K is for Kambah

Aha! You were expecting Kingston, weren't you?

OK, I suppose not. I've been very obvious with clues back in November and December with my mentions of Meatways. Kambah it is, then. Down south, Kambah Village is at the corner where Tuggeranong Parkway changes its name to Drakeford Drive. The cross street is called Boddington Crescent to the west, Marconi crescent to the east. You can see it easily: look for the big sign and the metal sheep.

So, anyway, out at Kambah you will find Brew Your Own. Despite their minimal dead website, promising updates in 2005, this is a brilliant shop for the home brewer, wine maker or concocter of spirits. I am half appalled and half enthralled by the options of whisky essence, woodchips for infusing in your pseudo-bourbon and such devices. The bloke sticks to the grains, malts, yeasts, hops and such. The owner, Colin Marshall is deeply knowledgeable about beer. Discounts are available to members of the Canberra Brewers' Club. Brew Your Own is round the back of Kambah - go through the path beyond Woollies and turn left, or drive round. There's parking in front.

While the Bloke goes for the beer, I go for Meatways. This brilliant butcher is my main reason for visiting Kambah. If The Bloke is going to the brew shop on a Saturday, I'll tag along. Meatways has prize winning gourmet sausages of all kinds of flavours. The ones in the picture are pork with parsley, fetta and pine-nut. There's usually half a dozen flavours in stock, but the specifics vary weekly. The bacon is house-smoked, and it's very good. The owner, Cameron Fenson, also does smoked chicken, salmon and kabana sausage. There are several "value-added" meats - we had a Greek-style marinaded leg of lamb a while back, and it was very good. I'm often suspicious of pre-marinaded meats, and I never buy supermarket ones. But at Meatways it's good. Lemon, garlic, herbs, no mysterious flavour additives. They are open 7am-6pm Tues-Fri, 7am-1pm Sat; closed Sunday and Monday.

The Kambah Village complex has a Woollies supermarket, and it's a very big one. It's surrounded by clubs and pubs - the Burns Club, the Kambah Inn motel and bar, and the Vienna Restaurant. There's also a few restaurants, and a bakery in the actual complex. The bakery is an independent business, awkwardly named "Bakeshoppe". I bought a fancy "megagrain" loaf and some scotch baps from them, and they were pretty good. It's a standard bakery, rather than gourmet or artisan or patisserie, but it seems pretty good for its genre. It's bright and clean; the pies were selling well, and the finger buns and vanilla slices looked appealling.

I haven't tried any of the restaurants, and have heard no rumours, either. There is a fast-food style Indian, with the big bains-marie. Spring Garden Chinese looks like the usual local Oz-Cantonese generic place; the Village Cafe looks like a standard old-fashioned milkbar/take away with pizza. The Vienna is Austrian, a schnitzel and strudel place with lace curtains. And I don't know what the Burns Club offers. Maybe Sri Lankan haggis curry? Seriously, their website says that their "Banana Leaf Brasserie" serves Sri Lankan, British, Scottish, Portuguese, Italian and Australian Cuisine.