For stick-to-your-ribs grub, may I suggest a recent discovery: Tien Ma’s Taiwanese Cuisine at the vibrant Araneta Center in Cubao, Quezon City, Philippines.
Tien Ma’s offers hearty Chinese fare at reasonable prices.
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Another leisurely coastal walk in Melbourne is the Brighton Beach to St Kilda, an under 2 hour walk covering approximately 7 km from Brighton Beach train station. We caught the train from Flinders St. Station taking the Sandringham line with a travel time of around 30 minutes.
With the horrible traffic jams within Metro Manila, one tends to avoid out-of-the-way restaurants. However, I happily make exceptions for gems like My Kitchen at The Oasis.
My Kitchen is in the little-known Oasis Park Hotel tucked into the curving narrow Belen street in Manila. It may as well be in Timbuktu, if you live in Quezon City and work in Pasig City, given the infuriating traffic jams around the metropolis! Yet for more than a couple of special occasions, we have chosen to celebrate here.
It has been a forever question battling it out between Sydney and Melbourne who owns the title as the foodie capital of Australia. I’d say it’s Sydney because I live in Sydney but if you ask a Melbournian, definitely the answer would be Melbourne. Fair dinkum!
During our last visit to Melbourne, aside from the usual touristy itinerary, we included a side of food tripping checking out places where locals eat. It was also an opportunity to showcase the food scene to our friend who was visiting Melbourne from the UK for the first time.
We chilled out, dined and partied away on The Food and Wine cruise with P&O Explorer as we sailed out to sea on a Friday evening with an easy check-in that afternoon. The only set back was that our cruise sailed from the White Bay Cruise Terminal in Rozelle, there is no immediate public transport here, note to planners, the redundant rail lines, though severed in places, could be reconnected to the now Light Rail lines from which it originally spurred from to serve this very area, either way, it’s a pain not to have public transport options from a Terminal that is not used as a one-off site.
Cafe Via Mare is a Filipino restaurant that’s been thriving in the Philippines since the 80s. Operated by Glenda Barretto, the well regarded restaurateur who started Via Mare as a seafood specialty restaurant in the 70s, Via Mare expanded to a chain of coffeeshops to satisfy casual diners who want a more relaxed atmosphere to enjoy Filipino food.
Located in the heart of Sydney’s Chinatown, Yebisu Bar & Grill is an authentic Japanese Restaurant specialising in Izakaya dining, serving a mixture of small plates or tapas-like dishes to be shared. If you’re game, Izakaya is best enjoyed with accompanying drinks like sake or beer which are very popular, otherwise you can always have a non-alcoholic drink to go with your food.
Another fantastic location for a view of Melbourne’s skyline from a distance is to try the the bay walk between Port Melbourne and St Kilda. This walk is a leisurely one and it will take you around 2 hours, a total of 4.4 km via the Bay Trail. The views of Melbourne from this walk are picture perfect.
Thanks to Dr. Stanley Quek, founder and owner of the much loved Kensington Street Mekong in Chippendale for recently launching it’s North Shore branch Mekong – Bistro Mekong Castlecrag. Eager diners wanting to try the Chippendale branch don’t need to cross the bridge anymore, it’s all here, right in the heart of Castlecrag.
If you’re looking for a new HOT SPOT for Italian dining, Zona Azzurri is the one. The 140 seater restaurant is the latest addition to the ever changing restaurant scene in the inner-city suburb of Alexandria. This suburb was once the epitome of industrial Sydney, but now it’s switching gears to becoming a mix of high-rise residential areas, upscale offices, and home to trendy restaurants, cafes and shops.
Decades ago, the leafy Kellet St in Potts Point was once a busy social and dining scene in the Cross, a mixture of top notch restaurants, trendy cafes, massage parlours, pubs and residential area. Over the years, a number of businesses have closed their doors except for a few iconic venues that have become Sydney institutions. Thankfully new places are popping-up and hopefully they will bring back the once buzzing scene of this lovely street.
Adding to the vibrant food scene in Surry Hills is the Chin Chin Restaurant which opened late last year, a sibling to the very popular and successful Chin Chin Melbourne which offers a modern take on South East Asian fare, particularly Thai cuisine. The restaurant occupies the Griffith Teas Building along Commonwealth St, one of Sydney’s landmark buildings.
