Despite how it sounds being Tweeted is not a bad thing. Particularly when you’re tweeted things such as “2 Prime rib into the oven for 4 hours. Tonight’s take it slow dinner.” and “bone marrow roasted, mixed with chopped parsley and into sauce” from Chefmumu (aka Craig MacIndoe) who is busy preparing the night’s dinner and whetting our appetites with what he has in store for us. He is also the brains behind a great offer for you readers (read on!).
Polin & Polin Hunter wines
The Lamb Oven
Duck Fat potatoes: worth the applause
When I arrive along with a gaggle of other hungry, excited bloggers, we get another quick impromptu peek into the kitchen, past the furiously hot ovens to reveal the delicious Duck Fat potatoes, the other oven which has slow roasted the Lamb for 13 hours and the display of wines from Polin & Polin wine.
Kumatoes which then become…
Kumato relish
18 month Jamon
After our little tour, we’re ushered into the Tapas Bar where we’re fed delicious, delicately laid sheets of 18 month Jamon Serrano while watching a short documentary featuring a visit to Graham Strong’s Arcadia Saltbush Lamb farm which he runs with his parents and how the drought tolerant plant Saltbush makes such an impact on farming.
Slow Roasted Arcadia Lamb done 2 ways: View 1
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July 12th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
**THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED, CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNER MATILDA A.*
Keren from the Cupcake Courier has a magic touch when it comes to choosing all things gorgeous for her shop and the Cupcake Courier are now the exclusive Australian stockists for Mayfair Lane’s revolutionary stationery range. Why is it revolutionary? Because it can stick on mirrors, glass, wood and Stainless Steel without leaving any residue or marks. And because she loves NQN readers, she has put together a gorgeous package of Mayfair Lane goodies worth $73 for one lucky reader to win!
The clips
And what’s in this wonderful prize?
1x Happeez whiteboard
1x Happeez shopping list pad
1x Happeez notepad
2x Happeez single clippers
RRP $73
The Notepad
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July 11th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
Donna Hay Shortbread biscuits
Old fashioned wax straws
The amazing thing about girlfriends is their innate capacity to shop and consume sweets. I couldn’t live without them (girlfriends, shopping or sweets) and so when Teena, Gina and I finish our 6 course meal at Marque, we jump in the car looking for more things to eat and buy. Zumbo was a little too far out of Gina’s route home so we decided to pop in on the brand spanking new Donna Hay store in Woollahra.
Bird house decorations
Route 29 goodies
Set in a residential street, it’s not the place you’d necessarily expect to stumble upon a store. Beautifully merchandised, it’s filled with Donna Hay merchandise that is not available at David Jones as well as other boutiquey brands from all over the world, many of which I haven’t seen in other stores. Things are definitely on the adorable side although they aren’t without a price tag to match with a teddy bear retailing for $360 and little bird feeders for $200+ and twine for $30. It doesn’t stop me from wanting many things though.
Baby Eames Replica chair – me wanty!
Other items such as the Baby Eames replica chair are priced at $800 (is it wrong that I think that this is good value?). Of course no visit here is complete without a cupcake liner purchase and I’m happy to see that they’ve got two sizes of the French pleated liners that I’ve been carefully rationing.
Cupcake liner heaven
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July 10th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
If I appear to be in the midst of a soup epidemic I plead guilty Your Honour. It’s cold here and looking after a patient at home for the next week or so (Mr NQN) means that soup is a weekly feature. The routine is simple. I make a big batch of soup (the flavour depending on what is in season or what is on special that week) and I then serve it to him for lunch for the next 4-5 days. You see the thing is is that it needs to be easy because I’m busy tending to the world’s worst patient. He won’t put the laptop or his phone down and gets terribly bored even when he has a host of things to watch on tv. All he wanted to do was show his friends (and anyone with the stomach) photos of his post-surgery open wound and play with his gadgets. Typical boy.
