Go

Go Alfresco

Posted on by Eatlovego

This phrase actually reminds me most of year 9 Italian class with Mrs Rihani when she asked us to think about how many Italian words were actually already immersed in the English language….

Today, however I am actually talking about Alfresco, the wonderful store on Pittwater Road, Collaroy Sydney. Alfresco is a store I regularly go to when I have a spare moment to browse, forget about time and dream about all of the beautiful things that I could buy from Alfresco to have in my home.

From the moment I park my car and go through the side entrance to wander past the fresh flowers, through their corner store where it’s ever so tempting to buy some Barefoot Contessa to stock up the pantry with and into the Emporium of all of their major goodies, time stands still for me and I love this feeling.

Alfresco is situated on the corner of Pittwater Road and Ocean Grove, Collaroy and looks like a big Hamptons-style house with a large carpark at the front – perfect for impromptu drop-ins! It rivals Peters of Kensington as a superstore of goods offering a wide range of affordable brands; both wide-spread and exclusive. Where it differs from Peters however, is that it is always visually appeasing to the eye so no matter what display they have in the front window, it always transports you immediately to the vision that they have laid out before you. Last week for example, their furniture display was a combination of old-world safari meets tropical island Bahamas; there was a unique leather bar cabinet which I imagined I could use to just whip up a mojito to sip on and home fragrances from Sicilian brand Ortiga to ferry my senses to a faraway place. As you turn and walk a few steps away the mood changes and you find yourself looking at clean, white finishes and texturised fabrics and the style instantly becomes more country home-esque.

Alfresco’s kitchen range is hard to out-do and the owner of the store obviously has a love for baking as their range of bakeware, aprons, mixers, blenders, utensils and specific icing ingredients is extensive. One’s eye can never go past the rainbow of colours that Kitchenaid make their mixers in and the other thing that happened to take my fancy last week were a cute range of aprons titled “Kiss the Cook“.

Alfresco also stocks a terrific range of books, mostly coffee-table types and a noteworthy one for me last week was a book dedicated to A life on Pittwater and its beauty (given my wedding will be located up there in 12 days). There is also a gorgeous range of silver jewelery, lovely smelling candles and staff who are helpful, knowledgeable and care to stop and have a chat. Additional stores are also located in Mona Vale and Cherrybrook, Sydney.

So whether you are buying a gift for someone or spoiling yourself with a “just because”, go to Alfresco and get whisked away and feel time slip on by.

Sami and Sita

Posted on by Eatlovego

A lot of girls have either experienced this moment or witnessed this moment from afar.

You’re out one night at a party or a restaurant or at a wedding. You feel great in your new dress. You love the colour, the style, the detail. It’s a brand new purchase. Across the room you spot the same colour and your initial gaze turns into more of a longing stare. The same colour is on another girl and as she turns around you realise you may as well have a mirror in front of you as you both have the same dress on. Sometimes, this exact moment can be awkward or won’t be much of a bother. Other times, depending on where you are one of you could turn into a bit of a nasty person. No female ever really wants to be in this situation. When you go out, you want to be an individual and be the only one wearing what you have on. It is usually a blessing in disguise when you have spotted a dress in a catalogue or seen it in the window and ask for it in your size, only to be told that style has sold out. Shops like Country Road and Witchery are great for basics but they will make “that gorgeous red dress with the large bow on the right side” at least 500 times and eventually you will see someone else out in it and honestly for me, it’s a bit of a turn off.

I discovered Sami and Sita by chance in 2007. I was on a bit of a hunt to find a dress to wear to a Christmas party so in my mind I was thinking at least red so I looked a bit festive. I left Sami and Sita that day with a purchase and have been back several times most notably last November as I found my bridesmaid dresses there too.

The next time you’re in Paddington, Sydney go to William Street. It’s a little street that runs off Oxford Street and currently the Paddington Inn pub and French Connection are the landmarks on the corner. Not far down on the right hand side is the boutique Sami and Sita. They will often have dresses blowing in the wind that hang from the door to entice you in. I love going to Sami and Sita to buy dresses because they rarely make more than one size of each style so it minimises the risk of running into your twin out there. They have dresses in beautiful fabrics, prints and colours. There are minis, maxis and dresses to wear to the races, weddings, a night out with the girls, a hot date or dresses just to wear to make you look and feel great! Their prices are reasonable and on par with the larger retailers so if you have bought a dress in Cue or Country Road you can afford to buy a dress at Sami and Sita. This is me in the “Christmas dress” and you will notice it’s not a wallflower dress but a pretty bold red and white stripe print. It certainly fit the bill as I felt more than a bit festive that night and most importantly I still have yet to come across my twin in red and white.

A marriage of flavours

Posted on by Eatlovego

Short post but need to share…

Salt and vinegar. Meat pie and tomato sauce. Vanilla ice-cream and chocolate topping. Rare roast beef and horseradish.

Some ingredients just go together; compliment and encourage their respective individual flavours. You wouldn’t really have one without the other as it wouldn’t taste quite right.

