out and about

For when you need food but also need to not leave the couch (A Menulog How To Guide)

Posted on November 2, 2014November 4, 2014 by bekswhoknits

You know those Saturday nights when you’re watching 30 Rock, watching Tina Fey eating constantly so you get hungry and there’s nothing in the fridge, and leaving the couch is really way too much effort. That’s when you get to order food without talking to anyone. Ahhh definitely bliss.

I’m already pretty sure I’m addicted to my phone. I do everything on it, from keeping track of whether I’ve taken medications , to paying bills, keeping up with my song a week challenge, managing my etsy store, plus I just downloaded Stash2Go that I’m still figuring out, but will probably rave about in a couple of weeks.

Well another app which I’m finding has changed my life is the menulog app. Say goodbye to trying and struggling to pronounce chinese food on the phone, and having to talk to anyone to get food delivered to your door – there’s now a free app to do all of this for you.
I used to have this ‘thing’ about talking to strangers on the phone, being a receptionist for a year cured that to a certain extent. I still prefer to not talk to people if I can help it.

It’s dead easy to get food delivered and only leave your couch once.
I already had the menulog app on my phone so I put in my post code and then made the difficult decision about what type of food.

I had a hankering for Chinese food so I found the Panda House. I surfed through the menu and tapped on what I wanted (predictably the order included some lemon chicken).
When I had enough food in my cart to feed a small army or one hungry Bek I checked out.
And because they have PayPal I still didn’t have to leave the couch to get my credit card from my wallet. I’ve deliberately not memorised my new card. It’s safer for my bank balance that way.

I then got an sms saying they had my order, and then 45 minutes later I had Chinese food in my belly. Well after I hobbled to the front door – that’s the leaving the couch part. But once I was safe and sound and back on the couch it was the perfect Saturday night. 30 Rock, Chinese food, knitting, couch, and cider.

This photo is why my food posts are few and far between these days.

*Full disclaimer – Menulog gave me food to write this post. Well they gave me credit to buy food. Same difference. But rest assured lovely readers even if the food wasn’t free I would still recommend this app and endorse it as an easy and delicious experience. You’d have to be a stronger lady than I am to pass up free food.

The Guildford Village Tea Room

Posted on October 30, 2012October 30, 2012 by bekswhoknits

On our weekends adventures we may have just stumbled across our new favourite breakfast spot in Guildford.

Guildford is one of those old suburbs in Perth. It’s main strip has all kinds of vintage and antique stores, which we explore from time to time. It’s a place that’s full of character and is frequently a stopping point when we have errands to run in the Eastern suburbs.

We have tried The Lounge Room before. And although it had the pancakes I was looking for, the Bloke’s meal was cold and uninspiring, which he hasn’t forgotten about quite yet.
So we’ve been eating at the Guildford Milk Bar which I think is very uninspiring.
My favourite breakfast is eggs Benedict so if a breakfast spot doesn’t make them, it’s an automatic fail in my book.

In the spirit of compromise we tried, The Guildford Tea Room.
I had my eggs Benedict (although with smoked salmon instead of ham, and bread instead of a muffin, and with cream cheese instead of hollandaise; so not really a Benedict if you look closely) and my Bloke had his ‘big brekky’.
And we were both happy.

My eggs were gooey and the smoked salmon almost melted on my tongue. The bread was what I think was a rye sourdough. It was my sort of dish. My only complaint was the spinach was a little stringy almost like it was been overwilted.

The bloke had fried eggs, on plain white toast, with crispy bacon and a hash brown. And he was quite chuffed. While I’m always looking to try something new, he likes his breakfast on the traditional side with none of this “gluten free, organic, low fat, wanky tosh that’s infecting breakfasts everywhere”. (It’s a direct quote)
So without even knowing, they managed to please two very different breakfast eaters.

My tea was hot, his coffee was lukewarm. We were both happy.

It’s not going to set the world alight, but for a Sunday brunch it ticked both our boxes.
We also had to wait before being seated (not too long though), so other people must like it too.

We look forward to seeing you again.

All fun and games in the circus

Posted on October 15, 2012 by bekswhoknits

About 4 weeks ago I had a disturbing conversation with my Father.

It was my Bloke’s birthday so we were going out for dinner that night. My parents were wanting to get him a present, and they wanted to make sure that we were free on a certain night.

Of course my mind went into over drive, wondering what they could possible buy us tickets for that we wouldn’t already have tickets for.

My bloke hates musicals with a passion, he even dislikes the musical episodes of his favourite tv shows, so I was hoping it was nothing like that.

And we have just bought season tickets to the Scorchers and our 5 day test match tickets, so sporting tickets were out of the question.

