I LOVE MELBOURNE - Part 2

Part 2.

FOOD!

How did I prepare Jovann's food during the Melbourne trip? my grand plan was to prepare some b efore the trip, store into VIA cups, and bring them with us into Melbourne, where it will last him for 2, 3 days before I cook another batch. But this grand plan was dashed into a million pieces when some experienced mommies told me Aussie is extremely strict on food stuffs. NO way will I be allowed to bring in cooked food. For that matter, I can only bring in NEW sealed boxes of biscuits, cereals and unopened tins of FM. WHAT?!!??!!!

Well, but alls not lost. Melbourne is famous for their fabulous markets and fresh produce, so Jovann will not go hungry for lack of freshly cooked food! hehehe.

Once we reached the B&B, after 1hour plus drive (we kinda got stuck in CBD once we made a wrong turn), we were warmly greeted by our host Douglas, whom showed us around the big house, the kitchen, and gave us some directions on how to drive to the places we wish to visit. He shared with me where to buy groceries too, which is super convenient as we stay like 5 mins WALK away from Glen Huntly Road, a vibrant stretch of cafes, dainty shops, green grocers, butchers, book shops, restaurants, supermarkets, chemists, you name it. Tram stops and train station are all within easy walking distance. But what made me most excited is the prospect of shopping at a REAL green grocers and a BUTCHER! cool! I mean, you always read about such local shops in those storyboooks but I have yet to visit any. hahahaa.....

So, once we settle ourselves in,




Douglas kindly offered to drive us along Glen HUntly Rd, to show us which green grocer sells the freshest produce, which BUtcher is the best, which bakery bakes the best bread etc. I love staying with LOCALS! at the end of the tour, we asked him to drop us at Dorritos, the recommended Green Grocer, where I started shopping to my heart's content.

I bought a fat sweet potato, 3 fat potatoes (seems like everything there looks fat and juicy), 3 juicy looking pears, 3 apples, 2 ripe avocadoes, 6 Free Range eggs, half super sweet juicy honeydew, 1 broccoli (their broccoli tastes great, without the vege green green smell of us back home!), 1 zuchinni, 1 bunch of fat asparagus. everything feels cold to the touch though theres no aircon in the shop, coz the air temp is cool! so nice! natural aircon. keeps everything fresh. I also bought a big tub of yogurt, but later found something even better at Coles supermarket, esp for babies abv 6mths. it even contains Omega 3. How will we find something like this in Singapore???


Wow, my groceries came to a lot of $$$. but its worth it!

Next, the butcher. I was taking my time, savouring the feeling of standing in front of a cold storage of fresh meats, cuts, beef flanks, what nots. wow..... so fun! i Settled on the more expensive beef (recommended by the butcher of course, "best for babies" he said), and some pork. Don't think I see any fish there.




Yeah, now to cook!

Did I mention that Jovann is asleep all this while on Glen Huntly? He fell asleep in Douglas car, in my ergo. :) so we quickly took a walk back to our B&B, which we will call HOME for the next 6 days. Dropped the things in the fridge, and went back to the room. Hubby slept with Jovann. I pumped milk then quickly slept too. It was around 10am then.


2.5hours later, i woke up! time to cook his lunch! Father and son woke up shortly....i disappeared to the kitchen to cook. I cook beef stew (red potatoes) in bulk, with zuchinni, brocoli, bit of asparagus. around 4 feeds worth. at the same time, I cook beef porridge with zuchinni, brocoli and egg for his lunch. The beef stew is kept in VIA cups for his meals the next 3 days.


So what I usually do is, after his breakfast of cereal, fruits and yogurt, I will cook his lunch (porridge), and either feed him there or bring out in thermal food jar to feed later. Will also pack his dinner, either the VIA cup of beef stew, or once of twice we used baby jar food. My theory is that hot food cannot keep till dinner else it may turn bad. BUt cold food can, coz we keep it in Avent Bag with dry ice packs we brought from home.

Day 3, me hard at work cooking while HUbby and Son took a morning nap.




But of course, I took a much earned cosy time with my book later, in the drawing room, while father and son STILL napped.


My things are scattered all over their kitchen work top table. Love their kitchen, so spacious, neat and tidy. UNTIL we came. I peppered it with Jovann's feeding bowls, spoons, FM tin, cereal box, Ulike Blender, pack of RICE grains, VIA cups, ziplog bags. Douglas and Chris, thank you for never once complaining.



So, when we went Queen Victoria Market on Day 4, we ate Macdonalds (that was the only warm looking place along the stretch that day hahahaa), while Jovann ate his porridge. :)


As for jar food, well, a word of advice is to try out what jar food your baby likes before your trip. Jovann has never tasted jar food, and I have no time to test it out on him before the trip, so we just grabbed some Heinz from cold storage, and hubby went down to Outram to buy some Healthy Times Little Bear Stew, Healthy Times Jasmine Chicken Luau, some vege stew and fruit medleys. When we tried Healthy Times on him on Day 2, surprisingly he likes it! But on another day, he refused the Heinz one we offered him. This boy is into organic man.....

And on Day 5, I cook another batch (the first batch can last 3 days after which I don't feel comfy feeding) of pork and beef stew with zuchinni, apples, xiao bai cai, red potatoes and a bit of broccoli this time. To vary the taste in every VIA cup, I place beef into some and pork into another. Apples into some and no apples in another. in this way, Jovann get to have different taste of food every cup/meal.


Jovann behaves rather okie during mealtimes for first few days. Then he started making a lot of noise and actions when eating. But he still open his mouth for the food, but just have a lot of actions, movements, hand waving, talking and complaining. sometimes even shouting. Funny boy lah....so, sometimes have to give him something to distract him during meal times.....

Think he miss Gong Gong and Ma Ma......
This video taken (Day 3) when we had our lunch at this Vietnamese Restaurant called New Wind Viet and Thai Cuisine at Chapel Street, a street known for their branded labels and nice cafes.
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