20190427 Ian & Therese's House-warming Party

It was lovely to attend Therese and Ian's new house-warming party on Saturday.

The house itself is huge! The rooms are generously proportioned and it has a wonderful sized kitchen, dining and living area - all open-plan. There were about 30-40 people who were there when we turned up at 1pm. Richard was already there. The food was overflowing on the table top. Cheese, meats and crackers, sushi, chicken, chips, curry puffs, pork balls... the list is endless.

Stephen and I brought party quiches and bread. We also brought 5 bottles of beer of which I had 4! It was a pleasant couple of hours. Con and Chad came shortly after us and Jen and her daughter came too. Also Kerry and James, her husband. We brought chairs to sit on.

Wee Rory is growing fast and had his Superman toy with him the whole time we were there.

The gang briefly talked about our July trip to Melbourne and seeing the Avengers: Endgame tomorrow. Can't wait...

20190426 Sushi King and Brunelli

 It was a revolutionary evening on many levels. The first one was that Chad was the first one at the pub tonight!! Myself, Stephen and Con followed within 15 minutes of each other. We managed to get a great table by the entrance and proceeded to order our usual Young Henry jugs. When it was my turn, I ordered a bowl of wedges because I could forecast doom ahead. As you can see from the picture, the wedges didn't last long. We all tucked in and in no time they were scoffed up.

It was Stephen's turn to choose where to eat tonight and he didn't hesitate in choosing Sushi King. He's been ranting on about it for weeks now and he is finally getting his wish to go. Let me say from the outset that I wasn't happy about it. There are usually only 3 things on the menu in a Japanese place - cold rice, deep fried food or raw fish. All of which I dislike immensely. Chad and Con were happy to tag along so we strolled down the road to the venue. I was hoping that it would be fully booked but no, there were seats enough to sit alongside the rotating conveyor belt of $3 plates. The guys all tucked in pretty quickly and seemed to be enjoying the experience. All the while, I was scouring the menu for something suitable for me to eat. Nothing, and I mean nothing, appealed to me. The closest I could get to edible food was spring rolls - as I said - deep fried food. It's pretty hard to get spring rolls wrong. I waited a few minutes and they at least were hot on the plate. There was nothing else - no salad, all but a small dip of chilli sauce - the kind of chilli sauce that is cheap and sugary - no real chilli flavour.

Stephen was encouraging me to order something else and in the end I ordered hot octopus. I had one bite and passed it onto Stephen who ate with relish. That was enough for me - I was waiting for the dessert at Brunelli. I waited patiently until everyone had finished. The only good thing about the Sushi King that I could see was that it only cost $18 for Stephen's food and my 3 tiny spring rolls. I would have preferred to spend the extra $10 and have real food!

 We ended up in Brunelli - not surprising since it is directly across the road. We found a table easily enough and Stephen ordered the coffees with a Carrot Cake for me and a chocolate eclair for himself.

Here's where the woes continue... the carrot cake was stale and when I mean stale I mean VERY stale. I could bang the icing against the side of the plate to a loud thwacking sound. I had to cut away the outer edges to get to the semi-hard interior. It was inedible really and if I wasn't so grumpy I would have taken the whole thing back. Stephen in the meantime was scoffing his eclair and saying how tasty it was.

I was that grumpy that I considered flipping the table. It was only Con's calm voice of reason that stopped me.

Chad was wearing his San Francisco jacket tonight and we learnt that he has recently been to America - go figure! His favourite US of A sites were Grand Canyon and Alcatraz. He showed us a 360 picture of the grand canyon - very impressive!

We talked about our Melbourne trip and how we need to start organising it. We will speak to Richard tomorrow to organise a date when we can all meet up to book the accommodation and the events that will be happening.

We are all going to Ian's place tomorrow for his House Warming. Bring a Plate the message states, however, Con is going to eat first and just bring drink. I am going to make a quiche with bread to bring. Chad is bringing a dessert.

The interesting thing about Brunelli tonight (apart from the televisions being switched off again) was that there was a Cheesecake Shop Box in the display case - not a good sign for Brunelli. To be honest, I'm getting fed up of Brunelli and it's poor service and quality of food. The coffee that I had tonight was luke warm - not good enough!!

When I got home tonight I had a small bowl with roast potatoes, honey drizzled carrots, roasted caramelised pumpkin, broccoli and a small slice of crispy haloumi - all drizzled with rich, smooth gravy. YUM! I'd give that meal a 9 out of 10.

For the Japanese food, I give my meal 1 out of 10, Chad and Con gave their Sushi meals a 7 out of 10 and Stephen was somehow impressed with an 8 - I don't think he's ever given an 8 before (apart from Amalfi).

