Tag Archives: victoria

HOT: Laikon Deli, 324 Bridge Rd, Richmond

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There aren’t many food stores in Melbourne that can boast a history of 30+ years. But Laikon Deli, a continental delicatessan, has been going strong on Bridge Road since 1976 at a time when the area was full of Greek immigrants.

It no longer looks as it does 30 years ago and a new lick of paint and fresh tiles a few years ago from the third generation owners have turned it into an eye-catching and stomach-appealing store. The long refrigerated counter and wall to ceiling shelves sell a large range of cold cuts, cheeses, dips, gourmet pantry staples and ready-to-eat meals (not necessarily of Greek origin though the Spanitopika is a family recipe).

At lunch times there’s a long patient line for its sandwiches, pies and salads, all of which are made on premises and about $1 or $2 below you’d normally expect to pay for such items in inner city Melbourne these days. There’s always a bit of a scuffle for the few outdoor tables and the friendly staff do a busy run up and down the corridor serving coffees and food (and in this cold weather apparently their hot chocolates are delectable).

For an easy meal one night I took home a fresh salad of roasted pumpkin and fetta ($7 for a small box) and two pies – a beef and red wine and chicken and mushroom ($4 each). I also couldn’t go past their desserts and slices, settling on two slabs of raspberry almond and pear and almond ($4 each).

A few hours and a rocky bike ride home the food was still in fine form in their eco-friendly cardboard containers. I just popped the pies in the oven to reheat and tipped the salad onto the plates a small side and ten minutes later, beautifully flaky pie pastry paired with a fresh, flavoursome salad for dinner.

And the sweets make the wonder why I bother baking at home – the raspberry slice was especially mouthwatering with a crusty sugar crust akin to a crumble topping a moist concoction of berries and almond frangipane.

I highly recommend Laikon Deli as one-stop-shop if you’re in a dinner party emergency as you can source everything from an antipasto platter down to a hearty main meal, a cheese platter and some sweet treats. If you’re game you can even pass it all of as your own handmade goodness.

Laikon Deli,
Monday – Friday: 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Saturday: 6:30 AM – 5:30 PM


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HOT: Henry and the Fox, 525 Little Collins St, Melbourne

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Paul Mathis is one busy man. He’s opened not one, two, but six new venues in 2012, one of which is Henry and the Fox in the law/finance end of Little Collins Street.

Henry and the Fox is all-day eatery catering for the office crowd with weekday breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you need a loosen your tie after work, head there between 4-6pm as there are free canapes to go with your drink and they have a terrace for the warmer months.  They don’t open on weekends, a smart move considering that the highrises transform into a ghost town.

I was invited to try their lunch/evening menu by their head chef Michael Fox, the Age Good Food Guide Young Chef of the Year in 2011.

The space is an odd shape and a Feng Shui consultant would go nuts – all weird jagged corners and diagonal planes. Nevertheless the all-wood interior and pastel accents gives the restaurant the warm glow of a rustic kitchen and the use of wooden grilles suspended from the ceiling softens any noise that would bounce off all those sharp edges. The large open kitchen that faces the high communal table provides a particularly homely, home-hearth feel to the place and I’d recommend perching yourself somewhere in that vicinity rather than tucked away in the dim nether regions around the side.

The menu reads well, with influences cherry-picked from all over the globe and a variety of serving sizes to suit nibble sharing or huge appetites. Japanese, Italian, British, Spanish and French all go into the melting pot and the most surprising aspect is the price point – almost everything is under $30.

From the entree/tapas/nibbles side of the menu, I dipped into most of the items on offer. Maybe it was cold blustery night from which I’d was hiding but I found the more successful dishes to be those that were warming or heavier in flavour and texture. So my vote went to some perfect booze food in the form of oozey jamon and manchego croquettes ($4 each), an extremely filling (and definitely to be shared) slab of rabbit terrine wrapped in jamon with cubes of rhubarb compote and the  most adorable bunny-tail fluffy brioche ($23).

My favourite was the sweet roasted Moreton Bay bug tails with cauliflower puree and blackened spiced cauliflower, definitely a meal on its own ($24.50).

I was less enamoured of the zucchini flowers with ricotta, peas and mint, which to me evokes a more Spring-like temperature ($4 each) and both of cold fish dishes which were prettily presented but I found rather bland – cured kingfish and confit ocean trout.

