Melbourne - October 2012

Melbourne - Tree lined streets & Trams.

As we stand in the Bourke Street Mall, watching the throng of people and the trams moving along the mall, we are instantly reminded why more people don't live here. It is drizzling rain, and the freezing wind cuts right through you, and this is Spring!! They sell more overcoats in Melbourne per hour than are sold in Sydney in a year!! 

As born & bred Sydneyites we know we will be branded as traitors, turncoats and heretics, but we really like Melbourne. Despite the weather, there is no doubt in our minds that it has an overall more cosmopolitan feel, and the food and coffee scene is streets ahead. In the back lanes of Sydney you get mugged. In the back lanes of Melbourne, you get fed delicious food and great coffee!

We are in Melbourne whilst the back roof of the caravan is repaired. Oops! John backed into a low tree branch last year, and it is time to get it fixed. We are taking a Hotel break, and have chosen the Victoria Hotel in Little Collins Street, right in the middle of town, and an easy walk to everywhere. It is a 3.5 Star joint, part of the Mercure Group. But best of all is its 4C rating, Clean, Comfortable, Convenient and Cheap, plus it comes with cheap parking. The car is in the garage for the rest of the week. We will be walking or using the trams, where we can travel all day for $3.60. This week is all about self indulgence. Good food, good shopping, movies and sightseeing.

Federation Square.

Having taken in the Tulip Festival en route to the hotel, we arrived late afternoon, so quickly settled in and headed out for drinks. What better place for a wine and an ale than The Elephant & Wheelbarrow. It is a pommie style pub with a thousand beers on tap, hundreds of ciders, and vats of wine to choose from. Yep, there was a lot of choice and a lot of funny names we've never heard of, so we stayed safe and ordered a Victorian Red Hill Pinot Noir and a James Squire Golden Ale, both fine choices. The after work crowd piled in and the noise level went up, and then the pub food started to emerge. Huge plates of Chicken Parmigiana, Pies and Chips, Fish & Chips, nothing like the sophisticated food Melbourne is famous for, so we hit the streets in search of sophistication! We didn't have to travel far up Bourke Street to find celebrity chef Guy Grossi's establishment. Next to the main restaurant is his little bistro bar, which was packed to the rafters. The authentic Italian waiter squeezed us into a corner, and we enjoyed magnificent bowls of pasta, Carolyn went for her favourite, Spaghetti Vongole (Baby Clams), and John the house special pasta, loaded with rich tomato sauce and Calabrian sausage. Some wonderful crusty bread and a couple of glasses of the waiter recommended Italian house red, Italian Espresso to finish, and we were in culinary heaven.

Flinders Street Station.

Next morning for breakfast, we headed down to the wonderful lanes that link Bourke, Little Collins and Collins Streets. The lanes are full of cafes and small shops. The cafes all have their colourful spruikers outside, promoting the virtues of their establishment. We chose a place called "Grasshopper", and it was good. In fact it was so good that we were back the next day as well. Not your average brekkie menu. This one included great zucchini fritters and corn cakes served with lovely extras. Some places just have that kind of flair, and this was one of them. We did a few of the stores, and wondered up to Melbourne Central to see what was on at the movies. Carolyn chose "Arbitrage", Richard Gere's latest offering. We enjoyed it. That night it was cold and miserable so we decided to do China Town and find some good Asian food. We found a busy cafe, full of Chinese. It was called Pacific BBQ Cafe, and the window was full of all those golden roast ducks, and slabs of all other types of meat. We had no chance of figuring out the menu, and the waitress tried really hard to explain it to us. In the end we left it to her, and very soon two plastic cups full of steaming Chinese Tea arrived, followed closely by two plates, one laden with chunks of roast duck, served with noodles, and the other was laden with chunks of roast pork served with fried cabbage & onions, and some of the best fried rice we've ever eaten. The duck was great, the pork was sensational, and we were fed and watered in under 45 minutes and under $30!!!!

Wednesday morning after a light breakfast at Grasshopper we hopped on board the no. 96 Tram and headed out to South Melbourne Market. Now everyone knows about Melbourne's famous Victoria Market, well at South Melbourne it is smaller, similar and high quality. Open only on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it is right beside the tram stop, and when you enter, it is a visual feast. We came in through the food hall. There were butcher shops, fish mongers, wonderful deli's, and amazing fresh fruit & vegetables, all at fantastic prices. If we lived here, this would be our fresh food source. The general merchandise was also very good, and some of the flower shops were dazzling. The ready to eat food hall area was equally dazzling with fresh seafood on offer, Asian offerings, Middle Eastern Food, and our choice was "Simply Spanish". Set up on the footpath were tables and chairs, and a guy stirring a huge bowl full of steaming Paella. The place was packed. In addition there was a Tapas list from which we chose Mushroom & Prawn fritters, all golden brown on the outside and mushy and full of flavour in the centre, served with a spicy salsa, and a Spanish style of Bruschetta loaded with diced tomato, garlic and tiny capers. All absolutely delicious, with the Spanish music blaring out over the speakers, it just called for glasses of spicy Sangria, which washed the food down perfectly. The only thing missing were Flamenco dancers and a bull fight. I knew we should have come Saturday!!!

Mexico's version of Food Heaven

Back in town we took in another movie, Taken 2. That was us!! We found it a serious let down after the first movie, which never had us off the edge of our seats. Sometimes sequels work, this time it didn't. So we were in serious need of drinks and more food. This time, on Lonsdale Street, we found the Mexican version of food Heaven, going by the great name of "Touche Hombre". The place was really jumping, and at 7.00pm it was packed and had a line out front. We got a seat quickly, provided we would be out in an hour. On the basis that once we were in, they then had to get us out, we took the challenge. More Sangria, this time in a metal jug, whilst we perused the menu and started eyeing off the plates of unbelievable food coming from the kitchen. It was time to get a waitress. It is much easier to point and say "what's that", than try and work out a menu when it doesn't sound like anything is bad. We started with something called Tositados, which were round corn chips piled high with crab meat and some kind of delicious chili mayonnaise. These were followed by Tacos, but not your average Tacos. On the scale of 1 - 10 these were 12's. Soft Taco shells loaded with fillings like Duck, Pork, Chorizo and Soft Shell Crab, and all with some fantastically matched salsa or sauce. Aye Carumba, it was delicious. An ice cream sandwich of passion fruit ice cream sandwiched between toasted coconut wafers, and these hombres were out of the door with 90 seconds to spare! The food was really well priced, but they didn't miss you with the drinks! Still it was all excellent. Out on the footpath, the choice was either rejoin the queue or head for home. Sanity prevailed!

Thursday morning we were checked out late, and heading for Cambellfield to pick up the caravan. Our stay in Melbourne was at an end. It had been a feast for all our senses. The caravan looked great, and we headed back to Ashley Gardens Big4 for an overnight stay, before heading for the Grampians. The weather was still grey, drizzly and cold, just as the week had started, but that is Melbourne.