Tina's Noodles and 1000 Bread, Swanston St CBD

I came across 1000 Bread bakery on Swanston Street after a dinner one day and was captivated by the insta-worthy looking breads. The shop is tiny and there is no doubt that you will get into someone's way while browsing or picking up a baked good or two. 

I bought their specialty cube croissant ($8.80) and almond and chocolate croissant stick ($6.80) (no picture). The cube croissant is quite a novelty and makes me wonder if it is not a copy of the Italian cornetto (translates to croissant) from Farmacia del Cambio. The Italian bakery is famous for their sphere shaped cornettos and also makes them in cube shape. They have been on youtube showing the work that goes into making these wonderful creations. The amount of butter that goes into each piece of dough makes for the wonderful thousand layers (not literally) that is so deliciously fragrant to consume. 

Although 1000 bread labels their cube creation as a croissant, it is more like a loaf of bread with a harder texture and limited buttery fragrance. I can describe it as 80% bread and 20% croissant. 

There are at least 3 different types of cube croissant, like strawberry custard (which is the one I bought), matcha cream and blueberry custard. Each was decorated beautifully. The strawberry had nut sprinkles and edible flowers. The matcha came with half a stick of matcha Kit Kat lookalike. Very camera friendly although my photographing skills had let it down.. 

The cube is filled with custard and cream on the inside as the picture above would show. 

I also bought the almond flake and chocolate stick. It looked like a big Peppero stick but was chewy rather than crispy (it is bread after all). There were generous sprinkling of almond flakes but nearly not enough chocolate coating (only half stick)

I was actually on Swanston St for dinner at Tina's Noodles. It had been several years since I last visited. My go to is the lamb rib in their signature spicy soup ($18.80). Hot, numbing and potent are the right words to describe this noodle soup! I accidentally bit into a Szechuan peppercorn that rendered my whole tongue and mouth into numbness for a minute or two, a side effect tolerated for the thrill of eating something good!

The rice noodles were pleasantly chewy, the lamb ribs falling off the bone but not nearly as big or generous in portion as pre Covid. The portion is now just nice for 1 person, previously it was a struggle to finish especially in an hour on a warm day. 

My friend and I were there for an early dinner and it was already well patronised at that early hour. Perhaps everyone had the idea to dine early to avoid the crowd.

Besides noodles, Tina's also serve dumplings and snacks. We ordered the pork and chive dumplings ($17.80 for 12 pieces) to share. The flavour and size was standard and similar to what one would be able to taste in a good suburban dumpling restaurant so the price is on the higher side. This is perhaps understandably so due to their location in the city and the brand. 

Dipped in black vinegar, spiced oil and soy sauce, the dumplings take on a tangy and salty flavour. It is recommended to use the sauces to enhance the flavour of the dumplings.

 

Makan, Collins St CBD

Family and friends are like jewels, so precious and colourful. They brighten up our lives and bring joy to our hearts. I was lucky to celebrate an occasion recently with a friend whom I have known for over a decade. They took me to Makan, an upscale Indonesian restaurant on Collins Street for lunch. 

It is difficult to retain friends, the ebbs and flows of life's motions leads us further from friends and casts us asunder. I hope we never lose our friendship NP. 

We ordered Sapi and Ikan rice sets ($27 each). The price is steep for a rice set but there are many different ingredients on each plate and they are each full of flavour. For sure, there is no skimping on the ingredients and quality!

For the Sapi set (left), there is beef rendang, chicken ribs, egg balado, gado gado, crackers, sambal and rice. The beef rendang melts in the mouth and the chicken ribs were delicious.

All deep fried foods taste good but the chicken ribs were fried and seasoned well and added some good texture to the dish. 

The Ikan set (right) came with a piece of fried barramundi topped with chilli jam, 2 pieces of tempeh, green beans, egg balado, crackers, sambal and rice. Eating fish always made me feel healthy so this was the more enjoyable dish for me between the two. 

