Food roundup so far

Annie and I like food, as you probably already know. We like food enough that it dictates our behaviour at home most of the time, and it's the same when we're away. We've come across a lot of new things so far, and be it strange hostel breakfast combinations in Singapore, dubious market food, or recommendations of gastro delights at a local pub hidden away in an Oz suburb, we feel it's a duty to ourselves to check it out. A few things have been particularly great so far. In no particular order: 

 - Chilli crab, a Singapore speciality we were told was mandatory. We'd say the same, though we'd like to take a local with us next time; there's a knack to deconstructing a crab with chopsticks, but we don't have it. 

 - Pepper Lunch, a small (?) Japanese (kinda) chain in Australia that serves up raw food in a 260 C iron bowl. It doesn't stay raw for long! It's a relatively cheap and rather novel take on teppanyaki or sizzling kebabs, and I'm surprised it's not in somewhere like Wagamamas at home yet. We've been twice: Annie recommends the kimchee beef rice with an extra egg, though i'm tempted by the steak options if we go again.

 - Tomato chutney /curry sauce pots are everywhere, we keep being given them with pies. They do good pies here, with generic "pie" meaning steak pie, sometimes with cheese(?!) in shortcrust. It's a bit of a gamble though, they rarely state any details else on the menu. I ordered what turned out to be the best steak and ale pie I've ever eaten at The Local Tap House in St Kilda. The pie came with a pot of chutney/curry and broccoli with toasted hazelnuts, a combo I'm definitely adding to my collection. We stopped by on a recommendation and found a list of 30+ lagers and ales (and wine to boot). I drank a Carlisle Street garden ale, which was brewed on the same street! 

 - Dubious breakfast combinations can pop up in even the nicest hotels, and those at hangout@mt.emily in Singapore are up there with the strangest. So strange I decided to list and rank them: 

Best - day3:1-mee tong noodles, 2- pancakes (drop scones), 3- baked beans (pretty good eaten with the noodles), 4- quiche (not exactly quiche...) 

 Good, but not best, day 2: 1- Fried rice, 2- cheese tomato (huh? As it sounds), 3- bread and butter pudding (a bit scrambled), 4- chicken sausages 

 The strangest was on day 1: 1- Cheese on toast (epic win, though some pieces were soggy), 2- baked pasta (a.k.a. pasta omelette), 3- baked beans, 4- potato salad 

 I should say there was also bread to toast, cereals and (vile) coffee, but why be boring when there's such a selection of freshly cooked stuff? 

 - Excellent bakes from the Woodfrog Bakery in St Kilda. Paul and Mary would be impressed by the exemplary pains au chocolat, and my breakfasts were made great with their white loaves (not sourdough but made with poolish, a technique new to me, but one I'm sure to try when I get the chance!). The bread also went well with sautéed baby king mushrooms from the famous mushroom man in Prahran Market in Melbourne, apparently the oldest market in Victoria. He's so good with shrooms he's even received something like a CBE from the PM in Canberra. 

 - Kaya toast and kopi (local style of coffee) in Singapore - both are acquired tastes in that you'd might not be enamoured first time round, but they seem to cast a spell and demand to be eaten every time you need a snack. Dangerously good, just like the last item on this list, which is... 

 - Breadtalk (Singapore) / Breadtop (Australia). These are amazing cheap bakeries that are all over the centre of town. Think Greggs on acid. Current faves are the prawn laksa bun and the claypot chicken.

We made it to Oz

A 7 hour flight from Singapore saw us safely into Melbourne and having landed at a respectable hour we were able to hop on the Skybus transfer to the city centre where we are hostelling for our first week. Once we remembered where we were staying at least. Note to self: write these things down!

Our hostel, Discovery Melbourne is hard to describe. All we can really say is that we are glad to have our own room as from what we've heard, the 16 bed dorm rooms are something to behold. Indeed, in the kitchen there really are Discoveries to be made (of the live and crawling kind) and in the bathrooms, although those things don't crawl around as much, it's only a matter of time I'm sure.

So far we have explored much of the CBD (translation: Central Business District) on foot and located some great coffee on the way. Certainly something to rely on in Melbourne as the coffee is taken very seriously, it's always great if not always cheap. Sunday was a lazy day with a much needed lie in and then a visit to the famous Queen Victoria Market. A market that has both food and general retail areas so a brilliant way to while away some time and get some provisions for dinner and any other essentials you might need. And by essentials I mean cheese, chocolate and booze. If a market's been around for a century, you know it's going to be good and it didn't disappoint. It did however make us long for a kitchen to call our own. The aforementioned hostel kitchen is no place for serious cooking - it's more a get in, get out don't look at that thing that might be crawling on the floor type situation.

