Introducing.....

Just a little something....

Switched over to a new version of blogger, and it's stuffing me around as I can't always load my damn photos on here!

But let me introduce you to the first of my newest two friends- There's Giraffe. He bites.

Saw him at Spitalfields Market around the time between Christmas and New Year. Giraffe spent a couple of weeks working with me at the bank. He annoyed a lot of people. Made a few credit decisions ("Giraffe says NO"). But he's home, now. Annoying Matt.

Matt's birthday dinner at L'Atelier du Joel Robuchon

Coming up to Matt's birthday and I ask him what he'd like for his present. The tv that we had in our living room had developed the sulks- for no apparent reason, the screen would go blank. Usually when Matt's watching cricket or soccer... I USED to giggle, whenever it happened, as mild-mannered, quietish Matt would chuck a very loud tantrum at the tv. However, it started happening one too many times, and finding a replacement tv ended up being a birthday request.

A couple of generous friends (Dave and Nicky, you know who you are) decided that we could have their 32 inch tv in exchange for a couple of bottles of wine and a chicken parmagiana dinner(at Matt's and my insistence- will blog about this when it happens). So, what else could I have given to a person who had everything?

Ta-dah! Decided that Matt's birthday would be a perfect occasion to use the voucher that I'd won, in the Menu for Hope fund raising raffle. Johanna, from The Passsionate Cook provided the prize and kindly asked what I thought, of my dining experience there.

Here goes...

A quick trot from the tube station leads us to this quiet street off Covent Garden/ Leceister Square. It's all shiny black marble and impeccably dressed hostesses who enquired whether we'd like to sit at the counter, or at our own table. Having read in reviews that watching the chefs in the open plan kitchen is part of the fun, I don't hesitate in picking counter seating.

We're lead to the down lit counter, and it's a bit of a struggle for me, hopping onto the bar stools. But the wait-staff are friendly and we order some drinks as we peruse the menu. Lots of mini taster dishes, some asterisked to show that they are recommended as starter dishes.. A lot of interesting dishes, but we opt to both have the menu decouverte. An amuse bouche, 6 mini dishes and 2 desserts.

I picked the wine. Can't remember what it was- but it was a lovely, light red, from France.

Our amuse bouche- a platter with a deep fried, crumbed roll of foie gras (yum), a shot-glass of fennel cream garnished with a dab of sea urchin roe (which I loved... intense, sweet, and a taste of the sea), and a little toastie with some tuna tartare. All very different tastes and textures - Our tastebuds perked, we were looking forward to the next plate.



Crabmeat in a citrus jelly, and avocado. This came in a pot that looked like a ceramic egg. We were told to "dig deep" into the container to ensure we got a bit of everything. The crab sat on top of some tomato-ey puree, some red-flecked citrusy/ zingy jelly and some crushed avocado on the bottom. A more healthy version of your plate of nachos?


Next, a platter of pieces of potato pieces, drizzled with truffled oil, some salad leaves and shavings of truffle ("truffle chips"). I made Matt sniff the dish, before he tried a bite. Think this is the first time he's had fresh truffle... The potatoes were just cooked, and went well with the truffle. Flavour explosion!






The next course was to be a serve of frogs' legs, but we were told that it had to be replaced with a langoustine fritter- more the sweet flesh of the langoustine wrapped in a springroll-y wrapper and deep fried. Lovely fresh seafood, but I wasn't that fussed about it.




We then had the next course served in a martini glass- Eggs cocotte served with a wild mushroom foam. Searching on the internet, eggs cocotte are eggs which are baked in a water bath in the oven. This as beautiful- one of my favourite dishes of the night. The egg was still liquid and the yolk went so well with the flavoursome mushroom foam... and the random pieces of morels that we found in the glass were unexpected, but oh so yummy.

Another lovely dish. A Saint-Jacques scallop perfectly grilled, on a bed of pureed watercress. Simple, but effective.

With the last of our savoury courses (thank goodness, I was getting a little full by then).We had a choice of calf's sweetbread with a sprig of laurel or foie gras stuffed grilled quail served with truffled potato. So we got one of each. I had the quail first. Nice, but I was really too full to do it justice. I did prefer it to the sweetbread (slighly bland, compared to everything else we had tonight).

AND THEN, we had two desserts to get through.. and full sized ones, too! Some chocolatey mouse with white chocolate foam, and with crispy chocolate biccie bits throughout, as well as a citrus and liqour-y souffle which the waiters ceremoniously opened up and put a bullet of pistachio icecream. Nice. Bit bitter, warm souffle and cold icecream.










We sat next to this older American couple and had a bit of a conversation with them. Mainly about whether the older French gentlemen and his much younger dining companion was his daughter or his "Ma Petite Ami"!

Matt reckons that it's best dining experience he's had. I think I have to agree. Not saying that the food was the absolute best we've ever had, but the fact that everything worked together that night. The constantly changing plates and tastes, watching the chefs, dressed all in black, working together, weaving in and around each other kept us entertained. I reckon there was a tad TOO much food (never thought that I'd say that, either) in the taster menu!

