Category Archives: Sport

Gymnastics and Hog’s Breath Cafe | @hogsbreath

It’s been a big day. My three daughters all had things on and I’m happy I could get them all there on time without any major problems. Okay, there are some Brisbane drivers who did not appreciate a couple of rapid lane changes when I couldn’t quite understand the new road system in Brisbane. I’ve now lived in Darwin and Canberra since the beginning of 1996 and have gone soft when it comes to driving. Brisbane has changed so much and the motorways and overpasses are something more like the roads I’ve seen in Los Angeles. I’m surprised I made it everywhere and back today. Because I only visit every couple of months, my ability to navigate traffic is a struggle. Ask anyone who knows me and I am very directionally challenged.

Today Miss18 was a volunteer at Paniyiri which is a Greek festival in Brisbane. Volunteering is part of her events management course. Miss12 had gymnastics training and Miss16 had the South East Queensland Regional Senior Women’s Artistic Gymnastics competition. I was able to watch the L9 (MIss16) and L8 competition this afternoon. Miss16 did okay. She came second on the uneven bars and third on the floor. I captured a nice video of her floor routine on my iPad but then accidentally deleted it. Fortunately I had already posted a low resolution version to YouTube. I wish I could recover the original video without resorting to paying for an app to recover the file. I know what you’re thinking, Gary was one of those dorks holding up an iPad while video recording an event. Yes I was! The camera is a good one and the quality is very satisfactory.

I tried to enhance the quality by using the YouTube enhancement tools but it’s pretty shaky and grainy.

The competition was held at Moreton Bay College

I needed lunch. A bacon, egg and hash brown burger. I hope I don’t get sick. I noticed the eggs and hash brown were pre cooked and then heated again on the hot plate. I nearly said something but figured, it’s a typical school sporting event and hopefully everything was cooked properly the first time through.

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Moreton Bay College is a pretty well endowed girls school.

I’ve never seen illuminated podia before.

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Tonight we went out to dinner to celebrate birthdays and Mother’s Day. My birthday was on 1 May, Miss16 and Miss18 had their birthday on 8 May and my Dad has his birthday on 23 May. Miss18 also got a part-time job to her her get through her events management course and business degree. We decided on Hog’s Breath Cafe because it’s family friendly and a decent meal for hungry mouths.

I had an avocado prime rib steak

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Miss12 and Miss18 asked for a crispy chicken burger each

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Miss16 asked for the TexMex chicken steak combination meal. It was huge.

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The meals took quite a while to get to us because the restaurant was so busy. They’ve opened up more recently and enhanced the parking area.

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I asked if anyone wanted dessert. Miss18 shook her head. Miss12 smiled and said yes and Miss16 said no and then Mum asked about banana bread and butterscotch sauce…Miss16 relented.

This shot doesn’t do the plate justice. It was an extra large plate almost covered in a deep layer of butterscotch sauce. Mum and Miss16 really enjoyed it.

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The plate is so long the ice cream is blurry. This is the Strawberry pavlova Miss12 and I wanted.

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It’s been a good day. Tomorrow Miss18 heads back to volunteer at Paniyiri and Miss12 has to help with a gymnastics competition for juniors. That means Miss16 and I get to enjoy Greek food at Paniyiri by ourselves.

Hog’s Breath Cafe http://www.hogsbreath.com.au/
Trip Advisor http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g255068-d725584-r138936888-Hogs_Breath_Cafe-Brisbane_Queensland.html
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/8AAzl Address 1401 Gympie Road Aspley QLD 4034 Telephone (07) 3263 8444

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New York Grill (minglewiththefoodies.wordpress.com)
Places to Visit in Brisbane:The Library (australianloop.wordpress.com)

Smoked ham hock my way | #bestblogs13

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In February I won a competition on radio station 2CC. I won $50 worth of meat from Elite Meats at Kippax Fair in Holt (in the North of Canberra).

Today it felt like a good day to cook the smoked ham hock I chose.

Elite Meats smoked ham hock

This is the ham hock thawing because I forgot to take it out of my freezer last night.

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I looked over a few recipes and while enamoured by many of them I decided to just make it up as I went along based on suggestions from a number of websites.

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This is a heavy duty meal so it needs heavy duty cookware.

My casserole

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I thought I should add some nectar of the gods. It is such a shame I have a liver that cannot metabolise ethanol, otherwise I’d drink this every day for my health. Not to worry I did see a recipe that used beer rather than wine.

XXXX Gold. XXXX sponsor the XXXX Queensland Maroons. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love the XXXX Queensland Maroons and state of origin rugby league. By far and away the greatest game of all. The first state of origin game will be soon. Can Queensland make it eight years in a row?

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Of course man cannot live on meat and beer alone so there are vegetables included.

I forgot to include the Brussels sprouts in the image :-/

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It’s a fairly simple dish to make. I chopped onions and added them to some olive oil in a saucepan on a low heat. I waited for the onion to soften nicely before adding some balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. Once that was simmering and well incorporated I added the tomatoes. When the tomatoes were soft I added the chopped celery and mushroom. When everything was really soft I started to prepare the casserole. I lined the bottom with thinly sliced red cabbage and laid the ham hock on top. I then added the contents of the saucepan and poured the stubby of XXXX GOLD into the casserole. I then added the carrots and Brussels sprouts. I put the casserole into a low oven (150 °C) for four hours.

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This is how it looked at about 3 hours

You can see the meat falling off the bones.

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After four hours I pulled the casserole out. My apartment has a delicious sweet smoky aroma to it. I plated up the slow cooked smoked ham hock on a bed of noodles.

Okay, it’s doesn’t look that colourful and I captured the image before I added some continental parsley.

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I didn’t add any salt or seasoning like a stock cube because I knew there would be so much flavour in the ham plus the flavour of the balsamic vinegar, sugar and onion really came through. I expect I may blow the sheets off the bed tonight after eating so much cabbage, onion and Brussels sprouts. It’s a good thing it’s just me

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Voting closes in a couple of days

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Ham hock
Definition
Noun (n) (a small cut of meat from the leg just above the foot)
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_hock

XXXX Queensland Maroons Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/queenslandmaroons

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Week 11 of 2013 in my Instagram life

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After the last blog post last weekend I finished with an image of chicken schnitzel. Here it is cooked with some fried eggs. Yum comfort food.

Chicken high schnitzel with fried eggs

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On Sunday morning I had breakfast with Bron and we went to Black Pepper for Eggs Benedict.

I always ask for more Hollandaise sauce

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I went to work on Sunday to catch up on some work. Fortunately I had a snack there.

An extreme chocolate whoopie

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From my garden

I do nothing to the garden bed in my apartment. I do not even add water and look at what grows.

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Sunday night dinner of salmon salad

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Monday was a public holiday. I visited Bron and we had her homemade hot cross buns

These were really good. I had two and lots of butter.

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After another day at work on a public holiday I made chicken salad

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Tuesday night I felt a little blergh and just made chicken and potato gems (tater tots)

I felt better after eating this.

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Bron has been busy making macarons. Look at these babies. Salted caramel, rose water and vanilla.

A salted caramel maracon.

This is the best salted caramel macaron I’ve ever tasted. These were so good. I love the way the flavours change as I bit into them and then as my tongue made contact.

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My personal passport expires in about eight months. It is easier to renew it before it expires. I pick up my new one in a couple of weeks.

Most of the travel I do is for work and for that I use an official passport. My current personal passport expires in January 2014. Given a passport cannot be used for the last six months of its ‘life’ and because renewing a current passport is many orders of magnitude easier than renewing an expired passport, I thought it was time.

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Nothing beats a sausage roll for a quick lunch

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It was nice having a WIZZ FIZZ lollipop

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Thursday morning treat from Bron

Now this is the morning after the meal at Morks so I wasn’t that hungry but who can resist macarons.

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It was Jacqui’s birthday at work. We didn’t our usual Pay day Pie day, instead we had a burger. You may recall Jacqui from last week’s post.

This is an Urban Cheese. It is a cheeseburger from Urban Bean Espresso Bar. It has an Angus beef pattie, tasty cheese, bacon, fried egg and beetroot. The chips came with homemade mayonnaise.

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I just had a salad for dinner

Followed with macarons

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Mmm…Friday morning rituals. Mavi Breakfast wrap. This one was amazingly good.

The owner made this one and we reckon he put in more bacon and mushrooms.

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Hot chip Friday lunch of course

You’d think I would have had enough of these but no.

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Saturday morning breakfast

This was a mistake. We had breakfast at Gourmet Deli in Belconnen Westfield shopping centre. This place has great coffee and is a fantastic delicatessen. This breakfast was a little too ‘greasy’.

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For dinner on Saturday night I was at Bron’s place. Bron has been thinking of making Jamie Oliver’s Yorkshire puddings again. She’d made them a little over a year ago and we blogged about it.

Here are some very short video sequences of the puddings being poured and rising in the oven. I have uploaded them on Vine but don’t know how to embed Vine into this blog so I’ve embedded YouTube uploads.

http://youtu.be/SO4p1wqYzLQ

http://youtu.be/aXnIZy1CEpQ

http://youtu.be/_mjHr2RZ_kU

Out of the oven

What a lovely plate of Yorkshire puddings

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With the smoked hit ocean trout and horseradish

It’s very hard to describe just how nice it is to have the tangy trout and horseradish along with the crisp fresh fluffy pudding

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Dinner is served

It looks great doesn’t it?

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Bite sized morsels of happiness

This is perfection between my fingers

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Oh yeah there was a pear and walnut salad

This added a lovely touch

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Dessert was Bron’s amazing sticky date pudding with butterscotch and custard

This is I think Bron’s signature dessert. No one makes it better. The butterscotch sauce is to die for. The custard is perfect. The ice cream was Madagascan Vanilla Bean.

