Meccabah

After our quick tour of the gallery we paused long enough to find out who won the grand final (Geelong) and then got ready for dinner. It was absolutely pouring, but as we were staying only 5 minutes away and parking in Manuka on a Saturday night is a nightmare we armed ourselves with Soph's enormous technicolour umbrella and trudged to our dinner destination.
We had (well, me) decided to have dinner at Meccabah in Manuka. I long for good middle eastern food which is just not readily available here and while I have made things like hummus, tabbouleh, felafel and Turkish pizza, it's not the same as sitting comfortably with a glass of wine and someone else doing all the work. We ate a delicious meal with sweet potato felafels, mezze of dips and bread, boureks, cheese wrapped in kataifi pastry and a Turkish pizza with haloumi and the most luscious roasted tomatoes.
Our waitress was very funny and amazed when Soph chose the wine with the aid of her iphone (I was too). We finished with dessert and then Soph and I retired to watch a very cheesy movie.

forecast: rain, sleet and small hail

That was the lovely spring weather that we encountered on our last day in Canberra. There's an iciness to the wind that just cuts through you. Soph and I got up extra early to have our encore breakfast at Silo. We had excitedly talked about what we were going to eat and I was calculating just how many pain au chocolats and croissants I would be purchasing and then we got to Kingston and Silo was shut. I know that bakers need a day off (especially ones as clever as these) but Sunday? And I think this is why I had never found it, because S and I always seemed to turn up in Kingston on a Sunday. We vainly searched for other options at 7am in Kingston and Manuka, but the best we could do was muesli, fruit and bread from (sigh) a supermarket that we took back to our apartment. At least we were warm, if disappointed. I was certainly glad we hadn't put off breakfast till Sunday.
After packing and checking out we went to the Kingston Bus Markets. We purchased some food then had a quick look at the Canberra Glassworks next door while we waited for Karen.
There's something about glass blowing that I find fascinating. I could (and have) watch it for hours. Soph and I watched some people make some paperweights

and then returned to the markets. I purchased bagels, bread, strawberries, tomatoes, tea, chocolate and some very good Ethiopian food for our dinner. I spoke to S and he reminded me to buy dinner and I assured him I already had. Soph stocked up on very good honey and more strawberries and set off for Sydney. I dallied a bit longer looking at the craft section and then I too bid Karen and Canberra farewell. No sleet, but very cold and I was glad to hop in my car and listen to Phryne Fisher on audio all the way home.

going around in circles

After our delicious breakfast Soph and I walked around Kingston and Manuka having a look at the shops. Funnily enough we spent most of our time looking at food, books or books about food. We met up with Karen and after a look at some chichi but very overpriced baby shops, had some thai food for lunch. Very exciting for someone who is used to a choice of Chinese or Australian meals.
After lunch Karen disappeared to watch the footy (it was grand final day) and Soph and I decided to visit the War Memorial or maybe the Art Gallery. After my last trip to Canberra I was feeling confident about navigating but Soph was a bit more circumspect so we agreed to let English Jane (her dad's satnav) give us directions and I would supplement her advice. We worked pretty well as a team and I was glad she was there when I temporarily got lost (who moved the Hyatt?).
Whenever we got to Canberra, S always wants to visit the War Memorial and I usually fob him off by saying we'll go after the gallery and then we never do. I felt mean going without him, but then we only had a quick look (it really is a striking looking building) before we dashed off to the gallery to see the McCubbin exhibition. Love that Gallery, it always seems so peaceful. Must be all that concrete.

ahhhh....bread

I have a bit of a thing about good bread. Let's call it an obsession. I'd heard about the legendary Silo bakery in Canberra but had never been able to find it. For our first morning Soph and I decided to have brekkie there and as it is very popular thought we should go early. Not 7 am when it opens but not long after.
We walked there from our apartment and got there about eight and it was packed. We managed to squeeze our way between the masses and sat in a skinny little corridor at a skinny little bench out near the kitchen. Did we care? Not a bit. Perched atop our stools we could eye off all the fresh baked goodies just begging us to take them home. The waitress (who was really very nice in spite of how busy it was) appeared suddenly to take our orders. I panicked and ordered the scrambled eggs and smoked salmon and Soph got poached eggs with chili jam and they were both delicious. On the way out we stopped to buy tarts (I got the passion fruit and marscapone and Soph got the orange brulee). I thought about getting my bread and croissants to take home with me, then decided I could get them the next day when we made a return visit, which we were definitely going to do. Then we strolled around the corner to the Essential Ingredient to look at books on baking bread.

Canberra

Last weekend I had a girl's weekend in sunny Canberra. Not the nudge, nudge, wink, wink, see you in Fyshwick kind, more eating good food, chatting and eating some more. Soph came down from Sydney, I drove up and Karen, conveniently, lives there.
On the Friday night we went to the Floriade nightfest

because there was flowers (hard to see in the dark),

music and markets (and we all know I love a market). The night nearly ended prematurely when I walked into a branch but the branch was small and my head is thick so we proceeded (me with slightly more care). We had a look around and decided to find the lotus lounge to enjoy some relaxing music and tapas (they used that term quite loosely). We managed to snaffle a table (go Soph) and sat down to enjoy some vino and a catch up. The music was quite good too. Afterwards we strolled back towards the markets where the girls picked up some boiled lollies (handmade in Bungendore) and I was tempted by some honey doughnuts but decided to track down the gozleme stall I had seen on the way in.
We did locate the stall eventually (after me saying, I think they are just over here...no wait over here...no, that's not right..over here) but they weren't the real deal and while still quite yummy, meant that we missed the beginning of Josh Thomas' comedy thing. He's that funny little gen Y dude, with the crazy hair who apparently can cook. We tried to watch some of his show as we ate our Gozleme, but it started to rain and we decided that we'd had enough. It made me realise two things, my night photography skills are sadly lacking and maybe sometimes I need to give up on a food fixations. Though I was looking forward to the silo bakery the next day.

Road Tests

You all know I've been doing kid's book reviews for Webchild. Well now I'm doing cookbooks too. Some very interesting things have been turning up in the tractor letterbox. I decided with the kids cookbooks that I would convince friends to let me use their children as guinea pigs (in the nicest possible way) to road test the recipes. I received a lovely book called Little Kitchen and decided to test it out at friday playgroup (if I was allowed) and I was.
It was very funny as the kids jostled each other to get control of the bowl and then squidged all the ingredients together. Lots of great photo opportunities. We ended up making monster sausage rolls (we forgot to cut them) and they were actually very tasty. The recipe got a tick of approval but we may have to try more just to make sure. Maybe the anzac biscuits or the gingerbread...

Action shots

Before Kate and Gaz and Lily left we met up with them in Wagga in the botanical gardens. The trains were running and the zoo (as always) was fragrant. Jack and Lily had a play in the playground followed by a train ride. I got myself into position for photos as they emerged from a tunnel but somehow my photographic expectations exceeded my skills.