Melbourne Patron

With recent additions  Shop Ramen , Hinoki Japanese Pantry and BistroK , plus long-stayers  Peko Peko , Easy Tiger , Wabi Sabi Salon , Wood Spoon Kitchen and more, Smith Street, Collingwood is slowly turning into an Asian food haven, with a strong focus on Japanese cuisine. Woohoo! One night after some ramen, friends and I decided we needed dessert, and sake. (Essential.) We walked past the freshly minted Pabu Grill & Sake (190 Smith Street, Collingwood) and decided to give it a shot. We sat at the front communal table and were given very attentive service by the host. I was particularly keen to sample the sake flight and one of my favourite all-time desserts, mochi. (See my previous rave about them here .) The green tea ones were okay, but the plain and melon flavoured ones were delicious. A selection of MOCHI !!! Pabu (Japanese for 'pub') pitches itself as a modern Izakaya, or Japanese tapas bar - that is, a casual establishment where the foo...

A few weeks ago, Melbourne was abuzz with talk of MONA Hobart 's major winter event, DARK MOFO . Sadly it is over now, but I hazard a guess that a good 50% of attendees were Victorian, being such avid lovers of culture and all. (CLEARLY arts and culture don't exist anywhere else in Australia. We're so CULTURIST.) Part of MOFO's publicity drive was a rather exciting competition  with QANTAS , offering $100,000 worth of free return flights to Hobart for the exhibition. All you had to do was enter your details and divulge what you were like after dark. Since "I am your worst nightmare" (ahem), it made total sense that I was a lucky recipient of flights. Housemate was happily rung in for Hobart-ing, and interstate trip was born. Can I just say, I totally understand the appeal of red-eye flights when you are buying your own, or want to have more time in your destination, or are doing a fly-in-fly-out day trip, or are an early riser (weirdo), but I never, EVER c...