Bloggles

28.08.09  – The Counter

Burgers aren’t usually something I go out of my way to eat, I don’t even consider them if they are on the menu unless I’m at Hungry Jack’s or McDonald’s but my visit to The Counter on Friday night has changed this. I now know the wonder that Nghi has been relentlessly preaching about, especially that peanut butter milkshake! But enough yapping, here are the pictures!

Checking out the menu. Hmm, what fillings to get? Soooo many sauces!!!!

Onion strings and sweet potato chips. Our shared starter/sides. Had this between the three of us. I love that we got a variety of sauces!

My burger: fried egg, grilled onions, grilled pineapple, “American cheese” and roasted pimento. Butternut ranch sauce – this was nice, but the sweet BBQ that came with the sides tasted better so I swapped them over ^_^

Onion’s burger. He was originally going to go for the 300g patty but pussied out last minute! He ended up joining us girls in the 150g division.

Nghi’s burger.

150g patties. Here are a few head to burger size comparison pictures:

Yes, people, it takes skill to fit that burger into your mouth. lol.

Here’s Onion being creepy with David’s take away. His instructions: “If it’s good, get me some”. So I did! That in Onion’s hand, is the peanut butter milkshake. DIVINE! We used David’s take away cup to contain the left overs we couldn’t finish of the ones we had eat-in. COULD. NOT. WASTE. IT.

29.08.09

David enjoying his take away burger from The Counter

The following day was spent at Mano and Cat’s engagement party. Congratulations, guys! Yes, the weekend of eating continued. No photos yet, but in due time when David processes them. It was a lovely day despite the wind which threatened to blow the marquee away. The Laos people really know how to throw a party! It was complete with a buffet of an awesome assortment of food. Again, I will let the pictures speak for themselves when I get my hands on them. Nom, nom, nom. Thank god for the bike ride Sunday, I swear, I hadn’t felt so full of food like that since BBQ season (Christmas/New Year’s) last year.

Text is a funny thing. A bunch of characters and symbols strung together that convey some sort of meaning. I could go on forever about language and the way in which it is visually expressed and what not but my observation is based on text as a channel for conversation.

I find it odd that in some instances the way someone converses with you varies depending on the medium used. Whether it be face to face, on the phone or via email.  The language changes which then changes the modality and ultimately the reflection of the nature of the relationship (eg: I would talk to my friends casually while being a bit more formal and professional at work). This puzzles me to some extent because the relationship you have with the person you are conversing with remains (or should remain) the same despite the channel of communication used.  You don’t graciously ask your friends to ‘accompany you’ to a casual outing, just because you’re asking them in an email, you’re on a more personal and casual basis than that (which should apply on and off screen),  so you ask them if they ‘wanna hang out’ as you would when you talk to them in person.  Maybe I’m asking the wrong question and it’s not about text itself but the time delay and nature of the interaction whether it be full-duplex or half-duplex. Maybe people are just used to it because they need to type like that at work. Who the heck knows.

Here’s a picture of some chicken nuggets:

These are the holy grail of frozen chicken nuggets. That’s right, people. They taste just like the ones at McDonald’s and are 100% chicken breast too! I thought I would make the experience just that extra bit authentic by eating them with some actual McDonald’s BBQ sauce.

“Sorry, you must be mistaken because no, I did not just ask you what the the square root of pi over the derivative of 4 times eight squared minus 5 is.”

And holy Batman! I want one of these in my house!

http://www.hiddenpassageway.com/

23.08.09 – Back on our bikes, ohh yeah!

What a lovely weekend! It felt really good to finally get back onto our bikes. Thankfully some of the fitness is still there but it will take a fair bit of work to get it back to where it was before. (David’s photos!)

Grr! We found this at the beginning of the trail. Some wankers had angle grinded the gate open so they could get their 4WD in there. We noticed deep ruts in the trail as we rode through and also what seemed to be the remanents of a little fisherman’s party on the rocks. I have since reported this to the RNP.

Crab banana!… in Paul’s mouth!

Happy Birthday, Rob! To celebrate the 22nd anniversary of your birth, Nghi and I tried our hand at fine dining at Astral. You will be glad to know that both the food and view were magnificent!

