Favorites from Melbourne Victoria Australia: Part Two

Day two of the adventure in Melbourne was an excursion to the Great Ocean Road.  This is a stretch of road on the southeastern part of Australia that is 243 km long (about 150 miles).    It is said to be one of the most scenic routes in the world - and I concur.  You'll get to decide when you see the pictures.

The excursion was scheduled to be about 14 hours in length from pickup (7:30AM) to drop off (estimated to be 9PM).  Of course I needed to start out the day with some coffee.  7-11 stores are on almost every block in downtown Melbourne.  In the United States, they are prevalent but you don't see them as much in the big cities.  Since we needed some bottled water and snacks (in addition to coffee), I decided to go to the 7-11 across from the hotel.  The last time I went to a 7-11 in the United States, the coffee situation was not remarkable.  It was a generic Bunn coffee urn that you poured from.  In Australia (and perhaps elsewhere), the coffee situation has been elevated with  the additional of a barista-type of machine.   

I think all of Australia is fanatical about their coffee, but Melbourne seems to win the prize for having citizens who care more than other Australians.  Maybe that prompted this change in 7-11.  It was certainly welcome since the coffee was only $2 for a long black.  You might ask what is a long black?    In the United States the closest thing would be an Americano which is espresso and hot water.   It was a delicious coffee and better than another one I had at a chain called Hudson's which was double the price.    Maybe these types of machines are also in United States 7-11 stores.  If you know, please add a comment.

Our first stop was to Torquay which is one of the most popular places for surfing in all of Australia. 

We next stopped at the official beginning of the Great Ocean Road which has an archway overhead.  It was burned around the edges in 1983 when there was a huge fire that burned most of the towns along the road.

 
We then went to Kennett River and saw a few koalas.  Look closely and you will see them in the trees.  They don't move much since their diet is only eucalyptus leaves.

Now, what you have all been waiting for (maybe)!!  Our lunch stop in Apollo Bay!!  We had 45 minutes allocated by the tour guide for lunch so had to make a quick choice.  On the way into town, I spotted the Seafood Cafe.  Since we were right next to the ocean, seemed like the chances were high that we would have some fresh seafood.    My instincts were correct. 

Apollo Bay Seafood Cafe Menu

Apollo Bay Seafood Cafe display case of fresh seafood

My wife saw a special appetizer called Chili Scallops which sounded delicious.    It was outstanding and the highlight of our lunch. 

Delicately grilled scallops served in their shell.  The sauce on the bottom was clarified butter with some sauteed shallot, garlic and a bit of heat from what tasted like a serrano.  The topping was finely chopped tomato and basil.  After eating the delicious scallop, all that was left was the tremendous sauce.  I couldn't let that go to waste and treated each scallop shell like it was an oyster and drank that sauce as a shot of buttery goodness!!     I tried one of the local beers.  This was the Barrapool Ocean Road Pale Ale.    When in Rome!!  It had a nice hoppy bite to it which helped with the richness of the scallops (and that butter!!!).

For our main dish, we got a platter of fish and chips.  It consisted of two pieces each of barramundi (a mild white fish), crab stick (the stuff they use to make California rolls), Potato cakes and dim sum.

The fish was definitely the highlight.  It was fried in a rice flour batter so it was like you were having a very light tempura.  Many times fish and chips have a flour based batter which can make a thick coating which takes away from the delicate nature of the fish.  A thick, crispy batter is great on fried chicken, but has no place on fish - unless you are a fan of Mrs Paul's fish sticks which can hardly be called fish!!

The crab stick was unusual.  I expected to hate it since it didn't seem like an item I would want to have fried.  It was surprisingly delicious.  The dim sum was too mushy for me.  It was similar to a pot sticker that had been battered and then fried.  Maybe the oil wasn't hot enough since it came out soggy.  The flavor was okay so with better execution I would try this one again.  The potato cake seemed like it should have been an easy win but instead was a huge swing and a miss.  If there is anything that can usually be made better it is potatoes in a deep fryer.  Hot and crisp fries, immediately salted after cooking are one of my favorite food items.  Unfortunately in this case, the potato cake had the same problem as the dim sum:  not crisp at all.  It also suffered for not having any potato flavor - really no flavor at all.  The regular chips seemed redundant given we had potato cakes.  The chips were much better but sadly had not been salted fresh from the fryer so they also lacked flavor.  I did add some malt vinegar and then some salt which helped but these were not excellent chips.  Go back to blog Part One where the Charles Dickens Tavern served up some fantastic fries!!

