Go on, you deserve it!

As a woman and I stood in the queue at Hausfrau in Yarraville on Saturday, lamenting whether to choose a sweet or savoury treat, or both, I said to her, 'Go on, you deserve it'. And she laughed, saying she did deserve a sweet treat alongside her savoury and salad. And I deserved it too. Two plates of deliciousness. And then some.

I admit, my diet this weekend has not been balanced. It's been heavy on the comfort, light on the healthy.

I guess some belly dancing being in the same room as belly dancers because it was too hot and humid for me to take part gave me solace that I was sort of exercising the comfort food off. Through osmosis?

Outfit 22 of the 30 for 30 remix: harem pants, Bob Evans tee, Mimco headband and hip scarf and Jiffies.

 On the way to Hausfrau, I saw this awesome street art.

I sat down for a late lunch and the Saturday Age. Elderflower is my favourite boutique softdrink.

First course was Croque Monsieur. Toasted ham white bread sandwich topped with bechamel sauce and cheese. Yum.

Then a blueberry Madeleine cake, eaten as I read how to make a chocolate cognac cake. The cake I ate was like a bread and butter pudding.

Two plates of deliciousness indeed.

I went to Hausfrau on my way to see Rabbit Hole at the cinema (to cool down).

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Rabbit Hole is a play-turned-film about a couple, Becca and Howie, grieving after the death of their young son. I guess it's about when's the right time to 'get on' with life after you lose a child, and the strength needed to get through the darkness.

The theme that was apparent to me were the conditions grieving people unintentionally place on others, and the difficulty of not knowing how to handle other peoples' grief as an outsider. Grief stricken peoples' worlds stop while it turns for the rest of us. I particularly liked the relationship and subsequent forgiveness Becca gave the teenage driver who killed her son. It was very moving, and very sad. And Nicole Kidman's expressions were visible despite the botox.

On a side note, there were some teenagers in the cinema having sex in the back row. It was rather unnerving. I wondered whether people just pick any film to 'view' so they can have sex. And then I wondered how many people do this, and whether I've sat on a chair that people have had sex on. And then I had to stop thinking and just watch the film.

Moving on...

I ate half of this trifle for dinner. I told you. More comfort, less health. I deserved it.

Today I met Kristy and her very nice boyfriend for brunch at Fraus.

 

It was Kristy's birthday yesterday and she had a lovely weekend in Melbourne being spoilt.

Today was Kristy's first Fraus experience. She went into a chocolate coma with a thick hot chocolate...

 ...and a crepe filled with ricotta, and topped with figs and hot chocolate.

 

 

 

I was recognised by a blog reader. Sassy, left of me in the below picture, was excited to meet me in real life!

 I had my usual order: thick hot chocolate and a Florentine crepe. Quite healthy really!

This is outfit 23 of the 30 for 30 remix. Seven to go! Mimco headband, Target blazer, Valleygirl tee, Sussan jeans, Diana Ferrari shoes, Tiffany necklace and Lavallier bangle.

It was lovely seeing Kristy again, and finally meeting her boyfriend. I will see her in a month when I go to Sydney to speak on a panel at the Aussie Blogger's Conference.

I cooked a healthy dinner of pork and vegetables tonight. No pictures. But I did bake a fruit pie, and took pictures, because you deserve it.

 Apricots, passionfruit, pears, blueberries, rhubarb, a plum and a fig.

 Yum!

Heat, Tangled, an outfit and risotto

As Rob Thomas sang in '99, it's a hot one, like seven inches from the midday sun. It was almost 40 degrees yesterday and was forecast for 40 today - thankfully it didn't reach 40.

To escape the heat yesterday I saw Tangled at the cinema.

