FITZROY the SPANISH SECTOR

Home alone this Saturday night, just Sue and I and she's in a cooking mood. Seems she would like to go to Spain for her 60th. I knew there was a catch to taking me to Paris for for my 60th. She starts by experimenting with food, then its off to wherever.
I did my usual Saturday morning ride with the "Bayside Bandidios - midlife cycling gang", a group of 100 members consisting of both genders ranging from their 30s to 60 plus. It was a balmy sort of morning with pink morning skies and a promise of high winds in the afternoon.

It was almost noon when we jumped in the car to trek across the other side of town to shop for ingredients for Saturday night's meal - Sue wanted to do Spanish and the shop she needed to buy from is in the inner northern suburb of Fitzroy.

I'm told that there is a soccer match on tonight but I'm watching Le Tour.

An indcation we just might be in the Spanish sector of Melbourne.

We are here, the Spanish Deli in Fitzroy and Sue is at the door ready to SHOP!!

Yes there were people in the shop but I found a people free view. It was very squishy-squashy in there with different nationalities shopping.

Fitzroy is home to many international culinary shops and restaurants. Several weeks back we ate at an African restaurant there. The Spanish sector is quite small but if Spain ( and they did - late getting this post out ) wins the World Cup, the area will share in the glory as the local council is going to close off the main street for the celebration festivities.
I remember this happening many years ago in Lygon Street, Carlton when Italy won the World Cup.

We are so fortunate in Melbourne to have so many international cuisines.

Back to the shopping in Fitzroy - we were lucky to find a parking spot close to the Spanish Deli, not an easy thing to do on a Saturday afternoon.
Maybe  I should ask Sue to tell you about the Deli.

It's called Casa Iberica, and it has not just Spanish food products, but also from many Sth American countries. No idea what a lot of it was!
Got  some good stuff and came home to play with Tapas. I have ordered a tapas book from my favourite online store, The Book Depository UK, but it hasn't come yet. It's worth having a look at their website, as they have free worldwide delivery and pretty good pricing. They also have a cool webpage with a map of the world that shows you what people are buying as it happens. I digress.
This is what we had.
Prawns cooked in garlic butter (absolutely evil I know, but once in a while...)
I egg washed artichoke quarters and coated them in polenta and parmesan before frying them golden. Layered them up with crispy charred slices of chorizo, garnished with mint and parsley and topped with lemon oil.(Straight from a TV show here)
Made a parsley salad with capers and olives and put lightly grilled slices of pork fillet on it and topped with a dressing make from sherry vinegar, eschallot, anchovies, lemon rind and olive oil.
Cooked up some lardons (sliced pancetta), tomatoes and white beans with a little smokey paprika and added lots of parsley at the end.
We had it all with stripey charred slices of baguette.
I had also bought some squid, but we were full before I got to it, so I cooked it the next day as salt and pepper squid.
Our 22 year old was most disappointed to be going out when he knew we were tapasing (?), but girlfriends beat tapas I understand. (As they should, don't you think?)
On Monday morning, after Spain won the world cup, the party in this Spanish quarter spilled out into the street, Johnston Street, a major road, and the police closed the street to traffic to let the party continue. Isn't that great?
Seeing we were going to eat Spanish, I thought we should also drink Spanish so we stopped in at Uncle Dan's (our effectionate name for the large wine merchant, Dan Murphy) on our way home to see what was on offer. We were surprised to see a dry sparkling at a reasonable cost and I have to say, every bit as good as I've had in the past - Sue like to have a sparkling to sip on as she cooks.
She also located a Spanish white in the "end of run" bin for AUS$8.00 - not bad at all.
My selection was a 2005 Spanish Cab/Sav @ $23.00 - really nice and I have to go back for a few more bottles.

The WINE

Not being a great Champagne drinker, I found this one to my liking.

The white was an end of bin special at $8.00

But this Cab/Sav was excellent.

The FOOD

 

Tonight was the first night of the Tour de France mountain stages and after this wonderful meal, I wondered how I could stay awake to watch. It started at 10 pm to 2 pm. Put on the PJs and settle into the couch. Bad mistake, I fell asleep instantly to awake at 12ish luckily to see the real action. Victory went to the Frenchman, Sylvian Chavanel, his second stage win and back in yellow. The French need another hero as their Grand Tour has been lacking a rider that they can worship for many years. Where have the Fignons and Hinaults of the past gone?

Chavanel's second victory at this year's TdF and back in Yellow. Good luck to the French.

