Radio station 2CC (Capital Radio Talking Canberra) has been running a “best of Canberra” competition for the last few weeks. This Tuesday they ran a “best public art in Canberra” competition. I nominated The Owl Statue on the T-Junction of Benjamin Way and Belconnen Way at Google Maps
I have posted to instagram numerous images of the Owl Statue
He is meant to be a Powerful owl and the connection with Canberra relates to the collective noun for owls, viz., a parliament of owls which fits given Australia’s parliament meets in Canberra.
Thank you 2CC and Elite Meats Canberra
Chicken and salad
More chicken and salad
I bought one of these coffee makers for work.
An iced coffee banana smoothie for breakfast
My first brew
A Lindt cafe salted caramel macaron
A salmon and capers quiche
Raspberry and blueberry slushie
Chicken and salad
Clouds near sunset over Lake Ginninderra
More clouds
Mmm…chocolate covered ginger from Haigh’s chocolates
Breakfast at the airport on Wednesday on my way to a meeting in Melbourne
In a remarkable coincidence I went to Elk and Pea with a friend for breakfast. Without thinking about it we had the same breakfast as T1 and BF on 15 January. Without wanting to offend T1, I did recall she had been to Elk and Pea but in my mind it was for dinner rather than breakfast. Sorry T1 I’d forgotten
In terms of the experience we arrived at 0930 and were shown to a table in the back near the toilets. The tables were all pretty close to one another and I could hear what other diners were saying. This is a worry because I’m deaf in one ear and it was on my deaf side. It was all pretty cosy. The table we had was very wobbly. We were grateful that a waiter came over and shoved napkins under the base. After a few napkins the amount of movement was reduced but not completely. Along with the quality of napkins I get judgy about restaurants if they cannot manage decent tables and chairs. This was not a good start. It was also dark and my immediate thought was poor lighting for iPhone photography. Fortunately, as I alluded to in my end of 2012 post I’ve recently acquired an iPhone 5 and the camera is a much better tool for food photography.
We ordered coffees and then food. My breakfast buddy asked for the Paprika eggs and I asked for the smashed avocado and mushrooms. The place was busy and fairly full so we accepted it would be a longish wait. The coffees seemed to be delayed especially when later orders (from the table next to ours) came out sooner than ours. Once the coffees arrived, the food arrived in quick order
The paprika eggs looked really good and tasted great too. My avocado and mushrooms was delightful. The bread was nicely toasted and the mushrooms perfectly sautéed. There was a good amount of avocado and my poached egg was perfectly cooked with a nice runny yolk. Unfortunately the poached paprika eggs were on the solid side. Marks off I’m afraid. Poached eggs really need to have soft runny yolks.
I had to use the toilet and didn’t see one specially for men. There were two women’s toilets and I used the unisex/disabled toilet. It was well appointed and also had a shower. This is a good thing for those customers who rely on a wheelchair. There were no paper towels and the air drier was pretty pathetic. I know they’re expensive but the Dyson air blade should be the standard for any restaurant toilet.
The food at Elk and Pea is really good. There is no question about that. I’m looking forward to going there for dinner this Saturday night with friends. I’ll happily go back for breakfast again. The coffee was good and I want to try the other items on the menu.
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I spent all afternoon at work today and came home to my ironing and decided on an easy dinner.
Chicken thigh seasoned with Madras curry powder and a simple salad.
