We spent Saturday in St Kilda as we had tickets to see Tim Minchin at the Palais there. Steve had gone for a jog Saturday morning (I went to the hairdressers and did a bit of shopping instead) and consequently he was pretty hungry at lunch time especially as it was about 2:30pm by the time lunch came round.

Karly (from my work) had told me about Greasy Joe's in St Kilda and it's Triple Bypass breakfast - three eggs, three sausages, three rashers of bacon, three hash browns, grilled onions, fries and to top it all off a piece of certified Angus Porterhouse steak served on toast. You'll be pleased to know we didn't go for one of those each. Instead I had a steak sandwich and Steve had a big burger and we shared some breadcrumbed mushrooms with a very garlicky aioli.

The verdict on Greasy Joe's is postive; hearty, good value and we'd go back!

Last week Steve proposed that we revolutionise our weekend household chores traditions by attempting the clean on a Thursday evening after work! Theoretically this would mean our weekends would be completely free for relaxing which technically sounds great although admittedly I had my doubts as to whether we would be able to find the motivation mid week and after a days work to do the clean on a Thursday. Nevertheless I accepted the trial like a supportive wife.

Thursday dawned and about mid morning I received a text from Jenny who had stayed with us the previous week before she headed to Tasmania. Turns out she's back for an evening and wondered if we wanted to join her and some of her friends for dinner. Knowing we had cleaning commitments(!) I thought it wise to consult Steve before accepting. I received a rapid response from Steve with a keen acceptance! So much for mid weekcleaning!

Anyway dinner was to be at Little Creatures in Fitzroy. Little Creatures is a Perth based brewery so I suspected I'd be driving back! We found the place quite easily and parked up. Based in a large, spacious building it does that Melburnian industrial-shabby-chic thing quite well. The waiters were friendly and we were shown to a big booth where we waited for the others. We were joined by lots of people all arriving at different times and the wait staff were very patient and coped well with our ever increasing crowd and even a shift from the booth to a larger table.

We ordered some nibbles to share: olives, onion rings, pumpkin and feta dip and some chorizo. Enjoyed the sweet and salty and tangy dip with warm and chewy flatbread. The onion rings were crunchy and golden although the batter was a bit too thick so the batter v onion proportions weren't quite right. Chorizo was tasty and olives went down well.

The menu at Little Creatures consists of tapas style dishes, pizzas and main courses. After the nibbles, people opted for pizzas or individual main courses. Steve had a chorizo, corn and feta pizza which he says was average. I guess we're getting spoilt with all the good food around and perhaps Little Creatures is better at brewing beer than baking pizza dough. I had a steak with bearnaise sauce with chips and found it pretty good. I asked for some aioli for the chips and that was creamy and tangy and light - gorgeous. Jenny ordered the lamb shank and there appeared to be no complaints there.

Little Creatures is a comfortable place to while away some time drinking beer. It's better at beer than food but stil definitely worth going.

A day trip to Mornington meant lunch at D.O.C. Steve and I had walked past and enjoyed browsing in the deli that we knew we had to have a meal there next time we were in the area so we decided to show Charis the delights of Mornington.

So we'd been looking forward to returning to Mornington and in particular to trying D.O.C and then upon entering we were greeted by the notice "Please Wait to be Amazed" so expectations were high!

The waiter pointed us to a long shared table and we took our seats. It was pretty cramped so when the people next to us left we spread out a bit which I don't think they were enamoured with but I felt our comfort was more of a priority. There were lots of spare places for other new customers so it wasn't like we were preventing others from dining there.

There are many reviews on Urbanspoon that talk about poor service and I can see why such reviews have emerged. Service is a little offhand and there is definitely a lack of attentiveness. We had to wait a long time for the second glass of wine and when we enquired after it the response was not exactly friendly.

Foodwise we ordered the mozzarella degustazione which consisted of scamorza (smoked mozzarella), an Australian fior de latte and a buffalo mozzarella. The scamorza had been warmed through and had melted. It was delicious with a hint of chilli running through it. Absolutely amazing. The bread and oil that came with it were also yummy and the small spinach and rocket side salads were fresh and tasty.

We had two pizzas; Speck with Provolone chese, mushrooms, thyme and prosciutto and Cornutto with tomato, mozzarella, spicy salami and peppers. Both were delicious. The bases were crispy and didn't taste greasy. The balance of toppings were good and we thoroughly enjoyed them. The Speck one had no tomato and I think for one person to eat a whole one it would be too rich as the tomato provides a nice tang that cuts through the richness.

