Traditionally May is a study month for me with only a few events to attend or places to visit planned. June is usually busy at work with end of financial year approaching.
No new blogs today as I have been working. May is no exception kicking off with 1st May working out at Balmain. Damn it how did I get roped into working the following day with a 5.30 am start by my boss! Does he not realise that I will have worked 9 days with only 1 day off by Friday this week!? It will only be for 4 hours or so he says ( last bit of that sentence to be interpreted in mutiple ways)........
Events in May and June I will try and attend or visit include :
1. The Northside Markets on Miller Street North Sydney. Markets are twice monthly throughout the year.
2. VIVID Sydney - this is an annual Lights Music and Ideas Festival that coincides with The Sydney Writers Festival and Sydney Film Festival. I have previously blogged about VIVID - as this festival becomes bigger each year it is becoming more and more of a challenge to see all of it in the few weeks it is on. This year VIVID is on from 26th May - 17th June 2017. The Sydney Writers Festival is on from 22nd May - 28th May 2017 and The Sydney Film Festival is on from 7th - 18th June 2017. Hopefully VIVID's Chatswood precinct will have a dress rehearsal prior to opening night as they had last year allowing me more time to visit and see all of the VIVID precincts. Chatswood, Opera House (East Circular Quay) , Botanic Gardens, State Library, Conservatorium of Music, Martin Place and Darling Harbour (including Maritime Museum) done so far. Other precincts after my trip to Melbourne. VIVID 2017 it's a wrap for another year - done!
3. Autumn Harvest Festival @ Rouse Hill Farm. This is not a popular tourist destination due to its lack of access by public transport from Sydney Centre as it is located in the outer Western suburbs but it is one of the properties under the Sydney Living Museums portfolio of properties under Historic Houses Trust. I have not attended this event in previous years and will only attend if there is a regular shuttle bus similar to the Spring Festival out at Elizabeth Farm running to and from the nearest railway station or bus terminal/shopping centre. Hopefully there will be as the property is over 7 km from the nearest train station Riverstone and at least 2 km from the nearest town centre Rouse Hill. Been and done - excellent family day out but such a long trip out there!
4. Penguin Expedition at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium. Pengouin or Manchots? (Refer my blog on my Biodome visit)
5. Good Food and Wine Show (yes it is almost that time of the year again!) . Melbourne 4th June 17 and Sydney 25th June 17. Good Food & Wine Show Melbourne over for another year onto the Sydney show! Well it's a wrap for The Good Food and Wine Show Sydney for another year!
6. Van Gough Seasons @ NGV Melbourne 3rd June 17. This exhibition is on for quite a while however I am killing 2 birds with 1 stone by planning to attend this at the same time as the Good Food and Wine Show while I am away in Melbourne making it a full weekend away. Done!
7. Winter Magic Festival in the Blue Mountains 24th June 2017. I can only fit in a day trip to Katoomba for this event - would love to do a "Christmas in July" weekend in Blue Mountains however it clashes with the Good Food and Wine Show the following day in Sydney. May have to return for a proper weekend in the Blue Mountains for Christmas in July - in July!!! Technically Christmas in July does not fall on a particular date - one person suggested as long as it remains cold but others think celebrating Christmas in July in August is too late. I think Christmas in July should technically be 25th June or even better 25th July - but on a weekend that snows in the Blue Mountains is even more ideal and that typically is late June coincidentally around the last 2 weekends of June but can be as late as August. Done and dusted including the fireworks!
8. The MKR grand final is on tonight on channel 7 at 8 pm but as soon as this reality tv cooking competition series is over , another one starts tomorrow night on channel 10 at 7.30 pm - Masterchef 2017 series - I've lost count of which # season it is now. I thought they have cooked everything possible over the years on this cooking show - what else is there left to cook? I nicknamed the show a few years ago "BASTARD CHEF". Watched and still watching - same same really. Skipped a few episodes - just too much on!
9. "All About the Flowers" and "Aboriginal Bush Food" @ The Royal Botanic Gardens.
Booked to attend the latter paid event on 20th May in the afternoon, I plan to attend the former free event @ The Calyx in the morning. This means it will be yet another busy weekend for me. Ran out of time need to go back to the Royal Botanic Gardens another day. The following day I will be attending one of the Sydney Writers Festival events -The Zine Fair @ the MCA - Absolutely loved it!Made 2 purchases which are very intetesting reading. Can't say the same for the Aboriginal Bush Food Experience - still no post event servey or any information such as recipes or plant idendification notes received. Haven't had a chance to return to the Calyx to see its interior yet - too much on.
