food – Page 10 – dangermouse.net

Back to work Monday

It’s the Monday after the long summer holiday and the Australia Day long weekend. Which means lots of people returning to the city after being away up or down the coast, and the beginning of the new school year (which starts tomorrow). Not that I have much to do with any of this, but it’s another of those big marker events in the year that tracks the slow change of the seasons. There’s definitely a different feel when kids are back in school compared to the long summer days when kids can be seen all over town enjoying their time off.

I mostly stayed in though. The weather was warm but not oppressive. I had three more classes this morning (and another to come later tonight). I took Scully for three walks – one in the morning before the day heated up; a short one at lunch time; and a longer one up to the grocery store in the late afternoon so I could get some potatoes for dinner. In the middle of the day the street surfaces are too hot for bare feet or dog paws, so I end up having to carry Scully part of the way, and only let her walk on grass or shaded paths.

I wanted potatoes since I bought vegetarian sausages and my wife suggested a good old bangers & mash for dinner. We have a jar of spicy chilli and capsicum jam which went really well with the sausages.

Not much else to report… oh, I also assembled a week’s worth of Irregular Webcomic! strips, to last through this week. I’ll try to finish off the rest of the whole batch later in the week.

New content today:

A ferry trip for dinner

The weather continues to be oppressively humid. I ran a 5k this morning at 8am, but it was so warm and close to 100% humidity that I did over 2 and a half minutes slower than my best time. I worked on some comics during the day, staying indoors as much as possible.

But for dinner we had made a booking at an Italian trattoria over in the suburb of Chiswick, which is across the harbour and down the Parramatta River a bit. To get there we caught a ferry, which involved changing ferries at Cockatoo Island. It’s only two stops there and then three more to Chiswick, so it took about 40 minutes overall, including waiting time on the island.

Here’s the ferry we caught to Cockatoo Island:

And the one we caught from there, as it was arriving (it’s a flat “Rivercat” catamaran ferry, because it has to go under a few low bridges):

Here’s Scully getting ready to go on the ferry. She has to travel in a crate due to animal transport regulations, but she doesn’t mind it.

The dinner was very good. I had penne al granchio (with crab):

While my wife had bombolotti with tomato sauce and straciatella:

Then for dessert, the millefoglie:

And the sun went down as we took a leisurely walk back to the wharf to catch the ferry home:

It was a really nice evening out! We’ll have to go back to this restaurant to try their pizzas some time.

New content today:

The one-day weekend

It’s Saturday, my day off, before teaching more online classes tomorrow on Sunday evening. I spent some time working on comics, but also did a 5k run in the morning.

In the late afternoon we all went on a walk to a park near the local library. I’d mentioned to my wife that now I have a shiny new library card, I was keen to go and see if they have any of the new Asterix books that have come out since I last read any, many years ago. So we waked down there and I went in and tried to find them in the children’s section, but to no avail. Then I went to the computers where you used to be able to search the catalogue and find which shelf books were on, but they were all on a screen that demanded your library card number and a password, which I’m not sure if I even have a password.

So I asked for help from a staff member, who explained that those were computers for general use, not the catalogue system, which was now accessed form special white terminals over there. But she escorted me back to the children’s section and said the Asterix books were now in the graphic novels section, not the fiction section I’d been looking in. There were three books there, two of them compilation albums of three stories each, and one of those contained three of the new stories that I haven’t read before. I grabbed them all, because I also enjoy rereading the older ones.

Out in the park, we threw a ball for Scully to chase, and she was very energetic today. There was another small dog who came over to play, and insisted I throw its ball as well!

After exhausting Scully, we went to Ambhi’s Chai for dinner. This is a place that mainly serves African-Punjabi style chai, which is extremely spicy, but for dinner time they also do small plates of food. My wife had the chick pea dish while I had the spicy chicken one, both with roti. I wanted to try a chai, but when I asked which ones were made without caffeine they said they could do decaf, but I said I didn’t actually want any tea, and they said the only option was the turmeric milk, so I had that. It was all good, nice and spicy, though the meal size was a little small. So when we got home I had some cheese and crackers to round it all off.

New content today:

Inter-seasonal treat time

It’s that in-between period after Christmas and before Easter, when both fruit mince tarts and hot cross buns are on sale. So it’s time to make one of my favourite seasonal treats!

