Melbourne prides itself on being the art, food, and wine capital of Australia, and I'd have to say I might agree with that. Albeit, Melbourne just recently scored a little lower than Sydney on their restaurant reviews (to continue with the age old city rivalry), but since Melbourne's been my home for the past 2 years, I'm a little biased.
The annual Taste of Melbourne festival just came through the city this weekend, and we hit it up on Friday night - definitely some great food.
Melbourne's finest restaurants were in attendance, including: Circa; Jacques Reymond; Oyster; Botanical; The Press Club/Hellenic Republic/Maha; Fifteen; The Court House; The Boathouse; Verge; Movida; Nobu; Silks; The Brasserie.
They each offered a total of 3 dishes (mostly 2 savoury and 1 dessert), a la tapas style.
What we tried:
Jacques Reymond
http://www.jacquesreymond.com.au/menu-wine-list.html
Definitely our favorite, we had all 3 dishes - the seared Harvey Bay scallops with Thai style Sher Wagyu beef and a crispy Asian salad. We tried the tempura of quail breast with tajine flavours (cumin in there for sure) and whipped Persian fetta (I love fetta). The dessert looked fancier than it tasted, presented in a martini glass was bittersweet chocolate with espresso jello (basically) and some bourbon vanilla chantilly to top it off.
Hellenic Republic
http://www.hellenicrepublic.com.au/
George Calombaris' newest, he carries with him the fame from his judging on the first ever Melbourne's Master Chef TV show. We tried his saganaki with peppered figs - it was very good, and very interesting with the saltiness of the cheese combined with the sweetness of the figs. And yes we got to see George :) Apparently the lamb souvlaki from his Press Club is outstanding, but we skipped that dish for some reason unknown to us now.
Verge
http://www.vergerestaurant.com.au/
We tried their pressed duck leg and preserved mushrooms and smoked tofu, all floating in a little bowl of miso soup. It was okay - the miso soup somewhat over-powered all of the other fun things inside, as miso usually does. The smokey flavor of the tofu shone through a little, too bad I don't appreciate smokey flavours.
Silks
http://www.silksatcrown.com.au/Content.aspx?topicID=233
I've never eaten here, but this restaurant sits inside the Crown casino, a jewel magnet for tourists and a bit of an eye-sore for locals. Their baked crab shell stuffed with Portugese sauce was, mostly, a little bit of crab and a lot of cheese inside the shell. Not impressed, but it did look pretty.
The Brasserie
http://www.thebrasserieatcrown.com.au/Content.aspx?topicID=688
Phillipe Mouchel's award-winning restaurant competes a bit with Jacques Reymond. We had the veal tenderloin served on a bed of soft polenta with Swiss chard and pancetta. It was decent, nothing to really pop out at us, and we definitely enjoyed his competitor's dishes more. We don't try too many French restaurants, but if we happen to have a whim we'll probably head in Jacques' direction.
An overall awesome experience nonetheless, complete with several wine and beer tasting kiosks as well as a whiskey tasting to keep Timmy's palate satisfied.
On a side note, I took Timmy to Cumulus Inc. last night.
http://www.cumulusinc.com.au/
We had a moonlight en surface harvested oyster, which reportedly removed the metallic mineral taste. Then out came scallops wrapped in spec with a caper and raisin vinaigrette; followed by crispy school prawns (albeit I took the heads off) with chili and garlic, then grilled quail stuffed in vine leaves with aioli. Next was the plate of charcuterie, which included hand cut salami, wagyu bresaola with remoulade, prociutto, and coppacolla. Finally, was the ridiculously yummy gnocchi with artichoke hearts, tallegio, and truffle topping, then the spiced cauliflower with goats curd. Altogether a very tasty meal :)
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
U.S Part 1
It had been a year since I'd been home, and this time I brought Tim with me! It was the first time he had met my parents (in person, not just on Skype) and many of my friends. The next several blogs are about our trip around America, starting with Atlanta, then heading onto New York, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. What a trip!
I spent the first week in Atlanta with my parents, and Tim came to meet me for the 2nd week. I remember what it felt like going to pick him up at the airport. I had lived in his world for almost 2 years now, and I was full of excitement to introduce him into mine. It was a very busy 2 weeks. I'd been living in Melbourne for what seemed like so long now, it almost seemed surreal to return home, and there were so many people to see and catch up with and just not enough time. Meagan was getting married as well, so it was a very exciting and hectic time! The wedding was so much fun though, and because I hadn't physically been in Atlanta and there to witness all her preparations, I was blown away by the outcome! I'm very excited and happy for her and JP (JPeg as I affectionately like to call them), and look forward to some good times together!
