Can you just be whelmed???

...I think you cam in Europe!

So I've finally made it to Europe. I've been in London for a little over 12 hours and I really just don't know what to think. Mainly because I didn't really know what I was expecting! For those of you that know me, know I love a grand celebration... And nobody does that better than the British royal family. I'm the girl that made her own tiara and dressed up for Kate and Williams wedding! So its far to say most of my London reference has been based on what I've seen on tv around various royal celebrations and occasions. I was not expecting to come to one of the most advanced and bustling metropolises in the world to dodge bags of rotting garbage as I walked along the street. And I was definitely not expecting London to smell like south east Asia!!!

Now I realise I'm very lucky to be visiting London during a "heat wave"... The weather is beautiful and this afternoon after we made it to the hotel after our flight we decided to stretch our legs in Kensington Palace Gardens... They were just beautiful! This public garden is one of (I think) five gardens that ramble through the centre of London creating the best (not to mention zero maintenance) backyard you could dream of in a high density, apartment heavy city. It's filled with grassy meadows, ramshackle flower beds, the occasional water feature and historical monument and packed with wildlife! Yes... There are squirrels and they are beyond cute!!!!

So while its not exactly what I was expecting - it's still beautiful and I think I'm going to enjoy my time here!!!

It’s like a breakfast cocktail…

Now, I know the breakfast cocktail isn’t a new concept, in fact, I’ve been know to imbibe one (or five) on a special occasion myself! Whether its based on a sparkling wine, a white spirit or even a little hair of the dog that bit you… I’ve probably tried most de rigueur breakfast cocktails at some point in time – hey I even remember a long haul flight that ended with some breakfast sangria at a Santa Monica café!

This morning my usual coffee routine got a little shake up – The beautiful Mary (who makes my normal cup of coffee) and I got to talking about how we sweeten coffee. She loves vanilla syrup. Personally, I usually opt for a teaspoon of sugar but asked if she has coconut syrup…turns out they did!!!!

Now, it was an unorthodox request to have some added to my morning brew as they usually use the coconut syrup in their Pina Colada cocktail once the sun sets! But she was happy to oblige me and send one of her minions scurrying to the bar to fetch it so it could be added to my flat white… and now I'm back at my desk, already 4 hours into what is sure to be another epic day at work, contemplating exactly how I'm going to achieve what needs to be done all while quietly sipping on what can only be described as the best breakfast cocktail ever made!

...who would have thought that one cup of coffee could change your outlook on a day!

Way out west

It’s where you think I’ve been, right? With the distinct lack of blog love I’ve given this recently I wouldn’t criticise you all for thinking that I’d chucked it all in and taken on a non-alcoholic - vegan existence… Don’t worry, I haven’t! Without making excuses, I’ve changed jobs and in the process, packed up my life and moved – to a places that often feels like foodie purgatory, but in reality is just central Queensland!

G-Town has your fairly standard regional cuisine on offer – I haven’t eaten out everywhere yet, but I'm fairly confident that every eating establishment up here serves a chicken parmigiana and if they don’t you can always fall back to a steak! I LOVE chicken parmy’s so it hurts me to use them in a critical way… but what I'm trying to illustrate here is that the eating environment up here lacks diversity!

I’ve been itching to cook some of the AMAZING local seafood – but just haven’t had the chance yet, so I'm going to kick the blog into shape and start of with a day that got me truly out of shape!!!

I was in Perth last week for work (I know right? What a life!) but being the savvy traveller that I like to think I am – I went over on my weekend to ferret around a little…

Perth seems to get fairly little love from eastern Australia, and I can honestly see why when it’s cheaper (not to mention quicker) to get to New Zealand and go skiing for a long weekend than it is to go to Perth… However, that was before I actually got to have a look around over there!!!

Sunday saw myself and a colleague “acclimatizing” with a wine tour of the Swan Valley. WOW – that is all! Let me put this into perspective… the region is a 20 minute cab ride from the middle of Perth City and provides some of the tastiest treats you could possibly imagine! We only did a very modest tour (with and would totally recommend them – Abby was fantastic!!!) and visited some great wineries, a brewery and… a chocolate factory!!!

