Mac's Brewery Bar

Why hello!

I haven't blogged in a long time. Guilty! Christmas and New year just seemed to fly by. So much has happened but at the same time nothing has happened. Anyhows, back in November a friend of mine had her birthday lunch at Mac's Brewery Bar down by the lagoon and I found the pictures of our food recently and thought I would have a share time moment.



Lamb Burger $18




CBLT $19

I decided to get the CBLT and Jeff-wah decided to get the Lamb Burger. The patty in the lamb burger was reeeeeal big. Nice and juicy (not overcooked YAY). Quite a few people in our group ordered it and noone could really finish the side of fries that comes with it. Quite large! The CBLT was awesome, my only complaint was that it was hard to eat and in terms of service when we asked for aoili.. It never came. Sniff.

We ordered off the weekend brunch menu but they have a different lunch menu during the week (which I think is pretty much the same).

Anyhows, that's pretty much it. I will try not to neglect Mr Blog so much.

Come on, vamanos!
Kalliana

My First Melbourne Adventure

Hi Kiddies,

Have been AWOL for a bit as I was venturing around the city of Melbourne. My apologies! I had an amazing time and it was my first trip there, very excite!

I didn't get to do many touristy things but here are some of the things (mostly shopping my ass off!) that I did while in Melbourne..

The first place I ate in Melbourne was Chillipadi - a Malaysian style chain similar to Oaks or KK Malaysia but much more commercial. I had fried noodles with seafood and Jeff-wah had Beef Rendang. The noodles were very tasty, quite standard. The rendang was great. Better than KK Malaysia - shock horror! They have Chillipadi restaurants pretty much all over Melbourne. The one we went to was in Habourtown.

Burger from Grill'd, pretty much Australias version of Burgerfuel. Definately not as good but it is pretty up there. I got just a basic cheeseburger type thing, I know what I like when it comes to burgers. It was good but nothing to write home about.

My favourite meal in Melbourne from the Queen Victoria Market - spicy beef bratwurst with sauerkraut, tomato relish and dijon mustard. Located in the deli section of the market, this stall is always buzzing with people. Around the lunch rush the amount of people surrounding is massive but never fear! The lines move quickly. I suggest standing back for a bit to really decide what you want because the locals know and they will get pissed (along with the staff) when you take ages to choose between a cheese or spicy brat. Wash it down with a blood orange drink and sit opposite Maccas and just enjoy. Really puts the Brat Pack to shame.

Shopping - my favourite place to shop was very handy in Harbourtown shopping centre. Located at the Docklands there is also a car park there that offers a flat rate of $5.00 (we parked there everyday we went to the city) and the City Circle tram stop is right outside. Harbourtown has a mix of regular AND outlet stores. Love it!

We didn't go to this particular Lord of the Fries outlet but we did eat at one while in Melbiurne. We were really excited to try it as it promises "The best fries you will ever try". Ah NAH! They were below average. The thing that is supposed to set them apart is the fact that they smother their fries with sauces of your choosing. I got a burger combo  - the burger was disgusting, meat was so dry it felt like I was eating gib. Get it together mate.

Shopping and walking around Melbourne Central. Melbourne central acts as a mall but it really isn't. It's underground mostly and it connects many streets together with the illusion of being inside a mall. It really is quite a lovely place to browse around since the fresh air is still able to circulate throughout. It also links up to a train station!

Ride the City Circle tram. We used the tram to get pretty much everywhere all over the central city. On a map Melbourne doesn't look too bad but the reality is that everyone uses the trams to get everywhere. The city circle trams run in clockwise and anticlockwise directions and are every 12 minutes. The tram also had on board audio which advises tourists of which stops have which attractions. Oh and it's FREE!

Lunch at the Pancake Parlour. I got a fish and chip type meal all served on top of a potato pancake. They have lunch deals and their regular menu looked awesome! Lots of dessert type pancakes too. Mmm..

The cutest penguins can be found at the Melbourne Aquarium! Jeff-wah was mesmerized by the penguins and we were lucky enough to arrive at the time of day that they feed the penguins which was sooooo cool to see! We also got to feed some fish which was actually pretty cool and was only AUD$5.00 extra. If you have a valid metcard then you can get 20% off the entry price.

