Favourite cafés and sticky treats...Part 1

I spend so much time gallivanting from place to place outside of Australia and my home patch, that I rarely get the opportunity to explore, really explore my own neighbourhood.   So with that objective in mind and with a curious and inquiring mind and aiming to look at my world through a different lens, I present to you a first glimpse of...da hood!

A short stroll from my front door brings you first to Little Captain, a charming and quaintly unpretentious establishment that has great coffee and an el fresco dining area that is both rustic and ample in what it has to offer...a delightful outdoor setting and oversight of the park and playground next door for those with sprats in tow.  The perfect combination...the children play in the park...the adults enjoy a moment's respite.

A mere hundred or so meters away from Little Captain and under the our very own image of the Lady of St Kilda, is the justifiably and hugely popular Las Chicas.  Always busy with locals and tourists alike but consistently good, Las Chicas is packed to the gills on most days and all day...so much so that I will only go there mid-morning and early in the week when the crowds are tame and a tad more neighbourly! However, for those unjaded by the weekend throngs, it is certainly worth a look in.

Cafés and neighbourhood sailing ships aside, one really can not and most certainly should not go past the sticky treats that my good friend SVP is able to produce, seemingly at the drop of a hat, when  one calls.  It never ceases to amaze me that people I know, have these sort of culinary treasures and pleasures on hand just on the off chance that someone may call. Not so surprising however, but definitely pleasing, is that people I know are able to produce a sticky tipple to accompany said sticky feasts and SVP is no exception.  A quick rummage in the cupboard and SVP has produced a more than acceptable Paul Jaboulet, Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise 2009... full, velvety and intense. Marvellous!!

There's no place like home...in winter!

Just a quick click of my heels and a rather tedious and soul destroying flight later, I am far from the tropical heat of Malaysia and back in the cloud of a cold, damp Melbourne winter...and I must say, I am thoroughly enjoying it.  Despite the fact that I have joined my fellow Melburnians in loudly decrying the wet conditions and sniffling at the cold mornings and exclaiming that life in the city is barely tolerable at this time of year, I am quietly enraptured by it all. It is expected, even mandatory to complain about Melbourne weather if one lives here, but I firmly believe that, like me, its "well-weathered" residents enjoy using the excuse of winter, to hucker down in one of the many warm and convivial bars that line its lanes and inhabit its beachside locations. 

As cosseting and enveloping as a wet, winter's day can be for me,  I am equally charmed to enjoy one of those days when Melbourne's winter sky sparkles and is crystal clear and the warm light favours all who venture outside.  Today is one such day and I have taken the opportunity to luncheon in the sun at an old haunt of mine in the beach-side suburb of St Kilda.  In keeping with the clarity of the winter sun and the remarkable quality of light, I have chosen the wonderfully floral, herbal and lightly spiced Bay of Fires Pinot Noir 2009 from Tasmania. A bright, vividly ripened drop, it would be difficult to find a more suitable accompaniment to a beautiful winter's days in Melbourne.