• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation

Painting the Bridge

Andrew Christie

  • Quest
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Cookie Policy
  • Contact

Archives for December 2014

433 Ferah Turkish Café – Setting a high bar for the trek into Turkish territory

December 6, 2014 by Andrew Christie 1 Comment

433 ferrah

We have just entered a small Turkish enclave on the way to St Peters. Ferah Turkish Café, being our first encounter in this sub-quest, has the opportunity to set the standard by which the rest will be judged. And it does.

Tonight we are four, being joined by Mark, recently returned from Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia, and the Stropolina, recently returned from Randwick.

We have been looking for a new place to gather for drinks before we descend on the quest target for the day. For a while we were going to the Newtown Social Club as it is pub-esque and close to this slippery-slope part of the quest, but we find it a bit loud and a bit dark on these nice warm summer evenings. So tonight we are meeting at 2042, which is light and airy, being open to the street, and while it doesn’t have a hipster-compatible range of artisanal beers, it has enough for lubrication purposes.

Strop, the Stropolina, and I arrive a bit early and indulge in some family catch up time. Strop recounts her traumatic afternoon, trying to rescue a dog that had been hit by a car and was staggering around on the Hume Highway in peak hour traffic. And no one was stopping. Seriously, what is wrong with people? How fucking important is getting home on time? Or to the pub? Or wherever? Anyway Strop ventured out into the traffic, daring them to run her over too, and managed to get the dog to the side of the road – but he didn’t make it. He had probably taken off in a panic during the thunderstorms that were brewing that afternoon. Anyway, Strop is due a humanity award. Another one.

Mark is running a bit late as he is being bent back into shape after a discomfiting bout of jet lag. “From a four hour time difference?” Strop and I mutter and nod knowingly to each other, “Get over it, mate. Try eleven hours, that’s jet lag.” Mark tries to explain that they reckon that short time-zone changes from west to east are the worst, but we’re not having any of that malarkey.

Before things turn ugly, we up-stumps and head for Ferah Turkish Café. This is the second time we’ve been to Ferah recently. The first time was with John and Pauline, for a post north African holiday de-brief and scarf comparison session. I didn’t write about that visit as I didn’t consider myself on duty as a bloggerist at the time. But this time I am definitely on duty, and I have the notebook out, recording the menu choices even as they are being made. Unfortunately, after Mark has gone through the order with the waiter I, having written it all down carefully in illegible scrawl in my notebook, feel the urge to repeat the order. Just to clarify. The poor waiter is Turkish after all, and Mark isn’t. Unfortunately my intervention leads to us ordering twice as much as we thought we were. My only excuse is that I was just trying to help – it was not at all a ploy to get out of ever having to do the ordering, ever again. Soon after this debacle had been sorted out, Mark started talking in Turkish to the waiters. Show off.

We all ordered ayran (salted yoghurt drink, and no, I’d never heard of it before either) to drink which surprised our waiter even more than when I had completely doubled the order.

433-1

The food started arriving quickly: hummus, baba ganoush (really nice baba), cacik, vine leaves and felafel. We are all soon dipping away with our bits of bread, and trying to talk with our mouths full. The only slight disappointment was the felafel, which seemed a bit pale and a bit dry. The rest, especially the baba ganoush, was excellent.

Ferah has an accompanying Turkish artefact shop next door with lots of rugs, tiles and lamps for you to buy. If only the food didn’t keep coming so fast, you might have time to go and check it out. A lot of the tiles and glass lamps have made their way into the café along with a water feature, which has taken up residence in the corner.

Our mains are mixed grills to share – an Aussie classic re-interpreted by the Turks. Or maybe it was the other way around. Whatever. They come with skewered bits of chicken, beef and a meat patty that might have been lamb, as well as delicious rice, a salad with red cabbage, and more bread, carefully located beneath the meats to soak up all the juicy goodness.

There was very little talking for while as we demolished this lot. The general consensus was that the beef and the rice were the winners with an honourable mention to the patties which were nice and spicy. It was all good though.

Ferah has set the bar high at the start of our trek into King Street’s Turkish territory. And it’s cheap too.

