Sayers

A few friends of mine caught up for what was supposed to brunch turned to lunch as a few of us had prior appointments. I was told that seeing as I was a foodie I would enjoy Sayers' famous breakfasts, unfortunately I was unable to try that so instead I tried their other famous meal time - lunch. We decided that we will have tapas style lunch seeing as that would mean we get to taste a bit of everything.

Let me introduce Sayers, Sayers is one of local favourites, situated in Leederville just behind the main busy Oxford street. It uses quality local produce, makes their own blend of coffee (which by the way is absolutely AMAZING! I haven't had good coffee like that in a long while!) made by 5 senses (which should tell you that it will be amazing) and of course like all good things the place cannot be booked and is a rather small shop so make sure you get there early or you be waiting for your table (which will probably be a while seeing as it's such a cosy place to sit and talk for a few hours - like we managed to do!).

To start any old day, especially a Saturday there is coffee to be ordered. I had their honeycomb coffee affogato - it was just heavenly, exactly what I needed! The coffee was extracted to perfection, the honeycomb from a crunchie added in and the vanilla ice-cream at the bottom to boot. It was pure heaven!

From the coffee we couldn't wait to dug into our food choices.

There was the carbohydrate requirement which came in the form of the fresh ciabatta bread, 3 pillar olive oil & balsamic syrup - the olive oil and balsamic syrup was exqusite, so much so that one of the girls couldn't stop dipping it in almost everything.

A tapas menu is never complete without spicy cacciatore sausage with grilled lemon & balsamic aka chirozo!

The chirozo was fantastic but I wish they put the balsamic in a separate bowl to dip. I found that some of the pieces were soaked through and others had none.

There was the exquisite chickpea batter prawns, chicken sausage, avocado & chilli relish - the chickpea was amazing and the whole thing just melts in your mouth. Someone had nick one of the pieces before I even had the chance to take the photo.

Then there was the duck rillette, sour cherries, watercress & olive oil toasted ciabatta which was rather different from what we thought it was going to be. We all thought that the duck rillette was in texture too much like canned tuna.

We also had the black belly pig, parmesan & wilted spinach croquettes which were just delicious!

It was so good that I couldn't even focus my camera properly because I was salivating at the though of having the one that was on my plate!

Then there was the grilled octopus, pepperinata which unfortunately I couldn't try because I'm allergic to octopus/squid and the likes of those, which is a pity because I used to love squid as a child.

Apprantly though it was fantastic and not rubbery (which means it's cooked right!)

And of course to even out all the meaty dishes we had the herb & goats cheese crusted field mushrooms. You can't really go wrong with this plate. It was just delicious and they used good quality goats cheese and hey mushrooms are awesome.

In addition to their menu selection they have an extensive range of cakes and pasteries which looks absolutely yummy. Will have to come back for that and the breakfast!

And if not for the food definitely for the coffee and the nice ambience and cosiness of the place.

Goumet Pizza at home.. with love...

As much as I love going out and dining, there is nothing better than just staying in and cooking/baking/frying up a storm in your own kitchen, or better yet, in someone else's kitchen!

My lovely cousins, and the boys gathered to make our very own goumet pizzas topped with everything we love to the max! Nothing is more fun then buying a pizza base from the pizza shop down the road, buying everything we want to put on top like chicken, sweet onion, goat's fetta (top quality of course!), tomato, chirozo, sweet potatoe, mozzeralla cheese, capsicums, olives, more cheese, bocconcini it's just fantastic.

The best part is after cooking the chicken, making the onion into sweet onion using sugar etc. cooking the chirozo and sweet potato is of course making the pizza toppings. Boy did we go nuts.

 JM being all Master Chef-like

Ready to go into the oven...

Pizza number 1 - sweet potato and onion with chicken

Ready for the oven:

 Pizza Number 2: Chirozo, capsicum, olives, boccocini fetta cheese

Pizza number 3: 

Chicken LOTS OF SWEET ONION and potato and fetta

Pizza number 4: 

The Works

After having fun making the pizza (and of course it was effort throwing stuff on!) it was time to shove it into the oven then wait....

wait...

wait...

DING..

out it comes..

ready to dig in! All I can say is it's better than any Little Caesar's Pizzeria or anything like that! Just bliss.

Should do it more often. It's not like it's that hard.

High Tea at The George

I love High Teas, but the only problem with them is that I don't have such a sweet tooth. I'm not saying I don't like cake, don't get me wrong, I love cake, just as long as it doesn't taste as though it's been covered and dipped in 60% glucose syrup.

