On the second day at Melbourne, Mellissa and I went to the very busy Centre Place during lunch hours for some good old fashion quick meal at a fish and chips place called BluFish. The restaurant is located between Flinders Lane and Collins in a quirky small lane packed with lunch crowd.
BluFish, serving fish, scallops, prawns, and calamari
The menu at BluFish is pretty simple, grilled fish, calamari, prawns, scallops, salmon, chips, salad, soup, and a few choices of burgers. Seats are pretty limited with only a handful of tables, a place designed for express meals or take-away, nothing more.
scallop pack and grilled fish salad
We met up with Singz and Greame, two of Mellissa’s friends at Melbourne. Singz, of course, is the daughter of Mama Wong who cooked excellent prawn mee and laksa for us in KL just a month plus ago.
For lunch, the others ordered grilled fish salad ($9.80 alternatively, with chips), while I just couldn’t resist myself with the scallop pack ($13.50).
look at the big fresh scallop!
I can’t really identify the fish used but the grilled fillet was pretty tasty and goes especially well with their special white sauce that is slightly sourish (not tartar sauce though). The potato salad and coleslaw too were quite good.
Scallop pack came with plenty of thick chips with 5 very good size deep fried scallops. The seafood were very juicy and fresh, with the sweetness of scallop sealed in the batter despite the rather straight forward method of cooking. Again, the white sauce fits perfectly. I had no complains.
BluFish is only open for lunch, close on Sundays.
Address:
BluFish
16, Centre Pl,
Melbourne VIC 3000,
Australia
GPS: -37.816624,144.96578
Tel: 03-9663 0738
Hello everyone! Just landed at Melbourne late last night thanks to Air Asia’s 2 hour delay. Didn’t manage to get the Wifi key at Mellissa‘s last night.
We went to a satisfying quick lunch at this grilled fish salad place called Blue Fish at Flinders Lane this afternoon (will write about that soon enough) and then a cup of flat white at Cafenetics, QV. I think the milk makes all the difference, nothing beats wholesome fat laden milk in your coffee, yums.
a very rare Starbucks Cafe at Melbourne
Just got back to the apartment after watching Public Enemy (Jonny Deep & Christian Bale), a pretty good show albeit a little long. A$16 for entrance, gotta say cinemas in Malaysia are still better, but at least nothing is censored and there’s no subtitles taking up 20% of screen space either.
Going off for Mellissa’s Birthday dinner and a bit of drinking in 20 minutes with the gang in Melbourne. Will write more soon. Have a nice weekend guys!
I thought of Supper Inn just as I was reading Lainie’s latest post on Shanghai Dumpling, both are bargain basement old fashion Chinese restaurants (as in oversea Chinese restaurant) in Chinatown at Melbourne CBD.
As I am heading to Melbourne again in some two weeks time, I suppose it is wise to post the remaining food entries from the city before my second trip. The Melbourne food map is slowly shaping up. *beams*
Supper Inn is located at a dodgy alley by the name of Celestial Ave
Supper Inn is located right in the middle of Chinatown, a little alley by the name of Celestial Avenue (can’t get a more Chinese name than that) just off Little Burke Street. The restaurant operates from 5:30pm till 2:30am daily, hence it is one of the only places to eat in CBD after midnight.
The dining area is located on first floor, with really old school interior deco and even older waiters. The place is, however, air conditioned and generally quite clean. Business seemed to be brisk even though it was past midnight in midweek when Pinky, Mellissa and I went there last April.
Chinese tea, yau char kuai, century egg congee
The menu at Supper Inn isn’t exactly very extensive for a Chinese restaurant, but you do get to choose from over a dozen types of soup and porridge, a few appetizers, and entrees. From duck and mushroom soup, sharks fin soup, the venerable hot and sour soup, and more exotic items like duck’s tongue, abalone porridge, and coagulated pork’s blood porridge, they do have most of the essentials.
coagulated pork blood porridge, minced chicken with sweet corn soup
I knew what I had to order the moment I looked at the menu, the coagulated pork blood porridge ($6.50)! Mell had the minced chicken with sweet corn soup ($6.00) while Pinky ordered the century egg porridge ($6.50). We also shared a pretty large serving of yau char kuai ($6.00) to share.
KY, Mell, and Pinky at Supper Inn
The porridge were very good, cooked to the point where individual grain is indistinguishable like how Cantonese porridge should be. And of course, coagulated pork blood never disappoint, it is something that is not easy to find even in KL (I usually get my fix from lorong seratus 100, ss2), and I wouldn’t have thought I’d get them in Melbourne, bliss!
Sweet corn soup was pretty good too, but the yau char kuai (some might call it Chinese donut..) was a bit of a let down by being soft and slightly oily though still edible. However, Pinky said that this is an exception rather than rule, they are usually crispy and tasty, I guess I’ll just have to take her words for it.
