Favorites from Melbourne Victoria Australia: Part One

We are currently on a two week trip in Australia.  It is a beautiful country to visit and well worth the investment in time you need to make for the long flights.  Most flights in the United States leave from the West Coast (Los Angeles or San Francisco) and I know of one that was leaving from Houston but that was tied up in the 787 MAX issue so is nor currently flying as of this blog.  Wherever you fly from in the United States, plan on it being nearly a whole day or more of travelling.  We left our house in Tampa at 4:45 AM Australia time on Sunday November 10th and landed in Melbourne at 10 AM Monday.  The flight from San Francisco alone was 16+ hours.  So you may feel like this is a one in a lifetime type of vacation.  It doesn't have to be.  Let me add a little history.  Back in 2012 my wife and I found an inexpensive trip to Australia that included the main cities.  We flew into Melbourne for three nights, then had three nights in Cairns (the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef) and then finished up with three nights in Sydney.  What a great trip, especially being able to experience the sea turtles at the Great Barrier Reef.  Melbourne became one of our favorite cities in the word.  We loved the friendly people, easy to navigate streets, free hop on/hop off bus around downtown and the great food!! 

We are both big fans of oysters and had the most amazing ones we ever had in Sydney on that 2012 trip.  We asked the server where they were from and they said Tasmania.   We both looked at each other and knew we had to get there. We didn't have time to visit Tasmania (or Tassie as all the Aussies seem to call it) on that trip, but we pledged to come back some day.  Would we be able to make it back?  Neither of us knew since we tend not to visit the same countries again with so many others that still need visiting.  So this trip, is that pledge realized.  I joked with my wife that Tasmania is our Troy, the famous lost Greek city.  "We have found our Troy!".   This was a reference to a couple we met on a trip many years ago to Turkey.  This couple had been to all places mentioned in Homer's Iliad except Troy,  The city of Troy is (allegedly) in Canakkale Turkey and we got to visit it on that trip to Turkey.  The husband was quite overcome with joy upon seeing it.  Whether it was really Troy, I don't know.  Seemed suspicious, but I am not a Greek historian and wasn't about to burst his epic bubble. So at least you know why we made the trek back to Australia and focused this trip mainly on Tassie.

We had landed at Melbourne (pronounced Mel-bin by the locals) airport at 10AM.  It was a very quick process through baggage claim and immigration.    Australia is one of the countries where you are supposed to have at least six blank visa pages in your passport, else you can't enter (or exit) the country.  We both met that requirement, but it was never checked.  The reason is that Australia, like many other countries, has adopted much more mechanized immigration processes.  They have self serve kiosks where you scan your passport, answer a few security questions and then off you go.  We were in the arrivals lobby by 10:30 waiting for our transfer.  We had actually planned on it taking about an hour but it was super fast.

We went to our hotel and as we expected, it was too early to check into our room.  They held our luggage and our next objective was to find some lunch until our room was ready.  Like most other big cities, you can walk in any direction and find something.  Melbourne has an eclectic population so you can find nearly any food you like.  On our ride from the airport there were countless noodle restaurants, Thai, Chinese, Hot Pot and many others.   What we needed the most at this time was just a place that had some wifi, cocktails and some decent pub food.  We weren't trying to be too adventurous - yet.

We found the Charles Dicken Tavern which sounded like it would meet our requirements.

Catching the Sunday afternoon NFL games with a pot of beer.

Whenever I go to a pub for the first time, a great test of their food is to try a burger. I went with the signature Dickens Burger. The patty had crisp edges which really adds to the umani!! And they put the greens (rocket in this case) on the bottom which helps keep the bun from getting soggy.   They were dressed with a little garlic aioli.  You will find that in Europe (and also Australia) rocket is the name used for what we would know in the US as arugula.  While I agree they are very similar, I have found that rocket doesn't have that peppery bite you get from most arugula.  It could have something to do with how or where it is grown.  

The surprise addition was a sweet and spicy pepper relish on the top of the burger!!   When I was growing up, there was something my dad would always buy called piccalilli.  I recall it being made by the Howard company. It was a sweet and somewhat spicy pepper relish and what was on this burger reminded me of that.  The chips were super hot and crisp, made even better with a touch of malt vinegar. Terrific burger and a good start to the trip.

Dickens Burger with Crisp Chips

We also had some delicious calamari strips.    These were tender and well fried served with a garlic aioli (might have been the same one that dressed the rocket on the burger).

Fried calamari

After lunch our room was ready so we were headed back to the hotel.  One of the ways we like to fight jet lag after long flights is to immediately jump into the time zone where you land.  Your body will likely fight you on this and want to sleep, but it has really helped us in the past.  We tend to book an excursion that is led by a tour guide so we don't have to figure out too much stuff.  In this case, we had booked a bar tour of Melbourne.  We were going to visit between three and five bars and then at each one we were able to buy what we wanted.  This was a welcome change to bar tours we have done before where you show up at the place and receive their signature cocktail or shot which may be something you don't even like.  The way this tour was conducted was more to my liking so we could order what we wanted (or nothing at all).

Melbourne has lots of street art and also green spaces where some alleys are turned into gardens.

First stop was at Madame Brussels which was an actual bordello "back in the day".    I tried a sour beer called Wolf of the Willows Jalisco Sour.  It had a pronounced "smokey" taste which must have been from the "charred pineapple" listed as one of the ingredients and flavor profiles.  I am glad I tried it since it was so different that other sour beers I have had,

Our next stop was at a recently converted parking lot called Ascot Lot.  Here we found a food truck that had a few sandwiches and differents beers.  I tried the Black Cherry Acid from 3 Ravens Brewery. This was closer to the sours I have sampled in the United States.

Our next stop was at the Croft Institute.  This is at the end of a very long alley which I would definitely have second thoughts walking down if it was dark.   Even during the day, the alley was a bit sketchy.   Once we arrived, we found it to be a craft cocktail bar which was themed around chemistry.  I think they must have found an abandoned high school and taken anything they could find from the Chem Lab.

The bartender here lets you tell him the type of cocktail you like and he will make you something.  Such as gin cocktail that is sweet.  Or in my case a bourbon cocktail with some sour.   I got what I could call a whiskey sour - with emphasis on the sour. So much that you couldn't taste any bourbon at all which seemed to be a waste of a good bourbon.  I liked the concept here, but the execution needs some work.

Upstairs you will find the Department of Hygiene (aka bathrooms).

Our final stop was at Union Electric which was a rooftop bar specializing in gin cocktails.  I got the Gin Botanica was such a well balanced cocktail.  Just enough bite from the Citadelle gin, that unique taste of elderflower liquor paired with a surprise ingredient:  Apple Juice from Adelaide Hills here in Australia.  I never would have connected apples with Australia but they are a thing!!  The cocktail came with a nice slice of cucumber and edible flowers.  Absolutely my favorite cocktail of the day!! 

I also tried a Tropical Sour Cider from Hills Cider.  This was so delicious since it was not sweet.  I don't like most ciders since they can be too sweet.  This was refreshing, but be careful since it was surprisingly 8% ABV!!  

As it was approaching 7PM, we felt we were getting close to our bedtime.  We had pushed our bodies into the Australian time zone, but they were fighting back!!  We headed back to the hotel (only about 1 10 minute walk) and we would get prepared for our full day excursion on the Great Ocean Road tomorrow.