Nobu Restaurant Melbourne

One of the highlight of my visit to Melbourne was dining at Nobu Restaurant at Crown Casino. From the name, one would have guessed it’s a Japanese restaurant but they distinguish themselves by serving a fusion of Japanese and South American cuisine. Coupled with friend’s positive reviews on the food, both Kit and I decided to splurge a little and made a reservation.

Reach the restaurant about 15 minutes earlier and here is a snapshot of the Nobu logo.Our table wasn’t ready and we were directed to the bar to have some drinks. This is a double storey restaurant. The bar is on the ground floor near the entrance and dining hall is actually on the lower ground.

While waiting, I order a bottle of Asahi beer (it’s a Japanese restaurant!) and Kit went for some cocktail of Sake and plum wine.

15 minutes later, we were led to our tables and the whole place is full of people. I was hoping for a quiet romantic fine dining, and this is definitely not a quiet place. Ok now let’s start with the food review!

Nobu have a wide selection of appetizers, ranging from the tempuras, skewers and their own specialty. The waiter recommended us this:

Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalapeno (AUS$18)
Its yellowtail sashimi (duh?!) with Jalapeno (the green thing on the sashimi) and a kind of tangy spicy sauce. A strange combination, but I thought it blended well. Something different from your typical wasabi soy sauce dip.

Crispy Oyster with Creamy Wasabi and Caviar (AUS$10 each)
The oyster is wrapped with rice vermicelli (I think) and was deep fried. The greenish topping is actually the creamy wasabi and caviar (yummy yummy). My only complain is that I finished it in one bite….

Sashimi Salad with Matsuhisa Dressing (AUS$26)
Salad with smoked tuna sashimi (if I’m not wrong). Quite nice but the dressing is a bit too salty.

For the hot dishes, again we went for the waiter’s recommendation. First up is the:

Black Cod with Miso (AUD$42)
“This is the most popular dish and a must have in this restaurant” That’s what the waiter told us. No way are we going to miss this. The two pink and white stalks are actually ginger and the white part is supposed to be consumed after we finished the cod. The cod was cooked perfectly, one of the best I have tasted. But again, the side sauce is a bit too salty.

Wagyu Gyoza with Goma Ponzu (AUD$36)
Next was the Gyoza (dumplings) with Wagyu beef. Nothing much too shout about. Maybe because of the high expectation after the cod but its still one of the best gyoza I have tasted. Maybe it’s because of the Wagyu beefs. :P

Eel & Cucumber Sushi Roll (AUD$12)
We ordered this earlier thinking that we might not be full after the hot dishes. Bad idea. Should have stopped and went straight to dessert. Its unagi and cucumber sushi roll with sesame. Simple food, but its quite nice.

By now, we were already super full but there are still desserts! Decide to at least try one.

Chocolate Bento Box with Green Tea Ice Cream (AUD$17)
The chocolate cake was served warm sprinkle with gold flakes. Don’t know why they put gold flakes though. The dessert looks pretty but the green tea ice cream is pretty normal. I have tasted better ice cream.

Overall, thumbs up for this restaurant. Nice ambient, good food but just a bit noisy. Maybe it’s because we were seated near a Chinese pair (mother and son). Both of them were arguing and it kinda spoilt the night. At least we get to see/hear some live TVB dramas though. AHAHAHAHAHA!!!



For those interested, here are the details of the restaurant.

Nobu Restaurant
Riverside at Crown Melbourne Australia
8 Whiteman Street
Southbank, VIC 3006
Tel: +613 92927879
website: http://www.noburestaurants.com/melbourne/index.html

Slamming on the wall

Felt like running at full speed and slamming face first on the wall...

You know how that felt? Really painful. I know coz I had that experience before. Yes, literally slammed my face onto the pillar.

It was in my primary school days and I was quite chubby and clumsy at that time.

Was playing "ping ping chuk chak" translated as "soldiers catching thieves" after school hours. I think I was the last remaining soldier closing in on the thief. All I had to is to rush in to catch the thief.

Run I did, as fast as I could....but i dunno why, somehow instead of catching the thief, I slammed face first onto a concrete pillar.

I could have saved the day and basked in glory for being the hero but all I got was zero, laughed at and a humongous lump of bruise on my cheek....

Definately not a good feeling.

Misunderstanding...

Sigh, my good intentions are being misunderstood....

Have you ever do something for a person for their benefit but yet that person dont see it or appreciate it and worst of all even mock or degrade you for doing such things?

I'm sure most of us would have gone through such experience. i.e we buy something for our love one but they dont like it or we go the extra mile in our job but the boss ignores it. That feeling sucks...

And recently I just had one...you can read it HERE.


Baby, im doing all this for you. To practise so that i can take the perfect picture of you. To prove to you...this is the amount of shots i took just at one place for you.....



Its all for you! So... I need to practise more to perfect those shots :p

Melbourne 09

It’s only been 2 months since I last saw her, but it seems like forever. Luckily I was prepared and gotten myself a cheapo flight to Melbourne through Air Asia X during their promotion.





Cant complain much about the flight since its more than half the price of MAS flights, but still…

1. The seats sucks, but luckily the flight is quite empty. I got 3 seats to myself, cant imagine how I could have survived without those spare spaces.
   


2. The nasi lemak is getting worst, no ikan bilis, no kacang, come on…you call that nasi lemak?! Who are kidding here?! The gwailos?!
   


3. You have to pay for onboard entertainment, so bring your own Ipod, psp or books to pass time.



4. Note to myself:
   Bring the blow-em-up neck holder/pillow thingie next time.
   Think twice or more b4 buying cheap air asia flights to London.

Took the afternoon flight and reached Melbourne at 1130pm local time. We were the only flight at that time and custom clearance was a breeze. After a short stroll, I met up with my lovely gf and took a cab home, which was only 30mins away. Woo hoo!!!

ONE

One short introduction and we parted ways

One trip to an island, lovely beaches and sunsets

One weirdest, most embarrassing ice breaker
(One water balloon and one body part)

One glass of barley that I treated you

One quick exchange of contact info

One short email to the longest I have ever written

One caring sms to the sweetest message

One surprise phone call, and a speechless me

One lonely man, finding his happiness,

One sweet girl, enchanting my life

One year we have been together

One girl I still love most…Kit

New Year Resolution

Its still slavery...

It’s been a while since I updated this blog. Sorry to have disappointed you readers, if any are still reading. Reason of the slow down or virtually no update was due to the change of ownership of my slavehood. Yes, I have recently changed my job, in hope for a better future. Currently learning the ropes of this new environment and have to slave it thru (no pun intended) :p.

New job meant new name card. I received mine recently and someone screwed up with the job title. Instead of the word “Analyst”, that someone actually spelt it as “Analist”. What if I didn’t check thru the card and started distributing to people? Gonna be a laughing stock for that. Why?

First of all, I don’t expect a huge international to make such mistake. But every human makes mistakes. I guess the person in charge might have spelt it in the Malay medium.

For example:
Police = polis
Politics = politik
Comment = komen
Screen = skrin
Interview = interbiu (no sure about this though :p)

Secondly, people might have wrong impression of my job title, if they read it in English. Again, I will use examples to explain further.

Pian-ist = someone who plays the piano
Pharmac-ist = someone qualified to dispenses medicines
Guitar-ist = someone who plays the guitar

If we follow this trend, analist would be..... ANAL-IST !!!