I somehow had enough time to show Timmy around in between everything else. He really liked Peachtree City - I mean, who doesn't :) Squirrels and golf carts were the highlights here. We basically drove completely around the city in a gas-powered golf cart and took 5 billion pictures of squirrels. I guess Peachtree City, to an outsider, is a pretty cool city - I mean, who else can boast a high school golf cart parking lot. Tim was so keen to check out all the golf carts and how they were decorated. I also took him to Chick-Fil-A to experience the chicken biscuit. Mind you, Australians (being a Commonwealth nation) call their cookies 'biscuits', so when I initially told Tim about a chicken biscuit, he thought I meant a piece of chicken in between two cookies. Gross.
Once in Atlanta, being the coke addict that he is, I had to take Tim to the Coca-Cola museum. I thought it was funny that he tried ALL of the flavors at the end of the tour in the tasting room, and then complained about being full. :) We also gorged ourselves on Mexican food - took Tim to my 2 favorite joints. He was amazed by $2 taco and margarita night at Pozole - they don't believe in cheap food or drinks in Melbourne. I was also harshly reminded of the traffic scene in Atlanta, and I found it somewhat funny but mostly irritating how much I didn't remember how to get around the city. At one point, I burst into tears and slammed my fist on the steering wheel - I think I scared Tim.
We had a great time in Atlanta, and I don't think Tim would say no to living here (although of course he loved San Francisco and New York as well!).
I spent the first week in Atlanta with my parents, and Tim came to meet me for the 2nd week. I remember what it felt like going to pick him up at the airport. I had lived in his world for almost 2 years now, and I was full of excitement to introduce him into mine. It was a very busy 2 weeks. I'd been living in Melbourne for what seemed like so long now, it almost seemed surreal to return home, and there were so many people to see and catch up with and just not enough time. Meagan was getting married as well, so it was a very exciting and hectic time! The wedding was so much fun though, and because I hadn't physically been in Atlanta and there to witness all her preparations, I was blown away by the outcome! I'm very excited and happy for her and JP (JPeg as I affectionately like to call them), and look forward to some good times together!
I somehow had enough time to show Timmy around in between everything else. He really liked Peachtree City - I mean, who doesn't :) Squirrels and golf carts were the highlights here. We basically drove completely around the city in a gas-powered golf cart and took 5 billion pictures of squirrels. I guess Peachtree City, to an outsider, is a pretty cool city - I mean, who else can boast a high school golf cart parking lot. Tim was so keen to check out all the golf carts and how they were decorated. I also took him to Chick-Fil-A to experience the chicken biscuit. Mind you, Australians (being a Commonwealth nation) call their cookies 'biscuits', so when I initially told Tim about a chicken biscuit, he thought I meant a piece of chicken in between two cookies. Gross.
Once in Atlanta, being the coke addict that he is, I had to take Tim to the Coca-Cola museum. I thought it was funny that he tried ALL of the flavors at the end of the tour in the tasting room, and then complained about being full. :) We also gorged ourselves on Mexican food - took Tim to my 2 favorite joints. He was amazed by $2 taco and margarita night at Pozole - they don't believe in cheap food or drinks in Melbourne. I was also harshly reminded of the traffic scene in Atlanta, and I found it somewhat funny but mostly irritating how much I didn't remember how to get around the city. At one point, I burst into tears and slammed my fist on the steering wheel - I think I scared Tim.
We had a great time in Atlanta, and I don't think Tim would say no to living here (although of course he loved San Francisco and New York as well!).
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Super Scuba Goobers!
This is Tim's new nickname for us, since we've completed our PADI Advanced Open Water Diving course last weekend, allowing us to now dive to 30m instead of our Open Water restriction of 18m. It was another intense weekend, that included 5 dives in total out near Portsea and Rye Pier in Port Phillip Bay. We did the course with Matt and Dave (who received their Open Water license years ago and had been waiting on Tim to complete his so they could all get their advanced license together), under the wise and watchful eyes of instructor Mark Ryan and his wife, Vicki. Mark owns the dive shop with Adrian, our Open Water instructor, and while Adrian's passion is diverse aquatic life, Mark's passion for shipwrecks runs as deep as some of the dives he has done (the Australian government commissioned him to dive 105m to investigate the effects of the dredging in the bay). Another interesting fact about Mark is that he discovered one of the most pristine and in-tact shipwrecks in Victoria. Mark and Vicki's perfect balance of knowledge and experience, witty advice, and tales of diving made the weekend an extremely enjoyable and worthwhile learning experience.