From cyclingnews.com

I'm pleased to see Cadel Evans getting some good luck for a change. He may not win the TdF but he deserves to. He's a cool guy in my books. The sort of person that I would like to invite with his wife Chiara to our dinner table to discuss music, cars, wine and food. I feel I almost know him through his book on his life to date. He's an average Aussie sort of guy with an amazing talent.

Cadel on the pave - riding well on the cobbles of France.

From cyclingnews.com

Funky Friday

Sitting at my desk at work, I look out the great expanse of glass and there is not one cloud in the sky - this is a good omen for a great weekend. Where I work is very close to Melbourne airport and I see the domestic and international flights coming in to land - it makes one envious of the travellers on flights to elsewhere.

Never mind, we have a weekend to enjoy. That means that I can sit through a whole direct telecast stage of the Tour de France and not think about getting up for work in the morning.

This Funky Friday features cats and dogs. For years I've passed by a very big brown dog, but noticed it until last Saturday as I stopped at railway gates for a train passing by. I just had to have a closer look. I guess you could call it "the Trojan Dog". Its made from iron sheet and wood.

The cat is some graffiti I came across in my travels around Melbourne and have been looking for an excuse to blog it.

Camille, a singer from France is a favorite of mine and she does a song on her most recent CD called, "Cats & Dogs" telling why they just pretend to be friends. Have a listen on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqTgY4TbP8I&feature=related

As we say in OZ, havagoodweekend.

Carcassonne - a very big day

We followed our new found Australian friends, Rob and Wendy on the road to Carcassonne, the medieval city perched above the Aude river. The road took us back out of Saint Chinian to Puisserguier and then Capestang where we passed over a hump back stone bridge crossing the Midi Canal. Below were both boats and barges moored while their occupants were probably lunching in the village.

Just a couple of Melbournites enjoying the South of France at Carcassonne.

On arriving at Carcassonne, the ramparts and towers of La Cite came into sight. An amazing image as it transforms you back into 12th century when it was at its zenith. On entering La Cite across the drawbridge and we passed the two walled ramparts. From this point one needs to erase the sight of the tourists and the tacky gift shops to fall back into medieval times to fully appreciate what befalls you.

We walked towards the entrance of La Cite, amazed at the sight before us.

Having now erased the many tourists from the scenes in front of me, I could now imagine the life of the locals, knights in armour and the many religious crusades that befell La Cite.

You walk across the drawbridge and see the empty moat that once protected La Cite.

To this day, restoration and maintenance continues - love the gargoyles.

In the background is the cathedral dedicated to St Nazaire and St Caise. Just behind the Cathedral is an open air consert area where only recently Bob Dylan performed.

Follow this link

http://franceprofonde.blogspot.com/2010/07/while-my-conscience-explodes-bob-dylan.html

I half expected Harry Potter to swoop by on that thingy he rides.

The two walls that once protected Carcassonne from the many enemies of the past.

On our return we crossed the Aude river and then the Midi Canal and stopped for a late lunch at the small town of Trebes. It’s amazing how wonderful the quality of the food was at a simple roadside café. We enjoyed a three course meal with wine cheese and coffee for 27 euro.
Sue explains;

It consisted of beignets aubergine with a cheesy choux pastry fried with a green salad. For the mains we had stuffed yellow capsicums with veal and rice in a tomato sauce. The waitress brought us lots of bread to soak up the sauce. Then came the plate of fromage consisting of chevre, Roquefort and Camembert. If that wasn’t enough, we were offered a choice of chocolate mousse or Crème brulee.

As we enjoyed our meal with Rob and Wendy, we started chatting with a French American couple with their small child. With the sun shining through the plane trees flanking the Midi Canal you could see the dappled light and shade from our café window. It was a superb moment.

Both Rob and Wendy have proven to be engaging company and very easy to get along with and we occasionally still catch up back home.

Another highlight for me (Leon of course) was the sight of a 1950s black Citroen Traction Avant parked on the side of the road in the village of Cruzy. No more than a little walk further on was an old garage with several locals enjoying their wine. Inside the garage were a few other unrestored classic cars and I enquired of who owned the Traction

Simon - what do you think of this superb example of a Traction Avant?

Avant in my non-existent French. I mentioned that I was from Australie and I to owned this model Citroen. “May I take a photo of your automobile?” The elderly gentleman smiled with approval. “Merci” I responded and I lined up the C3 with the Traction Avant for my photo shoot. I wish I could have spent more time with them over a glass of wine.

The chateau in Cruzy with the gate house

As we drove out of Cruzy on the road back to Saint Chinian a large and what looked deserted chateau loomed into view. We stopped at the driveway entrance to see a small gate house all covered in foliage and cobwebs.

