A walk through Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

7 May 2019

After visiting the Shrine of Remembrance, we had just about two hours to explore Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. We had an appointment to visit some relatives who live in the suburb later in the day.

Entering the garden through the Observatory Gate, we went to take a peek at the Jardin Tan cafe, located near the entrance. This French-Vietnamese eatery is opened by Shannon Bennett, whom we knew from the MasterChef Australia show. Somehow, the food displayed at the cafe did not appeal to us at that moment.

What impressed us instead was the sight of the Cockscomb Coral Tree which originated from South America. The rough texture of the tree’s bark and the fine foliage that grew out of numerous thin antenna-like stems was quite unusual.

Cockscomb Coral Tree near the Observatory Gate.

We followed the signs for the Australian Forest Walk and really enjoyed the sights of the trees and greenery, lit by the warm autumn sunshine.

We arrived at the Guilfoyle’s Volcano in the south-east corner of the gardens. This is not a real volcano but instead a water reservoir with a pond showcasing water plants in the “crater”.

A timber boardwalk winds around up and down the cone to the crater of the “volcano”. Cactuses and other arid climate plants lined the timber boardwalk. These plants were quite fascinating for me.

Loads of golden barrel cactus that looks like the eggs of the Alien Queen from the movie Aliens.


This view of cactus flowers made me think of a space rocket taking off into space.


Timber boardwalk around the crater of the “volcano”.


This landscape somehow looks like the bottom of the sea with “brain corals” and “red sea anemone”.

Melbourne’s city skyline could be seen at the top of Guilfoyle’s Volcano.

Cactus flower – a rare sight for me.

We headed north, towards the Ornamental Lake where we were hoping to have a simple lunch by the lake and rest our feet.  Indeed, there was The Terrace cafe. We ordered chicken wraps and a pot of tea.

Our simple lunch at the Terrace Cafe.

I regretted not bringing a picnic lunch as the lakeside would be ideal for a picnic under the gorgeous autumn sun. Many people were doing just that!

A family enjoying a serene cruise around the islands of the picturesque Ornamental Lake.

We left the Botanic Garden via the route we came, via the Shrine of Remembrance.

We took the tram back to Flinders Street Station where we had to take a local train to Williams Landing, where our relatives are living.

Prior to taking the train, we made a detour to the Lune Croissanterie’s branch in the CBD to buy what is reputed to be the best croissants in Melbourne for afternoon tea with my relatives.

Lune’s croissants packed in a takeaway box.

Lune’s croissants were not cheap but I enjoyed every bite of the soft buttery traditional French croissant with crispy and flaky crust. Yum.

It was nice to visit relatives in a faraway land. We spent the rest of the afternoon chit chatting about life in Melbourne versus back home.

We ended Day 2 of our trip with a delicious dinner of Chicken Biryani cooked by my aunt. And a swift car ride back to our apartment in Melbourne, thanks to our cousin-in-law.

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Morning at the South Melbourne Market

8 May 2019 

I have always enjoyed visiting markets in the countries I visit. It is fascinating to see the local produce and items on sale, especially those that are unique to the country and not commonly seen back home.

The most famous market in Melbourne is the Queen Victoria Market (QVM). QVM is closed on Monday and Wednesday so we went to the South Melbourne Market instead (Opens Wed, Fri, Sat and Sun from 8 AM to 4 PM). This market is a lively indoor market with stalls for local produce, meat and seafood. Most important for us, there are cafes serving local and global fare.

Although this market is smaller compared to QVM, I was told by my niece who is studying in Melbourne that it is equally interesting. She also recommended some food that I must try at the South Melbourne Market. It is good to go to South Melbourne Market with an empty stomach!

Located at the Corner of Cecil and Coventry Streets, the market is easily accessible by tram from our apartment near the Southern Cross Station. We arrived at about 9.30 AM in the morning and the market was already buzzing with activity.

Earlier in the morning, we had woken up at 5 AM to watch an extraordinary live game of football. It was the Champions League Semi-Final game between Liverpool and Barcelona at Anfield where Liverpool had to overturn a 3-0 first leg deficit. And I watched my team did it by winning the second leg 4-0 at Anfield. All the excitement of Liverpool doing the “impossible” had made me extra hungry.

First thing on our agenda when we arrived at the market was breakfast. We found the bakery recommended by my niece. Called the Agathé French Pâtisserie, we could see people lining up in front of the stall to buy pastries and croissants.

Agathé Pâtisserie at South Melbourne Market.