Anyway, I've been to the Pennisula (or The Tranby House) Tea House in Maylands and love that they keep the traditional side of things with the nice and lovely royal dulton china sets. However, I wanted to go to something a little more trendy, a little more daring, a little more modern. After googling, I came across The George. The new hip after-work bar, the new-ish restaurant on St. George's Tce. The George does a mean High Tea on a Sunday, a High Tea with a twist.

For those with High Tea experience, you would be aware that there is usually a choice of tea (The George has an extensive and intersting list of teas to choose from) as well as of course coffees.

The menu is then divided into three tiers. The bottom tier consists of your savoury foods, your sandwiches etc. The second should be a mixture of savoury and sweet. The third and top most tier is your sweets. You always start off with scones, have the savoury and work your way up to the sweets.

The Menu:

Menu
Finger Sandwiches:
Home smoked salmon, cucumber, caper, sour cream
Earl grey smoked chicken, pancetta, roasted garlic mayo
Rare beef, spiced tomato and roquette
Triple brie, quince with swiss chard
Pastries:
Homemade lemonade scones, with raspberry chilli balsamic jam and orange vanilla cream
Mini blue cheese, marmalade and spinach tartlets
Mini french style pasties and cakes

we had so many plates of scones but OMG it was just fabulous! the raspberry chilli balsamic jam and the vanilla cream were just to die for

Finger Sandwiches:Home smoked salmon, cucumber, caper, sour cream
Earl grey smoked chicken, pancetta, roasted garlic mayo
Rare beef, spiced tomato and roquette
Again fabulous! Although the baguettes were a little hard to bite into. But the combination for the sandwiches were exquisite and something different, simple and oh-so-grown-up!

Triple brie, quince with swiss chard 
Mini blue cheese, marmalade and spinach tartlets
 They were just perfect. Both of them. Savoury but sweet. It was unexplainable. 
Your tastebuds had an orgasm!
It just worked so well!

The selection of mini sweets. The meringue was just perfect. Not to sweet not to zesty. 
 

It was unbelievable. Everything was just so fantastic. The lemonade scones with the loveliest of vanilla cream (made from real vanilla beans!). The Mini blue cheese, marmalde spinach tartlets looked like it was savoury but when you bite into it was sweet. ARGH the tastebud and mind confusion! It was just fabulous.

The George delivers a stunning high tea, a lot of thought has been put into creating the menu. The service was pretty good, although I thought it could have been a lot better considering there wasn't that many people for the late afternoon session. It is very good value for the quality of food and tea. I will definitely be back on Sunday to have those tartlets!!

High Tea at The George
Cost:
$36 The George Package – Food and tea
$43 Prestige package: with glass of Australian sparkling wine
$49 Grand Cru package: with glass of French champagne or specialty cocktail
When: Saturdays 1-4pm, Sundays 1-5pm
Where: The George, 216 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000, Australia
Tel: 08 6161 6662
Bookings are essential for High Tea at The George.
Email: info@thegeorgeperth.com.au
www.thegeorgeperth.com.au

Diary of a bridesmaid..

So I've been asked by my lovely cousin Miss. O to be one of her bridesmaid. It's an honour to be one, and to be asked by her. I have had her permission to re-account my experiences at being one and what it entitles for me, especially seeing as this is my first time being a bridesmaid and I guess, you don't always get a chance to be one.

Because Miss. O happens to be my cousin I suppose the conversation that takes place is definitely more open and more abrupt and blunt then say a friend. In saying that, it also allows the bride-to-be to ring/sms/ask for advice at every hour, at any hour.

So far, to update, she got engaged to the very lovely Mr. D the day before Australia day and has since then re-accounted her proposal by said Mr. D numerous times that Mr. D has actually decided to record her on one of her story telling so that if he was ever to be asked they can either get his version of things, which is really "i asked her and she said yes" or to hear her version of events, in which case he will whip out the phone which has a recording of the events as told by Miss O. Let me assure you that he did record it and it's probably the funniest thing ever and I guess also somewhat smart thing and he's tried to play it a few times too.

After the initial excitement of being engaged, my cousin became an OVER EXCITED BRIDE-TO-BE and has resulted in her first weekend of being just that turning into a "LETS LOOK AT DRESSES, oh and engagement party! ooh and the date of the wedding" all within 24 hours. After the first weekend however they have decided the wedding will be held in 2011. This meant only 10 months or less of preparation. Let me assure the next two weekends resulted in a rapid checking of their favourite venues followed by a decision and a pick of one of their favourites and the checking of the food of that place (they had dinner there one night) then booking of the place (the reception place), the church (for the wedding ceremony), the engagement party (one for relatives - a chinese banquet and one for friends - a casual bbq) bookings. This was all done within 3 weekends.

