Portarlington Mussel Festival 2023

The Portarlington Mussel Festival is an annual event that started in 2007. It was not until a few years ago that I learnt about it and wanted to go but one thing or another stopped us from actually going.

For this year's festival, I made sure I planned well in advance. The ferry tickets were booked 4 months ahead of time. When the weather forecast show it would be 35 degrees on the day, and the Port Phillip Ferries rescheduled our return leg home from 3pm to 5pm, I was in two minds to cancel our trip. I was apprehensive about spending the whole day in the sun outdoors at first, but it turned out to be a pretty good day. 

We arrived at the dock opposite Marvel Stadium in Docklands to board the ferry at 8:30am and our ferry departed on time at 9am. It was full of people with people with beach gear, happy faces at the prospect of spending a day at the Festival, and the beach in the sun. There is a VIP line for those who spent $9 extra to include express entry into the Festival (entry fee $5 is payable at the entrance). There was no distinction in the boarding for the 'VIP' and 'non-VIPs' - both lines were admitted into the ferry at the same time. The entry into the Festival was also quite fast, because the Festival had just started and also because the volunteers manning the entrances were very efficient. 

The calm, shimmering waters of Portarlington, the beautiful beach and pier greeted us as the ferry pulled into the dock. We spent some time on the pier looking at other tours available for an additional cost, like the winery tours and mussel farm tours but while we had eyes on the latter, it was not operational yet.

There were so many stalls in the Festival, it must be the largest I have ever attended. There were stalls selling hand crafted jewellery, art, prawn peelers, gardening products, knick knacks, paintings, clothes, sauces, food, fruits and everything you can think of. There were also stalls for community causes like the Coast Guard, the local Rotary and Lions club etc. There is a good balance between food stalls and other stalls. 

There is no shortage of entertainment at the Festival. Besides browsing the many stalls, there are 3 stages each with fantastic line up of singers and performers. My favourite is the Bjorn Again, ABBA tribute band. There is also a tent for cooking demonstration by Rie's Kitchen, and an art exhibition/sale by local artists. Between the stalls, entertainment, cooking demonstration, art exhibition, the large playground for kids (it has a flying fox) and sampling the food from the food stalls, there was no time to be bored. 

I discovered that there are at least two types of mussels, green lipped ones (commonly from NZ) and blue mussels, the ones farmed in Portarlington. I have only eaten the green lipped ones, which are meatier and tougher to chew. For that reason, I do not eat many mussels. The blue mussels are more tender, juicy, sweeter and is now my favourite. I was so taken by the taste that I bought some at the pier from Mr Mussels ($6 per kg) to bring home to Melbourne. 

Some other fun facts I learnt: 

1. Every mussel is a good mussel, except for those with broken shell and opened mussel that do not close with a hard tap (most likely dead mussel). Mussels that do not open after being cooked are perfectly good to eat.

2. Cook mussels in a cold empty pan for 5 minutes. Discard the juices from the mussels or better still, strain and reuse as stock. Then cook the sauce and toss the cooked mussels in the sauce. 

3. There is no need to wash or scrub mussels, unless for presentation sake.

4. Mussels can be stored in the fridge up to a week, in single layer with a wet towel to cover.

5. The easy way to de-beard mussels is to do so after cooking, by pulling the beard towards the abductor muscle. I used to de-beard mussels before cooking but sometimes that does not get rid of all the beard, sometimes the stomach gets pulled out as well and thinking back, I would have caused the mussel extra pain before it is cooked. 

6. The festival has the largest number of volunteers in the whole of Australia.

The trip to the festival was not only enjoyable, but very educational too!

Matt's Malaysian Cafe, Newcomb, Geelong

I am so glad to find Nasi Kerabu here, even if it's across the Port Phillip Bay. We were in Geelong for holidays and was happy to find this restaurant. Nasi Kerabu is a traditional dish from Kelantan, one of the eastern states in Peninsula Malaysia. Nasi Kerabu can be translated to salad rice. Most of the restaurants in Melbourne serves West Malaysian food (cuisine from KL, Selangor, Penong and Melaka) so it was a happy dining day for me to find Nasi Kerabu here.

