A Recipe for a Great Weekend

Posted by angie on Mar 5, 2009 in review | 7 comments

The single best recipe for a great day or night out for me is hanging out with good friends, a sprinkling of delicious food and drink, topped with a generous dash of laughter and conversation, mixed in with smooth and joyful sounds. This is exactly what happened recently to create The. Best. Weekend. Ever.

Saturday started off with a bang at the Atrium buffet at Burswood, where my friend from high school celebrated her 26th birthday. Being the gentlemen that my male friends are, they let us ladies go ahead to pile up our plates with salad and fantastically fresh seafood. In reality, they were just wondering whether they should conquer the heavenly chocolate fountain before it ran out or have ‘real food’ first. Fortunately for the boys, the chocolate fountain did not run dry while we stuffed ourselves with a great variety of food available including oysters, prawns, salad, hot roast meats, and more.

Being the organised Foodie I am, I informed the birthday girl to mention when she booked that it was her birthday so we could get free birthday cake and sparkling wine. Unfortunately, I found the double chocolate cake far too rich for my taste. Does anyone know if Burswood makes non-chocolate birthday cakes for birthday parties?

After lunch, we decided to take a walk to burn off a few calories. None of us had been to Burswood in ages, so we were surprised by Burswood’s new renovated walkway between the casino and the hotel. At first I was a bit surprised by the new design, but I thought it was cool with all the moving parts. One of my friends thought it was tacky though. You be the judge – is the spaceship cool, tacky, or have the aliens landed and infiltrated Earth?

After lunch, my friends sensibly decided to go home for an afternoon nap. I however decided to go to the other party I was supposed to go to that day which was a birthday party for an adorable 1 year old girl who is scared of strangers. And no, it’s not just me. :p Despite the fact that I had already eaten a whole heap for lunch, my friend made me eat her daughter’s sweet birthday cake – because the buffet wasn’t filling enough to roll me over in a wheelbarrow and wheel me home.

It turned out my friend and her family had just returned from a family visit to Malaysia the night before, so naturally the talk turned to food from back in Malaysia. We all talked about how we totally missed the totally cheap and excellent Malaysian kopi tiams (coffee shops) run by old people, Australian fast food versus Malaysian fast food (Aussies get gypped), and whether we really enjoy an assam laksa when its just so hot that our eyes and nose are watering like crazy. For the record, the answer is an unanimous “YES!” to the fact we like our laksa even though we have watering eyes and runny noses – it truly makes for a real assam laksa experience.

On Sunday afternoon, the Wandering Gourmet had it’s February meet which was High Tea at Leaf Tea Merchants in Mt Lawley. Leaf is known for its ‘no coffee’ policy which delights me as I believe tea is more superior in every way. But seriously speaking, Leaf is largely known for its large array of loose leaf teas and delicious morning or afternoon tea treats, served in a modern yet cosy setting with Eurasian influences.

For those who are very observant, you can see from the above picture that there are 2 different types of stands, which are for 2 to 3 people sharing. Honestly, between 3 people you could probably share a platter for 2, but as the fortune cookie I picked out from my platter says, “Eat smart and be happy”. Yes, I’ll eat smart by picking and choosing from someone else’s tempting platter and be happy.

Left: High Tea Platter for 3
Right (top to bottom): Meringue with raspberry jam, 2 Fruit Quencher teas, and 2 heart-shaped treats

It is really hard to say which high tea food item was my overall favourite, as they were all so delicious (except for the egg sandwich, but that’s just me and my dislike for egg). After much thought, I would say that my favourite treats were:

• A savoury mini muffin with dill and small chunks of ricotta cheese. It was really unpopular amongst my friends as they felt it was too heavily flavoured with dill, but this ‘trash’ turned into my treasure as the flavour took me back in time to happy culinary memories of my travels in Cyprus as the taste reminded me of my friend’s mum’s stuffed zucchini flower
• A banana muffin baked with a slice of banana on top to give a beautifully sweet flavour with a crunch
• Strawberry coated in chocolate. Enough said.

As part of the High Tea deal, we were able to order our own pot of tea. Some chose the Fruit Quencher under my recommendation, although I norng red-coloured drink with a hint of amally order this cold tea when it is blistering hot. As it was a nice and cool day, I chose the Island Groove which promised to be as “refreshing as a tropical island getaway”. I’m not sure which island I landed on, but I would say that it is an hot and refreshing drink with a hint of apple and berries.

After High Tea, DG and I made our way to Sabroson who were playing at the Subiaco Arts Centre for the 2nd last concert as part of the Sunset @ Subi summer series. Sabroson is a latino-jazz 9-piece band who play both original songs and funkified cover songs from the likes of U2 and Pink Floyd. As everyone swayed the night away under the setting sun in the Theatre Gardens, I couldn’t help but feel that weekends simply can’t get better than this.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMiw1q2Phsk

Atrium
Burswood Entertainment Complex
Great Eastern Highway
Ph: 9362 7551
WWW: http://www.burswood.com.au/Restaurants/Atrium/

Leaf Tea Merchants
60 Walcott Street
Mt Lawley
Ph: 9471 1105
WWW: http://www.leafteamerchants.com