I'd love to go back another time. Though, I'd only pick a couple of dishes and make sure that I leave enough room for dessert!!!!! I would definitely recommend that you head there, if you get the chance.


L'Atelier du Joel Robuchon, 13-15 West Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 9HQ

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....

Weirdo weather, these past few days. It's been unseasonably warm all through December and January... there was a day, early Jan, where I was running around town just in my shirt-sleeves and trousers! I had to take my suit jacket off, and had already been carrying my coat!

AND THEN, it snows! It snows in London!!!!! It was so strange, yet strangely exciting to wake up and see the road, cars and parks covered in an inch or two of snow! It was especially cool to see our neighbourhood parks covered in white. Matt and I walked to work (Matt worried about falling on his arse, as his work shoes weren't the grippiest) and walked into the middle of a snowball fight! No casualties, thank goodness.

Anyway, without any further ado, here are the photos!

I am wearing my infamous ewok hat. Laugh all you want, my ears are toasty warm!

St Johns. Again.

Rav and Rob have never eaten at St Johns. We thought that we'd organise a lunch over at the Smithfields restaurant one day.

Rocking up on a Friday, we're sat at our table. Fergus Henderson isn't in the kitchen today, though, I don't think he does lunches.... Had a look on the net for their on-line menu and I had been looking forward to ordering the ox heart and chips. However, we get there and they'd changed their menu.

I ended up ordering both entree and main from the specials of the day.
Duck hearts and mashed parsnips (?) Found the dish boring. Think it was more me than the dish - I like my taste strong and punchy... The duck hearts were chewy in texture but there wasn't all that much taste- the sherry reduction wasn't enough to lift the dish. Mashed, unidentifiable veggies... blah.... Rav had the roast marrowbone and parsley salad. I didn't take a photo, as I'd had the dish before. Rob didn't have a starter, but he did try some of Rav's and liked it.

Mains- Rob ordered the tripe and chips!!!!! As he said himself, this, coming from a person who'd normally go for a steak and veggie dish- this was a far outside his comfort zone as it ever could be... What you can see- breaded and fried tripe pieces, some chips and in the bowl are shallots pickled in some vinegar.

Rav had a pair of slip soles. We thought they were some sort of footwear... Nothing of the sort. Just a pair of really fresh fish, pan fried in butter.

I had another option off the specials of the day. Roasted woodcock. (I can already imagine the jokes). Kinda like a pigeon. It had been roasted whole, then the liver, sweetbreads... etc had been taken out, deglazed with sherry, then squashed and spread onto a slice of toast. The head was then split so that I could get at the brain with a little silver spoon.

Kinda okay. They roasted the bird till it was rare, so it made it hard to get at the meat. However, it was rather tasty. Just a bother to hack at. The brain... tasted like brain... FYI, it's almost three times the size of a chicken's brain. Shows how dumb chickens are, in comparison...

We skipped dessert and went back to work. Waaaaay too much rich food in one go, that's for sure.

New Year Piccies

We spent New Year's at a friend of a friend of a friend's houseparty. With Hilly and Trist.

It was pretty good. They were mostly Ernst & Young people.... most of them from Melbourne, and all in black.... very nice people, and it was almost like being back at home!

However, after we welcomed in the New Year.. I had the most awful chills and aches, so we had to go, and I was tucked up in bed by 2am, 1 Jan 2007! Oh well, at least 2007 can only get better, right?

Christmas in Munich, part 2

I am so crap at this.... Started out with the best intentions of creating a blog and then updating it once a week... It's now mid-Jan and I've only just posted the latter half of Matt's and my trip to Munich!

So, without further ado-

... Before we left for Munich, we'd been warned by people that the Bavarians celebrated on Christmas Eve, instead of on Christmas Day. As festivities consisted mainly of getting together as a family at home, we would have to prepare for a city-wide shutdown, in terms of restaurants and shops.

As a result- on of the first things that we did when we got to our hotel, was to check with our concierge as to which restaurants were open over Christmas Eve and Christmas. We were assured that most restaurants and beer halls would be open on Christmas Day, but that Christmas Eve would be limited, in terms of choice.

We woke up to a frosty but clear day on Christmas Eve. Decided to waste some time in the bed room, watching the silly MTV cartoons, before tumbling out into the cold. We hopped onto the U-Bahn, heading into Marienplatz. We'd seen it the night before, when checking out the Christmas Markets. The morning after was a different scene- the plaza was empty, except for a few people taking down the last of their stalls.

We walked round and took a few photos of the glockenspiel, which was on our way to lunch at Haxnbauer, a wellknown German beerhall. The place was mostly empty, when we got there. We got ushered to a table and both had a large serving of the Weisbeer. It was easy deciding what we were going to have- Haxnbauer's known for its pork knuckles, roasted in a beech charcoal rotisserie (the suckling pig was only available during dinner). The rotisserie's located almost against the front window, very tempting...

Matt had the pork knuckle with sauerkraut and mash whilst I ordered the veal knuckle with Kartoffelkloesse; German potato dumplings.


