Tag Archives: Caramel

Star Trek Into Darkness | #StarTrek #IntoDarkness | No spoilers

Background image from the official Star Trek website
http://www.startrekmovie.com/images/bg.jpg

Last night Bron took me to see Star Trek into Darkness. I’ve been looking forward to this for a very long time.

Now if you don’t like science fiction I invite you to read on because at some stage I do get onto food

Okay, it’s time for confessions, well, not really confessions because if you’ve read my “about” page you’ll know that I do like all things Star Trek. I remember in the 1970s coming home from swimming club on a Friday night and after a shower I’d sit with Dad and watch Star Trek The Original Series (TOS). I loved it. I didn’t really understand the nuance of Kirk as a womaniser and risk taking leader, but I really liked Spock, Bones and Scotty. When Star Trek The Next Generation (TNG) began I was an immediate fan. I’ve also enjoyed Star Trek Deep Space Nine (DS9) and Star Trek Voyager. My favourite series though has been Star Trek Enterprise (ENT) which was a prequel to the ST TOS era. I suppose it comes as no surprise I have a soft spot for Star Trek medical officers as well as science officers.

Kirk and Dr Marcus
http://www.startrekmovie.com/images/gallery/gallery_12.jpg

In 2009 when Star Trek http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0796366/ was launched and we became aware of what Star Trek Canon describes as the Alternate Reality* a whole new vista of possibilities opened for Star Trek fans. Star Trek 2009 directed by JJ Abrams was a great movie. I really hoped Star Trek into Darkness http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1408101/ could be as good and not a disappointment.

Last night Bron bought tickets at the Dendy Canberra http://www.dendy.com.au/Page/Home and we got great seats in the middle. It was an interesting crowd sitting around us. As much as I love Star Trek I’ve never been inclined to dress up in Starfleet uniform or as a non-human Star Trek character. That didn’t stop some of other movie goers. I had a man next to me in an engineering tunic complete with com badge. About as far as I will go is holding up my right hand, palm anterior with third and fourth digits separated and occasionally saying “live long and prosper” Apparently this _\\// is the emoticon for live long and prosper.

Back to the movie; I was not disappointed. I was pleasantly surprised. I did have some doubts at the beginning and now that I’ve seen it I wish I had taken the time to revisit some of the TOS movies plus some relevant episodes from ENT. The plot was great and the story unfolded nicely. I’m glad it wasn’t any longer than just over two hours. Too much longer would have been tedious. I really liked how a variety of concepts from various parts of Star Trek lore have been weaved in. I’d happily rate it between 9 and 9.5 out of 10. At the start I was worried that JJ Abrams had botched the job but he pulled it together at the end. The odd cameo was also appreciated. What I really enjoyed was seeing the return of an actor who played a part in ENT.

If you like Star Trek I don’t have to recommend this, you’ll go again and again like I will.
If you aren’t into Star Trek or science fiction but like a good movie, I recommend this movie as worthwhile. It would help if you watch Star Trek 2009 to get some of the background to the Alternate Reality.
If you don’t like Star Trek and if you don’t like science fiction, if you’re a hater, then I recommend watching something else. The win win will be you will free up a seat for fans to go again and again

Spock and Kirk
http://www.startrekmovie.com/images/gallery/gallery_16.jpg

So how did I prepare for Star Trek into Darkness? It all centred around Bron naturally. Saturday started with an excellent Bron breakfast of poached egg on a muffin with another muffin smeared with marmalade.

Sorry it’s a bit blurry. I was feeling very hungry.

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For lunch Bron and I went to Ricardo’s Cafe at Jamison.

I needed something refreshing and dairy

Caramel thick shake

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Bron and I shared the Wagyu steak and truffle sliders

These were delicious. I’d recommend them to anyone who likes a ham burger. The chips (French fries) were also very good.

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Bron and I shared a vanilla slice after the sliders

One of the layers was salted caramel between the pastry and custard

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I cannot say too often just how good Ricardo’s cafe is.

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At the movie (Dendy Canberra) Bron and I had a vanilla bean ice cream choc top http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choc-Top

$At the movies with Bron. #StarTrek #ChocTop #yummy #excited _\/// Live Long and Prosper$

The ice cream was very rich and creamy. I think Dendy get these specially made. It’s not clear if they’re made by The Choc Top Ice-Cream Company http://www.thechoctopicecreamcompany.com.au/

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After the movie Bron made me a Haigh’s spicy hot chocolate

Marshmallows maketh the hot chocolate

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This morning Bron made us scrambled eggs and bacon on sourdough toast

Bron bought the streaky bacon at Elite Meats in Holt. It was very tasty bacon. While there appeared to be a good layer of fat, it didn’t taste fatty at all. Thank you Bron.