Highlights…

Lancaster Wines – an amazing little vineyard that kicks it old-school with a tasting shed in the paddock! The wine was pretty impressive (and I know this to be true as it was only the second on the tour and the first wines were so terrible that I spat everything!) and it was no surprise this week when the case I had ordered arrived. My picks…the old vines shiraz and the NV Sparkling. I'm not a sticky/ fortified wines kinda girl but their reserve liqueur Muscat was superb!

Edgecombe Brothers – we stoped here for lunch and a small tasting! And left VERY full!!! Highlight of the meal would have been the asparagus – it was picked that morning and you could tell: crisp, sweet and no tell-tale signs of woodiness anywhere. They also plated a pretty mean spicy chorizo… yummy! Their wines were good but were overshadowed by the food (we were running late so we did the tasting with lunch instead of before), however, I really like their sparkling (again!) smooth, crisp and just dry enough to want another glass!

Chesters Restaurant and Heafod Glen Winery - quite and award winning winery this one, and I’m not surprised! Their Viongnier was superb and I was quite taken by their Semillion – their Shiraz also pack a punch… I also bought some French Oaked olive oil that is truly to die for, it has this fantastic smokey quality that has a slow, yet soft burn in the aftertaste…mmmmm

Margaret River Chocolate Factory – Imagine a shed the size of a football field and fill it will every imaginable chocolate product and you are pretty close to the heaven I was in at the end of our day!

There were a few more wineries and a brewery in the mix (that had lovely apple cider) but as far as highlights went it was hard to pick just those few…my rule was that I’ll tell you about it if I liked their wine enough to stock in my (still imaginary) wine boutique! The best part about the Swan Valley would have to be that they are entirely un-pretentious and very laid back about the great wines they are making. They don’t have that big, consumer mass-market focus and it comes through in the quality (and generally low price) of their wine!

I was lucky to catch up with my friend Lisa while I was over there (she and her husband are on an amazing adventure) and she nailed my sentiment in that it’s hard to just pick one or two (wineries) to visit because you want to see and taste them all…luckily we were on a tour and only saw what they wanted us to.

Would I go back? Definitely! When? Once I convince a bus-load of wine quaffing friends that they want to accompany me!

You always get there eventually

In August I was at the fruit and vege store and (randomly) bought some giant pasta shells thinking that I would take them home and create an amazing pasta dish with them.... In reality I had just had my wisdom teeth out, was still pretty doped up on pain killers and also purchased lime salt, some weird style cured meat and lemon grass – needless to say there was no surprise when I found these gargantuan shells in the cupboard last week!

When I found them I was trying to think of something to serve my lovely girlfriends for lunch on Saturday…and I thought “What on EARTH did I buy these for!”. This was followed very quickly by a “Lets play Ready, Steady, Cook” with them!

So… I stuffed them with a mixture made of goats cheese, ricotta, feta, semi-dried tomato and basil, placed them in a baking dish, added a caramelised garlic and onion tomato sauce covered them with (more) cheese and baked them… 30 minutes in the oven and a tossed salad later and we had a delicious lunch!

Carnivore-a-licious

 I realise that I’ve given you absolutely NO blog lovely lately, I’m still trying to grapple with the reality of being back at work after an amazing holiday! I know - I’ve been back for longer than I was actually on holidays… but it doesn’t feel like that!

I’m not making excuses but I have had some out-of-town friends visit recently, so I have been busy. But it’s also given me the opportunity to some pretty amazing eating!

My experiences can only be described as interesting and have included an initiation into Brazilian barbecue and a dish of Tasmanian possum… obviously on two very different occasions!

I’ll start with my adventure to Tukka, an Australian game restaurant in West End, where Arn (American visiting Australia for the first time) wanted to eat as many  types of Australian native animals as possible!

We started with a tasting plate, which included: smoked crocodile, Kangaroo, emu and a mixture of Australian berries and nuts.  



 I followed with a Confit Tasmanian possum with glazed celeriac remoulade and sour apple purée.

Arn had the Moreton Bay Bugs

Judy had the Barramundi

V & R had Mountain pepperberry crusted slow roasted buffalo fillet with caramelised sweet potato and cinnamon jus

The same crew also tried Mundo – a Brazilian barbecue restaurant at Bardon – and unleashed our inner carnivores!

