Lunch at Surrey Hills and Balmoral

There are any number of theme based walking tours you can take through Surrey Hills in inner city Sydney. Taking a designer, architectural, foodie or arty approach to exploring this eclectic suburb will reveal many delights and contrasts.

We started too late yesterday to do much exploring. We'll take a more serious approach when we're back in early November. Our main goal yesterday was to find somewhere to have a good meal well after the time people usually eat lunch.

Walking past the excellent Lebanese eateries on Cleveland Road and Elizabeth Street (all closed) and then around the corner and up Devonshire to Crown Street we eventually came to "Alchemy" a tiny Polish Cafe Restaurant with a distinctly retro feel (retro without irony I mean).

Set in the tiny rooms of an old Surrey Hills terrace, European style wooden furniture, fresh roses on the table, proper Polish comfort food, amazing cakes and fragrant Polish beer....just perfect for this rainy, cool afternoon - as hungry as we are by now.

Rob was ecstatic about his schnitzel, sauerkraut and mash (with a glass of Zamkowe beer). He rarely gets to eat food like that anymore!

But this cafe is worth visiting just for its amazing cakes and coffee. My choice was the chocolate cherry tart and Rob's was rhubarb pie. They don't have the delicacy and balance of fine dining desserts but are very yummy all the same!

Today for lunch we were a world away at the iconic Bathers Pavillion at Balmoral Beach.

As another birthday treat we met up with my friend Tania McM. for a long lunch in this gorgeous restaurant, catching up on family, travel and art news as we enjoyed Serge Dansereau's special Crave Sydney lunch menu. Dessert was another highlight..mango and passionfruit roulade; much much lighter and more subtle than our dessert yesterday.

Tania's generous gift of Serge D.'s French Kitchen will be an inspiring reminder of this lovely meal together and hopefully will encourage us to do that cooking school with Serge sometime in the future.

Quay

We thought it was worth opening my birthday bottle of Veuve Clicquot a full 6 hours before the official start of October 2. We were feeling very happy, seeing the beautiful new CP print hung and the ceiling fans and lights successfully installed, all ready for the coming Coogee summer.

The streets outside 8/85 were eerily quiet as everyone else was conducting post mortems on the big AFL final in Melbourne.

But for my actual birthday celebration on Sunday night we were off to the amazing Quay Restaurant, at Sydney's Circular Quay, voted Number 26 on the S. Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurant's List and named the Best Restaurant in Australasia.

That didn't stop us taking a $2.50 all day bus ticket for Seniors ride to Circular Quay from Coogee, the first time I have been able to take advantage of this amazing deal. It's so good that us Seniors can travel so cheaply as we're off to eat at one of the best restaurants in the world.

We had a relatively late dinner booking for 8.30pm. Unfortunately, the cold, windy, showery weather was not conducive to our pre-dinner wanderings around this spectacular part of the harbour, despite the iconic landmarks.

The entrance to Quay is on the third level of the International Terminal building, with its own great view of the Bridge. Tonight it had images of NRL football projected on the pylons - although sadly for the followers the NZ team had won the grand final game against Manly this afternoon.

We had the best table in the house for our dinner. It was a very difficult choice to decide on the four course a la carte menu (instead of the 8 course degustation) and we asked the sommelier to match each of our courses with a suitable wine (by the glass).

Our thrilling, tantalizing meal started with an unexpected but luscious taster of sashimi of tuna, umami jelly and eggplant cream. Then our first courses, which we shared, were: Sashimi of blue mackeral, smoked eel flowers, sea scallops, pickled apple, nasturtiums (the tiniest baby leaves) and Tasmanian wasabi; and, an amazing Salad of rhubarb, endive, beetroot, purple carrot, rosa radish, kohlrabi, goat's curd, pomegranate molasses and violet flowers. The salad was built on a layer of delicious, deep crimson, finely grained crunch (but what was it?). Both our first courses were brilliantly matched with an organic 2011 Thistle Hill Riesling from Mudgee.

Our second courses were: Slow cooked coturnix quail breast, stone ground semolina enriched with Alba truffle butter, buckwheat, farro,walnuts, pumpernickel, paratha, and malt (another beautifully textured and flavoured dish) and gently poached southern rock lobster, golden tapioca, shaved squid, lobster velvet and pea flowers - matched with a divine 2008 Scorpo "Aubaire" Chardonnay from the Mornington Peninsula.

