• Amazon Deals

  • Ebay Affilliate Links

Organic Japanese Cafe- Melbourne CBD

Such an unassuming looking little place hides such wonders and delights!

Organic Japanese Cafe melbourneFor under $13, one can get a very tasty japanese curry and soup, or salad set which makes a teriffic dinner for the busy melbournian worker on the go!

I usually go here fairly religiously  every fortnight or so, when i have things on in the city after work.

The service is quick, and the staff are pretty super friendly.

The curry and rice, which comes in vegetarian, beef, or chicken is particularly good, with a thick, tasty, perfectly textured, rich brown gravy like curry sauce, generous chunks of meat or vegies, and the bed of rice is a perfectly steamed mix of wild rice varieties and white rice, all of which is allegedly organic.

A friend recently took me to another place, “don Don” which also did cheap japanese curries.. but i’d rather pay a few extra dollars to go to this place!

While i typically go for the cheap and cheerful, studenty sort of meals, there is a rather extensive full menu which is a bit pricier. As yet, i have not explored it myself, but other customers are all happily tucking into their meals, which look and smell quite terrific, so i can only assume the rest of the menus selections are as equallly promising!

Apparently, the place’s real name is actually “Brim CC” – japanese organic cafe.

you can check out their website below:
http://www.brimcc.com.au/

in particular, their innovative and quirky experimental projects, especially the dessert menu look worth investigating!

http://www.brimcc.com.au/brimss.html

Free Melbourne concerts @ Sydney myer music bowl FEB 2016

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Free concerts of 2016 for our listening enjoyment!

Dvořák Under the Stars: Wednesday 17 February @19:30 PM, 2 hours. gates open @16:30

https://www.facebook.com/events/841699515927829/

Joshua Weilerstein: conductor
Stefan Cassomenos: piano

Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Gershwin Piano Concerto
Dvořák Symphony No.7

When Dvořák contracted composer’s block while writing his Symphony No.7, he wrote to his publisher in February 1885, ‘I don’t want to let Brahms down’. He didn’t. A mere month later, the Symphony was done and dusted. Even faster, in composing time and brevity, is John Adams’ brilliant Short Ride in a Fast Machine, which the American composer said, ‘You know how it is when someone asks you to ride in a terrific sports car, and then you wish you hadn’t?’ American conductor Joshua Weilerstein, making his MSO debut, also directs another American classic, George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, with Melbourne soloist Stefan Cassomenos.

Summer Carnival:  Saturday 20 Feb, 2016 – @19:30 PM – 2 hour Duration with 20 minute interval, gates open at 16:30PM

https://www.facebook.com/events/762910303812914/

Joshua Weilerstein: conductor
Dale Barltrop: violin

Dvořák Carnival
Barber Violin Concerto
Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5

In his second Sidney Myer Free Concert, Joshua Weilerstein conducts more Dvořák and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5. These flank the Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber, with soloist, MSO Concertmaster Dale Barltrop. Barber’s lyrical and (dare we say?) romantic concerto is embedded in the modern repertoire, but was not always thus. In 1940, as Barber was struggling with the score, renowned violin teacher Albert Meiff called it ‘far from the requirements of a modern violinist’ and that the score ‘required surgical operation by a specialist’, offering to wield the scalpel himself. Fortunately, Barber ignored this gratuitous offer.

 

Tang of the Tango- Saturday, 27 feb, 2016 @19:30 PM – 2 hour Duration with 20 minute interval, gates open at 16:30PM

https://www.facebook.com/events/693560357445590/

Benjamin Northey: conductor
Slava Grigoryan: guitar
Leonard Grigoryan: guitar


Falla The Three-Cornered Hat: Suite No.2
Rodrigo Concierto madrigal
Gershwin Cuban Overture
Piazzolla Selected tangos
Ginastera Estancia: Four Dances

The brothers Grigoryan — Slava and Leonard — join Benjamin Northey and the MSO in a Spanish-South American program that includes tangos by Astor Piazzolla, a Concerto for two guitars by Joaquin Rodrigo, and works by Ginastera, Falla and Gershwin. The perfect summery way to conclude the Sidney Myer Free Concerts for 2016.

