Coffee...oh, specialty coffee!

"Coffees! Come get your coffees!"

My active imagination -> the blonde fellow in dark blue apron wrapped around his crisp, light blue collared shirt yelling to the customers passing by on the pavement from his coffee "laboratory" namely Market Lane Coffee. (Well, it did look like one!)

Melbourne is famous for specialty coffee. There's great coffee everywhere I went. It was another morning hovering like an empty soul in QV Market, in search for good coffee to perk me up. I remember reading an article from The Star paper about the coffees of Australia(Melbourne was in it!) right after I got home from my trip.

We had found ourselves again at Market Lane. This tiny coffe house with whitewashed walls, was introduced by Chanchan's friend, Penny. Located on the same row as McDonald's at QV Market.

Chanchan was queueing up for our "dunno--how-many"-th coffee for the week. Two days before I had ordered a cappuccino from Market Lane. This time, I had a short macchiato. I would say it was quite accidental that I bought something different from what I am used to. Well, I am a coffee lover but not an expert!

So, I placed an order for a macchiato, and the guy pipped, "Short?" Since I had no idea how it tastes like drinking a short - I had gone along with it because it seeemed to be a good idea to try something different in a foreign city. He mixed and stirred, and then my healthy dose of coffee was ready in a white paper cup. Beautiful chocolatey-looking brew...aaahhh...Took a whiff, and then a sip to jolt me awake with its aroma; my eyes twinkling and I found myself smiling, ahaha! As I was a little baffled as to why the macchiato was much, much, much more bitter than cappuccino without sugar, I plopped a teaspoonful of brown sugar into the beautiful mixture, which was a HUGE mistake. OHHHh!! Brown sugar turned my macchiato into a sourish concoction! Bad move.

Market Lane... good coffee!

Market Lane coffee "lab".  Slowly enjoyed with breakfast bought from QV Market.

Oh, do remember - do not repeat my mistake of mixing sugar into macchiato. It does not work that way.  Ouch!


A couple of other coffee stands/coffee houses we went to were:

• Di Bella Coffee stand at Queen Victoria Market
• Seven Seeds at Berkeley Street (near Elizabeth Street)

Each regular sized coffee cost me around AUD3.80 or AUD4..not bad at all!

No photos of Seven Seeds :( but I managed to salvage a couple of photos of coffee at Di Bella's :D

Creamy and foamy, yum yum yummm

Getting around Melbourne with Wifi and 3G service

A modern backpacker in a city should always move with the times. Gone are the days when we backpack, holding a paper map in our hands. The advantages of strolling in a foreign city with a smartphone or a tablet are abundant. I like Melbourne for the free WiFi connections I could get in the cafes and restaurants. But when I am walking on the street, I could be as lost as newbie in town.

My friend had earlier recommended a handy application for my iPhone and iPad if we are in search of gastronomic experiences. You could download UrbanSpoon, which gives you the best reviews of eateries in Melbourne CBD. Using this, we managed to make our way to Koko Black, a popular chocolate cafe which also sells rich Belgian chocolate (oh, the chocolatey luxury!) at Lygon Street which was many, many stones' throw away from our apartment. Before getting a 3G prepaid package, we made good use of the Wi-Fi in the apartment to snapshot a map to Koko Black :)

There are a few mobile network operators in the city, some of the common ones; Optus, Telstra, Vodafone. I was looking for an operator which gives me 24/7 connection even out of town when I move southwards, near the suburban and coastal areas on the following week. After googling for reviews prior to landing in Australia, I opted for Telstra. Pretty cheap for sharing among 3 people on a trip as it was only AUD30. With 3G, we had more options on our hands - where to eat, who to call for emergencies, hiring a car, making last minute accomodation bookings, people contacting me...uhhh very long story (stay tuned for more).

Surfed the net and made calls locally using this prepaid package.

Very affordable package, ain't it? Connection was satisfactory too.

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Koko Black could also be found at QV Market by the way. BUT nothing beats a nice walk along Lygon Street though, passing by Argyle Park and admiring all the Victorian-styled buildings on our way there.

Opening hours of Koko Black

The interior of Koko Black on Lygon Street looked inviting and cosy. We were seated next to the barista's coffee (or chocolate??) counter and served by a very friendly waiter.

Below is a breakdown of the costs of our first meal of the day. (Yes, we didn't have proper breakfast!)

• Chocolate florentines - 5.50
• Hot belgian chocolate - 6
• Soy dark chocolate - 6
• Chocolate affogato - 6

Totalling up to AUD 23.50

Very rich chocolate content for the chocolate lover!

Before leaving, I even purchased 2 small blocks of Belgian chocolate to take home. I had never imagined they could create a chocolate recipe with ginger!

Day 1 in Melbourne

Checking into our apartment at Wills Street around 11am, we were amazed at how strong and cold the wind was, howling through the street where we were to stay. We had booked an apartment room that was rented out by a Taiwanese couple. The apartment was not as big as I had imagined. Unlocking the door lead to a tiny, squarish living room, which was cluttered with belongings of another tenant who was in Melbourne for a working holiday. A musky herbal smell pervaded the air (speaking of which, we were caught offguard later that weekend, where the tenant cooked Korean BBQ beef!)  Stuffy as it may look and smell, the place was quite clean.

The tenant's sleeping area was "sealed" with sliding bedspreads on clothesline, dividing the living room into two. Looking right, was the kitchen. Two long counters faced each other, one where you cook and store your ingredients and the other, where you chop and dice, and do the washing. Walking past the living room and the kitchen led us to 2 bedrooms and the washroom. The master bedroom was to be occupied by another tenant. Peering into the washroom, I saw plenty of toiletries and a bathtub. Lucky for us, we could use their shampoo and they also had a hairdryer!

Given the rate of less than AUD35 per night, the place felt adequately comfortable albeit the space being slightly narrow. We hopped onto the beds and started unpacking. Looking out of the tall glass windows which were adorned with wooden shutters, it was a delight to be able to see Queen Victoria Market. Scores of cars parked along it. The market is famous for being there since 1878, and if you could've guessed, it is also a tourist-y area which sells lots and lots of goodies :)

The view from the room window....

The skies were overcast that noon, but the sun was HOT. Sunlight was glaring into our room. Strong wind was still howling through the cracks of the window ledge. Hmm..I found the Melbourne climate strange.

We took our rest, and by 3pm we were prepared to explore Melbourne city. The landlady was helpful in pointing out several locations we could have our dinner later. We had to depend on the map we took from the airport.

Being new in Melbourne meant, we had no idea how to navigate our way around. We had yet to apply for a local 3G service provider, so there was no Google map for me to get directions. We simply walked down the street, onto the busiest streets we could find and started looking for restaurants. There were plenty of restaurants - Italian, Greek, Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, (and Malaysian even)! We settled on a Shanghainese restaurant after much deliberation. The funny thing was, we did not realise we were on Russell Street aka Chinatown.

I had forgotten the name of that restaurant we went to. Could only remember the word "Shanghai". We ordered a (gigantic) plate of fried rice, (gigantic) plate of gyoza, "siew loong bao" - Shanghainese meat dumplings with soup filling, and chinese tea. When our food came, we couldn't help noticing the hearty portion and could not stop ourselves making comments on the sizes...again.

The restaurant had a charming interior.  Grey stone brickwalls. Old chinese lanterns hanging from the ceiling. Wooden door frames, wooden pillars, chairs and tables. There were more of white people than Asians, gripping the wooden chopsticks awkwardly and picking on their food. The table next to us was having red wine over scrumptious Chinese platter.  Ahh... we don't usually do that at home unless it is somebody's wedding or to celebrate some big occasion. Interesting, I thought.

Snapped a photo to commemorate my first dinner in Melbourne.

A glass panel separated our table from the kitchen. Dumpling-making in the process!

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Melbourne is walkable. Getting lost was quite easy too. Since the city was built in grids, each intersection has at least two signage. The same signage repeated on every intersection. To put it logically, we could not take 3 left turns nor 3 right turns lest we wanted to end up in the same place again. Chanchan had forgotten it wasn't KL. Turning left too many times would not land us in a different location. What a pretty good walk we had that evening!

And so, that night after dinner, we were slightly lost, walking round and round the CBD before we saw Beckett Street and reached our apartment safely. The air was chilly and windy. Shops close early in Melbourne. Had nothing to do, so we slept at 8:30!

Enormous, enormous bite it is...

I had been forewarned. But somehow, sleep deprivation from boarding the night flight must have temporarily shut down some synapses in my brain, affecting my ability to recall what my friends had warned me before back home.