I had, for my entree, main and dessert:

• Cannelloni of king prawn, black treacle beurre blanc
• 2 cuts of Angus beef: tenderloin & daube
• Chocolate & hazelnut delice, raspberry sorbet & gold leaf

While Nghi had:

• Cannelloni of king prawn, black treacle beurre blanc
• Flinders Island lamb, Lancashire hot pot
• Apple & blackberry soufflé, bird’s custard ice cream

What an amazing meal. We were expecting much smaller portions and ordered a side of gratin dauphinoise (basically potato bake) to compensate but boy were we set straight. The portions were actually quite substantial, especially Nghi’s  main. The cannelloni of king prawn could have passed off as a main already but of course, I’m not complaining because it was deeee-licious. The black treacle beurre blanc absolutely made it and I don’t think I had ever tasted anything like it before last night (on my plate, I recognised this as the dark, pleasant tasting froth). This, unfortunately meant we had to let more French potato bake than we would have liked, go to waste ): I even asked the waitress to leave it on the table so I could try and finish off as much of it as I could while we waited for dessert. Some how, I don’t think it’s common practice to ask for a doggy bag of your side dish at hatted restaurants, bummer.

It was a wonderful experience, but I don’t think I’ll be doing it again in too much of a hurry. Not because I wouldn’t love to take delight in beef that falls apart on my plate and melts in my mouth but because it was so special, I think it deserves to be experienced like that every time – I just don’t see this happening if I were to do it every other week.. Oh, and because, of course, I just wouldn’t be able to afford it! I must say, I’m still coming to terms with the concept of edible gold.

“Generally speaking, there is no danger in ingesting Edible Gold. Gold is an inert metal that simply passes through the intestinal system. Edible Gold will pass out of the body after about 24 hours unchanged without causing any harm or reaction on the body”*

If pooping out gold doesn’t signify having an expensive dinner, I don’t know what does.

* http://www.ediblegold.com/ediblegoldfacts.asp, emphasis added

Other highlights of the evening:

• The Amuse bouche. Deeeeeeeee-licious!! A velvety soft, concentrated kind of soup. I wanted moree, moree moree! I didn’t quite catch the first half of what it was, “something something, hazelnut and burnt butter”.
• The waitress springing into action when the table behind us tried to order their tenderloins well done. It was funny to overhear this conversation because we had just discussed with her what a travesty it is to ruin a lovely cut of beef by overcooking it. Anyway, it was a nice save on her behalf: “Would you like, sir, to have two servings of the daube (beef cheek) instead? It has been braised for over six hours and is very tender and soft!”. If people won’t eat their steak medium-rare, offer them something that is truly well done… and supposed to be.
• The older Filipino or Indonesian woman at the table next to us widening her eyes while I fed Nghi some of my beef. Apparently we’re lipstick lesbians now since neither of us are particularly butch. Actually, maybe it’s my short hair -_-
• The 1049085438 kg teapot. It was made of bronze or something. I swear, it was like something David would lift at the gym
• Copping a substantial amount of time stuck in traffic into Balmain and then from Balmain to Pyrmont -_- What for you ask?

Why, for some macarons of course! (Excuse the mediocrity that is this photo, it sucks, I know).

Blackcurrant and popcorn. Best I’ve had so far, I think.

15.08.09 – Deus Swap Meet

It was a beautiful sunny day with a nice laid back vibe.

Was empty when we got there…

But didn’t take long to fill up

Roller racing!

Happy camper with his new frame!

15.08.09 – Dinner at Ripples, Sydney Wharf

Excuse the poor quality photos. Lighting wasn’t very good. I’m quite disappointed that the photo the waiter took of David and I didn’t turn out so well ):

(L-R): freshly opened oysters w mignonette dressing, warm oysters w leek fondue & goats cheese sauce

sydney wharf’s signature bouillabaisse, garlic bread & rouille

warm chocolate & hazelnut pudding w chocolate ice cream, nut toffee

Dinner was followed by a movie at the Dendy Opera quays. We saw Cheri. I quite enjoyed it, I loved all the fancy clothes and now-vintage jewellery. It had a Woody Allen feel to it, probably because of the narration.

Cheri at the Dendy Opera Quays

The Book for Devious Cats, Ariel, The Rocks.
I love this bookstore! I could spend hours in there. Of course, David had to get a picture of me with this book. I still don’t see the resemblance I apparently have to the feline species.

16.08.09 – More Macarons

Bought these from Lindt (again) the afternoon before. I’ve tried 7 flavours thus far and call me old fashioned but milk chocolate and strawberry still come out up top as my favourite flavours.

(L-R): Coconut, Strawberry, Hazelnut

A bite I took out of the coconut one. Thought I would fiddle around with David’s DSLR. Damn, the pics come out awesome! If only I could be bothered carrying one around.

16.08.09 – Evelyn’s 5th Birthday

Evelyn’s 5th Birthday at Wiley park. The weather was wonderful! Couldn’t have picked a better day to go to the park.

NB: It was a warm enough day to wear shorts without stockings underneath!!