Exciting new stuff – Tim Goldsmith

powerhouse

Pumpkin was lucky enough to get an invite to go & see Aladdin, so we decided that we’d head into town as a family & see what kind of trouble we could get up to.
Of course, as I looked at my blog, I realised that the kind of trouble we could get up to was the same kind of trouble that we got up to last time we headed into town!

We started off by heading to Haymarket for lunch. There were time constraints, but we managed to find a “sizzle plate” place that offered some legitimate GF options. Pumpkin got dropped off at the Capitol, and the rest of us went for a walk to visit “Daisao” which is basically a massive shop (a cross between a $2 shop & a small grocery store) full of Japanese things! Nippon candy, cool chopsticks & a couple of other bits & pieces, then we were off to the Powerhouse Museum!

We didn’t pay for the Egyptian mummy section, but we did get to play in an area that was full of “dirt” ( I think it was made out of rubber) and the kids got to dig for different “artefacts” that were hidden within it.

After that, there was a great section where the kids got to touch everything. Lots of fun light up stuff, energy ball & even the opportunity to try & power a siren using pedal power!

Throw in a massive train that is inside the building, and the kids were stoked!

After that it was simply a matter of poseing with some static props on the wall, then we were done!

Pick up the girl, eat a little ice cream & then head back home! A wonderful day & a great opportunity to make some memories for the kids!

What do you give the guy who has always been obsessed with chocolate?

Chocolate? Well it’s not a bad start, but, let’s face it, I’ll probably buy myself some if you don’t get it for me.

Ahhh, how about the old “give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish” adage? Perfect!

And so, last year my wonderful wife gave me a hand tempering class from one of my favourite stores Coco Chocolate.

What's not to love about them!? — What’s not to love about them!?

So I got dropped off at their Mosman cooking HQ, the family headed to the Zoo and I settled in for a 3 hour lesson in classical French chocolate tempering.

We had three things to make for the day. 4 kilos worth of chocolate to make bars of the dark choc, lime & coconut, and 8 kilos of milk chocolate for the fruit & nut shards, and freckles!

As Tara walked us through everything (I’m not going to share it all. Go do the course yourself!), she talked a lot about the history of chocolate, the different qualities and strengths, the science behind chocolate (why does it matter if it’s cheap or not?) and tempering, and even how chocolates with identical ingredients can have vastly different flavours (to even my slightly trained palate) depending on the region it is sourced & a couple of simple environmental factors.

Fascinating, informative…. and tasty! We got to eat as we went (maintaining appropriate hygiene at all times) and even take a goodie bag home with us! (if only we got to split all 12 kilos!).

Now the question is whether or not next birthday will get me some equipment to do my own chocolate at home?

Here are some (substandard… they were on my phone) pictures.