There are many parks near by Melbourne CBD, isn’t it? There are several I wanted to go to, but today we decided to walk over to Southbank to The Royal Botanic Gardens. Thank goodness it was a fine day, clear blue sky and breezy – perfect weather for strolling! Let these photos tell the rest of the story 🙂 By the way, here is the link to lists of parks in CBD which I find very handy.
Alexandra GardensQueen Victoria GardensRoyal Botanic GardensRoyal Botanic Gardens
On the way back, we stopped at Dukes Coffee Roasters for a quick afternoon caffeine fix. We had a takeaway skim flat white again, but I feel the coffee tasted too bitter for my liking, it’s a strong hit on the tongue. A truly wake up punch 🙂
Dukes Coffee Roasters – front windowAfternoon coffees, anyone?
And to balance out the bitter coffee, we also stopped by Doughboys Doughnuts 😛 We seems to eat a lot on this trip and still barely enough to try all the places on my to-go-list! Probably because we came after 3 pm, there were not many doughnuts to choose from – might be all sold out for the day. These doughnuts are more of your typical doughnuts texture wise, with interesting flavor combinations and fillings. In that sense, they are different to ones at Shortstop. We both tend to prefer the Shortstop donuts better than ones here.
The counter and doughnuts displayMint Slice – we definitely prefer this one over the Matcha Pop  ? Too busy eating that we forgot to take picture of the doughnut with cream filling.Matcha Pop – We ordered this thinking it will pack with matcha flavours. Unfortunately, the filling turned out to be berry flavoured custard cream with couple pieces of lightly-matcha-coated popcorns toppings
We were heading back to City Tempo after lunch and while staring at the Google Map for directions, Shortstop suddenly popped up. As it turned out the location is very close to City Tempo, we made a quick stop at Shortstop for their famous donuts. Learned from previous experience, when it’s location is in a small street or lane, you just have to pay extra attention for name plague. But Shortstop on other hand is very easy to locate, you could not have missed the glass wall, crowd and display of beautiful donuts.
The cafe is quite small in size with minimalist interior and very few seating. We actually came here twice, this first time we just got the take away donuts. Then we dined in on the second time when it wasn’t as busy. When walking in, you’ll see a coffee counter and cashier counter next to it and then a glass display of each of the different flavoured donuts for the day. It was as if you are looking for antiquities display in a museum (｡◕‿◕｡)
These excite me much!
And of course we must try the hyped Australian Honey And Sea Salt donut because it just so different to your usual donuts. Then hubby decided he wanted to try the Maple Walnut And Brown Butter one. We were too excited and forgot to take a close up pictures of these two and only remembered after we gobbled them down ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The honey and sea salt donut is certainly unique, both in flavour combination as well as the texture. It was less sweet than the other one, being balanced by the salt flakes. But the texture is just interesting, light and airy on the inside with crisp glazed on the outside. The maple walnut and brown butter donut is totally different to the former. This is more similar to your usual kind of donut in texture but the topping is very yummy. Mind you, it is very sweet – but then again, something you’d expect from a donut, right?
On our second trip here, we tried  Boston Cream and Lemon Ricotta Cheesecake plus their coffee. They used Market Lane’s Seasonal; Blend beans. By the way, they have only whole milk for their coffees, but turned out really nice. Smooth and not too rich at all – we usually get flat while in skim because most of the time it is too creamy and rich otherwise. But the coffee here was very very good (read: memorable), even on whole milk. Both donuts are delicious and fluffy with sweet smooth cream filling inside.
These donuts are certainly not something you’d treat yourself everyday – not just they are sweet, they are not cheap either. But, I’d love to have them every once in a while and wash it down with a cup of their coffee.
Once we finished with check-in at City Tempo, we decided to have a walk around the CBD area. Short walk down the Queen St and we found ourselves looking at tram stops, how easy! But since we just missed the tram, we walked along La Trobe St towards Melbourne Central which then from there we boarded the City Circle Tram 35. Love the tram ride with commentaries, seeing the hustle and bustle of crowds, parks and historical buildings.
We then got off at Federation Square and walked up north through the famous Degraves St. Not really having any concrete destination, we just walked with Google Map as our guide. As we walked close to Little Burke St I saw Manchester Press on my Google Map and decided that’s where we are going for our first meal in Melbourne.
Okay finding the place itself turned out a little challenging even with Google Map on hand. I guess it just was not something we expected, the name is not very obvious from a distance 🙂 Wrong turns in couple lanes and we finally got there!
Manchester Press serves breakfast, salad and mainly bagels, also coffee course. We are not a big fan of bagels, I mean it’s nice but it’s not something we can’t live without. But since we are here, let be more adventurous and try something new. Also I’ve seen plenty of good reviews of this place before, meaning it must be doing it right.
