Happy National Day!

Rice Bar (Not only Rice)

Rice Bar (not only rice) has never been one of my favoured places to go to. Not only is it slightly more expensive than equivalent restaurants, the food there has never been particularly nice as well. And recently, they opened another branch (on Swanston St) very near their original one (Grattan St).

So we decided to go and try it yesterday, and was surprised to find out that they had a very different menu compared to the original Rice Bar. Whether that is a good thing or not I do not know. What I do know is that I was very pleased with what I ordered and have another take-away packet of the same thing sitting in my fridge right now, awaiting the next night of crappy Ormond dinners.


Eileen in full concentration.


This was what I ordered. Tastes like char kuay teow from home! I'm wondering if 'Rice Drop Noodle' is actually what we Malaysians call as Lou Shi Fun, or Rat Noodles. Whatever its called, its awesome.


A few of my friends ordered this. I have other pictures of different dishes as well, but they all look about the same. One overturned bowl of rice, some veges on the side, and the meat of choice. I generally tend to avoid ordering something that looks like this, because it looks very canteen like, and does not befit a meal that is ordered from a restaurant.


Christina and Jon. The occasion was originally supposed to be a celebration for Christina's birthday which was last week, but due to people problems, it was cancelled, and became an 'eat-out' session, and Christina got invited along as well.


Just to steal a line from Christina:
Thing of the day!!!~The colour green!

Cicalata cafe

Come to think of it, yesterday was the first time I've ever eaten out for breakfast in Melbourne. In the nearly 3 years I've been here, the closest I've gone to eating out for breakfast is having Yum Cha, but then again, that's more like brunch/lunch anyway.

I guess maybe its because breakfast here costs as much as dinner, or maybe even more than dinner, when compared to Malaysia, you can get a good breakfast for a fraction of what you pay for dinner (depending on what you eat of course).

So, yesterday was an experience in itself. Jian Ming, Sher Reen, and Mei Sze were planning to go to the sweet stuff convention and they asked me along, but I declined. I did however, take them up on their offer of breakfast. Thus, off we went to Lygon Street, where we settled in Cicalata cafe.

Food was not bad, but not spectacular either. Basic stuff, like eggs, bacon, the usual, but it costs a lot. However, I must give them top marks for presentation.


Lentil and something soup with toast.


Now this is an interesting dish. I must admit, I've never seen anything like this before in my life. Apparently, you mix everything inside the bowl and eat it.


Now this was, um, weird. While I must admit the bacon and eggs were good, wrapping a roti canai around it was just not right. And the sweet tomato thingy on the side didn't go well with the whole thing either. Andddd it cost me 14 bucks. That's 2 plates of chicken rice. Haha.


Now this dish illustrates what I mean by expensive. It costs $13.80 for just the roesti and spinach and poached eggs. The bacon cost an extra $2.50. I don't think I can afford to spend 15 dollars for breakfast on a regular basis.


Vanilla ice cream topped with a shot of hot espresso. Very interesting. I didn't try it though. But still very interesting.

In conclusion, eating out for breakfast is fun! Especially when there's good weather. Reminds me of Malaysia, where we go out in the morning to eat wan tan mee, char kuay teow, roti canai, nasi lemak, and so many others. Its just the price that bothers me. =)

On a different note, did you know that tiramisu means 'food of the gods' in Italian?

Who is the shampoo bandit?

*News alert!*

Residents of Ormond College awoke this morning to find all their toiletries gone. Any thoughts they were isolated events were soon dispelled upon further investigation, whereupon they found the following notice posted up around college walls:


Although the author of this article found the whole event amusing, seeing that he's from Malaysia (and thus paranoid) and keeps all his toiletries in his room, the sentiment was not shared amongst his friends. Here are what some of his friends had to say about the Shampoo Bandit:

"Its not so amusing when you wake up and find that you can't brush your teeth. I had to break open a new toothbrush." -Meisze.

"They took away my shampoo. I have no more shampoo now." -Roland, while shaking his head in disappointment.

"Not only did he take the shampoo, he took everything that could be taken from the bathrooms. I'm gonna kick his ass if I find out who he is." -Eileen, while making a sandwich.

"I'm not affected by it since I keep my stuff in the room." -Jon, nonchalantly.

"Heheheheehehehehehehehehe." -Renata, giggling evilly at other people's misfortune.

"I wasn't affected, but I'm still angry." -Philip.

Some people even scribbled the word 'Asshole' on one of the posters.

Questions must be asked about the Shampoo Bandit's motivation. What drives him to such an act? What did he gain from it? All the items taken hostage were at the vesti to be collected, thus the Shampoo Bandit did not derive any material gain from his act. It only served to inconvenience some of the college residents.

