Moroccan Lamb Shanks with pumpkin and sultanas and Mulberry-ade @ Mum’s place

Mum's place

There’s nothing like a good ol’ lamb shank with your dear ol’ mum, is there? 

I’m not quite sure what it is about mums and slow cooking, but it’s all very comforting, and, perhaps combined with some sort of menstrual-related need for iron, I was craving a real fall-off-the-bone meat dish.  So we went with this one:

Moroccan Lamb Shanks with Pumpkin and Sultanas 

Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 lamb shanks, French trimmed

2 medium onions, chopped

1 x 420 can chopped tomatoes

1 x thumb-sized piece ginger, grated

1 bunch coriander, chopped

½ cup water

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (140g) sultanas

300g peeled pumpkin

Preheat oven to 180 degrees/160 fan forced.

Heat oil in a large pan.  Add lamb shanks. Cook until well browned all over. Transfer lamb shanks to a tagine or ovenproof dish.

Add onions to the same pan, cook, stirring, until soft and golden.

Add tomatoes, ginger, coriander, water, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and sultanas. Bring to the boil, then pour mixture over lamb shanks in dish.

Cover the dish and cook for 1 hour.

Cut pumpkin into chunky cubes.  Remove lamb from oven; add pumpkin, cover and return to oven for another 30 minutes.  Remove lid, cook for a further 30 minutes or until lamb is very tender.

**

We served it with minted, buttered couscous and steamed asparagus, which was just what we had on-hand.

I also made my favourite (and ridiculously easy) dolloping condiment:  Tahini and yoghurt – simply mix equal-ish quantities of tahini and yoghurt and dollop on anything that resembles Middle-Eastern/North African fare.  It’s simply delicious.

Mulberry-ade

I think my parents live in the most quintessential of suburban streets – in the old fashioned sense.  All the neighbours know each other’s names, they talk to each other over the fence and they offer lemons and, in this instance, mulberries, from their over-abundant trees.  Thanks to the very neighbourly “Pat”, for making this lovely pre-dinner refreshment possible.

2 cups mulberries, stalks removed

2 cups water (approx.)

½ cup sugar (approx – depends on how sweet you want them to be)

Soda water

Ice

Swizzle stick

Put the mulberries into a heavy-based saucepan and add enough water to just cover them.  Sprinkle over the sugar and gently bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.  Cool.

The fruit (and some of the juice*) can now be used as a base for pies, crumbles etc.

Fill tall glasses with ice.  Extract a couple of tablespoons of the liquid per glass and top with soda water.  Stir intermittently and thoughtfully with swizzle stick.

* NB – if you’re making a crumble, don’t do what I did and not include any liquid at the bottom of the pie dish.  This made the crumble come out really dry and the fruit sticky.  It needs to be moist!

Roast Whole Snapper with Fennel and Olives @ Nin’s place

The main course for Janine’s and my Wollongong cook-off was this little number, courtesy of Neil Perry.  I’m a big fan of many of the flavours used here: anchovies, capers, fennel, olives.   They are fresh, salty and flavourful, reminding me of a lazy afternoon by the sea somewhere in the Mediterranean.  We were in the ‘Gong, which isn’t too far removed.

4 small whole snapper, each weighing 400 – 500g or 1 large one weighing about 1.5-2kg.

1 red onion, finely sliced

1 fennel bulb, finely sliced

2 tablespoons oregano, chopped

2 tablespoons thyme, chopped

60 ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil

 1 red capsicum, cut in half and finely sliced

3 vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and quartered

2 tablespoons salted baby capers, well rinsed and drained

6 anchovies

150g Ligurian olives

Sea salt

250ml white wine

2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

Freshly ground pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°. Take a roasting tin and check that it fits your fish; use two tins if necessary. Scatter the onion, fennel, oregano and thyme over the bottom of the tin and drizzle with half the extra virgin olive oil. Put the fish on top and cover with the capsicum, tomato, capers, anchovies and olives. Salt liberally and pour the rest of the oil and the wine over. Cook the smaller fish for 25 minutes, or until cooked, basting every 5 minutes, and the larger fish for 1 hour. Place the fish on individual plates or on a platter. Spoon the sauce and vegetables over and add the parsley and pepper. Serves 4.

**

This was perfect served with boiled new potatoes and steamed greens.  Michael (Janine’s husband) and I washed ours down with some nice Verdelho and I got a bit pissy. 

