For an introduction to what these Menu Diary posts are about, please click HERE. And for the reasons why you really should read this series, please click HERE.
September 1993
Indian Banquet
Wednesday 1 September. We started the month with one of Trenna’s Indian (mini) banquets. Lamb Kheema, Brinjal Bartha, Mango Chutney, Basmati Rice, Papadums. An excellent meal that Trenna describes as “Really fab! [I] put extra spices in [the] Kheema.” We had it again on the Friday and Tren was still raving about it.
Kheema is a very simple dish using minced (ground) lamb or beef. As it has some “greens” in it (you add frozen peas towards the end of the cooking) we sometimes had it just with basmati rice and papadums. But that wasn’t the case this time. Trenna also made Brinjal Bartha [or Bharta]. A delicious eggplant dish. The two go together beautifully.
Monday 6 September. An unusually plain meal, take away chicken in bread. I still would have enjoyed it. I presume Trenna went to visit her friend Helen with her new son.
Off to Surfer’s Paradise
Tuesday 7 September. I can see from the menu diary that we must have flown to the other side of Australia, more than 4,000 km away, to Surfer’s Paradise in Queensland. It would have been for the annual national conference of university administrators. We had dinner at “Summer Fields” in the Ramada Hotel, where we were staying. Trenna wasn’t very impressed with the Spaghetti Bolognese apparently.
Wednesday 8 to Friday 10 September. The next couple of meals seem to have been OK (I don’t remember them) but Trenna was less than impressed with the buffet salad bar at the Pizza Hut. “Forget it. Salad bar was typically Queensland! Dried bananas, pineapples”.
Saturday 11 September. Things didn’t get any better on Trenna’s birthday. Apparently we chose to have Chinese Takeaway. Trenna obviously had buyers regret, her comment “Am I getting too old to celebrate in style?” I think I let her down on that night.
Sunday 12 September. Even more bad news on the food front. We must have had to eat at the airport. Trenna’s comments don’t disguise what she thought “Disgusting, gross, yuk!” We probably had to eat there as we had spent the day at Movie World.
Tuesday 14 September. The decent food drought continued until this point, when I was back at work and Trenna was in charge of the kitchen. We had Vienna Schnitzel, Jacket Potatoes and Salad. “Perfect choice for first cooked meal at home”. I agree.
We Upgrade Our Car to a Nissan Pintara
The Menu Diary tells me that we must have taken delivery of our Nissan Pintara Station Wagon on Wednesday 15 September 1993.
It was about two years old, had quite low mileage and the one previous owner was Telstra, Australia’s government owned, monopolistic telco. I bought it at auction after we decided the Toyota Corolla wagon I had bought off my Dad was getting a bit old.
Trenna was happy to empower me to make the decision about the car, her only instruction was that “I’m not driving around in a beige car.” However at the auction the Pintaras were clearly the best choice, and it looked like Telstra had made a corporate decision to only have beige coloured cars!
So I bought one. I did point out to Trenna that Nissan called that colour “Ivory” but she would have none of it. She didn’t let me forget.
As it turned out both Trenna and I agreed that it was a very good car that served us well. We did a number of long camping trips in it and when we went to Darwin we took it with us and brought it back when we returned. It was both reliable and economical yet easily cruised at 130kph on the Northern Territory roads.
Saturday 18 September. We had an enjoyable pasta meal at sister Nancy’s place. Almost certainly it was to celebrate Trenna’s birthday.
Thursday 23 September. The little red “$” on the menu diary indicates that it was pay day. It was also late night shopping day so we would have done the shopping together at The Park Centre in East Victoria Park and then gone to the Rumah Batik for dinner, leaving all the shopping in the car.
Friday 24 to Sunday 26 September. I am surprised to see a Mutton roast here, but apparently after slow cooking it worked pretty well. “Very tasty” is the verdict. It lasted for Saturday’s meal, and I see there was even enough left over for “Great” sandwiches after we had enjoyed a hot spa bath at our friends Colin and Julie’s place for the Sunday session.