A Few of My Favourite Things !

We celebrated dad’s birthday, 2 Saturdays in a row.

The first time around, we happened to be having a family weekend away in Healesville. I had made an early dinner booking at the local Toolanghi Pub when I realised that Innocent Bystander (IB) had a kids menu. Taking that to mean children were welcome, I swapped our booking over to an early dinner at IB instead. We poured over the menu at our lodging that Saturday afternoon and the consensus was that we had to try the Tomahawk Steak. There was only one problem: there was a one hour cooking time and we had two toddlers coming to dinner with us.

Not. A. Good. Mix.

We tried to resolve the problem by pre-ordering and were given three reasons that it could not be done:
1. There’s a limited number of steaks so diners can’t pre-book them (We were coming at 6pm, the earliest time the steaks were being served. We would not have missed out)
2. Diners may turn up late and we can’t serve the steak cold (we are staying 5 minutes away and have 2 toddlers to feed. We will even turn up early for it)
3. We have not done it before and so cannot do it now (can’t argue with that).

We accepted that for all three reasons, we could not pre-order the steaks so plan B came into effect. Four of our party would be seated at 6pm to order the steak and the other two adults would bring the two toddlers an hour later. It worked a treat!

It’s a large open space where noise bounces off everything. Great if you have children and need that to hide their loudness and great for groups or a casual dinner date. The waitstaff are mostly of the friendly variety and you can watch the chefs “doin’ their thang”.

The Tomahawk Steak arrives, shaped appropriately like its namesake, accompanied by shallots, pumpkin, broccolini, mustard and lemon wedges.

It is only served medium rare but ours was probably closer to a medium. At the end of our meal, my 2 yo was happy to gnaw on the handle of the Tomahawk – mmmm. The broccolini was a hit with my 2 year old, but neither boys were not enamoured of the kids menu Wagyu Burger.

Our prosciutto and rocket pizza crust is thin and puffy perfection and half its deliciousness derives from watching the pizza chef tossing the dough into the air. The sashimi is good (a little cold maybe?) and mum loved the dressing on it, but above all that, it’s the parmesan and truffle frites which are not to be missed.

We returned the next morning for a 3/4 cappuccino but left with something that resembled a macchiato, as it was more like a 1/3 coffee with a dash of milk. Nevertheless, the in-house baked goods were impressive enough to overcome my coffee disappointment. The caneles were some of the best that I’ve had in Melbourne and they serve an excellent baguette.

Last Saturday, we got to visit some of our favourite Melbourne CBD and Carlton places. It was too lovely a day to spend driving around so we parked on Rathdown Street, Carlton and blazed a trail around Carlton and Melbourne CBD. First stop was La Parisienne Pate, a French charcuterie that supplies homemade saucisson, pates and terrines, pies and a selection of cheeses. We picked up some duck & orange pate, cornichons, Cantal Entre-deux cheese, muscatels and a French Fantasies baguette.

We then mosied up Lygon Street to La Latteria, known for their fresh Italian-style cheeses. I wish I had a cheese stomach (and a larger enough wallet) to try one of everything in the shop, but I guess this leaves something new to try for next time. More Scarmorza for our homemade pizzas and this time some cream-filled burrata too.

From there, we dropped off our ice-packed goods in the car boot and went for our first coffee of the day at Seven Seeds. Another one of those warehousey cafes, the wait for a table near lunchtime was around 15 minutes. The takeaway line was only about 5 minutes shorter and the plates that were going pass looked pretty tempting but we wanted to continue with our jaunt, so takeaway coffee it was. A. ordered, so instead of my usual three-quarter cappuccino, I had a three-quarter latter – a little on a milky side for me but good otherwise.

Realising that we were a stone’s throw from Victoria Market at that point, we dropped by to pick up Thai basil, Vietnamese mint, coriander and some soft, thin slices of bresaola and Serrano ham. Vic Market is an old favourite for watching locals shopping and visitors doing the touristy thing. It seems to that that ability to cater for everyone and everything.

Ready now for our second coffee, we trekked south to Thousand £ Bend, a large space that is part cafe, part gallery and part events space. They are also starting to host live gigs as more bands are requesting use of their venue. Entry to these events is round the back through Heape Ct. I got to have my cappuccino – I love spooning the chocolate froth off the top, my main reason for ordering- and enjoyed just chilling out in a space that made me feel like I was at someone’s grandma’s place. In a good way.

