The first of several seasonal meals

The office lunch for Christmas.  We dined at Ottoman Restaurant in Barton where, it hardly needs to be said, the food is Turkish.  And not half bad.  

Dips - beetroot was best

The "cuisine [according to the menu] consists of classic Turkish dishes that have withstood the test of time."  So, few surprises made it to the table and you'd have to imagine that the meat eaters among our number - that'll be most of our happy little band of NGO campers - experienced more of what the place and its cooks have to offer.  But I'm not complaining.  We were all well-fed by the end of our time together.  It wasn't an exiting dining experience by any stretch of the imagination but it's the best meal I've eaten all week and I didn't have to pay, so thank you National Disability Services.  

Happy Christmas comrades - if that's not mixing one's ideological frames of reference.

Bargain books join the reading list

After a late lunch on Tuesday at the excellent Penny University in Kingston ...

Thinking about it now it may have been a late, late breakfast.  Spike had very dark bread, toasted, with a mountain of avacado and poached egg.  I had the Penny University Rarebit - bagel, toasted cheese, poached egg (perfectly done) and spinach - with side orders of truffled mushroms (not sure about that verb but who cares) and harissa baked beans.  We could debate whether or not I needed both 'sides' but ... you know ... they were there, on the menu, calling out to me.

After lunner ... way too late for our meal to be brunch ... we stopped off at the bargain bookstore between Penny University and the local IGA (a pretty dismal little supermarket if we're being honest about it).  The book store's unique selling proposition is that every book inside is $10, although there's a back room with a few bookcases on which every book carries a sticker announcing 2 for $10.  And there's a bargain bonus - buy 6 books for $50.  So it's not entirely true to its USP, come to think of it.  But my point is it's a shop full of cheap books.

Summer holidays reading list

We bught 6, bargain hunters that we are.  Spike, who was not feeling at her tip top best and therefore lacked her usual apetite for a book bargain, selected just one title, Persepolis.  I chose the other five.  It's a good bunch of books, don't you think?  All hard covers too!!  Now I just have to make time to read them.

• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
• Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel
• Home by Tony Morrison
• The Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst
• The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
• Dracula by Bram Stoker and illustrated by Becky Cloonan

Spike started on Persepolis so I took Beatrice and Virgil.  Top of the pile.  Enjoying it so far.

Yum Cha

There was me, Spike, Liana, Sharon, Ken, Stuart, Patrick (Ken's teenage sons) and ten squillion little dim sum trundling around the vast cavern that is the Pheonix restaurant at the Rhodes shopping mall. Us, several million other customers, ten thousand busy waiters, trolley pushers, floor walkers, bill takers plus several bored-looking carp, a dozen or so irritated lobsters treading over one another and a solitary crab in a bank of wall-mounted fish tanks. Sunday morning in Sydney. There are worse ways to live a life (unless you're a bored carp, an irritated lobster or a solitary crab).

Can you irritate a crustacean?
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Good bread, excellent tarts

Advised by Spike's friend Alecks, we headed south-west along the Olympic Highway out of Wagga Wagga, making another long short cut on our journey ... this time heading home. We found, as instructed the Quinty Cake & Bakehouse. The breakfast was wholly ordinary ... even I could have poached eggs that would have been, how can one say it ... less solid. But that's not why people pull over or go twenty-five kilometres out of their way when driving to Sydney. The bread is very good. The tarts are excellent. We left, adequately fed but well-provisioned to drive north. Stop there if you're passing. I recommend the lemon tart, and the quince & almond. Yummmeee!

Clipper Cafe

By mid-afternoon (after a morning crushing glass for Spike and a visit to my GP for me ... I have a new dressing on my calf, received a flu injection and have been referred to a sperm consultant of all the specialisms one might conceive of ... pun intended, which is very sad of me) we were both mildly peckish. So, following a detour to Dulwich Hill to purchase pointy bits, discs and oil for an industrial sewing machine, we set off in search of a late lunch. How late a lunch is four o'clock? It's a very late lunch.

That's how we made it (at last) to the Clipper Cafe on Glebe Point Road, near Broadway. It's new. Spike had read a decent review in a foodie's blog. My jury was out on the place based on nothing more substantial than my ability to be a stubborn, cantankerous old goat. I was wrong. Spike was right.

