Tag: review

We are the weather (Saving the planet begins at breakfast)

I am back after a bit of a hiatus, which to be fair, isn’t entirely my fault. My Word Press decided it didn’t want to work anymore and every time I tried to create a new post, it just gave me a blank screen. After giving up for a while, I searched the internet until I found the solution (you need to clear your cookies if it happens to you).

The other reason I have had a bit of a hiatus is that I have been on a reading spree, and I am not exaggerating by spree. This year, I made a resolution to read more and watch tv less, and I am delivering. So far I am averaging two books a week, which seems like madness to me! So far in 2020 I have read 10 books, so who knows what it will be by the end of the year!

One of these books is called ‘We are the Weather’ by  Jonathon Safron Foer. This is one of those books that popped up on a list somewhere of books that will change your life, and anyone who knows me knows how much I love the environment and sustainability, so this one was a no-brainer for me.

In the end, this book was… interesting. I think for anyone who doesn’t know much about sustainability in the modern age and how changing the way you eat can have positive impacts for the environment, and is looking to develop their knowledge a little more, this book is for you.

For me. though, the book didn’t really teach me anything I didn’t know, and I didn’t find the story compelling enough to try and convince anyone to change their behaviours. The storyline felt jumpy, and the whole time it felt like the author was trying not to say what they were actually trying to convince you of. Instead of telling you not to eat meat, he described stories of change including the Holocaust and Rosa Parks, then drops facts about the impact of meat consumption on the environment, and then I don’t even remember what he rambles on about next. Maybe that was his intention, he didn’t want to tell people what to do, he wanted them to get there on their own. All I know is that by the end I didn’t feel compelled to stop eating meat, and I was vegetarian for 2 and a half years, and still don’t eat that much meat myself. So if I couldn’t be convinced, why would anyone else reading that book be?

Again, there was some great facts and for people looking for an intro into the sustainability context of consuming less meat, and I think this book would be great for someone like my boyfriend. But for me, it just really wasn’t emotive enough, or have enough of a clear story throughout. I would be interested to see his other book on factory farming to see how that story pans out, and whether he is able to make a stronger argument there.

This is a book that maybe everyone should read, or a topic that everyone should do some research on at least. I just wish that whoever told this story to the masses was able to tell it a little better.

I give it 3 out of 5.

The Talented Mr Ripley

I am nearing the end of my Blind Date With a Book subscription (boo!) and I just finished up my second last book to come through which is a classic, The Talented Mr Ripley. The name was familiar and I have since found out that there is a well-known movie which might be why, but I haven’t seen it yet which is probably for the best as I normally prefer books to the movies, or at least starting with the book.

On first appearances, it is a relatively small book so I thought it would be a light read. If you are familiar with the storyline you know ‘light read’ isn’t exactly the genre Patricia Highsmith was going for.

To give Highsmith credit though, despite the heavy subject matter, it is a relatively upbeat read. Despite the morbid nature of the stalker/ serial killer protagonist, there isn’t much darkness to the storyline. Despite some very brutal murders, you still remain connected to the protagonist.

This is one of those books though where you don’t know where your sympathy feels, or which character you should be rooting for. None of the characters are particularly likeable or provoke warm feelings in the reader.

I got through the book pretty easily, but I think that might be down to the low page number. I didn’t think there was enough storyline to keep me interested if the book went on for much longer. It was definitely good to try a bit of a different genre, and I would be very interested in watching the movie as well to see how they portray the characters and to see if I feel more sympathy / affection for all of them, but otherwise I wouldn’t rush back to read this book again, or another of Highsmith’s.

Overall, it’s a solid read and I ended up giving it 3 out of 5 on Goodreads. It is probably worth a 3.5 but until Goodreads introduces the half star measure I will continue rounding down to 3. If you are looking for something a bit different then I would definitely recommend it!

