I am thankful for…

The beautiful dinner spread....delicious!

Thanksgiving is a big deal over here. For us, it was a collection of stereotypes that we’d accumulated over 25 years of watching American television.

There was a Turkey,  some sort of parade, men watching sport of tv (assume a football game somewhere as it’s winter), cranberries seemed to be essential as were many many pumpkins.

I guess what’s been established since we arrived here is that  it’s a lot more than turkeys and cranberry sauce. It’s really about spending time with family and being thankful for all that you have. In typical American-style as well it’s also about acknowledging that you are thankful and why you are thankful.

My thanksgiving started at the school where I volunteer a couple of times a week. That second-grade class had its own thanksgiving feast. We moved the tables into one big row. Students bought in food and drink and they all sat and ate to together. The critical part was that before the meal everyone recounted what they were thankful for; the sun, trees, fresh air, teachers and of course family. There were plenty of family there to watch as well which was lovely, parents and siblings joining in.

We’ve made quite a few expat friends over-here, Aussies that have left our land girt by sea and travelled to a much colder part of the world. It was with them that we were lucky enough to spend thanksgiving.

Perhaps I should be upset that it was left to the wives to plan the menu but I prefer to think of it as the experts sticking to what they are good at!

My friend Nat and I, self-confessed dessert addicts, were given the task of cooking dessert.  The only request being to keep some traditional elements in the mix. Traditional thanksgiving desserts include

·      Pecan pie

·      Pumpkin pie

·      Anything with cinnamon and nutmeg

·      Lots of cranberries

·      Apple something or rather

I forgot to mention that of the people we have met here we’ve made friends with a lot of intolerances. Our menu had to therefore be Gluten free, wheat free, apple free, high-fructose corn syrup free but of course tasty.

After my school thanksgiving feast Nat and I settled down for four hours of cooking. The second oven finally got a work-out, and not just for the hell of it.

We made

·      Sweet potato cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese icing

·      Mini- pumpkin cheesecakes with a ginger pecan crust

·      Pecan pie with a sour cream crust (Donna Hay style, the Americans put way too much corn-syrup in everything)

·      Pavlova (Nat’s specialty) with whipped cream and a cranberry sauce

Pecan pie

·      Upside-down apple cake

Mini-cheesecakes (pumpkin)

We all headed to Simon and Gill’s on Thanksgiving day, around 1ish. We wanted to help with the cooking and also help with the set-up.

The table was set-up beautifully and Gill had bought all the ladies an apron each. I got a frilly one. (wonder why?).

We nibbled on cheese and Gill’s famous bacon and date rolls.

The turkey was a 22 pounder. Terrifying in it’s sheer size. I suspect that the ovens here are so big to partially accommodate the turkey’s alone. Stuffed with herbs and onions it smelled amazing coming out. Carved up and served with William Sonoma’s famous turkey gravy it was delicious.

In pursuit of the famous turkey gravy

Having only ever had turkey once in Australia, for Nuwan, Jill and I’s orphan Christmas I’d been turned off turkey. In Australia the turkey had been quite flavor-less and by the time we’d eaten 3 kilos of it in various incarnations we were well and truly sick of it.  This bird was truly tasty. We’ve come to the theory that they must save the best turkeys for the Americans and ship the left overs to Australia, the opposite of what happens with lamb.

We had a multitude of sides to go with the delicious turkey   mashed-potato, stuffing, cranberry sauce, roast vegetables and greens.  Of course we also had the typical American dish of sweet-potatoes with marshmallows on top.

Our first thanksgiving was a huge success; fun, happy and full of laughter.

Can’t wait to see what next thanksgiving will bring!

The beautiful dinner table

The turkey

Sweet potato cupcakes with cinnamon icing

Oh....and what am I thankful for. I'm thankful that even though we've only been here 5 months, we've made such lovely friends that we can be thankful for :)

Tearing up the Windy City

October turned into our travel month - a rushed day trip to San Jose, Chath coming back from Sydney, and a couple of weekend trips to explore the US of A. First up - a trip to the Windy City to catch up with some old friends. Shish and Sandeep being in the US at the same time was too much of a coincidence to let pass by, so we jumped on a plane one late Friday night and winged our way to Chicago.

