NGV Permanent Collection, Part 1

Last time I was in Melbourne I didn't have the time, or the energy, after seeing the Napoleon exhibition to wander through the permanent collection in the National Gallery of Victoria.

With no 'must see' exhibitions on at the time, I ended up spending a full day wandering around in a bit of a daze as I was faced with room after room of beautiful works from the Renaissance to colonial Australia (The NGV does also have an amazing contemporary collection, with a giant Mark Rothko and an Andy Warhol self portrait, but I was once again beckoned by the beauty of Caillebotte's, Canaletto's and Carracci's.)

Above is an amazing salon hang in one of the NGV's permanent collection rooms

Rocky Road Reindeer Poo

This year, Santa's reindeers had clearly eaten too many carrots along their way delivering presents and ended up leaving quite a big pile of reindeer poo in our house. But who am I to complain? I mean, it was rocky road reindeer poo!
 

Christmas Pudding Truffles

I absolutely love Christmas time, all the shopping, cooking and decorating makes it my favourite time of year. This year I was having cravings for the richness of dried fruit, festive spices and of course, chocolate, so I decided to combine all of these in an undeniably cute little package!

 

Saigon Saigon, Glebe

My love affair with rice paper rolls started a little while ago, but I have only recently tried other Vietnamese dishes, and now I think it may be my new favourite Asian cusine (sorry Thai food!).

 

Stickwork, Melbourne

We were drawn over to Federation Square by the sounds of the Polish Festival and as we were wandering around we came across this beautiful installation work, called Ballroom, by American artist Patrick Dougherty.

 

Touche Hombre, Melbourne

On our second night in Melbourne, after realising we could walk everywhere (Melbourne is much flatter than Sydney), we decided to walk from our hotel to Spiga Bar near Melbourne Central, but half way there we came across Touche Hombre and, needless to say, didn't go any further.

I have an obsession with Mexican food. It is undeniably my favourite cuisine, and Touche Hombre's food is like food from the Mexican gods!