Matt's (on the left, apologies for poor photo quality) was the better of our meals. Crunchy crackling, yummy herb-infused juicy pork, and sauerkraut to cut through the meat. We avoided the mash as it felt like wallpaper paste, in the mouth.

My veal was almost boring, by comparison. I mean, the meat was fine, but I think that some sauerkraut would have been a welcome addition in cutting through the sheer amount of meat on my plate. The dumplings were quite gross. Cricket ball like- in terms of texture and taste. Not to say that all dumplings are that way- just the ones on my plate. Yuck.

We heaved our full bellies out, after lunch. We'd booked a table for dinner at the hotel restaurant but that was a few hours way. Matt suggested we head to the concentration camp over in Dachau (a few suburbs away) and we hopped onto a train. It took about 45 mins, but when we got out at Dachau and looked to board the bus to take us to the camp, we got told by the bus driver that it wasn't open today. It WOULD be open the day after, though, on Christmas Day, if we decided to come back then.

Back to the train station we went. And it was such a cold wait! Got back, headed back to the hotel and had a nap, before heading down for dinner.

The restaurant was nearly full. Lovely Christmas tree in the middle, along with some guy with a bouffy mullet, an earring in his left ear, singing George Michael's "Last Christmas". Veeerry eighties.

Food was good- French-style cuisine and it had vegetables! Had salt preserved duck and raw fennel salad for a starter, then we both chose the grilled venison steak sauced with jus for mains- tender, yummy meat. Then, there were deserts, coffee and we went off to the bar for more cocktails. Not a bad way to celebrate.

Christmas Day and still no snow. We grabbed a quick bite from one of the shops in the main train station, and headed straight to Dachau. This time, we were lucky and caught the bus to the concentration camp, along with a couple of other tourists.

We got to the camp, got some audioguides, but really, it was so cold that we prefered to NOT use the audioguides, just so we could keep our hands in our coat pockets! We went into the museum and managed to catch the last documentary of the day in English. It covered the rise of the Nazi political party, the start of the concentration camps and the parties of people that were sent there. It was horrific, made up of actual Nazi film footage- people being herded like cattle off the trains and into the camps. Emanciated frames, the utter lack of hope in people's faces... cartloads and rooms filled with bodies.

It was a relief to get back outside. It had started to snow, and the sun had fully disappeared. We wandered around the camp... went into the remaining bunkhouses... and spent some more time in the museum. I have to admit, Christmas or not, I would not normally choose to go into a concentration camp. After Dachau, I'd prefer never to visit another concentration camp again, and I definitely came away thankful for all my blessings.

We got back from dark and dreary Dachau, and stepped into the brightness, warmth and noise that was the Hoffbrauhaus (HBH). One of the oldest brewhouses in Munich, it's a huge hall, filled with heavy wood tables and benches, packed to the brim with tourists from all over the world. The oompah band were taking a break, and we plonked ourselves on nearest table and ordered a 'mas' of beer each.

Well, I thought that I'd start slow and order a half beer and half lemonade. Well... I didn't realise till later that it was a half LIGHT beer and half lemonade. Way too sweet. Matt had to help finish that off for me. I then ordered another mas of normal beer. Much better, and I finished that all by myself.

We ordered some snacks... I had a liver dumpling in clear beef broth. Tasty, but I think I like my liver flash fried and with bacon... Matt got a plate full of cream cheese mixed through with finely chopped radish and spring onion, to spread on bread.

The band started up again. Loud and uplifting. Most of the people in the HBH were swaying to the music, some were singing, and there was even the drunk man dancing in front of the band, doffing his hat at women, on their way to and from the bathroom. Thankfully, he had left, by the time I needed to go to the ladies!

We had a couple of mas of beer, then decided to have dinner elsewhere. After wandering through Munich's little backstreets, we found a little bistro/beerhall which the guidebooks had recommended for the great food. Walked in and it was nearly empty, but they were still serving food so we sat down and perused the menu.

It was so weird, the menu was split into English and German, but they didn't seem to be straight translations of each other. The English part had your basic sausages and sauerkraut, pork knuckle, and the German part... well, we couldn't quite tell what it was.. so I pointed to a German word and the waitress said that was suckling pig... and that was met with very enthusiastic nodding by me. Matt ordered a serve of sausages and kraut.. Oh. So very, very yummy! I didn't take photos, but take my word for it. Melt-in-the-mouth, indeed! Matt's sausages were good, too.

Anyway... we left Munich the next morning, had a great, quick, flight home and made sure that dinner that night consisted mainly of greens! Ah... veggies. Anyway, vegetal cravings aside, we thoroughly enjoyed our trip- the city was beautiful, the beer taps flowed, we had some nice meals and saw some interesting things. I would definitely like to go back... though when the weather turns warmer!

Christmas in Munich, part 1

5am, Friday, 22nd Dec and both Matt's and my alarms go off. We jump out of bed, throw on warm clothes and head towards the taxi rank with our suitcases. We're off to Munich for a couple of days- away from London and from work.... Beer, sausages and pretzels, here we come!