We loved the food at D.O.C and I can imagine craving the scamorza and the pizzas again. The service is a little offhand for sure and if that could be revised then it would be a place to eat that's super hard to beat.

Charis' last meal in Melbourne was Korean BBQ. We'd been wanting to try this out for a while and a cool Saturday evening seemed ideal. A quick phone call to check they had room for us and that it was BYO and we set off.

Tucked down an alley with other Korean restaurants, there weren't too many people when we arrived. This soon changed later on and pretty much every table was busy. There were lots of Korean students so thumbs up for authenticity. The wait staff were very friendly and showed us to a booth table tucked away. We were shown a buzzer we could press to request service and left to browse the menu.

We were served our appetisers which were small dishes of kim chee (pungent, sharp and spicy), pickled cucumber, beansprout salad, marinated beancurd strips (sweet and soy like) and some garlic bak choy. My fave was the bak choy follow by the beansprouts. Charis and Steve enjoyed the kim chee.

We expected the BBQ to be gas so we were pleasantly surprised when the waiter bought some incredibly hot, glowing coal and put it into our table top BBQ.

We opted for the all you can eat meat where you get to choose as much meat you can eat and also an entree each. Steve ordered beef and veg on rice with an egg, I went for beef soup which had a few glass noodles in it and it came with a bowl of rice and Charis went for kim chee soup which also came with rice.

Meat wise we had different marinaded cuts of beef, some plain Scotch fillet,beef ribs, marinaded pork and chicken and some marinaded octopus. I was quite excited about the marinaded octopus but found it too sweet so we left most of that. Steve couldn't bring himself to eat the little octopi.

Dessert was a scoop of cheap Neopolitan ice cream which I could take or leave and some deliciously refreshing watermelon.

We enjoyed the BBQ experience and it's pretty good value particularly with BYO wine at $3 per person. It's definitely a group activity and more fun with more people. I'd return to this particular establishment as the meat was decent quality for the price, the wait staff were friendly and there's a pretty wide menu to choose from.

Another rainy Friday evening....another frizzy hair escapade... As part of the "Entertain Charis" activities, we'd booked a table at "Hellenic Republic" which is a George Calombaris restaurant. As new Melburnians, we'd never heard of him previously, after all Australia is pretty far from UK and UK has many many famous chefs already. Anyway since we are now in Melbourne, we now know who he is and that he is a much loved chef of Masterchef judging and Ready, Steady, Cook fame. I guess he looks a bit like Greg Wallace in that he's bald too...

Anyway the miserable weather meant we were so ready for a bit of Mediterranean magic. The restaurant was bustling and very busy reminiscent of a Greek taverna. We had an aperitif; Athens lager for Charis and Steve and I had a vodka and cranberry and we discussed what to eat. The easiest option was to go for the trapezi which is a sharing meny and meant we could have a taste of most things.

We started off with some meze:

Saganaki with peppered figs - very yummy the salty cheese contrasting with the sweet jammy figs
Taramosalata - a fresh white colour instead of the usual gaudy pink. It was a bit too fishy at first but the more we ate it the more moreish it became especially with the warm pitta bread
Pickled octopus on a bean salad - octopus was not chewy and the vinegary pickle was a nice contrast to the other fishy, sweet, meaty flavours of the meze
Pork belly croquettes - crispy and meaty with shreds of slow cooked pork belly encased in mashed potato and a golden crumb
Carrot salad - Dutch purple carrots and the usual orange ones with a tomato and feta dressing. I don't like carrots so just had a bit of the tomato sauce. Charis and Steve finished all the carrots though so must have been good.

Our fish dishes consisted of grilled swordfish with a tomato salsa and scallops baked with garlic breadcrumbs. I loved the golden garlic breadcrumbs. Charis found them too salty but I liked that as I felt it seasoned the scallops. The swordfish was perfectly cooked and was still moist which is difficult to do with swordfish particularly as these pieces were at least an inch thick.

Next came the psistaria ke sto fourno which is basically meat from the spit and oven. We had chicken and lamb that was garlicky and herby and came with a tangy tzatziki, wedge of lemon, fennel and cabbage slaw and crunchy golden chips. Simple Mediterranean flavours but done exceptionally well. We were all smiling and our leftovers were packed up in two small tubs for us to take home and put in a sandwich!

Dessert was glyka which are warm Greek doughnuts with honey and crushed walnuts. Delicious but just too much after the previous courses. Having said that Steve managed three! A scoop of vanilla ice cream would have been great with these as they were just too sweet on their own.

We all agreed it was a delicious meal and excellent value. Definitely a place to return especially on a group as it's a great place to share food. Our waiter talked to us about other restaurants in the group based in the CBD such as a Lebanese one which is newly opened as well as the famous Press Club which is the George's flagship restaurant. I guess watch this space is an apt way of leaving this as we may well get to those during our time here!

I'd heard lots of good things about Cookie; tasty food, great vibe, excellent cocktails etc so I was looking forward to trying this out for Emma's birthday meal. Unfortunately it was a school night so cocktail drinking was to be kept to a sensible level.

Cookie is a large place which is obviously popular. Unlike lots of Melbourne's rated eateries it's not too cramped although we were seated in a little corner but it didn't feel too claustrophobic. We had a lovely waitress who was very enthusiastic and friendly if a little frantic. She recommended cocktails for those who wished to indulge and her choices were good. She advised me to try a "Life on Mars" which was blueberry based. Not quite sure why she'd associate me with Mars; perhaps it's my angry face or the fact that I appear to be from another planet?

Birthday girl had an absinthe based one which disappeared quite quickly so must have been good. I think I had a taste actually and it was good - fruity if I remember correctly.

We all ordered some main dishes and tucked into them family style. There was red lamb curry and the lamb was very tender, chicken and corn dumplings in a green curry and the dumplings were more like meatballs but also tasty, some pad thai, a chicken and chilli stir fry and some other noodles along with rice. Definitely more than enough food for us all especially as the curries were quite thick and rich and the flavours strong so we got full quite quickly. Went from starving hungry to full and ready to pop in what seemed like a matter of minutes!

Slightly disappointed that we weren't allowed to pack up leftovers. Although the food was tasty it wasn't mindblowingly so and not particularly memorable. Given that it had been hyped up through different recommendations, I think we thought it would be better. I guess that's what happens when expectations are set at high levels. Anyway I would return if someone suggested it but I guess I probably wouldn't return of my own accord. I think I'd like to try Longrain instead.

The day after our epic meal at ezard, we'd been invited by my old (old in the sense that our friendship is old and no reflection on our age) uni friend Charis to join her and her parents at De Bortoli Winery for Sunday lunch. Charis and her parents were spending some time in Melbourne as part of a family holiday and who are we to say no to such an invitation? 24 hours of yummy food; that's right up our street!

We'd been to De Bortoli before as part of our Yarra Valley wine tasting trip and knew it was one of Australia's largest privately owned businesses. When we were there last, we'd hunted high and low for a De Bortoli brother for my friend Suzi but no such luck!

Sunday lunch at De Bortoli is a set 4 course menu for $70 with wine pairings at $29 which represented excellent value so decided to indulge. A thank you to Daddy Charis who was our driver! The wine was a very fine way to chase those last remaining cobwebs of a hangover from our overindulgence at ezard the night before!

We kicked off the meal with an antipasto platter comprising of:

Mixed olives
Calabrese salami
Fior de latte, hand crafted mozzarella
Asparagus al vapore
Sicilian white anchovies, wild fennel and celery hearts
Parmesan biscotti

The salty salami and anchovies were a really flavoursome contrast to the more delicate flavours of the mozzarella and asparagus. We also had bread with a deliciously creamy goats cheese dip.

Next came spiced scallops, farro salad with Summer vegetables. The scallops were plump and meaty and the spicing unusual. I love scallops and it was really refreshing to have them in a less traditional way. The farro salad was also yummy, the grains of wheat being almost risotto like.

Main course was local beef fillet with raddichio agro dolce and salsa verde. The salsa verde had a zesty grassy taste that cut through the sweetness of the raddichio chutney. The beef fillet was a little tough for my tastes as it was cooked medium and I prefer my beef rare. The accompaniments of rocket salad topped with grated goats cheese and roasted potatoes with rosemary and garlic were very moreish. The peppery rocket a good reinforcer of the salsa verde's grassy element and the roast potatoes had that perfect golden crunchy quality that is intrinsic to a good roastie.

Moving onto dessert; grappa and vanilla panna cotta with Noble One roasted local peach. Panna cotta is one of my favourite desserts and this was a good version although the grappa didn't really come through. Maybe that's a good thing though. The peach was nice but too much of it and I had to leave half. We also had a glass of Noble One dessert wine with this and it picked up the peachy and vanilla flavours and scents of this dessert nicely. A good way to end the meal.

I'd recommend De Bortoli as pleasant place to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon with friends and family particularly if someone else does the driving! It's a great place to end a weekend in a relaxing way. Thank you so much for treating us Mr. and Mrs. Chung!

