food – dangermouse.net

The joy and despair of roast vegetables

I’ve realised that although I love roast vegetables, the reason we seldom have them is because I really hate cooking them. I find it unenjoyable to make roast vegetables, compared to cooking most other things.

My wife and I were talking today about what to make for dinner to go with the last slices of leftover lentil loaf from Easter lunch. She suggested roasted vegetables: potato, pumpkin, onions, the usual sort of thing. My heart sank.

I’m not even sure why I dislike making roast vegetables. It’s not like it’s difficult or time consuming, other than just waiting for the oven to cook them. There’s something about all the oil, and the mess in the roasting pan… I don’t know. I love eating roast vegetables, but I really really dislike making them.

Anyway, my wife decided to take the reins and do the cooking tonight. So I got to eat roast vegetables without having to prepare them! So that was pretty good. She was home today because of the Easter Monday public holiday, and in fact only has three days of work this week due to Anzac Day being on Friday.

This evening I completed the last two ethics classes on the “Memories” topic. I did the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm experiment results with all my classes, and now that the topic is completed I can report the final result: 33/47 kids said they remembered seeing the word “sleep” on a slide that did not include that word. So that’s over 70% success rate in giving them a false memory, compared to a reported rate of about 44% for tests over many subjects. I saw that it’s more likely to work with adults and less likely to work with children, so my result is a little against the trend. But of course the numbers are not really high enough to make any significant conclusion, other than yes, it really is easy to induce false memories in people.

I claim this is ethical because I explain to the kids afterwards what happened, and how it works, and we discuss the consequences of the fact that our memories are unreliable, and how we should take this into account in our lives. It was a really good topic!

Missed Monday and a special seaplane lunch

Wow, Monday was so busy that I didn’t even realise I forgot to post aa blog entry until my wife asked me a short time ago, “Did you post on your blog yesterday?” It wasn’t exciting-busy, it was just a lot of online ethics classes, and walking Scully, and cooking dinner, so not really much to write about. Which is maybe why I forgot it.

Today, however, we had a special day out. My wife had the day off work and we booked a restaurant for lunch. A nice one, on the harbour shore, with a view. Unfortunately the weather turned overnight and it was chilly and cloudy and windy, but not uncomfortably so from our table on the wharf.

The restaurant is the Empire Lounge, at the Sydney Seaplanes terminal in Rose Bay. This is the only seaplane terminal in Sydney Harbour and they do scenic flights over Sydney, as well as shuttle services to some locations just north of Sydney where there are fancy secluded waterside restaurants that have a seaplane wharf for guests. There are no actual destinations that the seaplanes fly to, as they’re just not practical for any destinations within range. But the site was the old terminal for Sydney’s first international airport, receiving the Empire Flying Boat service from Southport in England, which took ten days to reach Sydney.

For lunch we had some of the hummus with focaccia to start:

Then I had the pan-fried snapper (with a side of green vegetables shared with my wife, no shown):

And for dessert a baked cheesecake:

The meal was pretty good, everything tasty and delicious.

Back at home I did some story planning stuff for Darths & Droids. I tried to write a new strip, but needed to work on background material to get the story arc straight in my head first, and also look up some old strips for continuity.

This evening I had the first class in the new week’s ethics topic: Memory. I have some interesting questions about reliability of memories. I used the Deese–Roediger–McDermott paradigm test, showing a set of words related to sleep, but not including the word “sleep”. And then hid the words after about 15 seconds and asked the kids what words they remembered. The very first word “remembered” was “sleep! I wasn’t sure how well the test would work in getting them to remember something they never even saw, but it was very successful.

On TV, I’ve started watching the new season of Black Mirror. I really like this series, but with the first new episode I got a feeling of dread, like it was giving companies ideas, kind of like the infamous Torment Nexus. … Time to watch another one!

Sunday brunch and Incognito art

This morning I got up a bit early and did my 5k run. I needed to go early because I had to cool down and have a shower and change in time to walk up the street with my wife to meet up with her mother and brother for a morning tea at a local cafe. Although I’d had quick breakfast before my run, I was hungry after the exercise and turned it into a brunch by ordering the French toast, which came loaded with maple syrup, berry compote, and melted white chocolate. My brother-in-law joined me for a substantial brunch as he hadn’t had breakfast yet, while the others had lighter snacks.