We began Saturday morning with a knowledge transfer session to ensure that we had read our 5 chapters and completed the quizzes. Of course, Mark had a few tales of diving danger to throw in the mix. After I asked what happens to a deep diver who experiences complications with his rebreather and Mark responded with, 'He dies', I figured I probably shouldn't ask any more questions before any of us had even gotten in the water. We did three shore dives off Rye Pier on Saturday, one to master our buoyancy control, one to master our navigation skills with our underwater compasses, and finally a naturalist dive that showed us how to better dig around in the kelp to find hidden aquatic life. Three dives is rather exhausting, and most of us were out cold by 9:30pm that night.
Sunday brought with it the excitement of the 2 deep boat dives ahead of us. One shipwreck at 24m, and a deep dive at 27m. I was a bit nervous, and tightly grasped Tim's hand during the entire descent to the shipwreck, but once we were down, it was just like being at 18m (only a bit darker, allowing me the chance to use my new underwater flashlight!). We saw a very cool Wobbigong shark (although it might have been a Port Jackson shark), but don't worry Mom it was not more than 2 feet in length. Here is a video of someone diving this shipwreck:
We descended for the second 'deep' dive, and Mark had us each perform a Nitrogen Narcosis test. Basically, when you are diving at deeper depths, your body's balance of nitrogen vs. oxygen gets thrown out of whack a bit, and you can experience being 'narced', which isn't harmful but can result in slower thinking and reaction times. Our narc test required us to solve the following math problem once we had descended the full 27m:
3 * our age + 32.
It took me a few seconds to remember my age, and once I had performed the long division on Mark's underwater writing pad, I got the answer. Afterwards, Mark said I was the only one to actually do long division on his tablet. :)
So, we passed our course, and we are officially certified as Advanced divers. Sounds fancy eh :) I'm definitely looking forward to more diving!
We began Saturday morning with a knowledge transfer session to ensure that we had read our 5 chapters and completed the quizzes. Of course, Mark had a few tales of diving danger to throw in the mix. After I asked what happens to a deep diver who experiences complications with his rebreather and Mark responded with, 'He dies', I figured I probably shouldn't ask any more questions before any of us had even gotten in the water. We did three shore dives off Rye Pier on Saturday, one to master our buoyancy control, one to master our navigation skills with our underwater compasses, and finally a naturalist dive that showed us how to better dig around in the kelp to find hidden aquatic life. Three dives is rather exhausting, and most of us were out cold by 9:30pm that night.
Sunday brought with it the excitement of the 2 deep boat dives ahead of us. One shipwreck at 24m, and a deep dive at 27m. I was a bit nervous, and tightly grasped Tim's hand during the entire descent to the shipwreck, but once we were down, it was just like being at 18m (only a bit darker, allowing me the chance to use my new underwater flashlight!). We saw a very cool Wobbigong shark (although it might have been a Port Jackson shark), but don't worry Mom it was not more than 2 feet in length. Here is a video of someone diving this shipwreck:
We descended for the second 'deep' dive, and Mark had us each perform a Nitrogen Narcosis test. Basically, when you are diving at deeper depths, your body's balance of nitrogen vs. oxygen gets thrown out of whack a bit, and you can experience being 'narced', which isn't harmful but can result in slower thinking and reaction times. Our narc test required us to solve the following math problem once we had descended the full 27m:
3 * our age + 32.
It took me a few seconds to remember my age, and once I had performed the long division on Mark's underwater writing pad, I got the answer. Afterwards, Mark said I was the only one to actually do long division on his tablet. :)
So, we passed our course, and we are officially certified as Advanced divers. Sounds fancy eh :) I'm definitely looking forward to more diving!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Hello Hayman
It started with wanting to go diving near the reef, then turned into doing something for my birthday, and before we knew it, Tim and I were heading to the #1 island resort in Australia, complete with huge dents in both wallets. But - what a trip to Hayman Island!
