B R O T H E R B A B A B U D A N

Might as well get used to this. The coffee here is just that good. Another stellar coffee house that we found during our first week was a little store just off of Little Bourke Street. In fact, it was so unassuming that there were no signs indicating what the store was. All you could see was a tiny little space with a small table for sharing and wooden chairs hung to the ceiling as some sort of decorative artifact. What did I think when I saw this? I HAVE to try the coffee :) The coffee here rivals Patricia's and some of the best that I have had in Melbourne. Definitely worth the visit if you get the chance!

P A T R I C I A S

A few weeks ago, we moved to Melbourne. Whenever you make a move from your home town, where your friends and family are, there is always mixed feelings. You miss the comforts of home. For us, Vancouver had everything, including great food and good coffee (if you know where to look). So what do we do to make ourselves at home? We seek out good coffee. After all, we had heard from every one who had been there that the coffee was pretty darn good there. Let's just say, having tried the coffee here, it is one less reason to be home sick. We went to Patricia's on our first week here and could immediately tell that I wouldn't be missing the coffee back in Vancouver. This place was a little hard to find (like everything in Melbourne, the good places are hidden in some laneway or alley) but we were glad that we did. I would confidently say that this place serves up better coffee than anything we have. The only dangerous thing is that it is only a 3 minute walk from work... p a t r i c i a ' s

P A C I F I C C O A S T H I G H W A Y

It's been a while since the last post. We made a move from Vancouver to Melbourne and now we're 4 weeks in (almost). Anyway, before we get into that, I wanted to finish the posts on our recent trip to the California coast in July. From San Francisco to Napa Valley and now driving down south along the Pacific Coast Highway towards LA. We had heard so much about the PCH from friends and those who have driven down that path. It got us thinking about the views, the crashing waves, the cliffs, the winding roads... That was more than enough to get us going along that route. m o n t e r e y From Napa Valley, we drove 3 hours or so down to Monterey. We heard a lot about this little beach side town. It had that west coast feel as we drove in. Sure enough, you could see the coast to our right as we arrived - good sign. We stayed at the Portola Hotel and Spa while we were there and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Two nights of comfortable rest in a hotel that was right by the water? Not going to complain too much. While we were there we visited the Monterey Aquarium as well. I'll admit, we are kids at heart and we love animals of most kinds so we had a blast here. The jelly fish exhibit was particularly entertaining... for one of us more than the other ;) We had the chance to go to the little town of Carmel while we were there too. This town was only about a 10-15 minute drive from Monterey but when we got there, we noticed that the landscape was completely different. Much of the Carmel we drove through was slanted downhill with small but purposeful houses perched on the slope. Amidst the ample amount of trees, we found small boutique stores and loads of restaurants. To be honest, if we stay along the coast again, Carmel would be a place we would consider as it just had that quiet but charming feel to it. The restaurants we visited were great and the people were very welcoming and helpful. Not sure how to describe it but visit if you get the chance! t h e d r i v e After spending a few days in Monterey, we drove south over 3 hours to get to Pismo Beach. But before that, we made stop after stop after stop to admire the views to our right. All along the Big Sur, we saw view after view of cliffs and ocean below. From Point Lobos State Park to the Bixby Bridge to Pfeiffer Beach... I'll let the pictures do the talking here. p i s m o b e a c h Our last stop before heading down to LAX, we stayed in Pismo Beach for one night. A beach front town, this place had a spectacular pier that stretched out into the ocean. Heaps of surfers were on the beach taking in the waves. After checking into our hotel (The Cliffs at Pismo Beach), we ventured out for a bite to eat and even found a great bbq spot by the water (better than anything we had had in Vancouver anyway). Then it was to the beach for shots during sunset where we ran around frantically trying to find the best perspective. There is something about long piers and the water that make a setting so picturesque :)

Content

Blog's are hard to browse through so we thought we'd help you. As content gets a little heavier here, this should help! T R A V E L / amalfi coast, italy / barcelona, spain / cinque terre, italy / florence, italy / napa valley, california / new york / san francisco / tuscany, italy / wandering {vancouver} / whitehorse, yukon R E S T A U R A N T S / plow {san francisco} / sushi yasuda {new york} / sushi sams {san francisco} / shiro's sushi {seattle} G R U B ' n ' D R I N K S / sushi yasuda {new york} / shiro's sushi {seattle} / sushi sams {san francisco} / plow {san francisco} / coffee bar {vancouver} / last week in vancouver {vancouver} / matchstick coffee {vancouver} R A N D O M / x 1 0 0 s

