Melbourne
Cafés pepper the streets. Each café has its own flair and personality.
I really like the two major groceries in Australia - Coles and Woolworth's. Spoilt for choice every time. That's an advert for Woolies.
A bit unrelated to food but bookstores like these are found quite commonly as well. Melbourne knows what it's doing with its culture. Good food goes with a good read.
Mocha. Choose your beans, then choose the style you want your coffee to be made. I had Colombia and Shelly had Kenya. The results were distinctly different!
Coffee, tea and alcohol are big in Melbourne, perhaps even the whole of Australia too, but the coffee culture in Melbourne is certainly booming. Even 7-11 sells "freshly ground coffee" for a buck - you can see the canisters of coffee beans behind the self-serve machine.
The café where we had that mocha.
Parks! I love parks. Grab a coffee and a book and you can hang out in one for a pretty long period.
Cafes that dot the streets in the city.
We stopped at a soup shop on a rainy day. This was Mediterranean meatball. You can't see the meatballs because they're big, and they have all sunken to the bottom. It was really good and warming.
A really cosy shop as you can see...
Chocolates! Australians love their chocolate. Find all sorts anywhere. Even a boutique for chocolate.
This is Mayur, a housemate at Paulo's where I was put up for three days. When I first talked to him, he was making himself a pasta dinner. He's having breakfast in this picture.
Mayur, Paulo, Mike and an European guy I didn't know the name of. They were the last faces I saw when I left to stay at Shelly's place for the rest of my vacation. Paulo asked if I ever tried cooking in the kitchen. I wanted to! I would, if I wasn't all filled up from eating all the yummy food the streets of Melbourne had to offer.
Crown, which is near Shelly's place, faces the Yarra River. But more specifically, it's Crown's cafés and restaurants that really face the river. I had that sticky date pudding. It was a little too sweet for my liking, but the texture is good and spongey for a baked pudding. Eaten warm in winter, it's really comforting.
Queen Victoria Market. Spoilt for choice. Again. I love this place.
There are several sections in Queen Vic Market - fresh produce, raw meat, seafood, and this must be where the uncategorized come together. They've got one of each of these: A pharmacy, a coffee/tea supplies shop, a bakery, a sandwich place, a German sausage shop, a delicatessen, a pasta shop, a cheese shop and an alcohol shop.
Got me a rye sandwich with smoked salmon for brunch, mm-mm.
Popped by Market Lane Coffee for a cappucino. It's not bad! Pretty nicely done, but I got reminded of Papa Palheta and realized that I've long resigned myself to the fact that that's where I had the best coffee.
Market Lane Coffee's sugar stand. Many coffee places in Melbourne leave you the option of having the lid on or off - it's all self service.
Fitzroy
It's a popular shopping district and a haven for vintage items. It also has a Cole's and several restaurants and cafés.
We went up to Mt. Dandenong on Saturday morning. It's a peaceful, windy countryside.
They had a Miss Marple's café here. I'm not familiar with the character but I like the concept. They serve really yummy food too.
These. Are. Their. SCONES!!! Unlike a regular English one these are very fluffy and... not very scone-like.
Pumpkin soup, fish and chips, turkey fingers, smoked salmon fingers. Fingers don't mean those cheap, mass produced, breaded and fried stuff, they're really bread cut into strips, layered with quality ingredients, topped with cheese and baked.
They have a shop there that's all things tea. A whole range of really lovely and affordable (!) tea sets, loose teas and a lot more accessories. I'm really a coffee person, but for those cute little items you use for tea I don't mind playing for the other side :p
Breizoz. This is where I had the best crepes in my entire life.
A savoury crepe called "Super Complete" - comes with egg, tomato relish, sauteed mushrooms and cheese. Crepe texture was just perfect. I'll definitely miss this one.
I've had Asian food about three times, and they were all fantastic. Ox tongue rice bowl twice, because it's amazing. I was put off at the idea of eating tongue at first, but when it arrived at the table, the smell was just so good. Never mind how unorthodox I thought tongue would be for a meal - I can't say no when it smelled so wonderful. It was sliced thinly and sauteed on high heat with some smoky Japanese-style sauce, snipped chilies and scallions. Put that on top of a bowl of rice and it's complete.
I usually can't eat beef. It gives me a bit of a cramp in my tummy that's really uncomfortable. But no such thing with ox tongue. The texture is like high quality beef, but you know it's different. Perhaps just slightly more elastic, but not any chewier than regular beef sliced this thinly.
Another Asian meal I had was a a Korean restaurant. I had chicken bulgogi, seafood and tofu miso soup and steamed rice. Just having the kimchi and steamed rice alone was satisfying for my palate because they used really high quality ingredients and good skill. There's something about Korean steamed rice that is unbeatable... and I don't understand why because it's just plain steamed rice.
Best kebab I've ever had. Sorry if I sound repetitive, but it's no lie. It was really, really good. It's not special, just really good. Shelly and I were just trudging around and I felt hungry so I decided to head into the next food place I come across. I got me a kebab pita roll to go, went on our way and bit into it - then BOOOOM my tongue exploded. Into feelings of happiness. I was reluctant to go into a shop because that meant that I had to stop eating. You know a food is delicious if you don't see the need to describe it with fancy words, you just need to keep repeating, "IT'S REALLY GOOD".
I had risotto at Lygon St. aka Little Italy. The rice was al dente, almost too firm. It was really creamy, really flavourful and very filling. I couldn't finish it.
This was Shelly's choice. It looks simple, but how very comforting to have in winter. I felt that the pasta was the star of the dish, accompanied with just enough sauce and perfectly cooked mussels.
Schnitzels!! Who doesn't like breaded-and-pan-fried chicken fillets The chips it was served with were lightly breaded and really delicious.
The first time I saw what I could choose from, I was like D:
Churros! There're quite a few churros stands here, and a Spanish churros and chocolate chain. Melbourners love their sweets.
As far as sodas go, colas are popular here, with lemon soda (they call it lemon squash) seemingly coming in second. I like lemon soda! I'm thinking of making my own since it's not commonly found here.
Melbourne has amazing food culture. You don't really see much fast food places around, but several cafes and shops run by young entrepreneurs or families. Melbourners... Melbournians? - take their food seriously. I haven't had a bad experience with either the food or service there. I kept wanting to eat - there were too many things to try. You can tell a lot about a place's food culture by looking at its people. Melbourners are hardly overweight and they seem to radiate much energy. Well if you have such options, it's hard to go wrong. Keep it up Melbourne!
I guess that's the end of this post. Haha and I'm really hungry now!
Firstly - some photos perhaps?