The restaurant is located in a quiet residential area in a strip of shops. The decor is pretty basic but does not detract from the food. There is a bain marie at the front which indicates there may be nasi kandar or nasi campur (rice with a mix of meat and vege dishes from the bain marie) but it was not available at the time of my visit.

We ordered combination hor fun ($13.90) and nasi kerabu ($18.90). The kuey teow is akin to the sar hor fun, but has onions and cruciferous vegetables which would not be found in sar hor fun. It had plenty of egg gravy sauce to cover the kuey teow.

The dish I was waiting for was nasi kerabu, because it is not easily found in the restaurants near my area. It is served with telur masin (salted egg) half, ulam (salad with cabbage, Vietnamese mint, bean sprouts, finely chopped long beans), fish crackers, kerisik ikan (fried dessicated coconut and fish - though I couldn't taste fish in the kerisik in this one), and fried chicken. It is usually served with budu (fermented anchovy sauce) and chilli water (birds eye chillies blended with vinegar, lime juice). It is a traditional food from Kelantan, one of the eastern states in Malaysia. 

From my observations, Kelantanese food are usually sweeter, is spicy, has more emphasis on fish and seafood for protein, and has more raw vegetables / salad. Kelantan borders Thailand, so some of the food has the characteristics of Thai food (i.e. salad, level of sweetness in the food).

The ulam, fried chicken and nasi bunga telang (butterfly pea flower rice, the flower gives the rice a distinctive blue colour) mixed well together with the kerisik, budu and chilli sauce. What I find interesting about nasi kerabu besides the blue hue rice, is the ulam. While it is commonplace for people in Western cultures to eat salad and raw foods, it is not the case in the Malaysian culture. Most vege dishes are cooked. My Chinese MIL refuses to eat anything raw (except fruits) because in the Chinese culture, eating raw foods can disrupt the yin/yang harmony and uncooked foods are not clean as there are no heating process to kill any germs that may be present in the food. Nasi kerabu is one of the few dishes which combines cooked hot food with a raw vege salad.

I enjoyed our lunch here and even had the chance to practice my rusty Bahasa Malaysia with the owner who took my order at the counter. He is a friendly and humble man who probably had no idea how much it meant to me that day to eat a traditional east Malaysian food and speaking BM to a fellow Malaysian. Just like home.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Princess Theatre

I only recently discovered the joys of the Harry Potter book series, nearly 30 years after the first book was published. Better late than never, right? At least I did not have to suffer the suspense of waiting between books. The books are so easy to read, but captivating and so addictive. Once I finished the first one, I immediately read the second and so forth. I needed to have a little bit of a pause between the last three books, so that I can read other books and be wowed again by the writing style and the plot of Harry Potter. Also, selfishly I did not want it to end and drawing it out gave me time to cope with the inevitable. 

When we bought tickets to watch Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the theatre, I thought that it would be nowhere as good as the books. Despite it being a different medium, and different story (it is not even written by JK Rowling), I felt it could not live up to the Harry Potter franchise. After all, I did prefer the books over the movies. But boy, was I proven wrong!

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is one of the most entertaining and exciting plays I have been to. It is a condensed version of the original, which spanned 2 days. The story is about Harry's son so it is almost like a continuation of the series where we saw Harry advanced each school year, and now all grown up with a family of his own. It addresses inclusivity (ever wondered if students in the Slytherin houses struggles with depression, for all the bad press Slytherins get?) and the guilt and struggles of parenthood. 

The special effects of the play is superb, what with wands that flashes fire, dementors dangling from the ceiling close to the audience, a swimming pool onstage, trapeze work and transfiguration. I thought I was watching a magic show instead of a play, it was that good! 

We were seated in the first level of the circle so had a bird's eye view of the whole stage and came very close to the dangling dementors during the play. For $75 per ticket, it was a great price and I have Gaz to thank for that. He bought the tickets during a rare promotion, and did all the research to find the best seating area. If not for him, I would not have the privilege of attending half the events I go to. 

