Tag Archives: Poached egg

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

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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.

#breakfast Bron made poached egg on muffin #yummy

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.

Ricardo’S Cafe on Urbanspoon

I needed something refreshing and dairy

#lunch Caramel thick shake #yummy

Caramel thick shake

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Bron and I shared the Wagyu steak and truffle sliders

#lunch Wagyu truffle sliders #superyummy

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

#lunch #yummy vanilla slice with Bron

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

Hot chocolate

Marshmallows maketh the hot chocolate :-)

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

#breakfast Bron made scrambled #eggs and #bacon #yummy

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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Bron cooking up a storm | Dumpling Inn Macquarie | #bestblogs13

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In last night’s post I mentioned that Bron was cooking up a storm for dinner. She told me she used every plate in the cupboard to do this and truly it was one of the best home made meals I’ve ever eaten. Bron has been experimenting with Mexican cuisine a little lately and for dinner we had a Mexican theme.

For starters Bron made some home made corn chips using tortillas

Home made corn chips
Bron made home made corn chips. They were #yummy

These were amazing with sour cream and some of David Lebovitz’s http://davidlebovitz.com guacamole

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As part of the main course Bron prepared some corn fritters. I’ve always loved corn or zucchini fritters. They are just fried loveliness.

Corn fritters
Bron is cooking corn fritters #dinner #yummy

Nothing like the sizzle of fritters

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Gratuitous video of corn fritter frying

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Alongside the corn fritters the Pièce de résistance was a pulled pork stuffed avocado coated with egg and fried

Main course
#dinner Bron made corn fritters and pulled pork stuffed avocado with @davidlebovitz guacamole and sour cream #superyummy

Served with David Lebovitz’s guacamole and sour cream

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There was some pulled pork left over so I finished it off with some sour cream and guacamole

Left over pulled pork
I got Bron's left over pulled pork, @davidlebovitz guacamole and sour cream to finish off #superyummy

This was so yummy

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For dessert Bron made a caramelised white chocolate and lemon curd with double cream tart

Dessert
Bron made #dessert Caramelised white chocolate and lemon curd tart with double cream #superyummy

Dessert was eaten as we watched Game of Thrones Series 3 episodes 2 and 3

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After a good sleep Bron made breakfast

Poached egg and marmalade on toast
Bron made me a poached egg and marmalade on toast #yummy #breakfastforwoojm

Nothing like a good breakfast

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Cracking open the egg revealed a perfect runny yolk

Poached egg
Perfectly runny egg yolk. Thanks Bron. #yummy #breakfastforwoojm

A yellow runny water fall of happiness

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For lunch we’d booked a table at one of our favourite restaurants in Canberra, viz., The Dumpling Inn. We hadn’t eaten Yum Cha for what seemed like an age.

Yum Cha is one of life’s joys. A meal of guaranteed happiness.

Char siu pork
#lunch char sui #yummy

I love walking past Chinese restaurants and seeing char siu pork and roast ducks hanging in the windows. I love finely slice char siu pork with noodle soups.

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Steamed pork ribs
#lunch #YumCha pork ribs #yummy

This was nice but a little grissly

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Rock salt chilli chicken drumettes
#lunch #YumCha rock salt chicken chilli drumettes #yummy

The flavours were amazing with this dish and very similar to their rock salt calamari. The chicken was so tender it was fall off the bone good.

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Sticky rice and pork dumplings
#lunch #yumcha sticky rice and pork balls #yummy

This is similar to a sweet dish my grandfather’s brother Les used to make with coconut and sugar

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Char siu boa (one of my favourite foods)
#lunch #yumcha char sui bao #yummy

On a cold night, a few of these make a remarkably good snack

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Every culture has a wrap :-) Peking duck pancakes

#lunch #yumcha Peking duck pancakes #yummy

Pure happiness in a wrap

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Steamed pork dim sim
#lunch #yumcha steamed pork dim sim #yummy

These were very nice with hot chilli sauce

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Crispy skin roast duck
#lunch #yumcha crispy skin duck #yummy

Mmm…crispy skin duck. What more can you say?

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Custard tarts
#lunch #yumcha custard tarts to finish #yummy

I really liked Bron’s Portuguese custard tarts, these were good too

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We left The Dumpling Inn feeling very satisfied. I’ll let you in on a secret. Before I walked in I loosened my belt a notch to avoid any in-restaurant embarrassment :-)

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So it’s been an amazing weekend in food. What we really need next weekend is an amazing weekend in exercise. I hope you all have a good week ahead.

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Dumpling Inn on Urbanspoon

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Dumpling Inn
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Rockpool on George | #ManFlu | #bestblogs13

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Last night after a little anticipation we dined at Rockpool on George. This is Neil Perry’s restaurant. Neil is a famous celebrity chef in Australia and is also responsible for the Qantas http://qantas.com cuisine, especially the business and first class menus.

To get into the mood of Sydney we walked around a little.