Hot chocolate at Max Brenner. The coolest place for hot chocolate! So yum. This particular one is called a Suckao which is hot milk served with chocolate drops (your choice of dark, milk or white) and you melt it all together in a special candle burner. Mmm..

Shopping at Chadstone Mall. Without a doubt the biggest mall I went to while in Melbourne. On the top floor they have all the flashy flashy stores like Gucci and Louis Vuitton (and Tiffanys - which had a line!) and on the ground floor they have all the normal chain stores and the foodcourt. Definately not the place to go if you are on a bit of a budget shopping wise.

IKEA! Oh my goodness I loved IKEA! It has everything I could want - homewares, furniture, kids toys! Everything! Honestly, we spent a whole day at IKEA just looking around at all the displays. I really wish they had an IKEA in Wellington.

Lunch at Red Rooster. This place doesn't seem very popular in Australia and I can't really see why. Everytime we drove past one it always looked empty. We even asked a few locals and they said it was gross. I'm glad we went against their word 'cause it was actually pretty yum! The chips were amazing.
I would recommend a Rippa Wrap.

I honestly for the life of me cannot remember the name of the place we ate on Lygon Street. Lygon Street is like the Little Italy of Melbourne and most of the dining places are al fresco which is great and was so lovely on a nice night Melbourne. We went with some friends who live in Melbourne and generally speaking it seems that if the service is bad.. The food is probably good!

COSTO is a huge discount store kind of like a supermarket meets the Warehouse. They have pretty much everything. The only thing is you can only enter if you have a membership or are with someone who has one. We got a giant bottle of Tobasco sauce for just a little more than the price of a tiny one from NZ.

Come on, go to Melbourne..

Kalliana

Strawberry Fare

The last time I went to Strawberry Fare on Kent Terrace I was really disappointed- the prices had increased a bit and the sizes had decreaed. It seems that they have now taken it back up a notch and changed things back to the old ways.

We went to Strawberry Fare this week so Tom could experience the Wellington restaurant before he leaves for Japan. They have a Strawberry Fare in CHCH as well but it's more of a bistro whereas the Wellington one is.. Well it certainly has a family restaurant feel. There are only a few main dishes on the menu - which are just food nothing it seems to write home about.

I got the pavalova ($14.50) served with cream and fruit. It was sooooooooooooo big! Like you could cut it into four portions and serve it at a party!

Here have some well deserved food porn..

Pavalova $14.50

Devils Dream Cake $17.50

 Baked Chocolate and Lemon Cheesecake $16.00

Chocolate Bleeding Heart $16.50ish

Chocolate Madness $18.00

Come on, vamanos!
Kalliana

Webb Ellis Cup

Last weekend me and Jeff-wah decided to go for a nice drive around Oriental Bay just because it was a pretty nice day. Of course, we forgot, that because Courtenay Place was closed over the weekend that traffic would be backed up!

Here are some photos of Wellington on a friggin good day and some Rugby World Cup related banter. At Te Papa they have the Webb Ellis Cup on display. There is a biiiiig security guard standing next to it at all times. But he stands far away enough so that you can get a picture with it!
.

Fountain in Oriental Bay



Driving along Oriental Bay



Proud Maori

South Africa fans

Facts re RWC 2011

The Webb Ellis Cup

GO THE ALL BLACKS!
Kalliana                          

Fidels

Sigh. Last night our entire flat went out to dinner at Fidels on upper Cuba Street as a last supper. Tom the Jap has decided to return to Nippon-land to take up a job opportunity that is too good to miss. I really like Fidels. Sometimes I get put off with all the "hipsters" that frequent there.. I just feel that I don't fit in, with my crisp clean clothes, neat hair and made up face.. Well, I'm sorry that I don't like to wear smelly vintage clothes - which by the way need WASHING before you wear them after you bring your haul back from the Sallies..

