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Visitors and Vroom Vroom Vroom

31/3/2012

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Tim and Lorraine came to visit us and attend the Grand Prix. They arrived in the wee hours of Friday morning and stayed with us until Tuesday.

During this short stay we had a whole heap of fun and thoroughly enjoyed showing them the wonders of Melbourne. Luckily the forecasted rain seemed to stay away and was only about on the Friday so they could see Melbourne in her glory.

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We managed to cram a lot of activity in the few days we were together including an introduction to Geordie Shore! It was short but sweet.

Tim and Lorraine spent Friday and Saturday at the GP which meant we went to work on the Friday and enjoyed a Food and Wine event (Crabfest at the Exchange Hotel) on the Saturday.

Saturday evening we had a delicious grazing type meal at The Aylesbury where we worked our way through the feasting menu and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Sunday was spent at the Grand Prix and we managed to squeeze in a yummy Movida lunch beforehand.

A good time was had by all and the fact that we have photos of Tim smiling is proof!

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Steve and I took the Monday off and we went to the Yarra Valley for some wine tasting. We had a yummy pizza lunch in Healesville at Giant Steps / Innocent Bystander and also enjoyed some stonkingly tasty oysters. Champagne and oysters in the sun on a weekday - wonderful life!

We dropped in a few wineries, picked up some bottles here and there and the Eastwoods also stocked up in preparation for the Port Douglas leg of their trip where they'd be staying in a a self catering apartment. We also enjoyed a second lunch of a shared cheese plate at the Yarra Valley Dairy before heading back to Melbourne.

Tim and Lorraine; we loved having you and sorry we had to rush you out on Tuesday morning for the next set of visitors. Sincerely hope you enjoyed your time in Melbourne, and also the following legs of your trip in Port Douglas and Sydney. Looking forward to hearing all about it in due course!

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I mentioned attending the Grand Prix earlier. Like last year Steve and I bought General Admission tickets. Lucky for us, Tim and Lorraine's attendance prior to the Sunday meant they had scoped out location and had in mind a good spot on a hill for us close to not just one, but two big screens so we could actually track what was going on unlike the previous year.

Weather was bright and sunny, a couple of degrees cooler than the previous year but far better than anticipated given rain had been forecast. During our time at the GP we met up with Claire and Martyn and spend some time catching up with them as well as Steve's friend from work, Andy and his dad.

I enjoyed the GP even if I didn't watch much of it! It was a pleasant afternoon where I laid out on the picnic rug, did some people watching, watched some planes fly over us, watched some fast cars and read my Kindle!

After the competition was over we made our way onto the track and met up with Tim and Lorraine and we headed home before going out for dinner.

I mentioned a crabfest earlier. The final event Steve and I went to as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine festival was a crabfest at one of the pubs in Port Melbourne. We sat round tables and were given paper bibs. In the centre of the table was an ice bucket of beer and bottles of wine. We enjoyed 4 courses of seafood and as many crabs as we could eat and as much as we could drink!

I managed three crabs and Steve went through 2 accompanied by fries, potato salad, green salad and other side dishes. Steve certainly drank his moneys worth in beer though!
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How the Barleys Spent Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2012

12/3/2012

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It's the 20th year of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and we were keen to make the most of this celebration of what we love most of all- food and wine! Events started on 2nd March and go on for another week until 21st. It's not yet over and we have already packed lots in.

We enjoyed a few things last year but were a little late in booking things and generally understanding all that goes on during this three week festival. This year proved different.
The first weekend especially the Saturday was a wash out. The rain just didn't stop all day. We ventured out close by and stuck to the Southbank area.

We visited the Greenhouse by Joost. The Greenhouse utilises sustainable ideas in all aspects of the building - from food sourcing and production through to architecture, building materials and furniture design. The roof top bar has a kitchen which is built in a container, bees that are producing honey homed on the roof of the container, herbs growing in oil drums and drinks served in recycled glass jars.