3pm and we were finally ready for some lunch after nibbling and sampling our way through the morning and early afternoon hours. North-east back up Lt Lonsdale St took us to the Laksa Bar, a little shopfront that we had passed many times, each time vowing to head back so that we could try it. After seeing the size of the servings at adjoining tables and determining that dinner would only be a few hours away, we decided to make do with one bowl And what a bowl it was. You know how you get those oversized parmas at pubs? Well, this was possibly the largest bowl of laksa I’d ever seen and definitely not the kind of serving you’d get in Malaysia. The regular house laksa came with generous pieces of roast chicken, fried tofu, bean shoots and a slice of lemon.

Finally time to head home, so back up Lygon Street. But wait, what’s this here? Helados Jauja!!! We bought a takeaway tub of 3 flavours for $15 – Argentinian Yerba, 80% chocolate and salted caramel. This was my first experience with Argentinian ice cream and I really don’t know how I could go back to anything else. I loved that every flavour shone through authentically without an overpowering sweetness. This comes high on my list of recommendations for anyone travelling through. And if you’re not travelling through, make a special trip!

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YumTable from Madewell Enterprises on Vimeo.

Daily deal sites have really taken off and I subscribe to a few of them. It does cross my mind whether anyone still pays full price for a massage or facial when you can get anywhere from 60% upwards off a treatment through these sites. Of course, the trick is waiting until a deal comes up for your neck of the woods and then trying to get a booking once you have purchased the deal. I just made use of some of my vouchers yesterday and I had too book for June and August. That’s far too long to wait for a facial or massage, especially for someone like me – I just want everything NOW. Because of this, I have only purchased one restaurant-related deal so far. I just don’t plan that far in advance for meals and, whilst I will book weeks ahead for special occasions, I would much rather be able to just decide on the day depending on what cuisine I feel like. For me, apps like Urban Spoon or Yelp (when overseas) have been the best way to locate good eating options.

Then this week, I learned about a new website, “Yum Table“, that provides live deals for restaurants. I have been busy checking out what deals are available in my area and they range from ’25% off the bill if you’re out before 7pm’ (good for me with two children) to ‘buy one, get one main meal free’ to ‘complimentary glass of wine’. The booking is made online and you get an SMS confirmation once it goes through. It looks like you can plan up to 2 days in advance for your day/night out and that would suit m perfectly. It seems like a good way for restaurants to attract diners on slower nights too and I’m sure the better the deal, the better the response they will get.

I was all ready to make a booking today for a local place that I’ve been wanting to visit for some time now but after a second look, realised that the restaurant offering the deal was ‘The Living Room‘ in Templestowe and not ‘Living Room‘, Malvern. Guess I’ll be making some suggestions of restaurants to add!

I have been sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation of their iPhone app and installed it as soon as it launched.I think we may be heading to Fenix soon…or Lulo…or…I’m terribly bad at making these kinds of decisions!

(On a side note, I also love the teaser video!)

Well, not completely true, as there actually is a very large one at the entrance and I really wanted to take a photo with (read ‘sitting atop’) the wood/metal Charging Bull-inspired sculpture and now I’m regretting not doing so. But I certainly don’t regret accepting the invitation to a Bloggers’ Dinner last night. I’ve been an irregular poster (at best) since having my two boys so I was surprised to be included on this list. But it happened to fall on the day EJ & Z stay over with their grandparents, so why not. Plus there’s not a whole lotta Brazilian things in Melbourne and I get to eat Brazilian one night and work it off with capoeira the next. Although Steer doesn’t claim to serve Brazilian food as such, but rather uses flavours and techniques to pay homage.

Thinking I was running just a few minutes early, I found a third of the table already filled when I arrived. I managed to score a seat near Thanh and Claire, whom I first met about 2 years ago at Jamon Sushi, as well as Penny, Billy, Adrian and Emily.

So the night started with the national drink of Brazil, a Caipirinha, which I declined as I was going to be driving. After a long pause, during which we waited on a few late arrivals, the amuse-bouche of Wagyu short ribs with soy glaze and smoked eel arrived, much to the relief of all those growling stomachs whose owners had been pitifully crying out ‘I’m SO hungry. Where’s the food?’. This was accompanied by the Argentinian NV Familiar Schroeder Brut-Rose ‘Rosa de Los Vientos’, which I had a sip of thinking it’s just a sip. Talk about melt-in-your-mouth – I think that little cube of beef was falling of my little starter fork. The little potato gem could have brought its family and I would have been happy to house them all.

