The Perth Experience - Part 1

Hi, I’m back! Been back for more than a week actually… still trying to recover from the bliss of a vacation and trying to get back into working reality here, hehe!

I’ll just blog about the FOOD aspect of Perth here. All other non-food related things will be posted in my other blog - Raynebows, so that there’ll be no double-blogging. So, if you wanna know about the places we went, where we stayed, the AirAsia experience etc, do drop by the other blog :-)

OK…about the food… ahhh… what can I say about food in Perth? Put simply, let’s just say that Perth is really not a food destination, haha! Unlike Asians, I don’t think the Aussies are very creative in their food - mostly fried or grilled stuff with LOTS of potato chips! OMG - the way they eat chips there, it’s unbelievable! I could not even finish half of the portions served as a side-dish whereas those Aussies there actually ordered chips as another dish by itself! They really lurve their potatoes, man!

Swan Valley

We visited this renowned wine-producing area just north of Perth.

One of the many vineyards we passed by... and the awesome jacaranda tree - lots of those around and they're absolutely beautiful!

Vineyards, small and big dotted the area… it was so refreshing driving along the long & winding road with lots of greens on both sides of the road. Weather was perfect too... sunny blue skies and oh-so-cooling!

The 1^st stop we made was the Margaret River Chocolate Factory because it was touted as a “must visit” in the brochures. We expected to see a real factory showing how chocolate is made.

Free chocolates for tasting...

However, it turned out to be just a shop selling chocolates (of course lah), wines, jams & conserves and some other snacks.

Trays of beautifully hand-made chocolates

...and all gaily packed...

Some for your sweethearts too?

Wines, jams etc on sale too...

There was a café in the shop too… and as it was lunchtime, we decided to try some of their “specialities”.

We had their Roast Pork Sandwich, Chocolate Carrot Cake, Hot Chocolate and a Chocolate Shake.

Portions were quite big… so we shared the food among the 3 of us. Prices ranged from AUD7 (the cake) to AUD16 (the sandwich)… dollar to dollar, it’s reasonable - just don’t convert to RM, ok!

Taste-wise, I would say it’s just decent, nothing outstanding.

Oh, we didn’t buy any of the chocolates either - they were on the expensive side and we’re not really chocolate fans, hehe!

Next, we stopped by the Duckstein Brewery - a German brewery - yes, it’s beer and not wine, haha! Just look at the abundant colourful bougainvilla growing at the entrance - I love I love!

Upon entering their café, which was set up pretty much in a German fashion, we decided to have our 2^nd lunch for the day here, hehe!

Browsing through their menu, we picked their German Pork Chop & Sausage plate (with fried potatoes and sauerkrat at the sides...


and had their “Krystal” - a Bavarian-style filtered wheat beer.


I must say the beer was very nice - smooth & refreshing. The beer was AUD9 and the pork+sausage plate was about AUD20 - too salty for my taste and the sauerkrat was sooo sourrr! I think the pork and sausage tasted just like the ones we bought at Coles supermarket and which we cooked in our apartment, haha! (much cheaper too!)

After that, we went to Lancaster Winery as it seemed to be a popular spot with quite a crowd there tasting and buying their wines.

The 2 cheerful guys manning the tasting counter were your typical cheerful-friendly-chatty Aussies and we had a great time testing their wines and cheese.

We ended up buying 6 bottles (plus 1 free bottle) of their delicious dessert wines.

And that was a slightly-tipsy end to our beautiful day in Swan Valley.