You can see it yourself as you head along Cecil Street away from the South Melbourne Market.

It is wonderful to be able to see such eye catching pieces of art during an every-day shopping excursion or a walk around the local streets.  Frank Malerba was commission by the developer and the commission was approved by the Port Phillip City Council.

He says he drove around South Melbourne for a few days, “To see what it was all about.”

When you look at the art work does it say South Melbourne to you?
It has been up for over a year and looks exactly the same to me now as it did when I first saw it, months ago.  No deterioration.  Frank Malerba knows what materials to use for durability.

I wish more developers would think of the public and how we need visual feasts as we travel around our city.

My thought when I first saw the mural was, “Who is the lucky person who owns it?”

I assume if you own the unit it is attached to, you don’t own the art work.   And that you can’t sell the unit and then pack up the Malerba panels and take them  away with you.

I guess that can’t happen but it makes me ask who does own it and who is responsible for maintaining it?  The Port Phillip City Council?  Or is it the Owners Corporation’s responsibility? Perhaps someone will know.

One thing I do know is that it is wonderful to see such interesting art, by a well-known local artist, for all of us to view.

Developers:-  how about more of this?

To view Frank Malerba’s urban art on the corner of Cecil and Dorcas Street:-
Tram 96:-  (light rail)  to the South Melbourne Station.  Head for the Market.  Cecil Street runs from the  roundabout.

Tram 1:- get off at the corner of Cecil and Park Street and head to the market. – check out Dorcas Street when you cross over it.

Related posts:

1. Red Star Cafe right opposite The South Melbourne Market, Clarendon Street
2. The Wayside Inn Hotel South Melbourne – good eating – with a new cook and new management.
3. A touch of France on Park Street, South Melbourne

That huge rambling and messy warehouse on the corner of Inkerman Street and St Kilda Road has closed.  The site has turned into a bike emporium.

The new shop in Carlisle has style compared with the old one and they have cut down on their stock.  I always believed that there was so much ‘stuff’ in the old warehouse no one would be able say exactly what was in there.

The new store has added style to a Salvo browse.  The shop is laid ‘out’.  The dressing rooms are no longer a sort of curtained box, designer gear  is in the front when you walk in.

Shoes are ordered on racks and someone keeps them tidy.

Home wares tend to be colour coded for example there is a shelf of blue.  Books are newer – less knocked about,  It feels cleaner and there are less of the things that no one is ever going to buy.  It also feels as if the place is dusted sometimes – perhaps regularly.

I have been told they are charging more that they did in the old warehouse. This could apply to their designer gear although my black Country Road singlet was $5.00.

Last time I was there they had a piano, which seemed odd because the shop  next door is a piano shop.  I was hoping some one in the large browsing crowd would play it.  If they did it was after I left.   I also noticed some crutches in one corner should you ever need any.

The Salvos, St Kilda:-
Opposite the City of Port Phillip Town Hall in Carlisle Street.

Opening hours:-
Monday to Wednesday 9.00am to 5.00pm
Thursday to Friday  9.00 to 7.00pm
Saturday 9.00a, to 5.00pm

Getting there:-
Trams No 3 or No 16
Get off at the stop on the corner of St Kilda Road and Carlisle Street.

Related posts:

1. Carlisle Street in St Kilda East is evolving. Check out the Carlisle Street Bazaar
2. Chess at St Kilda Botanical Gardens – St Kilda
3. Artist Camille Monet and the St Kilda residents create a special piece of art for the community

From the platform you walk into the old, red, brick station building left over from the time when this was a railway line.  It houses railway memorabilia.

Wader around and you get to absorb the experience of travelling along route 96  when the journey was taken by train.
There is much old railway paraphernalia to browse through and also, beautifully resorted and polished pieces of furniture.  Some of the pieces are huge and hidden under smaller things. It takes ages to see what is there.

A nice touch, as you walk up the concrete ramp from Canterbury Road into the quaint red brick building, is the ticket dispenser still holding those old cardboard tickets.  It is as if you should take a ticket to continue your journey though the building.

