Posts tagged 84332643
Korean Barbeque at 火爐 Hwaro, Melbourne
Sep 3rd
Monday 9 August 2010
I actually laughed at my own stupidity thinking back on how we actually find this place. Walking in the opposite direction as well as figuring out which road is which road here and there takes us more than 30 minutes of walk.
Good thing we finally found this very place that was recommended by a friend. It was our first night there in Melbourne and the first dinner we had was Korean food!
Entering the place with a low light setting where i could see that 100% of the people there were Asians(Most Koreans), a very friendly efficient staff ushered us to this very place next to this wall. The wall full of scribblings – Not something new though but i was happy reading some of the stuffs written then, some by fellow Malaysians! Lol.
As usual, there’ll be the side dishes (ban chan) served in Korean BBQ Restaurants which includes the must have Kim Chi!
(Bul-Go-Gi)Grilled Marinated Beef AUD $18.90 – 4/5
Marinated Beef Pork Ribs AUD $18.90 -4/5
Mushroom AUD $5.00 -4/5
The Pork Ribs were pretty good and the marinated beef was just awesome! Perhaps it’s the sauce that they used to marinate them, but one thing i’m sure that the meats in Melbourne taste better than the ones in Malaysia, especially the beefs!!
Of course, it all depends on how you barbeque them.
The girlfriend did barbeque some of the meat herself too, prolly better to do it yourself sometimes to get more satisfied at the end of the meal Lol.
We had a staff helping us from time to time and the meats served were just nice. <3
Oh and you noticed the mushrooms? Mushrooms are our favorites so well, we loved it!
Tofu Soup AUD 25.00 – 4/5
We both love this Tofu Soup very much. With mushrooms and lots of tofu with assorted vegetables along with some spices, this single dish had us extremely full at the end of our meals. The portion was quite big actually but we were satisfied!
Steam Rice AUD $2.00
At the end of the day, we had quite a good dining experience with great customer service provided by the staffs. The food was good and i actually like it more if compared to Daorae Korean BBQ in KL.
*Maybe i should frequent Daorae more to try out more of their available choices.
Of course, the person you’re eating with often plays quite an important role and that makes the first dinner in Melbourne memorable for me personally. =)
Would definitely go back there if i get the chance to go to Melbourne again!
Melbourne 火爐 Hwaro Korean BBQ
Address : 562, Little Bourke Street Melbourne Vic, 3000
Phone Number : 03-96425696
Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne
Aug 26th
The Queen Victoria Market (also known as the Queen Vic Markets or simply as the Queen Vic or “Vic Market”) is a major landmark in Melbourne, Australia, and at around seven hectares (17 acres) is the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere. The Market is significant to Melbourne’s culture and heritage and has been listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The Market is named after Queen Victoria who ruled the British Empire, from 1837 to 1901.
The Queen Victoria Market is the only surviving 19th century market in the Melbourne central business district. There were once three major markets in the Melbourne CBD, but two of them, the Eastern Market and Western Market, both opened before the Queen Victoria, closed in the 1960s. It also forms part of an important collection of surviving Victorian markets which includes the inner suburban Prahran Market and South Melbourne Market.
Source : Wikipedia
During my trip to Melbourne early this month, me and the girlfriend actually visited Queen Victoria Market twice. First time was just to explore the place and on the second time itself, we went there to hunt for souvenirs.
It was actually a huge open-air market with items ranging from raw food materials to clothings to fruits & vegetables and etc. If you are a chef and you love cooking, this would be a heaven to you because you can actually spend your whole day there looking and handpicking what you want.
The reason i said so is because the seafood there were so fresh and the meats are like summoning you to them and even someone like me who don’t fancy cooking would stop from time to time to just check out what have they got to offer.
On top of that, unlike the “Pasar” in Malaysia, Queen Victoria Market is really freaking clean and the smell isn’t that heavy as if you’re near a rubbish dumping site or something like that WHICH IS the case for the markets in Malaysia.
You have got to try this German Sausage there in the Market (I think there’s only one stall selling it if i’m not mistaken) which cost you like around AUD$5. Pretty delicious and juicy with the onions and sauces added together, a perfect breakfast if you ask me because i had it for breakfast the first time i was there! =D
These mini jam donuts were pretty good as well. I’ve read somewhere online that the American Doughnut Kitchen (In the form of mini van when i was there) have been serving the public at Queen Victoria Market for more than 50 years already.
