Tasty Travels: Melbourne

Melbourne was full of great food. But they don’t half make you work for it. You can’t really book anywhere so you have to be prepared to wait a bit (one place we went to said we could be seated at 9:30…it was 6:15!). Also everything seemed to be tucked away (certainly to a non-local), with cool bars on rooftops and under bridges. But the city is crammed full of brilliant places to eat and drink and I loved how centred around food Melbourne was and how serious they seemed to be about it too. We ventured to loads of different places and even managed to fit in an afternoon tea!

One of the first places we went to was the Prahran Market to visit Mister Nice Guy Cupcakes for some vegan cupcakes. I always wonder what is actually in them. I’ve never had professional vegan cupcakes before and they were really good and surprisingly full of flavour. My favourite was the neapolitan cupcake, just because I’d never had that before and it really did taste like it. Although I did have a soft spot for the cupcake that looked like a brain.

At the same market we went to Abla’s Pastries because I can’t resist a Baklava, even if I’m full. These were delicious and on display in lovely big trays and piled up high on the counter.  I wished I could have sampled one of each of the sweets but stuck to the ‘Cashew Finger’.Captains of Industry was one of my favourite places. Hidden down an alley and up a flight of stairs was this extremely cool coffee shop decorated with vintage furniture and accessories. As if sipping coffee at an old sewing table complete with machine wasn’t enough the space also holds a leather craftsman, barber, and tailor. Too cool. With no need for a barber we sat around and enjoyed homemade lemonade and ginger beer. I wish this was my local spot and totally a valid reason to move to Melbourne.Have you ever had a cherry cupcake? I hadn’t really. I had a cherry loaf cake from the university cafe which was awesome but this cupcake was even better. It was part of our selection from Little Cupcakes bakery. The shop on Degraves St was adorable with paintings of cakes on the walls and good seating. I love it when there are mini cupcakes so you can try lots of different flavours. The cookie monster and passionfruit were also delicious.We managed to fit in an afternoon tea at the Intercontinental Hotel for a last lovely afternoon with friends. It was honey themed as apparently they keep bees on the roof of the hotel. The macarons were my personal highlight they were kind of gooey and had a subtle honey flavour. I couldn’t leave Australia without having a Lamington cake so I ate this one at the airport at the Cafe Vue. It was filled with jam and cream and covered in coconut. It was a really nice way to end the trip. My trip was so much fun and sampling so many different tasty treats around Australia made it even better.