Meat Pie Pizza

Who says that advertising doesn't work? After watching it featured in a TV commercial Jacky has been bugging me for weeks to try the new Domino's meat pie pizza . I like meat pies and I like pizza but the idea of the two together just sounded a little bit too unhealthy.

I finally gave in today, I was in no mood to cook after getting a flu shot in my arm. When I opened the box I was pleasantly surprised to find that it actually did look like the one featured on tv.

Gravy, cheese, mince, diced tomatoes, peas covered with a square of pastry and a swirl of tomato sauce.

Verdict: Jacky was disappointed, I think he was literally expecting a greasy meat pie on a pizza base (this pizza is quite clean to eat & not so greasy - which I like). While I didn't mind the pizza I don't think that I liked it enough to buy it again. Ultimately I think that they got the flavour wrong, the gravy is way too sweet and as a result it tastes nothing like a meat pie. This pizza has potential so I hope that Dominos play around with the flavours a little bit more.

If you think that a meat pie pizza sounds a bit crazy check this out, when my friend Wendy went on a holiday this is what the boys made for dinner.

A cheese burger pizza!! Topped with french fries and rashers of bacon (click to enlarge). I think this is where I draw the line.

Sicilian Parramatta

Originally my post was going to be about Emma's hens night, which happened a couple of months ago? But most of the photos from the night were lost when Jacky formatted his computer without saving my folder. So instead I'll post about the food at the Sicilian Parramatta.

Back when I use to work out of the Parramatta Office of Hudson I would spend many lunch times exploring the various places to eat around Church Street. We were regulars at The Sicilian because they were super quick at bringing out their meals for groups of 15+. They also had a $12.90 lunchtime special which provided enough variety to cater to different tastes. The quality of the food would differ from day to day but was fairly good overall.

The Sicilian fits up to 300 people and is somewhere that offers generous servings at reasonable prices. If you are after something fancy then this won’t be for you; but if you want a place where you can make a lot of noise and have great desserts for $9.00 then you should give it a try.

Prawn Caesar salad - prawns, cos lettuce, walnuts, egg, bacon, croutons, anchovies, shaved parmesan cheese and drizzled with our egg mayonnaise $25.50

Pumpkin Risotto - Roasted butternut pumpkin, spinach, garlic, chilli, fresh herbs, aborio rice in a vegetable stock and butter sauce $18.90

(Be warned that the risotto here will leave you with extremely powerful garlic breath!)

Chicken al Funghi - Grilled tender breast of chicken with bacon, onions, mushrooms infused in a garlic, white wine, cream sauce served on a bed of sweet potato $24.90

Cannelloni Siciliana - Homemade cannelloni filled with fresh ricotta cheese, English spinach, topped with Sicilian's napolitana sauce and finished with shaved parmesan $17.90

Pasta Misto Mare - a selection of fresh fish, prawns, scallops, squid and mussels in a rich tomato sauce tossed with spaghetti $25.90

Sicilian Parramatta
292 Church St
Parramatta
Phone: 0296332299
Fully licensed. BYO wine (small corkage). Open 7 days 11am-Midnight

The Australian Hotel

On Sunday about 25 of us gathered together at The Australian Hotel to farewell Caroline who leaves us for Switzerland before settling down in London. I did bring my digital camera on this night, but as I whipped it out to take a picture of the hotel the screen flashed to let me know that I had forgotten to put the memory card in…great! Never fear I still had my trusty camera phone.

The Australian hotel is located just down from the front entrance of the Shangri-la at The Rocks. There is nothing extravagant or showy about the outside of this place, and I almost found the picture of the building on their website a little misleading.

On this night the sky was dark, the streets were wet and the winds freezing cold. The rain and cold weather possibly meant that there were fewer patrons hanging around outside than usual. Walking up to the entrance the pub seemed silent because the doors were all close to shield everyone from the winds.

Once inside, the place buzzed with activity and we realise that there really was something quite unique about it. The décor is old the rooms are sectioned off, each with a slightly different feel. Some walls were lined with portraits whilst others with foreign currency and drinking mugs. There is a lot of wooden furniture and the seats where we sat were possibly once church pews.

