26 Candles

I turned 26 yesterday! Last year, for my quarter-century celebration, I lived it up in "sunny" Melbourne. This year, I was tossing between going back south to shop it out or just staying in Sydney and having a big do. Although when it came to crunch time, I opted for spending the weekend with just a few of my closest friends.

It started off with a birthday eve dinner on Saturday night at my friend I and H's house with some beautiful homemade lasagne, a few bottles of McGuigan's wine and a chocolate birthday cake (sans the candles, thank goodness) to top off the meal. The wine always makes for an interesting night that ended with a few misadventures that we will definitely look back on in a few years and laugh about.

Sunday, was spent in a more leisurely fashion with a trip to the markets with the girls and a visit to Hurricane's Grill at Bondi Beach. Almost as iconic as the Beach itself, Hurricane's is a carnivore's delight. The place does have a meagre vegetarian selection but the amount of carnivorous feasting going on would probably be too offensive for sensitive vegetarians. Especially when one of their signature dishes is a full rack of pork or lamb ribs that includes a "standard issue" bib and moist towel to catch and wipe the juicy aftermath of all the rib-eating.

There were four of us girls however we only ordered two dishes. If you ever see the portion sizes of these dishes you will probably understand, and all for a reasonable price. A full rack of ribs with chips ($30) and a 300g beef burger with monkey gland sauce and baked potato ($17), was shared between the four, and none of us left the restaurant lacking. And as you can see, every rib was cleaned to the bone, every piece of flesh proudly gnawed off and our fingers bore testament to our satisfaction.

If you are wondering what the monkey gland sauce was about, well let me assure you that no monkeys were hurt in the in the making of this sauce and nor are there any glands involved. From what I gather, and I'm sure that many South Africans can better explain, monkey gland sauce is a tomato based bbq sauce that tastes somewhat like a relish or a chutney. It can be made with various of ingredients however most sauces usually contain tomatoes, onions, Worcestershire and Tobasco sauce.


HURRICANE' GRILL
130 Roscoe St
Bondi Beach, Sydney
PHONE: (02) 9130 7101

Open 7 nights for dinner 6:00pm till late
Lunch on Sundays from noon

HURRICANE'S EXPRESS TAKEAWAY
PHONE (02) 9365 3450
Open 7 days noon till 10pm