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Category Archives: lunch

is this not the most beautiful birthday cake ever?

it was bought for me as a surprise, a few days after the boy, sitting a metre away from me and confirming picnic details over the phone with his mother, said, “and while she’s not listening, i don’t know if you know, but saturday is bowb’s birthday.”

there was meant to be an proper outdoor-in-the-park picnic, with full family and grandparent attendance, but an hour before we were due to meet, the sky turned grey with raincloud, and great gusts of wind were slapping trees about. plan b: we met up on the verandah in the backyard with pies and quiche and rolls and cold chicken and coca cola… and then the gusty winds blew the clouds away and it was clear blue skies once more.

of course.

after consuming more curry chicken pies (three) and coca cola (one) than i should have, the cake appeared. the candle was lit and relit three times during the song — the gusty winds hadn’t quite abated — but i got to blow it out in the end.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 14 November 2004 at 3:41 pm

permalink | filed under cake, lunch

sweet mercy, the cool change is here.

yesterday’s 38° and today’s not-much-better was taking its sweaty, stinky toll. my feet were red and swollen like large warm steaks. it seemed like the best place to find lunch was in the freezer. it came so close to being ice cream, but ended up being a mound of peas and a lemon-crumbed fish fillet. this neccesitated both the oven and stovetop going full blast for a while at noon, but it was all worthwhile.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 14 October 2004 at 10:07 pm

permalink | filed under kid, lunch

oh happy day. because i only had $7 in my wallet yesterday, and wanted to get some DVDs and a chicken kebab for dinner, and didn’t want to walk all the way to the ATM in the dark, i ended up standing in line at the supermarket with a large paper bag of mushrooms (and two punnets of strawberries and a bar of chocolate), just so i could get some cash out at the register.

which meant that not only am i now halfway through “bowling for columbine”, which is much less hysterical and boorish than i thought it would be, and that flush with cash i was able to splash out on a bottle of turkish sour cherry juice to accompany my extremely succulent chicken kebab, but also that when i woke up this morning, there was a large bag of mushrooms in the fridge ready to be fried up into my favourite breakfast of all: mushrooms on toast. mmm…

posted by ragingyoghurt on 26 September 2004 at 11:43 am

permalink | filed under at the movies, breakfast, lunch

it’s good to have a plan, because then you can be quietly pleased when everything falls into place. in this case, tuesday, the nori rolls were a perfect balance of salty and sour and sweet and umami (there is no place for bitterness in my life), “donnie darko” (apart from the arty digi-montages) was still good, and the coco loco mocha freezer (while too damn watery and ice chippy in texture) was a powerful chocolatey force. for about ten minutes into the film, the number of people in the cinema was one — me, and then sadly four teenagers arrived and took out the back row, and giggled when cherita chen gets told “go back to china, bitch”, and received phone calls on their mobiles, and giggled some more.

teenagers. feh.

having a plan with a bit of leeway on either side is especially good, because then you can duck into kmart before for a pair of new underwear, and pop into harris farm after for beans and asparagus and a tub of raspberry yoghurt.

—

completely unplanned was the sudden waking at 2.30 this morning, the lying awake for an hour before rolling out of bed and the resigned heading downstairs with a handful of pillows and “the new yorker” food issue. having over the last couple of days already read about the struggles to develop a superior ketchup and some guy’s obsession with pasta, 3am seemed a perfectly alright time to learn about the commercial production of salad greens.

here, look:

it took … until 1989 … to mass produce the first retail bagged salads. salad spinners were perfected, shredding knives sharpened, battalions of chemists subcontracted to create the perfect polymers. today’s bags are a triumph of practical ingenuity. their plastic is made up of five to ten layers, each with a different function. some are designed to make the package shiny or crinkly, others to carry print well. together, they have to be just permeable enough to keepthe bag’s artificial atmosphere in balance — the wrong ink alone can suffocate a salad. as the lettuce sits on the shelf, the gases in the bag are constantly consumed, released and replaced. oxygen, nitrogen and carbon-dioxide molecules bond with the polymers on one side of the plastic and are released on the other, diffusing from high concentrations to low. every type of salad requires a different type of bag, tailored to its respiration rate by gas chromatography and computer analysis. every bag is a miniature biosphere.

from salad days: how a lowly leaf became a high-end delicacy
by burkhard bilger

yesterday, at a luncheon in which everyone at the table turned out to be with child (way to go, my fertile friends!), what i ordered off the specials board was a grilled haloumi salad. it wasn’t just slabs of grilled salty cheese; there were lightly dressed baby rocket and mint leaves, cucumber ribbons, fresh beetroot, roasted eggplant, and on top, a dollop of herby yoghurt. there were also two bits of bread which in the end were used to wipe the plate clean.

oh cook + archie’s, i am privileged to be fed by you.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 17 September 2004 at 12:10 pm

permalink | filed under around town, at the movies, bookshelf, drink, kid, lunch, snacks

the first day of spring brought such bad things as:

1. the lovely and amazing cafe zoe up the road having black bean and spinach soup on the menu, but no longer in the kitchen, because although the winter menu had changed to the spring menu, they hadn’t printed them up yet. in truth, this was only a bit sad for a little while because the ensuing second breakfast of a spinach and poached egg english muffin with grilled-in-butter mushrooms and a mesclun salad more than redeemed the situation.