Bad Blood

I saw the book Bad Blood pop up on my Good Reads with outstanding reviews so it piqued my interest. Then, once I added it to my ‘Want to Read’ list, my friend also saw it and went out and bought it for herself. She tore through it and after she gave it a 5 out of 5 rating I knew I had to get it off her.

Bad Blood is an expose of Elizabeth Holmes. A young female who was being touted as ‘the next Bill Gates’. She was a university dropout who started her own biomedical technology company, and above all she was a sales person with charisma and charm. Without giving too many spoilers away, she managed to sell the wealthiest and most powerful people in America a product that never existed. She hoodwinked the world, but after reading it you know she hasn’t necessarily done it to deliberately be a liar. She just believed so wholeheartedly in her idea that she couldn’t grasp the reality of what she actually had.

On surface opinion, this book seems to go against my feminist side. This book is a tear down of one of the first female leaders in the tech industry. Elizabeth Holmes was a role model and a leader to so many, and so it is sad to delve into her true character behind the scenes. This book was well written though, and at no point did I get the impression that she was getting targeted because of her gender. Sure, there are times when comments were made about her sleeping with her COO and how unprofessional it was, and how no one else would do that which did make me think, that wouldn’t happen because in current society we don’t have too many females in the C-suite anyway. But apart from that shortcoming the book was well written and truthful. It even made a point of saying that what she did wasn’t uncommon in Silicon Valley, often tech leaders sell a shoddy idea and just wait for the technology to catch up, but the problem is that there is a big different between selling a faulty phone, and selling faulty blood tests. The seriousness of this is dramatically different, which is something that a number of people in her company struggled to grasp.

This type of book could lose you in the technical side of the product, or by not providing enough detail as to what was happening so you might not realise how bad things were, but this book nailed the analogies and explanations. The way that all the medical mumbo jumbo was explained made it so that anyone could follow what was happening, and anyone could understand the gravity of what was happening in this company.

Despite how well this book was written, the winning part of it was the fact that the story was absolutely unreal. As you go through the book you have to think, surely they are going to get caught out soon, how are there so many people that are not seeing through the facade. If I read this as a fictional book I wouldn’t believe it, but I know that this actually happened which is the mind blowing part.

Whilst I won’t give the book a 5 out of 5 like my friend, I think it is definitely close. I give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars, and I hope that one day we get a book about a strong female tech leader who is leading the way in inspiring the world, with no signs of foul play.

 

Pizza Autentico

One thing that has always made me a little sad in Australia is our lack of all-you-can-eat experiences. One of the great things about places like the UK and the Canada is their all-you-can-eat Indian and sushi respectively. Well finally, all my prayers have been answered and Australia, and in particular, Sydney, has finally started jumping on the all-you-can-eat and drink meal deals. My boyfriend and I have noticed heaps of these deals popping up recently, and when we saw one for $50 all you can eat pizza and pasta and all you can drink wine and beer, we knew we had to try, even if it was on a week night.

Enter Pizza Autentico. I don’t think this is a new deal for Pizza Autentico, because they seemed to have themselves set up well already, maybe it’s finally just something we are hearing about some more.

Pizza Autentico is a tiny little establishment in the heart of Surry Hills. Unless you went looking for it, you probably would never stumble across it. If you’re in a small group, you get put on the communal table on the ground floor, a big slab of granite which can seat probably around 20 people. There is a waitress that walks around with various bowls and plates of pizza and pasta, offering you some with each lap and then you simply say yes I want to try, or no I will skip this one out (you never say no) and they give you some to try. As for the drinks, I was drinking red wine which was brought out to me in a big carafe, and my boyfriend was well stocked with beer the whole night.

The reason I like this deal is that they don’t limit you to just one type of meal in the hopes that you will get bored and stop eating, I don’t think we saw the same meal twice in the whole 2 hours we were there. To be fair, the majority of the meals brought around were pizza but you had a wide range from your classic Margarita to your sausage and potato. You could taste the freshness of the dough and ingredients though, so I wasn’t complaining about all the pizza.

