Hopetoun Tea Rooms, Melbourne

 

Tucked away in the Block Arcade in Melbourne, is the Hopetoun Tearooms.  It is a quaint Victorian-looking place that is a step back in time.

Vanilla Slice

Chocolate passion fruit brownie

Cream-filled lamingtons

Lemon tart

Besides cakes, there are breakfast options, eggs and bacon, and raisin toast.  Lunch options include soup, toasted croissants, stuffed zucchini flowers and fish.

Pavlova and wild berry sponge cake

Strawberry sponge cake

It took a good while to decide on a cake.  I was going to select something modest, but I rarely get down to this part of town, so I thought, 'time to lash out!'.  

Raspberry and pistachio cheesecake $9.50

I decided on the raspberry and pistachio cheesecake.  A fine choice it turned out to be! A creamy cheesecake with a soft biscuit crumb base, crunchy pistachio edge and a soft layer of raspberry jelly.  A cute decoration on top was a candied wild hibiscus flower.  

Top left - raspberry pistachio cheesecake (slightly better photo)

Hopetoun Tearooms stock Serendipitea teas.  I had a cup of black Darjeeling tea which was a perfect foil for the creamy cheescake

Table decorations

Queue at Hopetoun Tearoom

I waited about 10 or 15 minutes to get in.  I generally don't queue for places, but I will make an exception for this place...I must find a reason to be down in this part of the city again very, very soon!!

Hopetoun Tearooms

Block Arcade

Shop 1 and 2, 282 Collins Street

Melbourne

Ph 9650 2777

Open Mon to Sat 8am to 5pm

Sunday 9am to 5pm

The Victoria Hotel, Footscray

The Victoria Hotel (also has a sign saying Hart's Hotel) is on Victoria Street, just near Middle Footscray Station.  I have been past it a million times and wondered about this place.  It is a lovely old building that doesn't seem to have been altered much over time.   My hopes were raised when I saw some specials on the chalkboard outside that mentioned lentils, a diverse menu perhaps?  


The Thursday before the long Easter break, The Bloke gets home from work and suggests dinner at the hotel.  Nice work.  

The dining area is a pleasant wood-paneled room, neat and tidy.  

On each table, slim white ceramic vases hold carnations.  They look sweet and old school, very comforting.


I order the rissoles with mashed potato.  The dish comes with a gravy boat so you can decide how much, if any, gravy you want.  The rissoles are large, moist and tasty...and filling.  I have two.  The mashed potato is okay, I want it to be brilliant, hopefully just an off-mash night.  The side of steamed vegetables is great.  Perfectly steamed broccoli and a chunk of baked pumpkin under the vegetables with some cinnamon on top, divine! 

Rissoles and mash $9.00

Steamed veges

The Bloke orders the T-bone steak with chips and salad.   (I am too busy eating and forget to take a photo pre-eating of the steak).  I have a taste of the steak, very nice and the chips are crisp; The Bloke is happy.   The salad is excellent, crunchy salad vegetables with not too much dressing.  Complimentary white rolls are served with our meals too.

T-bone and chips $16.00

Salad

The Victoria Hotel feels like it is a million miles from the city.  It felt like one of the country pubs I went too when I was a teenager.  We had warm and friendly service from the women at the bar and in the dining room.   There is a kids menu too.  A little girl was wandering around with a silver dish filled with a scoop of ice-cream and some chocolate topping.  There are vegetarian options also.  The night we went there was a pumpkin lasagne with pesto sauce ($11) and some vegetarian minestrone soup with garlic bread ($6).  The menu is quite large and such good value.   

As it was the night before Easter, the usual Friday night karaoke was being held on Thursday night.  After eating our meal, we moved into the bar to watch the football on the TV.  We also got to see the karaoke master "Macca" get the night going.  Glen Campbell, Elvis and Roy Orbison got a fair work-out.   Macca came over to us later later in the evening to encourage us to participate, maybe next-time and maybe after a few more beers!  Thanks also to Luke and Jack who successfully beat us at the pool table, a number of times!

The Victoria Hotel is a surprise packet.  A friendly local pub, with good food.  

The Victoria Hotel

43 Victoria Street

Footscray 

Ph 9687 7581

Coconut and palm sugar agar agar

I found some agar agar being sold in an Asian grocery store in Melbourne's CBD that was closing down.  It was quite cheap, not too much to lose if my cooking experiment failed! I've used agar only once before, in powder form; a chocolate flavoured powder.  It was okay, but didn't inspire me to try that again.  Seeing the packets of agar agar threads gave me cause to retry.  


I searched the Internet for some recipes using agar agar threads.  There are plenty using agar powder, but not so many using the threads.  I eventually found a recipe, and close to home too.  The recipe I used comes from "Poh's Kitchen" which was on ABC TV.  I used to watch her show, but cannot remember seeing this dish being made.  Coconut and palm sugar agar agar is a Malaysian dish and there are quite few versions of it on the Internet.  


It is a pretty easy recipe.  First you wash the agar agar threads, then squeeze as much moisture out as possible.  You boil water in a saucepan and then add the agar agar, stirring until it dissolves.  This seems to take some time.  When it is dissolved, you add the white sugar and dark palm sugar.  You stir to dissolve the sugars, then you add coconut cream.  This is when I discovered quite a few threads of undissolved agar agar! Maybe I've mucked this up!!  I was too far in to stop.  


