Six reasons to visit Preston

Top pho at Pho Hung.Credit: Richard Cornish

1. HOMEMADE FESTIVAL

This is a superb cultural festival cleverly disguised as a celebration of the encyclopaedic range of traditional food manufacturing and preserving skills held in the memories of Preston's multicultural population. Just one of the highlights is A is for Atlas: Cherry, Cherry (A Dining Room Tale), in which Iranian-born musician Neda Rahmani invites you into her home, where she performs a musical narrative of her journey to Australia as a refugee as she prepares a communal meal. The festival includes classes on topics ranging from rolling your own sushi to making your own Thai curry paste. There's fruit preserving, salami-making, winemaking and even a workshop on how to brew beer in a bag. Next Saturday at 10am, the last day of this six-day festival, there is a ''spag off'', with two teams competing at the Preston Market to see who makes the best pasta.
Darebin Homemade Food & Wine Festival, May 12-17, darebinarts.com.au/foodandwine

2. TO MARKET

This is without doubt the best food market in Melbourne. What it lacks at the gourmet end it makes up for in diversity and value. It has the cosmopolitan feel of an everyday European market but populated by stallholders from across the planet. Sit at the bar and order a coffee at T's Vietnamese Classics cafe, followed perhaps by a plate of rice paper rolls. Come here to watch Eric at Vita's Deli hand-make spaccatelle pasta, part of the 1.5 tonnes they make here each week. Then there is the wet market - quality meat and poultry, plus really fresh fish with three generations of the Valls family, originally from Barcelona, at their stall, Preston Seafood.
Preston Market, Murray Road, Wed 8am-3pm, Thurs 8am-6pm, Fri 8am-8pm, Sat 8am-3pm, prestonmarket.com.au

3. TOP PHO

The locals reckon this Vietnamese restaurant serves the best pho in Melbourne. With a drab, light-olive-green paint job and menus and chopsticks to match, you don't come here for the decor. It's the rich, fragrant, lightly spiced and not over-sweet beef soup filled with rice noodles and juicy slices of beef that makes this place so busy.
Pho Hung, 447 High Street, Preston, daily 9am-10pm, 9470 1588

4. DESIGNING DUO

Designers and partners Adam Koniaras and Marnie Goding produce jewellery and accessories so adored that some people have been known to copy their designs for their tattoos. Under their Elk brand they make contemporary fashion accessories, leather goods and beautiful apparel, partnering with artists and artisans who share their strict ethics. They have a fully stocked showroom on Plenty Road.
Elk, 395 Plenty Road, Preston, Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-4pm, 9478 1800, elkaccessories.com.au

5. RAY BRAMHAM GARDENS

There is a bronze statue of a young, lone Lebanese man in traditional costume standing beside the rotunda in the Ray Bramham Gardens, overlooking St Georges Road. The work celebrates the contribution Lebanese migrants have made to the community. The gardens themselves are a favourite with locals, who come for the Moreton Bay figs, sculpted conifers and wetlands.
Ray Bramham Gardens, south-east of Bell Street and St Georges Road junction

6. LEBANESE PASTRY

The aroma of rose petal syrup and orange blossom water hangs in the air of the Abla family's patisserie. It's a big pastry shop with an even bigger kitchen out the back making a continuous supply of Lebanese pastries for sale both here and in the sister shop in Prahran, with wholesale supplies to other cafes. Order Middle Eastern pastries such as kanafe (sweet clotted cream pastry), or perhaps a square of ballorieh (kataifi pastry with a pistachio and orange blossom water filling).
Abla's Patisserie, 260 High Street, Preston, 9480 1700, Mon-Thurs and Sun 9am-10pm, Fri-Sat 9am-11pm, abla.com.au

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