OZ Day 7- pastas & scones leaving Melbourne

The last day in Melbourne was quite surreal, seeing that it already feels so much like home.After a tiring day walking around yesterday, we were poised for a more relaxed day.

Bacon being the stubborn little pig insisted on going wine tasting at least once in Australia…having never been to one before.I've been to countless wine tasting events and visited the vineyard of Sonoma and Napa Valley a couple of times whilst I was still in love with San Francisco.Add that to going to school in the only university in America which offers a degree in winemaking (ableit quite sucky wine) I was sorted. I still remember my ex room mate who used to go out with this bloke working in one of the Sonoma Valley vineyard…every weekend we would get about 1/2 bottles of merlot.

Anyway…fast forward 4 years I had given up on wine drinking,preferring the fast flowing chivas combination instead.So that was the end of my wine adventures,but the rest of them were just getting into it.

Before heading towards the Yarra Valley, we headed towards the famous Miss Marple Tea Rooms situated in Sassafras at the Dandenong Ranges. It was strangely familiar, resembling the typical English tearoom that it aws supposed to be. I guess it was supposed to be a good thing when we found that they serve Yorkshire tea! The tea that I drink every day at work whilst dreaming of a hot steaming cuppa of BOH with condensed milk….served at a premium on the other side of the world.

That is Yorkshire tea! Exclaimed the yorkshire born and bred


The picturesque cottage


Christmas in the summer


We decided to sample half the menu…ordering their pseudo famous Devonshire cream & jam scones, shaped like a cake instead of a proper scone, this one was a let down (tastes like cornbread in redlobster instead!)


Pretty as a picture carrot soup


smoked salmon fingers and the welsh rarebit fingers


The delectable cottage pie


And to end, the very scrumptious sticky toffee pudding, an english classic that I am very fond of.
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This meal was topped up with steaming bone china cups of tea…coming from Yorkshire on a hot lovely day, I prefer the tall glass of iced coffee:).


Pleasantly filled to the brim, we made our way from Miss Marples at 1pm…we arrived at 12 and it was empty,by the time we left it was filled to the brim with people making the trek up from Melbourne.They do not take any reservations, so if you are planning to visit this little piece of brittania, GO EARLY! It's around 45mins -1 hour from Melbourne to Sassafras (reminds me of Sarsi). They have driving instructions on their website and it looks fairly easy to get to.Don't think there are many public transport up to the Ranges,but I might be wrong.

Anyhoo..next stop is the first of the many vineyards that we would be visiting for the day - I had forgotten most of it,so will probably not mention their names..there are just dozens and dozens spread around that area, have a drive around, get lost, you will probably bump into one. Alternatively, my good friend Walter runs tours to the Yarra Valley as well, so if you are there for a spot of something drunkenly good and need a ride, go with him instead.


Mom going nutters at the vineyard


The dairy farm where you can taste cheeses…but it was so expensive( AU 25 for a platter of 5 cheeses) that we did not bother


….the fact that we can smell cow dung as the cows were actually passing by at that time to be milked does not help our appetite for cheese.And no one absolutely loved cheeses except Bacon.


Mom was more amused at the peach tree more than anything else.Went around discreetly plucking fruits from trees


I've always loved haystacks..I call these marshmallows as it can be seen all around the English countryside wrapped in bright sorbet green plastic


The secret garden at the de Bortoli Vineyard.As OZ was in the middle of a drought, farmers were not allowed to water anything at all.But since they had their own dam, the vineyard and its surroundings were as lush as can be


Ivy league of the crop, their wines were delicious as well….


The last of our vineyard tour was the Oakridge, where they serve food as well as free tipple.I was too enraged to take any more pictures at that time because Bacon was flirting with the barmaid :/.

Ahhh…..a nice lazy afternoon..ableit I was half asleep most of the time as you can probably tell by the lack of pictures even though we were going through beautiful countryside.

We headed back home and got a shower before heading out for dinner again, this time at Lygon St in Melbourne's little Italia


This was the bro's choice…and in a spur of coincidence, it was where Yi Jen waitress every Sunday as well! Like, how more bizzare can it get! It was so strange when she popped over during dinner to pass a gift to me and confused the staff there which were wondering why was she working on Sat!

We had some spinach/chicken pasta,Marinara pasta, seafood pizza and the ever-there meat pizza.




Lygon St meal ended with a spate of delicious gelati in the flavour of Durian..which tastes suprisingly like the real thing.Yumm...