H A M M E R & T O N G

This Easter weekend, our quest to find more great brunch spots in Melbourne took us to Hammer & Tong in Fitzroy. Fitzroy is one of those pockets in a city that is as creative as they come. A place where its age shows, this area of town is not lacking in character. Hammer & Tong sits just off of Brunswick Street (for people that live in Vancouver, it is much like Main Street or Commercial Drive) and is home to one of the more well known soft-shell crab burgers in the city. We arrived at the door at about 11am and was met with a lineup that took about 15 minutes to get in (not too shabby). Not surprisingly, the restaurant was bustling and very full. We were served some great coffee here in no time... what came after though, didn't come until almost 40 minutes later. Needless to say, we were starved by the time our food arrived. We get that the restaurant is busy but 2/3rds of an hour is too long. Having said that the food hit the spot and I suppose that was this experience's saving grace.

We ordered the smoked trout, kale, poached egg on a rye bagel with seaweed hollandaise along with the zucchini and corn fritters with poached egg. The smoked trout was good but maybe a little dry. The combination of the ingredients is what made this dish so memorable. It was delicious and we polished off that plate with ease. The fritters had a very mexican flare to it and it also had a great, crispy texture on the outside. To end our meal, we shared a soft shell crab burger since it was selling like hot cakes. Our conclusion? It was good - the bun was very soft and warm (I'm no good with descriptions as you can tell) and the flavor was distinctly asian - but it was a little too salty. Overall, we enjoyed it. We may have had better in Melbourne but this ranks right up there with the best. We'll be back. Hammer & Tong 412 Brunswick Street Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia

C U M U L U S I N C

We love food so needless to say, when we have the opportunity to go out for brunch, we always try to find a new place. In Melbourne, it isn't so easy to exhaust your options even if you want to. Cumulus Inc. is heavily reviewed and very popular for both breakfast and dinner. We came here brunch and only had to wait about 20 minutes (not very much considering most popular places in town will require a bit of a queuing time). The restaurant is well lit and welcoming. We had the Cumulus breakfast which offered a boiled egg, toast, preserves, and yoghurt. We also had the smoked salmon on buckwheat waffle. The salmon was delicious and was easily the highlight of our meal. The coffee was not bad as well. The food was good and simple. It is refreshing to find a brunch place that does not try to do too much. But we both thought the food was just that... good. It wasn't outstanding but it was ok. It may have been all the hype from hearing others rave about this place. Anyway, would we come back? Definitely will one day. Afterall this is one of the better brunch options in the city. Cumulus Inc. 45 Flinders Lane Melbourne, Australia

S H O R A I N

Kyoto is known for their quality tofu. When I first brought up the idea of going for a tofu meal in Kyoto, K's reaction was "Seriously? All tofu?". He likes his meats so the idea of having 4 or 5 courses of tofu probably made him think that 1) that's one expensive meal for just tofu and 2) i'm probably still going to be hungry after the meal cause how filling can tofu be? Feeling determined, I did some research and came across this place called Shoraian (松籟庵). From what I read, this restaurant was located in the middle of nowhere (on the side of the mountain past the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest) and you probably won't be able to tell that it's a restaurant even if you walked right past it (see pictures for reference). The tofu tasting menu however, looked amazing and I knew we had to come try this out. We made a reservation before we left for Japan as I read that they have very limited space and they are only open for lunch. The reservation was made for 1PM (just to be on the safe side.. in case we got lost) and luckily, we made it there with 5 minutes to spare! It was a really cold day in Kyoto, so we were ready to get inside and warm up after hiking up from the bamboo forest to the restaurant (about 30 minutes with GPS).

When we got inside this unassuming restaurant, we were quickly brought into our own private tatami room where warm electric blankets and hot green tea awaited. We chose to try the $48USD tasting menu that day as it had quite a good variety. While we waited for the food to come, I couldn't help but notice how beautiful the scenery was from our dining room. We overlooked a flowing river and were surrounded by mountains. It was all too serene.

With a quick knock on the door by our server, the tofu started to arrive. First an appetizer, a tofu which they served to us with some sweet plum wine. It was very creamy and had a custard like texture. Then came the assorted tofu which was almost too pretty too eat. This dish included tofu as well as some seafood and vegetables. The next dish was the "special" which was inspired by the owner's artwork and calligraphy. The Kyo-ryori seasonal selection that followed was this beautifully made tofu stacked from endless paper-thin layers of soy bean curd. We were blown away by the craftsmanship. The Yudofu that came next is the signature dish of all tofu cuisine in Kyoto. I would also say that this is probably the simplest dish of the entire tasting menu as it involves cooking silky smooth blocks of tofu in a pot of boiling water until the tofu starts to jiggle (or dance as our server explained). This is then followed by an Agedashi tofu and finally, some awesome tofu ice cream.

We were both so full and satisfied after this meal. Needless to say, this was an amazing experience and for the price, it was well worth it!

T H E T O W N M O U S E

Melbourne is filled with great restaurants and since we moved to this city, I think we have barely scratched the surface of all the good eats this city has to offer. A great space with loads of light and limited space - and of course, great food. The dishes are meant to be shared with others so it was perfect that we had four of us there.

