My labour day long weekend, Central Coast

 

Well the long weekend is over, and we survived the day light saving for a lost of an hour. Now its time for the lazy me to post about what I’ve done during those 3 precious days. We have absconded city limits and head up the north to Central Coast, we were originally going to fit in a few recreational activities that the extra day affords but due to the stupid weather AGAIN we stayed inside my friend house most of the time and cooked.

Thanks to Esther for lending out her luxury home, especially her kitchen where 4 people can fit in at once to cook different things. OK readers, here are more pics for the curious one.

After we offloaded our bags and luggage, we drove out to the biggest Westfield in town. I was amazed by the size of this shopping centre it is double the size of QVB in Sydney. But I felt like a foreigner because we were the only Asians in the mall…

Mad Mex in Central Coast

Cool lights made out of Corona bottle

Wanted to try some Central Coast local restaurant but could only see franchise that Sydney also has. So, we opted for Mad Mex. Some background info here, Mad Mex serves gourmet Baja style Mexican food that’s healthy, hearty and the only thing it’s heavy on is flavour. The first store opened in Sydney and expanded to Melbourne and Brisbane.

Chicken Burrito – soft flour tortilla with black beans, rice, cheese, lettuce & sour cream.

Yellow corn crispy tacos – crispy yellow taco with black beans, cheese, lettuce & sour cream

Beef quesadilla – grilled and sliced tortilla with cheese filling and served with salsa & sour cream

On the way back home for some relaxing DVD and indoor games, we saw this sign…

How can we resist not to get one, occasionally we will see 99cents/kg watermelon in Woolworth but what’s more exciting than getting a whole! Although it wasn’t the seedless one but skin was really thin and extremely juicy & sweet..awww! I love watermelon!!

We got back home, cut our watermelon and put them in fridge for cooling. What other indoor activities can we play now? Esther suddenly took out her Mah Jong table and I think it is time to teach our two ABC boys to learn how to play this Chinese ancient game. Mah Jong is a traditional Chinese tile game with many variations. An ancient game widely play by Chinese and Japanese. More info here.

For dinner, we decided to go for a quick and easy steam boat. For the stock I have use chicken stock along with some Chinese herbs and corn.

On Sunday we drove to The Entrance, since the Entrance has now been internationally recognised as “The Pelican Capital of Australia” and we want to be part of it. Before feeding the Pelican we decided to feed ourselves first with a nice lunch. We stumbled cross MOJO’s cafe which is just behind where the Pelican Pavilion foreshore is. The staffs here are local residents, they are really nice and friendly.

Spicy Chicken Turkish – Lightly spiced chicken, roasted red capsicum, avocado & cheese, $10.90

Mojo club burger & Fries, $16.90

Fish & Chips – Beer battered or grilled fish fillets served with fries, salad and homemade tartare sauce, $16.90

Seafood platter for one – Lightly battered fish, grilled fish, fresh prawn, mussels, calamari, salt & pepper squid, smoked salmon, fries & salad, $28.90

Hot Chocolate

I am really happy with the food here, portion are generous and tasty. The seafood platter was HUGE and enough to share between two people. All ingredients are fresh and made to order.

Carrot cake by Rain, extra sultana and walnuts

Vegetables soup with parsley

Chicken bake pasta with parmesan cheese

Fresh garlic breads

oops… guess who cleaned up the mess?

More cooking continue after we got home, Rain made a carrot cake, I made a vegetables soup and pasta baked chicken, JC baked some fresh garlic breads. It was the first time I made a pasta bake chicken, if you are a cheese lover I think you will like it. I will post the recipe in another post. I had such a relaxing and good time in Central Coast, when is the next long weekend?