Tina’s noodle kitchen

  Last Friday, I had a hanking for spicy food for dinner. The weather was miserable. We were hoping to go to dainty express noodle at Emporium. But we couldn’t find a park. As we were driving through the city however, I saw Tina’s noodle on Swanston street was super busy. And then I recalled that there is another Tina’s at highpoint. So we thought lets give the one at highpoint a go.  First impression?  Great! The restaurant area was spacious. There were plenty of couch seatings – just what I needed especially after the gym. The menu was even better.   Like the name suggests they sell noodle dishes mostly. There were snacks like chicken balls, giblets etc but mostly noodle. Unlike dainty noodle express, there are more variety here.  We decided to try spicy fish and spicy beef noodles. Although their names don’t have the word soup in item, they were wet noodle dishes. They both had 3 chillies next to them so we fully expected super spicy dishes.  And boy, they were nice and spicy. The soup was delicious. It had a lot of depth. I must admit the beef were slightly tough. Yet it was enjoyable. The fish noodle was a bit spicier then do beef noodle. They were both very tasty. I love that it came with vegetables and mushrooms – missing from the dishes at dainty noodle express.  To accompany our spicy dishes, we also ordered a plum drink. It came in a very fashionable vase.

Overall, the food was great. I highly recommend Tina’s to anyone who loves spicy food. 

Terminator and NeNe chicken

 Last we went to see the Terminator: Genesys. We were expecting predictable action-packed movie but it was not. It was action-packed but not predictable. Arnie delivered many more lines that I had expected – including ‘I’ll be back’. The storyline had many twists and turns. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

After the movie, we decided to get some fresh ingredients from the fridge for dinner. In the way there, however, we walked past a new foodcourt. So we decided to at least check it out. While there were many tempting choices, we stopped at NeNe chicken. 

 I’ve heard about NeNe chicken a while ago from my Korean hairdresser. She was raving about it and we were so excited that they might be coming to Australia. Much to our surprise, they are here at highpoint – so close to home.

 We ordered an 8-piece fried chicken combo with chips and Milkis (our new favourite drink). While there were many flavour choices for the fried chicken, we went with the ‘Bulgogi’. To be honest, it doesn’t taste like the traditional Bulgogi sauce I’m used to but it was still delicious. 

 The chips were great – especially to mop up the chicken sauce. The Milkis was really nice. It was a weirdly named drink but like many Asian drinks it was interesting and tasty. It reminded me of Calpico – a Japanese soft drink.

All and all, it was great. I can’t wait to go back. 

Din Tai Fung, Melbourne

  Last night while browsing at Emprium, we stumbled on the Din Tai Fung sign. It wasn’t what we originally planned to have for dinner. But with the cold in Melbourne, we decided against our original plan (the old Dainty place) in Chinatown. And it was awesome.

The first time we had Din Tai Fung was in Singapore. It was such a fluke. We walked past the shop and saw so many people and thought this must be good. And it was. 

Since then we also ate at the one in Sydney. While it was still the best in Australia, it was nowhere near as good as the one in Singapore or Hong Kong. Unsurprisingly we were a little skeptical when we saw the sign at Emporium. 

As we sat down seeing the condiments and their staff, our confidence grew. We ordered 2 lots of 8 Xiao Long Baos, a serve of spicy noodles with prawn and pork dumplings and a serve of pork and veggies dumplings in chilli sauce.

  
We went for the Xiao long bao first, of course. And they were delicious – just like the ones we had in Singapore. The pork juice was just incredible. After that we tried other dishes and at least for me they were just no match for the Bao!

 Although I didn’t enjoy the other dishes as much, my eating companion did. Andrew thought the noodles were gingery and spicy – very much his kinda of dish. 

Overall, it was a great experience. It wasn’t cheap but worth the dollars. Next time, I think I will just get the Baos…