Jazz in the Domain

Its finally the Sydney Festival. I've been waiting since Tropfest to have an excuse to pull out the picnic rug and enjoy some wine whilst relaxing in the great outdoors. After the success of last year, I decided to cook most of the food, just to make it a bit special. So I went grocery shopping after work to pick up a few things, and spotted the loveliest strawberries and suddenly became consumed with the thought of making strawberry jam. So when I should've been making things for the Jazz, I ended up making Jam.

Once I got that out of my system, I finally got onto making the dishes for the Jazz. This included:

I finally forked out for a microplane zester!!! BEST investment ever!

The next morning, I got up a bit earlier to finish the last of my baking before the guys rocked up to my place to pick me up. We parked at work to make it easier to move everything to the Domain. (Although we did have to stop at a cafe to beg for cups for our wine!). Here's the spread for the day:

Christine's antipasto platter

Homemade puffy pinwheel pizzas

Homemade parmesan crisps

Sweet chilli stuffed mushrooms

Blueberry and strawberry friands

I also bought along 2 bottles of imported Chianti red wine and Christine bought along 2 bottles of dessert. By the 2nd bottle I was about to pass out.

Gus helping with my alcoholism

God I'm weak after my detoxing. The good thing was, we were in the perfect setting to lie down and relax (whilst I sobered up).

Me having a perve at Gus running around

And to make up for me perving on Gus

GIO marketing people

The crowds building up

The posing Alan

The crowds building up

The smart ones who brought chairs

I didn't end up taking any photos when it got later in the night. And unfortunately, thats when everyone else rocked up. However, we had a blast of the time where we sat and chatted whilst the music played in the background. The highlight of the night would've been Christine's friend Priscille helping a lost lady and then grabbing a random stranger guy to dance the salsa with her! I can't wait for next week. I don't know how we're going to get the food to top this spread!

Hitting the markets and then Thai

One of the reasons I always look forward to my sister coming back from Singapore is because we both share a love for gourmet food. We love walking through organic markets and looking at home made jams and pies. Even though the prices are sometimes double what you would pay at the Flemington Markets, we don't mind paying a bit extra for the decadence. So the first thing she wanted to do on her trip back to Sydney this time, was to hit the local market at the Orange Grove public school. We didn't end up buying much (Well, 3 full size pies, infused oils and vinegars amongst other things....) , but we had a fantastic time which found us at Toby's Estate at Broadway enjoying the best coffee we've ever had.

Beautiful fresh organic tomatoes

Toby's Latte

Toby's Cappuccino

Whenever family comes from overseas to visit, the one who suffers the most is my mum. She spends the entire cooking and cleaning nonstop. She ends up catering for 17 people at a time. So to give her a break, we decided to eat out at our favourite Thai restaurant Chedi.

Chicken and Cashew with Chilli Jam

My nephew's all time favourite - Massamum Beef

Chicken Pad Thai

Salt and pepper squid

Red Duck Curry

Pork Pad See Ew

Grilled BBQ Pork

Grilled BBQ Chicken

Thai duck salad

After dinner, we decided to put up the xmas tree where the kids got to hang their own xmas ornament. And by "their own", I had their photos printed onto ceramic ornaments. One for each kid. They absolutely loved it! And I think this is a tradition that I'm going to try and keep it going each year. My sister has requested that I get ornaments done for each of the adults. I guess that will become our family tree.

A birthday and a get together

I am sooo behind in my blogging! Bad SMJ! Here's my attempt to catch up. So a few of my major outings in the past two weeks have included Alex's birthday party at the Bavarian Bier Cafe and also a get together with some of my old workmates at Malaya.

Bavarian Bier Cafe @ York St

Firstly, Alex's birthday. I didn't bother taking much food photos since I've been there so many times. The only real food photo is of their sticky date pudding:


I've always disliked sticky date puddings as I find them too sickly sweet. That is until I tried the one at Nick's Seafood at Cockle Bay Wharf. They have converted me onto this gorgeous dessert! The Bavarian Bier's version is lighter and slightly crumbly compared to the traditional sticky date, but it worked out perfectly for me after eating a massive slab of schnitzel and mash. Plus I had gus help me eat half of it.

Now onto the rest of the night. It was pretty calm except when I tipped half a bier onto my brand new dress trying to climb over the bench to sit down. Note to self, don't wear dresses when you're going to be sitting on a bench.

Of course, there was the present for the birthday girl:



Then for some reason, Gus got a bit macho jealous of Ryan's biceps and needed a photo with them:


Only he lost the contest:


Just to make Gus feel less inferior, we decided to hit the schnapps, picking the ones with the highest alcoholic content. You know, cos we're all macho and all.



Let me tell you this, Sour Apple Schnapps is the ONLY thing you should order from their schnapps menu. The rest is either a paint stripper, or a sugar concentrate that will guarantee cavities within 5mins of taking a shot!

Malaya

The last get together I had with some of my old workmates involved Yum Cha at lunch. As nice as that was, we couldn't spend much time chatting and catching up. So this time round, I organised dinner at the Malaya to give us more time to catch up as well as have some great food! Unfortunately, the lovely Oyen who wanted to try Malaya so bad was feeling sick and couldn't make it, so it looks like I'll have to organise another outing to Malaya soon! Poor us ;)

As with every get together, there is alcohol beforehand. Its kind of given considering half of the people are boozers! (And I mean people who booze more than me!). This time however, we made it to the restaurant on time. Unlike the last dinner outing which involved a few of us getting so pissed we forgot to go to the restaurant, and when we did, we caught the wrong bus and ended up walking in a storm without umbrellas to get there! This time it was raining as well, and we were pissed, but not so pissed we couldn't find the place. But what do we do the minute we got to Malaya? Cocktails!!

Malayatini - Passion fruit and lychee martini

Mrs wong - Tastes like orange juice to me

We ended up having quite a few more rounds of cocktails and beers before the food even came out!!

Seafood san choi bow

My serve

Chicken satay sticks with a sweet sambal sauce

The sweet sambal like sauce was really really good. I was spooning a whole teaspoonful per bite I was taking. Then I moved onto the veggies which I dunked into the sauce then delicately balanced a heap spoonful of sauce ontop before eating. I was half tempted to ask them to leave the sauce behind. But get distracted for 2 seconds and it was gone :(

Roti Canai - Flakey pancakes with a chicken curry dipping sauce

The sauce

As much as I liked this dish, $11 for ONE roti cut into 4 wedges and a bowl of sauce is RIDICULOUS. In Singapore and Malaysia, this is considered a cheap snack. For what you see above, that wouldn't cost you more than $1.50.

Pepper king prawns - peppery but sweet and moreish

Wonderfully crispy salt and pepper squid

Tender Lamb Korma

Assam fish - Crispy but with a creamy sweet and sour tang

Half demolish Bali Lamb

Sze Chuan Eggplant

I decided to write about this dish last. This was UNBELIEVABLY, orgasmicly good! The eggplants were fried until crispy, but the inside was smooth and creamy, all tossed in a caramelised sweet and spicy sauce served on a bed of Kang Kung. I would've been happy with this dish and a big bowl of boiled rice. Hell, I'll eat this every single day, 3 meals a day for a week and I'll still be happy! Anyone who doesn't like eggplant must still try this dish. I guarantee it will convert you!

Happy campers!