Perth Eats: Jus Burger and Phong Vinh, Northbridge

We were in Perth in September, he, for work and I went along for the ride to visit my friends. Staying in a city is not much fun when you don't have any recommendations for food, or you're just like me, a bit picky on the menu and prices.

So we walked all the way to Northbridge, since it promised more dinner options. We walked past Jamie Oliver's Italian which was packed to the brim, not including the queue outside. (But why??)

 

We ambled on and on the first night, we settled for Jus Burger. *makes a grimace* It wasn't our first choice but we were hungry and it was almost 9pm.

Jus Burger

189 William Street

Northbridge

WA 6003

Links: Website | Urbanspoon

I was shocked by the presentation. My mum would have freaked out, too!

YB ordered the Wagyu burger set.

And this is my half!

I initially ordered the chickpea or pumpkin or tempeh burger but they ran out of tempeh that night, so I resigned myself to the Mozzarella Chicken burger.

I never knew how traditional old-fashioned I was until I saw the presentation of the burgers. *roll eyes* My parents and elders always told me not to poke anything (e.g. chopsticks) upright into your food (e.g. bowl of rice) as it's equivalent to serving the food to the dead at the altar. Similar to joss sticks?

Presentation aside, my burger was salty, probably from the pesto and mozzarella or an over-marinated chicken patty, who knows. 

The Wagyu burger was so-so, nothing mouthwatering-to-die-for unforgetable. We enjoyed the fries and coleslaw, that was it.

I think our experience at V Burger was much better.

Verdict: I'm sure there are better burger places to go to in Perth.

Two Weekends Of Fun

As I write this, all I want to do is honestly crawl back into bed and wake up only when I'm good and ready.

*bleary-eyed*

At the Melbourne Airport.
Not great at all.

We flew into Perth for the weekend and hung out with my good friends. It was great to catch up again, despite the constant food binge and reminiscence of the past, and lack of running mileage.

We even managed to squeeze in a run on Sunday morning!

Beef balls vermicelli soup for dinner.

The weather was wet and at times sunny, but still a tad bit warmer than Melbourne's crazy weather.

So happened that it was YB's birthday (thereabouts) and we had a wild berry cheesecake from The Cheesecake Shop. Interestingly, we tasted some dessicated coconut in the biscuit base and found the cream cheese and topping a bit too sweet. Too generous with the sugar/syrup, I suppose?

Miya having a giggle with Uncle YB. In the morning, she
asked Uncle YB (with a big manja smile) to share his pancakes
with her.

The bubbly and playful children of our host couldn't leave Uncle YB alone that birthday morning, sandwiching him whilst he had his pancakes for breakfast. If you're in need of a manny, you can count on him. I think. :D

Aunty Yvonne didn't do too bad either, though I think I'm clueless about playing with boys. :)

Spent the weekdays wandering around Perth's CBD and snagged myself a few clothes on sale (AUD$21.00 for 3 items is not too shabby). Except that they're more appropriate for summer. :D

I was tired most of the time. I needed proper rest and food, and some runs. I've never felt so ill-prepared for a run/race before, so forgive me for the lack of excitement.

The 250ml can is just so cute!!!

 

We're driving up to Anglesea (Great Ocean Road) this evening for our Surfcoast Century briefing for tomorrow's run. Packing is such a pain in the butt, and there's no way you can travel light, especially when you're bringing your own bedsheets and pillows and towels and food ... and not forgetting your running gear, including the mandatory items.

First aid kit, thermal top and windproof jacket are compulsory and goodness knows how I'm going to squeeze everything into my small bag. 

Being part of my first 100KM event should be fun and exciting. It's a shame that they don't have a 50KM duo category which YB and I would have signed up for. Only team relays or solo running for the 100KM are available. I will be running Leg 4 for my team, and who knows, I could be running in the evening. We are hoping that we will be able to run together during this leg (as YB is running Leg 3 and 4 for his team) but at this point, we are rather doubtful of our chances. Let's just see how it goes.

Weather forecast says it's rainy tomorrow.

Oh crap.

Caversham Wildlife Park, Perth

OMG! I still have some pictures of my trip to Perth in May 2012! Oops!

I love wildlife parks so much more better than zoos. The reason being, the animals are free to roam and you are given an opportunity to interact with them. Well, if you want to. :)

If you rent a car in Australia, you will have a better opportunity to visit places out of the cities (Melbourne, Perth, etc) and there are so many places you can visit even just for a day trip.

Caversham Wildlife Park is about an hour from Perth. Or an hour and a half, I don't remember.

Kookaburra looking handsome and all.

Bear paw prints to follow.

We arrived at about lunch time and thankfully it wasn't too warm or chilly. There were plenty of school kids around, probably on a field trip from school.

With plenty of birds to look at (I'm not fond of birds), the owls were amazing. There were various species to view. This one is known as the barn owl, if I'm not wrong.

Their black spots reminded me of poppy seeds on a bagel or bread. O.O

This white kangaroo is so fuzzy! I couldn't help but to think it was Roger Rabbit, with its bushy eyebrows.

Little Caesars, Hilarys

Gosh, enough about running stuff eh.

