Dinner at Cho Gao

Doesn't like it.
I went to a volunteer dinner at Cho Gao the other night. This volunteer dinner was organised by RUSU. RUSU used my 25% off offer from my Entertainment card and hence saved about $30. I wonder why this place had 48% of people liking it.

Here it felt like a bit of a Chinese prison with security guards checking bags and id and confiscating water. WTF??? And what's even worse is that I checked out the bathrooms and felt like being in an Asian prison (it was designed poorly). The water station was hard to find.

Service was really bad. It took a while for us to get our drinks. It was busy at the bar, but still. But the pizzas came out really quickly, which led me to believe that everything was microwaved.

 I took one of these so that you know what this looks and feels like.

 This enhances the feeling of a Korean prison

They have a wide range of bar snacks and main meals and desserts. After all they are an Asian bar. They have $4 pizzas after 7pm. But because me and 16 other people all got in about 6pm, RUSU had to pay $16 per plate of pizza. And we got 16 plates for all of us to share plus 6 bowls of chilli fries for $5 each.

The lemonade was too sickly sweet and the pizzas were hardly worth the $16 we had to pay, except for the Thai one which was really spicy.

The others were really soggy and everything fell off. I had to ask for a plate. The base was too thin. I hate thin bases!

The fries were not salty which I loved, but I didn't get the weird cheese sauce. I would have loved more spices or even a spicy sauce (think Nandos).

Altogether we spent $158 on the pizzas and the chips (without the 25% off discount). It was not worth it. Never again will we be back. I'd like to see what Eat and be merry think of it.

Roller door

Roller door is a little place just around the corner from North Melbourne station. I had heard good things about it from my friend and decided to check it out myself. I also read some good reviews of the place in the Age cheap eats 2012.
This place was a wee bit small.
Here their meals are mainly organic and vegan. They don't have much food but they do seriously good coffee at $3 a cup and there is magic in their coffees.
I had one of these and also picked up a crossaint at $7. It was small for size, but great in taste. At $7 it was not bad. It was organic. It was filled with yummy ham and cheese.
I'm glad I found this place right near the train station. There finally is a great coffee place right near the station where people can buy their coffees. But the only thing is that it closes at 3/4pm.
Heres the veg should give it a try.

My week with food

17/4/2012- Cooking class at Realfoods from 5:30-8pm
It was a fun night with about 180+ people turning up. There were many cooking demonstrations with heaps of food on offer. Everyone there got a free showbag just for turning up and there were door prizes on offer. Many thanks to Lucy and her volunteers for putting on this show.

The food hall @ GPO
This was a great chance for restauranters to showcase their specialities. Everyone who attended got to sample some of their fine foods and picked up some free recipe cards. It was free to attend.
It was held over three different days as listed below:

18/4/2012
Ramen Ya vs Kenzan
I got to sample two different bowls of ramen. One of them was the thick udon noodles (Kenzan) with the lovely flavorsome sauce the other was thin (Ramen Ya) with a very distinctive pork flavour. Kenzans one had very soggy looking tempura. not sure if I liked that. But I loved the fresh spring onions and toppings though.

19/4/2012
Ca Da Vin
Ca da vin is one really expensive fine dining place which uses fresh produce and makes all of their food by hand. Today I had a chance to try their oils: chilli, lemon, rosemary and basil. I even had a chance to try their fresh basil and I loved it. It was heaven. The two most favourite oils of the day are basil and rosemary. The chilli one didn't have a big kick of chilli flavour in there. It was small and subtle. Too subtle in fact. But the fresh basil on top of one of them was a bit hit for me.

20/4/2012
Federal Coffee Place vs cacao
Today is the final day for the Food Hall and today is no exception. The coffees at Federal coffee palace was exceptional. The hot chocolate from Cacao was simply too cold from having been out for a while. I got there at 1pm because I had other commitments before then.

Crepes @La Petite Creperie
This place is a little pop up place which just opened just last week. I didn't discover it until yesterday.  It is just around the corner from Building 108 and at the temporary tram stop. Its about time a crepe place is open near the old RMIT business building
This is a traditional cute little French crepe place right in the heart of the CBD
For now they only do sweet crepes. Their crepes are priced between $4-$8 and they are heavenly. I had the lemon with sugar one for $4 and it is heaven!!!
These are affordable!!! Yay! Finally something that's affordable and meets the student budget!!! And something that is open until late at night so that we students can have a healthy snack!!!! OM OM OM OM!
The lady there was friendly and she said that it was really busy at times.

Victoria st, Richmond
This is a foodie haunt here in Melbourne. This is where some of the Vietnamese and Chinese live. This area is a little bit of a slum, but I do love the cheap and fresh Vietnamese food sold here.
Here I had the sticky coloured rice ($2.80 @ Nhu lan) and the rice paper rolls ($3 at Saigon Bakery). Geez $5.80 for a filling meal. Its not good; IT'S GREAT!!! And both the rice and the rolls were made freshly and were not stale. I like these ones better than the ones I get in the city. I would love to come here any day, just for good, clean and cheap food.
Lots and lots of trams go past this Vietnamese and student haven.
Vietnamese students you can feel right at home here!

David Jones Food world.
Here this is like the US version of food halls that pop up in the big business buildings. Think "The devil wears prada" where Andrea is in the dining room and you'll see what I mean.
Here they have different sections where you can choose your lunches and today I went to the salad stand as per usual and I chose two different noodle salads at $9.53 altogether. Expensive, but good for special occasions when you feel like gourmet food.

The world of Nespresso
This world is a lovely place to be in. It is heavenly!!!! Nespresso is an expensive brand of coffee (see earlier post) and today is no exception.
Today I tried three strong, intense brand of coffees.

USA today
I forgot to take pictures of this but this was a free lunch where I sampled a small cup of coke and hot chips. I was too full from lunch, but I wanted to share this free lunch with you all. I would love for you guys to come as it is every Friday during the semester and it is organised by the Student Union and its free for all students.