Royal Easter Show + Dinner at The Mulberry

Back in Easter, I went to the Royal Easter Show with Damon. I haven't been since I was 16 on my birthday!! Verdict: Way overpriced and a waste of time. I did come home with bags of gourmet nuts that I bought from one of the food stands though so all is not lost!

Art exhibition:


Animal competitions:



What Mum must have felt like after popping out 6 kids in 12 years:

What Mum felt like while feeding Monica when she was a (big hungry) baby:

Kiddie rides:

Haha this reminded me of all the mind-numbing rides Monica had to go on with Lauren:


Then we headed out into the open where the adult rides and more importantly, where the FOOD were!!

Balloons......

Pony rides:

Rides galore:



Games that have been rigged so the most you'll ever get for your $5 and efforts is a $0.50 plastic junk. Probably.... carnies, don't sue me!



The obligatory ghost house/train:

I can never go past a Haunted House without thinking about the anecdote re Mel. She was in Singapore with Monica many many many maaaaaany moons ago when they decided to go to one. They got inside the front entrance and nothing had happened yet at that stage. Mel started screaming in the dark, closed her eyes and ran all the way to the exit. True story.

Anyway we were too cheapskate so we didn't go on any rides. We did stuff our faces with a giant bag of cotton floss candy and an overpriced hot dog though. After that we headed off to dinner at Mulberry as I got a good deal for a 2 course meal + a cocktail each. Yay for cheap daily deals.
Here's Damon with his girlie drink and my appletini.

Entree for Damon: Prawn cocktail

Mine was the pork belly... oh so good. Check out the thin crispy piece of crackling! Mopped the whole thing up. Yum!

Innards shot of ma pork belly:

I chose a healthier main : fish of some sort. Can't remember the details now but it was really good too. Nice and tender, flavoursome.

Damon's steak and mash:

We were big spenders so we got 2 sides too which weren't part of the (cheap) deal. Beans and mushrooms. They were ok.

I decided that dinner wasn't calorific enough so I got a cheesecake to share with Damon. I said share but really it was MINE. All mine. Twas good.

Birthday Dinner - Chicken Soup & Noodles

Didn't realise I forgot to post about my birthday dinner on the actual day. Mel suggested we go out for dinner but I just felt like some comfort food so I told the gang to come over and I'll cook my own dinner. Hehehe.

Ginger, Free range organic chicken drums, mushrooms and eggs are the must-have ingredients:

Frying up the ginger in sesame seed oil so they give off the most fragrant smell:

Browning the drums:

Then fill the pot up to the brim with water and throw the mushrooms in. Bring to boil and then simmer for aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaages:

Boil the eggs:

Get slave to peel the eggshells:

Voila... dinner is served.

Oh so good. It's not just my own inflated opinion of my cooking by the way. All the food were gobbled up by the hungry mob and I was left to do the dishes as well! How rude.

Bought myself this AH dress that I've been eyeing up in Melbourne.

Got a VIP gift bag because I am a VIP, daaaaarlings.

They've just changed their paperbags and color schemes and the design is tres adorable!

Inside the VIP bag, there was a full size MAC mascara and gift sizes of some other bits and bobs. There was also a AH heart shaped bag charm and one of their past season silk scarf.


I also asked the Sales Assistant prettily to give me a suit bag for my dress and she complied. Yay I have a suit bag for every past colour schemes they've had. Wohooo.

So Cool!

I guarantee that by the end of watching the clip, you'll think the guy is a lot more attractive than when you first started. No? Just me? Ok then.

Restaurant of the Year - The Grove

Apologies for the lack of posts in the last month or so. I've been busy eating my body weight in food that Mum was working overtime to churn out for us. My bathroom scales hate me. Anyway I have a huge backlog of entries to do so they will come in due course. First up, the meal I had at The Grove with Mel, Andrew, Teresa and Stuart back in April. I had to apologise for the freak that I am and my need to document all things food-related. Stuart was dumbfounded and asked me Why? To which, I screamed WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHY? IT'S FOOD!!! Nah I didn't. I probably said something along the lines of Why Not? You know, typical Hii girl answer.

Also, I had only just discovered the low light setting on my camera and it was after I took these photos so they aren't the best lighting wise as I didn't want to be the annoying person letting off the flash every five seconds and disturbing the general ambience of the place.

Cover of the menu:

Mel pretending that she hasn't already checked out the menu online and planned what she wanted:

Blurry pic of the bread roll but I'm including it for completeness' sake:

We had the degustation which consisted of 3 entrees, 1 main, a pre-dessert, a dessert and handmade macaroon and chocolates.

Hamachi with creme fraiche and horseradish sorbet, lemon oil. It was ok. The problem wasn't that it wasn't nice but that I've had Tetsuya's degustation so I was one tough customer to please!

Tortellini of saffron and goat's ricotta, beurre noisette, date and sorrels. From memory, I wasn't too taken by this. Me no vegetarian. Don't get me started on that beetroot tart from French Cafe.

Crispy wild boar, confit hen's egg, beetroot, apple and walnuts. This was sooo good, juicy and tender and the tiny gooey egg on top was just the cherry on top. Mel and I had this at Taste of Auckland and loved it then too.

Teresa was the only one who chose beef as main - Organic beef fillet with bone marrow, young carrots and white onion puree.

Everyone else was like Duh! we are having lobster. Butter poached crayfish, toasted farrow, sweet corn custard and smoked tomato. Can't remember the details now but it was pretty yum.

Another angle of the crayfish:

Bring on the desserts, baby!!!

Pre-dessert - some kind of fruit based yoghurt topped with a teeny tiny apple donut. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. I wanted to lick the glass.

Main dessert - Souffle (banana??? can't remember) with ice cream and cookie crumbs. This was gross. I don't like souffle as a rule and this one had such a strong alcoholic taste, it was yuck.

Macaroons to finish off!!! To be honest, their only redeeming quality was that they were sweet. They didn't have that yummy crunchy stickiness that good macaroons should have though.


Hang on a minute!! The menu mentioned macaroons AND chocolates. What!!!!!!! We've been ripped off. Shame on you, The Grove!