Another Melbourne weekend Escape :)

I'm in LOVE with Melbourne!! The foods, the places, the people, except the weather ;P

I went for a weekend escape with the Hubby months ago, he said its an early bday gift for me, he would be willing to go to alll the brunch places that I picked hihihi...

We went by Bus, yes that was sooo tiring, its just that that time was the cheapest option we have just for a weekend getaway. Once we arrived Melb, without further ado, we took Uber and went to my fave Suburbs, Fitzroy! Home of the many yummy foods and cozy cafes.

First stop is to Sir Charles for their Salmon benedict and also Colourful Waffles that everyone have on their table!

Salmon Benedict - Sriracha Hollaise, Panko Crumbed egg, Smoked Salmon Rillette, Baby Spinach Spinach and Burnt chilli on Roti. Very highly recommended~~! Couldnt describe it with words, just amazingly delish

$19

Eton Mess waffle - Belgian waffle, Cripsy Meringue, berries, Jelly Tip Ice cream and marshmallow. Picture perfect? yes. Taste wise, a bit disappointed ;P To be honest, I'm not a fan of waffle with meringue, all the elements are pretty dry even though they topped it with a scoop of ice cream. Probably custard or honey would help with the overall texture :)

$17

Ordered the Cronuts too which was a bit dry and i thought it would be full of flavs since their is mango coconut and passionfruit in the description. But another let down for me :(

By this time, we were a bit full and decided to check out Lune Croissant. The queue was ridiculous and the rain started to pour! So we forget about it and went to Breakfast thieves. The hubby ordered a hot chocky and I tried their new dessert on the menu.

Babe in Black Forest - Brioche French Toast served with 53.5% Dark Chocolate soil, Mandarin Curd, Vanilla mascarpone, Maraschino Cherry & Candied Bacon.

IMO it was good but not great. Love the bacon anda gain the french toast was too dry for me, need a but something like honey or maple syrup :P

$20

Almost straight after this, we went to Mile End Bagel. It was an unplanned visit. We were too full to have lunch at Rice Paper Scissor so we decided to walk around in Fitzroy to digest the foods. But apparently, we were stopped by the crowds in this place that sells varieties of bagels! And so we dropped by and give it a try.

We ordered the Double Bacon, Cream Cheese and maple syrup drizzle on a Poppy Seed Bagel. It was delicious especially when served warm and fresh! It is a definitely must visit in Fitzroy and hence the queue~!

$14

My second visit to Rice Paper Scissor and this time I get to bring the Hubby to try the awesomeness of the foods here! We got the Pork Belly, Lamb ribs, Bossam and Wagyu Beef. Nomz!!

$30/pp

We end our eating journey in Fitzroy and back to the City to get some rest before more foods adventures ;P

Dinner time comes fast and we went to this Hutong Dumpling Place in Chinatown as recommended by our Uber Driver which apparently is a foodie too! And I did see alot of post from Hutong Dumpling when I was doing my research to Melbie hihihi..

Had the Xiao Long bao, The spicy Dumpling and Pan Fried Dumpling. The place was packed with people but luckily, a table for two is not a problem anywhere! Dumpling were fresh and fillings were generous. It was delish! :)

Second day, went to QV market as usual to have some snacks and coffee. Planned to eat at Auction Room but again the queue was out of my head! so yea, just got their coffee. It was pretty good!

Finally, went to Baba Sus in Glen Iris.
Ordered the Green Tea Latte which is very milky and has a good Matcha flavs!

And also my fave combo of all timeee -- Watermelon and Coconut Shakes! Refreshing and soo much goodness in it!

$7

The cafe is famous for their HongKong Egg Waffle - Vanilla Custard, Berry Compote, Green Tea Ice cream and Pistachio Praline. Fluffy middle and crispy edges, i love it! The berry compote do much better than usual redbean greentea combo for me. Generous custard too! Overall, Impressive :)

Japanese Cabbage and Corn Fritter, Its like Okonomiyaki Fritter hihi :) It was lovely, very generously portioned but I recommend sharing this dish since it was hugee! Adding bacon and Poached egg to Okonomiyaki is a great idea~!!

$17

From Baba Sus, we drove all the way to Lux Bite in South Yarra. Got their Matcha Opera and Kuma Dessert. Love the greentea but not so much on the Kuma. The banana flavour was strong in it but another strong flav - caramel. Its kinda contrasting each other out! :( 

Since I didn't get to try Lune, Mr.P recommended Agathe's Croissant, so we rushed to South Melbourne Market to get some. Luckily, they still have heaps of the Original Croissant which what I was looking forrr ~~ I wasn't expecting the croisasnt to be so flakyy and still so very good even after they are almost close! Went to melb again not long after that, tried Lune but prefer Agathe much betterrr!! and no queue -- ^^

We went to Ma brown for dinner, but I didnt took photo since as usual we only ordered the quail and that time I had a bad service experience there that I did made a complain to their Insta >.>

So for dessert, visited Milk Cow! They got heaps of toppings on a creamy vanilla ice cream :) I thought it was good but a bit pricey for the taste.

