MELBOURNE 2016: THE TRIP OF INDULGENCE

I'm going to call this three day trip to Melbourne a shopping trip even though it was really a trip to visit some relatives. Since the few days I was over there happened to be weekdays, many of my friends were not available to hang and so I spent the majority of my time alone... which meant much free time for window shopping and in the end, this trip somehow turned into a shopping tip hahaha. Also, all photos were taken on my iphone 6. I ended up being too lazy and then self conscious to take my camera out. I'm going to have to split this post up because even though I initially wanted to make this one post, it's proven to be way too long. So this post is going to be my food post and my next one is going to be places to visit/things to do post. 

Now my trip started off like all my other trips - much hmm-ing and ah-ing about whether or not I had enough cash to splurge on this especially after I had just returned from an expensive trip to Hong Kong (where I also spent a lot). But my uncle and his family are able to move away from Australia, where he has been living for probably over or almost 20 years. Since Aussie and NZ are so close, I always think it's so easy to just jump over any time I want. With them moving away from Aussie, it feels like they're moving halfway across the world which makes visiting even harder. So, like always, I decided to take the plunge and buy that ticket - last minute as usual. I probably bought it about 8 hours before takeoff so right after I bought it, I quickly packed a carry on luggage and had a four hour nap before I was woken up by Google...

I didn't even know Google gave out reminders like this until this happened. It is either a new feature or I must have done something to activate it before it certainly didn't do this last month when I went to Hong Kong! So I did indeed drag myself out of bed to get ready for departure. I have to check in at the airport as I cannot do so online due to my visa requirements *sigh*. 

So I'm at the airport super duper early and had about 90 minutes of walking around the airport. I was hungry but I didn't want to buy food as my ticket included it. So I walked around duty free instead before heading to the gate.

There was a slight delay but I wasn't paying attention to what it was so I wouldn't be able to tell you lol. But these people stood there for probably 15 minutes before any movement happened. Meanwhile, I just stayed seated and waited till the line died down.

One carry on luggage bag, one small personal item backpack and a cute neck pillow makes any travel easy as pie. =D Obviously traveling our national carrier: Air New Zealand! I know that clearing customs in Australia takes ages for anyone who isn't travelling on an Aussie or Kiwi passport so I wanted to minimize that long wait by not checking in any bags. I bought that cute neck pillow in Hong Kong a month ago. 

Finally on the plane and enjoying premium economy looking frumpy as hell but who cares because I was marveling at the entire not-economy experience. Here, I even tried to take a photo showing how much leg space this plane has.

Stretched my leg out diagonally in an attempt to capture how must space premium has. Eventually I get over how comfortable it is and settled in to begin my movie. I watched The Intern and started the beginning of Quantum of Solace. 

Annnnnnd breakfast is served! I found out that AirNZ does breakfast on flights departing port before local time 0930 and my flight was scheduled for 0850. I don't actually remember if we were delayed past 0930, but breakfast it was. To begin, a continental with fruit salad and cereal with a pot of yoghurt. Also had a croissant which isn't in the picture. Then followed with a hot option. I got the bacon and egg tart with spinach and potatoes and chunky tomato salsa. The other option was the oatmeal hotcakes but that ran out very early on in the service. 

This plane's bathroom decor lol. When I got to Australia, I joined the line of foreign passports and watched the Aussie/Kiwi lines longingly. Our lines moved pretty steadily but then an official came over and motioned to me and a few others to join the nearly empty Aussie/Kiwi lines. Yes! I cleared customs and then got onto the Skybus towards the city.

I made it to the city a little annoyed because the little Chinese kids sitting at the back of the bus were way too excited and kept yelling and screaming at everything. =_= But what can you do? It's probably their first time in another country so, let them be kids. I met my auntie at her office and headed downstairs to Brioche by Philip and brought some lunch. She recommended the Korean spicy pork belly one. It's not something I'd generally pick and probably wouldn't go for it again unless I really crave some brioche. However the spicy pork was rather tasty. 

You can also get these doughnuts from them. Or are these cronuts? Eh.



I am an absolute Chatime fanatic! At first I tried to resist but on the second day, I couldn't do it anymore and I caved in and got a Chatime drink. There's more than one Chatime store in Melbourne Central and since I was staying so close by, I popped down there and grabbed a morning drink.

Damn straight I love tea, Chatime tea! 

