Today I slept in until about noon and felt much better than I have in the past few days. I visited the pet shop to get my water tested and Alas! the phosphate levels were just as high as they were before I put in the phos-carb stuff to remove the phosphates. No wonder my plants are growing so well!
Tonight I drove out to Mt Lawley for a friend's birthday dinner.
SAVINI CAFE PIZZERIA
80 Walcott Street, Mount LawleyI quite liked the inside decor of this place. It was warm and had a cosy atmosphere. The smells from the kitchen were rather inviting too. In the warmer weather, they open up the alfresco area but tonight they had it all closed up to contain the heat.
The service was a bit slow - the waiter looked after the 'boys' table first and it was about twenty minutes before he even approached the 'girls' table to see if we were ready to order. Jenn and I ordered food to share since we couldn't make up our minds. The other girls on the table ordered some bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar while Jenn and I shared some oysters.
Entree: Oysters KilpatrickThese were absolutely divine! I haven't had oysters Kilpatrick for such a long time because I've had the pleasure of being able to get fresh oysters to enjoy naturale style. These oysters were beautiful though. They would have been fantastic natural with a squeeze of lemon juice.
Mains:
Portobello Mushrooms with Pumpkin & Baby Spinach Salad
Seafood PlatterOur meals took over an hour to arrive. The guys had received their main courses and polished them off before we even got ours. The waiter was aware of our grumbling stomachs but, speaking from my own experience as a waitress years ago, of course there is not much he can do but placate us with his wit, words and whether we wanted another drink while we waited.
When our meals finally arrived, Jenn and I were pleased with our choices. The mushrooms and salad were delicious! We ordered an entree size to share between us, but I could have easily eaten a main course size myself! The seafood platter was also good - they were generous with the seafood. There was a bowl of mussels, scallops, salmon, prawns, calamari and antipasto of pickled vegetables.
The scallops were absolutely fantastic! Plump little succulent pieces of scallop - they were the highlight of the platter for me. The calamari was quite good too but the flavours in the crumb mixture were foreign to me. Between Jenn and I, we couldn't figure out what the spices and herbs were...strange flavour. The mussels were cooked just right but the sauce was rather lacking in any real flavour.
Overall, the oysters and the mushroom salad came to the rescue and we felt rather satisfied with our meal. I'm sure if I had not been driving and were able to drink more wine, I wouldn't have minded the long wait for the food, but for dinner to take close to four hours without dessert...some of us were rather disappointed with the service and food.
The owner was a really friendly Italian. He greeted everyone personally if he could. Jenn actually thought he was a drunken customer when she arrived.
I spent the evening in the kitchen. I made a moussaka with variations. I layered eggplant, zucchini, mushrooms and lamb mince. I made the moussaka sauce properly according to the recipe this time and the consistency was much creamier and thicker. I also sprinkled some grated tasty cheese over the creamy sauce and baked it in the oven until the juices were bubbling and the cheese had melted and turned a delicious gold.
I had a small bowl of soup and then spent the next half hour back and forth between the toilet and my bed.
Another hour later, I felt well enough to sit up. Mum made me some rice porridge. She made it with spring onions and pieces of chicken. I ate it with some pieces of ham that she cut up for me and some salted preserved beancurd. I don't know why, I just felt like I really needed something salty. I felt a bit better after two bowls - yes it's always a good sign when I regain my appetite. I got back into bed straight after and drifted in and out of sleep.