Some of my favourite pieces:-

Station clock.

Station trolley

A small back door from the store leads onto the light rail platform and the other end of the long narrow building becomes a coffee shop.  This is a relaxed and friendly place. The word homely could describe it.

It is an odd cafe to find in sophisticated Albert Park.  It is like wandering into someone’s kitchen and asking for a snack.

The kitchen runs behind the counter and if you arrive at the right time you can see the cook cum barista cum waitress taking a cake from the oven.  She makes all the food. The menu is simple, toasted sandwiches, cakes, biscuits, some large and beautiful meringues served with cream.

The coffee is good and the baked cheese cake one of the best around, there are papers and magazines to read, an open courtyard with more railway artefacts and the sound of the light rain swishing past to let you know that this is a station.

Coffee at Albert Park Station – Tram route 96

The Railway antiques are open daily 9.30 to 5.00pm

The coffee shop is closed on Mondays

Getting there:-
Ride the 96 tram to the Albert Park Station stop

Related posts:

1. The Good Life, and Good Food at Albert Park Lake
2. The Garden of Eden in Albert Park
3. Mart Cafe – Tram route 96 Stop 130 Middle Park

The cafe is long and narrow with a courtyard at the rear.  The red chairs are for outside, only.  Inside is cool and more sophisticated with a polished concrete floor and dark wooden tables and chairs.  The tables come in various sizes including a long communal table.

One wall is covered in posters advertising up-coming events and happenings, there is their organic coffee for sale and there are plenty of papers and magazines to read. It is a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere.

Breakfast is served all day.   We ordered one breakfast and two lunches.

The Nasi Goering looked good, the egg was perfectly done, the flavour everything it should be. $15.50

The beef hamburger had plenty of bacon and the egg just right but the beef was a little over cooked and on the dry side.  It  came with a side serving of caramelized onions and tomato sauce. $16.90

English muffin, bacon, egg and tomatoes was a  breakfast special  for $8.00 and was good value for the price.

There were fruit muffins available and cakes for afternoon coffee – the milk in the flat white coffee was silky but I like mine a little stronger, however you can’t please everyone and I didn’t ask for strong.  If you like it strong that would be the way to go.

Service was friendly and attentive with the waitress saying ‘enjoy’ when she delivered the food.  I found that rather endearing.  The Red Star Cafe, on the corner of Ward Street and Coventry Street, is a great place to sit and  view the action around the South Melbourne Market.

The Red Star Cafe opening hours:-
Mondays CLOSED
Tuesday to Thursday 8.00am to 4.00pm
Friday to Sunday 7.30am to 5.00pm
They serve organic fair trade coffee

Getting There:-
Tram:
96 (Light Rail) from Bourke Street, and get off at the South Melbourne stop. The market is about 2 minutes away.
112 Tram from Collins Street, get off on the corner of Clarendon and York Street.
Driving:
Melway:       Map 1C Ref E11
There is parking on top of the South Melbourne Market and some parking in the neighbouring street ( alot of street parking is Permit only, so watch out for that)

Related posts:

1. Gas Eateries and Supply Cafe – South Melbourne
2. A touch of France on Park Street, South Melbourne
3. Prahran Market –the food lovers market in South Yarra

I think it is best on Saturday.  The produce seems to be fresher as if it was whisked from the soil or picked from the tree that very morning.   It is also the day when the market is flooded with locals doing their weekly shopping – a great ambiance that is unique to this market.

Shopping  before the Saturday crowds.

It’s good to be there early on Saturday and miss some of the crowd but on the other hand from about 10.30 onwards the place is full of free nibbles – you can lunch your way around the stalls eating a bit here and there.  If you watch the shoppers you can see them sampling and snacking as they weave from stall to stall.

This is a produce market.    There is a hardware stall but it is about food: fruit and veg, meat fish and poultry, delicatessens, coffee, flowers and a very popular organic stall (Ripe the Organic Grocer), selling everything including wine and cakes made with organic ingredients. It is not a market for clothes and bric-a-brac.

