My Monthly Chronicles: March 2026

 

March was filled with many amazing events that kept me taking many photos and spending too much tune deleting photos on my phone to make space for more. I have written separate posts about our whirlwind trip to Sydney and the delightful Cake Picnic (links in this post) but I would love to write posts about the Pulp gig, Sydney Road Street Festival, Big Alma cafe, my sister's wedding, the Vegan Market and so much more.  I console myself with having this monthly round up of eating out and other outings where I can share a few photos.  If only I had the time to write all the posts I wish I could!  (I have written more about my month at In My Kitchen: March 2026)

Pulp at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl 

I was delighted to see Pulp perform at the Myer Music Bowl.  This is my favourite band and it was fantastic to see them perform in Melbourne.  Previously I have seen them in the UK at Kinross (T in the Park), Elgin and Cardiff, as well as a solo support by front man Jarvis Cocker at the Pixies gig at the Myer Music Bowl.  I went through a huge Pulp phase years ago so I found it very nostalgic when they dedicated "Something Changed" to band member, Steve Mackey who died 3 years ago to the day, and had a photo slide show of Pulp photos over the years (see above photo).

The support act was Bleak Squad (a Melbourne supergroup of Adalita (Magic Dirt), Mick Harvey (The Birthday Party, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds), Mick Turner (Dirty Three), and Marty Brown (Sodastream). They were playing as I arrived.  It was later than I intended to get there but I stopped to eat  Lord of Fries chips (to keep me going before a late gnocchi bake).  I did spend time in the queue for merchandise before I settled in my seat which was where I heard most of their songs, who sang "a quality set of songs tailor-made for those long, dark nights of the soul" (Guardian quote).

I knpw the songs so well up to This is Hardcore that I could sing along to most songs in the set.  Most songs performed were from Different Class and His'n'Hers albums. The lighting was alternatively fun and reflective.  I could listen all night to Jarvis' laconic chatter with his long vowels and dropped consonants from Sheffield.  He struts around the stage and pulls awkward rockstar poses with his lanky limbs.  His wry sense of humour can be seen in announcing that he is about to play an ABBA song and then unsettling expectations by playing the obscure "The Day Before You Came".  

I would have loved to have some of the older songs (such as My Lighthouse, My Legendary Girlfriend, Blue Girls) or more from This is Hardcore than the title track (such as The Fear, Dishes, TV movie).  They just have too many great songs!  I loved so many of the songs they performed including: Razzamatazz, Do you Remember the First Time, Sorted for Es and Whizz, Babies, Acrylic Afternoons, Mis-shapes, Disco 2000 and the wonderful Common People whose biting social commentary is every bit as relevant today as in 1995.  So much youthful angst, insolence, joy, anger and insight.  My favourite of the newer songs was the gorgeous Sunrise.  

I booked to see Pulp on the morning tickets went on sale and wanted the front seated section but only got the terrace section behind it.  I was pleased when I arrived to see there was a ledge in front of the terrace behind a walkway.  I could sit there and chat while we waited and then stand and dance and sing along when Pulp started and I had a pretty good view.  (As a short person, I find myself looking for gaps between heads when standing and hoping the people in front of me don't move.)

I had hoped to be able to see the blood moon while I watched the gig.  The Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor venue.  My seat was so close that I had to crane my head back to see the screens that everyone else had to watch to see the details.  It also meant I was at the edge of the covered area.  No view of the moon.  It was only when I walked back to Flinders Street Train Station that I saw the blood moon.  It is in the above photo but not so easy to see that it is a pink colour.  It was past its reddest moment by then!

Street Art, Warburton Lane, CBD 

 

On a ride to the CBD, I had a look at the street art on Warburton Lane off Little Bourke Street in the CBD.  The artwork of quaint French stores and Eiffel Tower is gorgeous.  I heard about it on the local radio from a commentator whose political views often anger me.  It was good to find something I liked about her!  I hope to share more of these photos soon.

Sydney Road Street Party, Brunswick 

I hadn't planned to go to the Sydney Road Street Party but as I was out on my bike, I stopped there briefly to have a look at the local colour and catch up with Sylvia and E.  There were some fun things to see.  I loved the chonky orange decorated crockery for sale by hellomaë.  In the craft stalls on Dawson St were so many gorgeous creations and it was even lovelier to see an Indigenous artist at work.  I was surprised to discover that Brunswick has a lacrosse team.  I was so happy to eat a free slice of watermelon from the Greens (political party)'s stall.  I was so hungry but then but waited to get home to have my lunch.  (Sylvia had been pleased to  the Mokum mushroom bitterbollen aka fritters.)

