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A Melbourne Cafe Culture Walk in the Land of the Long Flat White. Pelligrini's, Melbourne, Victoria. Copyright © 2022 Terence Carter / Grantourismo. All Rights Reserved.

A Melbourne Cafe Culture Walk in the Land of the Long Flat White

A Melbourne cafe culture walk to get a taste of Melbourne’s coffee history should be high on your to-do list when you’re in the Land of the Long Flat White, as we like to call our coffee mad country, Australia.

Keen to explore more of world coffee capital Melbourne‘s cafe history, on our last trip back we decided to do a Melbourne coffee tour and enlisted the help of a local expert to better understand Melbourne’s increasingly sophisticated coffee scene and its long cafe culture history.

The Melbourne coffee tour we signed up for was the Melbourne Cafe Culture Walk with coffee lover and guide extraordinaire Fiona Sweetman, owner of Hidden Secrets, best known for creating Melbourne’s must-do walking tour, the hugely popular Lanes and Arcades tour.

On previous trips to Victoria’s capital, we’d sampled the crème de la crème of coffee houses and cafes. We’d admired latte art at decade-old St Ali, dedicated to quality beans, with award winning baristas who helped launch a café empire. We’d inhaled the aromas at Seven Seeds café and micro-roasters, established in 2008 that has been central to the development of Melbourne’s coffee palate. And we’d experienced a coffee cupping at Market Lane.

This time, I wanted to dig deeper, to step back in time to get to the roots of this continually-evolving coffee culture, to drink in the early cafe culture history, to get a taste of current trends, and possibly a peek into the future. I began at the beginning, with the Melbourne Cafe Culture Walk, a Melbourne coffee tour launched last year, which Sweetman kicks off at the Hill of Content bookshop in the city.

Melbourne Cafe Culture Walk in the Land of the Long Flat White

Inventors of the long flat white, for whom froth and chocolate are a distraction, Australians are undeniably coffee-mad. No more so than in its cosmopolitan southern city of Melbourne.

The Melbourne City website claims there are over 5,000 registered café-restaurants in the city that many now considered to be the world’s coffee capital.

According to local girl Fiona Sweetman, who runs some of Melbourne’s first and most engaging walking tours, there are now 3,500 café-restaurants in the city centre alone – many located in the elegant old shopping arcades and graffiti-clad alleyways she takes tourists through every day.

Melbourne Cafe Culture – Early History

“Because this is where the Italians started their community in Melbourne,” Fiona says to our small group of five on her Melbourne Cafe Culture Walk, to explain why we are starting where we are, gesturing to the grand European-style edifices around us that were built by the migrants credited with kick-starting Australia’s coffee obsession.

“The former Southern Cross Hotel across the road was on the site of the Eastern Market, which was as big as Queen Victoria Market… this is where Italians came for opportunity, not always out of poverty,” she explains, as we start our stroll up the road.

“They were the best builders, the best stonemasons, and they brought these curved arches and Renaissance influence to the architecture,” Fiona reveals, which partly explains why Melbourne is described as more Continental-European in style compared to Australia’s other more British-looking cities. They’re not only talking about coffee.

Fiona tells us that street coffee stalls, modelled on those in London, which sold cheap breakfasts to workers, popped up in Melbourne in the 1850s after gold was discovered.

But it wasn’t until the turn of the century that elegant European-style restaurants opened, which also served tea and coffee. And not until the 1920s that ‘Continental’ coffee lounges appeared.

Melbourne Cafe Culture – Italian Beginnings

This was the same period that a New York establishment installed its first espresso machine, invented in Milan in 1901. Still, it would be another decade before Florentino imported Melbourne’s first machine.

At the time, the city’s dining scene was dominated by Italian-owned businesses, including Molina’s, Café Latin, the Society, Mario’s, and Florentino.

But it wasn’t until the 1950s that Italian cafés opened amongst the clothes stores in what became known as the Paris end of town (thanks to its beautiful plane trees), including the famous cafe Pellegrini’s in 1954.

“The story goes that Mr Pellegrini, who had worked at Florentino’s and ran their coffee machine, left to open his own espresso bar,” Sweetman divulges, as we stop outside the legendary Pellegrini’s.