The restaurant is owned by sisters Tasia and Grasia who won MKR some years back. They have a vibrant personality which is reflected in the decor and the food in the restaurant. Besides rice sets, there are main dishes like fried duck ($38) and roasted lamb ribs ($34) that appeals to my taste buds. 
 

Pika Sushi, Ferntree Gully

I stumbled on a new blog recently, written by a retired academic. In their blog, they are always doing new things and learning new skills to keep the brain active. They have set goals for instance to learn a new sport and a new musical instrument, read a new book, enter writing competitions, learn a new language, travel and so on. Reading the blog, I realise that it is easy to be stagnant in my everyday life because of work commitments and so on. Many a times have I said 'Oh, my brain hurts!' because it is easier to stick to the known and the familiar. So my new year resolution and it is only 2 more months to 2025 (shudder) can be to learn something new every month. Curiosity and learning is incidentally a motto at my work and it should be employed in everyday life too. So today, I will write a haiku about my visit to a newly opened restaurant in Ferntree Gully called Pika Sushi. We happened to stumble on this restaurant while in the area. How apt to use a poetry style that originated in Japan as an ode to a Japanese restaurant! 

Haiku has three lines, the first line has 5 syllables, the next with 7 syllables and the last with 5 syllables. 

Saturday arvo

Ramen, bento, sushi rolls

At Pika Sushi

We ordered their black garlic tonkotsu ramen (above) $20.90 that is not the typical black garlic ramen. It did not come with the customary black looking oil but it tasted of fragrant garlic in the soup. I could taste the difference between the black garlic and normal tonkotsu broth but visually, there was no difference. The ramen is accompanied by half an onsen egg, thinly sliced black fungus, a slice of tender and fatty chashu seared on the surface to add some smokiness, spring onions and seaweed slices. The portion is small, but free refills of noodles are offered. Two portions of noodles is just nice for me. The set also came with endamame, a slice of egg tamago and my favourite, grape jelly.

There are 7 choices of Teishoku set or Rice bento sets, all of which has chicken as the main dish. Our table ordered the spicy chicken yakiniku set and chicken katsu mentai set (both $17.90). Both sets came with miso soup, side fresh leaf salad, seaweed salad, a slice of egg tamago and grape jelly. 

The portion size of both chicken dishes is on the smaller side but offset by the many side dishes on the tray. I would not order the spicy yakiniku chicken because of the small cubes of chicken and taste made it an average dish.

The chicken katsu had a mentai (cod roe) sauce drizzled liberally over it. The chicken itself looked like frozen premade product. The batter or the crumbing of the chicken was quite hard but the chicken meat was bouncy on the inside. 

The best dish was the chicken karaage that appears both in the ramen and rice sets. Our table ordered the shoyu ramen that came with kaarage chicken. 

Oh in praise of the chicken! The chicken pieces were perfectly seasoned and fried, it was crispy though the batter was not thick. There were a generous portion of the kaarage chicken, about 7-8 pieces of chicken, some submerged in the soup so it appears less in the picture (right).

The shoyu broth was soy based but it is rich compared to other ramen places that offers only a clear diluted soy sauce broth. Look at the broth here, it is looks almost similar to the tonkotsu ramen broth. 

To share, we ordered 2 sushi rolls. The restaurant had a soft opening from 21-28th October so we got 1 roll for free. Each roll was $4.30 or 8.90 for two during dinner sessions. We ordered the Prawn Avocado Mayo and Raw Salmon Avocado. 

The prawn roll was made from small prawns that looked like frozen prawns. They were bouncy but a tad small because they fell out of the roll easily. 

The rice was too mushy but seasoned well. Each roll is prepared on order for dine in patrons so one can be assured that they are getting fresh rolls. I do miss the crispiness of fresh seaweed on rolls though. 

There is a loyalty card system where one can get 1 roll for free after 15 rolls. There is even a noticeboard where one can pin their loyalty cards on in the store so they do not forfeit their stamp if they forget their loyalty card at home.

