My Monthly Chronicles: April 2024

April was busy with birthdays, beautiful meals and the Boot Factory.  I used to go the the Boot Factory for a cuppa every month but it is a while since I have been three times in a month.  My regular cafe these days is Wild Timor which does not rate a mention because I have sparkling water or mint tea there with a good friend on a weekly basis.  Otherwise there has been fancy food, group meals, pierogis and bike rides.

Torquay beach:

 

One favourite place to visit that I don't manage enough is Torquay.  I squeezed in a quick walk on the beach before a family dinner.  It was so beautiful I wished I could stay longer.  I was at Whites Beach which is where dogs can run off the lead.  At one point I turned to see a small wet dog standing behind me holding a tennis ball expectantly.  I hesitated and then threw the ball for him and exchanged smiles with the owner when he caught up.  That was one cute dog.

 

 

 Eat Pierogi Make Love, Brunswick East

 

We visited Eat Pierogi Make Love (161 Lygon St, Brunswick East) because Sylvia had a yen for pierogis and Polish food after an excellent meal in Zurich.  We had an amazing tomato soup (Pomidorowka) which is served with egg and flour squiggles of pasta-like dumplings.  Then we had a Leniwe or "lazy dumplings": sweet potato dumplings with rich mushroom sauce and crispy ricotta.  It was excellent and served with a wonderfully refreshing cucumber and sour cream side dish.  We also had the Ruskie Pierogi (cheese and potato dumplings) and the Sernik (baked cheesecake with red currant).  Such interesting and delicious food!

 

 

Robinson Reserve, Coburg

 

I shared a photo of the Robinson Reserve Neighbourhood House mural 10 years ago.  It was great to see how it had changed recently.  The house is now call the Reynard Street Neighbourhood House but the mural is still there.  The grass lawn in Robinson Reserve outside the fence is now a vibrant community garden with more welcoming artwork. 

On the telly: A Friend in the Family.  A compelling miniseries about child abuse and grooming the whole family.  It was even creepier to read about it being based on a true story.

 

 

Chookas cafe, Brunswick

 

Chookas cafe continues to be a favourite of Sylvia's.  I don't go there as much as her but have the occasional visit.  This visit a few weekends back had us in line for over half an hour.  When we finally got a seat we were disappointed that the weekend vegetarian udon salad seems to be no longer on the menu.  Fortunately the omusubi never disappoints.  I am now very partial to the grilled kimchi, cheese and edamame omusubi.  The other omusubi we ordered were (left to right on the plate) on the plate are nori, wakame and yukari (Japanese mint with an umeboshi in the middle).  I had plum soda.  Sylvia was delighted with iced berry oreo latte with a cute cat biscuit sitting in it, and that she saw the neighbouring cat Juniper after we finished.

 

 

Luthers Scoops, Brunswick

 

Sylvia is quite a fan of Luthers Scoops on Blyth Street in Brunswick, a few doors up from Sydney Road.  They do amazing ice creams but that's not all.  Some days they have choc chip cookies and now it is getting cooler, they are selling fruit pies.   I finally had a cookie recently when we discovered that the pies are not available until 5pm.  That cookie was warm with a crisp edge and gooey chewy middle.  It was huge but we shared it as well as some ice cream.  Sylvia got her favourite watermelon and strawberry sorbet.  I had a boysenberry cheesecake ice cream that was really good.

Lost keys: I used to lose my purse about once a year but have got better at keeping it in a safe place.  My keys are also kept in a safe place so it is really frustrating me that I remember taking them from the front door and the next time I set out of the house I could not find them.  Either they are still in the house somewhere or they have gone out in a bin.  I hope they reappear but meanwhile have had a new spare set of house keys cut and am still looking into getting spare bike keys cut.

 

 

Boot Factory, Coburg

 

We were at Pentridge recently and stopped at the Boot Factory for a light snack.  We shared the beautiful and delicious Babaganoush with pomegranate and pine nuts served with charred pita breads.   I loved the crunch of nuts and arils.  I had a excellent 70% hot chocolate and Sylvia had a minty mango iced cream tea that was refreshing with subtle flavours.