With their hot, sugary jam fillings, this mini van is normally surrounded by people lining up to get their hands on the donuts. I think it’s AUD$1 for 1. Definitely a must try!
This was where we had spend most time seeking for souvenirs and of course stuffs for ourselves to bring back. Clothings, shoes, artsy items, and all sorts of stuffs can be found here and yes it’s still part of Queen Victoria Market!
It’s a beautiful place in fact and if it’s your first time visiting Melbourne, i suggest you visit Queen Victoria Market as it is like an icon for the city already where you can hunt for souvenirs at good deals!
Last but not least, let me show you a video on the place itself. A video i found on Vimeo. Enjoy! =)
Address :
Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne
Corner of Victoria and Elizabeth Streets in the Melbourne CBD
513 Elizabeth Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Trading Hours :
Tue: 6am – 2pm
Thu: 6am – 2pm
Fri: 6am – 5pm
Sat: 6am – 3pm
Sun: 9am – 4pm
(general merchandise to 4pm – weekdays)
CLOSED: Mondays, Wednesdays, Good Friday, Anzac Day, Melbourne Cup Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
Official site of Queen Victoria Market
Follow Queen Victoria Market on Twitter.
Awesome Vietnamese Beef Noodles at Mekong, Melbourne
Aug 22nd
Wednesday 11 August 2010
Our very 3rd day there in Melbourne that is. Waking up hunting for lunch under the drizzling rain on the streets of Melbourne. Mekong is one of the many food places recommended by a few friends when i was still planning on this trip.
The place was fully packed with mainly Asians and i could already smell the soup when we enter into Mekong. Only managed to find a place for ourselves beside the wall and ordered what we wanted.
Durian Smoothy – AUD $4.2
Rating – 3/5
Hot tea is available for free at every table and i really recommend you not to order any drinks and just go along with the tea if you’re on a tight budget. However if you want to order drinks, i’ve tried the Durian Smoothy and i think it’s nice. =D
Rice Paper Rolls (Chargrilled Chicken) 2pcs – AUD$4.5
Rating – 2.5/5
Don’t ask me why we ordered this but well i just think that it’s just so so only. With slices of chicken and lettuce with other ingredients, the sauce that goes along with it does not satisfy my stomach. Something is lacking i feel.
Broken Rice with Chargrilled Chicken – AUD $9
Rating – 3/5
This is what the girlfriend ordered and i tried thinking that it was just average. Nothing more i can say about it.
Beef and Beef Balls Noodles – $9.5
Rating 4.5/5
With a strong base of beef bone soup, this is one of the best food I’ve ate in Melbourne. Served with awesome juicy beef meats and beef balls, i couldn’t help but to finish it though the portion was relatively bigger than what i’ve expected! The soup was cooked pretty well and balanced where the meats are really tasty.
The chili there served little purpose though.
Anyways, in my opinion, if you were to visit Mekong in Melbourne, just order the Beef Noodles as i think that the other food available there are just average only, a few online searches would further justify why i said so.
I guess the famous personalities was there just because of that single dish only. Cheers!
Address :
Mekong 湄江牛河屋
Vietnam Original Vietnamese Rice/Noodle/Soups
241 Swanston Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Phone (03) 9663 3288
Albert Park, Melbourne
Aug 18th
Albert Park is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south from Melbourne’s central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Port Phillip. At the 2006 Census, Albert Park had a population of 5827.
The suburb is characterised by wide streets, heritage buildings, open air cafes, parks and significant stands of mature exotic trees including Canary Island Date Palm and London Planes.
Since 1996, Albert Park and Lake has been home to the Australian Grand Prix.
Source : Wikipedia
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
It was a rainy morning with no signs of sunny day that me and the girlfriend met up with Abelene and Eugene at Flinders Street Station in Melbourne. We were brought to Queen Victoria Market before heading to this beautiful park, Albert Park.
Though there isn’t any sign of the rain stopping, both me and the girlfriend were still excited and went on with the plan arriving at Albert Park with 2 loft of bread. To “communicate” with the birds!
It all started with a piece of bread by Eugene and one by one, the pigeons, swans, ducks & etc came to get their share of food.