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It was nice, but to be honest, I didn't love it as much as others who recommended it to me. All through the movie I kept thinking that there should be a cinema just for adults who want to watch kids' movies, because quite frankly, the screaming kids were annoying. I also wondered how Rapunzel's hair didn't snag on things, and wondered what shampoo she uses to keep her hair so strong (I imagine her diet is full of salmon and eggs). I was mesmorised by Rapunzel's hair. Especially when it was braided like this:

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When I was six, my doctor wanted to know what my dream was. It was to have long hair. When I was about 23, my hospital files were transferred from the Royal Children's Hospital to the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and we flicked through the files. My doctor read out my dream at six years old. And now, at 29, I want to have a braid like Rapunzel's. A quick google shows me you can buy a wig like her's. Hmmmm... ;)

 

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I also saw a lot of Big Day Out goers. It would have been extremely hot for them. As I drove home late at night, I saw a lot of limosines to pick up the rockstars. I can usually hear the BDO from my bedroom, but wasn't so lucky yesterday.

I drove home late at night as I had been to see Steve Poltz again. I will write about it tomorrow. For now, here's a picture.

This is what I wore to work today. I was prepared for the searing heat and the chill of the office.

I have had this dress for about two years, never worn until today. It is a good dress for a hot day. I received many compliments on it (thanks everyone). It's from Target, and my shoes are Steve Madden, my headband is Mimco and my necklace is Oh Deer.

And I am cooking a delicious vegetarian risotto right now, with these ingredients.

It is on the stove now - I don't believe in standing over the saucepan stirring risotto. Off to shower now and then to watch myself on No Limits.

Stay cool.

Foodie Tweetup at The Provincial Hotel, Fitzroy

On Friday night I went to a Tweetup foodie event at The Provincial Hotel in Fitzroy. Yep, I met a heap of people from Twitter and we all had dinner. I already knew @calfy, @cheriecheroo, @starinmelbourne and @jentopia from previous meet ups (I knew @calfy (Shawn) as we went to primary school together, and Jen and I are blog/Twitter friends). The other 11 people were strangers to me - I only knew a few of them from their Twitter accounts. It's so cool to meet people from the internet. Everyone was so lovely! Meeting people from the internet is no longer the dodgy, seedy and risky thing it once was. I highly advocate it!

The Provincial Hotel is beautiful inside - rustic and spacious. I went there in 2003 when I first moved to Melbourne, and I don't recall it being this dedicated to food - from memory, it was solely a pub. I only took a few photos of the interior.

This giant bottle of Veuve Cliquot was in my direct view.

Some of the group had previously dined at The Provincial and interacted with the restaurant through Twitter (of course!).

The executive chef, Paul Cooper designed a special menu for us - such fine dining at amazing value! In all honesty, I feared a degustation menu would leave my tummy and purse empty at the end of the night. But my fears were allayed early on - it was less than I expected to pay, and I was pleasantly full.

Although the restaurant was full of diners, it felt like we were the only group in the room - great, personal service from all staff.

Like all Tweetups, and this a foodie Tweetup, mobile phones were at the ready, next to cutlery, poised for tweets as the night progressed. Descriptions of food, introductions (follows) and thank yous, all in 140 characters or less. Some of us placed our gourmet street presses on our side plates, folded up like napkins. We were ready to eat and tweet.

I'll write you through the menu now. It seems like the logical step for five courses. We had bread for starters, with really high quality olive oil and balsamic for dipping. No photos. You can imagine bread, I am sure.

1st Course

Heirloom tomato and watermelon salad, with mint, radish and marinated fetta.

This was a pretty awesome salad. I loved the creamy feta, the balsamic and the mint. The heirloom (or 'airloom' as I pronounced it) tomatoes were yummy too. The salad was covered in a gazpacho jelly.

Here I am about to eat it.

2nd Course

Scallop Ceviche, avocado, cucumber, lime, and ginger beer granita.

This was my favourite savoury course. The scallops were so tender (I love salmon ceviche so it was near on guaranteed I'd love this) and I wanted to drink the granita when it'd melted. The green dots are avocado. And the brown slivers were like a cross between a pastry and a flat bread. Such an arty dish.

