Day 3: The Most Magnificent Breakfast in Paris!

This blogging thing is feeling more & more like a job. We've just finished our posts on the Melbourne trip & now we've got to pick up where we left off on our Paris trip, which we did in July. That's like HALF A YEAR AGO! The only thing that's keeping me going is when I see the BLING BLING blinging on my Nuffnang account. Not that it's a lot of money. But hey, money is still money.

Honestly speaking, as Malaysian tourists, we would never have been able to tell whether this place had the best breakfast in town. But judging from our many eating spree experiences, we thought this place was just magnificent!

Cafe le Corona is easy to find. Just walk to the east entrance of the Louvre & le Corona will stick out like a sore French loaf. If you still don't see it, then you must be seriously visually challenged.

A lot of our culinary experiences in Paris were just random shootings. It wasn't like we knew where to go for a good meal. Most travel guidebooks suck when it comes to food. So really, we had to rely on our very primal insincts.

I think we were early that morning cos we almost had the whole restaurant to ourselves. The French cafes have a very peculiar way of arranging their chairs to face outwards. So when you're sitting there, you feel like you're watching a real life movie of people walking by. I doubt that you can do this in Kuching. You'd get stares & scowls from passerbys, See what see??!!!!

French waiters are all very experienced.

And it is certainly a different experience being served by someone much more older than you. You'd feel that you're in good hands & everything would be okay.

We ordered the very famous French Hot Chocolate. You must know that I'm a chocolate boy who grew up on Milo, every morning, before I go to school. My father had to wake up at 6 in the morning to make one for me & my brother. And for himself. Well, this was unlike anything I've tasted before.

I don't know why but that morning was just full of paternal symbolism. The fatherly waiter, my father's chocolate Milo drink, & then the Daddy sugar cubes.

This is the Omelette Voir.



And the Croque Monsieur, the real & original French Toast. It came with ham & cheese inside.



C'est la Vie!

Food Shopping In Melbourne

One of the things that I look forward to whenever I go to places like Singapore & Melbourne is to shop for food related items which do not exist in Kuching. On the contrary, my shopping is also one of the things that appalls Greg cos he knows very well that he would be the person to carry all of them home.

There are usually a few shops that I'd always return to around Lygon Street. I was doing a bit of price surveying & checking out which shops have the best deal. One of the other thing that I was looking for was whether the shops did any vacuum packing. This was important cos if I was to spend that kind of money, & to lug all these back to Kuching, they'd better be good quality stuff and be able to stay fresh.

This is King and Godfree. It's a good place for gourmet food delights.

They sell a range of imported and australian cheeses, italian proscuitto and hams, aged balsamic vineger, whole range of olive oils both local and imported, saffron, wines etc. etc. etc.


Grinders is good for excellent Australian coffee to take home as gifts.

According to the shop, they have been selling coffee for 40 over years and so far they've been doing well. Well, I didn't really know it but Melbourne is actually well known for its coffee.

This is Lavazza, another shop along Lygon. They sell about the same thing as King & Godfree.

Lavazza also does coffee and a small yet good selection of organic pastas, hams and other gourmet food.

La Pariessene Pates is currently my favourite shop of the season.

This place is so very the goodest. Their operator is French and he/she makes some of the stuff here in Australia while the rest are imported.

Camembert & Brie.

Oils for dressings.

Terrines, Pates, Foie Gras.

Homemade sausages.

This place is where I got my Christmas Ham on the Bone!

Besides these boutique shops, I went to David Jones for their cheeses because they do the almighty vacuum packing and they'd let you try everything before you buy.

Victoria market gourmet food section is also heaven. They have an excellent gourmet food section. But that has already become general knowledge.

This time around I expanded my exploration to Prahran Market. There's this shop called Essential Ingredients which was one of the more notable ones. Prahan Market is open on Tues, & Thurs-Sun, accessible by Tram 72 from the city right to the front of the market! Of course I only found out after I got there. And this place is heaven, i swear. It is huge! Seasonings, herbs, pastas, vanilla extracts and beans, olive oils, 150 year old balsamic vinegar, sherry vinegar, white wine vinegar, sea salts, all sort of baking wares, cooking wares, beautiful cheese boards and so on and on and on.

GREG (whisper): That sounds like Nee when she's shopping. On and on and on.

Anyway this concludes our Melbourne trip 2008. 56 kg on return flight and another prob 25 kg on Greg's shoulders and 10kg on mine. Tip: Bring a cooler bag with you!