So I have just completed 6 days of no coffee, just cause. Turns out day 2 is when the body suffers some crazy withdrawal – I had a pounding headache for most of the day.
And of course, here is my obligatory post of coffee:
Category: Food
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Culinary springtime, and dolphins
It’s getting warm and I love the colour of heirloom carrots. They make me happy and when I’m happy I turn into a culinary genius.
WATCH THIS SPACE, OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT
Also what does it mean when I dream about swimming with dolphins, I have never had a dream like that before and it weirds me out.
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Death by caffeine, Cronut Jenga
My friend visited Adelaide, and being foodies and all, plus the fact that I wanted to experience death by caffeine, lead to us going on a grand adventure of all things tasty.
Friday was super epic and involved trying to consume as many coffees as possible, so here was my list for the day, assuming one filter has more caffeine than espresso and therefore is more than “one coffee”:
Exchange Specialty Coffee: 1.5 filters
Please Say Please: 1 espresso
Coffee Branch: 1 espresso
Little Seeds Pop Up: 1 espresso
Argo on the Square: 1 piccolo
Hey Jupiter: 1 flat white
Total count in 1 day: approx 7 coffees! Woohoo!
We had an awesome moment of cronut jenga and kind of spilt sugar everywhere when our tower fell (twice!) but it was so fun, and the fallen cronut was still within the 3 second rule PLUS it ended up on my umbrella so it was still good. Very tasty, loved the texture because donut dough is too heavy, so croissant dough to make donuts is genius!
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Granite Island, The Wind, and the Beginning of Proof
I love things that are packed full of jam, pickles, and other kinds of action. So this weekend I took a trip down to Victor Harbour and Granite Island.
Everyone told me it’d be cold, but for all the 10°C – 14°C, it wasn’t all that cold. I attribute this to my Rhodes and Beckett attire and the fact that Sydney has worse winters by far.
It was wet, cold and windy but I didn’t mind at all – I was loving it! However the farmer’s markets weren’t faring as well – I saw a few tents tip over – so they had to shut down early. I didn’t get my chance to spend money here, which was a good and bad thing, since I probably won’t visit again… ever?
It also meant the horse drawn tram wasn’t in action to Granite Island, but that was okay as I discovered it wasn’t a horse-drawn carriage. I was anticipating some good old, old fashioned horse carriages, but the picture advertising it depicted a giant bus-like thing drawn by horses, so I was disappointed without actually being disappointed. Instead I got to walk along the giant bridge-thing to the small island with big rocks and penguins that didn’t show!
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Black Winter Luxury
Welcome to truffle!
Tasmanian, black, winter, fragrant, beautiful goodness!
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Reine’s winter wonderfuls
So first time living alone, I am left utterly to my own devices for everything! And considering I don’t like the word budget, instead preferring terms like “marginal propensity to spend” and “I allocate and redirect resources,” I have done a fair few bits of experimental cooking.
Hence, my Adelaidean winter wonderfuls. Winter here has actually been nice so far – I hated Sydney winters and everyone told me Adelaide was cold, super cold. But I’ve been loving it – apart from having a fit with the sporadic rain – the chill is so pleasant!
Mushrooms, goat curd on rosemary and potato sourdough, egg
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Apothecary 1878
So I’ve been looking for a replacement for Rockpool Bar and Grill, thinking I’d never find one, but lo and behold, after strolling down a dodgy-looking part of the city on a Sunday afternoon, I ran across a little treasure-looking-like place. That’s when I found out that it was a cute little wine bar that has all Victorian decor, and does high tea on Saturdays!
So I did a little research on it, and apparently it won best wine list in South Australia (cause Rockpool wins for Australia!). Plus they don’t advertise their list online, so I had to visit. My expectations were: giant wine list, and servings by the half glass, and was secretly hoping for varietal specific Riedels.
Of course, when I got there, they do indeed have a noteworthy wine list! Plenty of quotes throughout, as well as a Provenance to read through. Except… the list was much much smaller than I expected. Maybe 20 pages? I’m sorry, but I wanted a Rockpool-thick encyclopedia! They did have a great range of 75mL “tasters”, served in baby Riedels, which made me happy. Plus they were incredibly cheap at $5 – $5.50 per serving, considering at Rockpool I’m paying $16 for 75mL for their reserve stuff.
And while they don’t serve burgers, they do have a highly respectable bar menu much like Rockpool Bar and Grill, with excellent presentation and great range.
Goat curd, pink peppercorns and honey toast
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Black and white magic + deconstruction
So today I was coffeeing it up and decided to try and see if I could order a “magic” and see if it would work. But of course, being the coffee nub that I am, it managed to backfire.
I thought I was cool by asking, “if I ordered a magic, what would you give me?”
And was uncooled by the barista’s response of, “black or white?”
MIND BLOWN!
Now that I know, it sounds twice as awesome as before, but who would ever want to walk up to the counter and say, “I’d like a white magic please.” I mean, black magic is just so much cooler, though I don’t think I could handle one of them. Not unless it was the most amazing beans mmmmmmm.
In any case, it’s just as cool to say “double ris three quarter flat white” very quickly because it makes you sound amazing PLUS the barista will understand it just fine.
And one day I might make the following:
Deconstructed Apple Pie
Elderflower jelly, cinnamon apple sauce, fresh apple mince, dehydrated raspberry bits and shortbread crumbs, sugar crystal topped shortbread, fresh elderflowers.
I really need to do a deconstruction one day.
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Cafe Sydney + a lifetime worth of coins
Went to Cafe Sydney last night because I love the food there. I was hoping to spend a lot but we ended up spending not a lot at all, however everything they cook is amazing – plus it’s one of my favourite vantage points of the harbour. As I’m tired, I’m just going to picture spam.
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Shinies + burger
So it turns out it’s not a good idea to watch a lot of shows with men in shiny suits, because spending money on suits as a hobby turns out to be really, really expensive! It also means I’ve acquired skills that I can’t really use myself. It turns out there are only 85 ways to tie a tie, so I should learn what the shorthand means and memorise them all, not.
So here’s a shiny dump plus a gigantic burger called the Big Moo from Moo Burgers. I wish I had better lighting but THIS IS ALL YOU GET.
