A Trip to Melbourne, March 2010

It 's good to be back to Melbourne once again. Love the people, foods, and weathers. Melbourne weathers' miracle things, four seasons within a day, lol. FH, LS, and I luckily missed most of the hail storm on last Saturday since we took a train back to city instead of a tram. We totally shocked when we saw not only Melbourne Central lower ground is flooded but also Elizabeth street. Luckily, we agreed to dine at home and do beer tasting. We dicided to do a cupping before dinner since we had time. We first did a cupping with Panama bouquet and then later on with traditional Malaysian coffee. We used pestal and morta to grind Malaysian the beans since we afraid it will be too oily and ruin the grinder since it is roasted with margerine and sugar. For dinner, FH made super delicious Chili con carne and LS brough chocolate tart from St.Kilda farmers' market.

We did a road trip to Yarra Valley on Monday. It is a very unprepared trip, FH suggested we should go out of city about 10 am and we left the city by 11.30 am. Our first stop was at Innocent Bystander but it was fully booked so we went to a very bakery nearby. We ended up ordering 4 different pies; beef, beef+mushroom, sheperd, and Ned Kelly pie, which we cut them into 4 parts to share. So, everyone can try a bit of each. My favorite 's beef+mushroom and followed by Ned Kelly.

We visited wineries after lunch. Our first stop was at Boat O'Craig followed by Oakridge. There wines are good but we were trying to find something special because PP, who very much love wines, is going back home soon. I think we all agree that our favorite winery of this trip is Warramate, a small boutique winery. Suprisingly, we were there because we interested in their riesling after we read FH's James Halliday book since PP, LS, and I are riesling fan. It turned out that we didn't buy a single bottle of riesling, lol, but bought lots of red instead. I love beautiful wines with affordable price :D

The next few days, I visited my favorite cafes. It is such a refreshing. Chris was so kind to change the beans in the grider because I really wanted to try his Sumatra beans, which is a very smoky and bright coffee. Michael and Patricia 's expecting a new family member, congratulation! +39 is awarded a best pizzaria of the year, I still remembered when my sister visited this pizzaria 7 times in a week (it closes on Sunday)!

LS and I also went to my lovely Coda :D It 's one of my most favorite place in town. I love D'Sylva's foods. He doesn't change menu seasonly but each dish tastes different every time I visited. But I think the reason LS and I keep going back there every few months 's because we fall in love with Travis Howe. No... I re-phrase... not actually him but his skill in selecting wine... his wines 're so GOOD.

On Friday night, LS, FH, and I decided to try a new place, Mamasita. A new Mexican tapas bar, not actually new, it 's about 1 month old when we visited. We tried corn on the cob, it 's a bit chili spicy with cheese on top. The cactus salad 's interesting. The chicken dish 's very tender and moist. What I love 's pork shoulder dish (bottom right, the one with chili on top).

My favorite stalls in Collingwood farmers' market Before I went back to Sydney, we all went to one of FH's favorite sugar place, Market Lane Coffee, in Pharan Market. Coffee there 's nice but sugar 's more interesting. It tastes more likely to palm sugar than sugarcane. FH and LS found out since last time they visited that the sugar 's a single origin sugar from Costa Rica.

We went to Hooked after coffee for lunch. Oh! I love sweet potato chips there... very crispy and sweet. Fish was very fresh and the batter was light.... yum... Grilled fish also fantastic ($9.90 for lunch). After lunch, time was up.... it was time to come back to Sydney.