Alleyways and Cafe Culture in Melbourne

This makes the last entry of our recent trip to Melbourne and I saved our favorite part of Melbourne for the last. Alleyway cafes are very much quintessential parts of local culture, or to put simply, they are "very Melbourne". Wondering along the narrow strips situated between buildings in the Central Business District, one can easily get lost in the world of excellent cafes and forget about the hustle and bustle of city traffic.


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Degraves Street

We start on Degraves Street, just off Flinder Street and right across the street from the monumental Flinders Street Station. Veer onto Degraves Street and one can see a strip of cafes lined with outdoor tables that are busy and vibrant. Any time of the day is a good excuse for glorious coffee in Melbourne. It is tempting to want to join in the cafe culture when walking along Degraves Street but we do not stop just yet. Instead, we continue on for more alleyway cafes. At the end of Degraves Street, we turn right onto Flinders Lane, another narrow street where swanky art galleries and chic boutiques set up shop.

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Cathedral Arcade

Along Flinders Lane is also the Cathedral Arcade, one of the several historical arcades still remaining in Melbourne that dates back to the 19th century. Arcades were historically built as shopping malls in the early days and feature intricate cast iron and ceiling designs. Fortunately for us living in the present, the preservation of the arcades allows us a glimpse into the past. Any contemporary hints are the several modern day boutiques that have established themselves inside the historical arcade. Walk into the Cathedral Arcade and the stained glass ceiling is above. A popular local boutique here is Alice Euphemia. We exit Cathedral Arcade back onto Flinders Lane, trace our steps towards Degraves Street, and then turn right onto Centre Place.

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Centre Place

And yet another alleyway, Centre Place is very much a narrower strip than the ones earlier which just adds tremendous character to the entire cafe culture that Melbournians so proudly embrace about their city. There is something about Centre Place that accurately says this is Melbourne. The vibrant and bright colors from the cafe signs and walls, pedestrian traffic, and Bohemian vibe make this an excellent spot for street photography. I could immerse myself in Centre Place and have a ball of a time fussing around with the camera and trying to capture the authentic local essence. At the end of Centre Palace, one will find graffiti that have been around for years and artistic murals that stand out. We leave Centre Place by walking through an indoor shopping mall that leads us onto Collins Street. We cross Collins Street, veer left, and walk into Block Arcade.

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Block Arcade

Restored and preserved at a more detailed level than Cathedral Arcade which we just saw earlier, Block Arcade boasts intricately beautiful and arranged mosaic floor tiles. Above the walkway are cast iron structures that bring this place back to the Victorian period, a common era reflected in much of the Melbourne architecture. Blending in with the original period of Block Arcade is the Hopetoun Tea Rooms which features a Victorian-style dining room. Several chocolatiers are found here including the always-busy Haigh's Chocolates.

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Block Place

Exit Block Arcade into Block Place, the final lane filled with yet more alleyway cafes. This time we decide to break for coffee at an Italian cafe located just across the lane from Haigh's Chocolates. It's true when people say that Melbourne has such a strong cafe and coffee culture that you really can't go wrong with any cafe you choose to step into. Australians take their coffee seriously and the standards are considered among the very best in the world. I had to concede when family and relatives from Australia came to the U.S. and repeatedly complained that coffee in America is just, well, crap. Cafes in Australia serve espresso-based drinks and it is difficult to find regular drip coffee unless if you go to, well, McDonalds. If you must have regular drip coffee (and I'm not suggesting you go to McDonalds!), your best bet is to get an Americano, or known as long black in Australia. Yes, it is an espresso culture over there which we love so very much and can relate to as espresso-based drinks our always our choice for coffee no matter where we are.

Visiting the alleyway cafes has almost been a pilgrimage to us when visiting Melbourne. It doesn't matter that it is our third time back in Melbourne within the last four years-- we have to return to the cafes each time and experience them all over again.

Queen Victoria Market

I think it is safe to say that Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne is our favorite market in the world. Borough Market in London comes in close. Every trip we have made to Melbourne never went by without paying homage to this place we love so much.








