Pinetrees Lodge - Lagoon Road, Paradise

In case you're wondering, no Pinetrees is not in a place CALLED paradise. It's in a place called Lord Howe Island which IS paradise. It is hard to believe that this place, with crystal clear waters, turtles that swim up to you and amazing wildlife is only an hour and half's flight from Sydney. In fact, it's VERY hard to believe. Now, to start, I would like to thank the owners, Dani, Luke, Jim and Rachael - the chefs, Paul, Mike, Adam and Josh and everyone else who worked there: the waiters/waitresses, the office ladies and men and the the chef's daughter, Madelaine who often worked at the bar and who I became good friends with. So now, I've talked about beauty, the lovely people, the location, what have I forgotten? Ah yes, the food. Here I go:

Pinetrees is great for relaxation, friendly people and great food. On the first day we arrived the lunch menu was a BBQ. There was beautiful Lord Howe Island Kingfish, Sausages, Chops and scrumptious garlic prawns. That night for dinner I had Thai Spiced Pumpkin Soup which was rich and creamy and the Lemon Scented Roast Chicken which was VERY juicy and tender. Now, I'm not going to post about everything I ate there but what I'm about to write about is the Fish Fry. If you go to Pinetrees for more than a week you can not miss the Fish Fry, which is on every Monday night. It starts of with the soup of the day. Then you can go and help yourself to some of the delicious sushi and sushimi that is made from the freshest of fish. After that you go and get fish and chips which is made right before your eyes.

Most great spots at Lord Howe have wood fire BBQ's. And so, because of that every morning someone from Pinetrees comes around and asks you what you are going to do for the day. You either stay at Pinetrees, have a BBQ or get them to pack sandwiches. Personally, if you want to go out, I think BBQ's are the best option because they pack delicious fish, chops, sausages, rissoles, salad and everything else you can think of. While dad cooked lunch, I went to swim with the turtle that swam up to me. I know, a completely normal thing to do.

I ADORE Lord Howe because of it's ocean, sealife, wildlife, flora and fauna and because of it's great places to stay (but none are as good as Pinetrees)...

Christmas Day

When I think of Christmas I think of family, excitement, presents, FOOD, joy, FOOD, happiness, presents and then more food. And food, food and more food is exactly what I got on Christmas Day. It started off with crackers,  homemade gravlax and my Grandma's DELICIOUS dill mayonaise. The sweet and saltiness of the gravlax went really well with the deliciously interesting flavour of the dill.
After that we were served with Prawns with crushed fennel seeds, garlic, salt, pepper and a dash of white wine. They were spicy, sweet, salty, strong, fishy and AMAZING (if you put all those words together you'd understand that it was quite a dish)... We also had heirloom tomatoes from the Everleigh Markets (post to come) with buffalo mozzarella and then fresh oysters.

Now for the best bit of Christmas, the mains...
My mum had been cooking away at the stove for the past few days to make sure our Christmas mains was perfect. And let me tell you, it WAS! We had orange glazed ham with my grandmas absolutely delicious Potato Salad and Rice and Mango Salad. The ham tasted like it had been cooked by angels. It was tangy with hints of star anise and vanilla which made it slightly sweet which went well with the mustardy, salty flavours. We also had duck from Chinatown which had tender, juicy meat.

And now I have to wrap my post up because I need to be somewhere, but before I go it's a requirement that i tell you about dessert...
My mum made a trifle. Yep, but it wasn't any ordinary trifle. It was a LEMONGRASS RASPBERRY TRIFLE. It was so good that not even I can describe it. THANK YOU NIGELLA LAWSON FOR THE GREAT RECIPE!!! :)

And then before everyone left we finished off with homemade mince tarts. We'd shaken them, refrigerated them, made our own pastry to put on them. And you know what? I think they turned out really well.

Back to Bourke St

Today I went back to Bourke St Bakery, Surry Hills. I had a Choc - Raspberry Muffin. It had a beautiful blend of the sweet and sourness of the raspberry and the creaminess of the chocolate.