Dining in Balmoral at the Bathers' Pavilion

Last night, V took me out for dinner at The Bathers' Pavilion in Balmoral, a suburb in the Mosman Council. Mosman is a municipality "on the northern shores of Sydney Harbour." Balmoral is a suburb kinda like Mass Ave Heights in DC, maybe like Scarsdale in New York. Check out the menu we had here.

Here's what we had: for appetisers, he had the Moreton Bay bug tail with fennel and ruby grapefruit salad, with shellfish butter, and I had the freshly shucked regional oysters on ice, with home made pumpernickel, red onion vinaigrette. "Moreton Bay Bug" is a type of shellfish: a picture of it is here.

Our wines: V started with a 2006 Jean-Luc Mader Riesling from Alsace; I had a 2007 French Island Pinot Gris from Victoria.

For mains, he ordered Farmed Tasmanian Arctic Charr with scallop, ginger and pork crepe and coriander pesto, and I had Jewfish with olive crust, with prawn ratatouille and organic tomatoes. Charr is a member of the salmon family.

Dessert for me was a menage a trois des chocolats; his was the roast vanilla peach with stone fruit parfait, nougatine, and apricot sorbet. With dessert, I had a 15-year port from Rockdale; V had a Scarborough Late Harvest Semillon.

It was all pretty amazing: the food, the wine, the service, the venue. The restaurant itself is in the old municipal bathing pavilion on the beach at Balmoral. It was originally built in 1928 and redone by Alex Popov in 1999. Here is a blurb about his work.

Sunday bike ride

What I hope becomes a typical Sunday: an early morning romp with Supadog playing some serious kong. A great breakfast with some home-made muesli, and then off to Edgecliff for some shopping. After a yummy lunch courtesy of V, we got our bikes out, topped up the air in the tires (or tyres as the Aussies would write it), and set off for Manly Beach. By bicycle, this is a bit daunting, because Sydney is one hilly city. Here is the route we took ... thanks gmap-pedometer.com: M&V go to Manly. Part 2 to North Head. Part 3 back to Manly. Ferry ride back to Circular Quay is here. Bike ride back home. Total distance rode was more than I thought - 35.3 km, or almost 22 miles.

DEAL OF THE DAY: Ice cream cone at McDonalds, Manly Wharf: 30¢!

Skuzzy service of the day: Max Brenner Chocolate at Manly Wharf. Really bad service cancelled out the great chocolate drink I had ...