Brunswick is a suburb with a history of activism and this continues today.  So it was no surprise to see the  have pockets of it today.  I loved that the Victorian Socialists had a booth for anti-racism screen printing and banner painting.  More shocking and amusing was the Smash Fascism pinatas (pictured above).  A group had made lots of orange trump face pinatas and charged people for whacks while the pinata was placed on top of a ladder.  I did not yield to be temptation!

Big Elma's cafe, Coburg

My friend Alison was in Melbourne so we had lunch at Big Elma (138 Nicholson Street).  We all had toasties ($16 each).  Alison and I had the Potato: creamy taleggio, rosemary roasted potato, caramelised onion.  Sylvia had the Kimchi and Cheese: miso mayo, vegan kimchi, mozzarella, spring onion.  

Sylvia and I both had a vegan European hot chocolate.  They were delicious but intense.  Sylvia loved the vegan whipped cream topping and I loved the dense chocolate drink that was so thick it was more pudding than drink.  I ate it with my spoon.  We should have shared one.

Family Wedding, Archive wine bar, Geelong 

My youngest sister had a small marriage service at a local wine bar and and invited us to join her and her new husband for the reception in the same location.  It was a really lovely afternoon with finger food (excellent mini cheese toasties), music, flowers, (gluten free) chocolate cake, speeches and lots of photos.

Everyone had a great time but we were sad that my older sister and her son wer unable to get to the wedding after her flight from Dublin got turned back.  There are far worse outcomes of the Iran war for others and we were able to take lots of photos to share.  

Holiday in Sydney 

We went to Sydney at short notice to use the tickets my sister and her son could not use after the Iran war scuppered their holiday plans It was great to spend time in Sydney with my parents, to enjoy the spectacle of the harbour and eat at some great vegan restaurants. It was also sad that my sister and nephew could not be there with my parents.  

To read more about our Sydney trip, check out there posts:. 

Duke of Clarence, QVB, Uchilounge (City centre), Sydney

Miss Sina, Oh My Days, Sappho Books (Glebe and Marrickville) Sydney

University of Sydney Quadrangle, Camperdown

Bills, Bourke St Bakery, Shift Eatery (Surry Hills), the Rocks, Airports, Sydney  

Opera Bar and Sydney Harbour 2026

Sydney street art 2026

    

Cake Picnic, King's Domain

I went to the Cake Picnic that was held in Kings Domain as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.  It was amazing, delicious, beautiful and at times too much cake and too much waste but I am glad we went.  You can see more photos and read more at my post on the Cake Picnic, Melbourne 2026.

Vegan Market, Coburg Town Hall

Sylvia was keen to go to the Vegan Market at the Coburg Town Hall.  There were Easter eggs, bakes, gorgeous crockery, candles,  art prints,  and animal rights organisations.  Outside were food trucks for the hardy vegans who could brave the rain between bouts of sunshine.  Sylvia was excited to buy from Better New Bakes and I could not resist the Little Sweet Things Dubai Chocolate slice or the slabs of panisse.  (See more about them at n My Kitchen: March 2026.)
 

There was lots of good vegan food to eat there.  We shared a Spinach and cheese borek from Chef's Borek.  It was so good and flaky.  

Sylvia had good memories of Woking Amazing's food truck's offerings and could not wait to try it again.  She ordered the "Kyiv Mushroom Tempura Burger: Crispy oyster mushroom & fresh baby cos lettuce drizzled with Smokey Aioli & Garlic Butter in a toasted sesame seed bun" with smoky fries on the side.  She really enjoyed it but it was so filling that she took some home.  She also had a chai tea which was nice but a bit sweet for her.

Coburg Farmers Market 

We love a reason to go to Coburg farmers market.  When I bought panisse at the Vegan Market, I decided we needed good bread to go with it and there is always a good sourdough at the farmers market.  So we walked across the road in search of bread and were delighted by all the beautiful colourful vegetables that you can see in these photos.  

 

Green Man's Arms, Carlton and Project Hail Mary

I got out to the Cinema Nova with my friend Heather to see Project Hail Mary (an interesting and fun movie about a scientist in space on a mission to save the world and who doesn't love ryan gosling's cheeky grin).  Afterwards we had dinner at the Green Man's Arms (418 Lygon Street).  

Heather had the House Made Gnocchi with carrot puree, thyme beurre monte and almond cream ($30).  I had a taste and it was really good and I wished I had ordered it.  My reason was that we were having a couple of gnocchi meals that week but really, given it shows a love for gnocchi, I should have taken the chance to eat an amazing gnocchi dish!

My choice of dish was the Massaman Curry with roasted purple sweet potato, pickled thai eggplant, toasted cashews served on steamed rice. ($30)  They kindly service the chilli oil on the side so I could choose how much to have.  It was pretty mild without and I probably should have added some but didn't feel brave.  It was a great comforting curry.  I was not so enthused about the pickled eggplan but loved the slices of sweet potato with crispy skin.  Both our dishes were both gluten free and vegan.

In the News

The news was dominated by Trump and Netanyahu unleashing war on Iran with which was horrible to watch unfold.  The death and destruction in the Middle East, the travel disruptions and the world wide anxiety about fuel prices and the economy has made everyone sadder, less trusting and more anxious.  Thank goodness for Afroman to cheer us up!

Extreme rhetoric in Australia's right-wing political circles deserves more attention, by Gareth Hutchens, ABC News, 1 March 2026.

Neither preemptive nor legal, US‑Israeli strikes on Iran have blown up international law, in the Conversation, 1 March 2026.

Trump, the Six-Year Itch, and the Mirage of a Quick Victory in Iran, by The Snarky Gherkin substack, 2 March 2026.

Read these words from 100 years ago about immigrants in Britain – and see how history is chillingly repeating itself, by George Monbiot in The Guardian, 5 March 2026.

The government granted Iranian footballers asylum. Then, it moved to block 7000 Iranians from Australia, in 9 News, 12 March 2026 

Raising rates while petrol prices soar shows the RBA ignoring reality and basic economics, by Greg Jericho, The Point, 17 March 2026.
'The Reserve Bank has completely misread the economy and risked sending more Australians into poverty on Jobseeker by raising the cash rate to 4.1%.'

The media wants disabled people to be locked inside until they die (disinformation on NDIS funding), by Jon Delmenico, The Shot, 18 March 2026.

Afroman prevails in cops' music video defamation suit after a brief but viral trial, in NPR on 19 March 2026.  
'Afroman was just trying to turn lemons into "Lemon Pound Cake" when he started making music videos and social media posts mocking the law enforcement officers who conducted a heavy-handed raid on his Ohio home.'  Also check out the hilarious Jon Stewart Show report.

The left brought a thesaurus to a knife fight, in The New Daily, 20 March 2026

Growing up means realizing that none of the worst villains are in prison, by Caitlin Johnstone, 31 March 2026

Watching, Listening and Reading: 

How to get to heaven from Belfast: a hilarious ridiculous and brilliant show with a convoluted plot. The middle age characters aren't quite as loveable as the creator's previous show Derry Girls, but they have baggage and unrealised dreams as well as odd anxieties and quirks.!  

Coal Black Mornings: a beautifully written autobiography by Suede's Brett Anderson of his council house childhood in the home counties and student days in London where he channeled his life as a misfit and a dreamer into becoming a musician.

It by Pulp (which is meant to read as Pulpit) : I've enjoyed listening to their debut album in 1983 with the wide-eyed dreaminess 19 year old Jarvis Cocker and wishing they played some of the song at their gig this month.

How Can We Live When the World Feels Broken? The Stoics: By Carrying On, by Jack Maden on Philosophy Break: this was shared by Nupur on her One Hot Stove blog who writes with such warmth and thoughtfulness in every post.  I found this post comforting to read when the world around us is filled with leaders that let us down and make the world feel unsafe.

Dirty Dancing: I've never watched this 1980s iconic movie and was surprised to discover it was set in the 1960s.  It was a enjoyable enough but the lead actors don't really appeal to me.  (Give me Rebel without a Cause over this any day!)

Building an Underground Shipping Container Pool Home - I've watched this video too many times and dreamed of a bedroom with the light rippling in through the swimming pool on the other side of the window. 

In My Kitchen: March 2026

 

March brought darker evenings and cooler days.  Our salad days were transitioning to days of hearty fare.  It was such a busy month that we cooked less at home but brought home lots of good food.  Over the month I had the the Sydney Road Street Festival, a Pulp concert, a family wedding, a short trip to Sydney, a trip to the hospital Emergency Dept, the Cake Picnic, local theatre, a vegan market and a trip to the cinema.  It was exhausting though (mostly) lots of fun.  I will write up a lot more about it in My Monthly Chronicles (March 2026) but you will see quite a bit of it below.

The Iran war has put pressure on budgets with rising petrol costs and another interest rate rise.  In addition I have had a plumber call-out  and holes to repair at the dentist.  I am fortunate that we have some backpay coming up from the implementation of our Enterprise Bargaining Agreement at work (they always have a lag between agreement and implementation).

Above is my brilliantly green St Patrick's Day dinner.  I was sad I forgot to wear green at work in the morning so when I got home that evening - soaked by riding in a rain that would have made Ireland proud - I changed into green tracky daks and a green t-shirt.  Sylvia celebrated by making Zucchini pesto pasta -  which was lovely with lettuce, green capsicum, rocket and celery, and a squeeze of lime juice (from the garden).

It is nice to see that the Take Me Home Gnoccheria at 89B Harding Street has expanded into a Grocer and Mangia (cafe) to replace the space that was Harding Street Convenience Store at number 89A.  The milk bar had been run for 18 years by Andy and Phoebe Lee until the landlord sold the building last year.  I am glad the space continues to be one for community, albeit a more gentrified version of the once common milk bar.

We enjoyed browsing through the interesting rage of groceries with some vegan offerings - pistachio spread, choc top ice cream cones, burgers, fresh fruit and vegetables and Back Alley Bakes breads.  We left with a bar of Alessandro Luppolo smoked dark chocolate.  It was a very nice smooth chocolate with ingredients listed as cocoa beans, sugar and paperbark smoke! But at $13.50 for a 68g block it would be a rare treat.  Sylvia caved to the temptation of a vegan tiramisu. The ingredients list was longer with a lentil-based cinnamon cream layered with chocolate and biscuits soaked in coffee.  She was most impressed.  Later in the month, we also had a packet of Take Me Home's delicious green olive, parsley & chilli gnocchi from their stall at Coburg farmers market.

We have had this excellent  TikTok viral dumpling bake twice in March (we got the recipe from #kuzyinks).  Vegetables, coconut milk and Thai curry paste are mixedin a large baking dish and then gyoza dumplings are arranged on top so the bottoms are soft and their tops crisp..  The first time Sylvia made it with enoki, been sprouts and bok choy as on the recipe but the second time (photo above) we wnt with our preferred combination of edamame, napa cabbage and enoki mushrooms.  On the second outing, we also mixed about a teaspoon of cornflour into the sauce, which has to be thin to cook the dumplings but a slight thickening was prefereable to the watery sauce of our first go.  The dumpling bake is great with basmati rice.

We returned to the  crispy rice salad (from emily's eatings on tik tok) that we enjoyed only weeks before.  This time we didn't have most of the ingredients so we winged it and made the crispy rice to serve with lettuce, chickpeas, corn, green capsicum, and celery.  It was really good, yet again!

Another favourite salad is this Carrot, couscous, bean and feta salad that we enjoyed over the past couple of summers.  This time we veganised it with Damona feta and garnished it with cornichon pickles.  Sylvia had a few weeks where she was eating cornichons on everything.  I think life got so busy that she forgot about them and this week we found one of the jars at the back of the fridge and put it to good use.

We recently had too much cabbage and I looked up ways to use it up.   I found a recipe suggesting that it goes well with gnocchi in the way cabbage and potato go well in pierogi.  Then I found a couple of recipes that added sausage to the mix and I was sold.  The photo looks pretty beige but it was a really nice way to fry up the cabbage as a meal.
 

Another TikTok recipe from rhi.scran,  Sylvia was really keen to make these veagn meatballs (cheatballs?).  They were a matter of squeezing vegan sausages from their skins (we used Beefy Brats from the 'unreal co'.  These were air fried until crispy.  While they fried, Sylvia made a sauce of coconut milk and Thai curry paste and served it over the meatballs and rice.  I served mine with Japanese cucumber salad, red cabbage and red capsicum.  The success of the meatballs depends on the sausages and if we tried them again, we would use different sausages.  It was a pretty good meal, nonetheless!  

After our trip to Sydney, we brought home a wonderful loaf of light rye bread from the Bourke Street Bakery in Surry Hills.  It was so good I could have eaten it slice but slice but needed more veg in my life.  So I rescued a box of neglected Casarecce pasta and added it to a stew of old cherry tomatoes, the remains of a bunch of celery, as well as reliable onion, carrot, a tin of tomatoes, a tin of chickpeas and frozen peas for a token green vegetable, plus tahini and seasonings.  It was lovely with the bread and I stored some in the freezer for work lunches.

Here is another of Sylvia's gorgeous collage cards that she made for my sister's wedding in March.  The wedding was a great and I was very relieved to be able to wash my hair before the wedding after a bit of pre-wedding drama.

A couple of days prior, our washer gave out and we could not turn off the kitchen sink tap without turning it off at the mains.  I had a look at the tap but it was so old it was probably the original from the 1960s and I could not get the handle off the spindle.  It was the Friday night before the long weekend.  We had to do an after hours call out because 3 days were a long time without running water.  My regular plumbers were not available.  I asked for advice but ended going to HiPages to find a plumber with a reasonable rate who was able to get to our place in about 30 minutes and replace the kitchen taps. An experience like that really made me appreciate being able to turn on and off the tap.

I have written about our experiences at the amazing Cake Picnic, Melbourne 2026 run as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in March.  I still plan to write more about the chocolate coconut layer cake I made.  Today I will share a bit of the cake picnic in my kitchen.  Above is our fridge when we parked our cakes into cake boxes there overnight after hours of baking and decorating.  You can see that we had to squeeze everything else in the fridge on other shelves.

After the cake picnic we brought home some of the goodies.  Queen was a sponsor and as part of our entrance price, we got the merch bag of a tote bag, vanilla essence, fondant letters and a choice of a wooden spoon or a tea towel.  We got one of each.  

The cake picnic vanilla essence bottle was gorgeous.  When the organisers announced at the picnic that there were lots of leftover bottles of vanilla essence if anyone wanted more.  We were about to get more until we saw the queues the announcement had created.  It wasn't worth that much hassle!

This is my cake picnic box of slices.  A lot of them went into the freezer and I still cannot face all the sugary cake.  So much frosting!  I was sad that it was such a mess that I could not take it to work or share it with my neighbours.  I don't think I will be able to eat a lot of it but will probably pick at a bit of it eventually.

The day after the cake picnic, I went to a community play (Little Voice) with a couple of neighbours to see one of our neighbours perform in the play.  We brought food to eat at the tables and it was fun that we were the cabaret audience in the play.  There was some great singing and great piano, but a lot of sadness in the story line!  I took along hummus and vegies with some Arnotts seeded crackers.  One of my neighbours was very happy that the crackers were gluten free.  It was good to eat some fresh vegies after the sugar fest at the cake picnic.

Sylvia had tickets but needed a day of rest after the cake picnic.  She had been so determined to go there after being in the Emergency Department at hospital for acute tonsillitis only two days prior to the picnic.  After making a big effort to attend the picnic, she was pretty worn out and needed a quiet day.

We went to the Vegan Market at the Coburg Town Hall at the end of the month.  By then I was so tired and had eaten such indulgent food that I wasn't that keen on buying a lot.  However, I will always ben tempted by Dubai chocolate and really loved it in a slice from the Little Sweet Things stall.  

Sylvia was excited about the Better Now Bakes stall.  They do amazing baking (as any former Great Australian Bake-Off contestant should) and bought a great though a bit spicy kimchi and cheese scroll; a lovely pandan lamington that was green under the coconut; and a slice of the superb "Jai's wedding cake: lemon myrtle cake slices with a strawberry & pepperberry jam filling, dressed in hibiscus buttercream".  We ate well when we got home.

Sylvia was keen to eat a borek and a burger but I really really loved the South-Co panisse.  I admit to tasting a few of the crispy fried squares of chickpea 'tofu' with smooth soft flavoured insides.  It was all I wanted for lunch so we walked across the road to the Coburg farmers market to buy a fine loaf of Flinders Sourdough bread.  We also bought kale, tomatoes and yellow zucchini.  This was the sort of good food I really needed.

Here is a close up of the slab of pesto-flavoured Panisse that I crisped up in the air fryer and ate on sourdough with relish the next day.   Right after the market we had air-fried panisse with lettuce, tomato and mayo in a sourdough sandwich.  Fried panisse is the best!  It is not just how wonderfully soft it is inside but the delicious mellow chickpea flavour with the addition of aromatic pesto.  

When Sylvia found that Sebby Scrolls were serving vegan cinnamon scrolls in the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival Bakers Dozen in Fed Square, she organised to go with her dad.  They told me it was very busy and bought back some of the lovely mini scrolls - that were sold in pairs - for us to enjoy at home.  They were very soft and very sticky with all that frosting.

As the fickle autumn weather veered from balmy warmth into a rainy day, I made gravy. We don't have it often but it is great comfort food.  I had planned to serve baked potatoes for tea but had a problem when I remembered I had forgotten to buy some big potatoes. We had sausages and a couple of small potatoes.  Sylvia was delighted to have sausages covered in hearty gravy.  I didn't use a recipe but just fried onions, added flour, vegemite, tomato sauce, seasoning and water.  It was so so good.  I must make it again now that the weather is cooling as we gallop towards winter!

I am sending this post to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings for the In My Kitchen event. If you would like to join in, send your post to Sherry by 13th of the month.  Or just head over to her blog to visit more kitchens and her delightful seasonal hand drawn header.  Thanks to Sherry for continuing to host this even that brings together some wonderful bloggers who share glimpses into their kitchens. 

Vegan Hot Cross Buns: Matcha, white chocolate and coconut

Yesterday I made made my usual traditional hot cross buns and also experimented with vegan matcha hot cross buns.  I learnt not to use old matcha and if you want to add white chocolate it has to be decent chunks, not chopped thin melts.  Despite these glitches, the HCBs turned out rather well.  They were soft with a matcha aroma - that I recently saw described as "turf" - and the chunky crosses that we love.

You can see in the below photo collage of the steps in making the hot cross buns that the dough was a green that gave me hope of some colour but in the above photo you can see by the time it baked it was a dark green.  

You can also see in the above picture that this is not a simple recipe.  I put the dough together the night before, in the morning I chop the dough into pieces that I roll into balls, set aside to rise, pipe the crosses before they go into the oven and glaze them when they come out piping hot.  It is worth the work but it is enough to just bake one or two batches each Easter.  

I have a tradition of spending Good Friday baking hot cross buns.  Coming from a Catholic family, it is a quiet day for me of withdrawing from the world.  Despite no longer being a practicing Catholic, I still consider it one of the holiest days on the calendar where sorry and hope co-exist.  A big baking project is the perfect way to slow down life.  

I made the matcha hot cross bun batch for Sylvia who had requested this flavour combination.  (The coconut was interesting but quite subtle).  My favourite hot cross buns are the traditional ones with dried fruit, but I like to use cranberries and dried stone fruit.  So I also made a batch of those ones yesterday.  I have had so many sweet treats lately (hello Cake Picnic) that I have held off on the HCBs and only had one before Good Friday.  
 

It was so good to have hot cross buns hot out of the oven yesterday.  I was reading an article on the best way to eat hot cross buns and was surprised that the options were unheated, toasted or microwaved, with unheated being seen as the worst way.  I don't like the crisp charred edges of toasted hot cross buns not the drying effect of the microwave.  

In my family we always had hot cross buns heated in the oven and I still prefer this.  The smell of spiced warm buns is amazing!  My mum now used the air fryer.  The very best way to eat a hot cross bun is when it is warm and just baked.  This is one of the best reasons to bake your own.  It is the best!

There is a lot of waiting around while baking hot cross buns.  Some of it is useful for cleaning up the kitchen but I spent some of it going down some online rabbit holes about Easter.  It was a nice change from all the depressing news.

Here are a few highlights of my reading.  (I have shared some links to Easter stories below):

• Discovering Norway's obsession with crime fiction at Easter (Påskekrim) that has led to "grisly decorations like chalk body drawings on pavements and cute baby chicks holding bloody knives",
• Reading an Australian ex-pat in the America scratching her head about the holiday-loving USA's lack of enthusiasm for Easter, 
• Laughing at humour about outrageous hot cross buns flavours including mugshot photos of said buns, and 
• Hearing the animal rights activists' ethical alternative to rolling your Easter egg down a hill at the annual Preston event in the UK.
• Delighting in a New Zealand article that muses on the perpetual tension down under of celebrating a spring festival in the midst of autumn and suggests the feijoa is a suitable seasonal food for "a holiday in search of a culinary tradition".

It was also great fun to read some novelty hot cross bun flavours such as fairy bread, rhubarb and custard, tiramisu, and iced vovos.  I was glad to be part of the hot cross bun craziness this year!  Maybe next year I will try making these hot cross buns again but with fresh matcha!

Fun Easter links:

The Easter crime wave sweeping Norway in BBC, 30 March 2026.

Why Easter in America is my first expat culture shock in Australian Financial Review, 2 April 2026

Albanese To Address Nation About Alarming New ‘Doritos Cheesy Jalapeño Hot Cross Buns’ (spoof), in The Shovel, 2 April 2026 

Rat race: inside Sydney’s Royal Easter Show rodent judging – where the winners are decided by a whisker,  in the Guardian, 3 April 2026

Easter has a soundtrack just like Christmas, so why do we never hear it? in The Conversation, 2 April 2026.

Hot Cross Crimes: The Supermarket Easter Buns No One Asked For, in Broadsheet, 26 March 2026.

Easter egg rollers should use potatoes, Peta says, BBC, 31 March 2026.

Why the feijoa is the true taste of Easter in New Zealand, The Spin Off, 3 April 2026.

More vegan sweet yeasted bakes on Green Gourmet Giraffe:

Doughnuts - baked, vegan, overnight, sourdough (v)  
Hot Cross Buns - wholemeal and yeasted (v)
Overnight sourdough cranberry nut rolls (v)
Overnight Sourdough Hot Cross Buns (no knead) (v)  
Rhubarb and raspberry no knead focaccia (v)

Overnight sourdough hot cross buns
An original Green Gourmet Giraffe recipe
Makes 6-8

125g ripe starter (100% hydration)
50g vegan margarine, room temperature 
1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 and a half bananas)
3/8 cup soy milk, room temperature
1/4 cup aquafaba
3 1/2 tbsp matcha powder
60g vegan white chocolate chopped (more?)
40g desiccated coconut
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1//2 tsp dried ginger
225g white bread flour

Crosses:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup flour (or a little more)

Glaze:
2 tsp water
1 tbsp caster sugar
good shake of mixed spice 

Measure out the starter (mine is best when it is rising and had lots of little bubbles and smells lovely and is still a bit thick in texture) and stir in the margarine, then add banana and soy milk.  (It is ideal the mixture is room temperature.)

Add remaining ingredients and stir well.  Leave for 30 minutes.  Knead in the bowl for 15 seconds.  It will be very soft still but you should be able to knead it and wipe most of the mixture off your hands.  Cover well with clingwrap or beeswax and leave overnight - about 8-10 hours until well risen.

When dough is risen, scrape out onto a well floured surface.  Cut into 6-8 pieces (depending on the size of your tin - I had 6 largish buns in a medium rectangular baking tin.).  I use a metal pastry cutter (dipped in flour for each cut) but a large sharp knife will do.  

Gently roll each piece into a ball.  Do this by putting the corners as tightly as possible around the bun (without squishing the bun) so the floured bottom of the bun is like a little blanket around the bun.  Toss in flour as though it is very fragile just using finger tips so it is not sticky.  Then use your hands to shape into a smooth ball, continually very gently pulling the dough to the bottom of the bun and lightly rolling in more flour to keep it from sticking to your hands.

Line a a baking tray or medium roasting dish medium dish with baking paper (and/or grease) and arrange balls in it quite close to each other so they are just touching but not really snug against each other.  Cover buns with beeswax or clingfilm or a clean tea towel and leave to rise for 30 to 2 hours.  Heat oven to 220 C while buns rise (or 30 minutes before you are ready to put in the oven).

Mix flour and water together to make the mixture for the crosses once buns ready for oven.  It should be thick enough to be almost stretchy and drop off the spoon in soft clumps.  Pipe crosses onto the buns.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Turn buns around for even baking and reduce oven to 180 C and bake for another 25 minute or until golden brown and sounding hollow when tapped.

Five minutes before buns come out of oven or just as they come out, mix glaze ingredients together and microwave for about about 15-30 seconds on high or until the mixture boils.  Remove buns from oven.  Transfer to a wire rack.  I have found it this easier if the baking paper has some overhang so you can use it to pick the buns up (even easier with another person who can pick up the other two corners to help you lift it).

Brush buns with prepared glaze and see if you can wait for them to cool before you sample one.  They are good for 2 to 3 days or can be frozen.  I reheat my buns from room temperature for 10-12 minutes at 180 C. 

On the Stereo:
For all our days that tear the heart: Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler 

Bills, Bourke St Bakery, Shift Eatery (Surry Hills), the Rocks, Airports, Sydney

On our last day in Sydney, we again enjoyed the city's fine sights and tastes.  We spent our time in Surry Hills and The Rocks, making sure we squeezed in that one last place we really wished to see.  My mum had her eye on the famous hotcakes at Bill Granger's restaurant, Sylvia wanted to eat at the vegan Shift Eatery and I was keen to wander about The Rocks (see above photo).

One of the first impressive sights we saw after alighting from the bus in Surry Hills was the Bondi Boulangerie with its rainbow croissants in their window display.  I am sorry to say we did not have time to go in.  The rainbow represents diversity and colour of the LBGTQI community who are at the centre of the recent Mardi Gras celebrations in Sydney.

Instead we had breakfast at Bills Surry Hill (355 Crown Street).  It is the second of Bill Granger's restaurants to be opened in the 1990s.  He is credited as being the first person to offer avocado on toast at his first restaurant in Darlinghurst.  Today there are 19 cafes around the world and during his lifetime he was one of Australia's celebrity cooks.  He died in 2023 but his passion for good simple food lives on in his books and his restaurants.

I liked the bright flowers painted on the front of Bills Surry Hills that brightened the view from the inside which reached beyond to the outdoor tables and the terrace houses across the road.

I ordered the intriguing Green kimchi and cavolo nero pancake, cucumber, basil and red shiso salad, ginger dressing ($25).  It was mostly vegetable.  More like a fritter than a pancake.  The kale made it very green, the kimchi made it a bit spicy and the cucumber salad was cooling.  A great combination!

My mum and dad shared Bill's famous Ricotta hotcakes, banana and honeycomb butter ($32.5).  They loved the amazingly light hotcakes with the delicious topping.  Sylvia, as the vegan on the table, did not fancy the avocado on toast (which now comes with lime and coriander) nor the granola nor the sago bowl.  She opted for the simple sourdough toast with strawberry lemongrass jam, which she really enjoyed, though she was sad it was before the lunch menu that included a mushroom and crispy tofu fried rice.

There were coffees for all but me.  Sylvia was most displeased at the lack of foam on her cappuccino but I really enjoyed the peach and jasmine soda.

We walked down to another icon of Surry Hills, the Bourke Street Bakery (633 Bourke St).  We were too full to buy food to eat but my mum bought a sausage roll for later and we bought a loaf each of their lovely bread to take home on the plane.  There were a few vegan savoury pastries and breads but nothing in the way of sweet food.  I also wrote a post on our visit to our visit to  Bourke Street Bakery in 2018.

My dad and I enjoyed looking around the area while Sylvia and my mum had a rest at the tables and chairs outside the bakery by the mural of the baker.  I enjoy how the terrace houses in Sydney are same same but different.  They have much steeper roofs and less fancy Victorian flourishes.  Each city's architecture has its charms.  Surry Hills is also fascinating as the location for the Ruth Park's book, The Harp in the South, based on her time living there when it was a slum suburb in the 1940s.  Now it is a fashionable place to live with prices to match!  

Then we took the light rail to Central Station.  I don't have a great grasp of Sydney's suburbs and was surprised to find that Central Station is on the border of Surry Hills.  We had lunch at Shift Eatery (Shop 4/241 Commercial St), a vegan cafe and deli.  

They had lots of interesting vegan groceries for sale including The Red Balloon's gelatine-free vegan Mello Jello jubes, Mama Meegz M'z Gems (candy coated chocolate buttons like smarties or M&Ms), and - most intriguingly - Primal Spirits Vegan Jerky made from shitake with two flavours: mequite & lime and hot, spicy, sweet, savoury.

We started with drinks.  Sylvia had an iced soy matcha and I had the excellent Herbs of Life peach and apricot kombucha.

Sylvia and I shared a couple of dishes: Reuben's Vegan Brother, Steve: "100g of our house made corned beef (30g protein/serve - gluten based) sauerkraut, russian dressing, cheddar and westmont pickles toasted on sourdough" and the Poke Bowl (GF): Brown rice + smoked tofu + roasted mushrooms + edamame + greens + cucumber + tomato, pickled ginger + miso & ginger dressing.  I was less impressed with my lunch.  The Reuben had far too much mock meat for me but Sylvia loved it.  The poke bowl was nice, as was the carrot cake my parents shared but were nothing to rave about.

 

 

I sat facing the walkway from the front door and on the wall was a Llama called Tahini from Moo to Ewe Animal Sanctuary.  He looked so gorgeous, I wanted to meet him, or at least smuggle his photo out in my Crumpler bag!

 

Fiinally we spent a short amount of time in The Rocks.  This area of Sydney fascinates me because it is another inner city area of Sydney that was formerly slums and now is very desirable.  This important heritage area was saved from demolition by the activism of Jack Mundey of the Builders' Labourers Federation and their Green bans.

 

My dad and I had a walk around the area to see some of the older houses, including Susannah Place: a terrace of 4 homes that has been set up as a museum.  It is tour group only and our timing was too tight to do a tour.  However, the back of the building evokes the spirit of the slums that make it easy to imagine housewives hanging out washing and small kids playing the street.

Although many house in The Rocks were saved by Green Bans, many nearby homes were pulled down to make way for the magnificent Sydney Harbour Bridge.  One of the structures build around the same time as the Bridge (1932) was the Bridge Stairs for people to climb to reach the pedestrian walkway over the bridge that is still there today.  It is s fine piece of architecture for some steps.

The houses and pubs of the Rocks are now dwarfed by the new-fangled skyscrapers in Sydney's city centre.

While we went walking my mum and Sylvia rested at the Tea Cosy tearooms.  They are now at 7 Atherden Street, just around the corner from their location on 33 George Street where they were during our visit to The Tea Cosy tearooms in 2019.  I love the knitted bunch of yellow flowers at the entrance.  In the background of the photo of them you can see the tables with knitted blankets and baskets of knitting.

Sylvia took this photo of the knitting on their table.  My mum refreshed her memory about how to knit and she was very proud to contribute a few rows to the communal knitting project on the table.  While they both had expected to get drinks there, neither fancied one and were too full for scones, but the cafe kindly gave them water while they sat out the front admiring the view that you can see more clearly on the top photo of my post.

Then it was time to head back to pick up our suitcases and head to Central Station to catch one last double decker train to Sydney Airport.  We had a small meal there - I had a Mexican bowl and a Dubai chocolate brookie that were very good.  Sylvia discovered the delights of the vegan Grande Melt at Mad Mex.  My parents had KFC and rice paper rolls.  Before long we were back at Avalon Airport, picking up our car to drive home to Melbourne.  It was a joy to see Sydney again, albeit briefly!

More posts on Green Gourmet Giraffe on our trip to Sydney:

• Opera Bar and Sydney Harbour  
• Duke of Clarence, QVB, Uchilounge (City centre), Sydney 
• Miss Sina, Oh My Days, Sappho Books (Glebe and Marrickville) Sydney
• University of Sydney Quadrangle, Camperdown
• Sydney Street Art (City, Glebe, Surrey Hills and Marrickville) 2026