A good place to start is Cleo’s.  It has an entrance off Commercial Road and a window full of bread.  You can wander through the delicatessen and straight into the market.

From Cleo’s I head to stall 108,  MJ Mow Gourmet Potatoes.  Every variety of potato is available including the increasingly popular kipfler and one I had never heard of before,  Purple Congo.  This is good to mash and because of its colour good to use as a decoration.    There is a flier available that  lists 17 varieties of potatoes and  their different uses.  It is fun to experiment and I do but I love my old favourite the King Edward.

Stall 116 is Damian Pike the Wild Mushroom Specialist.  Wild mushrooms are those that come up in  a field after rain and have the best taste ever.  There not always available – it doesn’t always rain.  The stall is interesting not only because of the selection of mushrooms but for unusual seasonal items like flat peaches from China which they say they stock.  I have never seen them but I believe they exist!

You can grab good coffee or dine on something more substantial in the Market Square which is partly covered and has a play ground for the kids.

Coffee in the Market Square.

Information:-

Damian Pike Wild Mushroom specialist Phone 0411 438 465

MJ Mow Gourmet Potatoes  Phone 0417 382 354

Market Web site

Address:-

163 Commercial Road, South Yarra

Opening Hours:-
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday – dawn to 5pm
Friday Dawn to 6pm
Sunday 10am to 3.00pm

Closed:-

Monday and Wednesday

Getting there:-

Tram:- 72 and get off at Stop 30

Train:- Take the Sandringham Line to Prahran Station and walk to Commercial Road.  It’s about 2 minutes walk

Related posts:

1. Red Star Cafe right opposite The South Melbourne Market, Clarendon Street
2. Cakes and coffee at the Special Cake Shop – Chapel Street, Prahran
3. Explore the Books @ the Fed Square Book Market CBD

This flurry of summer markets led me to forget the markets that just keep-on-keeping-on.

The Esplanade Market in St Kilda has been keeping on since 1970. And some of the stall holders have been there for most of that time.

The market runs  from Luna Park along The Esplanade to Fitzroy Street.  On my first trip to Melbourne, some years ago, I explored it with a family member and was fascinated.  I still have a pair of ear rings I bought on that visit.

This time these brooches caught my eye.

The Market advertises itself as a “Makers’ Market Place”.  That is the stall holders must be directly involved in the production of the items they are selling.  This makes for an interesting mix.

There is Jena Bedson’s pottery that she describes as ‘comic art’.

Much of the merchandise is familiar to me,  in that some of the stalls have been there for years.  Obviously the ones that stay the distance are quality and offer something the customers want.   Calypsoflash who sell pewter jewelery tell me they have been there for 38 years.  They now have their own website to display their creative pieces.

These architectural cards are stylish and beautiful.

There is a huge tourist-browsing population and many stall holders cater for them.   For example Matt Irwin’s photographs are there and have been since my first visit in the 1990’s.  Then I sent my mother a post card depicting a striking black and white  photo of one of Melbourne’s  trams.  She still has it and they are still on sale.

These magnets were doing good business – I bought 3 for $10.00.  They were delighting children who were spending $3.50 to go home with something cute and useful.   The stall holder creates the whole magnet from the painted design to the finished article.

The market is vibrant and most of the stall holders friendly.  They  will talk about their crafts and discuss in detail how they make the items.  If you are a craft person you can find inspiration – a sort of  “Wow, I could do that!”  But many crafts are time-consuming and for these people making and selling their wares a way of life.

Getting there:-

Trams 16, 3A and 79 to stop 31

Tram 96 to stop 138

Times:-

Sundays ( all year round) 10.00am to 5.00pm.