Right...now where was I? (Just kidding)

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The three of us took a shuttle bus on that sunny morning on a ride to Melbourne central. 

Blue skies everywhere. Waving trees in the breeze. A very English-y Indian/Punjabi bus driver who helped us with our luggage into the small metal container on wheels behind his bus, who asked us, "Aye, where arh-yoo stopping?" Ahh..a working foreigner...

We took the JetBus from Tullamarine Airport, paid AUD15 each to Beckett Street, near to where we were supposed to stay. 

Half an hour later, we were dropped off in front of Nomads backpackers, as our lodging was right opposite the road, and behind the quaint shops and apartments. My goodness, I thought to myself. This street looks right out of a scene from The Sims or SimCity! As we were a bit too early to check-in to the apartment room we booked, we had to linger for a while around the town that was quite empty. Pretty buildings, nice roads, beeping traffic lights and not many people to be seen!

Lady Luck must have been shining down on us with her spotlight that very morning. A kind old Aussie "uncle" noticed us standing there with luggage and all, had approached us and offered us some help with directions. How kind of him! Chanchan told the uncle, "We are looking for somewhere nice to sit down to have coffee!" and I had asked if he could point us out to the nearest location. The very nice Mr.-We-Did-Not-Ask-For-His-Name took us to his favourite cafe nearby for a cuppa on La Trobe Street (where we stood).

Being tired and hungry, we went straight to the counter and placed our breakfast orders. Forgetting that being Asians, we have much smaller stomachs. Looking at the purple menu behind the counter, I ordered a Raisin Toast and a Cappuccino - cost me, I think it was AUD6.40 altogether. 

Raisin toast sounded exciting! I never had raisin toast back in KL. It was either butter or kaya jam on toast. Interestingly, the cafe also had free WiFi.  Chanchan's sister and myself took the opportunity to Instagram so we could show our families and friends what we have been up to, and that we had safely reached Melbourne. While checking in online, the food came, I couldn't help but be in awe... 2 pieces of toasts sliced diagonally and arranged in a criss-cross manner. Each diagonal slice was as big as my face. And then my brain synapse suddenly rebooted from its hibernation and brought me into a momentary, swirling (exaggerated!) time lapse, back to what my friend Angie had told me. 

"Becareful when you order food because the portion is really big. You could order for sharing with your friends."

Well, what could I do then? I had no choice but to wallop at most 3 pieces of toasts. Luckily, they tasted really GOOD! Raisins and syrupy butter melted into the golden brown toast, coupled with a cup of Cappuccino served warm which was accompanied by a strawberry wafer stick for some sweetness on the tastebuds. Satisfying, really.

My breakfast in the photo doesn't look big enough. I had forgotten to pose with my toast for a face-to-toast comparison..hehehh. 

But I swear, the toast was HUGE!

Looking around, we noticed the other patrons of the cafe had bigger portions of food. As they were Australians, it wasn't a biggie to them. We even saw a man ordering a breakfast platter. That dish could feed the 3 of us for two square meals, go figure.

Ah well, having a taste of what Melbourne locals usually eat on a weekday morning was great! Although we could not finish up whatever was left on the plate, I felt happy to have tasted good coffee together with the giant raisin toast.

A food excursion to the south of KL

It was September the 24th, 2011; 6:45pm. I was late - chasing the train to Sri Petaling. Mich was waiting for me in her car wearing spanking short shorts. Myself, in a scruffy, brown long Tee I got for MYR10 in Bangkok's Platinum Mall.

Both of us had an agenda that day. To backpack to Melaka without doing any prior hotel booking in advance. Totally....pushing our luck. But, never say die right?

And so, off we zipped down in her cute and tiny Kelisa using the Alor Gajah freeway to Melaka town. Mich drove at 80-90kph. Girl talk all the way. Munched some choc. Took us 2hours. Not too bad!

Our Kelisa turned into the quaint little town of Melaka. Streets were dimly lit up. It was almost 9pm. NINE PM?! We had no idea where to stay, where to eat. And that was the start of our little adventure.

So first, we went to Jonker Street. Found a little corner to park and pay. Here's Mich doing a quick pose in front of the lovely pre-war shophouses painted in red.

