It’s been a mercifully quiet week for us… well, me. It really feels like the calm before the storm, with our first flight now only 9 days away, but I’m happy to take that.
Christina’s week, however, has been a little busier with meetings, events and a family road trip. But there are a couple of things I really want to tell you about.
Our lovely friend Deb often has excellent birthday parties – about once a year actually. This year, we’re doing something I absolutely love but haven’t done for a very long time: go-karting.
Ask my parents – every time we’d drive past a go-kart track, I’d beg them to let me go. I loved it.
Anyway, the ensuing fun and the even more ensuing lunch that happened after (we’ve got an awesome scoop on that by the way) was epic.
We hope you enjoy this IG Edition
Jim & Christina xx
No, this is not the new Power Ranger crew. This is the birthday party assembled at Extreme Indoor Go Karting in Villawood for an hour-long session of go-karting madness. I’m pretty excited.
The birthday girl – Deb, middle left – is not worried about that at all. And everyone else is worried as a concequence!
I’m not too sure how Christina feels – they say a smile hides a lot, but the eyes tell the truth. We talked about it before we arrived, and she seemed a bit nervous. But not about driving; more about being slow and holding everyone up.
She’s wearing her Feiyue trainers though – the number one shoe choice of Shaolin monks (fact), so she’s got that on her side. Let’s see how she goes.
Lined up and ready to roll, we’re all excited about the best lap time. And not killing ourselves. But mostly out lap times.
And we’re off. Our friend Deb – the birthday girl – is rightly in poll position and heads out first. Extreme Indoor Go Karting is a cool go-karting centre. This track is excellent and I’m pretty impressed with the karts.
I’ve never been go-karting indoors before. It’s always been outside. I’m looking forward to seeing how high I get from the fumes!
No one in front of me as I finish a lap. That either means I’m really fast or really good at stopping people overtaking me! I think I know which one’s right!
Later, I have to change my kart because I manage to break my first one. As I abandon my broken ride, the guy working there tells me he’s never seen anyone do that before. #soproud
As for Christina, her fears have turned out true! She is very slow. I’m quite surprised, because she’s an excellent (which means fast) driver on the road and loves roller coasters and going very fast.
Still, the good thing is she’s giving everyone else the thrill of overtaking someone. What a Samaritan.
Aloft on the podium, the three winners. I’m unsure how Deb didn’t get a medal. She crazy.
According to the stats, it seems that I had the fastest lap of the day, which also surprises me. However, there’s also a young lad who works here who may have driven the lap in my car before I got in it, which also sounds quite plausible!
Either way, this was the most fun I’ve had in ages and I really want to go again.
Aching, blistered and bruised (seriously, go-karting was quite hard work), we all head to lunch and a well-earned beer and/or wine. Deb’s favourite place is a Burmese eatery called The Burman Kitchen round the corner in Granville.
It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but that doesn’t matter – for a couple of reasons:
1. The food, the owner, the service and the prices are so spectacular, the fact that you might walk past it in the street makes this hidden gem if hidden gems even better.
2. You can walk past this place all you want because it’s moving to Newtown! We’re so excited that The Burman Kitchen is coming closer to the city and to us. I think we’ll be eating this food all the time when we get back.
Check out the food situation. Be warned though: this will make you hungry:
A bit of spring roll action to get us started. These are all made in house and are incredible.
Some sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves
Then the dishes come out thick and fast. This is a prawn curry – huge prawns in a beautiful sauce
This incredibly tender beef curry lives on in my dreams
The green papaya salad here is so good. Crunchy, fresh and full of flavour
A pad thai style noodle dish works well with the ensemble. It’s interesting to see the Burmese influence on these well-known Thai dishes
But these are the piece de resistance. Spicy, crispy school prawn fritters. Amazing.
As you can see, the food at The Burman Kitchen is beautiful and tastes just as good. If you’re into your spicy food, you’ve got to check this place out. Referring to itself as a restaurant that serves traditional Burmese food with contemporary influences, I think it’s underselling itself.
Imagine the best Thai meal you’ve had, add a touch of Indian spice, make everything tastier and you’ve got something that measures up to the food here.
Here’s the scoop
And the best news is The Burman Kitchen is moving to Newtown! Well, it’s good news as long as you don’t live in Granville!
Watch this space for more tales of our times eating our own body weight in Burmese food, which is a much-unexplored cuisine at the moment. In fact, to date I can only find 2 other Burmese restaurants in the Sydney area.
Possibly a new food craze coming our way…?
By the way, have you ever tried Burmese food? Do you have any recommendations? What are your go karting skills like? Tell us in the comments!
We hope you’ve enjoyed this IG Edition.
Cheers – Jim & Christina xx