A B O U T / about us C O N T A C T / contact us G O O D R E A D S / lingered upon / beautifully, suddenly / jonathan fleming photography / iamfoodblog

N A P A V A L L E Y

As part of our California vacation, we knew that we had to visit the wine country. We are by no means wine conniosseurs, but we would not say no to a good bottle of full bodied red wine of the shiraz, syrah, cabernet, or zinfandel variety. Wine is just one of those things that is very subjective. Anyone professing to be an expert in all varietals would be lying but it doesn't stop people from exploring and trying different types. That's the best part about wine is that just when you think you know what you like, you'll come across a bottle that will just open your eyes (and your taste buds) to a whole new sensation. Needless to say, I will have a wine cellar in my house in the future! Napa Valley is also a beautiful place. As we drove through the country side, we encountered winery after winery. The summer meant that there had been very little rain, resulting in a landscape that was quite dry. Aside from the trees which provided the much needed green, you could tell that the grass had its better days. The drive was only a little over 2 hours from San Francisco as we stayed in the town of Calistoga, a short drive up north from St. Helena. Our accommodations could not have been better. Our choice was the Pink Mansion (literally pink on the outside). Don't let the color confuse you however, this bed and breakfast boast plenty of character and delivered some fantastic breakfasts. The interior was beautiful and classically done. All in all, it was a great stay and we would recommend this place to anyone. We were very glad that we chose to stay here instead of in the town of Napa to be honest with you! W I N E R I E S Anyway, back to the red stuff. There are just so many to consider when you go into the Napa Valley / Sonoma Valley region. If you are like us, you will have some trouble figuring out which ones to go to in the amount of time that you had. I can't help you with that decision since everyone's taste for wine differs but here are some of the ones that we visited: / Alpha Omega: Probably the location of our favorite red. This is not a brand that I had heard of before coming here but based on a recommendation from our host, we decided to give it a go. At first I thought the recommendation was a bit biased because she said she had a friend work here but boy are we glad we took that recommendation. Great service by the staff as they comped our wine tasting but we ended up buying a $88 bottle anyway (I don't usually buy anything over $50 so that should say something). They do not distribute the vast majority of their wines so you have to go to the winery to get a tasting. Simply put - come here! / Duck Horn: A beautiful location, this winery would be easy to miss if you didn't know where the turnoff was. The house was very... how would you say... homey? It has a bit of a large beach cottage feel to it with a fantastic patio. Even in the 30 degree heat, you could sit comfortably in the patio with the shade and the breeze blowing through. The red's are very bold, forward and aggressive. Very old world in its preparation, the merlots and cabernet's were really quite good. Each bottle here is at least $75 and up though so be prepared to fork up a bit if you like the wine. / Paraduxx: The sister winery to Duck Horn, we decided to give this a try as they specialized in red blends. We really enjoyed our tasting here, not only because of the service but because of the wine itself too. Served with some great cows milk cheese and some salty crackers, we sat down and enjoyed their cabernet, merlot and zinfandel blends. Smooth and complex, their wines were fantastic. We ended up buying a couple of bottles from here. / Sterling: Not much to say about this one. Come here for the view, not the wine. / V Sattui: We didn't get a chance to try the wine as we were rushing to get to our Duck Horn reservation but we did enjoy our BBQ picnic on the grounds! Overall we had a great time visiting the wineries here. Still though, there were so many that we did not have time to see. Oh well, that's our reason for coming again! F O O D What would be a trip to Napa without a visit to Bouchon Bakery? Located in the town of Yountville, this place had quite the line up outside. The macarons were enormous and quite good. Is it as good as those in Paris? Probably not but in North America, I would say that these are right up there at the top. That same day we also had a chance to eat at Ad Hoc. The menu is small and changes frequently. This is not one of those fancy schmancy restaurants where you have to worry about impressions. For all the talk and hype, this place has a very casual atmosphere and the food is low key but huge on flavor. O V E R A L L We had such a great time in wine country. We spent about 4 days here which was ample time. We just needed some time away from the city and Napa provided some quiet time for the both of us.