Tetsujin, Emporium Melbourne

If Godzilla was in town, I wonder if it will see our trains travelling along the octopus like tracks and think of it like a sushi train? 

With roughly 2,100 train services per day, Godzilla will get significantly more choice of trains but the variety of sushi at Tetsujin is not bad either. 

We also found plenty of sushi dishes with raw fish sashimi slices (as opposed to sushi with cooked ingredients) which Godzilla will struggle with, unless a whole load of passengers were on their way to a nudist colony by train.

As usual, we ate far too much than what is good for us, but at $3.80 per plate, we just could not resist.

Calia, Emporium Melbourne

We stumbled upon the soft launch of a new restaurant and grocery store in Emporium last weekend. Calia is a new addition to the food choices in Emporium, opening directly opposite another Japanese restaurant in Level 3 of Emporium. However the point of difference would be the addition of a grocery section that sells most of the products used in the restaurant such as seafood, matcha and other high end products such as bird's nest, sturgeon caviar, Japanese whisky and jamon iberico. We were especially delighted to finally find a place that sells jamon iberico, the famed cured ham from black Iberico pigs whose meat is made more fragrant from their diet of acorns.

There was a plaque out front that advertised the restaurant's menu was designed by Michelin starred chef Francisco Araya but we were told by a staff that he would not be at the restaurant until the grand opening in March. I am not sure if he is ever going to cook in the restaurant, but we did not pay too much attention to the claim which did not mean much to us. Instead, we decided to order these three dishes and enjoy our lunch. 

Beef with 63 degree egg on rice. The beef was cooked well, some were still a little pink which was fine with us. The beef was of good quality so I would have been happy even if it was served beef tataki style. Being a Japanese restaurant with a fusion twist, I would have liked another layer of flavour or another textural element here. Like something crunchy, or something slightly acidic to cut through the richness of the egg and beef. 

Truffled fries - the fries were crispy and they were shoe string fries which are just what I like! It was golden and crispy and yum. The truffle salt added a posh accent to it. Whoever would have thought of adding truffles to the humble fries! Nice.. But the salt was too chunky so we were careful to tap away excess salt so to avoid inadvertently eating a too salty piece of fries.

This was my favourite dish of the three because I loved the fresh seafood pieces, and the frshly grated wasabi on rice. The best thing about the main dishes are that they tasted fresh and healthy (ok, maybe not deep fried foods like the fries) and was not too expensive. The meal cost us about $43 in total. 

We were also most impressed with the service. There were no teething issues, even though it was the first day of operation. Overall, we really enjoyed our dining experience, and really liked the decor of the place as well.

Dinner at Home

Gaz cooked dinner on Tuesday, which happened to be Valentine's Day. We had long agreed that we will no longer mark the day with frivolous expenses such as sending expensive bouquets to the office, or buying each other unwanted gifts. We also gave up going to restaurants on the day, simply because we did not want to wait 1 hour between courses.

But now and then, Gaz comes up with surprises that still mark the occasion in his own way. On Tuesday, he cooked 5 dishes for us. There was steamed fish, steamed egg, braised chicken in soy sauce and stir fried vegetables.

He also made baked oysters with cheese and chilli mayo. 

The baked oysters were delicious! Though the steamed egg was and always will be one of my favourite dishes. Gaz has really perfected this dish. It is silky smooth and fragrant. It is my all time comfort food. I often ask him how he cooks this dish and even though he explains it patiently each time, he knows he's stuck with making this dish forever. 

Happy Valentine's and hope we have many more to come, just like those steamed eggs.

Metro Serviced Apartments, Bank Place

I remember thinking to myself at 4am that morning, 'Now I understand why sleep deprivation is considered torture!'. We received a free night's stay at a hotel for booking our holiday accommodation with Hotels.com and decided to stay in a central hotel with convenient on street parking.

Our room was neat, clean and tidy. There was a separate area for the bedroom and ensuite, and kitchen and sitting room. The apartment was surprisingly well equipped, there was even a washing machine! Besides that, the kitchen had a stove, microwave, stocked with cutlery and dishwashing liquid. 

We thought we would be safe from any noise or disturbance from the night club downstairs since our room was on the highest floor but unfortunately, we were mistaken. At 11pm when we got back, the music had already started in the nightclub and wafted upwards from the lane that is Bank Place to our room. 

It was worse the earlier it got in the morning. I was unable to settle into a deep sleep and remember waking up countless time to look at the clock wondering what time do nightclubs stop operating in the morning.

The loud music finally stopped at 5.30am and now I have learnt two new things - one could go straight from a club to work in the morning and that sleep deprivation is a very effective form of torture. 

Ling Nan, Lt Bourke St

Ling Nan is one of the older generation of restaurants in Chinatown. If one were to categorise the restaurants on Little Bourke Street in terms of family members, then Ling Nan would be a grandma in the family. 

The type of food that can be found here is also the same. When you go over to your grandma's for a meal, the food choices are usually limited to the ones you have always known. In Ling Nan, I do not think the menu has changed much from 10 years ago. But this is can be a positive. Why reinvent the wheel? Just stick to the crowd favourites!

We ordered the sliced beef with vegetables and boneless chicken with ginger and spring onions. The beef dish was tasty with the beef tender and well cooked, but the chicken dish was slightly too sweet for me. We also ordered steamed rice to go with the dishes, and that came in the customary small rice bucket.

We left the restaurant with a full stomach but with a little indignation because we were charged for an extra portion of rice for packing some leftover rice in the bucket with the rest of the leftover dishes in a plastic container to take home. There should have been notices in the restaurant if they wanted to charge because we only took away the rice because we did not want it to go to waste. Perhaps they do 're-use' the leftover rice in each rice bucket after it has been served to their customers for dishes like fried rice, or just simply to serve to another customer? 

