I’d been shopping and enjoying the vibes of Victoria Street for some time before I found it.  That sounds silly because now I know where it is,  I can’t understand how I missed it.  But I did.   There’s an empty lot next door so perhaps that helps to hide it from view.

Visiting Minh Phat is fun and stimulating.  There are things like dried and preserved Persimmon,  jars of Korean Kim Chi and lotus seeds, fried and preserved parsnip.   There is a whole isle of teas.  Packets of teas and teas you can buy by the scoop – dried flowers, tiny rose buds and chrysanthemum.

Fresh vegetables too.   Everything you would expect in a green grocery section and then there are things you wouldn’t expect – bunches of Chives in flower and garlic shoots.

It is impossible to know what some of the things are as there is not a word of English on the packaging.   It is a bit like a game of chance.  Try to work out what it is, buy it and find out if you were right when you get it home.

You can buy cooking utensils and crockery.

I have experimented, successfully, with a Thai Dessert – rather like an instant pudding but more delicious and everything is written in English – Thai Tapioca Pearl and Black Bean in Coconut Milk.  Classy and the flavours grow on you and you need to go back for more.

Minh Phat Supermarket, 178 -180 Victoria Street, or alternatively 2 – 8 Nicholson Street, Richmond.  It is just around the corner from Victoria Street, next to a vacant lot.

Getting there:

The 109 Tram from Port Melbourne goes along Collins Street – through the CBD and then along Victoria Street in Richmond.
The 78 Tram runs the full length of Chapel Street from St Kilda East, through Prahran into Church Street and terminates at the corner of Church Street and Victoria Street, Richmond. This is a great tram if you live along the route.

There’s one hour meter parking in Victoria Street.

Related posts:

1. Asia on Victoria Street in Richmond
2. Asian ambience and bargains for the stay-at-home traveller
3. The best place to buy a fresh (that is dead) duck in Melbourne

I like the name.  It suggests coffee food and a chat about books we’ve read or want to read.  Booktalk has shelves of new and pre-loved books.   The mixture of new and used is interesting.

A notice tells you that you can’t take new books to the cafe tables.  You can browse these at the shelves and people do.

Another notice tells you that you can bring in your own books to exchange and if you buy a book and return it, you get 50% off the purchase price.  A lot of information but it does clue you into what it’s all about.

If you drift in by yourself there’s plenty to read with your coffee.  Besides the books they have the daily papers and great selection of magazines.

The atmosphere is relaxed and slightly bohemian.   The tables are busy and used by people in heated discussion, people studying, people writing and people chilling out and just people.  They are always being used this has to have something to do with the quality of the food and coffee.

New and used children’s books are are available for browsing.

The food is good, well priced and healthy.  Their Thai chicken salad $9.50 was delicious and a recent special of the day beef lasagne for $9.50 was a nourishing and tasty meal.

Thai chicken salad

The bacon and mushroom roti, that I would recommend, is $9.80. There are vegetarian dishes as well.   I understand the breakfasts are great but I haven’t tried them yet. There are also Vegetarian meals and a Veggie Breakfast. Apple Crumble with a Muesli crumble.

Mushroom and chicken roti

To keep the literary theme many chairs are labelled with a writer’s name.  I would like to choose my chair to match my mood; a heavy weight like Charles Dickens on grey overcast day when I’m feeling thoughtful and introspective or, Dick Francis if I’m in a light frivolous mood.  This has never been possible as the place is too popular to leave many chairs available.

Agatha Christie

Dick Francis

An inviting and comfortable couch at the back.

Swan Street, has some factory outlets and check out Dimmeys  at 140 Swan Street – the lovely old building with the clock tower – you can find some great bargains there if you hit it right.  Bargains come and go quickly.

The Booktalk Cafe, 91 Swan Street, Richmond. Phone 9428 1977

Opening Hours

8.00 to 5.30 every weekday

8.30 to 5.30 Saturday and Sunday

Getting there:

Tram 70 from  Flinders Street.  You need to catch it in Flinders Street not outside the Flinders Station

Tram 78  runs from St Kilda East along Chapel Street and Church Street to the corner of Swan and Church Streets

Parking in Swan Street is metered but there is usually free one hour parking in the side streets.

Related posts:

1. Red Star Cafe right opposite The South Melbourne Market, Clarendon Street
2. Gas Eateries and Supply Cafe – South Melbourne
3. Railway antiques, restored furniture, coffee and cakes at the Albert Park Station.

In Victoria Street, Richmond the Two Dollar Bargain and Gift Shops are different.

They can look the same outside. A collection of brooms and door mats and so on parked on the pavement but inside they are a treasure trove.  You step into another world.  I sometimes go to Richmond just to browse through them.  It’s an outing all on its own.  I wander over there just to gaze, buy a few things  and to  remind myself of exciting and happy visits to Hong Kong and  Ho Chi Minh City.

This area is unique in Melbourne and if you were whisked there from outer space you could be forgiven for thinking that you had arrived in Hong Kong, or Ho Chi Minh City.

There would be a moment of disorientation. Only a moment – it is quiet on Victoria Street compared with either of those vibrant cities but the ambiance is the same.    The Bargain Shops say it all.  There is much to experience.

One of my favourite purchases is this tea pot and mug bought from different shops at a total cost of Just over $18.00.  A good bargain.

The tea pot has a strainer inside – the first time I have seen that. I like leaf tea and I can make a pot of tea when I wake up and then drink it as I get ready for work without it stewing and getting that bitter taste that stewed tea can get when the leaves sit in it too long.

It’s my favourite pot for green tea too but I drink that from this lovely yellow chrysanthemum mug.

I keep looking for a tea pot to match the mug.  No luck so far.  If you see one let me know.

