Ice mocha

Whilst in Melbourne, I headed over to Brother Baba Budan since a friend said it was a nice little place with good coffee.

Brother Baba Budan

While I was sitting there waiting for my ice mocha, several groups of office people came in to order their usual coffee, and then there were small different clusters of people sitting at the big table by the window catching up, reading a magazine or just plain ol’ people watching.

Some cakes/pastries available

Another thing I like about the place was the music they played there. It made me never want to leave and/or steal their playlist.

Busy busy

Service was quick and really friendly. Coffee was good, atmosphere was good. All’s good. Haha. It seems to serve mainly as a coffee place than a brunch, brunch place though, they only had a small collection of cakes/pastries to choose from. And there wasn’t many seats. Most of the people who dropped by the cafe whilst I was there ordered a coffee-to-go. It can get pretty crowded, I was lucky to get a seat (without having to pull one down from the ceiling).

Salmon don!

I was told that the price for Salmon don has gone up. But it is so, so yummy, words cannot describe! Haha. Basically, everything in the bowl is salmon. All sorts of salmon. Raw salmon, seared salmon, teriyaki salmon etc. Yums.

Another friend tried their teriyaki chicken don, and he said it was good. So I am starting to thinking that almost anything from there would taste good. But if I were to return there again, I’d be so torn as to whether I should have a salmon don again or to try something else. Decisions!

Sash & I at Paparich

Here’s picture of Sash & I to end this really short post.

Photo credits go to Gohlini!

Our Melbourne List: Here

Cheeky rascal

Mrs Parmas is a micro brewery which also specialises in Parmagiana’s. Parmagiana’s are possibly Australia’s favorite pub meal. We originally wanted to go somewhere else, but because we were in Melbourne over the Easter weekend, a lot of places were closed, so we headed over to Mrs Parma’s instead, since we knew for sure that they were open.

Bubbly beers

Order up

Mrs Parma’s has a whole range of beers which they rotate about on tap. Head up to the bar, describe to the bartender what sort of beer you like (light, dry etc) and they’ll recommend you something, take a taste and then decide which beer you would like to have for the night.

Sash with a bottle that was resting on our table telling you about beer

The place fills up really quick, probably a good idea to head over early. When we got there we had to wait for a little bit for a table. But it wasn’t really a long wait. Plus the staff were really patient and helpful during the wait.

Meatball parma

Another thing we had to order, other than their beers, were their parmas. Note of caution, their parmas are huge.

Mexican

Sash and I shared a portion and we couldn’t finish it. But it was yummy with all the cheesy goodness. Mmm…

Salad and chips come with their parmas

A burger

Another friend ordered a burger, which according to him was pretty good too.

Noms

All photo credits go to Gohlini!

Tomyum!

One of the many things I like to order at Thai places is tomyum and some sort of curry. We headed over to Ying Thai 2 during one of our nights in Melbourne. We’ve heard many things about the place and about how good the food is. But recently we’ve also heard that the food there is no longer as good as before. But this, I will never know because I’ve never been there before their standard started to deteriorate.

Sash and Gohlini

Gohlini took time out of her busy schedule to have dinner for us. And she was way more enthusiastic about completing and taking photos of food for our Melbourne List of places to eat at.

Green curry

Other than green curry and tomyum, we also had crispy pork skin, which was something that Gohlini insisted that we try. And it was good! Although I didn’t get a picture of it because lighting was so bad, everything turned out blurry and dark. Everything was gone from the table pretty quick. So I guess that means the food is still yummy!

For the longest time I wondered why the place was called Ying Thai 2, I asked around and no one knew if there was a Ying Thai 1. Well guys, there is a Ying Thai 1. I accidentally found it the following day whilst walking down a street looking for one of the cafes on our list. Haha.

Maxim's

The Melbourne trip started out in full force. It was mainly a catch up trip for Sash, as she has a couple of friends in Melbourne. And I… kinda, I guess just made new friends while I was there. Haha.

