Best Things to do in Berwick

May 25, 2014October 22, 2015 ~ eatmystreet ~ 3 Comments

Best Things to do in Berwick Berwick

When I first bought my house in Berwick I was a little charmed and a little chuffed.

My husbands idea of a good weekend away is camping in the bush, sans mobile phone reception and water running through pipes. My idea of fun is a walk around the City (any city will do), a meal somewhere exciting, cake somewhere cute and a coffee somewhere scenic (I could go on but you get my point). So when we decided on Berwick it was kind of because our here on the Urban Fringe offered us the best of both worlds. Look left and you see countryside, look right and you see a long road snaking to the city. Stand on a hill and look South and you’ll see the beach. Pretty good location really.

But the last time we viewed our “new ” house before signing off on the paperwork we were driving through the Main Street of Berwick Village on a busy Saturday afternoon and all of a sudden I saw everything with different eyes. Berwick was really just a lot of houses perched on the edge of an old Highway.

Cue panic.

What I really needed then is what I will offer you now. The eight best things to do in Berwick.

1. Head to the Dandenong Ranges.

Depending where you live in Berwick you are kind of tucked into the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges anyway. You can drive or walk somewhere scenic and beautiful very quickly. Emerald is a 15 minute drive away and boy is that drive beautiful. At this time of year with all the Autumn leaves it is simply showing off. Visit Puffing Billy, have a coffee or some lunch, walk the rolling hills. Spot the “angry bird” goats and Sally’s BigAss Burgers somewhere around Upper Beaconsfield. You can also reach for Belgrave in about the same amount of time or let yourself get lost and find Sassafras. You will not regret it.

2. Jump on a train and hot foot it to the City.

Ok so every weekend I read the newspaper and every weekend they have lists of what is good and fun and interesting and educational and artistic and awesome. Berwick is never on these lists. Because frankly we are really not excelling at any of these things. Which is fine. To be honest, when I lived close to the city I did not really do a lot of these things anyway because, well, because of life. So this is what I figure… if you want to go to a gallery opening, or a hot new restaurant or the theatre, just face the commute and go. It is worth it and not that far.

3. Find good food. Easy!

Dinner at award winning O.My in Beaconsfield.

Drink at Four Figs or Revival or the Old School cafe.

Check out this list of The Best Cafes in Berwick & beyond for ideas.

Walk along High St in Berwick Village and discover our very own artisan Butcher at The village Butcher. http://www.villagebutchers.com.au

4. Visit a Market. We are a little spoilt for choice.

There is Akoonah Park Market, the Case-Berwick Farmers Market or the Farmers Market at the Old Cheese Factory. None of these actually even require you to leave town. Further afield there are markets in Gembrook and Emerald and Belgrave, Drouin, Dandenong, Warragul and the Yarra Valley. They all offer something a little different. Do your research then get to it! Here let me help….

Click here for The best markets in Berwick and beyond.

5. Go to Wilson Botanic Park. Watch Shakespere there, play on the playground, climb the lookout tower, be a ranger for a day. Just enjoy its beauty and the peace and quiet. Recharge with a walk or by laying on a rug and staring at the view of the sky through the Autumn leaves.

http://www.weekendnotes.com/wilson-botanic-park/

6. Take a walk or ride a bike.

From where I am sitting right now, not only can I see a gorgeous array of Autumn leaves and colour, but I can see a brand new walking/ bike track. This is one of many in the area.

The Hallam Valley Trail offers over 10km of bike tracks through the heart of Casey.

7. Hit the High St on a sunny Saturday morning.

Just park your car and walk from the Butcher to the Baker and enjoy the view along the way. Smile at a local. Pretend you have not noticed the sheer mass of cars careening up the main street in town. Walk through the landscaped gardens in the middle of the Village. Marvel at the statues of Edwin Flack and Spiridon Louis and ask a local about the firsson of excitement their pairing caused. When I first moved here a local hairdresser was lamenting the days where everybody new your name in Berwick Village. Make it happen again with a smile and a help (hopefully you won’t be arrested).

8. Grab a coffee at the Old School Cafe and then take a walk through the accompanying park. This is just good old fashioned, life affirming fun.

Any ideas of what you might add to the list local Berwick-ites?

Let me know in the comments below.

As always, enjoy.

Dani xx

Scone Recipe

April 27, 2014March 3, 2016 ~ eatmystreet

Scone Recipe

So, I got a new oven.

I am inordinately pleased with it and with myself. I sat staring at it for a little while this morning just watching things not burn and heat all the way through- at the same time! Awesome stuff.

