Yarra Yerring and the Medhurst Burger

Ok ... I'm not sure how it happened but I think I may have possibly led someone to believe that me and M have our own bespoke Coffee roast. Small talk can be dangerous in the mouths of the inexperienced and/or socially inept.

Still it was nice to have a week day off to frolick about like the ladies who lunch ... and they don't do it much better than in those "cotswolds" style country areas like the Yarra Valley.

There are dollar signs in them there hills of undulating green. "Pour it Up" like Riri says. And we certainly did at first stop Yarra Yerring on Briarty Road. I first saw a bottle of Yarra Yerring at Seddon Wine store and was intrigued by the label looking like an old bookstyle plate and sounding like a diarist's byline .... Yarra Yerring or the Story of a Dry Red No. 2 ... something like that.

But with the sort of heartstopping prices (how does $80+ a pop sound?) that only the very select can stomach, the bottles remained securely on the shelf and out of reach. However the young guy with the floppy hair was so enthused about the winery itself that we had to experience it for ourselves.

Thankfully Melbourne threw us a lovely sunny and calm spring day and we toodled off down the Chandler onto Maroondah Hwy into wine country!

I don't really have to wax lyrical about the beauty of Yarra Valley ... its lush greeness and penchant for flooding, oh and not to mention the very real threat of bush fire in those hot dry spells of summer. But there are pay-offs - amazing panoramic views, delish produce and delectable wines.

Yarra Yerring sits on 70 acres with about 26 varieties (I believe) and all that earnest and careful viticulture produces some amazing wines but in limited supply, hence the almost shameful price points. Even the cellar door tastings aren't free, unless you actually seal the deal with a purchase. Its a $10 deposit as it were. But its worth it. They are different. The perfume hits you well before you lift the glass to your lips, and you need to take your time with these as they do change with each successive sip. Of course if you think its all a big wank, and you're happy enough with plonk in cardboard, then avoid like the plague.

I won't list all of the wines we tasted although I should mention that we were lucky enough to partake of their haute couture line - the Carrodus wines - Shiraz and Cab Merlot 2010 - both around the $250 mark. Yes ouch indeed! The Shiraz was heaven, the Cab Merlot ... well the jury's still out on that one.

Of the "standard" (remember that price point I mentioned before) wines we tasted, both me and M liked the Underhill Shiraz, I preferred the Dry Red No. 2 to M's No. 1, and M really loved the Portuguese blend which is Dry Red No. 3. Confusion much? Get into the spririt of things and you'll be fine.

So, we did end up spending a bit too much, but hey ho - dare I say it - yolo!!!

On Janice's recommendation we drove back out to Medhurst Winery for some lunch. They have the cutest little cafe/restaurant, situated just so up on the hill to afford spectacular views to go with your vittles. You can choose to sit inside, or if the weather is nice, there is outdoor seating, and you can even byo rug and set up your own little picnic. Its a wonderful spot and the staff are friendly and welcoming.

We had a chance to sample one of their wines, prices of which are less hazardous to your health. We had the Medhurst 2011 Pinot Noir - a perfectly acceptable quaffing wine - along with the special of the day - the Medhurst Burger.

The burger was thick and juicy and not overly salted which is how I like it. There are some lovely mild pickled red onions and a cornichon or 2 with a bit of plonked green salad (I forgive them this because of the pickles). Mustard out of a squeeze bottled (less said the better) and some homestyle relish were the condiments offered. In combination, it turned out to be a more than satisfactory lunch.

We made room for the recommended coffee - Coffee Supreme beans - lovingly barristed by the winemaker himself, and also for a slice of lemon semolina cake - nicely warmed up and served with cream.

After lunch, we took in a little bit of the grounds including the sharply modern winery itself, and several of the sculptures dotted around the hillside - I guess someone here likes the Heide!

And since we were in the area, we had to visit the gift shop at Yarra Valley Dairy. Sadly the old restaurant is no longer, but it still operates as a cafe and you can have tasting plates and a range of confectionaries with your glass of wine or coffee. We guiltily snuck away 2 salted caramel tarts garnished with black ash salt and inhaled them in the car.

Beautiful day, beautiful food, wonderful company - if I could bottle this I think I would be a very rich man indeed.

Doing a Thai Run in Springvale

Ok ... so we were on a bit of a wild good chase hunting down a Kalamansi lime tree in Mulgrave when we decided, since we were in the area and all, to check out Ma Dee Thai in downtown Springvale for lunch.

I first read about Ma De Thai's existence in an article on Vipoo Srivilasa in The Design Files. Vipoo is, as you can ascertain, of Thai origin and this was one of his recommendations. Although I'm not really into ceramic objet d'art, I would certainly love to own one of his pieces. And if I was anyway creatively inclined, I would also love to take one of his workshop classes, but sadly I have not been blessed. Anyways, Ma Dee Thai serves up homespun food that hits all the right asian cuisine notes.



