AN AUSSIE BREWERY CRAWL, A idea IN PIE as well as TWILIGHT AT TARONGA

thinking about this has only been a short week right here in Sydney with the Australia Day public holiday, it’s been a quite legendary one.

Not to mention that it’s now February somehow… I hope this year doesn’t go as well quickly. I’m still trying to find to terms with it not being 2018 anymore!

What makes this short week so epic? Well, I’ll show you. A self-guided tour of Sydney’s ‘brewery suburb’ (a dangerous thing to do btw), we innovate the humble pie to new heights, we hit Sydney’s finest Hainanese poultry rice location as well as we enjoy an outstanding show at Taronga Zoo!

Told you it was epic.

We hope you enjoy it though – the latest regular Edition:

With Monday being a public holiday, my mates Anton, Paul as well as I have elected today – Sunday – to be the perfect piss-up day. Marrickville in Sydney’s inner west is packed with outstanding craft breweries, so we begin things off at the Grifter… or we try to do so.

Unfortunately it appears like everybody else has had the exact same concept as well as the location is full! With so many other locations close-by though, we begin walking. next time, Grifter, next time.

Instead, we head to the house of one of my favourite beers: Sauce Brewing Co. It’s taken these guys a bit while to settle in here. They were ‘gypsy brewing’ for a while before they got this incredible area in Marrickville. Now, it feels like they’ve always been here.

The beer’s excellent (two of them in the top 100 beers of Australia) as well as the food trucks at the entrance modification every day, with different morsels to munch on.

It’s always a great concept to keep an eye on the specials blackboard at Sauce. We don’t discover out up until it’s as well late that they had found a barrel of outstanding seasonal beer that everybody had believed had finished. The last decrease vanishes before our eyes.

Thankfully, there are lots of other exquisite beery options.

The concept of a brewery crawl is to see as many as you can. I don’t believe we’re extremely great at this since we end up staying for four here!

Our next stop is Stockade Brewery just round the corner. It’s at this point that the hot, sunny weather condition takes a nasty turn as well as we’re required to bunker down as well as hide from the storm. Stockade Brewery is really the very best location for this. Not only do you have a seemingly endless supply of beer to keep you happy, however the name even seems right too:

Stockade – noun – a barrier particularly as a support against assault or as a means of confining animals.

I believe both choices work!

The beer right here is excellent. I’ve always been a fan of their 8 Bit, as well as the others we try right here keep us extremely happy.

Dinner. It had to occur sooner or later, as well as we’ve timed it just right. The kitchens at Queen Chow in the Queen hotel in Enmore are just about to shut. We get our orders in just in time as well as the food, the delicious, excellent food, comes fast.

The charsiu pork is off the charts, as is the salt as well as pepper squid (not shown).

But king of the dishes at Queen Chow is the ‘Chonq qing “hot as well as numbing” boneless chicken’ – a szechuan style fried poultry meal that’s just incredible. The dried chillies don’t overpower the meal as well as truly just endow it with flavour, not heat.

This morning, while we were sparring with the usual question: ‘what’s for dinner?’, Christina came up with this lightning bolt of an idea:

“Can you make a lasagne pie?”

The other night I made a monster lasagne – one of my favourite al forno dishes to make. There’s still a bit of bolognese mix left as well as we have some puff pastry in the freezer.

“Christina, you’re a genius,” is what I believe I said. I can’t remember. I was as well hectic running to the kitchen area trying not to drool.

The result was this creation. We’re both extremely proud. I never believed the humble yet perfect pie might be improved upon. I stand corrected.

This lunchtime, Christina as well as I are in the city to have lunch with her sibling Mary. As we head to our destination, we go with the QVB – one of Sydney’s most iconic, gorgeous buildings.

In the atrium at the centre of the QVB, they’ve erected this cherryblossom tree… except it’s not covered in pink flowers at all. Take a better look.

2019 is the Year of the Pig in the Chinese calendar. These are countless bit fluffy porkers covering the branches. So clever.