You see when we moved out here to Berwick we bought this house mainly because of the size of the land and the price. We have a nice huge green bit to run around on out the back and now all I have to do it force the children to actually use it! We also have three tree’s on the property. Three of them. I love them too! with all their deeper representations of timelessness and life springing forth from dust. But what kind of kitchen the house had was not really upper most in our minds. Hence the oven we have used for the past twelve months was terrible. Actually Terrible. It had only one element and so everything burned on the bottom before being cooked through to the middle. Everything. I have burnt sausage rolls, cakes, potatoes, bread, bread rolls, apple pie. Never a chicken. That is something to be thankful for.

But as of yesterday I have a brand new gorgeous, clean, handsome, evenly heated oven. That cleans itself (would it be sexist to suggest that maybe this is a result of a woman getting involved in the oven design process? Probably….).

So obviously I had to bake something today and scones it was.

My Aunty used to make us scones when I was a little girl. I did not have a scone making brand of Mother so it was always very fascinating to visit my Aunty. Her table would groan with home made biscuits and cakes. Bread in the morning was always home made and freshly baked and if you were still hungry at morning tea then scones would be whipped up. Whipped up I say! Amazing.

So even though I do not really like scones that much (although any excuse to eat raspberry’s with sugar and spoonfuls of cream) they seemed like a natural choice for breaking in the new oven.

They turned out beautifully! Of course. Light and fluffy and buttery.

They could have been a bit bigger I guess but that was the result of the cutter I used. Here is the recipe if you are keen.

Ingredients
Plain flour, for dusting
3 cups self-raising flour
80g butter, cubed
1-1 1/4 cups milk
Jam and whipped cream, to serve

Method
1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Lightly dust a flat baking tray with plain flour. Sift self-raising flour into a large bowl.
2. Lightly rub the soft butter into the flour until it creates a lovely breadcrumb texture.
3. Add milk and bring the mixture together into a soft dough. Knead very gently until it is smooth.
4. Roll dough lightly onto floured surface until it is approx. 2cm deep. Cut dough with a round cutter. Place scones onto lined baking tray. Keeping them quite close together.

5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.
6. Serve with jam and cream.

Enjoy

So here is my take home tip. I know people in the know okay. By this I mean old ladies from the country. So one of them told my friend who told me that if you want to stop your scones from going crunchy on the outside, wrap them in a tea towel after you cook them and the steam will keep them soft! Obviously this is very valuable information so don’t go blabbing it. But there you go. Lucky you visited my blog I guess.

Here is a photo of them cooking in the oven. Beautiful yes?

FYI I am wearing my new jumper designed by Madonna. Don’t tell anyone that either- I am way too old. As is she. But it had a horse head on the front of it and we all love a horse head picture so how could I refuse. Plus it is warm and no fashion designer wants us to be warm. It seems to be part of their job description. So I had to buy it right? Maybe I should start a fashion blog with this level of advice? Don’t panic. I wouldn’t be able to eat scones if I was obsessed with fashion! So no chance….

Here is another photo of food to prove my devotion.

Cafe Revival Berwick.

March 13, 2014October 17, 2015 ~ eatmystreet

I have to make two disclaimers before I review Cafe Revival in Berwick.

1. If the Sun is shining on my back and there is a cool breeze in the air and a beautiful view, I am pretty happy.

2. I am easily impressed by shiny red coffee machines that are reminiscent of Italian racing cars.

Now we have that out of the way I can say that I really enjoyed my coffee at Cafe Revival today.

I have already mentioned in a previous post that Berwick is really at its beautiful best at this time of year and so it was today. I popped into Cafe Revival for a quick coffee stop and scored the best seat in the house, right outside the cafe on the footpath. In the sun. Facing down a lovely tree lined street. With Berwick’s busy, sometimes noisy main street behind me and out of sight. There was a big red shiny coffee machine taking up most of the front window of the cafe that opens out onto the street for ease of ordering. So yes, I was happy even before I ordered.

My skinny flat white was delicious. You know that moment when you have your first sip of a coffee and sometimes, just sometimes, it is so perfect in flavour and temperature and construction that you do a little sigh? Well, that was me. Today’s coffee was excellent. They use Segadredo beans which is not a coffee that I am familiar with but I really enjoyed it today. The intensity was just right and (shock, horror) my flat white was not actually just a latte in a different cup. It was a flat white. Bravo!

I have heard mixed reviews of Cafe Revival Berwick and also my previous experiences here were nothing worth writing about. The food here does not always have people excited. I didn’t eat anything today with that in mind.

Another thing worthy of note, there were a lot of suits here. Suits ordering at the widow, suits getting take away, female suits, male suits, suits of every size and colour (nah, that is an exaggeration, they were all grey or black). I remember this from my previous visits too. So I think we can conclude that the Berwick suits like to drink here.

