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To the Beach!


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A disclaimer to start: This is not a food blog. I am slowly working my way through every egullet blog from the dawn of time and I am not brave enough for an attempt! 

I have simply run away for the weekend to a beautiful quaint seaside town, and thought I'd share some things I find. To be honest I'm not even planning to cook. But we will have to eat to survive I suppose. 

We had a two hour drive after work to the place we had rented and it was straight to the supermarket. We have learnt to pack most essentials (I'm talking olive oil, salt and kitchen towel - nothing like 'camping princess style' much to my shame. I can only dream of being that prepared - and thats in my day to day life!), so we needed to grab something easy for tea/dinner/winesoakerupper. This place is, well, affluent. I love finding things I can't get at home, but then choke a little at the price and put things back on the shelf. 

 

Stone fruit & Melon, Figs & Grapes. 

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I have never found Miso before, should I buy some? Can I use it low carb? 

 

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Never heard of it. I had always thought it was Sir Winston or the industrial revolution. Cheese is better.

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Fancy (to me) marinades & vinegars. 

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I had no desire to taste this 'real broccoli' but I hadn't seen it before. 

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Didn't want to try these either but I thought of the Smiths topic. 

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Shopping complete we went to investigate our rental. While we have stayed in the town alot, it was our first time in this particular house. 

The kitchen is tempting me to abandon my 'just chill' philosophy for the weekend. 

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The fridge. Oh the fridge. And the space! I can only dream of having a kitchen like this. And I do. A lot.

 

Back to reality. The next two pictures are dinner. Do not judge me too harshly - I'm on holiday :D

 

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Another disclaimer: It is raining cats & dogs, its predicted to do so all weekend. I hope I can find some things food related that may interest one or two of you. If the weather keeps weathering it is unlikely to be fresh seafood. 

 

Edited by CantCookStillTry (log)
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Add me to the list of followers!  I too would be excited to have a kitchen like that in a rental.  If I were the rental owner I might be quaking in my boots about the damage renters might do to the equipment.  Did you have to pass a security screening, submit references, anything like that?  ;)

 

It's interesting to see the foods available in that "upscale" market.  I noticed the D.L. Jardine's sauces - a Texas product - so that store is presumably casting a wide net.  I'm surprised, though, at the prices of the Australian produce.  I know Australia's a huge country, but have no sense of where things are grown.  Did those stone fruits have to travel a long way? They should be still in season, I'd think.

 

A fair number of folks should be able to answer your question about miso.  @heidih, @Dejah and @ElsieD come to mind immediately, but I see it used in the cookery of a lot more members than those three.  

 

If the weather stops weathering, some scenery shots would be nice...and don't worry about pistachios and nachos for dinner. Heck, some of us here - no matter how much we like to cook - sometimes settle for popcorn.  :)

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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Regarding your MISO questions:

 

Lo-carb: That is a pretty broad term. It is a fermented grain though used in relatively small amounts.

 

Uses: I think it is worth playing with. However it will need to be refrigerated and no way will you consume a tub this weekend, so it would need to be in ice-chest for home return trip. My favorite use and way to introduce it is in roasted pumpkin/hard squash. Cubes or slices rubbed with olive oil, miso, and Sriracha; I can eat a whole sheet pan by myself. Here is a nice little intro piece from the Serious Eats "Hey Chef" series   https://www.seriouseats.com/2015/07/what-to-do-with-miso-paste.html

Edited by heidih (log)
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3 hours ago, ElsieD said:

 Can you say where you are?

(It is 4am and sleep is proving to be a fickle mistress, so for any disastrous spelling and grammar mistakes - give me 3 hours and 3 coffees to do an edit :D). 

We are staying in 'The Town of 1770' or just 1770 as it is known, google prefers the longer name. I think it is the second place Captain Cook landed during his 'discovery' of this country. 

2 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 I might never go home.

I said the same thing. Chances are if it rains enough, I may get an extended stay. I would have to win the lottery to make it permanant though! 

 

Smithy: Australias fresh food market confuses the heck out of me, I do not understand it at all. My mother can buy cheaper, Australian grown, Bananas in her local Asda in the UK than I can get at one of the hundreds of local Banana farms 500m from my house. All the fresh produce seems crazy expensive to me, I usually put it down to being so rural so - food miles. I allow $2 leeway per kilo for thirsty plants before outrage, seeing as its very dry in this belt!  I also find our local supermarket always stocks what to me is 'seconds' so the price stings a little.

There is a local 1770 market being run on Sunday so I will try to take some pictures of produce there. 

 

Anyway, I have just seen that Smokey is doing a real blog! I'm so excited, Vegas is bucket list for me. I will meet you all over there :)

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Breakfast is probably the most logical place to start. I know I am not allowed to go off topic, but In the next few posts I may have to digress a tiny weeny bit to set the scene... Ran (literally) to the beach after my last post to get some dawn pictures whilst deciding on where to go. 

The beach has suffered from the bad weather and the sun was not playing, unlike me, it didn't want to get out of bed. 

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I sat on that stick and thought long and hard about breakfast (cough-im on topic-cough). 

We chose a little cafe called Codies Place (there are approx 5 breakfast serving places in the surronding area and we had not been to this one previously). 

This is their manifesto, as it were. ( I had tried to get a picture of the outside, but I slipped in the wet and stacked it! Way to embarassed to try again).

 

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( If you don't want to / can't read it - shabby chic, booze focused, backpacker staffed and casual/minimalist). 

 

The breakfast menu consists of four options, Avocado smash, Big breakfast, Kids sliders and a Breakfast burger. We chose 3 out of four - we are not Avocado people. 

Mine: Brioche, bacon, swiss, fried egg, relish and Hollandaise. 

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Small dudes was a mini replica of mine but hollandaise and relish were dressed with ketchup. 

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And the big breakfast - wasn't so big when Captain low carb had to dispense of his bread and hash browns. 

 

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I loved my roll, for himself, the egg white was still a little - well as he says, like snot.

 

It was over all very good simple fare. With super friendly servers. The table next to us, were loud - but not in a bad way - and were actively group posting their trip advisor review 9_9. Not that I listen to other peoples conversations but said table own a restaurant, dedicated to a specific food, in a hinterland town called Maleny (I would also have to win the lottery to live there). So if they were pleased... 

 

The day(s) went down hill from here. Will be back later with lunch :)

Edited by CantCookStillTry (log)
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I'm with Shelby on the hash browns.  Great photos! 

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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4 hours ago, CantCookStillTry said:

I know I am not allowed to go off topic, but In the next few posts I may have to digress a tiny weeny bit to set the scene...

 

I think a certain amount of scene-setting is always appropriate.  Please carry on and thank you for taking us along!

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Absolutely love that place. From memory they hold an annual Mud Crab festival.

Many years ago I use to camp & fish up a little further at a stunning place called Bustard Bay.  I think they have a 4X4 bus that does trips up the beach that gets you close to the bay.

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