This morning we once again boarded the neat little trolley car that stops near our hotel and headed off to the Victoria Market. Normally, Mary Margaret loves these types of markets and I just tag along to carry the food stuffs that she buys. However, this time, I also had a ball. The Vic is just something to behold. The only other market we have seen that rivals it is the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia.

The Vic had row upon row upon row of stalls selling everything from carved wooden animals, to watches, to sunglasses to tee-shirts and sweatshirts to shoe, socks and pants to leather goods. There was one stall that was just dedicated to backscratchers and backwashers. This place had everything imaginable thing you could hope for. Once we made our way through the merchandise stalls, we then strolled through the vegetable and fruit stalls. Again, it was row upon row upon row of venders, all selling the best looking produce we have seen in Australia.

After buying all kind of goodies, we then stepped across the street and into the market building where we found vendor after vendor after vendor selling meats cut to order, all kinds of fish and seafood, breads stalls, cheese and sausage stalls and even wine stalls where you can do a wine tasting to decide on which wine you enjoy the most. We both had once again died and gone to heaven.

We stopped in one place that specialized in sausages, cheeses, olives and tapas. We ended up buying three different tapas for $10 and a container of mixed olives. Another stall just sold breads and Mary Margaret bought a wonderful baguette to go with our tapas. I bought triple cream brie that was ever so good! To go with the tapas, bread and cheese, I also bought a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Coonawarra region that was bottled with a stopper that looked like the old time beer bottles. The bottle is returnable and you get $3 when you do!

Mary Margaret and I kept on saying to ourselves that we wished we had Leu Cat here so we could provision her for the upcoming cruising season. Mary Margaret said that if we lived here, she would come every week and she just did not understand why anyone would go to the supermarkets when this market is available with such quality foods, with such a large variety and so reasonable. In my opinion, she makes a very good point.

Loaded to the max with lunch, dinner and snacks, we walked back to the trolley stop and took the trolley back to our hotel. We sat next to a pretty young lady who was accompanied by two cameramen, clicking away. Mary Margaret, always one to strike up a conversation starting talking with her and we discovered that she and her camera crew were in town as part of the shoot. Her name is Lindsey and she is the star of a new British TV show called Grape Escapes. It has yet to be aired since this is their initial season and they are in the process of filming 13 episodes from around the world. It will be aired also in the US on the Food Channel. All three of our kids (as well as ourselves) love the Food Channel so I am sure we will hear all about it when it does come on. I have posted a photo that I took of Lindsey to this blog. You can read the news release about the upcoming show at: http://www.stage18.co.uk/experience-the-world-one-bottle-at-a-time-stage-18-television-productions-pops-the-cork-on-grape-escapes

Once we returned to our hotel, we had a wonderful tapas lunch augmented by the Cab wine and some triple cream brie. It was soooo good. Tonight we will dine on the thick cut scotch fillets we bought and Mary Margaret will make a vegetable medley that makes my mouth water just writing about it. For dessert, we will have a double dark chocolate cake for me and a lemon tart for Mary Margaret. Yumm!