After we'd all convened from our various inbound flights at a cafe near Bloomingdales, we set out to explore Chicago. Then it started raining. Typical, we leave a state with a reputation for some of the highest rainfall in the US in the middle of a record dry spell, and it rains on holiday. Undaunted, we tackled the Field Museum, making friends with Sue the T-Rex, proudly sponsored by McDonald's, as well as some extreme mammals in one of their special exhibits, courtesy of evolutionary theory (the creationists would have had a heart attack!) Despite the rain, we wandered our way through the city, exploring the weird and wonderful art at Millenium Park, got rained on some more (I sense a theme for the weekend coming on), before closing out an unsuccessful attempt to use public transport by jumping in a taxi... after being rained on some more.

Our attempt to view the Chicago skyline by night was foiled by the zero-visibility situation at the top of the John Hancock observation deck, so we settled instead with visiting a jazz club in a slightly seedier part of the city. Apparently we managed to snag the booth that Al Capone would always sit in when he frequented the Green Mill, to enjoy the funky, soulful sounds of Cyrille Aimee. Check out the clip of a similar performance in NY here - she was actually a lot better when we saw her live! Being the old codgers that we are, we quit after the second of three sets to hunt down some dinner. The Ethiopian restaurant across the road obliged, provided my first experience of authentic African food - Shish assured me that it was the real deal, and he's more than qualified to know what's what!

The next day saw yet more rain (we're really getting used to this), but we took a punt and took went up to the John Hancock observation deck. We got our timing just right, and got the only window of visibility of the day, before the rains rolled in yet again and reduced visibility to zero. Once they eased up, more wandering through the city, admiring the old-new architectural styles that are dotted throughout the city. Our meanderings took us down to the Navy Pier to check out the McDonald's Dessert Centre of the Future (I'm not kidding!) and the various tourist traps on offer. Before long, our time was up - our quick weekend away was over, and we had to say goodbye to old friends before heading to the airport and flying our separate ways.

Things we learnt on this trip:

• Shish reads our blog - Sandeep doesn't!
• Shish has an unhealthy obsession with the Cheesecake Factory
• Chicago feels quite windy, but isn't necessarily windier than any other US city. It was also burnt to the ground in 1871 (by a cow kicking over a kerosene lamp, as the story goes), which triggered the rebuild of one of the most economically significant cities in the US
• Pizza is great when it's done deep-dish
• United is a budget airline at full-service prices. I will rant no more
• Visiting Chicago returned Shish back to his Sim City metropolis-building days; walking around the city was like transporting him back to this wonderful game

Last but not least, pizza! Chicago deep dish pizza has made its way to such luminary pizza establishments as Pizza Hut and Crust in Sydney, so when in Chicago... :) we tried two well-known pizzeria chains to sample their deep dish offerings:

• Giordanos - more of the stuffed pizza variety than deep dish, these pizzas were very cheesy, and quite delicious, although between the four of us we couldn't quite finish off the two pizzas we ordered. Possibly a little too cheesy...
• Lou Malnati's Pizzeria - more traditional deep dish pizza. The crust wasn't too heavy, despite there being lots of it, and the toppings were well matched and flavoursome. We ordered four pizzas and polished them off with ease, with dessert to boot. A great example (for tourists at least) of the deep-dish variety

So now there's nothing left to do except put up photos!

John Hancock Tower 

Sue the t-rex

Funky artwork at Millenium Park

The Bean!

We had great hopes for this McDonald's store, alas...

My Surprise Baby Shower

As you may know my lovely sister and family planned a surprise baby shower for me on the Saturday of the October long weekend. I was totally surprised and was so excited to see all my friends one more time.

My sister, known for her inability to focus on domestic tasks, out-did herself by planning food, decorations and activities with the help of my friends.

My friend Jill even made an amazing baby shower cake complete with a limb-less baby covered in a blanket.

In order to achieve this feat, there were several lies told and while I appreciate it, I’m going to pull you up on this.

Lies people told me:

•  Goodbye- the amount of people I said goodbye to for good…shame on you for lying to a pregnant woman
• Pabs: I’m going to a BBQ so I can’t pick you up
• Holly: There’s a few pregnant girls at work, what kind of baby things do you think they’d like?

Clues I should have picked up on

• Who goes to a BBQ in Autumn, in the city at night?
• Why did Ruvi keep a pregnant woman walking around the shops for nearly 4 hours?
• Akki, are you really, really, really, really sure you don’t want to shower?
• Tavi’s car parked up the road…she was a day early.

