Melbourne meeting - 2 to 4 May 2016

Melbourne, City in Victoria, Australia

It's not often, on short business trips, that I visit the parks and gardens - this is one pleasant exception.  The weather was comfortable, in the low 20s with occasional gusty winds.

After breakfast at Albert Road, I decided to walk off the calories.  Walked north west towards Queen Victoria Gardens and then loop back to south west (along Alexandra Ave) till the Royal Botanic Gardens, back to the Shrine of Remembrance, then walked north via Birdwood Ave till past QV's monument, along the south side of Yarra River.   To get to Batman Ave, crossed the bridge into Olympic Blvd, and at this point made mistake of turning south east -- which led to nowhere (closed into a highway?).  Doubled back to Rod Laver Arena, crossed over to the Melbourne Park, enjoyed the scenic walk along the north bank of Yarra River, with the black swans, and then over the new pedestrian bridge into Flinders St.

Graceful swans sailing down the Yarra River.

North banks of the Yarra River 

Bill board highlighting the pedestrian walkway improvements.

New pedestrian bridge linking the south Melbourne to Flinders St (City Center).

"Water nymph" (by Paul Montford, 1925) sculpture on pond.

"The Phoenix" (by Baroness Yrsa Von Leister, c.1973) sculpture on farther end of pond (right side of photo).

Close up view of "The Phoenix" - courtesy of google.

Flowers placed in memory of glorious war dead.

Shrine of Remembrance (on St Kilda Rd)

View of shrine from north of park.

View of city (St Kilda Rd toward Federation Sq) from Shrine.

Monument to the members of the Australian Volunteer contingent (1901-02) who died in the South African Boer War.

Statue of King Edward VII of England.  King's Domain, the part of the park with The Shrine is probably named after King Edward.

Walked 11km around the parks

Australians are blessed with having the freshest seafoods, meats and vegetables.  Hence it's no surprise that there are many many fine restaurants with great chefs helming them, producing high quality gourmet foods.....

MoVida restaurant at 1 Hosier Lane, off Flinders Lane

MoVida was one of the first restaurants recommended to me when I asked for where to eat in Melbourne. Thanks to Jen (Head Chef of Vasco Singapore) for this superb recommendation.

MoVida is located in this alley (Hosier Lane) lined by walls completely filled with graffiti.

Waiting for my counter seat.

The nice young man who took my orders.

The restaurant serves delightful Spanish tapas...  and the first two here were served cold.

Anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet

Cold smoked mackeral with pine nut gazpacho sorbet

50 grams of Iberico de Bellota ham aged 24 months.

 Pan Catalan.

Initially I thought this tomato-rubbed toast looks like bruschetta that I am used to in Italian restaurants.  Here its called Pan Catalan.

Marinated mussel with whipped cod roe, on potato chip

Top view of the mussel on potato chip. A real succulent mouth-watering treat!
I wished all potato chips could be eaten this way!

Pork sandwich with tomato jam and quail egg. 

The base is compressed bread which I supposed makes this a sandwich? Anyway the combination of egg with anything always get thumbs up from me.  The tomato jam was interesting...

Accompanied by 2 glasses of Tempranillo Castillia y Leon Spain. The wine glass with "MoVida" glazed on it.

This is now my  all-time favorite restaurant in Melbourne.

The ciabatta bread with olive oil

Counter seating

Ezard restaurant at 187 Flinders Lane

The restaurant interior.

The starters and main course I had at Ezard were indeed exquisite. Very good.  Especially I enjoyed the salmon and the deep-fried fish skin!!  Very nice blend of crunchy krapok (skin) and soft texture of salmon.

Starter sorbet

Steamed scallop dumplings, aromatic hot and sour broth, snow ear white fungi.

King salmon, puff skin, golden broth, miso cavatelli, coastal greens.

I didn't order the dessert selections and regretted it when the rest of my dinner colleagues got served theirs. Not only visual feasts but from the expressions, it was indeed very appetising!  For example the Wagyu beef with smoked potato, pickled cucumber and pepper jus was also quite popular.

Cafe latte

Becasue it was a business dinner at Ezard, and I had to hold back taking photos of the great servings my team members enjoyed.     The chocolate and chestnut praline, passionfruit, cocoa bscuit and malted chestnut milk, was quite popular.
It's worth another visit when next in Melbourne.

The restaurant is in a basement and there's no view except the legs of people walking on the street above.  A dinner colleague commented that good restaurants usually do not have any good views, and if a restaurant has a fantastic view....beware, the food may disappoint!   There is some truth in this.

Chin Chin on Flinders Lane

Chin Chin - heard great company, food and drinks are served here. It's very crowded and I did not get a chance to savor its offerings....

No.35 at Sofitel Melbourne on Collins

Arriving in Melbourne in evening on first day, it was an appealing idea to eat in a well-rated restaurant located in the hotel I was staying.

Pickled oysters

Close up view of the an oyster

Henschke Henry's Seven Shiraz Grenache Viognier

Ciapatta break with olives and butter. One of my forever favorites!

Slow braised Tasmanian beef.

Soft texture of the braised beef

Baked bacon cubes

Dessert menu

Dessert infused with Hoegarten beer, peanut butter, and caramalised parfait

No.35 Restaurant @ Sofitel Melbourne on Collins.

The Kettle Black at 50 Albert Road, South Melbourne 

No 50 Albert Rd, the front fascade of The Kettle Black.

This is the scene at 7am..it was full of breakfast guests by 8am!

Fire place filled with acorns.

Flat white.

Confit pork, poached eggs, compressed pear and emulsified butter.

The restaurant no longer serves poached eggs on its own, so this was the closest equivalent. The port confit was well done and works best with a small tinge of salt.  I must confess that I could do with less creaminess.

Taking out the confit pork.

The breakfast was very ample, and I was feeling quite ready to walk to the far corners of the nearby parks by the time I was finished.

A side view of the poached eggs...to be absolutely honest,  it's such a big breakfast, I do well to share this with someone!

Pho Dzung Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown (at junction of Russell St & Lonsdale St)

My original plan was to catch lunch at the famous Tram restaurant by Albert Park. Unfortunately the Tram is booked months in advance and there was no way I was going to get in, even for lunch.  So I decided to go find some comfort foods...Vietnamese beef noodles in Little Bourke St.!

Lunch at corner of Russell and Lonsdale.

Vietnamese beef rice noodles

Beef balls.

Peppermint leaves. lemon and bean sprouts...optional addition to the beef noodle broth.

Prawn and veg wrap, a common Vietnamese popiah.

Nothing fine nor gourmet about the Vietnamese restaurant offerings....but its fast and no-fuss...and just nice when hungry.


I was also in Melbourne last year for the same business in early May, but was foolish not to have taken one extra day to visit the parks and savor its fine restaurants.  Luckily I made good this year.

From a culinary delights perspective, this was a very productive trip.  Got to go to almost every restaurant I had planned to visit.

On the way to the airport, my driver Gary informed that the city plans to bring more party sizzle and crowds into the Flinders Road area.  Even now, Flinders Lane already feels like a real happening and vibrant place, with it's pubs and restaurants, buzzing with people.  

Flinders Lane area is really worth exploring more next time I am back in the city.