The week in brief: 16 April – 22 April 2012

This week: lots of brunches, fancy dinners, and not enough home cooking.


You may remember from last week that my inlaws were in town. As well as visiting us, they were also here for a conference.

On Monday, Terry trotted off to the conference, leaving my MIL Annette with us for the day. For brunch, Alastair and I took her to Duchess of Spotswood.

I had the breakfast of champignons – potato and barley hash with field mushrooms, English stilton and poached eggs. This was fricking amazing. I highly, highly recommend this dish.

(Read about our previous visits to Duchess of Spotswood here.)

That night we went to a semi fancy dinner courtesy of Terry’s conference. It was a really fun night and we got to meet lots of interesting people. For example, I was seated next to an older Japanese gentleman (who was 75 and still working) who taught Alastair and I how to pronounce “mochi” properly. He had no idea what we were trying to say… hah…

Tuesday was another day, and another brunch. Again, Terry went off to his conference, and Alastair and I took Annette out to Nshry in Albert Park. It’s a lovely location – right on the beach, which meant we had a nice seaside walk afterwards. For brunch I had the panko crusted corn and zucchini fritters with avocado, smoked salmon and a poached egg. Yes, oh yes.

That evening, I went to Touche Hombre (disclosure: I was invited) – a newish Mexican joint on Lonsdale Street. Cocktails were poured from these fantastic chicken jugs. Bok bok bokka!

We had margaritas, tequila, tacos and lots lots more. I enjoyed it – blog post coming up next week.

After several days of eating out, it was really nice to have a home cooked meal. This was Wednesday night’s dinner: home made schnitzel with sauteed mushrooms and zucchini noodles with roast garlic oil.

On Thursday night it was the gala dinner for Terry’s conference, and Alastair and I got to tag along. It was a super fancy black tie event – Alastair had to hire a dinner suit (!) – held in the Myer mural hall. Hilariously, the entrance is through Myer, so all the attendees were in their fancy suits and dresses standing in the middle of the department store waiting for the elevator up.

It was another fun night. Plus I’m always a fan of getting glammed up. 🙂

All too soon it was Caturday. Haz, this one is for you. 🙂

On Caturday, Annette and Terry booked us lunch at The Strand in Williamstown. My main was the linguine marinara – delicious.

That night I managed to sneak in another home cooked meal – spiced aubergine stew and pork vindaloo. Both are dishes that I’ve blogged before (check out the links for the recipes) and they are bloody fantastic, if I may say so myself. 🙂

Annette and Terry left today (boohoo) but before going to the airport, there was time for one more brunch. We went to Fifty-six threads for a simple, but satisfying breakfast. I had scrambled eggs with mushrooms, spinach, avocado and parsley pesto.

And then tonight, Alastair and I met up with Haz, Gazman and Taz for dinner at Auntie’s Dumplings in Carnegie. Good thing we were there early because by 6pm there was a queue out the door.

We ate heaps: boiled dumplings, fried dumplings, fried noodles, chicken wings, steamed glutinous dumplings; and spent a whopping $8 each. Wow…

Okay, that was a lot of eating out this week. Next week I’m aiming to eat out less. I definitely want more home cooked meals. 🙂 How was your week?