A Few of My Favourite Things !

Jian Bing – a thin, crispy crepe sparsely filled with an egg, some green herbs, brown sauce and chilli, fi you like it hot. Just fatastic and my favourite breakfast in Shanghai.

Having a breakfast of toufa with the locals

Finally, the bakery that we have been eagerly awaiting since reading about it some months ago opened last Friday. It’s hidden in a laneway (as with everything good in Melbourne) off the section of Little Collins St between Queen & Elizabeth St. They had a soft opening with the cafe and are planning to expand into the back section with a casual-style restaurant later on.

At the moment, there is a selection of baguette sandwiches, pies and salads to choose from for lunch, or you can take one of their sourdough loaves away. We went with a chicken cooked in white wine pie and it was to-die-for.

Sweet pastries are also available, and one of the best spots to have your coffee, in my opinion, is the standing bar.

I’m waiting for them to go full steam ahead and keeping my fingers crossed that there will be many more varieties of bread in the future. In the meantime though, I couldn’t resist purchasing one of their chocolate and fruit loaves (price varies depending on size). I nibbled on this all the way back to the office. I mean, it’s carbs and chocolate all-in-one!

Melbourne has been showing off with wonderfully mild weather – low 20s with blue skies – and I’ve been enjoying it fully. On Saturday morning, we walked along the Yarra River from Fed Sq to Prahran Market. The Giant Sky Wheel, the largest travelling ferris wheel in Australia, was erected in Birrarung Mar a couple of weeks ago. I spotted it on the way to the footy last week just prior to the opening and managed to get a closer look this morning. We have already had two failed feris wheel proposals for the rooftop of Crown Casino and Sandridge Bridge so I guess this will do us until plans for the Southern Star Observation Wheel comes to fruition.

These are the Federation Bells and it plays compositions from seven contemporary Australian composers at set times each day. I have only heard the 39 bell structure chime once and it sounded very discordant but maybe that’s due to the way it has been tuned.

The view from Morrell Bridge.

Before entering Prahran Market, we stopped by at Fujimart for some Japanese groceries and crockery. Having come back from Japan a couple of weeks ago where I had Mentaiko Spaghetti for the first time, I was delighted to find the spicy cod roe in the freezers here.

We finally managed to make it to the market where we picked up all our pizza topping ingredients.

We als got a few things at the organic shop just at the entrance of the market but these tomatoes absolutely floored me. Are they meant to be any different from sun dried tomatoes or is the renaming meant to rejuvenate interest?

How do you spell spelt?

Of course, we had to stop by at the Essential Ingredient where I lustfully flicked through the pages of Ferran Adria’s book, gasping in amazement at the incredible photos and creations.

We ended the perfect morning with tea, cheese and bread in the courtyard.

Giant Sky Wheel
Birrarung Marr – Lower Terrace
Adjacent to Federation Sqaure, along Yarra River
Melbourne 3000

Prahran Market
163 Commercial Road,
South Yarra 3141

Hang your coat up and have a waltz in the square:

Throwing up your wishes and dreams:

Adventures in Shanghai – Part 1
Adventures in Shanghai – Part 2
Adventures in Shanghai – Part 3

Walking around Shanghai one evening we came across a place that was grilling lamb kebabs over a charcoal fire. We looked up at the shop frontage to see the shop name appearing in Arabic script next to the picture of a mosque. The music that wafted towards us along with the smoke was definitely Arabic although the workers looked just like extremely fair Chinese. Following some research, I realised that there is actually quite a rich Islamic heritage within Chinese history.

Towards the evening, long queues snaked across the street waiting for the lamb kebabs to come off the grill. Not wanting to wait, we just picked up some interesting-looking bread. The dough is mixed with pieces of lamb (chewy for the most part) and fat and baked into a fragrant flat loaf with a crusty exterior.

Next to the bread is an egg custard tart from Lilian Bakery, a franchise that has several branches scattered around the city. A connoiseur of egg custard tarts, A has decided that this is best one we have had so far and I am inclined to agree. The custard, which is wobbly and just eggy enough to lure me but not put A. off, is held together by a flaky pastry shell. Utterly divine!

Somewhere between a roti and a naan, this sesame seed-coated bread is fried in a large flat pan which gives it a crispy shell. We had a great version the first time then had a lot of trouble finding elsewhere. The second one turned out to be too soft and mushy to be enjoyable.

This is a Chinese delicatessen! Every second shop in Shanghai seemed to sell a variety of preserved and dried foods, biscuits and sweets, as well as herbal ingredients. Most of the preserved meat were vacuum packed in foil wrappers, making it difficult for non-Chinese reading people like us to determine what each contained – feet, chicken wings or tongue, just to name a few. This shop made it somewhat easier although I can’t imagine buying that porcine face mask. It reminds me rather creepily of Hannibal – eeeuughhh.

Adventures in Shanghai – Part 1
Adventures in Shanghai – Part 2
Images of Shanghai

I went past the recently expanded Haighs store in the Block Arcade yesterday afternoon, thinking that I would pick up some of their solid milk chocolate eggs. There was a long line in front of both registers, quite a few empty shelves and no milk eggs. Guess I was a little too late.

I wandered over to the slightly less hectic Koko Black shop. They are selling Easter Bunnies starting at $35, so if you really want a treat…

Thanks to Matt for getting my photo editor back on track too!

I think we have just had some of the best noodles in town!

At Noodle Kingdom, of which there are two branches, they make all the noodles in-house. If you visit the one on Russell St, you can watch the chef ‘hand-pulling’ the noodles to order, dunking them in the rapidly boiling water to cook just before serving. We also saw some traditional noodle pieces getting made, the chef pinching the dough off and flicking them straight into the vat of water.

A. and I pored over the menu for some time trying to decide what to order. As always, the spicy minced pork noodles looked tempting but with the help of the waitress we decided to try the spicy pork and vegetable stirfried noodles and the traditional lanzhou beef soup noodles for something different.

The stirfried noodles were beautifully done – perfectly al dente, full of wok-flavour and erring on the dry rather than oily side. There were onions and capsicum pieces resting alongside the pork, all flavoured with chilli oil. You could tell the noodles were handmade, without that perfect equal thickness of each strand. This made our meal even more enjoyable because of the difference in texture.

The soup noodles were also quite exceptional. The beef stock was even more flavoursome than Vietnamese pho stock and the roast beef sufficiently salty to satisfy A’s tastebuds. The beef to noodle ratio would be a little higher but we’re going to use the leftover noodles for another dish later on in the week.

Two thumbs up from me!!!

Noodle Kingdom

175 Russell St, Melbourne 3000
(03) 9654 2828

51 Main St, Box Hill 3128
(03) 9899 3133