Yet more seafood..a lunch at Doyles

Another perfect sunny day in Sydney, and the food and booze wagon rolled on.

After we picked Mum and dad up from the airport and poked around some of Sydney's eastern beaches, we had lunch at Doyles at Watson's Bay.

Possibly one of the most iconic restaurants in Sydney, the view from Doyles back over my favourite city is awesome. This is one of their promotional pics.



We used to sail into this sheltered cove years ago, and the beer garden just off the beach has also been a favourite haunt on the occasional quiet Sunday arv.

Yet more yummy seafood was enjoyed by all.

While I'm on wagyu beef....

Weeks later, I still salivate at the memory of wagyu beef. Ant came across a UK site called Discerning Food, which is flogging 3kg wagyu Sunday roasts for £250.50. Oh. MY. GOD.

The best meal ever?

The Oz trip also promised a big dose of Australian food, which I reckon is amongst the freshest and best in the world. Yes yes, I'm biased :-).

We had dinner one evening at Forty One, which ironically is on Level 42 of the Chiefly Tower in Sydney.

Once the lift doors open, we walked through a mini oriental garden, and then the full panoramic view of Sydney Harbour hit us.

We arrived just on dusk, as a beautiful sunset filled the sky. The view spans from the Harbour Bridge, out to North and South Head, and around to the Eastern suburbs. It's a unique view of Sydney Harbour, and the lights below us continued to twinkle throughout the meal.

Out came the bubbly, which went down as easily as the view.

I had originally planned to have the Menu Degustation, but when I saw the menu, I felt that the five course menu actually offered more choice.

They've slightly changed the meal since we went, but between us, and over the five courses we had the following dishes:
- Western Australian Yabbies Poached In A Saffron Bouillion With Tomatoes, Chorizo & Calasparra Rice
- Grilled Sea Scallop, Steamed Korobuto Pork With Hand Picked Crab Meat And Thai Spices.
- Tandoori Marinated Quail Breast, Fried Aubergine “Ravioli” Cucumber Raita, Chilli And Cardamom Oil
- Slow Cooked Ocean Trout, Crushed English Peas With Prosciutto, Peccorino, Basil, Mint & Lemon
- Western Australian Yabbies Poached In A Saffron Bouillion With Tomatoes, Chorizo & Calasparra Rice
- Blackmore Wagyu Beef Onglet Slow Braised With Fermented Black Beans & Stir Fried Fresh Coriander
- Cervena Vension Medallion Sauteed With A Chorizo Stuffed Date Wrapped In Pancetta, Cauliflower Puree

It was all awesome...truly mouth watering and exquisitely presented. Canapes came between each course, and we tried a great West Australian wine from Margaret River called Virtues and Vices...loved it!

The standout part of the entire experience was the wagyu beef. I'd seen a documentary on the plane about famous Australian Japanese chef, Tetsuya Wakuda, and his use of wagyu beef. It showed him visiting his wagyu beef suppliers in Tasmania, and described how they raised their wagyu cows.

Wagyu cows are a special breed of Japanese cow, and the Tasmanian wagyu cows are kept on a farm which spans three islands off the Tasmanian coast. The farmers muster the cows from island to island at low tide. Apparently they keep the cows content and relaxed in order to produce the best meat.

I can't rave enough about how delicious wagyu beef is. Marbled fat runs through the meat when it's raw, which makes it creamy and rich when braised, as ours was. We only had small portions, but it was an unforgettable.

Antony also raved about the trout and mushy peas, which are apparently coming back into vogue - ironic, as we could actually see Harry's Cafe de Wheels from where we were sitting.

We couldn't quite fit dessert, athough the lovely people at Forty One gave us some nicely packed chocolates.

It will take a lot to beat this meal - anywhere. Hats off to chef Dietmar Sawyere.

Lizzie gets married

Lizzie, one of my best and oldest friends got married on the 24th March - we've known each other since we were four, and I wouldn't have missed her big day for the world.

She married Mike, a great bloke who she met at The Oaks, one of Sydney's iconic pubs.

The wedding took place on a scorching hot day over at Bundeena, a beautiful little beach-side town in Sydney's Royal National Park.

The ceremony was simple and lovely - their vows were heartfelt, and brought a tear to the eyes of many of us there. And we then partied till late.

Aww...don't you just love a great wedding.

Lizzie and Mike - congratulations to you once again!

A welcome dose of Aussie seafood

After a solid night's sleep following the torturous 20-hour flight, we pottered around Sydney's Eastern beaches before heading into town for dinner.

The bar at the forecourt of the Opera House was heaving - I couldn't believe how warm it was for late March! It felt more like a summer evening than an Autumn one! Ant was surprised to see how much flesh Sydney chics were flashing. Good to see nothing's changed...