We joined in the queue and watched the bakery chefs in the shop preparing dough for the next batch of pastries to be cooked. What could be better than freshly baked pastries!

We did not have much time to also admire the sweet and savoury goodies on the counter as the queue moved quite fast.

Mille-Feuille for AUD 9 each.

We bought a traditional croissant for AUD 5 and a ham and cheese pastry. They are served in takeaway paper bags.

We went to the Market’s Food Hall to buy freshly ground and brewed coffee from a stall called Canteen to go with our pastries. 

Agathé Pâtisserie’s croissant was deliciously buttery and soft on the inside and flaky and crispy on the outside. Just as good as the croissant we ate the previous day.

We wanted to try the borek next. The borek is a savoury Turkish pastry. There is a Borek stall at the Food Hall selling boreks, pides (Turkish bread), wraps, salads, soups, dolma and Turkish breakfast. The Borek stall sold boreks with fillings of spicy lamb and vegies, cheese & spinach or spicy potato & vegies.

We bought the spicy mutton borek for AUD 4. It was quite a large portion, enough for two persons to share. This was the first borek I had eaten. Not bad but I would prefer the French croissants over this pastry.

Our half-eaten spicy lamb borek. The pastry was slightly chewy and the fillings could be a little more generous.

Once our stomach was filled, it was time to burn some calories exploring the rest of the market.

The market is divided into sections, each focusing on items like fresh meat, fresh seafood, processed foodstuff and colourful fresh fruits and vegetables. There are also sections for home and living, pets, nursery and flowers, fashion and accessories and services for hair and body.

Amazingly fresh meat for sale. If only we could get such fresh meat back home.


Wide variety of seafood at one of the seafood stalls.

I enjoyed browsing through the colourful produce at the seafood and vegetable stalls. Some the ingredients triggered memories of episodes of MasterChef Australia where these ingredients were featured in the show.

Admiring the Australian grown produce. So fresh and colourful.

Pointing to the red baby beet-roots.




Although there are stalls selling pet related goods, this giant Newfoundland dog is not for sale. It belongs to a shopper at the market.

One must-try food at the South Melbourne Market is the freshly shucked oysters. If you like fresh oysters, this is the probably the cheapest place in Melbourne to savour them

There are a few seafood stalls offering these juicy morsels that could be purchased and eaten on the spot. There are counters set up in front of the stalls with all kinds of sauces and condiments for the oysters.

Value for money fresh oysters from all over Australia at the South Melbourne Market stalls. We found that a dozen fresh oysters in a restaurant would cost about AUD 32 to AUD35.


Our freshly shucked oysters with all the sauces at the counter.

We bought a dozen of Woody Island Oysters from the Aptus Seafood stall.  Yummy.

Once we finished our oysters, the shells are discarded into one bin and the rest of the waste into a separate bin.

In addition to sampling the yummy delights, we also bought some bottles of Australian pure essential oils at the market.

From South Melbourne Market, we took the tram back to the city centre. Our plan for the afternoon was to visit Brighton Beach in the afternoon, followed by St Kilda Beach in the evening.

Overall, we had enjoyed our morning visit to the South Melbourne Market. My only regret as I wrote this blog post was that we did not eat more oysters there nor buy more croissants from Agathé Pâtisserie to eat at the beach.

Back in the city centre, we dropped by Hosier Lane for another look at the street art since it was very near to the Flinders Street train station where we would take the train to Brighton Beach.

Back to Hosier Lane again for more photos of the street art.



Next post – Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes and penguin spotting at St Kilda Beach.

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Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes and penguins at St Kilda Beach

8 May 2019

Visitors to Melbourne would tend to include a visit to Brighton Beach in their itinerary. Most would come to see the iconic and colourful wooden beach huts, or “bathing boxes” lining the beach. Not commonly seen in other countries, the colourful boxes make quite nice travel photos.

Brighton Beach Bathing Boxes.

Although we could visit Brighton Beach by rental car on our way to Philip Island later in our trip, I decided to use public transport as I had read that car parking spaces at the beach are limited and could be a problem.

Getting to Brighton Beach by public transport was easy. A 20-minutes direct train ride on the Sandringham Line from Flinders Street Station to Middle Brighton Station and followed by a well signposted, 500 metres stroll to the beach.

The only difficulty we faced was crossing the highway (State Route 33) that ran parallel to the beach. We did not spot any pedestrian crossing along this highway. So crossing the highway with vehicles that came at fast speed was a little daunting. We had to be patient and wait for a long break in the vehicular traffic.

