Melbourne great eats and spots – part 1

okay.. this may be a biiiiiiiiiiit outdated, but I was looking through some ol’ pics and decided to post up some places to visit and famous eats in Melbourne CBD – mainly attributed to sleepygal’s visit last 2 winters ago, i.e. 2007 (yeah i know, it’s ages, but things hasnt changed! much…. )

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for those who didnt know, i have 4 besties.. and we call ourselves the gals – something that brought us through thick and thin; and also something that made our high school more memorable, exciting and fun (will introduce ‘em later). so after form 5, we split to separate paths but until today, we are still in touch and plans to be each other’s kids’ godmother (not sure how it’s gonna be yet.. lol)

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Anyway, because the 4 of us are in melbourne, sleepygal decides to pay us a visit – here’s what our adventure looks like

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Upon her arrival, we prepared a “banner” which screams sleepygal, together with our voices which ultimately caused her to walk so fast, hence the blur pic, what a WARM welcome, dont ya’ll think?   trust us to do jus that

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First things first, we brought her to eat. At approx  9–10pm at night, there’s nothing much to eat aside from chinatown food. So we brought her to a famous greek restaurant called STALACTITES which serves wraps till the late night. It is located at the corner of Lonsdale and Russell St (if you are in the city, you will not miss it because Melbourne is a friggin’ square! and they have st signs at every junction, which is a good thing too ). They are famous for their lamb wraps but I prefer their chicken ones.. *tee-hee*

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Just look for the Lebanese House Restaurant, it’s next to it. It has a cave-y interior look you wont miss it sorry there’s no close up of the food, but it is yummy! not the best you can get in town (the best is somewhere from a truck-seller) but still a taste of Greek food! oh oh don’t forget the chips!

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After a good night’s rest, we are ready for day 2! After grabbing Australian’s delicacy, SUBWAY (:p) we headed to the PIXAR exhibition held opposite the Flinders St Train Station. They always have exhibitions there, so it’s worth a visit while you’re there – it’s FREE!

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can you find Nemo??? No? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming…then *ahhh memoriess*

- From left: cycogal, sleepygal, crazygal & hypergal -

p/s: sizzlegal is missing ’cause she’s home with her family

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Yeah, we saw boo and we couldn’t resist jumping into the prohibited area to shake his hand

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Hypergal and Sleepygal showing off their stunts, can you recognize where it came from?

oh, and Melbourne’s very own Eiffel tower… *heh heh*

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btw, these pics are taken near the South Yarra river (opposite Flinder’s Train Station too); one of the only rivers in Melbourne.

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An interesting fact: Australia and New Zealand is a rather dry land, always suffering from drought. Read more here.

so when you do opt for home-stay while you’re here, one of the house rules they lay down for you is the ideal 7-minute shower max, if not they’ll either turn off the heater or just turn off the water supply completely (some even installed the shower heads with timer!)

Unlike Malaysians, we love our 30 min shower dont we????

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* a lot of things happened which is better off undisclosed :p *

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We had an early dinner due to the bad weather – as you can see, winter is all about rain, rain and rain. unfortunately melbourne’s rain is nothing compared to Malaysia’s – it’s merely drizzles, hence their water supply is minute. *shrugs, oh well

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We had our dinner that night at ITO’s, a japanese cuisine at the corner of Bourke St and Russell. It is quite a small secluded shop (just look up at the signs while you’re walking up Bourke st heading towards Exhibition St direction), the taste is okay, normal japanese food for its price, ranging from AUD$10-15, depending on what you order.

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Personally I like their unagi don hypergal decided to try their salmon, it was okay, but I prefer is semi-cooked so it’s not too dry, you can tell the waitress if your tastebuds are the same as mine sleepygal was craving for her udon at that time, and decided to go for tempura.

Overall, I think the quality of the food here is to my likings, and with its price too, it’s reasonable quality food in Melbourne CBD (unless you travel far far to the suburbs) better than the japanese here, dollar to dollar (dont lah compare to the ****/***** places)

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*p/s: there are a lot more small japanese shops around selling cheap take-aways and fast food, like the famous one: DonDon located at 321 Swanston Street OR 330 Little Lonsdale Street, MELBOURNE (they probably have more branches now).

They are like SUPER FAST at serving food, one minute you’re ordering, next minute you’re paying AND taking your food. It is NOT FUN working in there, I know because I was one of the “machines” that operates for their super duper fast food serving, paid at AUD$8.50 per hour.

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Nonetheless, the food is good la..for its price (AUD$ 5.50-7) – so you’ll always see a queue of working people during lunch hour, be it asian or whites or blacks.

damn cheap for its quality actually… especially their SASHIMI DON. i dont have the pic to show you all but I can assure you that it’s fresh, the salmon fish comes in every morning and the boss goes to each branch to slice up the fish, to be arranged in a nice rose-shaped pattern on top of the rice.

oh, oh, love their chicken teriyaki too

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There are seriously so man japanese cuisine in Melbourne, one can never get sick of. One of the must-try claimed-Japanese-but-originated-from-HongKong dessert shop is ICHIPAN’s crepes located at Melbourne Central (near BOOST)

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they have all sorts of flavours, all sorts of combination; from bananas to green tea ice cream to nutella sauce. Mix and match your favourite crepes (hot/cold) when you’re there!

p/s: that’s my mom on the left btw

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oopsies, i got so side-tracked when I talked about food :p

Anyhoooz, sleepygal, hypergal and I ended our night with Melbourne’s most desired dessert/hangout place, none-other-than MAX BRENNER’s!!!

