Man Man Japanese Unagi Restaurant, Duo Galleria

Man Man has a new shop down at Duo Galleria (#01-48, 7 Fraser Street) just an underground passage away from Bugis MRT. Those guys needed this since the queue for their original shop at Keong Saik shows no signs of abatement and that particular spot could really be a bitch to stand in line for when you don't make the first batch, especially when it starts to pour. It's either that or the scorching sun.

But this new shop didn't appear to be so crowded in the weekday. It was filled for sure but not to the brim. Maybe it's still new. I couldn't shake the feeling that the eels from their shira kaba hitsumabushi (that's a duo of their shirayaki and kabayaki eels, hitsumabushi styled) wasn't as tasty as the previous eats at their original shop which seemed to have more crisp on the surface of the eels and lighter flakier meat. I'm not sure if I'll be enthused with the idea of coming back.

Tiong Bahru Bak Chor Mee, Tiong Bahru Food Centre

We hit this stall (#02-77 Tiong Bahru Food Centre, 30 Seng Poh Road) seeing that it was one of those that was opened till the late evening. I've mixed feelings about this bowl. Let's start with what bothered me. I was getting a bit of that yellow noodle flavour from the mee pok. The texture of the noodles didn't quite have the bite that I was hoping for and in spite of them asking if I had wanted vinegar and me indicating so, the first mouthful left me wondering "what vinegar?".

But I didn't dislike it. It was an okay eat with decent slices of pork liver, minced pork and thin sliced lean pork. The flavour of that soup that they had on the side suggested it might have had dried scallops in the making.

Four cheese porcini pizza from PS Cafe Petit

This was actually a little disappointing coming from PS Cafe Petit (No.41,  78 Guan Chuan Street) because I wasn't getting the level of cheesiness that I had been expecting from their four cheese pie. Regretfully mild was the blue cheese and the extra raisins that I had asked for didn't seem like much after all. Pretty sure I missed the porcini as well. The one thing that made the pizza special was that toasted chilli sambal that came with it. Great for all that cornicione.

With a similar price tag like what one would find at Pizzeria Mozza, I did expect better. I'll still come back for another topping though.

Mentai butter egg udon from Tamoya Udon

Previously there was a mentai butter bowl which Tamoya Udon did at the United Square outlet. I recall that Liang Court then at that same time had a mentai mayo bowl. Now we have a mentai butter egg bowl. Which was as tasty as one would imagine with the onsen tamago and mentaiko along with the single ingredient that makes everything taste better.

Slavic day food at Beerfest

We had the distinct impression that it would be a sort of Slavic fair event with fun and games and tradition down at Beerfest (4 Rochester Park) - which is by the way an actual brewery/restaurant and not a beer festival as the name might have implied. In the end, it was just a one day event where they featured food from the region. 

The menu included earthy borscht, some cured fishes, dumplings and a tasty but pricey golubtsy which looked like an inside out poh piah. What was outstanding though, was their pork shashlik which featured tender and one of the juiciest grilled pork I've had. Juices that were squirting out as the knife went through the meat. Fragrant bits from the burnt ends. Wow. This pork shashlik made Shashlik look bad. Too bad it's a one off.

But beer seems pretty good and outrageously super value for the weekends. Drinks from $2 at 2pm anyone? Their cherry brew was a great flavour for the sweltering heat and there was also some fruity/yeasty kvass which I found myself enjoying.

Dinner at Tiong Bahru Market

What could be better than a plate of Lee Hong Kee roasted meat rice without a maddening queue you might wonder?

A hotdog from Bunnings Sausage Sizzle

I gathered that Bunning Sausage Sizzle is a fund raiser event for schools and community groups and a sausage stand is their way to go. We saw one of their tents at the local Bunnings and decided to "donate". This was not a bad snack at all. Sausages fresh off the grilled topped with some caramelized onions in a slice of white bread. Getting that sausage certainly reminded me of picking up hotdogs at Ikea.

Laurent Boulangerie Patisserie, Little Collins Street, Melbourne CBD

Pear tart.

Latte.