Ya i’m sad like that where i don’t normally interact with the birds around living in Kuala Lumpur. Haha and i did have fun throwing the piece of bread out to attract the birds. We were like kids and the rain didn’t have it’s gloomy effect on us.
It was even funnier when one of the swans gave us a “gift” out of appreciation and the next thing that happen, i place a piece of bread on the awesome “gift” and the swan went on and put it in its mouth and….
Okay i’m evil. Full stop on that part aite!
Thanks to the rain, we didn’t really get to explore the park but just stayed under the umbrella walking just for a while around the area. Well yea maybe that helped in increasing the “romantic-ness” but i would love to go to the park one day again, definitely a sunny day.
Quack Quack!
ShareKuantan Trip & Ibrahim Cendol Air Putih
Aug 15th
Spending time with your loved ones are always the best thing you can do in life. The girlfriend went back to hometown during the weekend and i followed her for a short 2 days 1 night trip to Kuantan.
The last time i’ve been to Kuantan was really years ago, so long that i couldn’t really remember what i did already. It sure feels weird hanging out with her family as i don’t see them all the time and communicate with them though me and he girlfriend have been together for quite long already.
Despite the unusual quietness in me where i observe more than i talk, i had quite a good time laughing and smiling at the conversations exchanged between the girlfriend and her parents.
then, one thing i find it funny is sitting on the passenger seat rather than the driver seat where the girlfriend drove me around in her hometown with her “awesome” driving skills!!
It was quite an experience, one of which i don’t go through normally Haha.
Anyways, just this afternoon, she brought me to this awesome Cendol stall with her younger sister. The Cendol which she promotes through out the year that i’ve not try before that is.
It was a relatively small corner shop lot with like what, 30 years of experience in serving Cendol to the people in Kuantan and it was as awesome as how my girlfriend have shared all these while!! RM1.50 for a bowl of Cendol as awesome as this is really too cheap to be true.
and i ended up finishing 2 bowls of it, one Cendol Campur and one Cendol Campur Pulut. Awesome stuffs i tell you!
Oh and i had the Pulut Ikan also, simple and nice. =D
Of course, at the end of the day, it’s probably the company which made this cendol experience extra sweet lol. Sometimes i laugh thinking back at how we first started and lasted thus long together.
Crazy man!!
OH and this is her dog! As in their family dog Ruffy Haha!!
Will post more on Melbourne in the next few days, mainly on food. xD
ShareI Heart Melbourne
Aug 14th
I’m Back!!
How i wish i could stay longer at Melbourne and go to more places seeing more stuffs & etc! Yes like most people around who went to Melbourne and came back saying how awesome it is and they loved the place so much, i’m one of the most recent addition to this specific group of people who heart Melbourne.
Day 1 – A Sunny Welcome
The weather forecast actually predicted that there’ll be rain the whole week except for the weekend which i’m already back in Malaysia but on Monday itself, when we first landed at Melbourne Airport, the sun welcomed us and it was quite a warm welcome i must say with the cold winds.
The girlfriend and i didn’t really go much places except for walking around in the city and look see look see with not much of sense in direction. The green view in the city itself amaze us and had us smiling the whole day!
The highlight of the day was definitely the awesome Korean BBQ dinner we had. Well it was awesome till we started converting the currency from AUD to RM for the bill itself. LOL. Ah well it was delicious and i think i’ll blog about it in another post. =D
Day 2 – The Meetups!
In this case its meetups for the girlfriend and her friends, high school friends. And yes the weather forecast was right this time where it rained in the morning. The whole day was spent with the other couple Abelene and Eugene where we headed to Queen Victoria Market the first thing that morning.
Had German Hotdog and Donuts with Strawberry fillings for breakfast while walking in the market and seriously, that market is huge!! You can find all sort of stuffs there and the meats and vegetables looks pretty juicy as well, too bad we can’t cook… If not…
Went to Albert Park under the drizzling rain to make friends with fellow ducks, swans, pigeons & etc. The greedy flock of birds invited us while we still have bread in our hands and left when we showed some signs marking the ending of “distributing” free food session. Well it was fun!
Melbourne South was the next destination where we went to Max Brenner to have some hot drinks and there was another meetup later at Lygon Street during the evening with a few more high school mates of the girlfriend. Over more hot drinks and assorted cakes.
