Lunch at The Glenlyon General Store ....

On the drive around the Central Highlands area just NE of Daylesford, we were so engrossed in looking at all the scenery we nearly forgot it was time for lunch!

A friend and myself had gone out for a "Monday Meander" and the scenery was just beautiful, it helped that we had good weather and the new spring grass was in abundance in the paddocks, so everything looked fresh and welcoming.
But it was soon time for lunch so we headed off towards the popular Glenlyon General Store, which is situated on the Daylesford-Malmsbury Road (C316). 
 

Glenlyon is just 11 klms NE of Daylesford or about 15 mins drive time. But if traveling along the Calder Hwy (M79) then Glenlyon is 22 klms SW of Kyneton or about 25 mins drive time.

Being a Monday there were not a lot of people there when we first arrived, but it didn't take long before the customers started coming in!

It was a cosy environment for lunch with a fire burning in the fire grate, a fairly good range of foods on the menu and the coffee that came immediately was hot!

My friend ordered the Corn and Ricotta Fritters with mushrooms & spinach, though the plate came minus the spinach! I had the Vegetable Burger - which was a large corn and ricotta  fritter - on Turkish bread.  I would have liked to have seen a small dish of relish or chutney on the side, but instead it had pesto pasted on the 'toasted' bread. But it was nice nevertheless.

Overall it is a small country 'general store' that is very popular with people on weekend drives from the city. It serves light meals / coffee etc and sells a few unusual items that would make ideal Christmas or birthday gifts!

I would certainly make a return visit for perhaps a Friday night meal and music or just calling in for coffee to see what goodies they may have on the shelves.

Glenlyon General Store has a Facebook Page, so click LIKE to keep up to date on all events too:

FACEBOOK - GLENLYON

The Glenlyon General Store has a website, check it out here:

GLENLYON GENERAL STORE

Mostly excellent reports on tripadvisor:

TRIPADVISOR - GLENLYON

There are good reports coming thru on urbanspoon too, check here:

URBAN SPOON - GLENLYON


Blog post HERE on the drive from Daylesford to Glenlyon.


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please note the above blog post was not for any social media event, this was my own personal choice to have a meal here!!

But we are available for Social Media work at anytime. Be it bakeries, restaurants, festivals, wineries, galleries, cafes, coffee shops, markets or anything that needs to have some focus and would be of interest to others!!

                                                            Leone & John Fabre
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tea and scones at the Wisteria Cafe in Echuca!

A Devonshire tea (also known as a Cream tea, Devon cream tea or Cornish cream tea) is tea taken with a combination of scones, clotted cream and jam.

The name "Devonshire tea" comes from the county of Devon in England, where it is a local speciality. The exact origin of "cream tea" is disputed, although there is evidence to suggest that the tradition of eating bread with cream and jam already existed at Tavistock Abbey in Devon in the 11th century.

 

When Devonshire Tea is served, it is usually served with the 'proper teapot', the nice plates, cups and saucers.  Atmosphere plays a major part in the serving of Devonshire Tea too ...  even pleasant music that fills the air in ways that smells and sights cannot.

So it was with these expectations that we headed off to the Wisteria Cafe in Echuca to partake in their "Devonshire Tea".  Even the name of the cafe conjures up these expectations, wouldn't you think so?

We arrived at 3.20pm and sat down to order the tea, which arrived soon after by a very pleasant waitress.

BUT ......

The tea was served in stainless steel pots, heavy duty plain white cups, a stainless steel jug of milk, small basket with paper napkins that contained four scones that had obviously been warmed in the microwave!

The jam was no better than supermarket 'home brand' jam served in a small dish alongside the dish of cream.

BUT WAIT .... there is more ....

as soon as we were served (at 3.30pm) the staff started locking up around us. We were quite surprised as we hadn't even poured our tea at this point!

We asked if they were closing and was told they close at 3.30pm!