The only exception to my warm/heavy preference being some plump seared scallops atop an apple and celeriac remoulade, caper and raisin puree and unnecessary blocks of more sweetness in the form of toasted pumpernickel ($24.50).

From the ‘mains’ side of the menu, which arguably overlaps with some of the larger dishes from the entree column, I loved the my juicy fillet of mulloway and a classic salad of chickpea, red onion and capsicum and some not-so-classic avocado puree ($29.50). It’s not a dish that I would have naturally gravitated to but I’m glad the luck of the draw meant that I got it.

My tastings of the other mains on offer didn’t hit the same high notes – I detected no crispiness in the crispy pork belly sadly ($30.50) and the quinoa accompanying the poached chicken was much too salty, unbalancing the delicate flavours of the meat ($29).

Make sure you make room for dessert as they are a real highlight and the portions are huge for the price ($14-$16). The deconstructed passionfruit cheesecake comes in the form of passionfruit mousse, jelly, granita, yoghurt sorbet and each spoonful delivered a mix of sweet, art, smooth and crunchy. While my dessert was presented in a cute little jar normally it is the size of the huggable bowl of quince, pear and coconut crumble. Call me traditional but the use of broken up macaroons instead of a traditional oat/butter/sugar/nuts crumble mixture didn’t agree with me as it was too chunky and dry.

Pannacottas are normally a ‘lighter’ dessert option but not this one – layers of chocolate pannacotta, strawberry cream and strawberry sorbet will leave you hugging your stomach. The popping candy is an unexpected bit of fun as well!

And if you like doughnuts, the ones at Henry and the Fox are worth raving about. Beautifully light, fried and sugar-dusted morsels with a dark chocolate dipping sauce for extra extravagance.

Henry and the Fox hits the mark mostly with familiar food done in a sophisticated way and presented with care, all at a very reasonable price. As you’d expect from a Paul Mathis operation the execution and service is professional. And you will definitely not leave hungry.

Henry and the Fox,  +
MON – FRI: 7.30am – 10pm


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HOT: High Tea at the Movies, Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon St, Carlton

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For three weekends my local cinema Cinema Nova are holding High Tea At The Movies – the more refined version of the multiplex Gold Class experience.

For $39 you get to sip tea, bubble or a Pimms cocktail and receive a box of treats while enjoying a new release film. I was invited to try their high tea during their screening of the French comedy .

First of all, this is not high tea of the quality that you’d expect from a grand hotel or tea salon. You do, after all, have to eat with food perched on your lap or on a tiny little side table by your cinema seat, so there’s only so much dainty presentation that’s possible. The cardboard box does feel a bit like a Qantas airline meal but aesthetics aside the food inside is actually quite good and certainly a step up from popcorn, chips and an icecream.

You receive two savoury nibbles (a smoked salmon crostini and chicken sandwich) but overwhelmingly the treats are sweet – a surprisingly good macaron, a run-of-the-mill chocolate chip biscuit, three miniature tartlets then your choice of a large tartlet with the same flavours.

My recommendation is the lemon meringue pie – I loved the neatly piped rows of meringue on the top – but avoid the strawberry tart which was filled with a very runny and messy custard.

Given the nature of the food it’s actually not advisable to eat during the film – so when they say 3pm for a 3:30pm screening I recommend arriving on time so you can relax with your food and drinks. Also there are no previews so you don’t want to be stumbling over people’s glasses or pots of tea and eating pastries in the dark while the action is happening on screen.

As for the film itself – let’s just say it was a frothy, rollicking comedy all about food, with lots of ridiculous plot twists and one instance of pretty cringe-worthy racial stereotyping. I think you’ll fare better with the other films coming up – this weekend High Tea At The Movies will be showing a period drama about the Danish royal family called  (not featuring Princess Mary) and the next weekend will be , which recently won Best Picture at the Toronto Film Festival.

HOT: Long Weekend in Bendigo (Part 2) – Where to Eat

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A few weeks ago I visited Bendigo for a long weekend and wrote up my take on things to do in the city. Today is part 2 of my Bendigo trip with notes about where to eat. Firstly thanks to my two sources of Bendigo foodie information – the lovely Melbourne Gastronome who recently took a food and wine trip to Bendigo and surrounds and my friend N who grew up in ‘Benders’.

