the adventures of pinkaholic girl

Food in Canberra

The weekend was pretty good - I drove down to Canberra on saturday afternoon and spent the night at Mandy's house (on her super comfortable airbed!) The theme of the weekend was a girly culinary fest. We had a girly night in and painted our toenails and watched DVDs - CSI and Pirates of the Caribbean.

As expected from Amanda, the food featured prominently, and it was good. For dinner, we had leftovers of an awesome lasagne she'd made the night before. She'd also "whipped up" a garlic, parsley and olive oil topping to put on these really fresh and tasty pizza bases (She's managed to ferret out all the good food shops and markets in a few months). We barbequed the pizzas on Kate's electric BBQ and they came out so crispy and garlicky... mmmm... we also made some grilled vegies for dinner. We were so full we didn't even get to dessert (banana and pecan crepes in butterscotch sauce). She also bought some really nice italian bread and some chocolate and hazelnut biscotti from a fresh food deli - naturally I asked her to "take me there!" and brought some back to sydney with me. :)

Sunday was nice - we woke up and had brunch at the place DJ suggested, which was MyCafe in Manuka. The muesli was awesome, it has some really tasty poached fruit on top of bircher muesli with natural yoghurt. Divine. We did our "usual" which is ordering one healthy dish and one not-so-healthy dish - this time it was savoury french toast with grilled tomato and bacon.

After that we headed back to the old bus depot markets in Kingston. They sell lots of jewellery and crafts upstairs, and fresh food downstairs. We went a bit crazy - I bought another two pairs of earrings and then we headed down to the fresh food portion, and went on a food tasting spree. They sell all sorts of things down there, like organic breads, cheese, savoury dips, organic fruits and veges, gourmet chocolates ... we bought some chocolates (expensive ones), I bought some thai chicken marinade, and we sampled lots of breads and dips.

The weather was gorgeous that weekend - summery days with the sky a clear autumn blue. There's something so relaxing about canberra, there's so much room to breathe and views to see... but at the same time i think it would drive me mad to be living down there. Lucky I have a friend to visit down there on a regular basis now :) It's funny that I'm seeing her more often than if she were up in sydney.

Reminiscing has made me feel better - I was having a bit of a blue day. I guess I'm lucky that I can come home to my comfortable unit and friendly surroundings and feel secure and safe. I don't want for anything (except the crazily unattainable things in life, which don't count). I have money in the bank and a good life. It's all good. Work isn't everything; some days will be bad but it's nice to know I can unwind and have friends and family around for support.

posted by d @ 1:37 pm