The popularity of  lamb shanks inspired us to try a Lamb Shank Pie. There was nothing individualistic about our group and we all ordered the same.  A brief discussion and we thought the meat from the shank should be delicious in a pie.

What arrived was a dinner in a pie.  It was all there the shank, mashed potatoes, carrots and peas.  It was rather fun opening this huge dish and letting out the steam.  It tasted good too. The meat on the shank was tender and tasty and the gravy soaked, deliciously into the mashed potatoes.  The pastry was a nice touch.  Priced at $21.00.

The Local Pub
Bay Street, Port Melbourne
22-24 Bay Street (the Beach end)

Phone:- 9810 0076

Opening hours:-
Daily from 11am

Related posts:

1. Hotel Albion, Port Melbourne – Great Bar-Food and Good Value Nights.
2. Cricket Club Hotel South Melbourne – ideal eating on a cold night
3. Station Hotel, Napier Street, Footscray – lunch in their European-style dining room.

The facade is even plainer than many pubs around Port Melbourne, Albert Park and South Melbourne– see the post on Hotel Nest.

Someone may know something of the Hotel Albion’s history and what makes it remarkable.

It has had a bit of a make-over but it still retains the ‘pub atmosphere’.  There is a Bistro Bar, a fine dining area and a room that can be booked for grander functions.

At the moment it is remarkable for its ‘local’s nights’.

On Monday and Tuesday all items on the Bistro Bar menu are $14.50.  The menu is on the wall and you order and pay for your food at the bar; Pub style.  With a $6.0 glass of the house wine which is better than a lot of house wines you have a meal for $20.50 that is  excellent and several cuts above the usual Pub fare.

It is tempting to go for the most expensive thing on the menu, that’s the  Steak of the Day usually at $24.00.  That is very good and the Hotel Albion makes the best hamburgers I have had for a while.  The usual price for a beef or chicken hamburger is $17.50 so not such a great bargain at $14.50 but I love the hamburgers.

The Albion serves superior bar food.  On Monday and Tuesday  the food looks and tastes like the steal it is.  The place obviously employs a good cook.

These meals have all been given a large tick by the diners  who ate them and who would order them again.

Grilled Atlantic Salmon with Nicoise Salad.

Steak of the day with mashed potatoes and red wine gravy.

Grilled Chicken, avocado, prosciutto, and salad.

Falafel Vegie Burger, and salad

This is casual eating and on Monday and Tuesday the place is crowded.   The Bistro area has groups of locals and families and can be busy and noisy.    For some reason the area around the central bar is designated Bistro and Fine Dining.  For the cheap Bistro meals you need to sit at a table without a white table cloth.   The table cloths are for fine dining and there is a separate menu.  This is a nuisance because the tables covered with pristine white starched linen are the ones that are empty.

If you feel like good food, good prices and a local pub atmosphere head for the Hotel Albion at 146 Evans Street; on the corner  Raglan and Evans Streets, Port Melbourne.

There is a tram stop outside in the Turner Reserve. You can hop off the tram eat and then jump back on again for a walk around Port Melbourne.

Getting there:-

Tram  109 to Port Melbourne.  Get off at stop 127 called North Point. Cross Turner Reserve and you are at the Albion Hotel

Opening Hours:-

Bistro Bar Open from 6.00pm to 9.00pm daily except Sunday when it is closed

Monday and Tuesday are the Local’s Night Special

Related posts:

1. Local Pub – Bay Street, Port Melbourne
2. Cricket Club Hotel South Melbourne – ideal eating on a cold night
3. Opulence and Food, the Melba Room at The Langham Hotel,CBD

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

The only ducks available in my local stamping ground were frozen solid.   Now you can thaw them in the microwave but this, in my experience, doesn’t improve the end result – it ruins the skin for one thing.    I declined the frozen ducks even though one of the shopkeepers informed me that there were no fresh ducks available so I would have to have frozen.  I knew he was wrong. I know a place in Melbourne where fresh ducks are always available.

