The Cube

I have friends visiting from Singapore and there were many food opportunities. Thanks to my friends, I had the chance to visit some new places and revisit some.


Chin Chin
125 Flinders Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000

I don't usually recommend Chin Chin to friends, not because it is bad but one needs to queue to get in. No reservations allowed for a party of less than 10. My friends wanted to try so we rocked up for a late lunch past 2pm on the Saturday they arrived. As it was later than regular lunch time so we didn't have to wait. We had the $69.50 (per person) Feed Me option. It was great, they decided on the food and continue serving us till we are full.

Little Something (From top left, clockwise): Corn fritters with lettuce cups chilli jam, ginger, mint ($25.5); Kingfish sashimi lime, chilli, coconut & thai basil ($28.5); Chin Chin pork "roll ups" slow cooked pulled pork pancakes, slaw & hoisin sauce ($25.5)

Stir fry, rice & noodles - Pork & Thai basil stir fry with crispy egg & lettuce cups ($25.5)

Salad - Crispy barramundi & green apple salad caramelised pork, peanuts & chilli ($34.5)

Greens (L-R): Stir fried green beans & shredded coconut, burnt chilli & cashew sambal ($14.5); Barbequed cauliflower with curry spiced coconut cream curry leaf and chilli ($23.5)

BBQ+rotisserie: Twice cooked beef short rib shaved coconut salad & prik nahm pla ($36.5)

Curry: Green curry of white fish with apple eggplant, krachai & thai basil ($33.5)

To finish: Vietnamese iced coffee panna cotta with cashew praline

The Mill
71 Hardware Ln, Melbourne VIC 3000

We catching up with some other friends for lunch the next day on Sunday. It was meant to be brunch but I booked happily booked it for 12pm so it ended up to be more of lunch. So we had a small brunch - a BLT sandwich to share and a coffee each.




Magic Mountain Saloon
62 Little Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000

After 1/3 of BLT sandwich to tie us over to lunch, we walked over to Magic Mountain Saloon for a long lunch. It is a little different to the usual brunch fair, more like fusion Thai brunch. Little P and her husband very generously paid for our lunch.

I had the one with sticky pork sticks and shrimp rice plus dessert of Thai tea crepe cake.

From top: Sticky pork sticks, shrimp rice, shredded omelette, apple & mint salad ($19.5); "Son-in-law" eggs, daikon croquettes, cashew, kale & avocado salad ($19.5)

From top: Black sticky rice, coconut cream, roasted rhubarb pear ($12.5); Coconut & pandan tiramisu ($14.5); Thai tea crepe cake & honeycomb ($14.5)

Laurent Bakery
306 Little Collins Street, Melbourne 3006 Vic

It was Y's birthday so we had round 2 of dessert because she didn't had cake at round 1. 3 cakes to share among 6 of us.

From top left, clockwise: Concorde, Christine, Passion tart

San Telmo
14 Meyers Pl, Melbourne VIC 3000

To further celebrate Y's birthday, we had some excellent Argentinian chargrills. I really like San Telmo but it is definitely a more pricey eatery.

Tartar - O'Connor's flank tartare, egg yolk, potato crisps ($18)

Entraña - O'Connor's premium pasture fed hanger steak 300g ($42)

Cuadril - O'Connor's premium pasture fed rump cap steak 300g ($38)

Sides of charcoal roasted sweet potato, creme fraiche, almonds, lemon, dill ($12); and roasted cauliflower, charred pickled onion, manchego cream ($12)

Humberto Canale Sauvignon Blanc ($61)

L-R: Limón - Lemon sorbet, prosecco ($8); Araña - Fernet Branca ice cream, Fernet Branca syrup, coca cola ($10)

Pinchy's | Melbourne Lobster Roll
Shop 3-026 Emporium Melbourne, 287 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Y is an avid IG user and found that Pinchy is offering the foot long lobster roll so we went to try this for dinner on a Tuesday night. Y and R had just returned from Yarra Valley Wine Tasting tour that day, so we had a foot long lobster roll to share with fries and salad side.

This wasn't cheap though, priced at $35 with a small discount if you follow them on IG which YC did. I enjoyed it but not something that I would be rushing back to eat again.