Queen Victoria Market has everything anyone could possibly want. It is complete with fresh produce and a fantastic selection of seafood and meat. Cured meats, sausages, and cheese are sold in great varieties. If you are like us and need instant gratification for food, we bought a piece of very delicious and spicy cured sausage and asked the vendor to kindly slice it for us so that we could enjoy it while walking around the market. We have bought a mini tub of marinated olives and stuffed peppers to enjoy at one of the outdoor tables at the market. There is wine for sale. You can buy different types of butter according to how much or little you need by weight.  Variety and quality are key here. The plethora of choices is impressive and inspires T and I to want to prepare a fabulous meal except that we don't have a kitchen to go to in Melbourne but just our hotel room. Oh why can't the Chicago French Market be even a smidgen of Queen Victoria Market? This place reminds us why we love food so much.

 

The highlight of each visit for us to Queen Victoria Market is to get the freshly shucked oysters and enjoy them right there and then. When the very friendly guy behind the seafood counter found out that we were visiting from Chicago, he joked, "Ahh, that's where the mafias are from."

And finally, the American Doughnut Kitchen. Oh, the American Doughnut Kitchen. Look out for the van parked outside the "I" shed at the market.

I know it sounds a little crazy for us to seek out the American Doughnut Kitchen in Australia when we flew all the way from the U.S. Some may wonder, why American doughnuts? Neither do we know where that name came from nor do we think the doughnuts are any more American than it is Australian, this doughnut van reputedly has a 50-year history in Melbourne. Be prepared to stand in line for these doughnuts. During our trip to Melbourne in 2009, we missed out on the doughnuts because we were a little too late and they were closed by the time we arrived. This time, we got smart and arrived earlier in time for some doughnuts for breakfast.

The doughnuts were perfectly crisp on the outside, soft and doughy inside. They were fresh and still warm with a dollop of jam inside. We just stood there on the grounds of Queen Victoria Market devouring them. We didn't want our doughnut experience to end.

 

Yarra Valley

Only an hour's drive from Melbourne is the calm and serene Yarra Valley. While planning our travels to Australia, it was a debate between Yarra Valley just outside Melbourne, or Barossa Valley just outside Adelaide. We considered many excellent suggestions from people, including learning that Yarra Valley is known for its cool climate wines such as pinot noir and chardonnay while Barossa Valley boasts bold and gutsy world-class red wines. Barossa Valley did sound like it would cater better to our individual preferences in wine but we settled on Yarra Valley primarily because of time and convenience since our base was going to be in Melbourne.

Yarra Valley was an excellent choice for us as it was completely feasible to make a day trip out of visiting several vineyards and including a relaxing lunch stop at one of the excellent restaurants.



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De Bortoli

Our first stop was De Bortoli where we were first greeted with lush green vineyards. Our visit to the vineyards at Yarra Valley was very much on a different scale than when we visited the wine estates in Cape Town, South Africa. In the Cape Winelands, we were on an intimate tour led by a professional guide where we were fed a lot of very interesting facts and history on the winelands and wine making in the South African region. This time at Yarra Valley, we made a very casual trip out of it with the family where we picked a few of the top wine estates in the region and made a stop at those places.

In addition to wine tasting, De Bortoli offers cheese tasting with a fee so if there is anyone who would like to accompany their wine tasting with cheese, that option is certainly available.









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Yering Station

The 2010 Yering Station Cabernet Sauvignon won us over at the wine tasting and we bought a bottle of this medium to heavy bodied wine so we could enjoy it during our Christmas dinner.

Given Yering Station's stunning and beautifully landscaped gardens, I think it is safe to say that you don't have to be a wine enthusiast to enjoy this wine estate. In addition to the historical winery building and barn, one can easily do a self-guided tour and walk among the lush and well manicured lawns.

Within the Yering Station estate is where Sweetwater Cafe can be found. Exiting from the historical building where we had the wine tasting, we walked through the lush greenery toward Chateau Yering. We entered this well maintained historical house hotel before being led into a casual dining room that has ample natural sunlight surrounded more greenery just outside the windows. Sweetwater Cafe offers excellent food, it came as a very good lunch option for us.

There is an ongoing joke between T and I that I don't eat as much salad as he does, but if I was given this goat curds salad everyday,  I could very possibly devour them for lunch everyday. The fresh greens, radish, and candied walnuts made the salad complete. The pan seared snapper won me over with its moistness still contained within the piece of cooked fish. The roasted pork belly was tender and flavorful at every bite.



