Hello Tasmania, the cold but beautifully delicious food place

Oh Tasmania. The final state in Australia for me to visit, and now I've done all 6 states, and one territory. Northern Territory is my final frontier, but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. I've always wanted to visit Tasmania, but never really bothered to go. All I wanted to do was explore the food festival that happens every new year, but I never wanted to put up with the crowds and the cost of travelling in the holiday season.Well, finally I got my chance since I had a friend move there, so my accommodation was provided for. It was time to get to know Tasmania and see Salamanca Markets. All in less than two and a half days. First of all, here are some plane pictures!Wow, what a tiny airport! That it's it. It's so small that all the gates are in the same place too, and there are no airbridges. Just wheely stairs everywhere!My friends warned me that Hobart was really, really old. According to Google, it's the second oldest city in Australia. There are buses but no train system, a lot of things are still cash based, and probably other oddities, but I didn't notice too much....The air smelled really nice though, very oceany.I landed in Tas just after 10AM, and taxi'd it into the city. The taxi driver was telling me things such as needing to go to MONA and about the bridge that connected the east and west. She was super friendly! I was hungry so my first stop was Small Fry, which was at the top of my list. I didn't realise it was a tiny hole in the wall with a communal table, it was absolutely adorable! They also had some specials up on the board which were really nice. There was a single chef, whose kitchen was partly the communal table too, and he talked as he worked - sometimes guiding the waitstaff (it was a busy day so it took up to 30mins for food, and I heard him instructing the waitstaff to apologise for the wait), or simply talking to himself or the customers. They also had a sign that said that photos were ok, but to ask for permission for videos. I don't think I've ever seen a cafe put up that kind of sign before, so I wonder what prompted it. I'm not a fan of having people in my shots or taking videos, so it didn't really affect me.Because of how busy it was, there wasn't room at the communal table, so I said I'd be happy to sit at the espresso bar. Turns out, it's really awkward eating food on it because the chair height isn't suited for sitting and eating, even though it was perfect for sitting and drinking. I started to panic while waiting for my food though - the bar was a poor choice because it was on the outside and the sun was shining down! No! Being out in the sun that long was bad (and bad for photography) and now I felt like I was getting sunburnt! Oh well, it's not like it's the first time I've made poor cafe seat choices. However, I didn't realise until the next days when I checked my arms - no redness! Wow, the sun here musn't be as strong as on the mainland. I can't believe I survived that without a burn!I agonised over two of the three specials, one was a tomato tartine with goat curd, basil and egg; and the other was a classic pavlova. I decided to be sensible and get the savoury dish, and it turned out to be great! Totally loved it, though I must have looked totally weird standing up and eating. I don't mind though since I do that all the time though.They also have really cute coffee cups, and only serve espresso. They used a local roaster, and from the flavour of the flat white, a short black would have been too dark for me, but as a milk coffee, it was quite enjoyable. Most of the time, it's the experience that counts. It's also one of my barista's favourite places.Next stop, Villino. I remember when a barista friend gave me a list of Tassie cafes ages ago, he mentioned that multiple cafes generally had the same owners. I can't remember exactly which ones, but it became evident because usually there were two cafes next to each other or in very close proximity, and the connection became quite clear. How interesting! I'd actually tried Villino from Venery in Perth, and now I got to try it from the makers themselves! I had some Kenyan Githongo AB, which was quite passionfruity.Since the transport system looked really limited here, I decided not to get a transport card and just walk up to North Hobart for this particular cafe, because it popped up on my feed and looked nice. It was quite a leisurely stroll, and I could afford to take the time since I'd already managed to explore half of Hobart in less than half a day. Yep, it's a really tiny city. This is Born in Brunswick, a massive cafe with a lot of plants and natural lighting. My filter was the Kenya Windrush Estate by Rumble Coffee Roasters. I'd actually had the same coffee from Verve in Japan earlier this year, so it was nice to compare. It actually tasted very similar! And then because I didn't get any avocado toast while I was in Melbourne, I made up for it here.Taking touristy photos. What's really cool is that Hobart is actually rather hilly, and a lot of the houses are built in the hills so there's still a lot of greenery about!Jingle horses! I would have loved to ride on this, but I think it's a full tour that takes about an hour or so to complete.This picture looks fuzzy because it was taken from inside a car. That's the Tasman bridge, and apparently you can walk on it since there's a pedestrian footpath. I would have loved to walk across it; it's only about 1.5km, give or take, so it doesn't take very long to do. However, I didn't have that kind of time, plus, getting to the bridge is a pain, and then you'd need to go all the way back or proceed into the suburbs, so it simply wasn't worth it.Crossing the bridge in a car :)That night was dinner at Dier Makr, which has its own post.Because I was worried I would be hungry afterwards, I made my friend take me into Woolworths while I looked around and didn't buy anything.The clouds here are crazy looking!This was taken from a rooftop carpark since my friend was working that day. Pretty cool view!Pigeon Whole Bakers was a late find for me, but it looked so good that it went towards the top of my list very quickly. I'm really impressed with this place! It's right next to Franklin, and the pastries are delicious! I really enjoyed both my croissant and my super mini super juicy fruit mince pie. They did a whole bunch of other pastries that I would have loved to try, and their cookies and their jams too!What's also nice and unique about this place is that they only serve batch brew coffee. There's no espresso machine or anything, and they use Melbournian roasters such as Market Lane and Seven Seeds, so I was very eager to try the Market Lane Dukunde Kawa, which was absolutely delicious. Would definitely come back here again for