird Korean teas and noodles made out of rice wheat. We also tried these rice cakes which are similar in texture to mochi.
Pity though that the rice noodles didn't have much taste

There was no beer on site but there was the Transport bar as well as the stalls that sold food for $8-$10 for just a tiny plate.

I tried the Korean version of Coconut juice for $2. It had all the coconut bits in there which was quite fun to drink. Pity though this isn't readily available in Melbourne.

Many thanks to the City of Melbourne for organizing this event for students and Meld will have a write up very soon

Guilt free sugar thanks to Natvia

Natvia is a sugar company and they have teemed up with Cupcake Central to bring you their latest sugar range. I received a free sample of this at Melbourne Central on my way to work. Each sample comes with a generous amount of sugar- 4 sachets.

As a result I decided to mix one sachet into my morning coffee. The sugar dissolved quite easily into the coffee. My coffee wasn't too sweet.

Cupcake Central is a proud partner of Natvia sugar. It means that some of their cupcakes will be sugar free which is great for the Health freaks. I was inspired by Obelix's post to try their Mixed Berry and Yoghurt cupcake at Highpoint. I know that she recently attended a master class.

To go with it I tried the Develish chocolate which was made out of Panella sugar rather than Natvia. But they didn't have any other ones that were sugar free. The guy in store said that they usually have the banana one but they sold out.

The mixed berry one with all the berry goodness down the bottom

A packet of Natvia sugar is $21 at Woolworths, but that is for a big baking box which lasts a while. That is $21 well spent. They are also available in Coles and other health food stores all over Australia.

Here's the address if you want to go to the Highpoint store and try their range of healthy, gluten free, sugar free cupcakes.

Menulog and the Android app

You may remember that I did Le Bangkok before.

Now Menulog has given me $20 to spend on anything that I liked and write up about them. So I decided to talk about the app that they have made for Android 2.2 and beyond.

Menulog app. Photo courtesy of play.google.com

Menulog is the number 1 online ordering takeaway site which has 3500+ all over Australia. There is 10% off your first order and you can order your food from your own home or if you are out and about and want food later. Hence the phone app.

They have designed the app for people on the go. It is easy to install on the phone via Google Play and iTunes and is free

But it is slow and difficult to use. You have to wait ages for it to load. And there are delivery fees as well ranging from $3-$5. You couldn't read half the reviews.

With the voucher option you needed to pay the rest by credit card and that's what I did.

After careful consideration I decided to do Baked in South Melbourne after reading some good reviews online. The guy called me back to confirm which is great. Last time I also found that they have an easy remind me SMS service.

Also the delivery was on time and at the right place. I ordered the Spicy Linguini ($13 for a big serve that easily feeds two) and Herb pizza ($5.50) that I shared with everyone. It was four pieces. It was like the Domino's style pizza.
I had some salad to go with it from lunch.

The food was quite hot when it arrived.
The spicy linguini was lovely though. But I'm not really going to talk that much about food as this post is more about the app than it is about food.

Do check out their site. But would I use their app again? Probably not. I prefer it online.

But if you do need their app you can download it from iTunes or Google play

Here's their address details if you want to visit the place or find it on Menulog.

Oriental teahouse

Oriental Teahouse is in South Yarra and it is in between a tram stop and a train station.

Menu

Display showing the winter specials

Recently I signed up to the email newsletters online and received a free lunch dish. You can choose out of five of them and you are only supposed to choose one each. You have two weeks from the time that the email was sent to use this.

I remembered trying their teas on many occasions. This is just an old photo.

So on a quiet work day I dropped in for a spot of afternoon tea. I also wanted to sample their teas.

The bar

Cutlery

A few years back I came to try their lunch dumplings. Since then things have changed. It now has an upstairs bar Zhou Zhou (run by the same guy, David Zhou).

The place smelt like vinegar but the lady that served me was lovely. I think she is a uni student. The food seemed a little on the slow side.

 

I had the China Green tea ($4) for one cup and it was great.  It wasn't too strong, but it had that green tea flavour.

But the nai wong bao dumplings were good though ($6.80 for 3 which I think is a bit pricey seeing as you can get them in box hill for $1.70 each). You could easily see the custard on top.

For my free lunch dish I had the sweet potato with red bean dumplings and ice cream. It was supposed to be vanilla, but it seems that they ran out. They gave me toffee flavoured ice cream instead, which didn't really work that well with the sweet potato dumpling. Oh well these dumplings are great for winter.

Verdict: this place is waaay better than the one in the city. It doesn't have that commercialized feel that Melbourne Central does. It is a lot more cozy and if ever you are in Chapel st do visit this place.

Oh and do sign up for their free newsletters via their blog as you will get a free lunch.