Salt Meats Cheese

I wondered to myself what kind of store would be named Salt Meats Cheese??? On top of that, the store signage was very large and very hard to miss.

It caught my eye as I was parking to have lunch at the Grounds of Alexandria and we made a note to check it out a little later on.

In between our lunch and dessert, we strolled into this large warehouse store. The first thing to catch my eye is a little tasting corner for Jamon, prosciutto and cheese!!!! Wowweee!!! One of my many weaknesses!!! I instantly fell in love with this place.

It was too bad that I had just had lunch. Otherwise I would have sat down and ordered some nice looking Jamon, my very very favourite Prosicutto di San Daniele and some tasty looking cheese. Sigh! Restrain my girl, restrain!

They call this tasting corner the "Gallery of Ham" - yummy smelling, yummy looking delicacies.... :-) It brings back memories of my time in Rome and Sardinia in June last year.

The Grounds of Alexandria

It was a relatively wet Saturday but we were determined to still trek to Alexandria to check out this very 'happening' cafe. It is another one on my hit list and I am glad to say that I have now managed to tick it off my list.

It has been a while since I hung out in Alexandria and I can clearly see what I have missed. The Grounds is located right smack in the middle of wholesalers and distribution centres. And conveniently located close by to the airports (both domestic and international).

When I step into the inner haven, it feels so much like stepping into an English garden, with beds of herbs surrounding the garden and a rather rustic looking covered sitting/dining area for chilling out. There is even an area for kids to play and a chook pen.

I love the atmosphere. It was so relaxing and so as they say 'chilling'!!!!! We then headed to the main cafe and there was a queue to get a table and another queue to order take away. When we got there, it was already 2.00 pm and I was so surprised to see a queue. Apparently there is a queue at whatever time you get there.

We were told it would be a 50 minute wait to get a table in the cafe, so we decided to order take away and sit outside in the garden area. Fortunately, it stopped raining at that point in time and it was just lovely to have our lunch in the gardens.

We ordered the Mozarella Toastie and The Lunch Box. The toast consisted of mozzarella with merlot vinegar, basil and tomato toasted in a freshly baked bread roll.

The lunch box consisted of falafel, hummus, chicken and a lovely summer salad, served with some pita bread.

Mexico Food and Liquor (DD's 30th celebrations)

Finally, I get some breathing space to blog this post! It's been another rather hectic week at work and I have been champing at the bits trying to find some time to post about my recent fun time at Mexico Food and Liquor (or better known to me as just Mexico).

My good friend DD was kind enough to invite me to join his 30th birthday party celebrations and he chose Mexico, which is a stone's throw away from Central Station.

Warren Turnbull has done it again! What was previously District Dining has become the hot spot now known as Mexico. As you enter the premises, there are murals reflective of Frida Kahlo and many iconic artefacts reflecting the Mexican theme.

If I didn't know any better, I really could imagine being in Mexico. I won't describe the artefacts, I think the pictures speak a thousand words!

There were 16 of us attending the event. Lovely to meet so many of DD's old school mates who were seated at my end of the long communal table, quite an interesting bunch actually.

So what did we have for dinner? Well, as there were so many of us, we had the banquet menu. Wow! What a spread, there were so many dishes and all in all, we paid a very, very reasonable price. It was the alcoholic beverages that kept the price up, not the actual food.

So here goes:
Snacks - house made corn chips with pickled vegetables, Pumpkin, white bean and agave dip served with tortillas, and Crispy potatoes tossed in celery lime salt with tomatillo dressing.

Corn chips 

Pumpkin dip with tortillas

Pickled vegetables

Potatoes with tomatillo dressing

Restaurant Arras

To celebrate SH's birthday this year, we decided on dining at Restaurant Arras. The restaurant relocated to the old Becasse site on Clarence street in the city in late 2011.

I liked what was done to the restaurant, there was a lightness and brightness to the room which was a stark contrast to the heavy wood interior that was of the then Becasse.

Arras is well known for its range of interesting petit fours and I really wanted to see them and try them out. But the petit fours are only included in their degustation menu. We looked at the menu options and decided to go for the 3 course menu instead. But when we were ordering we asked if we could have the petit fours at coffee time and they kindly said yes!

Service started with canapés of sweet corn and potato and house cured beef with paprika. The sweetness of the corn was intended to offset the saltiness of the cured beef. The beef reminded me of the textures and flavours of beef jerky. I definitely liked the sweet corn and potato, I could have had more of it. The canapé was presented in a glass with delicate edible flowers. Lovely!

Canapes

The amuse bouche was Tuna la nicoise, it was light and refreshing, very summery.

Amuse bouche

My first course was quail with fried bread and blood plum. SH had the roast skate with parsnip, raisins, capers and butter. We both enjoyed our dishes. I was fascinated with the crunchy tendrils on my dish.

Quail with blood plum

Roast skate with parsnip

New Year's Eve 2013

Happy New Year everyone! Without meaning to do so, I took a short break from blogging. But it's all systems go now.

So my first post of the year is to do catch up on what I was up to on New Year' Eve. I spent it having a lovely dinner at CW's. I didn't know what to expect for dinner as I forgot to ask when I was initially invited. All I knew was I would be bringing the cheese plate and my dessert contribution was the mango pudding.

Lo and behold I was delightfully surprised that we were going to have an American style dinner, Southern style to be more precise!

We started the evening by hanging out in the courtyard, catching the cool breeze, enjoying some cheese and a beautiful jug of ginger beer cocktail. Very refreshing on a hot summer's day.

Then we sat down for our meal. Yippee! We had coleslaw, mash potato with gravy, buns, and Buttermilk fried chicken. Yummy, yummy, yummy!!!!