Max Brenner’s is a chocolate dessert place which represents THE CHOCOLATE CULTURE of all times. Read more about Max Brenner, a bald man’s love story towards chocolate here

Meanwhile, here are some pics of my experiences with the bald man. Enjoy~

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omg, i miss them so much!

- From left: the belgian waffle with sides, vanilla ice cream and strawberry.

the chocolate dip with strawberries (my fav! get to feel the true taste of the chocolate mm-mmm).

the oh-so-rich chocolate brownie (very satisfying for chocolate cravings ~yum!).

the chocolate iceshakes/smoothie on their Drink-Me trademark cup – comes in a lotta flavours e.g. banana chocolate, oreo cookie & peanut butte; all with chocolate obviously

(they also have the Hug-Me cups for hot drinks).

and the final one is special – it’s called ‘suckao‘, which I dont know why, but it’s basically milk and choco bits melted to your own liking. you get to choose which choc flava you want – dark, milk or white chocolate and then u melt it, either with addition of milk or not.

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SCRUMPTIOUS!

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Price wise – a biiiiiiiiiit pricy but heck, it’s worth a pamper once in a while Definitely a not-to-miss when you’re new in town!

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Will be back for more – stay tuned!

miss.qp

The Graham @ Port Melbourne

During my last few days in Melbourne, a very good friend of mine and her beau brought me to a fine dining restaurant in Port Melbourne, Australia.

The Graham has won a Hat from the prestigious Age Good Food Guide in every year that it has been opened. So we decided to give it a go and pamper our stomach, just for one night. It was mind-blowingly yumz, at least for me (not a frequent for fine dining)

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For entree we had the scallops and sliced beef – very fulfilling, totally opens up your appetite.

this is the Middle Eastern spiced scallops, roasted eggplant puree, saffron youhurt, mustard cress – fresh and the sauce…truly scrumptious~ love it love it. Priced around $19.50

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this dish…it’s sliced beef.. but i cannot recall the name!!! bah~  all i can remember is it meltssss in your mouth, literally, because it’s so thinly-sliced! truly a skill… a word of advice? you gotta race with time to taste the taste… price should be about $15-20 too.

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and for the mains, we had…

Slow roasted suckling pig, braised savoy cabbage and Jamon, quince jus – Priced at $34.50, this dish is very yummy; every bite you take, you hear a crunch as the skin is very very crisp and its soft tender meat warms your heart with its juiciness..a thumbs-up for its slow-roasted skin. mr.fbb was so jealous he was drooling over the pic when he first saw it. too bad he couldn’t fly all the way to Melbourne, he would think this dish is worth his flight ticket lolx

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Chargrilled ’1824′ scotch fillet, saute of winter mushrooms, red wine jus – one bite and you’re drunk. nah, jus kidding.. but after one bite, you’ll want another, it was juicy and tender and tasty and just grilled to perfection. Won’t say it’s the best, but definitely worth a try. Priced at $32.50

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Roasted lamb loin, eggplant caviar, parsnip puree, caramelised brussels sprouts – this was my choice. At first I was hesitant because I always thought lamb has a strong smell which puts me off. but this one doesn’t moreover, it is the most juiciest lamb i’ve ever had. it tasted almost like steak, one could never tell. and the puree, oh my, i think this restaurant deserves a title for making the best sauce/puree home made from fresh ingredients. Priced at $38.50 but no regrets with this one – a must try, if you’re in town.

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One thing about finding great eats in Melbourne is that you have to pay in AUD$, and when you convert, every single dish doesnt seem so yummy after all. haha but it’s a treat okay..once-in-a-while treat (i suppose =p) not thinking about our pockets, we moved on to order their dessert…which is also very very recommended. There were soooo many choices, so we decided to go for this:

Ta-dah! a ALL-in-ONE. They call it: Assiette of miniature desserts for two. so clever right! they just know we’ll have problems deciding. As everything is made from scratch, every lil’ piece of dessert is worth a try. From the most left is the dark chocolate souffle, raspberry sorbet, strawberry meringue, passionfruit curd, rhubarb, coconut crumble, vanilla ice cream and 2 homemade chocolates for the price of $27.50!

Again, it is worth the splurge…. (btw, I think their desserts differ from time to time)

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By the end of time, I was full from the stomach but was feeling really light. First and foremost, the dinner burnt a huge hole in my purse; but most importantly, it took off the stress that I had from exams (it was my last sem and my last chance!)

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xox

miss.qp

Address: corner of Graham St and Esplanade West, Port Melbourne.

Open 7 days

Restaurant: 12 – 3 lunch 6-10 for dinner
Wine Bar: Mon – Thurs from 4pm and Fri to Sun from 2pm

For enquiries, tel: (03) 9676 2566, fax: (03)9676 2466 or info@thegraham.com.au