Supper Inn is located right in the middle of Chinatown
Bill came to about $25 for the three of us. Chinese tea, as with ice/warm water in other restaurants, are usually free in Melbourne. So if you are craving for some chewing optional supper in Melbourne, this is the place to go.
Address:
Supper Inn Chinese Restaurant
15 Celestial Ave,
Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia
GPS: -37.811873, 144.968091
Tel: +603 9663 4759
Cafe Italia must be one of the most uncreative names for an Italian restaurant to assume, especially one that is tucked in a small lane connected to the little Italy of Melbourne, Lygon Street. Fortunately, it is also one that serves up very good authentic Italian cuisine in for pretty reasonable prices.
alfresco dining at Cafe Italia when weather permits
Incidentally, this is also one of Mell‘s housemates, Jun Wei’s favorite Italian restaurant in Melbourne. The eatery is located on a rather small 1-way University Street (between Melbourne University and Carlton Garden) and only has a small 3′x3′ sign on the outside. Pretty easy to miss especially since the place sorta look like a green house from the outside during cooler months.
Together with Zehan (who also needs a bf, a good Muslim boy perhaps?), the four of us went there in the middle of April during my last trip to Melbourne.
spaghetti frutti di mare (seafood), fish special (barramundi)
The restaurant has three different area, conventional dining, private rooms, and court yard (which, as mentioned, converts to green house like area when it’s colder). Interior is tastefully decorated with a bar, wine racks, and plenty of plants. Very comfortable and yet not overly done.
The menu is not any different from most Italian restaurants, offering pasta, beef, lamb, fish, pizza, and of course, a variety of appetizers, desserts, and wine.
lamb chop, rigatoni ragu (pasta with eggplant)
I ordered the lamb special ($27.90)- a generous piece of char grilled lamb chop marinated with lemon and wine served on pea mash. The meat was tender, juicy, and the taste of the lemon and red wine marinate was just right. I was so glad I ordered it. The pea mash was interesting and I actually liked it better than mashed potato by quite a bit.
Mell had the pesce del giorno (fish special $28.90)) – a piece of barramundi (I think) fillet served with fire roasted peppers, brocolini, and lime saffron sauce. The seafood was fresh and sauce went well with the whole combination, no complains at all there.
Jun Wei, KY, Mell, Zehan
Zehan and Jun Wei had the rigatoni ragu (spaghetti with eggplant, $17.90) and spaghetti frutti di mar (seafood spaghetti $22.90) with both of them expressing approval for their dishes in terms of taste as well as presentation.
Comparing to the more student friendly (budget wise) places such as Cafe Notturno, Cafe Italia is 30-50% pricier, but if you look into the place, service, as well as food quality and taste factor, then it is a very worth while place to visit.
At the end, our bill came to just a bit less than $100 for the four of us (we only ordered water). Dollar to dollar, an excellent value don’t you think? Now I think I might need to go back there again for the next Melbourne trip.
Address:
Cafe Italia
56/66 University St,
Carlton Victoria 3053,
Australia
GPS: -37.799366,144.967926
Tel: +613 9347 0638
Website: cafeitalia.com.au
It’s been a pretty fun 3day 2night trip to Krabi, but the photos and a proper blog entry will have to wait till I manage to gather a bit of time. For now, here are some photos I took during a particular long walk to Melbourne University with Mellissa during my visit last month.
no pets allowed
Established at 1853, Melbourne University is often regarded as the second best university in the country. The architecture of the buildings is a mix of old and new, some seemingly from Victorian era, while others are ultramodern mosaic of glass and steel.
John Medley
The John Medley building houses the school of culture & communication & political science. This was the building we had to go to submit Mell’s essay, and she claimed that it is always a 50-50 chance to get to the correct side of the building. A walk across the bridge is needed otherwise.
Old Quad
Old Quad and Old Arts are two of the original buildings from the establishment of the campus. I have a feeling that some the floors might have been refitted, but that did not take away the charm of the architecture. Very beautiful (but I heard, not very comfortable in very hot or very cold weather).
Old Quad looking out to Old Arts
The little garden between Old Quad and Old Arts is a popular place for students to take a break for a smoke in between classes. Not that there were any students when I was around though.
the pillars for tomorrow?
The part of Old Quad building featuring many beautiful pillars is a popular place for wedding photos. Just outside the pillars is a grass field where many students sunbath in the summer, if there were any of them.
between main campus and law building
The university is actually pretty big, as illustrated by the photo above, the walk between main campus and the law building can be a bit of a drag. Luckily the scenary helped a bit. We spent around an hour or so walking around the area before heading back to the city.
