a quiet start to the trip away: a slice of passionfruit tart from a bakery in berrima.

two weeks in a sparsely-furnished house in still-wintery north-eastern country victoria, we knocked together such treats as:

a homemade vegetable soup standing triumphant on the base of a tin of five-bean mix. five!

a grand breakfast of fried egg on buttered toast, mushrooms and bacon.

a main course that was supposed to be a grilled lamb chop, but really, it was the enormous tin of sauerkraut.

…which lasted for another couple of meals, including this grilled chicken wing with three white vegetables. yes, i’m counting the mashed potato as a vegetable.

there were cakes of course, many other cakes, but they were eaten too quickly to be documented, which is a pity because the gooey chocolate nougat cake, as big as a car tyre and covered in a mound of shaved chocolate, was a sight to behold. there were scones with cream and lemon butter. there were meat pies and pasties… which, if i lived in the country is surely what i would become. pasty.

there was breakfast at the tourist cafe in cooma (also serving greek meals and continental meals), which was so old skool that the mushroom omelette had the consistency of a kitchen sponge studded with tinned champignons, because indeed the cook had used tinned champignons…

see? see that rubbery little mushroom?

…and everything on the breakfast menu came with buttered white toast and chips. which ordinarily would have been a cause for celebration, but i was already full from the massive swirl of soft serve ice cream floating atop my iced chocolate, and so. uneaten chips. most unusual.

ah, the country.