I haven’t bought a lucky tree yet but I fancy one for the front porch especially at Chinese New Year.

Voices in my head tell me if I bought one of these colourful trees it may bring me luck.   The same voice tells me that if I bought a lucky a cat with his paw up and waving my fortunes would improve. A more prosaic voice tells me we make our own luck.  But there is no harm in giving luck a helping hand.   Luck overflows in the Bargain Shops along Victoria Street Richmond.  And I am going to buy a lucky tree next Chinese New Year.

Remember to let me know if you see a beautiful chrysanthemum mug – perhaps there is another place in Melbourne I could try.

Getting There:.– Victoria Street Richmond
The 109 Tram from Port Melbourne goes along Collins Street – through the CBD and then along Victoria Street in Richmond.
The 78 Tram runs the full length of Chapel Street from the St Kilda East, through Prahran into Church Street and terminates at the corner of Church Street and Victoria Street, Richmond. This is a great tram if you live along the route.

There’s one hour meter parking in Victoria Street.

Related posts:

1. Have fun at the Minh Phat Asian Supermarket, Richmond -
2. Asia on Victoria Street in Richmond
3. The best place to buy a fresh (that is dead) duck in Melbourne

The only ducks available in my local stamping ground were frozen solid.   Now you can thaw them in the microwave but this, in my experience, doesn’t improve the end result – it ruins the skin for one thing.    I declined the frozen ducks even though one of the shopkeepers informed me that there were no fresh ducks available so I would have to have frozen.  I knew he was wrong. I know a place in Melbourne where fresh ducks are always available.

At 9 o’clock on Saturday morning  I headed off to Victoria Street, Richmond.

Victoria Street was waking up.  Most places don’t open until about 10 o’clock but the butchers were out for the early trade and the fresh ducks were in the display cases.

You know these ducks haven’t been frozen, their necks flop and their heads are still attached to them but the feet have gone.  I guess they are sold separately.  The ducks are cheaper too than the ones I would have bought frozen in my suburb.

This is my favourite place to buy ducks

You are shown the duck here for your approval.  I approve at once.  They look much the same to me and I get the head removed, immediately;  I don’t like to look at the yellow beak and the eyes.   I also get some of the excess fat taken off from the tail area – less fat during the cooking process.

Peking Duck is so easy to make at home and tastes so much better that it does as an entrée at the local Chinese eatery.

In Victoria Street, I found recently pulled spring onions and cucumbers and the best hoisin sauce.  The brand we like is ‘Lee Kum Kee’.  This is the preferred brand in Richmond – you can buy it everywhere on Victoria Street including the Minh Phat Supermarket where you can also buy the wrappers if you don’t want the bother of making them yourself.

If you decide to make Peking Duck at home you need the ducks to roast slowly on a rack over the baking dish so the fat can drip down.   It’s an easy dish to make – sit around the table with plates of duck meat, crisp duck skin, cucumbers, spring onions, wrappers and hoisin sauce in the middle – everyone helps themselves. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly and talk flows.

Getting there; – Victoria Street Richmond

The 109 Tram from Port Melbourne goes along Collins Street – through the CBD and then along Victoria Street in Richmond.

The 78 Tram runs the full length of Chapel Street from the St Kilda East, through Prahran into Church Street and terminates at the corner of Church Street and Victoria Street, Richmond. This is a great tram if you live along the route.

There’s one hour meter parking in Victoria Street.

Related posts:

1. Asia on Victoria Street in Richmond
2. Have fun at the Minh Phat Asian Supermarket, Richmond -
3. Asian ambience and bargains for the stay-at-home traveller

Take the 109 Tram and head to Victoria Street in Richmond. The moment you cross Hoddle Street the atmosphere changes. You are entering a different world.

Many people call this area little Saigon.  I’ve been to Saigon but it’s not Saigon to me.   To me it is Asia – crowds, shops packed with merchandise, no interesting window displays,  the inside chaotic, pavements congested with people and market style stalls.   On a busy Saturday at lunch time there is a high noise level, cafes bulging with eaters and everyone talking, trams rattling by and cars everywhere.  Noise! Just like Asia.

Have a look at ‘Tatsing Food Store’, 250 Victoria Street and smell inside –it has  one of the smells of Asia.  Dried fish?  It is hard to know.

The vegetables are as fresh as any you would get anywhere and I like the way they are grouped in colours.

If you get off the tram at the Church Street corner you can wander back towards the city while you browse, window shop, crowd-watch and grab a bowl of Pho ( rice noodle soup with beef and chicken).  It is said to be the best in Melbourne along this street.  Try Banh Cuon Thanh Ha at 172 Victoria Street. It specializes in Vietnamese Hawker Foods’.

It is also said that while Bill Clinton was in Melbourne he had two bowls of Pho in the CBD.  Time restraints I guess, otherwise he would have headed for Victoria Street, Richmond.   Perhaps he had a home delivery to his hotel suite.

This lady is always there.  I wonder if she grows the vegetables she sells.

Asia is about food and there is an enormous variety of fresh fish on Victoria Street.

Latish on Saturday morning is a good time to go if you want the full sensation of a crowded downtown Asian Street. The crowd is very mixed and everyone is shopping for food.  I shop there for ducks and the ingredients for Peking Duck.  It is the only place I know to buy the wrappers.

The best way to get there is by tram.  The 109 Tram from Port Melbourne goes along Collins Street – through the CBD.

If you drive parking can be stressful with only 1 hour parking along the Victoria Street – that is if you can find a park. Weekdays are quieter.

Related posts:

1. Cafe Saigon, Victoria Avenue, Albert Park
2. Have fun at the Minh Phat Asian Supermarket, Richmond -
3. Asian ambience and bargains for the stay-at-home traveller