BUFFET is not a dirty word..

Actually, next to the word "cookie" I think it's one of my favourites in the english language! I even have "buffet pants" which expand in conjunction with my tummy after meals.

It was another birthday on Saturday night and when anyone asks me where to eat for any special occasion my answer is and will always be "Hyatt Buffet!".

Fortunately I live across the road so can walk there and roll home which in this case was more of a stagger, bent over hunch-like as I had once again, outdone myself.

There are stations at the Cafe Hyatt- each one filled with delectable morsels and representing each course. The first one has cold meats, pate, caesar salad fixings, cheese and all the things to eat cheese with and seafood. Did I mention it was all you can eat?
I had a plate of cheeses, crackery things, raisins and pate. Then I had two plates of what is pictured above.

This is the hot food station with (from left to right) pizza, potatoes, ratatouille, goulash, soup, steak, lamb, chicken, pasta, vegetables, more vegeatables, roast, and breads. With all the accompanying sauces and gravies of course. I had two large plates full.

And last but certainly not least is my favourite station- desserts. Even I can't remember everything that's on it but it's all delicious. It all comes in miniature so you can try everything if you have room.

They only have small plates at the dessert station but that's not good enough for me so I normally get
a dinner plate and fill it up. Here we have mango pudding, creme brulee, lemon meringue, semolina cake and the best bread and butter pudding in Perth IMHO. That's because it's made with croissants ;)
I think I decided to eat everything that was orange, yellow or brown in colour.
Dessert was my sixth plate for the evening and by that time I was struggling to breathe so called it quits. The Cafe at The Hyatt on a Saturday is $68 per head but if you have my appetite, you definitely get your moneys' worth!

For the ladies who had heard about how much I can eat but didn't believe it I'm very happy to have enlightened you :)

Happy Birthday CDP xxx

You want how much for what???

I think the most expensive packet of pasta I have ever bought cost about $5 and that was for a packet that feeds four people. I am not ashamed to say that I have paid as little as 99c and have still been more than satisfied with the product.
My husby cooks many excellent pasta dishes at home so if I go out for dinner I expect it to be no less than great. Here is one of my favourites. It's from the Rockpool restaurant in the Burswood complex.

Yes the lighting was a bit out but this is a goats cheese tortellini with king prawns and raisins. Normally it comes in an entree size (5 bits I think) but I asked for a main which is what you see above. There are 7 bits of pasta and no they are not the size of donuts (goddamnit I wish they were though). Can you guess how much this dish costs?
$49.00!!
I am a big fan of Neil Perry and the restaurant is beautiful but there is not a pasta in the world that should cost this much unless it fills a 5litre bucket. Am I an idiot for ordering it? Hell yes! It is delicious however but I think that amount of money is best spent towards one of their steaks. Even the side dish of mac n cheese is only $12.


Here is another example:

This is an arrabiata from a restaurant at the Hillary's boat harbour called Bella Fonte. They are quite lacking for decent pastas there actually but you can pretty much find everything else. Anyway, this normally comes with a red sauce but I asked for an olive oil base instead which I think was a good decision. They get points for letting me make modifications to their recipe. They lose points because when I asked the waiter for cheese he said "parmesan?". Uh yes. And then they forgot my bread.
Husby was reading reviews on Urban Spoon while we waited for my order and most of the bad raps were about the price of the pastas. In my view, no pasta anywhere should cost over $25 and you can get some damn good ones for much less.
So can you guess how much this one was?
$30.00- not as exorbitant as the Rockpool but still....
And so I ask you my friends, wtf is going on with some of the food prices in our fair city?

Thank goodness I only eat out on the weekends....

What is a dining table for?

I have a dining table. It's quite nice. Do we ever sit around it to eat a meal? Not really. I just use it to put plates full of yummy things on so my friends can come over on public holidays and eat so much they almost burst. Hope your Australia Day was a good one!

Saturday/Sunday- fatterday/funday :)

You would be surprised to know that sometimes I actually bake stuff. OK let's be blatantly honest and admit it's for moolah.
In one of my jobs I take a High Tea to someones house to celebrate something. This one was for a birthday. My trusty sidekick was there to teach a burly-q lesson and the fact that we did this in a garage with no airconditioning goes to show that we are absolutely committed to our jobs or we are just plain silly. I prefer the first bit.
We bring everything- the cups, the plates, spoons, napkins, food. Then I make it look pretty and presentable while Lola shows the ladies how to shake their bits.

By the end of it I had drunk over 2 litres of water and my sweaty hair looked like thin fungus but it was fun :)

Don't get me wrong, I love talking to people but after being nice for a few hours I really really REALLY need one (fifty) of these:

This is a lychee martini made by a lovely friend of mine named Theo. You can find him at MUST Winebar. The froth on the top is from egg white and this cocktail is a little bit sweet and a little bit sour and a little bit FANTASTIC! His espresso martini rocks my world as well but as I only got there just after 11pm I didn't really want to be awake all night....

Now we come to the part of my weekend that I live for- Sunday. I had been planning to have a BBQ all week and had been consulting various cookery books for the yummiest of the yummy.

Here is a lamb slider burger made by the husby with feta, rocket, egg, tomato relish and avocado.
There is watermelon and feta salad, cucumber, avocado, onion and lime salad and my favourite of the day- lamb cutlets wrapped with haloumi and prosciutto. When cooked you drizzle them with a bit of honey to offset the saltiness of the cheese. Heaven on a stick.
Husby also made field mushrooms stuffed with feta and christened with balsamic glaze and tomatoes topped with bocconcini and basil and drizzled with EVOO. Some days you are just happy to stay at home you know?

