Melbourne For Foodies

A Guide to the Culinary Capital of Australia

Jul 30, 2007 Hugh Taylor

Chocolate, cheeses, fine wines, coffee, meat and fish. Melbourne has them all in abundance. Foodies can use this guide to help them sample the best the city has to offer

Melbourne in Australia’s State of Victoria is a Victorian city in more ways than one. Founded in 1835 by a convict’s son, it remained a quiet backwater until the Goldrush of 1850 attracted thousands of immigrants. Melbourne grew rich provisioning them and this new wealth built the magnificent municipal buildings that still stand today. Melbourne’s other claim to fame is as the food capital of the southern hemisphere.

Market Food Tour

Check out both food and architecture at the legendary Queen Victoria Market. The food halls in this wonderful building have been in continuous operation since 1878 and it’s still bustling with sights, sounds and smells that assault the senses on every side. You really do get what you pay for here and exactly what you want.

There are budget stalls with cheap cuts of meat, stalls with only organic produce, specialist pork butchers alongside halal and kosher and even a stall which specialises in all kinds of offal from brains to tripe. Fish stalls offer live produce, preferred by Asians or gutted and prepared for Europeans.There is every variety of meat from kangaroo steaks to spicy crocodile sausages and fruit and vegetables piled high, colourful and glossy.

The dairy counters are particularly busy and easy to find by following the pungent smell of cheeses drifting through the throng of customers. The whiff of cheese mingled with the aroma of coffee, spices and chocolate and on the Market Food Tour visitors get to sample little bits of everything from bread and cheese to pesto and from chocolate to wine.

Chocoholics Tour

Chocolate tours of the city are the speciality of self confessed chocoholic Suzie Wharton. She starts her Chocoholics Tour of Melbourne from Laurent Patisserie where the house speciality, Chocolate Concord, is a seriously wicked chocolate mousse surrounded by meringue pillars that melt in the mouth. Suzie leads her visitors through the streets and arcades of Melbourne to view chocolatiers at work, discovering what makes exquisite chocolate and of course, tasting it.

The highlight is a visit to Haigh’s Chocolates one of Australia’s oldest manufacturers. Founded in 1915 it is still run by the same family. Anne Lewis has been the manager of their Block Arcade shop for seven years and loves her job and no wonder as she gets to eat the produce. ‘We’re expected to, particularly new products’ By eating them ourselves we are better able to describe them to customers.’

Where to Eat

One of the biggest problems in Melbourne is deciding where to eat. There is so much variety. There are excellent restaurants on the South Bank of the Yarra with splendid night time views over the river. In the newly rejuvenated docklands, Mecca Bah, a Moroccan place on the waterside is so busy that they won’t accept reservations. To eat there diners need to arrive early. By 7pm it will probably be too late. The food is terrific but it’s the glass wall that curves round the restaurant that creates the ambience. On one side is the Telstra Dome and the city skyline while the Block Bridge stretches away towards the horizon in the opposite direction.

For a very special occasion the Colonial Tram Restaurant combines fine dining with a tour of the city. The food is first class and the changing night time street views ensure that it is an evening to remember.

The copyright of the article Melbourne For Foodies in Aus/NZ/Oceania Travel is owned by Hugh Taylor. Permission to republish Melbourne For Foodies in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.