Next up was octopus with a mixed melon terrine, squid ink gnocchi and black garlic puree accompanied by a Barossa Valley 2006 Rockford Semillon ‘Local Growers’. The terrine looked just like my mum’s kueh lapis with its alternating layers of red and pink but it was the black garlic sludge that got the most oohs and aahs.

Until then, I was wondering where the Brazilian influence had been hiding so I was looking forward to the next dish, titled Acarajé, a traditional Brazilian street food. This is normally a deep-fried black-eyed pea patty stuffed with tomatoes and a spicy paste of dried shrimp, ground nuts and coconut milk but Steer gave us a restaurant (read ‘deconstructed’) version of it served with a soft shell crab leg and prawn. Even knowing that Brazilian food is quite eclectic and influenced by many cuisines from around the world, the spicy paste was so reminiscent of a laksa paste that I still wondered which came first. How can you not love this dish with all that deep-fried tastiness sitting atop the spicy paste? This was served with what was my favourite wine of the night – a 2007 Laplace Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh Sec from France. I should mention that by this stage I had cajoled my husband to take a train in and drive me home so all was well.

I think what was the dish of the night for just about everyone was the assiette of mushrooms – an array of pickled, braised and sauteed wild and seasonal mushrooms, duxelle tortellini and field mushroom puree. All I could think of when I was eating this was that my boys would have fallen over themselves to get to it. I would have had to draw the line for my 3 year old with the 1962 Carlo Peregrino Marsala Vergine Riserva though!

I have to say that the Marsala Vergine and the açaí sorbet confused instead of clearing my palate and my stomach had expectations that the meal was coming to an end. But no, there was a dish of roasted duck breast with caramelised witlof, confit duck leg boudin, smoked brazil nut and quinoa. I offered Adrian two slices of the duck breast but after trying it, I was ready to shout ‘give it back!’. The sausage slices however did not stand a chance against that and the sweet crunchiness of the witlof and I would have been happy to give them away. Oh, as well as the 2005 Martinus Estate Pinot Noir from New Zealand which I simply found too dry and intense.

Taking a breather at this point to step away from the Chef’s table that we were at, I had a chance to admire the decor and the artwork, as would be required when you’re sharing a site with The Olsen ‘Art Series’ Hotel, of Cezary Stulgis. I was quickly called back to enjoy the action of serving the Churrasco, whereby executive chef Stacy Thompson and his team gave each of us a turn to grab the meat with tongs as they walked around the table slicing it. A platter each of rump and sirloin slices were then brought to the table and served with feijoada, a black bean and chorizo stew, and chorizo stew and fresh orange slices. I found the rump most enjoyable of the three cuts and it still made me salivate despite protestations from the groaning stomach. I’m sure the feijoada is great but I think it was just too heavy for me by this stage. I also wasn’t taken with the only Brazilian wine of the night, a 2005 Miolo ‘Gran Lovara’.

The comeback arrived in a BIG way with dessert – a petit gateau de dulce de leche served with caramel fondant, a flourless (?) pistachio cake, cubes of goiabada (guava paste) and açaí sorbet. I want the recipe for that gateau!!! STAT! NV Chambers Muscadelle ‘Old Vine’ Classic.

Finally, our night finished off with little brigadeiro truffles made of condensed milk, butter and cocoa powder then dusted with either coconut or cocoa. I don’t have a photo but I can report that many took seconds for the road when the plate was passed round again. This was followed by a digestive, 1998 Chiyo Shuzo ‘Genshu Koshu’ sake. It smelled and tasted medicinal -herbal and bitter. Sommelier Raúl Moreno Yagüe said that it would settle our stomachs so I drank it in the same way that I might drink a herbal soup that mum brews for its cooling qualities – holding my nose.

I already want to bring my brother to try out the place but enough about the food already. There was also a surprise announcement when we were there – Steer are offering two bloggers an opportunity to undertake a 2 week stage or internship to experience a little of what goes into running a restaurant. Only a small taste, of course, but what an interesting opportunity for putting out your tentacles and getting a feel for the industry, especially if one is considering foraying from their current career path. The decision was made to come to a decision as to who would participate by COB Friday. Am I contemplating it? As with most, the concern was being able to put the time into doing it. But also, the other question is do I want it more than the four hands that went up when the question was asked?