 

Doughboys Donuts, Bourke Street, Melbourne CBD

Doughboys Doughnuts have a very special place in my heart and soul, and contributed considerably to my falling in love with our beautiful city, melbourne. 180120161479

My first authentic doughboys experience was courtesy of my wonderful first flatmate on the auspicious day we were undertaking the painful, time consuming and annoying activity of moving house.

I’d been in East Malvern for a grand total of four weeks at that point, living in a happy and fun, but ramshackle slightly lopsided cottage which was the epitome of the stereotype of the worst house in the best of streets, surrounded by the grandeur of looming mansions, hidden behind the green filtered light of ancient and benevolent tre180120161478es.

But the lease had come to an end, and the head tenant had decided not to renew, so we were out on our ears. Moving, packing, panicking, desperately looking for a new place to live.. Such is the grind and stress that is synonymous with being a scummy, landless tenant.

We had just picked up a big, unwieldy, but manly and powerful diesel Hilux flat tray for the job from the Ute rental place nearby, and the prospect of driving in melbourne traffic must have already made me look frazzled and in need of a hug..  My flatmate demanded we go get a big yeasty, crispy, soft, sugary hug, with creamy lime filling (aka, a key lime pie doughnut) from across the road at doughboys.

Back then, Doughboys, as I knew it, was just a wooden counter in the corner of Fancy Hanks BBQ restaurant near vic markets, not far from my work,  But I could never seem to get there in time before they sold out.

Meanwh180120161475ile, Doughboys seemed to be taunting and tempting me (and everyone else in melbourne) with their hateful “Doughboys Coming Soon” sign printed on the glass balcony in front of 535 Bourke street since March 2015. When was soon? they had been promising SOON for months, maybe a YEAR. unacceptably cruel!

But in December… they finally stopped teasing and finally gave up the goods. They opened! Praise melbourne!!

… And i was reunited with my one true love, the Key Lime Pie filled doughnut. mmmmmm!!!

http://www.doughboysdoughnuts.com.au/hours

The new shop was filled with excited doughnut sugary goodness fans such as me, queuing up to get a well earnt fix after toiling the morning behind desks, in front of courts, and smiling at customers.180120161477

There were even a couple other fellow food bloggers, snapping away with fancy zooming SLR’s as the doughnut artisans, looking very smart and industrious in their white uniforms made delicious creations right before our eyes on the counters before us, as we watched though the glass and perspex dividers.

The new shop, doughboys first looks slick, stylish clean, and, I think the best word to use, is inclusive. The fact we can see the doughnuts bei180120161476ng made by the chefs there and then, with the kitchen sort of integrated into the serving and coffee making area was a fantastic stroke of brilliance, connecting the customer deeply to the product.

They served two things, specialty Doughnuts of various types made with all organic ingredients, and coffee. Both of which they do very, very well. Options of both take away, and dine in are available. Take aways come in a stiff cardboard box to protect the soft iced creations from the jostling of the melbourne CBD foottraffic on the way back to the office to share with favourite workmate, or on trains and trams, smuggled home to loved ones.

If eating in, there are a few places to sit, but not many- and the doughnuts an coffee are served in bespoke, funky, locally made crockery, apparently specially made for doughboys. The coffee, I am yet to try.

180120161480   Other reviews are as positive and enthusiastic about Doughboys as I am- It really is one of Melbourne’s favourite food entrepreneur sons, and it is great to see how the time, preparation, thought and care that was clearly put into this first flagship standalone store has paid off with a really iconic and well executed launch.

https://www.broadsheet.com.au/melbourne/food-and-drink/article/when-doughboys-become-doughmen

For the peckish and curious, there are many, many more photos of doughboys delicious donuts in bourke street on google:

More photos of delicious Doughboys Doughnuts

  • Amazon Deals