Random Melbourne eats

To wrap up my recent trip, here are some bits and pieces from Melbourne.

Naked for Satan in Brunswick Street. I love their pintxos, and they're a steal at 80 cents each during lunchtime.



Drinks in the Ikea cafe: pink lemonade with rosella and sparkling pear juice. The lemonade was super nice, and we were disappointed that it wasn't for sale in the Ikea food shop.



But we did find the following in the shop: moose pasta and a packet mix of the Swedish meatball sauce, yum.



We went to see the Tutakahmen exhibition at the museum, and had lunch at the Tcheft Marquee restaurant there. The lamb burger and vege burger sounded good on the menu, but weren't terribly exciting.





Cheeky Rascal strawberry and apple cider - I was intrigued to try this after I received some comments about it on my Rekorderlig post, especially because it's not available in Hobart. It was pretty good.



Finally, some desserts from a self-serve Chinese bakery that I forgot to note the name of. A tasty pistachio layer cake:



And a really, really yummy mango sponge cake.



I love Melbourne!

Shanghai Village Dumpling, Melbourne

Shanghai Village Dumpling is in Little Bourke Street, very close to where I was staying on my recent Melbourne holiday. We walked past one evening and there was a line out the door - a good sign! We headed there for dinner the next night. It's a funny little place, with seating on several levels. It's noisy, a bit dirty and very chaotic, but I loved it! The food was fantastic, and dirt cheap. I wish we had places like this in Hobart.

Fried spring onion pancakes ($3.50). This was a great start to the meal, although I do think the pancakes at Written on Tea are better.



Crispy pumpkin pastry ($3.20). These were unusual, but I loved them! They were sweet and almost custardy with a nice pumpkin flavour.

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Steamed chicken and prawn dumplings ($7). Tasty with a nice wrapper. I saw bamboo steamers of dumplings being delivered to other tables that looked even better, but I couldn't figure out which dish they were on the menu.



Shanghai fried rice with diced chicken ($7.80). It looks like standard fried rice but was very tasty - a perfect filler dish.



Great food which fed the two of us for under $30 - bargain! I'll definitely head back next time I'm in Melbourne.

Chocolate Buddha, Melbourne

Chocolate Buddha has long been one of my favourite Melbourne restaurants. It's right in the middle of Federation Square and serves fantastic Japanese food that's always tasty and fresh, good value and great for sharing.

Sunomono salad: shredded seaweed, cabbage, cucumber, carrot and daikon with a sweet vinegar dressing. I love this salad and it's something I always order here. My favourite part is the seaweed - I wish I could get just dish of it on its own!



Yakitori skewers: teriyaki sauce glazed chicken pieces with a spinach and cucumber salad, pickles and rice. These were great - perfectly cooked and juicy.



Green gyoza: vegetarian dumplings that have been steamed then seared. Great with the accompanying dipping sauce.



Tempura pumpkin roll: an inside-out sushi roll filled with tempura pumpkin, beetroot, seaweed salad and avocado. Usually I get a soft-shelled crab sushi but decided to try something this time. It was great... I did regret not getting the crab when I saw it being served to someone else sitting nearby, though!



We enjoyed a couple of glasses of Te Whare Ra "Toru" GRP wine with dinner - I wish I could find this wine back in Hobart!

Website.

Tasmanian Farm Gate market haul

It's been a while since I shared a market haul, so here's what I got at the farmer's market today. Lots of deliciousness!

Clockwise from top left: cumquats, rocket, an amazing yoghurt with berry topping, chocolate caramel and macadamia nut slice, wallaby burgers, lemons, with ciabatta in the middle.



The bread, burgers and rocket will be our lunch for today.
I haven't had cumquats before - any suggestions on how to use them?


Update: a pic of today's lunch! It was a beautiful day in Hobart today, and this was the first time we've got the BBQ going since last summer. The burgers were fantastic, topped with provolone cheese, bbqed mushrooms, capsicum, tomato, avocado, rocket and chutney. Delicious, but huge - I only ate half of mine. Saving the rest for lunch tomorrow!