ALMOST HOME.....VEERING VIA VICTORIA

Now I am in Melbourne, Victoria and had a great flat white coffee this morning at The Convent Farmers' Market! It is located in an inner suburb but it is hard to believe when you look around and see nothing but bushland and the Yarra River... see the photos.

 

 

 

I enjoyed talking to the bloke from "Native Oz Cuisine" who sells several bushfoods, including my favourite, Bush Tomatoes. We bought some of his "Strawberry-gum infused pannacotta" which means a type of lovely, thick creme caramel kind of thing, infused with the amazing aroma of the strawberry gumtree leaf. His wife is aboriginal and together they have the only bushfoods company owned by Aboriginal people.

 

There was an Australian coffee stall selling coffee grown and roasted in Australia.....check out the website "Eureka Coffee".

 

Jack bought a kilogram bag of organic asparagus seconds for $4.... who says organic is expensive? When in season it should be easy to find bargains like this!

Here is a photo of coriander with its roots and stems on,  as I was describing to various people on my trip....it is always sold this way here, and you use the roots and stems in the cooking then add the chopped leaves only at the end. This is often used in Thai cooking.

 

 

 

 

We had breakfast at Lentil as Anything...a vegetarian cafe where you just pay what you think the food is worth by putting some money in a jar as you leave. They serve mostly organic food and employ refugees or disadvantaged people and now have 4 cafes in Melbourne so obviously they are doing something right. They also often have live music, featuring refugees such as African drummers etc.

 

 

 

 

I love the rusty steel cut-outs of typical Australian farm dogs which lead you along a path to the community garden and the Collingwood Children's Farm, from the Farmers' Market...

 

 

.....and the wonderful decorations on the boardwalk...

 

 

 

On the way home Jack insisted we drop into the "Pure Bread" bakery, whose selection of patisserie equalled most I saw in France! 

 

 

 

Much later we went out for dinner to a Middle Eastern restaurant called ZumZum and finished our absolutely fantastic dinner with Mahalabia...... which was these soft, nut-flavoured threads on top of a delicate, rosewater and nut infused custard..... well, somebody has to do the research!!