Pellegrini’s was Melbourne’s first Italian stand-up espresso bar and for decades it remained the city’s only espresso bar, as well as a spot for a traditional, home-style bowl of pasta.

It remained an icon even after Sisto Malaspina and Nino Pangrazio, whose father had also worked at Florentino’s, took it over in 1974. It gave us our first taste of Italian style espresso on Terence’s and my first trip to Melbourne together 25 years ago.

For several decades the retro corner space with the vintage sign (now heritage listed)) was Melbourne’s best café, producing the bitter, syrupy espresso shots that we still love, but which Sweetman tells us is now out of favour and considered old-school by coffee aficionados who prefer a “softer, lighter taste”.

Melbourne Cafe Culture – The Third Wave

It’s not only the old style coffee that went out of fashion in recent decades, during a café revolution described by coffee professionals as ‘the third wave’. It was also the style of cafés. People wanted to sit down again – whether on contemporary Scandinavian-style chairs, comfy sofas, or milk crates.

Larger, light-filled, high-ceilinged coffee shops invited people to linger longer over good coffee and increasingly good food. Still, in Melbourne the coffee remained the priority.

The difference was that the painstakingly prepared, delicate drip of a filtered coffee took over in popularity from the deep rumbles and rapid spurts of an espresso. And Melbourne locals wanted to learn how to make coffee as much as learn about where it came from.

Melbourne’s best cafés began offering classes in coffee cupping, coffee bean roasting, and coffee brewing, bringing the behind-the-scenes work to the front-of-house.

And Melburnites learnt how to distinguish a pour-over from a batch brew, to identify where their beans came from, and know how they should be roasted.

Third Wave, Fair Trade – Provenance and People

“Cupping is just a way for us to assess the coffee we buy in its purest form,” Jason Scheltus had explained to us in the tasting room at Market Lane café at Prahan Market on a previous trip. Coffee roaster Scheltus co-founded the café with Fleur Studd soon after she established bean importer Melbourne Coffee Merchants in 2008.

As he added boiling water to the cupping bowls of freshly roasted coffee grinds, Scheltus described the evaluation process and techniques, and what we were looking for in the cup. The best coffee, he’d said, should be sweet, clean and balanced – a far cry from the complex, heavy-bodied blends Italian-Australian coffee lovers use to sip in the early days.

I recall that the most memorable for me was Musasa, a coffee with a buttery mouth-feel and peach, cherry and tropical fruit notes, grown by the Dukunde Kawa Musasa Cooperative in rugged northwest Rwanda. Scheltus had given us a card that described the coffee beans, how they were grown and harvested, the farm, the soil, and farmers.

Over the years, Scheltus and Studd travelled frequently to plantations to meet coffee producers, only buying coffee that was in season and roasting in small batches to ensure they were offering the best quality. They said they liked to share the coffee’s origin and stories to celebrate the provenance of the beans and people behind the coffee, but also to educate customers so they appreciate what’s involved in getting the beans to the cup.

Scheltus and Studd are typical of Melbourne’s third wave coffee suppliers and the backstory, coffee education, and quality of coffee they promoted is what Australian coffee enthusiasts in Melbourne and other cities now expect. But Fiona reveals that Fair Trade coffee was being offered in Australia long before the third wave.

The New Cafe Gives a Nod to the Old

As we stood outside Pellegrini’s, Fiona explained that the Salvation Army, whose former headquarters was across the road, that opened the Hamodava Café there in 2011 as an homage to their original Hamodava Coffee and Tea House established on the same site in 1897.

One of Melbourne’s first importers of coffee and tea, back in the early 1900s the Salvation Army was also the first Melbourne cafe to serve Fair Trade coffee – a long time before the Third Wave.

We turned the corner and ambled down the lane past Pellegrini’s to check out what Fiona said was a new style of cafe for Melbourne – minimally-styled, with standing room only, and nothing to identify it apart from a small neon sign with an old-fashioned shoe.

Named The Traveller, the petite cafe tipped a hat to the old-style espresso bar on the corner. The future of Melbourne’s coffee scene clearly had one foot in its past.