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Sunday breakfast was simple and in two stages

Poached eggs are so yummy

Check it out. Hot homemade hot cross bun.

I hope you agree this looked so good. It tasted better.

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After a walk today I needed a snack.

Australian Havarti cheese on toast

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For dinner tonight I made some honey soy salmon and a salad.

I like the sweetness of mixing honey with soy on the hot fry pan and reducing it.

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For dessert Bron gave me some of her sticky date pudding.

It was a nice big piece with extra butterscotch sauce and custard. This was just so good.

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So ends this post.Thank you for reading this and going through my instagram experience. I’d also invite you to view my Facebook page and if you like it please click the LIKE button. Thanks.

I hope everyone has a great week at work. I know I’ve been finding my new role a challenge and it seems there is a lot of fatigue around not just in my workplace but from what I hear and read around the place. I hope everyone finds balance in their life. Take care. Live long and prosper.

On a good note, the Brisbane Broncos defeated the St George Illawarra Dragons this week and the Gold Coast Titans defeated the Canberra Raiders. It was unfortunate that the Melbourne Storm defeated the North Queensland Cowboys. I don’t feel that bad though because Melbourne are my number four team. For those who don’t know me well my top four teams in the National Rugby League are 1. Brisbane Broncos, 2. North Queensland Cowboys, 3. Gold Coast Titans, and 4. The Melbourne Storm. For Soccer it’s the Brisbane Roar. For the Australian Football League it’s the Brisbane Lions and the Gold Coast Suns. For cricket it’s the Queensland Bulls. For Rugby it’s the Queensland Reds. For State of Origin it is the Queensland XXXX Maroons. One day I’ll reveal the teams I detest.

CPAP update and my week in Instagram

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Thanks to everyone who made contact about last week’s CPAP post asking for updates as I go. Well this week was much the same as the first week. Interrupted nights and a feeling of being more tired than normal. It made the days at work long and tedious. The abrasion lesion on my occiput is healing in that I think a callous is forming.

On Tuesday night I flew to Brisbane for a Wednesday meeting. I thought about taking the machine but in the end didn’t. I was just too busy and the extra weight in a bag wasn’t something I needed to focus on with so much on my mind.

I thought for this post I’d tell a story by Instagram (Check out my profile at http://instagram.com/garydlum). I know they’re mostly food images but then what else would you expect.

If you click on the images you’ll also be able to see the Instagram comments.

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On Monday at lunch I had a quiche. It was a ham, cheese and shallot quiche. I like quiche and no matter what anyone says, men do eat quiche. The quiches I buy for lunch come from the Urban Bean Espresso Bar in Scarborough House and the cost $4.90 each. I enjoyed my quiche with a mug of Canadian ice wine tea.

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On Monday evening I had some left over beef mince with the seed mustard and XXXX Gold beer. I wrote about this last week at http://garydavidlum.com/2012/11/11/cpap-shogun-japanese-restaurant-a-burger-with-a-difference/
I was feeling pretty tired and lazy. I just made an open sandwich and used the yoghurt and Worcestershire sauce to add a little flavour to the gravy.

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On Tuesday I was packed for a night away and wanted something light. I chose a sausage roll and a Cascade Lemon, lime and bitters. The sausage roll costs $4.50 from the Urban Bean Espresso Bar.

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On Tuesday evening after a full on day at work I drove to the Canberra Airport and relaxed a little in the Qantas Business Lounge.

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On the flight I enjoyed a salad of ocean trout on an Asian coleslaw.

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The meal also came with a chocolate and caramel brownie. Some Instagram friends unkindly likened it to a log of faeces.

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On Tuesday evening I checked into the Oaks Aurora Tower. It’s a residential apartment block which also has some hotel style apartment rooms that the Oaks group uses. This was my second stay. My first stay was earlier in the year for a work meeting. I found the room then a little grimy and things like the remote controls were sticky. It was cheap for the taxpayer so I thought I’d try again. This time I had a different room. The carpet felt dirty and the kitchen area was a little grimy. The remote controls were also sticky. I don’t think I’ll stay there again. At $130 a night it is a cheap hotel when compared to other places in the city, especially for an apartment style room with a kitchen. On Wednesday morning I woke up to this view of Brisbane.

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The meeting went well. It was a full day and I spoke for a good part of the meeting. My flight back to Canberra departed at about 1900 AEST and wouldn’t land until 2200 AEDT. For dinner on the flight I had a pork chop and vegetables.

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The Wednesday marked the 40th birthday for a work mate. We have a great culture in the branch with many of my work mates being terrific cooks. They often bring in cakes, macarons, biscuits and other sweet treats. To celebrate another work mate made a baked raspberry cheesecake. The best thing about my work mates is they remember me and kept me a slice. Of course they also had cream

There were some comments from Instagram followers asking how I’m not huge. Truth is I try not to eat too much. I try to exercise every day and when I feel myself thickening, I pull back on the intake. Over the last week or so I’ve dropped a couple of kilograms through reduced intake, stress and poor sleep.