We began by being escorted to the island in a seaplane - I've never flown in a seaplane! First class service from there on out. We lazed by the beach, drank coctails near the pool, had the most fabulous buffet breakfast I've ever seen in my life available to us each morning, room service fit for kings and queens, went hiking, windsurfing, and catamaraning. Even the diving was luxurious! They toted our dive gear for us, and actually put it on our backs! Complete with our 3ml wetsuits (compared to the 7ml blubber-like wetsuits we are forced to wear in Melbourne), we were in heaven. The visibility was pretty bad, unfortunately, but we still got to see some cool stuff!
Back home now, broke but very happy and wistful of our awesome island vacay! Check out some of the pics :)
We began by being escorted to the island in a seaplane - I've never flown in a seaplane! First class service from there on out. We lazed by the beach, drank coctails near the pool, had the most fabulous buffet breakfast I've ever seen in my life available to us each morning, room service fit for kings and queens, went hiking, windsurfing, and catamaraning. Even the diving was luxurious! They toted our dive gear for us, and actually put it on our backs! Complete with our 3ml wetsuits (compared to the 7ml blubber-like wetsuits we are forced to wear in Melbourne), we were in heaven. The visibility was pretty bad, unfortunately, but we still got to see some cool stuff!
Back home now, broke but very happy and wistful of our awesome island vacay! Check out some of the pics :)
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Hot, Hot, Hot!
If this week finishes as forecasted, it will be the hottest week in Melbourne in over 100 years - 100+ degrees, 4 days in a row. Melbourne is freaking out. The trains are shutting down, or having to step every few seconds because the rails have expanded; the newer trams that are fortunate enough to boast AC can't withstand the heat; managers are suggesting employees work from home as the buildings keep getting warmer; of course, my own house doesn't have AC, so working from home would be pretty unpleasant. Melbourne just spent about $100million on a super ferris wheel, similar to the London's eye. It's been up and running for a month, and after the heat surge, it caused something to happen to the metal, and the wheel is now down. Don't think anyone's too happy with those engineers...
To My Wife
Since she is one of the few left who still reads my blog (when I get around to writing in it), and the only one to constantly remind me to post, then this entry is dedicated to you, my wife, you know who you are!
Poopie dearest, how I miss you,
Day to day just ain't the same,
Sandwiches are a wee bit lacking,
Shopping trips a tad more lame.
As expected, I have hardly discovered,
Any new spices, or any new spreads,
Watching The Unit, missing the theme song,
Oh the memories, how lightly they tread.
I miss your perspective,
Your generosity, your class,
A friendship formed quickly,
And as seamless as glass.
But don't fear, my little socialite,
No matter where our planes fly,
We'll always have 1241,
And we'll never say goodbye.
xoxo Your wife.
Poopie dearest, how I miss you,
Day to day just ain't the same,
Sandwiches are a wee bit lacking,
Shopping trips a tad more lame.
As expected, I have hardly discovered,
Any new spices, or any new spreads,
Watching The Unit, missing the theme song,
Oh the memories, how lightly they tread.
I miss your perspective,
Your generosity, your class,
A friendship formed quickly,
And as seamless as glass.
But don't fear, my little socialite,
No matter where our planes fly,
We'll always have 1241,
And we'll never say goodbye.
xoxo Your wife.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Scuba Goobers!
My mother's and aunt's sole advice to me when visiting Australia was, "Just try not to go in the water". Well, I've completely blown that one this time :) Tim has always wanted to get his scuba diving license, and he has now suckered someone into accompanying him on the journey. I'm officially a scuba goober! The class was intense, packed into one weekend, but definitely worth it. I highly recommend it to anyone even remotely thinking about doing it - so much fun, and it adds a new element to any vacation!
Friday, January 2, 2009
I Can't Believe it's 2009
I always keep hearing that time speeds up as you get older, but I always thought that was a silly cliche that people say out loud to remind themselves to stop and smell the roses. News flash: it isn't a cliche. I think time actually speeds up with each passing year. I seriously can't believe it's 2009. And, I'm 25. A quarter of a century old. I think I need some roses.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Meg's Visit!
Meg and I had an awesome time when she came to visit me over Christmas and New Years! We spent the first week in Melbourne, shopping in the city, going to the market, spying kangas at the zoo, and driving out to the Great Ocean Road. After New Years, we headed to South Island, New Zealand, spending time in Christchurch, Queenstown, Milford Sound, and Fox Glacier. We had an absolute blast!
Check out the slideshow for a story of our adventures!
Check out the slideshow for a story of our adventures!
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