So I was very much perplexed and left wondering what they could possibly have bought us tickets to.

Well it was tickets to the circus! The Great Moscow Circus was in town, and so on Saturday night we went along.

We both had such an enjoyable time.
There was clowns, knife throwing, acrobats, trampolining, and even little horses (which I was very conflicted about. They’re so cute! But they’re trained animals!).

The grand finale was 5 motorbikes in a tiny enclosed space. I know enough physics to know how they stayed up there, but still! It was impressive.

We would never have gone to the circus ordinarily but I’m glad that we did.

Some of the places we shopped – Melbourne (3)

Posted on July 31, 2012July 29, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Well if Saturday was about football, Sunday and Monday were about shopping.

We headed out to Brunswick to meet up with some friends. On our way we had some crepes, before leaving the boys at the pub and going for a wander.

I was a bit uninspired by the shops, but we did stumble across a gorgeous nick-nack shop.
But after walking around for a while we ended up at the pub too.

We headed on to the St Kilda markets where we wandered around but apparently we got there too late as we had missed the yarn stall. Had a couple of jugs at The Espy until the sun went down and we went in search of some food.

We ended up at trunk as it was close to our hotel and we had been there for a drink on Friday. It was such a pretty location, and I was happy with my seafood risotto. I was the lucky one. The Mr’s pasta came out in a paper bag, and was bland and cold. His sister’s boyfriends pizza came out and was impossible to eat without a knife and fork and although the base was hot, the topping was all cold.
When we asked about it we were told, that was just the way it was. Needless to say we weren’t impressed and complained to the manager.
So that meal ended on a sour note.

We ended up at our hotel bar for a couple of quiet drinks where my Mr got his converse shined by the complimentary shoe shining machine.

It was a pretty disappointing ending to the day, which could have been avoided by some decent customer service. Maybe we’re uncultured Perth people but we expect a pizza to be hot unless stated otherwise.

But Monday was Shinsday!!!

Oh and we saw a police car that was stuck on the tramline. It two 8 burly gentleman to lift it off.
We were in a taxi taking photos.

~~~
lets talk!
tweet tweet ~ ravelry ~ email me

Some of the places we went – Melbourne (2)

Posted on July 30, 2012July 29, 2012 by bekswhoknits

This is the second post where I try and make you all jealous about my Melbourne holiday.
We flew in on the red eye getting into Melbourne at 6am on Friday morning.
After leaving out luggage at the hotel (we stayed at the Marriott Hotel where we had an excellent stay), we went out in search of breakfast, whilst awaiting a txt to say our room was ready.

In the end we upgraded to a king size room and we caught up on some sleep having not got any on the plane.

After we were rested we went wandering.

We caught up with some friends over some awesome dumplings, but bland honey chicken fromEmpress of China.

We had a drink at Coopers Inn, trunk,and watched the football at Young and Jackson .

Saturday was all about football.
We went to the MCG to watch Hawthorn play Collingwood. We wanted Hawthorn to win, and they put on a very impressive display. Our hangovers made walking up 36 stairs to get to our seats a little harrowing, I had visions of falling and plummeting to my death but I’m still here. After the football we walked around the MCG, taking photos with The great Shane Warne and Dennis Lillee and promising to be back for the finals.

While we were watching a game live, the Gentleman friend’s team was also putting on a commanding display, so the group had 2 wins under their belt. Unfortunately Port vs Melbourne was going to mean someone in the group was disappointed (but it wasn’t me!) By the end of the day me, my boy, and my bestie’s teams had all won!

We also won $360 at Crown Casino. After going there to watch the Port v Melbourne game, finding out that the sports bar was closed and watching the game in a cafe, we ended up at a jazz bar.
After the music stopped, we migrated to a tv so the Mr could watch the golf. As we were on our way out he put one bet on Roulette. Well 17 (Stewart Dew or Bernie Vince depending on who you talk to) came up and we walked away amazed at our good luck.

Once our taxi driver got us home safely (after nearly colliding with an ambulance, getting lost, having a hysterical phone conversation, and singing Beyonce’s All The Single Ladies), we ordered cheesecake, pizza, and beer.

~~~
lets talk!
tweet tweet ~ ravelry ~ email me

Bridgetown adventures with Hipstamatic (and food)

Posted on May 3, 2012May 3, 2012 by bekswhoknits

This is a picture heavy post.

Can you tell I’m missing being on holidays??

These are adventures at Ford House (which i thought was a little overrated, but everyone else oohed and aahed over everything. I thought the grounds were really pretty and went to town with hipstamatic).

There’s also the caravan covered in newspaper print that was camped next to us.

