Waiter Rant.

I just finished reading this really great book titled Waiter Rant. The book is the brain-child of 'The Waiter' an anonymous guy who started up a blog in 2004 chronicling life as a waiter. The blog became (and still is) wildly popular and even won the Bloggie Award for "Best Writing in a Weblog" in 2006.

My sister is the one that first came across this book, and tracked it down online. It sounded intriguing and so while we waited for the book to slowly make it's way across the globe to our front doorstep I looked up the blog and I can see why it is so popular. The book like the blog is insightful and witty, once I started reading I couldn't put it down. It tells of the highs and lows of working as a waiter.

The thing that struck me most after reading this book is how cruel, rude and inconsiderate diners can be - well, 20% of diners anyway, according to The Waiter who terms this 20% as "socially maladjusted psychopaths". What's more is that this book has changed my outlook on dining out - every time I dine out now I can't help but think of the waiters and what might be going through their minds. I then try everything in my power not to annoy them. If the book has taught me anything, waiters are powerful individuals. While some diners may treat them like scum, what they fail to realise is that they can and will enact revenge in creative ways that you would never think to imagine. I'm not talking about the cliche "spitting in the food" scenarios, although The Waiter informs us that this does in fact on occasion happen - I'm referring more to an intellectual warfare of sorts.

Now, whenever I go out (regardless of whether the place is fine dining or not) I have always tried my best to be polite to waiters and not make their lives difficult. However, I once had the misfortune of being in the company of an individual who acted entitled and treated the waiters like they weren't human beings. It is by far one of the most embarassing situations I have ever had to endure. I feel like sending this rude person a copy of the book. But then the other part of me is comforted by The Waiter's musings and the fact that somewhere, someday a waiter will teach this person a lesson and bring them crashing back down to earth.

All in all, great read. I highly recommend it. If you can't get your hands on a copy of the book, then check out the blog here.

Tulips, Parades and the Elephant Boy.

Just got home from a wonderful day out with the family. We decided to go for a bit of a drive down to Bowral for lunch, and it just so happens that the locals were in the midst of celebrating their annual Tulip Time Festival.

For lunch we stopped in at the Elephant Boy Cafe. The cafe has a quirky decor, filled with all sorts of odds and ends, and shelves lined with old books.

The food is (for the most part) really good. I opted for the Vegetable Lasagna was supremely tasty with it's fusion of Indian and Italian flavours - while it had a traditional bechemel sauce it was spiced with a lovely pancha masala.

My dad and sister tried the Fish Cakes (made from Salmon and Potato), which is a dish Elephant Boy is quite popular for. I, of course, could not resist and stole a bite from their plates and decided that they were indeed absolutely delicious.

Because I had trouble deciding what to order my mum decided to get the Sweet Potato Tart so that we could share and I could have both the lasagna and tart. It too was spiced with some uniquely Indian flavour and with the accompanying Mango Chutney was incredibly tasty.

After lunch we decided to go for a bit of a wander around the main street and check out all the stores we like to visit whenever we head to Bowral. Despite the fact that I'm in the middle of a mission to save money for a holiday I couldn't help myself and had to buy something. I opted for a little bar of Herbal Clothing Protector. I figured it was practical, protecting my clothes from potential moth infestations, and so it justified the spend.

Then my sister and I went into one of the many antique stores. There is simply so much character and history behind each piece, I love it!

While we were out on our little wander we noticed the street was beginning to fill up with locals, and it was then that we discovered that today was in fact the main day of the Tulip Festival, and because they were celebrating it's 50th year there was going to be a parade through town. The parade itself was pretty standard, showcasing the organisations and things that make the Southern Highlands unique.

Following the parade there was going to be wheelbarrow races and lantern parades but we decided it was time for a break from festival-watching and decided to grab some coffee and cake instead. We usually head to the Bowral Cafe and Patisserie, but having enjoyed our earlier meal at Elephant Boy we decided to head back there. Sadly, this second visit was a bit of a let down. We ordered our coffees, as well as a slice of Carrot Cake and a slice of Pear and Almond cake to share. When they arrived we were shocked to discover that there was in fact mould on the Pear and Almond cake. This put a major dampener on our afternoon.

Despite the mould debacle the coffees were in fact really good, living up to the claim on the door that they have "the best coffee in town". Predictably I ordered a Chai Latte, and not only was it perfectly made it came in a little bowl, which I thought was pretty neat - even if it did present a slight challenge when it came to drinking it.

