Tuesday in Townsville or Chinese with a Downpour

It was all Marty’s fault.  He went and declared the wet season over on a recent afternoon walk.  I knew then and there that we were in for more rain.

On Saturday 12th April with Cyclone Ita situated somewhere up near Cairns we went to dinner at the Capitol Regent Chinese restaurant in the City.  I had been craving Chinese food and although I knew the food would not be as authentic as in Chinatown in Sydney or Melbourne, the craving had to be met.

When we hanker after Chinese Food we usually head to the Capitol Regent at Aitkenvale which is way closer to us than the City restaurant.  But that Saturday I wanted to see if the City was different to the Aitkenvale venue.

I thought the atmosphere was definitely better in the City and the food was delivered pronto.  I was a little worried when the waitress did not write our combined food and drinks order down, but it arrived exactly as ordered.  We had the Seafood and Vegetable deluxe, the seafood being a mix of prawns, cuttlefish, fish and scallops.  The veges were cooked to perfection and the dish did not disappoint.  The spicy steak dish was recommended by a friend and it consisted of thin steak pieces in a light crispy coating with sticky spicy sauce.  BBQ’d strips of onion and capsicum were scattered over the dish that lived up to it’s name.  The Spicy steak complimented the more subtle tones of the seafood and vegetable dish perfectly.

We were chatting happily about our excellent choices as we exited the restaurant only to discover that it was bucketing down rain.

We walked undercover most of the way from Flinders Street east to the back street enjoying the cool that came along with the rain.  I chickened out at the thought of leaving the cover behind and Marty gallantly left me undercover while he sprinted to collect the car.

We awoke to gale force winds and Cyclone Ita at 6.30 a.m. Sunday.   The winds weren’t too bad and we got a nice lot of rain to fill the dam.   The icing on the cake was that Marty’s woeful weather forecasting reputation is still intact. 🙂