Simply 2 Fine

Monday, January 14, 2013

Old Kingdom Glory

Hi! How are you doing?

Another Chinese/Asian restaurant in the heart of our iconic Collinwood suburb, so don’t expect that exceptional welcoming gesture and greetings from your usual restaurant visits. On a good day, the guy that serves you may be humorous other days you may just get a man whose attitude is “I did my job, can I go now?”

I hear most complaints are from take-away customers, maybe they are not ordering the specialty on the menu.

TIP: order restaurant’s specialty dishes, not boring stir fried rice and spring rolls with honey chicken and sweet sour pork then expect to be “WOOWED”.

Old Kingdom is known for their “Peking Duck” (another term for Beijing, just old fancy English), oven spit roast duck specially blown out skin to give you that extra succulent crispy skin.

A whole duck would feed at least 2 adult, and its only $55… for 3 separate dishes (literally 3 course meal).

$55 deal includes:

Whole Peking duck + pancake + plum sauce + cucumber + spring onion root.
Duck soup with tofu
Stir fried duck with bean sprouts

this is Stir fried duck with bean sprouts - it was tasty =)

At the speed of the service and the price combined it’s like a Peking duck fast food joint without the derogatory sense. Well the place does look run down but it’s an icon in Collinwood.

the catering guy was cutting duck with awesome knife skills – my camera couldn’t even capture a good shot (may have had it on the wrong mood).

Above is my pictorial to how to eat Peking Duct.

The pancake is paper thin so I didn't get sick of it, it complimented well with everything else on the table
Cucumber and spring onion root, isn’t necessary but it gives it a refreshing and crunchy contrast
Succulent juicy, crispy skin, no fat duck meat, well cooked and marinated to perfection
Best Peking Plum Sauce ever

Then Fold, Fold, Fold and Wrap

Extras that was order:

Sweet, hot sour soup - average didn't tickle my fancy

Fried rice was ordinary, nothing spectacular

the reason why we usually order extra stir fried veges/ fresh veges in general is because it goes hand in hand with most meat and helps us digest our food more quickly so we can eat more without getting sick of the same meaty taste in our mouth.

My final worlds: I dare say this is the best Peking duck in Melbourne and many restaurants in Beijing (I have eaten in one of the best Peking duck restaurant in Beijing and must admit for something in Australia to be so authentic its great!!!) A MUST EAT. I always go back to enjoy this goodness.

Can you recommend me a good Peking duck restaurant?

Enjoy the rest of your days… ladies and gents stay beautiful, healthy, wealthy and wise
xox take care :)

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with anything above, everything on my blog is my honest opinions, so I am not being paid or given free products to review or promote. My opinions are of personal experience and thoughts, so feel free to comment if you agree or disagree so I can also learn more from you.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Flapper & Dapper

Review Flapper dress / Louis Vuitton Vernis Clutch / Nine West Pumps

Hi! How you doing?

Flapper, the era of the 1920’s, describing of young birds learning to flap their wings. Wearing short skirts, bobby hairstyles drinking, listening and dancing to jazz, smoking, wearing excessive makeup, and treating sex as the norm (less limitations and taboo).

Flapper dresses were straight and loose, leaving the arms bare and dropping the waistline to the hips.

Here’s what I found at “Review” (Australian Brand) where they’ve made a great rendition of a so called “modern Flapper”, and “Dapper” for the classic clean cut with sequined arrow and diamond pattern, decorated with false crystals and rhinestones, and a very low cut “V-Neck” line. Its part of their limited edition line in 2012 and this pastel teal colour makes my day just a little cooler ;) in our summer sun.

I added my Louis Vuitton Vernis Clutch as an accessory and on my foot is a pair of grayish nude pair of pumps from Nine West.

What colour do you prefer to wear in summer?

Enjoy the rest of your days… ladies and gents stay beautiful, healthy, wealthy and wise
xox take care :)

Friday, January 11, 2013

Culinary Shock! LING NAM

Hi! How you doing?

Have you ever had a favourite restaurant where the food and price is fabulous, but the service and staff are ridiculously bad ass?

Well let me introduce you to “LING NAM” the place for great food but bad services. It’s in the heart of Melbourne's CBD - China Town, the owners and staff here are mostly Chinese (from Hong Kong to be exact), they speak multiple languages ie. Vietnamese and Mandarin but mostly Cantonese (its one of those blunt heavy dialect, they sound as if they are swearing all the time – no offence to Cantonese people, hence you’d find them rude, that’s just part of their culture). Waiters are quick on their toes in Hong Kong, from once you sit down (they expect you to know what you want in 5mins), after ordering the first dish, it should not take longer than 15mins to come out. You see, to them time is money, its valuable, so they become pushy, you come in (its rare to have a meet and greet session and “what’s on the special menu tonight” kinda convo) and you finish with a full stomach having everything served to you as ordered, that’s a job well done on their behalf.
Do you know why there are so many Asians who eat here? It’s because Crown Casino is an Asian filled place located near the CBD, once these gamblers are done at Crown they feast at LING NAM, it’s the norm (regular habit they tend to do), they become regulars and hence the staff doesn’t really care about new or old customers. Who else would know what’s good and what’s bad Chinese food, but the creators themselves – THE CHINESE! So it must be good food to be filled with Asians and customers for a very long period of time.

