Greedy Guts

Our second day of work involved a great selection of sandwiches at lunch:


I wore the dress that I wore to Melbourne Cup.


And we went to visit a car dealership, where I admired this charming vehicle:


I ordered one!


Here is a distinctly Melbourne sight:



Williamstown is full of ice cream places, including this Ye Olde Icecreame Shoppe style place that allegedly has Australia's largest range of flavoures.


I ordered LAVENDER and it was pretty good.  It tasted exactly like I expected.

It was so huge though and I couldn't eat it fast enough so there is now some on my dress.


I was full as a good but we went out for dinner at St Kilda.




Pimms woo! (Hello MSB if you're reading.)



We got this awesome mix of tapas, it was something like $50 for ten choices.  Useful if you're doing frugal Feb!



My pasta main was pretty rad but a bit heavy on the olive oil.


Here's a patisserie that we didn't eat at, but how good does it look?



We've been hanging out at the beach a lot too:




The first time we went I didn't really care for it because it was crazy hot and did not have any waves.  But now I love it.


There is a super Mexican place here too.


We got this enourmous banquet, oh my god I was so full, but everything was delicious.




Especially this make-your-own-soft-taco thing.

It even included dessert!
I had a gigantic chocolate mousse.  The thing on the left is something with kahlua. I'll have to ask my housemates to roll me onto the plane when we come home.   P.S. HEY MUM AND DAD IF YOU'RE READING: please, please tape A Single Man for me on SBS on Saturday night.  I think it's on at 9.30.

Melbourne Meals

On my first weekend here my parents came down for a visit and we caught up with our friend Malena and her adorable little boy (hello if you are reading!).

We went to this Italian restaurant which I forgot the name of.  I will need to update all the posts at some point so these awesome places get the credit they deserve.  Anyway, it was great.








That ravioli was mine.  It had spinach, burnt butter sauce, sage, pinenuts - that is my second favourite kind of pasta (after a prawn/lemon/garlic/chilli/olive oil type thing) and I loved it.



  The service rocked too.  The waitress was charming, and so sweet with little R.  I really hope I get a chance to go back.

I love beverages as much as I love food.  Oprah says your house should rise up to meet you when you come home at the end of the day (thanks FF for that one) but I feel like all it requires to do that is a bit of this:



Now here are some pics of a Greek banquet:


 
All of this food was super.





This was the dessert:

  The round things were loukoumades.   You mean they do loukoumades?   Yes, they do loukoumades!!   (Hello Bay Vista if you're reading.)

Afterwards we went for a stroll to walk off some of our eight billion kilojoules.  It was freezing by then but I was nice and toasty in this jacket I nicked from Blake.

  Sexy, right? It's Barbour, favoured also by Kate The Duchess Middleton.  Is there anything we don't have in common? (Hello billionaire parents and royal husband if you're reading! My wardrobe of tiaras and custom made Alexander McQueen says hi!)

Cookie Time! And Lebanese.

Does everyone else love fresh baked cookies as much as I do? Here are some I made last week:

 

They are from the Family Circle Gorgeous Biscuits cookbook circa a million years ago; they are supposed to be choc mint but I didn't use peppermint essence this time because some loser said he didn't want it.

I was really craving some Middle Eastern food so we went to this Lebanese restaurant in Brunswick East. Or somewhere.

I liked this bread:

 

Would you believe it was less blurry in real life?

The hummus was a let down.  It tasted like Chris's dips.

 

I think everyone else liked it but I was pretty disappointed, it was not on par with what you get at my fave places in Surry Hills, or my aunty's house.

 

If anyone knows a good Lebanese or similar restaurant in Melbourne that I will like please let me know!

See My Vest, See My Vest

We had tapas at some place in Williamstown the other night.  They had heaps of nice options on the menu but I thought the food was good-not-great.  Those huge fried things are meant to be zucchini flowers, what?

Nice place though and good service, I'd probably go back.

 

That was "Canadian Wedges".  I thought it would be like poutine, but it was actually just cheese and bacon on top - which would be delicious if it had been grilled, instead of microwaved.  Ugh.  Everyone else liked it though.

I made my housemates participate in an experiment of telling the difference between tonic, soda water and sparkling mineral water.  We couldn't be sure which was which out of soda and sparkling, but everyone successfully picked the tonic.  (Emily are you reading this?)

It was John's birthday on our first weekend here so we had a few drinks and snacks at the house.  If you know me in real life (i.e. all but about three of you), you know what that means:

 

Castle dip! (Hey Pistolzzzz)

 

Naturally I made cupcakes too but we actually didn't eat them til the next day.  Mmmmmm.

 

 

Anyway happy birthday John!

Here's me in my sexy tradie outfit.

I liked the fluro orange so much I got it in a jumpsuit too.

Flashdance moment:

We went out for breakfast to some cafe.

I forgot to take a photo of my own breakfast (what a dweeb) but it was delicious - eggs Royale! (Like Benedict, but with salmon.)  I ordered sides of spinach and avocado but alas they were both yuck.


The house has a well-stocked bookshelf.  I have wanted to read this for ages:

 

Lucky I did because it was SO GOOD.  It is one of my favourites now.  If you haven't read it yet sort that out ASAP.