I was chatting this week on Twitter with a couple of very cool Adelaide ladies, viz., Laura and Rachael and I was introduced to Menz FruChocs According to their website Robern Menz is South Australia’s largest confectioner and maker of the famous Menz FruChocs. Robern Menz manufacture a wide range of chocolate based confectionery and gourmet goodies. The good news is that Coles also stocks some of their products, so Friday afternoon after work I went searching. Like a lot of supermarkets, there is an entire aisle dedicated to confectionery and so finding the Menz products took me a little while. At one stage I ventured into the health food aisles because I couldn’t find them. After a taking a systematic approach I found them
Violet Crumble wrapper (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There were four varieties stocked. The classic Choc Apricot Balls, the Turkish Delight, Mini Choc Honeycomb and Choc Honeycomb (sort like the now gone forever Violet Crumble). I bought some of the apricot and TD thinking I’ll try the honeycomb later. I was told by Rachael and Laura that the Choccy Snakes are a must try. These are not stocked in my local Coles supermarket. Apart from being a science fiction fiend, I also discovered that Rachael is addicted to Menz to the extent she gets gift packs from the factory because she is such a good customer. That’s what I call good customer relations
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I waited until after dinner (see image below) to try them with a jug of happiness. I tried the apricot ones first. I like dried apricots and I like apricot confectionery but not in huge amounts. The chocolate is very nice and the apricot flavour not too strong. The good thing is they’re not too sweet. They were delicious. I then tried the Turkish Delight. I’m a fan of real TD with its lovely jelly and dusted with icing sugar. I know friends who regard the addition of chocolate coating as anathema. I’m not that puritanical about my confectionery, although I do like good chocolate. The TD was good, what I liked was the flavour of the TD developed over time and peaked after the chocolate had dissolved. We’re on a winner. I’m being careful to only have one at a time and to make them last
Haigh’s Chocolates (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
On the subject of South Australia and chocolate, another iconic brand is Haigh’s. Haigh’s Chocolates now has shops in SA, Victoria and NSW. The chocolate, whether it be milk or dark is delightful. When friends at work travel to Adelaide, Melbourne or Sydney I’m often asked if I want a fix of Haigh’s. I never say no.
In other news…
We now have a resolution at work that we’re going to try to do Pay Thursday Pies
This was a veal stroganoff pie which was delicious.
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Dinner was a simple hamburger and a jug of crushed ice with mint, pineapple and lemon lime and bitters cordial
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I finally emptied my work Christmas stocking. Goodbye last Christmas lollipop
Fridays are now dedicated to hot chips or sausages. This Friday was hot chips with aioli from the Urban Bean Espresso Bar.
After those chips it was a light chicken and salad dinner.
Saturday morning clouds on my walk
Last week it was plain hot cross buns, this week it’s chocolate ones. Still too early in my opinion.
For dinner tonight I was finishing a Heston Blumenthal steak project
This image was captured two nights ago. This is a piece of Angus Scotch rib fillet
I “aged” it in the refrigerator for two days. I just left it uncovered to dry out.
I regard this as an epic fail. The steak was about as good as I could hope for. The Heston method of rapidly turning each 15 seconds for a total cooking time of about 5 minutes works well. I enjoyed a delightfully rare steak. This was the first time I tried to make a blender Hollandaise sauce. The butter split and the sauce didn’t thicken. It still tasted good because after all melted butter tastes great
It’s coming close to the end of 2012. It’s been an interesting and tumultuous year in some respects. I’m still not sure if this will be my last post of the year. Somehow I think I have more to give especially if I continue to eat like I am while in Brisbane.
Christmas day was a very different one for me. This is the first time I’ve spent Christmas day with Mum and Dad and no one else. I’ll get to see my daughters on Friday. My brothers were doing things with their own immediate families and there were no visitors and no visits to aunts, uncles and cousins places. We’ve all grown up and this year I spent the day with Mum and Dad.
The Christmas day post outlined the majority of the food images from breakfast and lunch.
In the afternoon we went for a short stroll. Dad now walks with a stick so we’re limited to pavement and roads.
The afternoon was glorious. It was warm and it was humid enough to not be uncomfortably dry.
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We ventured around the retirement village and aged care facility on site. It’s ominous when an ambulance arrives with sirens and leaves slowly in silence.
The village has its own swimming pool and lawn bowls area.
