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?