And the fish pie from the Cidery. We had a pretty awesome taste of some ciders (they make them all on site), and some handcrafted beers (which were yummy) before a tasting plate and a main meal. Their salmon pate was divine. By the end we were liking it with our fingers.

Really missing camping now.

Continue reading Bridgetown adventures with Hipstamatic (and food)

Bridgetown Adventures (pt 2) Nannup

Posted on May 1, 2012May 1, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I love going through photos after a holiday. I can reminisce and think about the good times. But also so close to the event I can remember all the things we said we’d do better next time.

Next camping trip we are not taking as much food.
This will be great as its one less thing for me to plan, but it’s also means spending money on local produce and wasting less food.

I don’t know why we hadn’t thought like this sooner.

And we have another place on the ‘to stay’ list. We did a day trip to Nannup and it was lovely. Full of little churches, interesting craft stores, and a good pub.
In fact the beef and gravy roll was a highlight. It came the day after I had burnt my mouth quite severely on a very hot honey carrot (to the point where it peeled most of the skin off and is now blistering 6 days later), but it just hit the spot I could eat it without too much pain.
Nannup was very pretty and I’d like to spend a little more time there in future.

I’m gonna eat you little fishie!

Posted on April 17, 2012April 17, 2012 by bekswhoknits

I almost didn’t take photos.
I’ve been trying to enjoy food rather than blog food, but halfway through I was suddenly annoyed with myself for not taking a photo.

It looked so pretty, and tasted so good.

Red Cray is a favourite seafood restaurant of ours.
It’s an every-so-often restaurant, mostly because of the price. At $30 for a main meal you expect quality, and we got it.

I could have ordered about 3 different main courses, but ended up with Herb Crusted Barramudi with scallops, spinach, feta, and capsicum, mashed potato and a lemon butter sauce.
The other half had the ocean and earth. Which was perfectly cooked steak with prawns and a bay bug.
My barramundi was delicious. I had to stop myself from gulping everything down, the lemon butter sauced helped it nicely.
Fortunately the other half ordered a whole bay bug which was fortuitous as that slipped down rather easily too.

We even had desert, which is a rarity for us. The sticky date was sticky and gooey. Though I would have enjoyed the caramel sauce and the vanilla bean icecream just as much. The taste I had of the tiramisu was pretty delicious too.
When the other half says ‘terrible!’ with a smirk and a licked clean plate, the sarcasm is implied.

It was an early dinner, and the service was exceptional. So attentive and friendly. It’s probably the reason we ordered desert.
We even had a spectacular sunset (why it doesn’t back onto the river I don’t know) and the fish tanks are always fascinating.

A reliable feed.
And given that the service and food is always quality, I don’t mind paying a bit more from time to time.
Delicious!

Tasty business meetings

Posted on February 23, 2012February 27, 2012 by bekswhoknits

Attached forthwith are the minutes of the last meeting (at Sherbert).
A berry sponge cake, a chocolate brownie, and a polenta cake.

Of course the actual minutes were a lot more detailed. Even though I think my work is really interesting, I’m pretty sure not many other people would share my enthusiasm. That and it’s not a subject for the internets. Some anonymity is nice.

Perfect spot for a good coffee and cake.

Pizza Amore

Posted on January 31, 2012January 31, 2012 by bekswhoknits

We have a new pizza place. Finally.

Our last pizza place (Corleones) won our hearts by not only having good pizza, but by ‘delivering’ my drunk Mister home after Melbourne Cup one year. He ordered two pizzas for delivery, and then asked if they were going his way. (Well in his inebriated state I’m sure it wasn’t quite that elegant, but as I didn’t have a car at the time, and there are never any taxis in Perth, especially on Melbourne Cup day coming home from Ascot, I was just grateful that he got home safe.)
But unfortunately they closed down a couple of years ago which left us without a pizza place.
We’re not short of pizza places in the area, but we are short of pizza places which make good tasty pizzas.

Until now.
Crust pizza have just opened in Mt Lawley! Last Monday they opened their doors, and Tuesday we dined. Albeit at home.

I had a BBQ chicken calzone (which was super yummy). The Mister had BBQ chicken pizza pockets (sensing a theme?), and we both shared a Philly Steak.
It tasted like it was freshly made with fresh ingrediants (I’m assuming because it was). But it’s not something that you can always take for granted. Particularly compared with some of the tripe which is served up in the area (Leo’s I’m looking at you.)
I was also impressed with the selections. The Mister had a shortlist of about 8 pizzas, which is something that never happens. He can be a picky customer.
And ordering online was a breeze. I’m inclined to like anything which means I don’t have to get cash out, or have cash on me.
I believe I’m gushing. But it’s definitely our new preferred pizza place.

See you again soon Crust pizza.