Quick stats:
- 10 meat pies / 1 sausage roll / 1 Kransky (cheese stuffed Polish sausage)
- so many coffees (the French Mission was $12!)
- 3 movies watched (MIFF started!)
- 4 books read
- so much Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee watched
In our quick four day time together, we really packed it in. I mean, we’re related so meat pies were high on Sean’s list. That’s my brother alright. He’s gotten super into coffee as well, so took him to as many coffee spots as we could fit in time and considering caffeine tolerance.
This was SO good. Put cheese inside a sausage?! YES. 
Tomato sauce & fancy chutney. Yum. 
I keep trying sausage rolls but pies beat them every time for me!
Dukes 
Padre 
Hector’s Deli— here Sean noticed they did a weird thing: espresso shot into the milk, THEN frothed. 
These are the LITERAL people that picked my coffee beans. Awesome. 
Our cups came with tasting notes and lots of details on the beans & roast
Unfortunately we didn’t get to see all the family but had some time with them early on so Sean could meet baby Joey. They’ll be in the States so he can see them when he’s back! I do so love how small the world has become with travel.
Sean and Joey 
J showing the factory downstairs 
Wattle is the floral emblem of Australia. That’s where the green and yellow came from! 
Exploring Abbotsford Convent grounds
I hadn’t known how large of a Greek population was in Melbourne before I arrived here, so we went to a Greek institution, Jim’s. There’s no menu and you just tell them what you’re feeling like eating and it magically arrives. The calamari was divine but a little disappointed by the tasteless octopus. Love the BYO though and the table of two guys next to us walked in with a six-pack each. Ha.
Lamb chops 
Superb calamari & that’s a slab of Greek cheese, saganaki
We had to take a break between meals so took Sean to the Melbourne Museum. Love the Melbourne Story exhibit there, which gives you the entire history from settlement to now. Tram & train history, and my favorite bit is the map and data visualization map of the neighborhoods, when they were established and a running population count. You see it start as a tiny settlement in the 1835 to the 2nd most populous city in Australia (5M now).
Dark but this webbed fork for asylums was interesting. Made for inmates’ safety. 
Phar Lap, who famously won the Melbourne Cup back in the 1930s
Love a good museum exhibit. The dinosaur bits were excellent and discovered a giant prehistoric wombat, the diprotodon. A wombat the size of a small car! Imagine the snoring.
Epic blue whale skeleton 
Creepy spider crabs 
Look at all that taxidermy 
The bird collected all those bottlecaps to impress the ladies with the colorful nest design. Works on me.
Hit all of my greatest hits: Hot Star (tasty tasty Taiwanese fried foods), Pidapipó (gelato), and my favorite market ever–South Melbourne Market.
Had to try a Lune croissant 
Agathé won the crossiant battle 
Pandan goodness 
Fried mushroom happiness 
Banana, honeycomb & choc fudge gelato 
Spinach & cheese borek 
DOC pizzas 
Best door handles 
Look at this fruit salad! 
Homemade tofu is my favorite dish 
Pacific Chinese feast 
Grilled Grenadier & fried shark
Hosier Lane now has a big Post Malone piece up. Last I was here it was Drake and before that Marshmelo. Such great pieces too. I’m only coming by monthly or so, so I wonder how often it’s changing.
Colors! 
They had a big Hong Kong piece up 
Always a fun alley to check up on the local street art. Wonder which pop star will take over Post Malone.
We decided to drive out to check out the Yarra Valley, their wine country. It’s a nice 1 hr drive out of town. It was an overcast day so it was pretty quiet out there. We hit up Domaine Chandon, the bubbly producer. They have vineyards across the world: Brazil, India, California and Australia. We had fun on the tour and Sean went for the splash sampling.
When did he get so classy? 
So many different bubbles 
We’re inside a bubble! 
Love a good vineyard
Went to a smaller neighboring natural wine producer and Sean did another tasting. He tried 8 wines for $5! It was awesome being able to talk to the actual winemaker. She also had worked as a makeup artist in the film (the Hobbit movies!) & television (Sons of Anarchy!) world so it was nice to pick her brain on the local industry. It’s super nice out there.
A sheep JUST gave birth to triplets while we were there! 
Wines I’d never heard of like viognier & marsanne
Funky brewery
Got to go out and try the nightlife a bit too. Checked out a craft brewery, Moon Dog. I got to have my first dessert sour ever, called In The Crumble, The Mighty Crumble. It was really nice! The bloody mary ale was nuts too but a whole glass of that could be hard. Sean tried their pale ale, one of their best sellers. It was a funky place.
Very pretty
Hidden bars are kind of common here too. Denise gave us a solid lead and we went to Galah (an Aussie bird), which we entered through a bottle shop. It was hip and cozy and I tried the Budgy Smuggler (Aussie for a Speedo) and Sean had the Galah (the shades of the drink matches the bird). Super yummy and fun to explore the bar scene a bit. Gotta test things out for any future visitors. 😉
Bring it on, festival!
I’ve been waiting for the Melbourne Film Festival to start and Sean joined me for my first movie of it, a doc by Mads Brugger, Cold Case Hammarskjöld. He last did The Ambassador back in 2012, where he got into the blood diamond industry. Mads is a funky Danish man and it comes through in the doc. He’s funny and it was a compelling case. Great doc and I’d recommend it but I’m rather partial to documentaries.
The festival is 18 days long and right now, I have 18 movie tickets so it’s going to be a great 2 weeks to come! Thanks for visiting, kid brother!
What Em's Eating Now 