Haloumi

Left home early to drive down to Kiama for a holiday, and to celebate our 6-month wedding anniversary. Checked in to a lovely B&B with fantastic views over rolling green pastures towards the ocean, and an extensive garden featuring a well-tended vegetable patch and a chicken coop... methinks the breakfast here will be nice. Sam, the resident border collie, greeted us on arrival, and reminded us of Badger, the rock-chewing crazy canine we met on a dairy farm stay in the UK with mum and dad. After arrival we drove into town for a late lunch (a tender steak sandwich with a vanilla milkshake for him, and a green salad and strawberry smoothie for her), and then returned to the accomodation to test the spa before having afternoon tea (sticky date pudding) and chatting to one of the other couples staying here. Booked dinner at Cargo's on the Wharf, and spent a good amount of time perusing the menu in the comfort of our room before setting out (one of the great pleasures in life, a well-considered plan of attack on a restaurant).

Unfortunately, upon arriving at Cargo's we discovered that their menu had changed from the version we saw at the B&B. Eventually D. decided on half-a-dozen natural oysters (which I won't touch with a barge pole... I reckon you could save money just by sucking on a lemon whenever you have a phlegmy cold), and we got a serving of scallops to share. I also ordered an entree of fried Haloumi cheese served on lettuce leaves, drizzled with balsamic vinegar with barbequed asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes on the side. All the entrees were fantastic, although the cheese was a bit too salty (too salty for the balsamic and lettuce to balance out the flavours). D. had an entree serving of grilled king prawns for her main, while I went for the ocean trout with fennel and blood oranges, which unfortunately was served sans the oranges. When eating it, I couldn't help but salivate at the thought of the missing ingredient, which would have enhanced the subtle flavours of the fish nicely. As it was, the dish was a bit too bland. After dinner we returned home for a touch of stargazing over a glass of port.

Six Months

A busy day at work, and had to run an errand for D.'s sister, so only enough time to grab some take away sushi at 3 o'clock to eat at my desk. After work met up with a bunch of friends at The Basement to see Four Play, a string quartet that covers the Beastie Boys. We got ourselves a table in front of the stage and ordered some food. D. had Lobster Ravioli, which was absolutely delicious, while I had a salad of Rocket, Pear and deep-fried, crumbed artichoke halves, which were surprisingly delicious. The contrasting textures and the slippery segments of the artichokes were an interesting disovery! The mains weren't so nice... my Osso Bucco with sweet potato mash was workmanlike, as was D.'s rissotto with prosciutto-stuffed chicken fillets. A cheese platter to snack on while drinking beer (Bohemian Pilsner) and watching the show got things back on track. A great night out with good friends... who could ask for more?

Pad Thai

Had a really crappy Pad Thai for lunch. How disappointing. D. and I moved back into the apartment today (from our temporary accomodation, where we've been for three weeks while our bathroom was replaced). So lots of packing, moving and unpacking after work. Didn't have a chance to eat until almost ten o'clock at night. Grabbed two longnecks (aka king browns) of Coopers Sparkling and headed down to Spice Siam, probably the most authentic Thai restaurant in Sydney. Had a proper Pad Thai (therapy over the bad lunch), along with their special of the day... an absolutely delicious sauce of minced pork, tofu and coconut cream with a selection of fresh vegetables (including the small thai eggplant) to dip into it. We also had a dish of green beans, tender pork meat and pork crackling, with steamed rice, which was fantastic.

I said I'd write about the rice cooker one day. And I will. But for now I'll just say that if you ever move house and put the rice cooker on the passenger seat of your car, make sure you clean the little thingo on the side of it which collects the drips of condensation... because if you don't and it spills over the seat, you'll find out that the old, fermented rice juice smells just like baby sick.

Chicken

Home late. Picked up some chicken wings and drumsticks on the way. D. marinated them, together with some sliced onions, in oyster sauce, a dash of fish sauce, a little bit of a sweet, sticky Indonesian sauce (kecap manis) and chopped garlic. These were put in a baking dish and cooked in the oven until done (wow, what a delicious smell).

All this was served with steamed rice (thanks to the wonderful rice cooker... I should remember to write about that) on a bed of freshly sliced tomato and cucumber, topped with fresh coriander. D. made two dipping sauces for the chicken. The first was a fresh batch of the spring onion sauce that I made for the corn on the weekend (to use up the spare spring onion), and the other was a sauce of fish sauce, lemon juice, grated carrot, chopped red chilli, finely chopped garlic, white vinegar and sugar to balance the other flavours. What a feast! So the only thing left to do is for me to pack up, then kick back with a glass of cognac and "At The Movies" on the ABC. Cheers!

Oh, in the rest of my life, today was a day of announcements:

• Famitsu gave Nintendogs a perfect 40/40, and it's out in Australia next month!
• PSP is out on September 1 for AU$450. Man, I could buy two DSs and a copy of Meteos for that!
• The iTunes Music Store is launching here tomorrow! But AU$1.80 per song. Dang.

