I went to Melbourne with my swimmers and a swim date with Chatu, because apparently Melbourne was super sunny and warmer than usual. When I arrived it was the blustery cold Melbourne I always remembered - lies!
Elsie was sick with bronchitis, so our first stop was to Richmond's Little Vietnam to get some Chinese herbs.
Sunny blue sky, but cold!
But first, a bowl of delicious beef &beefball pho at Pho Dzung, one of a dozen pho outlets along Victoria Rd.
That first night we went to Chef Lagenda in Flemington with Bo and her friend. We stuffed our faces with sambal mixed veg, beef rendang, curry fishhead laksa, claypot silverdrop noodles, hainanese chicken, roti and coconut / chicken rice. It was all quite tasty but somehow not quite the same as Mamak, I might be a bit biased since I eat so much Mamak.
The next day Elsie's cough was worse, and she blamed this on the lack of cicadas in her herbal concoction (who would have known it was an essential ingredient?). Despite the fact that her house now stank like herbs and that she had had a bad nose bleed from the first dose of the herbs, we headed back to Richmond for another dose of herbs! I mean cicadas..
Random park
Alas, the store was closed. So we went to Lygon St and poked around. Koko black was closed too, though I spied these cute little bunnies in the window.
Sunday evening was Seetha and Nikhil's wedding reception, and what an extravaganza it was! She was such a beautiful bride, fully decked out in a heavily gold-laden sari, and they looked so perfect together as always. The speeches were somehow less cliche than usual, and I think the audience was all pretty moved. It is quite special to find that special someone to love and cherish, especially when you are both young and have so much to look forward to together.
Sunset under the highway
Mmm.. tuna
On my last day in Melbourne Elsie was still not better, and everything we did seemed to not work out probably because she was sick and it was a public holiday. We went to DFO in Moorrabbin, which strangely was next to a light aircraft airport, but found the shops dull. We went to Clayton looking for lunch, and everything was closed. Then we went to Glen Waverley and managed to eat something before the shops closed. Just as we were feeling exasperated, we walked into this awesome BBQ joint in Clayton (practically in the middle of nowhere) where the spicy chicken wings made me feel so extraordinarily content I could have eaten them everyday. This despite the fact I don't like chicken. I also liked their BBQ pancake and coriander rolls.. the flavour brought me back to the roadside in rural China, sitting amongst the coals waiting for my skewers of food.
The night ended with all of us driving to Lygon St again for Koko Black. It was worth it though, the hot chocolate so rich it was almost like syrup. It felt odd to swallow, as if the texture was too thick to be a fluid, but once past the throat it filled the body with warmth and the palate with an aromatic chocolate aftertaste...
We ate too much, so despite our best intentions of having a second dessert at Brunetti we had to settle for spying on the food. Next time I want one of these baguettes..
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