Xmas Lunch 3

In Australia, people tend to spend as much of the holiday as possible at the beach. We wanted to beat the crowds, and the heat, by leaving home at 6.15 am for a swim before breakfast. C and E are both working shifts tomorrow (double pay, so why not?) so we decided to have our celebration on Christmas Eve instead. When we arrived at South Beach, the horses were already coming back:

It took us a while to persuade Rocky to have a swim. He splashed about a bit and then made for the shore. (Videos on Instagram).

At Como, our traditional Christmas menu was:

Blinis w caviar (Tasmanian)

Crispy skin barramundi w salad

Cherries.

I left E to make the blinis this time:

The garden was blooming, so we laid the table under the pergola:

Rocky wolfed down a big bowl of veggies w sardines:


After that I had a siesta while the others watched Harry Potter for the nth time.

Merry Christmas!

Xmas Lunch 2

We had a family lunch at the Shorehouse. It was a 35 degree day, so nice to be by the beach. The place was jam packed and parking at a premium; the others disapprove of my secret weapon (JL’s disability sticker) but even this was no help today. We had a long wait for drinks, because everybody was ordering exotic cocktails and the bar staff were under pressure.

Me with the menu.

The menu was a bit pretentious, full of foreign words that had to be googled (ceviche, nduja, vacherin). We started off with oysters:

Oysters.

I ordered fish of the day (goldband snapper), E had a big piece of octopus, C had roasted cauliflower. She also had some non-alcoholic champagne which was rather underwhelming:

C with her champagne:
only the glass was authentic.

E with her octopus.

My fish of the day.

Octopus.

Roasted cauliflower.

E's dessert with a beautiful edible flower.

E with her non-alcoholic cocktail.

Before we left home, I took this photo of Rocky in his favourite spot: the car boot:

He stayed home with a few treats!

Xmas Lunch 1

The Bushwalkers broke from tradition this year. Instead of having a picnic in Kings Park, where everyone contributed a dish, we met at Bayside Kitchen Matilda Bay so that we could eat and drink at a table for a change:

Long table lunch

Beautiful venue overlooking the river

It was a hot day (30 degrees).  I ordered a glass of Prosecco and a Kids' Fish and Chips. Others had Crab Linguini which looked like a better deal. I have to say, I preferred the old format, but that meant we were always at the mercy of the weather and this has been incredibly changeable lately.

Watch this space for Xmas Lunch 2 in a week's time...