Related posts:

1. St Kilda Beach Night Market – Thursdays
2. St Kilda and Sunday with the Busking Festival at the Sea Baths
3. Prahran Market –the food lovers market in South Yarra

The Carlisle Street Bazaar opened just before Christmas adding another retail experience to shopping in the piece of Carlisle Street around the Balaclava Rail Station.
This Carlisle Street Bazaar replaces a store where I often browsed.  It was one of those stores that covered an eclectic range merchandise – clothes, furniture, home ware, jewelery, gifts.    All this appeared to be individually chosen to give a cohesion to the store.  This space has now morphed into the Carlisle Street Bazaar.  It is as if the original store has re-invented itself and presented a new face to the world, the cohesion has gone but the atmosphere has livened up.

To me it is an improvement.  For one thing the space is lighter and brighter.   I found the old space rather gloomy.  The variety is better and it is more fun to browse.

Stock moves too.  There was a hand created metal pig and sheep when I first walked into the Bazaar and a few days later they had gone.  “Snapped up,” I was told.  They still have smaller roosters from the same artist.  They are the sort of patio/garden object that lift your spirits and cause you to smile.

So far the Carlisle Street Bazaar have been a constantly changing visual feast – new clothes, new displays, new bric-a-brac.

At this point the venture looks successful and it will be interesting to watch it evolve. I like the original art and would like to see more creative works for sale.

To discuss hiring space: – phone   0411598411.
Opening hours: -

Monday to Saturday 10.00am to 6.00pm.  The Bazaar closes at 5.00pm on Sunday.

Getting there:

Trams – 12, 3, going along Carlisle Street, first stop past St Kilda Road. 67 Tram get off at the corner of Carlisle and St Kilda Road  or a 78 that runs from Richmond to the St Kilda East end of Chapel Street.

Train – Sandringham line to Balaclava Stration

Related posts:

1. Salvos move to Carlisle Street, St Kilda and take on a new look.
2. Eastern European Flavours in East St Kilda
3. Hearty Hungarian meals – Authentic European eating in East St Kilda .

I love night markets.  The first one I explored was in Yogyakarta in Indonesia. There was magic in the air with the music and colours but I felt uneasy being in such a crowded place with so many dark corners. That evening was fun with fascinating things to buy and no harm came to us.  The memory of the light–filled night and all the buzz has given me a  strange nostalgia for outdoor evening markets so I turn up  every year at the St Kilda Beach Night Market.

It is held in O’Donnell  Gardens where a shady corner is not threatening – it is part of the evening ambiance.   Of course with summer and daylight saving  it is a long time before it is dark and there are any shadows to create  murky corners.
The Market starts at 5.10pm. Last Thursday the first one for the year and stalls opened on time and the cooks fired up the food.

The market is held on  Thursdays and last Thursday was rather grey and overcast with rain later.  The market prides itself on opening rain or fine.  It was just bad luck that last Thursday brought some rain.  If you planned to go and it looks like rain – still go everyone else will be there.

Woxwaste shows ingenious ways to use waste – the waste paper baskets are wonderful.  There is something rather satisfying about putting our rubbish in a container made from rubbish.

It’s an eclectic market that shows off the St Kilda area and Melbourne’s diversity of cultures  This mixture makes for a friendly warm and comfortable browse, and nosh. There is music too.

The food is interesting and unpretentious the stalls fascinating and the crowd interesting.  Remember the music.

I will be back this Thursday to try the Argentinean barbecue.

Getting there:-

Trams 16 and 79 to stop 31

Tram 96 to stop 138

Times-:

From 5.10pm

December – 17th, 21st, and 28th

January – 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th

February – 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th

Related posts:

1. The Esplanade Market, St Kilda is worth a visit
2. Cafe Racer, St Kilda Beach
3. Prahran Market –the food lovers market in South Yarra

I’d been shopping and enjoying the vibes of Victoria Street for some time before I found it.  That sounds silly because now I know where it is,  I can’t understand how I missed it.  But I did.   There’s an empty lot next door so perhaps that helps to hide it from view.

Visiting Minh Phat is fun and stimulating.  There are things like dried and preserved Persimmon,  jars of Korean Kim Chi and lotus seeds, fried and preserved parsnip.   There is a whole isle of teas.  Packets of teas and teas you can buy by the scoop – dried flowers, tiny rose buds and chrysanthemum.