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Dinner was a simple affair. Mum decided we didn’t need pudding or cake or anything too sickly sweet after a big lunch. I agreed on a spread of cheese and fruit.
This was a delicious way to end the day. We had fresh mangoes, cherries, seedless water melon and cheeses.
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Boxing Day morning I woke up feeling good in my skin. It was warm and it was raining. I had a bead of sweat on my forehead and my skin didn’t feel dry and cracked.
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Boxing Day in Australia (like many countries) means that large department stores and malls have significant sales on. Department stores like David Jones and Myer do a brisk trade as do most other stores. In Sydney the David Jones stores open at 0500 AEDT. In Melbourne it’s 0600 AEDT. Brisbane is more civilised and the stores tend to open at 0900 AEST. I’d bought the girls their present in Canberra and brought it up with me. I also intended to buy them some things that were going to be on sale. With steely determination I ventured to Westfield Chermside. I arrived at 0845 AEST and car park was full.
This sort of parking is what elicits car park rage. I witnessed another person write something rude on a piece of paper and attach it to the driver’s side window.
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Rather than wake up Mum and Dad I elected to have breakfast at the mall.
The eggs were pretty good. The Hollandaise wasn’t that good. There was hardly enough to pour on both eggs. I had breakfast at Cafe Siena in Westfield Chermside. I wrote a Google+ review.
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I ended up getting my girls some extra stuff for their new Wii U plus some games and external hard drives for their photographs and other data.
On getting back to Mum and Dad’s I noticed the flowers I got for Mum’s birthday which was last week. These are Australian natives. They’ll last for weeks if not months.
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One of the nice things about an abundance of Christmas food is left overs.
Today’s lunch was fresh white bread filled with chicken, duck, mayonnaise and lettuce.
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Another feature of Boxing Day in Australia is a cricket test match played in Melbourne. When I was a boy I happily spent hours watching cricket relieved during breaks when we’d go outside and play cricket in the back yard. Today was the first time I’ve sat and watched cricket with Dad for decades. In the late afternoon though I discovered (to some horror) that Mum and Dad enjoy the television soap opera, viz., The Bold and the Beautiful. I elected to go for a walk rather than endure that.
I walked past a Jenny Craig franchise and thought after all I’ve eaten I may need to visit.
That said there is a legal history between Jenny Craig and my father so I never will.
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This is where I bought my first Ford Falcon. Not a V8, they were to come later when I lived in Darwin when I owned three V8 Falcons and Fairmonts.
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This is a place we used to frequent in the 1980s and get takeaway Chinese food from. As an IG friend quipped, not exactly new anymore.
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Boxing day dinner was a simple affair of left over chicken and duck plus some potato bake and a salad. It was delicious with lots of avocado.
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This morning I woke to the tragic news that Gerry Anderson had died after a battle with dementia. Gerry was the creator of SUPERMARIONATION and the developer and producer of television programs like Thunderbirds are GO, Fireball XL5 and Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. As a kid and even now I love the Thunderbirds. The whole concept of International Rescue and the story behind Jeff Tracy and his sons each named after a Mercury astronaut was so compelling. Now that I work in emergency management there are days I wish we had The Thunderbirds on-call. Virgil was my favourite character. Virgil piloted TB2. I was also very fond of Gordon who piloted TB4.
Breakfast was sombre and simple. Vegemite and jam on toast with a strong coffee.
The day itself looked good.
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Today Mum and Dad asked me to take them on a long drive. They don’t get out much from the retirement village except in bus trips with other residents. So we spent the day driving with no plan.
This is the car I hired. It’s a Toyota Camry. It is quite good. The remote key entry and ignition is cool. I like how it connects easily with my iPhone through Bluetooth.