2. nellie flying back to new york, which was such a sad bad thing that we began saying “ok… well…” and “goodbye” yesterday afternoon so that we’d be used to it by the time today came around. in addition we had to have first breakfasts (actually the second course of first breakfast) of ice cream sundaes to cheer ourselves up.

the sundaes were composed of a perfunctory layer of tim tam ice cream, strawberries, vanilla ice cream, strawberries, more vanilla ice cream and strawberries, crushed lebanese date biscuits, vanilla ice cream, shaved chocolate and strawberries.

3. coming out of two and a half hours of birth class to discover that it is raining, and arriving home to find all the laundry that was oh so close to sundried is now close to sopping wet. at least now i know how to swaddle a baby.

4. my sister not being here.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 1 September 2004 at 10:03 pm

permalink | filed under around town, ice cream, kid, lunch, nellie, snacks

after yoga, after a long walk up to the main road, after a slow ride on the 380, after a time spent deciding what fish would be best battered and fried, and how many potato scallops to get, we finally sat down at a picnic bench facing the sea. it was just short of 4pm, lunchtime this saturday. between us and the view of sparkling bondi, a hefty blue eyed cod and a pile of chips, and two potato scallops.

something happens when chips are served up with anything. the anything is momentarily forgotten as you try to cram fat, hot, salty potato into your mouth. will you be so lucky (or restrained) this time that the delicate skin behind your front teeth will not end up scalded and hanging in painful little ribbons from the roof of your mouth?

and what of the batter? what of that last piece of crunchy brown that fell off the fish sometime during the eating?

“what shall i do with this batter?” i asked.

“leave it,” said nellie.

“i know.” i said this only because i thought she’d said “eat it”.

i’m not sure how the misunderstanding was cleared up, but there were still chips on the greaseproof paper, and i knew what fate would befall me, and them, if i didn’t throw them to the gulls.

my overarm was unstoppable, hurling chips one after the other at the horrible, beady-eyed things. the air was filled with birds and squawking and chips, and finally, that last piece of batter. my eyes were still filled with fire. i never felt so alive.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 23 August 2004 at 6:29 pm

permalink | filed under around town, lunch, nellie

you know what’s weird? when you don’t really go to a place — say parramatta — very often, and then a month or two after your last trip there you catch the train to a job-related meeting at said place, and you get there and bloody hell, the train station has moved! sure, it’s only moved about 30m along the track, but when you descend the wide new escalators and exit the shiny new turnstiles and stand out on the street, facing unfamiliar buildings and streetscape, unfamiliar only by being 30m down from where you normally step out onto the footpath… you will be utterly confused.

ok, well *i* was confused.

but happily, i oriented myself in the end, made it to the meeting, had a salad, avocado and pesto wrap and cloudy lemonade lunch bought for me, and then found myself blissfully wandering the aisles of the wonderland that is harris farm market for half an hour. which is why i sit here now with a bag of sweet tart cherries in front of me, and a slab of triple cream brie downstairs in the fridge.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 28 July 2004 at 4:20 pm

permalink | filed under around town, lunch, shoping, snacks

crap. clearly, i have lost the ability to write. a whole week since getting back from whirlwind vacation jaunt, and alls i’ve had time for is to post a picture of a sugar-crusted apple turnover that was eaten on a sunny, grassy spot in narooma. a week gone by filled with werk to be done, dishes to be washed (and cups… so many cups), and um, actually that seems to be it. what the hell?

so, yvette, while that last “entry” may have appeared random, it was actually intended that a roundup of the fun and hijinx surrounding the pastry would soon follow.

alas. but look:

it was a short but intense roadtrip, bookended on one end by enormous and tasty fish and chips at summer-in-wintertime jervis bay, and on the other by a whole grilled trout with buttered almonds and three veg up in the wintery mountain town of adaminiby, “home of the giant trout”. in the middle, aformentioned apple turnover, not quite enough baked treats from bakeries in small coastal towns, a cooler bag full of flavoursome mandarins that the boy had picked off his nanna’s tree just the week before, a visit to the bega cheese factory…

…cheese samples, more breathtakingly gorgeous beaches than you could shake a bit of driftwood at, and — two hours in from the sunny south coast — alpine climes in the snowy mountains.

strange. we awoke in our toasty roadside motel, too early, to the sound of revving 4WDs and families setting off for the snowfields. watched the parade of beanies through the picture window, drinking motel tea and breakfasting on anzac biscuits. hot showered, dressed, stepped outside… and the snow had come to us. it was a just light dusting, and good lord! just like the books said! six points, and all unique! not quite an hour after driving past the statue of the trout in the town centre, there we were standing on the site of the old town of kiandra, except that kiandra was not visible under two feet of fresh powder snow.