The Double Date continues where the 4 of us did quite a lot of stupid acts in a nearby park along Lygon Street and i wonder if the Aussies who passed by think that every Asian are as idiotic as us. Well to us, we shared laughters together in a foreign land where no one knows us Haha!
Italian Food which was quite well known at Lygon Street was the final stop of the day. Yummy stuffs!
Day 3 – Walk in the City
Once again, the weather forecast didn’t fail us as i hope so where it rain. We woke up a bit late and when we came out to the streets, it was already time for us to hunt for lunch.
Good thing that the lunch place serves nice food where we had some Vietnamese meat balls and such to keep our stomachs alive. It was quite a famous food place i believe as i see quite a lot of pictures paste on the wall with famous people in the picture.
Then, it was shopping time for the girlfriend where we met up with Asvinder, one of the girlfriend’s best friend back in high school before heading to DFO which stands for Direct Factory Outlet at South Wharf.
This wicked place sells stuffs directly from the factory which consists of brands such as Nike, Adidas, Converse to Levi’s, Cotton On and etc. Did we get a whole load of stuffs? Not really, but the things was really cheap there, if we don’t convert back to RM that is LOL
Had dinner at Red Silks in China Town @ Little Bourke Street where we met up with another friend of the girlfriend. Food at this place was just so so only. Malaysia’s Dai Chow could beat them anytime!
Day 4 – Souvenir Hunting & Up Above
It seems like God knows what we were thinking and made the day a Sunny one where we could actually enjoy the cold weather in Melbourne without getting wet. Well it was kinda the last full day at Melbourne and we haven gotten any souvenir.
So we head back to Queen Victoria Market to get the stuffs we need.
Lunch was all the way at Toorak Road where we had Chinese Si Chuan 四川 food at Dainty Sichuan 天府川菜馆. Another post will be dedicated for this aha!!
More shopping back at DFO @ South Wharf after lunch where we still failed to get loads of items, instead we headed back to put down the stuffs we bought earlier that day before heading to this beautiful place at…
Eureka Skydeck!! 88 Levels above where we could have a clear view of Melbourne City. It was a bit scary at first but soon i got used to it hehehe and oh the view was magnificent. Good thing it didn’t rain, yet.
Oh before i forgets, the McDonalds there totally rocks my socks with their Angus Burger!!! The Angus Beef was really *muah* deliciously soft and tender where it was the first time i wanted to frequent McDs in my life!! Nah the McD in Malaysia really CMI lah…. and oh Lord of the Fries!!!
Lol i better stop talking about fast food. No good!!
Haha anyways, if you’ve read every single word typed above, you’ll know how little place we’ve been to during the trip to Melbourne and of course, it ain’t enough. There were lots of place we wanted to go specifically but it was too short of a time for us to visit all those places.
Furthermore, the schedule that we had doesn’t allow us to do so where we end up frequenting the streets in the city and meeting the girlfriend’s friends.
At the end of the day, what matters most is that i could spend time with the girlfriend and travel with her for the first time.
I think this is also the first time we see each other and talk to each other face to face every single day for more than a week since we started off our relationship years ago.
Really loved the time spent with her and i wish it could be much longer then.
I miss Melbourne already and soon i’ll be missing her as well.
Love her <3
*Melbourne Next Year anyone?? I want to go to Hillsong Conference as well!! xD
Melbourne!
Aug 9th
Hohoho i’m Lord of The Fries and i’ve successfully conquered all of them, all of the fries!!! ROAR!
Haha in case you do not know yet, i’m currently in this amazing land of Kangaroos under 7 celcius which have shops selling Penang Hawker Food from Malaysia! How awesome it is you tell me!!??
Well the first thing that caught my attention was the mother nature!! The ever green wonders that had me slow down my pace getting away from my usual busy & hectic life back in Kuala Lumpur..
and the best thing of all is i’m with…
Someone that matters to me =D
Okay, i better stop saying anything more before this post become more like a lovey dovey blog post which might make some of you puke & etc LOL!
Let me just shared one picture which i took earlier when i was having my dinner. Ha!
LOL. No Comments Hor?
Okay, that’s all for now!! Till Then~
Share
