The Apprentice

For 3 weeks I waited in anticipation till I could finally try this place out for myself. I just couldn't believe that this place existed and I didn't know about it! Thank you Helen! So I booked a table for 4 and shouted my sister a belated birthday dinner.

I love the idea of this restaurant; the kitchen is staffed by students aspiring to be chefs and the dining floor by hospitality students. I think it’s so important to show your support for students who may one day go on to become the next Peter Doyle or Guillaume Brahimi.

We entered the restaurant and were greeted warmly by about 12-15 grinning waiters. Our waiter Adam showed us to our table and giggled nervously throughout the night. Despite a few mishaps he was an absolute star and I found him rather endearing.

By 7:00pm it was already dark outside and you could watch the sun set through the big glass windows. The restaurant remained dimly lit with egg shaped lights glowing at each table. Jazz music floated from the speakers in the ceiling just loud enough to cover the quiet chit chat.

The menu changes week by week and today there was a 4 course meal on offer with two glasses of either wine, beer or soft drink all for a mere $35…an absolute bargain! As usual I discreetly snapped away with my trusty camera phone below are some pics from the night.

Appetisers

Seared Kangaroo rump carpaccio with roasted baby beetroot, horseradish cream & watercress

Asian Style swordfish Ceviche with julienne daikon and cucumber salad garnish

Suppli Telefono Crumbed arborio balls filled with cheese peas and herbs

Entree

Beancurd skin pastries with spiced eggplant, spinach and water chestnut

Char-grilled Squid with lime, coriander, mint & mizuna

Mains

Handmade Saffron Linguine with grilled asparagus spears, lemon, garlic & parsley

Herbed Grilled Quail with baby onions, green olives and silver beet

Oven roasted lamb Rump with Tzatziki and an organe and pine nut cous cous

Dessert

Fresh strawberries with Creme Fraiche



Campari and passionfruit sorbet

Bittersweet Chocolate Tart

The verdict - to be absolutely honest some dishes were fantastic whilst others still needed a little work. But all in all it was a great experience with generous servings and lovely people. There is no doubt that I will be back again! So who's coming with me?

The Apprentice
Building E, Level 7,Ultimo College TAFE
Harris Street, Ultimo
Tel: (02) 9217 5527

Sydney Law Careers Fair

Friday 17th March - Sydney Exhibition and Convention Centre Darling Harbour.

I was never scared to start my new job but I also didn’t expect to be given so much freedom to just run with things. In my second week my manager went on holidays and I was pretty left on my own with a big “To Do” folder left on my desk. I looked at this folder sitting on my desk 2nd week in and thought…what have I gotten myself in to?!?!

One of the most daunting tasks had to be organising the Sydney Law Careers fair. There is a lot of work involved made harder by the fact that this was my very first one. I had assumed that I could just ask the rest of my team whenever I had questions, but my role is so unique that no one knew the answers besides my manager who was away…great.

In the next two weeks with deadlines looming I approved budgets, organised promotional material, liaised with our Hong Kong office for volunteers, arranged presenters, ordered T-shirts, timetabled helpers, booked furniture, shipped over banners and fielded enquiries by the media. At one stage I sat at my desk silently panicking, wondering if we would have everything ready in time to exhibit.

It was like someone heard my prayer and one by one everything started falling into place, banners arrived, volunteers responded, lollies were ready and we were still within budget!

The night before the fair, I boxed everything all ready to be couriered. I think I pulled a groin muscle trying to kick boxes with my leg because they were too heavy to lift. I then hobbled over to the convention centre and spent the night setting up and building the banner. I was exhausted!

We ordered our lollies from Sticky "the traditional hand-made yummy" you'd almost think that it was something coming out of the Engrish site.

The turn out was excellent! I've been told the volume of people were at least double the amount from last year, by 11:00am my voice was gone. The mock interviews were a hit and we had a full table for the round table discussions.

Then there was the free stuff: mugs, usb mobile phone chargers, post it notes, high lighters, pens, stress balls and lollies. Unfortunately I was pretty busy most of the day to collect anything. A big thanks to Mark for getting me a slurpy and a free mug!

And look, I made it into the papers again (thank you to all the people who emailed me to let me know) I shall cut it out and add it to my little collection. For those who I have given permission to my protected posts in xanga keep your eye out as I will be sharing some rather amusing stories from the day that I can't post here.

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

Oscillate Wildly

March 2nd 2006

It’s amazing the number of times that you can walk past a place without ever realising that it was there. We always park near the police station because it seemed safer, but never have I given the little restaurant a second look. After reading about Oscillate Wildly via Helen’s blog I just had to give this place a go.

The place is very small but extremely intimate and cosy, the owner creates this atmosphere using dim lights and candles. The staff is friendly and a waitress was quick to take all our bags to give us more room. The owner Ross was absolutely delightful! He chatted with us excitedly about his upcoming African Safari and described his love for his old SLR camera and for photography itself.

After a long day we were all famished and decided to have the 3 courses for $45. The photos aren't the best because I felt a little rude flashing everyone with the camera and settled with just using the camera on my phone.