We visited during their soft opening launch so had the good fortune to enjoy a BOGOF offer with the rice and ramen sets and also buy two get 1 free offer with the sushi rolls. 

I love how  clean and tidy the store is. There is a self service station for cutlery, water and napkins. There is also a toy box, colouring kits for children to occupy themselves making the store a family friendly restaurant. 

There is a 5% surcharge on Saturdays, 10% on Sundays. There is also a surcharge for public holidays and card payments. 

Overseas visitors, Monash Uni music concert, a surprise lunch and a curious find

People are interesting, there are so many different kinds of people. They all process information differently, express emotions differently. That is why psychology was one the most frequently taken up subject in university (from my survey among my limited circle of friends). Everyone wants to be understood and to understand. But not everyone understands. As a result, there are estrangement, disagreements, detachment. Why all this spill, you ask? Just get to the crux of the story, right? Ok, ok.. Someone in the family disagrees with how a cousin was treating their sick spouse by travelling overseas to visit their daughter and having a family holiday. Mind you, the cousin is also sick so it could well be their last opportunity to travel long distance. So the person did not want to meet the cousin who had travelled 8 hours to Australia, nor speak to them unless they called first. The person also forbade anyone else in the family to meet with the cousin and was spreading news of the perceived ill treatment of their spouse to other extended family members. Who is right, who is wrong? Is there a right or wrong? Let those who is without sin cast the first stone. 

We do not know, nor do we want to be involved. We did meet with the cousin, and had a chinwag at a nearby restaurant. They liked the assortment of cakes we got - a coffee eclair, berry tart, quintessential Australian vanilla slice and lemon curd croissant ($37.80)

Earlier, we were at Monash University's Day of Play where students from the Music Faculty performed various concerts. There were acapella singing, instrument ensembles, digital music. I learnt about sound bathing during acapella singing where the students moved around the stage keeping the same notes. It was different good, and made me think that people should experiment with music like that more often. 

There was also a stage performance where students read out lyrics of a song in a theatrical voice, and sang the rest. The final song where everyone sang was U2's song Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of. It was really meaningful to me, because during the week I was feeling really down. There are some things happening in the background with family, some putting down and guilt tripping exercise (not my own) and some matters that seem so 'end of the road'. Even when I am typing this, I cannot stop the tears that readily spring to my eyes. 

I'm not afraid
Of anything in this world
There's nothing you can throw at me
That I haven't already heard

I'm just trying to find
A decent melody
A song that I can sing
In my own company

I never thought you were a fool
But darling, look at you (Ooh)
You gotta stand up straight, carry your own weight
These tears are going nowhere baby

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And now you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it

I will not forsake
The colors that you bring
The nights you filled with fireworks
They left you with nothing

I am still enchanted
By the light you brought to me
I listen through your ears
Through your eyes I can see

You are such a fool
To worry like you do. Oh
I know it's tough
And you can never get enough
Of what you don't really need now
My, oh my

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
Oh love, look at you now

You've got yourself stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it

I was unconscious, half asleep
The water is warm 'til you discover how deep
I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall
It's a long way down, to nothing at all

You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it

And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if your way should falter
Along the stony paths

And if, and if the night runs over
And if, the day won't last
And if your way should falter
Along this stony paths

It's just a moment
This time will pass

It was actually a song Bono wrote in response to his good friend Michael Hutchence's suicide. Having been touched by a suicide (Gary's friend and best man at our wedding), it added another layer of meaning when I heard that song today.

This was one of the exhibits in the Monash Performing Arts auditorium. I loved the performances by the students, they really are so talented and innovative. This was one of the exhibits in the Monash Performing Arts auditorium. I loved the performances by the students, they really are so talented and innovative. 

Later, we stumbled on a new sushi place called Pika Sushi. They were having a soft launch and we were happy to receive a BOGOF meal! 

Just to add another light note to this post.. this is a curious find.. two bottles of a creamy pasta sauce but the contents of one was white, and another yellowy green. Would you buy the jar with the yellow green creamy sauce?