A few years back they were caught out by the food hygiene council, they re-opened again after they cleaned up their mess (lets hope they stay that way)

TIP: if you like Chinese/ Asian food, find Chinese/Asian friends to recommend you a place to dine, Italian food (find Italian people for tips), Greek Food (find Greek people to ask)… so on and so forth.

Don’t expect much from them, you are just there to eat their food, and it’s GREAT FOOD for the price you pay.

Lets get into the dishes I usually order (from the top of my head without the menu - yes I'm a regular here) majority are all good to the taste buds, not too salty not too sweet:

Ling Nam sign at the front door

Lobster with XO Sauce

Pipis in XO Sauce - gotta order extra Chinese Fried Doughnut to dip into that sauce

Steamed Oysters with XO Sauce

Live Fresh Water Shrimp/Prawns from their tank fastly deep fried with Salt and Pepper - its cruel to eat this because the prawns are still alive before being thrown into the frying pan, but theirs nothing like fresh prawn, its amazing (my favourite). They charge per pound, I think its $60/$80 per pound depending on the season.

Crab & Shark Fin Soup. I prefer their sweet and sour soup (didn't eat it this time so couldn't take a photo for this post)

Mud Crab in XO Sauce... YES WE LOVE OUR XO (and its not a alcohol)

I hope I didn’t offend anyone =) It’s just a cultural shock to see such rudeness in a culinary context (but it's actually really normal), do you know of other cultural behaviours that are not normal to the majority of our population? Feel free to comment.

Enjoy the rest of your days… ladies and gents stay beautiful, healthy, wealthy and wise
xox take care :)

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Wish You Wear Here!

Coach Sunglasses / GLASSON WISH YOUWERE HERE Swim wear

Hi! How you doing?

I’ve just arrived back in Melbourne from an end of year trip in Sydney, Cairns and Port Douglas. Our hotel apartment had a few good pools in Port Douglas, so what did we do once we found ourselves in the midst of all that glorious smelting sun?

I got myself into this poolside silhouette classic black and white polka dot one piece cut and started posing LOL! It’s a rare site for me to be in bathers, due to my embarrassing no bust flat silhouette frame. And am not a fan of tanning, its just the culture I’ve been brought up in, it’s taught me beauty is when you’re purely white inside and out – stuff that mumbo jumbo! Tan or not, I’m going in for a swim (even though I don’t know how to).

I love this one piece, it reminds me of the era when female became more liberated with their bodies, showing off what great curves they had. It’s of vintage and retro flash back to the 1940s and 1950s, this great rendition of a piece was bought from “GLASSON” on special for $25 (last size 6, bargain! It made my day). This was from their 2012 Swimwear Collection under the brand “WISH YOUWERE HERE”.

How did you spend you holiday? What is your favourite sort of swimwear?

Enjoy the rest of your days… ladies and gents stay beautiful, healthy, wealthy and wise
xox take care :)

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

An Phuoc Pink Strip Shirt & H&M Cuffed Trousers OOTD

An Phuoc Pin Strip Shirt / H&M Black Cuffed Trousers / Lauren Ralph Lauren Women's Zabrina Pump

Hi, how you’re doing?

I decided to take some shots before changing into my PJ’s. Here was my attire for work.

Shirt: “An Phuoc” Pink Pin Striped Shirt (I love this cut, for more details about An Phuoc CLICK HERE to see my review on it)

Pants: H&M Black Cuffed Trousers.
These trousers have the best waist line for work, they are large but with a belt it makes the pants looks fitted, I prefer wearing lose waist pants (much easier to move around, then tight jeans, pants and skirts)

Shoes: Lauren Ralph Lauren Women's Zabrina Pump, Royal Royal Navy Kidskin (more like a dark grey colour)

Belt: black patent thin belt given to me by my twin sister

Enjoy the rest of your days… ladies and gents stay beautiful, healthy, wealthy and wise
xox take care :)

I Love AN PHUOC's Female Dress Shirts!

AO AN PHUOC

Hi! How are you?

Ever wonder where to buy high quality Female slim fitting dress shirts for work, with assorted colours and not have to pay a hefty price?

Google: “AN PHUOC”

“An Phuoc” is a Prestigious brand made for the upper class of Vietnamese white collar workers. They specialize in office wear and have a vast variety of sizes.
Thanks An Phuoc for tailoring to the petite female community. It’s perfect for small bust ladies, their female shirts range between $20AUD - $30AUD. Hence whenever I travel back to Vietnam I would revisit their stores just to get new colours, I currently own about over 7 An Phuoc female dress shirts (Yep I really love it, and they seem to be made of easy to iron material, depending on what colour you get, some are even non-iron!). They are seasonal so colours do change during the year, it’s so popular they even make limited edition colours, but all cuts and styles remain the same. Most shirts are long sleeves; I only saw the staff wearing the short sleeve cuts L.

Where to find it:

· Vincom Center is based in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City, which was the best place to look for An Phuoc female shirts, I’ve roamed all the city stores and Vincom Center was the only branch that stocked the different coloured female shirts.

· You visit their website and order online, but I’m not sure what their shipping policies are and where they ship to. (CLICK HER E to go directly to their female dress shirt collection)

I don’t recommend this for busty ladies because their cut around the chest area seems smaller than the average female dress shirts made from other brands. But in my case other European, Australian and USA brands look like they float on me even when I buy the smallest size in their collection.

Fact: An Phuoc has the rights to distribute “Pierre Cardine” the label, kids wear and underwear.

Below are some of the Female dress shirts colours available for purchase: