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That's Nambour, not Vietnam.
One hundred kilometres from Brisbane, Nambour is Maroochy Shire's administrative centre and principal hinterland town of the Sunshine Coast. It is a major sugar production area, as is much of Queensland. A sugar mill is based in the middle of town and the sugar cane trains can still be seen chugging across the main street to the mill.
Apparently, Nambour was settled in the 1860's by miners disappointed after the poor returns from the goldfields at Gympie, just north. Today it has a population of over 10,000 and is a thriving rural community a short distance west of the Sunshine Coast.
It's a great pineapple-growing area, and I've been told that a visit to the 'Big Pineapple' is a must. I will drive past it and offer my appropriate respects from the car.
My primary business in Nambour, as in all my travels, is cooking and trying to share my God-given talents for the benefit of others. Today I will do a class/dinner party at the home of Brent and Janelle and 10 of their friends.
The sun's up, so it's time to load the car for the open road....
We left Fountainhead just as the sun was peeping over the lush green hills of Maleny, driving out the property past the Platypus Lake. We hoped to catch sight of one of the amazing little creatures, but they were keeping a pretty low profile. The crystal lake bordered by autumnal trees made for a great photo opportunity.
Before heading down the mountains to Nambour, my old friend and driver Solomon suggested we get a glimpse of the amazing glasshouse mountains, still shrouded in misty swirling fog. Thought I'd share this vision with you. Quite a awesome sight.
We pulled into beautiful downtown Nambour about 8.00am and met our hosts for the day.
Brent and Janelle have been hooked on Hare Krishna Food ever since stumbling across Krishna's cafe in Maroochydore a few months ago. The Cafe is a great place to chill out, and was run by my old friend Sabhapati.
Sabhapati (know as Sabbo by all his close friends) told them that I do cookery classes/dinner parties in homes, and the rest is history.
The dining/cooking area looked out onto some wonderful rainforest. Here, Janelle's sister and a close friend pose in front of our mis-en-place just before most of the other 10 guests arrive.
The day was pleasant from beginning to end, and we all had immense fun in helping prepare lunch. Here's Patti sealing the Sage-scented Roasted-pumpkin Canneloni.
The massive gourmet lunch was highly appreciated. Solomon is just about to tuck into his grilled Turkish bread topped with mixed freshly picked garden greens and herbs, roasted red peppers and grilled zucchini, hot roasted Haloumi cheese and pine nuts, all swathed in an aromatic honey-infused bush-lemon, olive oil and Balsamic dressing. Yummo!
This now-long-ago-digested entree has been frozen in time, mid-bite, for your perpetual close perusal.
After lunch, Brent showed us his Digeridoo collection. It wasn't long before we succumbed to the 'musician within', and we broke into a spontaneous chanting jam-session, rocking to an earthy, primordial rendition of the maha-mantra,"Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare".
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Sol and I bid farewell to our gracious hosts and headed down to Tweed Heads for the last-lap of my Northern culinary adventures.
Posted by Kurma on 5/6/05; 6:02:19 AM
from the Travel dept.
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Sunday, June 5, 2005