Sydney opera house
The sails of the Sydney Opera House

The sun was in the right place at the right time for this. We arrived a little early we were so keen on the evening’s dining experience.

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Rockpool on George
Fantastic dining #dinner

Bron captured this image of me outside the restaurant

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Bread
Bread and whipped butter

The whipped butter went so nicely with this bread which had the crustiest of crusts.

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Canapé
Blue swimmer crab and avocado foam canapé

Queensland spanner crab, parsley, egg, fennel fondue

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Caviar on a perfectly poached egg
Caviar #yummy

with soft poached egg, crispy potato, Allemande sauce

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Caviar on a perfectly poached egg
Caviar and poached egg #yummy

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John Dory
John Dory #yummy

“ginger and shallot” scampi, fennel and macadamia

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Beef
Beef #yummy

Rib cap (deckle) infused in tobacco with fennel, mint, green olive and potato

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Beef
Beef #yummy

This looks a little naughty and sorry my photography is not that good

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Bron’s chocolate
Chocolate

grand cru from Valrhona with peanut butter and jelly

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Vacherin
Amazing custard and lime granita dessert #yummy

pandan custard, coconut parfait, jasmine sorbet and lime granita

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Petit four
Petit four #yummy

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Neil Perry

Neil Perry

I found this image at
http://cdn.taste.com.au/images/articles/neil03281319.jpg

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This was one of the finest dining experiences we’ve had together or apart. The restaurant’s ambience is perfect. Bron noted the lack of art work which didn’t seem out of place for the elegant simplicity of the surrounds. The wait staff were very helpful and informative without being intrusive on our evening. They were great at anticipating our needs, e.g., for topping up water and clearing away crockery. Bron was really impressed with the sliver tablecloth brush :-)

The evening is definitely worth the money we paid given the location, the excellent service to customer ratio, the ability to watch the chefs in action and most importantly the quality and complexity of the food. In the menu frontispiece Neil Perry ensures he attributes correctly the source of all his produce. I think this is a mark of quality.

One of the things that really struck us was the intelligent way in which the service was arranged. For example, the seating times for each table seemed to be calculated to ensure each group of guests were not sitting on adjacent tables. This gave us a sense of a space and tranquility. We could have a conversation without the need to be guarded or to whisper.

My one regret was that I was at the peak of my #ManFlu which means I don’t think I really enjoyed the subtlety of all that was on offer. It simply means we need to come here again.

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Rockpool on George on Urbanspoon

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Please vote for me :-)

Rockpool on George
http://www.rockpool.com/sydney/

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Breakfast at Elk and Pea

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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.

#breakfast Avocado and mushrooms #yummy

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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The Elk & Pea on Urbanspoon

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I spent all afternoon at work today and came home to my ironing and decided on an easy dinner.

#dinner Chicken thigh with salad. I seasoned with Madras curry powder. #yummy

Chicken thigh seasoned with Madras curry powder and a simple salad.

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Brisbane high rise and food glorious food

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The last few days have been fairly busy and on Thursday and Friday I had to be in Brisbane for an important meeting.

On Wednesday I forgot my lunch and after a frantic morning I was in a café and spied a Chiko roll. I haven’t had one in years. My maternal grandfather‘s brother told me many times when I was young that our family had somehow been involved in the invention of the Chiko roll. At the time they owned a Chinese café at a truck stop in Rocklea in Brisbane. They used to sell these super large spring rolls mostly composed of cabbage and chicken. They sold them as chicken rolls. Mum and her brother have confirmed this story for me. They claim someone got the idea for the Chiko roll from my grandparents chiekn rolls at the Golden Pagoda in Rocklea. The Golden Pagoda was destroyed in the great flood of 1974 and the loss destroyed my grandparents and immediate family. They never really recovered.

Later that afternoon a work mate said she was going out to get some chocolate and I asked her get me some. I love my work mates. They know me. Look at what came back :-)

Check out the size of the block.

That night I didn’t feel that hungry but had some chicken thigh meat thawing (and no I didn’t eat all that chocolate in one sitting).

The chicken burgers were tasty, you can see I used an English muffin for one and a hamburger roll for the other.

The next morning I woke up early for a 0620 AEST flight from Canberra to Brisbane. I like that the Qantas Club has breakfast.

On board the flight I had another breakfast.

I spent Thursday night in my hotel room working. The view of the Brisbane River from the twenty-fifth floor was pretty good.

I went and bought a couple of hot pies and an apple crumble to get me through the night.

In the morning the view was better. I left Brisbane in 1995 to live in Darwin until coming to Canberra in 2007. Brisbane city has certainly grown.

Look at the huge tree. they are amazing. I love them.

I indulged in a Starbucks breakfast of toast and a caramel mocha with cream.

So on the way back to Canberra I spent time chatting with a work mate and eating.

The pork buns here were crap. They are from the Sydney Qantas club and rubbish. You want to see a nice barbecue pork bun go to the Dumpling Inn. Check out the image here.

The soup was a spicy Mexican lentil dish.

