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Happy (Almost) Weekend!
If you are looking for something to do this Sunday, I highly reccommend checking out the Sydney Road Street Party in Brunswick. The annual Sydney Road Street Party is a day where the usual car and trams along this iconic street are replaced with a lively sea of people, music and food. In other words, Sydney Road goes from looking like this:
Sydney Road - Business as usual.
To this:
Sydney Road Street Party
There will be lots and lots of food (I reccommend the meatballs with spicy yoghurt sauce from the La Paella stall – I tried these last year and they were terrific!), bands and shopping. (Plus if you live locally like me, you can simply duck home to use the toilet – completely by-passing the inevitably long queses to use the Ladies at these events).
As I mentioned in my previous post, last weekend I celebrated another ‘closer to 30 than 20 birthday’. As a special treat, The Brooding Architect organised a big mystery date last Friday night. His ability to keep the destination a surprise was impressive. I could not even coax it out of him when I asked him what I should wear on the mystery date. The response was simply “whatever you think will look good for a nice dinner”. (For those interested, I went with this cape in the end – I’m telling you capes are the new black this winter). Anyway, I was thrilled to end up at La Luna Bistro in North Carlton. La Luna is one of those places that I have really wanted to try ever since we moved down to Melbourne, but just never quite made it to.
On arrival, after I de-caped, The Brooding Architect ordered some very civilised sun downers. I went with the new wine spritzer ($8.50), which had just been added to the menu that night – a refreshing combination of Aperol, white wine, fresh orange and soda. The Brooding Architect ordered a fancy Spanish beer – Alhambra ’1925′ ($9.50).
Enjoying a refreshing Wine Spritzer
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Over the weekend I celebrated another ‘closer to 30 than 20′ birthday. To mark the occasion, The Brooding Architect and I held an afternoon picnic along the banks of the Yarra River with a lovely group of old and some very new friends (special mention to the newest of them all – The Tall Professor). Fortunately the rain held off for most of the afternoon and we managed to ignore the late evening showers by drinking far too much sangria and gorging ourselves on sopressa, prosciutto and cheese (all courtesy of the Mediterranean Wholesaler).
In my mind no picnic is complete without some sweet treats. Inspired by the fabulous Mars Bar Crackle I recently ate at Captains of Industry, I decided to recreate my own version to bring along to the birthday picnic. The entire double batch of Crackles (48 in total) disappeared very quickly and were given the ‘thumbs up’ by all.
Mars Bar Crackles
These Mars Bars Crackles literally only take 15 minutes to make (plus refrigeration time) – so are a quick and easy option next time you are on picnic or BBQ dessert duty.
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After a few weekends chained to the drawing board, The Brooding Architect finally had an entire office-free weekend. To celebrate his new found freedom, we took a leisurely stroll down to the Rathdowne Street in North Carlton in search of a new breakfast haunt. Since my new Melissa sandals were starting to rub (somehow, I don’t think plastic jelly sandals are designed for 5km walks), we just grabbed a table at the first place we liked the look of, North Cafeteria.
North is a trendy little café, smack bang in the middle of the Rathdowne Village shopping strip. North is very popular with the locals, so be prepared to wait for a table, or try and get there a bit earlier to secure a spot. Even though we had dragged ourselves out of bed pretty early (by our standards anyway) and were over there by 9am, the only available seats were the breakfast bench along the front window.
The breakfast menu at North contains all of your usual breakfast staples (eggs, bacon, a muesli of sorts), as well a couple of fairly unique options. The Brooding Architect went for the Champion’s Breakfast – a twist on the childhood favourite of boiled eggs and toast soldiers ($8.50). I could not resist the sound of the Huevos Rancheros (Rancher’s Eggs), served with black beans, tortilla and spicy chorizo ($16).
Breakfast at North Cafeteria
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The Brooding Architect has been ridiculously busy at work over the past few weeks, with lots of weekends and late nights. However, unlike many law firms (you all know the main offenders), architectural practices expect you to have a life and as such don’t have ‘after hours meals policies’.
My solution was to make The Brooding Architect a ‘packed dinner’ each day, which consisted of the leftovers from the night before, plus a little dessert for the much needed sugar hit to get him through those late nights. One day I packed a serve of the ultimate ‘pantry dessert’ – Rice Pudding – referred to as such because it is a ridiculously simple dessert, which can be made with ingredients which most people have lying about in the back of their pantry. I was shocked to discover than my Rice Pudding was a quite a hit with a number of The Brooding Architect’s colleagues, who have asked me to share my recipe.
To enhance the flavour of this very simple dessert, I strongly recommend using full cream milk, which will result in an extra creamy pudding consistency; as well as fresh ground nutmeg for a lovely spicy hit.
Spiced Rice Pudding with Pear and Sultanas
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Just a quick post to share some exciting news with you all – The Brooding Architect and I are off to France! Two dear friends – The Chic Dentist and The Australian in Paris – are getting married in a “restored aristocratic mansion” in Paris (doesn’t it sound gloriously romantic) and we were lucky enough to be invited along to join in the festivities. There is no doubt in my mind that the wedding will be be fabulous, just look at the venue:
Hotel Particulier Monmarte (Image From: http://hotel-particulier-montmartre.com)
Notwithstanding that the wedding is not until September, the tickets – including the requisite stopover in South-East Asia for 3 days of cheap eats, shoes and massages – are now all booked. I can now legitimately spend the next six months day dreaming about all of the ‘Feasting in France’ I plan to do. Any and all food and booze related tips gratefully received.