Prawns

A full-on day at work, with only time for a quick tomato, ham and cheese toasted sandwich and double-strength latte for lunch at two. It's "tight-ass Tuesday" (i.e. movies are half-price), and D.'s friend Grace is going to join us for dinner at home before seeing "Precinct 13". I pick up a West Australian Riesling on the way home, and quickly prepare the prawn pasta...

Finely chopped garlic and finely sliced fresh thyme leaves are thrown into a pan of hot olive oil, and a goodly amount of black pepper is ground into the mix. When the garlic shows signs of browning, the prawns are added and tossed around, before pouring in a glass of the wine and squeezing half a lemon and half a lime in for good measure. A pinch of sea salt and then on with the lid. After a few minutes to burn off the alcohol and cook the prawns, toss in a bug handful of chopped flat leaf parsely and three finely chopped chillis, and add enough white sugar to balance the flavours. Mix everything together, and serve on a bed of al dente spaghetti that has been tossed in olive oil and a dab of butter.

Dinner washed down with a pot of tea, before going to see "Assault on Precinct 13", one of the worse piece-of-shit movies with a number in the title that I've had the misfortune to sit through. I mean, Mark Wahlberg turned down he lead role for this crap-fest. Unbelievably, it made "Ladder 49" look good, and that was the previous holder of the worst piece-of-shit movie with a number in the title that I've had the misfortune to sit through.

Which got us talking, and we decided that although most movies with numbers in the title are bad, there are some good ones. Like "Se7en" and "2001: A Space Odyssey". And, strangely, although we could think of move titles containing the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, we couldn't think of a movie title that contained the number 5.

Dumplings

Woke early to the sounds of the Anzac Day parade. Watched from the window while eating hot buttered toast with German strawberry jam (it has just a hint of vanilla) and drinking a steaming cup of fresh coffee.

In 1915, my country said, "Son,
It's time you stopped ramblin', there's work to be done."
So they gave me a tin hat, and they gave me a gun,
And they marched me away to the war.

And the band played "Waltzing Matilda,"
As the ship pulled away from the quay,
And amidst all the cheers, the flag waving, and tears,
We sailed off for Gallipoli.

D. and I walked into Chinatown, to get some fresh clams for tonight's dinner. Unfortunately there weren't any to be found, so I got half-a-kilo of tiger prawn flesh instead. The pasta I wanted to make also needs white wine for the sauce, but, as the bottle shops are closed today, we decided to make the pasta tomorrow. So we picked up some pork dumplings, pork belly, Chinese cabbage and "morning glory" instead.

At home, D. stir-fried the "morning glory" in preserved soybean, and made a soup of the dumplings, pork belly and Chinese cabbage. With a dipping sauce of soy sauce and cut chilli (for the tender pork belly and the cabbage) and a dash of garlic oil in the soup, this hearty meal had us rubbing our bellies with satisfaction.

After eating, it was back to working on my entry for the "One Key" comp., while D. was more than satisfied to catch up on her "Desperate Housewives".

Cassoulet

A basic brekky, and after a slow morning an afternoon visit to Bondi where we had barbequed prawns and scallop skewers. Working up an appetite for this evening's visit to Paua to try their Cassoulet, which they do one Sunday evening during the colder months. I just love the haricot beans, but D.'s not a big fan. We'll see how it goes...

...and two-and-a-half hours later I'm back home almost paralytic, with the kettle boiling for a steaming pot of peppermint tea to ease the pain. The Cassoulet for two was served in a seemingly bottomless tureen with a spoon for dishing the beans, lamb, pork and duck out onto our plates, with a side-serving of Witlof salad (slightly bitter witlof leaves, which D. calls "chicory", flat leaf parsely and a light dressing of lime and vinegar) to cleanse the palate and balance the heaviness of the Cassoulet. All washed down with a bottle of fine Argentinian Malbec.

Unbelievably (if you don't know D. and I), we ordered dessert following the meal. We had a rhubarb lemon tart with our espressos. Even more unbelievably, D. has gone out dancing with her friends, while Yours Truly can hardly move.

Corn

Wandering around Sydney late Saturday morning. Caught a bus into Chinatown. Got some corn, spring onion, watercress and tomatoes from Paddy's Market. A quick bite to eat and then home. Hungry again in the late afternoon, so roasted the corn and made a sauce of finely chopped spring onion simmered in olive oil with a shake of fish sauce and some white sugar to balance it out. Who needs butter? The blackened cobs swimming in the sauce had us licking our fingers. This was followed by "shaking beef"... cubes of fillet steak fried over a very hot flame with slices of onion, with butter and black pepper added just before serving on a bed of watercress and sliced tomato, with a dipping sauce of lemon, sliced chilli, white pepper and salt on the side, and some steamed rice to balance out the flavours as we eat. Delicious.

Oh, apart from that, we spent the day:

• Writing "Quantum Light Cycles" for the one-key comp.
• Playing "Lost Cities" and "Carcassonne".
• Listening to "Gaming Steve" on the new iPod shuffle.
• Watching D. crack 160,000 on the downloadable version of Meteos.
• Watching the "Iron Chef" (what else)?