That ends my second day and on the last day, the usual rituals everytime I visited Melb. I gotta visit Manchester Press for their Bagels and Coffee! Got the MP Club Sandwich and the Pulled pork :) I still think reuben rachel is the best hihihi :)

That concludes my weekend escape to Melb! I got another post of My recent Melb trip which hopefully will be up soon :)

Melbourne Culinary 2.3

Last day in Melb and we're trying to get the most out of it.. First stop is Hammer and Tongs cause I heard from one of my foodie that they got the best Soft Shell crab burger he's ever had and I'm on the quest to proof his testament ;p

When we arrived, the place was pretty empty since it was a weekday. The waiter told us that it was the first day of their new menu. My sis was warning me that we will be their lab rat for the menu and it might not be perfect or even delish.

Was waiting for quite awhile for the foods to come. We saw the Soft shell crab burger sitting out on the kitchen bench for atleast a good 15-20mins! My sis was saying I hope it is not for us. But unfortunately it does! The crab was too dry by then and it was cold >.< I can see that the flavs are good but sorry to say the service wasn't the best and I'm disappointed since hammer tong has been in my "wanted to go" list in Melb ;(

This new dish is their Steak with bone marrow something, couldn't remember. THe beef was cold, chewy and can't see any bone marrow lol. Dont know wht to say ...

The Peach Melba though was amazing! I think they changed their presentation on plate. It doesn't look like this anymore.

After that breakkie, we finally made it to Rice Paper Scissor. Made a booking for five and they have a rule that if you dine with more than 4 people, we have to choose 5 dishes from their set menu. It also came to a surprise that they're actually don't serve rice here! It's too bad cause their dishes are so good eaten with rice! It cost us $29/$39 pp.

The portions were so generous and all of us were satisfied by the taste! So we got the Balinese ROast Duck, Sticky Pork Belly, BBQ Lamb Ribs Mekong Inspired, Crispy Barramundi salad and BBQ King Prawns. My fave would be the pork and lamb! A friend told me their fried chicken is pretty good too. So in my next visit! definitely order that.

Before we head to the airport. As usual, we need to make several stops to buy some foods to go :) Our only 2 destinations as always will be Gyutan Don from Menya and this cute yummy lil buns from Nam Loong. There are 2 Nam Loong on the same street. One is a proper chinese restaurant and the other one is this little place selling all kind of buns and some local chinese foods! Their buns average price is $1.20. I highly recommend the Black Sesame Bun, Egg yolk Custard and the Chicken Bun!

So that's conclude my culinary trip this time. I will still be back to explore more brunch spots and the must eat Asian place in around Melbourne :)

Melbourne Culinary 2.2

Third day in Melbournee.. Queuing for Hardware Societe.. My sis and I was expecting a pretty average foods since our brunch venture yesterday..

The queue was pretty long cause there were 4 of us.. But trust me, it was worth it!
I got their Matcha Latte which I think was superb.. It wasn't too sweet and it got that Tea bitterness to it.

$4.50

This dish was the special of the day. I don't think they even have it on the menu. It was an amazing Black Forest Fried Brioche !! Comes with Coconut cream cheese, dessicated coconut, cherry compote and chocolate sauce. What not to love about this dish especially when the brioche were perfectly fluffy and chewyyy yumm ~~

The must get when you visited Hardware Societe is their Famous Baked Eggs. They got several choice from the veggie option, chorizo or duck. We definitely choose the chorizo (DEUX)! I usually am not a fan of baked eggs but this one is not tomatoey and not to wet! It just sooo good!

$18

We also got the Crispy Pork Belly with bacon and potato hash and spiced apple relish. It wasn't great but anything with pork belly is legit for me ;P

$23.50

Another amazing dish here is the Salmon Millefeuille :) What a fancy name haha. Confit salmon, Salmon Tartar, chives creme fraiche, pickled zucchini, asparagus, salmon pearls and poached eggs. One word. YUM. Must try!

$25

Got the Lobster Benedict as well.. It was alright..

$25

After feasting in Hardware, we went to La Belle Miette for their macarons and bought a range of flavours.. I don't think Im a macarons person cause I've tried many diff macarons but none has yet to make me wanna buy for seconds. Except the popcorn macarons by Le Maison in Medan (Indonesia)!
These babies here are good, don't get me wrong, it's just Macaron is not my thing ;P

For lunch, Mom wanted to have PHO24 so we went! The broth of the pho was flavoursome :) I usually find pho broth is bland but this one I love, especially with the chilli addition! Dad got the rice pork but it's not good according to him. My suggestion, stick with the pho ;p

For dinner, we went to Rice Paper Scissor but got rejected since their seating session are very tight.. So we went to this Italian place in Lygon st. It was so bad >.< Despite the friendly waitress, the foods took too long that we almost go out from the place and the flavs were too average!