Egg tarts

Some of the things I take for granted before leaving Singapore, one of them are egg tarts. It is so common, and so easily accessible in Singapore, that really, I didn’t really appreciate them that much. When I was in Singapore, I don’t go… ‘I want to eat egg tarts.’ Now, when I see egg tarts in Australia, I’m all… ‘Omg, EGG TARTS!’.

My family and I had a massive overload of egg tarts (amongst other things) many years back when we visited family in Hong Kong. They were so enthusiastic about bringing us about for Dim Sum (at like, 6~7am in the morning, zzz), feeding us with anything we mentioned in passing that we liked (one of which was egg tarts, mentioned by my cousin, which she later regretted because we started having egg tarts at every single meal). When we got back to Singapore, we avoided Dim Sum (aka. yumcha in Australia) for several years. We only just got back to having Dim Sum again these past few years.

Noms

The egg tart was good, pastry nice and light. It wasn’t sickeningly sweet, it was at the just-nice level, which was good. Or bad. Depending. I just like really sweet stuff in general. I honestly, preferred their egg tarts to Breadtop’s. I get so confused, I always want to call it Breadtalk (what it’s known as in Singapore).

Sash also picked up a sausage roll, which was okay. It tasted like any other sausage roll. Hmm.

Shoes?

We found DL, who was with a friend and on a massive shopping spree. The amount of shopping bags he had… goodness.

Getting new shoes

Sash wanted to get a photo of DL shopping because… well, DL never shops. She always sees him in the same clothes. It’s kinda like a cycle.

Heh

You can’t see my eyes, but I’ve recently trimmed my fringe so my eyes can be seen again now! Hehe.

Fraus

We are back from Melbourne! And we totally failed to complete our Melbourne List. We had like what… 20 places on our list and we only managed to covered 8, maybe? Not even half the list. And who said we could finish it huh? Huh? HUH? Who was being snide at me for claiming that we couldn’t finish the list because there were too many and that I was just being negative (I was really just being realistic)? Huh?! Sigh. I blame you, Sash, for failing to wake up and get a moving! Tsk tsk.

Anyway, kicking off our Melbourne ‘Let’s get fat’ List with Fraus! Fraus is known for their crepes, so that was the main thing we were aiming for whilst we were there. The one that we’ve heard raves about, was the smoke salmon one.

Yum!

We were kinda groggy from the 8~9 hour drive from Adelaide to Melbourne, and it was our first meal of the day (we had travelled through the night).

When we got there, their little blackboards claimed that we should try their award winning pies as well.

Beef pie

Smoked salmon crepe

So Sash and I got a smoked salmon and a beef pie to share so that we could taste a little bit of both. The pie was alright, it was really super fantastic and worth shouting about. Like, the next time I return to Melbourne again, it wouldn’t be on the list of things that I would like to most definitely have again. The smoke salmon crepe on the other hand, was really yummy, and I thought worth the money as well spent since they really pile up your plate, and half a portion of it was enough to fill me up. Think the both of us had trouble finishing all the crepe, but we managed to finish the rest of the ingredients.

Sash & her cousin

We also caught up with Sash’s cousin, who kindly lent me her myki to tram about Melbourne. Thank you! I hope you had fun in Sydney with your friends

DL

And also DL! Your picture turned out blurry What a waste, I thought this was a really nice picture of you.

Kebab

Continuing where we left off on our Adelaide list, next up is Lawash Bakery! Although it’s known as Lavash Bakery on Urbanspoon, we were a little confused.

The spread

It was one of those nights, where we didn’t feel like cooking at home, so we headed out. There were 3 of us, so we decided, why not order three different meats to try, right? Wrong, we struggled to finish everything. It may not look all that filling, but really, it is.

