Jogoya Starhill, Bukit Bintang

Yum! Yum! Yum!

Got a treat by dad to Jogoya again today. Muahahaha... and gosh, even High tea session now must pay RM68++ already. Dinner was like RM88++ and Lunch RM78++. Jogoya certainly is getting more and more expensive with that price that they are charging.

Nonetheless, dad decided to give a treat to his hardworking staffs as well. So, there we go to Jogoya for high tea (lasting from 2pm to 4pm).

So much food to choose from, not sure where to start at.

You can eat the buffet stuffs like sushi, steam xiao long pau. If not, then you can take those cute lil clips on your table and put them at sections offering stir fried delicacies. After about 10 minutesor so, fresh cooked ordered food will be delivered to you right to your table.

I particularly enjoyed eating this claypot cooking at that small stove on every table. You should try it out too when you are there the next time.

After a big helping on eat meal, you could proceed to great selection of desserts for a sweet ending. There are regular cheese cakes, variety of pudding, fresh baked cookies, ice creams, fresh coffee churned out from bean.

It is a nice place to get talking and eating with your close friends, if you have the amount of $$ to spend that is. :P . Food wise, you pretty much get accustomed to the variety after going there for few times. Quality of food in my opinion is fair, as there are definately better food outside there. But Jogoya definately able to give you a better ambient for a great dinning session.

More details at:
http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/2006/02/jogoya-starhill-gallery-kl.html
http://makankings.blogspot.com/2006/03/jogoya-starhill-gallery.html

Finally... all posts on Australia trip ready

Finally got all the posts on my trip to Hobart, as well as Melbourne trip up.

To read the whole trip, click to HERE

Yawn! Going home now...

Gosh, had to wake up at 4am this morning, and woke Mark up at the same time so he could send me to the airport. I had a flight at 10.10am in Melbourne Airport to catch this morning.'

Finally now I have arrived from Hobart to melbourn and had my bags all safely checked in. Was very lucky because the luggages weigh totalled up 32kg or so, when my luggage allowance was only 20kg. The guy at the coutner that checked me in was very reluctant to do so, from the way I see. Hehehe...

Anyway, it is very sad that my week long holiday here at Hobart has finally ended. I wish I could come back to Hobart again sometime soon! I want to eat the fresh salmon that is abundant in the market as well as fresh seafood from the market.

I shall not forget the beautiful Mount Wellington as well, also the fact that the wind there almost blew me off at one point in time!!

Till then, I am signing off here. Will catch my flight in a bit!

Food I have here at Hobart

Started off my existence here at Hobart, with a rather authentic Hainanese Chicken Rice, but at a typical gwailo Roast Chicken Shop. Apparently it was opened by a Malaysian. Eat this at Sandy Bay Road's Roost.

Roost claim to have the best chip in town, mainly because they used chicken seasoning salt into it. You be the judge.

Some of the days, we cooked at home. Fresh food are abundant here, and definately cheaper to eat at home.

What's in Mark's hand??? See See See... it is a large 3.7kg Fresh Atlantic Salmon. Paid like AUD$50+ for it!!

So, we had it in sashimi without wasthing time.

Was lucky to get some large juicy scallops here as well. Mark cooked it with brocollies and mushroom. It taste absolutely brillaint.

We also had this nice Steak Diane for dinner as well on one of the night.

On one of those time we went to Richmond, we tasted some very authentic bread and butter pudding, as well as delicious scones. Feel very homey here in this Maze cafe.

Coming back from Port Arthur, we went straight back to Hobart for dinner at this firewood pizza join.

It's call Sandy Bay Beach Firewood Pizza.

We had a Satay Chicken Pizza, as well as Atlantic Salmon Pizza. I thought it wasn't bad.

Of course, I wouldn't forget the nice beers we tasted at Cascade Brewery.

Sausage bread, a fairly common offer at the Salamanca Market.

A day at Salamanca Market and City

You can't say you have been to Hobart as a tourist if you have not been to the Salamanca Market open every Saturday.

Hmm... pretty small market, and very touristy. Things here are not so cheap to buy really. Just sampled some food here and there.

