A Few of My Favourite Things !

A few weeks ago we made our way down along the Yarra River, from the city to Chapel St, on a sunny Saturday morning. We decided to break our fast at Kush Bar Restaurant with some poached eggs on toast and porridge with berries before visiting our beloved Monsiuer Truffe at Prahran Market.

I’m not one to insist upon plating food with overly fussy attention to detail every single time but would you agree that these are not the most appealing of breakfast dishes? Certainly, the taste left something to be desired too. The poached eggs didn’t come with the soft runny centre which I adore and the porridge tasted like it had been made with cream. Maybe we will try Cafe Siena next time…

So, I was walking down Edward St towards Brisbane’s botanic gardens early on Thursday morning. Other than the suits heading to work, it was fairly quiet on the city streets so I was quite surprised to come across a corner that was buzzing with a subdued energy. Four tables in front of a pub were filled with diners and across the road, there were two lone market stalls with a crowd of people milling about in front.

Odd, I thought, that there were only two stalls because that kind of market would surely not attract many shoppers. As I crossed the road and walked past the diners, I noticed that not one had a breakfast dish in front of them. Moreover, these patrons were just that little bit too shiny to strike me as being ‘normal people’.

Yesterday, I got on the plane to head home. I was presented with a Courier Mail newsaper only to come across a story about this. Well, that would certainly explain the spiffy-looking extras…

My brother came back from London for three weeks over Christmas & New Year (Yay!) and, subsequently, we ate out a little more than we normally would. All three of us LOVE Japanese food so the choices were easy to make.

One evening, after drinks with friends at ‘The Apartment’, we headed to Ito, Bourke St, where A. had a spicy ramen that was choc-full of flavour. In fact, so good that he went back a second time a week later.

We also took my bro & bro-in-law (who learnt how to use chopsticks that night!) to dinner at Hanabishi, Queen St. Expensive but excellent quality. The sashimi was incredibly fresh, and we had fun cooking the prawns & calamari on the hot stone - 20 seconds each side. Mmmmmm, I’m drooling just remembering this meal:

Cracking the salt crust of the baked fish:

That’s the question I am going to ask if I am ever refused entry into a food institution from now on…

Actually, this had me in stitches wondering how many people flicking through the magazine would have been scratching their heads saying “Who?” - referring, of course, only to my own name (cheeky grin).

Well, from scientific journals to the AGT - where to next?

Just a quick photo-less update on our New Year’s Eve celebrations for today. We invited some close friends around for dinner and drinks to usher in 2007.

To start with, we dipped into smoky babaganoush flavoured with lemon juice, salt and pepper then lightened with a dollop or two of sheep’s yoghurt. This was accompanied by homemade pinenut and parmesan wafers that tasted actually better on their own than with the dip.

Unsure of how many would turn up early for dniner, I prepared the ever delicious chicken, olive and preserved lemon tagine using our own preserved lemons, a lamb, nut and rice dish, stewed chickepeas, duck bisteeya and basmati rice scattered with jewel-like dried cherries, apricots, pistachios and slivered almonds.

I chose to replace pigeon with duck in the bisteeya so that I could purchase an already roasted duck from Chinatown instead of cooking the fowl from scratch - a useful time-saving measure. The chickpeas were stewed for over an hour with onions, garlic and cumin, rendering them exquisitely and meltingly tender.

For dessert, we enjoyed baclava, bought from our usual place on Sydney Road, and cheese from Simon Johnson, including a Roquefort, a pungent ewe’s milk blue cheese, Livarot, a soft washed-rind cheese made of cow’s milk, and my favourite, a Beaufort. The latter is a Gruyere-style, hard cheese made from cow’s milk and this one had a streak of blue mould running through.

We almost managed to see the fireworks from the living room but our plans were thwarted by the presence of a single tall building that managed to block most of the action. At least we had the television though…

Hope that you have all enjoyed the festive season and are looking forward to a blessed New Year!