Aussie cafe serves chocolate on steroids #wanderfood

If you've ever thought, "Gee, chocolate bars would be great if they weren't cluttered up with nuts and caramel," then Max Brenner's is the place for you. The Australian chain of chocolate cafes (which also has shops in New York, Philadelphia and several other non-Aussie places) has the genius to serve chocolate in its most unadorned form: the suckao.

The suckao costs $6.50 Australian and it's worth every penny. Basically, it's a mug of milk kept warm over a small candle, served with a small dish of high-grade chocolate chips. Stir the chocolate into the milk. Wait for it to melt into a gooey mess reminiscent of the icing you used to lick out of grandma's cake bowl. Inhale through the small metal straw, which doubles as a spoon. Repeat until your head explodes.


Feeling guilty about all that sugar and fat? You could always finish your meal with strawberries dipped in, well, chocolate.


FacingTheStreet takes no responsibility for your ensuing dental bills or sugar crash. Just enjoy the fun while it lasts.

P.S.: If you like reading about food around the world, check out the links posted each week at WanderFood Wednesday!

Cafe with a view in Melbourne

I discovered the St. Kilda Pier Kiosk cafe by accident. I'd strolled up the long pier in the beachfront Melbourne suburb of St. Kilda just to check out the view. And quite a view it is.



The fact that I could munch on a decent, inexpensive sandwich while absorbing the scenery was a bonus. To be completely honest, I don't even remember what kind of sandwich it was! It simply dealt efficiently with my hunger while I admired the sea.

The cafe is located in a cream puff of an Edwardian building dating back to 1904.


As well as sandwiches, it serves milkshakes, tea, pastries and other light snacks. But don't expect to enjoy your cheap meal and a summer sunset, too: the cafe closes at 5:30pm on weekdays and 6:00pm on weekends. (If sunsets are your thing, check out the somewhat fancier Little Blue restaurant in the same building, where dishes include classics like risotto and chicken Kiev.)

And here's the best part: behind the building, a long breakwater shelters a colony of little blue penguins. Ask the regulars sunbathing on the rocks to point them out to you. I took a million photos, but due to poor lighting and meagre skills, this was the best I could manage.


The cafe's food may not be memorable, but how many restaurants can boast their own penguin colony?

If you like reading about food and travel, check out similar posts on today's WanderFood Wednesday site!

Disclosure: I travelled to Melbourne courtesy of Tourism Australia.

How to Do It Like an Aussie: Video

Although I strongly suspect these two Aussie women, Pip and Kym, are playing up their Aussieness for the cameras, I still enjoyed this little video that tries to teach non-Australians a bit of Down Under culture--from how to make bush tea to what the heck "Good on ya" means.



It's a promo to draw attention to their book, "How to Do It Like an Aussie With Tongs and Thongs" (make all the jokes you like about the title--I assume that's the intention).

Home swapping on the rise in Australia

Maybe it's the floundering economy. Perhaps it's Australians' famous gregariousness. Whatever the reason, it seems Aussies are getting more interested in house swapping. At least one Down Under swapping organization is seeing a spike in registrations. Homelink Australia, one of the country's oldest swapping networks, posted a 14-percent rise in registrations in September and is anticipating a record-breaking October. The Australian recently interviewed Homelink director Colin McKay about the ins and outs of trading your home for digs abroad.