Walhalla Witchery cafe and meals at holiday accommodation

One of the fun parts of holidays is finding good and simple food in unexpected places.  In Walhalla we took along fruit and baked beans and good bread and were delighted with the gloomy other wordliness of the witches and their mystical accessories.

 

Another joy of staying in a strange holiday house is discovering the kitchen.  New enchanting crockery for serving food and  sweet little floral jars for storage.  

Of course, there is also much to love in the familiar.  We stopped at Calle Bakery in North Carlton to take a little of fine inner city baking to the bush.  The croissant wheels are so spectacular they were hard to resist.  Sylvia had the blueberry cheesecake and I had the Kinder bueno.  Next time I should get the cheese and spinach pastry rather than so much oozing custard.  Sylvia disagreed!

Far more to my liking was the magnificent loaf of spelt sourdough from Calle.  It had a crust to challenge any bread knife and a soft fragrant crumb.  We enjoyed it thick slices with baked beans and arancini.

I found a fig and black pepper baguette at the Traralgon Farmers Market.  It was even better than I imagined.  We felt so fancy eating slices of the fine baguette with cream cheese and a bunch of grapes on the side.  Sylvia liked a lick of jam as well but I was happy without it.

The Traralgon Farmers Market also yielded a wonderful arancini that I had with spelt bread, and a salad of carrot, red capsicum and cucumber with a simple dressing of balsamic vinegar and seasoning, with a glass of sparkling water to wash it down.  I took it to the verandah where I ate it looking over the lovely view and reading Frankie magazine.

I have never used an airfryer so the little green multifunction over was fun to try.  The first night I airfried the arancini was a disappointment.  They were less crisp than if I had just put them in an oven.  The next night I place the arancini on the highest shelf and left them in for longer.  They were so much better and crispier. 

Walhalla had a few places to dine but the one that appealed most was the Walhalla Witchery.  We almost sat outside on the verandah with the breeze and the views.  Then we saw inside.  The atmosphere was magical and mystical.

There was a note on the counter pleading patience from the customers because the they were understaffed and their coffee maker was a trainee.  Service was indeed slow as the holiday crowd seemed to challenge the staff.  But it was such a lovely place to sit and wait that we didn't mind too much.  And I liked the staff: the pretty young goth woman, the older man with the long beard and big sighs, and the gormless new guy with a large head of hair who looked unsure of himself at times but was friendly and working hard.

Sylvia had the cheese and tomato toastie. ($10.50)  I had the Greek focaccia.  Mine was filled with spinach, feta, sundried tomatoes, red onions, olive and tzatziki ($15).  We were both very pleased with our choices.

We stayed for scones with jam and cream accompanied by a soy capuccino for Sylvia and a pot of peppermint tea for me.  Herbal tea is just the thing while the presence of witches.  The scones were lovely and watching people's reactions as they entered the cafe was fun.

This corner with the fireplace, the raven, the tarot and punch and judy had some of the creepy vibes you expect in a Hammer Horror movie.

On my final morning I ate my breakfast in this outdoor area that overlooked the tree fern and a bread box in a tree repurposed as a bird feeder.  I had taken along my usual fruit, muesli and yoghurt for breakfasts.  Even in a strange town it was a wonderful way to start the day.