Tonight, we made the engagement party invitations. One which involved a lot of fun, laughter and general excitement. The relevations of what it looks like I cannot tell you just yet as the invitations are not complete. We still need to make a pouch. I'm forbidden to write about it until all the invitations are sent.

Until then this is just an introduction and a brief account of what's been happening. Although rest assure it's a lot more dramatic then what I've written, especially with regards to finding the date for the wedding and the venue for the wedding. It's not as easy as I make it out. It involved a lot of flip-flopping around (whether to get married this year or early next year) , the availabilty of the reception venues whilst all the while thinking about dresses, make-up, photography etc. Alas it was all solved.

All we have to tackle next is finding a photographer, which I have been searching for, although the ones I've picked unfortunately have been either too expensive or are part-time wedding photographers (possibly amatues).

OH right and the food for the friend's engagement party, the games, and the decorations.

The fun has only just begun.

lamb shanks, wine, summer lovin'

We realised that lamb shanks are usually a warm fuzzy winter's day dish, but sometimes when you want something hearty and it's an unusual cold summer's night that it was when we had this lovely homecooked meal nothing can be done but to cook it and enjoy it with the best of company.

My lovely cousin was kind enough to lend her house and was ever so ready to test out her skills in the kitchen and made the lovely lamb shanks, along with german dumplings (which I never really enjoyed too much, but I guess the gravy that was made just did the trick to improve what is otherwise just potato mash, flour/corn starch and water). The recipe she used was from taste.com.au , which I must admit is one of my favourite online cooking sites.

The lamb shank was cooked to perfection, the tender juicy meat just falling off the bone. I guess the only problem that I had was the lamb smell, which can't be helped I suppose.

Her housemates also made spiced stir-fried prawns and a chinese cabbage salad, although different from the European styling of the lamb was just delicious in its own rights.

Overall the evening was a success, good food, good company and a night of Cranium fun.

Life should always be an array of dinner parties. Especially homecooked ones in the comfort of good family and friends.

Amour...Je t'aime

With each passing year the couples that I've known have cemented their commitment to each other and have profused their love by celebrating the wonderful ceremony that is marriage or are going to anyway (although I realise that having said that there will be a group of people who would strong object to marriage - whatever your views keep it to yourself because that's not the point of this post).

I'm a romantic at heart, regardless of all my cynicisms and my questioning of "how do you know if he/she is who you want to be with forever?". I believe there is true love. I love hearing people's stories of how they met, how they got together and of course how they got proposed to/how they asked their girls to marry them. It just gives me such joy and happiness to see love between the couples it makes me believe that there is love in this world. I love hearing their stories because I'm so excited and happy for them and just hearing it makes me feel even more excited and my smile couldn't be bigger.

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A good collegue of mine went home from work one Tuesday afternoon. She's just recently moved into her house and on the front steps to her door she's found a note written on what was once a wall of a cardboard box "I hope you've had a good day". As she opened the door to her house the second wall of a cardboard box read "I think you're pretty". She put her keys down on the dining table, only to have her gaze find another note, "You're beautiful", then another "I really like you", and another "You're amazing" all placed in various parts of the house. Finally, after collecting all the notes, the last one read "Check the freezer". There she found a bottle of Moet champagne. She turned around to find her boyfriend of many years on one knee with a ring and with a nervous smile asked her to marry him.

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One of my friends got whisked away on a boat one weekend, her boyfriend has convinced her that she'll be learning to sail. The skipper took them out to sea, yet not to far that they couldn't see the sandy shoreline there the skipper left them alone while he prepared the morning tea. Before she knew it, her boyfriend was on one knee with the ring clutched around his hand. It took her by surprise and she was lost for words for a least, well, what she claims to be about 30 minutes before saying yes.

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Another one of my friends returned to her messy new house on a Sunday afternoon. They have just moved in that morning and when she got home she found rose petals all over the hall way then a treasure hunt of notes and postcards written all over the house, before she was finally led to the front mailbox with the final postcard written with the words "Will you marry me?" and there her boyfriend stood behind her with a ring. She said yes, of course.

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My cousin on the other hand got whisked away to a fancy dinner which was then followed by a nice surprise, they were staying at the penthouse of a  5-star hotel in the center of the city. The room's hallway was covered in rose petals, there were tea-lights lit along the way and on the balcony with a bottle of Moet and Chandon champagne. Her now-finace had also bought 12 beautiful long stemmed roses which were packed in a box and inside the card was a ring. She cried and he was knelt on the floor and the rest of history.

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... I would never get sick of hearing the stories.