Others who were also there included Joyce, Joanna, Ben and Phyllis, Tristan, Neil, Matt. I hope I didn’t miss anyone…please let me know if I did.

A friend of mine is currently in Tokyo. Don’t ask me why but he decided to bypass all the ramen places and visit a French restaurant. Here’s the menu:

We went to the Taste of Melbourne on a Friday afternoon again this year to avoid the crowds, and what a lovely way it was to spend a rainy afternoon. Thanks to Green & Black’s, entry was free so we just had to buy crown currency to use at the stalls. Despite concentrating solely on food and skipping all the wine stalls, we still managed to spend a leisurely three hours at the impressive and gorgeous Royal Exhibition Centre. My friends who went the next day, and did all the wine stalls as well as the HSBC VIP Lounge, stayed until they got kicked out at 4:30pm.

Onto the food then and in order of appearance:

Mezzo Bar & Grill’s organic slow braised pork cheek, white polenta, raisins and marsala sauce. So delightful that the woman standing across from us felt a need to share with us how much she enjoyed hers. Maybe it’s not a bad thing that Mezzo has gone Italian since reinventing itself after Oyster Little Bourke.

Melbourne Wine Room/Mr Wolf‘s Livornese seafood stew. Just one whiff of this could have sent me to heaven however I nearly broke my tooth on that bread stick! Such an appropriate dish for a cold, grey day so more of the broth would have been welcome. That said, it didn’t diminish our enjoyment of the stew, especially as we watched the queue crawling slowly towards The Palace for Luke Mangan’s Wagyu Burger. Being the most substantial dish and for just 10 crowns may have explained the lines, but we had been forewarned that the burger was nothing special.

Mmeh, The European’s duck tortelloni with pea puree & truffle oil really did not do it for me. One bite and I was happy to leave the rest to A. who ate it more out of hunger than desire.

Thankfully, it was a completely different story when we got to Comida Bebe. We chose to eschew the more popular Paella Fiesta for the baby chorizo glazed in cider, served on a skewer with candied and fresh apple and topped with an apple toffee sauce and boy, was it worth it! The chorizo was smokey, chewy and mouthwateringly moreish. They really should do more than just pop-up here and there.

Next door was the Libertine/Le Traiteur stall where the entire menu had my eyes popping. As I was getting quite full though, we skipped the pissaladiere feuillete and smoked duck, apple & walnut rilettes for the game consomme and truffled rabbit agnolotti – clear broth spiked with amontillado sherryl. A very delicate dish that A. enjoyed more than me.

Onto the opposite side where the (IMO) most eye-catching stalls had been set up – Longrain and Longrain Bar. Although the yellow curry of wagyu beef with cucumber relish looked tempting, I immediately wanted the salted Western Plains pork prawn sweet roll with pickled vegetables. Unlike Circa’s try-hard version of the banh mi last year, this one hit the mark and was one of my favourite dishes of the afternoon. Crackling pork skin with sweet chilli sauce – I could have had 3 of these if I wasn’t so full.

We also had their vanilla tapioca pudding with poached pears and jackfruit.

Charcoal Lane is restaurant, supported by Mission Australia, that enables Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people to obtain comprehensive hospitality training. A good enough reason to try their food and visit the restaurant, right? But what makes it better is that the food is actually well-worth tasting. We only had the seared Kingfish, red curry, puffed rice and coconut dish but it’s enough for me to want to schedule in a dinner there soon.

To finish off, we had the pistachio ‘panna cotta’ with caramel salted popcorn from Sarti. Salted caramel is really taking off in Melbourne in a BIG way but so few places get it right (I think the only place that A has give the thumbs up to is the creperie in Hardware Lane). Unfortunately, this was one of them. The popcorn did not taste of salted caramel at all but it was saved by the amazing pistachio panna cotta.

Well, we finished up at the restaurant stalls but, of course, there were a few other things we had to taste =) The original Monaco Bar was one of my favourite ice creams as a child so when I first read about Pat & Stick’s ice cream range in Gourmet Traveller about, oh, 6 years ago I knew that I had to try it. Unfortunately, their products were not stocked in Melbourne so I’ve had to wait until now for one of their sandwiches. Apparently the Caramel Pecan is one of the more popular so that’s what we got. It was good but, really, it could be SOOOOO much better. The cookie could and should have been nuttier and it reminded me of the cheap peanut cookies that you can get at Aldi. I hope the rest of the range is better but I’m more inclined to make my own next time.