Fiona Sweetman’s Melbourne Cafe Culture Walk doesn’t end at The Traveller. We covered much of the city on foot (wear comfy shoes!), visiting numerous cafes and sipping coffee and sampling snacks at a handful of spots, including several cafes, a macaron shop, and Melbourne’s best chocolatier, Koko Black. 

Book Melbourne Coffee Tours

Fiona Sweetman’s Hidden Secrets tour company offers 3-hour Melbourne Café Culture Walking Tours (A$95); 11am Monday to Friday. Meeting Point is The Hill of Content Bookshop, 86 Bourke Street, Melbourne. You can book the Melbourne Cafe Culture Walk tour here. We haven’t tried any other Melbourne coffee tours yet, but will do so on our next trip home.

Where to Stay in Melbourne

Adelphi Hotel

Ideally located for doing Melbourne coffee tours and exploring the Melbourne café culture, this self-titled dessert hotel is home to On Nom Dessert Bar and has complimentary candy bowls full of all sorts of sweets and chocolates, along with espresso machines, in its rooms. 187 Flinders Lane, Melbourne.

Book the Adelphi with our booking partner Booking.com

Book other city centre hotels here.

Where to Learn About Coffee in Melbourne

Market Lane Café

Market Lane Cafe offers classes in coffee cupping, brewing (pour over, Aeropress and plunger) and coffee bean roasting. Prahran Market, 163 Commercial Road, South Yarra. www.marketlane.com

Where to Drink Coffee in Melbourne

Hong Kong-born Australian Kenneth Meow spends most days sipping piccolos and we highly recommend you check out his social media feeds which read like a directory to the best Melbourne cafés. Follow this coffee guru on Instagram at emeow33 and Twitter at eMeow.

Buy the Ultimate Melbourne Coffee Souvenir

Kenneth’s tip: Melbourne’s most quintessential souvenir is a barista-approved reusable ‘Keep Cup’ – a Melbourne invention, which is welcome at the city’s best  eco-conscious cafés. www.keepcup.com

Friday 9 November 2018

Tragically, Melbourne’s “godfather of coffee”, Sisto Malaspina, co-owner since 1974 with Nino Pangrazio of Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar (pictured above), was killed on Friday 9 November 2018 in a Bourke Street ‘terror attack’. Sisto was loved by so many and such a Melbourne icon that the Victorian government offered the family a state funeral.

We vividly recall our first espresso at Pellegrini’s over 25 years ago. It was a little bit of Italy in the heart of the southern Australian city and became our first point of call for an authentic Italian coffee whenever we visited from Sydney. A heady espresso was the best way to kickstart a Melbourne stay, and Sisto, in all his Italian-ness, with his warm smile, twinkling eyes, open shirt and loose tie around his neck, was a welcoming sight.

We thought we’d feature this post again to provide some context and background to the man who, along with business partner Nino, played a massive role in making Melbourne the coffee destination it is today. Our heart goes out to Sisto’s family and to the city of Melbourne itself, which is mourning.

Have you done the Hidden Secrets Melbourne Cafe Culture Walk or any other Melbourne coffee tours? If so, we’d love to get your feedback in the comments below. 

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About Lara Dunston

A travel and food writer who has experienced over 70 countries and written for The Guardian, Australian Gourmet Traveller, Feast, Delicious, National Geographic Traveller, Conde Nast Traveller, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia, DestinAsian, TIME, CNN, The Independent, The Telegraph, Sunday Times Travel Magazine, AFAR, Wanderlust, International Traveller, Get Lost, Four Seasons Magazine, Fah Thai, Sawasdee, and more, as well as authored more than 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet, DK, Footprint, Rough Guides, Fodors, Thomas Cook, and AA Guides.

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Lara and Terence are an Australian-born, Southeast Asia-based travel and food writers and photographers who have authored scores of guidebooks, produced countless travel and food stories, are currently developing cookbooks and guidebooks, and host culinary tours and writing and photography retreats in Southeast Asia.
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Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check o Still looking for Christmas cooking inspo? Check out our seafood recipe collection, especially if you celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with a fish focused meal in the Southern Italian tradition, transformed by Italian-Americans into the Feast of the Seven Fishes, or like Australians, who celebrate Christmas in the sweltering summer, feast on seafood for Christmas Day lunch, we’ve got lots of easy seafood recipes for you.

