When Mr NQN and I moved back to the Eastern Suburbs from Mosman a few years ago, we moved right near to Centennial Park. People used to say to us “Oh that’s wonderful, you must use the park all the time” and we’d smile back and nod and murmur “Well sometimes…” not wanting to admit that despite our close proximity to the expansive green park, we rarely set foot in it. We’d drive past it thinking “We really should go for a walk in there” only to keep on driving. Cut to about four years later and we’re finally using it on an almost daily basis whether it be to work out or take walks.

It was my trainer Nina that put me onto The Park, the pop up restaurant that sits at the Paddington Gates at The Cottage. Open from Friday to Sunday midday to 10pm-ish fairy lights are strung from trees and a white picket fence borders white tables and chairs. There’s a bar and food provided and during weekend days it is abuzz with people and I think that the best time to go is on a sunny afternoon rather than on a cold evening. We’re arriving here on a Friday night, albeit this past very breezy, chilly Friday night and the crowds gather where the outdoor heaters are located. There is live music and bakes of hay, pumpkins and rustic country touches abound. The Park pop up is for another couple of weeks until June 2nd, 2013.

We start with drinks-I do a double take when I see giant jugs of cocktails for $95. There are two sized jugs and the giant jugs are big but $95 is quite a price. There is also Mumm French champagne for $95 a bottle, beer for $9 and other drinks. We go for a small jug of the Elyx English Godmother Pimms cocktail. It’s just after 6.30pm and we’re mid happy hour although there are no signs saying so and when we come to pay they tell us that our drinks are half price so canny Louise suggests that we order another jug, the next one is an Elyx Bloody Mary.

Elyx English Godmother $39 (or $20 during happy hour)

The English Godmother is pleasant and light, like a Pimms cocktail but doesn’t have the abundance of fruit and cucumber that you usually get with a Pimms cocktail. It’s also very much full of ice. You get about four glasses worth of drink in one of the small jugs and I’m glad that we hit happy hour because Mr NQN gristles at the quantity of ice for the price.

Elyx Bloody Mary $39 (or $20 during happy hour)

The bloody mary is also ice laden and has a little spice to it that helps to warm us up. I look at half-Finnish Mr NQN and Danish Viggo who are both shivering and Louise and I decide that it’s best that we get some food into the poor boys.

Thick cut chips with rosemary salt $6

Next to the bar is where you order and pay for the food. Nothing puts warmth in the belly quite like piping hot chips and arancini so we ordered those. The fat chips were excellent, crunchy on the outside and fluffy and soft on the inside. And incredibly warming too!

Arancini balls with fresh tomato sauce and parmesan $12

We also enjoyed the arancini which had a lightly crispy outer, cheesy risotto rice inside and a thick, rich tomato sauce and shavings of parmesan.

Pork and fennel snags with mashed potato, onion gravy and crispy eschallots $16

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Whenever it’s raining, I always see rainbows as a sign of something good to come. Symbolic perhaps of a lesson learnt after a hardship or a silver lining in a cloud. Rainbow themed anything from cakes, biscuits and cupcakes adorn my blog and when I see a sign saying “Double Rainbows All the Way Across the Sky” beaming at me from a yellow neon sign as soon as we walk into Chi Chi Asian Kitchen, I see it as the reward at the end of a long drive.

I was with my usual partners in crime Mr NQN, Miss America and Queen Viv. The latter two are the friends that best like an adventure to a far flung suburb and on this torrentially rainy Sydney Saturday, Mr NQN and I bundled into the car avoiding fat drops of rain and picked up Miss America from Potts Point and Queen Viv from St Peters and went on our way to Canley Heights (on the way buying twelve blocks of butter but that’s nothing new). We were running a touch late and perhaps we were over optimistic with the travel time to Canley Heights. The rain doesn’t help traffic conditions and Chi Chi isn’t actually on Canley Vale road as the address says but we stumble upon it on Derby Street while trying to find a park in this busy little suburb.

Inside, it’s quite different from the large number of Vietnamese eateries that line Canley Vale road. There’s a large Manga style wall complete with a waving lucky panda alongside an exposed brick wall and pink metal cut outs of pandas in sunglasses partition off the marble bar from the main restaurant. They tell us that Chi Chi just means chic and the idea was to introduce a Melbourne sort of vibe to Canley Vale. One of the owners Les Huynh of Chi Chi also owns Blue Ginger in Balmain. Every table is taken this evening and I’m glad that they take bookings. Service is very friendly and they take time to explain things to us and give us recommendations.