We scored a table by the window of this unassuming corner shop and started our meal with a glass of refreshing iced milk tea, Thai style, made with that special denture staining orange tea dust.

I opted for their special - Khao Khloo Ga Pi ($12.80) - which was essentially a mound of prawny rice served with some sticky pork, omelette strips, slices of Thai sausage, cucumber and red onion slices along with a few shards of green papaya.

A microcosm of Thai street cuisine on a plate is how I would best describe this. Ok so the portion is a little small blah blah blah and its bordering on the cool side of lukewarm. But all the flavour notes are here - sweet, salty, sour and hot. It comes with a bowl of meaty soup which had little clumped bits of minced pork and slices of silken tofu. A tad salty perhaps but so yummy.

M had the Khao kana moo grob ($10), which was Stir fried crispy pork and Kai Lan on rice. Lovely combination of flavours, both pork and greens were suitably crunchy, and the salted soy bean and oyster sauce flavours were spot on. He loved it.

We also ordered the Papaya Salad ($7.00) to share. And I don't believe I'm exaggerating when I say that this was the best Papaya salad I have had, well to my taste anyways. It wasn't too tart like some of the others and the Papaya tasted fresh along with the raw snake beans. The unpickled cabbage chunks were a little wierd and perhaps didn't quite contribute to the whole than if they had been pickled. Anyhoo, delicious!

Again I'm not going to claim authenticity, but at the end of the day, if it tastes good, then we should simply just let it be. Don't forget to check out the in house jerky that they sell at the cashiers. We chose the pork jerky, a bit like Bak Kwa, but perhaps not as sweet. There's also a range of sweet cakes to be had, but we were being good (and don't you just hate that phrase and state of being!!!)

We had some time to walk around Springvale's environs and also do a bit of Thai grocery shopping (quite a few round here). I haven't really been here since my Uni days when I used to grocery shop in Clayton and than train it here to have my Stir Fried Beef and Kai Lan on rice fix. But that was 20 years ago or so. Things look a little bit different now.

In our childlike enthusiasm to try everything, we bought this bottle of Palms Juice Coconut Nectar to quench our thirst, which was a bit of a mistake because it was just sugar water in a bottle. Still it was cute.

We also bought a requisite tin of Police Dog denture staining Thai tea dust - well actually 2 large tins! I only hope that there's nothing cancerous in the tea leaf detritus that may cause harm with extended consumption. But as the young kids say, or should that be abbreviate ... yolo!

More importantly we discovered this bottle of Ground Chilli with Fried Garlic - brand name concealed by pricetag!! We have already inhaled half the bottle its so addictive. The last few meals have been dictated by the need to incorporate this as a condiment. Definitely a staple for your cupboard.

So Springvale is a little far from where we are, but until Bangkok comes to Footscray, I think we may make this sojourn every now and then.

PS If anyone is feeling generous out there, I would like this piece of Vipoo's called "If all else fails, marry a millionare" ... Snap!

A Bitter Sweet Day (or Two) Out - Wintry weekend in Daylesford

Ok ... whats that saying? When life throws you lemons, you make lemonade? What if it hurls at you a big pile of poo? You make a stack of shit cakes and hope for the best ...

Well you could wallow in shit at home, or you could get your lazy arse off your couch of self pity and wallow in shit somewhere peaceful and pretty like Daylesford.

Which is exactly what we did! And it was fantastic. We haven't really been able to do the spontaneous bush weekend for absolutely ages. And now that we're pet free, it was easy just to find a place to stay, pack up, get in the car and go.

So on a lovely sunnyWinter's morning ...

We rocked up at The Albert on Camp street and after getting the low down hoe down from Ziggy the wrestler, we headed back out to our favouriest bookstore - Paradise Bookstore, to browse rooms full of every kind of book imaginable, including music sheets, comics and even Vinyl.

We then gradually worked our way through the town's eateries, starting with the newest addition to the Vincent Street strip, Wine and The Country, which is very much like our own Seddon Wine Store, a place owners Jenny and Owen seem to be familiar with.

 Jenny is an absolute charmer, and although the decor pulls no new punches as far as modern melbourne cafes/bars/restaurants/pop-ups go, it is a warm and welcoming space.

And strategically placed in the corner are 2 turntables and a microphone! ... ok well no microphone, but a turntable nonetheless and a stack of Vinyl, including Sigur Ros' "svefn-g-englar" - big big tick.

We sat at the communal table and worked our way through a number of glasses of wine and an amazing selection of nibbles pulled from producers in the area, including an amazing chilli and fennel salami from Istra Smallgoods in Musk*, and this delightful soft blue cheese biscuit, which Jenny kindly topped up free of charge.