We stuck our head in at Doyle's at Circular Quay, which was packed, and then wandered past the Waterfront. I'd never actually eaten there, and I was hanging for decent seafood after a 9 month drought, so we grabbed a seat.

Ant too was looking forward to sampling Aussie seafood, so we ordered the cold seafood platter. It's been SOOOO long since I've had one of those.

It was great - not too much fried food, and a fantastic selection of shellfish, including bugs, crabs and prawns. The oysters were awesome...my oyster drought probably made them taste even better.

The restaurant was packed, and loud with animated conversations. I'd never realised how big the place is.

Anyway, as we sat there, up to our eyeballs in seafood, knocking back some great Australian wine and with the Harbour Bridge and Opera House in full view, I pondered that there really is no place like home.

My Big Fat Aussie Adventure

I've just come back from a HUGE month in Australia - very conveniently, my brother and childhood friend, Lizzie, decided to get married on two consecutive weekends, and Dad was turning 60! Easter fell in the middle of all of that, and a long weekend of wine-tasting in the Hunter Valley was on the agenda.

All in all, it was shaping up to be a huge month of celebrations. It was Ant's second visit to Australia, having first visited about 17 years ago. I was interested to see if he'd noticed any changes.

One thing that never changes though, is the thrill that seeing Sydney Harbour on a sunny day gives me. Seeing the Harbour Bridge automatically makes me smile - particularly cos I don't get to see it too often in person these days.

The Bridge is celebrating it's 75th anniversary this year. When I was a kid, and we used to stop to pay the toll, I thought that I was actually paying for the Bridge and that it was mine. My mother reminds me often of "my bridge".

Anyway, it was fabulous to see it in person once again! Happy 75th Birthday to my Sydney Harbour Bridge!

Exploring Dublin

We set off early the next morning, after the obligatory "full Irish" - a huge cooked breaky up in the older part of the hotel.

First stop was Trinity College and the Book of Kells, which is housed in the Old Library Building. The exhibition is fascinating - it explains how books written in 800AD were constructed. It was all very manual, detailed work!

It also outlined the symbology behind what is considered to be "one of the most beautifully illustrated manuscripts in the world".

We then checked out the Long Room, the main chamber of the Old Library. Rows of dusty old books lined the two tall levels of the library. We wondered what sort of books this library housed.

Finally, booked out, we jumped on the Dublin city bus tour and did a lap round all the main sights.

While we passed the iconic Guiness Brewery, we decided not to throw down a pint at 11am, even though as Dad would say, it's midday somewhere in the world.

The bus tour finished back down on the River Liffey, just opposite the Temple Bar - a snazzy pub-filled area where we hung out for the rest of the afternoon, listening to Irish bands. The Irish are a fab bunch - cheerful and friendly, and full of life.

Several tow-tapping hours later, we headed back out to the hotel and had a quiet drink in the bar. In keeping with the rest of the style of Clontarf Castle, the Indigo Lounge was stylishly decorated. The huge red chandeliers really set it off.



We had planned to head back into town for dinner, but our colds had taken over and we both felt pretty grim. We attempted to book into the castle's Farenheit Grill, but it was booked solidly until 10pm.

So, we chomped into a room service meal and got to spend even more time in the comfyest (is that a word!) bed on the planet.

A winter weekend in Dublin - a Celtic castle

For Ant's Christmas present, I planned a winter weekend in Dublin - his first time to Ireland.

On a freezing Friday night in February, we two cold-stricken vegemites flew over to the Emerald Isle.

My big surprise was a stay in Clontarf Castle - the pics on the website looked fab, and I couldn't resist staying in an authentic Irish castle! Here are a few of their promotional pics...



After a 10 million Euro makeover, the castle has basically retained the fascade of the original 19th Century version, and built an annex onto the back of.

The foyer has an amazing fire place and is really nicely set up - you feel like you're walking back into history.

We were shown to the room, and were presented the most ginormous bed I've ever seen. I've seen king size beds before, but not one so tall...we practically needed a ladder to climb into it.

The room was also really nicely appointed, with a thick fluffy doona (ok, duvet...), and a particularly nice touch were the red and orange light boxes built into the wall behind the bed.


























The bed was definitely the highlight of the room. It had a layer of that body memory foam over the mattress, and was pretty much the most comfy bed either of us had ever slept in.

The flying cake is finally cut

After its epic journey from Oxford, conveyor belt ride through security, 11-hour rest in a crew storage area, turbulence, and despite the humidity in Singapore, the little pink cake made its way to the table, and our expanding tummies.

We had a fab few days in Singapore. Happy 60th birthday Mum!

Show me the crab (and gimme a satay while you're at it)

My all-time FAVOURITE experience in Singapore is chilli crab. Even if I only have a 3-hour stopover in Singapore, I'll hurtle out to the East Coast Parkway to get a dose of this mouth-watering dish.