On the menu were perfectly coal fired meats that are cook to perfection - Imagine beautifully rare beef, perfectly moist pork, chicken sausages that tasted like your very own little roast chicken and lamb that melted in your mouth and your on track… add some of their delicious sides and you need to worry if you're not wearing stretchy pants!

What made it even better (and added to the authenticity of the experience) were the VERY attractive waiters with South American accents… mmmm… Brazilian barbecue!

 

If you’re keen for a MASSIVE meal of meat – try it!

Saying something vs doing something = two different things!

I’m back from holidays and dealing with some serious post holiday blues so there has been very little blog love in the past two weeks – sorry about that! An old work colleague once told me that you always need to have a holiday to look forward to and that it should be booked quite soon after returning from the most recent one! Believe me, he knew what he was talking about!

Now, I know many of you that followed Amy and my Cambodia/Vietnam adventure were a little sceptical when we said we’d travel together again… well I thought you’d all like to know that yesterday we booked flights to the Barossa Valley for next June – we’re doing it!

At this stage, we have no other details besides there will definitely be a lot of wineries! However, there will probably be a hire car…

Anyway – if you know of any “must see” wineries leave a comment!

I suggested that instead of just a weekend trip we make it a little more permanent, take the Hickenbothams up on their offer and buy their McLaren Vale estate… I’m sure you can imagine how that conversation went!

Oh no Pho

Well – we’re home! The two weeks flew by and I can’t believe we managed to fit in what we did…and that it’s all over! I’m sure many of you are wondering if Amy and I are still talking and if we’d ever travel together again. We are definitely still talking – although it was touch and go after my temper tantrum when trying to check into the Sheraton (my bad)! We are also thinking of making a trip away together an annual thing!

Overall it was an amazing trip but the one thing we didn’t actually do while we were in Vietnam was try some Pho – we’ve both eaten it in Australia before so it wasn’t something we’ve never done – whoops!

Now I’m not making excuses, but by the end of the trip we were totally shattered; Amy was sick and we were both over being pushed, yelled and tooted at so all we could really muster energy for was the walk to a near-by super market to buy some wine and cheese! It was a lovely Chilean drop (2008 Cabernet Sauvignon) from a winery called Carmen.

By this point in the trip we were gasping for a glass of wine - so a couple of bottles may have been consumed whilst packing – because up till this point we’d really only drunk beer! There were a few reasons for this… mainly it was the price difference between beer and wine. A can of beer cost around $1 whereas a glass of wine was $15 and when you only spent $5 on dinner it seemed VERY extravagant!

So… I thought you might all like a little wrap up of what I thought the highlights of the trip were!

Favourite	Choice	Reason
City	Hoi An	It was a beautiful city with great food, friendly people and a really laid back vibe.
Sight	Angkor Temples and Halong Bay	These two sights were totally different and impossible to choose a favourite out of – they really take your breath away and remind you of how insignificant you really are!
Beer	La Roux	The local beer for Hoi An, I just liked it better than the others… it was really crisp and refreshing!
Fun eating	Khmer BBQ	This was probably the cheapest dinner we ate whilst away (we had a couple of beers each and heaps of food and spent about $10). It was the street food BBQ in Siem Reap and besides from being totally fun it was SUPER yummy!
Taste eating	Vietnam home experience	Part of our trip to the Chu Chi tunnels included a traditional lunch in a Vietnamese home – it tasted phenomenal and was so fresh and delicious!
Spring rolls	Le Pub – Saigon	So…Amy and I undertook a little research whilst we were away – where could we find the best spring rolls? Le Pub in Saigon won hands down… crispy duck and mushroom parcels of crispy goodness!
Experience	Swimming in Halong Bay	How’s the serenity??? That’s all I have to say really!

If I could do it all again there are only a few things I’d change:

·         I wouldn’t have lost my credit card (I left it in an ATM in Hoi An)

·         I wouldn’t have had that third glass of Dalat wine (the local wine in Vietnam)

·         I would have stayed longer in Siem Reap and Halong Bay, reducing the time I spent in Saigon and Hanoi.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the trip – I know I sure loved it!