A note to those of you with children. I had the special privilege of drinking coffee without my two year old attachment today. If he was with me I would have gone elsewhere. This is a small, narrow cafe and the footpath is right near a road. Coffee-ing with children could be done here but is probably not worth the effort, in my opinion.

Plus it is harder to stare serenely at the beautiful tree’s that line Gloucester Avenue if you have a toddler with you. And the suits might give your children “that” stare. Thus some of the magic would be lost.

Overall a lovely place for a coffee, on the right day in the right seat with the right companions.

Maybe one day I might even get a chance to drive the shiny red racing….. I mean coffee machine.

The details:

My coffee was $3.70.

The address is 18 Gloucester Ave, Berwick.

Primary @ Pioneer Park

March 6, 2014October 17, 2015 ~ eatmystreet

Primary @ Pioneer Park

“Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.”

Sometimes this little, apparently Biblical outtake, is more true than not. Today was one of those days.
I woke up like a bear with a sore head, on the wrong side of the bear cave bed (I hope you enjoyed that mishmash #DJDan). Cereal with milk at the kitchen bench was just not going to cut it so I took matters into my own hands and headed out. Destination: Primary @Pioneer Park Cafe.
As a Berwick resident for one whole year and four whole seasons I can say with confidence that Autumn and Spring are really the buzzing months for lovely old Berwick. The gardens, the tree’s, the wind, the opportunity to partake in our lovely outdoor spaces. So Primary Cafe is the perfect destination.
We got a table outside and the sun was kind enough to shine on my back and the wind was gentle enough to tickle not hassle.
Pioneer Park Cafe is the kind of posh version of having a coffee in Berwick. The restaurant was full of (mainly women) with lovely hair and lipstick and clothes made from swishy fabrics. There were also a few school Mum’s but their children were well entertained and behaved thanks to the playground that abuts the cafe’s deck.
I ordered eggs because I really needed them.
They came on very lovely wholegrain bread and they were cooked beautifully. Pre cracked pepper was available on the table and a fairly decent salt. My flat white was quite nice: nothing to complain about nothing to rave about. There was another lovely pattern in my froth that leads me to the conclusion that pictures in froth bears an inverse relationship to excellence in coffee but only at the moderate end of the spectrum. Feedback and ongoing experiments are welcome on this topic.
I have visited Pioneers Cafe before and had a similar experience; descent food and drink and lovely surroundings. The bill is always slightly more expensive that at other places in Berwick.
But sometimes, just sometimes, it doesn’t really matter.

Details

Address: 1-11 Peel Street, Berwick VIC 3806
Phone:(03) 9768 9681

A Touch of Dutch Cafe

August 14, 2013October 9, 2015 ~ eatmystreet

Ok. So I have been very excited about this post.

I love a touch of Dutch Cafe in Berwick.

I know it does not sound overly loveable, but bear with me (and check out my images). Kitschy goodness in a tree lined village on the South Eastern Melbourne fringe.

So I have to admit up front that I do have Dutch heritage and seeing big glass jars full of mouth puckering, salty Dutch licorice does make me feel all nostalgic. But I am pretty sure I would enjoy a touch of Dutch even with out the dutch blood running through my veins.

A touch of Dutch Cafe is attached to a kind of general store next door. It is full of themed tea towels, cuckoo clocks and biscuit tins with the face of the outgoing Monarch plastered on them. They also sell jewellery and frozen food and sauerkraut and an astounding number of vegetables in a jar. I love having a wander through, although I am yet to buy anything. On my last visit it was also full of wandering Dutch men with their “ich” laden conversation, smooth burnished skin, dapper trousers and well cut casual jackets.

Back in the Cafe however I found the food to be lovely and interesting and the service to be friendly but professional (my favourite combination- chat to me, but not very much).

There was a whole shelf of dutch cakes that the waitress tells me are made on site. Then there were plenty more options for your average sweet tooth fix. The caramel slice looked quite fetching I have to say. Coffee was good and they seem to show some interest in ensuring it stays that way. My understanding is that the Dutch have been drinking good, strong, fresh coffee for a long time before it became popular here in Melbourne. So while the coffee did not knock my socks off, it has so far been reliably good. Boy have I been to a lot of Cafe’s where that is not true.

We had to eat the poffertjes. Mini dutch pancakes covered in butter and icing sugar.

They are delicious. And moreish. And flluffy and buttery and maybe addictive? I have ordered them every single time.

They are also kind of fun. I’m not sure how. Maybe I am easily amused?

I really recommend you visit. Order a coffee. Maybe have cake or some sauerkraut or even the caramel slice. Then please let me know how it tastes. I don’t think I’ll ever get past ordering the poffertjes.

Details: Village Arcade, 3 & 4/48-50 High St, Berwick VIC 3806
(03) 9707 2542

You can take a look at their site here.

http://cafe.atouchofdutch.com.au