City Living

The novelty of living in an apartment in the city does tend to wear off. We don't have the comfort of our own furniture or belongings. We have a two bedroom unit, with one open plan living area which incorporates the kitchen, dining and living areas. We have a view of the city and the Yarra River being 9 floors up, but as we are above one of the main streets, we get a lot of noise from traffic and trams. Our neighbour is the Crown Casino which is open 24/7. But, we do have a lot of convenience. Around a 5 minute walk and we're at Southbank where there are some shops like Mary Martin Bookshop, some fashion boutiques, Made in Japan and a Magic shop. There is a doctor, dentist and pharmacy here also. Three levels of retail provide enough to wander around and see. We are very close to South Melbourne Markets and a tram ride to the Queen Victoria Markets. I have sampled much fresh produce and the variety is amazing. Restaurants of different genres and pricing are at Southbank and nearby at the Casino complex. There are a few food courts for the cheap takeaway if required but also Nobu - Japanese Fusion, The Rockpool - Aged Beef and Seafood, Arnoldo & Sons - Italian provincial all at the Casino and priced accordingly .. over the top. At Southbank there are some more reasonably priced restaurants.

One of my favourites is YAR - a Korean & Japanese restaurant overlooking the Yarra. I love their soft-shelled crab rolls, yum! and sushi and sashimi is always fantastic. They do Korean hot rock bowl called Dol sot Bim Bap where you have a raw egg on top, mix it in and by the time it's finished, the egg is cooked through the meal.

One of our regular haunts is a place directly under our apartment. There is a steamboat/hotpot restaurant. A gas cooker on the table with an aluminium steamboat with two parts is bought to the table and heated up. One part has hot chilli and sichuan herbs, oils and goodness knows what in it and the other is just a mild chicken stock. Up you go to the buffet and grab whatever you fancy. Don't ask what it is ... if you don't want to know .. it's all very authentic Chinese cuisine. Then you take the raw items to the table and put them into the boiling stock, dip them in sauce if you want and eat your dinner. The people working there are lovely and work so hard. Some have limited English but everyone tries really hard and you sometimes feel as if you are in a little local restaurant in China somewhere. Most nights there are only maybe 1 or 2 groups of non-Chinese people in the restaurant. They turn over about 300 head of customers per night and there is never an argument or a disgruntled customer.