Landing in Melbourne: Best Fish and Chips

Ahh, so I finally landed in Melbourne. The city that everyone loves and wants to stay on forever. The city of food, of beauty, of culture. The core of Australia.




Or so I heard.


After having heard all the fuss about Melbourne for so long from various friends and readers telling me how amazing Melbourne was, I was expecting myself to be looking forward to the day I landed in the city. However, I found myself dreading one thing when I took the flight there in August 2008.

The cold.

Oh yes, the deadly cold of the winter. Remember when I said I was already freezing my ass off in Gold Coast when I first landed in OZ, well, I realized one cold hard truth about my journey as I proceeded to hop from one city to another...

IT GETS COLDER AS I MOVE SOUTH.




Darn.


Lachy was nice enough to pick me up from the airport with his uber hot sexy girlfriend and brother-in-law? in his cool jeep. So figuring out transportation in Melbourne was least of my concern when I stepped out of the airport.

The next day, I arranged to meet up with my first Melbourne reader, Henry,




at Melbourne Central under the big pocket clock?




This is the Coop's Shot Tower in Melbourne Central.




Beautiful indoor infrastructure, ain't it?

Melbourne Central can be a bit confusing though. It's like a historical landmark, a shopping center and a train station all in one.




Is in indoor or outdoor?


It's an outdoor indoor.




Get it? Outdoor trapped indoor. Haha... Ha...ha... ah.. nevermind.


Anyway, I have heard more than a decent number of times that Australia is where you can find the best Fish and Chips in the world, a fact that I wouldn't think twice to believe. Seeing that England was where Fish and Chips originated from, and that Australians were practically English anyway when they first "escaped" to the land down under; plus the fact that Fish and Chips in England really sucked big time, oily blunt tasteless stuff of vinegar and salt...




It could just very possible that the Australians have taken the recipe and improved it over the decades?



I decided to scout it out. After catching up with Damon (another reader) and Henry at Melbourne Central, we drove out in Damon's car to St Kilda (said to have all the best seafood) for the best fish and chips in town.

Unfortunately the restaurant we wanted to go was closed that day so instead we stopped by a pub in St Kilda Beach for dinner.







Damon has his steak while Henry ate his chicken.







I of course went for my fish and chips. :D




Which was holy crap the biggest fish and chips I've ever seen in my life.




Which was wrong because soon I realised in the following few weeks that that's the decent portion any decent restaurant in Australia would serve you.




My say?

It was good, but it wasn't so good that one has to go around to shout about. Still, it was pretty good. I love the portion. Even though I forgot the name of the pub, but according to Damon, any pub in St Kilda served pretty good fish and chips anyway.

It's like saying cendol in any shop in Melaka is nice anyway. -.-


Not satisfied, Henry and I went out early in the morning the following day (11am was early for me) to continue our tour around Melbourne and the best Fish and Chips in Melbourne.




We went to the Victoria Market but it was closed. :(

It's ok, since I'm going back there soon this year. Oh yea~




And the weather was freaking cold!!!!




I looked like a freaking Eskimo here.


The thing about Melbourne was that it's filled with trams.


Notice the tram lines in the sky all over the town.


Public transportation here can be classified into trains, and trams.




Trams are so important and plentiful, priority must be given to the vehicles at any one time.




Not like I care anyway. :op



If you know how to ride, some trams are free in town from certain destination to destination, wait, or was that only in Adelaide?




Oh well, that's the great thing about having a guide who can bring you around.




Finally, we arrived at the beautiful St Kilda Beach.




Honestly, I thought Gold Coast had better sea view than this.

We proceeded to Beachcomber, highly recommended by Damon's friend, a rather exclusive looking cafe by St Kilda beach.










Where we ordered the Catch of the Day straight from the menu. (Dayum, AUD26 for fish and chip? that's expensive!)







Which came with a complimentary champagne.




And a glass of sweet dessert wine which was my favourite.




Sevenhill Botrytis Semillon, oh my god I love you.







and some starter.




:D


As for the fish and chips. (read my food blog if you want to see more photos)

All I could say is....

Let the picture tells it all.





I'm definitely going back.