Brunch at Kazbah #2

This time we went as a larger group and managed to get the banquet menu. I went prepared (i.e. no breakfast and was not planning any dinner either).

It was packed with diners. Good that we booked and had a large enough table for 6 adults and 4 kids.

Starters: Sweet cous cous muesli, rice pudding with pears and porridge with dates.
Mains: Lamb tagine, vegetable tagine, turkish bread, pita, platter of potato hash, sausages, bacon, grilled haloumi and grilled tomatoes. In addition there was a platter of scambled eggs, fried eggs sunny side up and poached eggs (all served with either turkish bread or pita bread).
Dessert: Chocolate pancake and Banana pancake.

Sweet cous cous muesli

Porridge with dates

Rice pudding with pears

Platter of haloumi, bacon, tomatoes, potato hash and sausages

Eggs, eggs and eggs

Banana pancake

Can I just say there was so much food and we struggled to finish the dishes off towards the end. In addition some of us had Turkish coffee, watermelon juice with ginger (nice) and mint and spiced tea.
It was an exotic brunch and very much enjoyed by the group.

P/S I loved the rice pudding with pears. I could order that again the next time I visit Kazbah. Once again the lamb tagine was nice and the grilled haloumi was perfectly grilled and had a good texture.

Archibald Prize and NSW Art Gallery

It is the time of the year to view the Archibald entries and resulting winner. The Wynne and Sulman art entries and winners also form part of the special exhibits at the NSW Art Gallery. I haven't managed to view these on an annual basis, my frequency is more like a biannual event.

The Archibald Prize is the most famous and prestigious prize in Australia for Portrait painting. The Wynne Prize is for Landscape painting or Figurative sculpture. The Sulman is for Subject, Genre or Mural paintings. As photography is not allowed in the special exhibition area I have none to show. The Archibald winner for this year is Ben Quilty's Margaret Olley. I must say that in my humble opinion I did not like the style of art of the winning entry. My favourite was Del Kathryn Barton's Mother (a portrait of Cate). There was so much colour and texture in that piece so I voted it for People's Choice.

I love going to the NSW Art Gallery. It is located in the Domain and is such a peaceful place to be in and soak in all the great art!

After all the art, I decided to have some lunch. My friend DD suggested we try Neil Perry's Rockpool Bar and Grill. He was telling me how good the burger is. So with hungry tummies we walked over to the restaurant and discovered to our dismay it was not open for lunch on Saturdays. Dismay!!!! So because we were so into having a burger we went over to Charlie & Co and had the wagyu burger and this time I ordered the Parmesan and Truflle fries. Goodness gracious the chips are so addictive and delicious. I could not stop downing the chips.

Wagyu burger

Parmesan and truflle chips

What a lovely day of art, food and pleasant company...I hope you had a good one too.

Strand Arcade, Sydney

I spent another day in the city and this time I want to talk about The Strand Arcade. When I do get a chance to spend a Saturday in the city there are a few places I like to browse in. One of these places is the Strand Arcade. This arcade is located right in the middle of the CBD area of Sydney and what a beautiful building. I love strolling through the arcade and the architecture is beautiful.

Dymocks is located a couple doors away from the arcade and this is another store that is a must visit for me. Here is a picture of the front end of Dymocks, two floors of books to browse. Love it!

Haighs is a famous Australian chocolate company with a store located in the Strand. Lovely store with lots of visitors every time I drop by. My favourite chocolate from them is Berry Chocs - yummy! They are strawberries and raspberries coated in either milk chocolate or dark chocolate. They are so addictive that the next thing I know I have consumed about 10 balls of chocolates in 3 minutes!! 

There is a store called Sweet Infinity and their window display shows amazing looking cakes. I could not resist temptation so I bought a slice for a late evening dessert. They called this cake 'Cake Financier with fruits'. Looks delicious and tastes sinfully good. I have to go back and try other varieties. I also bought a small box of their brownies, very nice too.....at the rate I am going I am going to put on the kilos!

Cake Financier

The Strand Arcade was built and established in 1891. There are some really up market stores located here but I thought I would touch on the two related to food, i.e. Sweet Infinity and Haighs. There are lots of designer clothes shops and some really, really nice jewellery stores too. If you are ever in Sydney town be sure to visit this historical and beautiful building.

Sydney CBD

Saturday in the Sydney CBD is such a busy hive of activity. I was walking along the Pitt Street Mall with my friend and was curious to see if there would be a queue to enter the Zara store. Well, since it has only been a few days since the first Australian Zara store opened in Sydney, it has been very, very popular. Sure enough there was a queue, not as long as the opening day but there was still one and it has been a wet morning but there were still people willing to queue to get into the store.

My friend (BR) and I decided to go to Charlie & Co for lunch. Charlie & Co is located in Westfield Sydney on the 5th floor food court. BR had not been to the 5th floor food court yet and was suitably impressed with the range of food on offer. Admittedly I was at Charlie & Co 2 weeks ago and had the Wagyu & Co burger then. It was quite nice and there were still quite a few renovations going on at the time.

We arrived at the peak of lunch time. It was just after 1.00 pm and there was a queue to order at Charlie  Co. This time I thought I would try something else so I ordered the Chilli Crab burger with sweet chilli jam and a crab cake in it. BR ordered Rustic Chorizo burger which also had a fried egg in it. I ordered the fries to supplement the burgers. The fries were served in a large bowl and the serving was large enough for two of us. We liked the fries. BR liked her burger and she was pleasantly surprised at how full she felt after the meal. The actual size of the burger is not large but the burger is stacked with goodies. I did like my burger but I prefer the wagyu burger. Will stick to the wagyu when I next return.


Rustic Chorizo Budger




Chilli Crab Burger




Yummy Chips!



We had a good chin wag and decided to walk around the food court to see what else has opened. Din Tai Fung has opened an outlet there. Justin North's Quarter 21 and Becasse Bakery has also just opened. There is such a buzz in this food court. This food court is not the ordinary food court you see in many other shopping centres. It is seriously upmarket.

We then strolled down Market Street and had a good look at the David Jones' windows. The theme is Mother's Day. The windows were decorated beautifully. There was a special one that I had to take a picture of, it was dedicated to Kate & William's wedding. I have not seen such a huge bunch of flowers in a vase before. What a lovely thought to congratulate the couple!!!!

All in all, I had a lovely day in the city and I was very happy to be able to spend some quality time with my dear friend.