I poured the liquid into a tray (26cm x 17cm, 3cm deep, which was a perfect size).  You then leave it to set at room temperature.  A very mysterious product.  Having grown up using gelatine and jelly and having it set in the fridge, this room temperature business is so interesting.  When it sets you put it into the fridge.  

Soaked agar agar

Palm sugar

The agar agar set despite bits of undissolved threads.  It actually looks interesting with the threads in the bottom and adds some nice chewiness.  I will have to work on timing the dissolving process next time!

A word on agar agar (for non-Asians) it doesn't have the melty softness of jelly.  Poh describes it as splitting when your teeth sink into, which is a pretty accurate description.  It takes some getting used to.  If you have never tried an agar agar dessert, then I would recommend this one...a dessert using coconut cream and palm sugar is a heavenly place to start.  The palm sugar gives the agar agar a lovely treacle/butterscotch taste.

Sonido, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy

Sonido is a South American breakfast and lunch place that opened in Gertrude Street Fitzroy last year.  I went once, closed on Mondays, I went again, they only take cash not cards.  Finally got there, actually I have been twice now.   It is a cosy homey place, with great South American music playing and easygoing gentle service.  The food, according to the menu is typical of Colombia and Venezuela.

Frijoles con feta - arepa $11.50 with salad $2.50

For my first visit, I tried the Frijoles con feta - arepa with some salad.  The arepa, a firmish disc of corn bread was unfilled, and topped with frijoles (black beans).  The beans were cooked in a little tomato and topped with some feta.   A small dish of guacamole and a dish of  picadillo (a fresh tomato salsa) came with the meal.  It was a light and tasty lunch, the beans weren't mushy.  I felt pretty healthy after my yummy food.

My next visit and I ordered the Arepas de queso,  bread filled with melty cheese, the ultimate in comfort food.  

Sonido serves up a mean Colombian hot chocolate.  It is served in small jug (ollectica) with a wooden stirrer (molinillo). 

Hot chocolate $4.50

Sonido also serves coffee, which I haven't tried yet, and soft drinks.  Most of the menu is gluten-free.  There are gluten-free sweet eats to have with coffee such as brownies, muffins and shortbread.  Other arepa-based dishes are on the menu as well as some empanadas, with either chorizo, beef or spinach and cheese.  There are sooo many things to go back and try!

Sonido!

69 Gertrude Street

Fitzroy 3065

www.sonido.com.au

Open Tues to Friday 8.30am to 4pm

Sat and Sun 9am to 4pm
Payment is cash only, no cards

Paschal lambs, marzipan fruit and dead man's bones

Lambs have been appearing in the window of T Cavarello and Sons in Hopkins Street in Footscray.  They are a prevalent at Easter time in Sicily.  I'm not sure if they are in other regions of Italy.

I first read about Paschal lambs in "Bitter Almonds" by Mary Taylor Simeti.  The first half of the book is the story of Maria Grammatico and her life in an orphanage, working in the convent kitchen, baking bread, biscuits and making the marzipan lambs and marzipan fruit. The food was sold to enable the convent to survive financially.   The second half of the book contains recipes for marzipan, biscotti and other Sicilian specialities.   I also found an interesting interview and article about Mary.

The only other place I have seen the Paschal lambs in Melbourne is at Smith Cakes Aquilana Pasticceria  in Smith Street in Collingwood.   

Aquilana is a very old school Sicilian bakery.  I have never really felt too tempted to enter.  But I have to say, I should have.  The business has been in existence for about 40 years, not quite so long as T Cavarello and Sons.  Mum, Dad and a daughter work in the business.  The daughter, in her twenties or thirties, was so very helpful.  She answered my questions very graciously.   I was just going to look, so I bought a hot chocolate and sat near the display so I could take some photos (and delicious chocolate it was too!).  

Marzipan chillies and corn

Marzipan fish and slice of marzipan watermelon

Marzipan peaches

Marzipan apple, pear and loquat

Inside the marzipan fruit

I bought some marzipan fruit, they are sold by weight and four pieces cost me $16.60.  They are beautiful hand-painted sweets.  Traditionally available for All Souls Day but now all year round and for special celebration days.  They were a bit sweet but not too much and the marzipan was reasonably soft.  I will be slicing of pieces of marzipan for a few more days!

Ossa dei morti (dead man's bones) biscotti

Ossa dei morti (dead man's bones) biscotti are new to me too.  I have never heard of them and they looked intriguing so I bought three of them ($3.00).  The girl I spoke to said they are firm and you dunk them in your coffee.  They are kind of firm and bread-like with a crisp white shell of icing over part of the biscotti (looked a lot like bones).  I made my coffee at home and started dunking.  Surprisingly tasty, so much so I managed to dunk all three! (not at once though)

I also sampled a lamb from T Cavarello.  The small lambs are made of marzipan and are slightly hollow. They are $10, $12 and $20.   The larger ones both  here and at Aquilano are filled with fruit and chocolate and covered with butter cream icing and they seem be around the $20-$30 for the smaller filled ones and can be quite expensive the bigger they are.

The lamb had a lovely almond taste and was not as sweet as the marzipan fruit.  I will be nibbling away at that too for the rest of the week!

Inside Smith Cakes Aquilana Pasticceria

The window at the front of Aquilana

T  Cavallaro and Sons

98 Hopkins Street

Footscray (opp Footscray Market)

Ph 9687 4638

Open 7 days a week, close 3pm Saturday and 12.30 Sunday

Smith Cakes Aquilana Pasticceria

297 Smith Street

Collingwood

Ph 9419 4351

Open 7 days a week, from 8am