Food in Melbourne (1)

Day 0

We had just arrived in Melbourne and were a little disoriented, being in a new city and not sleeping much on the seven hour flight. Thankfully, when we arrived at around 10am at our hotel, we were allowed to check in. We completed the paperwork quickly, lugged up my bags and headed back into the cool air of the Melbourne streets.

I had wanted to find some nice restaurants to have a good main course but could not find any satisfactory ones. So we had vietnamese beef noodle soup or pho at a shop along Russell Street.
The soup was nice and hot with a tinge of sourness from the lemons. It tasted exceptionally good, possibly because we were very hungry. I would later return to this same shop before flying back to Singapore.

With some food in our stomachs and with more energy, we took a 20 min walk up to Lygon Street to look for the pastry shop Brunetti which my friend MK recommended.

Indeed, Brunetti was very impressive stocked with unbeliveable varieties of pastry, cakes, chocolate, sandwiches and a bistro. I had something called a lobster tail which was very good. The latte was $3.50 and comes in a small cup. A little too small for me.

Dinner was at a small joint along Swanston Street. We had seafood platter, entirely fried (forgot to take photos of the food). Very sinful first day.

Day 1
We were going to start our driving journeys today. After collecting the car, a Toyota Camry, from Hertz along Franklin Street, we went to the nearby Queen Victoria Market to pick up some fresh fruits and also some nuts for the next 5 days.

We bought strawberries, grapes (both green and red), peaches, passion fruits and a rock melon. We also bought honey roasted macademia nuts, cinnamon toasted cashew nuts, toasted almonds and some chocolate.

Here, we stopped by a small beach at Torquay to take a rest and enjoy the very fresh and sweet strawberries.

We spent the night at Apollo Bay.Our dinner was at the Great Ocean Road deli. The board in the photo lists the specials.

View of the main road in front of the deli.

We had a clam chowder and a special which was the Roasted Barramundi Fillet on a Mushroom Risotto with Rocket and mature Parmesan, drizzled wuth a Caper and Lemon Oil ($30). All specials came with a free glass of house wine.

Finding ourselves not satisfied, we ordered another special. This time it was the Sauteed Scallops and King Prawns with Cream, Basil and White Wine tossed with Linguini and topped with Rocket and Parmesan ($28).

That was a fine dinner.