Roast Garlic Prawns in the shell @ Nin’s place

Nin's place

On a visit to my friend Janine’s new house in Wollongong, we got a bit creative for dinner.  After being in Timor for so long, where browsing through cookbooks is fraught with limitations and negative self-talk (“There are no avocados in the market today, so no guacamole for us”, “Mmmm...SORBET! Oh, that’s right.  No electricity.” etc.), I was really enjoying the freedom of being able to open a cookbook at random and say, “I’m going to cook THAT today”, knowing full well that I could.  Yay!

Rather than choosing at random however, I perused Janine’s collection of cookbooks with great scrutiny, and finally decided on these tasty little morsels:

From Good Weekend magazine

16 prawns, shell on but snipped down the back and de-veined

2 tsp fennel seeds

2 tsp black peppercorns

2 tsp sea salt

50mLs olive oil

1 bunch parsley, chopped

100mL white wine

Marinade

50mLs olive oil

4 cloves garlic, smashed to make a paste

Stir prawns into the marinade ingredients and set aside for half an hour.

Meanwhile, grind fennel seeds, peppercorns and salt in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle to make a powder.  Mix this in with the prawns.

Heat a wok over medium heat for 3 minutes.

Add the olive oil, prawns and the marinade and cook for 2 minutes.  Turn and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add the parsley and white wine, cooking for 30 seconds and then turn out onto a plate to serve. 

No need to get the napkins ready as these are finger-lickin’ good.

An unexpected trip home

Faced with a sudden opening in my very busy East Timor schedule (not), I made a spontaneous decision to take a little holiday in Sydney, which just so happened to coincide with the holidays of my lovely friends, Daniel, Di and Regis (and Thomas and Livia). We relived the old Juliett St/Don St days in a little apartment in Manly with much hilarity and it goes without saying that we were all feelin’ the love. 

But we’re here to talk food, so let’s get down to business.

In short, food was consumed in abundance (I have already facebooked my “baklava-a-day” indulgence – that was just the start of it).  I had the opportunity to sample a few new Sydney haunts, to reacquaint myself with a few old favourites, as well as making my own creations in the kitchens of my family and friends (while revelling in the novelty of going into a greengrocer and finding all the ingredients for any recipe I cared to make at my fingertips). 

I got a bit sidetracked on my foodie photography endeavours at a number of social engagements (having too much fun) and failed to take photos of some of the awesome food I was eating, but I managed to get a few in.

NEW PLACES:

Braza:  www.braza.com.au, 313 Barrenjoey Road, Newport

Biro (left) and Daniel – reunited and grinning.

Our lovely Brazilian friend, Biro (aka Andre) has opened up two churrascaria (Brazilian barbecue) restaurants in the last couple of years – one in Leichhardt and one in Newport. 

Braza is not for the faint-hearted – the meat options are many.  Swords of skewered and barbecued pork, beef, chicken, sausages, chicken hearts, prawns and even pineapple, suddenly appear in front of you, borne by waiters eager to slide off a sausage or slice some picanha (“the best” cut of beef rump) for your plate. 

Picanha – Photo courtesy www.braza.com.au.

Being a part-time vegetarian I went easy on the red meats but did get some yummy samples of pork and chicken.  The pork sausages went particularly well with the barbecued pineapple and salad.

Copious jugs of caipirinhas were consumed, followed by red wine, followed by cachaça and beers back at the apartment in Manly... until finally this happened:

Chehade El Bahsa & Sons Lebanese sweets:  288 Chapel Road, Bankstown

As I said, I ate a baklava a day on this trip, and while the one I had at El Bahsa wasn’t my first, the 1.5kg tray I bought to take away ensured that it wasn’t my last.  The sweets here, in my opinion, have the perfect amount of syrup.  In the shop I scoffed a coconut semolina cake which I did enjoy, but nothing beats their pure, simple, nutty baklava.

Mamak: www.mamak.com.au, 15 Goulburn St, Haymarket, NSW

Woohoo!!!  A roti restaurant!!!

I love Malaysian food – most people who know me are all-too-aware of my laksa obsession, but another of my Malaysian fixations is roti.  The flaky, chewy (yet slightly crunchy) round of fried dough dipped into a rich, cinnamon-spiced coconut milk fish curry is something I adore and there is no other place I’ve found that does it better than Mamak (although it was chicken curry in this instance).  Lots of others must think so too, given the queue outside (but thanks to troopers AB and Caomhan who did most of the painful stuff, the rest of us pretty much just waltzed straight in - xx).

