March | 2024 | The Domestic Goddess Wannabe

It’s been a month since our Australian adventure, but work got in the way of this review. Anyway, it’s never too late to immortalize how I felt a month ago on paper. We actually went to Melbourne for both business and leisure back in February, and to call it a pleasurable experience was absolutely an understatement. Almost every aspect of the city is chaotically combined with charm. Modern skyscrapers are built alongside old Victorian buildings, hot and sunny afternoons are mixed with sporadic showers, and almost every type of food you can think of can easily be found within walking distance from one another.

We signed up for a walking food tour and met Troy, our guide, under the clock at Flinders Railway Station. Being toured by a local and eating their food is just two of the ways to immerse oneself to a culture outside of one’s own. It gives you a sense of what the city is about and understand a bit of their history and how it’s shaped over time.

The food tour began in Mabu Mabu at Federation Square with an array of indigenous food. Mabu Mabu is an expression in the Torres Strait that means “help yourself”. It was such a nice detail to start the tour by paying respects to the First Nations Elders past and present. We were served a pumpkin and native basil damper with golden syrup butter, a tin meat croquette with black garlic aioli as dip, and an emu heart anticucho with bush tomato aioli dip. All of which I ate without knowing what exactly they were, as I was so into the conversation about the changing language and names of some of the places in Australia to proactively be more inclusive of the indigenous community. Then I read the menu and thought, I wouldn’t have ordered those if it’s just me, but glad I was able to experience such strong culinary identity.

Next stop was HOWM Selina Melbourne, where a very knowledgeable barista, Haan, discussed the difference of Melbourne coffee compared to the rest of the world. He gave us a shot of long black, which is basically an Americano to Starbucks drinkers, followed by a flat white, which usually has a higher proportion of espresso to steamed milk than a caffè latte and the layer of froth is thinner than an Italian cappuccino. I asked for a Magic Coffee, unfortunately they don’t offer it in their café. Magic coffee has been an off-menu item almost entirely exclusive to the cafes of Melbourne. I was able to taste it just because it’s available in our office coffee machine at 8Ex. Anyway, magic coffee has particular proportions and uses ristretto instead of espresso. Nevertheless, the coffee stop we did was very interesting as we learned the process, the packaging, the origin, and even the farmers who cultivated our coffee back in Colombia and Brazil.

We then went to Brunetti’s for some Italian delicacies and I fell in love with the cicchettis we sampled on. There was also a wide selection of pastries and cakes to choose from. I really wanted to try them but at this point, I’m just so full and was contented on taking photos of the stacks of different cakes and breads and pastries. They literally have hundreds of types of cakes and pastries to choose from, it’s pretty overwhelming.

After marveling on the spectacular cake displays , we walked to the Block Arcade and found some cheese and chocolates from Tasmania at Coal River Farm. Their milk chocolate wasn’t too sweet but the cholatey flavour was there. We sampled on 3 different types of cheese and 3 different types of chocolates. I didn’t know you can eat them together and would produce this flavour I can only describe as heaven. I also got myself some dark chocolate with lavender on them and they are not something I’ve tasted before. Imagine eating a bitter chocolate hinted with floral zest. As weird as that sounds, it was actually delightful.

Food tours will not be complete without going to Chinatown. Every huge city in the world we’ve been to has a Chinatown. We bought a JiangBing, which is a Chinese crepe that is slightly spicy but kind of familiar to my palate. We got to drink our choice of wine at Section 8, where street arts are strategically located, JiangBing still on hand. The paradoxical elements of the whole thing was absurdly wonderful. Five middle-aged people drinking wine, while eating Chinese crepe, with graffiti as backdrop, and loud club and rap music playing as our BGM, makes me smile just by the thought of it.

When we finished our wine, we proceeded to Fable Rooftop in Lonsdale. Interestingly, I cannot pronounce half of what’s on their menu. On the way there, we noticed the Greek influence in the area and true enough we ate some Loukoumades (Greek Donuts) as our final meal of the tour. Loukoumades is a dessert but they are not too sweet. It’s like honey puffs with a bit of a crunch. We had it with ice cream and sprinkled with nuts. They are like Timbits but a 100x better, at least to my taste.

The choices of food on this tour has shown the multiculturalism that shaped Melbourne, and there are just so many wondrous and delicious places to try around every corner and up every laneway within the City. We just didn’t have enough time to explore and look up and discover the labyrinth of spectacular rooftops, vivacious venues, delightful hidden secrets and gastronomic wonders we’ve heard so much about, but we’ve definitely enjoyed our time and would encourage family and friends to visit and try a walking food tour so they can experience the joy and mouthwatering goodness for themselves.

Mabu Mabu
Federation Square
Indigenous food