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Went and met Jemma this morning at Hoochie Mamma Cafe in Newtown. Interesting conversation ensued over a few eggs and coffee. I must say the Eggs Benedict was tasty, and the omlette on the other side of the table looked pretty darn good too.

Went to Whitewater this arvo, as I was not feeling the best and felt like a cheerup. Well, if you've read any of the preceeding entries, you know that good food will always make me feel better. I was actually heading for Garfish, but they we fully booked, so the other got the nod.

I must admit, one of the nice touches at this restaurant is the truffled butter they serve with the bread, Mmmmm, truffles. More bread would have been nice so I could eat all the butter :)

I ordered seared scallops with ocean trout brandade, crispy shallot, bacon and rosemary vingerette for a starter, and continued the ocean trout theme with pan roast ocean trout with cauliflower orzo, crisp whitebait and parsley salad. I must say, the cauliflower orzo was spectacular, and I'll certainly try to add this one to my recipe book. Perfect marriage with the fish.

Washing this down was a couple of glasses of Tinpot Hut SavBlanc, an exceptionally nice white.

To finish up, I had the tarwin blue cheese with a glass of westend ‘3 bridges’ botrytis semillon, another marriage made in heaven. I was even considering dessert, as the coffee brulee with campari and orange sounds just awesome, but I resisted.

I was feeling considerably better about life at 3pm :)

Must be restaurant weekend. I went to Whitewater for lunch today with Amanda. Good food as usual although the restaurant was a little noisy. I had to ask if we could sit up the top away from the road, but this is par for the course on weekend lunch times (or so I understand). We were going to do this a couple of weekends ago, and I had my eyes on the duck pasta, which due to the fast rotation of items on the menu, had gone. Oh well.

I ended up with a beautiful fillet of blue eye for main, and a starter of a tartin of jerusalem artichoke and goat's cheese. Amanda ordered the ocean trout but it was off the menu, and she had yellowfin instead. All chased down with a Tim Adams pinot gris. Beautiful.

It was my dad's 80th birthday yesterday, so we celebrated by going out to the new Manly Pavillion restaurant for lunch today.

In case you don't know, the restaurant has beenu undergoing significant renovation in recent months after having been purchased by the guys behind the old Ceruti's restaurant in Manly. The old Heritage Room is beautiful, and the new bit is very nice with stunning views straight up the harbour.

I stuck to the seafood, with a starter of perfect (and I do mean perfect) raw yellowfin tuna with pasley and capers, and just a hint of lemon and olive oil, followed by the whiting fillets, which were cooked to perfection. I was sorely tempted by the wild boar ragu, and of course my dad ordered it and said it was fantastic. We had a nice bottle of Tyrrell's HVD semillon with the meal, and I ended up with a beautiful bit of gorgonzola and a botrytised reisling. Mmm.

The service was attentive and the timing and serving sizes were right. About the only thing that let the restaurant down was the lack of linen on the tables in the new area. You sort of expect nice napery in restaurants at this price range. I somehow suspect that this is only lacking at lunch, however.

I'll certainly be back to try the 5 course degustation menu with a couple of my foodie friends.

A whole bunch of us went up to Dee Why RSL Club last night to see Kevin Borich last night. Good God the man can play!

Running the engine room was Kevin's sun Lucius on drums, and the outstanding Harry Brus on bass.

We all had a great night. Thanks to Mark for organizing the tickets. ($400 out of his own pocket certainly shows great faith in his friends :-)

Anzac stood, and still stands, for reckless valour in a good cause, for enterprise, resourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship, and endurance that will never own defeat. -- C.E.W. Bean

"When you get a beer in Spain you get tapas like olives or almonds, for the same price," Maestre said. "That's what I'll be doing, too" - December 11th 2009's Manly Daily.

This certainly happens in the little tapas bars that cater to the locals in Spain. Unfortunately, the almonds and olives were conspicuous by their absence when we ordered beers tonight at El Toro Loco, the new "tapas bar' recently opened in Manly. Instead, what we had was the typical tourist place lifted straight from the streets of Madrid.

The food was OK taste wise, with one standout dish (the pig's trotters), but at prices ranging from $11 to $16 a tapas plate (note I didn't say media ración) it's a tad on the expensive side. We had the pig's trotters, the calimari, the whitebait, the chorizo, the sardines, and the paella, so I think we tried a fair cross section.

Red wines ranged in price from $25 to $200+. Whites and sangrea are also available.

I think I'll save my money and go to the Alhambra Cafe instead.

Recently, I was wracking my brains for a gift for Amanda's 40th 20th birthday. While thinking about this frustrating subject, I was sitting in front of a computer screen - a not uncommon occurrence with me - when I got an event notification from last.fm.

This is a pretty cool service that among other things, recommends musical events to you based on your previous listening habits. And the event was John Butler live at the Enmore Theatre.

Well, while I'm a fan of John, Amanda is a big fan. So I got a couple of tickets and we went to the show last night. W00t! Great show! I forget how good a guitarist John actually is, especially on the lap steel.

Great lights, great sound, great band, great seats. It couldn't get much more great :-)

The trio played a mix of old and new, for two freakin' hours. Talk about get your money's worth.

One of the funnier bits of the night was when the support act's guitarist broke a string, borrowed one of John's guitars, and knocked out the riff for "Zebra". Cracked the crowd up.

Great night. Did I mention "great"?

I spent last night watching the fireworks down on East Esplanade in Manly with the usual suspects. I left pretty early, having decided I needed to go and watch the main Sydney fireworks on the TV at midnight. So I collected myself and some food, got home, and promptly fell asleep, missing the event. Oh well, at least the Manly show was good.

Happy new year to you all. May this year bring the fulfullment of your wishes, and peace and happiness to you and yours.

Merry Christmas! A quiet day spent with family and seafood.