Danks Street Depot, Sydney Airport

There are many things I associate with airports – tearful farewells, joyous reunions, the romance of leaving your cares behind and travelling to faraway places and, unfortunately, bad airport food with jacked up prices. But all this has changed with Danks Street Depot’s outpost at Sydney Airport, with many more non-fast food dining options to come.

I first ate here when seeing Mum off on a trip in November, and again a month later when Monsieur Poisson and I left for holidays ourselves. There were small changes to the menu in that short period between visits, which is testament to Danks Street Depot’s mission to use seasonal, sustainable produce.

Chinese New Year 2012

The imminent Chinese New Year is said to be an especially good one due to it being a leap year (on the lunar calendar that means there will be 13 months versus the usual 12), having 2 spring seasons (spring officially begins after the coming new year and also again prior to the start of the following year), PLUS it will be Year of the Dragon – a revered mythical figure of power and magic.

Dragon & lion dances in Hong Kong

 

Terrazza and Ben & Jerry's, Chatswood

Where once a brown rundown local town hall stood attached to council offices and a library, now stands a shiny revamped council complex housing a concert theatre, library and new dining precinct. Amongst the various eateries to recently open up shop is Terrazza, an Italian joint offering woodfired pizza. The owner has trialled offering breakfast, lunch and dinner, 7 days a week, during their opening period but will soon be revising this down to lunch and dinner only on weekdays, with breakfast as well as lunch and dinner being served on weekends. It appears us Sydney folk do take the time to enjoy breakfast out when we have the time, but are otherwise too rushed on workdays.

An experimental sous-vide dinner

A happy New Year to you all! *cue: party poppers, streamers, confetti, etc*

To be honest the Christmas and the New Year period felt like eons ago, especially after having spent it overseas and with mad last minute dashing about just before leaving. Flights were booked well in advance but packing coincided with the usual end of year rush and trying to catch up with various people before they disappeared on respective holidays themselves. An experimental sous-vide-cum-Christmas dinner was organised with the usual suspects Chez Délicieuse et Poisson – something I’ve been wanting to do since slow cooking eggs in our thermos kettle.