Busy+Social Weekend...歡樂週末...楽しかったの週末

Had a busy and social weekend starting from Friday last week....actually i had not had such a busy day for a looong time now...this post is my best food post so far as it has simply delicious pics of both Asian (Japanese) and Western cuisine so be prepared for hunger inducing pics!!...
met up with a Japanese friend and we went to Chinatown and had David and Camy's Dumpling House dumplings for lunch...i ordered the fried type and she ordered the steamed type...and we had seafood springrolls as well....then went to City Baths to meet another friend and her boyfriend and we went to this nice place on Smith St called Cocoro for a late lunch (they hadn't had lunch yet)...i took them to Cocoro which is like this nice place owned by an Australian with her japanese husband...it sells japanese izakaya-style dishes, cocktails, japanese sake, shochu,wines,japanese desserts, etc and also pottery..so a unique and nice place...quite popular with Melbourne Uni students as we get discount there!! Go try if u haven't Melb uni students!
Cocoro Japanese Restaurant and Pottery on Smith St:

THE BUTTER SQUID+FRIED OYSTER+CHICKEN DISH THE RICE BALLS ON THE LEFT ARE THE FAMOUS GRILLED ONIGIRI WITH SHOYU+BUTTER SQUID IN MIDDLE+FRIED OYSTER ON RIGHT
MY JAPANESE FRUIT COCKTAIL

COCORO, THE SHELF AT THE SIDE SITS JAPANESE POTTERY WHICH IS FOR SALE
i actually also had the popular japanese green tea parfait( a dessert consisting of green tea ice-cream, red bean, mochi,vanilla ice cream, green tea mousse, green tea cake) but i forgot to take a pic and just ate everything...hehe..too delicious....My friend suddenly said she needed to catch the train in 10 mins as she lives quite far and if she doesn't catch that train and catch the connecting bus, she won't be able to get home...so we rushed to the train station and we knew she wouldn't be able to make it as it was already 5 mins past...but she decided to try her luck anyway and ran in...if she missed it, her parents would have to come fetch her...but she sms me later and told me that the train had come 7 mins late and the bus 10 mins late so she made it!! I am writing this just to point out the inefficiency of many of melbourne's public transportation and how, ironically, melbourne's unpunctual public transportation system actually worked to my friend's advantage this time!

Hardware Lane:

Came home+ did some studying and rushed to meet some friends at Asia Centre and we all went for dinner at Hardware Lane...i've always wanted to have dinner at Hardware Lane as i've passed it at night many times and this time we went there for dinner. What can i say? The dinner was FANTASTIC!!!! The atmosphere was great as the whole lane consisted of western fine dining with tables outside, candlelights on each table and a band playing. Instead of ordering a meal each, we ordered different dishes and shared ala Chinese style....this was a good idea as it allowed us to try everything...below are the food pics!!

Dinner at one of the nice restaurants the name of which i can't remember: SEAFOOD MIX SPAGHETTI

A DISH SOMEONE ORDERED

GOURMET PIZZA

CHICKEN BREAST WITH POTATO FILLING

We then headed for the Golden Monkey Bar also on Hardware Lane for more drinks (apparently this place is very popular with the Asian crowd and i loved its Chinese style decor and seats..me being the oriental cheongsam lover, no surprise) ....one waitress asked what we were talking about, by then, the topic had gone on to how oral sex and anal sex is banned in singapore..well the singaporean friend told the waitress we were talking about law, she must have thought we were a bunch of boring ppl talking about law in a bar....of cos he left out the part about oral sex...hehehe....couldn't very well tell her that!

Well, as it turned out, my japanese friends were shocked that in malaysia and singapore, oral sex and gay sex was illegal...they thought it ridiculous and one was appalled that gay sex was illegal as in Japan, anything consensual done in private is legal so she simply could not comprehend how the act could be illegal and punishable by jail which i had to explain to her...she was like ' what about gay human rights?' I never knew she was so liberal and positive towards gay people...funny how some ppl live in countries with such freedoms and liberties that they could be so shocked to hear about conditions in other countries...

Golden Monkey Bar and Asian Tapas:

MY LYCHEE BANG MARTINI

Anyways, nice bar, would like to go again, so melburnians, do give it a try!

I was so full that day.....u can imagine with chinese and japanese and western all in the same day!

Hope u enjoyed the visual food tour!!!