On Saturday we went to Costco to buy some food. I hadn’t had lunch. I tried a Costco hot dog. It wasn’t that good.

For afternoon tea we went to Ricardo’s Cafe at Jamison and had a caramel praline mousse.

Last night Bron and I cooked dinner together. I cooked a steak with an onion dijon sauce and Bron cooked the cauliflower blue cheese gratin. The gratin was amazing. I ate two. I wanted more.

Bron cooked a caramel chocolate tart and a lemon tart for dessert. They were out of this world. Bron is amazing.

Caramel chocolate tart

Lemon tart

This morning we went light and had a poached egg before our big lunch.

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My weekend in food

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Okay it’s a bit more than the weekend. On returning to Canberra I caught up with Bron and we had dinner at the Canberra Southern Cross Club (Jamison) on Wednesday night. I had my usual scotch fillet steak with calamari and prawns. You’ll notice a jug of pepper sauce as well as a jug of Béarnaise (because that’s how I roll).

Scotch rib fillet reef and beef from the Canberra Southern Cross Club (Jamison) (iPhone)

On Thursday morning Bron made Cinnabon for her work mates. I got to have two for breakfast (lucky me).

A tray of Cinnabon on cooling racks (iPad)

This tasted amazingly good (iPhone)

On Thursday evening Bron made an aubergine curry. It was delicious.

Aubergine curry (iPhone)

On Friday morning we had a Mavi breakfast wrap. I love these. They are bacon, egg, hash brown, mushrooms and barbecue sauce rolled up in a flat bread and served with a medium coffee. Two of these cost $19 at Mavi in Phillip.

Mavi breakfast wrap (iPhone)

That evening we went to Kingsleys Steak and Crabhouse in Civic. I had a steak with WA marron which was delicious. The steak was extraordinarily tender even if it was a little medium rare rather than rare. The potato bake and beetroot salad were nice accompaniments.

Steak and WA Marron (iPhone)

Potato bake (iPhone)

Beetroot salad (iPhone)

Nothing left. It was good (iPhone).

For dessert we had caramel cheese cake with peanut brittle.

Caramel cheesecake with peanut brittle (iPhone)

After dinner we went to Koko Black and I had hot chocolate.It was the nicest hot chocolate I’ve ever had.

Hot chocolate from Koko Black (iPhone)

Saturday morning came and I felt full from Friday night. I’m so grateful Bron was happy with making me a poached egg and avocado.

Poached egg and avocado (iPhone)

That afternoon we went to a birthday high tea at Adore Tea for a dear friend, viz., Nat.

Cucumber sandwich Adore High Tea (iPhone)

Adore High Tea (iPhone)

Adore High Tea (iPhone)

Adore High Tea (iPhone)

Adore High Tea (iPhone)

Adore High Tea (iPhone)

But I adore coffee (iPhone)

Last night Bron made a beef stew on mash with cabbage.

Beef stew on mash with cabbage (iPhone)

This morning we went to Urban Pantry for Brunch. I had the big breakfast which was nice but the poached eggs weren’t very good. The yolks were firm and not runny. This is a deal breaker. We won’t return.

Big breakfast with a side of Hollandaise (iPhone)

Finally tonight I made myself some chicken with avocado, cabbage and onion.

Chicken dinner (iPhone)

So that’s my extended weekend in food. Good night. I’ll catch you all through the week.

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Unlike @bron99 I cannot poach an egg to save myself

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Regular readers will know I love eggs. I especially like them for breakfast and I’m a fan of poached eggs, fried eggs, scrambled eggs and omelets. I regularly post images to
http://breakfastforwoojm.posterous.com/
 which is a Posterous site established by a primary school teacher in NSW with a focus on breakfast. Many of the images I’ve posted have been courtesy of Bron who is an expert egg poacher. I, on the other hand am hopeless. I can fry an egg with the best of them, but my poached eggs are a mess. Last night we were watching Bill Granger’s Bill’s Tasty Weekends and Bill demonstrated an easy method to poach an egg with an additional tip from Bron. It was to simply bring water to the boil, put in a egg ring (Bron’s tip), crack in the egg, turn off the heat and put a lid on.

I tried it this morning.

Poached egg and ham (iPhone)

When I cracked the poached egg, the yolk was nice and runny.

Poached egg and ham (iPhone)

I normally post breakfast images with my Brisbane Broncos mug. They lost to the Melbourne Storm on Friday night, so here is my new mug from my recent meeting in Frederick, MD.

I hope everyone has a great breakfast.

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Lamb stew day

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Today was pretty good. This morning I went and enjoyed brunch with friends at Black Pepper. It was an enjoyable meal. I had Eggs Benedict with bacon. There is something very special about runny egg yolk. Australia is one country where soft poached eggs are safe to eat. I wouldn’t be so game in many other countries.

This afternoon I made a lamb stew. It’s been a while since I’ve made a lamb stew. I managed to find some cheap lamb forequarters chops from Coles.

It turned out to very nice.

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