For my first Chatime in Australia, I chose the normal milk tea with coffee jelly. I took it as I usually do with zero sugar and 80% ice. You can get the same thing in Chatime New Zealand. =D

For my second Chatime in Australia I picked the normal milk tea with lychee jelly and took it with the same zero sugar and less ice. I don't think I'll get the lychee jelly again as it doesn't quite go well with normal milk tea...

For my third Chatime in Australia, I got the pomegranate green tea with grape jelly. I totally regret the grape jelly because it completely doesn't complement each other at all LOL. I usually don't go for anything else except for their normal milk tea but I was so thirsty for a cold, light drink that I decided to try this one.

I love crepes that you can hold and eat so I prefer the ones from Japan. I don't know any other place that wraps up your crepe and you can eat it without a knife and fork. Harajuku Crepes wraps your crepe up and it tastes so similar to the ones in Harajuku, Japan! 

For my crepe, I picked a savoury one for breakfast! Also because I intended to go to the gym after I consumed it. I think it was the chicken pizza...

It had chicken, lettuce, corn, cucumber and sauce. Not sure if I'm missing anything? 

Obviously, they have dessert ones too lol. But watch those calories.

Annnnd that's the making of my crepe =D

For lunch, I met my aunty at her office and we got some food from the nearby food court.

Sri Lankan goat curry with spiced white rice, cabbage and eggplant and a lamb pumpkin salad from a food court near the office. That curry was so delicious! I wanted to have it the first day I got to Melbourne! It smells so divine and you have to be in quick because they sell out around 2.30pm if not earlier and then that's it for the day! If you miss out, you'll just have to wait till the next day for some.

Pumpkin lamb salad!

For dinner, I met up with a high school friend who's recently moved to Melbourne for work and studies. We were originally going to another place but we walked around too much in Melbourne Central and got too hungry so we decided to go to the Monkey King Bar. It says it serves Pan Asian delights which I take to mean Asian food with a white twist. It's essentially a bar that serves tapas and would be better in a bigger group of 4-5 friends. 

BBQ lamb

BBQ pork belly - so very yummy! Definitely order this!

Canton style deep fried prawns with some great mystery dip. I'd order this again for the dip.

Pepper chicken - way too fucking spicy wtf. It's literally an entire dish of chili garnished with bits of chicken thigh bites. Don't get me wrong, I actually liked the chicken, after I dug it out from under all that chili. I could definitely have enjoyed it better if it was less spicy. Also, I interpreted "pepper" as black pepper not chili but that was my bad, didn't read the description properly. Still, would order again LOL.

Wagyu beef dumplings - we thought they were going to be beef balls so we asked the waiter who asked the chef but by the time he returned, we wanted to have them anyway so we did.

Coleslaw with tempura calamari - I still prefer the KFC coleslaw HAHAHA and this was literally the only dish we ordered that had some veges so we were so glad we ordered this.

My drink of the night - I forgot what it's called but it had lychee liquor, rose water, lemon juice and cucumbers. 

Was way too full at the end of it and did not finish everything so I took it back home for later.

Oh boy! My first introduction to Hot Star was in Taiwan in 2013. I love the flavours of this crispy XL chicken but it is so huge that I get full before I can finish it T_T 

Took a selfie for prosperity haha XD

In the weeks leading up to this trip, I developed this crazy craving for matcha. ANYTHING matcha. I think it was triggered after I had a green tea bag by Harney and Sons... and nothing in New Zealand had satisfied my cravings... this matcha soft serve is from Rice Workshop in the Emporium was only AU$2.50!!!

On my final afternoon there, I came across this sign. I already had a drink so I couldn't give this place a go. But this is the end of my Melbourne eats... because the next few pics are from the airport and the return sector to Auckland. =)

When your eyes are bigger than your wallet... haha. Did some shopping in duty free, bought some snacks as well. Didn't buy it for the journey back over, but I ended up eating one of the packets during my wait at the gate... our flight was delayed and so was the Emirates one. Emirates had a problem with their plane and it became inoperable so their passengers were put onto our plane. 

Bought a box of chocolates for the crew... I had bought a couple of these boxes for souvenirs. Hope the crew enjoyed it haha. And now for the plane food!!!

Flatlay... I saw the cart coming down the aisle and I got super excited because I really wanted to eat that dessert!

Pretty sure the crew gave me extra garlic bread in thanks for the chocolates lol.

Smoked salmon starter with potato salad! I'm not so sure what that green stuff was though. But the salmon was delicious! ♥

And a cold chicken salad for lunch! The other option was beef with mashed potatoes.

And finally for dessert... tiramisu cake? Whatever it was, it was absolutely delicious!

That's the end of this post, part two can be found here!