Malaysian Festival, 2012

Asia is the WORLD'S LARGEST CONTINENT, yet I have only been grateful enough to visit Vietnam on several occasions, and a stopover at Taipei on our trip to America. There are so many things in this world that I am yet to discover, to see, to breathe, to eat... I can only dream and suffer from wanderlust. Today my dream came true at the Malaysian Festival, held at the Queen Victoria Market. Thank you C and N for letting me know of the event, or else I would have spent my Sunday at home, doing nothing. 

The festival consisted of two long rows of back to back FOOD AND BEVERAGES, it was Asian heaven for me. There was the popular Korean potato stick stand, a coconut and lemonade stand, a Chilli Padi stand and various other small businesses. The satay skewers stand had the longest line throughout the day, with people waiting for hoursssssss to see what the fuss was about. I drove into the city (silly me), and it was horrendous trying to find parking at QVM. It was worth the travel, because I had such a marvellous time. The weather was hot like a sunrise, and it felt as though my face was about to burn off. Everyone was in such a pleasant mood, a sight I was happy to see. This was my first time at a Malaysian Festival, and it only made me want to visit the beautiful country even more.

Welcome to Festival Malaysia:

^ Amazing artists. 

They sang "Someone Like You" by Adele with a reggae spin to it. Eargasm!

^ The satay skewer owners/workers working hard. 

Chris and Nhat were waiting in this line for what seemed like hours. This was the first of our eating adventures of the day, and it was well worth the wait. The poor girl who took our order at 2pm said she had been working since 9am and hadn't been on her break or gotten a chance to even eat! Hope the day was worth it for her :)

$10 for a set of 10 halal satay skewers. 

It came with a semi-chili dipping sauce, cucumber and rice cakes

Beef > Chicken

^ loco for coconuts. $6 each.

If you took it back to the place where we bought them, the owners would chop the top off so you can eat the coconut inside :) summer is coming!!!

^ BABY OCTOPUS, three skewers for $15 

There were five octopi? Octopus? (Is there a plural for Octopus?) on a stick, but I only managed to eat three. I usually love seafood, but they prepared it in a way that was too strong for me. The carrots were a good way to reduce the smell and taste. It's pretty obviously that I love seafood! There was even a MUSSEL VAN that had the roof that was the shape of a MUSSEL. It was a pretty big bowl for $10. I had some last night at my sister's house, so I didn't really want to eat it. Another stall had squid or octopus fish balls for $5 a stick, but considering I had so much food in my stomach already, I had to pass. If the festival went into the night time, I would have eaten it for dinner for sure!!! Unfortunately it was 9am-4pm, today only :(

^ KOREAN POTATO STICKS - $5 each

We ordered a chicken salt, plain salt and pepper stick. I could feel my arteries clogging up with every bite I took. It's pretty much a potato, thinly sliced, fried with seasoning salt on top. It's very popular with the tourists at the Suzuki Night Market.

Potato sticks and TEA IN A BAG.

YES. IN. A. BAG.

Teh Peng (iced milk tea in a bag) $3.50 each

ICE KACANG was pretty much a bowl of ice with three syrups on it for $5 each

I didn't get the kacang but a lot of people seemed to order it.

^ So many OH&S breaches with this stand (Chilli Padi) but it had an authentic street hawker food feel to it. The lady poured our tea from a plastic box to a bag and I felt like I was in Vietnam all over again. In VN they sell sugar cane drinks in a big bags for less than a dollar. God bless the Asians. I wish I was an event planner. My first major action would be to organise a permanent night market for entrepreneurs in the food / fashion / design / music department.
Melbourne can be so boring sometimes, I do not know how we were voted the most liveable city...

^ Three milk tea bags and three bags of PANDAN CHIFFON CAKE

^ Pandan Chiffon Cake we bought as they were closing up.

It was $2 down to $1 so we bought two, and they guy gave me one for freeeeeeee :)

thank you kind stranger.

^ Last but not least, dessert. THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM FOR DESSERT.

Dutch pancakes, Poffertjes. $9 with jam and ice-cream.

The tram stop is always at Vic Market every weekend. It was just a bonus that it was at the Malaysian Festival because we were running around looking for dessert that didn't consist of jelly or jelly cake or jelly drink... We were about to order two plates for the three of us, but luckily we didn't because we could barely finish this one!

 ^ Great turn out. Great company. Great weather. Great food.