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I suggested Caloundra and Mum said why not Noosa, in the end I decided not to turn off and we ended up in Gympie in time for morning tea. Gympie has a long history in Queensland, some of it not so positive. I think you have to be a local to share those tales so I won’t go on. I had many friends from Gympie in my university and early years as a medical practitioner. I remember one gorgeous nurse from my intern year…
Morning tea was at the Little Brown Jug cafe in Gympie. I had a pot of tea and a vanilla slice. Regular readers know my fondness for vanilla slice and my dream of one day doing a vanilla slice crawl around Australia. Vanilla slice search of Yummy Lummy.
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After Gympie we hit the road and headed to Noosa. In the 1970s and 1980s we would spend Easter holidays at Noosa and occasionally some Summer holidays too. As we got older, we ended buying a place at Caloundra and I remember weekends and holidays in my later years of high school on the beach every chance I could get.
In Noosa we used to stay at a place called Paramount Towers on Hastings Street. Mum said it was reasonable in the day at $50 a night. I can’t imagine how much it would cost now that Noosa is one of the most expensive tourist places in South East Queensland.
It’s now called the Settler’s Cove.
This is the famous Noosa beach. I used to love this beach. So many good boyhood memories. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the beach was crowded with locals and tourists. It was kind of exotic and there would be lots of foreign tourists. For a young fella, what I remember most was that most young women on the beach had no desire to wear much and many would lay in the sun and enter the water topless. There was a clothes-free beach a short walk away but no one seemed to care. Anyway, enough of those thoughts…naughty Gaz.
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Rather than eat lunch at an over priced place in Noosa, Mum suggested Buderim. Buderim is a sleepy town in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. It has a significant number of senior Australians (aka self funded retirees) and is a favourite place of art and craft lovers. Dad was feeling a little tired so rather than look too far we stopped at a cafe and enjoyed a toasted sandwich.
I had a chicken, mayonnaise and avocado toasted sandwich.
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For dinner tonight we enjoyed a crumbed steak and salad.
I will confess I ended up eating two large pieces of scotch rib fillet steak that was covered in fresh bread crumbs. They are irresistible.
I hope I have one more post for 2012 to close out the year. This post however, will focus on the lead up and execution of Christmas 2012.
The last weekend was another quiet one. I didn’t have much to do besides wash clothes and clean the apartment. I’d completed all my Christmas shopping and so I enjoyed a weekend of lounging and watching DVDs. I ended up seeing the end of series three of Breaking Bad and watching what in the US is the first series of Strike Back. Apparently in the UK, there were six episodes shown before the US saw the seventh episode which it calls the first episode. I don’t understand the reasoning. The story can be found at IMDB and Wikipedia.
Because I was travelling for Christmas and New Year I needed to go through the contents of my refrigerator. Toasted sandwiches are always a good weekend lunch option.
Tomato, tinned red salmon and pumpkin seed bread.
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For dinner I had a scotch fillet steak.
I served it with a mango salad that also had salad leaves, cherry tomatoes and lots of Australian feta cheese. I made a light gravy from the marinade which was sherry, oil and soy plus some honey and mixed herbs and some minced garlic. I thickened it with some corn flour and used a little red wine to deglase my fry pan. I like my steak rare so this got about 90 seconds on each side and was rested for 10 minutes.
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On Saturday night a storm brewed but we didn’t see any rain. The clouds though were very pretty. I captured this image from my balcony but there were some much better ones from other IGers.
I like watching Jamie Oliver on television and if you search this blog for Jamie Oliver you’ll see a number of references. http://garydavidlum.com/?s=Jamie+Oliver&submit=Search I’ve heard though with Jamie Oliver’s recipes that sometimes they’re wrong, that is, quantities can be significantly off. This doesn’t always get corrected. If you know enough to know that’s fine but if you’re pretty ignorant like me, that can spell disaster.
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WARNING Sad Image
One of the saddest images I’ve captured is this one. Last week I posted this image of a friendly blue tongued skink. Sadly it was run over in my apartment car park.
From last week
What I came across on Sunday morning.
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I love pistachios
Snack time.