10. Closing night of VIVID @ Taronga Zoo 17th June from 5.30 pm. It will be interesting to see if it is better then last year. Did not bother to get a blue wristband for the gondola ride this year. Both blue wrist band sessions on closing night are now sold out. Done!
Quick analytics - looks like the Americans and French like to read my blog , followed by English and Irish with Australians falling below them. Doesn't anyone want to read about my adventures to Toronto, Ottawa, Niagara Falls and Montreal? How about my trip to Elizabeth Farm to attend and Eel Festival or The Alliance Francais French Film Festival all earlier this year? Maybe the only 3 things everyone is interested in reading on my blog is the nudist beaches near Chowder Bay, The Blue Mountains and Janolan Caves and The Good Food and Wine Show or food related events I attend. Diversity is good!
Saturday, 29 April 2017
Monday, 24 April 2017
Tuesday 25th April 2017 - Anzac Day Public Holiday
I blogged about this previously - please read previous Anzac Day Blog.
A time to pay respect to all service men and women past and present who served in every war, conflict and peace keeping mission in our history. Those that sacrificed there lives and those that survived so we would have the peace and freedom we enjoy today.
To our Diggers - "Lest We Forget"
Today Anzac Day commemorations, services and marches are held around Australia and around the World starting with the traditional dawn services. Symbolised with Rosemary sprigs and poppies along with the sounds of "The Last Post", with a game of two up and lunch at the local pub or RSL afterwards.
Recommended
1. If you can't attend the dawn services - find a spot along Elizabeth Street to view the annual Anzac Day Parade between 9 am and 12 pm
2. Attend the Hyde Park Cenotaph for the commemorative service afterwards.
A time to pay respect to all service men and women past and present who served in every war, conflict and peace keeping mission in our history. Those that sacrificed there lives and those that survived so we would have the peace and freedom we enjoy today.
To our Diggers - "Lest We Forget"
Today Anzac Day commemorations, services and marches are held around Australia and around the World starting with the traditional dawn services. Symbolised with Rosemary sprigs and poppies along with the sounds of "The Last Post", with a game of two up and lunch at the local pub or RSL afterwards.
Recommended
1. If you can't attend the dawn services - find a spot along Elizabeth Street to view the annual Anzac Day Parade between 9 am and 12 pm
2. Attend the Hyde Park Cenotaph for the commemorative service afterwards.
Above is a photo of the many memorials around Sydney. This particular one is located on Darling Street Balmain.
Saturday, 22 April 2017
Sunday 23rd April 2017 - Eat Your History Common Sense Cookery and What's On @ the MCA
I had a bit of time to spare before the Eat Your History Common Sense Cookery tour at Susannah Place began at 11.30 am therefore spent my time looking at one of the new exhibits at the MCA.
On level 1 there are 2 exhibition halls full of Kader Attia artworks in mulimedia.
(Photos attached)
Stay tuned - to be continued
I arrive early outside Susannah Place - 11.00 am and I am the first person to arrive to get my name marked off a list of 17 people on the the Eat Your History Common Sense Cookery tour.
The tour is fully booked and there was a wait list. People on the tour did not start arriving until after 11.15 am and only 1 person could not make it for the tour. The tour started at 11.30 am and finishes at 1.30 pm ( with refreshments of homemade lemonade and carraway seed cake served during our tour in the kitchen area behind the store). I used the time between 11.00 am and 11 30 am to blog and sat out in the sun on the cobble steps outside the Cheap Cash Grocery Store @ Susannah Place Museum.
The tour begins in the Cheap Cash Grocery Store where we cloak all our bags under the counter due to lack of space within the 4 tiny 2 storey 4 room terrace houses that make up Susannah Place Museum. We are then split into 2 smaller groups - one group starting in the store and upstairs kitchen behind the store and given a talk and tour of the store and kitchen on the history of cookery taught at school during the early 1900s through recipes, cookbooks, photographs ,documents, research, oral histories of families and through the eyes of Dolly Youngein's Fort Street School Cookery Class Homework Book - the other group (which I was in) starting with a tour of each of these 4 tiny houses and given a talk and tour of the history of each of them - it wasn't a full tour of the houses as we never ventured uptairs in any of the houses, just the main ground floor rooms and downstairs kitchens - and how they were used over time and its occupants. Hard to imagine living in any of them as there was no electricity most of the time, no hot water or running water and sometimes there was gas unless the occupants decided not to have this installed in their house which if they decided to had to pay extra for it in rent or use a pay gas meter which required coins to be inserted into a meter to keep it running.