Chancery Lane

You can take a Melburnian out of Melbourne but you can’t take a love of laneways out of a Melburnian. Chancery Lane off Pall Mall is Bendigo’s laneway of food and art in the CBD and it was our first stop on our arrival into town. At one end is the bustling wine bar The Dispensary and the other end is the Spanish-inspired , with a designer boutique, beautician, paste-ups and witty stencil art in between.

The Dispensary, 9 Chancery Lane Bendigo +

This all-day cafe/restaurant/bar seems to be the place to eat in Bendigo, or maybe it was just the holidays. On the weekend it was booked out for lunch and dinner, with one solitary spot on the long central table remaining for the first lunch sitting on the public holiday Monday – just right for us!

The ambience and decor is pure, dare I say it, Melbourne alleyway dining. Small tightly packed tables, a long banquette, a long communal table and a wall of wine, with staff bustling here, there and everywhere.

The food is Mediterranean influenced with an a la carte list of small to large dishes available for lunch ranging from a wallet-friendly $15 to $34. There’s also a good value lunch offer available 7 days a week with a limited menu allowing a choice of two courses and a glass of Victorian wine or craft beer plus coffee/tea for $35. From the a la carte menu we shared three dishes – saganaki, roasted quail and 18 hour slow cooked lamb cushion.

The saganaki was not particularly memorable – can’t go too wrong with a hunk of fried cheese –  while the generous proportion of quail was well-cooked but underseasoned and sitting atop a quinoa and almond salad that was overseasoned.

The most successful dish was the lamb cushion, which is not a dish that I would normally order. Beautifully tender braised meat with a dollop of harissa and a Middle-eastern salad using giant couscous and smokey eggplant puree lifted the dish beyond the ubiquitous slow-cooked-meat-and-mash seen on many menus. It was also a bargain for $28 and a dish I’d happily return for.

El Gordo, 9 Chancery Lane Bendigo +

El Gordo means ‘The Fat One’ but is actually also the name of the big national lottery price in Spain. I’m not sure what the cafe is referencing so let’s just say they specialise in food, coffee and art exhibitions in a hole-in-the-wall space.

We had lunch there near to their closing time which meant only two choices remained – a duck and celeriac pie or a bacon, potato and Emmental pie, both made by Piper Street Food Company in Kyneton.

It’s hard to judge a cafe based on the main meal being sourced from elsewhere, so I’ll just say that the pies use a British-style shortcrust pastry (ie made with lard and quite firm) and the potato pie filling was underseasoned. Definitely have the duck pie instead.

Of their sweets some of them are also sourced from elsewhere, while some are made in house. We chose to share a housemade zucchini loaf – a cake your granny would be proud of, seriously moist and not too sweet with knowledge that it could count as one of your five-a-day veges! On the other hand the citrus magdalena got the thumbs down – dry and crumbly instead of light and fluffy.
The Epicurean, 79 Mitchell St. Bendigo +61 3 5443 2699

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Like it or not, the truth is that Bendigo is still a provincial city, which means shops may close on Saturday afternoons and restaurants don’t open on Sundays or Mondays. Given it was also a public holiday weekend I thought it safest to have provisions to hand and the staff at The Dispensary directed me to The Epicurean.
The Epicurean is an Italian gourmet deli and providores which has a substantial range of take-home meals along with bread, smallgoods, cheeses and cakes and sweets (you can also dine in). You can fill a large tub for $15.50 and a small tub for $9 and given a large tub easily feeds two to three people it’s a complete bargain.

I chose a wide range of different pastas that I thought would fare well in our accommodation’s microwave. Of them, I most enjoyed the gnocchi with a very flavoursome Napolitana sauce, while their home-made chicken liver pate (a very generous tub for around $6.50) was delicious on lavosh and with some equally reasonably priced Dutch smoked cheddar.

Other Bendigo dining suggestions that I didn’t get to but come recommended:
  • The Good Loaf, a sourdough bakery that was once a petrol station.
  • Masons – all day eatery, wine bar and pantry.
  • Wine Bank on View – a good looking and bustling wine bar.
  • – cute and quaint cafe.
For more Bendigo foodie ideas check out the Food Fossickers guide.

