The Breakfast that went on forever and ever....

What: ANZAC day breakfast
Where: Kazbah Balmain

We've been to Kazbah before and I've always said that I would love to try their breakfast set menu, so when Sarah organised a breakfast on ANZAC day I was quick to jump at the chance.

Breakfast Set Menu

$20 per guest (8 guests or more) plus 10% surcharge on public holidays.

We had a booking for 12 at 11:30am, our group wasn't seated till 1 hour later. The staff offered us free coffees and hot chocolate as compensation.

Coffees

The Menu

The first 3 items came out very quickly

Sweet Couscous with Nuts, Dried Fruits, Stewed Rhubarb and Cardamom Milk

Date & Banana Porridge, Stewed Rhubarb
Warm Rice Pudding, Saffron Poached Pear, Cinnamon and Hazelnuts

I really enjoyed the rice pudding, it had just the right sweetness and the pear made it nice and light. The couscous was a little unusual, the texture was moist and the flavour was sweet and nutty, I think I would need to have this dish again before I can decide if I like it or not.

We polished the first 3 items and eagerly waited for the next few dishes to arrive....we waited and waited in fact it took about 2 hours (yes 2 hours!) before the hot food came out.

Eggs & Sides
Poached, Scrambled and Fried On Turkish Toast

Merguez Sausage, Bacon, Roasted Tomato, Hash Brown, Mushrooms, Halloumi, Spinach

Breakfast Tagines

Lamb Mince, Sucuk, Feta, Spinach, Roast Capsicum, Caramelised Onion, Roast Tomato, Eggs

Pumpkin, Feta, Spinach, Roast Capsicum, Caramelised Onion, Roast Tomato, Eggs

As great as the hot food looked, the first 3 dishes had settled in my stomach and I no longer felt hungry. As a result I don't think that I could really give an honest review on how the food was on this particular day.

Lemon and rose water frappe

Pancakes
Banana and Strawberry with Maple Syrup and Double Cream

Chocolate and Raspberry with Butterscotch Sauce and Chocolate Fudge Ice Cream

I did have a slice of each pancake and the Banana and Strawberry with Maple Syrup and Double Cream was just delicious! The chocolate pancake was a bit rich for me and I felt that the butterscotch sauce overpowered the rest of the dessert.

'Breakfast' finally ended at 3:30pm (the pancakes came out at about 3:15) we were here for a total of 4 hours! Despite the wait, the staff was excellent and I think that they felt really bad about everything taking so long. After the bill was paid they apologised again and handed Sarah an envelope; they told her it was a voucher for next time. It wasn't till we were halfway home that we realised the voucher was for $100.

Breakfast - Saturday, Sunday & Public Holidays 9am - 3pm
Lunch - Saturday, Sunday & Public Holidays 12pm - 3pm
Dinner - Wednesday to Saturday 6pm - Late

Kazbah on Darling
379 Darling Street
Balmain, 2041
Sydney - Australia
Phone (02) 9555 7067

Sculpture By the Sea

Before we headed to Sculpture by the Sea Jacky and I decided to stop somewhere to have breakfast, after checking out a few places we decided to give Doxa a go. The place is very unique; the designers have done a fabulous job with the use of mood lightings throughout the restaurant. The rest of the area is then sectioned off into areas with a different theme, large red day beds, eating booths and a raised platform. The kitchen is wide and open and located at the very front of the shop, it's fun watching the prepare the food.

Because the decor was so exquisite we had high expectations of the breakfast. We ordered our food (1 big breakfast $9.00 and 1 vegetarian breakfast $8.00) and waited and waited and waited. In fact we waited well over 1 hour for scrambled eggs and toast!

Was it worth the 1 hour wait? Absolutely not. My toast was untoasted while Jacky's toast was burnt black all one side (he didn't touch it which is very rare). The slice of tomato was cold (as in just out of the fridge cold) and salt & pepper shakers were no where in sight.

After this experience we don't think we will be returning any time soon, but I guess all places have their off days.

Doxa
108 Campbell Parade
Bondi Beach

After Breakfast (although it was now almost lunch time) we began the Bondi to Tamarama coastal walk to admire the the sculptures by the sea. We walked past BBQ by the Sea (what a great idea!) and were tempted by the grilled swiss bratwurst with roast onions and european mustard all on a country style roll + drink for $11.00. The smell was incredible but we had just eaten.

There weather was excellent and a lot of people turned up for the 2nd last day of the exhibit.

Some one asked me if Jacky was carrying a man bag...but no...that would be my bag he's carrying

The sculptures were great but we didn't do the full walk because we ended up getting changed and lying on the beach for the rest of the time to soak up the goregous weather. It's days like these that you really really love living in Sydney.

The rest of the photos here.

Canteen

The other week I caught up with a few of the girls for brekkie at Balmain. Originally we had planned to go to Kazbah after hearing about their unique North African, Moroccan & Middle Eastern-inspired breakfast menu. However The place was booked out for breakfast until lunch time! (Kazbah - we will be back!).

With hungry tummies to feed we walked a few shops down to Canteen. Dee heard that this place was recently taken over by someone famous? We found a nice spot outside and proceeded to try pick something from the gigantic menu. When I say gigantic I mean in variety and size, the menu takes up one side of the wall from the floor to the roof.

