Blue Mountains

Murray and I had a chance to escape away to the Blue Mountians for a day recently. Here are a few of the pics.

"The Three Sisters"

A lovely red heart shaped leaf.

Mary's Lookout

Katoomba Falls

Teas & Tisanes

While we were up in the Blue Mountains we stopped off at Teas and Tisanes in Wentworth Falls on the way home.

Well... I went a little bit crazy in there I swear I was only going to buy one tea for Mum!

I got mum some Macadamia tea (black flavoured tea) which smells wonderful. As a Queenslander who loves her macadamias I'm sure she'll love it. A blend of China-Ceylon black teas, mixed with teh sweet nutty flavour of macadamia nuts. Superb with a drop of milk.

And for me... well... I limited myself to just 3 teas....

Saucey Fruit (I like things a bit Saucey!) - A fruity blend of papaw, mango, rosehip, hibiscus and blue cornflower. Delicious as an iced tea. (I haven't tried this one yet)

Japanese Evening Mist - Sencha green tea flavored with cornflower blossom, rose flowers and calendula. Very light and very yum. Just perfect for when you want a drink, but not anything strong.

And of course I couldn’t go home without some Blue Mountains tea – A subtle fruity flavour sprinkled with blue cornflowers, blended with black tea of China and Ceylon. This is a lovely change to the regular black tea that we usually drink, although I like quite a strong black tea, this is a little weaker than I'm used to.

Then on Saturday I went a little crazy at T2 buying canisters and spoons (we drink a lot of tea and coffee and go through about 12 teaspoons a day. I thought that if I have ones that stay in the canisters we wont need to use one each time we make a cup!).

I got 4 lovely canisters that look like they've been covered in a Japanese style print/paper. 4 different colours.

Silk's Brasserie - Leura

After Emma's glowing recommendation of this restuarant we decided to eat at Silk's Brasserie - Leura for our 5th Anniversary - and I couldn't recommend it highly enough.

From start to finish it was possibly the best meal we have ever eaten.

I had good feelings about the place as soon as we walked in. It was warm with a mordern yet Art Deco feel. We were greated by staff who were so nice, and they were 'grown ups' too - not young kids who didn't know which wine to recommend or anything like that.

When the bread came out as we ummed and ahhed over the menu I said to Murray that I had a good feeling about that place - I'd never had good bread and a bad meal.

Murray couldn't decide on a main he liked, so he actually ordered three entres!

For his first entre he had...

Provençale fish soup with baby squid, prawns, aioli & toasted brioche - which he said was the best soup he'd ever had.

And for his second entre it was Sautéed scallops, shiitake mushrooms & pumpkin, served with a cucumber, daikon & coriander salad - which he said was also fantastic. I tried some of the pumpkin, and I wasn't overly impressed by it, but it just wasn't 'my flavors'.

I had the Shortcrust tartlet of Jannei goat curd, pickled pear, confit tomato, cress salad & hazelnut dressing . It was like I had died and gone to heaven. The creaminess of the goats cheese, the sweetness of hte pear, the tartness of the tomato, the hazelnuts sprinkled on top - all of it was magnificent. Orgasmic.

For Murrays third entre he had Home-made gnocchi with sage, asparagus tips, Roaring Forties blue cheese cream & a parmesan straw - which again, he said was magnificent! I'm not a gnocchi person, but even I thought it was pretty good.

I had Roast breast of corn-fed chicken on braised red cabbage with black pudding, pine nuts, muscatels & jus. I was a little concerned about the combination of foods - but I was in heaven again.

I never wanted to leave this place and so continued on with desert. I could only manage a Bailey's Afforgato, but Murray-the-bottomless-pit managed some of a cheese platter as well.

Just when we thouogh we couldn't possibly eat another thing they brought out some almond truffles. And even the complimentary truffles were the best I'd ever had.

Not a cheap night out, especially after adding the wine - but it was worth every cent - and we would have paid twice that much for it.

We would drive the hour and a half up there just to go out for dinner.

Absolutely amazing.