HOT: Momotaro Rahmen, 392 Bridge Rd, Richmond

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Everyone has their favourite winter comfort food. For my mum it’s Ma Po Tofu. For RM it’s shepherds pie. For my friend M it’s lasagne.

For me, it’s soup noodles. Laksa, won ton noodles, pho – nothing beats hugging a big steaming bowl of noodle goodness when it’s blowing a gale outside.

Momotaro is a low-key family establishment that bills itself as a Japanese Noodle Bar and they specialise in ramen (not sure what the errant ‘h’ is doing in their name, I’ve never seen it spelled like that). When I visited most of the other customers were Japanese so I think they have a expat following for their authentic dishes (plus there’s lots of Japanese mags for browsing). They also have curries, teriyaki and gyoza on offer but really go there for the noodles.

The mark of a good ramen stall is their tonkotsu – a white soup broth made from pork bones. At Momotaro for a mere $11 you are presented with a rustic bowl of tonkotsu soup with a large slice of charshu pork, your daily vegetable serving requirements in the form of bean sprouts and cabbage and a filling bundle of ramen.

As you can see, the bowl of soup was so huge it acted as a face sauna! Momotaro’s ramen will not only open up your pores, it is an extremely hearty and warming meal. I found myself progressively stripping off layers and layers of clothing as I slurped on the soup and noodles, feeling like I was making no headway at all. The Magic Pudding of Ramen!

The broth itself is unlike any other tonkotsu I’ve had – mainly because it was light and frothy. I guess that goes with the family-style nature of the restaurant – at home you’d probably not bother skimming your broth for hours on end just to make it clear. I don’t think the frothiness affected the flavour at all, with its rich porky aromas.

As for the noodles and the toppings, they were good but not particularly unique although I did appreciate that the noodles were homemade. It really was all about the soup.

Fancy it is not. Good value for great flavours it certainly is.

Momotaro Rahmen, +
Lunch – 11.30am – 2.30pm
Dinner – 6pm – 9.30pm
Closed – Mondays, Sundays & Public Holidays


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HOT: Roll’d, Goldsborough Lane, 181 Williams St, Melbourne

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I’ve always thought that street food trucks (or better still, street food bikes) would make a killing in the CBD. Whether it’s hot dogs or crepes, the characteristics of street food make it the perfect workday lunch – food that’s generally quick, tasty, filling and cheap.

Roll’d is a new lunch joint serving up Vietnamese street food to hungry office workers in the CBD. Their menu is small and focused on five popular dishes that you’re probably already familiar with – Cuốn (rice paper rolls), Bánh mì (baguettes), Gỏi (salad), Pho and Bún (vermicelli noodles).

My friends and I have tried almost everything on their menu, both eat in and takeaway, and we can recommend it all to varying degrees. We’re not the only ones to like Roll’d as apparently the queues have been snaking out the door every day since it opened around 6 weeks ago. Note that the ordering and pick up process is actually very smooth and efficient given how busy they are.

I could eat soup noodles every day in winter so naturally I gravitated towards the beef pho ($8.50). It’s not a large bowl in the manner you’d expect to see in Richmond, Springvale or Footscray but it’s filling enough and beautifully presented in a lacquered vessel and wooden platter. The flavour in the broth was a bit weak for me and the ratio of meat/veges and noodles was a little unbalanced but fortunately the bouncy rice noodles are my favourite part so I didn’t mind. I liked the option of fresh chilli but would have appreciated some Vietnamese mint and more bean sprouts too. But everyone likes to customise their pho a little differently.

The rice paper rolls are a standout. Made fresh every day they do a brisk trade in stylish cardboard and cellophane takeaway boxes with fillings such as lemongrass pork and prawn ($2.80), soft shell crab and avocado ($3) and BBQ chicken with sesame seeds ($2.6) plus a choice of sauce from nuoc mam to chilli mayo. I highly recommend the crab – a mouthful of crunchy and smooth at the same time, while the pork was a bit dry. The rolls are deceptively filling (2 or 3 is enough for even a large appetite) and transport well, with no hardening of the rice paper wrapping perceptible even after several hours. Cuốn certainly makes an interesting change from the ubiquitous sushi handrolls.

