Smith & Daughters for our anniversary

Today was our 23rd wedding anniversary. Should we buy each other a ‘silver plated’ gift (supposedly the traditional gift for the 23rd anniversary)? Or should we just go somewhere nice to eat? I’m sure you can guess what we chose!

Smith and Daughters is usually really busy, so I wasn’t sure we’d get a table for Sunday brunch at a day’s notice. Perhaps they’ve quietened down lately or – more likely, perhaps – their regular  customers might have been up very late last night celebrating the end of the Napthine Government in Victoria (Yay!), and were still dozing at home.

I’d noticed on Facebook that the menu had changed since our last visit. I was really keen to try the Mexican Hash and to toast our 23 years with a brunch cocktail.

Pink Lemonade for grownups

At 11am the temperature was already almost 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), so I was in need of something refreshing. The Pink Lemonade cocktail caught my eye.

This isn’t the pink lemonade we were given when we were kids! According to the menu, it’s made of “fresh strawberry, thyme & lemon, vodka, St Germaine Elderflower and lemon soda”. Perfect for a celebration brunch…and with a nice kick to it!

Too many temptations!

B (unwisely) chose a Lovely Berry smoothie as his drink.

I say ‘unwisely’ because their delicious smoothies are very filling – pretty much a meal in themselves…and he followed it with French Toast!

And then he helped me eat a serve of Spanish Donuts!

There were 5 in the bowl, but B had already dug in – despite complaints about feeling full. That’s quince paste, by the way.

(He can’t say I didn’t warn him…but some people just have to learn from their own mistakes. He won’t be doing it again!) 🙂

My Mexican Hash picture disappeared!

I got my Mexican Hash, and it was delicious, but sadly my picture didn’t work out (well, I probably didn’t click the button properly, so it never existed in the first place), so I can’t prove it to you.

There are plenty of pictures of the dish on blogs and Facebook though, so you’ve probably already seen it (if you haven’t eaten it yourself!). Anyway, it looked exactly like the picture in Kittens Gone Lentil (scroll down her page a bit). It had creaminess and heat and salt and lovely fried carbs – all that’s needed in a special-occasion brunch.

Walking off our brunch

It was such a beautiful day, we went for a long stroll around Fitzroy and Collingwood, and quite appropriately, since we have a new Labor Government today, stumbled across Whitlam Place.

I’d never even heard of it before. It seems to be part of a real estate development. Apparently the mural is only new and is causing some concern for locals.

It ended up being too hot to walk around for too long with aching stomachs. And with no room to fit in a gelato from Gelato Messina there was no point hanging around!

We ended up staggering home and dozing on our deck chairs with a gin and tonic, under the shade of the apple trees. Looks like we might have lost our stamina after 23 years!