Smoked Salmon with capers, creme fraiche, Spanish onions and Baby Spinach $19.50

Queenslander - Crispy bacon, fire roasted tomatoes and chunky pineapple $19.00

Summer Rocket & Prosciutto with Fresh tomato, shaved prosciutto, rocket & parmesan dressed with extra virgin olive oil $19.00

The Australian Hotel is famous for their gourmet pizzas and their selection did not disappoint. Pepper Kangaroo or Salt water crocodile anyone? Not pictured was the Moroccan Lamb with Lemon & garlic, eggplant, goats cheese, roasted vegetable and cous cous which is a must try.

Overall the pizza's were ok, they lost points with me for being extremely salty (all of them!) but there are various salads and pies that you can choose from if you don't fancy a pizza. Drinks are pretty expensive here and not what you'd expect from a pub (but I shouldn't have been suprised because we were at The Rocks). However I'd score this place pretty highly if you are looking for a relaxed and unpretentious place to catch up with friends.

Have a great trip Caz! I'll miss you!

The Australian Hotel
100 Cumberland Street
The Rocks
Sydney 2000

Tel : 02 9247 2229

La Bora Pizzeria

You got to love Easter! it's that time of the year where you can stuff your face with chocolate for every minute of the day and it's ok because everyone else is doing it too. Back at my old job I wasn't so bad, I use to send out eggs to my clients but now I'm on the client side and we have people send us chocolates all day long. This is 2 of 4 Easter baskets that arrived at work today!

By lunch time I was already feeling pretty full and sick , so to be honest I couldn't give you an accurate account of what the food was like at this restaurant. At 1pm a few of us went to La Bora for a nice Italian lunch in the city (La Bora is one street up from Bar333 when heading from Circular Quay to Town Hall).

Spaghetti Marinara $21.90
Gnocchi with fresh prawns and pesto in a cream sauce $18.90

(I can't remember what these dishes were and their website is currently down so I can't check. I will update when it's back up again). Dee is family friends with the owners of this place so we were given the special treatment, I also had quite a few glasses of wine so to me everything seemed fabulous...best to judge this one yourself.

Happy Birthday Dee!!

La Bora Pizzeria
9a Barrack Street
Sydney
PH: (02)92335296

La Vigna

Back in high school the girls and I would find ourselves at Leichhardt every weekend, we ate our way through most of the restaurants there and the staff knew us by name. I’m not quite sure what happened, but I suspect that we all became so consumed with work that convenience and free parking became the priority.

Tonight we went back to our roots and had dinner at Cafe La Vigna at the Italian Forum in Leichhardt. Finding parking in Leichhardt is always a nightmare especially on a Friday night, but the food and atmosphere is well worth it.

Here the servings are generous and good value for money. Entrees range from $5 to $12 dollars and mains from $12 to $23. You get to a point where you spend so much at restaurants that paying $35 per person seem like an absolute bargain! (this included 2 big courses, a mocktail and a tip for the waiter)

Penne Pasta with sundried tomato, fresh peas in a cream sauce

The meat and Seafood platter for 2

Don't be deceived by the picture because this platter was HUGE and could easily feed 4 people I think the platter was around $50? The 2 couples that ordered a platter each barely ate a half and they are not ones to hold back.

Chicken Fungi served with fries

Warm calamari salad

Saganaki with seafood and rice, served with a tomato based sauce

Greek Salad

Spaghetti Marinara

Happy Birthday Katina!!!

Cafe La Vigna
The Italian Forum34/23
Norton Street Leichhardt NSW
Phone: (02) 9572 8599

A run down of my weekend.

Friday - Team Lunch

After we cut the cake my team took me for lunch at Wagamama's and presented me with this gift. For those that know me I love my arts, crafts and scrapbooking, it was an extremely fitting and thoughtful gift! (No this wasn’t the present in the green box, it was just a coincidence that they had the same wrapping.)