We get to City Airport and discover that our flight's been delayed indefinitely, due to the blanket of heavy fog hanging over London for the past few days. In a few minutes, our worst fears have realised- they've cancelled nearly every flight leaving from the airport for that morning. We line up for almost two hours at the Lufthansa desk. When it comes to our turn, they put us on another flight heading into Dusseldorf, with a connection into Munich. This flight's out of Stanstead Airport, which has been the least affected by the fog. We're thankful, until the lady behind the desk says that it's at 5pm in the evening. However, they do provide us with a car to the airport, and we share that with two other girls who were booked to fly the original flight with us.

We spend the rest of the Friday at the bar at Stanstead. It's not a bad way to while away the hours, I guess.. Our flights to Dusseldorf and then to Munich were both on Air Berlin, and we find it hard to believe that Air Berlin's considered a budget airline- it's pretty spacious, clean and the staff are so pleasant! We arrive in Munich, get to our hotel with minimum hassle- thanks to plenty of useful advice from Phil, a friend from work.

The next day, we head straight to the Christmas Markets in Munchen Freiheit. It's a cute little place... wooden stalls selling hot food, lots of gluhwein (mulled wine) and crafty things. The stalls are all painted bright colours and there are lots of festive, colourful decorations everywhere, but we're almost too cold to take it all in... Whilst not cold enough to snow, the cold seeping through my boots prevents me from staying too long in one spot. I find myself marching Matt around the place, looking for the perfect German (hot) snack to wrap my hands round and sink my teeth into.

After steering Matt away from the stall selling Thai inspired pizzas, we head to the sausage stall and ask for a 'currywurst mit semmel'. Phil had mentioned that this was one thing that we absolutely had to try, and I had thought it was a curry flavoured bratwurst... it came in a cardboard tray, pieces of sausage swimming in a hot curry flavoured sauce and a bread roll to dip into the sauce. I didn't think I'd like it... but it was excellent. We also had a white sausage in a roll with ketchup and mustard. That was nice, too. I could definitely taste the thyme in the sausage.

Wandered around some more. Plenty of really interesting and pretty things- I got a pair of felt shoes for Hilda... we then walked past another stall selling what looked like little pancakes with toppings... (I got told they are called 'Kartoffelpuffer'- they're potato pancakes) We asked for sweet toppings- the people before me had melted cheese and ham... yum... but we just had our sausages. We got our pancakes sandwiching some cranberry preserves. The mix of warm, salty and sweet was oh so yummy... Kinda like when you put your McDonalds fries into a soft serve icecream....

We then had a bit of a walk throught he shopping district. Must've been a pretty upmarket place.. lots of women in near full-length fur coats, walking their dogs. Not as many canine friends as in Paris, but do these dogs have an access all areas pass? We saw dogs in shops, in cafes, in our hotel, on the train... Even in the departure lounge of the airport!

We then walked back to Marienplatz. When we got closer towards the city centre, we started to see some statues of lions dotted around the place. These had been painted in all different themes. The one you see here, with Matt... I presume the artist wanted to represent the inner Lionel Ritchie???? What say you?

We finally reached the Christmas market in Marienplatz. It was a lot larger than the one we went to, that morning. Lots more places selling roast chestnuts, gluhwein, and there even was a stall selling chocolate covered fruit on sticks! This is the only time you'll see me eating a banana, outside of Brunei...

We had some gluhwein... this was really, really good! With extra rum. We walked on, holding the warm cups... stopped at a place with a roast haunch of pig. Had a pig sandwich... There was something that they were selling in the stall. Something white, with speckled bits, spread on toast. The stall owner said it wasn't pork fat.... Matt didn't let me buy it.... but I'm quite curious as to what it could be.

Just did a google search: Schmaltz- pork dripping with crackling in it. Damn. Missed opportunity!

Dinner was at a little Japanese restaurant. It is so weird, after living in Australia and then in London, to head into a Japanese restaurant where the language they speak after Japanese ISN'T English! We still got by, though! Great food, and great atmosphere. I needed help from the diners next to us to ask for dessert!

Next post: Christmas Eve and the big day itself...

Nitin Sawhney at Jazz Cafe

Decided to organise another work/friend outing. Sometime in Nov, I'd read an article on Nitin Sawhney in the newspaper and it said that he'd be holding a gig at the Jazz Cafe on the 5th of December.

Amazing man. A talented flamenco guitarist, he's written compositions for orchestras, and is in the midst of doing the soundtrack to a Playstation game (?!) , I know him from the ambient cds he's released. I've also heard him play live, in Melbourne (thanks Joelsy!) and it was one of the best shows I'd ever been to.

So, reading this, I got all excited and looked to see who would be game enough to come check this out with me.

Most people came back with a "Nitin who?!!" but in the end, found 10 willing participants and on the day itself, a few of us trooped off to the Camden Kitchen, a little cafe and had huge falafel and beef burgers... we then met up with the rest inside the Jazz Cafe.

The place filled up pretty quickly. The Jazz Cafe had a huge main floor with a stage at one end where acts perform. The floor has a small bar on one side and another, larger, bar which services the floor as well as small lounge area, near the entrance to the venue.

