A Wicked Sunday with shiraz, merlot, port and alcoholic fights in the square before dinner with Cicciolina

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Oh No! What About Vietnam?
We wake up and ponder breakfast and Wicked Sunday. Walking around last night, we looked at STA Travel and found out they would be closed on Sunday. We had stopped by to talk to a travel agent last Wednesday and got some brochures of tours in Vietnam. We have been undecided on what to do in Vietnam since we planned the trip many months ago. With only seven days there, it’s a bit too much to go from Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, formerly Saigon) all the way north to Hanoi and Halong Bay, where the pictures just look amazing. We would have to fly within Vietnam and shell out the cash for everything. We thought of maybe going to Cambodia which is closer to HCMC, but we’d have to get a multivisit visa for Vietnam (we made a mistake and got the single) and we would only see HCMC in Vietnam. We have finally decided to stick south and leave the north of Vietnam and Cambodia for another trip. Our plan is to get a hotel and transport package for HCMC, Cu Chi tunnels, and the Mekong Delta. This will take about five days and we can spend the remaining two doing whatever in HCMC. This will also give me a chance to work, as I have a research presentation I’m working on. I’ll probably finish it in the Philippines, but I like having downtime for relaxation and catching up on to-dos. Anyway, we had our decision made but squandered all of Friday at Kat Bahloo, just across the street from STA. Saturday, we were on the tour from 8am to 10pm. And that just leaves Sunday, since we depart from Melbourne at 9am tomorrow. Oh man, we missed our window. I decide our last hope to get on this Qantas package is to call STA’s telephone sales, so we head into the city and get off at the clocks on Flinders and buy a phone card. It’s too early to call STA, so we walk around, trying pot pies and juices. We stop at a wine shop but see nothing familiar. When it’s finally time to call, I spend a long time on hold but finally talk to Claire. She tries to help us, but we won’t know until later if she can get everything confirmed and issued electronically. Here’s to hoping.

Wicked Sunday
Once we make our attempt at finally getting Vietnam squared away, we turn our attention to Federation Square, opposite the Flinder’s Street station where the clocks are. We see lots of gelato and desserts, but we are here for wine tasting. We find out it’s across the bridge over the Yarra River, so we cross and hit the first tent. Here, they sell a plastic glass for A$25, which entitles the bearer to all the tasting he/she wants at the 65 wineries who are hosting tents today. I decide to write down the names of wineries and bottles that we try so that we know which ones we want to buy from. I figure that I want to take a few bottles to the Philippines for my family, so that we have something nice to sip on while on our family reunion on the beach in Boracay. Leroy and I decide to rate the wines on a scale so that we can whittle the selections down. He wants to use a 3-point scale where “3” is definitely buy and “1” is no way. But after the first two tents, we decide to us a 10-point scale and just rate it on whether or not we like it as well as whether or not we can afford it. In the end, the choices are easy.

I don’t have the winery info with me right now, but after we post this blog, I’ll edit this part and put the names of the vineyards, the varietals we tasted, and their bottle price. In the end, we bought four different wines to bring to Manila, based on whether or not we liked it and whether or not we could afford it.

Wine List Update - asterisks denote the bottles we wanted to take with us; too bad they ran out of the port
*Allira Cabernet Merlot 2004 A$12
*Sticks Cabernet Merlot Petit Verdot 2005 A$14
*Broken River Shiraz “Fred’s Red” A$12
*Montara Winery Shiraz Port A$20
*Broken River Shiraz Grenadine Mouvedre A$18
Downing Estate Shiraz 2003 A$23
Shelmerdine Viognier 2006 A$23
Shelmerdine Shiraz Viognier 2005 A$28
Brumfield Pinot Noir 2005 A$16
Broken River Mouvedre 2001 A$18
Yarraloch Merlot 2004 A$40
Pondalowie Shiraz Viognier 2005 A$30
R&R Shiraz 2005 A$15
R&R Cabernet Shiraz Merlot A$15
Killara Sauvignon Blanc 2005 A$17
Sugarloaf Creek Estate Shiraz 2004 A$22
Sugarloaf Creek Estate Shiraz 2003 A$25


Halfway through our wine tasting adventure, we decide we need some vittles to keep us lucid. We had some little pie pastries for breakfast, but it wasn’t really enough. So we head to the food court, and I can’t stop myself from getting fish and chips. Nothing has been as good as the fish and chips I got in that pub in Double Bay, Sydney last year, but I keep trying. After we carb and cholesterol up, we hit the tents again. An elderly couple from Bundaberg, Queensland starts talking to us, and they must have hit most of the tents because they were quite sloshy. They told us of their five week visit to the U.S., visiting LA, SF, Chicago, Texas, Boston, NYC, DC and more, all on Amtrak. They were nice enough, although I think we visibly cringed when the woman referred to black Americans as colored. They kept telling us to go to Queensland where the weather is perfect and the people are nicer, as well as to visit Bundaberg and try the rum. I’m sure we’ll tour more of Australia some day, but I have to say, Sydney and Melbourne are amazing and if I were to move here, that’s where I’d be.

