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. 

Mine was the tamarind soda

Maybe my brain has turned into mushroom or cotton wool because I couldn't find the photos of the El Salvadorian food I tried when I wanted to blog the other day. Today, however as I was scrolling through the photos, they are there!

This dish was fried yucca and it was yum. I have never tried it before this, technically all the food are new to me.


This was apparently El Salvador's most notable dish - pupusa with cheese and jalapeno fillings. Separately, not together. As in one has chilli filling, the other jalapeno.

Each had two pupusa.. so these were mine :D

We had another dish, ceviche which I totally forgot to take a photo of, and the meal was completed with desserts from bakery next door. I bought an empanada.

So here you go, a blog post on some Latin America food before my brain turn into cotton wool again..


Side note: Is it the weekend yet? *sigh*

Source: Here

I initially planned to blog before today on this El Salvadorian food that my friend brought me to try in Los Latinos, Maidstone, a suburb in Melbourne. For some strange reason, I can't find the photos I took. They were nowhere to be found, not on the laptop, phone nor my backup HDD. So...no post :/

Today, however, is a good day and deserve to a post. Passed the paper I did in April. 2 down, 2 more to go. Time for food celebration... hahaha


Side note: Now... is it Friday yet? Grin. 

This was only a two day event and was wayyy back in January. Tickets were not sold at entrance or at the venue, but available online. I missed this twice because by the time I found out about the event it was already too late. Being the good kiasu Asian, I decided to put a reminder on my phone calendar to remind myself when the ticket started on sale... so I was there at Brickvention Australia 2016.

This event was held at the Royal Exhibition Building, a very beautiful building and there is no way you can miss it.

Some flowers at the garden outside of the building

Inside of the building

To start off, a little history on Lego.


Photos were encouraged in this exhibition, so this is a very photo loaded post.


There were a lot of projects on displayed, some were by kids and some adult. I think there were also competition with age grouping as I could see some had a "1", "2" or "3" tag on their display description board. The general display area were divided in rows, the middle one usually are bigger project. One of my favourite was a project displayed in the middle row, it was a very big one with moving trains, buildings of different area.



There was a section on Melbourne CBD, specifically Little Collins Street and it was nostalgic to see the places I frequent and walked passed with friends.

The good old Irish Times

As you round the exhibit, there were bits of Japanese garden and big patch of garden/greenery.


I like it that details like these were included. Cute :P

For the life of me, I cannot quite identify the one of the bottom left.

Then of course there were large "transportation" models - vessel, aeroplane and trucks.

These trucks were mobile, controlled by remote control.

It was also a happy place for Star Wars fans...






If Star Wars don't rock your boat, heaps of cartoon characters to keep you happy too.

Err... Does Simpson count as cartoon character?

Or Avengers... or Harry Potter... or anime...even The Big Bang Theory. Lol.



 

 Ok, last one...


Even though the one in 2016 has passed, pretty sure it will return in 2017 and the tickets usually started to be on sale in October the year before... probably will be the same again ;)


Side note: Rainy day - best kind of day to do nothing and stay home!