It's a pleasant, friendly little place; quiet by the time we arrived but I guess it's popular and busy most mornings and at weekends. The Chai I was served with jumped straight to the top of my mental list. It's pungent, richly aromatic with a spicy taste of cardamon and cloves and cinamon. Yummeee. Spike's coffe looked good. The later hot chocolate was, however, pretty average. I had an open sandwich with very smoky smoked salmon, rich pesto and a pepper / wasabi mango relish that set my lips and tongue dancing. Spike's mezze plate contained succulent eggplant and a mouth-watering cheese. All things considered, the word fabby comes to mind in a thoroughly inadequate, 1960's fashion.

Nice people, good food, excellent Chai; what more could you ask for?

That's a rhetorical question by the way. Clipper Cafe. Go eat!
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Happy Birthday Spike

We had a delightful evening at Bacar, the surprisingly good restaurant of the Pullman Hotel at Homebush. The birthday girl, her mum and dad, Jon and Rosi, Amelia and John plus me. Sarah and Derrin had to work late so missed out on completing an eclectic bunch. We enjoyed ourselves. The location leaves a lot to be desired ... the vast desert that is Sydney Olympic Park after dark, nine years after the five-ring circus has moved on, did not inspire confidence. But the food was excellent (the chef used to ply his trade at Pier, which ought to be commendation enough). Lovely evening, which Spike seemed to enjoy. That's the point, of course. That may really be Amelia's John offering the wine. It was lovely to see Ms Starr again for the first time in two months (thanks to the dumb ass disciplinary investigation at work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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Chai Latte

When did chai latte enter my life as a favourite thing? Who invented the idea, I wonder?

Spike and I met Sharon at Sappho Books on Glebe Point Road. We sat in the cafe at the rear of the building, in the section where second-hand science fiction and fantasy paperback novels are stacked from floor to ceiling. Sharon and Spike drank coffee of various types. I drank Chai Latte, my currently favourite hot beverage. We roamed inattentively over the weird and wonderful landscapes lurking behind the gloriously coloured, sometimes ridiculous, covers before us.

There is a lot of Brian Herbert on those shelves, which should surprise no one really; the Dune trilogy was losing its way by the middle of the second book, while Frank was still with us. It became simply silly when the son took over. Money for old rope, if you ask me. Stephen Donaldson too. It seems we may have become bored with Thomas Covenant who, when I first heard mention of him (in 1980 or thereabouts during a meeting with that National Organisation Of Labour Students national organiser, the reptile John Dennis) seemed like an interesting charcter. Spike bought five novels, most of which (I think) fit somewhere in the many and varied series of multi-volume tales of other worlds in galaxies far away, a long time ago. I looked for Wuthering Heights and The Monkey's Mask but neither were available. We bought them next door in Glebe Books, new of course.

Now I think of it, it was Halimah who introduced me to Chai when we worked together for the Physical Disability Council of NSW. She was mildly astonished that I'd never heard of the drink so she took our tea pot from the office kitchen and walked two blocks from the St Helen's Community Centre to a cafe noted for decent Chai. Upon her return, Halimah and I sat on the lawn drinking Chai in the sun like refugees from the days of the Raj.
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bisTRODE

We helped Jon Simpson to enter his sixtieth year with a lovely meal in Surry Hills at a small place called bisTRODE. Sampled a Slippery Jack mushroom for the first time (so-so), excellent Hapuka (which looks a lot less aggressive seared on a bed of Jerusalem artichokes than it does in the water ... spiky dorsal fins and all) and rhubarb crumble and custard to die for. There was a French red wine that caused a bit of a stir as it went down ... well, it has to be said. Lovely evening. Excellent restaurant.

Happy birthday too, Mr Buchanan.

Pier

Hard to imagine a better way to dine at the end of a tedious day. Pier at Rose Bay for a long, long catch-up with AB. We were first in and last out. Good food, excellent company: what more could one ask for?

Two great shows and a decent lunch at Bodhi's

First there was the excellent Wildlife Photographer Of The Year at the Australian Museum. there are some truly stunning images. Shame the book of the show gave insufficient thought to presenting the photos ... how likely is one to buy a gorgeous scene of African wildlife with a giant staple in the third oryx from the right? Correct: not very.





















Then there was the surreal, wonderful, fun of Yayoi Kusama at the Museum of Contemporary Art. No words of mine could do justice to her art. Just go see the show.