OLD FAVOURITES:

Barmuda: 283 Australia Street, Newtown

This is my absolute favourite place to eat brunch in Sydney.   I had the apple, berry and oat bread with mixed berries, which was delicious, but I had a twinge of food envy when I tasted the ricotta hotcakes.  Oh. My. God.  I would love a recipe for these. 



Did I detect a hint of LEMON?  Awesome.

Almost everyone at the table opted for sweet breakfast options, which is unusual in my circles (must have had something to do with all the meat we’d consumed at Braza).  EVERYONE left smiling.

I love you, Barmuda.

An Restaurant: 29 Greenfield Parade, Bankstown

This place should be called An “Pho” Restaurant, because although there are other things on the menu, nobody ever seems to order anything else BECAUSE THE PHO IS SO GOOD.  In short, Pho (pronounced “fir”) is a Vietnamese beef noodle soup in a clear broth.

I cannot believe that it’s possible to feel cleansed after eating beef.  And I hardly ever eat red meat these days so my constitution doesn’t normally take too well to sudden blasts of it.  The Pho at An
Restaurant made me feel as if I had just devoured a sacred herbal anti-ageing tonic.  It is the lightest and most delicate soup ever. 

The beef is sliced very thinly and is raw when first added to the bowl with the flat, slippery rice noodles.  Once the hot stock is poured in, the meat is cooked very lightly, so it still has a pink tinge to it.  The fresh bean sprouts, Thai basil and lemon – served on the side to be added as liberally as you like - only add to the cleansing effect.

Janine and I both ordered a large bowl, which I almost managed to defeat, however I was so full that my ribs were hurting by the end of it.  That did not, however, stop me from wishing that I was hungry again so I could have another one.  Nor did it stop me from eating baklava for dessert (see above).

HOME COOKIN':

I’ll put all the recipes in separate entries, but, in short, they were:

Roast garlic prawns in the shell

Roast whole snapper with fennel and olives

Broad bean, mint and goat’s fetta salad

Moroccan lamb shanks with pumpkin and sultanas

Mulberry-ade

Photo courtesy of www.alittlebitofcardomom.blogspot.com.

Ploughman’s lunch with baba ganoush @ home

I love a ploughman’s lunch.  I love its simplicity, its variety and the element of surprise when various combinations of cheeses, olives, salad ingredients, condiments and spreads are placed atop a solid foundation of wholesome bread. 

This one included some basil and rocket from the garden, cherry tomatoes, a few olives, some tuna, as well as a spoonful out of a few jars of homemade goodies that I had in the fridge, including Sichuan Pickled Cucumber and Black Shiitake, eggplant pickle and baba ghanoush, the recipe of which is right here:

Baba ghanoush

3 medium eggplants

1 Tbsp tahini

1 Tbsp yoghurt

Juice of a lemon

1 tsp cumin seeds

If you have a gas stove, place the eggplants on the open flame until the skins are completely blackened and the eggplants are soft.  If not, roast whole eggplants in the oven at around 200˚C until softened (about 30-40 minutes).  Then place in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave until cool.

When eggplants have cooled, peel the skin away and discard the tops.  Put the flesh into a clean bowl, mashing with a fork if necessary.  Add the tahini, yoghurt and lemon juice and stir well.  You may need to adjust these elements, including the addition of salt, to suit your own taste.  You can puree in a blender or food processer at this point if you like, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

Dry fry the cumin seeds in a frypan until toasted and then grind in a mortar and pestle.  Add to the baba ghanoush, reserving some for a garnish if you want to get fancy.  I sprinkled mine with store-bought dukkah and drizzled with olive oil.

Sichuan Pickled Cucumber and Black Shiitake @ home

This little concoction of Neil Perry’s was recommended to me by our friends, Bu and Ingvar, and requires one important statement:

Its awesomeness cannot be underestimated.

I highly recommend you try this one at home, whether or not you are a fan of pickles, cucumbers or shiitake mushrooms.  I am usually not a particularly picklish kind of girl, and I don’t get into the shiitake thing that regularly either, but the bizarre Sichuan peppercorn zing, the razzmatazz of the ginger, the sweetness that the sugar brings to the whole thing and the clean cucumber finish makes this an incredibly moreish combination.  It goes with just about anything;  I’ve been enjoying it with my favourite tofu and rice dishes, barbequed fish and even as part of a ploughman's lunch with cheese, olives etc.  And it’s really easy to make, too. 

7 small Lebanese cucumbers, cut into quarters lengthways and deseeded

65g (1/2 cup) sea salt

250ml peanut oil

1 Tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns

10 dried small red chillies

100g sugar

100ml rice vinegar

2 ½ tablespoons light soy sauce

1 large knob of ginger, peeled and cut into very fine julienne

20 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 30 mins, stalks removed, finely sliced

Put the cucumber in a colander over a bowl, sprinkle with the sea salt and mix well. Leave to stand for 1 hour to draw out any excess moisture and then rinse well under cold running water and drain.

Heat a wok until smoking. Add the peanut oil and, when hot, add the peppercorns and chillies and cook until blackened. Add the sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, mushrooms and finally, the cucumber. Stir for a minute or two. Pack into a 2 litre sterilised glass jar, allow to cool and then cover and leave or a day or two to mature before serving.

Neil Perry’s recipe says it lasts for 2 weeks in the fridge, but mine is still going strong 3 weeks later (and I don’t even have 24 hour power), so feel free to keep indulging until the jar runs out, which probably won’t be long anyway.

A visit from Miss Kylie

Our lovely teacher friend from the desert came for her second visit this year, this time bringing her boyfriend, Jarrad.  The week was pretty much spent cooking and eating, so here is one of Miss Kylie’s creations:

Miss Kylie’s Green Papaya Salad

1 medium green papaya (paw paw), shredded with a mandoline or grated

1 medium cucumber, seeds removed and julienned

1 medium carrot, grated

A handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

A handful of peanuts, crushed (she also used some macadamias and hazelnuts that we had in the cupboard)

A handful of sunflower seeds

1 large red chilli, finely sliced

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

1 tsp palm sugar, grated

2 tsp fish sauce

2 tsp rice vinegar

1 Tbsp soy sauce

For the dressing, whisk together the fish sauce, vinegar and soy sauce, then add the palm sugar and dried chilli, stirring to combine.

Put the rest of the ingredients into a large bowl, toss to combine and then drizzle over the dressing.

English muffins! (Yes, English muffins!!) @ home

I was amazed the first time I learnt that you can actually make English muffins, complete with split, right in your own home.  And if you’ve got a bit of semolina on-hand, yours can look just as good (if not, better) than the Tip Top ones.

I nabbed this recipe from Easy as (Vegan) Pie and adapted it ever-so-slightly.

7g packet dry yeast

1 Tbsp sugar

1 cup lukewarm water

2¼ cups flour

1 tsp salt

3 Tbsp olive oil or butter, softened

A handful of semolina

Combine yeast, sugar and water.  Leave to stand for 5 minutes to let the yeast develop (watch for the foam – this is good).  Combine flour and salt in a large bowl, make a well in the centre and pour in the yeasty-goodness and olive oil/butter.

Gradually incorporate all the flour into the liquid, eventually making a soft dough, then tip out onto a floured surface and knead until smooth (around 8 minutes).  Cut a cross in the top of the dough and place it in a clean, oiled bowl.  Cover and leave to prove until doubled in size (45 minutes to 1 hour).

Preheat oven to 180˚C.  Knock the air out of the dough and knead again for a minute or so.  Roll it out to a flat circle, about ½ inch thick.  Cut into rounds to the size you want, then pat both sides with semolina.  Heat a drizzle of olive oil or butter in a heavy-based frypan and fry the rounds on each side until golden.  Once browned, put onto a baking tray and bake in the oven for 6-10 minutes.

These will keep for a few days in the fridge and for many days in the freezer.  When ready to use, split down the middle, toast and serve with loads of butter, vegemite, jam, poached/scrambled eggs, etc.



Banana bread, sweet dukkah and yoghurt for brekkie @ home

The bananas we get in Oecusse are lovely and sweet, but you can only buy them by the massive bunch-load.  So, needless to say, we often have large numbers of them going soft at the same time.  If the childhood version of my friend Amanda lived here, there’d be no problem with this, because she used to be a big fan of liquid-ripe bananas.  But in lieu of a little Amanda, I make banana bread instead.  This recipe is adapted from a delicious. magazine version.

