Brekkie Paradise Fitzroy

I just added Nuffnang Australia and made my stat counter visible. I have always wanted to join Nuffnang since they have cool logo and poll layout. I tried to change my counter to the one Linda using but somehow ‘since date’ from that counter is not working in here so I took it out and replace back with my old one, doesn’t look that bad though. Anyway, I still want to alter this site when I have free time…

From my previous post, I mentioned that Fitzroy is the paradise of breakfast and indeed, they serve wonderful brekkies…

Mario’s

Marios is good with eggs! Nah, I don’t mean the game Super Mario Bros, I'm talking about the restaurant in Fitzroy call Marios. Tiff and Min were humming the song of Super Mario when they heard the name, I thought they were familiar with that place since I've never been there as well but it turn out that they have no idea at all.

Marios is a cosy place, it’s located at the heart of Fitzroy and it’s crowded during weekend. We sat outdoor at a cosy table, very much like a city type of ambiance where busy people keep walking pass our table along the street. Tiff and Min wasn’t too satisfied with sitting outdoor since it was quite warm that afternoon, but it’s all good after Tiff had her Ice Chocolate - “Whoa! Their Ice Chocolate is soO nice!! Really!!! You try?!?!” Quote Tiffany… We all thought it must be the weather effect~

Then, because of the warm weather effect again, we made suave decisions and ordered similar brekkies. Four of us had Egg with hollandaise sauce after I told them that they serve nice Egg Benedict and Florentine as well as Scramb… We can't be bothered to decide more than that~

So we all end up with Poach Eggs with Hollandaise Sauce... difference between Egg Benedict [Bottom] and Egg Florentine [Top] is the Vege and Ham in between the Muffin and Poach Eggs…

It was the first time I had Egg Benedict and it’s really delicious, the hollandaise sauce was perfectly made and so were the poach eggs. Some disappointing facts are, the portion is too small for me and the price is not that cheap.

Photos taken from Clement’s Cannon SLR [Colour Fading Effect]

Should have told them that Mario’s Mushroom is good for growing bigger, just like Mario!~

Filter

Just a few shops next to Marios is Filter. They have totally different environment – spacious, calm vibes with relaxing songs and modern setup with lots of paintings within the shop.

Spacious Ambiance

One of those paintings that hung next to me actually costs a thousand Aussie dollars… Chi Sin!

We had coffee but it didn’t taste as good, although they have strong coffee taste but the smell of the coffee definitely isn’t comparable against Fandango’s Supreme - Clement love Fandango’s but I prefer Ici’s.

Min Min Egg Benedict again~ from the look of it, Marios is so much better!

We have one chief recommend – the Scramble Eggs with Pesto? Not too sure but it doesn’t taste bad at all. The eggs were well scrambled with some ingredients~

Tiff and I had the signature dish of Filter and they actually sign Filter with dark soy sauce, very special and unique. Then the menu description for Filter eggs writes ‘fried eggs in bread’ – how?

We were curious and this is what happened. They sliced out 2 portions of the bread in circle shape, then replace the empty space with eggs and fry the bread along with the eggs, then toast the sliced portions and place them as decorations for that dish! Creative and very nice as well!!

Filter is a Good place to hang out and we are totally satisfied with what we ordered!

Here in ‘Ici’

If I’m talking about breakfast hunting, Fitzroy aka the Breakfast paradise is somewhere I shouldn’t miss. Somehow, most of the brekkie restaurants in Melbourne are centralized in that area and they serve delicious brekkies. (Not yet proven by me - it’s from my knowledge and not based on my experience)

So I randomly picked my first from the paradise list and brought the breakfast gang to ‘Ici’ which means ‘Here’ in French. I have no idea if this is a French restaurant since their staffs don’t speak English with strong French accent and the restaurant itself looks dodgy and old – I can’t tell anything out of it. I feel uncomfortable when they don’t have printed menus and everyone have to go into the tiny restaurant to order from an old board on the wall, so I ended up with a quick decision since I’m so out of the place when I was standing there thinking what I should have. The inside of restaurant is too cosy that we have to sit outside on their tiny table…

Our drinks already occupied most of the space on the table and when the food comes, we have to put our drinks on a chair!!

And right beside the table, there’s a very big tree!

Nothing special about this tree, but throughout the whole meal… Tiny leaves keep dropping whenever the wind blows~

And lucky Min Min always get extra ingredients from that tree into her Cappuccino~

Whoops… I think I carried myself too far with those complains. I don’t mean to, actually, Ici is not bad at all! What I’m trying to say is…

• The staffs are friendly although one of them looks ‘Beng’ with super-cool tattoo on his hand.
• The tables are small but people get to talk to each other easily which make really good vibes around.
• Location is good with plenty of car parks and a quiet environment.
• People who go there seem to be regulars since they talk a lot to the staffs and even us, definitely friendly!
• Drinks are one of the best I had and food are truly delicious! Nice and crispy sourdough bread, sweet juicy mushy and nicest grilled tomatoes compared to those I had before!