Big Breakfast - with scrambled eggs, mushrooms, chorizo sausage, bacon, sourdough bread and tomatos

'Canteen' Eggs - served with spinach, tomato, mushooms on sourdough

Corn Cakes - served with smoke salmon, rocket and a herb mayo

I thought this place was great, the food came out quickly and prices were reasonable. Most importantly I thought the quality of the food was excellent and on this occasion cooked really well. The tomatos were tasty (possibly organic?) and the sausage from the big breakfast was not your usual butcher variety. I also liked how my corn cakes were finished off with the herb mayo (adding that little gourmet touch).

Canteen
Shop 1
332 Darling St
Balmain 2041 NSW
Phone: (02) 9818 1521

Our Holiday Away...

I mentioned a bit earlier on that Jacky and I were going on a short break to Ettalong staying at the Ettalong beach resort. The place was goregous and the weather remained picture perfect, this was exactly what we needed after a crazy couple of months.

Here are a few of our snapshots.

The resort is new, the rooms were modern, well equipped, clean and the service by the friendly staff was impeccable! Ettalong beach wasn't the best so we would drive to Avoca or Terrigal 30-40 mins away.

Breakfast: Living at the resort meant that we had breakfast available 24hrs a day. My favourite had to be the pancakes with freshly whipped cream, maple syrup and icing sugar.

This is where we sat for breakfast every morning overlooking Ettalong beach

Tuesday, October 31st

The day started off with a sleep in, followed by a swim in the pool and Lunch at Thien Thai. The restaurant was really cute and looked exactly like some of the ones that I saw in Pattaya Thailand, the walls were lined with bamboo and little fairy lights hung at the very top. It could be the weather but everyone in Ettalong is always super friendly.

We had the Tom Yum Goong, beef pad see-ew and the chicken chilli basil with rice.

Upon my return to the hotel Jacky informed me that he had booked me into a 60 minute full body massage at Jhalu Day Spa for a bit of pampering. Jacky's always been really good with stuff like this, I guess it was just him being his usual sweet self. Because of the mortgage, going out to nicer restaurants had been cut back substantially (to my dismay) but because we were on holidays Jacky booked the Letterbox Restaurant for dinner (the place had won multiple awards and did not disappoint).

Chargrilled beef sirloin w garlic tiger prawns on rosemary and sea salt potatoes, snake beans and a pink peppercorn sauce

Crisp skin Tasmanian salmon on a cauliflower and potato mash w fresh asparagus and a lemon thyme beurre blanc

A complimentary raspberry & passionfruit sorbet served before dessert

Toblerone cheesecake with vanilla bean ice cream and a cherry compote

The restaurant itself was extremely cosy with dim lighting and soft music playing in the background. The staff were polite and eager to give suggestions, Jacky and I sunk into the corner absorbing the atmosphere and listened to the soft chatter floating around the room.

After dinner we took a walk along the beach with our shoes off and hair blowing in the wind...we felt like two 16 year old kids falling in love for the first time again. It's hard to believe that it's almost been 8.5 years.

We got back to the hotel at about 11:30pm and Jacky suggested that we take a photo by the pool while it was empty (especially because we hadn't taken a photo of us for quite some time). The pool looked goregous and I thought that it would be a great idea.

We took 3 attempts at taking this photo. The first one is of me standing there looking a little annoyed because Jacky was taking so long trying to get the camera settings right. It was late and I was cold.

Attempt 2...still a bit fuzzy (keep in mind we weren't using flash, so Jacky suggested we take one more and told me to keep very very still.

On the 3rd attempt just before the camera was about to snap the shot Jacky grabbed my hand and dropped to one knee. My first reaction was OMG he moved! Then I saw him pulling out a little box and I exclaimed with shock "OMG What are you doing?!?!".

To be honest I was in such shock that I don't remember what he said to me, all I know was that he started with "I had a whole speech prepared but...." I also know that besides saying "yes" I said something back to him but I have absolutely no recollection of what it was.

Back in the hotel room Jacky presented me with a little photo album with photos that told 'Our story' the photos represented 'when it all began' to 'what lies ahead'. He explained that I was suppose to come back to a hotel room filled with candles, rose petals and roses after my massage. Somehow the florist stuffed up and didn't tell him that they couldn't source any roses till he got there....the result wasn't bad for a plan B.

He also revealed that my parents had been in on this the whole time. For the last few years Jacky had progressively saved some money with my Mum who would then transfer the money to my uncle in HK who owns a Diamond shop. After saving enough money, Jacky asked my uncle to begin searching for a stone that met the certain specifications that Jacky wanted in colour, carat, cut, clarity and grading. He also only wanted a stone that was GIA (America) or HRD (Belgium) certified (who would have thought he knew so much about diamonds!).

The Ring

The ring was exactly what I wanted, simple and timeless. I had joked to Jacky years ago that if he ever wanted to ask me to marry him I wanted a ring in this style, he never forgot.

I wasn't sure if I would post a photo because the picture doesn't do the ring any justice, but I know you're all curious so here it is...........all 1.13 carat of goodness.

I realise now that even after the proposal I was acting quite strangely, whilst I knew we'd eventually get married, the whole thing didn't seem real and I was having trouble processing what had just happened in my head. It wasn't till the drive home (around 5:30pm the next day) that it hit me! After 8.5 years we’re getting Married!!

From that moment on I became so overwhelmed that I just started crying and crying (the full ugly cry) even the woman who was in the car in front looked in her rear view mirror to see what was happening. At this stage we're looking at some time in March 2008.

Thank you Jacky for all your efforts and all your dedication, for capturing the moment and loving me the way you do.

I love you.