We are the soul of “The Pipi”, the vital organ pumping life into the Pipi, the living, breathing heart & lifeblood of the restaurant. Who we are is an integral part of what makes Hot Pipis special. And so I’ve chosen to share this magical little experience w you, should you choose to read it. It may not be for some, but for others it will resonate.

For 3 long years now, the majority of my days & nights have been spent in varying degrees of pain. (Dodgy knees – I’ve laid the blame directly on my darling Mum’s genetic footprint) After driving myself through many a day by sheer will power, I finally had surgery. Serious dedication to consumption of pain killer (wine) combined w lack of exercise and a weary attitude have ground me down. During recovery, I’ve had good days, bad days & days when my team were tripping over themselves to stop me doing a thing. Suffice to say the recovery has taken soooo much longer than it should have. It was time for a change in mindset & self.
Interesting how people come into your life when you need to make tough choices & decisions. I chose a business coach on gut instinct ( thank goodness, just for once I listened to my instinct, he’s slowly reconstructing my sanity) Through this initially tenuous connection, I’ve been gifted access to a great bunch of guys at Cross Fit, who, without judgement for my age, size, fitness level or mobility, help me rebuild strength 4 days a week. On day 5 I submit myself to another amazing trainer, my friend Matt . I’ve been gifted access to an awesome Acupuncturist. All at once, by a slight change in attitude & energy levels, the people I now need in my life are suddenly a available to me.

Anyway today I committed to going jet skiing w my beloved partner. I was SO determined to do it, having pulled out for pain reasons twice already. He’s a patient man!
We left from the Caloundra Powerboat Club. Getting on was an interesting experience… I think onlookers may have been sniggering?? Off we went, heading towards the open ocean. Brian, knowing me so well, made no concession to my dodgy knees, flying close to Bribie Island over the breakers. Wow, came down so hard I had to take a moment….I was starting to think I would have to ask him to turn back.
But that instinctive core of me had other ideas. I wanted to circumnavigate Bribie Island! I knew, w total certainty, that this was a special ride….so here’s my magical trip around Bribie.

Skimming across the sparkling ocean, on the eastern side, heading south, I just knew I had to stay tough…it was going to be worth it! I settled into a similar rhythm to horse riding, relaxing the knees, letting my body move w the jet ski. Past the gun tower, solitary beach fishermen, a huge cargo ship hovering off to our left.
Suddenly I saw “the splash… and there they were. Two dolphins breaching the ocean surface in perfect unison, less than 20mts away. Watching them disappear & re-appear w such simple yet poetic grace was just indescribable. We were two teeny creatures sitting on a bobbing cork in the huge expanse of ocean & these two amazing creatures could have been so easily missed if we had not been looking in the right direction.
But I already knew we were meant to see these dolphins. Imagine then my overwhelming joy as we spotted another three, then two more, then mum & calf.. All together but still independent of each other we counted 11 dolphins closer than 20m from us. My day was made, the trip was already worth it.
But you know what happens when you are gifted a little bit if magic? It generates more magic….
As we skimmed around the south end of Bribie, looking to my right the beach was almost entirely devoid of human life. The crystal ocean was akin to Cavansite crystal. Rare, blue sparkling rays leeching into the pristine beach front, causing my eyelids to crush together to capture forever in my mind the pure & simplistic beauty of that long, euphoric moment of awe.
Appropriately Cavansite unites clear insight, effective communication & greater understanding. In contrast, looking over my left shoulder, rose the buildings of north Brisbane, out of the azure ocean into the shimmering city haze. Beautiful, but in a totally different way. On my right, crisp, clear unpopulated purity, on my left a cityscape of hazy intrigue.

It was as if the close sighting of the dolphin pod had given me clarity, w uncluttered & focussed sight, in order for me to fully soak in all the magic around me.

A jerk back to reality as Brian decided to race off a little fishing boat. I didn’t realise we were averaging70 km an hr till he told me later …we won, by the way.
Around the southern tip of the Island to a new vision, the Glasshouse Mountains spiking up out of a glossy, undulating mirror of slick ocean. In the peace of the water between the mainland & the island, the ocean looked like a stargate. Rippling, blue, gently undulating, alive & mysteriously beautiful.
Up ahead, as we flew along the top of the water, jumping across the wake of other small boats, loomed the impressive expanse of Bribie Island Bridge!

Not just a super long bridge to cross from one place to the other…No, this bridge was magical, with scattered shards of crystal clusters stretching thickly across the water line, spilling out of natures treasure chest of wonder, with trails of sparkle reaching out towards our speedy arrival.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, as we came out the other side of the bridge, with our wake throwing out a spray beside & behind us, I caught a stream of colour in the corner of my eye. A gossamer rainbow reaching down from the spray & into the water beside us, flowing along in unison w us.

I was sitting right on top of the end of a rainbow!

To any onlookers, I might have been an older, larger woman clinging like a chunky limpet to her hubby, but let me assure you, I was young, vibrant & filled w the innocent joy of a child in that last moment that was gifted to me.
By this time we were creeping into our third hr of bumping, crashing & flying over the ocean. I was shivering w cold, my knees had their own little fire dance going on, my butt & kidneys felt like they had been attacked by a group of kick boxing bandits & my neck & shoulders were yelling at me from a distance. Truly didn’t matter…. The magic stayed with me till we got back to shore.
It lingered throughout the rest of the day before finally snuggling into my hardwiring so I wouldn’t forget that I had just been gifted a most amazing experience.

So, as my friend Shaun would say, just let life be easy. Don’t make it hard, don’t make your experiences difficult, let them happen with ease & I can guarantee you, magic will happen.

How do you go about choosing a Restaurant to dine at?

For me, it’s a personal journey, beginning from the moment I make the decision to dine out.
Am I dining out w my partner, family or a group of friends? What night?

What day?  What time? Sometimes these decisions may change subtly after have chosen my restaurant.
My process is simple, yet can be agonizingly & painfully complicated, if you ask my long suffering partner. Food style is not, surprisingly enough, my main focus. Perhaps because I love to investigate all types of   food.

I think about the Restaurants I’ve heard others speak of, but I also like to find unique little ‘joints’ that may not be “in the face” of the general public!. I search their websites to get an overall feel for them & then I check out their Facebook page.

The Facebook page of a restaurant, to me, is like getting a more intimate insight into the “personality” behind the business name.

I look for reviews, generally only on a trusted site such as Tripadvisor. I love reading reviews & balancing out the good against the bad or indifferent. You can tell who has a point to make & who has an axe to grind. I don’t let a couple of really bad or deliberately cruel reviews put me off if there is a solid balance of good & appreciative reviews.

Recently on the Gold Coast, I wanted to take my partner out for his birthday. I scoured the web for a more upmarket “special” establishment & eventually settled on one which had received loads of pomp & accolades in the media. Three + hats & all that puff & fluff.
Checked out the menu, which was as expensive as I expected & for this occasion, not an issue. Then I went to the review site…..Oh dear….what a flogging they were receiving!
I learnt two things about this Restaurant….a lot of people had gone there, probably like me, for that ultra special occasion. Secondly, the overall chord throughout the reviews was that these guys were, quite frankly up themselves & didn’t give a damm about their guests….you know, those important people that ultimately pay the bills of the business! Sometimes a certain amount of business humility is conditional!
So I decided to choose another restaurant. We were in an area I was unfamiliar with. I didn’t want to make a bad choice, I wanted this to be a very special evening.

Finally my decision was made. Lovely name, small but elegant menu at what I considered to be reasonable prices & with great reviews. The tipping of the balance was when I saw that the manager/owner personally responded to her reviews, be they good or bad, with appreciation & humility.
We had a wonderful evening. Good food, good service, nice atmosphere, happy days!