Our recipes include a classic prawn cocktail, blini with smoked salmon, a ceviche-style appetiser, and devilled eggs with caviar. We’ve also got recipes for fish soup, seafood pies and pastas, salmon tray bake, and crispy salmon with creamy mashed potatoes.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/seafood-recipes-for-christmas-eve-and-christmas-day-menus/
(Link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas if you’re celebrating!! 

#christmas #christmasfood #seafood #fish #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #grantourismo #grantourismotravels #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you’re still looking for food inspo for Chris If you’re still looking for food inspo for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day meals, my smoked salmon ‘carpaccio’ recipe is one of dozens of recipes in this compilation of our best Christmas recipes (link below). 

The Christmas recipe compilation includes collections of our best Christmas breakfast recipes, best Christmas brunch recipes, best Christmas starter recipes, best Christmas cocktails, best Christmas dessert recipes, and homemade edible Christmas gifts and more.

My smoked salmon carpaccio recipe makes an easy elegant appetiser that’s made in minutes. If you’re having guests over, you can make the dish ahead by assembling the salmon, capers and pickled onions, and refrigerate it, then pour on the dressing just before serving. 

Provide toasted baguette slices and bowls of additional capers, pickles and dressing, so guests can customise their carpaccio. And open the bubbly!

You’ll find that recipe and many more Christmas recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/best-christmas-recipes/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Merry Christmas!! X

#christmas #christmasfood #recipes #christmasrecipes #foodstagram #salmon #smokedsalmon #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood #picoftheday #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels 
#xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas
If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I sh If you haven’t visited our site in a while, I shared a collection of recipes for homemade edible Christmas gifts — for condiments, hot sauces, chilli oils, a whole array of pickles, spice blends, chilli salt, furakake seasoning, and spicy snacks, such as our Cambodian and Vietnamese roasted peanuts. 

I love giving homemade edibles as gifts as much as I love receiving them. Who wouldn’t appreciate jars filled with their favourite chilli oils, hot sauces, piquant pickles, and spicy peanuts that loved-ones have taken the time to make? 

Aside from the gesture and affordability of gifting homemade edibles, you’re minimising waste. You can use recycled jars or if buying new mason jars or clip-top Kilner jars, you know they’ll get repurposed.

No need for wrapping, just attach some Christmas baubles or tinsel to the lid. I used squares of Cambodian kramas (cotton scarves), which can be repurposed as napkins or drink coasters, and tied a ribbon or two around the lids, and attached last year’s Christmas tree decorations to some.

You’ll find the recipes here: https://grantourismotravels.com/homemade-edible-christmas-gifts/ (link in bio if you’re seeing this on IG)

Yes, that’s Pepper... every time there’s a camera around... 

#christmasgiftideas #ediblegifts ##christmasfoodgifts #foodgifts #giftideas #homemadegifts #christmasfood #ediblegiftideas #hotsauce #chillisauce #sriracha #pickles #homemadepickles #recipes #foodstagram #foodblogger #food #foodlover #igfood 
#blackcat #blackcatsofinstagram #picoftheday 
#christmas #christmastree #xmas #merrychristmas #happychristmas #cambodia #siemreap
This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’ This crab omelette is a decadent eggs dish that’s perfect if you’re just back from the fish markets armed with luxurious fresh crab meat. It’s a little sweet, a little spicy, and very, very moreish.

Our crab omelette recipe was one of our 22 most popular egg recipes of 2022 on our website Grantourismo and it’s no surprise. It’s appeared more times than any other egg recipes on our annual round-ups of most popular recipes since Terence launched Weekend Eggs when we launched Grantourismo in 2010.

If you’re an eggs lover, do check out the recipe collection. It includes egg recipes from right around the world, from recipes for classic kopitiam eggs from Singapore and Malaysia and egg curries from India and Myanmar to all kinds of egg recipes from Thailand, Japan, Korea, China, Mexico, USA, Australia, UK, and Ireland.