When we got home I did some comics stuff and got ready for my ethics classes, beginning from 4pm today. And I made some green curry broccoli and rice for dinner.

My wife has been making some artworks to send off for an anonymous fundraising art event, called the Incognito Art Show. Anyone can register and submit up to three pieces of original art, which are then displayed online, and selected works in a public display gallery. People can buy the art without knowing who made it, which is only revealed after purchase. You can view and buy art online if you wish, and they ship internationally, so if you’re interested you might want to check it out. The artworks aren’t viewable or buyable yet because they’re still accepting submissions, but they will go on display from 26 May and on sale from 31 May.

Pretty cool!

Roti pies and German smallgoods

After breakfast this morning I went for a 5k run.It was a bit warmer and more humid than last Saturday, but I ran a similar time, so I’m happy with that. Although I was pushing hard and thought I’d done a bit better than that.

We made a special expedition for lunch today, driving all the way to Narrabeen, in the northern beaches region of Sydney, to try a new place that has really good reviews for their pies: Roti Pies.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it turns out the pies are pretty much exactly that. The crust is made just like Indian roti, and the fillings are all various Indian curries. My wife tried the cauliflower & chick pea korma pie, while I had a butter chicken pie and a lamb achari pie. They were really delicious, and the unusual roti pie crust was amazing with the spicy and juicy fillings. They leaked a bit, and it was a bit messy, but we sat at one of the outdoor tables there and had plates to catch it all, so it was fine.

After this, we went two doors down to a gelato shop and I had scoops of apple pie and coconut, cherry, chocolate gelato. I ate it as we crossed the road to walk along the grassy patch by the lagoon there, which was nice, and gave Scully a chance to walk on the grass a bit.

On the way back to the car we passed Brot & Wurst, a German smallgoods and grocery shop. We browsed around all of the cool stuff and bought a few things: German mustard, pfeffernusse gingerbread, stroopwafels, and a bottle of gluhwein syrup for mixing with red wine to make gluhwein. That should be nice with winter on the way!

Speaking of which, the weather still seems warm, with temperatures around 26-28°C during the day still. But there are signs of autumn, with the London plane trees lining many streets starting to go brown. The Bureau of Meteorology has released the long range winter forecast, predicting it will be another very warm winter, following on the last two which were the warmest two winters on record for Sydney. This one is likely to be similar again.

For dinner tonight I made calzones: one mushroom and one spinach, which I split and my wife and I had one half of each, with a basil and oregano tomato sauce that I whipped up.

Chicken fried rice and board games night

Today is online board games with friends. My wife is also out having dinner with her friends, so I’m minding Scully at home. We went out together (me and Scully) for an early dinner before my wife left.

We walked up to the new shops area at St Leonards. I was thinking of trying the chicken place again for a kebab wrap or a burger. But next door was a Chinese place that did noodles and rice dishes. I grabbed a table outside and tied up Scully and went in to order. I tried the satay chicken fried rice. The woman behind the counter was super friendly and came out to say hi to Scully and bring her a bowl of water. The serving size was very generous and not expensive. It was nothing super special, but decent and filling and good value, so I’m happy with that.

Back home and we’re into our online games. I’ve played a couple of games of Jump Drive, then won my first ever game of Marrakech, which was nice. I’ve played this game many times and never managed to win before. I think I was lucky with the die rolls though. Then we played a game of Space Base, which I also won. And then Word Traveler. And Harmonies, which I hadn’t played before, and was really fun. I’ve seen it on the BoardGameGeek hot list and was keen to try it, and yeah, it’s great.

Other than that, not much else to report today. I worked through a few things I needed to do for Standards Australia and ISO work, including applying for funding for my trip to Berlin in June to attend the next ISO Photography meeting there. And I tidied up some random chore-type things in my inbox, dealing with tasks like tax payments and setting up two-factor authentication for a site that’s requiring it soon. All the boring stuff.

Finding a place for a special lunch

On Tuesday next week my wife is taking a day off and we’re planning to have a nice lunch somewhere. Unfortunately the place we sometimes go to for such things, Otto in Woolloomooloo, isn’t open on Tuesdays. So I had to find a new place, with the constraints that it has to be open for lunch on Tuesdays, and has seating which allows dogs so that we can take Scully.

There’s a bit of a poor overlap between fancy dining places and restaurants that allow dogs. But after some searching I found the Empire Lounge, which is on a wharf in Rose Bay, a suburb on Sydney Harbour. It looks pretty nice and after confirming they’d be okay with Scully I booked us in for lunch next week.

