Wednesday 26 December 2007

Christmas lunch at Customs House


Pictured above is our well known commenter, Christina, with Head Chef at Customs, Alex Gillis. Rita and friends dined in style at Customs House, as did Christina and her family.

It was great to meet Christina, and her family, and we all had a great chat about food and blogging.

I have to be honest and admit to the fact that I wasn't comfortable with the concept of 'letting go' and having someone else cook the Christmas lunch. OK, OK, so call me a control freak!

As much as I could enjoy lunch out, it was fine, and everyone very much enjoyed their meals. Christina's mum said her fish was great, Pete loved his pork, Bec loved her turkey.

I was pleased to be with family and friends on the day, but am resolved to resume the cooking next year.

Hope the rest of you had a wonderful day and gutsed yourselves silly! Sounds like Zelda did!
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Posted on by Rita
5 comments

5 comments:

Tassiegal said...

I definately did Rita. Will write more about it soon. Suffice to say there was a Webber BBQ involved and lots of roast bird.

Rita said...

Can't wait to hear Zelda.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rita,
I can't tell you what a pleasure it was to meet you in person on Christmas Day. Thankyou for taking time away from your family to come and meet me and mine. And what a treat to meet Alex. He did a fantastic job on the day.
Our whole table of 8 enjoyed our meal immensely. As you mentioned my lovely Mum really enjoyed her grilled fish with a vegetable frittata. My favourite was the Caeser Salad, perfectly poached egg atop. The roast pumpkin soup was also a big hit. Great company and a good atmosphere goes a long way to enhancing the enjoyment factor.
If only the staff could have cracked a tiny smile or even squeaked out a little "Merry Christmas", all would have been perfect. I found myself feeling like I had to cheer them all up. I understand working is not the most ideal way to spend Christmas Day, but life is what you make of it. They could have made it a little more festive for themselves and who knows they may have even enjoyed it.
I did find it strange not be at home cooking on the day, but I actually enjoyed it more than I expected to. We did enjoy a lovely breakfast at home in the morning. Maybe that fulfilled my Christmas urges to feed the masses.
After years of rushing around for days,shopping,preparing,cooking, it was lovely to just sit with the family and take in the day.
I hope everyone else had a wonderful day too.

Rita said...

Christina - thanks for that. I apologise for getting so carried away meeting you and your family that I omitted to introduce my lot, even when my daughter came over to your table where I was chatting with you, bringing my cheese platter!
See how single-minded Rita is when on the subject of food!

Daughter also had the Caesar and really enjoyed it, like you, so it must have been a winner of a Caesar, because she's a Caesar freak from way back.

I stuck with the trad turkey for mains, then cheese platter. As I'm a pig for roast potatoes & gravy, felt a bit sad about the lack of them (I have been known to put away 10 roast spuds easily at a Sunday roast meal!). My vegie portion included 3 small potatoes in their jackets - fine, but not my expected roast spud 'high' for the day!

Anonymous said...

I also had lunch at Customs on x'mas day and wasn't overly impressed. I too had the caesar salad which I found to be lacking in flavour and for mains I had turkey, which to my suprise wasn't REAL turkey it was the fake rolled s**t that I hate served with 3 little potatos in their jackets (and I LOVE my roast subs, so 3 wasn't enough for a piggy like me) and baked carrot and parsnip, all very ho-hum. Also I tasted the pork which was dry and over done. Sorry customs but what a let down it was for me!!! I too had never eaten out for x'mas lunch and am used to days of blood, sweat and tears for just one meal but it seems it is worth the effort to get want you want....I maybe picky, but next x'mas I'll be dinning on REAL turkey with 10 subs and all the good stuff...want to join me Rita....seeing as you love your subs aswell!!!! :)