And do browse our Weekend Eggs archives for further eggspiration (sorry). We have hundreds of egg recipes from the 13 year-old series of recipes for quintessential egg dishes from around the world, which we started on our 2010 year-long global grand tour focused on slow, local and experiential travel. 

We’re hoping 2023 will be the year we can finally publish the Weekend Eggs cookbook we’ve talked about for years based on that series. After we can find a publisher for the Cambodia cookbook of course... :( 

Recipe collection here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio):
https://grantourismotravels.com/22-most-popular-egg-recipes-of-2022-from-weekend-eggs/

If you cook the recipe and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either in the comments at the end of the recipe or share a pic with us here.

#recipe #recipes #eggs #eggslover #breakfasteggs #WeekendEggs #egg #breakfast #brunch #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #foodblog #food #foodstagram #instafood  #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #lookingforapublisher #writingacookbook  #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angko I’m late to share this, but a few days ago Angkor Archaeological Park, home to stupendous Angkor Wat, pictured, celebrated 30 years of its UNESCO World Heritage listing. 

That’s as good an excuse as any to put this magnificent, sprawling archaeological site on your travel list this year.

While riverside Siem Reap, your base for exploring Angkor is bustling once more, there are still nowhere near the visitors of the last busy high season months of December-January 2018-2019 when there were 290,000 visitors. 

Last month there were just 55,000 visitors and December feels a little quieter. A tour guide friend said there were about 150 people at Angkor Wat for sunrise a few days ago.

If you’re looking for tips to visiting Angkor, Siem Reap and Cambodia, just ask us a question in the comments below or check Grantourismo as we’ve got loads of info on our site. Click through to the link in the bio and explore our Cambodia guide or search for ‘Angkor’. 

And please do let us know if you’re coming to Siem Reap. We’d love to see you here x

#siemreap #cambodia #asia #travel #instatravel #traveldeeper #slowtravel #localtravel #experientialtravel #exploremore #neverstopexploring #goexplore #igtravel #angkorwat #angkor #temple #temples #angkorwithoutcrowds #unesco #unescoworldheritagesite #unescoworldheritage #archaeology #archaeologicalsite #traveladdict #beautifuldestinations #beautifulplaces #travelgram #wanderlust #picoftheday📷 #grantourismotravels.
Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky Our soy ginger chicken recipe will make you sticky, flavourful and succulent chicken thighs that are fantastic with steamed rice, Chinese greens or a salad, such as a Southeast Asian slaw. 

The chicken can be marinated for up to 24 hours before cooking, which ensures it’s packed with flavour, then it can be cooked on a barbecue or in a pan.

Terence’s soy ginger chicken recipe is one of our favourite recipes for a quick and easy meal. I love the sound of the sizzling thighs in the pan, and the warming aromas wafting through the apartment. 

It’s amazing how such flavourful juicy chicken thighs come from such a quick and easy recipe.

Recipe here (and proper link to Grantourismo in our bio): https://grantourismotravels.com/soy-ginger-chicken-recipe/

If you cook it and enjoy it please let us know — we love to hear from you — either here or in the comments at the end of the recipe on the site or share a pic with us x 

#recipe #recipes #chicken #soygingerchicken #asianfood #southeastasianfood #igfood #igfoodie #cooking #cookingtime #recipe #recipes #comfortfood #foodblog #food #foodstagram #healthyfood #instafood #healthy #instafoodie #foodie #foodies #foodlover #foodpics #foodporn #foodphotography #foodwriter #foodblogger #recipedeveloper #writingacookbook #grantourismo #grantourismotravels
Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re mak Who can guess the ingredients and what we’re making with my market haul from Psar Samaki in Siem Reap — all for a whopping 10,000 riel (US$2.50)?! 

Birds-eye chillies thrown in for free! They were on my list but the seller I spent most at (5,000 riel!) scooped up a handful and slipped them into my bag. She was my last stop and knew what I was making.

My Khmer is poor, even after all our years in Cambodia, as I don’t learn languages with the ease I did in my 20s, plus I’m mentally exhausted after researching and writing all day. I have a better vocabulary of Old and Middle Khmer than modern Khmer from studying the ancient inscriptions for the Cambodian culinary history component of our cookbook I’m writing.