I am not usually an early adopter when it comes to food. Out of convenience (some may call it laziness), I tend to stick to my tried and tested favourites. Macarons have been the new black ever since Adriano Zumbo made that Macaron Tower on ‘Masterchef’ last year. However, despite my best efforts, I have not really been swayed to replace my usual afternoon chocolate fix with a macaron – that is, until now.
A few days ago I got an email from perhaps the least excitable of all my of work colleagues (who despite has lack of enthusiasm about group emails, is a genuinely all round nice guy) which read:
A former lawyer from ********* I know has just opened a macaron store called La Belle Miette in Hardware lane between Bourke and Little Bourke ….I don’t usually get excited about this sort of thing but I went there today and they are amazing – I recommend you check it out.
With such a glowing endorsement, I immediately organised a ‘macarcon date’ with the Film Buff Lawyer, my friendly macarcon connoisseur. The Film Buff Lawyer and I made the trek up Hardware Lane and were greeted by the most lovely and chic patisserie. The shop window is adorned with jewel coloured macarons - ranging from deep raspberry red and dark chocolate, to soft and pretty pastel rose and violet – which really ‘pop’ against the crisp, white interior. The effect is simply gorgeous.
I had intended to only buy one macaron as an afternoon treat, but when I saw the gorgeous gift boxes, I could not resist buying a few extras to take home and share with The Brooding Architect (it is Valentine’s Day after all).
Gorgeous gift boxes.
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I went down to the Disney Exhibition at ACMI last weekend. As a child who was raised by Disney – largely by pirated video tapes my parents bought while we were living in Malaysia in the early 90s – it was pure heaven. Some of my happiest childhood memories involve Queensland summer storms, The Little Mermaid and my sisters and I rolling about 300 curry puffs to stock my mum’s freezer. The Brooding Architect has since informed me that this sort of activity is actually considered child exploitation in Australia. Anyway, in the spirit of Disney nostalgia, here is my recipe for curry puffs.
Curry Puffs
It is very easy to make the curry puff filling, however rolling out the puffs is time consuming. I promise you though that the end result is well worth the effort. Since I don’t have any children I can coerce with Disney films, I ask (force) The Brooding Architect to help me.
My recipe is for vegetarian curry puffs. However, you can also add 500 grams of pork or chicken mince to the mix to satisfy your inner carnivore.
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The purpose of my (second) most recent* trip to Cumulus Inc was to meet up with a good friend from my uni days, The Weekend Farmer. By day The Weekend Farmer is a high-flying construction lawyer, who seems to spend the bulk of his time in airport lounges and on flights en route to exotic locations. However, by night (okay, by the weekend), The Weekend Framer lives a very different, slower-placed life in rural Brisbane with dogs, chickens and a lawn that can only be tamed with a slasher (as someone who does not even have a lawn, I don’t even know what a slasher is!).
(*Note: For the purpose of this post, the term ‘recent’ means months ago).
As a frequent flyer, The Weekend Farmer finds himself in Melbourne on a semi-regular basis. Over the past few trips I had exhausted my supply of CBD dinner favorites, so I decided to try my luck and gamble on the no-bookings policy at Cumulus Inc. Fortunately, The Weekend Farmer managed to sneak into the bar at Cumulus Inc just before 7pm and by the time he had finished his first pre-dinner drink , a table for 3 become available – just as The Brooding Architect and I walked in the door.
Cumulus Inc is located in a large warehouse-style space at the top end of Flinders Lane. The space is a little on the noisy side, but is perfect for a boisterous, relaxed dinner with friends, preferably fueled by plenty of wine. I personally don’t think of Cumulus Inc as overly romantic or intimate (i.e. not an ideal date venue), but one of my friend’s – whose identity cannot be revealed in the interests of preserving his romantic track record – swears that Cumulus Inc is his “100% restaurant”. Perhaps an experiment is in order for some of my foot loose and fancy free readers?
Cumulus Inc
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Last weekend The Brooding Architect and I went along to a pot luck dinner party hosted by our good friend, The Film Buff Lawyer. For the uninitiated a pot luck dinner is, as the name suggests, a dinner party where everyone brings a dish to add to the feast. I was absolutely blown away by the amazing food people brought along – everything from Jamaican Beef Curry to Som Tam (Green Papaya Salad). Everything was simply delicious and the company was fantastic too (no doubt enhanced by the addition of plenty of wine).
Our contribution to dinner was a Rainbow Chard Pie. Rainbow chard is a particular variety of silverbeet, so if you cannot find rainbow chard simply substitute it with a bunch of silverbeet or English spinach. The filling for this Rainbow Chard Pie is based on a traditional Italian recipe for ‘Easter Pie’ found in the Italian Food Bible ‘The Silver Spoon’ – the only Italian cook book you will ever need to buy. What I like about this Rainbow Chard Pie is that it is very substantial and filling, without being too stodgy or heavy. The pie can also be served hot or cold, making it perfect picnic food for the summer months.
Rainbow Chard Pie
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