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Another toasted sandwich for lunch.
This time with blue cheese because like bacon and butter, everything tastes better with blue cheese.
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On Sunday night I cleaned out the refrigerator.
Salmon with mango salad and blue cheese.
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Normally when I’m walking back from the post office you can see heaps of people at work.
Barren on Christmas eve.
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There are no calories for the next two weeks.
Caramel doughnut.
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I was tempted, but this was for a work friend.
Jam filled doughnut.
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Because a work mate was ill last week when we went to the snag stand, we went back with her on Monday.
Spicy cheese kransky on brioche. This was delicious. Our plan is to eat through the entire menu.
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I finished work early on Christmas eve and I went to the airport as soon as I could.
A White Christmas snack at the Qantas lounge.
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I also had a couple of chilli beef pastizzi in the lounge
They were a little hot.
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I managed to secure an upgrade on flight QF960. The flight was meant to leave a little after 1745 however a couple of storm cells hit Canberra and to keep the ground crew safe they were evacuated from the tarmac and we stayed in the aeroplane for more than an hour connected to the aerobridge. If you follow me on Twitter you’ll see were we able to use our telephones.
For dinner I had the crumbed beef. The crumb also contained feta cheese. While the beef was well done and tough, everything else was very nice.
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When I got to my parent’s place I put out presents for them and my girls (who I’ll see later this week).
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It’s Christmas Day. I had a poor night’s sleep, not through Christmas excitement, but because I’m sleeping on my childhood bed. Dad woke up early and we sat together for a couple of hours while he told me stories.
I had a light breakfast in anticipation of a big lunch. The breakfast of champions, vegemite on toast with a couple of coffees.
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And so lunch preparation begins…
This is chicken after we’d tightened the skin with boiling water.
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Mum made a 1000 islands dressing for our lunch time prawns. If you click on the image you can work out the ingredients in a chat with Hilah from hilahcooking.com
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The poultry preparation continued with a duck drying and draining.
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The bowl may not look elegant but that mattered nought.
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I love prawns.
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I could not help capture an after image.
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The duck had a reasonable neck attached. You can tell my intent by the strategically placed Chinese meat cleaver.
With the duck added. I like to cut the breast off and slice it. It makes it easier to eat because you bite end on into the grain of the meat. Do you see the size of the duck’s neck and cloaca? I’d already bagsed (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bagsed) them.
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Because of the small size of Mum’s kitchen and oven, rather than roasted vegetables, Mum made a potato bake yesterday and we heated it up in a small toaster oven at lunch time. We also had broccoli, asparagus and peas.
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This is my plate. Mum made a nice orange flavoured sauce too. It was sublime.
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The neck has such nicely flavoured meat. I also managed to dissect out the trachea too. This started a nice little chat on twitter and instagram.
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So that’s it for now. Mum decided against making a pudding or a pavlova. This evening we’ll have fruit and some cheese. I’m pretty grateful. I don’t really want to blow out. I can fit into a pair of shorts I like to wear at Christmas time so I’m happy holding back a little.
I hope everyone reading this blog had a wonderful time if you celebrate Christmas. I hope your day was full of happiness and peace and good food.
Bron has a plan! We have some dear friends who were regularly eat dinner with; most often we go to their place and we have a fantastic time. Bron is keen to have our friends over to her place for dinner.
As a follower and reader of David Lebovitz’s blog and cook books, Bron is going to cook Chicken mole.
I’ve eaten chicken mole in Mexico City while there for a meeting. My recollection is that it was enjoyable but nothing I’d want to make myself.
On Friday night I was Bron’s guinea pig for her second go at cooking Chicken mole. She’d previously cooked it for her sons.
Okay, this was magnificent. The chicken drumsticks had been skinned and then pan fried and then immersed in a casserole. The result was incredible taste and tenderness. The mole sauce was amazing with the ancho dried chilies adding so much flavour yet no heat. I’m embarrassed to say that I grabbed more corn chips, corn and sauce and when the chicken was finished I used the sauce and corn like a dip and consumed a heap of corn chips. It. Was. Amazing!!!
