(Backup) Apr 15: Dandelongs, Potato Cakes, and Pineapple Fritters

For my final day in Melbourne, the weather was as forecasted—rain, rain, and more rain (okay, it wasn’t as bad as that, but it was raining). At least it wasn’t windy today. Ian is still in Brisbane (comes home late tonight—another reason why I wanted to stay until tomorrow, so I could see Ian again). Nat and I decided, despite the weather, we would drive up into the Dandelongs. The Dandelongs are the mountains just outside of Melbourne. As climbing goes, it’s a great bike ride. However, not in today’s weather. 

We stopped at a viewpoint in Kalorama. This is what we could see.

I think there is quite the view out there.

We went up a little higher before starting to descend. The road wound down through the eucalyptus and gumtrees (and the clouds).

Out of the Dandelongs, we stopped at a Woolworths so I could resupply my groceries for my departure tomorrow. As always, I got too much food. Since we were hungry, we next went to a Whole Foods (similar to the Whole Foods in the US, but not the same chain) that has a nice cafe. I had a delicious pumpkin, feta, basil tart. Nat and I shared a coconut milk Bounty Bar Sundae made with berry coconut milk ice cream because the machine for just the plain coconut milk ice cream was “stuffed” (which means it wasn’t working). I also picked up a couple of things I couldn’t get at Woolies (I know, I just said I already had too much food). 

We returned home, and I packed up my food. I had to move some non-food things I had been carrying to my rear panniers due to getting TOO MUCH FOOD! 

Later, we decided it was time for me to experience potato cakes. I’ve seen these on menus throughout Tassie, but never ordered them. When we got to the Fish and Chips shop, I noticed they also had pineapple fritters. This is another thing I have seen on menus, but not tried. We got a couple of those, along with an order of 8 potato cakes. Notice I am specific about the number of potato cakes we ordered. That’s because, part of the mark of a good fish and chips shop, is if they give you more potato cakes than you ordered. We got 12! Potato cakes are slices (about 1/4 inch thick) of potato, battered, and deep fried. The potatos must be quite large because some of the cakes were really big. Ours were freshly made, dumped into a box, then placed in a bag (with two holes poked in it so the cakes don’t get soggy) with our pineapple fritters. We took them home. We ate the pineapple fritters first as its best to eat them while they are hot. They were delicious!

Pineapple ring battered, deep fried, and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar.

After having dessert first, we dug into the potato cakes. 

Box o’ Potato Cakes

I found them to be pretty good. They were hot, crispy, and salty potato cakes of deliciousness. Just like fries, one can opt to put ketchup, or BBQ sauce on them. I had one naked (no ketchup or BBQ), then got creative with some BBQ sauce. Although they reminded me, flavor-wise, of hash brown patties, the batter made them different, in a good way. On a scale of 1 to 10, Nat says these rate a score of 9. I will use these as my basis for rating my future potato cake experiences. 

Here’s looking at you!

So, even though the weather wasn’t great, we had a good time today. Tomorrow, I’m off. I’m going to miss Nat and Ian. They have been so amazing! We will forever be friends!