The Sailors Club - Rose Bay

Today was long.

We ended up trekking all the way to a suburb in west Sydney (1hr and a half away) to realise the William Street we needed was about 10 minutes from our flat. Kate was not happy.

We were over 2 hours late to pick up our hire car and we ended up changing our plans for the day. Instead we drove over the bridge and explored north Sydney.

Bridge excitement!

We found this restaurant called The Sailors Club in Rose Bay at the side of the road. You can't see from the pictures but it looks out over a bay and a marina.

This was the bar area where we had drinks before moving into the restaurant.

As you can see from the below 6pm is a little bit early for dinner on a Saturday night.

To start we had Scallops Baked On The Half Shell, Sweet Potato Purée, Chives, Black Sea Salt

Those little crunchy looking things on top of our scallops were miniature crisps.

Next I had some sticky pork ribs from the bar menu and had food envy once again.

Kate went for the Wagyu Flank Steak, Potato Gratin & Cafe De Paris Butter

That is 'steak juice' aka - blood its swimming in. Carnivore.

Up next was probably the best dessert i've ever had.

Chocolate Brownie, Chocolate Ganache, Caramel Popcorn, Salted Caramel Gel, Popcorn Ice Cream, Cocoa Wafer

I ordered this and Kate opted out of dessert completely. 

After one taste she ordered her own.

The chocolate bar you can see is made from three layers of heavenly chocolate.

There was a ganache top, a brownie base and something magical in-between.

The salted caramel gel was so soft and delicious, even on its own. I may have used my finger to clean every last drop off the plate. As I'm writing this i'm seriously considering driving back there to get another portion..is that bad?

House hunting & Watsons Bay lunching

Last Saturday we started our house hunt. It turns out that we are about a month too early to start looking but it was good to get an idea and understanding of how it works.

We rocked up to this beautiful 3 bed flat in Vaucluse and this was the view at the end of the road.

(All of these pictures are taken on my shiny new Samsung)  #smugsamsungwanker

In England the standard routine is that you book a viewing of a property with the letting agent and then they show you around the property.  Here it's a free-for-all. We walked back up to the flat after our mini excursion and there were about 20 people stood outside. Then, when the clock turned 2 everyone went inside - all of us! It's even so intense that there are tenancy applications to fill out whilst you're inside the property!

After our quick self guided shuffle around each room we came back outside to find more people queuing to get inside. It was a 1-in1-out door policy.

The flat was beautiful but there wasn't enough natural light. Anyone that knows me knows that I love blinds up & natural light coming through open windows. We haven't come all this way to sit in the dark. (Cough cough finder.com.au people.)

After the viewing we headed to The Watson Bay Hotel for lunch and beaut views. My friend said that Sunday sessions here are amazing in the summer. I can totally see why.

It was a bit too windy to be sat out on the deck so we sat in the restaurant which wasn't as nice as the outside so its definitely a summer place.

Of course we started with a cocktail.

From recollection I think it was vodka & raspberry.

I went for the Roasted Baramundi - wrapped in prosciuto, sauteed kale, radicchio, pine nuts, sultanas & caramelised lemon oil.

It was good but sitting across from Kate's choice made my healthy option feel inadequate.

Introducing the Pumpkin & Ricotta lasagne

Sage, burnt butter, amaretti, mustard fruits & parmesan.

This was unreal, it melted in your mouth and was a rich infusion of flavours.

Sadly, this portion was just too much. Although delicious it was too rich - verging on sickly. 

It would have worked better as part of a tasting menu where they give you small samples.

We also had a plate of salt & pepper calamari on the side - it wasn't needed.

I'm not sure how I feel about calamari anymore, it always disappoints me.

(Apart from Busaba obviously - which I miss.)

After our lunch we headed back to Bondi.

This area is definitely where we want to live but the laidback/un-organized lifestyle that is Australia means we have to wait another month before we can start the house hunt.

Creature facts - Lessons with Kate Green

In episode 2 of lessons with Kate Green we discover another side of the Tasmania Devil, resident of Tasmania. But where is Tasmania?

Creature Safety - Lessons with Kate Green

Season 1, Episode 1 - The Red Back Spider

In the pilot episode of Creature Safety, Kate Green tells us how to spot one of Australia's most infamous creepy crawlies.

Bondi to Bronte beach walk

My cousin turned 30 last week. It was his party last night at home and whilst I slept, my family drank.

By the time I woke up, they were well and truly trollied... the perfect time to facetime!

Here they are making guest appearances. I miss these oddjobs.

After some screenshots and lots of laughing I let them continue their evening whilst we got up, out and headed to Bondi beach.

There's a really popular beach walk from Bondi to Bronte beach - it's beautiful.

After walking to Bronte and back to Bondi we decided it was time for some food.

We found ourselves back at The Bucketlist. It was bustling with people but we got served our food in record time.

I've been missing my mum's roast dinners so I went for the Sunday special.

Roast free range pork belly, with parsnips, pumpkin, apple, chestnuts & cider gravy.

The pork belly was pretty disappointing, there was no crackling (This is a crime) and limited belly (The good stuff).

The veggies on the other hand were on point. 

The fitness app on my beaut new Samsung told me I had burned 531 Kcals walking 11.9k  through 16,332 steps.

I felt like this was a good enough reason to justify an ice-cream from Messina.

Today's pick was superb, milk chocolate with choc peanut fudge.

There were ribbons of salty peanut butter throughout. It was amazing.

After savouring every last bite we headed back to the flat as the sun began to set.

It was a beautiful day.