Islands of Adventure

The weather was perfect for a day of theme park cruising, warm but not hot with some cloud. We were ready for some Universal fun. (Personally I was just a little over all things Mouse related.)

Universal's Islands of Adventure is home to the newish Wizarding World of Harry Potter and I was extremely excited to be finally getting to visit it.

Firstly we had to go through a few other sections, like Marvel Comics where Jay enjoyed the Incredible Hulk Rollercoaster and I went on the Amazing Adventures of Spiderman Ride with J and M. That's was a really fun ride - my favourite sort - the virtual ride.

Then we all got very wet on the Popeye and Bluto's Bilge Rat Barges. I may have screamed "make it stop" once or twice.

Jurassic Park was ok except for the whole weird ride rules for the Pterarodon Flyers ride which meant only Miss M could go on with one adult supervisor - lucky Jay.

Finally we reached Harry Potter and it was wonderful. The Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride was worth the very long wait, it was the most incredible virtual ride I have ever experienced. The detail was unbelievable. I'm glad the kids didn't go because it was quite frightening at times, the dragon, the giant spiders and the Dementors in particular. I could have easily gone again and again but there was more to see and do.

Jay loved the double roller coaster fun of the Dragon Challenge and, most surprisingly the kids loved the Flight of the Hippogriff, the smaller sized coaster - Will went three times.

We wandered round the shops where my sis may or may not have had an unfortunate incident with the jelly bean dispensing machine in Honeydukes lolly shop. We all got to try some Butterbeer which was delicious. I couldn't quite bring myself to try the pumpkin juice.

Reluctantly I dragged myself away from all things Harry Potter and onto the next section where we enjoyed a cool little magic show and the Sinbad Stunt Show.

Finally it was onto Seuss Landing which was so much fun. Apart from Jay who loves his "real" (ie scary) rides we are generally a bunch of theme park wimps so these rides were much more our speed.

The couch ride through The Cat in the Hat was particularly fun. It was a really colourful and fun part of the park. I was so tempted to buy the kids Thing 1 and Thing 2 t-shirts but didn't really think they'd wear them after the novelty wore off.

By now it was 8pm and the park was closing. A huge, fun day had by all. We headed to Universal Walk for dinner at The Latin Quarter's churrascaria meat overload. It's amazing how quickly you can go from "I'm starving" to "don't come near me with your meat on a stick again, I'm about to explode". Special mention goes to the Sangria which was light and delicious and just what the doctor ordered after a hard day of theme park rambling.

So our theme park adventures come to an end. Don't think I can face another one for some time.

Today is J and M's last day as they head back to real life in NYC late this afternoon. We're having a pool day, we all need it.

Friday

Today was outlet shopping day for Jay and (yet another) relaxing by the pool day for me and the kidlets. Oh, and waiting for my sister and brother-in-law to turn up from NY.

So really nothing super exciting to report. The kids played and I started reading Neil Cross' autobiographical "Heartland" (I so love his books and now I'm starting to see where that darkness comes from).

The Hilton people had a DJ playing some great music and had dancing games and craft for the kids. Such a fun in the sun sort of day.

Then Jay returned with his spoils and J and M turned up all at about the same time. It was nice to sit and chat and catch up a little with my sis. The almost twelve months since the wedding and our trip to New York have just flown by so fast.

Then it was time to clean ourselves up and head to dinner at the Waldorf Astoria next door - we had a booking at the Bull & Bear.

Wow! What a great restaurant. Just the right ambience for an upmarket steak house: formal but friendly. Perfect service and truly wonderful food. The kids tasted almost everything, from the seafood platter entrees we shared to the brontosaurus sized steak sliced off the bone for us to the sublime little beignets (French donuts) and, as we all did, loved every mouthful.

After two weeks of dull, average and occasionally plain bad food it was a thorough treat. A meal I'll certainly remember as a highlight of this trip.

Hola from La Antigua, Guatemala

This is our humble abode for the next week. It is a very comfortable two bedroom casa in a small gated compound which is about a ten minute walk from Parque Cental, the hub of La Antigua.

Let's catch up on the last however many hours... I have no idea how many because it could be less than 24 or it could be more than 100... I have lost track of day and night and which way is up.

We departed Sydney on a Virgin Australia fligh at 2:40 pm on Saturday 31 March. It was pretty much a faultless flight; the worst thing I can say about it was that serving a pasta side salad is not a brilliant idea when the main is a pasta or even a Butter Chicken (which was delicious by the way). Great service, great and plentiful food and top notch entertainment system. Big Jay even got double lucky with a seat across the isle from the kids and I and a bulkhead seat with the extra leg room he needs.