I’ll warn you now that the next few months will see a few “holiday” related recipes and cooking experiences! There may even be a dinner part in there somewhere for a few friends!

Thanks for following!

SQ

Look mum, I’ve still got my teeth!

All of them in fact are still residing happily in my mouth where they belong, and apart from a big bruise on Amy’s leg we escaped unharmed from our bike ride to the beach! I’m not sure if Amy would agree but I definitely think it was worth it… the beach was beautiful!

 Contrary to popular belief we have not been abducted or injured – we’ve been in Halong Bay for the past two days. The best was to describe it is with pictures… it was truly amazing. I just can’t fathom how wind and water could possibly do this over time. My only criticism of the trip was that it wasn’t long enough to explore more than just the basic “tourist” highlights!

So right now we’re back in Hanoi and, having been quite frugal with most of our other accommodation, we’ve checked into the Sheraton. It seemed like a good idea at the time but what we didn’t know when we were booking was that the ASEAN conference was on (at the Sheraton) this week. Yesterday we got back from our cruise and had to walk up the driveway because they wouldn’t let our bus drive us up because the Russian President was here! It’s a bit funny really - Amz and I are still dressed like scummy backpackers so we get these looks from all the staff constantly like we don’t belong. Last night we’d gone out to grab some dinner (we gave up trying to find somewhere because the traffic is shocking because of the conference and super tight security) and when we got back to the hotel we got in the lift with this man… whom we later realised wasn’t with a friend, but a security guard! It went a little bit like this:

S: Amz… did that man have a security guard?

A: Yep… did you feel like a dirty backpacker?

S: Yep… did you get the feeling we should have known who he was?

A: Yep…wish we were a little more up-to-date on world political leaders, then we might have!

Then this morning, who do you think was on the front of the newspaper? That’s right…Mister Elevator! We’re pretty exhausted so coming back into a crazy city is almost just a little too much to handle at this stage of the trip! Hanoi traffic is just as bad as Saigon and there’s no one to help tourists cross the road (which probably makes it worse!).

Today we’re off to the Old and French Quarters but it will most likely be a very low key, low energy day before we come home and try to pack…again!

Take care – see you soon!

SQ

A little Hoi…

Hello from Hoi An – Vietnam! As I’m sure you’ve noticed there’s been some radio silence in the past couple of days… don’t worry, Amy and I haven’t killed each other and we’re safe!

So last post saw us leaving Siem Reap for Saigon with a post from Amy still to come - I have to admit that I wasn’t a huge fan of Saigon, however, we were really only there to see Cu Chi so it didn’t really matter that much! Our lovely tour guide – Dang – took us out to Cu Chi and walked us around the tunnel complex (they were VERY small tunnels, but I made it through with only a minor freak out!) giving us a great overview of the Vietnam War. After the tunnels we visited the Cao Dai Great Temple… it was very pretty and a good representation of the mix of five religions that it serves!

We then went to a local ladies home and ate some (what we think is) “real” Vietnamese food – I’ll sum it up in two words, TOTALLY AWESOME!!! For me, it was the highlight of our time in Saigon.

Right now I’m writing to you from a beautifully shaded courtyard where I’m munching on some yummy Viet- delights and drinking a cheeky cocktail! This morning started with a 4am wake-up, a 6am flight and a 1 hour drive and was followed by a pretty full on 3 hours at a local tailor’s (and maybe the local shoe maker too!) – All before midday, so we think we deserve a little down time. We may also be indulging in a little dutch-courage because we’re thinking of hiring a pushy and riding round the city!

My first thoughts on Hoi An – BEAUTIFUL – everyone is really friendly and approachable and want to chat to you (and tell you about their aunty who owns this shop….)! I think what I love most is that people just randomly burst into song – what’s not to love about a city where everyone suffers from spontaneous musicality????

We’re thinking of heading to the beach tomorrow (again on the pushy!) before we have to leave on Tuesday morning (early again, but I booked the tickets so I really shouldn’t complain!). If you don’t hear anything from me after that – it’s probably ended in tears (and a trip to the doctor)!

Take care – always choose the fried spring rolls!

SQ

What???