At the movies: The Fall Guy.  Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are great.  The film is entertaining, fun, silly and a bit too much heavy metal music for me.

 

 

Santuccis, Camberwell

 

The most beautiful lunch of the month was at Santuccis (1392 Toorak Rd, Camberwell).  The Dark Teddy French Toast was served with dark chocolate teddy ice cream, seasonal fruit, coffee mascarpone cheese, orange, lemon citrus syrup & custard.  Yes that is a chocolate teddy bear with his cute little feet melting.  I had the Wild mushroom mix: Portobello, oyster mushrooms w basil pesto, smashed pumpkin, crispy enoki mushroom, crispy kale and polenta chips.  The deep fried enoki was the highlight and I loved the polenta slab.  It was a fun afternoon driving around the unfamilar streets in the east of Melbourne, admiring the autumnal trees and Street Art in Camberwell and Canterbury.

 

 

 

Federal Mills 1915

 

I went to Geelong for a birthday dinner for my brother-in-law at Federal Mills 1915 (PH2 / 33 Mackey Street, North Geelong).  It is a grand old warehouse with lots of weathered bricks, exposed beams and high ceilings.  The building was the boiler house of the sprawling woollen mills that made everything from military uniforms to Qantas fashions.  I enjoyed seeing more of the building behind the industrial chimney stack, a landmark I often pass when visiting my parents.

 

I shared with a few dishes with my mum and brother.  We had Saganaki with peppered figs, honey and lemon, Mac and cheese croquettes, Cauliflower empanadas and the Gnocchi in tomato sauce.  It was all lovely, though fairly standard vegetarian dishes, with the exception of the excellent cauliflower empanadas. 

 

Drinks at 1915 were more impressive.  I loved my lime and yuzu soda but was wowed by the Yuzu Bloom mocktail my sister Fran had.  It was a refreshing mix of elderflower, agave, grapefruit, yuzu soda, and lime.  I was also interested that they had a Pomegranate Sour mocktail with aquafaba.  The dessert menu had a tempting Halloumi loukoumades w’ salted caramel & chocolate ice cream.  I might have been tempted if my mum hadn't brought along birthday cake.  Actually she baked two sponge cakes: one filled with whipped cream and one with lemon filling.  My family has always been split between the two options.  I am team cream because I really dislike lemon filling even though cream is not my thing either.  I admire how my mum whips up fluffy high sponge cakes so easily.

And a quick mention of two conversations I enjoyed.  My niece's bestie made me laugh when she told me that fork refers to four prongs, thrork for three prongs and twork for two prong.  A fun moment of whimsy from am 11 year old.  It was a novel experience to hear my sister's friend talk about their ethical beef farm, and fun to see my sister's surprise that I would be so interested.

 

 

Borscht, Vodka and Tears, Windsor

 

We had a birthday meal for E at Borscht, Vodka and Tears (173 Chapel St, Windsor).  It had old world charm with fading sage green walls, distressed mirrors, farmhouse curios such as a cream separator, native leaves in vases and vintage patterned crockery.  My mum and I had a refreshing Virgin Passion Mule (lime, passionfruit, mint, ginger ale) while E and my dad had Polish beers.  We shared lots of dishes: amazing battered cauliflower, gnocchi in a spinach puree, a cup of borscht broth, cheese and potato pierogi, sweet potato cheddar and jalapeno pierogi, porcini and sauerkraut pierogi, and Dzialka salad.  The salad was a substantial green platter of grilled broccolini, fried kipflers, romesco sauce, salted almonds, chickpeas, leaves, seeds, chilli, pomegranate.  Not cheap but so so good.

 

 

Serendipity: one morning this month we had plumbers fixing the pipes in the front garden so I was called early in the morning to move my car.  I was rewarded for my early morning drive from the car port to the street parking in my pyjamas when it rained later.  My car got the wash it needed that it would not have had in the car port.

 

 

This is my little craft corner from when I made the square with "Green Gourmet Giraffe" on my new header.  The letters were cut out of the picture of limes from an old calendar. 

