Thursday, April 28, 2011

May is all about cooking!


Today is another great Melbourne Autumn day perfect for walking in my neighborhood.
I check in with my coffee review app and select a new place for me called "New York Tomato" on York and New streets Richmond. It's has a one bean rating and sounds like a Good place to do my blog, about 1.3km from my house.

I can imagine it in New York, except for the lack of hustle,bustle and sounds of New York traffic. Today is quiet so far with half the tables occupied mostly by Baby boomer age group, yet the cafe is right in the middle of a trendy apartment area right near the West Richmond train station.
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The coffee was again great, strong, flavorful and hot, just how I like it. They serve very interesting options for food such as Fabada - spiced Spanish bean stew with roasted red peppers, preserved lemon, caramelized onions, chorizo sausage, a poached egg and toast. Yum, think that will be lunch.

Well i am 7 weeks into my sabbatical. It's gone fast in one way, but it's been a very relaxed pace compared to life before that. I will admit that my thoughts have wandered back to what's next and if I should start that whole process of finding a job. I don't completely reject the idea now, but rather ask myself what else do I want to do or experience before I go back to working.

One thing that I do want to do is some cooking classes. I have set May as cooking month. Either classes or experimenting with cooking great food. I have always enjoyed cooking and of course eating. With all the emphasis on cooking with TV shows My Kitchen Rules, and Master Chef starting soon it seems fitting.

Starting with this weekend cooking for my family with a chestnut inspired menu. I have roasted 2kg of chestnuts that I purchased in Bright over Easter and now need to peel them, a bit of a tedious task. But worth it I am sure.

I have booked into Class Culinary in Ascot Vale, recommended by a foodie friend. The class is part 1 of their introductory covering stocks, sauces, knife skills, meat boning, garnishes. Part 2 is pasta making, fillings, advanced sauces for meat and pasta and cooking techniques.

Five ways with Fish is another class I have booked into in May at Essential Ingredient in Prahran. Learning how to fillet and prepare different will be fun and expand my options for using fish, which I love.

The Whole Beast is another class, but not until August at Essential Ingredient. This class covers all the different cuts and ways of cooking pork. Which has recently become another favourite of mind, well at least pork belly is.

Now to plan another dinner party in May for a few friends.
Oh and May is also get back to regular exercise time as well, a must with all the cooking and eating!

Is cooking one of your passions? Or just eating?
What would you most like to learn about or cook this year?

Narelle

May is all about cooking!

Today is another great Melbourne Autumn day perfect for walking in my neighborhood.
I check in with my coffee review app and select a new place for me called "New York Tomato" on York and New streets Richmond. It's has a one bean rating and sounds like a Good place to do my blog, about 1.3km from my house.

I can imagine it in New York, except for the lack of hustle,bustle and sounds of New York traffic. Today is quiet so far with half the tables occupied mostly by Baby boomer age group, yet the cafe is right in the middle of a trendy apartment area right near the West Richmond train station.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Always connected!

Today I wanted to feel the hustle and bustle of the city and some good coffee.. On yeh and the cup cake. So I hopped on a tram close to home heading for Collins Street. It's what I love about living in Richmond, it's so close to everything.. Even the airport!

I am at Sensory Lab - the science of specialty coffee. The cafe is part of the David Jones food hall in Little Collins Street. Great coffee, cool atmosphere and lots of people coming and going. (read people watching). The lab roasts and sells coffee beans from all over the world. The staff are all young, friendly and very knowledgeable about the coffee. A great place to be part of the rush but not get run over by it.

Still enjoying the memory of my great bike trip with my Dad having arrived back on Tuesday afternoon. We rode over 300km from Bairnsdale to Cape Conran on the South West coast of Victoria and back. Cape Conran was a very remote coastal park. no mobile coverage, very basic in all aspects. Lots of animals and birds in the very dense vegetation. Especially the bats and possums at night!

It's amazing how dependent upon being constantly connected to the world we are. Always available, always able to check email, send an SMS or search the internet. When we don't have it, what do we do...even me not being in the corporate world, I still like to stay connected.

It feels great being in the hustle and bustle but not having to be one of those rushing around in-between meetings in a hurry. I feel like an observer. A very relaxed and happy one at that... And yet I'm connected to the world with my iPad at least.

