Yes, in case you didn’t know, I’m back from the land Down Under with reluctance. And here marks the start of a massive day-by-day account of my two weeks in Australia…I really did not want to come home!

Even though we left on Saturday morning, we actually left Leeds on the Friday – we were booked into the Holiday Inn for the one night as we had to be at Heathrow at 6.30 in the am. Yawwn. We flew with Ethiad this time, and the flight was super long as expected, but fairly uneventful. Well, other than the two-hour delay in Abu Dhabi, which meant that we had to have our CNY eve dinner (the MOST important meal in the Chinese lunar calender) at the local Burger King! Shockers! We had the mushroom swiss – something common in Malaysia’s burger king but not in the UK. How odd.

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Upon landing in Melbourne, more chaos ensued. The line for Customs literally snaked around all the luggage claim carousels – omg, about 100 times worse than the bad name given to American customs. It was total shambles – I would suggest people to try not to fly into Melbourne from abroad it is so bad. I specifically made a point not to bring any food to shorten my wait time, and yet it took me about ONE HOUR from the moment I retrieved my luggage to when I actually walked out of the airport. Geeze. It was so long that Benny (my chauffer for the night) actually hung out at the airport arcade with his shooting games. God.

We arrived at Bens & Mags’ home clutching a 7-11 slurpee that I insisted on getting on the way (the UK does not have the 7-11 franchise, so sue me). Bacon showered and immediately hit the sack whilst I sat there chewing the fat with mags and snacking on roast pork and other leftovers. Mags’ sis & mom were visiting from Malaysia as well – if it wasn’t for the fact that this was Mag, I would have most definately insisted on not interfering and moving to a hotel! As it was, she one of my oldest and closest friend and if there were someone’s family that I would treat like my own, it would be hers. So it was Mag, Bens, the kids, mom, sis, me & bacon….all squeezed in their three bedroomed. They sacrificed the guest bedroom for me & bacon, whilst bens was banished to the study and everyone else squeezed into the master bedroom! Now, if this is not what you call a friend, I don’t know what is!

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On the second day, me & bacon went off to the city after polishing off the super delicious congee that Mags’ sister cooked up for breakfast with dried scallops, dried mussels and leftover roast chicken. We walked around abit, getting to know the city again. The last time we were here I just literally followed my brother around blindly…this time around we had to recognize landmarks ect to ensure we don’t get lost. Melbourne is very similarly built to an American city – all organised straight lines and 90 degree corners. The only difference would be the number of alleyways – especially those only accessible by foot. And they are where all the best restaurants are. Yuummz

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We met up with Vivian for lunch – one of the regular commentator/reader of this blog that I had been chatting with for a few years now. It was wonderful meeting her at last, and she brought us to this little gem of a shanghainese restaurant – Hutong Dumpling Bar. What a lovely name, don’t you think?

Vivian ordered for us, as I had no idea what I wanted other than xiao loong bao (shanghainese dumplings, which I can’t seem to get good ones in the UK). She also ordered the pan-fried version of the dumplings, a fried noodle dish and fried rice cakes ,traditionally eaten during Chinese New Year

xiao loong baos – very delish and delicate. Mm mm good.

fried dumplings. Similar to the xiao loong baos, the skin on this was slightly thicker, but inside the lovely stock that seeped out of the stuffing is maintained.

Fried noodles. I did not catch the actual name of this dish (vivian?) but it was yummy. Bacon loved this.

fried rice cakes. very delicate flavours, it tempers the flavours of the other dishes that we had.

Vivian even kindly picked up the bill (this tourist is unashamed)…wahh! Here’s a picture of us outside the restaurant…everybody say hi Vivian!

You would think after all that food we would be too full to eat anything else? NO YOU ARE SO WRONG. After walking with Vivian towards her office, we then went to Koko Black. Koko Black is a semi-famous chocolate bar, with glowing recommendation from quite a few people but similarly a number of detractors as well. From the outside, it looks really good and posh, with quite a few people lining up to purchase the handmade chocolates that they produce.