well, i was surprised, anyway.

and now, bloody hell, a week’s gone by, and what i’ve done is dishes, and scanning, and fixing up scans, and moving stuff around a page. this week coming up brings more (and more) of the same, but hurrah, culminates in the arrival of nellicent, who’s been meeting, greeting and eating her way around the world, and finally, oh my god, makes it here.

yay a yay.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 26 July 2004 at 9:38 am

permalink | filed under boy, breakfast, dinner, lunch, nellie, snacks, trip

so i could’ve spent today drawing a map of western sydney and delivering a bunch of artwork to a scanning place. instead i sat in a cafe in leichhardt, eating a plate of braised lentils pooled around a silverbeet-wrapped timbale of polenta and molten cheese. somewhat (completely) out of character (for me), my luncheon companion was mother-of-boy. this uncharacteristicness extended further into the afternoon, when sister-of-boy was met and an expedition launched to an eastern suburbs homeware emporium, where cake and coffee were had, and then somehow i managed to get everyone to each buy a pizza stone and cutter set. odd.

and then it started to rain. ^_^ aah.

perfect dvd-watching weather, really. the way this free DVD delivery trial works is you sign up and compile a list of DVDs from the database that you want to see, and they get sent out to you as they become available. it seems like maybe they also get sent out in alphabetical order, because so far what i’ve been sent are:
– 11’09″01 september 11
– 28 days later
– a mighty wind

then again, what showed up in my mailbox today was the “indiana jones” bonus material DVD, ahead of the “hulk” bonus material DVD.

[ what a thing to just be able to get the bonus material DVD and not the feature disc. i really do like the special features on a DVD, but they can’t be just any old special features. like, if the package lists a particular film’s special features as “theatrical trailer” or “subtitles”, i get mildly irritated. did you ever watch the special features on “the man who wasn’t there”, and the deleted scenes included a sequence of billy bob thornton performing various curiously-named haircuts? that was cool. ]

is “raiders of the lost ark” a terrific movie or what? can anyone say they like steven spielberg (at least in the early days, before that unnecessary bit in “A.I.” that began “and then a thousand years passed”) without coming across all dawson leary? but damn they were fun films, and harrison ford was such a fine specimen of hero back then. mmm…

in “the making of…” you will see footage of tom selleck screentesting for the indiana role, and you will laugh out loud because really, it’s magnum p.i.. and then you will learn that the sound effects guy made those squelchy snake noises down in the chamber by squelching his hands through his wife’s cheese casserole.

what’s a cheese casserole anyway?

i think i might want some.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 7 July 2004 at 10:50 pm

permalink | filed under around town, lunch, snacks, tv

if yer walking through the scrum that is the underground passageway between town hall station and the queen victoria building (and beyond), and you inadvertantly look backward towards the space beneath the escalators that used to be a flower shop, you will be surprised (or not, seeing as this has been the current growth sector of the small portable food industry for the last couple of years, following sushi roll holes-in-the-walls and those goddamn city convenience stores) to find that it has become a gelato stand called, i think, “mondo”.

it’s one of those places where the gelato is piled high above the stainless steel tubs, with specimens of the raw product that is the main flavour base perched on the crest. in the front corner of the glass case is a milky white mountain studded through with red. it looks like alpine springtime, snow thinning to reveal new blossoms beneath. this is the flavour: white chocolate and raspberry. i want some.

i should be blogging more regularly, no? maybe you really want to know about the leftover fish congee that i had for dinner last night while watching last week’s “ER” on videotape, or the picnic embarked on, solo, last friday at cremorne point (cheese and tomato with seeded mustard and mayonnaise sandwich, a mandarin and two spicy fruit roll biscuits, on a rock, under a tree, watching the spirit of tasmania sail into the harbour).

you might think that being in the family way, as i am, would result in adventures in more and better eating, what with the crazy food cravings and the eating for two and all, but it’s all been very normal: no weird food has been desired, no extra portions dished out. i can’t even provide pitiful stories of throwing up and having to eat nothing but dry crackers and flat gingerbeer. i could blog about pregnancy in general, but really, everything is so… normal, and other people do it so well already.

slowly, though, i’m outgrowing all my clothes, and the speed at which my intestines fill up with gas is most alarming. a bit past halfway, if there’s one effect on good eating that being knocked up has had, it’s that i can’t fit as much food in my stomach at one go as i once could. here is last night’s conversation with my sister:

nellie: how’s the baboo?
bowb: good. umm. it’s growing. it’s taking up too much space in my belly.
nellie: hah! no space for food!
bowb: yah!
nellie: heh! resentful…

lordy, is that the time? i must go make some mushrooms on toast.

posted by ragingyoghurt on 30 June 2004 at 11:48 am

permalink | filed under around town, kid, lunch, misc

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