Jazz?? in the Domain?

So its the Sydney Festival again. Last year I only made it to the Symphony in the Domain, so this year I wanted to plan early and head to both the Jazz and the Symphony in the Domain. With the threat of thunderstorms on Friday and rain all weekend, we decided to make the call Saturday morning to see if its still on. Come Saturday morning, I open one of my eyes and peered out the window. The sky was grey as. After a few phone calls and sms, we decided to postpone the decision making until 4pm. We didn't have to wait til 4pm. By 3pm, the sun was semi out, and the grey sky was a light grey sky. So the plan was to meet at my place, grab some food from the shops and cross our fingers.

I quickly threw together a fruit salad with a bit of vanilla syrup and some raspberry friands / financiers. The financiers were quick and easy to make. 5 mins to mix the batter, 15mins to bake. I've made these a few times before the past 2 weeks so I knew the recipe by heart. I dug through my pantry and found my new bag of almond meal that I purchased in bulk from the local markets, as opposed to using the small manufacture packaged bags you get from the supermarkets. Cheaper, is not always better. Compare the results:

Financiers made with commercial Almond Meal:

Nice smooth texture......and it only needed a little decoration!


Financiers made with bulk bought Almond Meal is rough and lumpy:


I couldn't hide how ugly this batch was. The batter was very rough and thick making it hard to incorporate the raspberry in. It looks like raspberry explosion gone wrong. Oh wells, you can only learn from your mistakes.


Since it was a very last minute decision to go Jazz in the Domain, we ran up to my local Woolies and grabbed a BBQ chicken, some pasta salad, mixed salad leaves and breadrolls. I grabbed a bottle of salad dressing from home and dressed the salad when we got there. Just pour into the bag and shake! Not too shabby of an effort aye?


We had a great time last night. Good food, good company. The only complaint would be that the music wasn't.....Jazz. I know they said there will be a Brazilian influence...but it sounded like pure Brazilian music! There was no Jazz. I think they didn't want to call it Brazilian in the Domain, since that can conjure up all sorts of wrong images (Back, sack and crack) so they kept it as Jazz in the Domain, but played Brazilian music all night long.

We're going to put a bit more planning into Symphony in the Domain since the forecast is for good weather. The plan is to grab some slice salami, pate, dips, cheese, crackers etc to make an antipasto plate. I'll probably make some marinated chargrilled veggies and dessert of some sort. I've got requests for my green tea cheese cake, chocolate dipped strawberries and apples and curry puffs. I'll have to see how much time I have and whether I can be bothered or not! hehehe I was originally going to bake some drum sticks instead of roasting a chicken, but we'll have to see who is joining us and whether my oven can handle that much baking!

Oh, and one thing for sure, we're sitting away from the trees this time! Me and Christine walked off to the toilet and came back a good 20mins later to find bat poo all over our mat! Right where I would've been sitting! And the whole night the damn bats were flying over the top of our heads yelling in their sonic voice "BOMBSSSSSSS AWAYYYYYYY!!!" *SPLAT*.


Not only was there the wet orangey bat poo, there was bat pee and a constipated solid bat pellets! Ok, all together now.... "EWWWWWWWWW". I went from lying down and relaxing, to sitting with my hood on. I figured lying down is making yourself a bigger target for the poo bombs. I might bring an umbrella for the next one......or a poncho.....you know...just in case.

The house warming

My sister had a house warming party during the break, which isn't really a house warming since they've moved in over 5 months ago! But it was an excuse to have a party and eat lots of food. Since it was dubbed a "house warming", my dad went and bought a little present for my sister...

Oink! Oink!!

We were originally going to buy a Roast Suckling pig for my sister, but considering the number of people she had, and since it was so close to xmas, we opted for a medium sized roast pig instead. This sucker weighed 20kg!!! Therefore, it was only right for my dad to tackle this beast.

Chop! Chop! Chop!!!

Innards......

"Oops! There goes the head!"

We ate 4 platters of this on the day

On top of a pig that would feed 80, we did the usual BBQ and Chinese spread:

Nem Nuong - These took forever to make!

Closest: Nem Nuong, Pork Chops, Chicken wings

Chicken and Potato Malaysian Curry

MmMMmm charred meaty goodness.....

Fried rice - Hey! We're Asian! What do you expect?

Bacon Potato Salad

Soya King veggie stir fried noodles

Stir Fried rice noodles

"German Rice"

I have no idea what this is really called. We call it German Rice because my sister's friend tried it once and said it tasted similar to a German Rice she had once. Its basically rice that is mixed with mince, fried onions, peanuts, olive paste and olive leaves. It is soooooooo nice! I must get the recipe off my sister!

Garden salad with white balsamic vinegar dressing

Prawn chips

For dessert there was a water chestnut jelly, fresh watermelon and the most orgasmic chocolate panettone! The panettone was covered in an alcoholic chocolate ganache and the inside of the panettone was laced with big swirls of more alcoholic chocolate ganache! God it was good! I usually hate panettone, but if they all taste like that, it's going to become a family tradition in my family!!