We went for the Summer Spoil for two:

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And this was what it contained…

ps: bacon not included. heehee.

Chocolate ice cream, chocolate mousse, chocolate pieces, chocolate cake, shortbread and two iced chocolates.

Okay, I am going to be honest here. I side with the detractors…THIS IS NOT VERY GOOD AT ALL! The chocolate simply tasted of poor quality chocolate, somewhat like Malaysian chocolate where you just know that the cocoa mass is low and poor quality milk is used. I guess if this was your first visit to a ‘chocolate boutique’ then maybe the whole experience would be interesting, but there are way better chocolate boutiques in Australia (they seem to be a nation of chocolate & coffee lovers -my sort of country!) that you shouldn’t really be wasting stomach space in koko black.

Still, to each their own, Koko Black has its own large fan base – I’m just not one of them. I did get comments that Koko Black’s quality had deterioted – maybe it did used to be fabulous. Just imagine – I did not even finish any of it, and it wasn’t because we were full.

By the time me & bacon polished this off, we could hardly walk, and had to explore Melbourne city very, very slowly…whilst waiting for bens to finish work so we could sneak off for a drink. We had some Kronenburg (in Australia, yeah I know)….and had to head home on the train after one as the family were waiting for us for dinner. I know – food – AGAIN! Gaaah!

This time around it was in Boxhill, the massive asian community suburb in Melbourne about 30 mins train ride away. Situated literally just behind the complex where the train station was located, it was easy for us to walk and meet Mags and the rest of the family there.

Bens did all the ordering, putting up with my pathetic request for pho – the lovely vietnamese beef marrow soup noodle. Mm mm good – little did I know this was going to be the FIRST and the LAST time I had pho in this trip! It’s so good I can have it everyday, but other food unfortunately beckons….Anyway, moving on, Benny also ordered a number of other dishes:

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Sugarcane with fish paste. Interesting intrepretation of the classic vietnamese dish – fish paste moulded on a stick of sugar cane and grilled, served like a satay. This version seems to have fried the fish cake instead, and sliced. The lovely sweetness of the sugar cane contrasted appropriately with the savoury fish cake – yums.

Curried clams. This was the first time I encountered this dish – and it was divine, especially when you dip into the curry with fried bread (mantau).

Vietnamese cold platter. I think this was meant to be a starter, basically a selection of vietnamese ham drizzled with nuoc cham.

Fried ginger fish stew. This feels, looks and taste like one of the ‘tai chow’ dishes that you can get in Hong Kong or Malaysia. Deepfried fish steaks covered in ginger/cornstarch/oyster sauce gravy, this had a taste of home to it. Not too sure what is it’s official name though!

And last but not least – I’ve missed you so much – fried kangkung (water convolulous). A vegetable that is common in Malaysia, this dish is not common at all in the UK, and I had missed it dearly. Sigh. Benny and I have very similar tastebuds, can you tell?

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After that massive food feed, it was definately a challenge to stuff us all in their family saloon car – imagine this, six adults, two toddlers, one Toyota. OMG. It’s like the whole village have been stuffed in the car and we looked like a bunch of illegal immigrants. Hilarious. We headed home , and continued the TVB serial marathon. HAHAHA I KNOW. A marathon session of chinese serials in Australia.

A very good and tiring first day, but it was definately great to meet the little one at last and gasp at how much Joel had grown in the past two years….so tall and skinny, no longer the chubby little dumpling of a baby that I knew! I already miss my friends and their little family…

Contacts

Hu Tong Dumpling Bar(03) 9650 8128
CBD, 14-16 Market Ln
Melbourne

Koko Black
Shop 4 Royal Arcade, 335 Bourke Street,
Melbourne, VIC 3000 – (03) 9639 8911

An An Vietnamese RestaurantAddress: 598 Station Street ,Box Hill
Melbourne, VIC.
Tel: 03 9898 8992

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