A Plane Day Out: Minchinbury

We return to the wide spaces of Western Sydney for some good old fashioned suburban exploration.

Minchinbury

Minchinbury is a Western Sydney suburb, sitting just south of the Hill of Rooty. Mrs Completing Sydney had planned to have breakfast with her sister here, and being that this was an uncompleted suburb, I invited myself along. 

The breakfast spot is at a former winery tucked into an otherwise completely average suburban street.

The restaurant itself goes by the name The Birdhouse, 

and is actually quite pretty. 

Naturally, breakfast-adjacent liquids were consumed, including coffee,

and this (actually not very nice) berry smoothie. 

We did also have solids too, from toasted bread with ricotta, honey and rosewater, 

to some silly french toast, 

and brisket on duck-fat potatoes. I ordered this one. I'm not sure why I and the menu considered this to be a good breakfast meal, as it was ridiculously heavy, albeit quite tasty. 

All in all, we found our breakfast experience here to be only just okay. 

But I guess (speaking as a cranky and untrendy fellow) brunch is never about the food being any good is it. It's all about being photogenic. As such, the grounds here are quite nice, being a former winery and all. 

For instance, they have this sign,

this dome, 

and this interesting old building. 

The remainder of the grounds now have townhouses on them, so there are no Minchinbury vines today,

well, other than a token few. 

Needing a walk to assist with digestion, I dragged everybody along to walk all over the suburb next. 

Where we were treated to the contemporary sights of suburban Minchinbury.

You know, the usual stuff. Brick houses, green lawns,

this dog.

We strolled on through the residential streets, 

coming across the best front yard ever, 

with fluffy grass and a cactus fence,

before we continued through the back of a cul-de-sac,

to a bit of creek-reserved greenspace, 

which we followed up to the semi-main road. 

This is where you can find the entirely unnotable local shopping centre, 

and if you continue your walk up,

you may also find this rectangle of sports related grass called Minchinbury Reserve. 

That wasn't public space I was leading us to today though, 

instead heading to this little garden off of the Great Western Highway,

with a plane statue as its centrepiece.

Neat. 

Sadly, around here is also where we come to learn that nugget is missing. Poor nugget. 

Anyway, from here we took a different path in order to return to where we started. 

This path back really is a who's-who of iconic scenes - floodable reserves, 

and the famous Blacktown Council numbered footpaths, 

undetered by the unfortunate attempts to conceal the numbers, perhaps by a rival council. 

Anyway, this path leads back into residential Minchinbury, 

where we find more comfortable suburbia, 

as well as this delightfully whacky balcony, 

this whacky-roofed house,

and it's whacky next door neighbour. Good stuff. 

The only other highlight on the walk back was this trapezium of grass whose edge has been trimmed to within an inch of its life.

Anyway, after returning back to the cafe where the car was parked, we travelled to the final Minchinbury point of semi-interest for today, this fruit shop. 

It's huge and very excellent. 

And after eating such a heavy meal, I was excited to purchase this new type of capsicum I'd never seen before in order to nibble on when we got home. 

It turned out to be light and tasty - tasting half way between a green and red capisum. 

Other highlights in this market include being able to purchase Aeroplane Jelly out of an aeroplane, 

and the interesting range of foreign foods,

such as fancy European mayonnaise and mustard. 

And with that, we called it a day for Minchinbury. 

Minchinbury: One for the aviation enthusiasts. 

And for some bonus content for those who made it this far, here's my reflection holding a newly aquired capsicum while taking a photo of a car that had a sticker with a smiley face on it's side window.