[Melbourne 2022] South Melbourne Market @ Coventry Street

We visited South Melbourne Market at least twice during our stay in Melbourne. Best of all, it has a food hall where there's table and chairs for diners to enjoy their food and drinks bought from the various food shops. We also did our grocery shopping for meats like lamb cutlets and beef steak.

fresh seafood

We became quite fond of Aptus Seafood. Kept going back for their lobsters and sashimi. Here's a look of what we ate from Aptus.

The scallops were kind of a gamble though. We bought two and one was sweet and the other was just bland. I had forgotten which type of oysters we had gotten but it was of a mid-range price. Plump and briny, and tasted best with a squeeze of lemon. The sea urchin was huge! Hahaa, it wasn't as funky as I'd thought it would be. Pretty nice but watch out for the some of those spiny stuffs that might break off.

scallops

yummy oysters

sea urchin

sashimi grade tuna, salmon and king fish

The sashimi of 3 types of fish was at about AUD60+. Averaging at about AUD2.50 per piece. Loved the sashimi. Fresh and naturally tasty even without soy sauce and wasabi.

I was shocked when we had lobsters on our first visit to this market. Lobsters for brunch? OK! I think it was about AUD47 per piece.

Mornay Bay Rock Lobster

cheesy

have a bite!

We tried the grilled lobster with cheese and another time, we had one which was more like a lobster salad. If you're very fond of cheese, then the grilled cheese lobster had plenty. If you're a fan of potato salad, then the lobster salad would be the right choice. Both have plenty of meat but you could taste more of the lobster flavour in the salad version. The potato salad was very good too! Both ways, we enjoyed every bite.

Lobster salad

food hall

let's walk walk

I loved walking at the outer market area to see the vegetables and fruits.

peppers and root vegetables

i yam what i yam

potatoes galore!

The coffee from Padre was pretty much to my liking. We got our magic from there. Thanks Hence for queuing for it!

magic

But what is this mysterious magic coffee that exists in Melbourne? Magic coffee is made when steamed milk is added to a double ristretto, made from espresso. Normally served in a 5oz cup (160ml). In comparison, piccolo is 3 to 4oz (85 to 114ml).

At the moment, I don't think there's any cafe/coffee shops that serves magic in Singapore. If you know of any, do let me know. Thanks in advance!

Definitely felt more alive after having coffee.

Oh, there's a nice Pie Shop here to satisfy our pie cravings. 

Pie Shop

Guinness Beef Pie

yummy beef pie

Chicken Pie

inner view of chicken pie

K is for...

Hence asked me to guess what does the 'K' imprinted on the pie stands for. I didn't go with them to buy so could only taste some to guess.

hmmm

Wow, this tasted even funkier than the sea urchin! Hahahaa. K stands for Kidney pie. Wookay, I wouldn't want to eat this again. Give me Guinness Beef Pie, anytime! The chicken pie was nice too but not my preference. The pie is about AUD10 for a one pax portion. There's family sized pies too.

Ivan said we must get the cannoli from Cannoleria. It was unforgettable for him.

Cannoleria

one of each please

pretty box of cannoli

Sicilian

Chocolate

One thing to note is not to leave out the cannoli for too long. Enjoyed the crisp shell and the various fillings. Loved that it wasn't too sweet.

We were intrigued by a shop that sells dim sim. So, we had to get some to try to verify if all fried dim sim taste the same.

let's queue for some dim sim

looks good

sesame prawn toast @AUD4.20

tasty prawn toast

The prawn toast was kind of pricey but it was surely tasty. Happy to report that the fried dim sim here was so much better than the other one that I had tried. Keke. Steamed one I didn't enjoy that much probably because it was already cold when I ate it.

pork dim sim (steamed)

pork dim sim (fried)

There are recycle bins around the market for us to dispose the empty containers etc. There's even special ones to dispose of coffee cups. 

recycle bin

South Melbourne Market

Address: 322-326 Coventry St, South Melbourne VIC 3205, Australia

Website: https://www.southmelbournemarket.com.au/

Business Hours:

Closed on Mon, Tues, Thurs.

Sat, Sun, Wed: 8am–4pm

Fri:  8am–5pm

Aptus Seafood

Website: https://www.aptusseafoods.com.au/

Pie Shop

Website: https://emeraldhillprovedore.com.au/pages/small-town-pie-co

Padre Coffee

Website: https://www.padrecoffee.com.au/pages/south-melbourne

Cannoleria

Website: https://www.cannoleriabythatsamore.com.au/

[Melbourne 2022] Top Paddock Cafe @ Richmond Victoria

A Melbourne icon, so how can we miss the chance to visit since we were within the vicinity. Although our bellies were still rather full from all the scones, vanilla slice and coffee earlier on...

The place was bustling with customers, not surprisingly since it was on the weekends when we visited. Lucky us, we managed to get a table.

menu

latte

affogato

Breakfast Salad

The breakfast salad sure looked pretty. Plus, it has kale. I love kale. The pumpkin puree was sweet and enjoyable. By the way, what is tamari seeds? Are they like sunflower seeds? It added crunchy texture to the dish. This salad came in miso dressing and with a poached egg. Overall, lovely flavours and I can't say no to more vegetables!

Ivan said we must try the hotcake. So we did. But I didn't know it would be this huge! Wow.

Blueberry & Ricotta Hotcake

The seasonal berries then, was strawberries. Presentation was on-point. And more toasted seeds! But I do think the addition of the flower petals was kinda cool.

The hotcake itself was denser than I thought it would be. But then, I haven't had any ricotta hotcakes for like.... forever. 

of blueberries, hotcakes and cream

The food was good and the staff are friendly. I was so stuffed after this.