The Stropolina's reaction to my ordering efforts
The Stropolina’s reaction to my ordering efforts

Ferah Turkish Cafe on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Quest Tagged With: baba ganoush, traffic, Turkish

Best. Present. Ever.

December 6, 2014 by Andrew Christie 2 Comments

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Some excellent but tiny additions to the library. I’m going to have to build a suitable bookcase – 2 paddle pop sticks should do it I reckon.

Thanks to the bros-in-law Jim and Matt.

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Left Luggage

Left Luggage going cheap!

December 4, 2014 by Andrew Christie Leave a Comment

If you are in the US the Kindle version of Left Luggage is currently going cheap: US$0.99 – down from the ridiculously over-priced US$2.99 – until the 6th of December. Get it before the digits run out.

I think this kind of promotion only works with the US Amazon site and only if you are accessing the site from the US for some reason – at least I assume that is why it shows up at the regular price on my browser. Let me know if you can see the US$0.99 price from wherever you are. It would be interesting to understand how all this Amazon stuff works.

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: Left Luggage

420 Lou Jacks – Just a hint of Greekiness

December 3, 2014 by Andrew Christie Leave a Comment

420 lou jacks It’s a café (well mostly), so it’s breakfast time again. Actually, it’s well past my breakfast time because we have already been off to the beach to get dumped by the shore break at Coogee, and stare in wonder at the enormous numbers of pink clad Nippers running up and down, and swimming all over the place. It’s good to know that there will be a new generation ready to rescue me should my old bones get into strife in the waves. Once we’d been home to wash all the sand out of our cossies, and walked up the hill (“It’s getting to be a long way now isn’t it?” “Yes. Yes, it is.”), we were really looking forward to all the goodness that a bought breakfast brings. And a coffee or two. Unfortunately, when we arrived the place was as full as a goog. We went for a wander for a while, hoping that a vacancy would arise while we checked out the street numbers of the upcoming quest candidates. It’s getting a bit tricky down this end of the street because the odds and evens are coming unstuck from their typical across-the-road relationship. The odds seem hell bent on tearing ahead and getting to St Peters a couple of blocks before the evens. This means of course that we are going to have to Pay Attention when deciding what’s up next. Strop was busy freaking out the owners of the Europe Grill by taking photos of their street number and standing outside making copious notes as they tried to get ready for the Sunday lunch trade. Luckily a couple of tables had become free at Lou Jacks so I was able to hustle her inside before there were any nasty scenes. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Lou Jacks is fairly unpretentious with no particular theme to the décor. There is a hint of Greekiness in parts of the menu, and a couple of bottles of retsina lurking on the shelf behind the bar, but it’s very low-key. The vibe is pleasantly honest and straightforward. It’s just a café, with a bit of a courtyard out the back. I have no idea what the name means. I hope it is the names of the owners, but maybe it is their favourite bourbon. Who knows? The service is very efficient, we have a couple of coffee orders away before we have even had time to look at the menu. And the coffee is excellent. The menu is not one of those long ones, full of exotic middle-eastern, or south American meals, that seem to be in vogue at the moment. There is enough choice, but you don’t have to go flipping through pages and pages of exotic choices. I follow my gut (and the rules) and go for the Big Breakfast, while Strop chooses the Peasants Breakfast, which turns out to be a delicious omelette with potato, shallots and fetta – plus a side of bacon. The big breakfast lives up to it’s name with toasted Turkish bread, sausage, haloumi, mushrooms and tomatoes, to keep the eggs and bacon company. Yum. And a couple of orange juices. And two more coffees please. The crowd seemed to be mostly locals, getting their Sunday morning coffee and egg fixes. There were a lot of South’s tee shirts being worn – good to see that they’re maintaining the rage. One young man was waiting for a couple of takeaway coffees with a packet of bacon and a bottle of barbecue sauce in his hand, obviously planning his own version of a big breakfast when he got home. We were pretty full when we decided to move on. By that time the day was getting quite warm, and it was quite tempting to break up the long walk home with a cleansing ale at the Courty, but we resisted. No room.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Lou Jacks on Urbanspoon

Filed Under: Quest Tagged With: big breakfast, cafe, coffee, Coogee, googs, nippers, peasants

Copyright © 2023 · Author Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in