treats.The final cafe that I really wanted to visit was Vilicia Coffee, because they were serving up ONA coffee, and ONA is a rare find for me. It's the first time I've had something other than raspberry candy as espresso, these guys had the founder blend so I took it for milk, had the Colombia La vega as a really tasty espresso and then struggled by the time I got to the Ethiopia Wush Wush as a filter. I knew the Wush Wush would be tasty, but I also remember it not ranking that high when I tried the varietal in my Cultivars of Colombia set (my favourite were pink bourbon and I think maracaturra). However, my one tasted a bit odd - my first thought was that maybe I had a quaker in my coffee! Just like that time I said my coffee tasted a bit weird at Steamtank, so they tried it, and then explained what I was tasting. This felt very similar, but I didn't verify since I was on my fifth coffee (the espresso was a double shot) in an hour and my heart was giving me warning shots, so I had to stop and hydrate up and eat the haloumi burger.I would have loved to chat with the baristas here if I wans't dying though.I deliberately gave Yellow Bernard, Bright Eyes and Ecru a pass. I think there is another V cafe that I decided not to go to?Luckily, I'd recovered enough that I could continue exploring instead of being incapacitated like that one time back in Sydney. So I found this little donut shop tucked away in a really dark downstairs thing. That's the most hipster thing I've seen yet!After having lunch at Franklin and being absolutely full, I stopped by Salamanca Markets to see what it was normally like (I had 45 mins to kill before the next boat to MONA). I picked up some edible souvenirs of pepperberry salt and wakame salt from the seafood shop, and I also found bugs in candy! Though hideously overpriced, I still decided to buy one. I would have loved to gotten an edible tarantula too, but those were $20 and you couldn't see inside the packet to assess their "intactness," so I didn't buy one.I'd also managed to find a little Japanese shop that sold Tasmanian kombu, so I picked up a couple of packets of that so I could make dashi again, since WA isn't allowed to import Japanese kombu due to the iodine levels found within them or something?Anyway, then it was time to go to MONA, where I spent the entire afternoon there, and then went straight to Aloft aftwards for dinner. It was a totally hectic day!The next morning, off to Salamanca Markets for real! Oh yeah. This is what I like to see. It's no longer about the touristy stuff for me, I was here to eat raw vegetables and other goodies for breakfast.Look! Bruny Island oysters!!! At first I wasn't sure about getting these, but then I really thought about it, and since Tasmania is the place for food, I decided, why not. I'll definitely do oysters for breakfast. This place sold them according to their size, so the small ones were $15 per half dozen, and went up from there. They even had super jumbo giant oysters for $6 each, but that day they weren't that big (I had one maybe the same size or a tad bigger in Adelaide where I got it all dressed up), so I didn't get one just for the fun of it. I decided to stick with the small ones since small ones usually taste the best.The ended up being huge! Bigger than any I've had at a restaurant! But they were also very delicious. Really good, fresh stuff. Nothing beats fresh Tassie oysters. A lot of Asian tourists wanted the large ones. Nah, I don't think large ones taste better. You need tiny flavour packed morsels for maximum enjoyment. But anyway, I finally decided I'd ask this shucker where Flirty Bay was. And I got my answer! It is definitely Flirty Bay, not Floaty Bay, and it's sometimes known as Fancy Bay! So now I know :) Asking questions pays off!This was the stall I was looking for - Provenance Growers, who supply high end restaurants with amazing produce. I'm so glad  I found this stall! While there wasn't any fresh stuff that I could really enjoy raw, I bought some of their pepperberry salt, saltbush wakame salt, green tomato sauce, raspberry jam, and some rose/rhubarb/geranium shrub drinking vinegar concentrate (which I would later dilute with tonic water and maybe some gin). So far, I loved what I've tasted!Fat Pig Farm also had a stall here, which was a place my friend in Adelaide really wanted to go. They're also high end and farm to table, having a farm and restaurant. But since I'd already bought so much from the stall before, I settled for just some ham from this place. And it was really, really nice ham!!!I found some organic Tassie baby carrots, so I bought a bunch and nibbled away at them while I browsed the markets.I saw these the day before, apparently the scallop pie is a Tassie thing, so I tried one of these too. They're okay. Had to have one just to say I did. Probably wouldn't get another one since I could totally eat more oysters instead.Or more berries. Look at this wonderful little berry punnet! Red currants! Red currants that tasted inifinitely sweeter than what I had at Orana all those years ago! And those strawberries were so sweet, like the ones I had in Japan. Absolutely wonderful! I loved muching on all the berries here. I'd actually taken this to the nearby park and sat in the grass eating away, while watching a bagpipe group in action. Again, I'd spent hours in the sun, and no burn. Magical!Since I had a tiny bit of spare time, I could visit one last cafe, so I chose Pilgrim. They use Sensory Lab, but I haven't liked Sensory Lab beans much. Good thing I got the flat white and not a black coffee!And a gruyere omelette with bacon. Nice and filling, but nothing as spectacular as the brekky I got from Small Fry. That place was still the best for food.And that's Tasmania done. Two and a half days, covering several cafes, three restaurants, Salamanca Markets, and MONA. That was epic. At the airport, I also got a little survey thing to fill in, I'm guessing to help the government find out why people visit. Of course, my reason was food!To be honest, I think I didn't do my Tasmania trip correctly. I thought that there'd be enough "Hobart" for me to want to come back, but no, it was too small. I have zero interest in Hobart city except for the restuarants, Small Fry and Pigeon Whole Bakers. Maybe Vilicia. Oh, I'd redo MONA and spend a day there, definitely.Instead, what I would like to do, is instead of visiting Hobart, I'd visit Tasmania as a whole. I would love to spend a couple of days in the Huon Valley (apparently it snows here!!!!), then a couple on Bruny Island. Definitely a day for MONA, and whatever else there is. Tassie is so small that you really do need to go out of the city to take everything in. But that's a next time thing. If there's a next time. The food here is absolutely gorgeous.But for now, it's back to Perth.