Thursday night, I ate at the Lord Dudley restaurant and came across a surprising marriage of flavours. Situated on Jersey Road, Woollahra it’s such a pretty, quaint English-style pub from the exterior and as you go down the winding stairs (making sure you don’t bump your head on the beams) you suddenly find yourself in a dining room with several hanging pot plants where people are busy talking, eating and having a mad old time. The menu is written out on a big blackboard and roves around the restaurant. At first glance I wouldn’t have necessarily thrown these ingredients together. I actually thought twice and nearly went with the herb crusted lamb chops but then ordered this at the last minute…

Snapper fillet with cauliflower mash and asparagus.

I am usually a lamb over beef over chicken over fish kind of girl but I just have to put it out there in saying that my dinner on Thursday was the best fish I have had for a long time. The snapper was melt-in-your-mouth snapper. The mash was velvety and the flavour was subtle and not overwhelming. And the asparagus as a final touch was the key.

Go to The Lord Dudley this weekend and order this meal; you won’t regret it. Happy Friday!

Live like a local in Manhattan

Posted on by Eatlovego

42 West 69 Street, Apt.4B.

An old Brownstone of four levels complete with the quirky ground-floor neighbour who left his front door slightly ajar with a sign attached to the doorknob completely visible to all tenants “I’m watching you and you’re not welcome”. Great first impression when I moved in.

But that was my address. And for six lovely, jam-packed days I lived like a local in Manhattan; upper west side, one block from the park. I even had a rare rooftop garden where I ate fresh bagels with philly and jam most mornings. It’s almost been three years since my passport was stamped at JFK yet memories of a city like New York are hard to shake off and forget.

Accommodation on any holiday be it backpacker, 5-star Westin or staying on the couch with your long-lost great aunt is a necessary spend. For some, it’s difficult to justify spending copious amounts on accommodation as more often than not, you’re not even in the room for long periods and it becomes a place just to sleep. Others want the options of room service, in-house dry cleaning, an on-call concierge and the bed turned down and are prepared to pay for it. For me, it was somewhere in between. But finding accommodation that’s nice accommodation which doesn’t resemble a 1m x 1m shoebox is hard to find in Manhattan. Back then, it was hard to pay less than US$350 a night and that wasn’t even four stars.

Perusing in a book store holed up in the travel section, I was flicking through one of those Fodors-Lonely Planet books and came across the following lines of if you’re game, up for a new experience and not a Holiday Inn type where continental breakfast is an essential visit www.affordablenewyorkcity.com.

Enter my experience quite similar to the movie The Holiday where Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet’s characters go for a holiday in someone else’s home. While I wasn’t exchanging my home with someone else, that in essence was the experience this site was offering. I entered my dates and choice for a 1 bedroom place, please. I looked at Downtown, Upper West side, Times Square, Greenwich, SoHo and Meatpacker’s District. Places looked homely, quirky, minimalistic and hoarder-central but very livable. Prices were affordable ranging from $150 – 280 per night for my specific preferences. My search narrowed down to two potential places and I started emailing back and forth with a Kelsey who I imagined was somewhere in Manhattan answering my constant questions. The process was seamless and easy. I made my choice quickly, going with an Upper West side place with close proximity to the park over a SoHo pad and the price of $180 per night was quite unbelievable. Kelsey emailed me a detailed information pack on 42 West 69 Street, Apt.4B. The owner was an ex-editor of a major home decorating interiors magazine who had furnished her home with a combination of modern and antiques and the photos showed a clean, comfortable and central home. The deposit was sent, the balance paid on arrival and in my hot little hands were the keys to my first Manhattan address.

Now don’t get me wrong as I am the first to admit I am the type of person to use the little hotel shampoos and put the white terry towelling robe and matching slippers on after I arrive at a hotel so I was not expecting there to be any of the niceties when I arrived at the apartment. So it was to my surprise when I found one basket of tea and coffee, sugar, biscuits, chips and other snacks and another basket full of local maps, walking trails, current Time Out and New Yorker magazines and the essential Zagat guide. There was fresh milk in the fridge, neatly folded towels and soap on the bed and a gorgeous note from the owner explaining everything else.

The six days went by quickly and I covered all of the usual suspects one goes to in New York and in the end it was the discovery of a completely random and unexpected one as I loved the simple feeling of being a temporary local and having a home to go home to in a city like Manhattan.

Gentleman prefers brunette

Posted on by Eatlovego

Tonight will be one of those rites of passage; a once only, a night to look back on probably with a really nasty hangover trying to decipher where did I go, what did I eat, did I really do that dance on that street?

Tonight is my hens and I am three weeks away from declaring my undying love to Alisdair and passionately shouting I do! The girls threw me the dress code gauntlet two weeks ago of hunting down a “1950s Glamourpuss dress in RED”…..pretty please.