While procrastinating to look for a place to stay the night, both of us walked along this street and turned into the Jonker's food and shopping avenue - the pasar malam. People and hawkers were swarming the street. Food everywhere, artisans selling their goods. Upfront there was a stage sponsored by Mamee, and there was some event going on. Live karaoke ftw!

Mich bought some "kuih bahulu" and we munched and munched till we reached Jonker88, a small kopitiam that sells Malaccan-styled noodles with a very popular ais kacang/cendol stall located right at its entrance. So we put our backpacks down, heaved a sigh of relief and ordered our food. I was itching for some cold, icy dessert and so, I joined the insanely long queue of foreigners and locals alike for a bowl of ais kacang!

After our food, we walked around the dark and quiet alleys of Jonker Street. Pubs are everywhere, people drinking quietly/noisily. Looked quite fun. I even saw a quaint little temple at the corner of an alley!

After that, we went to look for lodging. Went to the Baba House, and there was one room left with no water! Disappointed, so we walked and walked again, knocking every door that we think would offer us a place to sleep but there was none! Hence, we decided to drive out of Jonker, towards Melaka Raya.

Round and round we went near Dataran Pahlawan and we chanced upon this shophouse which has a backpacker's inn upstairs, called Samudera Backpackers inn in Melaka Raya. It was around MYR75 per night. Place was pretty clean and it is run by a Malay owner who also stays there with his family. Before going to bed, we went downstairs for some beer, basking in the warm night of Melaka town. And that was that, till we woke up the next day.

Some pic-cies of Samudera Backpacker's inn...

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The next morning's cloudy sky was drizzling. We were up by 7am, and headed out an hour later to Jonker Street again for food. Bought a full 6hour parking voucher and parked right up 1512 for a short brekkie. One convenient thing about buying parking vouchers, is that some shops do sell them. Phew! And it was just next to 1512. Businesses open late on a Sunday. We only managed to have our western platter after 9am. I quite like the otak-otak that I ordered as a side dish. It tasted a tad different, somehow.

Next, we continued on our journey to look for Kenny's Delights. According to Mich, this Nyonya eatery was opened by the Baba & Nyonya actor and it's one of the must-eat locations. And to my delight - the wooden house on stilts has vintage decor and red cloth covering round tables for family eatouts. A few families came out for lunch that Sunday. What a happy noon!

A feast for the eyes and the stomach :P

Home was beckoning to us. Full stomachs want to rest and sleep! Took us half a day to taste only a small part of Melaka. But oh well! I will be back someday =D

...and here's a memory of the いか店 we found in Osaka

This was the tiny eatery in Osaka, near Den-den town that I fell in love with.

Now, what I want you to do is, imagine yourself sitting at the bar in this izakaya, with Blues playing in the background, and dipping your wooden Japanese chopsticks into Osaka cuisine.

And hearing the lady shop owner greeting her customers, 

 (*≧▽≦) "まいど！まいど！”

Food, food and more of Osaka food

Dotombori is a long busy street that sells food, food and FOOD at night! Each building along Dotombori is unique…there’s this hotel entrance with four big pillars that are actually 4 big faces supported on 4 big feet…(go figure, I don’t know how to explain this one) and there’s one that is fashioned in the shape of a ship, the other one has a very big crab that has moving pincers and legs stuck on the front part of the shop.

Dining out pretty cheap! T'was a rate of 2.7 in 2007

Menu in an odd-pretty-intriguing eatery called Ika Tei in Osaka…was quite affordable!!! And the ambience was just nice…fusion of jazz music and chinoiserie hanging from the walls, on the bar, the seats, the ceiling….a middle aged Japanese auntie waitressing…aaaahh…

Raw discovery...hehehe

urchin meat served raw with just a dash of boiling water poured over…Yum-Yum anyone?

Popular seafood? ..the crabs

Our lunch of crabmeat and beef at Otaru was AWESOME! Although I’m not a fan of crabmeat, I could picture chanjie and beezai singing praises about the quality of crabmeat in Japan….

Twirly, curly food

Do you like sausages? I love them but I don’t know what to think when I see them curled up like this…kinda interesting, don’t you think?

And now....Discovery Dessert!

もち/mochi ice-cream (ice-cream wrapped in a mochi) is my favourite dessert in hokkaido other than the famous Hokkaido soft-cream. Loveeee it! I had so much ice-cream in Hokkaido!