In other food news, I took Scully for a walk this morning and decided to visit Moon Phase for a pastry. They had an Easter special: a carrot cake pastry!

It was delicious. A warm and spicy carrot cake centre, surrounded by crisp flaky pastry, topped with cream cheese icing, crunchy glazed pecans, and… some dill! I’m not sure why dill, but yeah, it worked.

Today I mostly worked on writing new Darths & Droids strips. I’m trying to build up a three-week (or more) buffer as quickly as I can, to cover my trip in June. So a day dedicated to it was sensible at this stage.

Tonight I made lentil dhal with potatoes for dinner, and had a little before my first online class started at 5pm. I’m busy teaching from 5-8pm, so I can’t eat at a normal dinner time. I had a little before to tide me over and then had another bowl afterwards.

But the good part is finishing an hour earlier than during daylight saving time!

A Roman Holiday in a pastry

Today I had my last two ethics classes before taking a week off from them because of this weekend’s upcoming trip to New Zealand. After those, at midday and 1pm, I took Scully for a walk to the patisserie Moon Phase to celebrate.

The last few times I’ve been there I’ve seen a new special pastry called a “Roman Holiday”, which I really wanted to try, but those times I was after a small sweet treat, not a large savoury. But today they had it again, and I decided I had to try it.

It’s a base of flaky pastry topped with a ring of sliced cherry tomatoes around the edge and a mini burrata cheese plonked in the middle, decorated with basil leaves. The pastry is also filled with some tomato and pesto and I think there was some other ingredient in there but I didn’t identify it. Anyway, it was really really good, as have been most of the pastries I’ve had from this place.

Tonight I’m planning to relax and then get an early night, since I don’t have any online classes as I usually do. The goal is to get used to getting up an hour or two earlier by Friday when we fly out to New Zealand. Since the time zone there is two hours east of us, so we’ll have to be getting up earlier there.

Saga of a door

Our new front door was supposed to be painted today. The workman arrived in the morning, but then vanished for a few hours. When he returned he said that he’d been driving around to different hardware stores looking for the specific moulding style and size that is on all of the other apartment front doors, so that he could install matching moulding on ours before painting. But he’d been unable to find it anywhere.

So he asked if I’d be around next week and said he’d go further afield and try to find the matching moulding, and then come back to affix and paint next week. So we have another week with an unpainted wooden door.

After lunch I took Scully for a long walk, around the harbour shore. I stopped at the Grumpy Baker in an attempt to get a snack, but after waiting a few minutes with nobody serving me (I was the only one waiting to be served), I gave up and left. This bakery used to be really good, but their service has always been slow, and I’ve soured on them a bit recently. Instead I went to the nearby cafe which opened recently and decided to see what they had. There were a few muffins and small cakes, and they had a caramel slice that looked good, so I got one of those. It turned out to be delicious, with chewy caramel, which is not usual in a caramel slice. Really good. So I’m glad I went there!

Down by the water we met a woman with a small caramel-coloured dog, and as she approached she picked up her dog and carried her past. I said hello and she explained her dog was very shy. I said Scully was a bit too, and she stopped and carefully put her dog down. It was named Indy. The two dogs both approached one another very carefully and slowly, and eventually had a close sniff and hello. Scully is very gentle with other dogs and the woman was happy that Indy seemed to be friendly with her. She said it would be good for Indy to have positive experiences with other dogs. So I stayed there for several minutes as the two of them got used to each other and relaxed. It did seem that Indy was more shy than Scully. The woman seemed very happy with this, so that was good.

This evening I made a new experimental pasta sauce, using half a left over sweet potato from last night’s couscous dish. I boiled it up and then pureed it with semi-dried tomatoes and paprika to make a pasta sauce, served over fusilli, with chopped almonds for some crunch. It was pretty good.

Board games and Japan prep

Friday was online board games night with my friends. We played Can’t Stop, Ticket to Ride, Just One, 7 Wonders, and then a game of Castles of Burgundy. I didn’t won any, but came second in Castles of Burgundy behind the guy in our group who usually wins everything, so that felt like a victory.

