We had a very quiet morning, the weather looked like it could do anything so we decided to do nothing. 🙂 Except a load of washing, some things you can’t escape even on holiday.
After lunch we went done to The Macquarie Centre to do a bit of top up shopping, it’s a very long time since I have been there and it was Deb’s first time. The shopping centre is looking old and could do with a good freshen up! We got our supplies and bought a toaster for the van. No more grilling toast for us!! Lol
We had a quiet afternoon, before heading into Sydney for dinner at Aria, near the Opera House.
We drove in and parked at The Rocks, and walked over to Aria, near the Opera House. On the way there was a huge cruise liner, Rhapsody of the Seas, just leaving the Sydney International Cruise Terminal. It was amazing watching this huge ship reverse out of busy Circular Quay, before doing a 3 point turn to head out of the harbour. Even better was the thought that come July next year we will being doing the same thing with Ben and Carly and their families.
Our Aria experience nearly didn’t get off the ground. Apparently our booking was for last night, Monday, and tonight they had a private function on, The Hats Off Dinner 2012. The dinner was a set Tasting Plate menu featuring signature dishes from the four Aria restaurants in Australia, prepared by the relevant chefs.
The front of house staff at Aria were so very helpful, and after a short investigation they found that there was one table for two available (we are pretty sure they organised an extra table for us J ). That made us so happy.
Dinner started at 7:30pm with Champagne and Canapes on the terrace overlooking Circular Quay, during which Matt Moran gave us all (about 150 of us) a rundown of the menu, explaining each course and a bit about each restaurant. The menu was A Spanner Crab(deconstructed) Cocktail, Duck Consomme, Steamed Bass Groper, Roasted Moran Lamb, Yoghurt Pannacotta, Valrhona Chocolate Delice, finished with coffee and Petit Fours. Needless to say the food was amazingly good and the wines equal to it. But both Deb and I agreed (as Laura had already told us) the Duck Consomme was outstanding.
We rolled out of the restaurant at about 11:15pm, there was so much food and it was all too good to leave any on our plates. The walk back over to The Rocks and our car was very much appreciated.
Was a memorable evening.
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