Lunch
We spent the morning and lunch with Foodie Greg’s parents including a visit to Wangi RSL – another Australian-style club. The Returned Serviceman’s League is very similar to the American Legion, but the club is run as a member’s co-operative with poker (slot) machines, and a liquor license as well as food outlets. Wangi RSL is a small club right on the edge of Lake Macquarie.
Foodie Greg had a squid salad, which he enjoyed, while Foodie Philip went for the gourmet beef burger, but it had been very popular, so he settled for the – quite good – gourmet chicken burger.
Our host paid for the meal.
Dinner
On our final night in Australia for this trip, the Foodies hosted Philip’s family for dinner. With partners and friends, we had a table of nine. What is a very serviceable kitchen/dining area was stretched with nine. Without enough surface area to plate that many, buffet style it was.
Because we ate away the last two nights, Foodie Philip’s mother had more food than we would have eaten: another duck; some marinated chicken drummettes and some ham. She roasted the duck, cooked the marinated chicken and boiled some potatoes.
Foodie Philip segregated and cut the duck for service, sliced the ham (and extra purchased) and plated the chicken. Foodie Greg prepared the potato salad and Nigela Lawson’s Watermelon Salad, learning in the process just how expensive limes and watermelon are in Newcastle compared with Chatsworth CA).
There are never leftovers when niece Charley comes to dinner: she’ll happily take them!
It’s hard to put an exact price on tonight’s meal but the watermelon salad ingredients (in Australian dollars) were:
- Limes – 5 @$1.50 each, or $7.50, which is horrifying for anyone living in California, but on discount $6.65
- Olives $2.50
- Mint was 20g (just under 1oz) for $2.00
- Parsley was 20g for $2.00
- Watermelon was $7.00 for 1.5 KG
- Feta was $3.96
That adds up to Au$24.11, but there were – maybe – eight serves, making it Au$3.01 or US$2.20 per serve, which compares with $2.33 when we last prepared it in June. Roast Duck about 50c per small serve; Ham around $2.80 per serve; and the drummettes 80c per serve. Overall, approximately $6.96 per serve, without the fruit salad, ice-cream and whipped cream contributed by our mother.
There are no food photos, so today is represented by our family photo: from left, back row: Niece Charley, Philip, Brother/Brother-in-Law David, Greg, Mother Dawn, Niece Riley and Sister-in-Law Lauren. We had a great night together with Riley’s boyfriend and a housemate of Charley’s who took the photo.