UberX

Its good to try new things and I would highly recommend if you want a cheap and fast service. I.e if the train is cancelled and there is no other way home (if the bus does not run as they usually don't after a certain time)

Comparisson of costs by uber.com

This time my train was late and the bus went without me. I was going to call my housemate but instead I decided to try UberX after a few good reviews from colleagues and friends. Here ordering a cab online on your phone is really simple. You download the app (I'm surprised it works for Windows) and then you sign up. You are then asked to provide your credit card details. You pay for the cab on your credit card (not in the car but when you order) and they will take care of the rest.

They even tell you when its coming and who the driver is. They also will tell you what the car is (note it is not the standard black Uber car that I thought it was). My driver was pretty good. He was really friendly and knew where he was going. Nowadays cabs are very expensive and they will often take you to the wrong places.

His car was pretty clean not like some other taxi.

My trip from the station to home was $6.19 which was very good. My house is 2km's from the station but it was a very hot day and I didn't want to walk home.

Do try UberX whenever you need a cab really quickly. They don't take bookings which is good. You can download the app online.

Ramen Bankara

This place is a Japanese chain store which has places in India and all over the world. Here the place was recommended to me by aadancefit who recently ate his ramen for free as he finished in under 15 minutes.

If you share a moment to Ramen Bankara's Facebook page or Instagram then you will get the ice cream for free. But because I did not have ramen ( I came after 3:30pm and was not in the mood for ramen)I did not get it. Rather I was in the mood for rice and pork with egg. In fact I got two eggs not knowing that there would be egg in my dish. I liked both and two eggs is sometimes good for you.

The pork was nicely cooked but as per usual there was too much rice and I had a bit of difficulty finishing this. I really liked the garlic ginger and onions on top. What I would have loved is some of that pickly ginger which is used in ramen dishes (and its pink).

The ordering system is just like any other in an Asian restaurant where you write your order on a sheet of paper and hand it over.

Service was very friendly with a smile.

Rating: 13/20- just ok. Do come here for their food and free ramen if you can finish a mega one within 15 minutes.

Mama Trans dumplings with no pictures

Mama Trans dumplings is in South Melbourne market. Here they are a food court place specializing in Australian Chinese food. Foodie about Town recommended them to me via Zomato. So I thought that I would give them a shot. I had some pictures for this place but lost them so it is all just text.


They sell dumplings by the pack. Here everything is under $10. They do have lunch specials for $6-$7 which includes your choice of two dishes and rice or noodle. I chose the fried rice and singapore noodles with lemon chicken. Sometimes they change their offerings, but today at 1pm there were no vegetarian or fish choices.

The store was clean and at 1pm they were sold out of a few things. They also didn't have many customers then.

Their dishes have no msg and you can choose how much or how little servings of chicken and sauces. This is amazing and I was full afterwards.

I have had their buns before and it was amazing. Here they had lots of juicy filling inside. The lady's prawn dumplings looked good.

Saint Lucent

This is a new cafe on Racecourse Road in Flemington. Here they do stellar coffees and locals are flocking to this place. It is pram friendly and kid friendly. The owner tells me they have been open for five weeks now and that there is a new girl on the counter. She didn't know what single filter was until I told her. She didn't even know they have it.

Here they do have a limited food menu but what they do have is stellar. I was trying to follow Dr Susan Bowerman's healthy eating plan. Susan Bowerman is a registered nutritionist in the US and is from Herbalife. I am doing this for an article in the other blog.

Hence the easy poached eggs on toast.

The filtered coffee ($4.50) was lovely and the manager made it for me. He is such a good barista. A good barista knows what their customers want. Here this coffee was really strong. In fact a little strong. But it was nutty and nutty I like.

The poached eggs was really simple but good. Sometimes its the simplest things we enjoy the most. I really liked the toast. It was not too chewy or too hard which is good.

Do come by to this cafe whilst waiting for your tram or train. It is just great that there is a new cafe in Flemington.

Sakura Kaiten Sushi II

This place is the sister of Sakura Kaiten sushi in Collins st. This place was recommended to me by aadancefit. He had been there some time ago and loved the fast moving car. They have this sort of thing in Japan.

By 2:30pm the place was busy with all the people loving a late lunch such as myself.

Here their tamago nigiri was overpriced. It was $4.80, other places charge $2.80 per plate. Here the egg was good and sweet but the rice fell apart.

Ginger

Tamago sushi

Cooked tuna sushi

 The tempura sushi was nothing much to write about. In fact I wouldn't recommend it.

But the seafood udon ($3.80 (a winter special), normally it is $6.80) which took a while to come was really great. Everything was piping hot and the noodles was fresh. In fact all the sushi and meals were made by a team of Japanese chefs.

The second time around at 3pm the place was dead quiet. This time I tried the vegetarian spring rolls, the prawn balls, agedashi tofu and the eel sushi. The eel sushi fell apart but the agedashi tofu was really good. It was ordered straight off the iPad screen. This fared much better than the one at Chadstone.

The prawn balls and the vegetarian spring rolls were cold. They had been on the train for a while so they lost their crunch.

The tuna one though was freshly made and it had some huge spicy kicks to it. I loved it.

By the way if you order 5 dishes off the iPad menu then you might win a free ice cream.

14/20- aa_dancefit it was just alright. Not the best, hump.