the last trip in the Prius

Well, the time had nearly come for the lease to end. So Keat and I headed off to Kanarga Walls for the day. We drove down a good road from Oberon to find a large number of cars and people at the lookout.



Unfortunately the view was somewhat obscured by the smoke from about three bush fires.





Going back into Oberon, we again saw that footpath. So this time I stopped and took a photo.



We then headed back into Oberon. Keat had gone there on family fishing trips when she was young.





We had missed lunch, so stopped in Oberon for afernoon tea.



And then had dinner back in Petersham at a Gloria's Portuguese Restaurant.

Dinner in Eastwood

My father and step-mother came up to Sydney as Stephanie wanted to see some old school friends visiting Sydney from the USA. So we met up with my uncle and his wife and had dinner in Eastwood. The restaurant was good, while not great for the price they charged.

driving to Melbourne

I drove down to Melbourne for the long weekend and stayed at my brother's place in Werribee. I spent the day eating. First was a cheesy toasty for brunch...



Then a chicken burger in Holbrook for Lunch.



and then dinner at Baffetti a Ristorante éBar at 106 Watton Street Werribee. A surprisingly good meal. I had the mixed platter of kangaroo, lamb, and spatchcock.

Addison Road Markets

I headed off for the second time to the Addison Road Markets. They are small but good. There is a variety of stalls and the usual denizens of the Addison Road Centre such as Reverse Garbage and the local Mrrickville council nursery. The meat vendors are good and I have tried the salt bush lamb, which was good with a mild flavour. The vege shops suffer from the same blight as every vegie place in Sydney, the quality is abysmal. You really need to leave Sydney to get good vegies. The food stalls I have tried are very good.

Dinner at Eat At Home

We had dinner at this place as it had a story. The food turned out to be good, plentiful and cheap. I had the Eat at Home burger with a can of drink and chips, though I would recommend you have the vegies rather than the chips. They also gave the option of no salt on the chips so lots of brownie points for that.

"Dinner at Eat At Home" by psinewave [?]

The metal mop handle he is holding is the one he broke in his altercation with the thief.

Eat At Home
Shop 4
5 Potter St
Waterloo NSW 2017

7th chili cookoff

Well it was my second. The first was in a house not 20 meters from where I live. But they have moved. So it was a suburb away. I tried to load it onto my web site, but I am having troubles with the media player. I cannot load it to Facebook, yahoo or youtube as it is too long. But it seems to work fine on blip tv. I do not know why I did not think of that first.

Le Grand Chef - 식색

I went for a walk down Illawarra road as the place I normally go for food was full. I did not get far before I discovered this Korean Charcoal BBQ Restaurant called Le Grand Chef. The food was good. I had the Kimchi Soup, with Pork. It was a soup, kimchi, with mushrooms, bean curd and pork. As a side I had kimchi, bean and mashed potato using what I guesses was sweet potato. As an unexpected side, I also got a desert of various fruits on a skewer and a bowl of rice. I expect that this is a local Chinese and Vietnamese influence.

I have to say that I am constantly impressed with the Korean eating places in Sydney. They do their Korean cousins proud. My request, do a few local speciality dishes. There is so much variety in Korea. It'd be nice to see some here too.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the Chinese characters in my Chinese dictionary so I can only include the korean part of the name.

"kimchi soup" by yewenyi [?]




Le Grand Chef - 식색
296 Illawarra Road, Marrickville

Na Zdrowie

The subtitle is The spirit of Polish cuisine. I have discussed on several occasions with my Polish work colleagues the idea of going to a Polish restaurant. Originally we considered the one in Auburn at the Polish club. But they always have some reason for not going, like, it won't be like the food made my mum or there is a great schism in Polish society in Sydney between the old and new Poles and they might meet someone from the other side, and heaven forbid, be nice to them. I find this very odd as it never stops them eating Chinese food.

So I organized for a group of much more broadly minded people who actually go out to eat good food to head off to Na Zdrowie. The reviews on the internet were very mixed (1, 2).

For entree, I had a Żurek, white borscht soup. It was excellent. One of the best soups I have tasted. It had subtle flavors but with a little set of delights in the small chunks of sausage. In the european style, it was a thicker soup than the Chinese would make.

For the main, I had the Pierogi, fried dumplings in a mixed filling set. This I found disappointing. It is like a the Mongolian dish, a Polish version of Gyoza with a tomato based sauce. The reviewers raved about it. I found myself wishing I had tried one of the other dishes.

For desert, I had gingerbread cake as they had run out of the Baked Apple dish that I ordered. It was really cake, rather a biscuit and a delight to eat. My only complaint, two pieces were too much after all the food we had already consumed. Interestingly, Wikipedia says that it was traditionally dunked in port. I will have to try this one day.

White Lotus Restaurant

This place opened when I just lived down the road in West Melbourne. But soon after I moved to Kallista and now live in Marrickville. So it was good when it was suggested that we have dinner here. The menu has changed quite a bit in all these years. Previously it was just plain, really good Chinese vegetarian dishes. I had something that I had only tasted on the central parts of the YangTze river the first time I visited. I still do not know what it was. But now they have refined their craft. It is eerie. The vegetable dishes not only taste like their meat counterparts. They did this before. But now they look like them and have the same texture. Truly the finest proponent of this style of vegetarian food I have ever encountered. We had the fish and roast duck as mains.

Dinner at Hooters

Some time ago, a friend suggested that we go to Hooters, Parramatta. I have never heard of it. He took my indifference to mean that I did not want to go. Recently Billy organized for a small group to go. So I had an evening of American food and entertainment. I did not take any photos of the food, but it was not even remotely hot. But it contained something my body reacted to for days. This was not overall a bad thing. The food itself was very oily. I was not much of a fan of the wings, but then again, I never am. My meal, the quesadilla, was simple, but strangely appealing and I enjoyed the food.

• 911 Wings - 1.5 out of 10 on a hot scale.
• Jalapenos - 1 out of 10, though I suspect them in the after effect stakes.

Oh, and they danced the nutbush.

"Dinner at Hooters" by yewenyi [?]

"Dinner at Hooters" by yewenyi [?]

Chinese New Year Banquet @ Makan @ Alice's

Well another good meal at Makan @ Alice's. This time it was a new year banquet. Two meals stood out, the Yee Sang and the Basket Of Prosperity and the jelly desert was good.

1. Yee Sang
   
2. Butter Soft Shell Crab
3. Basket Of Prosperity
4. Teowchew Loh Ark
5. Nien Nien Yau Yee ( Whole Fish)
6. Salt & Pepper Prawn
7. Braised Pork Leg
8. Lu Yee Mein (Noodles)
9. Rice and Chinese Tea
10. Dessert & Coffee

"Chinese New Year Dinner" by yewenyi [?]

"Chinese New Year Dinner" by yewenyi [?]