After lunch we went to the Melba Gully which is a rainforest.  I always expect it to rain when I go to a rainforest - but it didn't at this one.  It actually hailed!!  Such crazy weather here in Melbourne!!   We saw some of the tallest trees on the planet (second to only the Sequoia in California, the world's only carnivorous snail (it eats insects)  and a waterfall cascade.

 

One of my favorite things to experience in other countries is to see what snack foods other cultures enjoy.  I have found that every country has some kind of snack chip - usually almost always a potato chip - and you can find out about what flavor profiles they enjoy based on the types of chips.  I mentioned earlier I had gone to 7-11 to pick up some snacks.  This was one of them and it was time to try them.

The flavor was more like a mild BBQ flavor which only a mild hint of heat.    The other flavor was a bit wilder.  Surprisingly they had nailed the steak flavor.  The chimichurri flavor was muted and the chips would have been better with a bit more of that flavor.

Our next stop was to Port Campbell to see the Twelve Apostles.  No - not those apostles.  These are limestone rock formations made millions of years ago.  Whether there ever were actually twelve separate ones is in dispute.   As of this blog, there are actually seven since one collapsed in 2005.    Depending on weather conditions, you can't always see them all.

The weather on our visit started out sunny.  That quickly changed when the winds picked up and it was like a tropical storm with winds pushing you around, and hail biting at your skin.  Then fifteen minutes later, that stopped and it was sunny again.   Highly recommend visiting this place.

Our next stop was in nearby Shipwreck Beach.  This is a notorious area that was named for all the ships that had tragic circumstances after getting pushed to the seawall here.  The sites you see here are breathtaking.  I had never been to anywhere in the world that looks like this. 

This is the same beach area from different viewing angles.  I really appreciated the massiveness of it all and the power of water, being able to erode these formations.

Our final stop was in Colac which was for a quick dinner before we made the two hour drive back to Melbourne.  As with lunch, we had to make quick decisions on where to go since we only had 45 minutes before the bus had to leave.  The tour guide said her favorite place was a Vietnamese restaurant.  That sounded great to us.   We had to make a made dash across the road to get to the place.  It was so tiny so very hard to move around once we got inside.  We took one look at the menu and my wife and I both knew we would get Pho.  If you haven't had this, it is fragrant, light broth made from brisket and beef bones that is usually flavored with soy and fish sauce.  Then there can be vegetables and herbs like scallions, cilantro or thai basil.  And it comes with rice noodles which when cooked properly are just a bit chewy not unlike a great vermicelli pasta.  It is a very satisfying dish and one this cold afternoon, it was going to be the perfect meal.  We placed our order and were told it would be a few minutes.

There were three tour buses that had stopped in Colac and everyone was under the same deadline where they needed to head back to Melbourne.  You can imagine that every restaurant, including this one was seeing crowds they normally wouldn't see.  The waitress told us there had never been three buses at once before.  Why do I tell you this?  Because it made it so you couldn't get a table to eat your food.   Our waitress noticed our dilemma.  She told us to come with her to the office next door.  It sounded like a strange request, but since we had no where to sit in the main restaurant, it was our best option if we were to have a place to eat our Pho.  She led us to this place.

At some time in the recent past, this space had been some type of financial company, now out of business.  It looked like the owners of the restaurant were using it for storage and maybe an eventual expansion.  We didn't get into details.  Quickly, the owner had others help her get a large table and chairs into the space where we were told to sit.  It was very odd, but we actually felt like VIPs!!  

The soup came and it was everything you would want in a Pho.  Meaty broth, tender beef and al dente rice noodles.  It was as perfect as I had hoped and a great end to this day of amazing sites.  

Our next stop is Launceston (pronounced Lon-nes-ton) Tasmania.  My next blog will have information on our travel there from Melbourne and our first days there in that small town.