casual

HOT: De Clieu, 187 Gertrude St, Fitzroy

January 10, 2011 ⋅ 8 comments

De Clieu is the hottest cafe on the Gertrude Street strip at the moment and it was one of the reasons I’d avoided it till now. The crowd overspilling into the footpath tables and lounging in the frame of the large street-facing windows seemed too cool for school (or at least too cool for me) [...]

HOT: Hooked, 384 Brunswick St, Fitzroy

January 6, 2011 ⋅ 5 comments

“A chain fish-and-chippery is HOT?” I hear you think dubiously. I too had my doubts until my friends recommended that I give Hooked a try. For health reasons I really need to eat more fish at the moment and with a lack of fishmongers around my home (I’m going to test-run a seafood delivery service [...]

HOT: Ying Thai 2, 110 Lygon St, Carlton

December 16, 2010 ⋅ 6 comments

For some people, the term ‘blogger’ implies a computer geek sitting at home, in the dark, tap-tap-tapping away at their computer keyboard for hours on end and only communicating to the outside world via an online persona. Obviously they have never come across someone who blogs about food, because it’s simply the nature of food [...]

HOT: Babble Bar and Cafe, 4 Izett St, Prahran

December 14, 2010 ⋅ 3 comments

On outward appearances, Babble doesn’t appear to be the kind of place that would be my scene. The weatherboard corner-block cafe fronts onto gorgeous vistas of the Prahran Safeway carpark, the narrow outside bar seating is marred by practical but ugly beer mats and the wraparound wooden verandah attracts tanned boys in muscle Ts and [...]

HOT: Nelayan Indonesian Restaurant, 265-267 Swanston St, Melbourne

December 13, 2010 ⋅ 3 comments

In the second of my recent forays into Indonesian food, I was pointed to Nelayan by Sally, an Indonesian student. Out of all of the cheap Asian eats on Swanston Street, Nelayan seems to be one of the more popular. Very early on a weekday evening, the tables were doing a quick turnover of heading-home [...]

HOT Chat: Alyssa Milton of Lyssy May

December 10, 2010 ⋅ 3 comments

I recently received a wallet made from an old Melways map (it covers the area of the CBD) and I was so thrilled with it that I contacted the maker, Alyssa Milton. Alyssa runs a craft label called Lyssy May from a studio in Kensington and today’s HOT chat is with her. Thanks Alyssa! Alyssa, [...]

NOT: Chilli Padi, Shop OE7, Menzies Alley, Melbourne Central, Melbourne

December 7, 2010 ⋅ 7 comments

After reading some positive reviews of Chilli Padi online, I thought maybe I’d found a great restaurant in Melbourne Central with which I could bribe RM to come Christmas shopping with me. Unfortunately, our experience was a case of generally good food marred by comically bad service. Read on…. On arrival on a Wednesday night [...]

HOT: Fox Hotel, 351 Wellington St, Collingwood

December 6, 2010 ⋅ 5 comments

The Fox Hotel is an old-school boozer which outwardly looks more ‘pub’ than ‘gastro-pub’. The venue is an eclectic conglomeration of sticky-carpet-esque spaces, including the high-stooled front bar, the dimly lit dining area, squishy couches, a small outdoor space and a separate pool room. There’s even a rooftop deck which I didn’t have a chance [...]

HOT: Englightened Cuisine, 113 Queensbridge Street, Southbank

December 2, 2010 ⋅ One comment

Englightened Cuisine is one of the few Chinese restaurants in Melbourne that specialise in Chinese vegetarian food. Basically, this entails using a lot of tofu/bean curd/seitan (a wheat protein) to replicate meat and seafood, with varying degrees of success. My mum is a big fan of Chinese vegetarian food so I decided to take my [...]

HOT: Blok M, 380 Little Bourke St, Melbourne

November 30, 2010 ⋅ 5 comments

I met an Indonesian girl recently at the Social Media Club breakfast and after we talked about her studies and my work, the conversation turned to food. Specifically, where to find authentic Indonesian food in inner-city Melbourne. Sally told me that in fact she eats a lot more Singaporean/Malaysian food in Australia given the paucity [...]