Category: Daily recipe

Lunch

With mother in tow we had lunch with our niece at The Locale in a nearby suburb. Foodie Greg and mother had an interpretation of a cubano, which they thought was very tasty. Foodie Philip’s Wagu Beef Burger was, unfortunately over cooked, and our niece’s sandwich was overpowered by the mustard on it. The restaurant has a good reputation and some of our group had eaten there before and enjoyed the meal.

Our critical comments were well received, and suitable apologies made, so it seems this was one of those slip-ups that occasionally happen. Certainly the intent is to cook the Wagu Beef Burger to medium.

Lunch today cost an average of Au$14.63 or US$10.68. (It in fact cost less because the two imperfect meals were charged at half price.)

Dinner

The Foodies cooked Peruvian Meat Sauce,a.k.a. Red Curry and Pink Peppercorn Meat Sauce, we had on Sep 29th. This time with rice noodles that mom had precooked and froze. Sadly we had to cook without the pink peppercorns, which were unobtainable locally.

Tonight the recipe made four serves even without a salad, but without the precise breakdown of local prices here in Australia, I’ll simply refer back to the pricing for our last outing.

• 1lb of Prather Ranch ground pork is $9.30 or $3.10 per serve
• Limes were $1.56 and about half went into the dish, or 26c per serve
• The can of coconut milk was $1.99 or 66c per serve
• Red curry paste is $3.69 a jar and we used 1/4 or 31c per serve
• The soy adds 42c per serve
• Add 35c for the toasted coriander, pink peppercorns, rice wine and cornstarch
• Rice noodles are $3.56 per 14oz box, we used about 1/2 of the box, or 60c per serve.

Dinner tonight was good, as there was a misreading of the amount of soy and consequently tonight the dish was a little salute, and it cost an estimated $5.70 per serve. Because of the amount of soy the dish was a dark brown and not photogenic at all.

Lunch

In what is rapidly becoming habit, the Foodies had a white roll with ham and home-made pickles.

Lunch was again supplied by the Foodie’s mom, but would cost around $2.00 if paid for.

Dinner

Back to Foodie Philip’s brother’s for dinner with just the five of us. Brother had roasted his own chicken and roasted vegetables under the grill. All very good, and, again, free to the Foodies.

Lunch

The first thing these ex-pat travelers want when back in Australia is a meat pie and sausage roll, so that’s what we had while dining with our mother and a friend of hers.

Being a coffee shop and not a take-out, the meal was more expensive than expected for such simple fare at Au$8.50 for the combination, or US$6.20.

Dinner

Tonight’s meal was the first time Foodie Philip’s extended family was together for a meal. Ever. In the time the Foodies have been living in the US Foodie Philip’s brother remarried and we gained another branch to the family tree, and it was the first time Foodie Greg met many of the extended family.

Dinner tonight was an excellent eye fillet with boiled whole potatoes and a garden salad, all of which were very good.

Lunch

The Foodies had a very late lunch after arriving in Sydney at 9am, going through immigration, baggage claim and customs and then catching a train to Newcastle. It was 2pm before we were able to get a bite to eat: fish and chips from a local store.

The fish was perfectly cooked in a good batter while the chips* were creamy on the inside and crisp on the outside, just as they should be.

*Australian chips are more like US steak fries: somewhat larger.

Lunch today cost Au$5.50 or $4.05 US.

Dinner

Dinner was with our mother/mother-in-law who had purchased a roast chicken and prepared salad vegetables – iceberg, tomato, avocado and mango – to go with it.

Mother paid for dinner tonight.

Dinner

Because of the peculiarities of the International Date Line, Saturday Dec 3 didn’t really exist for the Foodies. We left Los Angeles close to midnight on Dec 2 and arrived in the morning of Dec 4.

During the flight we had a ‘dinner’ of Thai Chicken Curry with rice and ‘roasted vegetables’, which was serviceable.

The meal was included in the air fare so there’s no isolated cost.

Breakfast

Also included in the air fare was breakfast of a ham, egg and cheese sandwich, which was also serviceable. Food out of LAX is rarely very good.

Lunch

Since we were about to leave for an Australian trip, we needed to use up the last of the pulled pork.

• Six par baked rustic rolls were $3.29 or 55c per serve.
• The pulled pork cost $1.47
• Add 20c for some Sriracha Garlic BBQ sauce

Lunch today cost $2.22.

Dinner

After traveling to Los Angeles International Airport and checking in, we ended up at TGIF nearby for dinner when our original plans fell through.

The meal at TGIF cost approximately $21.70 per serve with tax and tip. To be honest the food at TGIF is, at best, average. About the level that Gordon Biersch was five years ago before they got serious about improving their food. Between those two chains Gordon Biersch has the best food by a big margin.