 

 

Bluey the Sign

 

Bluey fever hit when the new 28 minutes special, The Sign, was finally aired.  It was true to form.  An amusing and insightful episode about our favourite Aussie cartoon dog.  My favourite bits were the flower girl practice and the car trip.  Oh and I saw a Bluey picture by a playground in Brunswick off Tinning Street.  Was it street art or was it a sign?

Podcasts: I was interested to listen to the Freakonomics podcast on how to pave the road to hell.  It was fascinating and a bit depressing to hear about research into the unintended consequences of policies and culture change that aims to improve equity and inclusion.

 

 

Boot Factory on ANZAC Day

 

On ANZAC Day we got up early (for us) and were at the Boot Factory just after 8am for the special ANZAC biscuit and hot drink deal.  Sylvia had a latte and I had a mint tea.  The biscuits were huge and delicious with that pleasingly chewy bend when we broke them in half.

 

Boot Factory and peeking into Indulgence

I went to the Boot Factory twice of ANZAC Day because I had already arranged to have lunch there with my lovely former manager, Sarah.  I had the poke bowl and she had the gnocchi but we were more interested in catching up on work and life.  We had a walk around the Pentridge compound including, a look in the Adina Apartment Hotel.  We tried to peek in the windows around this door to see the Interlude luxury hotel with suites in old bluestone jail cells but you can't see much.  There are better images on the website.

Calle Bakery, North Carlton

At the end of April we finally got to Calle Bakery where Sylvia had been determined to try the month's special Matcha Strawberry Croissant Wheel.  I had the Crookie, a croissant baked with cookie dough on top and lots of melty chocolate and possibly a bit more dough in the centre.  It was exceedingly decadent. Everything was delicious delicious though Sylvia has decided she should not get a match latte to accompany a matcha cream filled croissant wheel again.

We had decided to share a savoury baguette with tomato and burrata and struggled to cut it.  Last time we visited there was a 60 minute wait.  This time we got there early enough not to have to wait but the queue of people waiting for seats and orders quickly grew.  The queue made me feel very self conscious as we took turns at sawing through the super crusty baguette crust with a bread knife, occasionally pushing back in the tomato and burrata that oozed out.  Next time I will ask them to slice the baguette in half at the counter.

Shadow on the lead

Yes we have tried to take Shadow for a walk on a lead.  It has taken quite some time of letting him mooch about the house in his harness and have some walks on the lead in the yard.  This photo is of him on the day we went beyond our front garden.  As you can see, he is most displeased.  He refused to walk.  He much prefers sleeping on a pile of pizza boxes and if he wants a challenge he throws himself at the toilet door until he has opened it with the handle.  We might try again but cats on a lead is a challenge.

In the news: there is outrage!  Outrage over rape in our Parliament House, over immigrants and refugees, over Palestinian deaths in Gaza, over the Cass report on transgender support in the UK, over violence towards women in Australia. Some great insightful and compassionate articles.

• "Forget ideology, it's a battle between politicians and lawyers that is shaping immigration policies" in ABC News by Annabel Crabb.
• "No relief: Why aren’t all innocent deaths in Gaza ‘completely unacceptable’ to the Australian government?" in The Politics by Rachel Withers.
  
• "In Bruce Lehrmann's 'omnishambles' of a trial, Justice Michael Lee delivered a powerful lesson in shades of grey" on ABC News by Annabel Crabb.
• "What is the Cass review and what does it say about healthcare for trans youth?" Explainer in The GayTimes.
  
• "Anthony Albanese was determined to show solidarity with women. Instead he became the story" in the Guardian by Karen Middleton
  
• "The national crisis of violence against women is the culmination of many issues — and some of them the government can fix" in ABC News by Laura Tingle.
• "Locks, chains, diversions: How Columbia students seized Hamilton Hall" in The New York Times by Sharon Otterman and Chelsia Rose Marcius, accessed in The Age.
  

My Monthly Chronicles 2024 is a companion post to In My Kitchen April 2024.  These two posts aim to catch up on meals, food and random notes both in my kitchen and outside it each month.  I do not have the time to post as much I would like on everything.  Where time permits I will write up some of these meals that deserve more attention than I can give them here.