Lunch on a Rock!

Yesterday we went into the city for the first time. Melbourne is nice, and it's getting nicer. Chris is going to write about all that, I am going to write about lunch!

Wandering through Chinatown we came across a restaurant that was very modern and pretty, called Japanese Stone Grill. We decided to give it a try for lunch.

It turned out to be the kind of place where your lunch is served raw on a chunk of volcanic rock heated up to 400 degrees Celsius. We had steak, mushrooms, zucchini and tofu, which we ate as it cooked. The rock imparted an interesting salty flavour, and they provided five dipping sauces for us to try- one was a sake, vinegar, pepper sauce, one was a tomato coriander, one was a crab egg, one was garlic butter and mayo, and the last was a REALLY good teriyaki. It came with sushi and cold noodle mayo salad, and we had tempura and steamed rice as well. It was really good! And fun. We were very glad that we decided to just order one and split it though. Very filling!



Made up for our train problems.

To get into the city we drove to the station in Montmorency, parked the car, and bought a transit day pass. We got on the train a few minutes later. the ride should have taken around 45 minutes, but instead it took over an hour because our train was delayed for half an hour while they resolved a signalling problem. When we finally arrived at Flinder's Station, we got on the escalator and it died!

then on the way back, the train that was supposed to take us back to Montmorency Station was cancelled, and we had to wait for the next one.

As far as I can tell, the train system here sucks. ;o)

Chris mentioned retail therapy. So far I have bought....

Some honey and honey jasmine soap.
Frangipani body spray
a kangaroo tshirt
koala socks and a koala hat
opal necklace and earrings
moonstone earrings
australian flag hat and socks
two cute red shirts
one cute pink shirt
grey pinstripe trousers
a burgundy and black dress
three pairs of shoes
a couple cds
some presents
a neat sproingy ball
a wind up bouncy toy
two pink pencils and some neat pink stickers for my desk at work
a dragonfly water pitcher that matches the glasses that dad and joanne gave me years ago
a table runner from chinatown
buddha pictures that we're going to frame and hang
shoes for Chris
a cd wallet
cds for Chris
4 button down shirts and a long sleeved shirt for Chris
a couple very small bits and pieces from Ikea when we went there to get a bed. We also bought presents for the little niece and nephew there.

Shopping is fun!

Lunch was fun too!