Lunch at Rockwell and Sons

I don't know about you, but I always feel slightly awkward going out to eat by myself, especially when there's lots of couples and other people around. I try not to let that stop me, I mean really why should it? It's just that I don't know what to do with myself, do I sit there and look around or do I use my phone or....? What do you do when you're eating out alone? Or do you try to avoid it? The other day I had a hair appointment and decided to grab something for lunch afterwards. I couldn't decide what I wanted, but ended up choosing to treat myself by going to Rockwell and Sons.

While I did at times feel like I didn't know what to do with myself, and a little awkward, it was worth going outside my comfort zone. I had a really lovely meal and enjoyed relaxing there, especially after having my hair done.

I'm not usually a big fan of soft drinks but I really liked this traditional lemonade. It was more bitter than sweet, which I prefer.

I'd have to say that this is probably the best chicken burger I've ever had. It was actually fried chicken which made the chicken very soft and juicy, with a really nice crunch from the crust. The chicken was topped with iceberg lettuce, buttermilk dressing and hot sauce, which gave it a nice bite - not too hot though!

I ordered some chips to go along with my burger and they were really nice and crispy. They came with a malt vinegar aioli which I really liked but it did become a little too rich (for me) in the end. 

This was the second time I've been to Rockwell and Sons and it's one of those places that I want to take everyone to. Hopefully I'll be able to drag some of my friends along next time!

Information:

Rockwell and Sons

288 Smith St, 

Collingwood, Victoria

(03) 8415 0700

Lunch at Father's Office Melbourne

After seeing a chef on TV preparing foods for the super bowl weekend, I was inspired to do a little research into what American restaurants there are around Melbourne. One that stood out was Father's Office and so after a couple of quick text messages to my friends we'd organised a lunch date. I didn't realise, but I'd actually walked past there countless times when I was in the city. It's actually part of the QV building, right near the State Library. 

I loved the interior of Father's Office, it had a mixture of different features from the big chandelier in the entry way to the dark blue pressed metal roof with rustic lights hanging from it. As you walked up the stairs one of the walls was covered in wallpaper that looked like bookshelves. There were big couches through the middle of the room and tables on the outer part of the room that looked out over the street and the State Library. 

We sat on one of these big couches which were super comfy. It made it easy to sit for hours and we ended up having a really long lazy lunch. 

The menu was set out like a newspaper, titled The Speakeasy Daily. There were definitely plenty of options for food and drink, making it hard to choose. Most items on the menu were very American with things like Louisiana Fried Wings, Philly Steak Sandwich and Key Lime Pie. I liked that while they had the rich American comfort food, there were also some lighter, healthier options. 

We started off with the obligatory cider, pear this time which was really light and refreshing. This and an apple cider were both on tap, but I can't remember the name unfortunately.

 One of my friends ordered pork scratchings to go along with her drink. Boy were there a lot of them! We all trialled them and they were really crunchy and salty - delicious - but I managed to stop after having a couple. 

This is the same friend's meal that she ordered - the buffalo wings with fries and blue cheese sauce. A very messy, but really well done dish. You had the choice of ordering 6 or 12 wings, so it could make a good dish for sharing.

Another friend ordered this very pretty looking dish - Quinoa, Halloumi and roasted vegetable salad which was very light, but nicely flavoured. 

This is the burger that I ordered - the Pork Belly burger which was amazing. The pork was beautifully soft, with some of the crackling left on and it went really well with the soft pear and apple compote and crisp lettuce. 

We couldn't resist the Home Style Mac n Cheese either, which we decided to share amongst us. That was really rich and creamy, so it was difficult to finish. Unfortunately we ordered so much food for our mains that we just couldn't fit in dessert (even in our dessert stomachs) so we'll have to go back one day to try those - especially the Key Lime Pie! 

Information:

Father's Office Speakeasy Bar and Restaurant 

249 Little Lonsdale St, 

Melbourne, Victoria

(03) 9662 3798

Gelato Messina, Fitzroy

Hi. I'm Claire and I'm addicted to Gelato Messina. It's not really my fault, you see I was innocently getting my hair cut and coloured one day before Christmas when my hairdressers decided to tell me about the amazing gelato they'd had from there only days before. They'd tried the Christmas Pudding flavour and insisted that I had to go there and try it out. So what else is a girl to do but follow their instructions? And that was it for me....they had salted caramel! With pieces of white chocolate in it! And dulce de leche! And...oh I could go on and on.

I have to say it's the best gelato that I've ever had. I loved that there were little pieces of extras in the gelato, like the last time I went I had a peanut butter gelato that had pieces of chocolate biscuit pie crust in it and it was just amazing. I've been back a few times and introduced some of my family and friends to it. I'm spreading the addiction around. I'm just glad, in one way, that I don't live closer because I'd have to swing by every day (just once...or well, maybe twice). I'm still able to get my fix through their Facebook page where they post all these yummy pictures, but that just makes me want to go back more often.

Dinner at the Union Hotel, Brunswick

Before going to I, Animal at Melbourne Zoo the other night, I took my friends out for dinner to the Union Hotel in Brunswick. It's one of those cute neighbourhood pubs that does fantastic food. My older sister Danielle introduced me to it a while ago and our family has been there for dinner a few times since then. My friends and I sat out in a garden at the back of the pub which was really lovely.

It's a really nice area that would be great to spend hanging out with some friends and having a drink and some nibblies on a warm day. While we were there there was a band playing inside which we could hear from where we were sitting. It was so nice sitting out there, enjoying an cider (thanks to my beautiful friend Steph) and the music.

I'm one of those girls who loves eating red meat (this seems rare to me - I'm not sure if any of you find that?) At the Union Hotel I ordered myself a scotch fillet which came with mashed potato and steamed vegies. That steak was just amazing, it was so so tender and beautifully cooked.

It's a really great little pub, and I'm really looking forward to heading back there with my friends, especially once I live down that way.

I Animal at Melbourne Zoo

One of the great benefits about working in a school is the fact that I get a really good amount of holidays, especially at this time of year when the students are all on summer holidays. Earlier on when I was trying to think of some things that I wanted to do over my holidays I looked up some websites to see what was happening in Melbourne over the summer. One thing that caught my eye was an event called I Animal hosted by Melbourne Zoo. I found out that it was an ongoing event, so I booked myself and a couple of my friends in to go the day before my birthday (which was on Sunday! Yay!)

We arrived at the zoo at 6.30pm to hand over our tickets and to pick up our iPod type device called Zoe. The tour started at exactly 7.00pm with Zoe talking about what it was like to be a child and how we saw the world (this was an ongoing theme through the event) and asking us all what we wanted to be when we grew up, which we had to say into the device. We also got to choose which animal we preferred out of elephants, giraffes and penguins. It's encouraged that you choose a different animal from your friends but we decided to stick together and chose the giraffe option.

We all started off with Zoe guiding us through the zoo, with groups of people breaking away to head off in different directions. For our group we were led by Zoe to see the lions first. Along the way she told us some pretty gory stories about some people who didn't fare so well against these beautiful creatures. The lions are always one of my favourite things to see at Melbourne Zoo, so I was really glad we got to see them that night.

Next we moved on to see a cute looking pig-like creature called the Peccary. Looks can be deceiving though as this creature has very long teeth and has been known to take on and win against jaguars in the wild. We did move on to see another animal (I can't remember the name) but unfortunately it wasn't in it's enclosure. I'm not sure why that was but it was probably the only disappointing thing about the night.

We then moved on past the baboon enclosure and on to see the zebras. These came out of a pen at the back of their enclosure for just a short while, but we still got to have a good look at them and had time to take a few photos.

And then finally we moved on to see the beautiful giraffes. They're one of my favourite animals, I always love to see them at the zoo. It looked like they'd just been fed before we got there so they were really close to the fence eating out of the baskets high up in the trees.

All of the different groups then came together and finished up near the carousel. We were told to take off our earphones only to hear our voices from the start of the tour, over the loud speakers saying what we wanted to be when we grew up. It was a really nice way to finish off, especially since we all got to act like kids just a little longer and got to have a ride on the carousel. Fun!

I really enjoyed the I Animal experience and thought the $39 it cost to do wasn't too bad a price, although it would have been nice to see a few more animals or maybe have a more hands on experience. Saying that though, I'm really curious to go back and see what the elephant and penguin tours were like. I've heard that the elephant one in particular can be very emotional. It's a really great idea to get more adults coming to the zoo, and I loved being there with only a small group of people and not with hundreds of other people around.

Paris to Provence Festival 2013

The Paris to Provence Festival was on in Melbourne over this weekend just passed and I managed to drag my Mum along with me on Sunday. I (and she) were so glad that I did. We felt like we were in the middle of a French market right in Melbourne. There were French food and drink everywhere (champagne, macarons, croissants, pastries and more!), beautiful French clothes and products that were oh so tempting and people wandering around dressed up as Marie Antoinette and Louis XIV.

The event was held at the beautiful Como House, somewhere I'd never been before but was happy to explore. I always think it's fascinating to explore these beautiful old homes and definitely want to go back for a better look (there was so many people it was hard to move around on the day!). The restaurant on the ground 'The Stables' looked really lovely too, I'm curious to see what their food is like. 

Of course, first we had to line up for crepes (thank goodness, because later when we wandered past the line was insanely huge). Mum and I both decided to get the salted caramel crepe, which was delicious. 

This is just some of the food that was on offer that day. Seriously it was so hard to refrain from just buying everything!

And of course, how could we skip the champagne?! We had this with our lunch from the Madame Sousou stall, which was lovely. 

And they had a cake competition where we got to vote for our favourite cake design. These cakes were just amazing, I wish I was half as talented as some of these people. All of the cakes were French themed of course, the winner being the gorgeous Ratatouille one below, but they were all so clever and beautiful.