Do you notice the little birdie on the top window sill?
There were plenty of people when we got there, probably about 3/4 full. We sat in the bench overlooking the street and a friendly waitress came over with menus. We asked what would her recommendations and she pointed that the BBQ pulled pork bagels are very popular as do the grilled chorizo or eggplant for vegetarian option. Following her recommendations, we ordered the top two and flat white. And soon enough our food came:
14 Hour BBQ Pulled Pork Closed Bagel $16Grilled Chorizo Open Bagel $14.50Flat white $4
Both bagels are served with crispy little pretzels and a piece of pickled gherkin. We thinks the bagels are nice without being too chewy, the topping are certainly flavorsome. Hubby said his BBQ pulled pork is very tasty; as for mine I really love that sweet and spicy sauce. It was a decent size meal for me, but I imagine it will not enough for big eaters 😛 Coffee was great and very smooth as you’d expect from any good cafe in Melbourne, right?
Overall, we were happy with their meal but the highlight here is the coffee. In fact we came back on our last day just for the coffee \ (•◡•) /
Since we missed our favorite pistachio gelato from Gusto Gelato the other day, we set out to find other places and hopefully it can satisfy our cravings. On the second last night of our trip, we headed to Seminyak and set the Waze App to go to Lelo Lelo. I read plenty of reviews of this place about how good their gelato and was keen to try. But alas we got lost, couldn’t find it and it started sprinkling so we stopped at Gelato Factory instead.
Located at Jalan Kayu Aya, it is definitely in the prime location of Seminyak. But when were there, there are no other customers, I guess it’s rain and almost dinner time so people must have stayed inside or out to restaurants instead.
They have many flavors of colorful gelato available and all of them looks really yummy. And of course, pistachio is also there!
Can you guess what we ordered? We both each has 1 scoop of pistachio gelato of course. Then rum and raisin for me, meanwhile coffee or tiramisu (can’t remember now) for hubby. They tasted really good actually, very rich and creamy even richer than Gusto’s. But in the meantime also packs with flavor, not just sweet 🙂 And that waffle is so good, thin, crispy and sweet with a hint of saltiness. In fact, the waffle left more impression than the gelato!
The cafe is so bright, felt like they went overboard with lighting. But I do love the wooden shelves on the wall, do you notice the old sewing machine? Isn’t that cute?
The lighting set up somehow reminds me of spider with it’s long legs! ಠ_ಠThe menu
It was still pouring after we finished our gelato and we were kind of stuck there. So hubby ordered a cup of flat white which was not bad at all. Unfortunately, this was not documented so I can’t share the picture. But the coffee totally washed down the sweetness of gelato ? Perfect end of the night and the rain also almost finally stopped, so we could head back to the hotel.
Every time we went to Bali, I had always wanted to try out this place. I read a lot of good praises for this restaurant, but we just never made it until our most recent trip. The main reason was always due to its location, a fair bit of walk from main street Ubud. And there are never shortage of choices to pick in Ubud as well. But, this time I insisted to come and we went there by the rented motor bike:) It was challenging to find our way here, got lost a few times. But in Bali (as per our own experiences so far), just nicely ask people around you and you’ll be fine!
At first we used Waze app to find our way to a Sari Organik Restaurant and it led us to the branch in Penestanan. In there we asked how to get to the one with rice paddy view aka Bodag Maliah. It gets quite rough once we got into the small  walkway in between rice paddy fields. I was so amazed at the surrounding: the rice fields, the sound of bamboo turbines that keep birds away from paddies, the farmers, few small yoga places, few more cafes. It felt like you are far away from Ubud Center, although sadly I think in few years time that area will probably be filled up with villas or other accommodation types.
The road to Sari Organik is not very shaded, so by the time we got there we ordered three glasses of juices right away. Only after that, we took our time to read through the menu and the surrounding to absorb the pretty view. The seating area is on top of their kitchen, an open air area looking out to paddy fields all around. There are lesehan style seating around the side and corners of the restaurant with heaps of cushions.
We ordered nasi campur bali and chicken kebab. Both mains are delicious, the seasoning is very light handed and definitely not spicy at all. But the vegetables are awesome, they are fresh and crisp and yummy. Hubby thinks that his chicken kebab are a little too dry and stringy, nonetheless he still enjoyed them well 🙂
Various organic supplies for sale, such as coconut oil, soaps, incense, etc.
After all that yummy lunch, as we headed back to our hotel, we stopped at Seniman Coffee. Here are what we ordered, that chocolate cake is super delicious! Not overly sweet, hint of salt flakes, and just smooth almost mousse-like consistency of chocolate.
Sari Organik aka Bodag Maliah
Subak Sok Wayah (Middle of ricefield north of Raya Ubud)
T: (0361) 972087 sari-organik@hotmail.com