So…remember how I said Amy would be blogging about our visit to Angkor Wat? What I didn’t realise when she was saying “can I do another day instead?” she meant “Suz, I think I’d prefer to write about Saigon or Halong Bay instead” not “Ok, but I need a day or two to think about it!” like I thought!

All I can say about our trip out to the temples yesterday was that it was truly amazing… I can’t comprehend how these temples were built in a mere 30 years with no machinery, just their own hands and elephants!

All up we visited Angkor Wat, Bayom Temple, Ta Phrom… and really just wandered around the entire area taking in a few extra sights along the way! Next time I’m spending a good 3 days here and getting about on a pushy! Pictures really do speak louder than words, so I’m going to keep this short. It really was magnificent and, despite all the tourists, quite serene.

SQ

Patience is always rewarded…

Well I mentioned previously that this trip hasn’t just been about the destination, and yesterday’s journey to Siem Reap just brought home that fact!

We had arranged for a 7.30am bus from Phnom Phen to pick us up from our hotel. A mini-van arrived promptly at 8.15am  and then drove us around for what seemed like a good 15 minutes before picking up other travellers from various other city hotels! Now, in the 15minutes, Amy and I let my imagination get the better of us… the conversation went a little like this:

A: This isn’t the tourist coach with on-board toilet like they said…

S: I know, I really wish I’d peed again before we left the hotel…

A: Suz…

S: Ummm…this is taking us to Siem Reap right?

A: It’s probably taking us to the main bus.

S: What if it’s not? What if they’re going to ransom us?

A: Suz…

S: I’m going to message Sophie just so someone knows where we are!

A: That will totally freak Sophie out, please don’t.

S: Someone should know what’s happened to us if we disappear…

A: Please don’t.

S: Ok… I’ve texted her

Then we stopped and picked up more passengers…

A: Ok, so I’m a little relieved that there are more people on this bus!

S: ***sat there thinking… I know, right?

So once we’d finally picked up a mini-vans worth of passengers, we made it to the main bus depot to get on our “luxury tourist bus” to Siem Reap… Having packed on we began bumping our way along (what seemed like a) dirt track towards Siem Reap. We stopped at random intervals along the way, I’m not quite sure what we accomplished, however, on two of these occasions we picked up people the bus driver seemed to know! About 3 hours into the journey we stopped and the driver just turned off the bus… turns out it was lunch time – not that anybody confirmed this!

Amy and I wandered around this random little city for a good half hour and managed to find (and use) the loo… it was entertaining!

S: Hey Amz… do you have any paper?

A: Nope!

Enough said really…

Anyway, we got back on and were bumping along when we hear this god-almighty BANG, this British lady screams and jumps across the aisle into her friends lap, all while the bus is filling with an acrid  rubber smelling smoke! So we pull over (about 1km up the road) at this conveniently located pseudo-repair station and pile off the bus – all while it’s being jacked up to change (what we soon find out is) a busted tyre!

The tyre really did need replacing, however, we’d stopped where they were using traditional methods to make rice crisps style treats (which many of us bought!)…  I will admit that I was hugely cynical by this time because we had found out about 2 hours into the bus trip we’d been TOTALLY ripped off for our tickets! What cost us $11 each, should have only cost us $6… This was after spending $2 to send a postcard and having to buy a new internet card every time I wanted to log on regardless of the fact that my initial 24 hours weren’t up yet!  

So, during all this I kept my cool (Amy and I slept most of the way!) and finally we got to Siem Reap bus station…where we were mobbed by tuk-tuk drivers wanting to take us to out hotels! It was honestly the only time I’ve felt threatened in Cambodia, and it lasted all of 5 minutes… and then we arrived at Ree Hotel – Siem Reap (referred to lovingly by us as travellers heaven)!

…our patience was definitely rewarded! Our hotel is beautiful, the staff is SUPER attentive and they aren’t trying to con you! The worst thing about it is that we’re only here two nights! After the lovely concierge had shown us how to use the lights, air-conditioning, safe and tv...Amy and I did a little happy dance, hugged and thanked the travel gods for our lovely travel agent Brooke, who’d organised our trip!!!

We then set off to explore a city we quickly fell in love with. It’s a lot more relaxed than Phnom Phen, the people smile a lot more and aren’t as likely to run you over! In short – It’s amazing, we love it and are already trying to work out when we can come back!

