A Tour Through Perth Parks

Breathtaking view of Perth City from Kings Park

The Mat Sallehs and Ang Mohs are known to have a liking for parks, trees, sunshine, and lying on the grass contemplating about life. So when in Rome, do as the Romans do, but it was a case of doing what the Australians do when I was in Perth.


Bush Tree

Strolling the parks... Lying around... Watching sunset... Enjoying life...



Fang and family took me up Kings Park, the most popular park in Perth. I don't see why it is not popular- it's up on a hill where one can overlook the city, the river and the brewery.


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...

Doesn't this picture reminds you of Robert Frost's poem- The Road Less Travelled? I would copy and paste the whole poem here but this is not the focus of today's story :)



Kings Park is a really really nice place to just chill and relax. While us Asians would run and hide at every point the sun shines on us, you have to give it to the Whites for being able to sun bake and still chill under the heat. These kids were having such a wonderful time rolling down the hill! I was tempted to do the same too....



Due to its strategic location of being up the hill, Kings Park is a popular venue for wedding receptions and sorts. When we were there, a wedding party was taking place at the gazebo. There were also people taking graduation photos, having picnics, reading a book, or making out but in a considerable manner :p



Smack in the middle of the park is the ANZAC Memorial Tower to honour those who perished during the war. There is a significant plague bearing the phrase, "LEST WE FORGET".



And if you do, there's always the names of those who perished to remind you that the freedom and democracy the Australians have today is not the sacrifice of one man, but many many men.
/cue for sad song playing



Perhaps this is what makes Kings Park immensely popular among locals and tourists alike- the spectacular breathtaking view of Perth City. I think it will be even more beautiful at night with the lights on.





On another evening, I was brought to Mill Point to watch sunset. We went to a nearby Dome and grabbed ourselves some coffee and juices, sat by the river and watched sunset.



It was such a wonderful thing to do. Spending quality time doing quality activities (ie. doing nothing = free & carefree mind), sounds like The Ideal Job to me. Pictured in the foreground is Denise, Fang & Hua's friend who tells us the funniest stories by translating them to BM!





We watched sunset :)



Final post on Perth tomorrow!

East Perth and Little Moorish Restaurant

I have a feeling I can complete this whole Perth chapter end of this week. Heheh, so here's today's story...



On my final day, my host family brought me to Eastbrook Terrace @ East Perth. The weather was rather chilly that evening which was quite nice... having a scarf around you (something I can only do when I'm in the office- super cold! What's Earth Hour, again? :p) and a spectacular view of the East Perth riverside. Again, needless for me to say, the sky was really beautiful :)


To see the world in the end of a tunnel

There are quite a number of cafes along the riverside and since my host family has been so hospitable to me (ie. free accomodation, transportation, meals, entertainment etc) I made them allow me to buy them dinner on my final day. We walked around the area looking for a suitable cafe for the 'farewell' meal.



We picked Little Moorish Restaurant for the occassion. Little Moorish specializes in Moroccan-North African cuisines. The Moors is the name given by the Europeans to the people from Morocco of mixed Arab and Berber descent who invaded Spain, Portugal, Sicily and Provence.



What's not to love about water bottles like this....


Vegetarian Tapas Plate- $27
Cinnamon pumpkin dip, tarragon haloumi tahini and dhukah yoghurt, Zaalouk dip, potato cakes on couscous tabouleh and turkish bread


Bisteeya- $29
Moroccan delight with cinnamon flavoured chicken and almond in crisp egg brushed pastry garnished with fresh pastry garnished with fresh orange and lettuce served with honey orange and mint sauce


Essaaouira Salmon- $32
Seared pink salmon fillet served on nicoise salad of green beans, tomato, kalamata olives, egg and potato with olive oil and lemon chermoula sauce

The food is pretty good to be honest, especially the Bisteeya which everyone gave their thumbs up. The orange sauce complemented the pastry enveloping the cinnamon flavoured chicken and stuffings. The salmon was very fresh and has a little sourish flavour to it due to the lemon sauce. Overall, dinner was very enjoyable and I'm glad I had a wonderful 'final' meal in Perth. Price wise, it's expensive! But I keep telling myself, "Don't convert, don't convert...." Well it's delicious anyway, so it's money well spent!