The presents

I got the most lovely presents and they are now sitting comfortably inside the nursery. However, I though a few special mentions needed to be made

Holly

This was the closest thing she could find to bloomers, because I was exclaiming during our trip to Target that it was a shame boys clothes didn’t come with cute bloomers. I suspect this was what she was doing while she disappeared and I had to call and find her.

Bloomers

Sheri

The teddy you see here has quite a story behind it. When Sheri and I caught up for lunch a few school holidays ago she had an inkling that I might announce I was pregnant. With a self-confessed tendency to get ahead of herself Sheri bought the bear with the grand plan of un-veiling it as soon as I spilled my big news. Unfortunately the news never came during our lunch….but I’m glad I could be of assistance in putting it to good use sooner rather than later.

Ammi

My mum and I went shopping on Friday to get a whole lot of Australiana to take back with me. On the way in I pointed out to mum a nappy cake and explained that these were all the rage at baby-showers now. More from a bonding over cake POV. Turns out she found this information particularly helpful and sent my father out to try and find it, to no avail. I’m she had to go back and get it herself after all.

Thanks everyone for the Bonds wondersuits, sadly unavailable in the States. It's never too early to indoctrinate a baby right?

Also, check out these awesome ski-suits!

The games

My sister has an aversion to organized games where strangers have to mingle and make fun. So she put Tavi in charge of games and they came up with ones that only put me in the spotlight, which I guess is okay.

Game 1: Everyone had to decorate a singlet for the bubba and they’re currently sitting in his closest.

Game 2: A baby quiz where I scored an impressive 8/20.

Some interesting facts I learned….drats, can’t remember a thing.

Game 3: My favourite, envelopes with the different numbers on them. Each person or pair of people had to write a letter to the baby at that specified age. I cannot wait to open these.

All in all I loved the baby shower, it was fun and exciting and I guess a little shock and surprise never hurt anyone. Thanks to everyone that came, bought food and of course bought amazing gifts.

I totally forgive all the lies! Xoxox

Chath

In Sydney for 3 weeks

A few Sydney-side memories

I returned home to Sydney for 3 whirlwind weeks, my calendar booked in for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes all three in the one day!

I had a lovely flight in, my nicely rounded front-end affording me a bulk-head seat and an empty seat adjacent. I got off the plane relatively rested and super-excited to see everyone.

I ticked off about a 100 people on day two. My mother having scheduled her annual alms-giving on that day. A small lunch time dane’ followed by a dinner of mega-proportions at night. While I was feeling tired by the end of the day I was greatful that in one fell-swoop I’d managed to accomplish seeing so many family and family friends.

That Saturday was Event One, Ruvi’s Hens. My sister and her boyfriend had to take me to KMART so I could find a 1950s outfit appropriate for a modern-day pregnant woman. I ended up buying a pair of jeans for 15 dollars and wearing them with white sneakers, Pabs called the look “1950’s soccer-mom”. I called it Happy Days fallen from grace.

The best part? A chicken kebab from the Casula Kebab shop! I couldn’t have sauce or tomatoes but even without those all important condiments it was like a taste explosion in every bite.

We spent the night eating, doing dares like calling my mum and asking if she was an alien (apparently she is not) and then dancing the night away to jukebox tunes. My sister took her amazing chicken wings and ever the marketer managed to foist them off to everyone, even though there was a surplus of food.

I thought I’d chart the rest of my journey with the food I ate and the restaurants I visited.

We went:  to Newington Armory – Pabs and Thil

We ate: The menu had changed since Nuwan and I had been but I really enjoyed the Garlic herb bruschetta w/ roma tomato, Persian feta, pesto, crispy prosciutto, w/ red wine balsamic syrup. Pabs had some Fried pistachio crumbed polenta fingers served with gorgonzola saunce  and the sizzling hot pot of garlic prawns, octopus, green olives, feta, tomato puree, chilli served w/ toasted casa panotte.  Thil had some Salt n pepper squid with Wanida's thai sweet chilli sauce, with an Asian coleslaw with crispy noodles and a breakfast trifle w/ layers of poached fruits, lemon myrtle yoghurt and Brookfarm Macadamia Muesli (toasted)

I have always loved the sticky date pudding there and saved my appetite so I could order one at the end.  Gosh it was good, though I eventually did have to stop eating because I ran out of ice-cream, and sticky date pudding without ice-cream is really no fun!