All in all it was pretty great day :)

Good Food and Graduations.

Today has been absolutely wonderful. My sister graduated with her law degree after what feels like an eternity at university (for her) and many days and nights filled with stress and tears, as well as great achievements. I am so proud of her. Seeing her glide across that stage and accept her degree has filled me with much inspiration and determination to get through the next year so that I too can experience the tremendous relief and excitement of being a graduate.

The day has been filled with many lovely things. There have been flowers...

Giving my sister flowers on her graduation (although common practice at graduation ceremonies) was actually the product of a personal joke that my sister and I have shared for a couple of years now. My dad was the one who ended up organising the flowers, and I must give credit where credit is due and say that he made an awesome selection. Unknowingly, by picking the arrangement that struck him as the nicest, he managed to select my sister's favourite flowers - pink roses and gerberas.

This second bunch of flowers was a surprise from a relative who happened to be at the ceremony attending as a guest of another graduate.

Then there was the celebratory dinner and OH-MY-GOSH it was absolutely fabulous!! The highlight of the day (well, second highlight, after the actual graduation ceremony of course). My sister requested that we dine at Sepia, and I'll be forever grateful for her decision.

Sepia recently received 2 Hats in the SMH Good Food Guide Awards 2011, and Head Chef Martin Benn was named 'Chef of the Year 2011'. So, as you can imagine we were incredibly excited to see what Sepia had in store for us - and let me just say the experience did not disappoint!

As we approached the restuarant the doors swung open and one of the lovely owners greeted us (by name, might I add). This set the tone for what seemed to be a promising evening and dining experience ahead. The menu is full of wonderful and delicious sounding options, so we opted to go for the set Spring Menu, which consists of 4 courses. It seemed like a good way to sample the various offerings without having to go with the degustation - which required a leisurely several hours that we simply did not have.

We began with an amuse bouche (which I can't recall entirely but was a seafood emulsion of sorts). This was followed by the first course, which featured poached Ocean Trout and was soooo good. Probably my favourite course (aside from dessert). Next was a Spanner Crab and Buckwheat Risotto with a Mustard Butter and Shellfish Essence - which my dad and sister argue was the best course (again, aside from dessert). The third course consisted of Poached Coral Trout, Marron, Onion Cream, White Asparagus and Beetroot-infused Trout Roe - and I'll admit I couldn't bring myself to eat the roe. Just the idea of caviar makes me feel a bit queasy.

Undoubtedly, the best part of the dinner was dessert (well, for me dessert is ALWAYS the best part of any dinner). First we had THE MOST delicious pre-dessert, which was a creme brulee of sorts with corn and other tasty elements (at this point I had stopped paying attention to the waiter who explained exactly but I was too distracted, excitedly waiting to dig into it). Then there was dessert...

I had this 'Chocolate Forest' which consisted of soft chocolate, lavender cream, a sour cherry sorbet and licorice...and it was DIVINE!

This was the other dessert on offer, which was something to do with a Mandarin or something. Once again, I wasn't paying attention because as soon as I saw my 'Chocolate Forest' everything else seemed unimportant.

What made the experience so great was the fact that everyone at Sepia is so incredibly nice, knowledgeable and accommodating. My sister with her 101 allergies was so at home here, they made her special meals including this absolutely delicious dessert (it was sooo good! Possibly the best out of the three desserts at our table.)

It was a wonderful Strawberry concoction of some sort. Can't remember the specifics (again, distracted by the chocolate) but it sure looked and tasted great.

These were the delectable Petit Fours that accompanied our tea and coffee. The Pistachio Macaroons were to die for!!

All in all, Sepia lives up to the hype and more than deserves all the accolades and awards it has received. Definitely one of the best fine-dining experiences I've had - making it the perfect way to end a pretty perfect day :)

The 30 Day Sugar Free Challenge.

Okay so the family's naturopath has challenged all the subscribers to her newsletter to participate in the 30 Day Sugar Free Challenge. After reading about the challenge I've decided it is the perfect way to tackle my to-do list item #2 - become more healthier.

It seems there are many benefits of eliminating sugar from your diet. The ones that I'm hoping to achieve are - feeling more energetic, improving my concentration, becoming less irritable, reducing my seemingly constant headaches, reducing anxiety, improving my immune system and achieving a better skin complexion. There are heaps of other benefits which are equally important, but the ones I've listed are the ones I think would provide an major improvement in my life at the moment.