MONA - Museum of Old and New Art

I was originally planning a foodie only tour of Hobart since my stay was only two and a half days here, but my brother (I think he was the first) asked me if I was going to visit MONA, and that if I wasn't, that I should go there anyway.Then I had a few other people talk about it, including my taxi driver, so I thought, hey, it's a cool place, it featured in Restaurant Australia, and everyone knows about it, so I may as well get cultured while I'm at it.I did a walk past the information booth on the first day that I was here to enquire the minimum time I would need to get through the museum, since I was very, very time limited with all my restaurant bookings. The lady said that whole day was best, otherwise 4 hours was recommended, and that at a minimum, I'd need two hours. Well, that was interesting. Not being interested in art, I figured I could do this in two hours. However, as my first day was spent getting to know Hobart city, I had to leave it for my second day, and the only time I really had was between my 12PM Franklin booking and my 6PM Aloft booking. Given that lunch generally takes me about an hour, that gave me 5 hours, or so I thought.I took my time at Franklin since I love restaurants, and so I managed to head to the pier at about 1:15PM... which is when I saw the MR-1 leaving. Okay, so I'd just missed one. According to my memory of what I'd glanced at, there would be another boat in half an hour... right? Nope. It's one boat, and each way takes 25 minutes. The next boat was at 2:30PM. Oops! Also, you had to book your return trip during your intial purchase, so I had to decide when to come back. The last two boats for the day were 5PM and 6PM. I couldn't well choose 6PM since I had to be at a restaurant by then, so 5PM it was. That meant a total of just less than two hours, since I'd have to be ready for the boat by 5... meaning out of the museum at least 15 minutes early. I'm a fast walker and I like zipping straight past things, so it's still manageable, right?Next thing I had to decide. There were two classes of tickets - regular, and posh pit. The regular one took you there and back for $28 (free if you are a Tasmanian resident) and you could sit on the sheep (not alive! Not dead either... just sheep shaped seats!), or, for a significant amount more ($55), you could sit on the sheep and gain access to the VIP room where you had free drinks and nibbles and have a golden bench to sit on out at the front of the boat. Since I was running a carte blanche (I had allocated double what my estimated budget was for the entire Melb - Tas trip... and spent pretty much double my estimate... lol) and was unlikely to return to Tasmania, I thought, why not, let's splurge and get the posh pit even though the free drink would be wasted on me.Oh, yeah, I still had to actually pay for the museum entry. So $80 later, I was all set for my artsy experience.Well hello there, VIP room. It turns out that for this particular ride, I was the only one who bought a posh pit ticket, so I had the entirety of the posh pit to myself! That was an amazing feeling! The lady at the bar immediately greeted me and asked me if I would like a drink, but I declined, saying I don't drink, so I asked for water instead. I was free to explore anywhere I wanted, and I could hop out to the regular area if I wanted to as well.As we departed, I farewelled the MR-0, which wasn't in use at the time.This boat actually moves really fast. It felt fast. It was loud too, doubled with the wind roaring in my ears. I took some videos of this too, but I haven't yet transferred them onto my computer or started thinking about how to embed the videos, so I will probably never end up uploading them.Woot! I got an antipasto platter that was actually really tasty! But I was so full from Franklin that I couldn't eat it all...Walked amongst the commoners :PAnd finally, the museum was in view. The driver announced here that there were 99 steps up to the MONA, and that if you had any difficulties with this to make yourself known. Me, being the excited and energetic person that I am, ran up the stairs ahead of everyone, while trying to count. I got as far as 98 steps!!! Which step did I miss counting?!?!?!?!?! I am so disappointed! If I ever come back, I'm going to have to re-count those stairs! Argh!The MONA is actually a very large complex, so instead of heading straight in, I took in the views from the island, as well as taking pictures of some of the stuff outside.OK. Start the clock. I'm officially in. What's really cool was that there are free lockers here to dump your stuff. I was carrying a bit so I was incredibly relieved to be able to store everything, and only take my phone, camera and spare lens with me, and attached the locker key to my camera strap. I actually got really, really lucky because I was wearing a dress with pockets to be able to go bag free with all that stuff!The people at the entrance recommended that we start from the bottom first and work our way up, so I did exactly that. They also said we were free to take as many photos as we liked, but we weren't allowed to touch anything. However, there was a third thing: there are no signs or explanations of artwork in the MONA. Instead, you have to pick up an iPhone looking device that would give you audio via headphones, and information via the screen. It also tracked your location within the museum to keep a log of which exhibits you visited, so that you could, at the end, submit your email address and then be sent information on what you'd seen. That is techy, and cool! However, call me hipster - in a hipster art museum - but I figured, no, I don't want to carry a device, I barely read signs as it is, so I was gonna go with the pure definition of art, and interpret everything as I see it. After all, the artwork is only complete when the viewer has seen it and reached their own conclusion, right? /worsthipsterYou hear the first exhibit before you see it. Cascading water and lights display various words! Without explanation, my guess would be that this was displaying either the most used words on the internet in real time, or, the