As we were having our meal, the sun began to set and by the time we were done, it was already dark. The riverside is really beautiful with all the lights on creating reflections on the water. It'll be really nice to have an after meal stroll, appreciating the lights and sights that East Perth has to offer at night.


Supposed to be artistic photo

Fang asked me to pose for a picture with the lamp post. Hmmm... I look like I'm searching for the light in life or a jakun Malaysian who've never seen a lamp post -_-


Little Moorish Restaurant
Suite 4/10
Eastbrook Terrace (Lake side)
East Perth, WA 6004
www.littlemoorish.com.au

Shopping Streets

When I did my pre-trip research on places of interest in Perth, Hay Street was listed as one of the shopping places. Though I wasn't exactly on a shopping trip, as compared to Bangkok, it doesn't really hurt to see what 'shopping' is like for the Australians right?

There are individual shopping malls in every suburbs (ie. Garden City Mall, Westfield Carousel, Broadway Fair, Belmont Forum) but Hay St and Murray St are two very long streets, connected to each other and dedicated for shopping at Perth City. Firstly, I like the concept of their shopping street here. Both streets are closed to traffic and the streets are very wide for pedestrians/ people to walk about and there are also benches for people to rest. It also provides a platform for buskers to strut their stuff.



There are several arcades that run off either Murray Street Mall or the Hay Street Mall, such as the Carillon Arcade. There are two main departmental stores- David Jones and Myers. The former is a very atasan place so the stuff there are quite expensive needless to say. We had our lunch at Carillon Foodcourt and we went for Japanese.





Fang had a bento set while I had the beef rice. Nothing fantastic, the beef portion was generous but a tad too stiff :(



We went hopping from store to store but stuff here are not that affordable compared to Harbourtown. Then again, Harbourtown is like the factory outlet mall so I guess it definitely has to be cheaper than the city. While we were strolling along the wide street, this building caught my attention. It's not surprising though since it is sandwiched between other modern shopping malls.



Just like how they have a Chinatown at Northbridge, here's a British town at Perth City. To be precise, it's known as London Court. The setting and architecture is of the English influence but ironically, things sold here are Australian stuff, so it's not exactly very attractive after all.



I like this picture though :D



Well, there was a particular shop that sold British confectionary... I felt like a little kid in a candy store awed by the amount and variety of chocolates, candies, cookies and biscuits. I spotted Jaffa Cakes and immediately bought it as Eiling loves them (see I so sayang you) even though it costed me $6.95 (about RM17) only to find out that in London, you can get it for £1 (about RM5.30). Sighs, kena conned triple-fold!



The emblem reminds me of the England football jersey.



I also saw a Scientology Church! Maybe we can find Tom Cruise here. Heehee. However, shopping here is not too great IMHO as everything is so pricey :(



Statues and sculptures are a common sight but this one is particularly interesting. Perhaps it is done on purpose for ladies to have a chance to pose a picture looking at you-know-where in broad daylight :p Well since it is done intentionally, I've got to reciprocate the intention by staring at you-know-where for the picture right!



Australian cops doing their patrolling on bikes and in shorts. So cute! Now can you imagine our polis doing the same?? Huge belly, wearing shorts, trying to balance the bicycle......... and probably firing water cannons to disperse the crowd at Petaling Street? Heh, interesting.

Cold Rock Ice Creamery

As much as I'm eager to start writing about my Bangkok trip (I gave a prelude in the previous entry :D) I need to finish up my posts on the Perth ones first! And there's just so much to write! Well having a really pain in the ass internet connection doesn't help to speed things up, I've been frantically trying to upload as much pictures into my flickr because God knows, come weekdays the connection gets busted again and/or I'm too tired to write.



