Intersection Tavern Ramsgate November 17, 2009
Posted by graciek in Going Out, Life in General.add a comment
Decided to go out to the Intersection Tavern in Ramsgate tonight for dinner with all the UK visitors. We’ve been there before but decided after all the eating out at Chinese restaurants it was time for a change (esp for my English hubby who isn’t enamoured with rice for every meal). We like the place as it feels a lot like an English pub/bar (think Wetherspoons/Llyods Bar type thing). We’ve not really found anything that feels like a traditional pub here (well, why would we expect to) and I guess the closest thing is a “hotel” (I wonder if they actually do have rooms these days or if they are just bars with gambling sections). Anyway we ordered the BBQ Pork Ribs, Lamb Shanks, Ribeye Steak and the Steak n Guinness Shephard’s Pie.
BBQ Pork Ribs – These were extremely plentiful (think of the Brontosaurus ribs in the title sequence of The Flintstones). They had a slightly spicy taste too. They were quite soft, not jawbreaking and very finger-licking. Only thing that would have been better if they had been a bit warmer (they were a little tepid by the time they brought the dishes out to the table). Came with some yummy wedges and salad.
Lamb Shanks – 2 whole lamb shanks. My poor Mum is only tiny and she ordered this. To be fair to her, she did manage to eat most of the meat (mostly by ensuring she piled various bits of it on everyone else’s plates to “try”). The meat was very soft and fell off the bone. I think this dish would have been better on a cold Winter evening as it was quite stodgy with all the mash and gravy.
Ribeye Steak – wow this was meant to be 300g but it looked like it was 300g excluding the massive bone sticking out over the edges of the plate!!! It was ordered rare and came just medium rare (not bleeding or “mooing” as hubby would say). Looked good though.
Beef and Guinness Shephard’s Pie – no idea why it would be called a Shephard’s pie (not even Shepherd’s). Traditionally Shepherd’s Pie is made with lamb (i.e. sheep) and this was blatantly a Cottage Pie (made with minced beef) – though perhaps this recipe is named after someone called “Shephard”??? Hubby’s verdict was that it needed more Guinness and more crispiness of the potato topping.
Overally we had a great time. The food was a little slow, but then there were 8 of us so expected it to be a while (I suspect it was the Lamb Shanks that took the longest as they were the hottest when served). The meals were around $20 each, but currently (till end of Nov 2009) they are doing 2 for 1 on mains at www.hotdocket.com.au. You need to print out a new coupon for every 2 meals (i.e. we needed 4 coupons with different serial numbers on) – no worry though as you just press refresh on the website and print out again.
Bombay Potatoes November 12, 2009
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Recipes.add a comment
Probably the least authentic recipe in the world coming up…. decided to make a korma for dinner tonight (there’s a lovely jar of Patak’s hiding at the back of the cupboard – I know it’s cheating, but it does taste nice). Decided that having rice or naan with it would be boring and I’m long overdue for another experimentation. Here’s my recipe for Bombay Potatoes (gleaned the main ingredients from various online webpages), it serves 4 as a side dish…
Ingredients:
- 3 medium/large potatoes
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp of wholegrain mustard
- 1 tbsp of plain flour
- 1 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp crushed chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 2 diced fresh tomatoes
Instructions:
- Peel and chop potatoes (or could leave the skin on if you want to) into 1″ cubes and parboil for 7 mins
- Drain the potatoes and leave aside for 5 mins (don’t rinse the potatoes with cold water or anything, you want the heat from the potatoes to steam off and leave the potatoes dry). Once the potatoes seem dryish then sprinkle the plain flour and mix so that the potatoes are coated well.
- Heat the vegetable oil over medium heat in a frying pan (mine was about 30cm in diameter and you’ll need one with a lid)
- Put the mustard into the oil and stir
- Once the mustard starts to “pop” then add the cumin, turmeric and chilli flakes. Again stirring into the oil.
- Add the floured potatoes into the oil/spice mixture and stir
- Put the lid on the pan so that the potatoes cook through (I more or less sauteed for 2-3 mins then put the lid on for a similar amount of time and then stirred/turned the potatoes before replacing the lid)
- It took about 10 mins to get the potatoes done. They should look nice and crispy on the outside and coated with a golden brown spice mixture. The potato itself will go yellow because of the turmeric.
- Dice the tomatoes and remove all the soft pulp out of the middle (i.e. you’re just left with the skin/flesh – but no seeds or juice)
- When you want to serve it up just quickly heat through potatoes to crisp them up and then scatter the tomatoes on top when you plate it.
I liked this recipe best as it yields nice and crispy bombay potatoes with plenty of flavour (frying the spices seems to really increase the concentration). It will go well with our beef korma and rotis.
Sculptures by the Sea – Bondi November 10, 2009
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Despite having lived in Sydney for almost a year now I’ve not actually been to Bondi Beach before. Decided to go up on the train with my sister and BIl for a day off from the squeaklet (left with her grandparents for the day). They’re doing the annual Sculptures by the Sea at Bondi which is various sculptures scattered about on the coastal walk towards Tamarama Beach. It was a great day as it was bright and sunny (though a little bit on the warm side). There were about 100 or so sculptures. I liked the Eyes in the cliff (Eye Sea You by Tim Wetherill & Shayne Amber Wetherill) best and the linked cubes with a mirror cube in the middle (DNA by Jonathon Leahey) as well as the kinetic green rotating blob thing (Morpheus by Phil Price). It was quite busy and although I wasn’t taking photos my sis was. It took ages as there’s always someone else taking photos wandering into your shot!!
Facebook Status Update Stats November 10, 2009
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Musings.add a comment
Playing around with facebook and there’s an app that looks at your stats. According to Status History I have 215 posts using 3958 words, the oldest of which is “Evie has put on 16oz this fortnight – little fatty” (oh dear, what a status to remind me of – I’m guessing this was around Oct 2008). The most used words are:
#1 Evie (unsurprising really, I love my baby so much)
#2 enjoyed (pleasantly surprised at my optismism here)
#3 off (no idea why I’ve used off so much)
#4 house (probably due to having sold a house in the UK and bought a house in Aus in the last year)
#5 days (not sure probably me carping on about the number of days left till X, Y, or Z)
Poor John doesn’t get a mention though, nor Mocha. I would have also thought there would be more food/cooking related words, but I guess I must have a better vocabulary for that and had more variation in word usage.
More Visitors November 6, 2009
Posted by graciek in Family, Life in General.add a comment
My parents have arrived from the UK to stay with us for the next couple of months. Originally they were coming in Jan 2010 but when Singapore Airlines did some extremely cheap offers earlier this year they managed to snap some up (£420 return each inc taxes). They’ve really missed little Evie and she’s changed so much since Feb when she could only just about crawl. Now she runs around everywhere and is starting to say words. Of course they see her on Skype most days but it’s different in the flesh. Evie looked most confused when they arrived and enjoyed poking their faces to see if they were real and giggling away (poor thing imagines them to come out of the laptop I suspect – she likes to poke their faces on the screen too). The house was scrubbed in preparation and all ready by evening when they arrived. It’s the first time my parents have seen the new house and they were happy with our choice. They even have their own room which was already populated with their luggage that they left behind at my brothers (inc 4 suitcases and various other sportsbag style luggage as well as 3 full golf bags and sets). Had a quiet dinner at home when they arrived. 2 more days and we’ll have even more relatives coming – my sis and my BIL are coming on Sunday. It’s gonna be a full house here.