 

Thai Tables, Bayswater

 

I keep forgetting stuff these days. It's like now you see it, then you don't! I would try to remember what it is I wanted to tell Gaz when I see him, and half a minute later it is gone from my memory.

So when I suggested going to Thai Tables, it was a case of deja vu. On the website, takeaway prices are reasonable at $16 per dish but did I get the shock of the day when the dine in menu shows $23 for the same dish! I could swear I had been through the shock before this but just did not recall so I'm writing it on the blog to serve as a reminder to myself.

Dine in prices are almost 50% dearer but there are no pots and pans to wash after the meal, no tables to clear and one can enjoy the table service that is not from my scowling face after a hard day's work and commute from the office.

 We ordered duck curry and stir fried beef with chilli and basil. The portion size was reasonable. There were lots of vegetables so it felt healthy. Taste wise, it was delicious.

But, I would like to keep to takeaway in the future unless it was dining for a leisurely dinner or with friends.

Shaun Tan book signing, Mediterranean Wholesalers and Foodie, Glen Waverley

Whenever we go somewhere, I always like to surf the menus, and the supermarket range. I would go to interesting looking restaurants, peer at the menu on the window and imagine what I would order if we were to visit that restaurant. Stomach space is limited, so of course visiting every restaurant in the area on the same day is impossible so the next best thing is to look at the interesting dishes on the menu of each restaurant! With the supermarkets, I love to explore and buy new unusual items to eat at home. Especially in specialty markets, it is like visiting a foreign country without leaving Australia. 

 

A new grocery store opened in the Glen Centro, called Foodie. There is also one in Hughesdale, which I have not visited before. The one in Glen Waverley looked like an ordinary grocery store selling dried goods and fresh vegetables at the front, but it is really quite expansive. It has several food stalls selling mixed rice dishes, Japanese street food like yakitori and sushi, Hong Kong hawker food like roast meats on rice. The prices are on par with restaurants and cafes but it has a food court feel to the dining experience.

It also has a fishmonger, complete with tanks of live fish and butchers selling chicken, beef including premium meats like wagyu and pork. 

On the same day, we were in Brunswick so I stopped by Mediterranean Wholesalers for a browse. It has such a wide range of dried pasta that all the types of pasta in Italy must have been represented in the store! It also has a variety of biscuits and sweet snacks that I could not resist and bought a pack of chocolate wafer biscuits. I also bought some porcini bouillon that perfumed my whole bag with wonderful savoury smell of the fragrant mushroom. 

We visited Beinart Gallery to see Shaun Tan, an Australian artist who had won an Oscar for an animated film. He has drawn a number of books, The Arrival is my favourite and strikes a chord with me. Read it if you have not! Later, we went to A1 Bakery for some pizza on incredibly delicious Lebanese bread, drizzled with olive oil. It was light and tasty. 

The Foundry is a new open space park on Frith St near Victoria Street. It was built on the old Fletcher Jones factory and was previously a foundry. It has a half basketball court, an outdoor ping pong table, a BBQ and beautiful architecture. This new park had just opened a month ago in September and looked marvelous. It seemed like a good use of previous industrial space, but I wished there were accessible green space rather than fenced up tree saplings and paved areas. 

 

Peking Duck House, Bentleigh East

Yumcha lovers will be pleased to find there is a AYCE yum cha at Peking Duck House, Centre Road Bentleigh East. It is available every weekend for $38.80 pp plus $2.50 pp for hot tea. There is credit card payment surcharge and no discount on cash payments. Yum cha is available from 12 to 3pm and there is no time limit. Enter through the imposing chinese doors and be prepared for a bursting stomach! There are over 40 items on the menu, too many to count on your fingers (pun intended).

Ordering is easy, just mark what you like to eat and how many serves, on the piece of menu and pencil provided. You can request for the menu again once you are ready for the next round of orders.

Some serves are kept small, like this fried calamari. There is only 6 pieces per serve which is good if you want to try other dishes.