A Saturday evening with no plans loomed ahead of us. We'd spent the day working hard cleaning and grocery shopping so we thought we'd reward ourselves with dinner out. Bearing in mind it was about 4pm by the time we'd decided this, we weren't sure where we'd end up.I left messages at ezard and Gingerboy enquiring about cancellations not holding much hope. We'd pretty much decided to head to Longrain where they don't take reservations and prop up the bar until a table was free. However at about 5pm, the lovely sounding Quentin called me back and said he could fit us in at 9:30pm. We don't mind eating late and given we'd had a relaxing afternoon after the cleaning and shopping, we decided to take Quentin up on his offer.

Teague Ezard is a former Age Good Food Guide, Chef of the Year. He is of the "Australian free style" school of cooking with the primary although by no means only, influences of the cuisines of Asia, particularly China and Thailand. ezard is a two hat restaurant and given our experiences had only ever stretched to one hat we were excited to try this out.

ezard is a basement restaurant. It's a long, rectangular dining room with a private dining area and a small lounge area but no bar. Decor is understated and minimalist with white walls, charcoal grey seating and the odd splash of signature lime green by way of a cushion here and there and the t shirt tops underneath the sharp suits the wait staff wore.

We were greeted at the door and took a seat in the lounge. The place was busy and the private dining area was occupied. We were soon joined by three other couples and they were all shown to their tables pretty quickly and we were left alone which was a bit odd. However Quentin came to meet us and explained that he had a really good corner table for us which he'd set aside following our friendly conversation on the phone earlier but it wasn't quite ready. Well, given Quentin was so polite and so charming, we were happy to wait!

We were introduced to the garlic and parmesan infused olive oil and three different dipping salts; bonito and seaweed, chilli and sugar and Szechuan spice. Flavour sensations! I could have drank that olive oil by the bucketload! Please excuse the dark photos but no flash photography allowed.

We ordered a bottle of Riesling; the same one Steve had had one glass of pre dinner. According to him it was interesting and unusual for a Riesling with a smoky finish. The waitress we had came back to us and was very polite but said she wanted to make an alternate suggestion just because the Riesling, although fantastic for one glass was probably too strong by the bottle. I was prepared for the upsell and interested to see what she would suggest. We were pleasantly surprised by her suggestion of a Gewurtztraminer which was actually cheaper and a wine we don't usually drink as it's usually just too much for our palette. The cynical of readers may at this stage may toy with idea of higher margin on the one she suggested, but I don't want to put a grey cloud over the meal! And the main thing is we really enjoyed her suggestion!

After the delicious bread we had the Japanese inspired swordfish shooter. There was a little salmon and guacamole amuse bouche on a spoon. Then a swordfish ball in a cold broth to down in one. The coldness was a little weird; I'm not one for cold soups but the swordfish was zingy tasting fresh with hints of chilli and coriander. The little black roll is a bunch of soba noodles wrapped in seawood to calm the tastebuds down following the shooter apparently. A bit like lime after tequila I guess, but the shooter wasn't so overly flavoured that it needed a palate cleanser, nevertheless the dish consisted of my kind of flavours and was unusual so a good start to the degustation menu.

Steamed crab wanton dumpling, spiced tom kha broth, young coconut, mango and crispy shallots followed. Delightfully Thai in flavours with the sweet, sharp, tangy and fishy flavours all blending together singing harmoniously! The coconut broth was perhaps a touch too creamy for me but that's a personal taste thing rather than a taint on the dish.

After the Asian influences of the previous two dishes, we moved to Italy where we had crispy zucchini flowers, herbed goats cheese and mascarpone with panzanella salad and balsamic syrup. The salad was so delicious with flavoursome, punchy tomatoes and crispy croutons. I loved the zucchini and goats cheese combo but Steve felt it was a touch too rich. Good thing it was a small tasting portion then!

Seared Canadian scallops with spiced pumpkin puree, cumin caramel, pomegranate, chorizo, crispy chinese broccoli came next. The scallops were dusted in spices and they complimented the scallop so well with the chorizo adding depth and lingering aftertaste following the sweetness of the scallop.

We continued with the fish dishes and sampled the coconut roasted ocean trout with Asian gazpacho, tempura avocado, creme fraiche and Yarra Valley salmon eggs. This was fresh and light and creamy and just so delicious all at the same time. Steve's not a fan of pink fish but this converted him.

