Genghis Khan had one of the most extraordinary lives recorded in history and left behind a great legacy – founder of the largest empire, promoting trade and knowledge sharing throughout Eurasia, bringing the Silk Road under one political environment, Mongolian BBQ.

I wonder if the Khan is turning over in his unmarked grave somewhere at the thought of his name being used to promote an all-you-can-eat joint for a lunch time special of $12.50?

What did we eat?

Not really sure on this one actually…I know the restaurant says Mongolian BBQ, but I think we just consumed a whole bunch of stir-fried vegetables and something that looked like meat covered in saucy water.

What I liked:

I did like the novelty factor of being able to customise your own sauces and watching someone cook it on a big ass hot plate thingy. 

Also, the waiter was this Asian dude who was stuck in his hippy days with a long pony tail and a nice smile.

What I didn’t like:

While their lunch and dinner menu are exactly the same, the prices are different. Lunch is $12.50, dinner is $19.50. Why? Why Khan Why?

Also can’t say much for the food, drinks, atmosphere, hygiene…all the things that you generally expect from a non-dumpling restaurant.

Top tip:

Go at lunch time.

Also in the section where you get rice, in one of the far right trays (far from the steamed rice and often covered), they actually have fried rice. Go the fried rice.

Rating: 

3/10. Scores points for the dude with the red hair who cooks on the hot plate using huge ass chopsticks and washes the hot plate with a huge ass broom. Not for the faint hearted.

A few Fridays ago, KTang, JenHo and myself woke up at some stupid hour (3am?) to volunteer at the Melbourne Oxfam Trailwalker. The upside of all this, was finishing at 11am and being able to go eating (and…shopping…) around the East side of Melbourne.

So we told JenHo to put her machete away as we went around Glen Waverley for lunch. We settled on ABC Cafe. Now, for me, there is nothing than homemade food and Malaysian hawker-style food. ABC Cafe looks nothing like a hawker centre (“Fish, Chips, Noodles & Things”) but we thought it was a good place to start schooling JenHo on hawker-style food (which we failed – see her choice of food below).

What did we eat?

• KTang: Curry Laksa



• WiFi: Har Mee (Prawn Noodles)



• JenHo: Teriyaki Chicken on Rice…it’s like asking for pasta in a Japanese restaurant…but it was on the menu…

What I liked:

1. It’s like 200% cleaner than a real hawker centre.
2. The food was actually spicy enough – there is nothing worse than weak flavoured food

What I didn’t like:

1. “There was too much coconut milk in this laksa” -KTang
2. The prawns in my noodles. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t like prawns which bounce if you were to throw them at someone or on the floor.

Top Tip:
Watch out for the opening hours and they take cash only.
Mon: Closed
Tues – Sat: 11am – 3pm
Tues – Wed: 5pm – 7pm
Thurs – Sat: 5.30pm – 8.30pm
Sun: 11am – 2.30pm

Rating: 6.5/10 They weren’t in form on the day. They have been better previously and could easily gain another point.

Over the past 12 weeks, RayZha and I embarked on a diet challenge to see how much weight I could lose and how much weight he could gain. Given my unbelievably bad will power and love for all things containing at least 50% saturated fats, this was possibly one of two of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do (the other was watching Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift). 

I am also cheap and I like quantity. Those frozen weight watcher meals from the supermarket are rip offs and nothing even comes out when bulimics try barfing it back up.

Enter Campbell’s Country Ladle canned soups.

Not only were they cheap at less than $2 for a 300g can (and even on sale many times during my 12 weeks), but I found their 300g can to be a great size for lunch. Here’s what my lunch generally consisted of on most days.

12.30pm lunch time @ work:

• 300g can of soup (my favourite was the Creamy Chicken. The Chicken & Sweet Corn and Minestrone are probably better for weight loss though)
• 2 slices of toast with ‘healthy’ butter (Flora Pro Activ Light) and Vegemite
• Orange

Pretty healthy right? Damn straight. Which is why I allowed myself to have 1 off day per week. 1 off day = 3 off meals. These were the days when I could make use of the McDonald’s coupons on the back of the shopping dockets to get 2 cheeseburgers and large fries for only $4.95. Brilliant! 

Sticking to this diet and 12 weeks later………..

The outcome: -4 kilos. Booyah baby! Now I can go back to eating crap and gaining it back on.

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Author’s Notes

I’d be lying if I said I lost all that weight on soup alone. Here were some other things that were quite essential to my weight loss:

• Support crew: these are the people that you end up hating because they make your life miserable by only giving you half an m&m when you have a chocolate craving. WiFi you bastard.
• Exercise: watching anime ensured I was on the treadmill for at least 20 mins so that I could finish the episode. 
• Dehydration: a great way to make you feel better when you’re weighing yourself. 
• Shaving and getting a hair cut: I must be a hairy mofo because after shaving, I swear the scales said I was 200g lighter…at least people have now stopped posting my photos here.

After a long day of walkin about, we finally arrived at the station where my brother lives, as we exited the station, we were greeted by this cute blue van with Jpop music coming from it:

The fellow who made my crepe was singing away as he swiftly prepared my strawberry chocolate number – his energy was infectious. I was imagining how awesome it would be if this happened back in Sydenham, if a chipper dude rocked up in a cute blue van selling crepes…*sigh*. It’s the sort of thing that could turn a bad day around. Sadly, this probably only happens in Japan…