Banana Bread

1⅔ cups plain flour

1½ tsp baking powder

⅓ cup caster sugar

⅓ cup brown sugar

1 tsp grown cinnamon

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)

3 ripe bananas, mashed

Sift flour and baking power into a bowl.  Stir in sugars and cinnamon.  Add eggs, vanilla and banana and stir until well combined.  Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes at 160˚C.

Too easy.

**

Home-made yoghurt

I’ve been making my own yoghurt for the last year or so.  It’s a very satisfying thing to do when the supermarket is an overnight ferry’s journey away from your fridge.  The method for yoghurt is very simple, provided you have a starter-culture:  either a packet culture (such as “Easiyo”) or just some store-bought yoghurt at room temperature will do.  You will also need a thermos.

600mL milk – we only have access to powdered milk, which works fine.

1 or 2 Tbsp milk powder – this will result in a thicker, but fattier, yoghurt.  (I don’t skimp on the fat.)

1 Tbsp plain yoghurt at room temperature

First, get your thermos up to temperature by filling it with hot water. 

Put the milk in a heavy-based saucepan.  Stir in the extra milk powder, making sure it all dissolves.  Slowly bring the heat up, giving the milk an occasional stir.  Bring to the point where bubbles begin to surface on the edges, but do not boil.  Turn off the heat and then let the milk cool to body temperature (this can be tested with the inside of the wrist, like a baby’s bottle).  When the heat is just right, stir in the yoghurt.* 

Tip the hot water out of the thermos and pour in the milk. Screw on the lid and then leave, without disturbing, for at least 7 hours and up to 24 hours.

When you open the thermos, the yoghurt should have set.  If it is too runny, you can strain off some of the whey through a muslin-lined sieve (I use a clean chux which works just as well).

I like spreading the yoghurt onto a piece of toasted banana bread – I think of it as a poor man’s ricotta, but slightly more zingy.  We also get awesome local honey here, which is equally yummy drizzled on the yoghurt, sprinkled with sweet dukkah (recipe follows) or a handful of muesli.

* Note that if you do this too early (ie when the milk is still too hot), it will curdle.  If this happens, you can still continue the process, but at the end you’ll have cheese instead of yoghurt.  You’ll need to strain the whey from the curds, too.

**

Sweet Dukkah

Adapted from delicious. magazine.

You can get creative with this concoction, using any type of nuts or seeds you like; hazelnuts and pistachios are particularly good.  I also added some shredded coconut to mine, which made it a bit tropical.

⅓ cup sesame seeds

2 Tbsp poppyseeds

⅔ cup toasted almonds, chopped

¼ cup pine nuts

¼ cup desiccated/shredded coconut

3 tsp ground cinnamon

Drizzle of olive oil

1 Tbsp honey

Combine all ingredients except oil and honey and spread onto a lined baking tray.  Drizzle with oil and toast at 200˚C for about 4 minutes.  Add the honey and stir.  Toast for another 5-7 minutes, until golden (be careful of over-toasting: it can happen fast).  Cool completely.  Pulse in a food processor, or grind in a mortar and pestle until roughly chopped.

**

Now that’s a hearty breakfast.  : )

When we were kids – an interactive adventure

Have you ever opened a tin of ham with one of those stupid key things?  And then, after breathing a sigh of relief when you got to the end of the awkward triangular-shaped tin without cutting your finger off, did you then lift the top off, and before turning the lovely pink delicacy onto a Bakelite plate, extend your index finger and lovingly scrape it across the top of the ham, scoop up the briny jelly and then put it in your mouth?

No?

Oh.

I have.

What about condensed milk straight off the spoon?

Milo sandwiches? 

Lettuce cups filled with sugar?

Jelly crystals straight from the packet?

Frozen meat pies?

Come on!  I know you can relate to at least some of these!

In the spirit of adventure, I think it’s time we all fessed up to those culinary indulgences we used to partake in (or perhaps still do) that really test the boundaries of what constitutes experimental eating (or, perhaps what constitutes food in general – I’m thinking of my brother’s penchant for Good-o here). 

It’s time to get interactive on yo’ asses!

Don’t be shy now.  I want to know.  Please put your comments below and feel free to dob in your friends.  I guarantee at least one moment of hilarity for all respondents.

Holy Crap! What’s that? #1

It’s a WATER APPLE

Locally known in Timor/Indonesia as Jambu.