After the fish dishes we swapped the white for a recommended red...a pinot noir if I remember correctly. Things get a little blurry from here on! I do remember that the next few courses upheld the bar that had been set so very high.

Five spiced Bangalow sweet pork belly with yellow bean and peanut dressing, apple slaw salad was like Chinese char siu; sweet and sticky and just yum.

Chinese roast duck, green chilli and oyster sauce dressing with coconut rice and Asian greens was equally divine. The coconut rice had a rice pudding texture and was moist and sticky and the dressing was salty enough to cut through the cream. The duck was perfectly pink and very tender.

Dessert was a highlight. We decided to go for the tasting plate:

Banana parfait, cinnamon tuille and passionfruit syrup
Honeycrunch icecream, toasted gingerbread and sugar swirl
Fromage frais and rubarb cheesecake, basil pearls, lime syrup and mixed berry sorbet
Almond and blueberry sable, caramelised pear, citrus pannacotta and pistachio icecream
Bittersweet chocolate tart, poached pineapple and rosemary icecream
Mango and passionfruit bavarois, strawberry water and vanilla fairy floss

Each individual tasting portion looked beautiful and most importantly tasted great. A particular favourite was the rosemary ice cream and the honey crunch icecream with toasted ginger bread. Steve loved the almond and blueberry sable.

We're very thankful we live in Melbourne and that we have the opportunity to sample such delicious food. I think ezard represents the city very well; international influences superbly executed and a classy establishment too!

The interesting dinner conversation Mr Barley and I had was that if we had $400 we'd come here for a full on big dinner. This place deserves its two hats as everything that comes out the kitchen is stellar. The degustation was well thought out and each course was so delicious but not one of them was a stand out in its own right. However if we only had $40 we'd go to Nobu and choose one dish; I'd go for the yellowtail sashimi or fillet steak toban yaki and Steve would have miso black cod. I guess this shows why Nobu is a favourite of our's yet doesn't have any hats as it doesn't have the consistency ezard has but credit to it in that it does have some outstanding offerings.

Friday night adventure to Box Hill! Steve and I decided to get there by train which was made more exciting by the fact that a candidate of mine told me not to get the train back from Box Hill after 9pm "because bad things happen there after 9pm!" Our journey there started off grey and then the rain fell. When I say fell I mean it poured. Rivers were created on the platforms of the stations we passed through. We could hear it hammer down on the roof of the train.

We were greeted at the station by Ling and Noah and we headed to 3 Kingdoms. The trip involved a subway and wading through ankle high water. Ling got a piggy back from Noah to keep her shoes dry!

3 Kingdoms was reasonably busy. It smelt good as we walked in and we were hungry so good signs. We shared some fried dumplings which were tasty, kim chi pancake and spring onion pancake. The pancakes were ok - more veg than pancake. The courses came out one at a time too so it was quite a long meal. Noah ordered a fermented rice drink which came in a can and the response from both Ling and Noah after first sip wasn't enough to make me want to try.

Main courses - Noah had beef bulgogi, Steve and I had bibimbap which was a stone pot with beef, veggies and fried egg in it which I topped with chilli sauce and Ling had teriyaki fish. Ling's dish came out really late and tasted a little odd. Kind of sweet and salty at the same time. The bibimbaps were pretty good; lots of rice but not really authentic as the egg was too well done. Usually it's raw and you mush it altogether to get a bit of sauce from the egg so the dish ended up being a little dry. The beef bulgogi tasted fine - not exceptional but fine. It looked a but stringy too.

Wouldn't bust a gut to return but it was acceptable and the company made it fun.

We then went for Chinese dessert at Monga Dessert Lounge. Got to say I'm not a huge fan but because we were in Box Hill and the weather was humid like Hong Kong, it felt like the right thing to do. Plus it's Chinese New Year so I guess I should do things that are the traditions of my people.

Once again Ling's dish was delayed but Steve's waffle with green tea ice cream and red bean paste was even later. The waffle and ice cream was good but the red bean paste was a little bit too much like Mexican refried beans which don't really go with waffle and ice cream so Steve pushed the paste to one side. Lings sweet green bean (like a pulse rather than the vegetable) with kelp was declared ok but she wished she'd ordered her usual red bean sweet soup. Noah had a basil seed and watermelon dish with coconut milk that looked like frog spawn with balls of red melon. Nice colours. I had the sago with coconut milk and ice cream which was like runny rice pudding and nice enough but far too much coconut milk so I couldn't finish it.

I think we'll return to Monga Dessert Lounge and bring my mum as she likes stuff like that but Chinese desserts are not really my thing.