most used words on the internet/media over the course of this year. I will never know if my theories are right or not!Everything is pretty big, but yeah, they fit a lot of everything on this lower floor. Get ready for an overload.It became immediately obvious why we weren't allowed to touch anything. Dinosaurs made of old things, and even one dino-cetpion!!Artworks that were interesting, but that I didn't really understand or interpret since they aren't my preferred subject matter. A lot of it seemed to be a representation of things that are "wrong" though.This one caught my interest for a while, and look, even Noddy made an appearance! Basically these were toys and everyday objects fashioned into the likeness of guns, with the barrels staring right down at you. There were also rockets on the sides, with a plushie puppy and other toys strapped to the sides. While I can't quite describe the emotions that these triggered in me, I do know that I found it very intriguing, and very "real". I use the term "real" a lot, usually to mean that it's an accurate reflection of real life (eg. the show Black Mirror is also very "real" to me).Moving on, I was impressed there are people who can write smaller than me! But I didn't stop to read these.I stayed at this exhibit for a while because who doesn't love paper aeroplanes! They're so cool! They looked like old fighter jets to me, since I don't recognise planes. There were a few big battleship looking like aircraft too. I spent ages wanting to take a bottom-up angle for these ones, since my camera and phone have a really cool remote control trick so I could literally place my camera face up to take pictures from underneath.I overheard someone say "taxidermied kittens!" for this one.Haha. This was the first thing I saw on the second level. From far away I couldn't figure out what the white plaster things on the wall were, so I took a closer look and laughed. There were three different "versions" of this, repeated over and over against a long wall. I would have posted all three saying, "which one does yours look like?", but my middle shot was blurry. So one's all you get. I'm totally a mature person :PAlso, the gift shop sold these as soaps. LOL. I really wanted to buy the mini soaps because they were a gift shop exclusive and not available online, but soap doesn't last forever, so I didn't get one. Would have been cool to get these and give them as gifts!This was by far my favourite exhibit. It was also the one that was the most impossible to take a picture of, because it's actually a room within a room within a room, in complete darkness except for the lights emanating from the space where the wall connects with the floor. Strings of binary lined the walls, but if you looked close enough, some of these groups were words instead of numbers. I can't remember which words I saw, but I'm pretty sure they were all about darkness and being alone or something. Very, very cool. I really liked this and related to this one the most. The innermost room had an entrance that was shorter than me, and right in the middle, I had a mild shock (and looking at instagram posts for MONA, it turns out I'm not the only one who managed to give myself a little jump), but pretty much instantly smiled. I had a thought cross my mind that this would be an excellent torture room LOL.This was the one exhibit where I would have loved to listen to the artist's meaning, so I really regretted not having the little info device, but at the same time, I was so happy just being in here alone in darkness :)Because I got handed a pamphlet, I at least know that this one is called Kryptos. Constructed between 2008 - 2010 by Brigita Ozolins, a Tasmanian artist. This is their take on "The Epic of Gilgamesh." Wow, no wonder I connected to this one so well.Gosh I sound so morbid for a happy person.One of the more (in)famous exhibits in here, you'll smell it before you see it. Again, because I didn't have the info device, I didn't know what it was, though I had a pretty good idea because someone else said that this exhibit would be here. It's basically a digesting and pooping machine. It feeds at 11am and 4pm, and it'll poop at 2pm. Amazing.Oh what, there's a LIVE exhibit inside the MONA?!?!?! HOW COOL. Oh my goodness, I thought I was hallucinating or this was some sort of mirror trick at first, because I was on an upper level looking down, going, WOAH THAT'S A REAL PERSON I CAN SEE HIM BREATHING OR maybe it's just a really good animatronic BUT I THINK HE'S ACTUALLY REAL, and then by the time I went back downstairs, he was GONE with only a cloth and headphones at the pedestal? Woah.Ok yeah, I was really wishing I had the info device right about now. However, later on, I did read somehwere that this is indeed a living person, and what's really cool is that he actually has an agreement with MONA that they can keep his skin after he dies. Woah, yep. This was the most mindblowing exhibit for me, mainly because he was there one minute, and next, he was gone! If he had been there the whole time I think I wouldn't have been half as excited!I loved this exhibit too. Very whimsical in my eyes. Apart from the animal tower coming off the hedgehog's (?) back, all the other floaty things were hanging from the thinnest of strings, so thin that I actually think spider web was probably used to suspend them. Again, I'll never know unless I do research. But I liked this because I feel that there's a lot of death represented in this one to me, and I love the some of the concepts of death. There was something absolutely breathtaking about the suspended creatures, too. Lots of insects, I felt that this at least partially represented decay in some way.Gosh I love how happily morbid I am.Teehee! This was in a tiny room and actually moves :DThe single exhibit that was interactive. Each of these is a box that you can pull out, and an audio plays with all different people saying "I love you," and had a story that you could read.And stop the clock. I'd used up one and a half hours and I thought I got through all of it, including this one little dark exhibit that only let in two people at a time because it was a deathly