After about a dozen tents, we have had enough. We’re not tipsy… I think we just had enough of the tasting. Wine tasting is fun, but after a while, I’m not sure I can tell the difference between wines anymore and the whole thing becomes this ritual that I can only take so much of. After watching Sideways in Buenos Aires, I definitely know that I can never be a wine person or a foodie. I just like drinking wine and eating good food. I wish I could have that passion for the details of every bottle or every dish, but really, food and wine for me are more about the togetherness and experience of being with Leroy, or with friends and family. We decide to purchase from three vineyards… well, actually, it was four, but they ran out of the shiraz port. We choose wines that are smooth and easy to drink, and on the lighter side of red wines. Not rosé… just lighter, less oaky. You know, tasty and goes down easy. With bottles in tow, we decide to defer Fitzroy until the evening and drop our prizes off at Base. But once there, we end up lounging about, relaxing, and catching up on the blog. We even get in a little nap.

To Fitzroy or Not to Fitzroy
Once we wake up at 7pm, we make our way to the tram station opposite McDonald’s and Vineyard and brace ourselves for the wait. It is more than chilly now, and we are still too lightly dressed. The wind has also picked up, and everyone at the tram station is shivering. I glance at the posted schedule, and after waiting for 15 minutes, we have another 15 minutes to go before it gets here. I guess they don’t run as often on Sundays. While I’m checking the schedule, a couple comes out of Vineyard and the woman is screaming furiously and with lots of profanity. She is absolutely livid at her boyfriend who is stinking drunk at 7:15pm. There is no way to avoid eavesdropping, as she is shouting at full volume in the middle of a square with lots of people hanging about or waiting for the tram. His drinking must really be out of hand, because she is crying and sitting on the ground and asking why he does this if he loves her and writes her poems, in between wailing about how he’s destroying his liver. Leroy is looking away from them, but he can’t help but hear all of it too. Just then, the wind picks up even more and Leroy asks me what there is to do or see in Fitzroy anyway. I recall that in 1993, when I first visited Australia, one of my homestay sisters took me to Fitzroy to check out the boheme scene. It was where I first tasted focaccia, and I loved the feel to it. But at this hour, there won’t be much window shopping to do, and all we’ll really do is walk about and people watch, which won’t be much fun in this weather. So we ditch the plan and tell ourselves it’s just one more reason to come back.

Lovely Cicciolina
We then head to Cicciolina, a well-known Italian restaurant in St. Kilda where the ambience is upscale but the prices are reasonable… and most important of all, the food is crazy good. The wait is 45 minutes, so we make our way through an alley to their bar, which is behind the restaurant. We order a bruschetta while we’re waiting, and unlike the usual tomato-based one, it comes with soft goat cheese spread onto crunchy bread and tasty well-marinated and sautéed mushrooms on top. It was delicious. Leroy partook of another Havana Club cubalibre, and I nursed a glass of Italian red wine. When our table was ready after only 30 minutes, we sat down for a great meal of lamb shank (Leroy) and salmon on pasta (Meli). It was a lovely evening. To boot, Leroy deems it the best lamb he’s ever had (and that includes comparing it to Evvia in Palo Alto).

Ready to Go
After dinner, we walk our satisfied selves back to Base and begin the task of packing. Mainly, it’s packing the wines that is a challenge, but not too bad of one. I am concerned that Australia will have the same anti-liquid security measures, but they actually didn’t. I packed four bottles into my luggage and carried two in a paper bag. Luckily, it isn’t until five days after our departure that Australia will institute policies mimicking the TSA anti-liquid rules (boo!). Once packed, I hit the pillow. Our airport bus will pick us up at 6:10am.

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Photos

Downtown Melbourne
Yarra River. White tents for the Wineries on the left.

Flinders Street Station
That's Leroy in black

Young & Jackson Pub
Where the picture of the naked lady upstairs scarred Meli at the tender age of 17

Federation Square
Heading to the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival
GELATO

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival
Hook me up, mate!

Downtown Melbourne
Flinders Street Station in this shot too