Groups then swapped tour guides with the 2 groups coming back together for the final part of the tour - a hands on cookery class where we made date pudding to take home and cook, a recipe from Dolly's Fort Street School Cookery Class Homework Book.
I could write so much more about this tour as it was abolutely fascinating! Some things never change such as :
1. Whoever thought store loyalty programs such as Flybuys or Woolworths Rewards are actually not a new concept? Mr Youngein's cheap cash grocery store had a loyalty program in place way back in the 1900s where if you shopped enough there you earned green stamps which you could take to a supply store and exchange for something such as cutlery or crockery perhaps - maybe a grandfather clock?
2. Whoever thought ingredients such as tapioca or sago existed back in the 1900s and were used as a thickening agent or to add texture as they are used today commercially - if you look at some fruit pudding recipes today there are some that use tapioca or sago and on the back of commercially available products in supermarkets it lists tapioca or sago or their derivatives as a thickening agent in the ingredients list.
3. Coffee and chicory according to historical bookkeeping and inventory records were in demand even back in the 1900s. Today unlike the 1900s chicory can be still found in certain supermarkets but is less common and is probably used as a flavouring agent for smoking food rather then when it was used back in the 1900s to "substitute" coffee with as chicory is less expensive then coffee.
4. Tea - like today tea was also a popular beverage back in the 1900s and what has remained unchanged is "tea blending" .Again back in 1900s tea blending was mixing cheaper tea leaves with more expensive tea leaves to form a "house blend" Today tea blending is about achieving as many different exotic flavours of tea, making tea drinking more enjoyable although not more inexpensive. Also tea blending may also be for therapeutic or medicinal purposes such as calendula and dandelion which was a tea blend Potions and Lotions used to make up for me to drink as a form of relief for my eczema inflamation.
5. Chocolate - ? Did chocolate even exist in the 1900s? There was no mention of this at all during the tour. Attention the Curator & the Cook - would someone like to research this? I did notice that one of the items from the archeological digs found around the Hyde Park Barracks was a very old tin or bar of what looked like Nestle Chocolate or some sort of chocolate.
Photos attached
Rating: this going to be a first I give this tour a 10/10. Despite all the stuffing around I received to book a spot on this Eat Your History Common Sense Cookery tour, the actual tour itself at Susannah House was perfectly organised. Every event I have been to so far whether free or paid run through Sydney Living Museums has been pretty well organised eventhough booking a tour is another story. I encourage everyone to go on at least one of their "Colonial Gastonomy" tours. Absolutely enjoyed it thanks to everyone guides, Anna the curator of Susannah Place and Jackie the resident colonial gastronomer for an enjoyable event. Hope you will run more gastronomy tours throughout the year.
PS. I didn't have time to cook my puddings when I arrived home that day as it was recommended to steam or boil our small puddings for 1 hour therefore I placed them in the refridgerator and the following day placed them into an opal ceramic bowl (nice and snug) in the top level of a double steamer with the level of water quite close to the rim in the bottom pot. I steamed the puddings for a little over an hour while I prepared a butter scotch type syrup/sauce to pour over and soak my warm date puddings. I made this butter scotch type syrup by reducing golden syrup, a dash of milk, dates and a small amount of unsalted butter in a small pot - strirring it often. To ensure the syrup was smooth (there is nothing worse then a broken tooth as a result of a rebel date pit!) I strained it through a sieve before pouring it over the perfectly shaped and steamed date puddings. Absolute Yumminess!!!! Will have to make a variation of this recipe again.
Back to the members lounge @ the MCA to have some take away lunch , refill my water bottle and catch up on my blogging before a toliet break, checking my backpack in on the 1st floor and heading up to the 3rd floor of the MCA to see the New Australian Art exhibition for the last 45 minutes or so before the MCA closes @ 5 pm.
Photos attached
On level 1 there are 2 exhibition halls full of Kader Attia artworks in mulimedia.
(Photos attached)
Stay tuned - to be continued
I arrive early outside Susannah Place - 11.00 am and I am the first person to arrive to get my name marked off a list of 17 people on the the Eat Your History Common Sense Cookery tour.
The tour is fully booked and there was a wait list. People on the tour did not start arriving until after 11.15 am and only 1 person could not make it for the tour. The tour started at 11.30 am and finishes at 1.30 pm ( with refreshments of homemade lemonade and carraway seed cake served during our tour in the kitchen area behind the store). I used the time between 11.00 am and 11 30 am to blog and sat out in the sun on the cobble steps outside the Cheap Cash Grocery Store @ Susannah Place Museum.
