5th Day in Melbourne!

Aunt Ruth dropped A&A off around 10.30am in the morning at Glen Waverly station, and they made their way to Flinders Street. The first sight that greeted them was this!

From there, A&A made their way slowly to the city centre for lunch.

Another shot of the very impressive St. Paul's Cathedral

Adal had made a reservation when they were in Singapore to come to the Fifteen Restaurant in the wealthier district of Melbourne (much like the Shenton Way of Singapore). The Fiffteen Restaurant is actually a chain of restaurants opened by 'the Naked Chef', Jamie Oliver. Fifteen is actually featured in a series of TV shows called 'Jamie's kitchen', where he brings together disadvantaged youths who want a second shot at life, and through a series of on-job training stints, finds out the strengths, weaknesses and motivations of the youth before deciding whether or not they're serious about changing their own lives. A&A watched the show together, and were very impressed by the Melbournian head-chef (also Jamie's close friend, Tobie) as well as the noble purpose of the restaurant - as a charitable organisation, all profits generated are spent on training its recruits.

The Fifteen restaurant in Melbourne is located in the basement of an alley, so it is quite difficult to see from the main road. Its address is Basement, 115 – 117 Collins StreetMelbourne, Victoria 3000(Enter through George Parade)

The Fifteen Restaurant

Front of Restaurant

Signboard on the wall in the alley

First view you get of the kitchen!

The restaurant within

Colorful graffiti on the toilets!

Interior of restaurant. It's really quite big, but gets packed really quickly. If you're going, we recommend reservations too.

Happy Adel

Happy Adal

We didn't take many pictures of the food (as it would have seemed rude), but we ordered, to share, the potato gnocchi with smoked Skipton eel, parsley, new season brussel sprouts and Fifteen's olive oil. The wait staff was very attentive, and the one plate of gnocchi we ordered came pre-separated in 2 plates (since we'd told him we'd be sharing it). It was the first time we had encountered such attention to detail, and we were quite impressed.

For our mains, we both ordered the Wicked Sicilian Fishermans Stew, which had mussels, pipies, prawns, calamari and Fish of the day (which was salmon) with saffron potatoes, grilled sour dough and dill aioli (according to the menu). The grilled sour dough was a crunchy and delicious piece of bread with a herbal sour cream which tasted savoury and lightly flavoured with just the right hint of tartness. Coupled with the stew (which tasted almost exactly like lobster bisque), it would have made a divine meal by itself. The prawns were large, around 2 cm wide and almost 10cm long, and the mussels were also very fresh.

A&A were completely satisfied with the meal!

The whole bill for one starter and 2 mains (and a bottle of still water and 2 glasses of White wine) cost around $125, but it was quite filling, and if you feel guilty about spending so much on yourself, remember you're doing it for a good cause! :-)

We went for a long walk after lunch around the area, and strolled into Little Bourke Street, which is Chinatown in Melbourne.

Everywhere in Melbourne we see streaks of artistic chaos - from graffiti to the well-painted utilities (?) box above. Would Singapore eventually be able to allow such creative explosions to occur? Adal believes many places and objects in Singapore hold great potential for not only advertising, but also creative talents to shine to create a more vibrant and colorful city.

Curry Corner around Chinatown!

Interesting juxtaposition of Chinese words on an English-looking building

Old buildings scattered around Chinatown

These gates typically signify Chinatown. Adal wonders if this is an attempt to add culture into the area, or if this is an attempt to demarcate the 'English' and 'Chinese' areas? In any case, he wishes he didn't wonder so much.

Pensive traveler

We proceeded then to the Royal Arcade, home to many well-known shops, including the Koko Black chocolate shop. A&A bought many gifts for their relatives there.

The shopping arcade is well known for the 2 figures on the left and right of the shopping arcade ceiling near the back end - Gog and Magog, supposedly giants of myth.

Adal supposes the statue above is Gog, and the one above the clock is Magog, though he can't be sure. In any case, they remind him a lot of Haw Par Villa and therefore makes him feel the urge to flee for his life.

We then went to Southgate to shop around, but there were very few shops open, so we just took plenty of pictures and gave Uncle Keith a call (he had told them he would be bringing them for Italian!).


Uncle keith and Aunt Ruth picked them up at Glen Waverly, and sped down to Sofia Pizza House, located at 857, Burke Road, Camberwell Victoria.

We ordered the Risotto, Ravioli, Hawaiian Pizza and Seafood Marinara with Spinach Fettucine. Be warned if you go there, the servings are HUGE! We had originally thought that we would have space for dessert, so Aunt Ruth and Uncle Keith called for a slice of the lemon meringue. The one slice that came was the size of an entire cake! We were all pleasantly surprised (or rather, shocked because we were so full by then we were quite sure some part of our semi-digesting dinner would rebel and send an army of food back up the other way).

However, we managed to finish the food completely! (we doggy-bagged the rest) After which Uncle Keith had to rush off to church for a meeting, and Aunt Ruth sent everyone back home and Adal had an explosive rendezvous on the porcelain throne.

And that concludes our 5th Day in Melbourne!