Showing posts with label french. Show all posts
Showing posts with label french. Show all posts

Thursday, 17 March 2016

Two point Five days in Melbourne 

A getaway from FNQ to indulge in a Food & Booze fix of the southern kind.

Found the airfare through Skyscanner which redirected to byojet
I'll revisit the deal on the next page

I forgot how fat the wallet has to be if you intend to eat out, possible every meal you are on the ground in a big city!! But hey it was worth it, I don't do it very often - so a little splurge is rather a pleasant experience

Arrived 4pm and towards the city we shall go. got into the CBD at about 6pm and people were hanging out of restaurant doors in every direction. No reservation, 40 min wait!! this says keep looking, so we did. 

Night 1 



Fantastic food, all we had was tapas size eats and for me the drink of the night was sherry.. Ah the desire to return to Spain has been reinforced 
Loved the buzz - great way to start a visit to Melvegas. The vibe of walking several block to get there because the wait at other places was to long just made the evening great....

Day 1



The 1st full day in the big city and I wanted to firstly try  Lune Croissanterie as a day starter and I heard the product was brilliant. Time for a coffee and croissant to start the day. The coffee was goodish and the croissant was underwhelming. They looked great!! I chose a filled croissant - it looked good on the outside so I purchased with my eyes. It was over filled and stodgy and you just could not taste the croissant. The venue was brilliant and I definitely would go back to try a plain croissant as they also looked fantastic, personally I just made a bad choice for me. Feeling fat and lardy it was back to our accommodation to then walk several Km's along the Maribynong River until ones belly felt better  

Time for a coffee, next stop was The Boat House on The Maribynong, great view, great venue, great location :-: bad coffee..!! 

Now it's time to jump on a tram, Myki Card at the ready, No. 57 towards the city, a walk around a few streets then onto No. 1 to Port Melbourne weaving through the burbs to the waters edge and then a walk to St Kilda. A massive walk, longer than anticipated but a great way to get ready for the rest of the day. From here it was time to jump on a tram towards the city. Wrong tram it turned left but that put us near a pub called the Fifth Province. So what to do? walk in and have a glass of vino, seated street-side watching the people go by. 

I have an app on my phone called FourSquare and it popped up with Milk The Cow as 2nd best wine bar in Melbourne. It was about 4pm, great time to sit and eat light, which we did. a flight of 5 sparkling wines and 5 cheeses to match. Just Brilliant, they do all the work and select the combo and we get to taste some food and wine that we would normally not pick out. Highly recommend this place, the staff are great and have fantastic knowledge and the cheese selection is Ginormous... love it Love it 

Back on the tram heading towards the city, more walking once there and we head towards AC/DC Lane. We were smack on 6pm as we walked towards our chosen restaurant Pastuso. without a reservation ... yes they had a table only condition is we had to be gone by 8pm, easy. Peruvian food - guess what ?? Peru is now on my bucket list. More love.!!! food was really really good, great flavours and part of the menu is a Ceviche Bar. Overall we ate small, 5 plates to share and wine and walked out feeling very happy.

Its time to call it done for the day, jump on a tram and homeward bound.

Day 2


Last full day - so lets eat and drink some more..!!!
Breakfast at Mama Bear was fantastic. I said that I would only have coffee this morning to save ones belly for the rest of the day BUT the menu was to good looking!! I weakened and had a massive breakfast. Great coffee, great food and a must go to in Ascot Vale. Oh hale to the hipsters love this place.

More walking for more Km's to prepare for the rest of the day and lesson the impact of breakfast.!!!

Next: Mkyi Card at the ready - tram to the city and then outward bound to Richmond for lunch at Bouzy Rouge (mmm 3pm so just a bite) - 2 glasses of wine and a couple of Tapas. YUM Croqueta's were SO tasty..!!! This place is so groovy and I want to come back. The fit-out of the interior is so good - love it....  