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On Thursday evening I was exhausted. I wanted something simple and tasty to eat. I was craving something salty. I had some chicken thighs with skin on them and needed to cook them over a few nights. I floured the thigh with plain flour, mustard, spike and curry powder. I served them with potato gems (I think in the US you call them Tater Tots.
The chicken looked like it was fried, it was oven cooked.

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For some years Canberra taxpayers have been investing in public art. I like public art and I reckon every city should have some nice art works for everyone to enjoy. Every morning at 0730 I take a walk from my office to get my personal mail from the post office. It looks like there will be a new installation soon. It’s a pity the surrounding buildings aren’t looking too flash at the moment.

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On Fridays some work mates in the branch enjoy chips from the Urban Bean Espresso Bar. A small container costs $4.00. They are pretty good chips (or for my north American friends, fries). I ate Friday lunch with a friend who is about to get married. She’s been watching her diet to ensure she can fit into her dress. This week however, she decided to get in her words “sucky in” pants which sound like elasticised support underwear. She felt at liberty to eat chips which I thought was cool.

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Friday night came and I wasn’t hungry. I just had no appetite. It wasn’t really the chips, I was just exhausted and mentally wasted. I cooked a chicken thigh alone and ate that.

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I decided yesterday I would clean out my home office of two year’s worth of papers that I’d been meaning to get to and file. It took a good part of the whole day to go through it all.
My lunch was a nice piece of multigrain Vienna loaf that I toasted and topped with tinned red salmon and a vine tomato.

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Last night I made some coleslaw and had a chicken thigh.

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On the subject of Canberra public art, this morning on my work I captured the image of my favourite piece, viz., the Owl Statue. From the front it’s clearly an owl, from behind however, many Canberra residents have likened the phallic shape as a piece of Canberra’s pubic art.

On my walk this morning I also came across this piece of graffiti which I can relate to.

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After my walk I felt like eating some eggs and drinking a strong cup of coffee.

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I spent a few hours at work this morning and again didn’t feel that hungry. Lunch was pretty boring. The rest of the tinned red salmon on toast.

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This evening I had a piece of Atlantic salmon (from Tasmania) along with some more fresh coleslaw. I cooked the salmon by placing in a fry pan and adding a lid. I cooked it on a moderately high heat for five minutes. The skin was crisp and the flesh was perfectly cooked. The coleslaw was fresh and tangy and nothing beats adding a bit of Kensington Pride mango. This was a nice cooked dinner with a tropical touch. I also added chilli flakes and a little Tabasco Sauce to the salmon to add some bite.

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This week Miss11 and Miss15 are in Geelong for the National Club Championships. Miss15 has a bad ankle and will only be doing uneven bars and beam.

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Urban Bean Espresso Bar http://www.beanhunter.com/cafes/review/Urban-Bean-Espresso-Bar
Foursquare https://foursquare.com/v/urban-bean-espresso-bar/4da224be7aee5481e133d0fe

Scarborough House https://foursquare.com/v/scarborough-house/4bbea14182a2ef3b45c12bd2
Google Map http://goo.gl/maps/qGN6Q

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Canberra Airport https://foursquare.com/v/canberra-airport-cbr/4b1896c3f964a52068d423e3
Google Map http://goo.gl/maps/MqQ4t

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Qantas Business Lounge https://foursquare.com/v/qantas-business-lounge/4b889f09f964a520fd0432e3

Aurora Tower https://foursquare.com/v/aurora-tower/4b1ba1fdf964a52054fc23e3
Google Map http://goo.gl/maps/9ydtD

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Oaks Hotels and Resorts http://www.oakshotelsresorts.com/

Tater Tots http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tater_Tots

Woden Wind Tunnel https://foursquare.com/v/woden-wind-tunnel/4de2bb3ac65b7a3e21223baa

Owl Statue https://foursquare.com/v/owl-statue/4dd44c5352b18e28aa120356

Wanton Wonton Wonderfulness (garydavidlum.com)
Instagram on the Web (iphonelife.com)
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Grand final footy food

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This week has seen a good few days in food but tonight was the NRL grand final. It required something special. Something inspired. In terms of inspiring meals, we’ve already seen this week how Bron was inspired by David Lebovitz. I took my inspiration from Bron’s inspiration.

I wanted to make a sandwich that required both hands to hold. I also wanted to use a bread that wasn’t as crusty but not too soft. I wanted cheese too. But what to put inside. I had a mystery meal in the freezer. I knew it was a curry of some sort. I wouldn’t know until I thawed it out.

The ingredients for tonight’s Grand Final sandwich included Mozzarella cheese, Butter, Bread roll, and Mystery meat.

When I thawed the curry it looked like belly pork. I was winning already.

Before I get to the sandwich, the good news is the Melbourne Storm defeated the Canterbury Bankstown Bulldogs Rugby League Club. The final score was 14:4 and the triumvirate of amazing Queenslanders Cronk, Smith and Slater played superb games this evening. It was disappointing that the Brisbane Broncos and the North Queensland Cowboys didn’t advance further this year. Such is life.

