A Sydney Sunday

Well, another blue-sky day in Southern hemisphere paradise; thought I’d tell you all about it so you can book your plane tickets. Oooh, I know, the cheek of me! You started it, posting photos with Fall leaves and making me nostalgic for North American Thanksgiving (pout, pout) Over on this side of the globe we started the day with this:

I know! You’ve never seen a more perfect avocado, right? It’s art, for goodness’ sake. Not a single blemish or brown spot; nothing like the avocados I had growing up in New Zealand. This is the Cinderella of avocados and I’m used to very, very ugly stepsisters. So, with an inappropriate amount of rapture, I sliced it on to toast and dusted it with salt and black pepper.

Next stop was the Concord Carnival, a cousin of Ferrogosto and just a short drive away. Majors Bay Road, the main street was closed off to traffic and transformed into a festival of flags, stalls, food stands, magicians and stage acts. I stacked my babes into the Phil n Ted’s, bunk style, and made a bee-line for the food. Of course. There were cannoli, there were “chips on a stick”…

And then there was a gozleme stand! Hooray! Vindicated for bypassing the last one I stumbled across at Orange Grove market I chose a spinach, mushroom and cheese number. Why? Well, it seemed the most authentic but truth be told I have no idea! They had ‘cinnamon & sugar’ on the menu, which was hard to avoid (because my tooth is irreperably sweet, sigh) but I stuck with my choice. Then I watched them roll out the dough, pile on the freshly chopped spinach and mushrooms and slap it out on to the hot plate with a generous dousing of oil.

I drooled as other people got their orders before me and tried to distract B1 from begging for yet another balloon by pointing out the different steps of cooking gozleme. Her look said “Mama, I’m two and a half, I have no interest, puh-lease. Go blog about it.” B1, not yet talking or producing acerbic expressions, gave me a reassuring gummy grin. Bless her.

Served up with a thick wedge of lemon I was suitably impressed by The Gozleme. It’s somewhere between a Parisian crepe, chewy damper bread and…something else I cannot place. The outside is charred, slick with oil and salty, the inside is soft and chewy, the fillings fresh and not over cooked. It’s a little sweet too, perhaps that’s what reminded me of damper bread? Adding the lemon took it over the edge – perfection. I’ll be ordering it again and next time I’ll be getting one savoury and one sweet. So there.

Home time, post gozleme; babes and Mama exhausted. Of course I had to pick up a little something food related for later. Three chutneys by Posh Nosh (beetroot, spicy tomato, apple, sultana & cranberry). Lucky I have a stash of aged cheddar in the fridge just begging to be accompanied. Baths, books, negotiations with B1 over just about everything, nappy changes, and now, finally, it’s just me, a warm night, my cheese and my chutneys.

Hope your Sunday was just as lovely. I’ll stop pouting about your pretty Fall now. HUGS, Hannah x