Tasty Truffle Festival in Melbourne

The Truffle Melbourne Festival 2015 featured everything from frites with truffled aioli to chocolate truffled truffles and triple crème brie with truffles to even a ooey gooey truffled mac and cheese and a truffle-speckled ice cream.

I was in truffle foodie heaven yesterday in Melbourne! And lucky you, the festival continues today, Sunday July 12th, at the Ivanhoe Centre, just a 30-minute train ride away from the city center.

As you all probably know, I’m a sucker for any type of event featuring food. But throw in a chance to meet some of Australia’s top chefs AND local producers, I’m sold.

Did you know that Australia is the fourth largest producer of black truffles in the world behind France, Italy and Spain? I didn’t know until we moved here.

During the past 10 years or so, farmers have planted fields of oak and hazelnut trees that have been inoculated with the black truffle mycorrhiza. Now, truffle farms have been established in Tasmania, western and south Australia, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales. It still takes a couple years before truffles grow and then can be found by the cute truffle hunting dogs, which we also met at the festival.

Right now is the season to find fresh truffles on restaurants’ menus or from local producers in the form of cheese, chocolates, eggs, beer, butter, ice cream and more. And that truffled ice cream is REALLY good!

Chef Guy Grossi, cookbook author and restaurant owner, demonstrated how to make fresh durum wheat semolina pasta with sliced potatoes and tons of shaved truffles and parmesan cheese. After his demonstration, I met Grossi, who signed my new cookbook, “Recipes from My Mother’s Kitchen.”

"A recipe is like a road map," says Grossi. Use the recipe as your guide in the kitchen. Great advice!

Grossi also says the three key Italian ingredients to have in any kitchen are: garlic, olive oil and fresh pasta.

Angel Fernandez, head chef at Rosetta, an Italian fine dining restaurant in Melbourne, also demonstrated how to make a fresh pasta with truffles.

The truffle festival was a spectacular introduction to Australia’s luxurious black truffles. I cannot wait to enjoy more while we’re here!

You can buy festival tickets online here or at the door at the Ivanhoe Centre.

Truffle festival goodies that we'll be enjoying at home.

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Ephesus: Turkey’s New UNESCO Site in Photos

During one of our many road trips in Turkey, we spent a sweltering day in August 2011 stumbling around the historic ruins of Ephesus, located along the Aegean coast in the Izmir province.

On this particular trip, we also stopped at Foça, Kuşadası and Cunda Adası. The reason why I bring up this trip now is because just earlier this week Ephesus was finally named to the World Heritage List of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO). Ephesus, which receives around 2 million visitors per year, is the 15^th property in Turkey to become a UNESCO heritage site.

Congratulations, Turkey!

Ephesus, originally built in 10^th century BC, has a lengthy history, but really flourished after it came under control of the Romans in 129 BC. During the reign of Roman Emperor Augustus from 27 BC to 14 AD, the city became a great port for trade and was wealthy. The city also played significant roles during early Christianity when Saint Paul visited and later Virgin Mary settled down at nearby Mt. Koressos in approximately 42 AD. You can even visit the House of the Virgin Mary, which is 7 km from the city of Selçuk.

The enormous baptismal font in the ruins of the Church of St. Mary in Ephesus.

Library of Celsus

One of the most spectacular sites to see in Ephesus is the Library of Celsus, which was built in honor of Roman Senator Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaeanus and finished in 135 AD after his death. The library was built as a mausoleum for Celsus and to store 12,000 written scrolls. The library suffered at least two fires and an earthquake during its history and was restored by archaeologists in the 1970s and 1980s. 

The city’s long, cobblestoned road eventually leads you to the marble-columned library as well as the Great Theater, which could seat up to 25,000 spectators at one time.

 

Temple of Hadrian

Another amazing structure is the Temple of Hadrian located along Curetes Street in Ephesus. Hadrian was a Roman emperor from 117-138 AD. The city dedicated the temple in honor of the Emperor’s visit shortly after his reign. The four Corinthian columns support a curved arch on the temple’s façade depicting the arch goddess Tyche, protectress of the city.

Ephesus is simply an amazing (and popular) site to visit in Turkey, and now it has the highly prized UNESCO designation as well. We simply wandered around this historical city by ourselves, but you can hire a local guide too. 

Definitely bring some water bottles to help handle the blazing summer heat! And most importantly, enjoy your visit!

While we lived in Turkey, we were able to see 11 out of the 15 UNESCO historical sites including: Göreme National Park and Cappadocia, Hierapolis-Pamukkale, Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, the ruins of Pergamon, the Neolithic Site of Çatalhöyük, Mount Nemrut, the historic areas in Istanbul, the cities of Bursa and Safranbolu and the archaeological site of Troy.

Location:

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Celebrating 4th of July Abroad in Melbourne

This past week, I moved to a new country and celebrated an American holiday thousands of miles away from any of our friends and family members.

I’ve spent the past nine days so jetlagged that I didn’t even really know what day it was or what season. It’s currently winter here in Melbourne, which will be our new home for the next couple of months. I still haven’t grasped the concept of winter while it’s summer seemingly everywhere else in the world.

