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Three Ravens and a Goat
Blog: thebeergeek.com - 23 December 2009
After three great days in Victoria’s High Country, it was time to move on. Our next destination was the capital of Victoria, Melbourne. There we would part with Ute and Wolfie who were flying home to Germany the next day. We had heard that Australia’s second largest city had a better beer culture than Sydney [...]
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HOT: In Search of the Perfect Rice Paper Rolls
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 23 December 2009
Lin Tan and I journey into Melbourne’s own piece of Saigon in the search for the perfect rice paper rolls, in pushy, exotically fragrant, fishwife-shouty Victoria Street, Richmond. Joyce: Before commencing the rice paper roll marathon, I asked my Vietnamese friends for recommendations amongst a choice of over 20 Vietnamese/quasi-Vietnamese restaurants. Surprisingly, they [...]
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HOT: In Search of the Perfect Gelato
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 22 December 2009
Lin Tan and I go hunting for the finest gelato in Melbourne. Joyce: When you think about ‘Italian culture’ in Melbourne, you think Carlton. Hence, the perfect place to start our, ‘In The Search For The Perfect Gelato’? – Lygon Street. So what makes a perfect gelato? In our view – small batches, taste, texture [...]
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HOT: In Search of the Perfect Mince Pies
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 21 December 2009
In our own personal advent calendar, Lin, Billy and I went on a trip around Melbourne’s CBD in search of the perfect mince pie. “On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me….12 mince pies and 2 macarons in a pear tree.” Joyce: We had optimistically planned 12 tastings in keeping with our self-penned [...]
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HOT: Nicolangela, Level 1, Shop F174, Melbourne’s GPO, 350 Bourke St, Melbourne
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 20 December 2009
When I was a young grad, fresh out of uni, I used to do walk up to Nicolangela’s delightful Greville Street shop (which is no longer) and peer inside longingly, just like Holly Golightly drinking her coffee outside Tiffany’s. The store was a treasure chest of beautiful dresses designed and made in Melbourne, from sleek [...]
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HOT: Ponyo, Ford Fiesta Moonlight Cinema, Royal Botanic Gardens, Birdwood Avenue, South Yarra
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 19 December 2009
Over the years, RM and I have been to Moonlight Cinema many times together – as friends, as friends-dating-other-people, as kinda-a-bit-more-than-friends and as boyfriend-girlfriend. It holds a special place in both of our memories of Melbourne, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d proposed on a picnic rug at Breakfast At Tiffany’s (a sure [...]
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HOT: Eco Innovators Showcase, Cnr Little Collins and Swanston St, Melbourne
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 16 December 2009
Melbourne is riding a pop up store wave and the Eco Innovators Showcase is about as ‘pop up’ as a pop up shop can get. In the morning: one unremarkable, poster-plastered news stand pillar standing innocently on Swanston Street. In the afternoon: the pillar has been transformed, Tardis-like, into a shop stocking over 25 Melbourne made, eco-designed [...]
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HOT: Melbourne Op Shop Tours (Part 2), Inner West, Williamstown to Footscray
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 15 December 2009
Read Part 1 of the tour here. Another quick train ride to Spotswood then St John’s Op Shop (612-614 Melbourne Rd, Spotswood). ‘Great variety of household goods’ is an accurate description, with ‘variety’ being the operative word. This is an OCD sufferer’s nightmare. The rabbit warren of a shop was full of surprises – an extensive collection [...]
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HOT: Melbourne Op Shop Tours, Inner West, Williamstown to Footscray
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 14 December 2009
Fashionistas know that the surest way to score a one-of-a-kind outfit is to scour old shops and vintage stores. Melbourne Op Shop Tours helps you take up the op shop challenge by running small group (max 10 people) tours through various areas of Melbourne. What makes it different from other op shop tours is that [...]
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HOT: The Palace by Luke Mangan, 505 City Rd, South Melbourne
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 13 December 2009
Since returning to Australia after two years overseas, I’ve developed a hypothesis that Australian food trends lag behind the northern hemisphere (especially the US and UK) by 1-2 years. That means that I’m expecting to see a flurry of gastropub openings in Melbourne in the near future (probably macaron specialists and ramen stalls a year [...]
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NOT: Trunk Bar & Restaurant, 275 Exhibition St Melbourne
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 12 December 2009
The twinkling lights in the busy courtyard entrance of Trunk Bar & Restaurant boded good things for our Friday night dinner. Inside the dimly lit, high-ceilinged restaurant, the crowd was just as bustling and everyone appeared to be enjoying their food and wine in the relaxed surroundings. We had high hopes for Trunk’s Italian-influenced menu. It [...]
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NOT: Rice Queen, Level 2, 231 Smith St, Fitzroy
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 10 December 2009
As an ‘oriental’, I was intrigued by the concept of an ‘oriental diner’? I mean, what’s ‘oriental’ food exactly? The menu at Rice Queen appears to cover the gamut of a whole eating continent, from Japanese to Chinese, Sri Lankan to Thai. What this means is that there’s a patchiness in the quality of the food, [...]
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HOT: Coco Rice, 10 Manchester Lane, Melbourne
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 9 December 2009
Coco Rice is one of the classier cheap-dish-with-rice joints in the CBD. As its name suggests, it specialises in coconut rice and Indonesian food in general and the small, brightly-lit restaurant is located in swish Manchester Lane, well away from the harsh flourescent lights and dumpster aromas of Chinatown. Most of the lunch workers and students [...]
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HOT: Blackbird Summer Market, The Workers Club, corner of Brunswick St and Gertrude St, Fitzroy
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 8 December 2009
For a while now Sydney has been running pub markets and now the trend is catching on in Melbourne. It’s a great idea – pubs are usually dead spaces during the day, so why not run up a few stalls inside and encourage people to shop, chat, have a beer and eat some pub grub. The [...]
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HOT: Baker D Chirico Pop Up store, 24 Crossley St, Melbourne
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 7 December 2009
A baked goods bomb has just exploded in Crossley Street. That was my first impression when I stepped inside Baker D Chirico’s Alice in Wonderland inspired pop up store, the walls zinging with comets of pastries, cakes and bread against the night sky. The groaning counter of delectable sweet treats by pastry chef Louis Vaussenat was [...]
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HOT: Blondes to Brunettes + RMIT Fashion Friendship launch, 479 High St, Prahran
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 5 December 2009
As a commercial lawyer, it was relatively easy for me to follow the conveyor belt from law school to summer clerkships to a full-time job in a law firm. I don’t imagine the transition for the creative industries is as easy (unless you’re very lucky) – it can be a relentless and sometimes dispiriting slog [...]
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NOT: Cavallero, 300 Smith St, Collingwood
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 5 December 2009
As regular readers will know, I’m a going-out-for-breakfast skeptic. I toast my own granola, soak my own bircher, bake my own bread and flip some pretty awesome pancakes (the trick is to separate the eggs). I get the weekend papers delivered to my doorstep and I have a large sunny balcony in which to read [...]
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HOT: Pushka, 20 Presgrave Place, Melbourne
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 4 December 2009
I grew up going to church with my Mum every Sunday and I know it’s bizarre, but walking up Pesgrave Place towards Pushka reminded me of the Stations of the Cross. I think it was the semi-religious tone of the Old Masters paintings nailed to the brickwork. And the bright white light at the end [...]
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HOT: Marche Rouge Christmas Shopping Event, Salon 205, Level 2, Nicholas Building, 37 Swanston St, Melbourne
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 3 December 2009
With Christmas only 22 days away, Melbourne is ramping up to a frenetic hive of shopping activity. With sales and markets sprouting up almost daily, it’s getting difficult for me to keep up! One of the most aesthetically pleasing shopping experiences that I’ve attended recently has been Marche Rouge, a small pop-up market in the Nicholas [...]
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HOT: Cutler & Co, 55-57 Gertrude St, Fitzroy
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 2 December 2009
Cutler & Co is the most hyped restaurant in Melbourne. I take great pleasure in pricking the hype-bubble in HOT OR NOT, so while I was excited to finally score a booking on a Saturday night, my guard was up. Did it really deserve the superlatives thrown at it by Melbourne’s restaurant reviewers and food bloggers? The [...]
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HOT: Cumulus Inc, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 1 December 2009
In New York City, Dulcinea offers ‘a wholesome indulgence’ every Wednesday by subscription, whether that be jumbo rhubarb muffins, a blueberry lemon pound cake, or a half dozen strawberry scones. Similarly, Le Dolci is London’s first weekly cake club where subscribers can receive a bundle of home-baked goodness such as biscotti, scones, brownies, pies and [...]
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HOT: Goshen, 189 Smith St, Fitzroy
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 30 November 2009
I heart heart heart heart Goshen. Authentic hot and spicy Korean food, lovely presentation, a calming interior of dark wood and delicate stencils on green-tea walls and super-friendly smiley staff. It’s easily my favourite cheap eat in Melbourne and the sole (Seoul – guffaw) reason I want to visit Korea. I could just leave the review [...]
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HOT: The Pantry, 1 Church St, Brighton
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 29 November 2009
Heading to the beachside suburbs of Melbourne is now a day-trip for my northside self. But not only is it geographically distant, it’s almost a foreign land compared to my local hood (which centers around the Un-Safeway of Smith Street). This is a land where fake boobs bob perkily above skinny soy decaf lattes, where [...]
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HOT: Markets in the Garden, Royal Botanical Gardens, Birdwood Avenue, South Yarra
Blog: MEL: HOT OR NOT - The decisive guide to Melbourne - 28 November 2009
The Garden Markets is a small market held over summer which is held near the Observatory of the Royal Botanical Gardens. The grassy spot is lovely for a stroll amongst the 100 or so stallholders, none of whom I’d seen before (and I go to a lot of markets). The products ranged from jewellery, fashion, [...]
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Welcome to the Wheeler Centre
Blog: Hackpacker - 26 November 2009
A little while ago I wrote about being inside the mouthful that is the Centre for Books Writing & Ideas.
