What's for Dessert

Pear in Puff Pastry with ice cream

Shopping at old Haunts

A few years ago my office was just around the corner from High Street Malvern and I loved it being my local shopping haunt. I visited there the other day and found "some things change some stay the same"....



Below: The Antique Market still the same with great old things to buy.

Below: This old book shop used to be a favourite of mine.

Below: New Wheel & Barrow. Somehow I thought this was a store in London so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned up on High Street.

Below: Interior Wheel & Barrow

Below: Interior Wheel & Barrow

I bought some baskets, some coffee mugs, a new bowl ( I know I know) and a gadget that shreds unripe mango...whose been watching Luke Nguyens' Vietnam....his Asian cooking show on SBS then????

What's for Dessert

Go Australia
We had friends over to watch the Soccer Aust V. Ghana on the Saturday evening and to pass the time until 11.30pm kick off, they...they... made chocolate muffins. Thanks guys very cute.

What's Been on the Menu No 33

It's not easy being green...but we don't mind about that.

The food we've been having shows that the vegetable garden is producing lots of greens for us to eat.
Below: Chicken & cashews with home grown broccoli and coriander.

Below: Green Salad with homegrown lettuce and rocket ( the pear of course is not home grown)
Below: Tuna and salad with Yes you guessed homegrown coriander and rocket.

Below: Cutlets with peas and fetta none of which is home grown.

Sunday Lunch Again Except it was Monday

Queens Birthday Monday, a lovely holiday for all in Australia.

We went to Koonwarra. A very cute little town 2 hours east of Melbourne.

Below: This is a tad confusing as we had previously been to the Organic Cafe where this picture is taken. However that was in summer and yesterday saw us at the cafe over the road where you can see roses on the verandah posts. That one over the road is called the Gourmet Cafe.
Below: The interior of the Gourmet Cafe

Below: Tasting Platter. Includes Venison sausages, goats milk cheese, venison pate,

Below: Bread for the Tasting platter

Below: Showing the variety of chutneys, jams, wines, vinegars, sauces etc available at The Gourmt Cafe.

Further Post to Sunday Lunch Again

Below: Through the cafe and to outside where you are directed to the Koonwarra Store. This store sells clothes, bags and home decor articles.

Below: Showing the outdoor area for the restaurant. Delightful setting and we can't wait to go there on a nice sunny day.

Below: Showing the gardens. There are many roses, which incidently had been pruned, but which must make a delightful setting when all is in bloom.

Wonderful Paintings

When we visited the Gallery of NSW it was a pleasure to stand back and look at the great works doing their best to fill us with a sense of what is it ?..wonder at their creation perhaps.

Below: Tom Roberts Bailed Up

Below: Modern Blue

Sunday Yum Cha

Sunday brunch at a Traditional Chinese Restaurant saw us at The Teapot in Springvale.
Yum Cha littorally means tea drinking and so we did drink Chinese tea.
But for those of you who haven't partaken, Yum Cha has also come to mean the eating of a variety of small dishes, steamed or fried in bamboo baskets and these are presented on wheeled trolleys from which you can choose what you want. Its sort of a 'ceremony' if you like.

Below: The Teapot


Below: Interior. You can see the girls with one of the steam trolleys.
Below: Eel wrapped in puff pastry and tied with a spinach ribbon...Yuk and I could still taste the oily fishy flavour hours later

Below: Prawn dumplings

Below: Stuffed Sticky rice wrapped in leaves (not sure what sort of leaf)

We did have other dishes such as the char su (pork) buns which were very nice but on the whole it wasn't one of my favourite dining experiences. Hardly anything green or vegetable like to eat, And I missed out on trying the lotus root.

What's for Dessert at Yum Cha

Follow on from above posting "Sunday Yum Cha"

Chinese desserts tend to be quite bland. There were jellies with little paper umbrellas, which looked colourful and these tended to be taken by the children

Below: A mango creme served with carnation milk
Below: Cremed coconut