Top Paddock Cafe

Address: 658 Church St, Richmond VIC 3121, Australia

Website: https://thetoppaddock.com/

Contact: +61 3 9429 4332

Business Hours:

Mon-Fri: 7am–4pm

Sat-Sun: 8am-4pm

[Melbourne 2022] Red Hill Estate @ Mornington Peninsula

One of our to-do in Australia, and with Australia being a wine producing country, is to visit a vineyard and sample some wines. We had the opportunity to do so in Mornington. On our way to our AirBnb, we passed by a few vineyards. 

After doing some searches on Google, we decided to visit Red Hill Estate first. We reached there after lunch time and hence, we were like the last customers for the wine sampling. Another small group had just finished their session when we arrived.

Red Hill Estate vineyard

view from the carpark

at Red Hill Estate

vineyard

The estate is beautiful. We spent some minutes in the freezing wind to take some photos.

can see the sea from here

let's go sample some wine

Cellar Door

We were in a group of 4, and all are recommended to have the same wine for the tasting. Took the AUD10 per pax package where one gets to sample 6 different glasses of wine.

let's begin

We started with 2017 Blanc de Blancs. Lovely pale straw in colour, refreshing and crisp tasting. Mildly fruity with hints of lemon and apples. 

2017 Blanc de Blancs

Next, was the 2019 Cellar Door Release Chardonnay. A fuller/rounder taste when compared to the Blanc de Blancs. Nice.

 2019 Cellar Door Release Chardonnay

2020 Merricks Grove Pinot Noir

The 2020 Merricks Grove Pinot Noir was interesting...Its profile had described it as "sweet pungent Christmas spices of nutmeg, clove and cinnamon on the nose" and indeed, I was overwhelmed by clove. Pretty strong, I must say. This was the only one that I didn't finish.

Let's try something familiar, so we went for the 2020 Cellar Door Release Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon. Balanced with juicy plum notes.

2020 Cellar Door Release Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon

Then, we ended with the 2018 Late Harvest Pinot Gris as it is the sweetest of the lot.

2018 Late Harvest Pinot Gris

Sweet and jammy, with floral honey hints. Good as dessert wine.

The staff who attended to us was friendly and cheerful. She was delightful and the ambiance was really casual. Although we were the last in the shop, she didn't rush us through and allowed us to pace ourselves. But of course, we drank pretty quickly too. Started at about 230pm and were done by 3pm. Hahaa!

Guess which wine we bought home...hahaa, did you guess it correctly?

2021 Cellar Door Release Rose @AUD34 per bottle

Thank you Ivan, Tracy and Hence for the experience!

Red Hill Estate 

Address:  53 Shoreham Rd, Red Hill South VIC 3937, Australia

Website: https://www.redhillestate.com.au/

Contact: +61 3 5989 2838

Business Hours:

Daily: 11AM–5PM

[Melbourne 2022] Peninsula Pantry @ Rye

This place is like literally walking distance from our accommodation. But it rained that morning, and we wouldn't want to risk a slip and fall, so we drove to this small cosy cafe for brekkie. Of course, we were going to Arthur's Seat after that for some quick sightseeing.

Our accommodation host actually recommended Peninsula Pantry and pointed out to the bakes that we needed to try; Vanilla Slice and Cinnamon Scroll.

Peninsula Pantry

Was greeted upon entry and the young staff (whom we later found out, his name is Jean/John) and he was nice and friendly. Got us started real quickly and we chose our breakfast items in no time.

menu

let's have a look

let's get a meat pie too

cakes, pies and rolls

I like to start my day with scrambled eggs. So we got one of those, and the rest added bacon and upon my insistence, there's spinach too. Good, balanced diet!

free range eggs on toast (with bacon and spinach) @AUD19

Loved those eggs and even more the spinach. The vegetables was just so fresh and plump. Yummy. And, the bacon was not done till super crisp and retained a meaty bite to it. I liked it. Perfect savoury accompaniment to the eggs.

We tried the Beef and Burgundy meat pie and it turned out to be great! Served warm, and was surprised at how tangy the sauce was. Granted the meat inside the pie wasn't alot, but I think the star was the sauce itself. Lovely.

Beef and Burgundy meat pie @AUD7.50

lovely sauce

My first introduction to sausage roll (which happened to be one of Tracy's favourite item in this trip), is at Peninsula Pantry.

Sausage Roll @AUD5.90

sausage roll (inner view)

I think I couldn't wrap my mind around this authentic sausage roll concept. My impression of sausage rolls are...it need to have a hotdog inside. So a sausage roll with 'minced meat' inside.. hmm...not something that I'd get again. Give me meat pie anytime!

For the fresh bakes, the cinnamon scroll and the vanilla slice did not disappoint!

Vanilla Slice

Ahh, I actually thought vanilla slice is like a cake, and which it was not. It is a thick custard square with pastry ontop and lots of sugar dusting. As this version here was the first vanilla slice I've tasted (out of the total 3 tasted during the trip), it set the standard for the next ones. Loved the soft custard texture and the fresh crisp of the pastry. Looks heavy but do-able when shared.

Cinnamon Scroll

Oh, cinnamon scroll is like our cinnamon bun. Thought it would be super sweet but it was actually pretty good. Sweet but as a dessert should be.

Service was good and friendly, and thank you Chef for popping out to see us too. We enjoyed our meal here!

Peninsula Pantry

Address: 43A Wondaree St, Rye VIC 3941, Australia

Website: https://www.peninsulapantry.com.au/

Contact: +61 3 5985 2628

Business Hours:

Closed on Tues.

Wed-Sun:  8AM–3PM