What's the longest time you have been truly disconnected from the world, and how did it feel? (airplane trips don't count)

Narelle
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Friday, April 15, 2011

Bloody Good Coffee






Today it was about coffee and breakfast.
I am on a bike tour with my 77 year old father. Yesterday we caught the train from Melbourne down to Bairnsdale, a 4 hour journey. We then rode 40 km to Lakes Entrance on the South East Coast. 

This is the first time for me that I have carried my own stuff on panniers on the bike.
Usually I do the type of rides where the company carry your gear and they have a sag wagon who follows you along in case you really can't go on!  This time it's all up to me!  So far so good.
We are riding from Bairnsdale to Cape Conran, some of that on the rail trail which runs from Bairnsdale to Orbost. All up it will be about 300km over 5 days.
The weather was reasonable with a couple of showers yesterday so we didn't get too wet.
If case your wondering, yes we are staying in motels.. Dad usually camps but I said " no way to that". not only am I not carrying all that as well, I am not sleeping on the ground after a long ride.. I can't say I am too old for that to my Dad, but I did say I am too soft for that!

Of course my iphone Coffee review app didnt find any places nearby today. So we went for a real search. Today's Coffee and breakfast is on the Main street in Lakes Entrance at Bakin Beans. The coffee was bloody good and our breakfast was freshly cooked by the chef....
Bacon, poached eggs, baked beans on toast. This will be enough to get and keep me going up those hills and in the rain at least until lunch time.

It is great to take the time and do this ride with my father, he has been doing long rides every year for many years with some of his mates. Fortunately for me he is pretty fit and healthy for his age and enjoys the adventure and hard work of this type of ride. 

The new bike is fantastic and the extra weight of the rack and panniers is hardly noticeable... Well except for on those long steep hills. Great that I have granny gear!

Today we are riding to Orbost, about 60km. A very easy day. Although the lady at the motel said as I left enjoy the hills.

It is great to take the time and do this ride with my father, he has been doing long rides every year for many years with some of his mates. Fortunately for me he is pretty fit and healthy for his age and enjoys the adventure and hard work of this type of ride. 

How often do you take the opportunity to spent time doing something you father loves with him?
For me these days it hasn't been very often, so it's well over due.

Narelle.


Sent from my iPad

Bloody Good Coffee!!!

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Friday, April 8, 2011

On an Island


This week I am on Hamilton Island with Aaron, chilling out in the warm weather (along with the rain).
The perfect place to try some local seafood for dinner. We went to Bommie's at the Hamilton Island Yacht club, a fine dining experience where the food was excellent and the service was friendly but lacking a bit of class and experience.

I started with the ceviche of seafood. Coral trout, muscles, scallops and prawns all cooked using citrus juice. Something that I have experimented with A few times and really enjoy. I really liked the plating into the separate small glasses.

Main was a whole snapper with Asian salad which was delicious. The fish was perfectly cooked, moist and very tasty. As a side dish we had heirloom tomatoes with Persian feta, micro greens and white balsamic dressing, a very refreshing salad with the snapper.

Dessert was a take on coffee and donuts with a coffee brûlée and mini donuts. The donuts tasted wonderful, like the real thing including the jam and the coffee brûlée was delicious, slightly too much cream on top for me.

A very nice meal we would definitely come back again.

The rest of our week has been eating more casual food such as wood fired pizza with butternut pumpkin and rocket, local fish and chips or something cooked in our apartment.

We have taken to playing squash a few times to keep us occupied and fit. Surprisingly we are quite even in our scoring although I hate to lose!

The weather has given us a bit of "cabin fever" so lots of time for reading, talking and catching up on sleep.

It's amazing being on holiday and not having to worry or think about work. I don't have that dread as the end of the week comes along that I have to head back to work and a mountain of emails and stuff piled up. It's so freeing..... Although i did get a call from a head hunter with an interesting job opportunity..... 
Which started a very different set of thoughts in my head... Am I ready yet?
Today its been 4 weeks since I left HP......

What is a good amount of break time for a sabbatical?
What was your experience, if you've had one?

Narelle








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