Memorable meals in Melbourne

Food has become an important interest of mine.  Not only eating but cooking, trying new things and experimenting is fun. I have notice that this happens to some people with passing years and passing good looks. This may too harsh assessment, but it is strange that food did not interest me at all when I was a child and quite a few years after that. My first interest in food was awakening while living in Paris and cheese was the main fascination. At this point of time I was learning to do things in the way the elegant western people did and I found out that the way to serve a cheese platter correctly is to have five types of cheese on it. I obeyed the rule perhaps even too religiously, but it was so nice to have the leftovers for lunch the next day.  Now, since I have relaxed a lot about some rules, I serve sometimes a single cheese and not necessarily after the main course. My French lessons are not followed any more. In any case, I am not sure if the rule does not apply only to restaurants cheese platters.   

                                                        

                                   

It has been a long introduction, but thinking of the meals in Melbourne re-awakened the old memories.  I should, perhaps, call my blog My Meandering.

The lady of the house is a seriously good cook and the first night I was able to watch the full preparation of the fantastic meal - a Chicken Tagine. I was rather surprised to see how many spices went in and the big amounts of them. The result was outstanding and I will give tagine a go myself once my new kitchen is installed and an appropriate dish purchased. I had my little contribution to the preparation but only in a role of the kitchen hand chopping herbs  so this experience will not count for much and I will be challenged cooking it.

                                                 

The next day I was taken for tea to Hopetoun Tearooms.  The place is located in a very nice arcade, similar to Sydney Strand. Once one faces the tearooms one becomes blind to surroundings. The place is excessive. The displayed cakes are excessive, ornaments are excessive, number of people wanting to be there is excessive. One can get dizzy from all of it. We were lucky with our timing and we did not have to queue, but I heard that this is what one has to do to get in. To make a choice of tea and then a cake was quite nerve wracking. Too much of everything and all looking extremely good. We managed to do our selections as two professionals used to making difficult decisions should and can. It was fantastic! I recommend the place to potential visitors to Melbourne.

 

This was not the end of the culinary delights. My last night in Melbourne, we went to Pomodoro Sardo, a Sardinian restaurant with a great atmosphere, friendly service and fantastic authentic Italian food.  I can not remember what dishes I had, but it was great and too much of it. The Sardinian wine also met with our approval. By the end of the evening we all were really chummy with waitresses and felt like a part of a Sardinian familia. I am saying in my mind Arrivederci Pomodoro Sardo and Melbourne.

                                     

Strolling in Melbourne

Walking through  towns streets is for me the best way to get the feel of any place. I had an opportunity to get to know a little bit of Melbourne that way. It was a very attractive little bit.

What made the biggest impression on me? Perhaps the graffiti lane. Provocative and artistic. Shabby, dirty place covered by street art and messages for the passers by. We all need to share what is important to us or even things that are not particularly important. Talented people create their art that stays with us sometimes for ages. This is sharing of the highest rank. This does not mean that the rest of us can not find other, more pedestrian ways. Bloggers, including me, do it by writing their thoughts and observations. Creators of graffiti do it by painting and when this is not enough they add a written comment. Such is the Melbourne lane. One can walk and ponder.

Then, my Parisian associations made me notice The Prince’s Bridge in a particular way. To me the bridge is similar to The Pont Alexander III. Both are ornate and extravagant bridges build in about the same time, at the end of the XIX century. I was surprised to find out that the Melbourne bridge was erected earlier than its Parisian, more splendid sibling. Both bridges are named after rulers of a foreign country. The Princes Bridge is named after Edward, Prince of Wales who became King of England, Edward VII and the Parisian bridge is named after Tsar Alexander III of Russia.

           

Paris

Melbourne

My French associations continued as The Princes Bridge leads to The Art Centre that looks very much like the Eiffel Tower to me. Since my time in Paris was a very happy one, opening my eyes to so many new things, thoughts and emotions, I liked Melbourne even more for triggering off such memories.

                                       

My very favourite bridges are Pont Neuf in Paris and The Sydney Harbour Bridge. But this is another story perhaps.

Memories are perhaps a function of age or an eventful, busy life. It happens more and more frequently that I notice things taking me back some years. Like this billboard.

In my banking and IT past I worked on banks integration, IT systems integration. Two fantastic projects: Challenge Bank and Bank of Melbourne integrations with Westpac. The best projects I worked on, managed to perfect precision, like if we were to send a rocket to the moon. Daily checkpoints, scrubbing sub projects to ensure error free implementation. Coordination between sub projects had to be spotless. They were very competitive projects but I remember them also for a great camaraderie of the top management team. I loved the adrenaline rush and sense of achievement that the projects brought together with later aftermath of negative health impact. But this is perhaps another story to tell some time.  Anyhow, when I saw the Bank of Melbourne sign, my heart jumped a bit.

The modern architecture does not make such a big impression on me as the old one but there are exceptions like this one. I like it.

I also liked trees dressed in sweaters. Is it so much colder in Melbourne than in Sydney? I have knitted few things in my life but never directly on a model. I wonder how it was done and would have liked to see it.

I am sure that there a few more things to see in Melbourne, like more of the Botanical Gardens than I had already seen and things I even do not know exist. Looks like I may make another trip there one day.

Three and a half days in Melbourne – Day 1

It has been some time ago since my recent visit in Melbourne. It was in February, more than one month ago. Long time ago I intended to write my impressions or observations, I should perhaps say, but time passed and I somehow have not done it yet. Now is the time.

I have heard from many people that Melbourne has a European feel, but I never got an answer to my question – how so? After the recent visit there I am not able to answer the question myself even if I would agree with the statement that the city has a European character.  Wide pavements, trams, some vegetation greener than in Sydney… That is not that much, really. Must be more but I can not put my finger on it. It would be great if I could get some comments on the subject.

It was rather eventful three and a half days. Meeting friends I have not seen for quite some time, experiencing inner city living, Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei exhibition, Botanical Gardens, tea at Hopetoun Tea Rooms, dinner at Pomodoro Sardo Restaurant, walks in the city, graffiti lane, taste of Moroccan tagine, simple and totally Chinese lunch at the Melbourne China town... It was all fantastic.

I rather like Melbourne SkyBus service, so convenient and even not expensive. I was greeted at the city terminal by a long time no see Polish friend. We had a nice light lunch in an old fashioned (in a good way) pub/restaurant. I forgot the name, but if I am in Melbourne again, I am sure I will find the place. It has this Art Deco look, the look of solidity I have been lately positively responding to. When the lunch and a quick catch-up were done I was collected by another friend and my host for the next few days.

The place of my Melbourne friends is in the middle of the city. Modern, spacious, newly and beautifully renovated apartment on the fifteenth floor with views on the Parliament House and the St Patrick's Cathedral towers. Great place, city living at its best. In the distant past I have lived in the very centre of Warsaw and then Paris, but all my years in Australia I have lived in leafy suburbs, so I forgot how it is to step into a hustle and bustle the second you close your home door behind you. Living in the centre of a big town where so many things are happening and are available hit me by its convenience and proximity of culture and entertainment. It was just a stroll to The Arts Centre, hundreds of restaurants and coffee places and other attractions. I am an art gallery junkie, so I took the first opportunity to see the very popular with Melbournians exhibition – Andy Warhol and Ai Weiwei. I never was very keen on Andy Warhol’s art, too Marilyn Monroe for me. I did not know Ai Weiwei’s art at all, but an art exhibition is an art exhibition, so I went to check out. It was a great experience, no Italian art, but art nevertheless and I liked Ai Weiwei work a lot. He is now on my radar and I will look out for his exhibitions. Since I like Chinese porcelain and Blanc de Chine is my second favourite after blue and white, I was particularly attracted to the big White Flowers composition. 

                 

                                    

I also liked the bike with flowers and walking through the various balloon rooms. This maybe was not exactly scary but I hesitated a little before entering the floating composition. Kids had plenty of squeaking fun there.

I said that there was no Italian art on display, but I found the place with exhibition of Alchemy of a Colour with colour blue as its focus and there I found Florentine pottery! I was totally happy.

Starting the post I did not expect that I will be writing it in installments, but it looks  that my Melbourne visit was packed with interesting and memorable events. So, I will continue.

In a sad mood

I am in a strange mood today. Down in the dumps, as one of my old friends used to say. Maybe it is because it is eventually raining and the temperature dropped to the rather unpleasant levels. A quick change came almost overnight. I should welcome the change and I do, but for now it helps me to justify not the best mood I am in.

Coincidently this afternoon I caught an old interview of Kerry O’Brien with Clive James. So very depressing.  Clive James who in the past put me in a good mood, uplifted my spirits and made me laugh - today he brought my spirit so far down that I have problem to shake it off. He suffers two terminal illnesses and talks about it candidly. His tries to stay his own old upbeat self, I saw as a considerable effort. This saddened me a lot and the sadness lingers on.

So many books, wonderful.

                                     

I was always a reader and considered books the way to learn about life. Was I possibly misguided? In my first months in Australia I thought that it would be good to read something Australian to prepare me for what’s ahead.  Unreliable Memoirs were my choice of Australian education. I think it was a great choice, I really loved the book. I thought that if the natives have such sense of humour as Clive James, they are really OK and I will be fine in this country. This proved a correct assumption.

At the beginning I had great problems to understand what Australians were saying. The language seemed to be somewhat funny, with a lot of question marks implied and it was spoken sooo fast. I really got depressed listening to broadcasts of horse races. I could not understand a word! At that time I did not know that most of Australians did not understand that either, unless they knew names of the horses in a particular race. It was a puzzling time and I was learning to love the country.

Back to Unreliable Memoirs. Such a great book! So funny! I remember my 343 bus rides from Double Bay to IBM offices in Rosebery balancing with the book in hand, briefcase held between my feet, handbag on my shoulder and laughing out loud from time to time. I must have really read the book in the first two or three months since my arrival to the new country as it was only a very short time we were renting the flat in Double Bay before we moved to St Ives. Boy, there were the times!

This a new better version of 343 than the one i traveled in 1979

                                

Then Clive James was on television with his Japanese stories. My sense of humour was not all that well aligned with that and I lost interest.

Many years have passed between reading Unreliable Memoirs and finding Cultural Amnesia. I bought the book somewhere in Paddington few years ago, my Mosman suburb is not too good in this type of literature.  I was surprised that Clive James wrote so many essays about Polish people of culture, science and politics. I read the Polish parts, but I have lost the book in my life travels before I read it all. Now, that Clive James appeared on my radar again it is time to get another copy.

Thank you, Clive James, for paining my first literary pictures of Australia. Thank you also for showing me four Poles from a new perspective.