The Challenge

For 30 Days (any 30 day period before the 15th of November) I will be:

- Avoiding ALL added sugar (i.e. putting sugar in breakfast cereals, tea and coffee)

- Avoiding ALL obvious sugar (i.e. jams, biscuits, cakes and chocolates)

- Avoiding dried fruit and grapes.

Basically, the challenge means going 'cold turkey' with absolutely no sugar whatsoever - including artificial sweeteners as they apparently just aid cravings for sugar. In order to ensure my blood sugar levels stay steady I will have to ensure I consume protein with every meal. This apparently will also help to reduce cravings.

Now I will not be starting the challenge immediately as the family is going out for a rather extravagant celebratory dinner tomorrow evening. So, I may begin on or after the weekend. Either way I will report my progress here.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday.

Today was a pretty wonderful day. Ended up spending the afternoon with one of my best friends - the lovely S. Together we hunted down 3D blu-ray movies (which I have just been told was really great) and I was lent even more books from S's amazing collection. Honestly, until you see her shelves that are jam-packed full of books you cannot completely comprehend how great this collection of books truly is.

What made the day even better was making some progress on my to-do list, namely item #1 - planning a holiday. I have narrowed down my options to:

a) LA/NYC - I love the US, so it is inevitable that these two great cities will always be at the top of my potential-holiday-destination list;

b) Maui - this has been inspired by my sister's want for an island holiday; or

c) Singapore - a tried a tested holiday destination in my family. We always have fun (well aside from the time I got sick) and they now have a Universal Studios (yay!).

Good News!

I have just been informed of some wonderful news that has literally made my week.

It seems Starbucks Australia has FINALLY brought out Earl Grey Tea Lattes. I cannot describe how happy this makes me. I literally lived on the stuff during my time in NYC. Since returning to Sydney I've been settling for the Starbucks English Breakfast Tea Latte, which sadly just does not quite live up to the greatness of the Earl Grey one.

Here's hoping it tastes similar to those that I consumed during my time overseas. I'm not expecting it to be exactly the same because there simply is no comparison to sitting inside a Starbucks cafe (in one of the greatest cities in the world!), sipping an Earl Grey Tea Latte and watching the snow fall outside. Bliss.

To-Do List

I haven't had much time to blog this week, with my days having been consumed by researching colour trade marks (fascinating I know). Like most people I've found myself wanting to escape from the mid-semester assessment period - so, short of tearing all the hair off my head in frustration, I've begun thinking and planning about things I'd like to do/change in my life. As a result I've come up with a list, it's not very big but by putting it in writing and sharing it with you all there's a faint chance that I may actually complete it.

A's To Do List:

1. Plan a holiday.

I've decided that I want to get away from the craziness that can be my life and commit to planning one holiday a year. Since I've already been on an adventure to the US earlier this year, this is more a goal for 2011.

2. Become more healthier.

Between the tonne of uni work I am faced with and the odd hours of work I've noticed that I've developed some really bad and unhealthy habits over the past couple of years. I have a tendency to gravitate towards junk food in order to cope with stress, and often skip meals because my work hours often coincide with meal times. As a result I've decided that I'm going to start to exercise more often than I currently do, and resume eating healthily.

As I work towards making over my lifestyle I'll be posting any new, great healthy food finds I stumble across.

3. Make an entire three-course meal from each copy of Bon Appetit Magazine I have acquired over the past couple of years.

Okay so this may be a slight contradiction to the previous item on my to-do list but as a lover of good, delicious food I was thinking it might be fun to set myself a goal and make the most of my subscription to my favourite food magazine. Over the years I have grabbed my Bon Appetit magazines the minute they arrive on my doorstep, and obsessively pored over and marked up all the recipes that I'd love to try. Of course laziness and time constraints often get the better of me. So by making a meal for my family (maybe once a week or fortnight or month - I'm still undecided) maybe, just maybe, I'll finally get around to trying out all the recipes I've salivated over.

Key Lime Pie

This is the Key Lime Pie that my sister made last week.

It was taken to a dinner party we attended on Friday night, and I have to say it is better than all the other sweet treats we consumed that day. I could have eaten the entire pie all by myself, but alas I had to share.

Since I didn't include it in my previous post, and the fact that it is so incredibly delicious (and my new favourite dessert) I thought it deserved it's own post.

Morning Tea...