Anyway, at 9pm, the band, Nitin included, trooped onto the stage. They had a person on the drums, a cellist, a bass guitarist, an Indian flute player (I assumed that the person playing the Indian flute was Indian, too) who sang sometimes, a tabla player, a human beatbox and Nitin played the piano and the flamenco guitar. They also had an assortment of female singers who sang in various different styles (Arabian, Indian, French, blues, rapping in Spanish... ) and it was a curious and glorious mix and match of instruments and styles.

Anyway, it all ended at 11-ish to an amazing encore. We sat around for a bit, waiting for the main press of people to head home before we went to collect our coats. It's been a month since the gig, and I still have this sense of awe, thinking back to it.

If anyone's interested in finding out more about Nitin Sawhney, you can check out the albums on Amazon here, or else visit his website here.

chocolates and Primal Scream

I've been slack, I know. So much has happened since my last post and since I haven't been forcing myself to sit down in front of the computer, it's now nearly a whole month of things to blog about!

Let's see... we've had Denis over from Melbourne- it was great catching up with him, as well as checking out the new Hotel du Chocolat, over near Moorgate Station. It's 10 mins away from work, guys. The first week that I found out about it, I was over there three times, in the same week! I was definitely wallowing in choccie heaven. Being the lovely person I was, I decided to appropriate Denis' pack mule services and deliver some to my workmates in Melbourne!

So it was appropriate when Keeley (boss lady) was over in the last week of November, that I tell her exactly where the shop is located, incase she wished to top up on supplies! Keeley was over to roll out some training in London and that sort of broke my routine for a bit. I also went over to New York for a couple of days to help roll the training out to our offices there.

New York was unseasonably warm. So much so, that in the last couple of days in Nov, we were wondering around with no coats! Bizarre, but eh, pretty enjoyable. Finally checked out Central Park. It's great! The squirrels are so much more friendly, in NY, and so not shy!

Unfortunately, I only bought my camera on my last day, hence the extreme lack of photos. But it was a too short visit, so I'll make sure I'm more prepared, the next time!

Back to London, and that same Friday, I head off to Brixton to check out Primal Scream, with a couple of guys from work. I don't think I've ever really listened to them before, but it was a spur of the moment thing to expand my horizons, awright?

Brixton's a little dodgy. We went into this pub where there were people wandering around that looked like they probably slept on the streets... and I was nearly caught between two such people, having a stare-off over who got to pick up the 10pence on the floor. I grabbed my half-pint and scurried back to the safety of my seat, with the boys.

Anyway, we then moved on, to look for dinner. It was weird. Brixton's supposed to be an area with a high Afro-Carribean population, yet every eating place we saw was Thai or Japanese food?! We were getting desperate when we decided to go into this Columbian restaurant. It decor was basic, bright florescent lighting, but it was reassuring to note that the waitresses and other diners seemed to be Spanish speakers. We ordered heaps of food, tapas and mains alike, to share. The tamal and the deep fried pork fat stood out.... bit stodgy, but oh so tasty!

We then wandered over to Brixton Academy, which was the venue for the gig. Nice- sloping grounds, not all that packed... we listened to the support act, "The View", who happen to be getting decent airplay on the London radiostations.... I got told that the acoustics make the singing and words a little muffled, but listening to The View on normal radio just supported my opinion that that particular band don't enunciate very well!

Anyway, Primal Scream came on, performed a lot of songs, of which I recognised two... and then it was time to head home! I'm sure you can tell that it didn't really affect me all that much... but I'm still glad I went. I liked the venue, and I liked the meal we had before the gig. Don't think I'll be rushing out to buy Primal Scream's CD anytime soon, though!

Ps- Matt didn't come to Primal Scream. Are you kidding?! The Cricket's on!
Pps- Finally wrote about Croatia- Have a look at the index on the right.

Rodin

This past weekend, there was a bit of shopping, sport and sulking (due to excessive sport watching) on the Saturday, and on Sunday, Matt and I went over to the Royal Academy of Art, off Piccadilly Road and checked out the exhibition on Rodin.

Lovely weather- crisp and sun-shiny. The 'Virgin Mother' statue by Damien Hirst had been replaced by Rodin's 'Gates of Hell', but we walked straight past it to check out the exhibition.

It was pretty awesome. First room started with two bronze statues- After his first statue was first cast, it seemed that people at that time accused Rodin of cheating- by covering his models with plastercasts, instead of modeling them in clay/wax first! So, he deliberately made his second statue larger than life, to stem all the gossip. Funny that. I'd be inclined to believe the rumours, they looked so lifelike.

The rest of the exhibition covered sketches he'd made of works, little models of the statues in different positions and poses, past commissions that he'd done, studies of his real life models, busts he'd made-in bronze, plaster and marble- it became quite fashionable and de rigueur for members of London's artistic and moneyed society to have a bust created by the great French master.