Many of you asked what he was in hospital for. It was “bursitis” with a Staphylococcus bacterial infection. I shall briefly explain: your elbows (as well as the knee and shoulder) have sacs of fluid that float over them and they can get inflamed from rubbing or by infection. His was infected by “Staphylococcus aureus” and most likely from leaning his elbow on his work desk. Yes really! I know, I know… how incredibly innocuous and random. Not from anything as exciting or daring as underwater caving, discovering a Mummy’s tomb or from hiking in the Amazon. It’s mind blowing to think that the result of this is almost two weeks in hospital with surgery, two weeks at home connected to an infuser and antibiotics, and another two weeks after that on oral antibiotics.
So if I can suggest anything to you my Dear Readers, it’s please keep your elbows off the table (mum was right!) and moisturise them. And despite the fact that it was exacerbated by his cracked elbows (men just don’t care about moistursing their elbows do they?), he refused to let me put moisturiser on his good elbow. And this is when I’m not wrestling the laptop out of his bandaged arms (it’s truly an amusing sight). He has kept his sense of humour though and laughed hard when I brought him a copy of Hemmingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” but at times he does get cranky -case in point was the very last sentance he uttered was “I don’t like French food” when I suggested lunch (yes it seems we’ve become Lou and Andy).
Anyway, back to the cauliflower soup. It’s incredibly silky and creamy. There is only the smallest amount of cream in it and when you see that you can get so many serves out of it I hope that the 1/3 cup total of cream will not put you off. Do make sure that the soup is blended well which really aids in achieving the silky texture. I love the crispy crumb topping to give it a crunchy texture. However feel free to leave it off as I sometimes prefer it without it. But I never leave off the crispy bacon bits at the top- ever.
So tell me Dear Reader, are you a good patient or a bad one? Do you follow orders or are you defiant and rebellious?
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July 9th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
I love a bargain as much as anyone else. However this doesn’t extend to rummaging in sales bins or queuing up from 6am to get into a Department Store sale only to jostle around and snatch clothes from other shoppers. I am a lazy bargain hunter at best but when a bargain presents itself and it’s in easy reach, I grab it. The easiest bargain to be had in this GFC riddled world has to be Sushi Choo’s $20 All You Can Eat Sushi available from 12-1pm or 6-8pm every day.
I did a double take when I first saw the bargain advertised thinking that it must be one of those cheap and nasty sushi chains that is always featuring in the news for food poisoning scares. Surely this isn’t Merivale’s Sushi Choo? Home to the chic and perfectly merchandised furniture and staff? I immediately told my husband who readily agreed to a date. We rarely go to Sushi Trains because he can easily eat $50 worth of sushi in one sitting so the idea of eating as much as he wanted for $20 appealed to him enormously.
Just in case, we’ve made a booking for two people for 6pm. We arrive at 5.58pm only to be asked to wait for 2 minutes while they get the train 100% ready. At 6pm the black wooden barriers slide open and we enter the room which is bathed in a glowing red. The interior is beautiful although it does strike me as more “Chinese” than “Japanese” (I imagine a Franck Eggelhoffer Interior Decorator type saying “Just make it look Asian!“) except for the robots and Astro Boy figurines.
The sushi train is in full motion snaking its offering around the room. It seems most customers are partaking of the $20 all you can eat deal although a la carte plates can also be ordered (prices are pretty reasonable for many of the a la carte offerings). During the promotion times, the sushi train is a reduced version of the menu so not all of the regular sushi train plates are featured.
Miso Soup $5 (a la carte menu)
Mr NQN declares this to be delicious although I didn’t try this for myself.
Spicy Seaweed Salad
The spicy seaweed salad is of course a favourite with its spicy sesame dressing. I confess we probably ate about 7 plates of this (but Your Honour, they’re small servings!).
I can admit my little secret to you Dear Reader: I love Japanese Mayo mixed with soy sauce to dip my sushi into. Our lovely waiter who is both courteous and friendly offers me a Jalapeño Mayo which I eagerly try. It’s fantastic and gives a little kick to the sushi as my sinuses can’t take wasabi.
Dynamite Roll
My favourite sushi was the dynamite tuna roll. Edged with roe, it’s filled with delicious raw spicy tuna and cucumber with the chili giving it an extra dimension.
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July 8th, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella
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