It was sunny but windy when we arrived at the beach. In summer, Brighton Beach would probably be more crowded with swimmers, surfers and sun-worshippers. There is no one swimming at the beach on this windy autumn day.

Instead, we found many tourists enjoying a stroll along the beach and posing for photos in front of the multi-coloured wooden huts. We did likewise.

I did not count the bathing boxes but I have read that there are 82 of them.

The only one that was being used. The owner enjoying his expensive property on Brighton Beach.

This hut is one of the prettiest and most photographed.


Our next destination was St Kilda Beach. Although we enjoyed hiking and St Kilda was about 7 km away, we decided to take the public bus instead. The bus is not so frequent, so it was great that we could get the schedule and location of the bus stop from Google map.

We hurried to the bus stop as indicated. We made it on time but the bus was late!

The bus journey took about 35 minutes, as the bus wound its way through residential area. It was a pleasant ride. A chance to see the Melbourne’s suburban landscape and seeing school kids making their way back home from school.

We alighted at the Acland Street bus stop in St Kilda at about 4 PM.  There are many eateries along Acland Street although most would only open later at 5 PM for dinner service. La Roche was opened and served us a delicious pizza. Service from the staff at this restaurant was good too.

It was close to 5 PM when we strolled down Acland Street towards St Kilda Beach. The sun sets early during this time of year.

We passed Luna Park Melbourne, an amusement park known for its roller coaster and giant, ornate carousel but it was closed. That was not a problem as we had no intention to spend time at the amusement park. 

To get to the St Kilda beach and pier, we had to cross a highway. This was State Route 33 that continued all the way to Brighton Beach. Thankfully, there was a signalised pedestrian crossing at St Kilda Beach.

We arrived at St Kilda Pier, just as the sun sets in the horizontal. It was windy and chilly on the pier but we were well prepared for the weather.

On St Kilda Pier as the sun sets.

View of the setting sun over the St Kilda Marina and the sailboats.

Many people were heading to the end of the pier. The breakwater extending from St Kilda pier is home to a small colony of 1,400 little fairy penguins. These are the same species of penguins that people would see at the famed Penguin Parade on Phillip Island.

 

One of the “early bird” that was returning to its home in the rocks.

Like the penguins on Phillip Island, these penguins come in after sunset, back to their home on the rocks in the breakwater.

Despite the cold wind that blew, there was a decent crowd on the breakwater and wooden boardwalk that are specially constructed to facilitate the wild penguin viewing.

Crowd on the breakwater waiting for the little penguins to emerge from the crashing waves below.


Calm sea and views of the marina and Melbourne city on the other side of the breakwater.

On-lookers craned their necks and gasped in delight when the first penguins emerged from the waves. Photographers snapped away as the little penguins poised on the sharp rocks, flapping their little flippers to dry themselves.

Fairy penguin merging from the waves at the breakwater on St Kilda Pier.

As the sky gets darker, more penguins began to pop out from the crashing waves onto the breakwater. By now, it was quite difficult to photograph these birds due to low light conditions.

Note: Photographers are NOT to use flash as the eyes of the wild birds are very sensitive and would be injured by the flashlight.

It was good to see some local volunteers mingling with the crowd, providing information and answering questions. They used red light touches to illuminate the penguins.

There were quite a lot of penguins spotted on this night.  I had a great time watching and photographing them. Not to mention, listening to their noisy squabbles too.

My original plan was to have dinner at St Kilda after the penguin watching. We changed our mind and decided to take the No. 96 tram back to Melbourne city centre for a bowl of hot steaming ramen at Hakata Gensuke Ramen, located at 168 Russell Street.

This is one of the highly recommended places for excellent Japanese Ramen in Melbourne. There is always a queue in front of the store and no wonder.

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Wine tasting at Yarra Valley with a wine tour

9 May 2019

Having enjoyed our previous visits to vineyards in Niagara producing ice wines and even a hike through Lavaux vineyards in Switzerland, we decided to include a visit to Yarra Valley, Victoria's oldest wine region dating back to 1838, in our itinerary. 

The Yarra Valley is about a one-hour drive north-east of Melbourne. There is no public transport to the Yarra Valley, so the best way to get there is on an organised tour or by self-drive car.

“When You Drink, Don’t Drive”.

Heeding the above advice, we decided to join a wine tour to Yarra Valley. There were many to choose from, all competitively priced and offering a variety of itineraries. 