We warmed our damp souls with spit roast suckling pig and spicy gumbo from the various food stalls dotted around and after we felt wet enough we went home to sleep off the food and dry out!
Sunday was a brighter day and we met up with Claire and Martyn for the Farm Gate and Cellar Door event by the Yarra. We'd already heard from friends who had spent wet Saturday there that it was wet and boggy and in spite of the forewarning we were still unprepared footwear wise. I think the sunny skies fooled us into thinking the mud would have dried out.

Anyway what's a little mud? We soon gave up on staying clean and focused on working our way round the 58 wine producers and the additional breweries. Highlights for us included wines from Stonier on the Mornington Peninsula, Two Birds golden ale brewed by two ladies in Geelong, practicing French and enjoying M. Chapoutier wines (a French winemaker making headway in Australia) and a cheeky Chardonnay made by a very friendly chap. Steve recognised the design of the label from our Cumulus trips and the winemaker said he had connections  as he waited there on a casual basis so they helped him out by stocking his wine. Only afterwards did we find out that he was actually one of the owners!
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Did I say it was muddy? Wearing flip flops meant I was always in danger of losing one in the soft mud and was victim of splash back every time the flip flop flipped leaving mud up the backs of my legs!

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By the end of the wine tasting I was drunk!

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During the week it was my turn to bake for our team meeting so Steve and I spent the Wednesday making cookies and lemon drizzle cake.

Here you can see cookies sandwiched with Nutella (the small ones) and Jammie Dodgers. They were well received so I can only conclude it was a successful baking session.

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I met up with Charlotte and Lucy and we tried out Papa Goose. During the festival lots of good restaurants do a two courses for $35 express lunch with a glass of wine and tea or coffee so we enjoyed a girly catch up over a tasty lunch. And I donated my glass of wine to them.

One of the big events we attended was the Gala Dinner held at the Royal Exhibition Building. It was a black tie do and we enjoyed getting dressed up. The whole event was run really well and the end result was slick and professional.
The drinks reception consisted of lots of vodka cocktails as well as wine and bubbly.
Tables were decorated with pumpkins and other Autumnal adornments. We contemplated stealing a pumpkin but Steve said it was too heavy to carry all the way home! In between courses we had operatic performances as well as ballerinas dancing between the tables.
Appetisers were influenced by Victorian chefs and we enjoyed:
  • Prawn terrine, dashi gel, shiso, cucumber, avocado, umboshi by Michael Ryan from Provenance Restaurant
  • Jellied and smoked eel and freshwater trout, mustard creme fraiche, pancetta crumble, horseradish beetroot remoulade by Alla Wolf-Tasker from Lake House
The third one was a rabbit terrine created by Jacques Reymond but I didn't get a picture of it.
The rest of the menu comprised of:
  • Roasted blue eye fillet with mango and yuzu dressing by Thierry Marx
  • My mother's veal feuilleton with seasonal mushrooms and sage jus, potato puree with cepes bu Serge Vieira and Jacques Marcon
  • A taste of chocolate, raspberry and rose by Stephane Bour
Although the food was simple and probably lacked the finesse of restaurant fine dining it was definitely impressive as banquet catering goes especially given the number of people there. Each dish didn't feel like it was mass produced. After dinner there were more cocktails served and we each came away with an impressive and exclusive cookbook with recipes from the last 20 years of Gala dinners and interesting reading about the origins of this wonderful festival.

We continued the good food theme with a yum cha session on Sunday at Spice Temple and today (it's a public holiday) has been spent on household chores as we work off all the over indulgence! Steve had the hefty chore of cleaning our windows and not being a professional, the boy has done quite well. I have to excuse him of the odd streak or so!

So we've enjoyed indulging during this festival and I know this will continue as we welcome Lorraine and Tim to Melbourne for the Grand Prix weekend towards the end of this week and then my parents and sister come out the week after. It's going to be busy, busy, busy all the way to Easter!

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    We are Steve and Minda and we've been given the opportunity to move to Melbourne for two years. We arrived November 2010 and passed that two year milestone and are now Australian citizens! This is a blog of our experiences as we move to this new country, settle in and have fun!

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