3rd Course

Wood roasted Yellowtail Kingfish, marinated zucchini, sauteed organic kale, lemon, smoked herb oil.

The Kingfish was so fishy and fresh. It had a crispy skin too. I loved the lemon and herbs with the kale.

4th Course

House corned Warialda Belted Galloway beef silverside, with crushed potato, mustard, and almonds.

Sadly I have never been a silverside fan. I did eat the lot, and really enjoyed the fig mustard and mash. The other tweeps loved the dish. During this course, I tasted one of the vegetarian options - pan fried cheese gnocci with broad beans and fetta, and using Faux Fuchsia's rating scale, I gave it 11/10. I am less of a fan of broad beans than I am silverside, but I ate two broad beans and LOVED them!

5th Course

Chocolate Fondant 'just for Cherie'

This dessert was amazing! Seriously good. Even though chocolate is not often my preference, I rate this a million out of 10. Wow. It was such good quality chocolate, the fondant was like eating a cloud filled with gooey goodness. And the icecream was great too. The smear on the plate is orange grand marnier jam. (Un)fortunately someone had to forgo their dessert, so I shared it with Shawn and Jen after I'd eaten my own dessert.

I really enjoyed the night - met some great new friends and ate wonderful food. I'll definitely be up for another foodie Tweetup! And we may have some new recruits for our food blog!

The first pic of the very beautiful Jen and I. (Ok, so there's another one, but this was the best one of the two, I thought).

And here is our group of Tweeps. A fantastic bunch of people!

Thanks for organising, @calfy and @cheriecheroo, and for your hospitality, Erez Gordon and all at The Provincial Hotel, and especially to Paul Cooper and the team of chefs for the wonderful food.

Olde worlde crafting and chainstore Carly

Last night I went to dinner with some friends, and met many new friends there. It was delicious and fun.

On the walk to dinner at the Provincial Hotel last night (review to come), Jentopia and I passed this wonderful shop which I need to return to. It's the Magic Lantern Studio in Brunswick Street Fitzroy.

There was a man standing in the doorway crafting a face out of plasticine. The face was for a marionette. It was a pretty special sight. In this world of disposable, mass produced disposable stuff, it was lovely to see the handcrafting of toys happening after hours.

We knocked on the door and asked if we could take photos.

Inside the windows were beautifully intricate dioramas of cacti, plants, toy animals and hand crafted marionettes.

Jentopia and I loved this man in white. He looks like Gandhi.

Amazing detail!

You can read more about Magic Lantern Studios here. I really want to go back to look inside, and maybe do an interview with the craftsmen. It's intriguing.

This is what I wore to dinner. Very happy with it, but in a rush (because of my indecisiveness about which top to wear over the red dress - I changed my outfit three or four times), I forgot to wear a necklace. Oh well.

The navy bird top and red dress are from Sportsgirl, grey longsleeved tee is Sussan, jacket is Target, shoes are from Diana Ferrari and hairclip is Mimco. It has been a cool summer so far (but tomorrow will be 40 degrees) so I am loving layering and jacket wearing.

As Jen took this pic, she walked around the footpath to get a good angle, and accidentally almost walked a woman off the footpath. That's why I am laughing.

This is me with my entree. Heirloom tomato, watermelon, feta and mint salad. It was delicious. Stay tuned for the blog entry about dinner, coming either later today or tomorrow.

Oh and this is what I wore to work yesterday. Layering. Temt dress, Portmans merino cardi, Diana Ferrari shoes (they get a workout!) and Sussan jeans. I think there's my handmade ceramic heart brooch pinned on the cardi too.

Have a great Saturday!

(In other news, I just heart Kings of Leon have postponed their March concerts in Australia to November. Sad, but convenient for me, as I am due on a plane at 7.45 am the day after their original concert date, and their concert would have happened on the busiest workday of my year. Thank God!)