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*Alternate Reality—If there really is only the prime and alternate realities the word alternate as an adjective is acceptable. If there are however, infinite alternative realities, then I object to the adjective alternate in Star Trek Canon. How this interacts with the concept of parallel universes in Star Trek Canon is unclear in my puny mind.

For information about almost everything Star Trek it’s worth visiting the Memory Alpha site at http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Portal:Main

Star Trek Into Darkness http://www.startrekmovie.com/
Memory Alpha http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Into_Darkness
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Into_Darkness
IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1408101/

Dendy Cinema http://www.dendy.com.au/Page/Home
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/ddJiU

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Review of Star Trek – Into the Darkness (2013)… (vikrammalhotrablog.wordpress.com)
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Dinner at Eat 86 | @eat86 @EatShootBlog @hercanberra

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On Thursday evening Bron took me to dinner for my birthday (which was last week). We went to Eat86 in Braddon. This is relatively new and a new venture for the people who run Ellacure in Bruce.

Having enjoyed previous meals at Ellacure and hearing great reviews from work mates plus reading a blog post on Her Canberra by Trish, I was really looking forward to a nice meal and night out with Bron. Bron had heard good things so we were pretty confident of a great night out.

On walking in you can feel the vibe of the place. The staff are friendly and helpful. We had a table reserved near the bar and fairly central in the restaurant. The menu is written in chalk on the wall and as items run out they are rubbed out. We were advised to try a couple of cheaper meals and one large meal as a guide for the evening. We went for the ceviche, pulled pork terrine and ghetto beef.

These were all delightful. The ceviche was amazing. It was refreshing and full of heat but the chilli didn’t linger and was certainly sharp but not unpleasant. It was a perfect entrée to the evening. I love terrines and the pulled pork was pretty special. I’d happily eat more of it. Finally, the ghetto beef was perfectly cooked. The beef was tender and tasty and chewy in a really good way.

All these images are from my Instagram feed. Click on the image and read the comments.

The ceviche was a perfect start to the meal

The pulled pork terrine broke apart and could be scooped up on the bread

The ghetto beef is a must have

The serving sizes are modest and so by the end of these dishes dessert was not an option but a viable proposition. I chose a caramel popcorn sundae and peanut brittle. The restaurant was pretty dark so my iPhone photography wasn’t too flash. That said, the Instagram comments were pretty good. Click on the image to see the number of likes and comments.

Dessert. Nothing more needs to be said.

Okay onto other things.
It was noisy. My tinnitus was bad that night. I had to concentrate on looking at Bron’s lips the whole night. Not a bad thing
Dunny score was 4.5+ out of 5. The music is piped into the dunny. The pedestal was of high quality. The towels were paper. The + comes because of the Aēsop hand products provided. This was a very good touch. If there was a Dyson air blade in there it would have received 5+/5
Nakpin score was fail. Bron believes I’m too harsh in having only a pass/fail for napkins. To me cloth is pass and paper is fail. Fair enough, these were thick paper napkins and better than most. What do you reckon?

Would I eat at eightysix again. Most certainly I would. I’d like to try a seat at the bar looking into the kitchen. If not for anything else, the lighting would be better for my iPhone camera. I feel embarrassed my images do not do the food justice. This is a great place to eat and I look forward to returning again and again.

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Eat86 http://www.eat-86.com/
Trip Advisor http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g255057-d4162515-Reviews-Eightysix-Canberra_Greater_Canberra_Australian_Capital_Territory.html
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Eightysix/480462502008403
Instagram http://instagram.com/eateightysix
Twitter https://twitter.com/eat86
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/09dbS

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Lunch at Ricardo’s Cafe | #bestblogs13

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Yesterday Bron and I had lunch at Ricardo’s Cafe at the Jamison Shops in Macquarie

I had a caramel milkshake to start while Bron had a latte (no latte picture)

This was lovely and thick with a good caramel flavour. Not too much and not too little.

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We shared a smoked salmon fritter meal

Three fritters. One each and one split down the middle. It was a good size for two.

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We then shared a caramel mousse

This was amazing. So light yet so full of texture with the salted peanuts and pistachios. The peanut brittle cap was brilliant. The base was also crunchy and not gooey. We cut it into two halves and shared.

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Cut in half