We were getting the tail end of the cyclone and the weather has turned slightly chilly in the morning. For breakfast, we made my chunky version of shakshuka with chopped tomatoes, French beans, mushrooms, free-range eggs, basil and goat’s cheese. We did not any cumin, and my kids were not absolutely big fans of this spice, hence my kids friendly version sans cumin. I added my dukkah recipe instead. Kids had a blast helping me crack the eggs and put the ingredients together. We had fresh wholemeal bread with the dish and every bit was mopped up clean!
Ingredients for shakshuka
Isabella trying to be a good assistant cook. But she accidentally dropped an egg and made mama a little cross . I must remind myself that she is a kid and just wanted to be helpful.
Took a shot of how the tomatoes have cooked down to glorious goodness
Kiddos trying their skill at helping mama be food models. Eli definitely is a lot more cooperative when it comes to asking him to pose with some of the food. LOL.
My favourite hand model! Andrew captured this shot nicely. It was unintentional that Isabella happened to be dressed in her ballet whites.
Before leaving the tourist park, kiddos insisted we took some silly family shots together with different emotions.
Isabella can do the one eye wink really well and Eli is trying hard to mimic.
And now finally a decent family photo. Tons of others either had one of us not looking, looking in the wrong direction or with our already tiny eyes shut! With the age of digital photography, we can now all choose our shots and see it immediately which the kids loved to do after every shot! And they love to hold the remote control and take turns at it.
Onwards to our next pitstop in search for caffeine. We stumbled across Temper Temper (2 Rosa Brook Road, Margaret River), a café that has a really nice field outside, free tastings of handcrafted chocolates made on the premise, friendly barista and just generally a great chillax place with lots of food magazines and cushions. The kiddos even brought their own snakes and ladders. No iPads, no iPhones.
Temper Temper at Margaret River
Loving the cosy interiors with cushions on seats made from crates.
Isn’t this a great chillax place? I can see myself relaxing here over a cuppa and browsing my favourite magazines.
Chocolate vanilla cupcakes with little dragonfly caught the kids attention.
Elijah looking at one of the children’s books they have. He can’t read yet, so browsing at pics is absolute a favourite of his. Later, papa actually sat and read to both the kids while I happily had my cuppa. Bliss! Thank you Lord for these moments.
A specialty here. You ask for a hot chocolate and you get served a glass of steamed milk with froth and a little bowl with handmade chocolate chips. KIds would have fun either eating them on its own, and the proper way adding the chocolate to the steamed milk and let it all melt to make awesome hot chocolate.
My little hand model! How they have grown. Less chubby and stubby now.
My much needed caffeine fix, very decent quality coffee
Brother and sister enjoying a game of snakes and laddders. An absolute favourite they will pack when we go on hoildays.
This is what holidays are about. Running in the fields, playing frisbee and enjoying each other’s company.
Look mama, I caught it!
The morning started out pretty relaxing indeed. With not much agenda for the day, we took our time to drive to the next pitstop, the Bootleg Brewery, where they brew beers on premise, the first brewery in Margaret River. Andrew enjoyed a beer while the kids had fun in the sand pitch.
Interesting name. Bootleg brewery.. A legal illegal brewery! LOL
This place is made for families. Huge outdoor seating, a playground for the kids and a huge field for the kids to run around and enjoy themselves and parents never losing sight of their kids.
We headed to Eagle Bay Brewing Co in Dunsborough (236 Eagle Bay Rd, Naturaliste) for lunch. This pitstop was on my recommended list and we are so glad we went although it was pretty far up in the coast and not exactly along the way for us. This place serves really good honest comfort food I reckon, and sprawling lawns for the kids to run around. This place started off as a winery and now it brews beer too. I think this is becoming a common sight in Margaret River, with crafted beers brewed alongside the harvesting of grapes. There are many independent breweries too situated in this beautiful precinct. Contrary to what people would conjure up images of breweries with huge steel vats in an industrial estate. A lovely disruption indeed to be able to enjoy handcrafted beers with a scenery to boot.
We are here! Finally! Souper duper late lunch
Has a shop front where one can purchase six pack beers and other local produce like artisan chocolates like Bahen & Co, cookbooks of the region and just some souvenirs like t-shirts, too.
Kudos to the Executive Chef Rupert Brown with the seasonal menu and an organic vegetable and herb garden on site. Reminds me of Thomas Keller’s garden in the Napa Valley albeit a much smaller scale.
Eli wanted to take a photo with the tomato on the vine.
The wood fired pizza was good. Loved the combination of Piri Piri chicken with goat’s cheese, pumpkin, pepitas and sliced green chilli. There was a nice heat to the dish. Perhaps the pumpkin could be a little more roasted. Huge serving that would feed 2.
Piri piri chicken pizza, so yummy! Loved the thinly sliced green chillies that was from their garden. It gave that little bit of heat that made this pizza stood out!
According to the staff, it was the first day of the launch for the autumn menu. I had the vegetarian lentil and sesame fritters, spiced pickled eggplant and a carrot and coriander raita. The eggplants were so yummy.
Vegetarian lentil sesame fritters. I cant get enough of the spicy pickled eggplant!
Coffee and cake followed. Rhubarb and sour cream crumble cake with mascarpone and rhurbarb sauce.
Rhubarb cake was delicious. Our first cake dessert on this holiday. Servings are always so huge, and by the time I was done, there was just no room for dessert.
The place was pretty crowded with lots of young families with kids. Isabella and Elijah started playing with one of the girls and we enjoyed a cuppa with the daddy who was visiting from London. This are truly moments I cherish, meeting complete strangers and striking up conversations, exchanging travel stories. Awesome!
The crowd was mainly young families .
Hello, my name is Elijah, can we play together? Eli is definitely a lot more social and would always be nudged by her older sister to get things done.
A quick shot of the kids together before saying goodbye.
The kids refused to go. What was supposed to be a 1.5 hour lunch turned into a leisurely 3.5 hour lunch and afternoon tea. It did not matter as we were not in a hurry. We did have plans to visit the lighthouse, an ice cream place and a wood fire bakery, but all could wait. My travel philosophy may not be agreed upon but to me, there was just no point rushing from one point to another in the aim of snapping a few photos and posting Been there, Done that.
The days were getting shorter too, so we headed back into town to look for a tourist park to rest for the night. We stayed in Big4 Peppermint Park Eco Village. This place is expensive! Sorry I can’t remember how much it was now, but from my lousy memory, expensive, almost double of what we paid! I suppose the reason why the rates here are so much more expensive than our previous tourist park perhaps is the locale right the beach and has swimming pool facilities. We were truly stuffed and kids were really tired. So all we did was had a salad with whatever leftover ingredients in the fridge, a beautiful baby beets, figs, heirloom cherry tomatoes, dressed with evoo, lemon juice, dill and mint with goat’s cheese. Amazing colours and flavours! This dish inspired us to create the B.F.F. Stew, one of the Aussie Souper Inspirations for the month of June. Kids had beef ravioli with tomato basil sauce. It was getting really dark so no picture of this dish was taken.
Beautiful beet salad with figs, heirloom tomatoes mint and goats cheese
As we lay in bed that evening, I can’t help but feel a tinge of sadness, that it was gonna be our last night out in the South. We would be heading back to Perth the next day.