A very tasty dinner for $9.90

Melbourne's Chinatown. Dining solo. Looking for cheap and cheerful. So many choices. 

Fortunately, I choose right tonight, discovering the Rice Workshops chain. 

It's basic in the extreme. You stand in a queue to make your order, move along the line to pay, then seek a vacant stool at which to eat. 

I order a spicy chicken karaage; crunchy lightly battered chicken pieces served in a big bowl with spicy mayo, steamed rice, salad and crisp pickled vegetables. 

The large portion is hearty, the chicken crisp on the outside, moist inside and mayo tangy and moorish. 

A soft drink costs $2.60, Japanese beer a little more. You help yourself to plastic forks and spoons, chopsticks, various sauces and chilled water. 

Should you still have room for dessert, some green tea soft serve costs $2 or is free if you can show a student card. 

My dish was surprisingly good; better than at a number of far more expensive eateries. 

Other rice, curry and udon noodles options include kimchi beef, chicken katsi curry, and tempura prawn udon, all available for under a tenner. 

Any snack (think spring rolls, pork gyoza or a spicy squid skewer) is $2.50 or $3.90 with a can of soft drink. 

So tasty Japanese-accented food, fast service and a studenty ambience. Who'd have thunk it from a chain with a dozen or more outlets. 

Check out the Chinatown outlet. I was impressed. Hopefully you will be, too. 

Rice Workshop, 238 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000. 

Boom! Don't go blundering about in the Vietnamese countryside

Vietnam is a superb holiday destination. Hanoi, Halong Bay, Nha Trang, Hoi An and Ho Chi Minh City are all magnets for vacationers. The weather is great, the food is fabulous and prices affordable. 

One thing visitors should not do, however, is blunder into rough terrain, particular in the central regions of the country. 

It is estimated the 800,000 tonnes of unexploded ordinance was left around the country at the conclusion of the Vietnam/American War. 

More than six million hectares of the land is the country in mine and bomb polluted - accounting for 18.82% of Vietnam's total area, the Vietnam News reported. 

An astonishing 100,000 people have been killed and injured since the war ended, as a result of UXO explosions, many in the former DMZ, and particularly around Quang Tri. 

The US Army used more than 13.5 million tonnes of explosives during its failed war campaign and around 5% of it remains unexploded today. So be sure to look out when tramping about.  

A glimpse at Le Weekend, when a Tasmanian village turns French

It's Le Weekend, when the southern Tasmanian village of Cygnet celebrates all things French over two days of food and fun, art and exhibitions. 

Pop on down - you'll be made welcome. All the details are at: https://cygnet.org.au/le-weekend/ 

How to save a motza at one of New Zealand's best luxury lodges

Nowhere does luxury lodges better than New Zealand - and one of the best is Matakauri Lodge, tucked away overlooking Lake Wakatipu just outside Queenstown. 

If you move quickly, you might get quite a bargain as Matakauri Lodge has just launched a Stay Four, Pay Three offer, valid from May 1 to September 30, 2017.

 

The special offer (subject to availability) allows more time to take in the beauty of this remarkable part of the New Zealand’s South Island and to enjoy more activities, as guests stay for four nights, yet only pay for three. 

 

The new deal allows guests the chance of a day trip to experience Arrowtown’s vivid autumn colours, Queenstown’s bustling town centre or perhaps a winter getaway to enjoy the extended ski season. 

Matakauri Lodge’s offer is available in all room/suite categories at the published seasonal rates and the Stay Four, Pay Three Offer includes: accommodation (room type) of guest’s choice; pre-dinner drinks, canapes, and gourmet dinner each evening, full Breakfast each morning, complimentary non-alcoholic mini-bar and use of all lodge facilities (excluding spa treatments). 

Matakauri Lodge, Queenstown, New Zealand. +64 3 441 1008. 

reservations@matakaurilodge.com. www.matakaurilodge.com

The grand old dame of Hanoi; somewhere seriously special to stay

Truly great hotels have something special that sets them apart. 

It's not the fine wine and food; the luxurious bedrooms and bathrooms or top-notch staff; that is all taken for granted when you are laying out the serious bucks. 