What does it look like?

It looks really pretty, like this:

Water apples can be either bright pink or lime green.  They are about 3-4 cm in diameter.

How does it taste?

It’s freaking delicious and very refreshing.

Personally, I think it tastes like a nashi pear with a twist of lime.  The edible skin on the outside is quite waxy, but very thin and the flesh is really crisp and juicy and slightly spongy at the core.

How do you cook it?

You don’t.  You can pick it and eat it straight off the tree, which is one of its best qualities, but it also goes well in both fruit and vegetable salads.  Because it’s so pretty, it adds to the visual effect of anything you put it with.

A quick snack @ Lavalon Tourist Information Centre, Kupang

On our way home, we flew from Bali to Kupang in West Timor so that we could catch a bus back to the East Timor border.  We had one night in Kupang which I was pretty unimpressed about.  My previous two experiences of Kupang involved little more than a sense of bewilderment (at why on earth all the shops and restaurants had their backs to the beach) and annoyance (at the fact that there were no footpaths anywhere).

As it turns out, we were just in the wrong part of town.  Kupang actually does have a few places where you can have a beer and watch the sunset over the beach.  One of these is the Lavalon Tourist Information Centre.  It’s a cute little open-air hangout overlooking the water, where local men eat pisang goreng (fried bananas) and discuss local politics, dogs sleep, cats prowl and tourists resign themselves to the fact that they’re in Kupang and it probably won’t be too long before they’re out of there, so they might as well just have a beer and relax.  

We thought we’d get an afternoon snack to help wile the hours away.  And although the food took approximately 45 minutes to make, when it finally came it was surprisingly fresh and tasty.

Mie goreng – fried noodles, some choy sum and fried onions with your choice of tomato or chilli sauce.

Hot chips and fried eggs. 

The chips were reminiscent of the best homemade chips your mum ever made.  Topped off with a couple of cold Bintangs, we were very happy travellers by the time we walked out of there.

Kupang also has a really cool night market selling all sorts of foods out of very funky little carts.  We went for a walk through the market, still too full to eat anything else, but the visual display alone ended up being one of the highlights of the whole trip.

I won’t mind too much if I have to spend a night in Kupang next time.

A rest stop @ The Art Kafe Bar, Ubud

Walking up and down Monkey Forest Road, the decor of this cafe had caught our attention a few times with its boho-meets-nana-meets-shabby chic (or whatever) deco.  We thought it could be interesting, so we popped in for a juice one day.

Upon perusing the menu, I was delighted to find a little history of the owners and their story of how they came to open the cafe...

We did enjoy the artsy fatsy feelings.  And I’m sure you will too.

Omelette for brekkie @ Bar Luna, Ubud

“Chic and cheerful” is a phrase that comes to mind when I think about Bar Luna. It’s a place where the cool crowd hangs out, but it is still down to earth enough that you can feel at home, it’s not overly expensive and the food is excellent.  Wade and I were here for 2 meals in a row – dinner and brekkie the next day.

The dinner was a selection of mezze-style dishes – breads, olives, dips, grilled mushrooms, smoked marlin pâté as well as grilled fish and chips.  We may have over-ordered just a tad.  But it all tasted sensational, especially the mushrooms.

Brekkie started off on a high and then just got better.  The latte, although a bit strong for me, came with a little round of shortbread which I very much appreciate first thing in the morning.  It helped to offset the strength of the coffee, but it also helped to quiet my grumbling tummy until my brekkie arrived.

And I loved the tiny glass of iced water that came with it, too.

Wade had a strawberry lassie, bursting with fresh strawberry-ness...

... with scrambled eggs, mushrooms and tomato relish:



The only downside to this dish was the fact that the scrambled eggs were weeping, but they were otherwise excellent.  The mushies were spongy and full of flavour and the tomato relish had a good sweet/smoky balance. 

I had an omelette with tomatoes, spinach and fetta:



This brekkie made me smile and smile.  I loved the salty fetta with the eggs and the tomatoes didn’t make it too watery, which is often a consequence of tomatoes in omelettes.  The sourdough bread helped to tip the balance of what constitutes a reasonable amount of food to eat at any given time, but it was too good to pass up.  And the tomato relish was relishious!  In fact, the tomato relish at Bar Luna has inspired me to make my own at home – or at least have some sort of relish or chutney with my eggs on a regular basis.  It’s becoming my new thing.