friends Archives - Page 4 of 10

Khacha Thai and Catch-up

January 4, 2009 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

Beverly and Chris arrived home from Singapore this morning, so we met up for ferret handing over and lunch at Khacha Thai in Crows Nest. It was also the last time that we would all be able to get together until Bev and Chris’ wedding in August – I’m going to miss you guys!

Khacha Thai is a great little place with very large portions, making it a good value place to eat.

Soft-shell crab I think. The boys loved it.

Mixed stir-fry vegetables with soy bean sauce.

Prawn something.

The boys looking grim.

Aww.

Lastly, vegetarian Pad Thai.

Finally, today I got my new watch, which is my birthmas present from Alec. I lost my previous one when I fell over somehow, and I have been watch-less ever since! I love love love my new Tag, particularly the pink mother of pearl face. So pretty!

Close-up!

Khacha Thai

308a Pacific Highway

Crows Nest

Ph: (o2) 9966 8444

Christmas BBQ Lunch

December 14, 2008 / Family, friends / 0 comment

Every year I meet up with my high school friends for an Xmas get-together. It’s the one time of year we can all usually meet up, so I always look forward to it.

This year we decided to have a BBQ at Bicentennial Park.

Alec talks to little Buffers.

Enjoying the greenery.

Shelley on her last weekend before moving to London.

Jules and Ro.

Kaz.

Rosalie made these amazing reindeer cupcakes – chocolate with berries in them.

Group shot. 11 years after high school finished, who’d have thought we would be where we are today and still friends?

Kahlua and Buff were on their best behaviour.

Kahlua has had an ear infection for most of the year. We finally have it sorted out and after many many months of ear pain for her, she is finally on the mend. Yay!

Mario Brothers Pizza & Pasta, Crows Nest

December 6, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

On a whim, we joined friends for dinner at Mario Brothers Pizza & Pasta at Crows Nest. I’m always willing to try new pizza in the quest to find the perfect slice.

Garlic bread – completely awesome.

My Margarita pizza. Perfectly cooked.

Clan Cooper!

Alec and Daniel shared a super supreme.

I loved that the bases were so crisp. They were much better than the soggy ones we get from our beloved LCC (I’m sorry LCC!). My only criticiscm was the cost – my medium plain cheese pizza was almost $17!

Nomming away.

Red with a good red.

Note the matching crazy looks on the faces of Alec and the woman in the picture.

Tired and full of glorious pizza.

Mario Brothers Pizza & Pasta
314 Pacific Highway
Crows Nest
(02) 9966 5551

Adriano Zumbo Patissier & Cafe Chocolat

December 6, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

Searching for the perfect chocolate on a Saturday, we drove down to Balmain to try Adriano Zumbo Patissier and Cafe Chocolat.

Quite simply, I’m in love.

The two stores are located within metres of each other, and both serve glorious things that will make you swoon. Our advice? Visit the patissier first and pick up savories and cakes, then take it to the Cafe Chocolat to sit down and order drinks. The patissier doesn’t actually serve drinks or have tables, so if you do it any other way, you will be in a bit of a mess, like we ended up in.

All of the cakes at the patissier look so amazing we don’t know what to try.

We settle on a Charles de Jour to share, and two quiches ($5.20 each) and a sausage roll to get the savory stuff in before the sugar overload begins.

Back at the cafe, the patient staff have our drinks on hold. We score a large table – and begin the feast.

Old school drinks menu. I had a butterscotch shake. Totally delicious, but not big enough.

Inside – the chocolate.

I took a few home for Alec to try, but the consensus was while they were lovely, the big draw card here is the desserts.

Macaroons – I tried Chocolate Orange, Chocolate and Chocolate Caramel – the Chocolate Caramel was by far the best. I will get it again! ($2 each)

Cute interior at the Cafe Chocolat.

Food – ready for go time!

Lisa’s cherry hot chocolate. It was far too heavy and sweet – it didn’t help that the day was about 30 degrees either!

Happy girls with the nom nom food.

Love the chandelier.

Finally – the Charles de Jour! Tart pate sucree, vanilla ganache, vanilla creme chantilly, vanilla water bursts and vanilla glacage.

One of the most amazing things I have tasted in my life.

For some reason we ordered a chocolate brownie as well ($6). In retrospect we should have ordered something more exotic, but we lost our heads for a few minues.

Leaning tower of chocolate! Nuts, chocolate, mirangue.

Adriano Zumbo Patissier
296 Darling Street,
Balmain
(02) 9810 7318
Mon – Sat, 8am – 6pm
Sun 8am – 4pm

Adriano Zumbo Cafe Chocolat
Shop 5, 308 Darling St
Balmain
(02) 9555 1199
Open 7 days, 7am – 6pm

Guylian Chocolate Cafe, Sydney

December 4, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

Time to try the new Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe on George St, in The Rocks, after a night of shopping.