Friday night – Sarah’s Birthday Cook-up for Betty, Lisa and I

Entrée: pumpkin, eggplant, asparagus, potato tempura

Salad: Rocket, fetta with roasted tomatoes tossed in a balsamic dressing

Main: Salmon Risotto with spinach, dill and a light drizzle of lemon oil

Dessert: Toblerone fondue with strawberries and banana & Crème Brule (sorry was so busy eating I didn't take pics!)

Dinner started at 7:00pm and didn’t finish till after 12, the food was fabulous! Good Job Sarah and a big Thankyou!!

Saturday Night to Sunday Morning - Sarah’s Mum Threw a family BBQ farewell for Sarah, so we tagged along!

The food: Lamb cutlets, sausages, prawns with sweet Chilli, rices dishes, Sarah’s mum’s Malaysian curry, salad, tempura eggplant and much much more!

Dinner started at 8:00pm and ended with a tiramisu cake at about 11:00pm. Seeing that it would be Sarah’s last weekend in Sydney *sniff* *sniff* we decided to head out of town for drinks. So when the clock struck 12:00 I found myself in the car park of Macquarie Bank with a crazy bunch of people singing a self composed “Happy Birthday Emily, we love technology” song to me (this will make a lot more sense if you have seen the movie Napoleon Dynamite).

I don’t know if it’s because we’re getting old? But the city seemed really silent for a Saturday night/Sunday morning. The usual places were empty and the other places had such long lines that we couldn’t be bothered. We settled on Bar 333 where I christened my 24th Birthday with a Pina Colada! (Thanks Sarah) and whatever drink that was in the picture!

Sunday night: Dinner @ Grappa

Now before anyone reading this post gets upset with me for not inviting them to dinner, the girls organised dinner last minute. So to the person that sent me the email this morning rather upset I’m really sorry!! Thanks Mum for the Matthew Williamson top as seen below.

The suprise: remember my post about Regret?

Well the girls had secretly bought me the dress!! Thank you all so much!! You're the best!!

The Rest of the Photo's Here

End Of Quarter Celebrations

Something horrible happened at work yesterday; it drained everything out of me and left me in tears. When I woke up this morning I was still feeling pretty lousy and I turned on the computer to vent. I’m really glad that I didn't press publish …I would have regretted it.

The funny thing is, my assistant decided to Google my name at work today and found my blog. I guess I have to be more careful incase one day someone who I don't want to see my site finds it. (Don't worry Em you're welcome to visit anytime, you know I couldn't live without you!) *waves* and says a big Hi to Emma.

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Last quarter our team blew the budget and did really well, there were whispers of go-carting, lawn bowls, laser skirmish and mini golf as rewards. In the end we all headed off for lunch at Grappa Ristorante E Bar with work providing plenty of alcohol for a boozy afternoon.

Guys, this restaurant is FANTASTIC! If you are ever in Leichhardt go try it out. The prices aren’t cheap, but the service, food and setting is well worth it!

Our Team - minus Nicola, Natalie & John who were down with the flu.

Everyone got presents...

the card reads 'Thank you for all your hard work and efforts in Quarter 1'

I recommend the fish...

There were also prizes given out for bloopers and funny moments that occurred during this quarter. I won 2 prizes for the 2 scenarios below.

Scenario 1

I often have talks with my manager about creating strategies to reach my clients on a more personal level. After one particular visit I made a note on the database to ask my client about her cat the next time I spoke to her. After some general chit chat the conversation went something like this:

Me: “So Marge* how is that cat of yours?”

Client: “Oh it died.”

Me: *freezes and doesn’t know what to say next*
“Oh…it’s for the best”

Client: *Silence*

Me: *Silence*

Oh it’s for the best!??!! What a dumb thing to say…….!!

Scenario 2

Imagine my client, the General Manager of a large multinational organisation. In person he is very conservative and very serious. After a long conversation I had meant to say “lovely touching base with you Robert” but instead I said “lovely touching you Robert”.

Me: *Silence*

Client: *More Silence*

So I won a toy kitten which is self explanatory, the rubber gloves was in case I wanted to go ‘touch’ any more clients.

* Names have been changed.