St Kilda in Winter

One of the many cake shops on Acland St.

by the bay

The Palais Theatre

Look how gray it is these days. :( How depressing.

It's turning into fall

Actually it's winter now. Not my favorite.

Saturday morning coffee at Nineteen Squares

Actually I go for a soy chai these days and after trying out different places, I've found my favorite here.

Situated just down the street from home, this is where I come to get out of the house. And its the first choice for our weekend coffee on a lazy weekend morning. We got the recommendation from the local funky people who work at the barber shop where they give you a free beer with your hair cut.  This is confirmed by a top 3 bean rating in the Melbourne Coffee Review App, though its not found on Urbanspoon at all. Food is supposed to be good here too.

It's a tiny shop, the name signaling the total square meterage of the place, only seating available is outside. It gets pretty busy at times that the only seats available are upside down milk crates. Now that it's getting colder it's harder to enjoy a hot cup at the outside tables. But it's still worth rugging up to get out of the house and to our favorite trendy coffee spot. Always staffed by funky Baristas who make up for their surly attitudes by adding a quick "darling" or "love" to their speech, they attract a large, loyal clientele.

Today is a rainy, cold Saturday and we're here after a quick trip to the Veg Out farmers market. Autumn leaves are everywhere and it feels like Halloween time. I've been looking for big orange pumpkins to carve into jack o lanterns but can find none. So by now it's probably akin to normal thanksgiving-time weather here while everyone back home is complaining about the start of sweltering temperatures and sunburn. The change in season here has sparked the desire to update my winter wardrobe. But I just
can't follow through with the outrageous prices here.

St kilda rose garden

Just across the street lies a beautiful rose garden. My favorite place
to unwind and lay out a blanket. On this particular day we received a
care package from Amy and I proceeded to sit here all afternoon
reading my real simple magazine she sent. One of our better days.

Blessed are the cheesemakers

This is what Richard got up to one Saturday a few weeks ago as part of the Melbourne Sustainability Fest, sponsored by the Port Philip Council. Cheeselinks He is very proud of himself, making two types of Feta and some homemade yoghurt - All organic. And he is keen to do it again at home, aren't I the lucky wife. Very yummy stuff, fresh and light and you can mix it up depending on the type of milk that you use. Next up - a sourdough bread making class in May and soon our Kitchen will be so gourmet. Move over domestic goddess - I have a Domestic King.

St Kilda Fest - V-day

Finally ventured out on Sunday to find the St. Kilda Summer Festival taking place right on our doorstep. It had been going on all week, and we didn't notice, so we missed most of the events. But yesterday was the biggest festival day, all the streets were closed off, people started flooding in on the trams, and music was booming from all the stages along the route. A lot of up-and coming musicians were on display along with sporting events, stalls, food, promotions. The restaurants and bars altered their venues to accommodate the crowds and participate in the event. Turned out to be a big day out for us, sun-burning by the beach watching the Beach volleyball teams compete. Girls in their skimpy suits, showing off their six-packs (really!) and toned arms that allow them to get in a hard hit. I was inspired to get back into the gym, and maybe even get involved in a team sport (but that only lasted the few hours that we were sitting there and hasn't translated to me getting to the gym today). Richard wants to get into KiteSurfing, so we strolled over to the bay to watch their antics. Looks like fun, but I don't know how they all manage not to crash into each other. 

No snow here, while every one back home is hibernating. Despite the atmosphere and potential free fun day - this turned out to be one of the worst days because we just couldn't get into it, thinking about other depressing things, feeling alone amongst the amassed crowd, Just a huge cloud over us the whole day that wouldn't go away despite our attempts. Go away Cloud!

Melbourne Art Scenes

Some fabulous graffiti art that I've passed by while exploring the City. On a visit to St. Ali for brunch we found a whole project underway, decorating the entire alleyway (residential and commercial warehouse buildings) with mad skills - the purple tree house and funny tribal face are only part of the whole.

Mahjong for Dim Sum

Inspired by Urbanspoon reviews of Tasty Dim Sum joints in the City, I was craving little steaming dumplings of goodness. However, I wasn't prepared to travel all the way into the CBD from St. Kilda during rush hour to wait in line at the apparently popular HuTong Dumpling place that everyone is raving about. So that place remains on my wishlist. But to satisfy my craving in the short term we attempted the well-reviewed Mahjong Dim Sum Restaurant close by on Fitzroy Street. Only since coming to Australia did I come to understand the Dim Sum concept, though I am sure this simple idea of serving steamed/fried dumplings and wanton pockets filled with delightfully light Asian flavors is popular in the States as well and am surprised I haven't found good places there yet. Its on my To-Do List. I was pleased to find the Dim Sum subcategory in the Urbanspoon search options to easily filter through the masses of eateries in this city.

Once there, we dived into one of the preselected banquets which include steamed dumplings, peking duck, fillet steak, etc (The menu appears below) along with a few extra tastes. Let me just say that I love dumplings!, the way the secret steaming contents explode in your mouth with their subtle brothy flavors, though at this restaurant I found that I could not differentiate the fillings from one kind of dumpling to another and they soon became monotonous. I have a feeling that the dumplings and wantons are all filled with the same unexciting pork mixture. The fillet steak that followed was awesome and I am a big fan of the peking duck, lots of flavor and I wanted more. My biggest complaint however for Mahjong, was the slow service which, by the end of the meal, slowed down to non-existent. I think they forgot about us and we had to fetch our own bill to get the hell out of there. Rated fairly high, I was anticipating yummy goodness at this Dim Sum Restaurant, unfortunately I think my expectations were a little too high. Though I definitely won't give up on Dim Sum and look forward to my HuTong experience which I predict will come very soon.

Luna park

Iconic St kilda attraction just a stones thow away from my front door and the beach. No, haven't tried it out yet. Waiting for the weather to get a little bit warmer and for all the kids to go back to school.