Let's just say I don't want to go to Sushi King again in a hurry - at least not when I'm hungry. I'll remember to have my fish and chips in the Elephant first. Who wants Japanese food?? Not me!

20190424 Curry Night The Exeter and Steven ter Horst Chocolatier

 We started this Wednesday night in the usual way. At the Elephant. Stephen had a job interview in the city at 2pm and we met for a coffee afterwards. We met in the Elephant at 5pm. Chad was there followed closely by Con. We had our usual chips with the jugs of beer.

Chad had a surprise because he found out that the Coopers Pale Ales were now in jugs for $10 - a bargain - a whole $1 cheaper than the Young Henry jugs. I think this is only a Wednesday night promotion though.

Stephen was keen to get in another jug before we went to the Exeter at 6pm and we were close to being on time - just 10 minutes late. When we arrived at the Exeter the upstairs had a 'Staff Only' sign on the stairwell, but we went up anyway. We were the first ones there and could choose our option for a table. We choose the one on the right hand side - near the heater, even though it wasn't particularly cold.

Stephen and Chad went halves in a clear skin bottle of $29 wine. The el cheapo end of the price list, but it tasted ok. I smelled Chad's glass of wine and thought that I could detect hints of liquorice, peach and walnut along with blue cheese. He said that was exactly what it tasted like :-)

On to the serious stuff... what did we have to eat on the curry night at the Exteter?? Well, Stephen and Chad had chicken curry, I had Cambodian Seafood curry, and Con had beef rendang. We ordered a side of daal to share. The meal came with poppadoms. I managed to spill my seafood curry from the plate onto the table. There was a slight angle to table and the sauce came straight off my plate and onto the paper that was covering the table - oops!

Now to the serious end of town... what to score the meals? Well, we'll start with the highest praise first. Chad gave his curry an 8, Con a 6, me a 6 and Stephen a five. Stephen said he doesn't particularly like the curries at the Exeter because they don't have a depth of flavour. He had to ask for salt and pepper to add to his meal. It was all chicken, no vegetables, which was the complaint I had with my food. Chad on the other hand really enjoyed his curry.

 Did you know that Chad has been to America? We were so convinced that he was lying that we asked him to sing a few bars of New York, New York which we joined in on. We were talking about how Adelaide is such a perfect city and that someone should write a song about it - just like someone had written about New York.

 We talked again about Game of Thrones and how the series is being released each week. Stephen asked Chad not to tell him what happens - he wants it to be a surprise when he sees the episodes with Andris. Spoiler alert! The dragon kills everyone and there is a nuclear explosion!!!! John Snow dies again as well as the rest of the cast. Oh well, not worth watching it now.

Con gave me some more films to watch. I can't wait to see them. I think Con's and my taste is similar in movies so I'll relax and watch them at my leisure.

Stephen spent quite a bit of time talking about uranium and copper and how they use nuclear bombs to explode the rock. I didn't quite follow the whole of his rendition, but it ended up him talking about how BHP used to spend trillions of dollars on their 'team bonding' sessions. In particular, a trip to the vineyard.

Besides the meals varying in quality today, we were all united on one front - the atmosphere in the upstairs balcony of the Exeter deserves a 11 out of 10. There's something about sitting up on high looking down at the main street and watching the world go by. Lovely.


I felt like having a hot chocolate so we were debating about where to go. I suggested San Churro, but Chad thought there was another chocolate place on the opposite side of the road. Stephen suggested a chocolatier on the left side of the road. We walked up and saw that it was open and went inside. Luckily we found a table for 4, albeit with stools instead of chairs.

 Stephen, Con and I had the hot chocolate - a lovely dark chocolate flavour rich and creamy. Stephen's only comment was that it could be hotter. Chad, as usual, had something different. He had the Aztec Chilli - a spicy aroma drink which Stephen likened to Chai. Not only that, he had ordered the waffles with salted caramel! - Yummm. He was generous enough to give Stephen and I a taste. Again, lovely!

A couple of points about our new found chocolatier place... it was a bit bare inside - it lacked warmth. However, there was artwork on the walls - Paws and Pose - a series of pictures of dogs - they were beautiful photos.

If you EVER want to see the most gigantic bowl of sugar EVER on a table, then go to Steven ter Horst Chocolatier - it was ginormous!

It has been a lovely day - the day before ANZAC. Chad is getting up early and coming into the city for the dawn service. A great way to pay respects. For Stephen and I we are having a BBQ with Andris and Emma. It should be another relaxing public holiday.