Tee in town

So Teresa decided to jump across the ditch and landed safely in Australia. Her first stop is Melbourne and I decided to take a couple of days off from work to be her tour guide - the poor soul had no choice but to get an ear-bashing of the crap that comes out of my mouth about the wonderful city of Melbourne.

An interesting observation is that being the "tour guide" for Melbourne for friends who have visited only gets better and better. I remember and am really sorry to Adi and Giedre's tour this can be dubbed as the "Poor mans tour" and was utterly crap - so I am deeply and sincerely sorry for this. Chris' tour was a little better - but this was evolving around my schedule and arrangements of various parties and outings I had promise to attend. Yat's tour was absouletly fantastic!!! The theme was "Aussie Beers". Every pub, bar and water trough we had to drink a completely different Aussie beer. And Tee had the deluxe great food and wine tour and (I hope) good conversations. And so this is the summary of Tee's Deluxe Melbourne Food and Beverage Tour.

Day 1: Shopping, Beer Gloves, Awesome BBQ & the Croft
Simon and Mishie entertained her during the day. I only joined in for the night time festivities. Beer Gloves and the best BBQ I have had for a long long long time! So thank you to Chef's Alfy, Mishie and Simon. Ended the night at the Croft. See Mishies blog for all the details: http://michelletan.nomadlife.org/2006/07/beer-gloves.aspx

Day 2: "Good food, good wine and chestnuts roasting on the open fire"
A little day trip had been organised for a relaxing Sunday. Tom, Fernanda, Matt, Rita, Fiona, Diogo, Luke, Roni, Abby, Mandy, Jacs, Luke, Tee and myself headed for the Dandenongs - namely a little town called Emerald (see: article, wiki).

We had morning tea at Jac's place - good for those with hangovers and then a short walk to Paternoster Winery. A boutique premium winery and was certainly a surprise package. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much but it turned out to be something special. Now I am not a chardonnay fan but their chardy certainly begged my taste buds to reconsider. It was sooooo good, intense and full of flavour I had to get myself the "Jack of Hearts" - their reserve collection. The reds, a little disappointed but the cabernet packed a punch. So I got that too. In the end, three bottles for $185 - of which two will be opened in 4-5 years time. And the other bottle was for Tee.

After quite a few glasses of wine it was time for lunch at Elevation. Jacs and I had lunch here sometime ago and thought it would be a wonderful thing to have lunch here again with some of our friends. There is a lovely fire place, big big big windows which overlooks the Dandenongs and the surrounding area. The food was great, the wines were perfect and the conversation rounded off the great meal. Some people left and Tee, Rita, Fiona, Matt, Diogo, Tom, Fernanda, Jacs and myself stayed for the whole afternoon of having lots of wine by the fireplace. It was picture perfect.

Day 3: Melbourne City
The day started off with a sleep in, although I did have an impromptu gathering to watch the FIFA World Cup final match between Italy and France.

Anyway, meet up with Tee and caught a tram to the city. Went straight to the information centre at Fed Sq. A few snaps and then off to lunch to at the Waiters Restaurant. Food was delish!

Then started walking to QV, Melbourne Central (little stops for shopping), Myer (little stops for shopping), Royal Arcade, Block Place. Stopped and have coffee at Cafe Segovia. Continued walk to Degraves Street, stop take photos, continued to Flinders Street. Jumped on City Circle tram. Jumped off at Immigration Museum.

Time check, 4:40pm. Free entry to Immigration Museum - whirlwind tour of museum. Highlights include "Bollywood Dreams" and mandatory photo with the puppets. Leave museum and jumped onto tram to Docklands and continued with the City Circle tram. Noted some of Melbourne's little sights along tram. Off at Parliament Station, walked to Sofitel. Cocktails on Level 35 at Hotel Sofitel. Then off to home. A good solid day.

Day 4: Melbourne Suburbs
Picked up Tee and drove to Maling Road, Surrey Hills. It’s a nice little street that has kept the "Edwardian" style in a village setting. We only came for chocolate! Xocolatl is family run who are passionate about chocolate. A little stroll along Maling Road then off to Springvale for a Vietnamese lunch. Tee ordered Mee Quanh and I had Hu Tieu (can’t find links that are good enough - sorry). Then off to St Kilda for drinks. Strolled around Acland Street to shop (some really interesting shops!). And slowly made our way to the city for our mandatory visit to Max Brenner's - more chocolate! Yum! It was a quick visit as we needed to join up with Simon, Mishie, Luke and Alfy at Bimbo Deluxe for an awesome pizza and beer to go with it.

So that’s Tee's little adventure in Melbourne. Thank you for being the perfect guest - loved every minitue of it.

Some photos:
Centre Place street art
Chocolate from Koko Black, Royal Arcade
Puppet show @ Immigration Musuem
Ugly mugs at Bimbo's
Tee's Melbourne Photo Set
Mine's: Tee in Melbourne flickr set