When the weather is nice, even the mood gets better!!

I think these are what make Ici special… They serve goat sausage as well!!

Cappuccino . Flat White . Latte . Hot Chocolate

Got myself an expensive big breakfast @ $17.50 - Scrambled Eggs . Nice Vege . Juicy Mushy . Delicious Grilled Tomatoes . Goat Sausage . Soft Hot Potato . Crispy Sourdough! All worth it!!

And as usual, Min Min’s Bacon and Eggs

Something special for Tiff, vegetarian meal – Poached Eggs . Vege . Sourdough

Oh! There’s one more thing, their chair looks dodgy but that old cushioned chair is really comfortable… After the meal, we just don’t feel like moving anymore…

We are Cool Bananas!

Weekend Escapade

Karen Cheng Encounter

I realized that I’ve been doing too much things lately that I don’t have the time to chat online or make post in here. My PC is still in an unstable condition where the screen will freeze from time to time when I was watching anime or doing some other things with it - no matter what, I’ll find time to have it fixed through the warranty since its only 2 months old!!!

Last Thursday, I was walking along Chapel St (One of the Melbourne's most vibrant fashion and food strip area). Then I saw a familiar lady in black top and jeans walking alone towards my direction, almost thought I know her in person and was about to say hi until I realized she’s Karen Cheng (The famous blogger that I’ve stalked for some time). I was staring at her for a few just to make sure, and I think I almost freaked her out. I thought maybe I should approach her and ask her to ‘Do the Karen Cheng’ in one of the shop’s mirror – good grave that my camera wasn’t with me at that time if not I’ll definitely look stupid~

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Melbourne Fishing Charters

I had a long weekend. Nick is going back to Malaysia for good next week and won’t be coming back in near future so we planned to organize a trip to get together for some valuable time. Since Warren is having his uni-break holiday, he decided that we go Charter Fishing in the ocean with his 7 girl friends! I invited Evelyn and Philip to sum the number to 8 girls and 4 guys – excellent trip!! Well, not really since the proportion of sexes is not the main idea of this trip, most of us didn’t have a good time since it was raining that day. It’s pretty stupid to fish during rainy day though, but everyone is busy on other days, we have to try our luck against the forecast and everyone end up miserably under the rain… The fact that it was raining and the wave was quite rough, everyone had a hard time and end up getting only 3 salmons and 1 puke from Evelyn at the end of the day~

This is the second time I went fishing off-shore and most of the time, it’s either that we can’t get fish or people start puking from sea sick. I’m thinking maybe next time I should organize to fish along the bay, it might end up with a happier ending~ here are some of the photos we took…

Bad Weather

Warren’s Girl Friends Part 01

Warren’s Girl Friends Part 02

The three big Nubsss: Nick, Philip and Warren since they didn’t get any fish after trying so hard…

So is LJ, my new Nub friend~

And a loser award to Evelyn since she won herself a pile of pukes from the trip~ Myself? I caught some Melbourne pest the dodgy Starfish - they are so dodgy that I can’t be bothered to bring out my camera for it, and then I was told they have billions under the seabed!!

Ada - the best story teller on board!!

Si Shu caught the Biggest Fish for the day

Cheam First Caught Fish in her life!

Enjoying the sausages and bread with Cheam~

And enjoying being fed by reluctant Si Shu, the story goes...

Ada speaks English with strong Vietnamese accent. While Si Shu and I were happily munching away our chips, Ada suddenly said something…

Ada: ‘Fit’ him! ‘Fit’ him!!

Alex -_-ll: *Looking at Si Shu* What is she trying to say?

Si Shu: She’s asking me to feed you and she’ll take a photo of us~

Alex -_-ll: Okay~ *Happily opens his mouth*

Ada: Quick 'Fit' him!!

Si Shu: !@#$%$#@!@$# *Reluctantly fed Alex*

Well… After all, the trip was not that bad~

Everyone got extremely tired that day, the wave was so strong on the way back that half of us on board got seasick and the rest were trying to balance themselves from the shaking boat – it was quite thrilling though…

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Fandango North Melbourne

For me, I think it’s always great to start off the day with a nice meal and go for some activity after that, the day will last longer and more pleasurable. We decided to go Fandango in North Melbourne for brunch since 3 weeks ago but it’s either that we have to wait too long for the queue or it’s closed during Sunday.

