Hi again. Thought we'd let you know about all the 'foodie' things we've found here. People eat out all the time here, partly because it's brilliant value for money and also because of the massive variety of grub on offer.

Rob, we decided to take on your 'Lamington Challenge' of eating a Lamington (fluffy cake covered with coconut flakes) without licking your lips. Both successful... Delicious!

Hen, we finally made it to 'Red Rock Pizza' in Carlton. The food was good, although I'm not sure if it's worth a second visit. The waiter had only just started, and despite the fact that the place was pretty empty, he still struggled. If you were anythying like that, we're not suprised you got the sack. They did have a kind of shrine to Hen on the wall though. Nice.

Chocolate: Chocolate here is a bit different (so Zoe says). Apparently they put something extra in to stop it melting and it doesn't taste quite as good. However, on exception is a place called 'Koko Black', which is an awsome chocolate shop full of lovely goodies. Check out the photos of us there... Unfortunately we didn't really get to take a photo of the chocolate meal we had because it went pretty quick. Thanks to Annie (Rob's Ma) for the reccomendation!

Vietnamese: Lots of places down Victoria St all called weird stuff like Chang Chang, Dong Dong or Than Than. Despite the very average look of lots of these places, the food is very fresh, cooked by genuine Vietnamese chefs, and very good value for money.

Lygon Street: Same goes for this as above, but a bit more variety. So easy just to pop out for the evening, any evening, and get some really good food for cheap. Especially reccomend Italian down here.

Beer/Coffee: Aussies seem to have a beer or go out for coffee at any point during the day. To cater for all these people there are cool cafe's and bars all over the place. The pick of the bunch so far for N has been 'Beer Deuluxe' in Fed Square, which has about 80 beers. Favourite's so far are James Squire, Coopers, Broags, Crown. Been for masses of coffee's all over the place, and you can't really fault any of them. Tip: YHA members get two for one in Hudsons Coffee, so we've been there quite a bit (cheapskates!) Z's favourite so far has to be the wine-tasting festival we went to last weekend, where there were 70 wineries offering about 6 wines each for the whole day. $25 for the day, and Z made sure she got here money's worth!!

BBQ's: It's still summer here, hence the 34 degree heat at the moment, so Barbie's are still pretty common. Been for some lovely one's at Hailey and Ben's, and had a lovely one down by the Yarra River. A great thing here is the public BBQs where you just turn up with your food and cook for free. Fantastic idea and a really nice way of spending the evening by the river or in the park. Good entertainment watching all the rowers as well.

Right, enough food talk as we're salivating at the thought of it all. Just a few tempting ideas for when (not if) some of you come and visit us.

Take care,

Z + N x