Our third courses were stunning too: Confit of milk fed Suffolk lamb, purple garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, sheeps milk curd, salt bush shoots, fennel pollen, Pantelleria capers, matched with a 2003 Patha Estate "Jezza"Cabernet Merlot from Orange, and the astoundingly rich and gorgeous Berkshire pig jowl, with maltose crackling, prunes, cauliflower cream, perfumed with prune kernel oil (this dish was my idea of heaven), matched with a 2010 Thick as Thieves "Star Jack" Pinot Noir from the Macedon Ranges.

Dessert was an easy pick: the famous Quay snow egg (jackfruit flavoured on this occasion) matched with a lovely 2010 Cascinetta Vieti Moscato d'Asti from Piemonte, Italy and the Ewe's milk ice cream, caramel, roasted walnuts, prune, Pedro Ximenez, chocolate bark, pulled toffee, and vanilla milk skin, matched very cleverly with a 2010 Mount Horrocks "Cordon Cut" Reisling from the Clare Valley. By this time our sommelier was spending more and more time with us explaining each wine (never boring though!). We felt like we were old friends by the end of the night. No wonder you might say, after drinking all this wine - but hey he was a great admirer of our Canberra District wines after all!

Our dinner out at Quay was unforgettable. For a timeless few hours we just gave ourselves up to the sheer enjoyment of the amazing setting and superlative food, the wine and each other's company at this very wonderful time of our lives........... Before catching the after midnight bus back to Coogee!

The longest birthday

I have a month of celebrations ahead of me. It started with the assembly of the newly delivered swing set on Thursday; very necessary for a girl my age, especially for sharing with my busy grand-daughter.

Friday night we celebrated with my "Red group" friends with drinks at the Hyatt Hotel. Then today it was a wonderful long lunch with J, J & E at the biodynamic Lark Hill Winery Restaurant about 6klm outside Bungendore, south of Lake George on Bungendore Road.

The weather turned wintry this weekend, but the Spring buds on these North facing vines were clearly there (though not too clear in this photo unfortunately!).

We loved our long lunch together: a very seasonal menu, all locally sourced and carefully prepared with Lark Hill wines to match. That's Jody's ocean trout on the right of the picture below. The rest of us tucked into Angus beef tagliate with truffled cauliflower au gratin - delicious.

The dessert menu was small - but it did include chocolate!

Lark Hill Winery is in a gorgeous spot with great views North over the vineyards, with happy, plump chooks wandering around the bush gardens - a very interesting environment for Ella to enjoy between courses.

We took our time over lunch and didn't leave until around 4.00pm.

I felt very blessed to receive this beautiful birthday card (with an amazing drawing of me by Ella) and a special silver and amethyst pendant necklace - especially chosen by Ella and her Mummy - ("the Gingerbread Man" by jeweller, Christine Pyman) - gifts that are SO special and memorable for me and which will remain close to my heart always!!

Spring really makes its presence felt for my birthday month. The bluebells are flowering now in amongst the hellebores, the azaleas are bursting forth and my orchids are looking amazing (I really did grow this one; I didn't just pick it up this week from the florist).

So far I've planted baby spinach, thyme, lettuce, basil, sage, coriander and parsley in my new herb garden. Ella is always my very keen assistant with the watering can.

No jumper day

Spring has well and truly arrived and we were able to celebrate our first "no jumper day" at the opening weekend of Floriade.

Although Claire and the boys were only just back from their week at Noosa with London D, C & E there was funky dancing to perform at the Carnival Stage (by Claire's Bom Funk preschoolers' class).


Angus and Ella had very little time to show their stuff in their very speedy two minute set.

Ollie and the Boyz Crew managed to set the stage alight in their 2 minute turn.

Commonwealth Park was very crowded, with the flower themed sales outlets and fairground rides dominating the spaces devoted to the usual, improbably colourful, flower beds (I am a pretty cynical about Floriade, sorry!).

Last year Ella liked the little Alice tea cup ride the best, but this year she likes the faster moving attractions. I think a ride on the Ferris Wheel may be on the agenda at our next visit.

