On our way down to Kiama for the long weekend, we stopped by Thirroul to check out the ‘Princess’ Pashley bike at one of the few stores in Sydney that stocks that brand. It also happened to be lunch time and afterwards we hungrily prowled the streets for a place to eat.

Fifteen’s entrance is in a small alley, which gave off the vibe of some secret food joint only the privileged knows about. The vibe was strengthened by glossy, dark wooden stairs taking you down into depths unknown. And then you notice the brightly coloured spray painted decor on the walls, which made me wonder if we had gone through the right door.

Lord of the Fries, I belatedly found out, is a vegetarian burger joint. It has two burger joints actually: one is a store front with two sides opened towards Flinders St and into Flinders St Station, and the other is a tiny store on the corner of Elizabeth St and Flinders St. It is unmistakeable with its bold white on red sign and the line of people impatiently waiting for their turn. The lack of seating on the Flinders St side (there are several communal benches inside the station) had us finding a shady spot on the steps of Federation Square (off to the side of course to avoid being trampled on). It was kind of fun actually – kind of like a fast food picnic!

I’ve never had eggs benedict before and thought that I couldn’t go wrong having my first taste of it in Melbourne, being the supposed food capital of Australia and all. I found European on Breakout Melbourne and their review made it sound quite promising.

I wanted to quickly blog about their version of our late night kebab and eat-at-any-time meat pie: the döner and the currywurst. They rank pretty high on my Favourite Food list and besides seeing my family again, generates a lot of excitement from both my brother and I whenever we go back to Berlin.

Vau was recommended by my cousin’s friend, as well as being on the same Top Ten list as White Trash Fast Food. After checking out their website, it seemed very fine dining and I was quite excited as they proudly stated they have been awarded a Michelin star and 17 points on the Gault Millau after their first year of opening. This should be interesting!

In finding a restaurant to take me to, my cousin found a website that listed White Trash Fast Food as one of the Top 10 restaurants in Berlin. Its quirky name and even more quirkier (and cluttered) website (that announced dates of live acts and movies shown) reeled me in… okay, I have to confess that it was really the Chinese-style font used that cinched it, piquing my curiosity.

There were only a handful of Chinese restaurants (that I saw anyway) about 5 years ago, which was the last time I was in Berlin. Now it would seem that Asian restaurants have become more prominent – and not just Chinese or Vietnamese restaurants, there’s also Korean, Japanese, and Thai.

Sam one day sent me a link to the Mahjong Room, asking if I was interested in playing Mahjong whilst having lunch. For most of the time, anything involving food piques my interest, but it was the thought of playing Mahjong while eating (for some reason) that really intrigued me.

Cravings for Korean food can be easily sated by heading to Strathfield – the hard bit is to decide which restaurant to eat at. Thankfully, we chose rather quickly (our decisiveness was most likely due to our growling stomachs), but when presented with the menu, we fell back to our old ways.