The three meats were chicken, beef and tikka (I think). The most popular one amongst the 3 of us was the beef/tikka. Basically, what I think you’re suppose to do is… Take a little bit of meat, place it in the bread, put some of the tzatziki sauce, some veggies, tear the bread off and pop it into your mouth. Yums. I loved the tzatziki sauce and just kept piling it on. Because the kebabs tasted so good, we guessed that the yiros there must be just as good too. Might return there again to try. Hmmm.

Birdsnest & baklava pastries

An article online wrote to try their birdsnest pastry. Since we were all so full from dinner, we took the dessert pastries back home with us. It’s really sweet, just the way I like my desserts. Hehe. We all thought both the birdsnest and baklava tasted the same, the only difference was their appearance. But tasty nonetheless!

Anyway, here’s the list. I doubt we’d be able to cover all of them… but we’ll try.

Breakfast

1. Mart 130
2. Deadman’s Espresso
3. Crafternoon Cafe
4. Earls Canteen
5. Proud Mary’s
6. 3 Bags Full
7. Brother Baba Budan

Lunch/Dinner

1. Seamstress
2. Sushi Ten
3. Izakaya Den
4. Sushi Burger
5. Huxtaburger
6. Greasy Joes
7. Mrs Parmas
8. Ying Thai 2
9. My Mexican Cousin

Misc

1. Baker D.Chirico
2. Vonhaus
3. Maxim’s eggtarts
4. Fraus

I’ve even organised them to breakfast, lunch/dinner and miscellaneous places! According to Sash, that’s dedication. I love my food. It’s even colour-coded and everything on our Google Docs file. Hehehe.

Last update: 26 May 2012

The Stunned Mullet

The Stunned Mullet was one of the many places on our list. Fish & chips is one of the most popular and common foods that you’ll find in Australia. They even have awards for the best fish & chips in town, and Stunned Mullet has won the Best Fish & Chips award for 3 years in a row.

Fish & chips while the sun sets?

At first we were like, how good can fish & chips get? It’s just deep fried fish, but really, there is a difference. The shop started getting really busy when we got there. And after tasting the fish, we knew why. The batter they used for the fish was really yummy, and if it weren’t for the line that was starting to form after we got our order, JTWW would’ve gotten another fish for himself.

Fish!

We took one of their take away menus, which came with a little magnet so that it could go on your fridge. It has been decided that the next time we head over for fish & chips, we’d call up and then drive down to pick it up to minimise waiting time since they can get pretty busy!

Arriba Grill

If you don’t already know, Sash and I are trying to make our way through our ‘Let’s get fat’ list, which is a list of food place we would like to visit over the span of this year in Adelaide.

Checking one of them off our list — Arriba Grill.

It’s a place to get yummilious burritos. Burritos bigger than my face, and way to big to fit in my mouth. It was a messy experience.

My burrito

Sash's burrito

The concept is similar of that of Subway sandwiches, you go up to the counter, tell them what you want, point, point, point, and it’s served to you on a plate. But it was our first time there, we had no idea how it works, so another way of ordering (and I think it’s their preferred way if there’s a line forming), is to pick up one of their menu slips with little check boxes. It has different columns asking what would you like in your burrito. Would you like a burrito wrap (white or wheat) or a bowl, what would salsa would you like (mild, medium, hot, etc), what ingredients would you like in it (beans or rice etc), what meat would you like (beef, chicken, pork or beans for vegetarians), sour cream, veggies, cheese…. the list goes on. So you just tick off what you’d like in yours, hand it over to the staff at the counter and wait for your name to be called. Easy peasy.

Slowly making my way through the burrito

Slowly...

I felt like I needed to unhinge my jaw to fit the whole thing in my mouth. I got a wheat wrap, beans, lettuce, cheese, medium heat salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and beef. I might have left something out, I’m not sure. But it was packed with deliciousness! And it’s making me hungry writing about it now.

Colourful layers

We are definitely making another trip back there again with Hills, because she’s been talking about wanting to have some Mexican food in awhile. I think she’d like it.

Sash’s blog post on this place here (click).