Obligatory public transport post

We're braving the footy crowds (Bulldogs Vs Adelaide) to train it into Melbourne to eat at Guy Grossi's Florentino restaurant.

Melbourne for the weekend

We took advantage of Tiger Airlines cheap flights ($39 - that is freaking outrageously cheap) to duck down to Melbourne for the weekend and catch up with the little sis. It also gives us the chance to hit the last of Australia's 3 Hat restaurants we've yet to visit - Jacques Reymond. More on Jacques in a later post. In the meantime we went to Doncaster to do a little shopping and had a coffee at Dolce Espresso. Apparently Melbournians don't know what a piccolo latte is. For the dummies, and Melbournians, it is a shot of espresso in a small glass and topped up with steamed milk. Half way between a macchiato and a latte - a piccolo latte. Get it? After a hard morning's shopping lunch is at that other Melbournian fine dining institution, The Pancake Parlour. I love The Pancake Parlour. The place has a lovely steampunk feel and the pancakes are as good as I can make at home.

For those who want to know more about the piccolo latte there is a Wikipedia entry here and another Wiki for a similar drink, the cortado, here.

Copernicus helps us make the bed which is thirsty work

Australia Censored

The Luddite, Senator Stephen Conroy, still plans to introduce legislation for the internet filter for Australia similar to other bastions of democracy like China and Iran. Forget that most of the Western world thinks the plan is stupid and a waste of time. Conroy's filter will essentially slow the internet now for Australians just so they can prevent us going to website on the super sekrit Refused Classification list. We're not even allowed to know what is on the RC list. Thankfully, however, the list was leaked last year and now we know we're being protected from a Queensland dentist's website, hundreds of legal adult entertainment sites, some sites on euthanasia research, legal gambling sites, vacation kennels for dogs, Youtube videos, medical stem cell information sites and homosexual rights sites. There is no appeal and no oversight. Once a site is refused classification it is listed and we don't get to know unless when you attempt to access the site you will be bounced by the filter. Tough cookies. I wouldn't be surprised if Wikileaks, the site that leaked the RC list, will be listed. Oh yes, if a government decides that a site doesn't fall into line with that governments particular philosophy once the firewall is in place it is easy for them to block it. Ain't democracy grand. Arseholes.
The Pirate Party is doing their bit to help circumvent the almost inevitable filter by releasing a slideshow to show pensioners how to get around the filter. If geriatrics can do get around the filter it shows that the whole filter fiasco is a waste of time.

This bloke has a good summary of the whole sordid affair here.

Saké Restaurant

We've been to two restaurants since we've been back from Japan. Funnily enough they were both Japanese. This evening we'd thought we'd try something different - contemporary Japanese cuisine.
Saké Restaurant is at The Rocks in Sydney. Argyle Street to be exact. The Rocks in Sydney is very touristy. Very touristy. If you ever need a didgeridoo or a kangaroo scrotum leather coin purse this is the place to come. Not Saké Restaurant though, they don't sell expensive touristy trinkets. Lots of pubs in The Rocks too. Sake is next door to the Argyle Tavern and next door to that is the Lowenbrau. Wenches in dirndl (traditional German dresses that show off ze boobies) serve the beer there.
We arrived at Saké right on opening time for the evening's dinner and they found a place for us at the sushi bar. Beauty mate. This place seems quite large for a Japanese restaurant but it is also a saké bar and appears to have quite a large selection of saké. Double beauty mate.
There's also quite selection of things to choose from on the menu. A number of different styles of Japanese food. There's kushiage and sushi and assorted other stuff. As I said, contemporary. The sushi was good (the salmon belly was to die for) but the kushiage, food coated in bread crumbs and deep fried on a skewer, wasn't a patch on Rokukaku-tei in Tokyo. Maybe our expectations are too high. Rokukaku-tei is a Michelin starred joint after all.
So, as I mentioned, we sampled the prawn kushiage and grilled cuttlefish also on a skewer, which wasn't bad by the way. We had one of the other specials for the day - wagyu in a special sauce. And of course there was the sashimi and assorted sushi. Another special for the day as far as sushi goes was flying fish roe. It wasn't bad but again the stuff you get in Tokyo is... sublime. Again with the Tokyo. Must. Get. Over. It.
While we were eating we're were plied with the sake flight - a sampler of different sakes. Sake is always good. It really is like wine though. Each one is as different as the difference between a merlot and a chablis. Sake is nectar of the gods.
After the miso soup was dessert of a chocolate fondant with white sesame ice-cream.

Saké Restaurant is at 12 Argyle Street The Rocks in Sydney. It is fairly new so it missed out on being rated for the latest edition of the Good Food Guide but it did get 15 out of 20 the last time it was reviewed in the Sydney Morning Herald which will probably give it 1 Chef's Hat the next time the book is published.

Hyde Park on a warm Autumn evening

There were about 156,000,000 tourists wandering Sydney today. So we decided to join them. First stop, Hyde Park. Actually it was the second stop. We went to the museum first.

Australian Museum

The Australian Museum is hosting the the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the moment so we took a few minutes out of our not so busy weekend to check it out. Click here for this year's winners at the WPOTY website.
The museum also had what they called My Photo Space as part of the exhibition. You bring your own camera and "take pro shots in this fully equipped interactive studio space". They've got some live insects and spiders for macro shots and a couple of stuffed animals set up to photograph. So I did.
The first photo isn't from the museum. We were lazy and caught a train. That is Michelle sitting on the train.

Shopping done... time for a Sheepshagger

Thank goodness Copernicus is around to help us unpack the groceries.
Beer o'clock with a Sheepshaggers from the UK. Not bad either.

Me and Barney

Barney is the purple one.

Just a shot or two of Copernicus enjoying the sun