So a smooth flight into LAX. The usual crazy long standing around in Customs; finally fresh LA air and freedom. Straight onto a hotel shuttle to the Hilton LAX. There's nothing like the comfort, physical and psychological of a highly rated hotel. When I walk into a lobby of such an establishment I know that all is well with the world; nothing is too much trouble and everything can be fixed with the swipe of a credit card.

The kids were tired and out of sorts, especially Will who had come down with a fairly nasty cold on the flight; a combination of a lingering sniffle, airplane air conditioning and tiredness. They didn't wan to eat so we settled into the hotel room and went down for some lunch.

The Hilton was hosting some sort of US Army event, uniforms everywhere. There's something bigger and better about a US Service[wo]man. They just seem more of everything, more patriotic, more capable, more don't-mess-with-me-mofo, they fill out their uniforms better, they just project an aura which is "more".

After lunch we headed back to our room just in time to stop a brother-sister squabble of jet lagged proportions. Luckily we didn't require the assistance of the aforementioned military personnel, but it was touch and go there for a moment.

The afternoon turned into evening as we lazed about, dozing on and off, watching Cartoon Network and trying not to think about getting on another plane.

At 8:00 pm we cleared out, somewhat sorry to leave our cozy cocoon. Check-in was relatively hassle free, apart from the slightly worrying moment or two when the Delta check-in chick thought Marianna wasn't booked onto the second leg of our flights from Guatemala to Orlando. Mystery solved we proceeded to the Sky Club Lounge for more sitting around doing not much of anything. Decent snacks and a quiet place to hide from the unwashed masses, that's all one requires in a business class airport lounge.

On board, the business class seats were OK but not what I was expecting/hoping for. Not even a footrest... though the seats were wide and reasonably comfy. I couldn't sleep due to seats, turbulance and not wanting to sleep through breakfast. Guess what? No breakfast. It was advertised on our itinerary but didn't eventuate.

Then the pilot is announcing we will be landing in 8 minutes and the beatiful lights of Guatemala City are spread out underneath us. Flying into a city at dawn is special and this was our second dawn landing in GC. Lucky us!

The airport was virtually deserted and we were through baggage claim and customs in minutes. Our lovely driver Mauricio was waiting, waving his sign above the waiting crowd. In seconds we were in his van and driving through the waking streets of GC. The dusty diesel smell was probably the main memory trigger for me. It brought back arriving in that city in September 2000 full of hope and anticipation.

Now we were returning with our 12 year old son, the baby we had first held on that humid September day. He was tired and sniffly but we could tell the city was making an impression on him. He could tell we weren't in Kansas any more.

One of my favourite feelings is driving through an unfamiliar city, straight off a plane, a little dazed and confused... quietly just absorbing the sights, sounds and smells. Allowing my brain to process, admire and file the sensory data for future reference.

We were going to stop at a WalMart on the way to Antigua to stock up on life's little necessities but they were all closed. So we stopped at a smaller supermarket in Antigua and stumbled around trying to choose what we needed using brand recognition and educated guesses.

Mauricio brought us home and we laid down for a brief rest but very quickly all four of us were fast asleep. Waking at 11:30 am I realised I needed to get everyone up and out for lunch or we wouldn't be able to sleep tonight and thus our sleeping patterns would continue to be out of whack. We would also be very tired tomorrow when we are meeting Will's birthmother, Ana Mercedes.

I got the boys up easily enough but Miss M put up an admirable fight, only being enticed out of bed by the neighbours tiny (I am talking TINY, people!) puppy Tamarindo. After a quick chat with our lovely Spanish neighbour Lilith, we emerged into the street and made our way towards Parque Central, where the Holy Week fun was starting to heat up.

Last time we visited Antigua it was quiet, very quiet. Today it was chock full of people; Holy Week is probably the most important festival on the Catholic Guatemalan calendar and we have landed right at the start of it. There were lots of Mayan folk in their colourful clothing, selling goods and also enjoying the carnival atmosphere with their families. The restaurants were all full, some with queues... including Campero Pollo which was our intended lunch stop. The queue was out the door and we didn't have the patience to wait.

We found a quaint, traditional style restaurant across the road and were soon tucking into the most delicious nachos I've probably ever had. I'm going to put it down to the corn chips and the guacamole - both were sensational and just that much different to what we have at home. Yum!

Slowly we made our way home. The streets around Parque Central are being closed off and we found people (families? church groups?) making signs or pictures out of some sort out of pine needles and other plant cuttings in the middle of the street. We couldn't tell what they might be but they are obviously of some sort of religious significance. All will be revealed in the next few days when Holy Week will rev up to full throttle.

Now Will is resting on the sofa, flicking through dozens of tv channels and settling on none. Big Jay took Marianna for a swim and now they've headed back into the centre to get her hair braided and to pick up something for dinner (dare I hope for Campero?).