The pastas were the real winners though. I am salivating right now just thinking about their four cheese gnocchi. Eating that gnocchi was like biting into little pillows soaked in cheese. It was certainly rich, which is why a small amount was perfect, but the taste was sensational. My other favourite was a chilli penne, with just the right amount of kick, balanced with a tomato sauce.

Often with all you can eat deals, the staff do their best to make your life difficult, or to slow your orders, which don’t get me wrong, it makes sense, but it is rather annoying as a customer. Not at Pizza Autentico. Here, the staff were friendly, helpful, and making sure you were always topped up with food and drinks. They even come and do the courtesy call to let you know when your time is up.

All in all, I cannot recommend this place enough. I think it is potentially my favourite place in all of Sydney, and my boyfriend and I have made the pledge that all our celebrations and nice dinners will be there from now on. If you live in Sydney this place is an absolute must.

I give Pizza Autentico 5 out of 5 stars, I can’t see how anything could top that!

The People in the Trees

Hanya Yanagihara won my heart in her book ‘A Little Life’ which I read last year. That book deserves its own review, because it is one of the best books I have ever read, but recently she released her next book; ‘The People in the Trees’. It was on my list of books to read for a while, and so I was so excited to get stuck in, expecting the same magic as ‘A Little Life’. Maybe that was an unfair assumption to make, because it is a completely different vibe of the book. I started reading it though and thought that this entire storyline was made up because it was so far fetched, and certainly parts of the story are made up (the immortal humans living on a Pacific Island is the main part) but the book was actually based on Daniel Carleton Gajdusek, which I wish I knew before I started, because that does make the story more interesting.

 

On first impressions, this book is a veryyyyyy slow narration about a Scientist’s journey into an untouched island community, discovering its medical mysteries, the fall of that community due to Western intervention, and then the adoption of these children into the Scientist’s family. Without giving much more away, the book delves into the psyche of Gajdusek throughout the whole experience, although I am unsure whether this is his actual thoughts, or just what Yanagihara expects them to be.

 

Without knowing that this is based on a true person, this is just a very tedious, long book, that I had to force myself to keep reading. I think at one point I got a little hooked but about 20 pages later I was bored again. Similar to ‘A Little Life’ there is so much detail in the stories, that it really draws out the story and you feel like you’re not getting anywhere despite having read pages and pages. The difference with its predecessor, though, is that you aren’t invested in the characters. You don’t feel warmly towards any of the characters, or want to see things turn out well for them. Instead you just follow the story of the villain, even though there are attempts to humanise them.

 

Hanya is a beautiful writer, and she can paint a wonderful picture, but without exploring characters that you’re actually invested or interested in, her writing is just a little too slow for my liking. Again, I wish I knew it was based on a real person to begin with but I don’t even think this would have been enough to make me more invested.

I give this book a 3 out of 5, and I hope that her next book hits the mark just like ‘A Little Life’ did.

Grounds of the City

Anyone that knows Sydney knows of the Grounds of Alexandria. If you can brave the crowds then it’s always a great experience, but this weekend I got the rare chance to check out the little sister, Grounds of the City. I have visited here before for the odd coffee here and there, but this was the first time I have been here for food. I potentially also picked the worst day for going here, Saturday morning. Not only are most of the cafes in Sydney CBD closed on a Saturday, but also then you have the added attraction of a Grounds venue, so we ended up waiting 40 minutes for a table.

We finally got seated, right next to the waiter’s stand, which means that as the waiters hustled and bustled past, one of my companions kept getting hit by the drawers or the waiters themselves. At the same time, the service wasn’t particularly great. Ordering was slow and things like getting water at the table was a bit of a chore. Don’t get me wrong, the staff was pleasant, just a little slow and understaffed.

