Phew! It feels like we have raced to the end of the month! February was really busy for me! Let's take a look.

First up: breakfasts. I am clearly making the most of the last shipment of Reed avocados for the season! (Don't forget to check out my tutorial: "How to Slice an Avocado".)

Avocados on Toast, Toast with honeyed ricotta and berries

Avocados on toast, Toast with a hardboiled egg

But I do occasionally eat non-avocado breakfasts too, honest! You may remember the crumpets with honeyed ricotta and berries I made earlier this month, well, I also enjoyed them savoury, with spinach, scrambled eggs, mushrooms and hot habanero sauce. Some plain old peanut butter on toast made an appearance. By the way, Darryl's fresh roasted peanut butter is The Best, and well worth shelling out for. Also, more green smoothies.

Top left: Toast with Darryl's Fresh Roasted Peanut Butter (BEST) Top right: Crumpets with scrambled eggs, mushrooms, spinach, hot sauce Bottom left: Crumpets with honeyed ricotta and berries Bottom right: Green smoothie (1 c spinach, 1 frozen banana, 1 peach, 1 c milk, 1 tbs oats, 1 tbs peanut butter)

As I told you last month, I'm still trying to eat out for lunch only once a week... I'm still loving the beef bimbimbap from By Korea (1/222 La Trobe Street, Melbourne VIC 3000), and Rice Workshop in Emporium is always reliably tasty. And right now I'm super into the crazy cheap and super filling boreks from The Borek Bakehouse (481 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC 3000). That spicy lamb borek in the picture? $3. Boom!

Left: Spicy lamb borek from The Borek Bakehouse, (481 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000) Top right: Beef Bimbimbap from By Korea (1/222 La Trobe St, Melbourne, VIC 3000) Bottom right: Spicy Teriyaki Chicken Don from Rice Workshop (Emporium, Level 3 321 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000)

Mamak (366 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000) does great nasi lemak, roti canai and - my favourite - icy Malaysian drinks. Kopi ais for me!

Left: Nasi Lemak w Curry Chicken - $12 Top right: Nasi Goreng - $12 Bottom right: Roti Canai - $5.50

With my homecooked dinners this month, there was a clear division between comfort food...

Top left: Cheese platter Top right: Beef goulash with potato dumpling Bottom left: Baked pasta with eggplant, meat and cheese Bottom right: Baked crumbed pork chop and roast veggies

... and lighter dishes. Salmon, soba and broccolini is such a good combo! (See my old post for the recipe!) And in the bottom left pic you see a Thr1ve-inspired dinner: chicken meatballs (with cayenne, spring onions, egg, parmesan and some breadcrumbs), with marinated zucchini salad, baby spinach with pepitas, boiled broccoli, mashed sweet potato, roast capsicums and avocado. So many veggies!

Top left and bottom right: Marinated salmon with soba & broccolini Top right: Egg and spinach fried rice Bottom left: a Thr1ve inspired plate

But lest you think I was getting too healthy (hardly!), I also did a bit of baking in February. Chocolate pound cake (from Joy the Baker's Homemade Decadence book)...

Joy the Baker's Chocolate Pound Cake

...and my all-time favourite, Tyler Florence's Ultimate Cheesecake. You gotta make this cheesecake! It's the best.

Tyler Florence's Ultimate Cheesecake

My parents took me out for a couple of fancy meals this month: dinner at Kenzan (45 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC 3000), where we enjoyed a giant sushi sashimi platter and fabulous tempura...

Dinner at Kenzan

...and Lantern Garden (608 Station Street, Box Hill VIC 3128), for lobster noodles and pippies in XO sauce with crullers.

Dinner at Lantern Garden

Another night, I cooked a Chinese dinner for my parents - all Fuchsia Dunlop recipes, of course, all from Every Grain of Rice. There was braised chicken with shiitake mushrooms, twice-cooked pork with garlic stems and Chinese brocolli stir-fried in garlic. #awesomedaughter

Chinese feast

I didn't explore many (any!) new cafes this month, but found myself at Plantation (Level 2, Melbourne Central, 300 La Trobe Street, Melbourne) more times than I care to mention. Yum.

Plantation

One night I caught up with some girlfriends for drinks at Romeo Lane (1 Crossley St, Melbourne VIC 3000). My friend Alaina suggested it, and the bar was awesome! Excellent cocktails, great decor and friendly staff. Winner.

Romeo Lane

We then headed over to nearby Spring Street Grocer (157 Spring Street Melbourne, VIC 3000) for gelato! I had chocolate sorbetto, salted caramel and walnut gelato, and hazelnut gelato - all fabulous.

Spring Street Grocer gelato

Of course, we celebrated Chinese New Year in February. Happy new year everybody! We had reunion dinner at my parents' house on Chinese new year's eve, with all our favourites - roast pork, roast duck, salted vegetable and duck soup, loh bak and chicken curry. What a feast!

Reunion dinner

And on Chinese New Year itself, I caught up with my friend Alaina for our annual tradition of bubble tea at Gong Cha! Iced green tea, half sugar, extra pearls, salty milk foam.

Iced green tea with salted milk foam and extra pearls, half sugar

And for dinner on Chinese New Year, Sandra and I did our annual CNY tradition: "Two Girls One Duck" - sharing a whole Peking duck at Simon's (197B Middleborough Road, Box Hill South VIC 3128). So crispy, so tasty, so delicious.

Peking Duck

We also took a little weekend away this month, going to Jervis Bay on the south coast of New South Wales. The beaches were stunning, and we discovered a couple of great foodie spots - blogpost to come!

Murray's Beach

As you may have noticed, I haven't been doing many events lately, but I couldn't resist attending a Taste by Appointment evening hosted by Grey Goose Vodka at Saint Crispin (300 Smith Street, Collingwood, VIC 3066). The event included a three-course meal and a cocktail-crafting masterclass. The food and cocktails were delicious, and most importantly, the evening was really fun! Blogpost to come.

Grey Goose "Taste by Appointment" at Saint Crispin

The next morning, and in no way related to the previous evening's activities (ahem), I desperately wanted something salty and greasy. This ham and cheese croissant from Plantation totally hit the spot.

Ham and Cheese Croissant, Magic

Plans for March - one or two events, spending time with family and friends, work, gym, the usual. Quiet yet fun!