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Domaine Chandon

 

We quickly finished up our lunch at Sweetwater Cafe so we could drive over to Domaine Chandon and arrive in time for their free 30-minute guided tour. As the name suggests, this wine estate was established by Moet & Chandon, the famed French maker of still and sparkling wines. Champagne was originated from the town of Champagne, located east of Paris, and therefore only sparkling wines that originated from the town of Champagne can be called, well, champagne. The rest of the world calls it sparkling or bubbles. From the very beginning, champagne has been the house sparkling wine for Moet. Down the years, the business was handed down to his great grandson and brother-in-law and that was how it became Moet & Chandon. 

Moet & Chandon soon realized the demand for champagne outweighed what they could produce in France even though they had a million acres of vines and was one of the largest in the region. That led to the search of different parts of the world for regions where grapes could be grown to make quality sparkling wines. There is a strict variety of grapes used to make champagne which is made up of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. 

Besides opening branches in Brazil and Napa Valley, the region of Yarra Valley was found suitable because the lush greens stayed throughout the dry summer period which was due to the way the soil retains its moisture. In addition to the vines grown at Domaine Chandon at Yarra Valley, they contract 50 growers from around the region including Tasmania and South Australia. The reason for this is to get a variety of grapes that grow in different soils, altitudes, and temperatures which lead to wider characteristics and a greater complexity in the resulting wines.
 

The entire process of wine making is cyclical and dependent on the time of the year. In spring, the buds start to appear and flower heads are produced. Pollination then turns it into fruit. Summer is when the fruit goes through the ripening process. At the same time, the vines are pruned to prevent too many leaves from forming a canopy and sheltering too much of the fruit. Come fall the leaves start to drop and during winter the vines become completely dormant.

Harvest time is at the end of every summer and as an example that every detail counts, the grapes have to be at the right sugar level before they can be picked. This detail goes as far as bringing the grape into the laboratory to test the current sugar level before the green light is given to start harvesting. The grapes can be hand picked which is a more delicate way as the grapes are picked in bunches. It is a slow process which can leave the grapes to be under the hot sun at long periods of time. Another quicker way is by using rods that vibrate and hence shake the vines so that the ripened grapes will drop down onto a conveyor belt. However, this quicker process can also bruise the grapes.

The picked grapes are brought into the winery dock and tipped into the stainless steel machine that has a presser underneath. The first level of juice from the pressing is considered premium quality and used in most of their sparkling wines. As the pressing continues, the grapes have longer contact with the skin which changes the structure of the juice and hence processed separately from the first level of juice. When yeast is added to the juice, sugar from the fruit is turned into alcohol. Through this process of fermentation, gases are allowed to escape through vents in the machines. The yeast then dies and falls to the bottom of the tank, creating a base wine. The winemakers then get together to taste and assess the base wines and determine the percentage of each variety that will go into making the resulting sparkling wines. Some sparkling wines can be made from as many as 45 base wines depending on the winemakers.

At Domaine Chandon, the white wines spend time in the barrels for up to a minimum of 10 months until they are ready to be bottled. The process for red wines is a little different. When red wine grapes are crushed, the juice color is clear. Red wines get their color from the grape skin. When the juice from red wine grapes are collected, both the juice and grape skin are placed together in open top fermentation machines. With the addition of yeast and through the fermentation process, gasses are produced which cause the skins to rise to the surface which forms a hard crust that needs to be broken up. It takes about 2 weeks for a full bodied red wine to get the color its need before it goes into the oak barrels. Red wines are aged in oak barrels from between 18-22 months.

As part of the process of producing sparkling wine, after bottling the cap is put on. Before capping it, sugar is added and when the wine gets activated from sugar there is nowhere for the gasses to go and therefore remains in the bottle. The yeast gradually falls to the bottom of the bottle and the longer the yeast sits in the bottle, the more premium the wine will be. After a minimum of 18 months or when the winemaker is happy with it, the yeast is taken out by machines. The tip of the neck of the bottle is let to freeze, turned at a 45 degree angle, and then caused to shoot out the frozen part of the yeast due to the pressure in the bottle. The amount of pressure is just enough to remove the sediments in the bottle without removing the bubbles.

Domaine Chandon makes their sparkling wine the traditional way like in France; they just can't call it champagne since only sparkling wines made in the town of Champagne can be called champagne.