melbourne is definitely one of my favourite cities in the world now, next to istanbul and rome. i'm particularly impressed by its cafes and restaurants, the culture of doing "breaky" and business lunches by the river, and the chilled-out, easy-going atmosphere you find everywhere.
some of the best food:
*the mango, lychee, and hazelnut gelati at trampoline on brunswick street, fitzroy
*banana and lemon pancakes banana and lemon pancakes and scrambled eggs with coriander and chili from joe's garage, also on brunswick street.
*chinese at the famous flower drum on drummond street
*moroccan at momo on collins street
one highlight was a trip out to the yarra valley wine country and staying at outlook hill, a beautiful boutique winery. from our cottage we could see the entire vineyard and the neighbouring dairy farms. one of the most beautiful sunsets i've ever seen --for about five minutes a gorgeous orange glow hung over the entire vineyard. the hotel had a great jacuzzi bath too --so relaxing, especially after a hard day of wine tasting!
the cellar doors at outlook hill, coldstream hills, yering station, and tarrawarra were all very different. hard to say which wine i liked most. the chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir from coldstream hills and the chardonnay at tarrawarra maybe? we also had a terrific dinner at the healesville hotel. purpleman had local free range pork in a wine and honey sauce while i had lamb. a very impressive wine list too, of course.
but the best part of the entire trip for me was meeting purpleman's brother and sister, luke and kate. i always forget he is the eldest of four because he is such an easy-going own-drummer type. i like them a lot -- both just as kind and laid back as purpleman but slightly more mischievous.