We saw a few variations of 'The Kiss' and 'The Thinker', in various sizes. Funny how they'd originally came about as characters for Rodin's work, the Gates of Hell- The Kiss was based on the story of Paulo and Francesca, in Dante's 'Inferno' and the Thinker was meant to represent Dante, himself, overlooking the gates of Hell. Rodin ended up singling them out and then enlarging them as pieces in their own right.

It was amazing- the exhibition culminated in a final statue of The Thinker, set right in the middle of an octagonal room... And after going through the different rooms displaying works in progress, and variations of different pieces, you end up with much more appreciation of the talent and hard work that went into these works of art.

After all that, we went out and had a look at the display of The Gates of Hell, taking it all in, and trying to find the characters we'd so recently met.

If you're interested, you can read more about Rodin and The Gates of Hell,

here.

Anyway, after Rodin, we went over to Covent Garden to do a bit of shopping- all right, I shopped while Matt read the paper, but we have now joined the ranks of annoying couples that match their clothes. All my fault- I'd gotten Matt a black Carhart hoodie and liked it so much that I went and got myself the exact same one. But while Matt doesn't care that we look like Arnold and Danny in Twins, I'm now thinking feverishly of when I'd next be out, in casual clothes without him, so as to get maximum wear out of my new jacket! (well, the other option was for me to get it in camouflage, and I didn't think it would be of much use in blending into the urban jungle...)

We then came home, Naomi came over for dinner, which was a Greek roast with mutton from the Borough Market (where else?) and roasted for 2.5 hours in a slow oven in a tray half filled with wine and stock. Yum. While we were waiting for the mutton to cook, we popped over to Village East (bar/cafe) for a couple of glasses of wine.

Great weekend, all in all..

Bonfire night and Barbara's Birthday!

Just a quick one- Today's Guy Fawkes' Day and while Matt and I had plans to check out the fireworks last night and tonight, we never ended up doing so. But we don't wholly miss out, as every man and his kid seems to have gotten fireworks and as I type, there are rockets whizzing past our window and exploding, it seems, just above our roof!

It was a sport-filled weekend for Matt- Football, rugby and cricket all yesterday and today. Meanwhile, I went shopping with Hilda and ended up buying more things for Matt than myself- thank goodness, because his previously only warm jacket is seriously MANKY. Sometimes I wish he was a bit more of a metrosexual than the blokey bloke he is (can you imagine?!)... but then my shopping gets curtailed by half, doesn't it?

Anyway, mustn't forget- Happy Birthday to Matt's mom, Barbara!!!!! Hope the party was a fun one, best wishes for the rest of the year!

Derby Day, Potato Cakes and Shopping!

Saturday morning, and I'm lying in bed listening to the 'click, click' of the laptop as Matt is checking out the sports results, including those of the Derby Day races in Melbourne- when all of a sudden, my mobile phone rings, and I fling off the blanket and race to answer it.

It turned out to be Cheryl and Elisa, ringing after a champagne fuelled and profitable (for Cheryl, at least!) day at the Flemington Raceground, in Melbourne. They sounded so happy and tipsy... It made me wish that I was back there and with them. Apparently a few toasts were made to me that day, as last year, Elisa and I never made it to the races- we were having too much fun drinking champers with Cheryl and Shahran, in the pubs along Swanston Street. Hearing their voices on the phone just brought it all back, including the reminder that I'd had so much champagne I didn't notice my strapless top had fallen down! Maybe I'm glad that I'm safely on the other side of the world, and very, very sober! Nah. That's why Hollywood Tape was invented, no? *Miss you guys!*

Anyway. Instead of quaffing champagne, Matt and I head to Borough Market and do our weekly shop. Made it home without eating anything there- which is a huge change for me, at least!

We decided to have a big fryup, with smoked bacon, cherry tomatoes and fresh eggs from the Market. I decided to try making some potato pancakes that I'd read about years ago... in the very first cookbook I bought. I can't remember its title or who it's by, at the moment, as it's packed away in a box in Matt's parents' place... but I'll try to look it up..

Anyway, it turned out pretty good, and we both gobbled everything down pretty quickly- I'd thought to share the recipe with you- as it's simple and is a big change from a slice of toast, or a deep fried hashbrown.

Here's our first attempt at photographing something we'd made earlier... it was after we'd eaten breakkie, so trust me when I say it looks a lot better fresh from the pan! But you get the idea....

Potato Pancakes:
Feeds two greedy guts, with a couple extra for snacking on later

Need:
1 potato (large as your closed fist)
2 onions (bit smaller than the potato)
1 egg
salt and pepper
a couple of dessert spoons of flour

So- peel and grate the potato. Use the largest sized holes of your cheese grater, but watch your knuckles and fingers!)
Peel the papery skins off the onions and grate into the potato. What you can't grate, just roughly chop with a knife and chuck that into the mix.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Add the egg, and start mixing with your spoon or hand... add enough flour so that it's not too wet, but still holds together (mine was still a bit slimey).
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a non-stick pan. Not till smoking, but if it's not hot enough, the pancakes won't crisp.
Put a golfball sized amount in the oil and using the back of a spoon, or your fingers, press it out so that it's a thin layer. Don't worry, the oil doesn't spit.
When the edges turn a golden brown, flip it over and press down on the cake with the spatula. It'll only take a minute before that side is brown. Put it on a couple of sheets of kitchen towel to drain, then serve straightaway with relish or the rest of your fryup.