I'm weary, ready to go to bed but trying very hard to stay up for another 2 or 3 hours. It's now 5:00 pm... if I can stay up until eight and get a reasonable night's sleep maybe my body clock will start to adjust.

Anyway, that's all the dull details so far. Tomorrow will be a big, emotional day. Stay tuned.

Cyber Dinner Party at Chez DKG

Since I'm suffering from total writers' block and don't want to be bothering you with my anti Climate Change bollocks, anti Labor government rants (enough of that on FB) I thought I'd write about my other favourite subject right now: food.

So here are the two recipes I'd make if you were popping over for a quick Sunday night dinner. Strangely these were the two things I did actually make today; the former for our dinner, the later to bring to playgroup.

Pasta with Chorizo Seafood Tomato Sauce

500g packet of curly fettucine (or pasta of choice)
Big dash of olive oil
500g green medium prawns, peeled and deveined
400g firm fish fillets (I used red snapper), cut into 3cm cubes
2 chorizo sausages medium diced
1 clove garlic finely chopped
6-8 tomatoes peeled and chopped or 2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes or combination of both
1 large mushroom or 4-6 button mushrooms finely sliced
Dash of GOOD balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
3/4 cup vegetable stock or water
Zest of 1 small lemon

Cook pasta and set aside.
In a large pot (I use pasta pot) heat oil and add garlic and chorizo. Cook on low-medium heat for a couple of minutes. Turn up heat to medium and keep stirring. Add mushrooms.
Cook until chorizo is becoming crispy and mushrooms have cooked down. Be careful that garlic doesn't burn.
Add tomato, stock, vinegar, herbs and cook for 10 minutes or so, until the sauce thickens and tomato cooks down.
Add prawns and fish, mix through the sauce and simmer for about 5 minutes. Be careful not to overcook.
Once prawns turn pink and curl it's ready. Mix the lemon zest through sauce. Then the cooked pasta. Keep on the heat for a minute or two.
Serve with a sprinkle of parsley or coriander.

Chocolate Orange Tart

1 quantity Almond Shortcrust Pastry (I use the Thermomix - doh! - recipe)
125g Philly Cream Cheese, softened
300ml Thickened Cream
120g Chocolate (I used good quality dark chocolate)
2 Tablespoon Caster Sugar
2 large Free Range Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla essence
Zest of 1 Orange
Optional: Pear Jam or Marmalade

Roll out pastry and line an oiled tart tin (20-22cm).
Place baking paper on the pastry and fill with baking beads (??) for blind baking.
Bake at 200deg for 10 minutes. Remove beads and paper. Bake for a further 10 minutes.
Turn oven down to 170 deg.
While the pastry is baking make filling.
Melt Chocolate in the microwave - in 30 second bursts at 80% power.
When chocolate is melted whisk through sugar until smooth.
Add soft cream cheese and whisk until smooth.
Add cream, eggs, zest and vanilla and whisk until smooth.
At this point I spread the pear jam in a thin layer over the base of the tart, then pour in the chocolate mixture. If you're not using the jam just pour in the filling.
Don't over fill. You need a couple of millimeters of visible crust at the edge.
Bake for about 25-35 minutes. You want it to be set but not dry or cracked, it should still look a little wobbly in the centre. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, then chill.
If I have leftover filling I bake in oiled patty tins or muffin tins. It's yummy.

There you go. I hope you enjoyed dinner.

If you give these recipes a whirl let me know how they turn out. The tart is a bit fiddly but I love the Jaffa flavours. The pasta is a real winner, those flavours really zing along.

Bon appetit.

New York Picture 6: Shake Shack at Madison Square Park [Heaven]

Non Fawlty Feb Stuff

Um, not so much to report.

Have survived the first two weeks of school OK. Kids (and us) are coping well with the busy schedule.

Marianna is going to drop piano because, despite having a talent for it, she won't practice and thus won't improve and thus I just don't want to pay $30 a lesson for something that's not going anywhere. She's only five, so there's plenty of time to give it another try a couple of years down the track.

Have been eating well but have only lost about 200 grams; hardly worth mentioning. Maybe it'll be a slow build up and then - wham - 5 kg gone overnight. I've bought Blackmore's Metabolism Advantage because I'm always looking for the "magic" thing. Will get back to you on how useful it proves to be.

I made Empanadas today. Have been meaning to for ages. They are my favourite Colombian dish. La Cumbia, the Colombian restaurant at Kensington, makes wonderful Empanadas. I happened to be passing there yesterday and dropped in for some of the special cornmeal you need to use for the Empanada dough. Today I made some and they were delicious, especially with the green onion, tomato and corriander aji I made to spoon over them. Damn it, why are deep fried things so yum?

