A birthday lunch

On Monday there was a lunch in celebration of the birthday of Anne's sister Merle. I won't be so ungallant as to say WHICH birthday.

Suffice it to say that the three sisters, Anne, Merle and June had one of their relatively rare times together, which they all appreciated.

We met for lunch at a restaurant at Manly called the Cuttlefish. It had a very promising menu but the promise was poorly realized. The food was very mediocre. Anne described her Paella as "not unpleasant" and my "Barramundi" was tasteless. Even the salt-shaker did not work -- which led to my doing a somewhat messy dissection of it!

I was amused to see on their menu that they had a "Greek plate" that included neither Haloumi, Tarama nor Souvlakia -- Let alone Keftedes! They left out most of the essentials of a Greek meal, in other words. And their Paella was as about as authentic as their Greek plate!

Maybe they should have called their Greek plate a Mediterranean plate -- but then one would have expected Tabouli, Hummus, Falafel etc. -- which did not seem to be in evidence. I am not even sure that they had Feta! But they did have Dolmades!

But each lady brought along the man in her life so it was a fun party for 6. Colin and Ralph are smart men.

I shouted (in the Australian sense).