Entrees: Di had the spatchcock chicken with roasted Vegetables rolled up inside. Betty and I settled for the Fried Zucchini flower filled with a goats cheese mixture (which was a little rich for our liking, I also prefer the end of the flowers to be a little crispy) but Lisa had the clear winner of the night with her choice of calamari risotto.

Mains: With the dinner taking place almost a week ago my memory escapes me. I do remember the first dish being a tender cut of Venison with roasted carrots and macadamia. I had the crispy skin kingfish with a cauliflower? sauce and the twins had the steak with potato (the potato was cooked in such a way that the block is actually made up of layer upon layer of fine cut potato).

The menu changes every 2 weeks, and whilst the food was enjoyable we found the combination of flavours this time round a little strange. For example the cauliflower sauce was extremely sweet and overwhelmed a dish that was suppose to be savory.

Dessert: Mango & Lychee Bavarois, Chocolate pudding with Mocha Coffee (yes, the pudding is inside the coffee - a very clever idea.

Overall a nice little place that scores full points for atmosphere and service. I probably wouldn't suggest it as a place to take male friends unless they are small eaters (Di and myself left still feeling rather hungry whilst the twins ranged from being content to feeling full).

Oscillate Wildly
275 Australia St, Newtown
Tel: 02 9517 4700

A Pretty Busy Saturday

Saturday 04/03/05 - 8:00am

I just love the Pyrmont Grower's Markets, by 8:00am the whole place was already filled with people. You must get in quick for the popular items!

My first stop is always to see the Bread man where I buy myself something to eat and decide on which breads to take home. Today Jacky had their meat pie and also the tomato and cheese melt on sourdough bread. I on the other hand had my usual vegetable pie (the way they make it is more like a pastry than a pie).

Next I go over to my Apple man 3 stores down who makes the sweetest juice! The taste is really different to the supermarket variety and at $5 for 2L it's really not expensive at all. I'm really looking forward to the winter months when he brings out his warm apple cider and home made apple pies! He laughed at me when I told him this and said that he would save a pie especially for me =).

I ended up taking home a Carrot & Walnut Loaf ($8) and a fruit loaf ($5). When the bag was handed to me I was very surprised by the weight of the 2 loaves and I knew that I would be in for a treat! At first glance the fruit loaf looked really ordinary and I wondered if I had made the right choice, but once I cut into the loaf I was pleasently suprised by the amount and variety of fruit inside. The carrot and walnut bread is a great snack to have with a cup of tea and the fruit loaf is lovely toasted.

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Pole Dancing Intermediate 2 Graduation - 9:00 to 10:00

Yum Cha -10:30 to 12:00

Apartment hunting (saw over 7 properties - exhausting!) - 12:30 onwards

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Jenny's Birthday Drinks @ Equilibrium - 8:30 to Midnight

With the Mardi Gra being on in the city it was a crazy night to be out and about! The streets were filled with many people, a lot of them loud and drunk (this was about 10pm). Making our way from Macquarie Bank to the club was a nightmare. On our way down we had to put up with men yelling out at us, propositioning us for ‘services’ and some guy walked past and grabbed Lisa’s bum. I was walking right behind her and saw it all happen but powerless to do anything. It happened so quickly that by the time we turned around he had disappeared into the crowd.

Equilibrium is quite a nice place to be on a Saturday night, there’s plenty of room and our group of about 15 sat around comfortably. It was busy, and the atmosphere was alive and buzzing. I can’t remember the style of music for the life of me, but noted how great it was watching one of their performers work the crowd by playing his trumpet. They also have professional masseuse who give 10 minute massages for $10.

Happy Birthday Jenny!

There's a bit of a story to the picture below, we were all sitting around having some drinks when one of the guys from the group behind us taps Betty on the shoulder in an attempt to pick her up. With our backs facing him we didn't want to turn around to stare. So instead we asked our friend Michelle to take a photo of Lisa (making sure that she got the guy in the shot)...very smooth..no?

Betty seemed to talk to him forever, when she turned back around I asked her "What on earth were you guys talking about???" she shrugged and replied "I have no idea! he was talking Irish!".......O....K.....

Smart, Single, Big Company

I had a meeting over at Allens today, I got there a bit early and decided to check out the shops in Chifley Plaza I wandered into a little jewellery shop where the Asian sales lady greeted me eagerly. She was a very persuasive sales lady (ex Real Estate, just retired) and managed to convince me to buy a set of cuff links (that I really didn’t need). Whilst putting through my transaction she began asking me a series of questions and told me how proud she was to see a fellow Chinese person make something of themselves!

She then proceeded to tell me all about her ‘single’ son who is ‘really smart’, who did actuarial studies at Uni before landing an 'important job' at a 'Big company'. I knew where she was going with this, so I subtly dropped the hint that I had to meet my boyfriend for lunch today. For someone who hadn’t stopped talking since I entered, she went strangely quiet and her face went blank.

She then asked me 'Are you married??' and I responded 'no'. The smile reappeared back on her face and she told me that I was ‘really polite, young and beautiful’ and that I should ‘explore my options before getting married’.

She then took out a business card and scribbled her name and number on the back. She told me that she worked Thursdays and Fridays and would love to catch up over yum cha.

As I hurried out the door she yelled out ‘I’ll see you soon!’.