still pond, so yes, water, with only squares of rock to step on, up to a tomb with a mummy in it. However, I think I might have still missed things even on a second sweep of the second floor. I'd say that I somehow missed the Supersymmetry experience (oops!), and I didn't find the White Library, Hound in the Hunt or the Library Gallery.There was still plenty to see outside too, once I'd done two rounds of the gift shop, agonised over the really nice skull earrings and instead bought a tshirt that I'm too embarrased to wear outside.The panoramic shot of the outside. At the left, yes, that's a trampoline. I totally should have gone on the trampoline!!And if you venture really far, to the winery (yes, the Posh Pit tickets also gives you a free, 30 minute tour of their cellar door, but I was definitely out of time), you get to see the pets!I didn't count the stairs going back down...Bye bye MONA, bye bye sheep shaped seats!This time, the posh pit had a lot more people so I didn't feel like a silly person who was the only one who forked out $$$ for the premium seats. Since the trip back had a lot more people, I was glad I took the pit this time. The lady at the bar welcomed me back and asked if I was happy to have water again! How nice! So I told her that I didn't want the antipasto plate again since I needed to save stomach space for dinner. She said that there wasn't antipasto this time, it was actually a dessert plate! How could I say no to dessert :P and this was actually really nice too. I was actually surprised at how tasty the snacks were! I would totally do this again!Okay so, speaking of doing again. I admit, I took completely the wrong approach on this one. I don't even appreciate art, and there was stuff that I really felt like I connected to here. I would not allow anyone to try MONA in two hours. You need at least 4 hours, like the lady at the pier said the first day. But, definitely take the whole day, the posh pit and the cellar door tour. You're only going to do this once, right? So do it right. And DEFINITELY take the info device thing.I would actually come back to Tasmania to redo this, and spend a whole day here. In fact, I'd do my Tasmania trip completely differently the second time round, but I'll explain that when I actually get to posting about my Tasmania trip.Yep, this was totally worth it. I want to live in the Kryptos again.I love darkness!

Kitten photo spam

First things first. KITTEN PICTURE SPAM.Okay, now I will start posting my normal things again.

Melbourne 2017, the post I never got to make

I can't believe it. Finally, a Melbourne trip that I'm going to write up properly. It must be Christmas! Or shortly thereafter. It also took a lot of planning and a 4 day weekend to get to this stage, so here goes nothing! A blog about my second favourite city in Australia.My trip to Melbourne starts on the plane. I have a thing for flying full service, and here is my lovely meal to show for my money.Okay, it's the worst aeroplane meal I've had in a while. Those scrambled eggs weren't nice after a while, and the potato gems tasted like they'd been thawed then kind of warmed up. Ick. The sausage thing was okay though, so I ate all of that, and the tomato.It's also been forever since I've had a fruit yoghurt. Real mango bits? How do they not go off? Is it dried mango that's been put in yoghurt???I actually had a purpose in Melbourne other than just food and coffee. I was off to do some dancing, and my dance partner had taken a different flight. I had to wait for him, we went to our hotel, then, with precious little time to spare, I dashed off, and got to my favourite ceiling-chair cafe with 8 minutes to spare. Oh, chairs. You're so lovely.And look, I finally got a window seat! Yay! This place is usually packed out the doors, but going at closing time has its benefits. Next time, I  would love to just chill here and stare out the window.Even though I wasn't supposed to be consuming coffee, the opportunity was too good to pass up. So it was espresso and flat white for me. Both were delicious, and the espresso was tasting super yummy!A tinselly shot of BBB :)The next day, I decided that I'd go to Operator 25. I actually had a whole schedule set up of which cafe to go when, but I was never very good at following instructions, even my own. So I did everything in my own order. Their batch brew was okay, but not terribly exciting.I didn't really want a sweet breakfast, but it sounded interesting, so I went with the tapiocoa pudding with fruit and matcha coconut cream. That cream was really yummy! And I loved that there was some freeze dried fruit in here too! However my body wasn't used to the time difference yet, so it was difficult to muster up the appetite to eat it there and then. I hate adjusting to new timezones, but I know that food and sleep are the two most important things to assist with time shifting.The next day would be action packed, so I picked up some donuts for breakfast, since I'd need to be up horrendously early and had to be well fed at the same time. I also treated myself to this adorable star donut at Shortstop, which was eggnog flavoured!Swung by Hisense Arena to watch my friends. Yep, this was what I'd be doing on the weekend. How exciting! And nerve wracking!My Friday, Saturday and Sunday were blocked out, so there's not much of my own adventures over these three days except for a cheeky lunch at Cumulus Inc on the Friday, since it was my least busy day.Had a bit of spare time on the Sunday morning, so I went to cafe that I managed to spot while walking near the arena - Fifty Acres! They served up a tasty Duke's coffee.Their breakfast was delicious too! These weren't just any old scotch eggs, these were chorizo scotch eggs, and that made them the most delicious version I've eaten yet! My dance partner chose the pumpkin pancakes, which were amazing too.Then, with dancing over, it was time to move out and start hitting my cafes and restaurants hard.Lune. The best croissants in Australia. I love their little sign and the fact that they're tucked away in a garage in some out of the way street. Luckily, there's no queue on a Monday morning, compared to