La Plaza de Mercado

Running on its fifth year, the La Plaza de Mercado, hosted by the Queen Victoria Market, provides a lively Spanish/Latin American 'market within a market' setup, complete with a live band and the delectable Spanish treats that will is always a hit particularly for meat lovers.

which way to go?

Various stalls from Spanish/Latin American restaurants around Melbourne filled the air with the aromas of their lovely food. This stall (from Los Amates) was selling Chilaquiles - layers of softened tortillas, chicken, cheese, refried beans, topped with sour cream or salsa verde.

Was expecting a bit more heat from this dish that sort of looks like a mess -
but do not be deceived -
it was definitely delicious

Several interesting refreshments such as the hibiscus water and horchata - rice water (or more like rice milk) flavored with cinnamon were also available and could not be missed in their huge containers lined up on the table, a big splash of color promising to quench any thirst!

take your pick!

refreshing horchata

And this Spanish treat would not be complete without churros, the "Spanish doughnuts", fried dough with crisp ridged exterior, often served for breakfast in Spain.

yum!

Other delicious smelling dishes include the seafood and chicken cazuela, served in huge pots and with a wedge of tortilla ('potato omelet').

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Mi fin de semana...
fui a un fiesta "La Plaza de Mercado"
con mi novio,
amigo y amiga.
Domingo en la tarde comi chilaquiles y bebi horchata!

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Michael Franti in Melbourne

7 April at Ferntree Gully Hotel
Michael Franti and Friends

Gig description :

Following on from 2008’s sold out performances, Michael Franti returns to Melbourne in April for a series of intimate performances. Stepping out of the usual Franti format, these shows will see Michael Franti perform in a unique acoustic environment, alongside some very special friends.

A Californian-born poet, musician and composer, Franti blends hip hop, funk and reggae together with his outspoken political and progressive lyrics and has gone on to become renowned as not only a worldwide million-selling recording artist, but also a leader in the peace and social justice movement.

Franti returns off the back of his critically acclaimed release All Rebel Rockers (out now through Liberator). All Rebel Rockers deviates from the past Franti sound, instead comprising a hybrid dub-infused soul flavour with some hard-hitting dub rock production.

Franti’s last Australian tour drew rave reviews, and as he returns in 2009 in acoustic mode with friends, these shows are not to be missed.

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Looking forward to the next gig!

Osaka Twilight Festival

Traipsing to the Japanese Summer festival at the Treasury Gardens out of curiosity was quite a good thing to do on a nice Sunday afternoon. The sun was out, the wind was cool and the Japanese were all over the place, as well as very busy food stalls.

okonomiyaki - a vegetable pancake topped with mayonnaise and a special okonomiyaki sauce
from "okonomi" meaning "what you like" and -yaki meaning "grilled" or "cooked"



Harajuku Crepes
this one with peach and mango ice cream
the queue was extremely long for this particular treat! (waiting time was around 20 minutes)
if you want to skip the queue check them out at Shop 148 Knox Place, Melbourne Central



Takoyaki
a Japanese dumpling made of batter and chopped baby octopus, made yummier with some pickled garlic, topped with okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise.
To make this dumpling you would need a cast iron with half spherical moulds, where the batter is poured.
The ball is then turned over to cook the top side for a couple more minutes before serving.



Takoyaki for $5




Another Japanese sweet treat - chocolate covered banana with candy sprinkles.
Thought it was a rip off at $3 (can get a bunch of bananas at Coles for this price!)
but as it was a novelty item and looked funny for the photos - the small change was fished out of the pocket and the camera geared up.

Not all treats proved to be yummy though, as there was a green latte that tasted of fishy seaweed.

it was green tea powder sprinkled on top of frothed milk.
not very successful.

There were some other events such as basic manga tutorial (japanese anime taught by non-japanese looking people), stalls selling kimono, girls playing the shamisen (a stringed instrument) and a professional busker rocking the house down. Quite funny, as at one point where there were several stalls that was not manned by any Jap folks at all [thus the event was hence called "I Want to be Japanese" festival ]. Just proves how multicultural this place is... in every sense :)

Smiley Face Down Under

From Yahoo News

On Monday across Australia, Venus and Jupiter were in formation with the moon to appear as a smiley face in the night sky.

The three-day-old crescent moon and planets appeared above the western horizon.

The unusual astronomical event was close enough to see with the naked eye from about 9pm.

Venus and Jupiter have appeared near each other in the evening sky for the past week but last night was the best time to see the smiley face.

It will be another five years before the formation appears again.

The phenomenon can be seen in the photo snapped by Yahoo!7 user Caroline from Victoria.

Philippine Fiesta at Melbourne

watch out for this :
What : Fiesta!
When : 29-30 November 2008
Where : Philippine Community Center

This year's Philippine Fiesta’s theme is "Kabalikat sa pangangalaga ng Kalikasan at kapaligiran", or "In support of the conservation of nature and the environment".

Check out the details at the website : http://www.philfiesta.com/

International Rules

Having viewed the first International Rules game of 2008 on TV it was time to take in the all important second leg at a rainy wind swept MCG.

For those unfamiliar with the International Rules game a very long ( and boring :)) in depth description can be found here.

In short, the International Rules series is a hybrid/compromise game between the professional Australian Rules football code and the amateur Irish Gaelic Football code. Mixing rules from both codes the teams are pitched against each other over two legs with an aggregate score deciding the victor of the Cormac McAnallen Trophy. With the first game in Perth finishing in a nail biting 45 to 44 in Irelands favour the second game meant there was still all to play for on both sides.

What appeared to be a small crowd turned out to be 43,000 strong, perhaps a testimony to the size of the venue. The game itself started off at a pretty fast pace with the home team doing a lot of the early running, a number of overs saw Australia finish the quarter with a 15 to 12 lead.

The second and third quarters saw the visitors come to the fore with a number of goals in either quarter seeing finishes of 21 to 36 and 33 to 50, respectively. An all action finish to the final quarter saw a number of further goals traded with Irish team running out victors with a final score of 53 to 57.