After that we went to Stokers as always a must every time we visited Melb :)
Got the Almond with maple syrup pancake which is a simpler version of the rest in the menu.

And the Maha Banana Flambe Pancake! Awzzuuummm ~~

That's pretty much my third day in Melbourne :))

Melbourne Culinary 2.1

Second Day in Melbie.. started with breakfast in Industry Beans which is located in Fitzroy. An interesting area with heaps of cool Graffiti covering almost all the walls here.. !

Personally loves the design place itself! we were hoping to get the outdoor seating as the lighting is better but it was too full even at 9:30am! So we got ourselves a table near the entrance..

The dish here are veryy prettyyyy but I think taste wise is just okay.. Its just personal preference though and maybe I ordered the wrong dish..

Coffee Garden below comprise of Coffee Custard Pudding, Coffee caviar, cold drip gel, chocolate soil pistachio sponge and tulle. My mom and sis loves this one. The coffee caviar is the one that impressed me and yeah maybe cause im not a fan of coffee, I don't really like it.

$14

Love the Steel Cut Oats! Lavender Mango, Coconut yoghurt, crumble and freeze dried fruit. A simpler dish that works well with the combinations I think.. :)

$16

Green Papaya and Peanut Crusted Egg with Blue Swimmer Crab (optional)! Love this one, as usual my fave papaya salad done right with just the right tanginess of the nahm jim sauce and the crusted egg are just yummm. What I dont like is the blue swimmer crab in the salad, which we ordered because mom loves them hihi...

$25

Overall, I think the foods are very well priced, the Asian inspired menu is inviting, I might come back to try our their other dishes! The Shanklish Omelette even though sounds ordinary is actually an interesting one as it went through to the table next to us! :)

After a hearty breakkie, we went to Victoria market and as usual got the Donut and this time we actually have some nibbles along the way.. We had a late lunch in Chin Chin, thinking it won't be busy after lunch hour which was around 2PM. We still had to wait for quite a bit.

The place can accommodate a lot of crowd with 2 levels dining area. The basement has the bar-dim-light atmosphere (bottom photo below) and the upper area is more to a casual dining.

Even though we were full from the snacking in QV market, the taste of the foods here in Chin Chin still impressed us to the max! We got an option to do A la carte or an option to let them choose a number of their popular dishes so we can try a bit of everything. We choose the a la carte.

Went with the Butter Chicken Curry - Caramelised Sticky Pork with Chilli Vinegar - Crispy Baramundi & Green apple salad with cripsy pork - Grain Fed Wagyu sirloin with Jungle curry Paste. I take back my words that there's no good thai restaurant in Melb!

I remembered someone told me Chin chin is exxy and the foods are so so. From there onwards, I never ever will take anyone's words regarding food taste cause in general, taste is just personal and diff people will have diff likings :) The foods here are awesome. My family loves them and is proven by the never ending queue ;P The flavours in each of every dish are different from other Thai place. A good different though. I think you should at least try out Chin Chin if u ever visited Melb.

From that late lunch, we were toooo very fuull! Went back to the apartment for a bit then I asked my sis whether we're doin Huxtaburger that day. She said yes and so we go! A short stop to huxta before our dinner appointment with a family friend. Huxta have 3 different locations if I'm not wrong.. I went to the one in Collin St (CBD). The place is hidden in an alley.. NOt a surprise, it's melb afterall. everything are hidden in a laneway..

We got the THEO which is Huxtaburger with double patty, double cheese and Bacon! The only reason why we visited this place is because one of our friends claimed that the burger is better than Bar Luca's. First bite of the burger, literaaalllyyy brought me to Maccas's Beef burger taste >.< What we do love is the BUN!! It's awesomeeee.. fluffy and crispy. Just right for what a burger bun should be according to me and sis.

$14

Another stop before our main dinner in Chinatown is Crazy Wings. I know we got crazy wings too in Sydney but trust me the level of chilli for the crazy wings are wayyyy different! One small bite can literally squeeze your tears out. My dad took a bit, throw it out almost instantly and still got his mouth burnt with the spiciness!

This is only to try out your chilli tolerance and I guess just for the fun of it. Not for taste or pleasure at all hahah!

After the dinner in one of the Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, we weren't that full (wasn't good but really crowded, don't know why!) so My bro and I went to Gami Chicken as our Melb friends said it is better that Arisun's Soy chicken!

The Original fried chicken was good but the soy, seriouslyyyy cannot even be compared to Arisun. haha! I supposed Syd still got the best KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) whatsoever said by Melbournian hohooh..

Overall the second in Melb I concluded that Industry beans serves great coffee, Chin Chin is a must visit, Gami chicken MEh.