The tour begins in the Cheap Cash Grocery Store where we cloak all our bags under the counter due to lack of space within the 4 tiny 2 storey 4 room terrace houses that make up Susannah Place Museum. We are then split into 2 smaller groups - one group starting in the store and upstairs kitchen behind the store and given a talk and tour of the store and kitchen on the history of cookery taught at school during the early 1900s through recipes, cookbooks, photographs ,documents, research, oral histories of families and through the eyes of Dolly Youngein's Fort Street School Cookery Class Homework Book - the other group (which I was in) starting with a tour of each of these 4 tiny houses and given a talk and tour of the history of each of them - it wasn't a full tour of the houses as we never ventured uptairs in any of the houses, just the main ground floor rooms and downstairs kitchens - and how they were used over time and its occupants. Hard to imagine living in any of them as there was no electricity most of the time, no hot water or running water and sometimes there was gas unless the occupants decided not to have this installed in their house which if they decided to had to pay extra for it in rent or use a pay gas meter which required coins to be inserted into a meter to keep it running.
Groups then swapped tour guides with the 2 groups coming back together for the final part of the tour - a hands on cookery class where we made date pudding to take home and cook, a recipe from Dolly's Fort Street School Cookery Class Homework Book.
I could write so much more about this tour as it was abolutely fascinating! Some things never change such as :
1. Whoever thought store loyalty programs such as Flybuys or Woolworths Rewards are actually not a new concept? Mr Youngein's cheap cash grocery store had a loyalty program in place way back in the 1900s where if you shopped enough there you earned green stamps which you could take to a supply store and exchange for something such as cutlery or crockery perhaps - maybe a grandfather clock?
2. Whoever thought ingredients such as tapioca or sago existed back in the 1900s and were used as a thickening agent or to add texture as they are used today commercially - if you look at some fruit pudding recipes today there are some that use tapioca or sago and on the back of commercially available products in supermarkets it lists tapioca or sago or their derivatives as a thickening agent in the ingredients list.
3. Coffee and chicory according to historical bookkeeping and inventory records were in demand even back in the 1900s. Today unlike the 1900s chicory can be still found in certain supermarkets but is less common and is probably used as a flavouring agent for smoking food rather then when it was used back in the 1900s to "substitute" coffee with as chicory is less expensive then coffee.
4. Tea - like today tea was also a popular beverage back in the 1900s and what has remained unchanged is "tea blending" .Again back in 1900s tea blending was mixing cheaper tea leaves with more expensive tea leaves to form a "house blend" Today tea blending is about achieving as many different exotic flavours of tea, making tea drinking more enjoyable although not more inexpensive. Also tea blending may also be for therapeutic or medicinal purposes such as calendula and dandelion which was a tea blend Potions and Lotions used to make up for me to drink as a form of relief for my eczema inflamation.
5. Chocolate - ? Did chocolate even exist in the 1900s? There was no mention of this at all during the tour. Attention the Curator & the Cook - would someone like to research this? I did notice that one of the items from the archeological digs found around the Hyde Park Barracks was a very old tin or bar of what looked like Nestle Chocolate or some sort of chocolate.
Photos attached
Inside The Cheap Cash Grocery Store
The Upstairs Kitchen Behind The Cheap Cash Grocery Store
The Exteriors & Interiors of Each of the 4 Houses @ Susannah Place Museum
The Downstairs Kitchen Area Where We Made The Date Puddings
PS. I didn't have time to cook my puddings when I arrived home that day as it was recommended to steam or boil our small puddings for 1 hour therefore I placed them in the refridgerator and the following day placed them into an opal ceramic bowl (nice and snug) in the top level of a double steamer with the level of water quite close to the rim in the bottom pot. I steamed the puddings for a little over an hour while I prepared a butter scotch type syrup/sauce to pour over and soak my warm date puddings. I made this butter scotch type syrup by reducing golden syrup, a dash of milk, dates and a small amount of unsalted butter in a small pot - strirring it often. To ensure the syrup was smooth (there is nothing worse then a broken tooth as a result of a rebel date pit!) I strained it through a sieve before pouring it over the perfectly shaped and steamed date puddings. Absolute Yumminess!!!! Will have to make a variation of this recipe again.
Back to the members lounge @ the MCA to have some take away lunch , refill my water bottle and catch up on my blogging before a toliet break, checking my backpack in on the 1st floor and heading up to the 3rd floor of the MCA to see the New Australian Art exhibition for the last 45 minutes or so before the MCA closes @ 5 pm.
Photos attached
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