For dinner on the same night RM and I shared two Bún – two bowls of pork spring rolls  ($7.90) and roast pork with cracking ($8.90) with vermicelli rice noodles, heaps of fresh veges and herbs.  The roast pork is worth ordering – just the right amount of salty, crunchy meat to counter the other mild ingredients. The spring rolls did not fare well on their travels home and were very soggy so it’s hard to judge how they would have been be fresh.

While it’s not the best Vietnamese street food you’ll find in the CBD (for instance, I prefer N Lee Bakery‘s  Bánh mì and the Prawn & Crab net spring roll salad at Miss Chu is amazing) the advantage of Roll’d is that they are located at the legal end of town with nothing else like it within walking distance, they’re quick and friendly and the food is comparable in price to a sandwich or sushi.

Roll’d, , Melbourne +
Mon-Fri 11am-3pm


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HOT: Slow, Slow, Slow Spanish Style for Winter, Queen Victoria Market Electrolux Cooking School, 69 Victoria St, Melbourne

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Frank Camorra’s MoVida is well known to all food lovers in Melbourne, but Dave Roberts is the head chef who quietly gets on with the job of serving us some of Melbourne’s best Spanish food.

With wintery climes blowing outside and not very much time on my hands to stand in front of a stove, I am in love with  my slow cooker at the moment. In the demonstration class run at the cosy  Queen Victoria Market Electrolux Cooking School Dave demonstrated several slow cooked Spanish dishes that have at various times appeared on the MoVida menu using cheap and often overlooked secondary cuts – pork neck, beef cheek and pork belly ($90 with tastings and matching wine).

First up was a demonstration of sous vide technique. Not something I’m likely to replicate at home but worth the 36 hour cooking time when you’re presented with the melt-in-your-mouth pork belly with a salted, crispy skin. At MoVida they cook a lot with sous vide – the machines are probably switched off for only an hour a week and regularly run overnight.

The second dish was pork neck with prunes. Apparently this recipe came about because someone booked MoVida for a function and they completely over-ordered the quantity of prunes required for a dish. Faced with the prospect of throwing out all those excess prunes, Dave developed this sweet, sticky and savoury slow-cooked meat dish instead.

I’m not normally much of a fan of prunes but this dish was deliciously warming with a classic slow-cooked combination of onion, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, sherry and dark roasted chicken stock. Dave’s tip was the season every component as it went into the post to seal in the flavours and he uses a Clara Blanca  by Seppetsfield Winery.

The third dish was a braised beef cheek in Pedro Ximenez which has appeared in the menu in various guises since MoVida first opened 10 years ago – winter or summer, it always sells well. The recipe was another combination of storecupboard ingredients – onions, carrots, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, star anise, red wine – plus a whole lot of PX of which MoVida buys a mid-range quality in bulk (if you’ve ever bought it for a recipe it can be very expensive at the bottle shop).

At the end of three courses of meat I was rolling out the door into the cold night air, inspired to whip out my slow cooker and start braising all weekend. Alternatively, I’ll just make a booking at MoVida – it’s been a while since my last visit.

Slow, Slow, Slow Spanish Style for Winter, Queen Victoria Market Electrolux Cooking School, 69 Victoria St, Melbourne +

HOT: Long Weekend in Bendigo (Part 1) – What to do

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Hope you all had a fun and restful long weekend! Did you go anywhere interesting?

I was drawn by the rare opportunity to visit the Grace Kelly: Style Icon Exhibition at Bendigo Art Gallery so we headed to Bendigo for a short break.

I’ve only been to Bendigo once before  (in fact, for last year’s special Bendigo Art Gallery Exhibition on White Wedding Dresses) and it’s actually the perfect location for a mini-break. It’s just under 2 hours by car from Melbourne and enroute are great foodie towns like Kyneton, Woodend and Castlemaine. The city centre is easily walkable and the population is big enough to support a range of eateries and accommodation for varying tastes and budgets. There are a few notable attractions that will fill your days without feeling like you need to sightsee from morning to night.

Here’s Part 1 of my long weekend in Bendigo with my selected list of things to do. Part 2 will be where to eat!

See Grace Kelly: Style Icon

Grace Kelly: Style Icon is the third exhibition that the Bendigo Art Gallery has presented in conjunction with London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and it has been hugely popular for the gallery.

