Melbourne Trip July 2011

I travel to Melbourne once every 4 to 6 weeks for work, spending about a week at Melbourne office. As the office is at the CBD area, my food experience was limited to the vicinity. Melbourne like Singapore has a rich variety of cuisines from different countries. During this trip, I got to eat Indian, Vietnamese and Chinese cuisines.

My Aussie colleauge brought me to Flora Indian Restaurant on 238 Flinders Street. The restaurant was quite crowded during lunch time. I ordered Garlic Naan and Butter Chicken. I was impressed to find good authentic Indian cuisine in Melbourne.

Garlic Naan

Butter Chicken & Garlic Naan

I was looking for dinner along Swanton Street after work and walked into Rice Paper, a Vietnamese Restaurant on 245 Swanston Street. I had the Spicy Beef Combo Noodle. It tasted good but I was puzzled by the "combo" whereby it came with slices of pork.

Spicy Beef Combo

Pacific BBQ Cafe on 213 Lonsdale Street served nice roast pork. It was highly recommended by my colleagues, so I went to check it out. The roast pork was big and juicy with crispy skin. I enjoyed the generous serving which I do not get in Singapore.

Roast Pork with Rice

Wheat Baumkuchen @ Toa Payoh Central

The inconspicuous cafe at Toa Payoh Central is located at the back alley where KOI is located, opposite the HDB hub. Wheat Baumkuchen is known for their daily baked Baumkuchen. What is Baumkuchen? It is a layered cake made up of 15-20 layers of batter which when sliced reveals the tree rings effect. The Baumkuchen also comes in a variety of toppings and flavours.

In this post, I am not going to talk about their Baumkuchen. You can read more about their products on their website at http://www.wheatbaumkuchen.com/products_baumkuchen_01.htm

Today I am going to introduce you to their new menu, COOL NOODLE. This is probably the first in Singapore. A new concept of eating noodles in a healthy and cool refreshing way.There are 5 types of Cool Noodle available on the menu at $4.80 per plate and they are named as Dolphin, Polar Bear, Penguin, Seal and Reindeer.

The Seal Cool Noodle comes with white noodles in roasted sesame sauce with sauteed pork, tofu, carrot and cucumber. Initially I was quite sceptical how by simply putting some salad and cold noodle together can make a tasty noodle dish. After tasting it, I have to applaud the concept and the roasted sesame sauce really brought the dish together.

"Seal" Cool Noodle 4.2/5

"Seal" Cool Noodle 4.2/5

The Penguin Cool Noodle was the other I tried which comes with green soba noodles in roasted sesame sauce with shredded chicken, fried eggs, carrot and cucumber. It tasted as good as the "Seal".

"Penguin" Cool Noodle 4.2/5

"Penguin" Cool Noodle 4.2/5

I think the Cool Noodle concept will be received very well by the public especially the ladies. It is something new, refreshing and healthy. Most importantly, cheap and nice :)


Wheat Baumkuchen
Blk 190 Toa Payoh Lorong 6
#01-530
Website: http://www.wheatbaumkuchen.com
Nearest MRT: Toa Payoh (NS Line)

Opening Hours:
Daily: 9am - 9pm