We discussed: A good-bye of sorts to Thil who flew out to Europe a few days after I landed. 

T2 – Pabs and Thil

Not really food but I did by 6 types of tea….cannot wait to get stuck into these! Oh and by the way, if you visit I will totally share these with you!

We went : In the Mood for Thai with Gunjan and Shuo

We ate: A Thai place in Parra which I suspect is a bit of a chain now. Had a great chicken and garlic stir fry with rice over a lovely catch up. Then drove home to their new apartment, well new to me and had a delicious vanilla pannacotta with strawberries

We discussed: Pigeon proofing balconies, neighbours that yell “ Facebook” at all hours and why the Americans really shouldn’t be so hard on Communism

We went: Holy Basil  with The fam + Shelton Mama

We ate:  Highlights were the; Nok Tod, the marinated crispy fried quail served with this amazing chilli sauce. I braved my reflux to double dip into this little wonder! YUM PLA MUK (Calamari Salad) Calamari tossed in Chef’s special dressing of lemon juice served on a bed of lettuce, tomato, Spanish onions and mixed with coriander, shallots, chilli and mint leaves. There’s nothing as amazing as well cooked calamari!  And of course the amazing Holy Basil fried ice cream, served with a gorgeous caramel sauce. None of this thick layers of battered coconut.  The two males in the group drank a bottle of wine between them and rendered themselves unable to drive. Pabs and mum stuck to beer  Me? Well, water when the waiter remembered.

We suspect it was his first day on the job. He forgot to ask which parts of the meal we wanted first, he kept forgetting to refill water and our entrée came right at the end of the meal. Having said that it was delicious, especially the deep fried quail and the squid salad!

We discussed:  We took a roundabout way of getting to Canley Vale, via Glendenning to deliver some fabric to a friend of the family who had offered to make curtains and cushions for the baby’s room. Poor Pabs missed out on the luxury of being late and had to wait in the cold outside. We were of course very grateful because 5 minutes after we arrived we were ushered in thanks to Pabs’ diligent waiting.

The HWPS Musical

A lovely day spent exploring the school,  watching my old students performing  and spending time with my former colleagues. The school has been refurbed and rebuilt and it’s beautiful. The kind of classrooms that make you want to teach in them. Pin-board walls, neutral colours just asking for posters and work to be hung up!

Mary also mentioned the Green Peppercorn, the new Holy Basil at Fairfield, another one to add to the next time list.

Athula Mama’s Birthday- Home cooked meal

Ruvi and I cooked at my place and took the food to West Pennant Hills. So focused were we on making sure to remember the recipe book we took some of the recipes from we ended up leaving half the food behind.

We ate: Spicy Balinese fish in banana leaf, chicken rendang and Malaysian pickled vegetables.

We discussed: Weddings, wedding preparations and assassinating your character on Facebook

The wedding!

The next couple of days were punctuated by wedding events and filled with eating lots of junk food, sandwiches on the run and a sit down Lankan meal from Spoons.

Wedding Photos

Brunch with Nicole

We went: New Shanghai dumpling house

We ate: Stir-fried baby bok choy with garlic and pork dumplings

We discussed: all things baby of course, now that we’ve found ourselves up the duff and due within a month of each other!

Lunch with Jess

We went: Sahara Grill Parramatta

We ate: Chicken schnitzel and the grilled chicken wrap. I drank the mint tea and it hit the spot…..mmm yum!

We discussed: Timor time, America the great and how everything keeps changing

Dinner with Anna and Kim

I should pre-face this with the fact that my sister and I were watching the Lebanese episode of food safari when Kim messaged and asked where I wanted to go. Lebanese I said. When Anna suggested Newtown, Arabella’s seemed like a good choice.

We went: Arabella

We ate: The highlights, everything actually. The falafel, ladies fingers and haloumi were are good as expected. The fried eggplant served with yoghurt were a new dish, but surprisingly good! Of course we had the tabouleh, a must whenever I have Lebanese. We satisfied our meat cravings with lamb kebabs and chicken shewarma off the grill.

We discussed: Schizoprenia, Genetics and wanting to eat a lot of meat. Funnily enough I think we ordered just about every veg dish on the menu!