Now to the sandwich. I thawed the curry pork for a couple of minutes in the microwave oven. The roll was sliced to produce a butterflied length of bread. I smeared some butter on both sides and then cut the cheese lol. I warmed the roll for about 20 seconds in the microwave oven too. After laying on the meat I laid over it the sliced mozzarella cheese. I then grilled it until the cheese went a little brown. It felt good holding a sandwich that needed both hands to hold.

Mozzarella cheese for laying on the meat.

This is the bread I chose from Coles at Jamison.

It was a nice loaf.

Sliced open and laid flat.

Pork belly curry for the filling.

Meat laid on a buttered bread roll.

Laying on the sliced Mozzarella cheese.

After being under the grill.

Closed roll.

A close up

The image I posted to instagram http://instagram.com/p/QMW8hpRNCF/

So how did it taste? It was great. The curry and cheese worked well. The soft bread roll made all the difference. It was great holding a big sandwich in both hands and watching the footy. It was so big though I needed my own half time break to finish eating it. There was a degree of scepticism about this sandwich on Twitter. I can understand why it seems like an odd combination. In my mouth and on my taste buds this combination worked and worked well.

I hope all the Storm supporters are happy, and I hope the Bulldog supporters can be happy knowing they were the minor premiers this year and know on the night the better team won.

All the images captured with a Nikon D90 except the last one posted to Instagram with my iPhone 4

My weekend in food was good

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This weekend I completed my income taxation return and caught up on some work. I also spent some time with Bron and managed to enjoy some delicious meals. If you follow me on instagram you can see how I ate this weekend as well as some of my other activities.

Thai salmon cakes

Bron’s fish cakes were really nice.

Sticky date pudding with homemade custard and butterscotch sauce

Bron makes the best sticky date pudding. Her homemade custard and butterscotch sauce are to die for.

Spring in Canberra

The deciduous trees are blooming and my allergic rhinitis is getting worse. I must be snoring like a train because every morning I wake up with a sore throat like razor blades are cutting it.

Lake Ginninderra

Before breakfast I went for a walk and captured some images. We had breakfast at Black Pepper which is on the corner on the left of the image.

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Dead carp

Fishing is popular in Canberra waterways. The lakes are full of carp. They are a pest and regarded as feral. If a carp is caught it is not allowed to be thrown back into the water. From what I’ve seen people go fishing, catch carp and then leave them anywhere they choose.

Green eggs and ham

Bron chose green eggs and ham. The scrambled eggs have avocado in them.

Poached eggs, Kransky and hollandaise sauce

I ate poached eggs, Kransky sausage, mushrooms and hollandaise sauce.

Pan seared salmon served with a tower of potato mash, wilted spinach, pine nuts, peas and corn along with asparagus and broccolini. The mash potato was made with blue cheese.

Tonight I cooked a light meal of salmon. Click on it if you want a larger resolution view.

Oh and if you’re interested, next weekend I want to see the Melbourne Storm defeat the Canterbury Bulldogs. I also want to see the Sydney Swans defeat the Hawthorn Hawks.

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A quiet weekend in food and halfway through the London Olympic Games 2012

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I had hoped this Olympics I’d take more time and watch more of the coverage and enjoy the sport. So far that hasn’t happened. Other things have got in the way like just being too tired to bother. Instead, I’ve been listening to the coverage on the radio while in bed (yeah I know, that’s not going to help my tiredness). The television coverage from Channel Nine has been as expected, i.e., parochial, disjointed and riddled with advertising. The radio coverage has been good but mainly because of the sporting experts accompanying the sports broadcasters who have been boorish.

One day I hope to watch an Olympic games live. I’d like to watch the swimming and women’s artistic gymnastics mostly. If I could I’d like to watch the weightlifting too.

Yesterday morning I had a simple breakfast with avocado on toast and coffee.

Avocado on toast, with coffee (Nikon D90)

I love a nice firm Hass avocado on toast. Unfortunately when I did the grocery shopping yesterday, the local Coles had run out of the Hass variety and only had Reed avocados. I found a site at http://www.avocado.org.au/foodservice/australianGrown/common_australian_grown_varieties.aspx which describes the difference. I’m hoping the Reed variety are okay. I’m waiting for them to ripen before I try them.

I spent most of the day washing, cleaning and vacuuming and also did some exercising by going for a walk. The weather was pretty good yesterday. While it was overcast it wasn’t as cold as it could have been.

Lunch was a simple omelet with spinach (inside) on toast.

Spinach omelet on toast (Nikon D90)

Bron invited me to dinner. She had whetted my appetite with images on Facebook during the afternoon. The images were amazing.

The main course was lamb on a skewer with haloumi cheese, and capsicum served on flat bread with aioli and asparagus. It was delicious especially when the eating it like a big sandwich. The bread soaked up the extra aioli and was like having two meals in one.

Lamb on a skewer with capsicum and haloumi cheese

For dessert Bron made two different meringue creations. The first was banana and caramel and the other was cherry chocolate. These were very rich. They tasted wonderful. I am seriously spoilt by Bron.