At 9 o’clock on Saturday morning  I headed off to Victoria Street, Richmond.

Victoria Street was waking up.  Most places don’t open until about 10 o’clock but the butchers were out for the early trade and the fresh ducks were in the display cases.

You know these ducks haven’t been frozen, their necks flop and their heads are still attached to them but the feet have gone.  I guess they are sold separately.  The ducks are cheaper too than the ones I would have bought frozen in my suburb.

This is my favourite place to buy ducks

You are shown the duck here for your approval.  I approve at once.  They look much the same to me and I get the head removed, immediately;  I don’t like to look at the yellow beak and the eyes.   I also get some of the excess fat taken off from the tail area – less fat during the cooking process.

Peking Duck is so easy to make at home and tastes so much better that it does as an entrée at the local Chinese eatery.

In Victoria Street, I found recently pulled spring onions and cucumbers and the best hoisin sauce.  The brand we like is ‘Lee Kum Kee’.  This is the preferred brand in Richmond – you can buy it everywhere on Victoria Street including the Minh Phat Supermarket where you can also buy the wrappers if you don’t want the bother of making them yourself.

If you decide to make Peking Duck at home you need the ducks to roast slowly on a rack over the baking dish so the fat can drip down.   It’s an easy dish to make – sit around the table with plates of duck meat, crisp duck skin, cucumbers, spring onions, wrappers and hoisin sauce in the middle – everyone helps themselves. The atmosphere is relaxed and friendly and talk flows.

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. Asia on Victoria Street in Richmond
2. Have fun at the Minh Phat Asian Supermarket, Richmond -
3. Asian ambience and bargains for the stay-at-home traveller

Winter afternoons are a great time for coffee and cake – well any afternoon but in winter I am more comfortable about indulging myself.   A reward for being out and about in the chill of the afternoon.

If you are out and about in  Port Melbourne and feel the need for such a reward a great place to go is Noisette Boulangerie Patisserie at  64 Bay Street Port Melbourne.  It is a good place to head for after a brisk, chilly walk around Port Melbourne or Beach Road.
People who know says that it has the ambience of France.  It is  long and narrow and decorated in  winey-purple and yellow with wheat as a sort of  emblem.

You stand at the counter and gaze at the cakes while you make a decision.  I admire the staff’s patience because choice is difficult.

Noisette’s Honeycomb Mousse
This is a conversation I over-head when I was there last time.   “Should I  have…… no not that one!  No, perhaps this one???   What are you having Jude?”

Jude points to a lemon tart.

“Oh I wonder if I want that?.”

There’s not even a sigh from the good looking guy behind the counter. He holds the tongs waiting for her.

“ I’m deciding between the lemon tart and a brownie.. I often have a lemon tart and the brownie looks so good. I just don’t know.”

Perhaps patience only goes so far.  “I’d have the brownie if I was you,” said the handsome waiter as his tongs sweep a Brownie out of the display and  onto a plate.

The brownie is delicious and heavy with chocolate.

I have lunched and breakfasted here and the food is good.  For lunch, filled baguettes, rolls  and croissants.  Remember they make their own bread so these are special.  My favourite breakfast is a bowl of milky coffee (French style) and an almond croissant, full of lovely almond paste.

Noisette Boulangerie Patisserie is a family run business.  The family have been in the baking business since 1875.  The history is on the wall.

The best tram is the 109 to Port Melbourne.  You can pick it up on Collins Street in the CBD and go to the end of the run, then stroll along Beach Road to Bay Street.

Related posts:

1. Local Pub – Bay Street, Port Melbourne
2. Il Divo Restaurant – a good cheap meal at Port Melbourne
3. A touch of France on Park Street, South Melbourne

It is said that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.  The odd thing is that there is so much ‘treasure’ left around.  When you walk into Lost and Found you think you have found all the collectibles left in the city because there is so much ‘stuff’.  It is an Aladdin’s cave.

The building itself is Vintage.  Something out of a horror movie – except it is full of light rather than shadows but you could get lost in the same way.

