Tripice – Tripe cooked in white wine,tomato & garlic served with potato puree.

We were at Port Melbourne on Sunday and I had this craving for ramen after a big day/night out but it was a bit hard to find Japanese eatery that serves good ramen. Then I suggested to DJ to try out Dalmatino because I remembered having a good hearty lunch with our suppliers few months ago. DJ ordered the tripice and I had the toasted ciabatta bread with kulen sausages tomato, capsicum and Provolone cheese.

DJ was nice to let me have a taste – my verdict:
How Dalmatino cook the tripe was just perfect. I am not a fan of offal but after trying out the Italian style of cooking tripe, I don’t mind it at all. The tripe was very flavorful and not too chewy like what we usually get in yum chas.

280 Bay St,
Port Melbourne VIC
(03) 9645 6584

Ibuki is a japanese home cook place where we actually dine at the cook’s “extended” home. There is a minimum of 10ppl perbooking and the banquet ranges from $60 – 80 perhead. The cook decides on the menu and we have no say on what we want to eat – similar to omakase except last year when we were here, the menu was almost the same. We had udon noodle soup this time instead of the fish stew that we had previously.

Ibuki Japanese Cuisine will be moving to the city in early Aug. I wonder if the owner will still have the home cook style banquet at the new restaurant. Stayed tuned…xoxo

Caught up with our lovely friend Sarah for dinner yesterday at Movida Next Door. After trying a few different tapas restaurants, Movida is still the best tapas bar/restaurant in town.
Movida Next door has a first come first serve concept but we were lucky to get a table in less than 5 minutes although we were told that we had to wait 20 – 30 minutes for a table.
DJ did all the ordering where else Sarah and me was busy yapping away.

After dinner, we went to Riverland for a round of beer. The weather forecasted to be raining however, the night turned out to be quite pleasant. It was a good Thursday night catch up and so sad that Sarah is actually going back to Beijing for good. Btw, I have inherited her full-length mirror and microwave. Lol.

We had to cover our face because I had no make up and Sarah was complaining that her face was chubby -_-

At about 9pm, DJ and I decided to call it the night and we rode home using the bike trail. The experience was so surreal. Almost like, I was in the movie Blair Witch project – Pitch black with only the headlight on.
It took us 35 minutes to reach Glen Iris from the city. I am impressed I reckon after a few more night practice I will be able to cycle home from after work drinks…hmm…

St Ali is famous for their coffees and I must say it is one of the best coffee I’ve ever tasted in Melbourne. The whole set up of this cafe is very laid back and they even had Aesop hand wash & balm in the toilets! Lovely

Our breakfast:

Pancakes with coffee mascapone & orange marmalade toppings. Highly recommended.

Chorizo and bacon salad with additional poached eggs.

Healthy breakfast with beer -_-”

Lamb sausage with mashed sweet potatoes.

After breakfast we rode to Docklands to meet up with Lynn. So happy that we finally get to meet Pinko. There were a few minor dramas with Pinko but luckily DJ was there to fix it.

We rode along the bike path for about 20 minutes and decided to take a break at James Squire to quench our thirst with some beer.

At about 4.45pm, we decided to call it a day and the journey back home took us an hour despite I had to pee so badly after the beer but managed to hold it till I reached home.

I had a really great time and riding is damn addictive!!

The steak house is located above a busy butcher on the main shopping street.
As early as 9am there are already heaps of people queuing up for off cut wagyu meatballs. Too bad we could not bring the meat back to Australia otherwise I would have gotten a kilo of the meatballs to try out.

A very steep staircase leading up to the dinning area. We were lucky to be there early otherwise we would have to wait for at least 30 minutes for a table.

The restaurant is very tiny and it can only accommodate maximum 16 patrons – 6 counter seats and 10 table seating.

My ¥5,250 Matsuzaka A5 beef set lunch served with bottomless rice.
The texture of the beef was so tender that chewing was not required. The meat just melts in the mouth. Unbelievable delicious.

Very happy and satisfied gaijins. Well done DJ!

DJ cooked a specatacular Xmas eve dinner. The main ingrediant was OYSTERS. We bought these considerably good size oysters from this wholesaler next to his work place – 6 dozens for less than $50.

Belvedere vodka oyster shots.
Thanks to Yauie for bringing the vodka

Oyster natural with mignonette sauce.

Japanese oyster kaki fry & deep fried rice balls.

Baked oyster in herb butter and golden panko.

Oysters roll in thick warm sabayon sauce.

The oysters were wrap in savoy cabbage with blue cheese fillings and served in champagne sabayon sauce.

I feel like having oysters today for dinner after looking at these photos… with a glass of Brown Brother Zibibbo… yummm

My manager and I attended a Xmas lunch at The Graham, organised by one of our suppliers from work.
I had the Chargrilled 1824 scotch fillet served with horseradish potato salad, wholegrain mustard butter and red wine jus.

Everyone was curious of me taking photos of the food -_-.

For our fillings we have instant char-meen noodle, chopped spring onion, crab stick, corn, kimchi gyoza and cabana.

Our home made okonomiyaki with extra *okonomiyaki sauce (similar to Worcestershire sauce but thicker and sweeter), aonori (seaweed flakes), katsuobushi (fish flakes)* and heaps of Japanese mayonnaise. Oishi

*extracted from wikipedia.

M.O.O. resides in the basement of the old money order office to the G.P.O. tucked away at Drivers La off Lt Bourke st.

This restaurant was voted Australian Wine Bar of the Year 2005. DJ ordered a bottle of 2005 Heathcote Estate shiraz for dinner and tasted not too bad.

For our entrees we had:

Cured ocean trout with smoked beetroot puree, apple, walnut & mint paste.

Seared Harvey bay scallops with spring onion, miang,and szechuan pickled cucumbers.

Our mains:

Suckling pig with braised savoy cabbage, potato puree & caramelised apples.

DJ was so in love with this dish. He couldn’t stop raving about how good the pork tasted.

Margaret River eye fillet with spinach puree, glazed shallots & foie gras butter.

The eye fillet was cooked to perfection however the spinach puree was too creamy to my liking. I prefer the beetroot puree that I had earlier for entree.

We order a dessert assiette that has a selection of dessert items to share.

+Rose and vanilla pannacotta w poached fruits, honey ice cream and orange floss.
+Walnut and orange semifreddo with poached fig
+Lemon Tart w fresh berries, grapefruit marmalade and mint yoghurt sorbet
+Dark chocolate and cherry mousse.

In conclusion, the ambient, food quality and service in MOO was good and I wouldn’t mind coming back here again to try out their Entrée tasting plate that has a selection of entrée items and champagne during Friday-after-work-drinks.

Basement 318 Lt Bourke St
Melbourne Victoria 3000
Tel: 03 9639 3020