Australian cuisine and why I'm looking forward to this year's show.

Australia has a wide range of different cuisines and some of them are fusion cuisines. We love our pork chops, lamb, asparagus etc.
For me I love trying out different things when I'm in a new country such as new sauces, jams etc. I've found that sauced the preservatives at the Market sells and samples a few different jams and sauces. My favourite one is the chilli one.
I've always loved coffee here in Melbourne and here in Melbourne we have many types. It is nothing like the HK styles. More towards the American and European style coffees, such as Doppio, americano, espresso. And I love piccolo. I've never tried these until I reached Melbourne. In HK it was just the standard black instant espresso. The first cupping class I attended was at Market lane in Prahran.
Prahran market is a foodies heaven. Here you can find all of your gourmet goodies and lovely macaroons. And there are heaps of samples for everyone to try.

And I've also loved the tea varieties here. We have many varieties.
I've always loved pasta and noodles. Lygon st is known as Little Italy in Melbourne. Here they make their own pastas and cakes etc. I love a good pizza and a pasta.
And I love a good bratwurst.
We love our wines, but I'm not much of a big drinker.
There are different varieties of cheeses here such as Brie and Camembert. I've always loved the Brie on crackers. Quite simply divine!!!! And stunning!!!
Just this year, I just had the chance to try Latin American food. And Sonido does really great food so far.
Love the Spanish churros they are divine! There is a churro truck at Queen Victoria Market. But I've never tried it.
I also Mexican food. Tacos, burritos are all yummy. Mad Mex in Melbourne central is the best Mexican place by far.
And I love good dumplings in soup with noodles. Yummy. Although there are some really bad places in Melbourne, there some excellent ones too in the heart of the city that doesn't cost a fortune.

International students: what are your views and experiences with food in Australia?

Melbourne Central Shopping day and Gumbo Kitchen

Melbourne central has a VIP shopping day once in a while and it is always full of sales and people. This year they advertised their sales one day before the event. But many people still came for the live bands and stuff.This year's theme was winter fashion and so Melbourne Central had many free fashion workshops and makeovers. They even had a beuaty bar where people were styled for free. There was heaps of free alcohol after 5pm. Here's what happened throughout the day.
1) Masterfoods stall
Here they were offering free samples of food for All to try. They have their new sauces in stock which is Chilli Con carne and Tandoori. You can purcahse them at Coles for $2.50 a pop. They were both salty. But I liked the Chilli Con carne one better.

2) Gumbo Kitchen
The Gumbo Kitchen was a pop up truck in Knox Lane. They are based in Northcote and are usually around during dinner time, hence I did not get the chance to try it until now. They were really busy at 12pm when I got there. I think everyone was sick of the Melbourne Central food court and decided to try something different after reading many good things about the truck. Here they did massive meals for $11-$15 and I loved their Po Boy. The Po Boy is a big New Orleans style sandwich. Here they have pickles, sauce, cheese, lettuce and a big serving of seafood or meat. Its just like a hamburger except its more fancy and American.  They should be around Melbourne's CBD more often as I think people would really enjoy this, rather than the stodgy food that is offered in the city. I think Big Fil did try this before in Brunswick and I can why he enjoyed it. I was a bit too full to try their dessert though and I wanted some room to try some other things offered at the Centre.

3) Bits and bobs.
After lunch I walked around and saw many things such as cute dogs and signs. I also tried the tea at Oriental House and T2 for free.
They did offer showbags, but they ran out early on and I didn't get one.
There was free fariy floss at Glue but I wasn't in the mood.
4) Snag stand
You can read about my previous visits here. There was a free barbecue going on. But here I got to sample some of the currywurst sausages for free and loved the flavour. But it was a bit cold from being out for too long. Yum!!!
5) Coffee Masterclass.
We got to try out lots of coffee here and it ran from 5:30pm-6:30pm. I wasn't really wowed by the coffee and besides I'm a morning person who loves their coffees in the morning and not at night. Sigh. But I did get a 50c off the purchase of a regular coffee voucher for Melbourne Central.

Thanks Melbourne central for putting on such a great day. Hope to see you soon. How about a week for the new international students in July, called O'week?

Coffee at STREAT

There is a new STREAT shop opened up near my neighbourhood in Newmarket. It is outside the tram stop and about 1kms walk from the train station. It used to be the old Social Roasting Company but I think they moved into the city. They were opened for a few months but I keep passing it and haven't had a chance to visit until today.
It has the same aims as the STREAT cart and you can read about it here. All the money goes towards the homeless.
But unlike the STREAT cart there aren't a lot of pastries here. Instead they sell meals and coffee and little treats. They sell mainly breakfast meals and they sure look gorgeous. The atmosphere is lovely and cozy and very relaxing with indoor and outdoor seating.

But I wasn't here for the breakfasts, mainly for the coffees and snacks since they did a pretty good job at the cart. The coffee ($3.50) is stellar.I love the artwork. (Bryan from Lets Get Fat together would love this).
The vegetarian savory muffin was flavoursome, but I would have liked it to be toasted. And with butter would be nice as I saw some other people's had butter with theirs.
I would definately return and I'd like to see what Bryan thinks seeing he is a coffee addict.