Each order is steamed at request so it takes some time before they are served. I find the lag time annoying but probably no different to ordinary ala carte yum cha restaurants.

Quality is on par with other yum cha restaurants and worth trying out. Just a little too thick with the steamed dimsum dough. Not much msg was used, because I did not feel thirsty after the meal. That was refreshing!

The price is a few dollars cheaper than China Bar and the attraction would be the made to order format (which is also the biggest annoyance if you have the AYCE game plan in your head) and the large selection of authentic Cantonese yumcha dishes.

A Garden, Yumcha, A Movie and the Beach

Saturday was a very wet day and the sun only managed to show its face in the morning. When we were at the Knox Community Gardens for their 40th birthday celebrations that started at 10am, the sun was out and shining. It would have been what the plants would love, rain yesterday and sunny today. Two ingredients for speedy growth!

Look at the different coloured poppies, nodding in the breeze.

Some plots were used for planting flower gardens, some for vegetables or both. So delicious looking at plants timing with fruits and edible goodies.

It was cloudy when we walked into Peking Duck House in Bentleigh East for yumcha at 12pm. Every weekend, there is an AYCE yumcha for $38.80 pp, plus $2.50 pp for tea which makes it $41.30 AYCE

We ordered a mix of fried and steamed dimsum. Each dish is made to order so it takes a while for dishes to be served. 

The skin in most steamed dimsum was thick, but the filling was wholesome and has a decent amount of prawn meat. The xiu long bao was very good, juicy and was not oily. I broke one and only managed the second one passably.

6 pieces of fried calamari per serve. It helped preserve stomach space for other dishes.

Prawn balls and sesame toast. The fried dim sum we ordered were delicious, especially the first dish that made it to our table, prawn beancurd roll. Hmm.. was it because we were hungry?

Boiled lettuce in oyster sauce. The oyster sauce is more starchy soy than oyster but good to have a balance of greens with our meal!

Ahh.. cannot forget the quintessential yumcha dish, Phoenix Claws in black bean sauce. It was very tender but did not taste too much of black beans. 

Classic banana fritter with ice cream. 

We ordered 17 dishes altogether. If it was not an AYCE, it would have cost $150 upwards. 

The dishes were homemade and did not have as much msg as commercially made dimsum. It was a lovely feast and nice experience but the food took much too long to be served between dishes. 

To order, we have to tick how many plates of each dish we wanted. We ticked all that we wanted to try, 13 in the first go, only to be told that it was too many and would we like to reduce the order? We did not but it delayed our order so the next table that arrived later than us got served first. We finished all the food ordered and then more.

Sitting down in a dark place after a big lunch is not advised but that was what happened! We went to Elsternwick to Classic Cinema after lunch.

Remember Adam Elliot from Mary and Max? He has made another stop motion film called Memoirs of a Snail, 15 years later. It is about trauma, loneliness, separation, death. Gosh, it does not sound too rosy at all but eventually there is wholeness and happiness as well.

Like Mary and Max, it was a very touching movie that provoked tears from everyone. At the end of the movie, Adam and the producer were interviewed by an Age journalist. There was a question and answer session with the audience before they sped to the cinema for the same thing.

Brighton Beach was close by so we took a walk along the trail and saw splendid city views, and the jetty. There were plenty of free parking and paid parking $6.70 per hour since it was spitting. In sunnier weather it is bound to be teeming with people. There is a cafe nearby called North Point Brighton that looked like a nice place to sit and enjoy the view if only it had not just shut, at 5pm.

After the short walk and a tour of the impressive playground at the beach, went to Jalan Alor to try their latest addition to the menu. It is Claypot Yee Mee which had pork, fish balls and veges with yee mee in a claypot. For $10, you can't ask for more.

 It was a very wet day, but we had lots of fun and very full stomachs. I leave you with a quote from Adam Elliot - life can only be understood backwards, but you can only live it forward. Like a snail, we must move forward and they don't go back on their tracks.