G'Day Mate

After some time in one of the more outdoorsy parts of Australia, we headed south to Melbourne, one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Australia.  We landed in Melbourne and were greeted by our friend Idan Grossman when we landed. “G’day mate and welcome.”  Idan picked us up at the airport and took us to his home for dinner with his family. 

The Grossman’s are a beautiful family with a lovely home.  Idan and Debi have two wonderful little girls, Mia who is a month younger than Siena and Natalie who was just 6 weeks old.  Lisa and I had told Siena about meeting Mia and when we arrived, she immediately went up to Mia and gave her a hug.  The girls played together while the bigger kids enjoyed a wonderful bottle of wine and dinner.  After a bath with Siena, Mia headed to bed and we headed to our hotel, the Blackman in St. Kilda.  The Blackman is one of the Art Series hotels in Melbourne. The hotels all feature the art of a famous Australian artist and have a very cool vibe.  

Making New Friends

After a full day of travel we were all excited to get a good night’s rest.  The next morning Idan picked us up and took us on a tour of the area. We headed well outside of town to the Mornington Pennisula. Mornington is an area where the locals go for holiday and to get away on the weekends. It was a charming little town and we visited a great park and playground. Siena was ready to run and play and she was excited to climb and slide.  One thing we are learning about our little girl is that she isn’t shy. She is also pretty tall and she isn’t afraid to play with older children.  She immediately latched on with two sisters who were playing together. Two quickly became three as they adopted Siena as a new little sister. Siena has never really liked to ride a swing, but after watching Georgie and her sister ride the swing she had to try it. She was a little nervous, but for the first time ever rode on a swing for awhile.  

Taking in the Penisula

Trying a Swing

From the coast we head a little inland to the T’Gallant Winery for lunch. We shared a great bottle of Pinot Noir and a scrumptious lunch. Siena made friends with the Winery cat, Odysseus.We headed back toward Melbourne with our tour guide Idan pointing out the sights and trying to explain to us why we needed to watch and understand “footie”.

Once back at the hotel, we began preparing for a very special night out. Idan and Debi had arranged for a baby sitter for Siena and had made reservations for us at Vue De Monde for dinner. Vue De Monde is widely considered the top restaurant in all of Australia. It is located on the top floor of a downtown office building and has amazing views of the city and the Yarra River. We settled into our kangaroo covered chairs and started on an amazing and interesting culinary journey. We partook in an 8 course degustation menu that provided us with many delightful courses that were concocted by head chef (and mad scientist) Shannon Bennett. Lisa had dined at Vue De Monde when she was to Australia a few years back and when I asked her if there was any place she absolutely wanted to eat while we were in Australia, she named this restaurant. Idan and Debi made the special evening happen, a gift we owe them a great deal of thanks for. At the restaurant we got to know Idan and Debi more, they are a wonderful couple. We also learned that Debi’s dad was a top restaurant reviewer in Australia, so we knew that if Debi gave the restaurant a thumbs up at the end of the night it must be a special place. The meal started with Oysters and smoked eel, everything was very tasty and presented beautifully. The first course truly set the stage for the wide array of creative foods we would see throughout the meal. We ate eggs that had been cooked for 30 minutes at a certain temperature to get just the right consistency, had pop rocks added to a palate cleanser to add an exciting consistency and experience. We got to mash some herbs that were frozen with liquid nitrogen right at the table before we blended them into another palette cleanser. Wagyu beef, avocado paste with crab, etc. It just kept coming. As the dinner was progressing, I watched them running an amazing cart of cheeses around the restaurant as a course in the ten course dinner. I know how Lisa loves to enjoy different cheeses and so I added a course to our meal. The cheese course should have been 3 or 4 different cheeses from a series of different types of cheese, but since it was nearing the end of their night they gave us one of everything which equated to 15 different cheeses to try (3 different types of bleu and so on). Truly over the top. We complemented our meal with some great wine chosen by our very own sommelier, Idan Grosman. One wine that was very special was a wine from Galilee, Israel. I don’t think I have ever seen a wine from Israel on a wine list, but the wine was very good and very special. Top off the night with a chocolate souffle done a different way with a home-made ice cream and suddenly it was 1:00 am.

We had some very special sitters to allow us such a great night. Thank you Carol and Debi's Mom!!!!!  We also had some very special little girls who allowed their parents a great night out.