The ‘Out’ Archive
Monday…
Posted in Out |
Monday morning’s Awaba ride…..
The lead in:
The corner:
The home of the new B-Rad Gully based A line:
The current exit from the corner:
All up, a superb section of trail.
Sydney
Posted in Out |
A Sydney Weekend…. through the camera phone.
Tags: photography, sydney, weekend
Freddo's Famous Pies
Posted in Out |
I like pies. And sausage rolls. Old school fast food, a bit old school like parties that served up ‘Coon, ‘Cab and Jatz with wine out of Goon Bags. There’s few things better than pulling up on a road trip or after an epic ride and getting a good pie and a Chocky Oak to wash it down; it’s just all good and can often be so much better than the pseudo gourmet things so many places have switched to and about 100 times better than fast food junk….. usually.
So the thought of a place that dishes up only old school cuisine is delight for those that hit the road and head north from Sydney.
Outside Kempsie there’s a place called Freddo’s, a pie shop in the middle of nowhere. For as long as I can remember, Freddo’s has been there. Smack next to the Pacific Highway with a fibreglass Marilyn Monroe at its entrance. Cars are always parked outside and one always sees people eating pies, no matter what time you pass it. For years, since I was a kid to be honest, I just passed it by and wondered until last Christmas, when, for the first time ever, I decided to stop and see what the fuss was all about.
Let me tell you, it was a bit of heaven. Pies of all kinds, sausage rolls and Vanilla Slices as big as your head! For those that have no idea, a Vanilla Slice is truly a thing of beauty (in a very wrong sort of way). A firm block of very yellow custard like ‘stuff’ that tastes vaguely like vanilla, topped and bottomed with a thin flakey crust and iced (usually) with a thick, sticky yellow icing that more often than not has a mild Passion-fruit flave to it. It’s a dying thing, this Vanilla Slice, superseded by deli muffins and Friands. So when one finds one, a good one, a BIG one, it’s a joy to behold.
That Christmas was a road trip feast I ate like a child king and as we pulled away to continue north, I knew we’d be back.
8 months later, the opportunity came again as a quick ‘get out of Sydney’ opportunity came up and by late morning we pulled up, ready for some pie eat’n. When you walk in to Freddo’s you are confronted with a multitude of pies, interlaced with sausage rolls. Pie of all sorts, crocodile, Thai, chicken, old time faves and new world wonders. Yum. Before ordering, I decide to give the cake cabinet a quick once over. Hmmm. Yes, there is a Vanilla Slice but what’s up with the size of it? It’s half the size. Still looks the goods but can I have the rest of it as well? Not too amused I fore go the Slice, it did look a little old and I am pretty sure it was the same price as its full size cousin, and get into the meat of it. 1 pepper steak pie and a sausage roll and 1 chicken satay. My reasoning with sticking with a traditional pie is that usually it’s pretty hard to get wrong, especially for a pie shop. Things like satay can be hit and miss and I wanted to make sure I walked away happy – still to some, a satay is too hard to resist. Tomato sauce and a chocolate Oak (a soft drink it aint) rounded off the order.
From a 20 I get 2.50 back. Huh? OK, that got me by surprise. Those are Sydney prices.
We grab the paper bags, nab a couple of chairs and sit in the sun to watch the traffic pass by.
The sausage roll.
The sausage roll just looked good. Good pastry, good smell and a nice size to it. Nothing prefab here. The filling is definitely ‘home made’ and has the perfect mix of spices and meat. It’s just so very good. It goes down quite easily and does not have that greasy feeling some home made ‘rolls do. While not huge, it’s enough to be a good snack on its own. Towards the end of it though, I hear “I think I got the wrong thing” and looking up, the chicken satay pie does not really look that appealing. There seems to be less chicken and more, well, satay? Feeling confident in my choice though, I whip out my pie and drop some sauce on it, making it ready to go.
The Pie.
You can tell a good pie even before you get it out of the foil tray. If it’s a good one, the underside of the tray has a firm feel to it. When you hold it it does not indent, but remains flat and firm.
My tray indented.
Some people manage to eat pies in the foil trays, I’ve never been one of these. I like to take the pie out of the tray, so I can attack it how I feel like. Trying to get my pie out of its tray was a bit like trying to pull out a wet lettuce. While the top of the pie was golden crusty, out of sight, the rest of the pastry was decidedly limp. That’s OK though because I knew the filling was going to be right on the mark.
My first bite left me wondering who stole the meat from my meat pie. I ended up with a mouth full of limp pastry and what can only be described as thick gravy. I think there was a little pepper in it, at least I think that’s what it looked like but the taste was not there. A few more bites and the same thing. To keep a long pie story short, I ended up ‘drinking’ most of the pie out of the foil tray and burnt my mouth to boot. While it was called a pepper steak pie, I think the word ‘steak’ or even ‘mince’, ‘meat’ or ‘grizzle’ might be a bit on the misleading side. Gravy pie with mild pepper flecks I could go for.
So what went so horribly wrong? Was I dreaming or was the first visit a freak occasion? I can’t add it up as the first time was in the Christmas period when things are busy, usually crappy and expensive. This time round it was off season and while busy, it was not Christmas traffic busy. So why the crappy quality and somewhat surprising prices? Who knows. While the sausage roll was excellent, the two pies were disasters and for a pie shop that describes itself as ‘famous’, that’s not really good enough.
So will I recommend ‘Freddo’s famous pies’? Based on the last experience, probably not. While it might have been a freak once off, the $17 price tag and the rubbish pies make me think that next time I’ll stop at Micky D’s for a sandwich and a cup of coffee.
Sad but true.
Tags: fast food, freddo's, kempsie, meat pie, nsw, sausage roll
Road Tripping: The BIG Prawn (Shrimp)
Posted in Out |
This one’s for our loyal patrons out there who do not not know much about the wonders that Australia holds…
When most people think of Australia, images of the ‘the Rock’, sand, surf, the Sydney Opera House etc. etc come to mind, right?
Well, here’s one that might not.
If you travel by road from Sydney to Queensland’s Gold Coast, up the Pacific Highway, you’ll come to the town of Ballina. If you do the trip enough, you’ll know that Ballina marks the end of the grind and you are now able to take it easy and cruise up the coast through towns like Byron Bay, to the Queensland border. A spectacular drive.
What’s great though about Ballina is that as you enter it, you are greeted by the BIG Prawn, or Shrimp if you are from the US. A landmark for many years, it’s greeted all that enter Ballina like a sort of official town gate.
Now faded and looking a little sad, the old crustation looks like it’s at the end of its days as the town bypass, a long overdue road project for many, will divert traffic away from it and the owner now wants to pull it down and put something else slightly more useful in its place.
A sad day it will be when it goes as another little bit of oldschool daftness vanishes from the scene to be replaced, undoubtedly, by yet another, same as the next, Latte sipping joint with gourmet wraps and muffins.
Complex indeed!
Tags: ballina, big prawn, nsw, Road Trip