Hmmm, I thought. I immediately hit up Grandma Takes A Trip, C’s Flash Back, Zoo Emporium… the usual vintage offenders on Crown Street, Surry Hills I often go to  in order to rustle up some inspiration. If I had been asked to wear Electrifying 80s in fluoroscopic pinks and limes I would have been in Dynasty and Dallas heaven with too many shoulder pads to even comprehend. But waisted, hourglass Marilyn Monroe dresses were no-where to be seen. Enter Coco Repose, a somewhat hidden gem on the corner of Nichols and Fitzroy Streets in Surry Hills.

Coco Repose is one of those serendipity places which takes you back in time when ladies got dolled up for no reason and wouldn’t leave the house without gloves and pearls on. Ladies had their hair set and sprayed and fascinators were not just worn to Derby Day. Marilyn’s dress was blowing up over a grate, there were cats on hot tin roofs and Grace and Cary were thrilling audiences in Hitchcocks’s To Catch a Thief. Females looked like little women and Men admired them for doing just that. Coco Repose was the best destination to find the perfect hens outfit! Amanda styled and pearled me up to a tee. I tried on dresses in cherry, tomato, sunset orange, romantic lace and sexy satin. Hats were tried that were closed, opened, round, felt and flowery. Questions were posed just on the subject of gloves – to go virginal white or daring black; short or long?

Final purchase: a cherry red satin wiggle dress, a cherry red felt fascinator with bobbles, short black gloves, black suspender and sexy seamed stay-ups and velvet pointy black stilettos. Marilyn, eat your heart out as my gentleman prefers brunettes.

Go and Ugg Boot – the puzzle explained

Posted on by Eatlovego

Shoes.

Most females love them, collect them, have them in many colours. My male has an obsession with brown ones, loafers in particular. Some like flats, some just wear heels, others wear boots year round. Christian Louboutin paints his soles red, Jesus has sandals named after him, Imelda is known for her masses, Big even proposed to Carrie with one (a damn beautiful one). All in all and I’ve known this for a long time but SHOES are a big deal. They mean something for so many people and at the very least protect our tootsies. And the best thing about shoes is that even if you’re having a fat day and you can’t even squeeze into your favourite jeans, most probably you can pull your best shoes from the wardrobe, put them on and it will make your day!

Well, what does my shoe collection look like now that I’ve spent the last paragraph leading up to this? Well at my 21st, shoes rated a mention in my speeches and at that count I believe my best friend counted out 60+ shoes. The collection has grown and shrunk and grown over the years and I now have a still relatively big but vast collection of shoes in many colours, fabrics and styles. I would probably call myself a chameleon of shoes as I’m not just a stiletto-girl or a thong-girl and ugg boots only come out in winter and in the comfort of home and never up to the corner store. Whenever I go away I like to buy at least one pair of shoes from a city or place to remind me of where I’ve been.

To wear a pair of shoes is an experience for me as is eating at a restaurant or cafe. Which is why I am going to pair the two together. Huh, I hear you ask???

Recently whilst dining at The Local, my girlfriend announced at the dinner table that if she was ever on Death Row and she had the requirement for a “last meal” then this would be it. Big statement, HUGE. Think about it; what would yours be? I’m still sitting on this one. 

So, if you haven’t yet been, you need to get yourself off to The Local Taphouse, Flinders Street Darlinghurst quick smart. Why? Because I want you to try a paddle of exotic beers that go really well with the mussels and chilli frites. Or if you’re a burger type, you won’t want to go past the lamb burger – trust me! There’s beer and cheese nights and the what-should-be-a-religion Host-a-Roast which is the simple equation of inviting maximum 12 friends and starting the ultimate decision making. Step 1. will it be lamb, beef, pork or chicken? A choice of vegies? Potatoes how do you like them? Gravy or is it sauce as an accompaniment? And are you a berry or apple crumble type? Apple crumble won the majority vote for this crew. Take all of these components and put them in a private dining room where you are surrounded by empty bird cages that adorn the ceiling, dark polished floors and intriguing black and white photographic wallpaper and you have Host-a-Roast. God, I hope they repeat it this winter!

So to sum this up… to me the experience of going to the Local is an ugg boot. Basically I’m not into stars or hats to rate or recommend to you where you should go, I will leave that up to the Good Food Guide or the Michelin Guide.

SHOES is my game. Therefore to me an ugg boot is comfy, warm, toasty, a stayer that will continue to live up to expectations year in year out. It’s Aussie but has character and I can’t wait to put them on this winter. In saying that, The Local doesn’t have to be just a place to go for winter, it’s definitely an all-year rounder but when it’s an especially cool Sydney night and you want somewhere warm that will serve up a hearty meal that’s mouth-watering head to The Local.

As you read on, I will use other shoes to describe restaurants and my experiences as I go on so it gives you an idea of how good it really is or where it may fall down and need a band-aid. I’m sure there will be a few stilettos (a great night out with the girls and terrific atmosphere), lots of thongs (excellent outdoor area, a fail-safe for summer) and a couple of wedges (a fabulous place that’s comfortable too). From time to time there may even be a Jesus sandal. Not my favourite look but may best describe somewhere I go.

I’ll leave that interpretation to you.