Banana caramel and Cherry chocolate meringues

For breakfast this morning Bron made an amazing baked egg in risotto with pancetta. The image doesn’t do it justice. It was amazing with sourdough toast dipped into the runny egg yolk. I am very spoilt.

Baked egg on risotto with pancetta and spinach

I spent most of today at work. Not the ideal way to spend a Sunday but necessary to keep on top of things. Along with some fruit that I brought along with me I needed a sugar and caffeine hit late in the morning.

Morning snack. Top Deck and Diet Coke.

For dinner I made salmon again and put together some left over mince and cauliflower to make a I don’t know what to call it. It tasted okay. In fact it tasted pretty good.

Salmon with broccoli and the cauliflower thing

I hope you have a great week. Take care.

How to Eat Hass Avocados (avocadocentral.com)
Hass Avocado Recipes (avocadocentral.com)
Olympic Games welcomes Usain Bolt to London (itv.com)
Pick & Buy Hass Avocados (avocadocentral.com)
Olympic champion: ‘We just won the Olympics!’ (itv.com)
Olympics and Social Media: The View From London (mashable.com)
Wi-Fi Police at Olympic Games? LOCOG says no (pocket-lint.com)
‘Social Olympics’: Officials ask Londoners to go easy tweeting and texting (nextlevelofnews.com)
What’s in the Water? Chinese Girl Faster Than Lochte (abcnews.go.com)
The London Olympic Games 2012 opening ceremony, dinner with friends and pondering one’s mortality. (garydavidlum.com)
Subway’s Mysterious Olympic Avocado Graph Explained [London Olympics] (gawker.com)

The London Olympic Games 2012 opening ceremony, dinner with friends and pondering one’s mortality.

8 Replies

Yesterday morning I woke and watched the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games (LOG2012) on television. Channel 9 in Australia has the broadcasting rights. In my personal opinion, Channel 9 doesn’t listen to viewer feedback. They won the rights to other programs like Top Gear from SBS and as a result that program has lost popularity and the sales of DVDs of the Top Gear series I imagine have gone up. Channel 9 was warned by loyal viewers and a strong fan base. Did they listen? No, they twitched too early when the ratings were not to their liking. Any fool could have told them it would not rate as well as they had hoped. It’s a program about cars hosted by three blokes who separately are not as funny as when they are together.

I thought the opening ceremony was fantastic and certainly better than anything we’ve seen in recent decades. As proud as I am to be Australian, the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games (SOG2000) was a forerunner for the movie Australia. A ghastly waste of Australian tax payers’ hard earned money. The volunteers were fantastic, don’t get me wrong. I just don’t think the person in charge had any idea.

The highlights for me were the tribute to the National Health Service, the anthem sung by a choir and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. There were many other fantastic elements, not least the segment of Rowan Atkinson playing the character Mr Bean and the orchestra playing Chariots of Fire. The clip below is not from the LOG2012. It looks like many youtube users are rightly concerned with copyright.

[Please note I do not endorse and detest absolutely cigarette smoking. ]

I think it’s a wonderful thing that the British are so proud of their health service that they would integrate it into their opening ceremony and to focus on the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for Children. Having a nation and their government dedicated to ensuring every citizen has a right to a high standard of health care is a wonderful thing. It made me think of fabulous hospitals in Australia like the Royal Children’s Hospital in Brisbane (not the one in Victoria), the Princess Alexandra Hospital and the Royal Darwin Hospital.

I’ve ranted on social media plenty of times about the singing of national anthems. At important footy matches and other sporting events, all too often the organiser didn’t use his or her brain and selected a “talented” rising star or well known celebrity to mangle and screech or scream or simply add their stupid and ridiculous take on our anthem. In my opinion, the best way to respect with dignity the importance of our anthem and the anthem of other countries is to use a choir. At a footy match is could be a school choir from a local school, for something bigger it could be a professional children’s choir, and for the LOG2012 it was great to see and hear the voices of a group of singers. It was respectful. It was good.

There was a lot of speculation on who would light the Olympic cauldron. It was great seeing Sir Steve Redgrave take a prominent role towards the end, but what was better was seeing a group of young developing athletes each nominated by a former great of British sport light the thing. It was a nice touch seeing Muhammad Ali there given his role in 1980 in Atlanta. It made me think back to SOG2000. I thought it should have been Susie O’Neil but I’m in a minority there.

After a fairly quiet day Bron and I went to dinner with friends P and L. We’ve enjoyed many fine dinners with them before and their meals have featured in this blog.

Alaskan king crab with aioli

Last night we brought Alaskan King crab that we’d purchased from Costco and Bron made some aioli. For the main meal we had steamboat (hotpot) plus a tray of roasted pork belly. I was fortunate to have the tray of porcine heaven in front of me. There is little better than bite sized pieces of perfectly cooked belly pork along with an amazing dipping sauce.

