November 2008 - Page 2 of 2 - Adventure, baby!

Sanctuary Hotel

November 13, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

On a whim, we all met up for dinner at the Sanctuary Hotel for a quick meal. Bev was out with her parents so we finally got to meet them! It was lovely to be able to get to know them – we could definitely see where Beverly inherited a lot her looks and personality!

The Sanctuary Hotel opened this year in the spot of the famous old Don Quixote Restaurant. It’s a very bright open space, very different to most pubs, and the food is super fast and fresh. meals are also very reasonably priced – between $11 and $14 for a main.

Alec’s burger.

Fish and chips.

Spicy linguine pasta.

Steak sandwich.

Steak with mash.

My margarita pizza – very tasty but not very filling.

Group shot!

With Bev’s delightful parents!

Pretty girls 🙂

Sanctuary Hotel
545 Kent St
Sydney

(02) 9264 1119

J.P.Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge

November 12, 2008 / Sydney Life / 1 Comment

I haven’t entered a running competition since high school and haven’t run in anything over 200m since primary school cross country, so I can only think I was attacked by lunacy to decide to enter the J.P.Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge. It’s a 5.6km run in Centennial Park – not a long distance, especially since I run further than that every day when I jog, but I forgot how different it is running in a race, even if you’re only running to have fun.

Team with their game faces on.

Me and the girls, numbered and ready in matching outfits.

The boys – including two marathon runners – insisted on wearing the “Noogler” hats – they did get a lot of attention!

Vin had the best number of all.

Team stretching.

Ready to run!

Waiting to start – many many people!

Moving towards the start line – go time!

I found the run harder than I thought I would. I got a really bad stitch after the first km mark, which then kept coming back for the rest of the run. Despite this and having to stop a few times when the pain got too bad, I still managed to run a pretty good time of 32 mins – so around 5.6 mins per km. Not an awesome time for any serious runners, but I was stoked! My goal now is to be able to run this speed regularly over this distance in preparation for future runs!

Bravo Trattoria

November 11, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

Just a quick night out to welcome home Alec and to celebrate Bev staying in Sydney a bit longer.

We decided to try Bravo Trattoria in Crows Nest, famous for their many kinds of pasta (rumoured to be a hundred different kinds).

It is a very unassuming little place in the centre of Crowie. I’m not certain they had a hundred types of pasta, but they certainly did have a lot of variety.

Garlic bread – more buttery then garlicy.

Pizza – not sure which one this is.

Bev’s pasta.

Vege pizza – not mine!

My four-cheese pizza – very tasty but a bit over-priced.

Eating action shot.

Nom nom nom.

Italian pasta – delicious! I wil be ordering this one next time.

Lovely ladies!

Wuv!

More wuv 🙂

Bravo is well-known for their gelato, made on the premise every day.

Lots to chose from!

I thought it was very over-priced however – $5.40 for a tiny scoop! It was very tasty, but not so much better than Gelatissimo to warrant the price hike.

My mango gelato – very tasty, especially the wafer.

Alec’s berry crumble. Very good crumble – not soggy as crumble can become.

Fast and ready to explode after dinner. Bev seems to be expecting a pasta baby.

Bravo Trattoria
6 – 8 Falcon St
Crows Nest

(02) 9906 3620

Welcome Home Alec!

November 9, 2008 / Love / 0 comment

Rihanna & Chris Brown Concert

November 8, 2008 / Sydney Life / 0 comment

Rosalie and I braved teenybopper central to see Rihanna (and Chris Brown) at the Acer Area.

Cool sunset!

Arena packs out.

Chris Brown

Dance-off on the floor.

Rihanna
Hate How Much I Love You

Rihanna
Unfaithful

Rihanna

Ro and I surrounded by invisible teenagers.

The concert was a lot of fun. Chris Brown lip synced the entire show (boo, hiss!) but Rihanna was fabulous.

Cookies!

November 8, 2008 / Sydney Food / 1 Comment

In honour of Alec coming home I thought I would bake cookies – something I haven’t tried in a while because our oven is lacking an element.

It seems my baking mojo has flown completely out the window – I made a lot of silly mistakes and got really frustrated!

ANZAC biscuit batter – my first attempt!

I haven’t used my parents’ fancy oven in a while and I forgot what all of the settings did. As a result, I put the oven on “grill” and “grilled” the biscuits. Whoops!

Completely ruined top batch

The second tray were salvaged

I tried to make a basic vanilla cookie as well – this proved to be much more successful!

