Sleepless in Melbourne!

There are times when you are super excited about a journey and cannot sleep even for a minute you just lay in the bed with eyes wide open in anticipation, sometimes watching the alarm clock as if to check its accuracy whether it rings on time.

 I had the same feeling cause  after all I was going to Melbourne & when the alarm rang, It brought an instant smile on my face and the feeling started to sink in that the time has finally come…I got up, looked in the mirror and said….  YAY ‘…it's your time to visit Melbourne NOW!’  

The next 14 hours in the flight were spent looking at the travel magazines & planning my itinerary in Melbourne. 

Being a cricket fanatic the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) is top on my list, taking the tour of the stadium walking the stands that many legends have walked probably is the dream of many cricket lovers, also a visit to the National sports Museum located at the MCG.

Next on the list is the Eureka Skydeck 88. This Skydeck is the highest point in Melbourne and best time to visit it I feel would be early evening to just after sunset wherein you can see the changing day & night effect of this beautiful city.

Hmm a walk along the Yarra River would surely seem fit to see a whole lot of Melbourne along its banks & also to take the hop on hop off ferries & enjoy the scenery, so that’s on for sure.

Being the beverage guy The Carlton Brewery visit is next on my list, to see the Australian beer making process and have some freshly brewed Victoria Bitter beer right at the factory is something I don’t want to miss.

A visit to St. Kilda beach is something I look forward to, not only for the spectacular beach line but also to taste the local delicacies at the numerous street cafés lined up near the beach, another tick for the Royal botanical Garden to explore the local Flora and walk through the landscaped sections of the garden. 

Next in the list would be to visit the St. Paul’s & St. Patrick’s Cathedral they truly are one of the historic and iconic buildings of Melbourne.

For some outdoor fun activity how can I miss the Luna Park to experience the oldest wooden rollercoaster and of course the grandeur of The Galactic circus.

I wanted to plan more but all the excitement of the previous sleepless night seemed to be taking a toll so I just pulled the blanket and dozed off.

I must have been asleep for a short while when I suddenly heard the pilot bell, which was uncannily similar to my door bell, still I tried to get up from my seat thinking that it might be a seatbelt warning sign as we must be nearing Melbourne, but the bell went on ringing louder and louder, when finally I opened my eyes, I got a shock of my life, there I saw a huge jet fan hovering over my head.

It took me a while to realize that this entire flight trip to Melbourne was nothing but a dream and the horrifying jet fan was my humble ceiling fan and that the pilot bell was actually my milkman trying to wake me up.

A dream nonetheless but a very pleasant, exciting and very real, my dream took me to those places which I would love to bring back as memories from the ever vibrant city of Melbourne. 

This post is written for Indiblogger contest. To learn more about Melbourne please visit  

 www.visitmelbourne.com/in. 

All the pictures are taken from various websites. I do not own them I have used them for just this blog. If any person has objections  regarding the picturesplease write to me and I would delete them.

Thanks 

Rise of The Brew Pubs

What is a Brew Pub?  Literally it means a pub or a bar that makes its own beer or any spirit and is licensed to sell it on its premises.

 As a concept, it has been present in the western culture for quite some time now but in India it is still at a very grass root level.. So let’s get some basics clear about these brew pubs by understanding their operation outside India.

In the United States, it refers to breweries that produce not more than 15,000 barrels of beer annually (1 Barrel is roughly 120-160 lts.) . Brew Pubs or micro brewing is now being seen as a popular approach amongst the new generation who like to experiment and prefer customized service.

The term came to be used in the 1970s in the UK to imply individual pubs that create their own traditional cask ale or beer.

You may ask that when we have such fantastic International brands dishing out some really iconic beers then why we need these so called brew pubs selling their own brands of beer?

Well the answer lies in the very product that is beer… you see, Beer often loses its flavor and freshness due to excessive storage, just imagine that a bottle of beer might take anywhere upto 3-4 months to reach your refrigerator from the factory,  during which time it sadly loses its freshness and the hoppy flavor, these are the things that made it famous in the first place. That is why hundreds and thousands of beer lovers from around the globe have come to love the taste and feel of the beer brewed in microbreweries mainly due to their unique touches and freshness.

Internationally microbreweries do not pose any real competition or an alarming threat to major beer brewing companies as they claim a very dismal market share when compared to these giants. Still, their influence and uniqueness has caused these major market players to open their own microbreweries based on their brand name. In some cases, these companies have been forced to buy the local microbreweries outright.

Comparatively, India has woken up to this brew-pub business rather late. In a country where beer consumption is very high, it is surprising to see very few entrepreneurs wanting to take a plunge into this lucrative business. There are only a handful places today in the country where you can enjoy the vibrant and crisp taste of a freshly brewed beer.

Today the beer loving Indian has matured, he has travelled the world and has tasted different styles of beer available, and he now knows that beer is not just lager. He also has acquired a taste for ales, stouts and porters. He is truly ready to experiment with different flavours of beer and enjoy it with the fusion of Indo-Asian cuisine. This according to me is rather a great time for business opportunities in a new sector called brew-pubs.  

Cheers!

Big, Bigger, Biggest

The other day I was reading an article, in which a particular bar in Cuba had made a huge Daiquiri in the memory Ernest Hemmingway the Daiquiri amounted to 71 Gallons (almost 250 lts) and was poured in a specially made fiber composite 6.5ft tall cocktail glass.. 

That led me to search for more of such big, bigger and biggest feats in the drinks and food world. I have noted a few feats that interested me hope it interests you as well.

Largest Cocktail

To celebrate over 30 years in business, Ricardo’s Mexican Restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA created a giant margarita cocktail measuring a whopping 28,871 litres that included a mind numbing 4600 lts of tequila & 710 lts of triple sec along with other ingredients 

The solution was made in a giant tank measuring 4.5 m (14 ft 10 in) tall and 3 m (10 ft) in diameter, and covering the outside to make it appear as much as possible like a glass of margarita. To make it simple to understand, the tank held around 80,000 servings of margarita. They hold the Guinness record for the largest cocktail.

 Largest Wine Glass

A Lebanese company holds the record for the world’s largest wine glass that measures just over 7 ft in height and can hold up to 1557 lts of wine that’s over 2100 regular bottles of wine in one glass. Phew..

 

Largest Wine Bottle

      The 1,850 litre bottle from Wang Chen Wines in Liaoning, Northern China is 15 feet high and contains nearly 1850-liters of wine - setting the new world record for the world’s largest wine bottle.

Largest Whisky Bottle

The record for largest whisky bottle is held by UK’s Tomintoul Distillery that produced a bottle of whisky weighing in at 164kg and stands some 144cm tall (just under 5ft), filled by hand with 105 litres (the equivalent of 150 standard bottles) of 14-year-old Tomintoul Speyside Glenlivet Scotch.

Something to eat with such Giant drinks

World’s largest Sandwich

This sandwich from Mexico holds the Guinness record for being the world’s largest weighing just over 3178 kgs. It took almost eight workers just to lift one slice of bread.  

Finally we come to India with   Largest tea party-world record set by Indore

More than 32,000 people sipped their way into a new world record as India hosted the world's largest tea party in Indore.

For making the ‘Largest Tea Party’ a success, almost 980 volunteers made 5000 litres of tea with 2500 litres of milk and water. About 250 kilograms of tea dust and sugar was used in making the tea. 

Hope you found the read interesting. The data and the pictures are from the internet and from Guinness blogs if anybody finds them inappropriate, write to me & I would remove them.

Cheers!!