It was a perfect opportunity for us to prolong our enjoyment of this perfect Canberra day with a long lunch together at Kingsley's in Civic's North Quarter.

Ollie, Angus and Ella have reached a stage where they will play very happily together for AGES. We were able to take our time catching up with family news and enjoying our delicious lunch and glasses of Japanese beer. Rob had to keep his wits about him safeguarding his small serve of tomato sauce from the attentions of Angus and Ella who both preferred it to their serves of tartare.

We finished off the weekend by planting out my newly made herb garden in the early evening light. I love this time of the year.

Eddie Australia

We were reunited at Coogee Beach on Saturday. Davey, Cath and Eddie had travelled thousands of miles from London, with remarkably little damage apparent except for the throaty cough Eddie had picked up on the flight. Ros and Pete had travelled all the way from Sandy Beach (a 7 and 1/2 hour drive that morning) and all the rest of us had driven down from Canberra, for a very special weekend together.

Lunch at Barzoura's on the beach for the 13 of us was joyous and raucous, of course. We were amazed at Eddie's ability and affability in adapting so quickly to the sudden strangeness of this noisy branch of his family so soon after that long flight.

The nearby Coogee children's playground was a welcome spot in the afternoon for the grown ups to catch up on some lost time in the sunshine, to allow Ella some scope to use up her pent up energy.......

and for Eddie to admire her antics on the swing. He found Ella's every move and squeals of delight very interesting and amusing.

The weekend was especially wonderful for Mum. She loves her grandchildren and their offspring, and she had been really looking forward to meeting Eddie. She likes her WONDERFUL sons-in-law too, especially when they sit down and have a yarn to her about lawn bowls!

Rob, Josh and Davey were quickly in deep conversation, and web surfing about, their current shared interest in Maton guitars. I noticed they kept coming back to it over the course of the weekend.

Maxie finally handed Eddie back (almost asleep) to his Mum and Dad so we could get this special pic together. Mother (aged 97 years) and the three "girls" together at Coogee Beach, a reunion for us too.

Davey, Cath and Eddie joined us for drinks at the Crowne Plaza bar in the early evening on Saturday. They all looked refreshed after the opportunity to catch up on some rest. Ella and Eddie were able to continue their rapidly developing love affair, opening presents together.........

........and Ella on permanent duty for nappy changing, tickling games, face pulling, cuddling, whatever Eddie was able to put up with really.........except he seemed to be really enjoying it!

despite the expression on his face in this photo (it was just a fleeting expression).

Eddie slept better Saturday night and the three of them met up with us again at the hotel for breakfast on Sunday morning. They all looked relaxed and happy, and Eddie's cough is improving. I captured this lovely shot of Eddie with his Grandma (that's her nose). He looks very much like her (and his Daddy) as a baby in this one.

We managed to get the best spot for breakfast on this clear, sunny early Spring day, directly opposite the beach park and the Pacific Ocean beyond. It was Father's Day in Australia so the hotel restaurant was crowded with breakfast bookings. There were some amazing specimens of manhood around us (including the men in our family of course) as the Melbourne Storm NRL team and the Wallabies Rugby Union team (and assorted girlfriends, wives, children etc) were all staying at the hotel too.

Eddie was a great hit with his Great Aunties too, when Maxie allowed them some time with him. I think Eddie may share his beautiful brown eyes with this particular Great-Aunty.

But Ella was the one he saved his best cuddles for.

The beach was too hard to resist on this gorgeous morning. Maxie got Eddie off to sleep while the rest of us were able to relax in each other's company, absorb some of the beautiful sunshine and feel some sand between our toes.

While Ella kept Grandpa busy fetching cups full of the ocean (to order) to ensure her sand castle had the required degree of build-ability.

Eddie was properly introduced to the Coogee Beach lifestyle.

and with his usual excellent concentration spent AGES investigating wave action with his Daddy.

He also learnt that in Australia we usually finish off a morning at the beach with a gelati. There was no doubt about his approval of this strange new custom.

Eddie has a another two weeks in Australia, just enough time to win more hearts along the East Coast of NSW and Q'ld and make us all want to see him and his Mummy and Daddy again, with more wonderful weekends together like this.