For I have found the perfect serving of Brussels sprouts*. Some may scoff, especially as I failed to record this memorable occasion on camera. But I am a woman of honesty and integrity so you can take my word for it when I say that I was recently served a Brussels sprouts dish to die for. It was at a little Middle Eastern restaurant called Sefa Kitchen in Bondi, Sydney. In the absence of photographic evidence, we will have to make do with a somewhat fuzzy image of their bone marrow meze with its preserved lemon gremolata and polenta chips, to convey the ambience of this little eatery.
Their menu describes the dish as “Brussel sprouts** with almond tarator and zhoug”. I had to google both tarator (usually a yoghurt, cucumber and walnut based sauce) and zhoug (hot green spice paste of Yemeni origin). From memory the sprouts were not boiled or even steamed. They may have been lightly roasted.
Alas, my plans to attempt some re-creation of this taste treat at home this season have been thwarted by our resident Californian quail. We are very fond of these charming birds which are slowly increasing in number but have no intention of consuming either the birds themselves or their lovely speckled eggs. When you have watched Mama and Papa Quail herding their young, which resemble fluffy little bumblebees, around the garden, the thought of putting them on the dinner plate is unimaginable. But it was a close-run thing when a mob of them found a way into the protective cloche Mark has placed over this season’s crop of Brussels sprouts. The crop was decimated and the few we have salvaged are poor, shredded examples of this vegetable.
But for those who think the much maligned Brussels sprout is only palatable when cooked with bacon, I can recommend the Sefa treatment as being one of those rare restaurant dishes that is genuinely memorable.
Loosely related only, those who have visited here or know the area will realise that we live in a rural area of little sophistication, though it has its own charms. I like to travel but my most recent trip to see our daughters in Australia reminded me that nobody, just nobody, could ever think that Tikorangi is hipster.
I give you the ultimate example of Bondi hipsterdom in Sydney.
And the somewhat quaint example of hipsterdom in Canberra. No, I do not think pulling out the stained, blue woolly hat that my late mother in law used to adorn her teapot will achieve the desired level of hipsterdom when I lack the gluten-free friands as accompaniments.
Quail-pecked Brussels sprouts are the best we can manage.
* A singular teensy tiny member of the brassica family is a Brussels sprout. More than one are Brussels sprouts, not Brussel sprouts. I guess there should be an apostrophe in there somewhere, presumably at the end of the first word because they are, apparently, named for the city of Brussels.
** You may notice that Sefa have failed to get to grips with the plural term but I can forgive them that on account of the delicious nature of the dish.
Any potentially large tree planted in the wrong place is going to be high maintenance. Vegetable time bombs, we call them. I see it with Magnolia grandiflora “Little Gem” in urban gardens more than any other plant I can think of. Aforementioned “Little Gem” is only little by comparison with something that might equally be called “Extremely Giant Gem”. It is not a dwarf tree. Plant it in a confined space – I know of a twin row of five or six aside lining a very narrow driveway in town – and it will either be high maintenance on an ongoing basis to keep it confined or an expensive removal job when it becomes a major problem.
Not an earthquake. A falling dead tree. Pinus radiata often drops all its side branches when it dies, before keeling over or, in this case, snapping a third of the way up. This is good because the side branches can cause even more damage when a tree falls although it can and does clip other trees as it falls. As falling trees of at least 135 years of age go, this was on the minor end. The trunk broke in three as it fell, with the longest length (about nine metres) rolling over to a final location which is not bad at all, though it did initially land on a garden bed.
On Monday, we started clearing the paths. Surprisingly, there is quite a bit of good firewood in the centre of the trunk and by the end of the day, the pile of split wood in the shed was growing satisfactorily. There is nothing quite like the Squirrel Nutkin feel of seeing the firewood for 2017 already stacked and drying.
The longer lengths will remain in situ and we will garden around them. It is just a 
It is a lot easier to garden with nature, rather than in constant battle to keep it under control. By Tuesday, it looked like this. We are fine with that. It will settle down again over the next month or two and look as if it has always been like that.
Magnolia grandiflora ‘Little Gem’. 
Just be warned if you are planting this handsome but ubiquitous tree in a small space. Also, do not expect a glorious floral display from the evergreen grandiflora magnolias, such as you get from deciduous magnolias and members of the evergreen michelia family. The grandiflora flowers are individually showy but short-lived and generally few in number at any time. The 
Tikorangi The Jury Garden 