Saturday in town, part 1
In the past week and a bit, Jac had this pain that began in her left bum cheek and went through her leg, sometimes ending at her left ankle. This resulted in a number of nights of tossing and turning (she couldn’t get comfortable), which kept both of us awake (not to mention Pixel, who is always in bed with us, snuggled between my legs, in winter). Finally on Wednesday she went to see the doctor, who diagnosed a probable pinched nerve in her back and prescribed some anti-inflammatories. He told her if she’s still in pain on Tuesday she’ll have to see him again and might need to get a CT scan and undergo further treatment (whatever that may be). Fingers crossed it won’t come to that. The doctor told her she shouldn’t attend hockey training this week nor play hockey this weekend, which I know has really annoyed her, but I reminded her it was better to miss out on this week rather than risk making things worse and then maybe having to miss multiple weeks. The good news is things have improved since she’s taken those anti-inflammatories. We both got a reasonable night’s sleep last night, which is great!
We were going to attend a tutors’ (my work colleagues) get-together this evening and then a fundraiser funk night at her hockey club, but we were also planning to go shopping for wedding clothes in town for Lou and Dan’s wedding, which is coming up in a couple of weekends’ time). In the end we decided we would only go shopping (which had to be done and which we wanted to do not at the last minute) and skip the evening dos so Jac could rest up. To be honest, I didn’t really feel like socialising anyway, so I wasn’t too fussed about missing out tonight. It’s good though, to have a reason for piking other than “I just don’t feel like seeing anyone” :).
Sooooo this morning, we went into town to look for clothes. Our clothes shopping went very well – that’s all I will say at this point ;-). Let me tell you about the food we had instead. Jac suggested we have a snack of pomme frites at the Belgian pub on Murray Street. Of course I agreed with her suggestion. We’ve walked past that pub many times and have always been tempted to venture in (for some reason, we just haven’t, until today!). And of course, she had to try one of the beers. She had the Hoegaarden White. This is the description of the beer from the menu: This is a refreshing, spicy beer with only a slight bitterness and a hint of coriander and curacao. Made with 40% wheat, its cloudy appearance is enhanced by continued fermentation in the bottle or keg. I had a sip; it was very nice! I don’t drink alcohol usually, but back in my brief beer-drinking days I liked Redback Lite, which is a wheat beer. This beer reminded me of that – very light, very easy to drink, not at all bitter (I really do not like bitter, hoppy beers – VB, yech!). I reckon I could’ve actually drunk one of these Hoegaarden Whites myself! But I was happy to stick to my Diet Coke. If you’re interested, click on the pics to see larger versions.
We ordered a small serve of pomme frites (AU$6; large is $8) to share. They come served in a paper cone with a dish of seeded mustard mayonaise.
And in my head I kept thinking about the conversation between Jules and Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction:
Vincent: You know what they put on French fries in Holland instead of ketchup?
Jules: What?
Vincent: Mayonnaise.
Jules: Goddamn.
Vincent: I’ve seen ’em do it, man. They fucking drown ’em in that shit.
I also love the Royale with Cheese discussion they have, but I digress.
The pomme frites were really tasty – I must say I prefer shoestring fries to chips any day; Jac prefers chips. But we both enjoyed these. They were salted well and had an almost buttery flavour. They didn’t taste of butter, just reminded me of butter. Don’t let that turn you off – they were really good.
The mayonaise was really delicious. The seeded mustard blended through it gave it an extra savoury-ness. It went beautifully well with the pomme frites. Click on the pics below to see larger versions (though mayo does look pretty boring, small or large).
We might return another day and have a proper meal in the restaurant part (we sat in the pub side). The Belgian Beer Cafe Westende is located at 347 Murray Street in Perth.
Friends and family can see more photos of Jac and me in the Belgian pub on Flickr.
Part 2 coming up next, because a snack of pomme frites just wasn’t enough to satisfy two hungry shoppers!