Decided to grab something to eat. And we had a sausage from this stall.

Then went wealking around in the city. The city is really small.... gives me a feeling of a shrunk Melbourne City? Haha... well, Hobart has its own beauty as well, there is generally less traffic around the area. One thing for sure, parking around here is extremely expensive on weekday, and hard to find as well.

Later on, went to the Tasmania Museum. Didn't take any pictures, but the free admission make the visit quite worthwhile. They have this small little corner on the upstair dedicated to the Antartica Research. Little that people know that Hobart is where one of the Ice-breaker ship -- Aurora Australis sail to the antartica for research purposes.

Should go there if you have time.

Cascade Brewery - Australia oldest

The only reason I got to know Cascade brewery is from the fact that I like their Ginger Beer.

Besides that, I know it is the oldest in Australia.

You will be surprises that there are many things here that is Australia oldest. Therefore sometime I do wonder, does it make this place boring at all... I mean, the expert always say, there shall be no new things if the old stuffs never get replaced. Haha...

Anyway, let's just get back to the tour.

I paid AUD$15 as an visitor, while Mark paid AUD$10 as a student. So, we were given a tour around the hold buildings and process of making beer.

I have been to Malaysia Anchor Brewery before, thus I sort of know how beer brewing works. After coming to here, I rediscover how Cascade has brought beer brewing to a whole new level. The meticulous process that they strongly emphasized, so as to produce the best beer around the region.

This, in return, actually make Cascade beer as a top of the line beer and more expensive to drink till drunk.

But, for a ticket of AUD$15, we were given 3 tasting of different kind of beers. So Mark and I really tought the price wasn't bad.

Hobart Cadbury Factory - A place that I don't want to be

Seriously, chocolate eating is really not my kind of thing. Eating chocolates made by Cadbury is actually a torture me. Yet I had to make this trip, otherwise I would be considered as "Not been there in Tasmania" yet. You see...

Cool, we load ourselves with freddo chocolate while waiting for our turn for the trip

At AUD$12.50, I think the ticket wasn't so bad. At the end of the trip, we were given a small box of chocolate as our souvinirs. Haha...

The smell of this factory, is too chocolately to my taste. I think I prefer the yeast smell from the Cascade brewery better.

Anyway, sorry for not much pics, as camera was not allowed inside the factory.

An afternoon at Kingston Beach

Hmmm... Mark just decide to drive around here. The beachside is really a summer thing. There is nothing much going on at this place now in the cold winter. Seagull relentlessly trying to pry for food from passerbys.

There are two fish and chips shop nearby, and their fish and chip is quite unique, as they use locally caught fish as main ingredient. The fish actually taste fresh with crisp beer batter.

I ask Mark why it has to be beer battered, and he said during olden days in England, waster is not safe to drink thus the mixing of the batter use beer instead of water.

After light lunch, we went walking at the beach site. While I was busy collecting seashells, Mark was feeling charitable by feeding our excess potato chips to the seagulls. LoL

Port Arthur & Tasmania National Park

Weather become one of the issue to consider on when going for sight seeing outdoor.

It is that way when we decided to go to Port Arthur this morning.

The sky seemed rather cloudy, and thus making the sea look pretty gloomy as well. Don't quite like it, since it is making our outing a little depress as well.

It took us nearly 1 hour to drive there, and stopping at McDonalds along the way for lunch. 1 whole hour to drive, despite we can see the place from Mount Wellington. The reason is that road to get to Port Arthur needs to build along the coastal way, as between Hobart and Port Arthur, they are divided by few coastal bays.

Because of this natural settings, beautiful landscape exist along the drive. We stopped at the Tasmania National Park lookout and took these pics.

As for Port Arthur heritage site, is really a former ground for Australia oldest jail. This is one of those place where the pitiful brits can deported to from England during the 1800's. They all get send to this place just because of petty crimes. Some heavy ones are sent to as well.

We paid like AUD$25 for adult and AUD$20 for student to get into this place. Fortunately at this time, the sun start to come out. Manage to take some nice pics around.