Before that we went up to the fish & chips shop for dinner, eating casually while we walked home with Scully. I didn’t do much else on Friday, except pick up the groceries that I’d ordered online. But I got a surprise message from the supermarket, telling they were sorry my order had been cancelled because of an error in their online system, and saying they’d refund the full amount and give me a $20 gift voucher. A bit later I did indeed get sent a $20 voucher. I’m now waiting to see if they will also refund the total order which they tell me was cancelled, but which I actually picked up.

While walking Scully at lunchtime I spotted a grey butcherbird sitting on the overhead train wires near the station. We were walking on an overpass over the rail line, so I got the photo from a higher elevation, which is unusual for most birds. Its plumage looks a bit dishevelled for some reason.

This species is moderately common around here, but usually seen high in trees where it’s difficult to get a good photo—or more often heard with their distinctive call but not seen at all—so I was excited to get such a good view of one for a change.

Today, Saturday, I went on my usual 5k run in the morning. My times have not been great lately, because of the warm weather and high humidity. I’m looking forward to autumn and cooler weather.

For lunch we went to a Thai restaurant with my wife’s family for her mother’s birthday. Not a large group, just seven of us. We shared some delicious dishes. We used to eat Thai quite a lot as there had always been very good Thai places near us, but the best one closed down some years ago, and there isn’t one we like much nearby any more. So it was good to have some today.

The other thing we’ve been doing is organising for our trip to Tokyo next weekend. I booked another couple of restaurants. Normally we don’t bother booking any eating places in advance of a trip, but Japan is tricky for vegetarians and places that offer vegetarian food are often extremely busy with tourists, because visiting vegetarians all end up going to the same few places.

I’ve also got some things to print out, like our travel insurance details, hotel booking receipt, and other miscellaneous stuff. And I have to double check I have a usable Tokyo train map on my phone. Although I suppose Google Maps will do for route planning.

New content today:

A couple of local building projects

Yesterday while walking Scully up to the main shops nearby, I took this photo:

This row of buildings has been somewhat derelict for several years, some businesses shutting down and nothing new opening, although there were still some hangers-on up until very recently. One of them, the green one, was a place called “Stuffed Beaver”, which purported to be a Canadian restaurant. I’ve never ever seen any other Canadian restaurant in my life (except in Canada I guess) and have no idea what would distinguish it as such, other than perhaps having poutine on the menu. But now they’re all empty and demolition has begun with the removal of the metal awnings that hung over each shop front. You can also see a guy surveying the area. So I expect that demolition will begin pretty soon, followed by redevelopment into new businesses and almost certainly a tower of apartments above.

Today I did some more comics stuff in the morning. I’m needing to build up a buffer to cover my trip to Tokyo in a week and a half, so I’m concentrating on that in my spare time.

At lunch I walked up to y wife’s work to pick up Scully and bring her home. I decided to take a roundabout route home, via a cafe where we stopped for lunch. I had a chicken burger, which was pretty good. It came with hot chips and they were sprinkled with super fancy sea salt crystals, which were large pyramid shapes. But the crystals were so large that they all fell off the chips and the salt ended up on the plate and there was none on the chips. I had to manually pick up the salt crystals and delicately place them on the chips before putting them in my mouth to get any salt at all. Despite this, the meal was good – the chips were nicely crispy with a fluffy centre.

On the walk home from there, I passed another piece of construction.

This is a bushwalk track that I take up from the harbour shore, through a forested reserve area to the road to walk home. The sandstone steps on the left are brand new, still under construction. Previously the path up the hill involved an awkward large step up that tree root on the right, where you can see the old wooden steps above and below. It was tricky, and also very high for Scully to jump – one time she didn’t land properly and fell off the tree root. So the new steps will be much appreciated once they’re finished.

Tonight I made pumpkin quiche for dinner, and then had three more classes on the Fantasy logic topic. I’m really enjoying this one, and it’s getting the kids to apply their critical thinking to some interesting new hypothetical situations. Although some of the kids are having some difficulty understanding the distinction between coming up with reasons why magic can’t do X from the point of view of the author, versus in-story reasons.

e.g. “What are some reasons within the story for why heroes go on a difficult quest instead of just using magic?” And a kid answers, “Because if they used magic it’d make the story boring.” I need to explain very carefully that “Yes, that’s the reason the writer writes the story that way, but what could be a reason that the writer comes up with that the hero would tell someone else in the story why they can’t just use magic?” The wording gets a bit convoluted when trying to clarify this for a kid who is having difficulty with the distinction. But I did get there in the end!

New content today: