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Nobu: Taste of Peru

Nobu

Disclosure: I attended courtesy of Nobu and Media Moguls.

Peru is awesome. Peru is good. Peru is definitely worth a visit.

But it’s also very, very far from Australia. So if you can’t make it to the actual country, you could instead head to Nobu for a Taste of Peru.

But what does a Japanese restaurant have to do with Peruvian cuisine? Well the menu at Nobu has South American influences, which comes from Nobu Matsuhisa’s years in Lima after he moved there when he was 24 to open a restaurant.

Nobu Melbourne’s Executive Chef, Christopher Shane, is paying homage to Nobu’s history on Thursday nights with a special menu of 16 Peruvian style tapas and nine cocktails, and I was invited there late last year for a preview of the menu.

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Hinoki Japanese Pantry

Sushi

Can’t be bothered cooking dinner? Sureeee you could get greasy takeaway, but in my opinion a much better option is one of these sushi / sashimi platters from Hinoki Japanese Pantry.

Hinoki Japanese Pantry is a Japanese grocer plus sushi bar on Smith Street in Fitzroy. They sell a range of Japanese foodstuffs: snacks, condiments, beer, sake, and frozen goods, but there’s also a sushi bar where you can buy sushi or sashimi to take away.

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Cafe Vue at Heide: Picnic

Gallery

I’ve been wanting to go to the Heide Museum of Modern Art for a while. Most people go to a gallery to see – oh I dunno – the art. That wasn’t my main incentive though.

Truthfully, I just wanted an excuse to buy a picnic hamper from Cafe Vue. This tells you my priorities: Food > Art.

Australia Day turned out to be the perfect occasion. My MIL and step-FIL were over, and the forecast was for a very hot and sunny day. Perfect for a picnic!

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Portsea Hotel: Lamaro’s on the Deck

DSC_9346

Disclosure: My guest and I dined courtesy of Portsea Hotel / Lamaro’s on the Deck and Kate & Co.

Wouldn’t it be nice to leave the city behind and head down the coast for summer? Particularly on these hot, hot days?

That’s exactly what the team from Lamaro’s, the restaurant in South Melbourne, did earlier this month. They snuck down the coast and took over the deck at the top of Portsea Hotel.

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Mossgreen Tearooms

Pouring tea

Disclosure: Afternoon tea was courtesy of Mossgreen Tearooms and Q Strategies.

So 2013 seemed to be the year of high/afternoon tea for me, blogging oh 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (!) plus a bonus high coffee. And here’s another one I went to before the year finished: afternoon tea at Mossgreen Tearooms.

Mossgreen Tearooms is next door to the Mossgreen auction house and gallery on High Street in Armadale. The Tearooms are in a large, white, split-level room with large windows at the front that let in plenty of light.

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Beechworth: Provenance Restaurant & Accommodation

Beechworth

I always say I’m not really a birthday person, but that’s not strictly true. I don’t like to celebrate my own birthday, but I enjoy celebrating other people’s. And by celebrating, I mean: torturing.

And by torturing, I mean torturing with love and attention and cake OF COURSE.

(And birthday lasagne, but only for the very special ones.)

But for my most recent birthday in December, I was keen to do something because reasons. It was on a Friday, so I thought it would be nice to have a long weekend away.

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The Petty Officer

Coffee

It’s too hard to decide where to brunch in Melbourne.

It took about a week of brainstorming before Daisy and I could settle on a place for a brunch date. It wasn’t a matter of not liking suggestions – we just had too many ideas. One suggestion was The Petty Officer in Albert Park and we settled on it in the end because I hadn’t visited before and had heard good things about the place.

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Bistro Guillaume: Champagne Dinner

Champers

Disclosure: I dined courtesy of Good Food Month and Undertow Media.

According to Guillaume Brahimi, champagne is for any time of the day – even breakfast.

Now I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I can definitely accept champagne on a warm summer night. As part of Good Food Month, I headed to Bistro Guillaume in late November for one of the highlight events: four courses of delicious food matched with champagne.

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Mornington Peninsula: Wine Food Farmgate Trail Part 2

Beer

Disclosure: Food and accommodation on this trip was courtesy of Mornington Peninsula Tourism and Q Strategies.

Yabby Lake
Somers General Store
Mornington Peninsula Brewery
Win a voucher to go cherry picking

Continuing on from Part 1 of our Mornington Peninsula getaway, where I talked about some of the producers we visited, this part is about the meals – yay.

(ALSO – see the end of this post for another cherry voucher giveaway.)

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Mornington Peninsula: Wine Food Farmgate Trail

Produce

Disclosure: Food and accommodation on this trip was courtesy of Mornington Peninsula Tourism and Q Strategies

Places mentioned in this post:
Main Ridge Dairy
Mock Red Hill
Horseback winery tours
Max’s Retreat
Darling Park Winery
Bass & Flinders Distillery
Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm
And see the end for a giveaway!

The Mornington Peninsula is one of my favourite day trips from Melbourne. It’s such a nice part of Victoria and only about 60-90 minutes drive from the city. There’s good food, lots of wineries, craft breweries, a couple of excellent cheeseries, and other produce producers.

Mornington Peninsula Tourism has recently launched Wine Food Farmgate, a program to help visitors discover all the great food and wine producers on the Peninsula. The program consists of a book, the website, a trail map, mini cooler bag and regional recipe cards, and features restaurants, wineries, produce growers and gourmet stores.

The other weekend, Alastair and I got together with Shellie, Haz, Gaz, Thanh and Michelle for a trip through our own Wine Food Farmgate trail.

Our journey started on Saturday, when we gathered for lunch at Yabby Lake Vineyard. After a lovely lunch (coming up in Part 2) our group split up to tackle a few different locations.

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