The week in brief: 2 July – 8 July

Hello hi hello! This week: I saw truffles (but didn’t eat any), went to David’s restaurant relaunch, had lunch at The Estelle, and made a totally awesome banana cake with totally awesome cream cheese icing. MHMMM.

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Livingroom: Wirra Wirra wine dinner

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Disclosure: I dined courtesy of Livingroom.

Last week, Livingroom hosted a wine dinner with Wirra Wirra wines.

Wine dinners are great fun. Drinking wine is always fun but I don’t just like them because I get to drink lots of wine (though that is a compelling reason). It’s mostly because I get to try wine that I might not normally drink and get out of my comfort zone.

Livingroom has been open for a few years now and they were awarded their first Chef’s hat last year in the latest Age Good Food Guide. It’s located in a building that used to be three different shops, and inside the split level room the decor is pretty understated except for a few chandeliers – the walls contain a few artworks, the wooden tables are undressed, and large windows look out to the street. It’s owned by a father and daughter team, Alan Markham and Carolyn Liem, and their head chef is Darren Daley.

I was looking forward to my visit for an evening of food matched with Wirra Wirra wines.

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Chicco

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Mostly I like being an adult. But sometimes it really sucks. Particularly when you have to spend a weekend running errands and doing boring grown up stuff. When I was younger, being an adult looked so inviting – ALL THE FREEDOMS YAY – but the reality can be a bit tedious.

The other weekend, Alastair and I spent a morning dealing with errands. As a reward for being a grown up and dealing with boring grown up stuff, we wandered down to Chicco for brunch. We arrived at about 11am on a Sunday and as they were doing a bustling trade we were fortunate to snag a seat by the large windows (yay natural light). The cafe has high ceilings, a polished concrete floor, and is decorated with white macrame light fittings. They look a bit weird and kitsch but seem to work with the relaxed vibe of the place.

Breakfast is served until 3pm, and lunch starts at 12pm, so we ordered brunch and a round of coffee to start. Chicco uses Padre coffee, and I enjoyed my long black – it was nice and smooth.

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Sausage making

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This winter I found myself hands deep in a big bowl of raw meat. It all started last year, with a passing comment from my friend Maztech. She casually mentioned that her mother makes sausages every winter. And while it was just a passing remark, it got me all excited.

“I want in! Can she show me? I want to make sausages!”

And that’s how I ended up with 10 kgs of sausages. It’s also why I have sausages currently hanging in the spare room.

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