My love for pasteís de nata (more commonly known in Sydney as Portuguese custard tarts) knows no bounds. I had indulged in these delights just a few weeks ago, but they were so good that I had no problems coming back at Sweet Belem last weekend. This time, we had the tarts in the café, along with a bica (otherwise known as a short black).
God, what’s with my favourite actors being in Robin Hood productions these days? Richard Armitage has been a mainstay of the Robin Hood TV series for a few years now, but in the latest series he is joined by none other than Toby Stephens. It makes for some, er, interesting scenes, let me tell you.
And then this morning, I found out that Matthew Macfadyen’s been cast as the Sherrif of Nottingham in Ridley Scott’s upcoming version. Seeing a slimmed-down Rusty, Cate and Matthew all in one place will be something to behold. I’ll be quite curious to see the finished product. Hopefully it will be more Gladiator and less Kingdom of Heaven.
I was raring to use the apples that I picked on my visit to the apple orchard, and the first recipe I tried was this apple cake. It turned out very, very well, since it’s a crumble/pie/cake all-in-one. It was also enormous, and freezes well, meaning that I still have a couple of portions left for dessert.
A couple of days later I made some madeleines for the international lunch that my department was having. It’s a little vanilla/lemon cakelette from France. Now, I know that I’m not French, but in my defence I was delegated sweets to bring and I had no way of buying anything remotely South-East Asian sweets mid-week. Besides, I don’t mind being an honorary Frenchie for the afternoon if I get to spread a bit of baking joy.
Not literally. Just the song as sung by Paul Dempsey of Something For Kate. He was the second muso, along with Kate Miller-Heidke, on the episode I saw on Saturday. Love it!
He’s even better in the flesh though! Hahaha!
Aside from a stroll by the harbour, the second reason I was in Balmain was to try out Kazbah, a Moroccan restaurant on Darling Street. Lunch time was ludicrously busy, but we were already fascinated by the distinctly Moroccan table-setting.
Then came the colourful drinking vessels. The mint tea was gorgeous, with not only dried mint, but warm cinnamon.
Finally, the food came, and it was worth the wait. The chicken shish kebabs were so good that they disappeared in a flash. The octopus in the salad was nicely cooked but I wished we had ordered some rich lamb to balance the acidity of the lemon and feta. But the star for me was the vegetarian breakfast tagine, a wonderful concoction of pumpkin, feta, spinach and egg (among other things). The subtle spicing was wonderful, and so different from the in-your-face spicing I’m used to in Indian and South-East Asian cuisines.
I was watching Rockwiz on Saturday when I came across this extraordinary song by Kate Miller-Heidke. She certainly tells it like it is!
A sunny autumn day – a perfect reason to explore Sydney. Today it was the waterside suburb of Balmain.
Amazing how many beautiful pockets of Sydney there are – and for me Balmain is one of them. Sydney Harbour positively sparkles in the autumn sunshine.
Something to brighten up the start of your weekend: the kiddies at NYC’s PS22 Elementary School sing, “I’ll Be Your Mirror” by the Velvet Underground.
Haven’t been this close to an active volcano before… But at Kintamani you can dine within view of one.
You can see from the photo above that the lava field is massive, because Gunung Batur (Mount Batur) is a pretty active volcano. But despite this, it’s a massive tourist attraction and lots of companies do sunrise hikes to the summit.
Not disco dancing, though.
Dance is a very important part of Balinese culture. The dances usually follow Hindu legends and are full of complex, intricate movements. So complex that dancers begin their training as young children and takes a lifetime to perfect.
While in Bali, I saw two very different dances. The Barong dance (above) are dances about the Barong (below), a magical protector, in his fight against evil. With a face like that, I suppose you would scare the baddies away!
While the Barong dance is slow and very deliberate, the Kecak dance is fast and furious! The Kecak troupe (the men in the checked sarongs) supply the music as the tale is told, by shouting “Kecak, kecak, kecak” over and over, very rapidly! The Balinese version of beatboxing, I guess.
Static and Silence 