I sometimes think that the hidden treasures that you stumble across bring as much, and sometimes more pleasure than those on the tourism pilgrimage. As much as Carcassonne amazed us, so did this deserted Chateau and gate house - and we were alone.

The chateau must have been grand in its day but today it had boarded up windows and what would have been a magnificent garden and circular driveway, was now full of weeds. The stable house had a couple of commercial vehicles parked in front so obviously the building was still used. Across the road was another complex of buildings but more recent and the surrounding terrain was vine covered. The Languedoc region is well known for its wine.

That night we enjoyed the local Rose with a light salad. Sue fell asleep on the couch with fond thoughts of the day’s experiences.

An interesting weekend started with taking my Boss, the MD of Australian Clothing Company to the indoor Velodrome for his first ever experience of riding 45 degree banked bends. Initially starting on the flat sections, by the end of the day he was riding at the very top of the banking with confidence.

I was most impressed.

Then it was home to do my house duties before guests arrived for dinner - you know, the usual vaccum, dunny diving , etc.

THE WINE

My brother in law always brings something special in wine when they come for dinner, maybe that's why I like inviting them. I found the following review on the Internet of his selection for tonights meal.

.

The world aclaimed wine expert Robert Parker has reviewed all four varietals from Lost Valley and each wine has received excellent reviews.

Not only is the average score across all 4 varietal 90, but the very complimentary language also stands the wines in good stead. Needless to say a 90 average score – for all varietals from the vineyard - from the Parker stable is no small feat!

Top wine distributors in the USA point out - “we can probably count, on one hand, the number of Aussie wineries with a 90 point Parker average score, this is incredible. Lost Valley Winery has truly come of age as one of Australia’s top boutique wineries”. Chris Daniele/Wine Trade Trust.

THE MEAL

While Leon was out doing his thing on Saturday morning, I met up with my brother and sister-in-law and we went out for breakfast. They were coming over for dinner that night (yes, we are a close family, cos they're a lot of fun) and we decided that I would cook a gutsy paella that night.

The pics show the progress. A chorizo powered sauce with saffron and tomatoes with smokey paprika and some other bits and pieces.

When the Casperella rice was nearly cooked, chucked in some mussels, prawns, squid and par-cooked chicken. The smell was wonderful. Ten more minutes then popped some unpeeled prawns on top, sprinkled with parsley, added lemon wedges and to the table. It was good.

Sis-in-law had made an absolutely luscious lemon ice cream to follow.

After that we had the chocolate pudding I had cooked. Made with 70 per cent cocoa butter choc and cooked to be crusty on the outside with a hot molten chocolate interior. Not being a chocolate liker I passed on that. The lemon ice cream was more my style. The others liked it though.Yummy!

 

SUNDAY

Rising at 6.30 am was not easy after last night's good night but I did and I cranked up the computer to see who one won the Tour de France prologue. It was the big Swiss guy Cancellara in his world championship colours. I think he may hold on to the Malliot Jaune until it gets a little hilly, especially with the cobbles beforehand.

I think there will be a little less sleep while the time zones are out of kilter with the TdF.

Not So Funky Friday

I had an SMS come thru Thursday night at 9.30 pm. My friend Grant said, meet you on the usual corner at 5.30 am for a ride before work. Now remember, Melbourne is in the depths of winter and being under the Doona seems like a better alternative for an extra 2 hours. Reading these blogs, you probably know I'm a committed cyclist (or should I just be committed).

Seeing that I was expected to be on the corner I dragged myself from the warmth of the Doona to meet my fellow cyclists at 5.30 am, yes you read correctly - 5.30 "AM".

We are not the only ones out at this ungodly hour - Beach Road, Melbourne is the a cycling mecca regardless of the hour. We arrived at 7.15 am after our ride and cyclist were already enjoying their first fix of caffine.

One of the good things about our morning rides is the COFFEE afterwards - cycling and coffee these days are linked, we ride - we have coffee. Oh yes, and raisin toast all for AUS$6.00. And that's a mug of coffee, not just a little dainty glass thingy.

About cycling and coffee being linked - friends of ours in the area on Beach Road opened a bike shop and cafe called VELOCINO. Just recently they had their signage erected and I was pretty impressed with the results. Very 3D.

The new sign looks very impressive over OUR bike/cafe.

I'm sure that the local birds (feathered variety) will enjoy looking down on us lycra clad humans, that is when they WAKE UP!!!!

So after a 50 km ride, coffee and raisin toast and off home for a shower, I find myself falling asleep at the office desk by 2.00 pm.

I wonder what the weekend will bring?

That's right, the Tour de France starts Sunday.