I guess I blog about Melbourne a lot but I wanted a big part of my blog to be localised content. I’m in love with the city even when it’s not being kind to me. It’s a remarkable place to live or visit and if you search, you will find many hidden gems and lots of great things to do. For instance, just a few weeks ago, I went on a rare and highly coveted food walking tour, with Flavours of Melbourne author Charmaine O’Brien.
There were maybe just over a dozen of us, we started off at the State Library and walked around the CBD learning about changes the city has grown through from indigenous times, the history of immigrants and food, about the various tea rooms, markets and “coffee palaces”, we stopped at the key historical venues such as Quists coffee, Chinatown square, Victoria Hotel, Pellegrinis ending up at Von Haus, a beautiful bar and restaurant that I must visit again soon.
I’m reading the book right now. Flavours of Melbourne is a culinary biography and fans of food writing, and I guess I am one (I read a book called ‘A Year of Slow Food’ before this), will find it an interesting historical insight into the gastronomy of Melbourne, a more detailed look at the sort of information I learned on the tour, plus the drinking and confectionary habits of Melburnians, about pioneers and restaurateurs that paved the way, how business was done and changed, and also contains original and adapted recipes from every era and many recommendations of great eateries and bars. I’m finding it most intriguing.