We felt we had to gulp down our "tea and scones" and depart as soon as possible.  To be fair, they did not ask us to hurry, but we felt we had to as we were the only ones there at that time. Politeness would surely dictate that we should have been told this at the time of ordering our "tea and scones", we then could have made the decision to return the following day and have our "tea and scones" at a more leisurely pace!

We then asked do they stay open later at weekends, to which we were told "oh we stretch it to 4.00pm on some days"!!

This being a 'tourist town' I would have thought even at the weekends they could stay open a little later.

So our expected Devonshire Tea at The Wisteria Cafe did not eventuate, we simply had a very quick serving of "tea and scones" in an outside garden. If the cafe had advertised the afternoon tea as simply 'tea and scones' or just an 'afternoon tea', it would have been quite pleasant in itself and perhaps the disappointment wouldn't have been so great. I think I expected a Devonshire Tea in the historic town of Echuca to be served with a little more finesse.

 
Cannot locate a website for The Wisteria Cafe, but there are reviews in Trip Advisor and UrbanSpoon.




*please note*

the above blog post was not for a social media event, this particular post is for the enjoyment and interest of our loyal followers !!

We, however, are available for Social Media work at anytime. Be it bakeries, restaurants, festivals, wineries, galleries, cafes, coffee shops, markets or anything that needs to have some focus and would be of interest to others!!

email:

Leone and John Fabre

 

dropping in on Tea Leaves .....

♫ ♬ ♪ ♩ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♩ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♩ ♪ ♬

I'm a little teapot
Short and stout
Here is my handle
Here is my spout
When I get all steamed up
Hear me shout:
Tip me over
and pour me out!


♫ ♬ ♪ ♩ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♩ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♩ ♪ ♬

am sure we all enjoy a cup of tea at some time during the day, and it always tastes so much better when poured from a teapot!

and from Wikipedia :
A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water. Tea may be either in a tea bag or loose, in which case a tea strainer will be needed, either to hold the leaves as they steep or to catch the leaves inside the teapot when the tea is poured.

Teapots usually have an opening with a lid at their top, where the tea and water are added, a handle for holding by hand and a spout through which the tea is served. Some teapots have a strainer built-in on the inner edge of spout.

A small hole in the lid is necessary for air access inside to stop the spout from dripping and splashing when tea is poured. In modern times, a tea cosy may be used to enhance the steeping or to prevent the contents of the teapot from cooling too rapidly.

Last week we popped into a little store called TEA LEAVES which is situated on the Mt Dandenong Tourist Road in Sassafras, just an hour east of the City of Melbourne.

The winner of 9 tourism awards, Tea Leaves in Sassafras is ultimate way to experience the wonderful world of tastes and aromas that are possible. They have over 300 varieties of teas and 30 varieties of coffee, not to mention the cups, mugs, teapots etc. 

Think gift voucher, think Christmas, think birthday, or gifts for anyone at anytime of the year .....

hey, even think of one for yourself!

The manager of the store kindly allowed me to take a few images, but as the store was rather busy I didn't like to spend too long there, so here are just a few quick ones to give you a glimpse of what is in store for you when you visit.

There is a lot of very valuable information on their website,  and do take the opportunity to visit the Tea Leaf Shop as soon as you can .... you will not be disappointed!

Tea Leaves have free freight 

for all online orders over $75.
Free freight is not available for phone orders.

(Australian customers only)

Available for a limited time only.
.

Tea Leaves Aust Pty Ltd
380 Mt Dandenong Tourist Road,
Sassafras Victoria Australia 3787
.
Email info@tealeaves.com.au
Telephone +61 3 9755 2222
Fax +61 3 9755 2222
Twitter: twitter.com/tealeavesAUST

website: Tea Leaves

*please note*

the above blog post was not for any social media event, this particular post is for the enjoyment and interest of our loyal followers !!