The exhibition contains pieces from the wardrobe of movie star Grace Kelly, who later became Princess Grace of Monaco. As you can imagine, there are beautiful costumes from her films as well as haute couture outfits from her role as royalty by designers such as Dior, Balenciaga, Givenchy and Yves St Laurent.

The exhibition was not large and I wandered through it in just over an hour. Mostly I found it intriguing to ponder on what made up this movie star/princess’ style. In an exhibition focused on the art of the dress, rarely was the fabric patterned and rarely was the colour bright. This was a collection of dresses where ‘less’ was ‘more’ and it was subtle details, such as the contrast of textured lace against same coloured fabrics, that created interest.

The exhibition also showed a smattering of jewels, shoes, hats, bags (including the famous Hermes ‘Kelly’ bag) and the omnipresent white gloves. These were also careful detailed with occasional beading but in no way showy pieces.

Thankfully, the gallery must have thought through the issues of high attendance. There was text above eye-line, making it easy to read about the pieces in a crowd. Many of the pieces were set in boxes, allowing viewing from all sides and reducing the shoulder-to-shoulder shuffle near wall-set cabinets. There was a large text explanation readily at hand.

The exhibition closes 17 June and make sure you book ahead to avoid disappointment.

Grace Kelly: Style Icon, Bendigo Art Gallery 42 View Street  Bendigo +

Visit Golden Dragon Museum

The Golden Dragon Museum bills itself as the ‘Chinese Cultural Centre of Australia’ and your $11 entry includes entry into the museum displays, the Chinese gardens and the Kuan Yin Temple.

As a first-generation Chinese immigrant I found it fascinating to learn about the historical significance of Chinese people in Australia. It charts the origins of the majority of the Chinese miners who came for the gold rush in the 1850s with artefacts, furniture and everyday goods and follows their assimilation into Anglo Australian society and their contributions to the communities of Bendigo and Victoria.

On a balcony surrounding the circular central gallery is a collection of the Chinese Dragons and their associated regalia used in the Bendigo’s annual Easter procession. Bendigo owns the oldest, as well as the longest, Chinese imperial dragons in the world!

For those who like Chinese furniture and art the museum holds the St Albans collection, quite a stunning bequest of imperial furniture, carvings and porcelain donated to the museum by John St Alban, an antique collector in South Australia.

Golden Dragon Museum, 1 – 11 Bridge St, Bendigo +

Browse through Book Now

Secondhand bookstores are RM’s weakness and you should have seen his excitement when he discovered Book Now. The store holds the mystique of old dusty tomes waiting to be discovered with the grandeur of a two-levelled Bodleian-esque library. Books are sorted by category (with seating in nooks and crannies between shelves) with highlights including the non-fiction literature and antiquarian collections.

RM was tempted by a collection of Christopher Isherwood’s diaries and Graham Greene’s collected letters but in a rare moment of self-control came away only with a book about James Boswell’s biography of Johnson and Ha Jin’s In the Pond.

Book Now, 1 Farmers Lane, Bendigo +61 (0)

Bendigo Creek Linear Park

The Bendigo Creek Linear Park is a long bike and walking path which connects the White Hills Botanic Gardens to Lake Weeroona which has ducks and swans and a children’s playground. It runs through the central city’s English-style Rosalind Park which has arched avenues of golden autumnal trees and an old-fashioned Victorian conservatory.

Stay at Jubilee Villa

I booked  our accommodation through the excellent online booking service via Bendigo Tourism. This seems to be the main hub of accommodation listings as many of the places listed with Bendigo Tourism don’t have their own websites. The site is easily searchable for your specific needs.

The main advantage of Jubilee Villa is that it’s a 5 minute stroll to Bendigo CBD and across the road from the Chinese Golden Dragon Museum and a stop of the Bendigo Talking Tram. In addition it’s a charming Victorian block that’s been restored to provide B&B accommodation in restored servant’s quarters or a studio apartment /loft.

We needed a 2 bedroom self-contained unit so were allocated the servant’s quarters. While the building had one side facing the main highway we did not find it noisy through the night, with only the occasional truck rumble penetrating through the thick brick walls.