It happened that last Saturday was perfect, we got seat right away after the friendly waiter attended to us - the place is small and cosy and they have very limited sits around. We started off with our drinks and realized they make nice, creamy, strong coffees! Clement and Tiffany have been praising it after their first sip~ and as usual - Tiff = Creamy Hot Chocolate, Myself = Creamy Latte and Clement is an all-round coffee lover and had a Creamy Flat White this time. He just love it and he’s been talking about it for two days whenever we chat about breakfast. He even analyzed by himself that the coffee is from Supreme-brew~ What a coffee freak!!!

Drinks @ Fandango

Not long after 20 mins of wait…

The Big Breakfast – honestly and seriously Big!

Delicious Pesto Scrambled Eggs with nice Bacons and Pide Breads – loving it!

Triple stack of Pancakes with Bananas, Strawberries, Home-made Honey Cream Cheese and Maple Syrup.

With a sumptuous brunch, that Saturday was almost perfect~ just need a little bit more we thought… so with a full tummy, we decided to golf it out!!

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Golf Out

So we went over to Albert Park driving range…

Yes! Out of all sports – golf!! I’ve always wanted to learn but I don’t have a good teacher so I simply suck at it~

Little do I know that I’m actually hanging out with a Pro!!

Of course not Tiffany! But she has a good pose though… Hehe~

Philip is the pro who played golf since high school and has always been keeping up with his skills - he’s growing to become my sports idol now~ first snowboarding and now is golf… So I forced him to be my golf master now, pretty one sided but I don’t care as long as he teach me~ Hoho…

It is not easy at all~ I got lectured by Philip many times about my positioning and body momentum… He even said sometimes I move like I’m dancing, not golfing!!!! Well, that’s the priority to professionals since they speak with words that carry gold so that you know how to take it seriously and improve!!

See!! I’m getting there~ *I Love Gold*

I’m dead tired after hitting approximately 100 balls or maybe more, in 2 hours time practicing none stop. I’m totally engrossed into it and after that slept for 4 hours right after I got home… Ha!

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Saturday Home Drinking Session

I’m always greedy during weekend since that’s the time where I can have most of my free time. So Phillip brought over a bottle of Martell to my house that night and hang out with my old pass-out board game inherited from Eddie – no one really pass out though…

What a Weekend!!!

Beautiful Sunday @ Mart 130

It has always been hard to wake up for brekkie and even harder to wake your friends up to have it with you since most will prefer to sleep than eat – that’s also my mentality in the past: “Why wake up when I can snuggle in my bed all day long?”

I used to be a nocturnal when I was doing my under-grad, I sleep at 5am everyday just before the sun rises, wake up at 1pm so that I can still do my stuff - waking up for breakfast only happens once in a blue moon. The other way I did was not to sleep and have a sluggish brekkie; those foods never taste as good as someone else describes since it’s always quite tasteless to me.

Mart 130, a restaurant right beside the tram stop and it seems like we are waiting for tram while we waited 30 minutes for our table.

Not for Tiffany since she started off her morning with hot chocolate during the wait

I’m surprise that I managed to wake them up at 9.30am to have brekkie with me, it’s a rare scene!

Philip - suffering from diarrhea yet still there, must be possessed by a Brekkie Spirit!!

(Someone who seldom wake up in the morning) Patrick with the super sleepy look!

And my new housemate (Only for the next two months) - Uncle Clement~

After the long wait, we staggered through the crowded restaurant to our seat and finally received some love…

Heart-shaped Cappuccino + Flower-shaped Flat White + Exquisite cupped Tea + Unbeatable favorite Latte!

And the ‘hungry Me’ – 给我一点吃的吧！！

The environment is cozy, the seat is comfortable, noise is at moderate level, staffs are friendly but busy, service is alright (just have to wait a bit because of the crowd), their food is “thumps up” and latte is fine but still can’t beat that one in Canberra Gus’s Café.

Poached Eggs + Bacon + Sausage + Mixed Beans + Sourdough

Scramble Eggs + Avocado + Mushy + Tomatoes + Sourdough - They have nice scramble eggs but their poached eggs don’t look as great compared to those from Auction Rooms.

Bread + Bacon + Vegetables + Avocado + Slice Tomatoes - I got greedy and ordered extra, the juicy bacon tastes great!!

Satisfied!

We cam-whored a bit and stroll around St Kilda beach after that…

Nice Shot~

The way Tiffany looks when she saw an extremely handsome guy in front of her, which is…

Me! Maybe not~

Cause I’m a messy guy~

Have a brekkie and have a walk… an absolutely laid back life~

Events going on in St Kilda Beach

Oh yeah, Spring is near!!!

Beautiful Sunday~