Those pear slices in the tart were remarkably fragrant. Quite definitely the best pear tart I remember having. Coffee was passable. I hear that it's easy to find good coffee in Melbourne but this cuppa here (304-306 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 9654 1011) like every other one I've had this week was just okay-ish. Maybe I just like a stronger hit from the espresso, which McCafe here does a surprisingly good shot of.

Daniel's Donuts, Springvale, Melbourne

We heard that this 24 hour donut shop (819 Princes Highway, Springvale, Melbourne) was pretty popular for a while. I'm not sure if they still are but there wasn't a crowd when we were there so we got a box to go. I liked these better than Krispy Kreme because didn't taste as sugary sweet. But otherwise, I suppose these were just pretty regular donuts. Not as light as the airy glazed ones from J.CO or the defunct Donut Factory back home but they had a bunch of flavours which I really wouldn't mind coming back for.

Breakfast at Dandenong Market

We were down at Dandenong Market (Clow St & Cleeland St, Dandenong, Melbourne) so the first thing we did when we arrived was to get some breakfast in our bellies. 

I had almost discounted this Ink-redible Calamari stall but for some reasons decided to dip into the sample tray to see if they were really inkredible.

Those calamari turned out to be outrageously tender. I mean like fish cake tender with the smooth texture and flavour of squid. I've never been so impressed with calamari before. So breakfast began with a cone of those.

One of the cooked food vendor was Dough Works. A Turkish stall selling kebabs and gozleme - the latter a griddled flatbread with stuffings.

We got the ones with spinach, feta and lamb. The gozleme were being churned out so quickly for the turn around that pretty much everything was made on order. And yes, it was the carbohydrated salt and fat and lamb-y goodness that we needed for the morning. 

There was also a delicious goat briyani from PiqNiq Hut. Saffron basmati rice stir fried upon order with onions and some vegetables that came with tender curried goat, a deep fried hard boiled egg and some fruit chutney on the side. Spicy and savoury from both the rice and goat along with a sweetness from the chutney. This was pretty impressive.

Some fried seafood from Funkfish

So here's some fried fish, scallops, calamari and chips from the chippy stall Funkfish in Victoria Market (somewhere near the junction of Victoria and Elizabeth Street). These were better than I had imagined. The scallops had a thin and light batter that reminded me of Yorkshire pudding while the fish was fresh tasting, thick and flakey without an excessively thick batter. The only thing that wasn't good were those calamari. Rubbery things.

Pho No. 1, Springvale, Melbourne

Yeap, we did have some pho while we were in Melbourne. This shop (17-19 Buckingham Avenue, Springvale, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 9546 9528) was a recommendation from some friends.

The portions were pretty big. Here's a medium sized pho tai gau - a combination of sliced beef and fat with nice slurpy rice noodles. It looks a little gross from the yellowed bits of fat but there was actually some flavour to be had from chewing them. Soup had a light beefy flavour but also a little sweet. That's not bad at all, but given a choice I still prefer the all savoury version which O Banh Mi does. 

That's a soda sữa hột gà, also known as egg soda. It has milk and egg typically but this particular one also has orange. It doesn't taste weird if that's what you're wondering. Couldn't taste the egg in the drink. The milk and orange combination is pretty much what one is getting from the Sunrise at Coffee Bean, no? Well, Sunrise has got vanilla. But still it's a little like Yakult right? With a little bubbly. Not strange at all.

A Halal Snack Pack and chicken salt chips from Wot A Kebab

Here's a Halal Snack Pack to go from Wot A Kebab (20 Linden Tree Way, Cranbourne, Melbourne). Something for the late nights or post drinks in the form of a salted flavour bomb that will stick in the stomach.

But it wasn't a late night nor had we been drinking. It was the middle of the day and we just wanted to give their Halal Snack Pack a go. We went with mixed shaven lamb and chicken over salty cheese and chips with garlic and chilli sauce.

The portions were Australian sized. Haha. While I was initially a little worried about their chilli, it turned out kinda nice. Sriracha kind of nice. I surprised myself by finishing up the most of this box.

Their chicken salt chips was surprisingly addictive. We were popping chip after chip even though we were stuffed from the HSP. Damn, these were dangerous.