Sunday 22 May 2011

When food shopping is an adventure…

So on Saturday night, when options were open, we opted to buy groceries and cook our own dinner. This resulted in Asam Fish (pre-purchased from the Cruelty Free Shop for this trip) with a side of mashed potatoes and asparagus. Oreos were dessert.

We also bought some fancy supermarket bread and vegemite to do us for breakfast the next day, and of course FRUIT! Despite my cravings for pizza for lunch (pizza shops were the main option in Merimbula, and again here!), Rob was busy talking to other pilots over on the airstrip (an activity he tells me he doesn’t like to do, but here he voluntarily sought it out – was he bored, or does he secretly like it?). So vegemite on toast doubled as lunch too. His craving emerged as pizza for dinner, and he was certain he’d get it.

We wondered down to the shops, and all that was open was the Take Away and a Gelato Bar. The few ‘gourmet’ shops were closed, especially the one where we thought we’d get a nice, customised pizza. We back tracked to the Take Away, Rob having seen some mention of pizza on a sign there. We dubiously looked through the window to the menu. Yes, Pizza was available Thursday to Saturday. There was the menu on the main board with all the other burgers and fried goods. But it was a Take Away! Rob suggested they must be pre-packaged pizzas which would rule this little vegan out on the cheese front. Then the quality would be questionable for him.

So we opted for Bi-Lo again – straight to the freezer section. I knew I was defeated on the pizza front, so Rob studied the packets before him while I hunted around for any surprising new foods. Nope, Herbert Adams pasties have milk solids in them. Hmmm… spring rolls… but with what? And $5 for six? And then I remembered the main ingredient on pre-prepared pizzas is mushrooms (Rob hates mushrooms!), so I told him the bad news. “You can make your own though – buy a base…”. The costing was looking like coming closer to the $15 from the Take Away shop.

Yup, a pre-prepared, generic brand base with cheese was $8 for one (or $10 for three). It looked like Rob was trying out the Take Away, so I hunted for something for myself. Armed with a ‘boil in pouch’ Indian lentil dish, and a few green beans, Rob approached me with a package of herb breads “these don’t have butter!”. I verified this claim by reading the ingredient list (whoohooo – they used olive oil!). We made a selection of marinated antipasto goodies from the deli, Rob added a few other embellishments, and finally, we were done.

So an hour after we had set off, we had what we needed to cook dinner. The bill? $20 a head (this did include fortune cookies for dessert and another loaf of bread).

I pan fried the potatoes left over from the previous night, with a bit of chilli powder. We couldn’t get the grill working, so cooked our pizzettes in the oven. And they were yum!

We leave Old Bar tomorrow, so I’ll show you a little bit of it:

I guess there’s a festival here at some point in the year. Summer perhaps?

The beach has been subject to some serious erosion, and trees are falling from previously safe higher ground, down onto the beach:

Of course a group of locals is concerned about this, and there are signs in town calling for Council action to build a breakwall or something, along with the tally of donations to the cause so far.

The surf is good though, even on not so good days:

And at the Bar end of the beach, the erosion is less, but perfectly formed into beautiful miniature cliffs:

They also have a fenced off an area to be a sanctuary for nesting Turns too.

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