Saturday, September 13, 2008

September 5-7, 2008: Old friend, New Farm

On this weekend, Michael and I had rare chance to share some time and food with Doof. A lot has happened since Doof and I were co-renting five years ago, yet it was surprisingly familiar and comfortable sharing wine and takeaway pizza with him and his current housemates in their New Farm home. His beige and brown crockery, which once held my mediocre pre-vegetarian meals for one, probably helped.

Doof's housemate was on the receiving end of a painful accident and some poorly executed medical attention that week, and a combination of medication and wine had her excessively apologetic that she hadn't made cake for dessert. She had this great cream, you see. I didn't, but figured some cake was achievable enough.

With my hosts' blessing I raided their cupboards for cookbooks and ingredients, converting a Donna Hay recipe for a rectangular maple cake into a dozen golden syrup cupcakes. Though they were nothing spectacular, I was quietly proud of my resourcefulness and spontaneity and my companions loudly expressed their own appreciation. The cream did turn out to be special - a $7.75 jar of thick, pale yellow bliss from an exclusive dairy in Tasmania.

Saturday morning's plan was a mini-road trip to the hippy-ish hinterland town of Maleny. So what better way to start the day than the Alibi Room's Kombie Drivers Breakfast for two?

$35 gets you this vegan-friendly monstrosity: soy coffee and fruit juice for two, heavy toast with nuttelex, sublime sweet chilli scrambled tofu, a mountain of mushrooms, baked beans, spinach, tomato, soy bacon, haggis-like sausages, sweet potato chips, and four of the biggest, greasiest, most fabulous hash browns I've ever seen or eaten. Needless to say, we didn't need to eat again for some time.

5 comments:

  1. Watching all those episodes of MacGuyver has paid off.

    Now can you whip up a bomb disguised as a cake?

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  2. Skills I've acquired:
    1. Creaming butter and sugar with a fork,
    2. Creating a cake without the use of measuring cups, spoons or scales,
    3. Creating a cake without cursing in the presence of company.

    Skills yet to be acquired:
    1. Creating a bomb disguised as a cake,
    2. Creating a mega-soy bomb disguised as a cake,
    3. Converting plain flour to pure chocolate,
    4. Creating the perfect macaron. :-D

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  3. You do make a mean soy bomb, maybe just put in some really hot chilli next time, that'll go off.

    As for the macaron, I don't think I've seen your post where you have tried to make it yet? You have to feel the pain of repeated failure like the rest of us before you can feel the joy of one, even just ONE, successful macaron.

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  4. great skills in innovation - the govt would be proud of you (can you tell I keep hearing about the innovation review at work)

    and that breakfast looks amazing - wish I could get one like that in Melbourne - and then convince E to share it

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  5. Thanh, there is no post as there has been no macaron attempt as yet! Spring has me excited about making ice cream, and that usually means leftover egg whites. So I may put myself through the collapsed shells, caramel burns and footless wonders for one, oh-please-god-let-there-be-one, pretty home-made macaron. :-)

    Thanks Johanna! I have my own work-jargon that follows me everywhere, too. :-) The breakfast also comes in a one-person-portion, though I reckon it'd still be huge. You might catch E picking at what you can't fit in anyway!

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