Crikey Escape Down Under (Part 6 - Food)

The last exciting part of the Aussie trip would be on the subject of culinary or better known as - F.O.O.D. Even though people told me that there are many halal eating places in Melbourne and that I was not to worry, unfortunately I did not come across any one near the place where we stayed. Chinatown was close and there was a Malaysian restaurant - Old Town Cafe, but it did not really attract our appetite. The rest nearby were chains of Subways, Thai restaurants, Italian, Korean, etc.

The hotel apartment was nice - good view of the city, near to the train station, and the best part was there is a convenient store right next to it. It was an advantage that Mr. X had us stayed at an apartment type hotel since we could cook whatever we liked. The tale on culinary consumption went like this:

1. 1st day - lunch - vege sandwich from Subway, dinner - Curry maggie mee.
2. 2nd day - bfast - bread and eggs (pre-packed food babe, to save cost), lunch - fish n chips, dinner - seafood sandwich from Subway and supper - that's it man, I want RICE!! Couldn't take it anymore. Right after that Great Ocean Road trip, Mr. X and I explored the store downstairs for rice and stuff that suit our throats. I cooked Sardines (bloody fish from Scotland, was at AUD3.50 per can!), my style of omelette and vege soup. I could see the 2 gentlemen's expression of satisfaction before and after dinner that nite. Hah....a taste of home, far from home....how fulfilling!
3. 3rd day - bfast - bread and Nutella (pre-packed also), lunch - fish n chips, dinner - vege and cheese pizzas.
4. 4th day - bfast - pizzas from last nite, lunch - nice one, at an Italian cafe - seafood rice and mushroom soup. Australian dish is HUGE, I think for us Asians, 2-3 people kind of serving. Dinner - at Jade Kingdom (a very famous Malaysian restaurant serving good nasi lemak and rendang). Owned by a Malaysian Chinese who had been operating it for 30 years. We had the nasi lemak and egg. It tasted like the nasi lemak from Season cafe, Chinese style of sambal. Nevertheless, there's no complaint there since we were dying to get Malaysian food.

When we go traveling, a taste of home tend to follow us. This throat and tummy as if were trained to only accept foreign food up to certain level. Beyond the limit, everything seems to taste in homogeneity. Then come the craving for telur dadar, nasi putih, sayur goreng, sup sayur, except for sambal belacan since it's quite troublesome to find belacan (had to go to Asian grocery store). If you bring in food to Australia, you have to declare. It has to be dry like maggie mee, it's OK as long as you declare it in your Arrival Form. None of us had known this fact, and for this, Mr.X's friend was almost detained and fined up to AUD250 for not declaring the maggie mee, 3 in 1 milo, etc. Being first timer, the immigration gave him an escape. We on the other hand did not bring any food since there's the tale of "Oh, halal food is everywhere" and the fright that Australian government is dead strict on bringing in foreign food.

So there are a few tips for you there and for us for the next visit (cheh, macam nak pegi lagi lah pulakkan..)..