Montania Cafe, Ferntree Gully

Smiling waitresses and the cool air spilling out from the darkened interiors of the cafe greeted us when we arrived at Montania Cafe in Ferntree Gully for dinner. Cool drinks and AC were welcomed after a very hot day in Melbourne. We gratefully sipped on glasses of chilled champagne while waiting for the food to arrive. 

We did not have to wait long. The entree of saffron rice arancini arrived about 15 minutes later. There was caramelised onion, smoked provolene, saffron rice, spinach and cheese within the crispy exterior of the arancini balls. 

This is the main I ordered - veal with prosciutto on mashed potatoes topped with crispy brocolli. Don't be put off the runny sauce, it was actually a very tasty dish. Armed with fork and knife, and a big appetite, I quickly wolfed the food down the hatch. The meat was well cooked, complimented with salty prosciutto. The crispy brocolli offered a different texture to the creamy mash.

This is Gaz's main of pulled lamb with salad. It was a little like a deconstructed souvlaki. There was bread, the lamb, wedgesof potatoes and salad. It was tasty but even the big man could not finish everything on the plate, and had to leave some bread to leave room for the gorgeous dessert coming up.

The dessert arrived to oohs and aahs, it was so prettily assembled. There was a tower of white chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, honeycomb, chocolate wafer. Gaz ate most of this dish as I found it a little too sweet for me. 

Through our dining experience here, the waitresses were really attentive and efficient. The meals did not take too long in arriving at the table, our cutlery were changed promptly between each course and they were always smiling as they served the customers. 

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at Sidney Myer Music Bowl

Yesterday, my friend and I went to the Sidney Myer Music Bowl to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra play Rachmaninoff, Berlioz and Tchaikovsky.  There were so many people! 

Below is a picture of the crowd at 7:30pm when the concert was about to start. The Bowl was at full capacity and there was no more room even on the grass. 

This was on a 35 degree day, mind you. A few people succumbed to the heat during the performance and had to be escorted away by the paramedics. 

I was lucky to be invited by my friend who had scored box seats for us. We did not have to queue up at the entrance,  nor arrive earlier at the Bowl to stake out our seats. It was wonderful!

The performance was excellent.  The pieces were not too out there, these pieces being classical pieces after all. Melbourne is indeed the arts and culture hub of Australia, and we are so lucky to enjoy these world class performances free of charge.

For those who missed this, not to worry as there are two more performances coming up on the 11th and 15th of February!

Rat-a-Train

It was quite a quite a cute mouse, by all accounts. It was small, gray, long whiskers. Except it shouldn't have been scampering around a restaurant floor.

Perhaps if it could talk, and cook while hiding inside a chef's hat it would fit in better with the surroundings? 

Or if it was dragging a slice of pizza towards home, it might be a YouTube sensation like it's cousin in the US? 

We were having lunch at a pizza and pasta restaurant at Southgate when we noticed the mouse about 3 feet from our table. I immediately wondered if the little mouse's parents and 50 other siblings are back in the kitchen where our food had just came from. 

Other questions circled in my head... Had they been using the parsley in my pasta as their toilet paper? Or taste tested the pizza sauce before it was sent out from the kitchen? How did they like the views from the second level where the restaurant is located? Did they find my pasta overcooked as I'd found it to be? 

My questions went unanswered, because the mouse was never caught while we were there. And mice cannot talk.

Chinese New Year Parade 2017, Melbourne

On the weekend, we visited Chinatown to catch the Chinese New Year parade. Each year, the Dai Loong or Great Dragon makes a special appearance in the parade. Along with Dai Loong, the lions also make their appearance as well as a collection of animals from the Chinese restaurant kitchen and fish tank such as bird, lobster, fish, crab and turtle. There is also a mini dragon and a dolphin, which are animals that we would eat if it was available!

At the end of the parade at Cohen Place, the older dragon is met by the young green dragon. The young dragon twirls and spins around vigorously to welcome its dad home, marking the end of the parade.

The lions continue to prance around Chinatown and surrounding areas long after the parade has ended. During the Chinese New Year celebrations, shop owners pay lion dance troupes to dance in front and inside their shops to bring them luck and ward away evil.

The easiest way to catch one of these dances is to spot which stores have hung a bunch of coral lettuce and a red packet in front of their shops. It is customary for the lions to perform tricks to get to the lettuce without the use of stilts, ladder, chair or any other such equipment other than their bodies. For their skill and hard work, they are rewarded by red packets containing money.

Su Su Sushi, Mount Waverley

Recently, we bought a Groupon voucher for a 56 piece sushi platter from Su Su Sushi at Mount Waverley for only $29. Su Su Sushi is a catering company that specialises in sushi platters. We had to provide one day's notice in order for the company to prepare the platter ready for pick up the next day.

Doesn't the platter look beautiful? There were crabstick rolls, chicken teriyaki, raw salmon, prawn, cucumber, and pickled turnip sushi rolls. The presentation was beautiful. We also got soy sauce and wasabi packs to go with the platter.

Unfortunately, the major ingredient in all of the sushi rolls was poorly cooked. The rice was overcooked, mushy and was not seasoned well. We were really looking forward to eating this beautifully presented platter but found ourselves struggling past the first couples of bites. The rice was present in every bite of sushi, so it was not something we could scrape away to the side of the plate and carry on with eating the rest.

I also found some bones in one of my salmon sushi that necessitated some gagging and spitting but the rest of the ingredients were good.

Overall, there was a mismatch in the appearance and the taste of the sushi and we were quite disappointed by the platter.