illawong food room @ evans head, new south wales

My brother opened the Illawong Food Room in Evans Head in Northern New South Wales, Australia, a few weeks ago.

NSW speed derestriction signLast weekend we left Brisbane to visit Evans Head and to sample the Food Room menu.The drive is about three hours long and particually pleasant around Newrybar. You can bypass Ballina via Tevan with the added advantage of a speed derestriction sign.


The Illawong Food Room is described as a ‘European style bistro’ and the menu features a variety of dishes including thin pizzas. There is a heavy focus on fresh, local seafood. They have fresh seafood on blackboard specials (depending on what is caught) so we had fresh local mackerel served with steamed vegetables, mashed potato and a lemon butter sauce. The mackeral was filleted and was very white, light, and very tasty. We also had a ‘local prawn + garlic’ pizza which was thin, crisp and had just enough topping for my liking. Illawong Food Room

The dessert menu is impressive too. The home made Portuguese custard tarts were incredible. They have a reasonably hard shell but the custard inside is delicious. They were served with King Island double cream and vanilla bean ice cream. Yum.

We’ll definitely need to make our Evans Head visits more frequent now that we have the Illawong Food Room menu to get through.

latest home design – gallery edition

The WordPress.com dashboard has been redesigned and lots of new features have been added. I thought I would give the new gallery feature a try with some scrapbook clippings I have been meaning to add.

desperately needing instructions for life

I’ve had a tough few days at work dealing with a co-worker who I find both condescending and arrogant. My boss recommended reading some Dalai Lama and it prompted me to revisit a blog post that I read late last year. On that action I found their latest post; five reasons to quit your job today, which didn’t encourage me deal with the current situation one bit.

The Dalai Lama’s Instructions for Life (link)

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.

2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

3. Follow the three Rs:

Respect for self
Respect for others and
Responsibility for all your actions

4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.

5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.

6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.

7. When you realise you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.

8. Spend some time alone every day.

9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.

10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.

12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.

13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.

14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.

15. Be gentle with the earth.

16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.

17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

culture jamming in queen street mall today

I was impressed by the culture jamming happening in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall today. Over two hundred people froze in position for five minutes when the clock tower struck 1 pm. My favourite moment was seeing an elderly spectator walk up and literally freeze in astonishment; momentarily becoming a participant.

Update: The official video has been posted. Watch it below.