The X Factor is more a sense of innate style that draws guests in; somehow suggesting that this is "THE" place to be. 

That is certainly the case with the Sofitel Legend Hotel Metropole in Hanoi, Vietnam, which is effortlessly elegant and sumptuously furnished without being off-puttingly decadent. 

The hotel, just across the road from the Hanoi Opera House in the old quarter, dates back to 1901 and has old and new quarters, both blessed with Sofitel's signature French-accented ambience. 

It is the hotel that Hanoi, arguably the most beautiful of the colonial Indochinese cities, deserves and has hosted great names in the arts and politics, ranging from Mick Jagger and Charlie Chaplin to Joan Baez and Jane Fonda along with presidents Bill Clinton and Francois Hollande. Also our own Paul Keating, Phillip Noyce and Luke Nguyen.  

There are 364 rooms in all, with 106 and three suites in the old Metropole wing and 236 in the more modern Opera wing, including 12 premium patio rooms and 18 suites. 

There is a spa that is promoted as the leading luxury fitness centre in Vietnam, executive floors and revamped Club Lounge, as well as nine meeting rooms and a business centre. 

Dining options range from the classic French cuisine of Le Baillieu, Vietnamese-accented Spices Garden and Angelina, an Italian-styled restaurant and lounge that enticed me in for a couple of late-night cocktails along with some pate and toast. Very chic.

There are several bars; and should you need a transfer, the hotel has a fleet of chauffeured BMW limousines at your disposal. 

The rooms are as you'd expect; super comfortable beds, timber floors, free broadband internet, LCD TVs and DVD players. And there are some delightful in-room gourmet goodies. 

The Metropole is an elegant grande dame that has collected swags of awards over the years; from being on the Conde Nast Traveler Gold List of the best places to stay in the world in 2017.  

Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, 15 Ngo Quyen Street, Hoan Kiem District, 10000, Hanoi. +84 4 3826 6919.  www.sofitel-legend-metropole-hanoi.com/

# The writer was a guest of Vietnam Airlines, which flies direct between Sydney and Hanoi. www.vietnamairlines.com 

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New festival celebrates a great Australian culinary icon - the dinky-di pie

A new culinary festival has been launched to celebrate an Australian food icon - the pie. 

The South Highlands in New South Wales will celebrate gourmet pies in all their guises with the inaugural Pie Time festival throughout June. 

The region claims to be home to "Australia’s best pies" and the new festival will feature a series of mouth-watering pie-themed events.

 

“We all know Australians just love a local pie," says Steve Rosa, manager for Tourism and Events at Destination Southern Highlands. 

"The Southern Highlands has a large saturation of quality pie producers with everything from your top-notch gourmet pies, to family winter warmers and deliciously sweet dessert pies. 

“What better way to demonstrate some pie parochialism than with a pie festival, pie trail, pie competition and related pie events featuring over 30 local pie sites including bakeries, cafes, restaurants, hotels and associated businesses in the Southern Highlands." 

At last a festival that everyone can afford to enjoy rather than those featuring Michelin-starred chefs flow in from around the globe at great expense. 

The Pie Time Festival, to be held June 24-25 in Bowral's Corbett Gardens will feature pie tasting, beer and pie matching, cooking demonstrations, pie eating competitions, music and more. 

The Best Pie Competition – a pie competition for professional and apprentice bakers plus a local community entry category with people’s choice awards will be held June 22-23 at the same venue, while the Pie Trail will allow visitors to tour bakeries and sample locally made pies from over 30 local pie outlets. 

Dine with a Pie will see gourmets sample the region’s signature pies at hotels, cafes and restaurants available only for the month of June. 

“Pies can be enjoyed at all of the Southern Highlands’ key attractions and spectacular locations," Rosa said. "It really will be the destination to experience, enjoy and worship the great Australian pastime of eating the great Australian pie.” 

For more information on Pie Time visit www.pietime.com.au. To book a stay in the Southern Highlands for Pie Time 2017, visit www.southern-highlands.com.au or call 1300 657 559.