This past week has been a bit emotional for me. On Friday we remembered the events of ten years ago in Bali. I needed a break and Bron had very kindly organised a weekend away with her sons and me. The destination was to be Cowra with nothing specific planned except dinner at Tommy’s Bistro in the Imperial Hotel. We knew that Cowra was known for the Japanese Garden and the prisoner of war camp. The POW camp is the site of the Cowra Break out.
We stayed at the Vineyard Motel on Chardonnay Street in Cowra. This is a small but well presented motel. The best thing is the heated floor of the bathroom and main living area. This is so good on cold nights and mornings. I would recommend this motel as accommodation a little out of the town centre and in amongst grape vines.
For higher resolution views, click on the images and they’ll open up into bigger clearer images.
Vineyard Motel
In amongst the grapevines
Grapevines
Bird bath
In the Afternoon we went and headed into town to find a pie for lunch and then ate it in a local park.
Tomato and onion pie with coke
After lunch we ventured to the Japanese Garden. This is truly a delightful place to visit. It is so serene and tranquil. I would highly recommend visiting.
Bonsai
Water feature
After the garden we went to the Cowra POW Camp site.
The replica guard tower
The grounds where the site was
On Saturday evening we went and had dinner at Tommy’s Bistro in the Imperial Hotel.
Both Bron and I enjoyed the crispy crackling pork belly and scallops for an entrée and then a rare Scotch fillet steak on Paris mach for our main meal. For dessert I had a sticky date pudding with Queensland nuts and ice cream. The service was fast and friendly. The decor very warm and inviting. I would highly recommend Tommy’s Bistro for a dinner.
Garlic bread
Crispy crackling pork belly with scallops
Scotch fillet and prawns with Paris mashed potato
Sticky date and Queensland nut pudding
After a good sleep we enjoyed a motel breakfast. I had peanut paste and orange marmalade on whole grain toast.
Our intention for the morning was to go for a walk in a national park and then visit a winery for lunch.
The Wallaby Walking Trail in the Conimbla National Park is an easy walk of a couple of kilometres. The brochure from the Cowra Visitors’ Centre suggested the walk would take 30 minutes. The sign at the trail suggests 1 hour. In the end it took us about 40 minutes after a couple of water stops. You can see our route on my RunKeeper site.
In the end we didn’t get to a winery but we did find Taste Canowindra. A delightful venue for wine, art and music plus great food.
I had a chicken terrine made with crushed strawberries. It was really very good. I would recommend this place to anyone who wanted a good lunch on the way home to Canberra.
When I got to my place I made myself a chicken red curry with lychees and pineapple.
Last week I made a chicken burger and used an English muffin for the roll. I had a couple of muffins in the freezer and a chicken thigh. I’ve never used a muffin to make crumbs so I gave it a go. With the muffin I added a chunk of Coon tasty cheese. I also mashed a potato and made a crumbedpotato cake.
Hmmm…an insane day at work. As the clock ticked and I knew I’d be back late all I could think of was how to short cut my dinner plan without compromising the flavour. On the weekend I thought about splitting a chicken and roasting it. I’ve done this in the past in a hooded barbecue. It worked like a dream and tasted great. This time, thanks to the salmon fishing queen (aka Barb) I can spike my chicken. I also added some chilli flakes and salt and pepper. The vegetables are where I did the short cutting. I was thinking of mashed potato but I brought home a heap of work and needed to use the roasting time for work.
In the end it looked and tasted okay. Best of all I have left over chicken.
From my local Coles
Split and flattened
I needed to make sure the chook’s arse was included too
Cooked perfectly (well in my opinion anyway)
Plated up
To emphasise the chook’s arse and vertebral column