I don’t need to be astounded when I go out, but I do need to be made to feel welcome, comfortable & appreciated as a guest in the establishment. I don’t particularly have a price point standard…One of my fav local restaurants on the Sunny Coast is quite expensive, maybe even a tad over the top from a price point, but the food is good & creative & we are always made to feel welcome, with good service provided, even if the staff on duty don’t necessarily know me.

My other fav is a dirt cheap little place in Caloundra. The food is not necessarily that great, but it’s appropriate for their price point & most of all, I love the way they treat us….
So I guess that means that above all, I enjoy a place that makes me feel welcome offering friendly service, food that matches my expectation & most of all a place I can be comfortable in, be it top of the range or bottom of the range.

Other people may choose their restaurant purely from a price driven view point. Or perhaps from a service level. Or a combination of both. Some go purely on location.

Quite frankly, I want it all & I become extremely loyal to those dining establishments that fill my needs.

I think this is why I am so passionate about constantly striving to make “The Pipi” a place where one can expect good quality, fresh food, friendly service & those little touches at the table that make you feel a little bit more special. As with everything one is passionate about, it will always be a work in progress for us & we may never quite achieve the perfection that I am looking for, but it is a level we are constantly striving to achieve & I do look to our consumers to keep me in reality mode….

So what do you look for when you dine out? Price Point? Service? Environment? A combination of all?
I’d love to read your comments on what you look for when you dine out…….

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FOR THE CURRY

• 7.2 lt coconut cream
• 100gm Garlic, crushed
• 100gm Ginger, crushed
• 6 Lemon Grass Sprigs
• 12 Kaffir Lime Leaves
• 1 cup (250ml) Lime Juice
• ½ cup Tamarind Paste
• 200gm red curry paste
• 200gm tomato paste
• 200ml of fish sauce
• 200gm raw sugar
• 3 large brown onions, diced
• 1 Bunch Coriander
• Snow pea Sprouts for Garnish

Method

1. Sauté off onions.
2. Add red curry paste and cook out until it splits.
3. Add tomato & tamarind paste and cook out until that also splits.
4. Deglaze a pan with fish sauce, Garlic, Lime leaves & Ginger.
5. Add Lemon Grass
6. Reduce & add coconut cream.
7. Bring to boil add raw sugar & chopped coriander and correct
8. consistency and cook for a further 10-15 minutes.
9. Makes approx 20 serves

Seafood for curry: (one serve)

• ½ Moreton Bay bug, 80gm mussels ,100gm barramundi
• 2 prawns, 20gm calamari, 30gm scallops

1. Pan one serve of curry sauce, add seafood except Bug & cook off.
2. Sear & grill the bug
3. Serve Curry in a large bowl & build up with the ½ bug.
4. Add SnowPea Sprouts for garnish.

Hot Pipis | September2010 Newsletter

Prep Time – 20mins + 2 hrs refrigeration

Total Cooking Time: 50 mins

Makes 24 Portions

• 1/3 cup (40g) plain flour
• 1/2 cup (60g) cocoa powder
• 2 cups (500g) sugar
• 250g (8oz) good quality dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
• 250g (8oz) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tspn vanilla essence
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup (125g) chopped pecans or walnuts

1. Preheat oven to moderate 180 C (gas 4) Lightly grease a 20 x 30cm (8 x 12”) cake tin & line with baking paper, leaving the paper hanging over on the two long sides

2. Sift flour & cocoa into a bowl & add sugar, nuts & chocolate. Mix tog & make a well in the centre

3. Pour butter into the dry ingredients w the vanilla & eggs & mix well. Pour into the tin, smooth the surface & bake for 50mins (the mixture will still be a bit soft on the outside)

4. Chill for at least 2 hrs before lifting our, using the paper as handles. Cut into pieces & decorate.

Hot Pipis AUGUST 2010 Newsletter