Batter on the tray

Cooling on the rack

Covered in sprinkles (I put these on the batter on about 30% of the cookies so they cooked in the oven with the sprinkles on them)

Now I’m keen to replace our crappy oven so I can bake some more!

Happy Birthday Beverly!

November 7, 2008 / friends / 0 comment

For my dear friend Beverly’s birthday, we gathered at a little Japanese / French place in Willoughby called A La Facon de Shimizu.

Girls dressed for the occasion. Like my new dress? Seduce factory outlet sale!

Fried Camembert cheese wheel that I split with Lisa (around $15). Super delicious!

Food porn shot.

Happy girls in summery dresses.

Neither the Japanese or French do vegetarian food particularly well, so it wasn’t a surprise that they didn’t have a single vegetarian main on the menu. They did however make me a fantastic dish on the spot to suit me – how very obliging! It was also big enough to feed two people, so if I go back I will ask for a half-serve!

Vegetarian pasta dish (Around $22).

Beverly, the beautiful birthday girl.

Blowing out the candles.

Tasty cake Chris organised.

I really loved that the restaurant was BYO and didn’t charge for corkage, and they also didn’t charge us cakage either! A really great evening.

Happy birthday Beverly!

A La Facon de Shimizu
537 Willoughby Rd
Willoughby NSW 2068
Phone (02) 9958 8785

Umaimon Japanese Restaurant

November 5, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

I saw a review for this little restaurant on the very excellent Grab Your Fork blog, which is also where I have sourced the pic below as the owner didn’t appreciate me taking pics!

Umaimon Japanese Restaurant is right near my work, but I’ve never noticed it before as it is quite tucked away.

My friend Isis agreed to try this little place out with me. We sat down outside so as to enjoy the balmy evening air, and were presented with three menus to peruse. Lots of choices, all in Japanese with brief, and somewhat interesting, descriptions.

We ordered edamame for appetiser to shade (about $4 for a bowl), and I ordered the stir fry energy vegetables ($8.90) plus steamed rice ($2.90 a bowl). Isis ordered chicken and tofu salad. Our food arrived quickly, in no particular order, and was delightfully fresh and perfectly cooked.

My energy vegetables had a bit of a punch to them – perhaps a lot of ginger in there? – and had lots of bean sprouts, which I just love.

Tofu salad

Isis’s chicken

Cute little bowl of rice

Stir fried energy vegetables.

The food was extremely reasonably priced and delicious. It was also packed with Japanese people, so I’m guessing it’s also a hit with the locals, which is another sign that it’s an authentic place to get very tasty Japanese cuisine.

Umaimon
Shop 5, 51 Druitt St
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9283 0606

Monday to Friday 11am-10pm
Saturdays and public holidays 12pm-10pm

Cruelty Free Festival and Chinatown Shopping

November 2, 2008 / Sydney Life / 0 comment

I asked Lisa to accompany me to the Cruelty Free Festival in Haymarket. Even though she is a meat-eater, she also eats a lot of meat substitutes – way more than me! I thought it would be good to try some new vegan foods and see what they had to say about living a cruelty-free life – something I have become more and more passionate about over the past year.

I hoe into one of my favourite foods – corn!

Lisa tries a vegan curry puff.

Close-up – it was so tasty she went back for more!

We went halves in a vegan “cheesy” pie. It was filled with soy cheese and textured vegetable protein. I’ve wanted to try soy cheese for a while to see if I could actually eat it instead of cheese. The answer? No, no I can’t, sadly.

The “Cheesy” pie. Pastry was fabulous, but the insides were another story.

Lots of hippy vegans.

We sat down to eat and listen to some vegan singers and bands.

Faux beef jerky … heavily dosed in honey we thought. Tasted fabulous so Lise got a bulk pack to take home!

Glistening faux meat …

Lise loves coconut juice.

There were lots of stalls filled with vegan cosmetics and skincare products as well as plenty of animal rights groups. I bought a “Save Babe” tee from Animals Australia and a calendar from Monika’s Doggie Rescue. Both are animal charities I strongly recommend supporting.

Pet Rescue stall – I want to save all the cats, dogs and other animals out there in pain. There are just so many of them it’s overwhelming.

Happy, loved vegan dogs chilling out.

Trying vegan pecan pie for dessert. Super pricey and not as tasty as the real thing unfortunately!

After doing our bit for a cruelty-free life, we needed some shopping at Market City’s outlet centre and Chinatown shops to lift our mood (plus a real dose of sugar after all that healthy food!).