Looking at the poster, one cannot help but think that the Shampoo Bandit is issuing out a challenge to all residents of Ormond. Draping an Ormond gown over his head, complete with sunglasses, he seems confident enough that he will not be caught to even reveal two fingers for identification.

However, is he misleading us? Could it be that there is more than one person involved in this?

Seeing that it was a college-wide event, could it be that it wasn't the work of the Shampoo Bandit, but the Shampoo Bandits? Suspicions abound that there is a secret group working underground, masquerading as one person.

Kimchi Grandma

Was at dinner at Kimchi Grandma yesterday. Here are some of the pictures of the food:






Only thing I wanna say is that oranges don't go with chocolates. =)

Nila

After a heavy dinner at an OCF event, which we were invited by Sheik Yan; Tim, Deva, Kalip, and I trekked off towards the small lanes near Flinder's Street, in search for a quaint old cafe in which we could have a cup of coffee and chill. Originally, Starbucks was suggested, but I (partly because I feel that Starbucks is too commercialised, and partly inspired by Ironeaters and their "cozy bars") suggested otherwise.

Reach our destination we did, however, we were sidetracked by an Indian restaurant, Nila, serving 'Malaysian, Singaporian (sic), and South Indian Cuisine'.


Images of roti with condensed milk from Murni in SS2, PJ, in Malaysia began to flash in my mind vividly at that moment, and thus, I decided to order Roti Bom, with a cup of Teh Tarik to go with it.


The amount of condensed milk will seriously give you diabetes. And that's after I told them to not put so much condensed milk onto the roti. However, it tasted as good as I expected it to be. =)


The menu said 'Teh Tarah', so Teh Tarah it is.


Deva ordered the Roti Kaya. Looks just like a normal Roti Canai. Not as sweet as the Roti Bom, which can only be a good thing, health-wise, I suppose.


Doesn't that look absolutely delectable? Tim ordered this, and I tried a bit of it, and in the end, I ordered one for myself. Gluttony is one of the seven sins. =(

Kalip did not eat anything there.

Ignorance is bliss

Sometimes, having less information is better than having a lot of information.

Now, I'm a person that hates being put on the spot. I hate being in a situation where I have to speak to a group of people, or perform something (like a music exam). I hate knowing that everybody is watching me, that I'm the man of that particular moment. If I know I have something like that coming up, I'd have sleepless nights up to one week before the event.

On Thursday, I was asked by my AMS supervisor to attend the ethics committee meeting, during which they'll discuss whether they will approve my project or not. My supervisor said "I don't foresee any problems, and I'll probably be doing most of the talking anyway."

So I went along, not having prepared anything at all, happily spending the night before playing DotA and relaxing.

Had I known that they were going to ask me a whole lot of questions about my project, I'd probably have countless sleepless nights before Thursday morning!

Ormond Minimap

This is an map of Ormond drawn by some of the orientation committee members during orientation week.

I find it amusing and that's why I'm putting it up.

Ito Japanese Noodle Cafe: I love instant noodles. I just don't want to pay 10 dollars for them

Met up with my coursemates on monday and had dinner at Ito, on Bourke Street. Here's the food.


This is what I had. While I must say that its good, but I must compare it to a bowl of instant noodles (which I love) with a few slices of meat, half an egg, and some garnishing on top. Only thing is, instant noodles don't cost $10.80 haha. But its still good.




Didn't try either of the 2 dishes above, so can't give any comment about it.


Some of you may be surprised that I didn't order the Unagi Don, which is supposedly my favourite dish in a Japanese restaurant. But I'm glad I didn't. If you look at the picture of the Unagi Don above, the rice only actually reaches the middle part of the container, with the bottom being hollow. Do you realise how little that is? What a rip-off!

Ever since Don.na Mon.ya closed down, all the Unagi Don's I've had in other restaurants has been ever disappointing. Everytime I think about this I feel sad. Why did it have to close down? I regarded it as one of the four 'must eat' restaurants in Melbourne. And it closed down. Just like that. Without notice. Without closure.

The only time I've ever come close to recreating the feeling and emotions that I experienced while eating Unagi Don in Don.na Mon.ya was in Jogoya in KL. But however similar it is, in my heart, I know, its not the real thing.

This is a shoutout to all you people out there! If any of you know any place in Melbourne that serves Unagi Don as good as Don.na Mon.ya's, please let me know! I'm looking for affordability (around $12.50) and quantity. Don.na Mon.ya's actually was very good as well!