It is quite a small place, and mostly self sustain, with farm, hospital, church, council.

Our ticket is included with a short boat ride as well, pretty much just circling around that small bit of cove in front of the Port Arthur.

All in all, there is much to see here, so I guess I won't really come here again if I ever go to Hobart again.

After the Port Arthur heritage site, we went to Remarkable cave. It is quite a remarkable site, as the cave opens up to the sea, and seawaves wash in and out of it repeatedly. Perhaps when I have time, I will include the short movie I tooked with the camera.

Juicy steak for dinner. I want more of this!!!

On my request, possibly to Mark's own craving as well, he finally agreed to show his excellent cooking skill tonight by cooking me one nice big fat steak.

First we must have our star of the night of course -- One big fat piece of T-bone steak, Tasmania best!

Gently pan fried till perfection -- Medium cooked!

Then, we have this nicely caramelised swede cube (a kind of sweet tasting potato. It is my first time tasting this, but taste heavenly with the slight burned sugar taste.

Then some brussle sprout mix vegetables. And the Steak Diane sauce pack.

Steak Diane, what a faminine name it is. Though when tasting it, I am not sure if that nice sauce taste faminine or not. You know, people always associate faminine tasting with things like vanilla or hinted cinnamon. But this one does neither at all. Heh...

Cooking cooking the sauce with some sinful heavy cream...

And viola, pouring it to the steak, loaded the vege in as well.

One closer look.

Steak anyone? :-D

Royal Botanical Garden

The species of plant available in the Royal Botanical garden, does very little in resembling the flora of Tasmania. Trees with falled leaves during winter, that is really not originally from Tasmania itself.

In fact the whole island has way too many introduced plants and animals, which in turn does great amount of harm to the ingineous species around.

There is a japanese garden around. Mark and I s ed when we saw it. The whole place look very run down. I am glad the whole Garden was free else I would really gripe about this terrible place.

:P

Richmond - You find a glimpse of Tasmania past here

We had nice scones and bread pudding here. At this restaurant called The Maze Cafe. True enough, there was a fairly large maze behind the restaurant.

Any played with cafe owners' dog, named shirley. She just dashed out of no where when we were about to leave as the cafe close around 5pm that day.

But what makes Richmond special here, is that you find a trace of british buildings around here. Sandstone bridge, stoney Churches, Clock tower, Old mansion stayed by previous officers.

And of course, a second oldest Jail in Australia, the Richmond Gaol that we didn't think was worth the $$ to go inside.

Hobart City at a glance.

Before I came here, I have tried to find as much information as I can about Hobart city. Partly because I was actually planning to come here to study as well together with Mark. Apart knowing that the whole place was built on a hilly surrounding, as it is very secluded from the mainland, I really have no idea what Hobart has to offer.

All I think about is that -- Hobart must be a very backward "town"

Laid back it might be, but Hobart is certainly not left behind in many things.

After being here for just one day, I have already fell deeply in love with this place. Of course, my love for Melbourne will not be moved, but Hobart itself has so much to offer as well.

It is hard to describe in one phrase why I change my view about Hobart.

Perhaps it is the picturasque setting of the city, whereby the hills that overlook the beautiful Derwent River as well as the majestic Tasman Bridge.

Or perhaps it might be the old buildings that is still preserved nicely as ever, dotting around the city. It could just as well the locals that called themselves Tassie, being so friendly that moved me greatly.

But all in all, Hobart has take my heart away.

Never in my life I would imagine to be able to be apart of a beautiful place like this, abeit just for one week.

And for now, I will not have to imagine the happiness felt when waking up to the great river view everyday, because I am in one now. Haha...

At Mount Wellington, Highest Point in South Hobart

From Utas, it didn't take too long for us to reach Mount Wellington - Just approximately 30 minutes from Sandy Bay Road.

It is an uphill climb all the way to the Pinnacle Point - The highest point in Mt. Wellington.

Fortunately Mark has forwarned me to bring more clothes here, because true enough, this place is freezingly cold! It has been long time since I experience cold temperature like this, easily less than 3 degree celcius me think. Even a brief moment sticking my fingers outside to take picture, caused the numbness.

