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