Gianni’s Restaurant, Perth, Australia

Posted on September 16, 2009 by Sonya

This post is long overdue! We visited Gianni’s for the first time a few months ago and then again more recently (last weekend) to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

The cosy, family run restaurant in Mt Hawthorn was our first introduction to Balkan food. Given that Travis and I had been there once before, this time round we thought we would try the mixed platter for two which consisted of samples of a variety of dishes:

cevaps – grilled rolls of beef minced meat
pljeskavica – veal meat patty flavoured with salt, onions and peppers
kobasice – smoked grilled, pork and beef sausage
shishcevaps – grilled rolls of spicy minced beef and
raznjici – skewers with cubes of chicken meat.

The platter was served with some homemade bread, dips and a salad – more than enough food for the two of us, particularly as our table had also ordered garlic bread and lepina (air dried beef and homemade bread) for starters.

Our friends ordered pizza, burek (layers of pastry filled with meat or other filling) and sarma (minced beef meat, rice, onions, herbs and various spices mixed together then rolled into large cabbage leaves).

Overall consensus was that the food was enjoyable, abundant (dishes were extremely huge!) and we were all simply very full post consumption. While we didn’t have desserts this time, we did try the baklava on our first visit which was delicious but the small slice didn’t quite satisfy my appetite for the sweet pasty!!

Our Nullarbor Adventure – Melbourne

Posted on May 4, 2009 by Sonya

We arrived in Melbourne late on the night before New Years Eve.

I must note that Travis had installed some GPS software on his laptop so it was like being a control room in the passenger seat on the drive over. Not only that, we also had an FM transmitter connected to the laptop so that we could listen to our mp3’s through the car stereo, and a number of battery chargers hanging out of the car’s charger.

Anyway, we used the GPS software to navigate to Travis’ Aunt and Uncle’s house, whom we were staying with, which was surprisingly very easy to get to. Upon our arrival Travis’ Aunt fed us with some delicious rice and curry and his Uncle provided us with some great stories.

Day 1 (New Years Eve)

New Years Eve. We decided to explore the city so we took a train there and wondered around. We walked. South Bank. Crown Casino. Federation Square. Bourke Street. China Town. And walked. To the Melbourne Library. Art Gallery. All the usual spots. Feet were very tired, especially having gotten used to all the sitting in the car over the past five days. By late afternoon, we headed back to Travis’ Aunt and Uncle’s place as we were to go to a NYE party with Travis’ cousin Cindy and boyfriend. The party was at an apartment in the city and that night we counted down, watched the fireworks and had a few drinks – it was fun! Thanks to Cindy and Jake for taking us out :)

Day 2 (New Years Day)

The morning of day two was recovery from the night before. By midday, everyone had slowly woken up and it was decided that we would go on a drive to the Dandenongs. A big group of us, consisting of relatives and friends went on the drive. We stopped in Little India and had some food. We ate chicken biryani, prawn curry, dahl, chapatis and sampled a variety of sweets and Indian icecream, kulfi.

Day 3

On Day 3 we met up with Travis’ cousin Priya and friends Jo & Dan (who were visiting from New Zealand) for a day at the zoo. Melbourne Zoo was like any other really, but it was funny taking photos with all the animals and eating unhealthy zoo food such as greasy chips. Whilst the rest of the crew went shopping, T and I decided we would brave the new Melbourne Southern Star, a giant observation Ferris wheel 120m high in Docklands. Apparently it was found to have structural problems and was shut down soon after we visited it!

That evening we drove to Clayton to meet with my Godmother and some of her visiting friends (who were also from Perth). We had ‘make your own Korean Barbeque’, which was the first time for me. It was delicious! After we went for coffee at a suburban shopping/cafe precinct which was buzzing with people. My navigational skills led us to taking an extremely convoluted route returning home that night – including spending an unnecessary $12 for going through the tollway.

Day 4

Our last day in Melbourne was quite relaxed. We thought we would visit the sites which we had missed in the vicinity of the city. We were rather touristy and took the tourist bus with our first stop at the Royal Exhibition Building. Such a marvellous looking building! Next door was the Melbourne Museum which we spent a few hours wandering through. It had so many exhibits – wish we could have stayed for longer.

From the museum we walked along to Lygon Street scouting a place to eat. After much deliberation we ended up in the Greek Precinct eating lamb souvlakis – it was a great way to end the day!

That night, Travis’ uncle and aunt organised a dinner for all the extended family. There was so much delicious food, it was a pleasure for the eyes and the stomach. That evening the “younger” generation decided to hit the town for some Melbourne nightlife. We headed to Chapel Street and stopped first at the Electric Lady Lounge for some drinks. It was an extremely packed bar so I wasn’t able to appreciate it’s deco. But, from what I remember there was an interesting drawing of a semi nude female, taken in a very artistic manner, of course! ;) We decided to go for a bit of a boogie and found ourselves at Club 161, it was very modern and luxe.. with a huge staircase leading up to it. We danced ourselves until our feet were sore & voices were hoarse.

The following morning, Travis and I said our goodbyes to all the people that had made our trip to Melbourne so memorable, his aunts, uncles, grandma and lovely cousins.. and headed towards the Great Ocean Road.

Turning Japanese, Tsunami Japanese Restaurant, Perth, Australia

Posted on October 5, 2008 by Sonya

I few weeks ago Travis and I ventured into a little restaurant on the edge of Stirling Hwy called Tsunami. It was a cold wintery night – we both felt like a sashimi fix and had heard many a good things about this restaurant. We arrived to find the place quite full, albeit it was a Saturday night. Fairy lights twinkled in the back of the cosy dark wooded restaurant. We sat at the front of the restaurant and inspected our menus.

Feeling quite hungry we decided to share a sushi and sashimi platter for entree, followed by Patagonian tooth-fish for Travis and a hitori sukiyaki for me. The tooth-fish was accompanied with enoki mushrooms, bok choy, kayaku gohan (mixed rice and vegetables) and leek. My sukiyaki was made of wagu beef, vegetables, tofu and udon noodles. We also shared a pot of green tea between us.

The platter was delicious, beautifully presented and satisfied my fishy cravings. We also enjoyed the mains, although Travis noted that the tooth-fish was somewhat oily (however he did acknowledge the health benefits of oily such fish). All in all the food was enjoyable, service was friendly and the outing pleasant. We were quite full and decided not to have dessert. We finished the night at our friends’ house, playing poker and eating mango pudding.

Our Camping Adventure

Posted on May 3, 2008 by Sonya

For weeks Travis and I had envisaged a camping adventure. We talked about lighting campfires, toasting marshmallows and living in the wild. The ANZAC day long weekend approached and we decided three days would be enough to live out our camping desires. Of course, it wasn’t, and we didn’t quite start a campfire, but we had a lot of fun anyway.

Day One

We left Perth early for our long drive up northern WA. Kalbarri, in the mid-west, was our destination. While we had both previously traveled south many times, drives up north have been rare. Generally because everything north of Perth is so far away. For instance, Kalbarri is about 590km away from Perth.

During our first day we took the drive slowly, stopping at a number of small towns along the way. Our first stop was Lancelin. By some lucky chance, we managed to find ourselves in the massive sand dunes of Lancelin where plenty of dirt bike riding and sand-boarding was taking place. Took plenty of photos and walked around the dunes.

On our drive we tracked geocache locations (or waypoints) and stopped to stretch our legs and search for a geocache. Many of them were a lot harder than first anticipated, but we had a few laughs looking for them.

We stopped for lunch at a place called Green Head..I’ve never heard of it either (and I’ve lived in WA for most of my life). Travis brought along the trusty picnic bag which contained all necessary utensils and kitchen items and we made sandwiches.

As evening approached, and we found ourselves slightly north of Geraldton, we decided to search for a campsite for the night. After the continual spotting of “no unauthorised camping” signs we accepted that our fate was to that night camp on a proper camping site. We found a little hippy-esque site close by the beach, where over a dozen baby boomer retirees had setup camp. Impressive were their mobile homes, extravagant five sleeper tents, portable gas stoves and TVs. Whilst we were setting up our cosy little tent, we noticed one of the other campers had spotted, and was trying to pick up (the brave man), an echidna. We went over and had a look. Cutest spikiest thing ever! The sun set about 7pm. Not much night life at the camp site so we settled down and watched a film on Travis’ laptop.

thydzikGoogleMap(http://sonyaandtravis.com/maps/kalbarri-2008-day-1.xml)

Day Two

We woke early on the second day and headed straight towards Kalbarri, stopping by Northampton for fuel and food. We bought some natural yoghurt, multigrain bread, ham and cheese and ate breakfast along the way. We visited a geocache site but unfortunately, after spending half an hour looking for it, could not find the site.

We arrived to the spectacular scenery of Kalbarri (ocean on the left and national park on the right) mid-morning. The ocean was blue and the air was warm. At the visitors centre, we decided to head straight to the national park which is approximately 35 km from the town. Most of the road to the park was non-sealed, so it felt like quite a long drive. We went to the look out firstly and took some photos.

We then continued on to The Loop, a famous walking track which features the “Nature’s Window” rock formation. Due to the extremely sweltering weather we decided that it was not a bush walking time of the day. We walked to the Nature’s Window (did not do the full Loop) and continued to the Z-Bend which presented us with a 1.3 km walk before reaching any kind of oasis (or swimming area). Hesitant to walk such a distant during midday, we decided to go to the beach.

We left the park and went to a nice beachside park. Here, we had a picnic and lazed under a tree for a while.

Our next stop was Red Bluff, beach surrounded by amazing rock formations. We intended to search for a geocache here but upon arrival noticed someone was already looking for it! We walked around the area, dipping our feet into the ocean before heading to the cache site. After a bit of rock climbing and looking around, we found it (it was an easy one). We signed the log and then decided on a dip. The waves were huge and I got dumped every single time.

We decided to setup camp early after the previous days experience. We had found a nice caravan park / camping site right next to the beach. It was more than double the camping fee of the previous site ($23 as opposed to $10), but the facilities (e.g. bathroom, shower, swimming pool, kitchen, barbeques, etc) made it worth the money. Gone were the thoughts of living in the wild, we both longed for a shower and hot food.

After setting up our campsite we headed to the local supermarket to pick up food for our picnic. A barbeque chicken, a Caesar salad and some Shiraz. Watched the sunset as we relaxed and ate our food next to our tent. After the sunset we watched another movie.

thydzikGoogleMap(http://sonyaandtravis.com/maps/kalbarri-2008-day-2.xml)

Day Three

This was the drive 600+km home day. I commend Travis on his driving skills – he managed to drive the whole way back without requiring my assistance. Before leaving Kalbarri we visited a few scenic ocean sites – The Natural Bridge and Castle Cove.

The drive home was pleasant and took approximately 6 hours. We even stopped for a geocache (and fortunately found it) before arriving back to Perth mid afternoon.