I haven’t been blogging about weekends in Perth since I’ve been back. In general, they have been jam packed filled with activities and really fun. Last weekend, Jason and Wendy kindly agreed to host a bbq at their house which really was a disguise to get rid of all the leftover fish in my freezer.
This salad prepared by the hosts was really nice and fresh, I remember eating lots of this.
Yeah, we managed to clear out half the fish in my house! But we still have another pack left…so I think we might have to organise another bbq soon. These fishes were coated in batter and deep fried till golden and crispy, easy to polish off in stacks.
It was also the night that I had my first taste of Johnie Walker Blue label haha. No, none of us got drunk or even slightly tipsy. Jason and Wendy were looking after their colleague’s dog Buzz so it was fun to have two dogs in the house. They were both really cute and fun to play with. The last picture in the corner was the dogs looking at Jo with hopeful eyes because she had fed them earlier with sausages. She had to tell them ‘I have nothing left for you!’
Some of the home cooking for the week, included Japanese beef brisket curry and roasted pork ribs.
It’s a rare treat to get a Saturday where R wasn’t working. We had something nice planned for Saturday, it was a Scoopon day 
meaning we had booked in a dinner to use our Scoopon voucher. This voucher was for Pink Pepper on Royal, a pizza joint located at Royal Street, East Perth. It was a $29 voucher which included two garlic breads, two mains of either burgers/pasta/pizzas, two drinks and two gelatos. Pretty good deal right?
The pizza place itself was exactly what I expected it to be, a casual tiny joint which mostly caters for takeaways but has a few tables for sit in customers. I like the whole pink and black theme though, very cheerful and befitting of it’s name Pink Pepper.
The garlic bread was really more cheese bread with hints of garlic. But I’m sure no one would ever complain about bread with lots of cheese, bad for the hips but otherwise yums.
R’s pasta was a fettucine in cream sauce, it came in a big portion and had chunks of chicken, sundried tomato, mushrooms. Nothing wow but tasty enough and definitely better than what I can cook at home. I’m still trying to cook good pasta but not getting there yet.
My pizza was a ‘The Works’ pizza with a bit of everything. After the cheesy garlic bread and creamy pasta, I was glad that this pizza was on the lighter side with oodles of olives, capsicums and even pineapple pieces. I’ve had better pizza elsewhere but really have nothing to complain about this pizza, it was perfect for the night.
Overall I was pleased with Pink Pepper, we were not treated like second class customers (which tends to happen with these vouchers), service was prompt and food was pretty good. We finished up with green apple gelato and mango sorbet which was a nice refreshing end to a filling and fun dinner.
After dinner we drove up to Freo to meet up with the rest of the bunch for some late night fishing. It’s funny to think that fishing has become a weekend social event for us. It really started with the fishing fanatic HC. I’m still amazed at his complete attention when fishing, the rest of us mill around, play with a few rods now and then, chat with each other and feast on snacks, everything but fishing really. But HC will always be there, recasting rods, replacing baits (I’m quite sure I’ve gotten the terminology wrong) and doing all things fishing dudes do. He really is the ultimate fishing guy.
If HC is the ultimate fisher, then Gerry must be the ultimate fishmonger. I was dreading having to clean and gut the fish at the end of the day but luckily Gerry was around to do the dirty job. It took him 5 minutes to do something that would probably take me half an hour. It’s funny to see that the guys all have different cleaning techniques, one day we’ll need to have a competition to see which technique is best.
Our fishing nights have started to take on this dreamlike quality. Maybe it’s the late hours, being the only people around a wooden jetty with dim lights casting a warm glow around the surrounding waters and the gentle bobbing yachts nearby. Everything feels a little unreal. If we were in a movie, Muffin would be cast as the faithful dog. He is such a good little thing, always waiting about patiently and taking a keen interest in the activitites around us. He enjoys sniffing at unknown fishes but we try to keep him out of the crabs. I don’t think these fishing outings would be as fun without him really.
Earlier in the day Gerry had sent me an enticing picture of an empty pot of plain porridge which he claimed we would cook with crabs if we caught any that night. And we did catch many crabs! Gerry is our Crab King as well as fishmonger. After fishing, we found ourselves heading over to his place around 2am for crab porridge supper.
I’ve actually never had crab porridge before but will be having lots more in future if they’re always this good. Gerry cooks a mean porridge , the porridge was piping hot, silky smooth and infused with the sweetness of fresh crabs. This was seriously good supper fare. We also steamed some of our freshly caught fish which was really good too. Or maybe we were hungry *wink*
It was surreal, I was half asleep (I’m an old woman now and need to sleep early) but I remember thinking this is something I could get used to, midnight crabbing/fishing and fresh seafood for supper afterwards with a fantastic bunch of fishing mates. My only question is, do people fish in winter?