Yep, that’s a fruit mince tart, on a hot cross bun, topped with ice cream. I warmed up the tart+bun in the microwave before placing the ice cream scoop on. And then closed the top of the bun on it before eating. It’s delicious, but very filling!

I’ve also taken a couple of flower photos today and yesterday. Some crepe myrtle flowers that had fallen on the ground:

And some gum flowers and nuts:

During the day I had 4 more ethics classes, rounding off my busy few days. Took Scully for a walk. For dinner I made another new recipe from a TV show: spanakopita toasties. They turned out pretty good, a nice easy dinner for Friday night.

And it’s online board games night now. Last time I won three games of Jump Drive in a row, but tonight I had awful luck with the cards and lost horribly. We’re now deep into a game of Castles of Burgundy.

New content today:

New Year’s Day relaxation

There wasn’t much on today. I slept in again and then just did some comic writing, worked on a lesson plan for my next ethics class for the older kids on the topic of “Learning”, and took Scully for a couple of walks. In the afternoon I played a few more games of Kingdomino with my wife.

For dinner tonight I tried another new recipe: beetroot curry (from this site), and I made home made flatbread to go with it.

It was good, but I think I chopped the beetroot a bit coarsely and it was a little on the firm side. Next time I’ll cut it more finely and hopefully it will cook a bit softer.

New content today:

Trying a new sandwich

Mostly I worked on comics again today, but I did a few other things.

I took Scully for a long walk at lunch and stopped in at Botanica Garden Cafe. I’ve tried most things on the menu there now, but today I picked a different sandwich, one that normally I wouldn’t choose: a tuna and corn with Swiss cheese. It was pretty good!

While I was eating, I noticed the blackboard listed “Autumn specials”. I was trying to work out if it was 7 months late, or 3 months early…

In the afternoon I walked with Scully down to my wife’s work, to meet her after her last day before Christmas break, so we could walk home together. On the way, I passed a new shop that is opening some time in 2024. They have some cool window displays, and it looks like they’ll be selling 3-D miniature terrain models for fantasy gaming.

This is a very cool thing, but I question how much profit they might be capable of making with a store in the back streets of North Sydney, where there’s very little foot traffic. Maybe they’re planning to do most of their business online.

I just checked the website address listed on a sign that I happened to capture in one of my other photos, but there’s only a “coming soon” message there. Anyway, the scenery definitely looks cool. I’m not really in the market for such scenery, but I do like it and hope they manage to do well.

New content today:

First day off, hot and smoky

Today was the first free day of my Christmas break. I took Scully for a long walk early in the morning before it got too hot, because the forecast was 35°C. it didn’t get that high, however, because of a combination of overcast that made the day very steamy, and the distinct smell of bushfire smoke that drifted in late morning. The smoke made the air very hazy (news story here), but it wasn’t local. It had drifted on the wind from a large bushfire near Narrabri, some 500 km north-west (news story here).

But the walk was before the smoke. It was cooler, but still hot and humid enough to mean I was drenched in sweat by the time we got home, at 9 o’clock. Along the way though I was excited to spot a striated heron! These birds are not common in the area. According to my eBird stats, this is only the third time I’ve seen a striated heron around here since late 2020. I tried to get a photo, but I couldn’t get very close and my phone wasn’t up to zooming in that far with decent quality. But still, this is my first photo of a striated heron! It’s the 127th Australian species I’ve photographed.

For lunch I took Scully for a drive instead of a walk. We went to the Allambie Heights pie shop, which I’ve been craving for a few weeks now, but it’s a bit of a drive so not something I can do any old day. And when we got there, they had special Christmas pies!

These are more expensive than the usual menu, and contained roast turkey, brie, and cranberry sauce. Of course I had to try one! I also got a Thai chicken curry pie to round out lunch. Both the flavours were excellent – this is a pretty good pie shop.

The temperature continued to climb and reached a maximum about 6pm. It’s cooling down slowly now, but there’s a cold southerly change coming through about 11pm tonight, which should bring thunderstorms and cooler temperatures. The next few days are forecast to be much cooler, thankfully.