We chose to book a tour with the Australia Wine Tour Company based on good reviews in the internet and itinerary that met what we were looking for. 

This includes the following:

• Tasting at the cellar doors at Yering Farm, Balgownie Estate and Steels Gate Wines.
• A a la Carte lunch at Balgownie Estate, accompanied by a glass of the estate’s wine.
• A privately conducted tour of Domaine Chandon, complemented with a glass of their premium sparkling wine.

Never do wine tasting on an empty stomach. On the day of the tour, we made sure we had a good breakfast at The Coffee Club, located in the Southern Cross Station along Spencer Street where we stayed. We each had a cup of coffee with toasties of ham and eggs which cost AUD 9.50 per set which was good value.

Tony, our guide and driver for the day, picked us up from a designated pick-up point along Flinders Street at 9.20 AM. The air-conditioned minibus then made the rounds to collect a few more from other designated pick up locations in Melbourne before heading out to Yarra Valley.

Our tour bus to Yarra Valley wineries.

All in, there were about 14 people in our group that includes a couple from Scotland, two ladies from Japan, a few from Singapore and even a couple who lived in Melbourne.

On the way to Yarra, Tony did his pitch, to entertain and educate us on Yarra Valley, wine and the places we would be visiting.

Closer to Yarra, we passed beautiful suburban residential areas as well as rolling farmland with herds of black Angus cattle and sheep. Tony even pointed out some emus and kangaroos while driving. 

Somewhere in Yarra Valley, just before arriving at our first winery, our van was stopped by drink-driving enforcement officers and Tony had to blow into a breath analyser.

“When You Drink, Don’t Drive” and “When you Drive, Don’t Drink”.

Wise words indeed.

We arrived at Steels Gate Wines, our first winery as scheduled. Steels Gate is a boutique winery situated in a picturesque hillside setting at Dixons Creek. Their range of wines are all estate grown and estate made.

Tony gave everyone a short presentation on the rituals in wine tasting. Swirl, smell, look and then taste the wine. Spitting into the bucket provided after tasting is optional. But why waste good wines! Just drink it all.

The staff at Steels Gate also provided information of all the wines we tasted.

We had some free time to look around but access to the vineyard where the grapes are grown is not allowed due to fear of disease transmission. 

 

Vines at Steel Gate Winery.


Interesting plant that looked like corn at Steels Gate Winery.

Tony took orders for the lunch that would be served later at the Balgownie Estate.  We could choose one from 4 main courses offered - Beef, Chicken, Salmon or Vegetarian. Almost everyone in the group chose the Beef dish.

At our next stop, Balgownie Estate, the staff presented us with a list with information of the wines we would taste. These included a 2017 Black Label Sparkling Shiraz that is something the winery is experimenting with.

The lunch served at Balgownie’s restaurant was excellent. The slowed cooked beef was flavourful and practically fallen off the bone. I enjoyed the side dishes and flavourful jus as well. The lunch included a glass of the Estate’s wine of course.

Our lunch of Beef Ribs at Balgownie Estate.

The view from the restaurant at Balgownie Estate.


We bought a bottle of their NV Premium Cuvee Brut and Sparkling Shiraz to bring home. The Cuvee Brut is a combination of three Chardonnays to form a very fruity and tasty white wine that we like very much.

Our next stop after lunch is the Yering Farm.

 

Yering is one of the Yarra Valley’s most charming boutique wineries and also has a 70 acre orchard. It has stunning views, and a delightful sense of heritage. It produces 6,000 cases of wine each year. They grew mostly Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Carbernet.




The tasting room and cellar at Yering Farm.

In addition to the wines, we were offered dessert wine, pear and apple cider to taste. We bought two bottles of pear cider and a small bottle of sweet dessert wine.

Our last stop of the day was at Domaine Chandon, the French champagne company Moet & Chandon's Australian production house. We were given a brief presentation of how sparkling white wine is made at the riddling room.

Yeast are added to blended wine and allowed to ferment to create the bubbly. Riddling is the process that collects the yeast and sediment in a bottle and concentrate it near the mouth of the bottle to be removed after the riddling process.

The inverted bottles of wine on the riddling rack. These bottles are rotated 90 degrees every now and then to allow the yeast and sendiments to collect at the bottom (mouth of the bottle).

The best part of the visit was tasting the sparkling wines at the tasting room.

The four Chandon sparkling wines that we tasted.

After the tasting, we were each given a full glass of our favourite sparkling wine (we cannot call them Champagne because they are not made in Champagne, France) to enjoy.