So when one seller totalled my purchases I thought she said 5,000 riel but she handed back 4,500 riel! The sum total of two huge bunches of herbs and kaffir lime leaves was 500 riel.

Tip: if visiting Siem Reap, use Khmer riel for local shopping. We’ve mainly used riel since the pandemic started— rarely use US$ now as market sellers quote prices in riels, as do local shops and bakeries, and I tip tuk tuk drivers in riels. I find prices quoted in riels are lower.

Psar Samaki is cheaper than Psar Leu, which is cheaper than Psar Chas, as it’s a wholesale market, which means the produce is fresher. I see veggies arriving, piled high in the back of vehicles, with dirt still on them — as I did on this trip. 

The scent of a mountain of incredibly aromatic pineapples offloaded from the back of a dusty ute was so heady they smelt like they’d just been cut. More exotic European style veggies arrive by big trucks in boxes labelled in Vietnamese (from Dalat) and Mandarin (from China), such as beautiful snow-white cauliflower I spotted.

Note: the freshest produce is sold on the dirt road at the back of the market.

#cambodia #siemreap #foodwriter #foodblogger #foodphotography #igfood #foodstagram #instafood #instafoodie #foodie #instadaily #picoftheday #market #siemreapmarket #psarsamaki #marketfresh #vegetables #healthyfood #marketshopping #traveltips #foodtravel #culinarytravel #localtravel #cooking #cookingtime #curry #homemade #currypaste #grantourismotravels
My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recip My Vietnamese-ish meatballs and rice noodles recipe makes tender meatballs doused in a delightfully tangy-sweet sauce, sprinkled with crispy fried shallots, with carrot-daikon, crunchy cucumber and fragrant herbs. 

The dish is inspired by bún chả, a Hanoi specialty, but it’s not bún chả. No matter what Google or food bloggers tell you. Names are important, especially when cooking and writing about cuisines not our own.

This is an authentic bún chả recipe:  https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-bun-cha-recipe/ You’ll need to get the outdoor BBQ/grill going to do proper smoky bún chả meat patties (not meatballs).

My meatball noodle bowl is perhaps more closely related to dishes such as a Central Vietnam cousin bún thịt nướng (pork skewers on rice noodles in a bowl) and a Southern relation bún bò Nam Bộ (beef atop rice noodles, sprinkled with fried shallots (Nam Bộ=Southern Vietnam) though neither include meatballs. 

Xíu mại= meatballs although they’re different in flavour to mine, which taste more like bún chả patties. Xíu mại remind me of Southern Italian meatballs in tomato sauce.

In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, home to millions of Khmer, there’s bánh tằm xíu mại. Bánh tằm=silk worm noodles. They’re topped with meatballs, cucumber, daikon, carrot, fresh herbs, crispy fried onions. Difference: cold noodles doused in a sauce of coconut cream and fish sauce. 

Remove the meatballs, add chopped fried spring rolls and it’s Cambodia’s banh sung, which is a rice noodle salad similar to Vietnam’s bún chả giò :) 

Recipe here: (link in bio) https://grantourismotravels.com/vietnamese-meatballs-and-rice-noodles-recipe/

For more on these culinary connections you’ll have to wait for our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history. In a hurry to know? Come support the project on Patreon. (link in bio)

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It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour It is pure coincidence that Pepper’s eye colour matches the furnishings of our rented apartment. So, no, I did not colour-coordinate the interiors to match our cat’s eyes. 

I keep getting DMs from pet clothing brands wanting to “partner” with Pepper and send her free cat clothes and cat accessories. Although she did wear a kerchief for a few years in her more adventurous fashion-forward teenage years, I cannot see this cat in clothes now, can you? 

#pepper #blackcat #blackcats #blackcatsofinstagram #blackcatsrule #blackcatsmatter #cat #cats #catsofinstagram #catstagram #catlover #catlovers #catlove #catoftheday #catphoto #catpic #catpics #cambodiancat #cambodiancatsofinstagram #catlife #catloversclub #catoftheday #catgram #catstagram #cats_of_instagram #catphotography #catsofig #catsoftheworld #catsofinsta #cats🐱 #siemreap #cambodia

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