the massive queue I had to endure when I last visited on a Saturday.Behold the might and glory of the traditional croissant!!While the godliness of the traditional croissant was obligatory, it was the ice cream sandwich that I was after. Ice cream for breakfast, I love myself! A kouign amann cut in half, chocolate sauce and a perfectly shaped hazelnut gelato. The price tag of $15 was pretty hefty, but it was so delicious, especially as I've not had a kouign amann before, and the hazelnut gelato was so amazing! Yes! I'm so happy I got their special!Now to visit my other old favourite - Patricia. I managed to get a cool shot of something other than their windowsill and plants! I called this one Sunshine in a Coffee Cup.Okay, so I took a picture of the plants and window sill anyway. Mostly because the flowers had dropped into the sugar bowl. I also joined a great discussion about the Rowsaan spoons that they serve. About a year back, I had one of my Sydney baristas ask me about the spoons, so I took a picture, and then looked into it a little bit since he said that they cost $190 each. I thought it was a typo because I thought I'd seen them for $90 on their website, but no, today the barista confirmed they were indeed $190. Ouchies! What kind of a cafe can afford to stock $200 spoons?!?! Haha.I knew, then forgot, then remembered that Shannon Bennett now has a Benny Burger. I've tried Neil Perry's burgers, so it was time to see what Vue de Monde's executive chef's vision was. Also, I remember ages ago there being a joke about eating at the restaurant and then being left hungry so that people bought burgers at McDonald's shortly after.I hadn't done any research into the joint, but apparently they still had specials running! It was half price burgers for a good while, but when I got there, they were doing free chips and drink with every burger purchase. Nice! I wanted to try their chips! I didn't need the drink so I helped myself to the tap water.I chose the Cheesy Burns, which was their cheeseburger. Yep, it was cheap and tasty, just how I like it. The sauce in this one was really nice, and my conclusion is that it was on par with the likes of Burger Project and Shake Shack. What did intrigue me though, was that apparently they used wagyu in their burgers? But to be honest my favourite beef patty still come from Burger Project's Cape Grim beef. That stuff is just too good.The picture makes the cafe self explanatory! A lot of baristas talk highly of Everyday Coffee, so I had to pay a visit. I had a Kenya Kiamabara PB, which had loads of blackberry flavour! I took my time to sip away at this, watching the other two people in my view working away at laptops.That night was dinner at Embla, which has its own post. Even though the waiter had recommended that we go eat gelato from Spring Street Grocer, I did promise my friend that we'd go to the creperie. I changed my order this time, usually I get lemon sugar, but I figured, change is good, so I opted for chestnut paste this time. Quite nice, though a bit sweet for my palate (but it wasn't overly sweet).Aah, Proud Mary. I can't help but come here since I know their food is as good as their coffee. I didn't get a good shot of my espresso, and I only had the one coffee, since I had plans to geek out at Aunty Peg's instead.I also wanted the blue swimmer crab omelette for breakfast, but apparently the crabs that came in weren't right so they didn't have it available that day. The waiter did recommend the salmon pate and devilled egg instead, so I said yes! What a colourful looking and tasty breakfast!Ooooh I got here during a geisha party! Woohoo! There were three geishas on offer today, and I learned (by asking) that what happens is that Aunty Pegs gets a 2 week showcase, before rotating it onwards to Proud Mary. That's how it works! So I will always get a different coffee unless I clip the wrong Sunday + Monday visit haha. I had already tried Bambito Estate and Hacienda La Esmeralda, so this time, I chose Elida Estate. It was very very bright and fruity as an espresso, and when it cooled down as filter, it was so floral and delicious!The baristas here are always so knowledgeable and chatty, and were describing the estate as being part of a natural reserve, and that it was very picturesque with its rolling mists, since it was so high up. It makes me want to visit!Yes, I finally ate a Butterbing! This was at Aucuma cafe, where one of my barista friends was working, so I popped in and said hi. We walked around South Melbourne, but I didn't realise the markets were closed, but that was okay since we were happy to walk back into the city. When I talked about Spring Street Grocer, it turns out that she loved it too and also spoke highly of the pistachio ice cream! So of course, now I had to go get one.Well, after Minamishima, that is. There was no way I was going to enter a super sushi place without an empty stomach!While there was definitely enough food at Minamishima and I was full, I had to get gelato. If two people both recommended it, then it must be good. And they weren't wrong. The gelato here is kept under the metal lid things, just like Chicho back in Perth. And when the scoops came out - pistachio at the bottom, and white chocolate, yuzu, blackberry on top. Both flavours were amazing! The yuzu and blackberry were very prominent, and the pistachio one tasted exactly like pistachio! Yep, I'm glad I tried it!Next morning, I took my friend back to Brother Baba Budan since she tried to go before, and it was packed. We were early and it was quiet, but there were still enough people that the only seat we got was at the counter, staring at the machine. I decided that it was close enough to Christmas that I would treat myself to this lovely fruit mince pie!The picture of my piccolo came out horribly, so no post of that one.Look at this place. How sleek! I was told this was the best place to go by both the Aunty Peg's barista as well as my barista friend. It's a super white, minimalistic space with a roaster at the back! They also have a cute looking snack called kolache, which is basically stuff in buns. I tried the herbed omelette one and it was