Foot-long Maine to Melbourne lobster roll ($35, followed on IG $29.50) + side salad and chips

Charlie & Co Burgers
Level 3/287 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC 3000

We went to Sydney for a couple of days and this was after our return from Sydney. Y and R were travelling back to Singapore the next day on Monday and this was their last slot to shop. We took an Uber from the airport and straight to Emporium. This was another late lunch before some shopping activity.

It was named Charlie's fish burger but it was salmon the day we ordered.

At the back: Charlie's cheeseburger ($10.9); front: Charlie's fish burger ($15.9); side of onion rings ($7.5)

Super Ming
881 High St, Thornbury VIC 3071

This one was just one we randomly picked for dinner. It was ok.

Pork and prawns dumplings in chilli oil ($12)

Superming fried rice ($13)

Soy caramel eggplant ($10)

Red curry chicken ($18)

7 Apples Gelato
Emporium Melbourne, Level 3, 287 Lonsdale Street, CBD, Melbourne, VIC

This is Little P's favourite gelato joint. It is good but I usually go for one near my place instead. R and I shared 2 scoops of sorbets after our Feed Me meal in Chin Chin. Y went for dinner to catch up with her cousin.

Top: Lemon sorbet; bottom: strawberry sorbet ($7.5)

Side note: My narration on food is so non-existence. 

The least blurred compared to the other blurs...

It felt like this year is the year of visiting Sydney for me. This was also one of the those overnight work trip, a little worse compared to the previous overnight trip was a delayed flight to Sydney. This trip was in early July 2019.

I initially planned to have teishoku at Yayoi but they already had their last call by the time I got there. I "settled" for some Thai food at Chat Thai before it was next door at Westfield Pitt Street Mall. Not sure if Chat Thai were having an off day or I picked the wrong dish or simply I should have it with more rice but I find the soft shell crab in curry sauce overly salty.

I was super hungry and ordered an entree of  and main. I wanted some fresh spring rolls but they have run out so I opted for todt mun bpla (fish cakes with pickled cucumber relish) and for main, I had bpu nim padt pohng karee (stir fried crisp soft shell crab in yellow curry sauce with Chinese celery)

Todt mun bpla ($13)

Bpu nim padt pohng karee ($25)

Hotel stay was back to Swissotel Sydney - excellent as usual.



The next day was one of those full workshop but I had dinner at Movida in the airport. My colleague is not big on taking pic of her food so I didn't because we were sharing some tapas.


Side note: As of posting this, I already had another trip to Sydney! Haha. 

Rottnest Island or affectionately referred to as Rotto is a island off the coast of Western Australia (WA). It is easily (but not cheaply) accessed from Fremantle via a ferry trip. Rottnest is probably most famous for its population of quokkas, a small native marsupial. Cars are not allowed making the island a good place to cycle. If cycling isn't your thing, there are bus services running on the island.


We took a ferry by Rottnest Express to the island and got around there by bicycle. They have some deals of ferry plus bike hire that we took.




We made our own sandwiches for lunch so we didn't have to lunch at one of the restaurants and could munch or picnic where we stopped. I was in charged of transporting the food, sis had the change of clothes after swim while brother-in-law (BIL) had the kids in tow via the child trailer. We joked that we were on a working holiday. Haha.


We cycled towards the direction of Porpoise Bay. We made 2 stops. The first was a short one to use the bathroom and get some sandwiches to munch.


Second stop was at Henrietta Rocks. Henrietta Rocks just a little away from Porpoise Bay. From here, one can see a little remains of the Shark wreck that are visible above water. This barge, Shark was wrecked in 1939 and said to have drifted from Fremantle. We stopped here to have some water splashing activity.



After that, we cycled back but managed to made a quick squeeze at Mushroom Rock Lookout which is at the other side of the ferry jetty.


We returned back to Fremantle for dinner and decided on The Monk. It is a craft brewery and restaurant.


The food were really good. The least impressive one was the pizza.

Garlic and rosemary bread ($9)

Chilli mussels ($31)

Parma pizza - fresh tomato base, mozzarell, rocket, prosciutto, shaved parmesan and cherry tomatoes ($26)

Crab fettucine ($36) but they didn't have crab so was substituted with lobster

White choc pannacotta ($12)

Italian tiramisu ($11)

Side note: Don't forget the quokkas