The play goes for 3.5 hours but is already a condensed version of the original which went for 2.5 hours over two days. It is a play that is worthwhile to watch, and rewatch. I am quite positive I would still enjoy watching it the second time. 

Cafe Brontos, Boronia

We visited Cafe Brontos in Boronia the other day while dropping by the library nearby. There used to be a couple of restaurants we liked a few years ago, but over time and Covid, they have closed down. One was Bert's Cafe, whose shop now looks like an art installation of wood roasted rubber ducks. The other was Lai Good Taste, which made the best Japanese tofu and mince meat dish which transported me back to Malaysia. Sadly, it closed down during Covid. The shop is now Cafe Brontos, which serves burgers and western style food.

The menu at Brontos is big and has something for everyone. There are very reasonably priced wraps and sandwiches, big breakfasts, burgers, chicken packs and main meals. The menu is decorated with Flinstones characters, from which the cafe drew its inspiration. I like the coziness of the American diner style of the place, and the good thing it is doing by raising funds for MND. 

We were only after a quick lunch so we ordered the Cuban sandwich ($12.50) and Caesar Wrap ($9.50).  

The Cuban sandwich had pulled pork, ham, cheese and pickle with mustard sauce on turkish bread.

I loved my Caesar wrap, which had crispy chicken, croutons, cheese, lettuce, egg and mayo. Maybe I have been living in the dark ages like the Flinstones but I haven't eaten a Caesar salad in a wrap before. The croutons were crispy toast but if they were sized a little smaller and there was bacon in the wrap it would be exactly like a Caesar salad which I love so much. The wrap is a healthier version (not as much mayo and no bacon) so I could eat more of it.

The restaurant is clean, and the waitpersons are very friendly. Although I subsequently read about long wait times in reviews on Google, our food and drinks arrived very quickly. This is a nice cafe spend a weekend afternoon or morning at, sipping coffee and watching the cars go by or chatting with friends. The only drawback is the location which is removed from the main shops in Boronia Junction but it is not too far to walk to from the Junction and there are parking nearby.

Open Air Series at District Docklands

Happy New Year 2023! May it be a good and happy year ahead for everyone, less wars and conflict, but peace and good spirit all around. 

To celebrate the second weekend of the new year, we went to District Docklands for some shopping, food and fun. We also enjoyed the free Open Air Series where performers sang and played instruments, DJ providing lots of great music for the crowd. During one of the performance, we saw an enthusiastic young man show off his dancing prowess while everyone else including us, watched him and enjoyed the music on the sidelines. He was so brave, he made me think about the saying 'Dance like it is your last day on earth' (or something like that). The man was just enjoying the music and was not afraid to let it show, which I found very inspiring. 

While we were there, we participated in the pub trivia quiz. There were 3 rounds of 8 questions on movies, general knowledge and music. We came in first by the second round but my dismal knowledge in music dragged us down to the fifth place by the end of the third round. Nevertheless, all participants won an hour's worth of arcade game play at Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq. 

Archie Brothers is located in the District shopping centre. The arcade has so many exciting games including dodgem cars (yes, bumper cars!) shooting games, motor racing game, air hockey, VR game, claw machines, even an antique Street Fighter game. It was seriously the most fun I have had in a long time. My favourite was a driving game which threw me up and down in the air with every bump in the road or every clash with another car in the game. It even came with a seatbelt, in fact the motion would not start without the seatbelt fastened. Each game costs around $2.50 so I would easily have spent $80 for an hour's play without the voucher we received for free. Thanks, Archie Brothers!

For food, there are a few pop up food stalls and a bar, but there are many permanent restaurants and cafes in the area as well. The entertainment is around the Hoyts end of the centre, where you can find Subway, Gold Leaf restaurant, KFC, Miss Ping's Thai, Krabby crab boil, Carl's Jnr, Urban Brewery etc. 

District Docklands Open Air Series will be on from 2-8pm for the next 3 Saturdays in Jan 23.