quite nice!As always, I went for the spo milk filter trio. All three were great. The Rwandan Kivu belt was what they had on filter, and the tasting notes were blueberries and blackcurrants. Those flavours definitely stood out, but I felt that it was at the expense of acidity, because I didn't get a lot of that. The espresso was Ethiopia Adado, which was nice, but not as tasty as the filter. Then the flat white for prettiness!It's a great little cafe and I'd love to visit here again and try more of their coffees!Finally, I visited 8 Bit, which is a little burger joint in the city. I always find this place so cute looking, and my friend was eating one of these the day before and it smelled so good, so I had to get a hot dog too - I was starving, wanted something small and tasty, but wouldn't weigh me down as I was about to enjoy the most epic meal I've had in a while.Then at night, I had a blast at Kisume. Oh yeah. That place was awesome, and I walked out feeling like a superstar.The superstar feeling carried on to the next day, when my time in Melbourne was finally up. Because of my recent mass of travelling (especially premium economy to Japan!), I managed to get some lounge passes. So I figured, I may as well use them since I won't maintain my status when it expires.The Virgin lounge in Melbourne is pretty cool, and has its own little express customs area so that you don't have to go back out and line up again with all the "commoners". What was really caught my attention after scanning the buffet tables, was the 1 press pancake maker! There were a couple of these machines. All you had to do was press the GO button, and it would start making pancakes inside. There was even a little progress bar that showed you what stage readiness your two pancakes were at, and then when done, out they popped from the side! It was so entertaining!I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to eat, so I just piled on some blueberries, maple syrup and cream. But I also grabbed a sausage, some ham, and a boiled egg. On the same plate. Because sweet and savoury together is cool. Or something. Not too bad considering it was free! Also, while I was initially bewildered, I quickly realised that most of the people here were business people, so everything could be left unattended so that they could get food and drinks. Cool, it was nice not having to drag around my luggage just to get my breakfast!The view from the lounge is pretty cool too. I didn't realise it at the time, but that was actually my plane!Keeping those windows squeaky clean :DBye bye Melbourne, I love you! But only almost as much as Sydney.Onwards we go!!!

Hong Kong - October 2017

Circumstances lead me to take a relatively unplanned holiday, and one for visiting relatives instead of exploring by myself. However, my brother managed to suggest that we stop by Hong Kong first, and that way, I could tick off another country that I've been too!I was quite looking forward to it since I heard about the efficiency of Hong Kong, and I figured it'd be easy to navigate and communicate since the people there could speak English.But first, plane wings! My plane was quite empty so I could take all the window seat pictures I wanted. I'd also forgotten how nice daytime flights are.Obligatory airplane food pictures! All the food on these flights had flavours about right; lately I've really noticed that plane food and hospital food have far too much salt. Nothing needs so much salt! These were all quite tasty. In fact, they hand out surveys to random people on the plane, except I got handed a Chinese one and they didn't appear to have an English one available, but I got picked again on my return flight and that's when I provided feedback on the food.And touchdown!My brother and I were originally set to arrive at similar times, but for typhoon reasons, he was delayed quite significantly. So, I was left to my own devices. First off, coffee! Because Asian countries know how to enjoy coffee at night!Look, people who make coffee, inside a box! It's such a cute setup! But while everything looked really great, I had an immediate culture shock here. I didn't realise that the staff here ignore you until you tell them what you want! I had walked up to the counter, ready to ask about their different coffees, when I realised the person at the counter, who was folding a whole bunch of boxes, was ignoring me until I asked for something. How awkward!Well, their coffees were intriguing enough that I ordered both an espresso and a filter (the espresso picture didn't turn out so great). Look at all the coffees in test tubes!I had ordered a Kenyan on filter which tasted great, it was exactly how I liked it. The espresso was also really good, surprisingly so, as I think they didn't have single origins (a lot of cafes don't seem to serve single origin espressos). I was simply offered the choice of fruity or nutty/chocolatey. And I always (almost always) go fruity.Some random artworks while exploring this little mall. WE LIKE THE MOON!!! This exhibit was definitely better at night than the daytime. There's also a cute little Japanese-Brazillian restaurant here that I thought about going to,  but I figured it was very tourist trappy.Instead, I finally got a rose ice cream! I'd been waiting a long time for this moment. I always thought this was gimmicky, especially if the quality of the ice cream wasn't good and the layering was done poorly. But I managed to pick well first go! This was an assortment of floral flavours - rose, hibiscus, and lavender. Also, they seemed to have some sort of Elizabeth Arden promotion going on, so they handed me a sample of things too!But coffee and ice cream weren't going to fill me up for dinner though, so I spotted this busy little stand. A waffle iron!!! Yes, I would eventually have egg waffles from this place (and they were so cheap at 14HKD!) Plus I loved the sheer number of things I didn't recognise.This caught me eye, which looked like radish, fish balls, tofu and something. I was guessing the something was fish maw. I never bothered to find out though, but I'm pretty sure I've eaten it before. And it was curry flavoured! Yay! Except