Today (Monday) we went on an important search of some serious brunch and found it in the form of Cumulus Inc. on Flinders Lane.  After a bit of searching, we found this popular resto/café and settled in for a brilliant brekkie. Though my full English lacked some good ol'  baked beans, the smoked tomato and blood sausage were both pretty special, not to mention the delicious thick bacon and just-runny eggs. Tom's baked eggs were also brilliant as was the coffee and the service, I'm sure we will be back there before too long. We worked off our breakfast with a walk across the Yarra to the beautiful Royal Botanic Garden, free entry and amazing plants - some of the indigenous plants are like something from another planet.

As we are here on a Working Holiday and though our visas state that the primary purpose of our trip is to holiday, not work, we are trying to set ourselves up for work sooner rather than later. So a list (or two) has been made and today we were able to tick our first bit of life admin off as we have now applied for a Tax File number. Easy and free to do online, it means we get taxed correctly but also importantly means we can claim our tax back when we leave. Kerching! Hopefully.

x Annie

Singapore Summary

So, as you would have gathered from Tom's musing on food courts / hawker centres below, food has been quite a theme during our time in Singapore. Quite literally, the world is at your feet here and you can eat whatever you fancy. So here's a bit of a summary of the past few days in Singapore.

Day 1: 18 September

An early start (thanks jet lag) and it was up and off to explore Little India, the district closest to our hotel. It was so early, that nothing was really open apart from the Mustafa Centre an incredible department store that sells absolutely everything, and lots of it. A good amount of time was spent here and we made the important purchase of a new camera as it's a bit cheaper than at home and we can get the tax back when we get to the airport.

Then on to China Town for an explore and to search out our first Hawker Centre. The hawkers were once street vendors who sold their food wherever there were customers from the back of a cart. Nowadays, the city keeps them contained in these amazing centres which have an array of food and people and their own code of conduct which makes it so interesting to visit. China Town was lovely and decorated with lanterns for the Mooncake festival which takes place this month.

After a longish nap (try three hours.. is that a nap or a full on sleep?) we headed out for some more Hawker Centre food next to the night market around Bugis Street accompanied this time with some beer served over ice, essential in this climate! 

Day 2: 19 September
The Zoo. We spent hours here and it is an incredible place to go. The zoo is very open with no cages or anything so you feel that you can get really up close and personal with the animals. Best of all, it wasn't at all crowded so at times we felt like we had the place to ourselves which was amazing. Worst of all, it's possible that a bat weed on me, but currently I'm opting to believe that it dropped/squirted some fruit in my general direction. Thankfully some alcohol gel was on hand to tide me over until the nearest bathroom. New favourite creatures include the Mouse Deer and numerous monkeys but also loved the White Tigers, especially when one of them went for a swim. We also managed to see some feeding times which was entertaining, even if the Warthogs (as in Pumba from the Lion King) couldn't have been less interested in the food they were being thrown! We will try to add some pictures from our visit there very soon.
In the afternoon/evening it was a visit to the Orchard Road area which has 20 shopping malls in the space of about 2.5 miles. Needless to say, we only managed about two of these before getting lost/confused/overwhelmed. 

Day 3: 20 September
A visit to the Asian Civilisations Museum was very interesting in giving an overview of the development of Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia. Particularly in terms of how the cultures have influenced one another over the centuries. A very worthwhile place to visit.
A true Singaporean experience came next in the shape of Sinaporean Chili Crab. Thanks to Jess for the amazing recommendation of Jumbo, one of the best places to have it in Singapore. We shared a whole 1kg crab between us with a huge bowl of rice and I am still full some 6 hours later! It was messy, we had to wear bibs and a good thing too. The crab arrives at the table swimming in a pot of tasty crabby chili sauce so you have to fish it out to crack the claws and get at some of the meat but it was worth the effort - certainly one of the most delicious things on the trip so far.
Then to Fort Canning Park for some exploration, including seeing Singapore's former lighthouse and a nifty spice garden. Now obscured by tall buildings, it once was a guiding light to help ships make safe passage into Singapore harbour. On the way back to the hotel, we bought some beers to enjoy on the roof terrace which was lovely as there's a nice breeze up there only to be greeted with the screeches of the Formula 1 cars practicing for the race this weekend. The whole of the city will enjoy that for the next few days!

Currently steeling ourselves for an early flight which means a 4am wake up call. Next stop: Melbourne

xx Annie