Hope you enjoy- Hilda and I are now heading out to shop..... we might even have ourselves some champagne!

Poker Night and Wine Fest

I think I'll give up on getting the whole blog 'Just Right' and start using it the way it was meant to be used. So, there'll be shorter and more up to date entries, but we'll still be posting entries on our last couple of holidays, don't worry.

Anyway, this weekend's been pretty good- Friday night, Matt and I head to the Jazz Cafe in Camden to check out Giles Peterson. While in Melbourne, I'd bought a compilation CD by the DJ- he specialises in sourcing out obscure music, all which tenuously fall within the 'acid jazz' territory.

So we head to Camden and have some pretty yummy Japanese food, right next door to the Jazz Cafe. I think it was called the Bento Box Cafe. Matt ordered a bento box (what else?) and I had tempura ebi(prawns) in udon noodle soup. Both were passable, but we had the NICEST gyozas and some terrible fried chicken pieces to start. Overall, it was okay.

Went to the Cafe and were lucky enough to score some seats over by the bar. It was too packed to check out the rest of the place, but it looks like there's an open place that would be a dancefloor if it was so packed (I hate crowds), so while we weren't right in the midst of the action, that suited me fine.

There was a really good jazz quintet playing. We could see the person playing the xylophones and he was funny- very good, and banging away for all he was worth. Great music, great atmosphere... and the rest of the people around us were interesting enough for Matt and I to keep tugging on each others' sleeve going "..check him/her out!.."

Unfortunately, it seemed that Giles Peterson's set got delayed- I got really tired and we decided to leave, as the place just kept getting more and more full. Though I think I did see him as he came in, so that's my first celebrity spot!

Saturday, we had the boys over- Allo, Dobson and Graham for poker, as Matt's been picked for one of the poker teams sponsored by his work. He wanted to get some practice in, before the big event... and doubled this up with a feed, as they hadn't yet been over to our new place for dinner.

So, while the boys were shuffling the cards and mucking about with the poker chips, yours truly was in the kitchen the whole afternoon. Made some meatballs- had thought that Matt and I would have them for a heat up meal during the week, but they all got eaten last night... anyway, I digress, we had:
Roast pork with the crackliest crackling I've ever made... even if the bloody oven smoked like a chimney for a time...
Lemon roast potatoes,
Garlic roasted parsnips and
Some unidentifiable greens, chopped up and fried Italian style (olive oil, garlic,then a squeeze of lemon, after).

It all went down fine, apart from when Allo told me he didn't eat pork (just doesn't like it). He did have a bit of the bread and butter pudding I made after. The pudding was made of the choc chip brioche we bought from the Borough Market, and some custard that was a bit too eggy. Was okay... I'll know next time.

I didn't play poker, and nor would I want to. Think things got a bit heated between the boys... but a walk to get more beer does wonders in clearing the head and cooling tempers.

Today, we met up with Hilda and Tristan over in Islington for the Wine Fest. 5 hours of walking round tasting all different wines and we didn't even see everything! Bought some yummy rioja and a New Zealand Sauvignion Blanc. Matt got some biltong, and we also got a packet of chili chocolate.

Good day. We're home early, and it's now off to bed for an early start next week!

Croatia

... So, Matt and I are on a plane, on our way to Split, Croatia to meet up with Claire and Shane who would both be flying in from Greece. We would be spending a bit more than a week at Claire's friend's family home and it would be a relaxing sun, surf and drinking holiday (one which we hadn't really had... I mean, you just want to pack everything into your vacation, don't you? See all the sights...eat all the food...etc)

We find them at the bar. How brown they both are! They finally found all the sun they'd been looking for, over in Ibiza and Greek Islands... And Claire's friend Vesna was there, too. We decide to rent a car and drive over to Vesna's place, after she tells us that it's a couple of hours by bus.. Not to mention Claire and Shane's mountains of luggage (true, they did have to pack for a couple of weeks' travel). So we get a little car and start packing everything into the boot.

I drove first. Did I forget to mention that the cars in Croatia follow the rest of Europe in that it's left hand drive, and they also drive on the right side of the road? It was really tense. Everyone was oohing and ahhing over the glorious coastline and scenery... thought the majority of that drive, I was too stressed out to notice much else but the road.

Lara, Ryan and Bel were already at Vesna's place when we got there. It was great- they were brown, too... though not as much as Claire and Shane! We all pitched in with setting up where we were going to sleep... Just as the sun was setting. In the midst of that, we heard a heap of bells and bleatings.... Ran outside and it was the daily homecoming of the neighbours' sheep and goats. We whipped out our cameras.. but were too late. Vesna, laughing, told us that we'd have plenty more chances as we'd hear them coming and going everyday.

One thing that I can say about where we were- it was HOT. So very, very hot.... I don't think it rained once, when we were over there... and it would have been so welcome. Didn't think the houses there had air conditioning, either... I am such a wimp!

