Jack Rabbit Winery: Gourmet Chick on the Surf Coast

It's been an endless summer in Melbourne this year.  On one of those perfect blue sky days we celebrated my Mum's birthday at a winery on the Bellarine peninsula, Jack Rabbit.  Down the end of a dirt track Jack Rabbit clings to a grassy hill which rolls down to the ocean.  The vines stretch out behind and there's a modern tasting room, cafe and more formal restaurant.

Jack Rabbit Winery

48 hours in Bright: Gourmet Chick in the High Country

At the foot of Victoria's mountains and with a river winding its way through the town, Bright has been a holiday destination for years.  After visiting some of the region's wineries last year, attending the High Country World's Longest Lunch just outside Bright was a great excuse for Meat-and-Three-Veg and me to spend a bit more time in Bright itself.   Our accommodation and some meals were provided by Tourism North East and the rest of the meals we paid for ourselves.

The Rail Trail Cafe just outside of Bright

High Country World's Longest Lunch: Gourmet Chick in the High Country

Take five chefs, 150 diners, 500 plates and a whopping 1,300 wine glasses and you've got the High Country's World's Longest Lunch.  I'm a big fan of the region after exploring Beechworth and the King Valley last year so jumped at an invitation to to head to the North East of Victoria again for the regional weekend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.  The lunch was held at the spectacular setting of Boynton's Feathertop Winery just outside of Bright.  The winery has a long terrace that runs along one side, shaded with vine leaves and with sweeping views over the vines and to Mount Buffalo.  Meat-and-Three-Veg and I turned up and grabbed a glass of Dal Zotto prosecco to start before sitting down at the long table that ran under the vines.

Sitting down to lunch

Where to eat on Bruny Island: Gourmet Chick in Tasmania

Bruny Island is an island off the island of Tasmania off the big island of Australia.  It feels really remote and unspoilt even though it is only a 30 minute drive and a short ferry ride from Hobart.  Meat-and-Three-Veg and I made a day trip there and spent our time eating and drinking our way around the island along with a bit of a beach and bush walk (mainly to make some more stomach room).  Driving around we visited the Bruny Island Smoke House, Bruny Island Cheese, Hotel Bruny  and the Bruny Island Berry farm.  It sounds like a lot but we still missed out on the oyster farm Get Shucked, the fudge makers and a few other cafes.  Let's just say you could spend a few days quite happily on Bruny Island.

Beautiful Bruny Island

Hotel Urban and Hub Cafe

Sometimes there is nothing better than a staycation in your own city.  You get to get away from it all without driving for hours or having to brave the airport.  So I was pretty happy to invited to check out Hotel Urban in St Kilda for a night's stay.

Hub Cafe at Hotel Urban

Wye River General Store: Gourmet Chick on the Surf Coast

School holidays are over so it means it's the perfect time to head to the beach.  The roads will be a lot quieter, prices cheaper and even the weather is generally better at this time of year.  If you decide to take my advice and drive along the Great Ocean Road and keep on going past Lorne you come to the tiny little town of Wye River.

The Great Ocean Road from Lorne to Wye River

48 hours in Hobart: Gourmet Chick in Tasmania

What better place to spend the Australia Day long weekend than in Hobart?  I headed there with Meat-and-Three-Veg flying in for lunch on Saturday and then leaving after brunch on Monday.  I think you can already tell from that sentence that there was a lot of eating and drinking involved.  The city itself is pretty small which makes it easy to explore on foot and we enjoyed walking around and looking at the historic sandstone buildings.  The best view of Hobart though is from above - looking down from the top of Mount Wellington.

The view from the top of Mount Wellington over Hobart

New restaurant openings in Lorne (Gourmet Chick on the Surf Coast)

Just like Melburnians have a sworn allegiance to North or South of the river when summer holiday time swings around there is an annual migration either to the peninsula or the surf coast.  My heart lies firmly on the surf coast side and this year I made my yearly pilgrimage to Lorne for two weeks of eating, swimming, napping, reading books, drinking and then repeating the whole process.

The newest restaurants in the beach side town

Sunnybrae

You know the perfect summer day? The type of day where the sky is blue and it's sunny but it's not too hot? It was that sort of day when ten of us headed to Sunnybrae in Birregurra for lunch for my friend George's birthday.

Summer in Sydney

Admittedly we haven't actually hit Summer yet but I was up in Sydney for work last week and it was feeling pretty Summery.  I got to pull out my Summer clothes and even when it rained one day it was that warm tropical rain which makes it very clear you are in Sydney not Melbourne.  It was a bit of a flying visit but while there I managed to eat at one of Sydney's latest openings not once but twice and also to check out the noodle markets which are currently running in Sydney as part of the Crave Food Festival.

Night Noodle markets at Crave Food Festival

Where to eat in Sydney

I've been heading up to Sydney a bit recently as Mr MTV is working there at the moment.  While I'm a proud Melburnian I must admit it's been very nice to soak up a bit of Sydney sunshine (those extra three degrees or so make all the difference) as well as checking out some of the Sydney restaurants on my wish list.  Here's my favourites out of the places I tried:

Bronte Beach Sydney 

Gourmet Chick in the Pyrenees

“I’m off to the Pyrenees for the weekend” I told my friend Madds.  “You’re going to France for the weekend!” he said.  Like Madds many people don’t know that Victoria has its own Pyrenees region about two and a half hours north of Melbourne.  Like the French mountains that it is named for the Pyrenees in Victoria is the home of good food and wine so I jumped at an invitation from the local tourist board to check the area out.

Momofuku Seiobo (Gourmet Chick in Sydney)

Let’s just say that I momofuking loved Momofuku Seiobo.  Australia is lucky enough to have the only Momofuku restaurant outside New York (there’s four in Manhattan - Momofuku Noodle, Ssam bar, Ko, Milk Bar and Ma Peche).  I still haven't made it to the New York Momofukus but became an instant fan of chef David Chang’s genius when I got my hands on the Momofuku cook book last year.

Potato with watercress and bottarga at Momofuku Seiobo

Gourmet Chick in Sydney

I just had the most crazy 24 hours on the weekend.  I found out that Qantas had picked me as one of the ambassadors for its new social media brand Hooroo.  It was all a bit secretive as the brand was still under wraps on the weekend and doesn't actually launch until 18 July but I am now able to write about my 24 hours of living a little bit like a rockstar.  MTV and I flew to Sydney where we were followed around by a photographer and flitted around from restaurant to bar to boat to beach.  It was tough.

The sun sets over the Sydney Harbour bridge and Opera House

The King Valley (Gourmet Chick in the High Country)

When I headed up to Beechworth recently for the weekend recently I had to drive straight past the beautiful King Valley wine region so I decided it was certainly worth a detour.  What's even better was that the King Valley was celebrating its Weekend Fit For a King at the time.  This meant all the wineries in the area had something special on from a prosecco bar at Sam Miranda to roving musicians at Pizzini.

At the Weekend Fit for a King $15 buys a tasting glass which you can use at all the wineries

Beechworth (Gourmet Chick in the High Country)

It seems like around every corner in Beechworth there is a cafe, restaurant, gourmet food store, winery or even a brewery.  For the long weekend MTV and I headed to Beechworth to get out of the city, eat and drink too much and clock up some quality time in front of the open fire.  We were about a month too late to see the Autumn leaves at their best on Beechworth's trees but the leaves still made a virtual leaf carpet of red and yellow around the town's streets.

A carpet of leaves in Beechworth

Red Hill (Gourmet Chick on the Mornington Peninsula)

Easter is sadly over for another year and as I type this the rain is lashing down outside signaling an abrupt end to the lovely summery days we had over the break.  Easter is one of my favourite holidays as there is complete carte blanche for over indulgence on chocolates and hot cross buns.  The benefit of two public holidays also means I generally try to join the great Easter exodus and head away for the holiday.  Living in London that meant a flight to Lebanon or Morocco but now back in Melbourne I spent my first Easter at Red Hill the home of beautiful surf beaches, rolling green farmland, berry farms and wineries.  Here's my tips for where to eat and where to stay in this beautiful part of Victoria.

The view from Morning Sun Winery

The Prince

Mr MTV and I just celebrated our second wedding anniversary.  We marked our first wedding anniversary in Brazil but this year we were not quite so exotic and decided to stick closer to home in Melbourne.  While overseas jet setting was off our list we splashed out by staying a night at the same hotel we stayed at on our wedding night, The Prince.

Smoked salmon and avocado bruschetta.

Oakdene (Gourmet Chick on the Surf Coast)

Oakdene is not the sort of place you expect to find on the outskirts of Ocean Grove.  It's a winery and a restaurant alongside a fantastic sculpture collection.  It feels like it belongs on the Mornington Peninsula not on the Surf Coast.

The vineyards at Oakdene - they are also growing lavender alongside

Lorne (Gourmet Chick on the Surf Coast)

Happy Australia Day!  Like most of Australia I relocated to the beach for the Christmas to New Year period and my beach of choice is Lorne.  I swam in the surf, laid on the beach, plowed through my Christmas books and watched far too much cricket (thanks to MTV).  MTV and I cooked up lots of BBQs but we also reacquainted ourselves with favourite Lorne cafes and restaurants while discovering a few new places as well.

Surf life boats coming in at Lorne

Skip on over here for my tips for Broadsheet on what to eat, what to do and where to stay in Lorne.