[Melbourne 2022] Pt. Leo Estate @ Mornington Peninsula

We popped by this winery on a wet rainy day. We had breakfast at Peninsula Pantry, then went up to Arthur's Seat to view some sceneries before making our way to Pt. Leo Estate for some wine.

First impression of Pt. Leo Estate, is that it is huge. Love the space.

iconic doorway

King Bottle Tree

We headed to the Cellar Door to sample some wine. Opted for the Premium Wine Tasting for the 4 of us.

Premium Wine Tasting @ AUD20 per pax

view from my seat

METHODÉ TRADITIONNELLE SPARKLING 2018 @AUD76 per bottle

citrus aromas with bready hints of brioche 

First drink was a blend of Pinot Noir, Clone and Chardonnay. Refreshing and sparkly. Just what we needed.

drink two at one go to compare its taste

Next we had the two Chardonnay's; Chardonnay 2018 and Reserve Chardonnay 2019. Were informed to compare its taste, and thus to sip it one after the other. Not sure why, but after having these two...I thought I had tasted cheese. It was supposed to be curd-like lemon creaminess.

Next, we had the Pinot Noir. Yay!

Pinot Noir 2018

Medium bodied and tasted of ripe berries. Just my type of drink. 

cheers~

We bought a bottle of Pinot Noir after that, and had AUD10 discounted off the bottle price. We also bought the tickets to the Sculpture Park to do a bit of walking and photo taking after all the wine. The Sculpture Park is an outdoor gallery within 330 acres of landscaped grounds.

let's go

map of the sculpture park

hope it doesn't rain

Luke 2008 (Cragg’s Rational Beings series)

benches around the park to rest your feet

Big Boy 2016 (Zadok Ben-David)

Big Boy 2016

Laura 2013 (Jaume Plensa)

travelling buddies

DRUMMER 1996 (Barry Flanagan)

perspective on sculpture's size

Share 2020 (KAWS)

It was a nice outing to Pt. Leo Estate. The stroll in the park was nice and luckily, it did not rain while we were outdoors.

Pt. Leo Estate

Address: 3649 Frankston - Flinders Rd, Merricks VIC 3916, Australia

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

Business Hours:

Mon-Fri: 11am–5pm

Sat-Sun:  11am–9:30pm

[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