ANYWHO, excuse my mini rant there! Dinner was goooood. Usually I get the pizza and beer special (2 Heines and a large pizza for $25.00) but now that we live just down the road from Hell pizza, I'm pretty pizza-d out. Instead I decided to have the mussels in a cream, lemon and rosemary broth ($16.00) and a vegan berry smoothie ($5.50). Jeff-wah decided on beef nachos ($15.00) and a snickers milkshake ($6.50).

My mussels were pretty good! The broth was a little bit salty but that can be expected of mussels. The waitress made a recommendation of having the mussels with 5-grain toast as she said it soaks up the broth better. I'm glad I listened to her on this cause damn son that bread had me coming back for more! The vegan smoothie tasted a lot like Ribena - but still real yum! Jeff-wahs frickin Snickers milkshake was SO GOOD! I hate being lactose intolerant.. I might have had too much of a taste and paid for it later on via stomach cramps. His nachos were very generous in size and to be honest there was mince leftover - which does not happen often.

The rest of our flat got a mexican pizza, chicken and holoumi salad and the beef burger - which was huge! All in all it was a really nice meal out (after being told that there would be a 50 minute wait for food at The Southern Cross) and their dinner prices are pretty much the same as their lunch prices. Cha-ching!

Have some photo

Come on, vamanos!
Kalliana

Never shared..

It's almost been a year since this happened. November 2010. That is quite shocking! Sorry.. Well when the U2 tour was announced I was a poor student living at home with my parents (basically now I remember that as the good life - I never realised how good I had it. Have to buy toothpaste and toilet paper with my own money now. And I like 2 or 3 PLY!). Because I was a student this meant I had all the time in the world to wait for the tickets to come out, be online and nab the super cheap ones! From memory I think they were like $39.00 each? Something riddonk like that! I will be honest.. Mainly wanted to go to see Jay. You know. Jay Z? We're on a one syllable basis.. I wish. Kong is one syllable right? Well I nabbed two tickets for me and Jeff-wah and convinced two of our friends to come road trip with us to Auckland for the show.

Here's a little run down of the pics I am sharing now. When Jay Z stepped out and started performing my heart melted from seeing those big lips. The down side of the cheap tickets was that the view wasn't great for Jay Z because all his gear was set up on the main middle stage facing the other way. I did get to see him arrive and depart though, which was surreal! To think that Jay Z was so close to me.. Sigh. It was quite awkward though, as we were surrounded by U2 fans.. Who had pretty much no idea who Jay Z was (I'm sure..) and looked at me and Jeff-wah with weird looks when we did our diamond signs. He is also a very lovely man, dedicating one of his newer tracks (at the time) Young Forever to the Pike River Miners.

U2 was amazing. They're just naturally talented and the show itself was so easy to get into and you just felt so involved. The stage was epic! Most of the time we were amazed by something that the stage was doing! It had little bridges that moved around and had this awesome screen that would expand. Crazy shit. Also living up to their humanitarian repuations they also displayed the names of all the miners lost in the Pike River tragedy on the screen.

While in Auckland for the concert we decided to hit up Dressmart in Onehunga. Excuse my language, but FUCK that place is big. Like, compared to the shitty little one we have in Wellington, it is MASSIVE. I mean it is nothing compared to the malls in Asia but damn girl that's a lot of outlet shopping right thurr. All the shopping in the photo is not all mine!

I tried rainbow Twizzlers and coconut M&M's. I bought a few packets of each from this random place called the Candyshack. I have no idea where it was but I remember it was down a dirty, dusty, unpaved alleyway/driveway thing and had no sign. We walked in and it was like a wholesale warehouse specialising in containers, paper cups etc. The guy opened this little pantry cabinet and there were all these American lollies and goodies in there! Word to the wise.. Twizzlers taste like playdough. And I know you know what playdough tastes like. And not the homemade one that you had at Kindy, the one that you buy from the store. Yeah. Not good. Also.. Twinkies are not as nice as I thought they would be? I didn't microwave it though. And I can't understand how anyone can eat a Poptart for breakfast? Why not just have a cupcake? Or a bowl of sugar?

Anyways, here enjoy some pictures, I've already said my thousand words!

Come on, vamanos!
Kalliana