We were free to take the glasses out to the terrace. Here we could enjoy breath-taking views over a relaxing glass of Australia's best bubbly. One thing I like about this tour was that it was so relaxing, without any rush.

Views from the terrace outside the restaurant at Domaine Chandon.

We bought two bottles of Chandon’s sparkling wine to bring home.

When everyone was ready, we departed the Yarra Valley for Melbourne at about 3.30 PM. Everyone in the bus became rather chatty on the way back. Amazing what a bit of nice wine and alcohol can do to a party.

Overall, it has been an enjoyable and relaxing day in the Yarra Valley with good food, good wine and good company.

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Morning at Queen Victoria Market

10 May 2019 

Having visited the South Melbourne Market earlier in the week (see this post), we were looking forward to visiting the more famous and larger Queen Victoria Market (QVM) with plenty of yummy food stalls.
Note: QVM is closed on Monday and Wednesday.

The morning started with cloudy sky but no rain as we took the free tram to Queen Victoria Market. We did a quick tour of the market checking out the food stalls as we came with an empty stomach.

A stall owner outside the Food Hall invited us to try some sugar coated almonds, peanuts and macadamia nuts. Since he was friendly and the caramelised almonds tasted so good, we bought a small packet of almonds for AUD 5 from him. This was to be consumed later during our road trip.

One of the must-try foods at QVM is the freshly baked donuts. We found the food truck American Donut Kitchen parked along Queen Street, selling the highly acclaimed donuts. 5 donuts for AUD 6. Although there was a queue, we did not have to wait very long to get our donuts. 

The donuts are made in the truck so they were all nice and warm and coated with fine sugar. The donuts were not too big, so 5 donuts for the two of us to share was just right.

I was initially concerned that the jam-filled donuts would be too sweet so we asked for a mix of 2 plain donuts and 3 jam-filled donuts. The donuts were so soft and delicious. The jam was not too sweet for me. Therefore, I actually liked the jam-filled donuts better.

After the donuts, a cup of long black from The Market Espresso was a good idea. With coffee in hand, we went to the food stall called The Mussel Pot. This store is located in Shed A, the vegetable section of the market. This stall sells fresh mussels as well as bowls of freshly cooked mussels.

It started to rain too, so a hot bowl of steaming mussels was perfect for a cold rainy morning.

The Mussel Pot stall at Queen Victoria Market. The stall has a pair of mussel shells on the top that looked like wings of a giant beetle getting ready to take off.

The menu was clearly posted, with pictures too. We ordered a bowl of mussels, steamed with white wine, garlic and parsley, to share. The mussels were cooked upon order, so we sat and waited about 10 minutes for our meal to be prepared.

The bowl of mussels was served with a slice of bread, ideal to mop up the tasty broth at the bottom of the bowl.

Menu at the Mussel Pot (Left). Mussels steamed with White Wine, Garlic and Parsley (Top Right) and Mussels steamed with Coconut Chilli, tomato, cream and parsley (Bottom Right).

I normally do not like to eat mussels as what was served up in restaurants back home was typically chewy and bland tasting stuff. I had confidence that the mussels in Australia would be fresher and better prepared.

We were not disappointed. The freshly steamed mussels were so well cooked, tender and juicy that we decided that we must have another bowl.

The next one we tried was the spicy one with coconut, tomato, chilli, cream and parsley. The broth at the bottom of the bowl was not too spicy and tasted like curry. We were equally delighted with our second bowl of mussels.

If I were to visit QVM again in the future, I will make sure to have few more bowls of freshly cooked mussels from The Mussel Pot.

After our brunch, we explore the various sections of the market offering items like fresh meat, seafood, processed food, fruits and vegetables etc. This was very similar to what we saw at the South Melbourne Market.

We bought a bag of premium mixed nuts from a stall in the Dairy Produce Hall that offers a wide range of nuts – macadamias, pecans, cashews, pistachios, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts and almonds. We ate these nuts during our road trip later and found them so fresh, well roasted and delicious.  

As forecasted, the weather took a turn for the worse and started raining heavily. We spend our time exploring the large sections of the market selling Specialty products that includes souvenirs, clothing, bags, pet products, kitchen wares etc. This reminded me of a typical street market in South East Asia, except that these stalls are under large sheds that sheltered us from the pouring rain.
 

Raining cats and dogs while we stood opposite a pet product stall in the Queen Victoria Market.

The rain lightened up at about 1 PM, just in time for us to leave QVM for some other indoor activities around the city.

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