Good evening friends and fam! This morning I woke up and realised that (other than going for walks and to the supermarket), I had not left my house since last Sunday so as the title suggests, I was feeling a bit of cabin fever. If you are interested in the psychology of cabin fever, I've included an article "here" that you can read. Before we get into today's blog post, I thought I'd give a bit of a recap of last night because I'm so proud of myself, I managed to do a really small easy workout which I was very happy because I haven't been able to in ages. But I did push myself a bit too far and did end up getting in bed even earlier than normal because of it, but it's progress and progress is progress, no matter how small and now matter how imperfect. Oh, and Luke got home super late (nothing wrong with that) but he woke me up and I was enjoying my nice relaxing sleep and it took me AGES to get back to sleep afterwards so I woke up kinda groggy and still a bit low this morning.
Melbourne weather today is humid AF and the rain started this afternoon so that's a bit depressing. It was good to see the rain the last few days but I got a bit over it after more than 1 day because Sundays are always the days that Luke and I seem to spend the most time outside. Anyway, as I was feeling a bit of cabin fever, we decided to head out for a drive and see where we end up! And we went to Plenty Gorge Park in Bundoora - although we still don't really know where the best areas are there to see heaps of wildlife, but we heard some froggos, saw some kangaroos, and some eastern rosellas so it was cool to see those. I didn't take my camera gear though because I thought it was going to rain and when we realised how many flies were around and that we didn't bring any anti-bug spray, we didn't stay too long. We got in a fair amount of steps there though. After our walk, we were starting to get hungry, so we ended up heading to Preston Market (and I'm a big market and food truck place fan because well I'm a foodie and they've always brought me so much joy). And we're all about doing things for joy rn. But I was so excited when we got in because there was a crepe place and I haven't been able to get a good crepe in Melbourne since I got here. Every place I've gone to has been way too busy or either sold out. Although today I was kinda disappointed. It wasn't bad but it just didn't have that same taste as the best ever crepe I've had back home in CHCH and that was at the Riccarton Market which is only open on Sundays but the crepes there have never disappointed me. And if you judge me for getting excited about a crepe from a food truck, then you need to try this for yourself. Also, they have fancy rolled ice cream there and who doesn't love a good ice cream? Random side note, there used to be amazing waffles at the arts centre markets pre-earthquakes that dad would always get me when I was little and they were so delish, I can think of the crunch of them in my mouth as I type this and now I feel a little like one of Pavlov's dogs because my mouth is watering at the thought of it. BUT I did see that they are at the Riccarton market so next time I'm in the land of CHCH, I am going there and I am making Luke eat all these yummy foods. I don't care if we get fat, they are yum.
So what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the best crepes. I was kinda disappointed at the crepe I had today, it was a little eggy and I don't think they used the best quality ham or cheese because I'm actually a savoury crepe kinda person (which you wouldn't think so because I love desserts and probably have ruined most of my teeth with my love for chocolate). Anyway, Luke got a really yummy caprese sandwich, and we also got some cannoli's and smoothies too. The cannolis were so yummy, we got a tirumasu one (so good), a chocolate one, and a limoncello one and then I was very excited because I followed the smoothie place on Instagram and they followed me back. It made me feel happy!
I also thought the piano was cool. Preston Market was nice to go to but it still hasn't beaten Prahran Market - that one is still my favourite. Luke made a joke saying that one was more Instagramable and I'd agree because it's prettier and less rustic and probably more "Western" because it's on the east side of Melbourne BUT they do have the best damn cheese toastie place and thank you to Josie for taking me there once when I was hangry. If you know me, I love a good cheese toastie and I think I'm a good critic when it comes to it. If you are ever near Prahran Market, PLEASE go to Maker and Monger and get a cheese toastie (I'm pretty sure they also do GF) and I know it's kinda expensive but I promise you IT WILL BE THE BEST DAMN CHEESE TOASTIE YOU'VE EVER HAD.
Another random side note, speaking of cheese toasties, another great place in Melbourne to get a damn good toastie is Hector's Deli, Richmond and I have a feeling that I've either written about this place in a previous blog post or that this blog post has just turned into my love of cheese toastie places in Melbourne. And it's not even my favourite food, but they are pretty high on my list, and they are Luke's favourite. And I really had a run for my money at Hector's Deli ;)
I also just really love markets in general so I thought I'd share a list of some of Melbourne's best markets they have on offer. They're great places to get fresh fruit and veges because they are so divine and I honestly wish I lived closer to a market. So here's some of what Melbourne has on offer (market-wise).
Queen Victoria Market (QVM), CBD - open Tuesdays to Sundays and every time I go there, I always buy socks for some reason. They also have great gozleme and weird pie flavours (don't try a mac and cheese pie, it just doesn't work).
South Melbourne Market (South Melbourne) - open Wednesday to Sunday and apparently has great pastries and desserts. I have yet to go but it's on my list of markets to try!
Footscray Market (Footscray) - open Tuesday to Saturday (learnt this the hard way and tried to go on a Sunday, LOL).
Prahran Market (Prahan) - open Tuesday to Sunday (great toasties and great things to try omg I love this one so much and am totally not bias because I used to live close-ish to it).
Preston Market (Preston) - open Wednesday to Sunday. Was very rustic but cute.
Fitzroy Market (Fitzroy) - open on weekends. I think it's less of a foodie one and more of a shopping market. It's also on my list to go to but it has lots of great reviews online. So if you've been here, let me know what it's like!
Also, this is a long-ass blog post today and I don't know how I've managed to write so much, but if you got this far, I wanted to let you know on a few cheese toastie secrets of mine. I usually make my cheese toasties with sourdough white bread but here's some tips to make them a little bit "extra" or "gourmet" that I've picked up along the way:
Rub anchovies on the outside of the bread so the flavour comes out more
Use butter on the outside of the bread before putting into the toastie maker OR try mayonnaise/some sort of olive oil
Salt the bread with SEA SALT
Use more than one type of cheese
Try making it in a fry pan like "grilled cheese" style
Experiment with different fillings - sometimes avocado works and other times it doesn't
Apparently swiss and cheddar cheese are a great combination
Using chutney or relish will make it feel EXTRA fancy
If you're doing a ham and cheese toastie, use mustard, ham, cheese, and pickles, it's so good
Grate parmesan inside your cheese toastie maker, then put the sammich on it so you get crunchy cheese on the outside (and flip and do the same on the second side). You get the gist!
Try using garlic butter instead of normal butter/marg
Also you can create sweet toasties too, grab some brioche, some chocolate, some marshmallows and let your imagination do the rest. Also works with nutella. Ohhh you could even use that biscoff spread too
Don't limit yourself - cheese toasties can be anything
Okie I've really been rambling for WAY too long today. I hope you liked this blog post today about random foodie things and markets and what not. I shall see you tomorrow! Oh, I've also been working on trying to film some more YT content and attempted to do a reaction video but it didn't quite work out well with editing so I'm not sure if I'm gonna post that one or not BUT we keep trying and I don't want my perfectionism to get in the way of posting, I want to create. So hopefully I'll try again or let me know if I should post it or what. Hehe.
Also for today's question, I want to know what's your foodie tip? Let me know in the comments below.
Okie I promise I'm really going now! Ka kite, Much love, Ash xx
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