Liquid Pavlova $18 (left) and Hello Chi Chi $8

It’s funny how one ingredient can evoke a whole dish. The passionfruit in this cocktail and fluffy top brought forth memories of pavlova immediately. My choice was the Hello Chi Chi which was a delicious mocktail tasting of sweet strawberry and lychee. The only complaint was that there was a lot of ice in both drinks and they were gone rather quickly within a few gulps.

Spanner crab, pomelo, caramelised coconut, galangal and peanuts on betel leaf $4.80 each

It’s a short wait for the entrees that arrive all at once. We start with the two betel leaf items which are always crowd pleasers. The spanner crab, pomelo, caramelised coconut, galangal and peanuts on the betel leaf are perfectly balanced, with just the right amount of sour pomelo and rich, sweet caramelised coconut never overpowering the crab.

Smoked trout, galangal, roasted chilli and fried shallots on betel leaf $3.90 each

We follow the crab with the smoked trout (on their recommendation) and it’s also good with the strong smoked trout flavour dominating but out of the two betel leaf toppings, the crab ones were just that touch more balanced.

Son-in-law eggs with house XO sauce $5.90

I originally found Chi Chi from Tina’s blog Bitemeshowme and I recall that she was smitten by these on her blog and I’m in total agreement. They’re simple enough, boiled eggs lightly dredged in cornflour and deep fried so that the outside gets a crispish coating. Inside the yolk is runny and golden and topped with house made XO sauce, that powerhouse spicy sauce flavoured with dried scallops and pork. “I could have eaten a dozen” Miss America says to eating lifting the last mouthful to his mouth.

Steamed dumplings of seafood and vegetables with ginger soya sauce (5) $11.90

On the drive here Miss America had made several requests for us to stop in Ashfield for dumplings. It was rainy weather after all and that means holing up with a plate of steaming dumplings. These were filled with seafood and vegetables with an egg pastry wrapper. Drizzled on top was a ginger soy sauce. They weren’t bad but they also weren’t very distinctive in flavour in terms of the seafood and I couldn’t tell what seafood it contained.

Crispy skin baby chicken with house satay sauce $20.90

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Often, people look at me as if I’ve lost my mind. It’s when I say things like:

“Do you think that we’re all little bugs sitting on leaves and grass and that there’s are giants out there that control the weather and natural disasters and when they step on us, it causes things like tsunamis and earthquakes?”

or

“I love all kinds of shopping, even grocery shopping”

Both statements are absolutely true and I recall when Costco first opened up in Sydney. I was so curious about it. There were whispers of designer bags and American snack foods-a friend even swore that she saw a Louis Vuitton bag there. We even drove there one Sunday afternoon and saw the queue visible from the street and Mr NQN refused to go any further (Mr NQN’s other name is “he who does not enjoy grocery shopping”) so we turned around and went home.

This was over a year ago and it wasn’t until I saw my friend Celia’s post where she photographed some Longchamp Le Pliage bags that I decided I had to pay them a visit. Except of course Costco is a different kind of beast than your regular sort of store. Celia informed me that you couldn’t even look into Costco unless you were a member. Unlike overseas where membership is restricted (in the U.K. only people working in certain types of professions are allowed to buy a card) $60 gets you a membership here ($55 if you are a registered business) and only then are you allowed to browse the aisles. If you pay using a credit card, the name must match the name on the membership card.

So one Monday morning I joined Celia and Pete on one of their runs to Costco. Enormous as expected with a total of about 400 staff, it’s a sight to behold and a testament to American style grocery shopping. They didn’t seem to mind people taking photos and if you want to price match, you could certainly do so if you have the internet on your phone. The savings varied from brand to brand and the first thing we saw is the optical section and the hearing aid section. Celia wrote of a story of a Cook Islands couple who had taken a taxi from Sydney airport and had a hearing aid fitted and purchased for $2,000 because they were quoted $12,000 for the same thing in the Cook Islands.

Costco differs from a store like Aldi in that they have branded items, all of which are brand new and not end of the line items. There is also their own home brand called Kirkland. There are plenty of American snack foods and drinks. Everything comes in larger sizes and if you know your prices, you could end up with a good bargain although my friend Gina visited and found that some items were the same price or even more depending on where you shopped. The Dyson vacuum cleaner was cheaper than the retail price of other stores although with some research you can find stores that sell it for cheaper or allow for bargaining.

We went straight to the designer bags and two friendly staff members offer to help and chat to us. They seem unperturbed by me taking photos (I took my tiny Pentax Q instead of the huge DSLR as it was lighter) and the female staff member clarifies that they often get just a few of each bag style. The Longchamp Le Pliage bags are $123 (I bought the same bag at a department store for $139) although the selection is smaller. Nearby at the Swarovski glass display cabinet, she tells us that they get items that buyers tell them the actual Swarovski boutique doesn’t have.

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