Community Gardening and more...

What started out as a gastronomical fieldtrip to a community garden turned out into quite an evening thanks to the effortless hostess with the mostess, Jackie Singh!

We met with Cheong Liew, executive chef at The Grange restaurant at The Hilton, Adelaide who discussed with us his inspiration, his inventions and his style of cooking that involves heavily fusionised Asian style cooking. Liew is originally from Kuala Lumpur and has been living in South Australia since he was a young boy. After several slides and heady descriptions I walked out of his kitchen an awe eager to eat at his restaurant, but miffed at the horrendous prices. His degustation menu is priced at almost AUD 200 per head with wine! Whopa!!!

If your interested in finding out a little bit more about Chef Liew: http://www.miettas.com.au/chefs/greatauschefs/liew99.html

We proceeded to a community garden around the block, unfortunately it was a grey, overcast day with the rain coming down on spurts... like most days in Adelaide are nowadays! Although a great concept community gardening is not a concept that particularly appeals to me - and the shabby upkeep really didn't convince me either. Perhaps it was that my cramps and PMS got to me that day - I dunno. What caught my attention was a beautiful tree that was so pretty with and looked like a still from Memoirs of a Geisha.

Another thing that caught my attention was the Star of Jerusalem, a plant/ flower my mum has talked volumes about but that I have never actually seen. There you go mum: for you...

After the day trip was done, Jackie invited us over for a spontaneous dinner so we hit up a local deli, well it was more than a deli anyhow, she bought some of the most succulent mussels I have ever tasted.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Amy whipped up this simple - well it looked simple, gorgeous mussels cooked in white wine. The produce at this place was so fresh and the servers so freindly, they gave us some free sushi! I can't wait to come back here and pick up some of their stuff. Looks at these spatchcocks and quail beautifully dressed.

Some other stuff I was pretty excited about that day included the abundance of sea food and condiments!

Mushroom wonderland

Jackie and her beautiful family sit down to a wonderful meal prepared with love and great flair...

We had a spread of Indian food prepared by Jackie and her mother made the fish curry. The food was great and we enjoyed it all with some gorgeous sparkling Shiraz. Thanks for a wonderful evening Jacks!