The vibe of the Grounds of the City is its main appeal, as they call it, the ‘old-school charm’. It makes you feel like you have stepped back into the time of prohibition, and honestly they have done a really fantastic job creating that vibe. I would love to check this place out at cocktail hour, because I can imagine the atmosphere is even more magical then.

In terms of the menu, the choice of coffee is so diverse; cold brew, filtered, batch brew, and then all your usual suspects like your Cappuccinos and Long Blacks. The coffee is good, maybe not the best in Sydney but definitely a good quality. The menu is fairly ritzy too. You know how normally you can go to a cafe and get a nice bacon and egg roll for $8? Not here. Here, a bacon and egg roll served on a pretzel bun will set you back about $20. Not to say that’s a bad thing, but just to give you an idea of the menu. Myself and one friend went for the Hash Potato Stack, which was poached eggs and a manchego sauce with wilted spinach and a potato hash. It was delicious. I am pretty partial to a potato hash but this met my high standards and I devoured it quickly. Our other friend got the steak and eggs, which is certainly not something that I would ever opt for at breakfast time, but he said it was all cooked well, and he is a chef himself so I would tend to trust his judgement and might have to check that out myself next time.

Overall, Grounds of the City was a great meal. Service could be better and I definitely know to book a table in advance next time (or go in an off peak time), but I would definitely be very keen to go back and check it out again. If anyone wants to take me for cocktails there, then that would be very much appreciated!

I give it 3.5/5 stars.

Piato Restaurant

This cafe/restaurant is one of Sydney’s best kept secrets. There are a lots of cafes in Sydney and it’s impossible to know them all, but normally a cafe this good would be one of those popular ones that everyone has heard of. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very busy, but it definitely isn’t one that’s plastered all over social media, and where people head to just because they have seen it in their feeds.

For those Aussies (or even those from overseas), the actor who plays Carbo in Packed to the Rafters (AKA George Houvardas) is the owner of this establishment, and it has strong family vibes, with his brother and what I can only assume is his uncle or Dad, running the shop with him. I have been there twice now for breakfast, after someone who was new to Sydney invited me there as she had stumbled across it on a walk one day. Both times I was there for breakfast, but as the name suggests, this place is a restaurant and serves up Italian food for lunch and dinner. Next time I am heading back I am planning on going for dinner to see if the later meals are just as good.

The popularity of this place means their cafe spreads out down the street. You walk up to grab a table and you get taken to tables and chairs in front of stores two doors down. The service is lovely, over the top helpful, and even though they are popular and busy, they never make any attempts to rush you out of there to free up your table.

The breakfast menu is extensive, with everything from bircher muesli, to the big breakfast, to more unique Mediterranean style dishes. Last time I was there I got the Tomato & Basil scrambled eggs which were fantastic. My only qualm with the food is that the portions are mismatched. I got two huge pieces of sourdough for a moderate size of eggs, and only ended up using one piece of bread. My friend next to me had the opposite, where she had too much avocado for everything else, and had half an avocado left in the end. The food was delicious though, and I would have to go back a couple of times to try everything I was interested in as there were so many good options available.

On top of the food and the service, the other great thing about this place is the vibe it gives. You feel like you could be out having a long, lazy day in the streets of Italy. I don’t know how they have managed to create that vibe, but it is inescapable. Something about it makes you want to spend your entire day there chatting with friends and eating delicious food.

I am now a huge fan of this place, and if I ever had friends or family visiting Sydney and I wanted to take them somewhere, this is where we would go. Without having tried their lunch or dinner menu, it seems hard to rate them fairly but based just on breakfast, this is undoubtedly one of Sydney’s best kept secrets.

I give Piato 4 out of 5 for its breakfast and vibes.

 

The Lost Symbol

Starting full time work again has really slowed down both my reading and my blog writing. Luckily I had some spare time this weekend and I was able to finish the book I have been slowly working on for a few weeks now. I was a little suprised. Normally I get so caught up in Dan Brown books that even if I am busy I somehow devour them quickly, this one was a little different though.