The accommodation was really charming. The main bedroom had split system heating with a firm double bed (plus electric blankets) and a bathroom with two person spa. From the bedroom you entered a dining room with a bar fridge, microwave, tea/coffee, toaster which used to be old medical consulting rooms and there’s a cabinet full of antique medical jars and instruments. The second bedroom has twin single beds and a second TV and heating was provided by bar heaters so it was significantly cooler than the main bedroom.

Other than checking in with the friendly owners we were left alone for during our stay. A low-key continental breakfast of crumpets, wholemeal bread, raising toast, cornflakes, Weetbix and orange juice was provided for the two mornings.

Jubilee Villa (Donna and Darryl Henderson) 170 McCrae St, Bendigo +

 

HOT: Mezzo Bar and Grill, 35 Little Bourke St, Melbourne

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It’s been a while since I visited Mezzo, an understated restaurant which doesn’t grab the big headlines (well, it’s not Mexican or a food truck) but just quietly goes about serving good quality Sicilian-influenced food at reasonable prices in classy but still relaxed surroundings.

However, a workday lunch date at the Paris end of town provided a good reason to try their $30 two course Express Lunch menu (it is also a pre-theatre menu between 5- 7pm). You can choose an entrée and main or main and dessert but given Mezzo’s reputation in their pasta and signature tiramisu our party of three all ordered exactly the same thing – trofie with veal and pork bolognese and a tiramisu to finish.

Three shallow bowls of pasta arrived pronto and steaming with fragrant ragu. The tiny twists captured and absorbed the sauce well though I think I preferred the previous incarnation of a similar dish –  cavatelli with meatballs and pecorino sauce. While the serving size didn’t look very big it was sufficiently filling especially when paired with the generous portion of dessert we were given.

The tiramisu was a very sweet, light version of the classic Italian dessert. It could have done with less cocoa dusting the top (easy to choke if you get it down the wrong way, as we discovered) but otherwise faultless if you like your tiramisu sweet, with only a faint hint of espresso and not very alcoholic.

Mezzo doesn’t set off any fireworks but it is somewhere you know you’ll enjoy a good meal with friendly service and the damage to your wallet won’t be bad at all. Put it on your list of reliable favourites.

Mezzo Bar and Grill, +

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HOT: The Pint of Milk, 19 North Rd, Newport

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The Pint of Milk is a lone ranger.

It’s in the middle of nowhere in Newport but has developed a reputation for excellent food and coffee such that westsiders travel up and down Douglas Parade to hang out there.

As its name suggests it used to be a milk bar so it’s not a huge space. There’s a communal table, some smaller tables surrounding it and some prized outdoor tables for cyclists, dog-walkers and families with young kids. They’ve retained some features from the old corner store such as the hardwood floors and old newspaper boards, while modernising it exposed light bulbs, tiled wall features and birds in flight by Jan Flook made from old tyres (as part of Art in Public Spaces).

The breakfast and lunch menu is extensive and available all day, with original dishes presenting a heavy Middle Eastern influence. Aaron, C, RM and I spanned both sides of the menu with a spiced chickpea, tomato and cumin cassoulet, two runny poached eggs flecked with hazelnut dukkah and a spoonful of sumac labne ($ 16), lamb kofta with quinoa, tabbouleh, babaghanoush and garlic yoghurt  ($19), soup of the week (potato and leek) $14 and a roasted veggie stack, taleggio cheese, sourdough crostini and herb dukka ($15).

The kitchen ticked the boxes for the 3 Fs – every dish was fresh, flavoursome and filling. Actually a particular highlight was the potato croquette ($3). It is worth ordering this as a side dish, you will love the crunchy through the crumbed shell to the creamy saffron-tinged mash inside.

Another highlight was the dessert. The cranberry and almond slice ($4) was like a soft polenta cake studded with fruit while the blondie was a sweet crumbly slice best shared between two.

While The Pint of Milk is not my local, it is a cafe worth checking out of you’re in the area – particularly before or after a visit to Scienceworks so you can avoid the not-so-exciting food offered at a tourist attraction.

For more delicious photos of  The Pint of Milk, check out Fatboo and Milk Chai Honey.

The Pint of Milk , 19 North Rd, Newport +
Mon – Fri: 7:00 am – 4:00 pm
Sat – Sun: 8:00 am – 4:00 pm

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