Today we visited the Angkor Wat and surrounding temples… breath-taking! Amy will tell you about it in the next post!

We’re headed to Siagon tomorrow morning, so hopefully you’ll hear from us there!

Remember, always try something new if presented with the opportunity!

SQ

It really does taste just like chicken!

Last night we braved the great unknown and headed to a local Khmer Restaurant to try all kinds of tasty delights, one of which being spicy frogs legs with capsicum and peanuts! Having never eaten frogs legs before I really didn’t believe that they’d taste just like chicken…but they did. After a little disappointment to begin with, I got in and devoured the dish! I have to admit that it was pretty messy – they may taste just like chicken, but they are a whole lot smaller and fiddly to eat because of all the bones…don’t worry, I managed!

I’m not sure if they are giving us “western” spicy, but I’m finding the chilli very mild over here. I think I might be a little outrageous next time and ask for it “normal spicy”… I’ll let you know!

As last night was our last in Phnom Phen, we decided to get a tuk-tuk and do a lovely driving tour of the city… the thing you really notice here is how abject poverty exists a street away from ostentatious wealth. I found it very hard spending what I think is nothing, when in reality it is what an average worker is paid in a month! I’m not sure how I’m going to handle Siem Reap, it’s meant to be a poverty stricken city.

On a happier note – I’ve counted five different KFC’s since I’ve been here! There are tonnes of “Western” fast food joints around the place… we’ve actually had to do a little investigating to have a “real” experience and even then I think it’s been fairly tame! One thing we have decided to do is try one of these western style take away and see how we go!

Anyway, I’ve gone on far too much and have to jet to brekkie, then we’re jumping on the bus!

I’ve asked Amy to “guest blog” from Siem Reap – so chances are she’s the next one you’ll be hearing from!!! I’m sure she’ll do a much better job of actually describing what we’ve seen than I have!

Anyway, take care and watch out for chafe inducing knickers!

Xoxo

SQ

And the rain came tumbling down

We’ve just come back to our hotel room to freshen up (and get out of the afternoon storm) so I thought I’d take this opportunity to tell you about the lunch we had today!!! For those of you still wondering – yes, I finally braved up and bought something from a street vendor. I got (what I eventually worked out to be) a bag of fried potato and banana. Now, I’m generally a banana loather! I hate the fruit, it makes me want to be sick and it’s due entirely to the fact that my mother force fed me a banana smoothie at the age of 10!

So this bag of fried goodness, that I originally thought was some obscure type of meat, was phenomenal! The banana was all melted and caramalised within this crispy, sweet and golden batter…yummy.

This morning we set out to visit the Wat Phnom, The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, the National Museum and the Russian Markets. After our walk up to Wat Phnom (where Amy and I were asked to be in a Cambodian family’s holiday photo!) we trekked down to the National Museum and on the way we spotted the restaurant Friends. We’d read about it in lonely planet – it supports street children by training them for a career in hospitality as a chef or waiter – and were keen to try it out.

Our first impression of it was how clean everything was which was then over shadowed by how friendly, helpful and attentive the wait staff were… then we got our lunch! We decided to try some more traditional Khmer food – after all this is Cambodia! – and opted for a Khmer style pork and glass noodle salad, spicy shrimp wontons, and a grilled Mekong fish fillet with tomato and red onion salad…we followed this with a delicious dessert of caramelised pineapple with red chilli and coconut ice-cream! I know – we ordered dessert at lunch time…

My salad was to die for – the flavours packed a punch, yet, at the same time were very subtle and delicate!

Amy described her fish as amazing… that’s all she had to say!

Anyway – we loved being out and about, the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda was an enormous complex and we worked up a serious sweat walking around it with our tour guide… I don’t think my pictures do it any justice!

I’m keeping this short and sweet – the rain is stopped and I need a shower so we can go to dinner! Tomorrow we’re heading to Siem Reap on a bus (I’ll have my eyes closed most of the way!) and checking out the Angkor Wat and other temples so stay tuned – hopefully I’ll have some decent photos!

Eat lots, work hard and don’t drive your tuk-tuk through pot holes (story still to come)!

SQ