Well, that's about it. Not much happening around here. Until next time.

Tidying up 2010

The last week of 2010 ended in the usual way.

The birthday of Baby Cheeses was celebrated with too much eating on our deck with family and friends. The weather was gorgeous, leading me to go through a little bit of guilt as half of our country is flooded and the other half was scortching (a land "of droughts and flooding rains" indeed), not to mention Europe and parts of the US which were frozen.

Nothing to be done about it but open gifts, eat many more prawns and oysters than is strictly necessary and gaze in wonder at the 10kg ethically raised ham.

Speaking of gifts I can now proudly confirm I am the owner of a WeeSing Robbie Williams for Wii game. After a couple of glasses of Bella and a couple more lychee martinis I may have tortured entertained our guests with a spirited rendition of Something Beautiful and Rock DJ before their pained expressions forced me to accept that too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.

There was also some gorgeous Pandora earrings and a new charm under the tree from my very generous family. A fantastic new glass mixing bowl for my KitchenAid from my sister's main man M (who is now forever more known as the Gift Whisperer). A fabulous new Sheridan quilt cover set and pillows from mum.

The Entire Beast cookbook by Chris Badenoch (from the first series of Australian Masterchef) which is a book I've been coveting since I first watched Chris cook on the show (who can forget his Roasted Half Pig's Head?). I have to say that this book is worth the price of admission if only for the fabulous, darkly quirky styling and the great Introduction by Chris which really resonates with me. The recipes themselves are simply an extra bonus. Thank you JB for this special gift.

Lots of other bits which have escaped me right at this moment. As always I was very spoilt as was everyone in the family. We're a generous bunch, if I do say so myself.

Boxing Day entailed more entertaining, more eating, more gift giving and receiving... as well as a game of Sticky Wicky (a cricket game invented by one of the families at our school, so I'm giving them a plug). Despite the heat and my general abhorrence of anything cricket related it was really fun and even mum had a go. We cooled off in the pool to finish off a really great day.

The Monday public holiday was spent relaxing (a little), cleaning up from the two prior days and getting ready for more entertaining. That evening Big Jay's birthmum, uncle and friend came for dinner (as well as his brother, SIL and their little son who were here for the whole holiday period). So yet more cooking, cleaning and overeating. Let the good times roll.

Tuesday we hit the city for some sale shopping (I'm nothing if not a glutton for punishment) with my gorgeous, super stylish SIL and my best ladies C and M. Finishing with a big family dinner (all the dads and kids joining us) at Wagamama at King Street Wharf. The big surprise for the evening was bumping into a friend from the dim dark past fondly remembered as the Fitzroy Street Squat days. Mark (aka Woody) has certainly made something of himself - not that you would have predicted that back in 1982 - and now has a gorgeous wife, four kids and an important job with the Bank of America. Go figure!

So where are we? Yes, Tuesday the 28th of December. I worked the next two days (oh, the bliss of a quiet office, a nice cup of tea and no meals to cook for the hoardes).

Friday Big Jay was working and I wasn't so I took the kids and our visitors to Paddington and Woollahra to visit Victor Churchill (it's like porn for carnevores) and some more fashion for the SIL. We finished with a late lunch at the Seafood Markets (note to self: avoid Doyle's at all costs... they should be embaressed by the crap they dish out, have been coasting on the name for too long now).

Which brings us to NYE. When Big Jay came home from work we settled in for some eating, drinking and fireworks gazing on the deck of the apartment his brother and SIL had rented in the building next door to ours. Their apartment was on the top floor and while the apartment itself was quite ordinary the deck was magnificent. It was not only huge but afforded 320 degree views of the Sydney skyline, including the city (or at least some of it, the main part of the Harbour Bridge was obscured by some buildings). Anyway, we were able to see not only the big city fireworks but also the many and assorted smaller ones going on all around the greater Sydney area. Cool!

New Year's Day we sat around the pool all morning which was not only gorgeous and relaxing but meant I finally finished Val McDermid's The Mermaids Singing (the first of the Tony Hill novels which became the Wire in the Blood series). While I like her writing the book didn't really blow me away because I am so familiar with the show and particularly with Robson Green as Tony Hill and I guess there really wasn't any suspense factor because I knew what happens in the end. I'm just glad I finally got through it because it feels like I've been reading it for years. So then I started straight onto Thousand Splendid Suns (love my Kindle, finish one book, download another) which is the book for January for the local book group I'm thinking of joining.

Oops, just realised I'm technically into 2011. Better stop now. Some photos to post and then let's roll in the new year. Twenty Eleven will be a big one.