...was a success! The cakes were delicious. Okay, well I'm skeptical about my chocolate cake. My family loved it but they're my family so they always love everything I make.

This morning I woke up early and returned to the kitchen to finish the cakes.

Unfortunately I ran out of icing sugar so had to skip icing the sides of the Carrot Cake. Needless to say I am not entirely happy about this. In addition to the cakes, we had a super sweet dessert called Gulab Jamun. It's a popular dessert from the Indian Subcontinent, and is a dough that is fried (a bit like donuts) and then put into a sugar syrup. It is so, so sweet, but so incredibly delicious! My mother is a master at making these, I definitely do not have the patience for the process.

Despite being absolutely exhausted from yesterday, I decided to make little cheesy puffs since the morning tea spread was severely lacking in savoury food. They were an absolute hit for something that took less than 15 minutes to pull together. But then again who doesn't love cheese and pastry.

(NB: I did in fact make more than this!)

We were only expecting cousin R and her mum to join us for morning tea, but in a surprising turn of events another couple of relatives dropped by. In an even stranger turn of events my mother had set an extra couple of places at the table for "no reason at all" other than to have some spare plates and cutlery should we need them. It all worked out well, lots of sugar was consumed (well, on my part anyway) and entertaining conversations were had.

I've had a couple of hours to relax a bit, and now another guest has arrived for afternoon tea. The beauty, of course, is that there is such an excess of food that no extra work is required :P

Preparing for a feast.

Tomorrow we have various guests coming over at various times during the day. In preparation for this my mother has found it necessary to cook up a feast. This, however, means that I get given instructions and have no choice but to assist and partake in all the craziness. As a result I have spent the day running errands and baking.

My sister, being the flower enthusiast that she is decided to cheer us up during our stressful morning of running errands by buying a bunch of beautiful ruby-red Gerberas. She also thought it would look lovely as a centre piece for the table tomorrow.

My sister and I were instructed that at least two cakes were to be made. So my cake of choice is the 'Over the Top' Chocolate Cake from the Buttercup Bake Shop Cookbook by Jennifer Appel. It is a super chocolate-y, rich and indulgent cake.

The batter was so smooth and creamy (always a good sign!)

Being lazy and faced with time constraints I decided to turn this usually three-layer cake into a single layer (but a enormously large layer at that!). It's currently cooling in its tin waiting for me to get muster up some motivation and inspiration to make some frosting and ice it.

My sister made a Carrot Cake (similar to the one here, but it's two-layers as per the original recipe). It too is currently waiting patiently for me to make some Cream Cheese Frosting. She also made a Key Lime Pie, which smells and looks so good right now. Cannot wait to dig in to that one!

The Week That Was.

Ever had one of those weeks where everything that could go wrong did go wrong? Well, that was my week. Between the stress of uni assignments, the exhaustion that was work and everything else I am so happy to have made it through the week!

My week began with the case of the missing books. I had been waiting over a month for the third parcel containing the rest of my recent online book purchases to arrive. This involved dealing with customer service for both the online bookstore (who ended up being incredibly friendly and helpful) and Australia Post (who were horrible and rude!). The good news is that they miraculously turned up on Friday. Yay!!

I cannot wait to get reading these. Actually their arrival on Friday was slightly ill-timed since I will not be able to read them until the next fortnight filled with essays and other assessments has passed. In the meantime they sit there taunting me.

The other rather major part of my week was returning to work after a bit of a hiatus the past couple of months. I think it's going to take me a while to get back into the swing of things. The exciting part of being back at work is seeing Jersey Boys. This is a fabulous production which I am absolutely loving (for now anyway, after a year of watching it I may not be so enthusiastic). Although it is based on the 60s (an era which I am personally intrigued by) - namely Frank Valli and The Four Seasons - I think it is something that transcends generational divides and anyone could enjoy watching, plus I'm 99.9% sure that EVERYONE has heard at least some of their songs at some point in their life. My sister F saw it on Thursday and enjoyed it, so I'm not alone in saying that it's a pretty good production. So get out there and see it people, I recommend it!

In following with the 60s theme of the show we got new uniforms...

This 60s-style bowling shirt looks innocent enough, but don't let appearances fool you people. I kid you not when I say that it almost killed me from discomfort yesterday. Turns out it's made from 100% polyester, which I am allergic to. So guess who now has a lovely rash on their back and shoulders. Yep, that'd be me.

Well, I'm off to spend some time with my dad with it being Father's Day and all.