99th Monkey Almond Butters

A great way to embrace healthier eating is to go as clean as you can when it comes to food. It'll come as no surprise that I wasn't one of the admirably virtuous Melbournians who became fitter and healthier during lockdown.


I took it as a sign of the need to clean up my diet when 99th Monkey reached out for us to try their almond butters. Indeed, just have a look at the ingredients label - it is sooo pure! Made in a Melbourne suburb (Oakleigh), 99th Monkey's nut butters are vegan friendly, gluten and GMO free, has no palm oil, and is carbon neutral.   

Mumuyo, Melbourne by Bureaucrat

Yoghurt gets a make-over at Mumuyo. Mumuyo is the latest delicious health drink.  Mumuyo is a yoghurt-based drink that is completely natural, packed with probiotics and with no additives.

There's quite list of flavours to choose from, including the Ancient Grains, Fresh Fruit and organic Botanicals range.   

American Hotel, Echuca by Foghorn Leghorn

I love smoked meat. On a recent trip to Echuca, Mrs Shiraz and I discovered a pub with so much smoked meat on the menu that we had to eat there twice.


Smoked duck

It’s the American Hotel. Echuca in general has lots of good food, but only the American Hotel has enthusiasts who spend the first half of the day loading up the smoker. You walk in at lunchtime, smell the smoky fragrance, and say “I’d like to order whatever they’re smoking”. The waitress says “Sorry, we don’t serve the smoked stuff at lunchtime, it’s only at dinner.” So what do you do? You come back for dinner, of course.

Gaylord, Docklands by Big Fil

I had been a while, several years in fact, since I accepted an invitation to try out a new restaurant. However, I was intrigued by the name Gaylord and whether it had any relationship to the now closed Indian restaurant in the old disco in Chinatown (complete with mirror walls), now a Chinese hot pot place. So on a coolish Saturday night Snooze and I were off to see what this new addition to the Melbourne dining scene had to offer.

Beetroot tikka

Located in the Grand Hotel, one of my favourite buildings in Melbourne, Gaylord is a different creature to your normal suburban Indian joint. For a restaurant aiming at a fine dining experience the style is much more semi-casual upmarket hotel club bar than formal dining establishment.

The Lake Restaurant Cafe, Patterson Lakes by Bureaucrat

After a morning of enjoying the very good beach-side playground at Carrum found us in the need for lunch.  Unfortunately, the construction of the nearby train overpass meant that all the local shops were closed, except for a tuckshop that does a busy trade serving pies, soft drinks and the like, to the construction workers.

So back in the car we went to retrace our steps.  I had noticed a suburban shopping precinct on the way to the beach - this turned out to be the Lakeview shopping centre.  We picked the Lake Restaurant Cafe as it seemed to be the most popular eateries and it offered table service.

There's a typical suburban cafe menu on offer with a Japanese twist.  For the three of us, we ordered two dishes to share.  One of the dishes was a karaage chicken served with salad.  The chicken was reasonably okay - nice big chunks of chicken thighs with soy-ginger overtones.  

Rocca's Woodfired Pizzeria and Pasta Bar, Blackburn by Bureaucrat

I love a good pizza and I'm so happy to have stumbled across Rocca's Woodfired Pizzeria and Pasta Bar.  This place left us in a gorgeous carb coma.  So often, I discard the crust from my pizzas because, well, frankly, they taste like cardboard.  But the pizza here at Rocca's is delicious!  Crisp and doughy at the same time - I would willingly eat this on its own... if only all bread tasted like this!


I don't know who Mari e Monte are, but the Lawyer and I love them both!  This prawn pizza was superb!  Gorgeous succulent and meaty fresh prawns laid on top of this cheesy, garlicky and mushroomy base.  I am definitely going back to see Mari e Monte again!