I don't want my non-running friends to grimace with boredom and slowly stop reading my blog so here you go, a holiday post!

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Saturday, 12th May 2012 - Perth.

Just the day before we left, we took a road trip with both VK and Ken's families. We spent the day in Fremantle before driving up to Hilarys for tea.

I'm not sure how we ended up there but Nija was insisted we go to Hilarys and enjoy tea on her behalf!

So off we went, with Ken at the wheel. I think it was a pretty long drive from Fremantle and I had a hard time staying awake in the back seat. (I tend to doze off during long car journeys, anyway.)

Due to recommendations, we chose Little Caesars for their dessert pizzas.

The ordering was left to both of us.

You can check out their menu online here.

While waiting for the food to arrive. ;D

We ordered the Caremello Sam.

Custard, brown sugar, bananas, macadamias, almonds, caramel sauce, icing sugar.

The other one was Mudhoney.

Chocolate mud cake, honey, chocolate sauce, white, milk and dark chocolate buttons, icing sugar.

Sinful, eh.
I loved the chocolatey goodness. Yummeh.

Men are generally not into sweets but hey, we drove all the way there for it so they'd better enjoy it!

We thought we would need to pack some home for the wives, but somehow or rather, we managed to devour both the pizzas.

We decided to walk off our heavy tea before making the journey back home.

(Hilarys is a northern coastal suburb of Perth, overlooking the Indian Ocean.)

The 3 men in black.

The sun and the sand.

And the blue blue skies!


OK, who wants to make dessert pizzas right now?

~*~*~*~

My earlier Perth posts:

V Burger - East Vic Park
Easy Run Along Swan River
Monday in Perth

Monday in Perth

Monday, 7th May 2012 - Perth

The day before (Sunday) began with a 15km run along the Swan River, followed by a lovely steamboat lunch with the mates at home. Tea was spent up at King's Park with an old schoolmate.

We were left to our own devices on Monday so we decided to check out the town.

Of course, we didn't realise that there wasn't much to do in town. Shopping was out of the question because after converting into Malaysian Ringgit, no way was I willing to part with my money!

A poster outside a pub.

We walked in a take away shop (I think it's called Saigon something) and was amazed by the variety of Chinese / Asian food!

Seriously!

We bought some food for lunch and decided to head towards the Swan River for a nice bench to sit and enjoy our lunch.

Really, don't these people need to work?

Lucky people, enjoying nature during the day!

You don't expect to see us out on the streets in KL enjoying the day, do you?

Lunch was a chicken schnitzel sandwich and avocado + char siew spring roll. Both were sadly disappointing.

YB enjoyed his Coke Zero, which he has been missing since he returned from London for good a few years ago.

Seagulls everywhere.

A plague outside the town hall.

Clearly a coffee drinker's mantra!

 

 Oooh, I told myself I was going to check out this shop before I leave Perth!

Easy Run Along Swan River

Sunday, May 6th, 2012 - Perth

My friend has always wanted some company during his runs, so what else could we do but gladly offer ourselves as running buddies? =)

Yeah, it was crazy to have gone for a run on our 2nd day of our holidays but what the heck,we brought our gear, so might as well use them!

We drove to Burswood Park and for our 15km run.

The view at 7am!

Burswood Golf Course.

We spotted a jellyfish in the river!

A part of the path was flooded due to the swollen river - I think it must have rained a bit the night before. Hmmm, I think it did.

We (I meant YB and I), were excited to see pelicans!

But we didn't have our zoom lens with us. I tried getting close to them for a better shot but they waddled off into the water.

Abandoned coal mill, perhaps?

So, we are at ... er ... don't know!

Can't you just see wedding photo shoots happening right here?

My buddies for the day.

A bridge walkway towards the residential homes.

A kayak so early in the morning.

Spot the kayak.

Closer to the city.

I look like a mini version of Aunt Fanny from Robots. 

I had my jacket tied around my waist, in case of rain!

What a name!

It was a past 8am and only on this side were the skies still blue. 

On the other side, it was grey and gloomy, threatening to rain.

It suddenly poured and I struggled to get my jacket on before I continued to run. But after 5-10 minutes of running with my jacket on, the rain stopped.

And it got too warm so I had to take it off again. =S

Perth's weather is funny like that.

A rainbow after the heavy 5 minute downpour.

Are we there yet?

That was our running route.

My feet were sore after a while, no thanks to running in my trail shoes. I had to run on the grass to soften the impact. I was desperate to reach the end of our run already!

It was a little past 9am when we finally stopped.

Was so excited to see a duckling of a swan! So cute!

(you can't see it here but yeah, it was cute!)

Bagai pinang dibelah dua ... tu pinang kat belakang tu.

Spotted a creepy looking statue, as if his eyes were gorged out.

Probably a memorial or some kind. 

I didn't read the info on this.

I was starving already and couldn't wait to get back to change out of my icky running clothes!

2 hours for a leisure 15km run - our friend must have been bored to tears. YB brought his DSLR, you see, so he took the chance to make it a photo + run thing. I just used my iPhone.

Awesome climate to run in!

The climate in Malaysia is just humid and hot. Boo!