More walking the on a tram back to the city 

Embla was the place for a drink once we got to the city. Talk a load off the feet!!! the wine list was really interesting. 1 glass and onwards

Bomba was were we could not get into on the 1st night - but we did get a seat at the bar as we were so early.  The food and wine was GREAT, the aged Jamón was so good and I again had a sherry or two to have with the tapas.

Out the door in a hour and a bit and on a walk to Hardware Lane. We were told about a new Bar called the French Salon which is located above Kirk's wine bar. Closed on Saturday nights Booo Hooo. Until next time..!!! So we had a glass of Champagne at Kirk's wine bar which is a really nice place to sit and people watch.

Tram time - burbs bound towards Union Road, Ascot Vale to get off and try another Spanish restaurant : Arcadia 
Really nice and lucky we got a table. It's a family run restaurant serving traditional home style food. Nothing tricky on the plate just good Spanish tapas. Busy busy and loads of families enjoying the place. As I said really good food and just a nice place to go close to home.

Last Morning

Time for one more outing before heading to the airport. Back to Union Street in Ascot Vale for coffee at Little Byrd. Ye Ha - This coffee was really good - had to have a 2nd and then 3rd before heading out the door very happy.




Sunday, 29 November 2015


YES : Again Avianca have an offer 

this one is short but sweet yet again



US$33 will buy you 1,000 LifeMiles costing just under AU$46, with this offer you will get 2,400. Bring this back to dollars per 1,000 LifeMiles in AU and it sits at $19.15 - putting it at the upper end in value. I consider this to be a little expensive if you are not going to use them straight away. The AUD/USD conversion is just crap right now for this sort of thing. I have written to LifeMiles and asked if my credit card can be charged in Colombian Peso and at what value per 1,000 and am waiting for a response. This may make the choice to purchase a little easier. I just don't like purchasing in USD...

Thursday, 2 July 2015

Vietnam Airlines business class Australia to Europe


I was just doing a random search for flights out of Australia into Europe (as you do) on a cool winters day in #cairns #fnq 

picked random days departing  15 September 2015 returning 30 days later

flying business class 

The search came up with AUD $4062

WOW

Hey : better do a search to see if I can get a few days in Ho Chi Minh on the way over to break the journey. The fare moved to $4219 - a little increase of $157 

Break the journey on the way back as well - add another $158 to $4377

WOW

If you are going to travel these distances travel business class. It's not just the comfort in flight its the access to lounges along the way. This makes spending time at airports a lot more civilised



For those who are interested 

You land at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport in Ho Chi Minh

The aircraft type you most likely be travelling on are the Airbus 330 on one sector over and the other a Boeing 777

If you discover some great finds in the FBP world please let me know
tweet me at @ascns


Wednesday, 30 April 2014

Le Crouton

Bakery

Location and setting : 227 Kamerunga Rd, Freshwater Just near the train station if your catching the scenic Kuranda train
Food  / Menu : Patisserie and Bakery - lovely French pastries 
I had a cherry danish - The BEST pastry flaky, light and truly just out of the oven
Drinks : Great Coffee made very well and what you would expect when ordering a flat white.

Special :delightful pastries and ready made savory baguettes
Service : Straight forward order at the counter and it's brought to you at the little tables

Macaron Cafe - Cairns

Location and setting : 19/62 Grafton St - nice setting just near Rusty's Market
Food  / Menu : Patisserie and Café specializing in French pastries - had a berry danish that had pastry without a flake to be seen - not freshly baked
Drinks : Coffee - If you wanted it the way they made it, it was OK.  I asked for a third little less milk in the cup to keep the strength of the Coffee up, they checked with me and confirmed but still a full cup arrived and weak coffee. Why do people pretend to listen. this is not a barrister
Special : was once

Service :Got me what I wanted and then back to there gossip session. I was the only one in the cafe at 8:30am

On my way towards the northern beaches of Cairns I made a detour to  :
Le Crouton a French Bakery at 227 Kamerunga Rd, Freshwater QLD 4870
Now were talkin - Fresh, flaky, delightful, a superbly made Cherry Danish