You enter on the ground floor and there are staircases disappearing up and down in all directions.  There are little alcoves, recess, and hidden nooks where ever you turn.  It is fascinating and I couldn’t stop taking photos.  You may think I’m posting too many but you may see something you want in the photos.

At first glance this could be a very well run Op Shop but instead it is a bazaar filled with different stall holders.   Down stairs there are pieces of the Scandinavian-style furniture that was so popular in the middle of last century and you can find smaller pieces of furniture hidden away behind a rack of vintage clothing and the collectibles.

Last time I was there I found myself wanting to collect those standard ash trays that stood beside your chair and you pushed a button on the top to whiz it around to take the ash and the butts into the bowl.   I don’t smoke.  It is a childhood memory from relative’s houses that attracts me.   I loved pushing the button.

Stall holders tend to stay once they have secured some space.  I believe there is a waiting list of over 100 would-be stall holders wanting a spot.

There’s a good turn-over with more stock arriving regularly and the Vintage clothes are wonderful but I’m not sure about the macramé wall hangings.  Should they have been found or stayed lost?

Lost and Found Market 12  Smith Street Collingwood is open 7 days from 12 noon to 6pm.   Phone 9419 4477

Take the 109 Tram and get off at the corner of Victoria Street and Smith Street it’s a few doors up on your right.  Or the  86 or 95   Tram and get off on the corner of Gertrude and Smith Streets and walk down towards Victoria Street.

Edwardian Poster – one of the many on sale.

Related posts:

1. Trash, Treasure or vintage? It is hard to decide in Womango, 47 Chapel Street, Windsor/Prahran.
2. The Esplanade Market, St Kilda is worth a visit
3. Railway antiques, restored furniture, coffee and cakes at the Albert Park Station.

Take the 109 Tram and head to Victoria Street in Richmond. The moment you cross Hoddle Street the atmosphere changes. You are entering a different world.

Many people call this area little Saigon.  I’ve been to Saigon but it’s not Saigon to me.   To me it is Asia – crowds, shops packed with merchandise, no interesting window displays,  the inside chaotic, pavements congested with people and market style stalls.   On a busy Saturday at lunch time there is a high noise level, cafes bulging with eaters and everyone talking, trams rattling by and cars everywhere.  Noise! Just like Asia.

Have a look at ‘Tatsing Food Store’, 250 Victoria Street and smell inside –it has  one of the smells of Asia.  Dried fish?  It is hard to know.

The vegetables are as fresh as any you would get anywhere and I like the way they are grouped in colours.

If you get off the tram at the Church Street corner you can wander back towards the city while you browse, window shop, crowd-watch and grab a bowl of Pho ( rice noodle soup with beef and chicken).  It is said to be the best in Melbourne along this street.  Try Banh Cuon Thanh Ha at 172 Victoria Street. It specializes in Vietnamese Hawker Foods’.

It is also said that while Bill Clinton was in Melbourne he had two bowls of Pho in the CBD.  Time restraints I guess, otherwise he would have headed for Victoria Street, Richmond.   Perhaps he had a home delivery to his hotel suite.

This lady is always there.  I wonder if she grows the vegetables she sells.

Asia is about food and there is an enormous variety of fresh fish on Victoria Street.

Latish on Saturday morning is a good time to go if you want the full sensation of a crowded downtown Asian Street. The crowd is very mixed and everyone is shopping for food.  I shop there for ducks and the ingredients for Peking Duck.  It is the only place I know to buy the wrappers.

The best way to get there is by tram.  The 109 Tram from Port Melbourne goes along Collins Street – through the CBD.

If you drive parking can be stressful with only 1 hour parking along the Victoria Street – that is if you can find a park. Weekdays are quieter.

Related posts:

1. Cafe Saigon, Victoria Avenue, Albert Park
2. Have fun at the Minh Phat Asian Supermarket, Richmond -
3. Asian ambience and bargains for the stay-at-home traveller