I love the city - part two

One of the things we did on Saturday was have lunch at the Lawenbrau in The Rocks. It's one of those places that's a bit of a Sydney institution but I've never been. So with the aim of using up some of those discount vouchers from my Entertainment Book we risked having our eye taken out by a stray boob sneaking out of those low cut wench's outfits the girls wear and settled in for a late lunch.

While I wouldn't say all is forgiven regarding who started the war it was a really good meal and a fun place to hang out. For a start I ordered the Pork Knuckle, having never tried one before, and it was wonderful. Gorgeous thin crunchy crackling covering moist roast porky meat... mmmm... porky meat (something about saying "porky meat" makes me come over all Homer Simpson). I shared a generous bit with most of the others and still had plenty for myself. The warm saurkraut wasn't so good but the mash and gravy were de-licious!

The beer of course came in sizes Large or Huge and here is a pic of me holding a Large size (half a litre) while Big Jay went off to the loo. At this point we had finished our meal and were inside watching the rather good band (you haven't lived until you've seen a German band do Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire - hopefully not in reference to the after effects of the food).

Don't ask which is Laverne and which is Shirley.

I also had a Clayton star sighting when I thought I saw Philip Seymour Hoffman at The Rocks Markets. I ran around like an idiot telling Big Jay and everyone else who would stand still long enough that I had seen him. [PSH is someone I adore. From the moment I first set eyes on him The Big Lebowski he has gone from strength to strength. He is directing a Sydney Theatre production of True West - to which we have tickets thanks to my sister and mum - so I thought he must be here for rehearsals.] Anyway, when we got home I was writing a post about it when I Googled his name only to discover he was in Brooklyn the night before at a film premiere. It was feasible that he had flown straight over to Sydney afterwards but in the photo his hair and beard were cut short and the man I saw had a scragly beard and longish hair. So obviously it was a false star sighting. How very disappointing.

Even more disappointing was seeing Neil "no-one understands what I'm trying to do" Perry inside his Rockpool Restaurant as I walked past it later that afternoon. He was obviously having a powwow with his underlings (hopefully they understand what he's trying to do) when I walked past. The most disappointing aspect was that I didn't have a brick on me to lob at his ponytailed melon head.

I'm a nasty cow, aren't I, but you already knew that.

[Not so good] Food and Wine Show

Saturday afternoon - 3 to 5 pm - there's 2 hours of my life I won't get back.


Why? Because I spent doing my best bovine impersonation, along with about half of Sydney's population, at the [NOT] Good Food and Wine Show.

This is my fourth visit and last. It started off as a way to showcase interesting, often small, food companies and their offerings. A chance to taste some things you might not see at the supermarket. An opportunity to see some chefs in full flight (Big Jay and I saw Gordon Ramsay a couple of years ago, which was entertaining if odd, with the audience screaming like he was a rock star... and if anyone recognises rock-star-style screaming it would be me).

Anyway, this year I went with my mum and sister and it was awful from the very first minute when we were squeezed in there like toothpaste going back into it's tube. There were so many people we barely got close to any of the stalls and only tasted a handful of items. Most of the time we were shuffling along with the throng, having our feet stepped on and my nanna trolley (which is useful for bringing home the sample and "Show Special" bags) tripped over.

The moment I knew this show had lost the plot was when we spotted the Lean Cuisine stand. I don't think there's any real need to spell out why I think a Good Food and Wine Show is no place for Lean Cuisine.

What I don't understand is why they can't break it up into "sessions" and only allow in a limited number of people for each session. It just seems logical to me. That way it would be an enjoyable experience rather than one I couldn't wait to get out of.

Food, glorious food

As my boss Bob always says "I love food, I wouldn't eat anything else".


Part 1

One of my Chrissie pressies, from my gorgeous sister Jules, is a cooking class with Tetsuya Wakuda [obviously] of Testuyas Restaurant fame. Mum, Jules and I are going for a two hour masterclass next Wednesday.

What a fabulous and exciting prospect. Luckily it's not a hands-on class because stage fright is a major problem for me in these instances. (I once went to a David Thompson [of Sailors Thai] cooking class at the Sydney Seafood School and was asked to come up and assist him. I'm sure I did all the right things, though the details are a blur, but I certianly felt like a rabbit in the headlights.)

I'm really looking forward to sitting back and watching the master in action. What a cool present!

Part 2

While watching the Come Dine With Me marathon on New Year's Day I came to the conclusion that I would put in an application should an Australian version be created. I love the idea of the show and I'm sure I could do a reasonable job of putting on a dinner party (if I could ship the family away for the day and clear my foggy brain). It was the camera/being on television side of things which made me clammy and anxious; as you well know I turn into a dithering idiot (more so than usual) when in front of a camera.

However, from the safety of my sofa, I decided I would take on the personal challenge should the opportunity arise. I couldn't do much worse than some of the clowns who have appeared on the episodes I've watched over the years.

