May #SMAJ was a gelato appreciation class at Gelato Messina in Fitzroy. We got to learn a bit about Gelato Messina and how to make gelato, eat a three course gelato degustation menu, scoop some ice cream, decorate and eat an ice cream cake, and taste as many of the gelatos as we wanted.

It’s expensive, as everything from them is, but it was a pretty cool treat activity. Plus we got two cookbooks, cooler bags, and a tub of ice cream each to take home.

God Save The Quince: speculaas, toasted milk skin, quince puree, cultured yoghurt gelato

First time seeing milk skin in real life. It was crunchy! I really liked the tanginess of the gelato.

The Italian Rhapsody: crispy eggplant, mascarpone cream, Amaretto Disaronno jelly, espresso gelato, chocolate crumble

Served in a flower pot. The crispy eggplant was actually really yum. Like chips!

Magma Mia “Here I Flow Again”: salted passionfruit and white chocolate curd, black sesame seeds gelato, dark chocolate sauce, green tea moss, crystalised sesame seeds, yuzu pudding

This one was crazy. The rocks were made of chocolate and each filled with something different. I loooved the salty passionfruit curd.

Scott scraping some strawberry gelato into a bowl.

(A slice of) Dr Evil’s Magic Mushroom Cake: dark chocolate gelato, peanut cookies, dulce de leche, flourless chocolate sponge, popping candy feuilletine grass base, red chocolate glaze, white chocolate dots

This cake was good. We learned how to assemble the different inner bits and do the glaze and attach the dots on the outside. Looked fun. I suppose now I need to step up my ice cream cake game!

We chose pear and rhubarb, blood orange, pistachio praline and Giant’s Milk (milk gelato with milk crumb and milk jam) to take home. That last one sounds really plain but was actually really tasty. Pistachio praline is definitely my favourite regular flavour from them.

Gelato Messina Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

We wanted a quick, cheap, relatively healthy lunch out the other day and ended up at Huff Bagelry in Carnegie.

I had smoked salmon, cream cheese, and capers on a garlic, salt and rosemary bagel. It was quite tasty, but the bagel destroyed the roof of my mouth. So many scrapes.

Scott had meatloaf, cheese, tomato relish, and tomato on sesame seed bagel. Quite unphotogenic but he said it was nice.

Overall, I find bagels very disappointing in this country. They’re more like regular buns with a hole in the middle. I miss Montreal-style bagels.

Huff Bagelry Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Really weird looking restaurant. It was a stone brick motif on the wall, and neon outer space carpet on the ceiling?? It looked like it could have been a bowling alley in a past life.

Hot Stone Pot Bibimbap with mozzarella. I truly appreciate that Koreans like to add cheese to dishes that many other people would not try. But, and this really pains me to say (see blog tagline), the cheese in this case was not necessary.

I think my sister just fainted.

Bibimbap is good on its own! Although we’ve been making this a lot at home lately and I think I like my homemade version better. This one had too much rice for the amount of toppings.

1/2 Cave Salt wings, 1/2 Sweet Lava wings. Very crispy. Quite inconsistent sizing, some of them were huge and some were actually quite tiny.

Scott had pear juice and I had grapefruit soju.

Caveman1961 Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

I recently competed at a weightlifting competition at a different venue than usual, in Coburg. As is becoming tradition, Scott and I went out for breakfast post-weigh in.

I found this source of carbs near by the gym. Scott had a panini with two fried eggs and smoked pancetta, and I had a panini with potato and onion frittata and rocket (aka carbs on carbs).

They were both very tasty and very humongous!! I was too nervous and barely finished half of my sandwich. We definitely could have just split one panini, which would have been extremely affordable ($10).

Paninoteca S.p.A Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Flying Brick Original, Pear, Draught and Pachinga (chilli, lime, ginger). They were all ok but I didn’t particularly love any of them. Not sure exactly why.

Scott had a non-alcoholic apple cider that was quite nice.

Mussels in a Moroccan cider broth with toast. The mussels were good. The bread was meh.

Flying Brick Cider House Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato