lemonpi » Breaking bread with friends..

Breaking bread with friends..

June 19, 2007 at 11:50 am

Despite the recent lack of dining posts, we actually have been eating out occasionally, mostly as a way of meeting up with friends.

On the weekend, we were at the Lindt Cafe in Darling Harbour to celebrate M’s birthday. I don’t know if it’s just the Darling Harbour outlet, but the novelty of this chocolate cafe is definitely wearing off for me. Bad service and lack of detail really doesn’t cut it when it’s this overpriced. Especially on a 10% surcharge Sunday. However, it was fun to meet up with this bunch of friends; some of whom I see maybe once a year if that, and kudos to M for almost making it through a chocolate degustation plate, at 11 in the morning!

Lunch at One Ocean in Castle Hill was another such meet-up. You wouldn’t normally consider Castle Hill as a food destination, and One Ocean isn’t about to change that. It serves OK food at high prices. M once saw Don Burke from Burke’s Backyard eating here, so that will probably be the only thing she ever remembers about this place. That, and the fact she accidentally ordered langoustines even though she hates having to deal with crustaceans.

A recent dinner at Lowenbrau was to celebrate B’s birthday. B had the biggest pork schnitzel I had ever seen. This Papa Bear portion of meat was at least the size of the plate it arrived on, and then some. My veal schnitzel was almost cowardly in comparison, but so delicious. My first ever visit to the Lowenbrau was with my high school German class. Hopefully Mrs. R. A will still be very proud that I could’ve ordered my schnitzel in German if I had to. And my name is Lieselotte; I have a dog called Lumpi, and I like eating Schwartzwalderkirschtorte.

I was hoping someone would order one of their signature dishes, such as the pork knuckle with sauerkraut. My brother did not disappoint. The knuckle arrived like a fistful of meat, wrapped in crispy, bubbly crackling. Awe-inspiring stuff. Being the very generous portioned mains that they were, this usually dessert-friendly group of eaters actually struggled through a shared dessert plate afterwards. After the last spoonful of custard was coaxed from the plate, we rolled out the door – past the oom-pah-pah band, the waiters in their lederhosen and the other groups of birthday diners, singing. It’s almost as if a birthday occurs every 5 minutes, somewhere, in the Lowenbrau…

On Sunday evening, we stopped at the Sushi Roll in World Square for a quick bite to eat before heading off across the road to the George Street Cinemas to watch Samuel L. Jackson sing the blues. Paring cream cheese with rice is a crime against humanity’s tastebuds, I’ve decided. Cream cheese and salmon, yes, .. on a bagel.

I don’t visit this part of George Street much these days. I remember when there were three cinemas operating on the strip, patrolled by an elderly man selling homemade bracelets, and it was Planet Hollywood, not Star Bar, across the road. It’s looking a lot better these days though. We also noticed that a Pepper Lunch has opened up on George Street. B visited one recently when he was in Singapore. Food comes to your table on hotplates where you proceed to cook your steak, fish etc to a desired doneness. Sounds like an interesting concept.