Imagine my surprise/excitement/relief/disappointment when I saw the ads for the upcoming Australian season, starting on 18 January! Somehow it had snuck up on me when I wasn't looking. I have checked the website and they are not advertising for new applicants. So I guess my chance to make a disgrace of myself of national television has come and gone. For the best really.

End of an era

I have been going to yum cha at East Ocean in Sydney's Chinatown for over 20 years. I can't remember when I started going but I can't remember not going. The place is part of our family's history. Both of my children had their first yum cha experience there, only months after joining our family.

We go to other yum cha restaurants as well. The Rhodes Phoenix, near our current home, being a new and surprising favourite. But East Ocean has always been the special place.

Yesterday was the last time I will ever eat at East Ocean. It was a sad day and an end of era.

When mum, Jules and I arrived there yesterday something wasn't right. It took longer than necessary to realise what the problem was.

The trolleys were gone.

A colourful printed menu and order sheets lay on our table. I couldn't believe it. It was horrible. Mum argued that the food was the same, better. But no it wasn't and the atmosphere was different, wrong, broken.

To me yum cha isn't just the food. Sure I love the variety of dumplings, the deep fried wonders, the crispy green steamed Chinese brocolli, the just warm egg tarts. But for me yum cha is a feeling and the trolleys are part of that feeling. The anticipation as each trolley nears: what will this one hold, an old favourite or a new surprise? The hum and buzz of the restaurant, the rattle of the trolley wheels. It's a package, an experience.

Without the trolleys the restaurant is unnaturally quiet. Flustered waiters rush from table to table, dealing with confused customers, carrying cooling bamboo baskets and plates.

I walked down the steep stairs, back onto Sussex Street, with a heavy heart. It would be the last time I visited this place which had been such a big part of my story for so many years.

Good bye East Ocean.

Since I love a MEME (but enough about you, let's talk about ME!) I'm taking up Kath's Food Fetish meme challange.

1) What's your #1 comfort food?

HOT CHIPS. Without a doubt. There's nothing I crave more when I'm tired and/or stressed than a mountain of hot chips, preferrably the chunky crunchy ones with extra chicken salt (how do they make salt out of chicken?).

2) If you were stranded on a desert island what 5 foods would you want to have with you to survive on?

A never ending supply of above mentioned hot chips, prawns, oysters (natural only), avocado and watermelon.

3) What are your signature dishes (what dishes are you known for making)?

1) Pavlova Roll (most people who come to our place for summer bbqs are subjected to some version of my pav roll - strawberries inside, chocolate shavings on top or mango inside, strawberries on top or peaches inside, toasted almonds on top, the possibilities are endless).

2) Chocolate Buttermilk Cake (not sure if I'm "known for it" but it something I make regularly and it's yummy).

3) Banana Muffins (I am constantly using up old bananas by making muffins, usually they include some frozen raspberries and pecans and are made with yoghurt or buttermilk, so they are reasonably healthy. I tend to take a batch to the office most weeks.)

4) Everything in the fridge winter soup (I have been working on an always changing meat and veg winter soup which Big Jay loves. It involves throwing in whatever cooked meat is floating about - e.g. leftover roast beef or lamb - with a huge amount of vegies, a tin of tomatoes, stock and a handful of barley or small pasta, some herbs, chili and whatever else looks appealing at the time.)

5) Asian-style Wombok Salad (a gorgeous Asian coleslaw type salad made with thinly sliced Wombok, lots of other salad veg, toasted cashews, sometimes those crunchy noodle things and a dressing made with soy sauce, sesame oil, lemon or lime juice, a little olive or macadamia nut oil. This even works as a main meal with the addition of some marinated, cooked, sliced chicken thigh fillets.)

4) It's Friday night you don't know what to cook, you opt for?

If I don't want to cook on a Friday night it's generally take away - Thai or (the newly discovered) Crust Pizza, occasionally a bbq chook and chips. Otherwise, bacon and eggs - you can't beat this breakfast classic for a quick and yummy dinner.

5) What's your ultimate food weakness?

The previously mentioned hot chips. I love fried chicken too (why are the good things always the bad things?) and have been known to be partial to KFC's Hot & Spicy (love/hate relationship really).

6) What food can you soooo not eat?

Generally I would eat, or try, pretty much anything. I used to hate celery but now will eat it (cooked) happily. I'm not a fan of peas, but will eat them if they are put in front of me. Tend to stay away from the usual suspects like tripe and haven't tried the chicken's feet at yum cha yet (but would do so if someone else was game). Hate, hate, hate the buckwheat my mum would semi-regularly present as a sidedish when I was growing up; just the thought of it makes me feel ill.

7) You need a drink, you grab a ...

Love a Caffeine Free Diet Coke with ice and slice of lemon (or normal Diet Coke if it's around lunch time, otherwise I won't sleep that night). Love an icy cold glass of water. Love a really good chocolate milkshake or banana smoothie (like Big Jay ordered at Cucina Viscontini, our local Italian deli/cafe, last Sunday).

8) What's the most decadent dish you've ever had?

The most decadent meal I've ever had was an anniversary dinner with Big Jay at Quay restaurant a couple of years ago. They do a degustation set menu and every dish was amazing, both visually and taste-fully (??). It was a super expensive meal but worth every cent. We had a table overlooking the Sydney Opera House and Circular Quay (my favourite view in the world). I'll never forget that night or that meal.

9) What's your favourite type of food?

Not exactly sure how to answer that. Seafood, as a "type" of food would be my overall favourite. However, I would choose yum cha is my favourite "style" of food. Since most yum cha dishes contain seafood the two things do overlap, I guess.

10) Favourite dish?

Mud crab, stir fried with ginger and shallots, or maybe a good, not too spicy Singapore stir fried crab. I love crab. It's something I so rarely eat but I really love it, especially when it's fresh and beautifully cooked (i.e. not overcooked). Very fond memories of trying different varieties of crab at Joe's Crab Shack in LA, both times we visited in 2000 and 2005.


Got to run now, Part 2 coming up later on today.

While we're talking about when good chefs go bad let's talk about that arsehole Neil Perry.

I almost choked on my tea yesterday when I was forwarded this little nugget of comedy gold.

I particularly like how Perry says:

"I'm 52 and I'm over customers that don't understand what we do".

This is particularly hilarious because when my sister sent Perry an email to complain about the disgraceful evening she had there a few years ago his reply included a comment about how they "didn't understand what he was trying to do". I don't know Neil, I think we're all clear on what you're trying to do: be a pretentious wanker. No, really, we're all on the same page there.

Also:

"She didn't know how to complain and that turned me into a person who didn't know how to respond."

Don't you love it! Obviously the woman hadn't read The Official Guide to Complaining by HRH Neil Perry. How dare she assume she can just go about complaining about poor food and bad service when she doesn't know how to do it properly. The gall!

One thing is clear from this article and from my sister's experience, Neil Perry is a pompous ass who doesn't understand that the customers who pay his inflated menu prices are always right, even when he might not necessarily agree with them. How about a little humility you egotistical prick?

Do you ever wish those damned scientists would just stop doing research and give us all a break?

Right now I'm listening to the midday news and they are saying that scientists have "discovered" that eating cured meats (ham, salami, etc) is linked to higher rates of bowel cancer in adults. They are urging all of us to restrict our cured meat intake to 70g a week (apparently that's two ham sandwiches) and to stop our children eating the stuff altogether.

Oh for fuck's sake. What are we allowed to eat? Everything is bad for us, absolutely everything. Everything is going to make us fat and/or give us cancer and/or diabetes and/or some other disease they haven't discovered yet.

Considering that eating is such a dangerous occupation and breathing the polluted air is bad for us, as is driving, flying, crossing the road and pretty much just living, how come we are all living longer than ever and each year our life expectancy is increasing, despite all the doom and gloom bullshit?

I do know the truth though. The only thing that is really bad for my [mental] health is listening to the news. It might not literally kill me but it does make me loose the will to live.

Things got a little crazy food-wise during this Silly Season. I think we went for about a week and a half without actually feeling any sort of hunger. We just rolled from one over-the-top meal to the next. I love food but even I've had just about enough. It's down to fruit/youghurt breakfasts, salad roll lunches and modest dinners this week. I even got back on the stepper thingy yesterday morning.

Speaking of social problems...

If you're wondering what I get up to on Friday nights...


I wear giant paper bibs and eat my body weight in ribs.

Got a problem with that? How about some government sponsored ads warning about the dangers of eating ribs in public and how there's a real chance you'll leave the restaurant with sauce on your face. Now there's a public service announcement I'd like to see.

I've been immersed in life this week. A synposis may be in order:

* Will started Term 2 at school. It was very much needed as his behaviour gradually became worse and worse as the holidays continued, another week and one of us may have ended up with an AVO. He is happy and back to usual self.

* We had a date night on Tuesday night. We had a slightly above average dinner at an Italian cafe at North Ryde. I always worry about any eatery where all the meat groups (chicken, steak, veal) come with the same variety of sauces; I envisage giant vats of green peppercorn sauce being slopped onto trays of pre-cooked chicken breast fillets. We were going to see Sunshine after dinner but there was only a late session available, leaving over an hour to wait after dinner was finished. Being old fogeys we voted to head home and watch a movie on Foxtel Box Office. Armed with some now untrustworthy recommendations and our own love of Will Ferrell we settled in for Talladega Nights. Whoa, baby! What a crock of unwatchable rubbish. Really, if you liked this film you have either had a lobotomy or you need one.

* Wednesday (Anzac Day) we collected the kiddos from the respective grandparents (wouldn't subject any one grandparent to a double dose) and headed into town for yum cha. A public holiday yum cha at East Ocean is one of life's wonderful pleasures, especially when you arrive at the magic 11:00 am time frame... just when the room is filling up but just before the masses start queuing up along the stairs, pathetically and hopefully staring at the yum cha-ers in the hope they'll vacate their tables sooner rather than later. I also love watching my little munchkins enjoy their yum cha goodies, tucking into their prawn gow gees, munching their salt and pepper calamari and waiting expectantly for the only way to end yum cha (if you are 2 and 8 years old)... a big bowl of multi-coloured jelly cubes.

* After yum cha I dropped my family at home and popped up to Hornsby for a spot of unencumbered shopping. A pair of red loafers, a GORGEOUS black coat and a summer top (on sale) later I was feeling very pleased with myself.

* A pleasant day was finished with a visit to my friend A's house (in fact, our old house) who hosted a birthday afternoon tea for our mutual friend J. I love a cheese plate and a gossip with good friends.

* Saturday afternoon Will went to a bowling birthday party, much like the one he will himself host next Saturday. It was really fun (for him and me). They actually run quite smoothly once all the kids are shoed-up and allocated their lanes.

* We were going to go to the Swans' game at the SCG last night but the late finishing birthday party, combined with the on/off rain pushed us into the lazy option of watching at home. What a shame! The rain cleared and the Swans had a ripper of a game, i.e. THEY WON!!! Woo hoo!

* Today we joined some of our adoptive family friends and had a wonderful lunch at a Colombian restaurant. The food was yum - I love the empanadas and the crunchy little pork thingies (so BAD but so GOOD!!). I always feel a bit bad because the kids go mental when they're together, they run around and cause absolute havoc at the restaurant... which is OK when we have the whole place to ourselves (like last time) but not so good when there are other diners trying to eat a reasonably peaceful meal amongst a hoard of screaming, rumbling, tumbling kiddos. I managed to get everyone out of the restaurant and across the road to the little park before things got too out of control. A fun day had by all.

If you're still awake that was a snapshot of my life-lived-on-the-edge. Are you jealous?

Last night dear sis J and I went to see Irish comedian Dylan Moran at the Enmore. We saw him about 11 months ago and he was really funny. This time around I felt he was a bit rusty and/or pissed. Not sure. He admitted to not having done a stand up show for 6 months and I think it showed. To be honest it is hard to tell because he does have a shambolic style of comedy delivery; you're never quite sure what he'll say next; whether each word will have any direct correlation with the one before or after it. It certainly keeps you on the edge of your seat. He also repeated his German routine which, luckily, is really bloody hilarious.

Not only did we enjoy some pretty good comedy but we started the evening with a quick stop in the band t-shirt shop up the road which provided me with a very cute Chili Peppers t-shirt, perfect for next month's concert. Bands should put out more shirts in "girl" styles, i.e. fitted t-shirts. I have a cupboard full of band/concert t-shirts which are fit for nothing more than wearing to bed or the gym. I have a curvy figure I generally like to show off, I have little interest in wearing a tent like garment, which is what most band t-shirts are.

Then we had a wonderful dinner at the little Italian restaurant across the road from the Enmore. Yummy garlic prawns to share (well they were J's but she said she was happy to share) for a starter, together with some gorgeous bruschetta with rich, ripe tomatoes. Then gnocchi for J and a superb dish of slowly oven baked rabbit in a mushroom sauce with crispy polenta for me - heaven! To finish a really lovely panna cotta to share and a very good de-caf cappucino.

It never ceases to amaze that after working together just about every day of the week my sis and I still enjoy each other's company on occasions like this. Though we do annoy the shit out of each at times, it's all in good fun and she really is my very best friend.

Penne with Pesto

Atlantic Salmon with Avocado Salad with Warm Orange Vinegrette

Saturday night dinner at the DeepKick residence. Why does it require a blog entry?

Because... are you sitting down?...

No, really! You need to be sitting down! YOU. WON'T. BELIEVE. IT!!!!!

MY HUSBAND COOKED DINNER.

Yes, Big Jay who generally can't boil water. For whom toast is an accomplishment.

All I can say is THANK YOU He Cooks. What started as a Christmas present idea with little prognosis of success has resulted in an enthusiastic husband who has signed up for the full course and is gingerly dipping his toe into my domain (i.e. the kitchen).

As Big Jay would say "Happy Days!".