Then there was the Green & Black’s chocolate fountain. A pile of skewered marshmallows to hold under the flowing river of chocolate, it was funny watching a woman tentatively reaching her skewer towards the waterfall and pulling back just before it touched. So good that I had two and would have gone back for a third before heading out the door before remembering that this afternoon was already going to mean extra gym time.

We enjoyed Dello Mano’s gourmet brownies so much last year that I made a beeline as soon as I spotted their sign. Of course, it helps when you have an owner like Bien who is passionate about their product and wants you to enjoy it as much as they do (unlike a certain fussy helper at the King Island Dairy stall).

We bought a few chocolates from The Chocolate Master but haven’t tasted them as yet as we are fairly chocolated out right now.

Who else has been and blogged (so far)? I have to slowly make my way through all these posts over the next few days…
Jeroxie
I Eat Therefore I Am
Travelling in Mary Janes
My Food Trail
Iron Chef Shellie
Green Gourmet Giraffe
Kitchen Wench
…It Pleases Us
Melbourne Gastronome
MEL: hot or not
The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua
Sweet Cherrie Pie

We have been awaiting the opening of Old Town Kopitiam in QV for the last few months, especially after spending a couple of weeks in Malaysia recently and reacquainting ourselves with the joys of kaya toast. Finally made it there for breakfast this morning, which actually turned out to be lunch when I couldn’t get out of bed before 10:30am. This also meant that we had to forgo the kaya toast in favour of something more substantial – roti chanai with curry sauce, Siamese Laksa and ban chang kueh. All great and we’re heading back really soon to try the rest of the menu.

I finally got to eat at Cumulus, 9:30pm last Thursday night…and I was smitten!

My photos are all dim and blurry so I haven’t taken the trouble to upload them here. My favourite dish of the night was the scallops wrapped in speck, capers & raisin vinaigrette. This was followed closely by the crispy school prawns sauteed with chilli & garlic – imagine having a bowl of these in front of you while watching the Saturday night movie! – then tuna tartare with crushed green pea salad (my husband’s favourite), the boudin noir, smoked tomato & parsley salad and finally the silk purse from a slow’s ear, ravigote & green sauce.

As you can tell, I was already delighted with the meal so far however I was also getting quite full so skipping dessert wouldn’t have bothered me in the least. However, my husband overruled me and ordered two – the coconut sago, meringue, coconut sorbet and the petit fours (hazelnut chocolate, salted caramel) – and boy am I glad that he did! The coconut sago turned out to be one of the loveliest desserts I’ve had in a long time. So much that I popped into Laguna the next day to buy a pack of sago to recreate it at home.

One of the best aspects of the meal for us was being served by the staff at Cumulus. Not only were they knowledgeable but they actually appeared happy to be there, somewhat of a rarity these days in the customer service field.

Here’s my version of the Cumulus dessert. Sago drizzled with coconut milk sweetened with a palm sugar syrup served with softly whipped egg white and Serendipity’s Coconut & Kaffir Lime sorbet:

This post is SO late that the lovely Suj’s “I’m in my 8th month of pregnancy” tummy has become a gorgeous 2-month old daughter. I’m not sure where her appetite is at these days but during her pregnancy she was indulging her hormonally-directed food cravings with varied meals of Nandos, Hungry Jacks and Yum Cha. This very belated post is about a meal she & hubby had back in April this year. Thanks for your contribution!

Today Ben and I finally thought we would try out a relatively new place in Glen Waverley on Springvale Road called Yum Cha Inn. We checked out the menu, and it seemed an interesting concept where the yum cha menu is on a sheet of A4 paper and you get to select how many serves of each item you would like to order. The idea then is your order is made up for you and brought directly to your table, so the food is nice and hot off the steamer, stove, oven, etc.

So Ben and I went through the list and picked our favourites like the “siu mai”, and “har gow”, “char siu sow”, “loh bak gou”, another scallop dumpling (my Cantonese fails me here) and custard tarts (“dan tart”). And proceeded to wait in anticipation.

And we waited.

And waited.