But we’re more thinking about poultry at the moment.

We’ve brought Mary to an old favourite of mine in a hidden foodcourt under the Woolworths at town Hall called Pittsway Arcade. Mary understands the city truly well, however even she didn’t understand about this place, though it’ been right here for years.

If you haven’t been down right here before, you’ve got to inspect it out. The decor is horrible as well as it’s underground, so no natural light, however theservice is fantastic as well as food choices are superb.

Our favourite is (and always has been) the Hainanese poultry rice from Sayong Curry Laksa in the far left corner as you come down the stairs. for under $10 you get a completely poached poultry breast (or leg if you want), gorgeous rice as well as the most tasty broth. It’s a traditional Malaysian lunch meal as well as it’s wonderful.

Don’t fail to remember to request their special spicy sambal as well – this under-the-counter chilli sauce is a knock-out… actually if you can’t take the heat!

As we escort Mary back to town Hall station (we requirement to make sure she’s gone ) she asks us to find into Haigh’s chocolate shop for a minute – rather potentially the very best chocolate shop in the country.

When we come out, she hands us the bag of hand-crafted chocolates she bought.

“These are for you,” she says. Bless her heart.

We don’t have to be asked twice. There are lemon myrtle creams in there!

It’s been a hot January this year. In fact, on average, the most popular ever.

But it’s likewise been the most temperamental. inspect out the modification in temperature on the last day of the month on the left. From 40ºC down to 20ºC in an hour.

And on the right, the culprit for the change: a southerly wind blasting with Sydney at speeds of 50kmph. Crazy.

Tonight, we’re excited to be back at Toronga Zoo. We were only right here a few weeks back to see the new dinosaur exhibits, however this visit, the dinosaurs are taking second stage.

Twilight at Taronga is a series of shows running with summertime right here at the zoo. From now up until 9th March, you can come as well as see some outstanding headline acts amidst the animals as well as trees of this incredible zoo. The view out over the harbour as well as city  from right here is incredible.

What a venue!

We show up just as the support act Maddie Jane comes on stage. She’s incredible – definitely inspect out more of her music.

Maddy’s backed by American Express, who are likewise the show sponsors. Amex are putting $1 million towards supporting the Australian music industry, which puts incredible artists like Maddy Jane at the forefront where they should be.

Unfortunately, the weather condition isn’t playing as well as the bands tonight as well as it’s raining. However, we’re lucky sufficient to be in the VIP celebration in The view – the recently reopened restaurant at Taronga. tough life!

Down below, the rain isn’t turning the fans off though. as well as who can blame them – Magic dirt has just come on stage!

From now up until 9th March, you can get tickets to see some traditional bands (and new ones as well of course), as well as if you have an American reveal card, you get a 10% discount rate on tickets, as well as discount rates on food as well as drink at the venue.

You can likewise buy into the Amex VIP package, which is a no-brainer really. You get a free drink, a snack, as well as reserved front-and-centre seating with waiter service.

The final headline act of the night comes on – You Am I!

It’s now totally dark as well as the traditional rock anthems are loud as well as clear… though not as well loud. Taronga Zoo is carefully tracking the noise levels in the animal enclosures, as well as all the zoo’s residents have been provided areas that are sound-proofed away from the noise of the concert.

Meanwhile, within the warm, dry confines of The View, dessert is out. Cheese, cakes, pastries… it’s quite great up here!

You Am I are blowing the location up. They’re killing it. Such a fantastic performance – as well as the truth that there are extremely few empty seats on a rainy night like tonight is credit history to the music. inspect out a few of the other shots of the band as they wind up the evening:

It’s an incredible location – huge however not overwhelming, as well as little sufficient to feel intimate. The food as well as drink offerings right here are fantastic as well by the way, though you can bring your own picnics if you want. just no booze.

If you do want to get in on this show series, be quick. The next few nights have already offered out.

Check out the line-ups as well as book your tickets here.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this regular Edition. like I said, it’s been a huge bit week!

Cheers – Jim & Christina xx