A Few of My Favourite Things !

When an opportunity like this comes along, you HAVE to grab it with both hands!

I love living in the city, especially in summer, because you can stumble across so many festivals and events that you may otherwise be unaware of. Throughout the week, I had stopped a number of times to watch the Aerial Antics performed by The Flying Trapeze and their participants. All the sessions were completely booked out but as I walked by on Wednesday, something drew me closer and prompted me to ask about it anyway. It turned out that there was a cancellation for 11am the next morning! My wonderful parents came to the party by caring for E and my wonderful husband agreed to not seeing E for two whole days while he stayed with mum & dad.

So now that I was willing and able, I was nervous about whether I could actually perform the moves required. I didn’t know whether I should have breakfast or not, figuring that I would need the energy but not wanting to bring it up again following the upside-down time! Along with 11 other participants, I was taken through the practice bar once before we climbed the ladder and had two tries without the catcher and two with. I had joked with one of the trainers, Dylan, that the most important part was listening but once I was on that bar, hearing any of the instructions that Scott was calling out was near impossible with all the blood rushing to my head and my mind trying to make sense of the world swooshing by.

This was the BEST adrenaline high ever! I could not wipe the grin off my face for the rest of the day nor stop regaling my husband about the morning (thanks for listening, babe). I also wolfish devoured half of A’s Lords of the Fries dinner.

A huge thanks to Dylan & Scott for being so much fun, and an even bigger thanks to the other Scott for shooting the video so that I could share it with my family & friends, none of whom were there (or aware that I was attempting this).

We were all sitting around at J’s house one night flicking through cookbooks when we came up with the brilliant idea of a Neil Perry potluck. Taking turns to flip open at a random page, we managed to select an entree, three mains and one dessert for each person would have to cook for the next get-together. It’s such a good thing that this group all (most?) love to cook.

This was meant to be a Salmon, Green beans and Egg Caviar salad but N decided to substitute snowpeas as they looked fresher on the day he went to the market. Even A, who doesn’t like smoked salmon all that much, enjoyed this dish. I managed to sneak a little bowl of leftovers away to have for lunch the next day.

J&L, big Neil Perry fans, brought this Salmon with Tomato-Braised Chickpeas and Herbed Yogurt. According to them, Neil Perry’s recipes are deceptively simple, more straightforward than Jamie Oliver’s.

J’s dish, a Dry Prawn Curry, was pronounced the most delicious looking when she saw the photos later on. Tasty as this was, J didn’t agree with J&L that Neil Perry’s dishes are easier to cook!

Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of my Honey-Braised Duck with Orange and Olives but we did finish the night off with E’s Lemon Yogurt Cake, baked on behalf of S&B.

All-in-all, a good night with good friends with Neil Perry’s Good Food.

Driving to Kanzaman for dinner on Tuesday evening, got stuck in traffic on that bridge turning from Alexandra Ave into Swan St.

See a man in the opposite lane, also stuck in traffic, checking out our car.

Study the man for a few long moments before turning to A and commenting ‘That guy looks a lot like Federer, doesn’t he?’

Turning to look at him, A replies ‘That IS Federer’.

OH.

This post is a wee bit belated, but…

With our son now crawling around and very ably pulling himself up on all the furniture around the house we decided not to put up a Christmas tree, mainly for the tree’s sake. I found a solution around the problem of wanting but not being able to have a tree though, and I have to admit that I LOVE our ‘tree’ of wild hypercium berries and pine tree cuttings. After collecting our decorations from storage one morning, I happily spent some time trimming the tree before continuing with my Christmas baking.

On a (now) rare Friday night off, A & I decided to go bar hopping, kind of. We started off at La Vita Buona Cellar, part of the City Sqaure troika along with Three Below and Caboose Restaurant. We sat down with the noisy, after-work crowd to enjoy a glass of champagne and shiraz accompanied simply by french fries with aioli (just to stave off those hunger pangs). After catching each other up on our day, we took a walk down Flinders Lane towards Spring Street when I had the brilliant idea of checking out the Press Club Bar. And what a good thing too! We ordered some drinks (Shiraz & Sauvignon Blanc) and sharing plates from the bar menu and we were delighted with each offering.

It was a struggle to get photos with my camera given the lighting in the bar but these will have to do. The white taramasalata made with creme fraiche came with fried pita bread – so moreish! The dish behind the dip also appears to be served at George’s new Hellenic Republic restaurant – peppered fig on fried haloumi. I loved the peppered fig but, overall, preferred the other two.

I can’t remember how they termed this dish in the menu but it was basically an octopus & boccarone skewer coated with pistachio praline.

We then adjourned to Longrain for some after dinner cocktails (Soho La & Lychee Martini) and yet more little dishes – the son-in-law eggs and betel leaf topped with smoked trout, garlic, chilli, galangal & trout roe. If I thought the lighting at the Press Club gave me difficulties with photos, they were impossible at Longrain…so no images of the food, just memories of deliciousness.

La Vita Bouna
City Square, Melbourne
96547855

Longrain
44 Lt Bourke St, Melbourne
9671 3151