My sister made sooooo much food we basically stayed for dinner to help polish most of it off. Any uncooked stuff was reserved for xmas day where we had a BBQ planned anyway. I helped finish off the German Rice. HeAHEaAHE

So after all that meat and pork, the only way to wash it down was with a bit of Kung Fu tea:

We should have more house warming parties like this!

Toby's Estate

I fear that I am becoming a coffee snob. I used to drink anything with caffiene in it. I slowly progressed to drinking certain types of coffee depending on the cafe I'm in. Then it was the barista. If my favourite gal wasn't making coffees that day, I wouldn't have coffee. Now, I'm actually down to a certain type of coffee bean. Toby's Estate. If I walk by a cafe that uses Toby's Estate Coffee, before you can say "Skim Latte please", I'll already be throwing myself onto the counter. Ever since trying the coffee at the North Shore Produce Markets, I've been spotting Toby's everywhere. I knew there was a store at Broadway, but it was too much effort for me to get to. But now, I'd happily drive there just to have a cup of coffee....

With my sister, who I have converted to a coffee drinker with a single cup of Toby's Estate coffee (something my brother in law hasn't been able to do for over 10 years) and my little niece in tow, we headed over to Broadway.

Since my little niece was active enough without any added caffeine, I ordered her a Soy babycino.

Its sooooooo cute! But so tiny. She gulped it down before my coffee even arrived! So I ordered her another one. A normal cino......without the coffee. A big cino! hehehe That lasted her a bit longer. Meanwhile, I stuck with my Latte.

I wonder if all Toby's Estate Baristas must do a funky design on the coffee. Whether its a Rosetta or a heart. *Shrugs* Either way, it was the perfect cup of coffee. Now I'm not picky enough to specify a particular blend of coffee yet, or even whether its single origin or not.....but I fear I'm not far from it.

Toby's Estate Roastery, Cafe and Tea Emporium

32-36 City Road,
Chippendale NSW 2008.
(between Broadway and Myrtle Streets, opposite Victoria Park)
Phone: +61 2 9211 1459

Cookiez 16th Birthday

16 my ass. She's lied about her age so much I'm confused now. Or maybe I'm just playing along. Hehehe. After hearing me rave about Chedi, Cookiez decided to book her birthday party there as well. So we rock up and get seated on the floor. Suddenly, Moishii rocks up screaming and running into the restaurant because:

1. According to our tradition, the birthday boy/girl must be decorated like a xmas tree

2. He forgot to wrap her birthday present. And he didn't have sticky tape.

It was basically origami gone wrong. He tried to use saliva at one point to make it stick.....but I don't think Cookiez knew that. Otherwise she wouldn't have touched the present with a ten foot pole.

Everyone arrives and we went with the first banquet since we already had a cake. The wine was poured and the food came out:

Curry Puffs

Oh they were GOOD! Not too oily and perfectly fluffy and light. The little salsa/vinegar dip that comes along with it was gorgeous and refreshes the palate. Especially if you can't eat spicy food.

Spring rolls

I don't usually order entrees when I go to Chedi because I think it gets in the way of the main dishes. But I was definitely regretting that train of thought by the time this dish came out. The spring rolls were very crispy and wonderfully done. Unlike a lot of the Chinese spring rolls you get where its fill with wet and soggy cabbage, the filling was just right.

Satay Chicken

I was hoping the rice would come out at this stage to mop up all the sauce! Alas, we had to wait til the mains came out.

Calamari and green mango salad

This time round, the chef was spot on with the calamari. It was crispy and light and didn't go soggy when mixed with the green mango salad. I had a sore throat the night of the party, not that it stopped me from eating it!

BBQ Marinated Chicken

I usually always order the BBQ Marinated Pork, but the chicken was just as good. The flavour actually taste a bit different from the pork, but then maybe it was the fact that it was chicken instead of the marinade. The chicken was moist and perfectly grilled. Too bad we were at our limits by the time this came out!

Massam Beef

This is my nephews absolute favourite dish at Chedi. Because of Chedi, he's ventured beyond the Pad Thai! The only Thai dishes he will now eat are Pad Thai and Massam Beef......

Chicken Cashew

Ever since Bank Hotel closed for renovations, and Sumalee along with it, I've been seriously craving their Chicken Chilli Jam. I never knew that "Thai Chicken Cashew" IS Chicken Chilli Jam. To think all this time I've been denying myself! Someone kick me!!!

There were more dishes but I was kind of distracted from taking photos. You see, on top of dressing people up, we sometimes make them do "strange" things. Like lesbian kisses.......

And sometimes, people on the side line feel a bit left out and wants to join in on the action

*SCHLLLLLLUUUUUUURP*

"Ohhh....your hands are GOOD!"

"And they taste even BETTER!"

More lesbian action...but someone got jealous.....

A picture is worth a thousand words, and this word starts with "F"
(Hint: See far left)

After the people worked their frustration out, it was time for presents!






And of course, the cake!



It didn't take us long to convert someone into a potential candidate for HI!

"ArgGghh Me go stabby stabby!!"

MmMmmm Cake.......

"I wish, I wish, I wish that a chicken will fall out of the sky"

Happy Birthday Cookiez! Another year, another AA meeting. 2 more years and we'll be platinum members! *CHEERS!*