The steamboat was really good. We had noodles, pork, chicken, beef, fish and prawns plus heaps of vegetables and mushrooms plus some great dipping sauces. L and I like a really hot chilli sauce while P is a big fan of plum sauce. There was also tofu. Bron and L tried to explain how good tofu is. How tofu absorbs flavours and can taste really great in a laksa. If I have a table of real meat and vegetables in front of me, I’m not deliberately going to choose tofu.

Mmm…roast pork belly. I love roasted pork belly.

The table laid out ready for dinner.

You can see in the net some lovely mushrooms.

Towards the end as all the meat and vegetables and yes tofu was coming to an end, we tipped everything into the now developing broth. P and L had laid the table with sipping cups like the ones we have hot chocolate in at Max Brenner. You know, the ones that look like toilet bowls. These are a fantastic idea for steamboat. At the end, when everything was cooked in the broth, we spooned out the final bits and pieces and from the sipping cup drank then best tasting oriental soup you’ll ever taste.

Doesn’t it look good.

This was amazing soup.

P has been continuing his exploration of the world of desserts. His journey is continuing (P understands why I wrote journey…private joke) and discovering new delights. Last night he made a baked cheesecake with coconut cream and topped with slices of pineapple. This was served with Zabaglione. This is the first time P has made it and the first time I’ve tried it. It was fantastic. P, L and Bron enjoyed it with a sticky dessert wine that had a 20 per cent alcohol content. Everyone was pretty happy when the coffee and walnut rocky road plus chocolate covered blueberries came out at the end.

Coconut cream cheesecake topped with pineapple and Zabaglione

Cheesecake and Zabaglione get in my belly now.

Bron also developed a canine crush on Bundy. Bundy belongs to P and L and is a pretty happy pooch.

Bron and Bundy on her lap.

Coffee and walnut rocky road and chocolate covered blueberries

I’m not sure if it was the amount of food and a late night or the week I’ve had at work, but I had some freaky dreams last night. There was lots of thinking about death and mortality. I watched someone die in my dreams and was asked to verify death. It made me think of late night ward call when I was a resident and being called to verify a patient’s death. I went for a walk with Bron this morning and started thinking again about how good it would be to plug my brain into a robot. I’m now at an age when I’m thinking about life and death more often. I’m witnessing my body go through the changes you hear about and learn about when you’re younger. Wouldn’t it be nice to simply plug your brain into a mechanical body and go and skip and jump and see things just like when you were a kid?

This afternoon instead of lunch we had an early afternoon tea and I had a lovely vanilla slice from Ricardo’s at Jamison.

Vanilla slice

Footy food and the Decider #origin #QUEENSLANDER Queensland defeats NSW 21:20

6 Replies

Tonight it was the decider. Last year Queensland won its sixth State of Origin series. This year Queensland won the first game and NSW won the second game. I’ve previously written that I really hope for a good close game and truth be told, as much as I wanted Queensland to win, NSW winning would mean that Rugby League is the winner. We need to have two strong origin sides not a lopsided competition. We need to have a game that kids can remain excited about, after all, rugby league is the greatest winter sport of all. Much more enjoyable than soccer and Aussie rules and for a spectator superior than Rugby Union. I write these things not wanting to upset readers. I just find so much satisfaction in watching a good game of rugby league.

In the end the result was right and the game was one of the most exciting nail biting games of rugby league we’ve seen. Queensland defeated NSW 21 to 20 in a very tight match.

For dinner tonight I was partially inspired by recent MasterChefAU episodes featuring dude food. I knew I needed some vegetation so there is some avocado. Otherwise it was all chicken. Chicken wings coated in oil, honey and spike.

Eight chicken wings in my fry pan. Ready for roasting. (Nikon D90)

So I put the wings into a fry pan and then put them into a hot oven (200 °C) for 30 minutes.

Nicely cooked chicken wings. (Nikon D90)

I could have just eaten the chicken but my conscious got the better of me so I added some avocado as an after thought. It’s also green

Spiked chicken and avocado. (Nikon D90)

During the game it was great watching my Twitter timeline. It was fantastic seeing Lisa Curry tweeting for Queensland. I recall watching her swim when she was a school girl and I was swimming at school. She is a fantastic Queenslander.

Big day and a big result and shout out to @phonakins (#QUEENSLANDER #StateofOrigin) (garydavidlum.com)
Meninga, Stuart have long Origin history (news.smh.com.au)
Origin 3: Biggest game in history (3news.co.nz)
Five Reasons Why Super League Fans Must Watch State of Origin on Wednesday (sportsvibe.co.uk)
*RuGbY*Queensland vs New South Wales live Rugby Football 3th match from ANZ Stadium, Sydney in 2012, July 4 (livesportstoday.net)
Queensland sporting history on line in State of Origen decider (blogs.abc.net.au)
*RuGbY*State Of Origin Rugby New South Wales vs Queensland Rugby Live Streaming Online Tv And Pc July 1, 2012 (livesportstoday.net)
hjfujgn;; State Of Origin New South Wales vs Queensland Live Streaming 3d Game 3 July 4 (oleole.com)
Live New South Wales Origin vs Queensland Origin Live online HD TV (watchlivesports.typepad.com)
Qld urged to win Origin for Beetson (news.smh.com.au)

Best meal ever and #StateofOrigin Game 2

11 Replies

Last night Bron and I visited some close friends who we often have dinner with. Mostly it’s us going to their place to eat wonderful food. Last night was no different. In the words of Bron (and I agree), “Best meal in my life“.