I am a huge Dan Brown fan, and I think Inferno was one of the most fantastic, thought-provoking books I have ever read (the movie butchered it, if you haven’t read the book then do it now). I was excited to jump into another mystery of Robert Langdon, and learn more about the world, art and history on the way. I was a little let down by this book if I am honest. It just didn’t grip me, or make me want to tear into the book. By the last 100 pages I was hooked and ready to finish, but the 400 pages before that were a little slow.

The setting of this book, Washington DC was the perfect choice, and I never realised how much symbology and meaning surrounded the city’s design. It has inspired me to want to go to Washington DC soon.  If the storyline was a little simpler or more accessible, I think the book would be enthralling. I don’t know whether it is because I am less familiar with Masonry or the layout of Washington DC that I couldn’t get sucked in, or whether this storyline was just a little too chaotic for everyone. Maybe it’s because Masonry is not as widespread or important in Australia so it didn’t have as much meaning for me, or maybe there were just too many important characters spiralling into chaos to follow. Maybe the problem was also that I guessed the big plot twist at the end in the first 100 pages. It’s hard to say what the reason was.

What I can say is that it was interesting, and it certainly made me question a lot of what we know accept as commonplace (recognising the fact that Dan Brown’s books are pieces of fiction and not fact). It was still an interesting read, and you can never go wrong with a Dan Brown book, but it certainly wasn’t his best work.

Overall, I have to give it a 3 out of 5. I am hoping his others are much more like Inferno and Da Vinci Code so I can reignite my love of Dan Brown.

Filicudi- the romantic italian

Valentines Day, the infamous day that sends boyfriends and husbands scurrying to the florists, and single people trying to fill their time with anything to prove that they are ok with being alone. It’s a night love by some, and hated by a lot more. Now, I have to admit, I went out for dinner on Valentines Day, but not for the reason that everyone would expect.

My boyfriend and I have been dating for 6 months now, and so this would be our first Valentines Day. He warned me early, he was not a Valentines Day fan, and since I am not that fussed on over the top romantic gestures, we decided we would skip it, and not celebrate it. The difficulty is, his birthday falls on the 15th of February, and because of the kind-hearted person he is, my boyfriend was spending his birthday doing a charity climb to help a child with Cerebral Palsy and his family climb Mt Kosciuszko on this day so we couldn’t celebrate together on the day, so our only option was to celebrate the night before on Valentines Day.

I must admit that part of me kind of hoped my boyfriend would suprise me, but he is a man of his word and there was no suprise. On thinking about it all though, a nice dinner is all I need. Anyway, we did indeed go for a very lovely dinner at a nice little authentic italian restaurant in Five Dock called Filicudi. The place catches your heart from the moment you step into the cosy little restaurant, with empty bottles hanging from the roof (a bit of a hazard for those tall ones like my boyfriend), the walls covered with newspaper clippings and eclectic paintings and artworks, and cosy little tables of two everywhere.

It was recommended to us, and so we were looking forward to checking it out. We booked a few weeks in advance, luckily, because it was packed and people were rolling in and out all night, some even getting turned away at the door. The only drawback of this setup, was we had a couple sitting right next to us, only about 40cm away. This wouldn’t normally be so bad but this couple was probably on their 2nd ever date, and I don’t think they were quite yet 18 so their conversation as Annoying. As. Hell. I am sure on any other night this wouldn’t be a problem, but listening to these young guys call Calvin Harris the best musician of our lifetime really didn’t set the scene well.

Luckily, I realised that cocktails were so cheap, so before long I was sipping on a $12 Aperol Spritz. We decided what we wanted pretty quickly; pasta for me, pizza for my bf, and some garlic bread as well. Carbs on carbs. I went for the Diavola pasta; penne with mushroom, chilli and a creamy tomato sauce. My bf went for the classic Meatlovers pizza.

