Anniversary dinner.

In a cockroach infested flat in Surry Hills on this day 18 years ago I said "I guess we're an item then". Romantic eh?

Tagliatelli with cream sauce and truffled egg.

Chocolate souffle eh.

The view from the 28th

At least working has some advantage.

Mmm trifle

20th century icons kick the bucket on the same day

Michael "Wacko" Jackson and Farrah "Phwoar" Fawcett dead at 50 and 62 respectively. You don't have to be fan to recognise the contribution or impact these two made during the the last decades of the 20th Century. Most recently Jacko sold something like a million tickets for his UK tour. Maybe the thought of facing so many Poms so many times scared him to death.
And that picture above of Farrah. I reckon every 15 year old alive at the time had that poster - I did.

Oh the decadence

Fois gras for dinner. Entier (goose) too.

Est. 8

Tisanes and mignardises (petit fours) and coffee. Est has been pretty good as you would expect for a 3 hat restaurant. A bit of celeb spotting, a free dessert, an offer of a limo ride home and arguably the best dessert wine in the world. What more could you want?

Est. 7

Chocolate “sponge”, roasted banana sorbet, chocolate rocks.
Passion fruit souffle with cream.
Complementary strawberry panna cotta, slow poached rhubarb, salted popcorn nougatine because Michelle complained (Michelle calls it constructive criticism) about the chocolate cake. Nothing wrong with just... nothing right with it. We weren't charged for the dessert and the panna cotta was complementary. They also offered to give us a lift home in the limo, a Bentley, but we didn't feel the need to go that far.

Est is where the Masterchef contestants came to learn how to make the perfect souffle. This souffle was the perfect souffle.

Est. 6

Apparently the best dessert wine in the world. A 1989 château suduiraut, sauternes. At 55 bucks a pop it should be the best. Best I've had certainly. A dessert in itself. Hints of caramel and vanilla. Superb.

Est. 5

Crepinette of pork with WA Manjimup truffle, celeriac puree and broad beans. Delicious rich jus too.
We're actually picking up a Manjimup truffle from Simon Johnson's tomorrow. Michelle will blog about that.

Est. 4

Pan roasted john dory fillet, caramelized belgian endive, pine nuts and black currants agro dolce.
Grilled prawns, shaved cuttlefish, broad beans, chorizo, manzanilla olives, chili, goats cheese feta and a black smear where the squid escaped.
Dr Kerryn Phelps just sat down behind us. No I'm not going to take photo. Celebrity overload this week. We must hang out at the right places. The funny thing was the noticeable drop in general hubbub as Kerryn and her partner entered the room. I've never seen that before.

Est. 3

Warm boudin of spanner crab, grilled white scallops, cucumber, vanilla bean nage.
Parma prosciutto and duck foie gras rolled quail breast, roast chestnuts, celeriac, chanterelles, snap peas.

Est. 2

Chicken wing and porcini consomme, porcini pearls, herbs, leaves, spiced veal ravioli.
Jerusalem Artichoke and chestnut soup with diced Foie Gras, Hazelnut Oil and Jerusalem Artichoke chips.

Est. At the Establishment Hotel

Est is the latest SMH Good Food Guide 3 Hat restaurant we're dining at. Est is on George Street Sydney and is in the Establishment Hotel.

Say it aint so Mickey O :-(

Michael "Magic" "Mickey O" "Paddy" O'Loughlin is going to hang up the boots at the end of season 2009. So long Mickey O. You are a deadset legend of the game. Even back in the old days when we called you Set Shot Mick we loved your silky skills, except for the fore mentioned set shots at goal of course. ;-) Who new you'd go on to kick more than 500 goals and set the club record for games played.

You have 10 more games, including 5 more home games, for us to see you do your thing (not counting finals). Hopefully you'll play them out the way we love. Maybe we can get to see some more "magic" from Magic before the curtain comes down on a fabulous career.

Thanks Mickey O.

Sydney Swans Announcement
SMH Realfooty Article

Romantic dinner for two

Always rains when you're waiting for the carpark shuttle

Saw another celeb waiting for a limo on the way out - former Bulldogs ruckman and Channel 10 commentator, Luke Darcy (not pictured). I will have to go all paparazzi on these celebs one of these days I think.

All done. Bloody Pies

Swans 9.12.66 went down to the Magpies 13.11.89
Realfooty match reports here and here.

Just missed out on a free pie giveaway. Bugger

Blowing clappers up

Gaytime at the footy

And for the celeb spotters we just saw Matt Preston from Masterchef on the way in.

Bored

Lunch before the footy

Home cured ocean trout (by Michelle), arugula, lemon creme fraiche, capers, eshallots, chives and salmon roe on a baguette.

Pissing down in Surry Hills

Celebrating my arse off

Lemon cheesecake with marinated wild figs.

Guess what. I made it. The cheesecake that is. Yup, the whole dinner tonight was at Chez Shags Et Shelle. Michelle made the first two courses and I spent my afternoon conjuring up this sweet slab of cheesy lemony goodness.

• 2 250gram blocks of Philadelphia cream cheese
• 1 can (395gram) of sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons of gelatine
  
• ¼ cup of hot water
• 1 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 pack of Nice^TM biscuits
• 125 grams of melted butter

Wiz up the biscuits in a food processor and then pour in the melted butter and wiz it again. Place the mixture in a springy cheesecake tin and gently press it in with your finger tips. Push it up the sides about 3 cms too. Put the tin in the fridge to help the base set.

Presumably you've let the Philly soften at room temperature a bit. No? Well do that then. Place the Philly in the food processor. Hopefully you've cleaned it after making the biscuit base. Use another one if you have another food processor lying around. You'd probably need some lacky to wash your dishes to if you're that extravagant. Wiz up the cream cheese and then pour in the condensed milk. Wiz it up again until the mixture is smooth. You may need to scrape around the sides with a spatular to make sure all the firmer bits of cheese wiz up too. Add the lemon juice and wiz again.
Dissolve the gelatine in a quarter of a cup of boiling water. Pour the gelatine water into the cheesy mix and wiz again.
Take the cheesecake tin out of the fridge and pour in the lemony cheesy mixture.
Stick it in the fridge for a few hours. It will be smooth and creamy and lemony and delicious. If you leave it overnight it will taste even better.

Celebrating still

Cured ocean trout with remoulade and dill vinaigrette. Oh yeah I'm a lucky boy. And to think I even scored a couple of Marilyn Manson tickets this morning too.

Michelle will probably blog this one over at her blog.

Celebrating my new job

Cream of celeriac soup for starters.

Happy Dance - I got a job! w00t!!11!

Thanks to Matt for the Happy Dance.
Imagine me doing the Happy Dance right now seeing as it has been approximately 322 days since I last worked. New 6 month contract to be signed this afternoon. Huge thanks to my referees Lisa and Robb for the references that swung it for me.

Spooky cat

Edited on my phone!

Something fishy going on

Michelle at the deli

Monster crab trying to escape

More celeb spotting

No this isn't a close-up of some celeb... 'tis just me. I have just come back from getting petrol in Ultimo and I saw Merrick Watts filling up too. I was too chicken to go up and ask for a photo though.

Buon Ricordo 5

Caffè con piccola pasticceria

Buon Ricordo 4

Dolci
Crostata d'aranci - Orange tart with candied citrus and vanilla ice-cream.
Cioccolato di Verona - Chocolate and hazelnut mousse on a sponge base covered in chocolate.

Buon Ricordo 3

Secondi
Anatra con Broccoli - Roasted, deboned duck with sautéed broccoli, garlic and chilli.
Filleto con pancetta.