We sampled pub fair over at the revamped Daylesford hotel including a reasonably cooked Steak served with yummy thin fries and a decent salad ...

and I think a less than impressive pie according to M. although taste buds could have been tempered somewhat by the darkening mood oozing from a fug of alcohol. Sometimes a few rounds in the wringer is what every relationship needs ...

We visited our friends M & S and marvelled at their collection of Hi-fi paraphernalia, including a number of valve amps that I am insanely jealous of.

We took in the wintry sights and stumbled across a Antiques shop in Newellyn, who coincidentally, ran the Antiques shop just round the corner from our house. Its an amazing place to wander round and apparently the nursery out back is pretty impressive too, but the weather was foul, and the warmth indoors made it perhaps too easy a place to spend a couple of hours, so much so, M ended up parting with his hard-earneds for a mantlepiece clock that he is absolutley chuffed with!

In fact there seems to be plenty of these Antique markets sprouting all over the shop. The Mill Markets is one such establishment, where I scored my long sought after tripod! (already filmed a few vids for my Youtube channel - Temasekdan - plug!)

We also managed to revisit the Wild Mushroom Risotto at the Himalaya Bakery - and though the price seems to have increased somewhat dispproportionately (from $10 to $18.90), the dish still remains vibrant and exciting. The perfect lunch for a cold winter's day.

Our second night we spent dinner at Gracenotes Cafe, a quaint little restaurant at the further end of Vincent Street. Its singular soft yellow glow amongst the darkened shops shut for business on the strip seemed warm and welcoming, and although the food couldn't quite match up with the ambience, we had a lovely night regardless with Brighton accents from our friendly host to boot.

I had the chicken with cumin and pomegranate, which was reasonable, rather than mind blowing. The potatoes were delicious and so was the kale, but it needed more of a cummin hit and because there was no richness for it to counter, the pomegranate seeds seemed perfunctory.

M enjoyed his Salmon with asparagus in a Bernaise sauce served on a bed of kipfler potatoes.

And we couldn't go past the chocolate lava cake. Whats a weekend away if you're not going to splurge!!

So we didn't do Cliffy's and we didn't swing by the Convent gallery like we normally do, but it was still nice to just get away from it all. Now I have the monumental task of documenting our recent European jaunt - which I hope to do in parts over the coming months. Its going to be good!

* There are a number of great places to Breakfast in Daylesford. The bacon from Istra is amazing so a visit to their shop in Musk is a must. You can sample their sausages at Bocconcini, which is a lovely shiny cafe on the main street of Dayelsford, crisp white and modern with flashes of colour.

Love the cushions at Bocconcini

My scrambled eggs with Istra Sausage

M's Breakfast with the lot!

And you can check out Istra's bacon at Larder, which is oh so melbourne it hurts! Great space, great staff, good coffee and food ... its a must try!

Rocking the Boat at North Melbourne's Spring Fling

Ok ... what a typical Spring day. Pockets of warm sun, with a cool breeze and the odd sprinkling of rain ... perfect for a Spring Fling ... which is exactly what we had at North Melbourne.

After a morning spent watching M and his workmates pick through the ashes of Billy Hyde in Blackburn, I was perfectly primed for a good bit of nosh.

So we wandered down over to North Melbourne's Spring Fling to hunt down krapow's Soi 38 Boat Noodles stand.

After standing in line for a few minutes, we had 2 plastic re-usable bowls (for those of you who are environmentally concerned) of yummy siam goodness.

Soi 38's version uses thin rice vermicelli served in a heavenly meaty broth topped with pieces of barely cooked beef, a fish ball and garnished with bean shoots, pork crackling, coriander, spring onion and what looked like caramelised onion oil. You had a choice of condiments including fish sauce, chilli powder, green chilli sauce and sugar.

We piled everything on top bar the sugar and stood at the side of road and slurped away, watching the impossibly fit young men perform balletic feats on a piece of rope.

We finished off our repast with a serve of their Dorayaki - 4 little poffertjes style buns filled with a variety of custard flavours. Delicious.

What a way to end an amazing weekend after an absolute fucker of a week. Rawk on North Melbourne, Rawk on!!

Trash and Treasure - revisionist Melbourne

Ok ... its amazing how different Melbourne feels when viewed vicariously through the eyes of visiting friends from overseas. Melbourne decided to shelve its Winter coat for a few days of glorious Autumnal sunshine. We made full use of her summery choice of wardrobe and took a drive to Daylesford to take in some Trash and Treasure.

As always, a trip to Cliffy's and some homespun food is in order.

And the Convent Gallery never fails to dissappoint with its distressed walls speaking of quiet contemplation and modest palliative care.

Daylesford has it share of Byron style rainbow frippery, but we can forgive its slide into new age pontifery (sic) by the sheer presence of Alla Wolf-Tasker's Lakehouse and the fact that I managed to pick this US pressing still sealed for a gold coin donation of $2.00: