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food

Food & Wine Festival

/ Sydney Food / 2 Comments

Lisa and I decided to attend the Sydney Food & Wine Festival today to celebrate our mutual love of food and gluttony.

There were SO many people there it was just insane. We had to have a lot of patience, both with having to wait a while to get samples or buy anything and with the people in general. Events like this with freebies and great deals always bring out the absolute worst in human nature.

Highlights included the amazing deals up for offer in most of the booths. It was like extreme grocery shopping. Lowlights included the pushing, shoving and being run over by trolleys and prams as well as carrying around my loot after purchasing it!

Entry was $25 which I thought was a bit pricey, but we DID get a free wine glass to sample wine with and take home, as well as free samples from almost every booth. Lots and lots of fun!

The Lindt booth.


The dips Lisa was in love with.


Sweet potato dip.


Lisa eating butter chicken and spinach and lentil curries with rice.


We were Tokidoki twins.


Wine tasting booth.


Food bouquets.


Pepper and spice grinders.


Chockas!


Whisk & Pin – my favourite cereal.


This gluten-free cereal has sentimental value for me.


Free Dove samples.


My favourite pasta-makers were there.


Lisa and her sausage roll for lunch.


Self-portrait.


Lisa tries another dip.


This is a huge batch of raspberries being heated up to serve with pancakes. Yuuum.


Tasty!


Nutritional goodness.


Wine!



Heading home with heavy bags.


I *may* have purchased a few things.


OK, so here is my swag.


The deals I got were amazing!

Pasta pack – gnocci, two kinds of pasta, cannelloni, homemade sauce and freezer bag – $25
Lindt – 13 full-size blocks – $25
Apples – six – $6
Instant noodles – three – $1
Lemon ice tea – $1
Iams fod food samples – free
Cucumber & pine nuts dip – free
Salt & pepper grinders – $5
Olives – two jars – $5
Stir-fry sauce – two bottles – $5

Food Etc On Friday

/ Sydney Food / 1 Comment

I had an exercise bonanza today – netball (we won! yay!) followed by a dance class with Kassie. On the way home I saw this on a round-about… Yes, what looks like a very expensive sports car underneath a huge concrete block …



I then met Alec to grab some chinese from Chatswood BBQ Kitchen. Alec had this new dish called Fook Kien Fried Rice and I had the usual.


Spring rolls – with meat unfortunately so only Alec could eat them. He said they were pretty good.

Engagement Celebrations

/ friends / 2 Comments

Last Friday night we went over Beverly’s new place to celebrate her engagement to Chris. Beverly decided to make us pizza from scratch – supreme for everyone and vege special for me.

Ready to go in the oven.



Cooks hard at work.


Note the pretty wine glass charms – made to look like donuts.


Sleepy.


Why hello there fuzzy thing.


Fresh!



Nom nom nom.



Attempt at being arty.



Dessert!




Can’t wait for the wedding now!

Cafe Sydney

/ Sydney Food / 1 Comment

I love to eat. I am a fussy eater but I eat a lot of the few foods I love.

One of the benefits of my job is I now get to occasionally eat at restaurants that I would otherwise never be able to afford, such as Cafe Sydney at Circular Quay. They didn’t have much food catered to vegetarians, but I still managed to find plenty to scoff down.

Tomatoes with buffalo mozzarella, basil, aged balsamic and extra virgin olive oil.


Peppered wagyu carpaccio, truss cherry tomatoes, olives , baby capers, pecorino, horseradish and lemon dressing.


Seared scallops, mushroom and pancettea tart with a green pea sauce.


Zucchini flowers with gorgonzola and ricotta filling, tomatoes and olives.


Grilled tuna with salt cod brandade filled zucchini flower, kipfler potatoes, peas and salsa verde.


Mashed potato and steamed greens.


Roasted lamb rack with confit shoulder, jerusalem artichoke and jus.


Bitter chocolate ganache tart with honeycomb iced parfait . DELICIOUS!


Strawberry and vanilla trifle with moscato and meringue sticks.


Chocolate pudding.


View from our table.


Even on a cloudy day the view is amazing.

Bite Me – Bondi

/ friends, Sydney Food / 1 Comment

After flying back in from Melbourne I picked up Alec and head on over to try the Bondi Bite Me store – according to Bev, they had more items on the menu.

Bondi is a LOOONG way in peak hour traffic and cyclonic storms, but it was worth it for the delicious burgers and company.


Note the tomato sauce splatter on the ceiling.



Drawing a rocket.





Onion rings.


Alec’s burger.


Lisa’s topless burger.


Flourless chocolate cake.


Aww group shot.

Risotto Sucess

/ Sydney Food / 1 Comment

I’m not a very creative cook. I tend to make the same few dishes over and over again cos it’s easy.

I’ve been feeling lately however like I really should branch out as there are only so many times I can make pasta before Alec starts eating out. I thought I’d try risotto – I’ve only recently decided I like it and wanted to give it a go.

I used the basic recipe in the Donna Hay Classics cookbook and added the vegetables from another recipe. Turns out it’s pretty simple if not time-consuming and tiring.

Yay, risotto success!

21

/ Sydney Food, Sydney Life / 1 Comment

This movie is based on the book Bringing Down The House, about team of students from MIT university who formed a card-counting team to make money at Black Jack. The book had a lot of fictional elements to it and the movie even more so – which made it more dramatic I imagine, and more interesting to first read, then watch.

What did impress me was how smart the students are (which highlighted how very poor my own math skills are) and what a genius scheme it was.


We had dinner at Alec’s favourite Vietnamese place in Chatswood – Golden Bo. I had some kind of noodle and vege dish.

Alec’s sauce for his noodles.


Vermicelli noodles and spring rolls. Delish!

Toki Madness

/ Shopping, Sydney Food / 2 Comments

One turned into two … turned into four? How did this happen?

I orderd a second-hand black Bambinone Tokidoki bag so I could wear it around everywhere and not worry about ruining it. Then Lisa brought me back an amazing messenger bag Toki from Haway in the L’Amore print – it’s gorgeous – and huge!




Sushi train for dinner at Chatswood! I don’t really like sushi, but I love edamane – I had two serves 🙂



Sweet pressies from Lisa – body wash and cute little Hawaii post-its.



Mother’s Day

/ Family, Sydney Food / 0 comment

I love my mum a lot. She’s pretty awesome, so I was looking forward to spending the day with her and my dad.

We decided to go for a drive down to the Southern Highlands, to a few places we used to drive to frequently when I was young.

We had lunch at our first stop, Bowrel at The Grand Bar and Brasserie. The old hotel had a great vegetarian menu so it was perfect for me, as well as having lots of old favourites like fish and chips for my dad.

The damper garlic bread was divine.


My vege tasting plate – with broccoli tempura, honey carrots, sweet potato chips, asparagus and beans.


Mum’s vege omelette with tomato salsa.


Dad’s fish and chips.


The area had a lot of beautiful autumn trees. The colours were amazing!


Nina’s chocolate shop – lots of sweets from all over the world as well as these handmade chocolates – made in Sydney, and really delicious.


This was a really quirky antiques store.




After Bowrel we drove to Berrima which is about 15 mins away. Berrima is a bit more touristy than Bowrel but also has more galleries and cafes. I do love Bowrel though as it has amazing tulips in October every year.

We went to some markets at the public school in Berrima an came away with homemade food and second-hand books. Awesome bargains.


Afternoon tea in the Southern Highlands is always Devonshire tea. The alpaca centre has a great little cafe in it that looks quite plain from the outside but is really cosy on the inside. It also has really lovely scones.


Mmmmm!


With Mum.


Tasty caramel slice from the markets.


Yummu chocolates.


Iron Man and Mr Wong’s Kitchen

/ Sydney Food, Sydney Life / 0 comment

I love a good action movie, particularly when it is based on a Marvel superhero. I had never heard of Iron Man before, but after hearing some early rave reviews I was more than keen to see the movie.

Robert Downey Jr stars in the main role of Tony Stark, a brilliant rich play boy who uses his amazing mind to create weapons for the USA to use for “homeland security” if you get my drift. He is captured by a group of terrorists who want him to build weapons for them. Stark builds a robot to escape instead, and is motivated by the experience to turn his life around and save people rather than building weapons.

I just realised writing this how bad the plot sounds, but I really enjoyed the movie. I found it exciting, smart and funny. Robert Downey Jr is an actor who has shown a lot of talent over the years – when he hasn’t been on drugs or in rehab. It’s a shame that he’s been so screwed up as this movie shows what a great actor he really is.


After the movie we went to Mr Wong’s Kitchen. I absolutely love this place and its cheap delicious food.

Tonight however the service was really slow and the spring rolls weren’t fabulous. The vege fried rice and mixed veges were delicious however, so the meal was redeemed and I will be back for more.