Fresh vegetables too.   Everything you would expect in a green grocery section and then there are things you wouldn’t expect – bunches of Chives in flower and garlic shoots.

It is impossible to know what some of the things are as there is not a word of English on the packaging.   It is a bit like a game of chance.  Try to work out what it is, buy it and find out if you were right when you get it home.

You can buy cooking utensils and crockery.

I have experimented, successfully, with a Thai Dessert – rather like an instant pudding but more delicious and everything is written in English – Thai Tapioca Pearl and Black Bean in Coconut Milk.  Classy and the flavours grow on you and you need to go back for more.

Minh Phat Supermarket, 178 -180 Victoria Street, or alternatively 2 – 8 Nicholson Street, Richmond.  It is just around the corner from Victoria Street, next to a vacant lot.

Getting there:

The 109 Tram from Port Melbourne goes along Collins Street – through the CBD and then along Victoria Street in Richmond.
The 78 Tram runs the full length of Chapel Street from St Kilda East, through Prahran into Church Street and terminates at the corner of Church Street and Victoria Street, Richmond. This is a great tram if you live along the route.

There’s one hour meter parking in Victoria Street.

Related posts:

1. Asia on Victoria Street in Richmond
2. Asian ambience and bargains for the stay-at-home traveller
3. The best place to buy a fresh (that is dead) duck in Melbourne

In Victoria Street, Richmond the Two Dollar Bargain and Gift Shops are different.

They can look the same outside. A collection of brooms and door mats and so on parked on the pavement but inside they are a treasure trove.  You step into another world.  I sometimes go to Richmond just to browse through them.  It’s an outing all on its own.  I wander over there just to gaze, buy a few things  and to  remind myself of exciting and happy visits to Hong Kong and  Ho Chi Minh City.

This area is unique in Melbourne and if you were whisked there from outer space you could be forgiven for thinking that you had arrived in Hong Kong, or Ho Chi Minh City.

There would be a moment of disorientation. Only a moment – it is quiet on Victoria Street compared with either of those vibrant cities but the ambiance is the same.    The Bargain Shops say it all.  There is much to experience.

One of my favourite purchases is this tea pot and mug bought from different shops at a total cost of Just over $18.00.  A good bargain.

The tea pot has a strainer inside – the first time I have seen that. I like leaf tea and I can make a pot of tea when I wake up and then drink it as I get ready for work without it stewing and getting that bitter taste that stewed tea can get when the leaves sit in it too long.

It’s my favourite pot for green tea too but I drink that from this lovely yellow chrysanthemum mug.

I keep looking for a tea pot to match the mug.  No luck so far.  If you see one let me know.

I haven’t bought a lucky tree yet but I fancy one for the front porch especially at Chinese New Year.

Voices in my head tell me if I bought one of these colourful trees it may bring me luck.   The same voice tells me that if I bought a lucky a cat with his paw up and waving my fortunes would improve. A more prosaic voice tells me we make our own luck.  But there is no harm in giving luck a helping hand.   Luck overflows in the Bargain Shops along Victoria Street Richmond.  And I am going to buy a lucky tree next Chinese New Year.

Remember to let me know if you see a beautiful chrysanthemum mug – perhaps there is another place in Melbourne I could try.

Getting There:.– Victoria Street Richmond
The 109 Tram from Port Melbourne goes along Collins Street – through the CBD and then along Victoria Street in Richmond.
The 78 Tram runs the full length of Chapel Street from the St Kilda East, through Prahran into Church Street and terminates at the corner of Church Street and Victoria Street, Richmond. This is a great tram if you live along the route.

There’s one hour meter parking in Victoria Street.

Related posts:

1. Have fun at the Minh Phat Asian Supermarket, Richmond -
2. Asia on Victoria Street in Richmond
3. The best place to buy a fresh (that is dead) duck in Melbourne