Melbourne, Day 2

Such a delightful day it was. I went out to the South Melbourne Markets first thing and had a average chocolate croissant from the Aromas. That was funny. They had no signs up as to what the baked goods were called. So I asked for a pain au chocolat. The lady behind the counter after she stopped talking to the stall holder in the next stall over, looked at me like I had three heads. She asked what did I mean? So I asked for a chocolate croissant. She then went “oh” and handed me the baked goody. It was average though, pretty much the same as the ones from the Highgate Hill Bakery that you get at the various markets in Brisbane. Oh well. I could cross them off the list of places to go back to. I had a stroll round the markets and they didn’t excite me as they had in 2007. I did however pick up some goodies – I picked up two ciders and a wheat beer to taste with Matthew from Swords, the first cider is the organic cider from Samuel Smith’s in the UK and the other was Coldstream Cider from the Yarra Valley. The beer is the blackberry wheat beer from Redoak.

One of my reasons for going to South Melbourne was that I was hoping that Chef’s Hat would have 30×40 biscuit trays for my oven. Sadly they only had them on back order. I did however pick up a the measuring cup that I had been looking for. Mum has an Anchor Hocking Fire-King 1 cup measure that has 10 ml increments on it. In the shops here I could only find Pyrex ones that only had 50ml increments. Chef’s Hat had the same cup as Mum has. I bought it 🙂

Had a lovely browse in a home wares store though I guess it would really be called an interior decor store called Pomegranate. So, so, so, so many lovely goodies. I picked up a very lovely hook to put on a wall or a door somewhere/sometime. It is a sheath of wheat with two hooks a the bottom => so lovely. I will have to take a photo of it. Had a look at an op shop that I had read rave reviews of on the net. Found it just the same as the stores up in Brisbane. That is actually what I found at all the op shops I went to check out. Really just the same stuff as back home. Headed back to the hostel and dropped my loot off before catching the tram to Fitzroy to spend the day mooching round the streets. Went down and up and round Johnston, Getrude, Brunswick and Smith St, picked up a few things, had a good browse, saw some weird stuff, had some good food and basked in the Melbourne sun. My first stop was Meet me at Mikes to hopefully buy the book, the man behind the counter told me they don’t sell it. I went WTF? really surprised me with that. It was an interesting shop full of all sorts of little goodies but I sort of expected it to also have random crafty supplies which it didn’t.
Stopped in to another crafty shop a little way up the street which had the most gorgeous pressed tin goodies -> boxes, photo frames, rubbish bins etc. If I didn’t have space constraints, one of those pressed tin rubbish bins would have been coo!.

When I started getting peckish, I had a look at the patronage levels of the cafes near where I was on Brunswick St, and picked the busiest one. It was Alimentari and oh I enjoyed it. Had a gorgeous lunch of a haluimi pie with spinach and semi-dried tomaoto. It was similar in construction to a Calzone but had a much harder crust. Washed that one with a reminder of home – a Bundy Ginger Beer. I had a lovely spot to eat my lunch. Up on a stool at the window looking out at the street life in front of me.

More wandering, salivating at some of the pretty things I saw. Crossing off shops on the 12 page list I had with me of things to check out. As I wondered I took a very few photos. I think this day was the day I took the least photos, too busy strolling and looking to take photos.

Had a Chocolate Crossiant at Babka – man oh man that was the best I have ever had or have had in a long time. Buttery, layerey, just wish it the chocolate was a bit more spread out. Oh so good.

Randomly met Tom and Tianna at the tram stop near Johnston St on the way home – so random and very cool. They were on their way to St Kilda to busk. I headed up to Lygon St, where I picked up Meet Me at Mikes at Readings, had a San Churro Hot Chocolate – man oh man they are so good! I ended up having a few more on my trip to Melbourne. In QLD there is a shop at Maroochydore – I can see myself making some trips up the Sunny Coast in the future.
Overall I wasn’t that impressed with Lygon St but maybe it is better in the morning, or on the weekend or later at night when it is alive. I did see a few groups of Italian old men and young men hanging out at the cafes.

Had a late dinner at Brunetti’s of a pizza with a Chai Latte – very yummy. I ended up having a second Chai Latte the following night, so yummy. Spicy, frothy and milky!