Finally a dish appeared about 30 minutes later, it was “ham sui gok” and I thought, huh, did we order this? Perhaps we did, perhaps my English interpretation of “char siu sow” was actually “ham sui gok” so I thought ok, never mind, we’ll accept the dish. And we ate it. It had just the right amount of pork filling inside, not too much and not too little. The pastry was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside with a delicate sweetness that offset the savoury filling.

And then we waited again.

Finally another two dishes appeared, a green-coloured dumpling dish and another with beancurd. Now I was definitely certain I didn’t order these and so we checked with the wait staff, and sure enough it wasn’t our’s. My heart sank as I realised we’d have to wait again for the rest of our meal.

An hour after we had walked through the door, I finally asked about our order and made it quite clear that the wait had been unacceptable. We were assured our order was only 2 minutes away and they apologised for a mix up in the kitchen. Strike 1, they had not kept the customer informed regarding the unusual delay.

We finally got our dumplings and remaining order, except the “loh bak gou”. Upon enquiry we were told they had run out of that particular dish. One would have thought that they would have informed us earlier so we could order alternatives. This was strike 2. Our “char siu sow” then surprisingly made an appearance! We were informed the “ham sui gok” we had earlier wasn’t actually our’s. Oh well, so be it, they had made the mistake and it was not our fault that we had already eaten it. Pretty sure they charged us for it anyway.

When we did make alternative orders of “char siu bau” and the lotus wrapped steamed glutinous rice to replace the “loh bak gou”, the order only took 5 minutes to arrive at our table, proving that the 50 minute wait was simply unnecessary.

Apart from the terrible wait time, the food in general was only fairly average. The highlight was the very flaky pastry on the custard tarts which I loved.

The restaurant gave us complimentary drinks and took 10% off our bill to compensate for the very long wait we had to endure. However needless to say it will be a while before we will venture into Yum Cha Inn again.

Thanks to Ed, we were saved from having to pay the $30 entry fee to the Taste of Melbourne. I’m guessing that there must have been a lot of complimentary entrance tickets floating around as there was a large sign outside reminding people to validate their free tickets prior to entering. Despite getting in for nothing, we still spent $60 on the “crowns” in order to purchase food so not a cheap lunch but a good opportunity to have a little taste from each restaurant.

Friday afternoon turned out to be a great time to go as we didn’t have to queue at all. The busiest stand by far was the Press Club/Hellenic Republic & Maha one, probably as a result of George’s high profile after Masterchef Australia. Or possibly because it was three stands in one. Indeed, as we waited for our Lamb Kustilji we continually heard ‘Masterchef’ or ‘George’ being dropped in every conversation. The man himself was there behind the counter but he didn’t seem especially friendly. On the other hand, Shane Delia was all smiles and “yalla, yalla!”, welcoming everyone to their stand.

Maha’s Lamb Kustilji: crispy lamb ribs, roast nuts & spices, lemon & yoghurt. A really fun, stand up & eat kind of dish.

The Press Club/Hellenic Republic & Maha stand:

We had a quick chat to the lovely Frank Camorra at Movida, who recommended his slow-cooked cuttlefish with chorizo & chickpeas. I personally would have preferred to try the braised beef with spanish paprika, saffron & potatoes but A. happily slurped down this dish.

I was really excited about Nobu’s black cod with miso, having read so much about it. And thankully, it was everything I expected and more.

One of my absolute favourite “sandwiches” is the char siew pau so when I saw Circa’s BBQ She Wagyu, steamed bun, pickled carrot, spring onion & hoisin I was imagining a classy cross between the humble char siew pau, pekind duck pancakes & banh mi, if that makes any sense at all! It had good strong flavours and came SO close, but in the end it just wasn’t quite there yet. Maybe it was the steamed bun not having the right texture – it was neither fluffy enough for a pau nor crunchy enough for a baguette – or maybe there was too much of the hoisin sauce…something.

Our next stop, Verge, for the milk chocolate delice, coconut & basil, salted caramel popcorn which looked so beautiful I couldn’t go past it. Rich, rich, rich! (whisper: actually I preferred the brownies below)

Lots of stands that you could sample goods at, chat to the producers. We didn’t have a lot of time away from our son but even so we managed to do two rounds of the Exhibition Building and covered most of these. We bought outstanding brownies from Dello Mano, a Brisbane-based company. Each 50g little square was $6 but pretty delish, although
A. loyally agreed that mine were as good if not better =)