that also meant it was a tad spicy, so I was sniffling while eating it on the side of the street. But it was cheap and tasty! Though again, not really all that filling.So I finally hot my Hot Star fix. I've never bought anything from the ones in Australia, just because I never felt like Taiwanese fried chicken at the time (things like Gojima, Belle's Hot Chicken always get my attenti0n instead). Again, I couldn't figure out why people were pushing ahead and ordering, and it took me a while to realise that all I had to do was walk up and place an order. I think I'm far too polite to survive in a place like this!Anyway, I chose the two things I couldn't get in Aus - cartilage, and giblets (though they were labelled as kidneys, but I figure they're the same thing). Wow, they were so cheap, and so delicious! Now I know why everyone loves Hot Star. I guess I should give this a go when I want fried chicken in a pinch!Oh yes. I wanted to visit some wet markets though it wasn't high on my priority list. Turns out I didn't have to try very hard because it was just around the corner! Man there were just guts and stuff everywhere, it was amazing! I was taking so many photos likes the tourist I am.I kind of wish that Australia had some of this stuff, but I think it'd violate just about every food safety rule out there!Now it was time to tram into the city, where the hipster area is. The view while travelling was super interesting - it's amazing how hilly this place is, and that there are buildings just happily built there. How cool!The Cupping Room! This was the place one of my baristas recommended. You can tell it's cool because they have a lego model of their own cafe. Funnily enough, Black Eagles don't impress me though. I'm more a La Marzocco/Synesso person, and sometimes Slayer. And man, they have an impressive selection of beans. And expensive.A chausson aux pommes! I forgot that they don't necessarily know what an apple turnover is, so I double checked the name before ordering. I kind of wish there was cream in this, but it still tasted ok.Because of the machine, and because they didn't offer single origins as espresso, I skipped the short black and went straight for milk and filter. I'm pretty sure it was here that I started freaking out about the volume of my flat white again though. I pretty much only like 6oz, and I think this might have been 8 (or it was somewhere in China, I can't remember). It was ok.The filter, however, was an expensive competition coffee, and also one that I recall Proud Mary having on offer. I chose this over the two higher priced coffees, because I liked the sound of the tasting notes better. And that mango! Yes, plenty of mango flavour in this. My brother chose an Ethiopian gesha, which wasn't as outstanding as this one, even though it was the "better" coffee.More exploration, and more markets. Look at this happy pig head! Also, I didn't realise that Feather and Bone had shops outside Australia... that was pretty cool!Sad papaya!I needed some hydration, and found a health food place with cold pressed juice. There were so many different coconut options on offer! There was juice, juice with pulp, juice with pulp but blended, and then there was this. Silk mylk, which had a luscious (but almost too thick, but still ok) texture. Very interesting mouthfeel, but it didn't feel as hydrating as I think just the water + pulp would have been.We passed Noc Coffee Roasters a few times, mainly because I was hoping to get some egg waffles from Oddies Foodies - but alas, they had run out of the only flavour that I was interested in trying! So I opted for more coffee instead. This place had a primising looking LM Strada, so I chose an espresso here. But ugh, it was too dark and not that nice.Also, I managed to take a nice picture of my skirt!And the filter - by guest roaster Onibus! This was the Rwanda Coko, which is a super delicious coffee. Here, the flavours still stood out, but no the best brew I've had. They were off slightly, but this was still drinkable, unlike their espresso.Now we needed food to offset all that coffee. My brother couldn't decide between this place (Mak's Noodle) or the one across the street, in the end we decided that green was good. Oh, this is wonton noodle soup! Nice! I like the texture of the noodles and while the serving size was small, there was plenty of tendon, so I was happy! I actually think the brother was not as rich as a similar item I had at Singapore airport earlier in the year.Then, still being hungry, and having stumbled across a soba shop that my brother wanted to visit in Tokyo (and it has a Michelin Star), we decided to pop in. Yep, I was hungry enough that I consumed all this too! Ajitama shio soba with truffle oil. Personally I don't think the truffle oil was needed, but definitely made it aromatic!And then the night lights!! The light show was OK, but I liked Singapore's one better. And I managed to catch the ferry to the other side to return home!It was only a very short trip, so our time was already up. A simple breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien since it was close and I spotted it on my first night here, and because I've been hoping to stumble across really good waffles ever since I left Adelaide. However, even though these were Belgian waffles, they simply didn't live up to what I enjoyed at Exchange.And finally it was time to leave. Here is some airport food of roast duck and BBQ pork, with some delicious peanuts. My brother ordered the goose version of this, except I couldn't tell the difference in flavour and texture between our two dishes.Overall, I didn't actually enjoy Hong Kong as much as I thought I might. Singapore was more my style (except for the humidity), a bit more orderly and polite. Hong Kong felt like China if China was a westernised country, or something. I loved the street stalls and they've got some good stuff, but the culture just wasn't the same. Which makes me wonder, will I actually like New York once I finally visit? Only time will tell!Hopefully I get to post my Shanghai adventures too, but given how busy I am these days, I'm not so sure it will happen. Maybe in December!