A few weeks ago we set up the date and started talking about a menu. We suggested we’d go to Costco and get King crab legs for an entrée and Bron said she’d make a lemon tart for dessert. P and LP came back and said they would happily prepare an Asian degustation for our main course.

Bron and I ventured out to Costco yesterday morning to learn that the seafood arrangement only came out every fortnight. We’ve been to Costco so many times on alternating weeks that we had not noticed this. This was disappointing because Bron was also going to make her gorgeous aioli and and another dipping sauce. Bron sent P a text message and explained. No worries, “We have prawns” came the reply.

The lemon tart was an experiment. Bron had not made this recipe before. She need not have worried. It was perfect.

So we started with a few prawns and homemade dressing. These had only been frozen once and were a delicious and certainly acted as an entrée or appetiser for us. I was so hungry.

What followed can only be described as awesome. I use that word advisedly. Like a good many words used on social media and on television and movies, “awesome” is over used. This meal was awesome.

We started with LP’s dumplings. Mouth sized and full of flavour. The spicy dipping sauce was just right. P then followed with some of his signature pieces, namely, a crunchy Chinese cabbage salad and seafood cakes. I could have eaten the salad all night. This was followed with LP’s tamarind prawns. Oh my the flavour was fantastic. This was a first time for LP. The Pièce de résistance was P’s twice cooked belly pork. The reduction could be smelled when we entered the house. The star anise and cinnamon wafting in our nostrils tempting us to pick up the jug and drink the sauce was an ever present danger.

With the ‘mains’ over, we entered the dangerous world of dessert. I say dangerous because no one gets between some of us and their dessert.

LP was preparing the chocolate soufflé as we arrived. She was so delicate in folding in the cream. It was certainly worth the effort. I have never had a soufflé so light and fluffy. Bron was concerned that I had left crusty bits of chocolate on the edge of my ramekin. I quickly fixed the problem without burning my tongue

Bron’s lemon tart was also a triumph. Earlier in the day Bron had received a gift from a dear tweep who shared from her bounty of lemons. The quickly prepared candied lemon rind was also delicious along with the cognac whipped cream that LP had provided with her soufflé.

To finish the evening we all enjoyed a half of a small pavlova that P has now perfected. It was a perfect evening with fantastic conversation, lots of laughs and dare I say, for me at least, belt loosening.

I apologise for the quality of my iPhone photography. I was trembling with multiple foodgasms that I had trouble focusing.

Prawns with homemade seafood sauce (iPhone)

Pork dumplings (iPhone)

Crunchy Chinese cabbage salad and seafood cakes (iPhone)

Tamarind prawns (iPhone)

Twice cooked pork belly (iPhone)

Chocolate soufflé served with cognac cream (iPhone)

Cognac cream (iPhone)

Lemon tart with Cognac cream (iPhone)

Pavlova served with Chinese gooseberry, passion fruit and strawberries (iPhone)

More as a post script than anything else, I have not blogged for a few days and I should comment on the second game in this year’s State of Origin series. NSW defeated Queensland. As much as I wanted the Queensland XXXX Maroons to win, it wasn’t to be. The game was fierce, it was tight, it was superbly played. Queensland played well and NSW played better. NSW were the best team on the night and deserved to win. This now means a decider in two and a bit weeks. This is not a bad thing. If Queensland had won, this would have made game three a fizzer and given Queensland has won the series in the last six years it would severely damage the State of Origin concept. Dare I say it, NSW winning the series in 2012 would not be a tragedy. The important thing is ensuring the greatest game on the planet, i.e., Rugby League is maintained for everyone to enjoy.

Big day and a big result and shout out to @phonakins (#QUEENSLANDER #StateofOrigin) (garydavidlum.com)
A big day for Chinese food | Noble Palace | Dumpling Inn (garydavidlum.com)
Cheesecake returns (garydavidlum.com)
State of Origin 2 – NSW 16 Qld 12 (blogs.abc.net.au)
Mortimer backs Blues to repeat ’85 glory (news.smh.com.au)
Blues put heat on Carney, Pearce (news.smh.com.au)

Yummy Lummy

Gary's rants and raves about food (and a little about life)

Category Archives: Sport

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Grand final footy food

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A quiet weekend in food and halfway through the London Olympic Games 2012

The London Olympic Games 2012 opening ceremony, dinner with friends and pondering one’s mortality.

Footy food and the Decider #origin #QUEENSLANDER Queensland defeats NSW 21:20

Best meal ever and #StateofOrigin Game 2

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