We, however, are available for Social Media work at anytime. Be it bakeries, restaurants, festivals, wineries, galleries, cafes, coffee shops, markets or anything that needs to have some focus and would be of interest to others!!

email:

Leone and John Fabre

♫ ♬ ♪ ♩ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♩ ♪ ♬ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♩ ♪ ♬

❀

Biscuiteer Extraordinaire!

There were many stall holders selling fresh vegetables, wine, plants, foods and other various 'local produce' when we visited the Ballan Farmers Market last weekend.

One stood out amongst the rest and we were delighted to meet the man behind the name of  "Biscuiteer Extraordinaire", otherwise known as Andrew Ensor!

Andrew has a passion for baking and his specialty is the Crunchy Ginger Biscuits that has a nice touch of "ginger zing" to them. He also bakes other yummy biscuits and well worth purchasing them for your next morning tea or perhaps a packet or two to take with you when visiting friends. But thinking about that, why not be just plain selfish and keep these tasty morsels for yourself?

Or, have you ever made a "Ginger Ripple Cake" or even a "Ginger Rubble Cake"?  Both can be made using these Crunchy Ginger Biscuits. The link to the recipes are above.

we couldn't resist trying a few of the Ginger Biscuits and we can say for sure that we do highly recommend them.

If you are not able to attend the Ballan farmers Market, Andrews products are also available in Ballarat at:

• THE BEAN BARN
• THE POTTED PEAR
• COFFEE BY DESIGN 

and in Clunes at 

• JANE@CAFE33

or send an email to Andrew HERE

my apologies for the poor quality of the images, next time I will take my 'real' camera and hopefully give these biscuits a better 'focus'.

please note the above blog post was not for any social media event, it was our personal choice to "taste test" Andrew's Ginger Biscuits!


also note we are available for any Social Media work. Be it Galleries, bakeries, cafe's, restaurants, wineries, Festivals, coffee shops, or anything that needs to have some focus and would be of interest to others!!

email:

Leone and John Fabre

Check out our other blog about
LIVING IN SINGAPORE.

The Modern Day Bakery of Ballan

Modern Day Bakery Ballan

46a Inglis St, Ballan Victoria 3342, Australia

(03) 5368 1912

Over the past few months we have tried to locate information on Ballan without much success ..... trying to find out what stores are available and times of opening is just about impossible.   No one seems to have any websites or even a facebook page.

Though we did manage to locate the name of the local bakery!

The Modern Day Bakery of Ballan,
no website, no email address, no facebook page.

Yet this little village of Ballan has much to offer the traveller. Not everyone wishes to drive straight through on the M8 to Melbourne or Ballarat or wherever they happen to be going, many people like to take the exits off these freeways to explore the small villages and maybe stop for lunch or a coffee! So when we visited Melbourne recently, we did a day trip out to Ballan as its just 78 kilometres (48 mi) north west of Melbourne. 

Ballan has a quaint little bakery with Tea Rooms "out the back" and table and chairs on the pathway out front. The staff are very friendly and have many fine cakes, slices, pies etc on the menu as seen in the following images. Unfortunately these images were taken through the glass cabinets and so 'not at their best'.

But am sure you will get the idea of what is available:

Four of us managed to have hot chocolate, pies, chocolate eclairs and a vanilla slice! Though the bakery and the Tea Rooms are very basic, the food we had was quite delicious and it is well worth stopping by to sample anything they have on the menu.

We did hear from a couple of the locals that they thought the bakery was a little 'expensive' so rarely go there ... we can't compare prices as we are way out of touch with the Australian dollar value .... but as this bakery has no major competition in town, they could very well be a 'little more expensive' than some may expect to pay. But if you believe in quality, then you get what you pay for and we felt we had good quality food at this bakery.

We hope to blog about this bakery again at a later date, so stay tuned.

please note we will be available for any Social Media work after March 2012. Be it bakeries, restaurants, wineries, cafes, coffee shops, or anything that needs to have some focus and would be of interest to others!!

email:
Leone and John Fabre