Melbourne is great for its food, shopping and café culture! I really love Melbourne and I had to try their coffee when I touched down and so I did at Kilda Beach with lunch by the beach side.
The mushroom spinach on toast was divine and their coffee tasted really like the ones in Auckland – great! They also do great pancakes and breakfast items that you may fancy and very similar to the ones you find here in auckland cafes. I also had the pecan tart to go with my mochacino and it was yumness!
On our first night, our friend Wei Lee brought us to Lygon Street which is a street full of Italian restaurants and I meant a row of ITALIAN restaurants!
There were pizzes, pastas, pizzas, pastas and you can see them making the pizzas through the windows like how you would see the chefs making dumplings in China through the windows! It was amazing how Melbourne offers such a range of diverse food and it had a great atmosphere as well! The problem is that there were too many choices to choose from and can be abit of a headache!
On our road trips we also stopped along this place called the boatshed in Ballarat for their scones and yummy cakes! It seems like a few places often scones and tea/coffee set or cake and tea/coffee sets and they do pretty well. We had:
Macadamia lemon tart which is one of the best tarts I’ve ever tasted but that’s only if you like macadamia nuts:
warm banana pudding with vanilla ice cream:
Scones served with jam & cream:
They offered 2 scones on the plate with jam and cream – it went well with my Earl Grey Tea but can't believe they served 2 scones!!! (That's my afternoon tea and I still want to eat my dinner!)
Back in Melbourne city which we spent on our last two days (Monday & Tuesday), Marcus & I had dinner at this greek restaurant called Kouzina by Yarra River for my birthday and it’s very similar to C.A.C Mt Eden where they offered a range of tapas. The restaurant overlooks the river and the city lights which was amazing!
Delicious feta kopanisti dip with warm pita bread:
grilled chicken:
keftedes which is a type of meatball tapas topped with onions:
Flaming saganaki which is fried cheese that is melted in a pan and is normally eaten with bread and lemon juice to help with the strong flavour:
The taste of each food was so strong it really was divine! It is so different to the taste you get from eating asian, it’s very strong but not curry and spice strong. There were many great restaurants at Southbank along the river to dine in and a foodcourt at the bottom as well if you prefer something not as costly but the view may not be that great! Sigh, the price to pay for a good view ay!
What I love about Melbourne though is the little hidden lanes that is buzzing with cafes and life! It has interesting art work along the walls as well the rubbish bins! Any shop you stop at, the coffee is great and they sell the normal sandwiches, soups, muffins and brunch lunch menus! I can spend the whole day just cruising around the lanes and trying out different food but then obviously that would mean I can’t explore other parts of the city!
We stayed just by chinatown where they also had a variety of great asian crusine and Kopitiam there reminded me of back home and I went there twice out of my whole 2 days in the city! Their kopitiam really tasted authentic and like back home!
It closes really late too like 2am so if you need a supper place go there! We had their ice kajang and their nasi lamak on the first night and tried their assam laksa and chicken laksa the other night and all met our expectations. There were many Japanese places to eat because I think it's healthy and quick!
We had Japanese at Phillips Arcade recommended by Mary our friend and it was packed out really quickly!
They also had a number of breadtop chains which I thought which breadtalk (but got cheated)anyway, they had a Hong Kong bakery is in China town and apparently their egg tarts are the best in town so we tried them and it was not bad. Their wife pastry was nice though as it was soft and smooth!
On the last night of our stay there we went to a German restaurant called Hofbrauhaus in the city along Market Lane and to my surprise the food wasn’t that bad! They had interesting items on their menu but nothing strange like dog meat or rabbit meat =) Honestly though I prefer the bakeries in Auckland.
Schweinebraten: Roast pork, served with sauerkraut and potato dumpling:
Sauerkraut is cabbage that was shredded up and tasted like pickled cabbage, very nice but Marcus didn't like it.
Jagerschnitzel: pan fried veal schnitzel with fresh vegetables, spatzle and a creamy mushroom sauce:
Konigin Pastete: Veal chicken and mushroom ragout served in pastry:
Well, basically I have eaten so much during this trip I can't believe how much I've spent! (Have to get over it and tell myself it's a holiday what is spent is spent but it was such an experience!)
I will definately return to Melbourne in the near future =)
A view of the twelve apostles along Great Ocean Road:
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