On the very same day I was at Fremantle, the weather was really hot. But the heat doesn't make you sweat, so it's kinda bearable unlike the heat in Bangkok which totally exhaust you out. I literally had to wipe my sweat off with a tissue and believe me, I could squeeze every drop of my sweat out of the tissue! To counter the heat, Fang and Hua brought me to Cold Rock for their favourite ice cream.



Unlike the usual ice cream parlours which only makes/serves conventional ice creams, Cold Rock offers a unique twist to the traditional ice cream.

There are 4 simple steps to enjoying a Cold Rock ice cream:

1. Choose it.
2. Mix it.
3. Smash it.
4. Try it.



For the first step, there are ice creams and sorbets to choose from. Then there's a mix-it counter (picture above) with different selection of chocolates and lollies, biscuits, fruits, nuts and fudge. Choose what you like to go with your ice cream and the staff will proceed to...



... SMASH IT. I had the chocolate mint (my fav ice cream flavour!!) with tim tam. It was quite an entertaining watch, since I've never seen anything like this back in Malaysia. The ice creams are scooped off from the chiller and put on a cold teppanyaki. If you've read and seen how they make teppanyaki ice creams, you'll understand the process. The metal surface is cold instead of hot so that the ice cream doesn't melt or helps get it frozen while being mixed. The tim tams are then crushed, mixed and blended in with the ice cream and the outcome is a cup of chocolate mint with tim tam!



I love this! Choc mint with tim tam!



Fang and Hua had the Rum Raisin with Oreo and it was done in the same process in a jifty too! We had the kiddies cup at $4.80. Prices can escalate to $6.40 for regular, $7.90 for large, $9.90 for take home pack and $14.90 for large take home pack. Although it is not cheap, it is definitely worth the money especially on a hot sunny day.



I love this too. It's obvious to say I love Cold Rock ice creams since then but it's a pity they're not outside Australia yet. Maybe Berjaya should start franchising it :)

Besides ice creams, Cold Rock also sells ready-to-go and personalised ice cream cakes, a variety of smoothies, shakes and chillers, and desserts such as sundaes and banana splits.


Cold Rock Ice Creamery
Available all over Australia
www.coldrock.com.au/

The Most Awesomest 100% Orange Juice

The answer to the question in the previous post is.... as above :)

The first encounter with this drink was when we were at Chaktuchak Market, after walking around for hours under the scorching heat. This precious gem of a stall was found just when we were about to exit the market and was craving for some Bangkok street food. It's quite surprising that I've never seen this mentioned in any blogs while satay babi, fried bugs, and other skewered grill items are mentioned everywhere.

Now this really deserves a mention and the limelight.



The orange is squeezed fresh and just like what it claims to be- 100% Orange Juice with no preservative or sugar water or ice added. What makes orange juice here extra special is the type of orange used, instead of the western Sunkist oranges or the usual ones you see in the supermarkets, Thai orange juice is squeezed from tangerines, which is another variety in the citrus family. It taste somewhat similar to the mandarin oranges we have on CNY and the little mini mandarins that comes in a big bag.

The taste is absolutely good, I really love the Thai version of Orange Juice. I had 4 bottles after all! It was at 50 Baht (about RM5) for the big bottle and 30 Baht (about RM3) for the small bottle.



While I was too engrossed with my orange juice, Eiling was at the next stall picking out some absolutely tempting sausages. There were quite a few selections of different sausages, and I think it's in a variety of pork and chicken.



This stall was making quite a brisk business as everyone loves sausages! They're like comfort food to me, besides potatoes and eggs. Are you tempted too?



Eiling had a pick of few types of sausages and it only cost 50 Baht (aboutRM5) for the handsome selection. I think the sign says the sausages are Grade A.



Smothered with some tomato sauce, these little cocktail bite sized sausages provided such comfort to our stomach after a long and tiring round of shopping. And as you can see, it's unlike the streetside sausages we get back home (ie. pasar malam). These are good grade sausages that are fat, meaty, juicy and succulent.



Now a gulp of this, and a bite of that........

Shiok!!!