Yummy Yum Cha

Another favourite thing to do in Adelaide is to go to Yum cha, something that doesn't exist in Poland, and I fell in love with it in New Zealand. As you may, or may not, know it is a system where waiters walk around the restaurant brandishing their wares and if you want them they place them on the table and mark a card to say that you have had it. You get free jasmine tea and it is a non-stop roller coaster ride of fun. It is probably the only time you want to be sat near the kitchen door, so that you can get first choice of anything that comes out.

This time we ventured to Ding Hao on Gouger St.

pork bun

there was pork and also prawn dumplings

Crispy Duck

Spicy spinach fried wantan

Sticky steamed pork buns

Crispy Chicken

Fried Oyster

Sweet custard buns for desert

More chinatown right next to the markets

After a hearty meal we decided to stroll about town a little, as it is nice and quiet on a Sunday

Adelaide is after all called the city of churches....

The states bird emblem, a Piping Shrike

Plates and glasses made to look like flowers

more churches

We stopped off at a market to see what was about

Strolled past the Rhino room

Saw a wild owl

popped into Urban Cow Studio to do some shopping, which I can suggest to all

maybe buy a few chickens

Wandered along the beautiful Adelaide Arcade

And said good bye to the town hall and GPO as who knows when I will see them again......

Osteria Dell'Ignorante, Lucardo, Tuscany.

The Osteria Dell'Ignorante is a gem. A little, unrefined, hidden, sweet, delicate, gem. It is a restaurant run by an eccentric man Stefano in Lucardo about halfway between Siena and Florence. It isn't always the easiest place to find, as many locations are in Italy, but it is well worth the drive. We were lucky enough to be recommended it by an excellent little winery in the area that we had stopped at to buy wine and olive oil from Poggio al Bosco. A great little family run business with well priced quality wines and a great family reception.

couscous and veges

Lamb, lamb, lamb

The cholesterol bomb that is fresh burrato. Insanely big portion, and insanely stunning.

Ravioli

The chocolate dessert of the day

Washed away with some jolly coffee

Heck, Stefano will even take photos for you.

Time to finish the day and plow through the photos in a great location.

With a little liquid help.

bzik kulinarny

Sometimes you need to get out of the house for dinner. I know I love cooking, but often you just feel the need to do something else. To find something else to eat. One of our favourite little places is only a few streets from our house and it is called Bzik Kulinarny, meaning 'food obsession'. It is a Polish restaurant but has influences from French and Italian food, and has some really lovely dishes. It actually has the feel of being a restaurant as if in France or Italy and has the feel of quality goods coming in so that is why the dishes coming out are good.

I started with a Czech beer.

What about a beetroot salad?

Steak nice and rare in forest mushroom sauce

Veal in Calvados cream

Simple almost austere decor.

all finished with a wafer thin plum tart.

A little restaurant with a big heart. I hope that gets the tastebuds running wet!

Wild East food.

My father-in-law introduced us to a new restaurant just outside Białystok. It is called "Folwark Nadawki", and anyone heading out East really should give it a try, it has lots of local flavour and even some Tatar food as well. Nothing can be wrong with that, but be warned, the food is in monster proportions! The food was great quality, very good. And we even rocked into the place at about 4 in the afternoon and were greeted nicely, sat outside served well and were lucky enough to hear the donkey baying in the distance. 

All in a days work, life really is hard.

The warm up, pork mince with apple, pork fat and paprika served with good local bread and the ubiquitous Ogorki (pickles)

Why not a glass of miod pitny was a dwojnak (drinking honey at 2:1 ratio)  to wash it down

Moosed

part of the menu

Pielmieni Eastern dumplings with fish.

Pan fried trout

Czeburaki which is tatar pasties.

See just like a pasty, great flavours but one would have done, these were bigger than a hand!

Shame the only moose on the menu was literally on the menu....

Even though we were rolling round like sumo wrestlers we could not resist some dessert pierogi with strawberries

You just don't want to waste that syrup and cream!

 

Folwark basically means working farm or ranch or homestead or outpost or something that is a combination of all these. It is a farm with activity such as a restaurant and accommodation etc.

 

Our singing donkey.