Apparently during the old days, snow can built up very high even before the cold mid winter time. But these days, there aren't really thick snow around anymore. Since it is still early winter, there are just some frost building up on the stone and along the wooden pathway.

The original purpsoe of building the road up here, was for Telstra communication tower. But now this place has been one of the well known Hobart tourist spot.

The metro city bus has regular service coming up here, from the city. So, it is not really too isolately from town.

Evening view here, is really breath taking. We managed to stay till sometime before sunset and took these nice pictures.

Few days later, we came here again and found this place dotted with so much snow around. I was wanting so much to play snow ball fight there. However, the wind on that day was so so so strong, so much so the rubbish in our cars was blown away just after we open the car door.

First home cooked lunch!

Just got back from the local market. Kih kih kih, wanna guess what's for our lunch today???

Guess what is Mark unwrapping there?


Grr~


SNAP! It looks like a fish!

Yes it is, just barely arriving here for one day, Mark already bought one big fat 3.7kg Atlantic Salmon for me to eat. Though it's name Atlantic Salmon, it is really being grown here at Tasmania. Price wise, not so cheap. We paid like AUD$50 or so for it.

Poor fish!!! It died tragically and yet got cut dreadfully into many pieces with a blunt knife. SNIFF!!

You will be surprise to find quite a number of good "Fast Food" sushi joint around here, mainly because they get to serve the very fresh salmon and tuna sushi of course.

And we got ourselves these sauces for our own sashimi session

I was very much wanting to enlarge this pic for you to tell our reader how tasty the sashimi is, but I think twice and rather not. It is quite gruesome since we are not very good at cutting the pieces, so things look rather slimy...

Ah... what a weird fusion, Salmon sashimi, Pasta with basil pesto.

There is a reason why Utas fee is so cheap

I mean, look at this place, everything is so organized here. Great scenery, good education, old prestigeous school. Why would a great place like this charge a fee so cheap???

But of course -- The hilly surrounding.

If you think studying around Cameron Highlands is bad, then this whole place is much much worst. To walk from one building to another, there is just too much slope and stair case to tackle.

Apparently one asian student was trying to convinced his father to get him a car without success. Thus for one semester, he decided to invite his parent over for a holiday, and join him for class on one of the day. Next thing is that, the father agrees with the whole idea of getting car with no second thoughts.

There is just too much hills around here to my liking. Then again, if you have a car it would be much better. I am having an impression that break pad business here must be soaring like nothing. Most of the time, the slope around will be of more than 30 degree inclination. I just cannot imagine myself having to walk up these hills on an exceptionally cold day.

Perhaps at then I shall be cursing wondering why on earth I choose to live like this? I wouldn't know. But for now, I kinda like this whole hilly set up with no commitment to it.

Arriving at Tasmania

My heart beats faster, as the plane decended to Hobart city. It is just 4.30pm but the sky seemed as dark as 7.30pm in KL city. I can see from the window that it has been raining.

"Hmmm... it must be cold outside now" I struddered.

But I am very excited to be here, and I know Mark will be waiting out there somewhere for me.

I miss him... its been 3 months I've not seen him. I cannot help but wonder if he has been well. Somehow I know he will be, because he is always the fighter.

From Melbourne Tullamarine, I bid my brother farewell and got onto Jetstar, took a 1 hour flight to Hobart airport. It feels just like how it is for us Malaysian to take the Airasia. At it best, the air hostess was trying to offer us portable video/audio entertainment device as an inflight entertainment, with a small fee. I actually thought it was not a bad idea.

Ah... as I approached arrival hall, I searched high and low for the bus driver that Mark promised will bring me to the place where he stay. And then I spotted this familiar figure sitting at one site of the corner.

It is Mark! I quickly smiled and walked to him. He squeezed one cheeky face as he realised I came. We had a quick peck with our lips together and got my bags.

Hmmm... he seemed alright. I thought myself.

And so, we begin to our journey back to the Utas hostel here. Yawn...