2CC is a talkback station with a fairly balanced political position. It takes programming from Sydney and Melbourne which is mostly just right of centre and it has two local announcers/broadcasters for the breakfast (Mark Parton) and afternoon (Mike Welsh) drive programs who balance each other out.
Mark Parton does breakfast on 2CC
Welshy does the drive show on 2CC
These images were taken from the 2CC website (see below)
On the day I won the meat, the “best of” topic was public art. Canberra has a significant recent history in terms of the public debate on public art. There are a good many residents who think the ACT Government has wasted vast amounts of tax payers money on what many regard as monstrosities and hideous insights into warped imaginations.
I’ve always thought a city, especially a national capital should be replete with public art. I really like the public art in Canberra and my favourite is the Owl Statue on the T-junction of Belconnen Way and Benjamin Way.
Bron and I went to Elite Meats in Kippax Fair in Holt and looked over the butcher’s shop. The butcher who looked after us was very friendly and very helpful. I’m pretty sure I’ll go back there to buy more meat. Over time I’m bound to post images from this selection of meat
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
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
The last week and a bit has been huge. On Thursday and Friday 25 and 26 October I was at Mt Macedon at a Disaster Intelligence Master Class run by the Australian Emergency Management Institute (AEMI). This was an excellent two days meeting new colleagues and networking.
On Sunday 28 October I flew back to Melbourne for another three nights stay. For the last few months I’ve been involved in the preparation for a week of meetings with international colleagues covering a week of meetings in Melbourne and Canberra. On Thursday I hosted a full day meeting with international visitors. I am so grateful to a small cadre of work mates who behind the scenes got all the logistics sorted out in quick time.
So my week has been full on and my eating has been atrocious. The only day when it approached okay was Thursday when I had some control over the food at the breaks and lunch. We served fruit platters and sandwiches with “healthful” fillings. On the other days when other agencies were in charge we enjoyed cream filled biscuits, cream filled pastries, doughnuts, cakes and slices. The lunches were also very filling.
To top off a very full and mentally stressful week I had arranged to visit my kids in Brisbane this weekend. That has meant a lot of fun and really very little time for rest and sleep. The other benefit has been a rebalance of my twitter statistics. Last week saw very little social media activity so I’ve made up for it over the weekend, especially on Twitter and Instagram.
Anyway, so here I am in Brisbane this weekend. What I had not realised was that my two younger brothers would also be in town. They were sorting some things out for my parents. To give you some context. I’m the eldest of three sons. Brother 2 is two years younger than me and Brother 3 is six years younger than me. Brother 2 is a medical practitioner based in Cairns and Brother 3 is in Brisbane’s building and construction industry.
At lunch Brother 2 sent me an iMessage asking if I wanted wonton for dinner. Earlier in the day we had discussed having dinner at Eatons Hill Hotel where Miss17 was doing work experience. They didn’t have a table so we elected to go to our tried and true Kedron-Wavell RSL. My guess is that Brother 2 and Brother 3 had a chat between themselves and cooked up a scheme, a scheme that would suit me just fine.
Brother 3 has become a master of wonton making. He has friends who ask him to make wonton for them. Brother 3 essentially follows Mum’s recipe. Brother 2 however, prefers a variation on Mum’s recipe. Brother 2 like me enjoys adding texture to our food. We’re also fans of coriander (cilantro) while Mum isn’t. Brother 2 tends to add raw finely sliced ginger and bamboo shoots to augment the crunch of the water chestnuts.
In the end we stayed with Mum’s recipe given we were eating with Mum and Dad.
While we were out Miss 17 needed to my a birthday card. I saw one that caught my eye.
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We also enjoyed a high carbohydrate lunch from a local Japanese Bakery.
Japanese bacon wrap
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Custard platypus
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After lunch we were in need of Ice Cream so we went to Cold Rock Ice Creamery at Chermside.
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I asked Miss15 to capture an image of me buying ice cream.
When we arrived back at my parent’s place you could smell the food preparation from the corridor.
As we entered we were confronted with a tower of wonton wrapper.
I wondered if they had bought enough. Eight packets of fifty wrappers.
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Brother 2 had bought some pork mince but it was too lean so he got some pork belly and hand minced it in the traditional family way. With two meat cleavers. This is the BEST way to mince meat. It also builds muscles and annoys neighbours and tests the sturdiness of kitchen tables.
Meat cleavers used to mince the pork belly.
The final filling. Go to my Mum’s recipe for the details.
As the team were getting into making the wonton Miss11 and Miss15 wanted to have a go.
Then the experts showed them how.
We had tray upon tray and made about 400 wonton
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The masters at work
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Before I drove Miss17 to work experienced she and I were given a tasting bowl at about 1500 AEST.
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When I got back dinner was ready and this is my first serving. So much better than restaurant portions.
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I also needed a second serve at about 1900 AEST.
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Did I mention the pork bones? They were fall off the bone tasty.
There were some wonton left over and my brothers and daughters have a liking for cold freshly made and cooked wonton from the refrigerator. Whenever I do it I get visions of Nigella Lawson going back to her refrigerator late at night.
Needless to say we slept well and still feel full. Mum and Dad though thought I needed a big breakfast.
Mum had been planning this for a little while. She grinned as she brought food from the refrigerator and was pretty happy when she saw my smile. She’d been to the butcher and got some lamb’s fry. As many readers know I like my offal and nice lamb’s fry is hard to come by. Mum has seasoned some flour with salt and pepper and coated the liver and then kept it in the refrigerator overnight. This morning she gently pan fried it and served it with bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs and a grilled tomato. It was delicious.
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Needless to say my daughters are not great fans of offal. I pondered whether Dr Offal should post this on his blog, but figured it was better suited to this post.
A note about this post. I’ve used a new WordPress.com feature. WordPress.com users can now embed Instagram images into their blog posts. This seems to work well. If you want to comment on an image in Instagram click on the image and if it’s been inserted through instagram you’ll soon see
