A posh Indian for lunch?
Posted by Kushal | Filed under
It’s better weather for a change. Trying out this hyped up Zaaffran place. $23 for Palak paneer? It better get me high or something. I got to try it out though.
- K
Location:Wheat Rd,Sydney,Australia
Your Mak? What about it?
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Today’s culinary adventure was Mamak.
I’m going to have to go against the grain here; If you have Indian heritage, you may not like this place.
To be honest, I felt like I just paid £20 odd pounds for bateta ringda, daar, rotli, chutney and some chai. And it wasn’t even 10% as good as my mother-in-laws food.
The highlight was actually the egg flour oil dough thingy that they flip around in the air to make the “roti”.
For non-Indians this is a 4/5. For Indians… Look, desert is banana & rotli. Wtf!? My mum used to give me that when I was about 9.
It may be the hottest restaurant in Sydney, with queues going down the road but I can get chai at my nan’s instead of paying £2. And this roti and ice-cream thing is just weird.
If you want the same thing but better and cheaper, randomly go to any house in Leicester.
- K
Location:Dixon St,Haymarket,Australia
Cappuccino Art
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I forgot to mention: on Monday we had breakfast at Jerome’s friends cafe (thankyou Tem!). When Jerome requested a photo of a certain two people kissing on his coffee, I thought he was kidding. Check out the photos:
- K
Location:Sussex St,Sydney,Australia
Hunter Valley June 2011
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I met up with some new friends today who kindly took me to The Hunter Valley area to visit wineries and spend a day tasting and driving around.
This is Jerome:
And this is Brett:
I walked across Sydney to meet them in the morning. I passed their Hyde park and snapped the reflection pool and the Anzac memorial:
After a 2 hour drive we arrived, although here Brett seems to have fallen asleep at the wheel..
The first cellar door we arrived at was a very touristy commercial looking place called Tempest Two.
Nice wine. And i mean nice wine. Decent stuff that would probably set us back around £50 – £80. Here it was without shipping and tax and duty (for us in the UK): $35 a bottle!
There was a great cheese place at this complex as well (The Smelly Cheese Shop) and the flavour and varieties were incredible. Sorry? What? The French have cheese and wine? Hmm… I’d be happy over here instead I think.
We visited another cheese processing plant and sampled cheddar and Brie. Amazingly smooth and creamy stuff. But $75 a block? Slow down dear..
And this is about as exciting and dramatic as I can make maturing cheese look:
Next we visited a great vineyard called Audrey Wilkinson. Amazing views and a relaxing tranquil atmosphere. This was a family run vineyard for many years and served up some great plonk.
Not sure what was so funny. But we’d had a bit of wine..
Audrey Wilkinson samplers served up one incredible offering: a desert wine/brandy blend that tasted incredible; the Vin De Vie. Never had anything like it. It tasted as good as it looks:
We drove around a little visiting a few more in the area. (obviously staying within driving limit alcohol levels). We stopped at an Irish pub for lunch (halloumi cheese salad) and bored Jerome with discussions about Fastway.
Then we found this great place take a swim but the sign put us off.. Wonder how many people ignore the sign and dive in..
Anyway, that was on the way to Bimbadgen – the most memorable visit for me, with another stunning desert wine sampling:
The Verdelho above said it would taste like Christmas pudding and marzipan. And it did. Phenomal taste. Never had anything like it.
One last stop took us to a smaller boutique called Kelman. These wines were even better. I think. I was reaching the fuzzy zone by this time. Fruit and musky perfume. Peach and sparkling strawberry flavours. Wonderful.
And the icing on the cake? Brett said “who do you ship your freight with?” and they said Fastway!
The woman spent the next 5 mins telling me how amazing the service was and how she used Fastway at her old place and brought them into Kelman as well. They have virtually no breakages and can track everything – plus it’s insured! I’m sold.
Jerome slept in the car and Brett drove the 2 hours back. We discussed the dichotomy of Adele’s speaking voice and singing voice and I tried to introduce him to Tinie Tempah without much luck.. But Katie B seemed to make an impact.
I am extremely grateful to the guys for inviting me. I hope they visit the UK soon and I can take them the uk equivalent: the Everards brewery at a Fosse Park. Not quite the same is it?
Thanks guys! I had a fantastic day!
- Kushal
Location:Sussex St,Sydney,Australia
Time travelling
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Wow. Short walk to where I’m meeting friends across the Hyde park. Waiting in the cafe opposite. Neighbourhoods are like an old Greek town. All terraced, with black metal grills across first floor balconies, with dark wooden slatted, shuttered windows and crumbling magnolia paint.
Quaint is an understatement. Enough melancholy. Let me sip my cappuccino and talk to these wrinkly old men in this faux 1930′s Italian café… Sorry, must stop this.
- K
Location:Gloucester St,The Rocks,Australia
Surreal shopping experience
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So you know those shitty sweats and jogging pants we buy from sports direct for £12.99? Well here they are so in that people pay like $190 (£120):
- K
Location:Castlereagh St,Sydney,Australia
Small world
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Asagao. A Japanese sushi restaurant where customers take food off the train and waiters add up the bowls and make the bill.
I wonder what came first – the chicken or the Yo Sushi…
- K
Come and see my world
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I found some time to get processing done. Here’s the view on ground outside my apartment block. Sussex street is city centre so you can usually overtake the cars if you’re walking.
A few minutes walk away is Darling Harbour. Unfortunately some of the area is under construction. There is gardens and an open theatre and other entertainy-type things.
Outside this wheel a couple made me laugh. Add Aussie accent to it:
Woman “…let’s go on it. Come on, let’s.”
Man “fucking here you go” he throws a bag carrying something they’ve bought on the ground at her feet.
Woman “what? What are you doing?”
Man – walks off “i’d rather give birth to a chair.”
Darling Harbour looks great in the day and night. I can actually see half the view below from my apartment!
I walked about in the freezing cold for a while, then retired to the IMAX to enjoy an evening with Mr Depp. My first time in an IMAX. Not sure about them yet. For special screenings it’s amazing but for widescreen movies, I don’t see why, if you want a bigger screen, you wouldn’t just sit closer to the front.
- K
Location:Sussex St,Sydney,Australia
Am I really in Oz?
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There’s something funny going on here. It’s overcast, it’s been 11 degrees and this “Australian” train station looks suspiciously like Harrow on the Hill:
Am I in one of those make believe worlds where everyone’s playing a joke on me?
The only thing that’s different is that the people actually talk to each other on the train..!
Hong Kong airport was cool. Here it is:
The view is amazing with mountains surrounding the airport:
Cathay Pacific was ok but I have a whole bunch of adapters because they couldn’t put this simple picture on their website. UK adapters are fine. I use the Chinese adapter as it’s less bulky:
(for my iPad and iPhone power)
- Kushal
Location:Sussex St,Sydney,Australia
aircon and sensitive ears!
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I have this weird thing going on where my ears acclimatise to 35000ft and don’t work properly when I land. Very painful. Wonder what I can do about it. Maybe I should learn sign language.
I bought a latte at McCafe HK. That was straight after I had a McPiss in the McBogs… I don’t even know how much it was. (23 HKD).
the aircon has cleared my sinuses. I can smell again! Wish I couldn’t. The Aussie lawyer next to me has seriously khatta feet. Nose is watering..
As usual selecting “vegetarian” has made no difference to the food. They just look at me stupid and say “but you have to pre book vegetarian.” No, Cathay Pacific, you need to link your website to your inflight service department so they can see the information.
- Kushal