Lunch with the school crew and the very handsome Anthony Lahood Jr

We went: Al Aseel’s in Greenacre – yes Lebanese again but who’s complaining

We ate: The best fatoush you’ve ever had, amazing baba ganoush, falafels and a never-ending platter of meat. For the garlic fans amongst us garlic chicken.

It’s an unassuming little place but full of people who obviously know their food, and it’s recommended by two Lebanese women with exception taste.

We finished up with a coffee down the road at a Macaron shop, totally out of place in Greenacre but still served delicious salted caramel and pasisonfruit Macarons. There was a lovely guy behind the counter who heard my friend Kathleen say she ordered the wrong thing and bought her out a strawberries and cream Macaron on the house. That’s what I call service!

We discussed: School and men and bullies and what to do with all three.  The bane of new teachers; accreditation. We discussed the amazing teachers we know and revelled in Kathleen’s ability to spin a tale.

Dinner with Jill and Cynthia

During the particularly bad days of all-day sickness I dreamed of going to Flemington and getting a bowl of soup. They just do it better. Even though I wasn’t particularly sick I still wanted to satisfy this little hankering, I won’t use the word craving.

We went: Cao Thang Noodle House

We ate: Crispy chicken noodle soup for me, Beef Pho for Cynth and Pork chop and broken rice for Jill

We discussed: Being grown-up physio’s with actual students, what to do with incompetence, submissive women and people who are ruthless in getting ahead.

Lunch with the MTeach Crew

We went: Ampersand Café in Surry Hills. A book store/ café, appropriate for a bunch of book-mad primary school teachers

We ate: Corn fritters, banana bread and the daily special Sweet potato soup with chorizo and capsicum served with warm bread…truly delicious

We discussed: News of the baby kind x 3 and the wedding kind x 1.  Steiner schools and whether we can shelter children from technology or whether we should. Starting our own school that teaches children that taxes aren’t to be feared and neither are socialists. Our jobs, our schools and our families and why Australia seems to be emulating the American model of education.  Really…why?

Bourke St Bakery

A little trip that had to happen

We went: Bourke St Bakery

We bought: 3 ginger brulee tarts, 2 chocolate raspberry tart, 1 chocolate tart and a sausage roll.

Coffee with Holly

We went: Oliver Brown Café – Rhodes

We ate: Hot chocolate and tea, friend and a strawberry dip

We discussed: Where in the world our physio friends are? Baby showers and plans to visit the US

BABY SHOWER: I’ll post on this later

Yum Cha

If you’ve been keeping up with our blog...

We went: Iron Chef Cabramatta

We ate: Peking duck pancakes, salt and pepper squid,  dumplings of just about every variety and description,  suckling pig, bbq pork and Peking duck. We also had plenty of Mango Pudding.

We waited : Only an hour thanks to Ruvi’s professional nagging techniques. We did end up with 2 tables but I guess that’s okay.

We discussed: Not much actually…too busy eating!

Yum Cha Photos

Girls night out

We went: Different Drummer on Glebe Pt Rd and San Churros

We ate: Marinated swordfish skewers with peppers and button mushrooms, good. Naughty chicken – Spicy southern style with lime aioli, not naughty enough – could have done with a bit more spice. Spicy three bean nachos, served in an egg carton. Chorizo, pan fried with cherry tomatoes & basil – amazeballs. Haloumi skewers with semi sun dried tomatoes – delicious! We also grabbed some garlic bread and chips with aioli.

All went well until we filled the tiny table with 6+ tapas dishes, chips, and 8 cocktails glasses. This is how we ended up with aioli scented mojito, and caparinha marinated chips. Not our finest moment.

We drank: 2 for one cocktails so just about everything on the cocktail menu for the girls and mocktails for me.

We discussed: Pffft….sif I’d tell!

Masala Dosai

We went: Hemani’s in Liverpool, unfortunately the only place open on the public holiday.

We ate: Masala Dosa, Goat, Chicken tikka and Gobi Manchurian. The Garlic Naan we ordered never came and we ate cold plain and chili Naan. Then there was the cold rice.

We discussed: The drunk patron picking fights, and scaring all the children in the joint.  Whether he was married to our waitress who spent nearly all her time trying to get him to follow her instructions and not join other customers of dinner. Why all of our food was coming out cold and how we might never come back again.

Nearly three weeks of awesome eating later – I’m back here again. Was good while it lasted.