We had barely ordered before our garlic bread was out. As far as garlic bread goes, it was pretty good but it was a little too soggy in places, and a little too oily. Certainly not the best I have ever had, but pretty good nonetheless. It was at this point that my bf realised that the back kitchen in charge of everything that wasn’t pizza was literally being run by Nonnas (the pizza oven was in the front run being run by some middle age men). The Nonnas were dishing up the pastas, breads and mains. You know it’s an authentic meal then.

It wasn’t long at all before our mains were out as well. Now, my pasta sounded pretty basic but the taste of it was anything but basic. The kick of the chilli is the first thing that grabs you, but before long the smoothness of the homemade penne catches up. It was delicious, and my whole plate was gobbled down in a minute. I have never enjoyed pasta quite this much, and whilst I put a sprinkling of parmesan on it, it didn’t even need it. The pasta stood up on its own. I nearly had to lick my bowl clean at the end, the sauce was so good.

I also got to taste a little bit of my boyfriends pizza, and I am not normally a meatlovers pizza fan, but this pizza was delicious. The base was solid and tasty, but didn’t have a strong enough flavour to drown out the actual toppings of the pizza. The tomato sauce was garlicky and full of flavour, and the meat added even more taste explosions to your mouth. It wasn’t long before the pizza had disappeared too.

So over the course of the dinner, we had a large pizza, a main size pasta, garlic bread, a cocktail, and two beers. Now we were expecting a pretty decent bill to come out, but were shocked when the bill was just $80. Yes, $80 for the best authentic Italian I have had outside of Italy including drinks. The bill was even accompanied by a love heart shaped chocolate. It was a little touch but it rounded out the night perfectly.

We decided on leaving that this was going to become our go to place whenever we had something big to celebrate. It was an intimate enough setting that had good atmosphere, great service and delicious and authentic food. I would 100% recommend everyone to check it out, even if it is in the obscure neighbourhood of Five Dock.

I give Filicudi 5 out of 5.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz

So this book had been on my list for a while, and is one that has been extremely popular in Australia. My order for this was put on back order as they had sold out. I finally got it, though, and it was worth the wait.

This is one of the hardest book reviews I have tried to write so far, because I am struggling to articulate how anything relating to World War II affects me. I have no family that suffered (that I know of) through World War II, but yet I still feel the pain of what happened there. I still feel disgust and dismay at what those people are put through, and I struggle to understand how anything like that could ever happen here in this world. In saying that, I realise that there are parts of the world that still see these horrors every day, but we just don’t see them as much here in the Western world. Whilst travelling through Europe, I visited one of the concentration camps. It is a memory that is seared into my brain. I was there with a friend of Jewish heritage, who lost family during this time, and honestly, it was heartbreaking to see her there in a place where people of her kind were put through conditions no one could ever believe possible.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a true story, about a man who survived Auschwitz, a man who one of the Nazis called ‘a cat’ because he had so many lives. Lale was never meant to survive Auschwitz, but his perseverance and determinedness meant that aganst all odds, he did. The book is bittersweet, as it tells you of a love story in the backdrop of inhumane conditions. It tells you of survival of a Jewish man, who seemingly partners or works with the Nazis in order to survive. It tells you of death without conscience, and acts of humanity throughout it all. It tells of a man who was rescued by the kindness of others, who in turn risks his life many times to save others.

Because of the love story, it is easy at times to imagine that this book is fiction, that all these things didn’t really happen, but then you are told a story of death and inhumane killing or torture, and you are reminded that this world did exist, and we lost so many innocent people because of it. There is no sugar coating in this book, the stories are real and raw, and they have impact.

The writing was good, the story was good, and there was so much emotion weaved throughout this book. I can’t say anymore about it, except that it really touched me and I think books like these are so important for everyone to read, so we can understand the mistakes made before, and hope to never let them happen again.  I am glad that Lale decided to share his story with the world.

I give this book 9 out of 10. I would definitely recommend it to everyone, except maybe those with a weak stomach.