New content today:

Last day of work for the year

Today I had four ethics classes, finishing off the “Rebuilding Civilisation” topic for the week, and my classes for the year. I’m taking two weeks off over Christmas and New Year, starting up again in January. It’s been a very interesting topic to discuss with the kids. One of the ethical questions I ask them: In a disaster situation, where your own life is in danger, do you have a responsibility to help other people survive, or look after your own survival first? Almost all of them have been pretty clear that in this situation it’s sensible and reasonable to ensure your own survival, not necessarily help other people. Some of them quoted the airline safety briefing, that when oxygen masks drop from the ceiling of the cabin, you should put your own mask on first before helping anyone else.

This evening, my wife and I agreed to do something very unusual, and go out for dinner on a Monday night. We normally only ever go out on Fridays (usually) or Saturdays if we have skipped the Friday. Well, we skipped Friday because of my D&D night, and then I just cooked something at home on Saturday. We both kind of felt like something special, so we walked up the street to the local shops and sat in the warm evening air outdoors with Scully at a bar. They do bar snacks type food, and we had arancini, haloumi sliders, and soft tacos with two different fillings: hoisin duck and pulled pork. To wash it down we had some nice cold cider. A bit decadent, but very delicious!

Oh, and the other day I took a Christmas portrait of Scully, after her grooming appointment.

New content today:

A (mostly) lazy Sunday

I slept in this morning! It was my first time getting up later than about 7:15 since I returned from Italy. So it felt pretty good to just snooze until I wanted without any urgency.

I did get up eventually, and went for a 5k run straight after a quick breakfast. The weather was cooler and cloudy, with some intermittent light drizzle, which was a very nice change from the heat we’ve been having lately.

After that my wife went to visit her mother and help set up her Christmas tree and decorations. She took Scully, which meant I had the house to myself – a rare occasion these days! I didn’t really take advantage though, and spent time writing and making a new Darths & Droids comic, which took a while due to some writer’s block. What else did I do? Gosh… um… I made a sourdough loaf and in the evening cooked dinner in between teaching three ethics classes. And that’s about it.

Oh, my wife came home with the Christmas ham for our family lunch. I’ve been handed the role of preparing a glazed ham every year since the one time I volunteered to do it! I think this year I’ll try doing a version with an orange marmalade glaze.

New content today:

Thai restaurant update and Pantheon photos

One of my old workmates has ventured to try the new Thai restaurant that seems to have replaced the excellent old one near our former workplace. He reports that the staff have indeed changed, and the food is not as good.

Today I started looking at photos from my trip. If you recall on day 9 I wrote about recreating an old photo of my wife at the Pantheon in Rome. Here’s the photo from 2001 again:

and here’s the photo from 2012 again:

We went back to the Pantheon twice on this trip, and I took photos using my dSLR:

and using my phone:

You can see that the dSLR shot matches the perspective of the original 2001 photo better. The 2001 photo was shot on 35 mm film, with a 24 mm lens. The 2012 photo was shot on a dSLR, with a 28 mm lens, which makes the angles on the buildings different – you can see it most noticeably on the building in the background on the right. The 2023 dSLR shot used a 24 mm lens, and the perspective matches the 2001 a lot better. Unfortunately I had my wife stand in a slightly wrong spot, so she isn’t lined up as well. The phone photo uses a 26 mm-equivalent focal length (it’s a 4.25 mm focal length lens with a 5.7 mm sensor, which divides out to give the same field of view as a 26 mm lens on a 35 mm camera), so the perspective is between the 2001 and 2012 shots. Unfortunately the phone has a different aspect ratio, and I composed it to miss the right hand side of the background building.

Anyway, this may be a bit technical – I am a camera nerd, after all. In summary, it’s tricky to recreate a photo exactly, and while I feel I could have done better, I’m fairly pleased with the resulting series.

It rained a lot today and was very humid. It began before sunrise and was still raining steadily when I wanted to take Scully out for lunch, so instead of walking I decided to drive over to a deli where they make excellent Reuben sandwiches – and I’ve been craving one for some time. I got about 3 km from home and the roads were dry, like it hadn’t been raining at all!

The sandwich was good. On the way back I stopped at a small patisserie that we know is good, and had a piece of their raspberry cheesecake. I also got a salted caramel tart to take home for either dessert tonight, or maybe tomorrow.

New content today: