29 July 2009

lunch date

Last Friday, we celebrated Rachel's birthday with lunch in the Petersham Nurseries Cafe. While we both visit the Teahouse regularly, a visit to the Cafe is a special treat.

We started with Parma Ham, Torn Flat Peaches, Heritage Tomatoes, and Basil Oil. While completely new to me, flat (donut) peaches are apparently quite trendy now. 

For dessert, Rachel ordered the Chocolate Mousse with Ginger Caramel and Jersey Cream. I ordered the Strawberry Ice Cream, pink scoops piled high in a pale green Moroccan tea glass. Heavenly!

Meanwhile, storm clouds had been gathering outside, and by the time our first dishes arrived, the sky was completely black. Lashings of rain and rumbles of thunder followed, one rumble so intense it shook the flowers from an overhead vine. The waitstaff quickly closed the vents in the glass roof and dashed about in waterproof jackets (there's a small gap between the kitchen and the Cafe), and our dessert dishes arrived spotted with raindrops. All very dramatic!

After lunch, while waiting for the weather to clear, we wandered through the shop, where Rachel discovered a bottle of Hydrangea Colourant. So perhaps I can have purply-blue hydrangeas after all:

A magical and memorable day...

despite, or maybe even partly on account of, this summer's crazy weather!

8 comments:

  1. Hydrangea colourant? Interesting. I wonder if a few drops taken daily would turn one's grey hair into a home-grown blue rinse?

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  2. Now I've seen it with my own eyes, I KNOW you had a wonderful time!

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  3. I think being somewhere lovely is just as nice on a stormy day as it is on a sunny day, as long as you're inside that is. With all that lunch I would have liked someone to push me around in a wheelbarrow!

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  4. flat peaches?

    how does that work?

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  5. What a gorgeous treat. I'm mystified by the flat peaches though. I'm not up to date with the latest ingredients!

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  6. I suppose that somebody somewhere has to sit on the peaches in an approved organic manner.

    Sounds a delicious lunch.

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