I'm living my dream everyday.
I wanna celebrate and live my life | Saturday, June 4, 2011 @ 8:12 AM
Well for me it's waking up beside you, to watch the sunrise on your face
To know that I can say I love you, in any given time or place
Hola guys!
The weekend is finally upon us. I'm absolutely stoked at the idea of having breakfast with my folks, strolling down Orchard Road and bumming at J's place till late in the night and the joy rides home three weekends later :) Yesterday, I had a really good time catching up with my mom, J, sis, and HBF. A little effort certainly goes a long way.
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Day Two
I guess it's pretty obvious from our first-day itinerary that we were embarking on a foodie trail in Melb. On the second morning, we overslept and had to ditch our plans to hit the beach. We slept in until early noon and I woke J up to defrost the beef steaks that we bought from Costco the day before because I was hungry. Isn't it amazing how we can hit the sack feeling stuffed to the brim and wake up to a growling stomach the next day? It goes to show that sleeping really burns a fair amount of calories!
While the beef was defrosting, we went grocery shopping at Coles, which turned out to be more of a junkfood shopping spree. I recommended the Don Kabana sausage to J and he liked it! It's the one-metre long sausage that I'd blogged about awhile back. He had it twice during his time here :)
What should a Singaporean tourist bring back from Melbourne?
Red rock deli chips, Tim Tams, Shapes biscuits, Uncle Toby's chewy bars, nougats, nuts and the like. J even brought home a huge salami from QVM for his family. It was massive! My obsessive meat-eater of a boyfriend...
I'm pretty sure that this isn't available in Singapore. Presenting to you my all-time favourite Shapes flavour: Tomato & Chill with poppy seeds!!!
I'm sure some of you have came across poppy seeds in baking recipes. Poppy seeds is really beneficial to us as they aid digestion, prevent heart diseases, and improve the condition of a breast cancer patient, among many other health benefits. On the other hand, poppy seeds are abused to sustain the addiction of opium smokers...
Football is a really big thing in the Australian culture. Many kids bond with their Dads at football matches. It never fails to warm my heart when I spot a father-son pair, a father-daughter-pair, or even a family all decked out in matching jerseys of their supporting teams during the weekends :)
The steak wasn't his best effort because the marination process was cut short, no thanks to our growing hunger.
Waiting for the tram to take us to our dinner location :)
We had dinner at Ghung, which is a Korean BBQ restaurant situated along 19 McKillop Street in the city. I remember its full address because we initially missed the street sign and walked in the opposite direction only to find ourselves lost eventually. I'm ever grateful for the introduction of Google mobile GPS.
Kai recommended this place to us as a cheaper and comparable option to dining at Hwaro. Truth be told, the kimchi and pork stew at Ghung wins Hwaro hands down! For the decent spread we had, the 30bucks/pax price tag sure seemed reasonable. We made a new friend that night as K's air stewardess friend flew in to Melbourne and joined us for dinner. Anyway, I'm more encouraged to consider flying after learning that degree holders do command a higher pay at SQ. Guess it's logical that we get compensated for our time, money and effort investments at uni. It helps that my mom is supportive and encouraging too :)
B needed to fix her macarons cravings so we headed to her favourite place for macarons: Brunetti. J didn't think the world of its pistachio macaron... Give this boy his chocolate desserts anytime.
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Day Three
We visited QVM in the early afternoon and did a touristy thing: Grab Spanish churros/ hot jam donuts from either of the parked vans. I can't believe I forgot to bring him to try their Spanish churros last year! We settled on churros eventually :) Sigh, the price of nougats increases every year. I bought a 1kg packet for $25 in 2009, $26 in 2010 and it's retailing for $27 in 2011. Don't you hate inflation on food products?
As wonderful as the perks are of owning a dog, I'd rather blow the extra dough on my children or a luxury holiday trip. J, are you reading this? Apparently, my previous excuses for not wanting a dog fell on deaf ears, hahaha. I might reconsider my decision if my child professes to be a dog lover. I don't see why my child should fight with a dog for my attention...And oops, far-fetched thought once again. So much being said, white furry dogs are cute though!
We had lunch at Menya, which is probably the only restaurant in Melbourne that serves such a colourful water jug. You'll find grapes, lemon, and green leafy veg in their water jugs. Exotic???
I like their curry chicken don and ox tongue don. Best thing about dining here? Their wallet-friendly prices. A ricebowl costs ten bucks on average!
After lunch, we went to Woolworths to shop around. Goodness golly, we checked out the supermarkets so often while he was here. To date, I still enjoy exploring the local supermarkets here! Bought my favourite meat seasoning (more about that in the next entry) and sat at one corner of the mall to chat. It was a good chat we shared without any distraction from food or people :)
Less than three hours later, I brought him to Oriental Spoon for dinner. We weren't actually feeling hungry after devouring so much rice during lunch. I guess there's never a hungry moment when you're a tourist :)
OS serves the best kimchi that I've ever tasted and to my knowledge, it is the only Korean restaurant that bothers to sprinkle sesame seeds over its kimchi! J was quick to point out that sugar must have been added to enhance its sweetness. *Slaps head* No wonder their kimchi is so addictive. I have to have at least three servings of their sugar-laden kimchi whenever I dine here D: I love their eggplant side dish too. As if to pledge our lifetime loyalty to OS, we returned on the next day for lunch. All in all, we dined here thrice. I'd bring every visiting friend to Melbourne to have dinner at OS :)
Nothing like a massive spicy seafood hotpot to keep you warm on a cold night :)
My phone captured just as nice a shot as my camera! During his trip here, I only brought my camera out half the time because I was lazy. Even at times when I brought my camera out, I'd still use my mobile camera to take pictures. I miss using a lightweight, compact camera!
I love the fact that we're both enthusiastic and relatively non-picky eaters, though he's the more adventurous foodie between us. He bought kangaroo steaks and cooked it for dinner once...
Have a blessed weekend and remember to fill your tummy with lotsa love!!! :)
