Well, the first time a suburb gets repeated here. I had an opportunity to have a night out recently at the nearby Everglades Country Club (a five minute walk from my front door), starting it with a meal and a drink. I had previously wondered what watery site I was going to include with this, but the answer was quite simple in the end – the actual Everglades Public Reserve, which contains a large swampy area and is home to several species of birds, various small reptiles and amphibians, and mammals, such as seasonal fruit bats.
The second was an opportunistic selection. I was returning to Woy Woy from a few nights with mates at Ourimbah (the highlight being the most recent Matildas' match against Chinese Taipei), and decided at some point that I felt like a burger for lunch (seeing I hadn't had breakfast yet) rather than chicken pad thai, and opted to go to Batty's Better Batter, a takeaway cafe on Blackwall Road, the main street of the well-known suburb. On that occasion, it would be the monthly meeting of the mental health support group that I'm a part of, which regularly meets at the Woy Woy waterfront during the spring and summer months.
First, the Everglades. The club is located on Dunban Road and neighbours Rogers Park, which has sporting fields for league and AFL during the winter months and cricket during summer. The club itself also has a bowling green and a golf course. The boundary borders the public reserve and I occasionally find golf balls from poor shots in and around the laneway where my unit is located. One of the first things I did when I moved here was to take up a three-year social membership. I still go to the Leagues Club in Gosford more, because of the football, but I find the local quite convenient if I feel like a meal and a drink, and/or to take visitors. It's a cosy little place, with friendly staff and multiple areas to dine within the venue.
On October 28, I was there for a show. Australian band Dog Trumpet, lead by two former members of the Aria Hall of Fame band Mental As Anything, my favourite Australian band and one that I managed to see live three times in Tamworth and do the door for one of their shows whilst working at a local club. So I arrived around 5.30pm, had a delicious chicken schnitzel dinner, served with chips and a small salad which was all washed down with some Canadian Club on tap. Since I started doing these reviews, I haven't really had a bad schnitzel at all. This one was quite juicy and sticking with a top five is becoming quite hard. The show started around 8pm and finished around 11pm. All-in-all it was a good night out.
So, less than a week later I found myself once again in Woy Woy, having purchased a schnitzel burger with salad. (The 'salad' was lettuce, beetroot, carrot and tomato. Naturally, being a finicky eater, there were items in it that I had to discard. However, seeing they have plenty of variation on the menu I won't make the same mistake twice.) With a small chips and a bottle of water, the cost was $14.50. It was a short walk to the waterfront, past the Thai restaurant that I like, where for once I beat the rest of the group.
The burger was large and delicious, which I barely managed to finish. The chips were presented in a small open cardboard tray and I just couldn't quite complete eating them. I felt quite stuffed, but satisfied that I had received my money's worth. I should add, though it wasn't as good as the burger that I had at Pearl Beach earlier in the year, it was quite adequate for what I wanted at the time.
Links correct at time of posting.
Pictures taken by Geoff G Turner (c) 2023.
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