A larger group than usual today at the Bird Cow Fish in Crown Street. Sirdan and I had lamb. Great!
Afterwards Simon H and I dropped into the new Surry Hills Library which he hadn’t seen before. He was impressed.
On my way home I noted good use being made of the new skateboard area in Ward Park.
Good to see.
Sunday lunch was at Alchemy, a newish Polish cafe-restaurant in Crown Street Surry Hills. Hungry Girl gives an account which Sirdan and I would agree with!
A Polish gem amongst the many fantastic restaurants along Crown St. The food and service were great and the prices were reasonable. Perfect if you’re looking for some hearty, comforting food during winter.
I ordered pork and Sirdan beef. Somehow we managed to eat each other’s dish rather than our own, but it was all good. 🙂 We also concluded that Polish people are rather good looking, to judge from some we saw…
Trouble is it isn’t winter – though that was a plus in the people watching department. In fact today may well have been the hottest November day on record in Sydney. At 3pm it was 42C at Sydney Airport. 1982 is the official record (41.6C).
We had our main at Chinese Whisper, sadly not to be with us for too much longer. For dessert we went over the road to a new Polish place. That’s Sirdan of course.
They have some interesting mains here, so we resolved to try them in the near future.
Sunday lunch, thanks to Sirdan, was rather swish.
It was at Longrain in Commonwealth Street Surry Hills.
Second, Live Writer works again.
Thanks to Sirdan.
We had been hoping Mr Rabbit would join is at Chinese Whisper today, but it was not to be. Meal was great anyway…
At our favourite Chinese restaurant today, Chinese Whisper in Crown Street.
Sirdan had been in Melbourne the previous weekend, seeing this:
Excellent, he said. And he also saw A Day in Pompeii. He stayed at the Hotel Windsor.
Politics-free and controversy-free today, people. Instead there are these things I am looking forward to:
1. Friday night
Emma Buzo has kindly sent free tickets to The Seymour Centre: Buzo’s Norm and Ahmed (1968) and Alana Valentine’s Shafana and Aunt Sarrinah. Sirdan and I are going. See also Indian students, racism, theatre news.
2. Sunday lunch
This will be at Sirdan’s and is for Sirdan’s birthday. There could be a mystery guest… Or more than one…
Remember I first mentioned The Batik Courtyard Cafe in April? Sirdan and I have been back several times and the food really is excellent – mainly Indonesian and Malaysian, but with other items too. One couple near us were having bacon, eggs and sausages! We went down the Indonesian track with something like this but with the addition of a VERY hot pickle garnish on the side that appeared to have dried fish bits in it. Great meal though, and a multicoloured ice desert with lychees and so on after.
The great thing though was the music: cool jazz played by a group that was mostly Indonesian, but with an Anglo lead guitarist and one Anglo singer – didn’t catch his name, but he was so good! Performs also at The Basement, a well-known Sydney jazz venue.
An amazing cross-cultural experience really. 🙂
Sunday dinner rather than Sunday lunch at M’s yesterday.
There were in fact three guests of honour. Nicholas Jose I mentioned here. Yes, we did talk about the new Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature. No, I can’t say what was said because any detail is embargoed until the official launch later this week, but I can tell you it is big (around 1,500 pages) and anyone interested in Australian Literature will want one. There may be some surprises.
The second guest was Claire Roberts.
Claire Roberts is Senior Curator Asian Arts and Design, Powerhouse Museum, Sydney and a Research Fellow with Geremie Barmé’s Australian Research Council Federation Fellowship project at The Australian National University…
Claire is a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University for 2009-10.
She has a Master of Arts in Chinese language and art history from the University of Melbourne and a PhD in Chinese history from The Australian National University.
Nick and Claire are both about to go to Harvard for a year. That is why M had the gathering.
The third guest I shall call M2. He works in Thailand with refugees but may soon be going to Africa or the USA. He was briefly in Australia because of family matters. He is an old friend of M, so M took the opportunity for us to catch up. In one of those small world moments I discovered he met my ex-student Evan Ruth in Peshawar in 2001.
Also there was William Yang. I was interested to hear that William is currently reading Anthony Venn-Brown’s autobiography. He is really impressed with it, as was I.
There were several other friends there, and of course Sirdan.
Sirdan and Simon
View from Simon’s verandah
M also joined us. He and Simon engaged in vigorous but mutually enjoyable cross-cultural debate.
Ours didn’t have the egg or rice, but otherwise this seems to be it.
Of course Sirdan and I experienced this treat at Chinese Whisper in Crown Street. So good! Melted in the mouth.
Last Sunday we had dined at The Shakespeare with Mr Rabbit, and we both agreed we had really enjoyed seeing him again, and hope to do so in the not too distant future – here at Chinese Whisper perhaps, or at the rather wonderful Indonesian/Malay place we discovered recently.
Just after leaving Sirdan to head home across Ward Park I saw this.
No idea, but I hope when they wake up they find it was worth it… 😉
That is the company at Sunday Lunch; the menu you may divine from the plates. As generous a $10 worth as you could hope for…
Ran into Richard Allen and Karen Pearlman later at the new Surry Hills Library. And their two children! Richard was one of the editors of Neos.
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Surry Hills -- 160 pics.
Chinatown and Haymarket Sydney -- 110 pics.
Redfern and East Redfern -- 90 pics.
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