What did we get up to? We went into the little town closest to us- had plenty of cheese filled burek- The Croation version of burek being different to the borek that I'm used to, in Melbourne. In Oz, and I'm not sure if it's Lebanese or Turkish, but it's usually been a hand held slightly oily pastry with a thin stuffing of minced lamb or spinach and cheese... This Croatian burek was more doughey layers stuffed into a big round pan, with some cheese in the middle layers, then more dough on top and baked. Also quite oily. Nice, when warm. We also had an apple version, which was more a coiled snake shape. I liked the cheese one, with lots of tabasco!

We also went to a couple of beaches.. A pebbled one... and I was wondering why people were walking there with rolled up yoga mats! But we a spot where there was a thick scattering of pine needles. The water was very clear, and quite bracing... I quickly scrambled out to lay in the sun. Oh. Matt and I had some really delicious langoustines and chips- we went to the restaurant to order some to takeaway, and they didn't have any containers and so we were walking down the beach with langoustines and chips on china plates. Yes. We did garner some looks. But that all paled in comparison to how fresh the little critters were. YUM!

We also made it to another beach which we were told had "health sand". Mineral mud pits! We worked that out when we saw some strange apparitions walking down the beach... all covered with black gunge. A couple of us decided to go have a look.

It looked like... a bog. Didn't smell... was just black, and swampy. Shane decided to fall into it... and splashed the rest of us, so we decided to pile it all on.... We walked back to the rest of the party (Shane was having a lot of trouble keeping his shorts on, as the mud was heavy yet slippery!) and then sat down for a bit...but it got a little hard to move, so we dashed back into the sea to was it off. This beach was nice. The water was really shallow for ages, and because of that, was really warm.

What else did we do? We checked out the city of Zadar. A fortified city founded in the 9th century BC... it's surrounded by thick, golden brown walls. There are little windey alleyways lined with bars and eateries. We had a couple of drinks the openair terrace of a bar. All cane furniture underneath shady trees. Bliss.


Another thing that we did, was to charter a boat out into the Adriatic Sea for the day. They'd provide enough wine for the day, as well as sandwiches for lunch. It was a glorious day. Bright, sunny, the water blue.... within the first hour, we see dolphins... and we also stop off in a little bay area to have a swim. Unfortunately the tide's brought in hundreds of jellyfish!

Undeterred, we putt-putt off to another island and find this little bit of water totally uninhabited. The water was still slightly chilly, but it was so nice to have a strech of sea all just for us. It was like this for the next couple of hours... swimming, having a plastic cup of home brew, some biccies.

All was well, until all the grog ran out. We HAD warned them that a bunch of Aussies would be requiring a lot more alcohol than your average tourist. So, we made the ship stop off at the nearest inhabited island where everyone decided to hop off and door knock! No luck there... they only get supplies delivered by ship once a month, and had nothing to spare! Grumpy, we decided to head back to shore, when some vital piece of the engine blew out and we were stranded in the middle of the sea!

The crew (of two) tried to get the engine fixed, but had to finally give up. At this point in time, everyone was sobering up, and starting to tire of the endless sun and sea. We could see the shore, but it was just so far away. When the rescue boat finally appeared to tow us back, we were just about to commit mutiny- then there was the hour's ride back into shore. Oh well, the majority of it was good. Though, I was glad to make it back on shore!

Our visit to the party island of Pag. Where a member of our group got off to a head start in the partying... where I nearly drank a wasp... and we spent a rather cold night on the beach... finally finding a taxi driver to take us home, but not before stopping off at a store that sold the best burek in town...

We also tried to roast a chicken in the fire shed (for want of a better description!). Apparently, most houses in the country have a firepit located in a building outside of the main house. This is so that any baking or roasting they do is done separately so that the houses don't get overheated in summer. So, Vesna had been promising us a home roasted chicken for days, and we got everything together. Shane started up a fire in the pit, and Vesna walked us through what we needed to do; once the fire died down to embers, we were to clear a little spot in the embers to put the roasting tin. We'd then cover the chicken with a domed metal lid and leave it.

However, we weren't sure if the embers were going to be hot enough to cook the whole chicken. So the boys lit another branch and put it on top of the metal lid. Which, I think, was our undoing.... When we finally took the lid off, the Top of the chicken was BLACK, and the potatoes that we'd put in there were close to being as one with the roasting tin *sigh*. I have no photos to show you, but trust me... the bits we could scrounge from the blackened beast were yummy, if a trifle dry. Ah. One lives and learn.

On the whole, Croatia was great- fun for the most of it.. and just what we needed. It was great hanging out with everyone, and I was sad to say goodbye to Lara, Ryan and Bec as they packed up for the rest of their driving tour. Claire, Shane, Matt and I left for London on the same flight as the two of them had an extra day in London before heading back to Melbourne via Hong Kong.

We came away a little more tanned (or burnt, in Matt's case), and a little more relaxed. I guess this'll get added to the list of all the other places that we would like to head back to, and check out all the things we missed... and I sure as heck wouldn't mind having another go at roasting the chicken again!