Pretty well everything we had was delicious including the oysters (simply done, just the way we like it and fresh too). The slow roasted red cabbage sounded interesting and it was different from any veggie plate we have ever had. We finished with three entrees including the charred pork loin, slow roasted lamb shoulder, and the red snapper. The lamb shoulder is huge but well worth it. It was fatty, tender, and perfectly seasoned. It was a great dinner and a great way to kick off the weekend. The Town Mouse 312 Drummond Street, Carlton Melbourne, Australia

D U B R O V N I K , C R O A T I A

August 2011 The mediterranean is one of my favorite places in the world. Amazing food, great weather and such amazing scenery. The sea breeze is one of those things I always recall about that place. Even now in Australia, I cannot wait to go back. This is a re-do of a blog post from 2011. Just a way to relive the experience and to have an excuse to re-edit some photos :) In search of a relaxing vacation, I asked my friends in Europe about places that they've been. Between 5 places that I listed, I asked them to tell me which 3 would be "can't miss" locations - Croatia happened to be one of them. I didn't know what to expect from Croatia prior to this but let's just say that having been here for this trip, I now know what the hype is about. My trip to Croatia was the first 7 day holiday that I'd taken so far this year (all my previous trips were 4 days or less) so it goes to show you how much you can do in a few days but coming into this one, I was almost at a loss at what I could do. I arrived in Dubrovnik on another 6am flight (I really despise these but you can't argue with the ticket prices) on the 30th of July. It was definitely hotter than in London - 30 degrees versus 16-18. But it was pleasant since you were right by the Mediterranean Sea as it brought this cool sea breeze every once in a while.  Anyway, the landscape was incredibly gorgeous. As you can imagine, being by the ocean, with a mountain filled landscape, it always gave you something to look at. I stayed in Dubrovnik Old Town which is basically where you want to stay when you are here. At the very least, you might spend the most of your time here when you are in Dubrovnik. It really is small enough to walk around in 1 day, it's almost impossible to get lost here but I love how it is built. Small little alley ways with cobble stone - mostly clean. The thing about Europe is that even if you call it an alley way, there are little cafe's and restaurants strewn all over with chairs outside for you to sit in. That is very much the case in Croatia as well. Probably the best thing to do here is to walk along the town walls. Dubrovnik is surrounded by a wall that encloses the entire city but you can walk along the wall and see the views of the Mediterranean and the surrounding area. It really is gorgeous and it will only take you about an hour and 10 euros to get through. Remember though, that the gates to the walls close early - about 7:30pm. During the peak of summer, this will likely prevent you from catching any shots during the sunset but if you time if perfectly and are good at persuasion, you might just get it ;) On my second day here, I decided to go and try something that I've been wanting to do for ages... scuba diving. What better place to do it than in the Mediterranean? Alright, I know there are probably loads of locations that have amazing dive locations but this wasn't half bad :) The beginners course took place in the Hotel Palace which is a 5 star resort just outside of the old town - you have to take bus #4 there and it is the last stop on the line which makes it nearly impossible for you to get lost. Anyway, the experience was awesome! The water was so transparent and clean looking and it had the Mediterranean turquoise color to it as well. Definitely a must do for anyone who is in the area. There are no real beaches in the old town so you will have to go out of the town a little ways to find one. Maybe a bit of a hassle but considering how small the town is, it is worthwhile to do day trips anyway. On my third day, I went on a day trip to the Elaphite Islands (three were visited including Kolocep, Sipan and Lopud) and spent the day lounging on the sandy beaches and enjoying the weather and scenery. Even got to meet two very nice Aussies who live in London - Katrina and Maggie. Wandering around with them during the day and catching up again for dinner was loads of fun and it was great meeting you two! I N D U L G E N C E S In terms of food, Croatian cuisine is centered around seafood. With that in mind, any time I sat down at a restaurant, I tried to order the fish of the day. The restaurants that I did go to for dinner were not in the main road, Placa. Instead, they were right next to my apartment on the strip called Prijeko - there are lots of restaurants along this stretch and they weren't crowded with as many tourists as those by the harbor. Anyway, back to the food - I sat down at Ragusa 2 the first night and had fresh grilled sea bass with boiled potatoes. It was certainly fresh but maybe a bit over done - still, it wasn't unsatisfying :) The second night I stopped at Moby Dicks and had the monk fish. These are quite easily the ugliest fish I have ever seen - like something from another planet who was beaten with an ugly stick but slice it up into small steaks and grill it and you have something there. Simply grilled and topped with high quality olive oil, this was a very pleasant surprise! Another thing I ate with great frequency was ice cream. When you are in the midst of 30+ degree weather, you yearn for certain things - ice cream was definitely amongst those things. Maybe not as good as in Italy but pretty close.  T H O U G H T S Dubrovnik is a beautiful little town. Definitely small but lots of life here - although much of that life is due to the tourists really. You won't see too many locals living in the Old Town but you won't feel lost either since you are surrounded by loads of people in the same boat as you. I highly recommend anyone going to Croatia to visit Dubrovnik but I would honestly say, 2-3 days max. If you stay any longer, you'll run out of things to do - so supplement that time with day trips to the islands like Korcula or Mljet. Anyway, on a side note: TONS of beautiful people here haha. On to Split now, will be there for the remainder of my trip. I'll be sure to update you when I get back from there!