It didn’t start out well – the doors slipped closed when we were about to enter, and the doors locked from the inside, causing Bev to lose the final straw after a frustrating day, and nearly break the doors trying to get in. In hindsight, I like to think it was a sign from abut trying to prevent us from entering.

Famous seahorse!

Nice decor.

Friands.

Mmmmm …

Good range of chocolate, but nothing really unique.

Desserts! Note the price is take-away – add an extra $4 – $5 to have these at the table.

We were quite stunned at how pricey it all was. The prices in the window looked OK, but when we compared them to the menu and saw the price hike, we shied away from the expensive desserts on principle. Compared to the Lindt Cafe, which is a higher quality grade chocolate, they were even more expensive, and didn’t taste anywhere near as good. Very disappointing!

Cranky Bev – with very good reason!

My classic shake – good, but not spectacular (about $7)

Hot chocolate (about $7)

Going for the money shot all at once.

Peanut and chocolate cookie – quite try and bland and cost about $3.

Chocolate cookie – same again.

Bev ordered a croissant and chocolate dips – about $7.

One chocolate was liquidy and tasty, the other like a bowl of solid chocolate.

Yum!

Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafe
The Rocks,
91 George St
Sydney

Starbucks Free Coffee & Belle Pizza, Crows Nest

December 3, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

On the way to dinner, Bev spotted a sign outside the Starbucks at Wynyard station saying “Free Xmas Coffees”. She races to the station to meet us, and we all flew back to Starbucks to line up for free beverages and gingerbread men – bonus!

The staff busily making our tasty treats.

Alec and a free gingerbread man.

With our freebies! What a score!

We then met the rest of the gang and proceeded to Belle La Pizza Restaurant at Crows Nest.

Talking about … stuff.

Garlic bread – a bit too buttery but still tasty.

Romance!

The pizzas begin!

My tomato risotto with vegetables. Very very tasty!

Nom nom nom.

Food frenzy!

Hunger satiated at last.

Completely ready to burst.

Sad thinking of our friends leaving!

Belle La Pizza Restaurant
242 Pacific Highway,
Crows Nest
(02) 9955 1113
Open for dinner seven days

Evening of Gluttony

November 30, 2008 / friends / 0 comment

Lovely Lol-isa has us all over for a big feast of nom-licious food.

Reading a very interesting article on Tiffany & Co.

Bev provided entree number one – cheese and tomato puffs, with ham in them for the meat-eaters.

Erm …

My special no-meat version.

Sigh. There’s no helping the hopeless.

Entree number two – pumpkin bruschetta. I’m not a huge pumpkin fan, but I just loved this!

Cheese tortellini for mains!

Multi-tasking for dinner.

Making myself useful.

The result – nutty pasta with asparagus. Delicious!

Who’s the cutest kitty of them all?

Dessert number one – banoffie pie! Second-last layer – bananas.

A layer of cream on top finishes it off.

Feed me now!

OMG so tasty!

Dessert number two was another mango cake. I’m addicted ….

Heaven!

Stuffed and needing to be carried.

Cute couple leaving us to move to Shanghai.

My awesome friends.

So full we can’t move.

Excellent host family. Thank you for having us over!

Chaotic group photo.

Rahmen Genki & San Churro

November 14, 2008 / Sydney Food / 0 comment

A Friday night catch up with Alec and Daniel took us to Rahmen Genki Japanese Noodle at Artarmon. I tried to visit this place a month or so back with Bev and Lisa, but it was randomly closed on a Tuesday night.

On a Friday night, it was packed out with a queue to order food – which leads me to one of the quirks about the restaurant, you order at the door then wait to be seated.

Lots of locals pack this place out.

The menu at the door and instructions.

Boys chatting and gossiping.

It was great to see Daniel. Loving the new hair and change in his wardrobe.

Despite being super busy, the food came out relatively quickly. It was super fresh and was served in very good-sized portions, for a very reasonable price.

Terriyaki chicken.

My stir-fried vegetables and rice. Delicious and cost under $10.

Alec’s noodle soup.

After eating we were peckish for dessert so head off to San Churro to introduce Daniel to their tasty treats.

San Churro change their menu frequently – and not for the better. This time they had changed their shakes and gotten rid of the milk chocolate shake that I craved. I orderd the only alternative, a dark chocolate shake, but it was far too bitter and strong. I stirred the cream into it and it was much improved, but not nice enough to order again. Very disappointing – not sure I will be heading back any time soon!

The shake in question – “Classic Cold”.

We ordered churros to share – Daniel highly enjoyed his first churros treat.

Alec in action.

Close-up of the delicious churros.

Rahmen Genki
6 Wilkes Ave
Artarmon

(02) 9410 3777
Closed Tuesdays

San Churro
Shop 609, Chatswood Westfield
1 Anderson Ave
Chatswood

(02) 9412 2276

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

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.