Still, we couldn’t let the Fourth of July pass us by without doing something festive. Luckily, the City of Melbourne puts on a spectacular fireworks show every Friday night during July and August in the Docklands. The city celebrates winter with these fireworks, but I pretended we were all celebrating Fourth of July together! We grabbed a seat and some drinks at one of the riverside bars and watched the show.

I didn’t bring a tripod, but some of the fireworks photos still turned out decent. 

This was the first Fourth of July - EVER - where I had to wear a winter hat, scarf, gloves and coat. Brrr! As an expat for the past five years, I’ve learned to adapt and celebrate holidays as best I can. Dealing with opposite weather conditions is just another lesson to learn here. Plus, it doesn’t sound like our winter here will be anything like we experienced in Poland, so I really can’t complain.

On the actual 4th, we headed to Foresters Hall in Fitzroy for an American-themed party featuring barbecue and 24 American beers on tap. BBQ and beer is a delicious American tradition so we felt right at home here in Melbourne.

BBQ chicken wings and pulled pork sandwiches from Meatmother.

Drinking one of our fav American beers, Brooklyn Brewery, right here in Melbourne.
Find me on Instagram @mytravelingjoys for more travel and foodie photos.

While we didn’t meet any Americans at the bar, we had a good time making the best of our holiday in a new city.

Stay tuned for more Australian adventures!

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Free Fountain Lights in Warsaw during Summer

Before I left Warsaw last month, I created a bucket list of items I wanted to do.

One of those items I ticked off was seeing the festive fountain lights at the Podzamcze Multimedia Fountain Park near New Town.  Every Friday and Saturday nights at 9:30 p.m. from June to August (and 9 p.m. in September), the city offers a colorful music and light show that is FREE to the public. Hundreds, if not thousands, of locals and tourists flock here every weekend to watch this spectacular show.

The 30-minute show features 350+ nozzles which are capable of firing water 25 meters into the air over the 3,000-square-meter pond accompanied with fancy flashing lights and stunning visual effects. The last time I went I saw a magician and dancers in the lights. My friends' young children really enjoyed this!

The show really is a delight for children both young and young at heart. Why not take advantage of eating out at one of the many restaurants in Warsaw’s Old or New Town and then head down to the park to watch the show. Definitely get there early if you want to grab a seat on your picnic blanket. Otherwise, just stand back and enjoy!

Location:

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Moissac: The Best Surprise Pit-Stop in Southern France

After sadly having to depart Provence, we faced a 600-km drive to our next destination of St. Emilion.

While hubby was driving, I had the task of selecting somewhere along the way for lunch. Though Toulouse was my first pick, the city seemed liked it would be too big to get in and out of quickly. A quick look online showed that the small town of Moissac, looked promising, and was located just a little ways off E72 highway.

We had no expectations for Moissac, but were pleasantly surprised to walk down one of the main cobblestone streets that led straight to a historic abbey and church. Yes, I think lunch in an outdoor café right in front of a church with nearly 1,000 years of history will do!

We enjoyed a casual, but delicious lunch at Le Louis Vins. Warning: restaurants are only open from 12-2 for lunch, but all stores are closed during that time. When the restaurants close at 2 p.m., the local stores re-open. Oh France!

After lunch, we visited Moissac’s Saint-Pierre Abbey, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1998, and one that is located along the Routes of Santiago de Compostela in France. Moissac’s abbey, originally built in the 7^th century, functioned as a Benedictine, Cluniac and Augustinian monastery in south-western France. In 1793, the French Revolution put an end to the monastic life here. A number of the medieval buildings survive including the abbey church, which has famous and important Romanesque sculpture at the entrance.

At the church's entrance, look up. The carved Tympanum is based on the Book of Revelations and includes a tetramorph, which usually depicts the Four Evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) in animal form.

Our grandparents, who are very Catholic, enjoyed walking around the church and then we paid for the separate entrance into the abbey and its cloisters. With its intricately carved 76 pillars, depicting Biblical scenes and the lives of saints, I found the cloisters breathtaking!  

Yes, there are very few signs in English, but that didn’t matter to us. I didn’t need to know what every carving represented. I simply appreciated the beauty of each column.

“Architecture, of all the arts, is the one which acts the most slowly, but the most surely, on the soul.”
­-Ernest Dimnet, a French priest and writer

Unfortunately, some of the abbey grounds were destroyed, including the refectory, when the railway was laid through the town in the 19^th century. Still, it looks like the main historical parts were saved, including the church and its spectacular cloisters.

If you find yourself driving through south-western France, definitely take the time to stop at Moissac. You only need an hour or two to enjoy this charming little town.

While vacationing, have you ever stopped somewhere that totally surprised you?

Location:

Moissac, France GPS: 44.105412, 1.084502

Restaurant: Le Louis Vins, 6 Place Roger Delthil
Click here to download a FREE guided audio tour in English for the Abbey.

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