I had vanilla and caramel icecream topped with caramel Ice Magic (IKR?) and this is what HE made for himself- toasted banana bread with cookies n cream icecream, Ice Magic and raspberries. What you don't see is it covered with coconut flavoured whipped cream.

I can't wait till next Sunday. Any smart person would happen to "be in the area" around the 6pm mark :)

More Morley more!

I lived in Adelaide (oh shut up) for 2 years and came back to settle in Perth in 95'. At that time the Galleria was the biggest shopping centre around and was very impressive.
Forward another 5 years and I am working right across the road. To this day actually.
Anyway, you can imagine that I have tried all the food in the area being there at least 3 days a week for the last 11 years or so. It's lucky that I eat my waffles when I am being good during the week so I don't have to think about trying to find something decent anymore. I was getting shitty with all the shitty food.
Fridays however are a different story. It's the start of my weekend after all and from 1 or 2pm it's on. Really it's not THAT bad- I just start off with something that has a bit of carbs in it.
I like Japanese. Scratch that- now I love Japanese in Morley :)

I hope they forgive me for not remembering their name right now but the terriyaki beef bento box is awesome and this chilli squid is light and spicy and fabulous. I liked it so much I had it again for lunch today. By that I mean the bento box and this. The little lady behind the till said that it was a lot of food but I just look at her with my "bring it on" face and she gets it. The shock value is over :)

The Reuben Anti-climax

Last Friday I went to Grill'd Burgers straight after work so when we got to 5 bar I was too full to eat anything but quite happy to indulge in a glass or two of my favourite french cider. I had missed out on my Reuben sandwich so had to make up for it yesterday. Hubby and I had spent a great amount of time Googling what's in them and the different ways people make them in America. Wow was all I could say. Them fellers really do like their cheese! And meat. And lumping huge amounts of them together under the protest of 2 little pieces of rye bread.

Needless to say when we got to 5 my mouth was watering. I ordered a glass of my cider and pretended to peruse the menu while my senses were honed to that scrum-diddly-umptious sandwich. But what was this? A new edition- a roast pork open sandwich with green cabbage slaw and apple/cinnamon jam. I LOVE pork and apple sauce. Reuben?-pork? Reuben?-pork? Oh bugger it we ordered both...

Doesn't this look fantastic? OK nice lighting and a pretty good composition but really it should have tasted as good as it looks. I'm sad to say my expectations were not exceeded and I may not order it again for this very reason. Firstly, the cheese is supposed to be swiss and in the US they drain and cook the sauerkraut so it's all yummy and not runny. My Reuben sanger needed a diaper. It was like being back at Grill'd. Burger puddles are fine but sandwich puddles are not.
But this one is ALOT healthier than the ones I have seen on the net.

Here is my new favourite and saviour of the day. Fabulous slaw, tender pork and that apple/cinnamon sauce with the raisins mmmmmmmmm....

I can't wait to go back next week :)

From ewww to ahhhh.....

First of all may I wish you a Happy and Benevolent New Year! I hope all your dreams and aspirations come to fruition and if they don't I will applaud you when you pick yourself up and try again :)

Today is Monday. Fast day for me. No, not like it goes quickly- like I am not eating to rid my body of the 3.5kgs worth of food and drinks I consumed from Friday afternoon till about midnight last night. Did I tell you I'm excessive?
Anyway I'm cleansing my body and clearing my mind :)

I went to Perth Cup on NYE with some of my lovely Zumba family. It was a very enjoyable day with Sky Vodka mixes, $32.00 plastic bottles of bubbly (IKR?) and very bad spraytans. My God I cringe every time I go to one of these events. It's not like the spraytans I sell are the best on the market but I sure as hell wouldn't let anyone walk out of the salon with a delightful (not) orange hew. That coupled with the bleach blonde hair on some of the young lasses meandering about made for some very interesting lessons in contrast colours. And why are their feet still white???
Anyway, I digress. I didn't lose any money and all in all I had a great day with great people. Apart from this.

Sure the pic looks fine but that's because I shot it ;)
Every time I get food from any type of caravan I am sorely disappointed (no, one exception was the Shepherd's Pie at Fair Day this year). This was supposed to be a roast beef roll but the meat was more like overcooked silverside and came out in chunks all over my face when I was trying to bite through it. Dainty? You betcha! The bun was tough and the gravy tasteless. And this was Saturday Goddamnit!! I'm supposed to be eating all the food I love rather than risking salmonella on some brown shite in a sleeping bag :/

Fortunately my good friend saved me that night with wonderful homemade pizza, a chocolate fountain, delicious pavlova and brownies. Thankyou xxx

OK so waking up Sunday or NYD after drinking on Friday evening and all day Saturday was a bit difficult. We didn't get out of the house till 2pm and after a bit of aimless driving around, arrived at Atomic Cafe on Mends St.

At that point I would have probably eaten the roll above if it had been put in front of my face, but fortunately Atomic has one of my favourite pastas in Perth.

Cacciatore, pine nuts, field mushrooms, baby tomatoes and olive oil. I ask for a bit of chili on the side:

Hubby had a chicken, bacon and avocado on ciabatta. I love places that will change your bread for you without any fuss.

Being Sunday we pretty much continued to eat all the junk food in the house until late last night.

Normally I would be putting up pics of more waffles to bore you this week but tomorrow I am having
one final bash with a few friends, Tapas style. And there will be pics.

Don't worry, I'll fast again on Wednesday :)