Providore, Margaret River by Gneb

Providore is a shop in Margaret River that specializes in gourmet food. It has a restaurant inside, a bar for wine tasting and other food stuff in attractive packaging. This is definitely a shop that you don’t want your wife or girlfriend to be in, or they’ll be in there the whole day!

The interior is contemporary and chic. This is the restaurant overlooking the vineyard. Since we only had our lunch, we did not dine at the restaurant. We would have though, if we had not.

Some of the confectionaries sold at the restaurant.

The olive oils and the wines sold in here.

I really like the display of the goods. The shelves below for example, are clearly labeled. There’s also recipe (printed on paper) beside each of the bottles that you could tear down and take home.

Different types of pastas

One of the best things here – you could taste the food before you buy. Here’s a sample of the pastes and olive oil…

Wine Tasting in Margaret River & Swan Valley, Australia by Gneb

Margaret River
As I mentioned in my previous post about Margaret River Guest House, people either come to Margaret River for wine tasting or the local produce (e.g. cheese, chocolate etc) tasting.

I’m not a wine connoisseur, but I certainly enjoy the odd opportunity to visit different wine making regions and taste different wines. So, I made it a point that I should go wine tasting when I was in Margaret River recently.

Below are some of the wineries that I went to that I thought were really good. They looked more like hotels to me than wineries. All of them run their own restaurants as well. Best of all, wine tasting is free in these wineries!

Watershed

This is kind of up-market and in fact, we were told that this is one of the best wineries in this area. The people behind the bar are friendly and would patiently pour the wines and explain them to their guests. I bought a bottle of their 2005 Senses Shiraz here.

Leeuwin Estate

Another posh one in this area. This is another one we were told worth visiting and produces some of the best wines in the area. I bought a bottle of their 2003 Cabernet Merlot.

Voyager Estate

I’d say this is by far the best winery to take your beautiful pictures as the scenery is just great.

Lake Clifton Vineyard and Winery
On our way back to Perth, we saw this little winery that makes fruit wines. We thought it was so special and we’d never tried fruit wines, so we decided to stop and check it out.

It looks more like a little shed and they make wines out of different fruits, such as strawberry, mango, peach, pineapple and ginger. Very special!

Swan Valley
Swan Valley is another famous wine region in Australia and it’s not as far away from Perth as Margaret River. People usually can make a day trip up here from Perth during the weekend.

Houghton Wines
There's big green field at the back and you get to see many wild cockatoos here. We didn’t try out the wines here but the winery is such a beautiful scene. It also has a cellar that’s open to public.

Sittella
Now if you’re feeling a little peckish while in Swan Valley, Sittella is definitely an ideal place for lunch. Not only it has a very beautiful restaurant with a fabulous view over the vineyard, the food is also fantastic!

Life couldn’t have been more wonderful to start our lunch with a glass of wine from the winery itself.

Followed by these lovely starters...

And finish off with all these scrumptious main courses.

Australian Meat Pies by Gneb

Being a huge pie lover, I’m always on the lookout for delicious pies everywhere I go to. So, it’d only make sense that I had meat pie eating in my itinerary, when I was in the nation of meat pies – Australia recently.

In fact, I decided to have a little indulgence by trying out the pies at 2 different places, as I knew I wasn't going to be in Australia forever...

With a statement as below, it’d be difficult not to over indulge in eating the tasty pies.

Besides, this is from someone who’s “serious about pies”!

You could find Jesters Pies all over Australia. In Western Australia alone, I’ve seen Jesters Pies in almost all of the major towns I’ve been to. Below are from the Busselton shop I went to.

The pies come in different shapes and with different savoury and sweet fillings. We tried 3 of them and they were all so delicious!

The steaming filling inside oozes out the moment you bite into the pies. You’ve got to try out their fries too.

Jesters Pies also sell boxes of frozen pies. All you need to do is to pop them into microwave whenever you want them.

Back in downtown Perth, I found the pies at the up market David Jones’s Foodhall equally as tempting. I succumbed to the temptation by buying a pie and a quiche for lunch.

This is so nice. I love the minced beef filling, it’s so tasty!

Having tried the Real McCoy Aussie meat pies, I left Australia with utmost satisfaction and definitely with no regret whatsoever.

Rainforest Bakery, Penang by Gneb

Pay a visit to the back-packers-populated Chulia Street in Penang (our version of Khao Shan Bangkok), you will find this quaint and European looking bakery, just across the road from the famous Chulia Street Won Ton Noodles and Curry Noodles stalls at night.

The shop’s window reminds me of that seen in some European small towns. No wonder Rainforest attracts lots of foreign tourists in this area – probably it reminds them of home...

Of course, the breads have to be good too in order to keep customers coming back for more. A look at their product list, they make more than 20 varieties of breads.

Yogurt Plait (RM4.60)

English Muffins (RM4.50)

Six Cereal (RM3.50 / RM5.50)

Cakes

and Kaya (Coconut jam) and Garlic Butter (Rm3.00 and RM7.00)

The owners (a pair of twin brothers) and their mum are friendly bunch of people who mingle with their customers and explain to them what each of the breads is made of.

They even do free delivery between Monday to Saturday, from 2pm onwards.

My Scores:
Taste: 5 (Tasty breads, very original)
Environment: 5 (Comfortable)
Service: 5 (Very friendly staff who smiles and mingles with customers)
Price: 4 (Reasonable and comparable to other bakeries)
Parking: 3 (This could be a bummer as the street is so busy. If you’re lucky and the bus is not there, you could stop right in front of the shop for a sec and jump out to get the breads)
Address: 300 Chulia Street, 10200 (across the road from the famous curry mee and won ton mee stalls)
Tel: 604-2614641 / 012-4056276 (Jesse)