Well, I end my rant here.

Good day to everybody.

Hard Rock Cafe: All-you-can-eat ribs for $34.95 on Thursdays!

Nope, I didn't have the all-you-can-eat ribs, because I didn't go on a Thursday, but I intend to.

Firstly, I must declare that this is going to be a picture-heavy post.

Anyway, last Saturday, in conjunction with the end of Sue's ski trip/holiday here in Melbourne (she would be leaving on Sunday), the group of us current and ex-Ormondians gathered up, took a tram to the city and had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe on Bourke Street.




It would be my first time in Hard Rock Cafe, so I didn't know what to expect, but I certainly didn't expect them to be playing live rock music very loudly, so loud that we couldn't even hear each other talking. Perhaps that's why they are called 'Hard Rock'.

With 16 people attending, you know that we'll be taking lots of pictures.



I don't think she realises that there's someone behind her.




Ha-ha. This from 2 Man U fans.

By now, you might be tempted to ask, "No food?"


To which I would reply, "Of course there's food, it'll be coming soon."

And you'll all go:


So here's the food.


The starter of Potato Skins. "Large potato shells, fried golden brown, filled with Jack and Cheddar cheeses, crisp seasoned bacon, green onions and parsley. Served with a side of sour cream for dipping."


These were good. Too good. But perhaps, not enough. Just enough to get you to the 'just right' stage. But for only 6 dollars more on a Thursday, you get to eat as many of these ribs as you like!


"Select pork, hickory-smoked then handpulled, so it’s tender and juicy. Served with your choice of our authentic vinegar-based or Hickory Smoked BBQ sauces and topped with marinated slaw. Served with seasoned fries, ranch beans and homemade coleslaw." I didn't try this, so I don't now how its like. Apparently it was called 'Pig Sandwich' previously, and they've now changed it to 'Pork Sandwich'.


Not sure what burger this is, but it does look nice.

Moving on to desserts.


Now this was awesome. You know how awesome a dessert is when I, Chin Jian Wey, rate it higher than the meat. From the description of "Ice cream and hot fudge on a fresh brownie, topped with chopped walnuts, chocolate", it does sound very simple, but somehow, the amalgam of hot and cold, and crunchy and soft, comes together to give a wonderful explosion of flavour in your mouth. We shared 2 of these between 5 of us. That's 5 bucks each.


Yum!


Didn't try this, but I think it was on their recommended list.

All-in-all, the food's not too bad, but nothing spectacular. However, like I said, it was too noisy, so don't go there if you want to have conversations. Go to someplace else like TGI Friday's (which was our original destination, but it was too far away) instead. Not that I'm saying that TGI Friday's is better than this place, no.

Ski experience part 4: Unopened bag of chips don't bother me, its the opened ones that do. I just can't stop eating them!

The finale is here.


No idea what snow angels are until Jian Ming mentioned them. Apparently you lie down on the snow and make an angel shape out of it. I don't think I did it well.




Skiing took a lot out of them.


If you take the time to think about it, sitting on a ski lift is plenty scary. And while you're on the ski lift, you do have lots of time to think. Its bad when they suddenly stop the lift for whatever reasons and you're suddenly left hanging there with a lot of empty space underneath you.


I didn't try that, only Jian Ming and Sue did. Apparently it pulled them along and they nearly fell.




This is my favourite picture, taken by Jian Ming. I was too afraid to ski down that particular slope (it wasn't that long, just very steep, with a cliff at the end) so I decided to walk down the side. It was still difficult, but very hillarious.


And that's the end folks! All 4 parts. And now I shall take a break.

Actually, I have a tribute to Sue's phone, which she left somewhere in the mountains (her pocket had a hole in it). I actually tried calling her phone a few times after that and was surprised to hear it ringing well into the night. However, the morning after, it succumbed to freezing temperatures and was never heard of again.

Other parts can be found here:
Part 1
Part 2
Interlude
Part 3

Ski experience part 3: Drink, Drank, Drunk

For some of us (not me), part of the whole skiing experience is that we get to play drinking games on the night that we stayed there.

For me though, after dinner, I just settled in for a few quiet games of 500 with my friends.


Others though, prepared themselves for more rowdy games and drinking.


You can see that they came well prepared, with salt, lemon slices, drink mixers, soft drinks, and a variety of alcoholic stuff.


As the night wore on, people gradually got drunker (I was asleep by then).


And drunker.


And drunker (note that the pictures are progressively getting blurrer).


And drunker.


Still one more final post on ski to come soon!

Other parts can be found here:
Part 1
Part 2
Interlude
Part 4