A local tourist

A tourist in their own town. Does that make sense? Of course! I mean, I live here. Been here all of my life.. but I've never really gone around taking photos and acting touristy. But things really have changed in Melbourne over the past few years. Over the past few months actually. New places opening, slight changes here and there. But then again.. there are things that have always been there and I've just never really noticed. You really can be a tourist in your own town!

I guess I don't know Melbourne that well after all.

[Warning: there are a lot of photos in this post.]

Ventured into Harbour Town, a newly built precinct (that opened late last year) in Docklands. Lots of shops are open now with some that haven't as of yet.

Koffee at KFC? I've never seen this before. Since when did KFC have this? And why the spelling using K's instead of the proper C's?

The Southern Star Observation Wheel.

Then off to lunch at Your Thai on Swanston St.

Papaya salad. $8.00 or $9.50 combo with a drink.

(Drink costs $3.50 if separate)

Thai pineapple fried rice. $9.90.
The plate arrived in front of me as shown. Notice the gap on the right corner? I'm pretty sure something is missing from it! Doesn't it look awkward like that? Something's supposed to be there! This just makes presentation and impression bad. It makes me wonder why there is a gap there and gives me the impression that something is missing. What's missing?! And another thing. There was very little pineapple in this. About 5 tiny pieces in this large serving of rice (in which I could not finish). The photo in the menu gave me the impression that there were more pieces than that. I was very disappointed. Otherwise, this was okay tasting. Not great, but not too bad.

Your Thai four colours drink. $3.50.
Mung beans, kidney beans (I think), cendol (jelly), coconut milk/cream and ice. Mmmm! :D I love the mung bean and coconut milk/cream mixture.

Phat thai fried noodle (beef). $8.90
This.. didn't taste like pad thai. Tasted more like char kway teow.. I would not recommend eating this.

Durian smoothie. $3.50.

The total bill. $35.30 for 3 people.

There was the Antipodes Greek festival along Lonsdale St, between Swanston St and Russell St.

Rides.

People.

Food! Sadly, we had already eaten lunch and were too full to eat anything from here. Aww.. I like Greek food! (I haven't had much of it in my life time though. I'd love to have tried a few things from here..) :(

Yoyos from International Cakes (I think that's what it's called). They're just doughnuts I think.

A bag of 6 for $6.50. And no, I didn't try them. :(

Some sort of baklava.

Another type of baklava.

Lots of people!

Do I see Asian food at a Greek festival?

Yep. It's that jerky meat. (Bak Kwa). $3.00 a piece. Hrm. It was only $2.50 a piece during Chinese New Year! Is it a price rise? Or are they trying to rip these Greek people off? Haha. They even have Greek writing on their banner..

Grilled meat. Does that guy's shirt say "Made in China"? I'm pretty sure he isn't made in China. The t-shirt probably is though. Haha.

More doughnut things. I suppose they're called loukoumades?

Ahh! Souvlaki! I want some! :(

More meat grilling..

More Asian food.. Mind you, not many people were buying from these Asian food stalls anyway.

Weird Asian food? That's not Asian.. is it?

Then at Federation Square, there was the Thai Food Festival.

More food stalls that I couldn't buy from because I had just eaten lunch.

Thai frozen desserts. $4 each. That icecream cup that lady is holding is $3.

It was very crowded. More so than Antipodes.

These costumes freak me out.. :S

Kickboxing as well?

Oooh. And I found this at Borders, Melbourne Central.

Do you want a Hotman? I want a Hotman! I think Hotman is cool! Hotman is $22.95 near the cook books! Haha. He holds up your pots and pans for you! :D (I didn't buy him though)

And there are other things too!

These are cool! Hehe. Not sure how much they were though.

Mmm. Ferrero Rochers. :D

I've heard a lot of people talk about this infamous bread. So I went specifically to BreadTop to go see it. Again, I was too full to buy anything further to eat. It costs $2.00 and doesn't look that appealing.. The ones in Singapore/Malaysia look better. This one looked savoury whereas the other ones were sweet. I'll try this one day though. There were also quite a few new things in BreadTop as well.

Ice-cream cakes being one of them. Hrmm. I still like BreadTalk better than BreadTop. The breads are more appealing and are cheaper as well. I miss BreadTalk. :(

So that was my day exploring Melbourne.

I'm going to make sushi sometime this week. And I'm going to bake a cake as well. :)
I can't wait! Hehe.