Anyway, we had longer than three hours for the evening of Mum's birthday, and attempted to over-dose on chilli crab at the Long Beach Seafood Restaurant. Consumed with a Singha beer or ten, this is truly one of best food experiences on the planet. I said to Mum that I intended to be gutsing out on chilli crab for my 60th birthday.

Other fab restaurant precincts in the ever-expanding Singapore, include the newly refubished Clarke Quay and CHIJMES.

And of course there's always the trusty hawker centres, which we visited another night. Newton's Circus, now known as the Newton Food Centre is one of my favourite haunts - Mum and Dad first bought me here about 20 years ago and to me it's always been synonymous with Singapore.

Here's a pic of Dad working his way through a couple dozen mixed satays and the obligatory Singha.

A day at Sentosa

Another part of Mum's birthday surprise was a pampering session at the fabulous Spa Botanica at the Sentosa Resort. Sentosa is an island just off the Singaporean mainland, easily reachable by bus, cab or car.

I'd been here before and had one of their yummy Singapore Flower Ritual packages. This is how they describe the package:

"Surrender to the peace and tranquility of a private garden pavilion where fragrant flowers sweetly scent the air. The treatment begins with a deep pressure dry massage in an outdoor massage pavilion to soothe weary muscles, after which a special preparation of local herbs and flowers is gently rubbed into the skin. Then enjoy an aroma massage to moisturise the skin and induce further relaxation. A revitalising soak in a sweet smelling frangipani filled tub and an elixir of calming tea completes the cycle of blissful reawakening."

I can say without hesitation that this was one of the best spa treatments I've ever had. I think Mum agreed!

With Mum safely tucked up in her floral wonderland, Dad and I headed up to Fort Siloso - Singapore's only preserved coastal fort.

I didn't really know much about Singapore's history and the Japanese occupation of it during WWII. It was a really interesting (and eerie) site, where you could explore the actual tunnel system below the fort.

We were in one of the old bunkers, when this peacock decided to put on a show.

















Several hours later, we picked up a refreshed Mum, and wandered down to the beach, where a flock of restaurants and bars provide a great view out over what signs claim is the southernmost point of the asian continent.

Lunch down on the beach was great - we found an eatery that served a dizzying range of seafood and noodles, and opted for a noodle dish, with chilli crab being on the agenda for dinner.

The iconic Singapore Sling

One of the absolutely mandatory things to do in Singapore is to have a Singapore Sling at the iconic Long Bar at Raffles.

It seems odd to be sitting at one of the most expensive hotels in the country, scoffing peanuts and dumping the shells on the floor, but, needless to say, with such massive humidity, one has to keep the fluids up...

Here are Mum and I, doing what the locals do...

Taking the cake to Singapore

The day before I flew out to Singapore, Ant and I were mosying around Oxford with my friends from Oz - Al and Ian, and stumbled across the Cake Shop in the market place. They make the most wonderful tailored cakes - mainly fruit cakes with spectacular icing designs. They also do a series of comical characters made from marzipan. Absolutely fabulous!

I decided to get a small cake made up for Mum's birthday - it was really sweet: pink flowers and icing.

The next challenge was to get it through security at Heathrow! I was really worried they'd make me stick to the one piece of hand luggage rule that they're now enforcing pretty much without exception. Jamming the fruit cake into my already heaving backpack was not going to assist its longevity.

Fortunately, a very kind security inspector let me take the cake through - it had to be scanned of course, which was fine. I got some weird looks from fellow travellers as my little pink cake emerged from the xray machine on the conveyor belt.

It made the 11-hour flight safely too, ready for the big day!

MariMari sicks their lawyers onto me

Discussions between myself and MariMari came to a head when they sicked someone purporting to be their lawyer onto me.

This woman told me to stop bullying her client and making threats to defame their company....hardly defamation when I'm merely talking about their complete incompetence in handling my booking and securing my privacy.

She said that Malaysia doesn't have the same sort of data protection laws as other countries, and that any claim I made against them would not stand...curious though that they felt substantially threatened enough to get the lawyers onto me.

If that's their idea of customer service, that's fine. A company that has practices as crude as that won't last in the real world. I'm making it a mission to tell everyone about these muppets.

As for the reunion with my folks, it was fab, and we gutsed solidly on chilli crab and satays as planned.

I'm a baaaad blogger

They say time flies when you're having fun, and it's now been four months between posts. Who's a naughty blogger then!

Anyway...I shall attempt to resume some sense of regularity in my postings. Having just spent a month in good old Oz, I am more obsessed than ever with my home country and all the places I've not yet visited.

And, with London in full spring bloom, it's not so bad here either.

I'm going to loop back to my experience with that nasty little company in Malaysia, then start on the adventures of the last four months...