Coo is a little Japanese restaurant on East Row, up the London Circuit end. It's run by the same people as Iori, and they seem to have maintained their tradition of hiring sweet, friendly but vaguely confused Japanese students as staff. They also share a website - here is Coo's section.
The routine here at lunchtime is that you rock up to the front counter, order and pay. The menu is posted all over the wall, and there's a lot more to choose than is shown on their website's lunch menu. You can have your lunch to take away, or eat in with no price difference. If you choose to eat in, you then go through the curtain, clutching a card with your table number, and also any bits of your lunch that have come out of the cold storage at the front. Behind the curtain there's a lot of small tables, a licensed bar with sake and Japanese beer and some odd fruity slushy mocktails. There's also more menu items on the wall, and a TV playing bizarre Japanese shows - while we were there it was Tokyo shock boys, pretty autumn travelogues, and sumo wrestling.
The sushi and sashimi plate ($8.50) is the normal variety you'd get from many a takeaway place. Tuna, salmon, some white fish, a couple of cucumber rolls, a cooked prawn, a piece of California roll. It was all good, and to my surprise a small cup of light green tea and a styrofoam cup of white miso soup turned up to accompany it. My friend had a white pork noodle soup - there are many to choose from, with ramen, udon or soba and a bewildering variety of stocks and accompaniments. To add to the difficulty of choice, you can have combos - a half serve of soup and something else like a tonkatsu, tempura, or sushi selection. Large bento boxes, whether eat in or take away, run at about $12.
The food is very good, and the lunchtime service very quick. We will definitely be back for more. I'm pleased about this, as I love Japanese food. Last year, when they had recently opened, we had a bad evening with ridiculously slow service. We tried to grab a quick bite of sushi before a show, but nothing arrived for 45 minutes! I can now hope that this was just teething pains - this lunch experience bodes very well.
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reviews. Show all posts
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
ONA Coffee
This has been popping up all over town recently, but the home site is in Belconnen, obscurely tucked into the Benjamin Offices, Aqua building level 3. It's open to the public and a walking ramp goes up there from the big carpark up the back. Ostensibly a normal Public Service lunch spot, this is actually something quite special. Great coffee! In Canberra!
They seem to have quite a big business going - apart from the cafe, there's roasting and distributing coffee complete with cafe fitout, and office lunch catering. The cafe has some flyers which are, sadly, very desperately in need of a good proof-read. Even their slogan "Pure Decadence" is spelt wrong. And who knew that a coffee company might need barristers? Their baristas have been winning awards, for espresso as well as for coffee art, but their barristers' achievements seem unsung. And don't get me started on the apostrophes and the cemicals and the ceaser salad.
Oh well, with coffee this good, what more do they need? Apparently, a curry chef! There's a curry of the day ($10) every weekday, and it's made in house from their own fresh ground spice blends. I had lunch there on Monday with infoaddict, who had a red beef curry - not a Thai red style, it was more rendang like. Thick, rich, spicy, with a nice chilli bite, it was terrific. I got her to pick me up a takeaway on Tuesday, which turned out to be a green Thai veggie curry - again rich, thick, and with enough chilli to bite back. Perfect to reheat for an instant dinner. Yum.
Monday, 8 February 2010
Internet blackout week is over
...and I'm going to pretend that's why I didn't post last week. Not that I was too busy playing games, or drinking too many martinis, or going to work, or too busy doing Canberra Times stuff or anything. Not at all. Lalalala internet blackout week.Last week's food highlight was that I finally managed to visit Ellacure. For a couple of years it's been a favourite of several people I know, and yet I never got there. But now it's just round the corner from me. I had lunch there with infoaddict last week, and this pic is my amazing green veggie risotto with pesto and spinach and asparagus ($18). It was very delicious, as long as you enjoy a light style - not so creamy and cheesy as risottos often are. But lots of good strongly flavoured bits and pieces.
Infoaddict had the open chicken BLT ($16), which came with some rather nice chips and a mustard aioli. We had coffees ($3.50), and they are also pretty good, especially by Canberra standards. It's not the cheapest place, but it's a nice spot, with quite a long winelist and a smart casual look. There are bigger meals up around $30, and fancy desserts around $14 - fine dining prices!
The Canberra Times last year mentioned it as being a spot to check out the AIS students. It is near the AIS, on Braybrooke & Battye Sts, Bruce. But I think the AIS crowd must be there on weekends, when they have a breakfast menu. On a Wednesday lunchtime, it was rather full of middle aged public servants, mostly female. Sadly no young lycra clad extra-fit chaps on show.
The service was good - quick enough for a work lunch, and when I didn't like my Virgin Mary they remade it for me without any fuss. Seriously, does this look like tomato juice to you? It's their house style, the waiter said - so the bartender must just absolutely LOVE Worcestershire sauce. I've never seen such a brown one before. Anyway, it was nice and I'll cheerfully go back for a moderately special lunch, like a birthday or something. Pizza, pasta and risottos all come in around $15-20. And the breakfasts seem quite appealling, though not overly different to the usual cafe. Free range eggs, bacon, haloumi, chorizo, banana bread, french toast, that sort of thing.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Revisiting
There's a few places that I've avoided for some time, not liking either their food or their attitude. But I revisited a couple of them last week, and was pleased to find improvements.
Carlo's at Watson is one of them. I had a very pleasant pre-rehearsal brunch there with B1, and enjoyed a mango & passionfruit frappe ($5) and a "half" breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and tomato. The food arrived in good time. The radio in the kitchen wasn't set to deafening levels, and there wasn't even a powerful smell of cooking oil! Even more miraculous, the waitress was polite and helpful, and she even went and organised an off-menu side order for B1. Incredible!
I shall put Carlo's back on my list of possibles. OK, the breakfast was a tiny bit overdone - the scrambled eggs were a bit watery - but I like my bacon crisp and my tomatoes well done, so no great harm. Carlo's has usually had pretty good food - I like the buckwheat pancakes particularly - but in the past I've had such terrible service that I haven't gone back in 5 years. This was such a huge improvement on my previous experiences there, I'm quite delighted. They still won't split bills, though.
The other place I revisited was Taj Agra in Dickson. In their case, the service was never a problem, it was the food. I had a couple of very oily and bland curries,from them shortly after they opened. One also had very gristly meat. I was completely put off, and even a second try didn't improve it, so I crossed them off my list.
But last week the Bloke and I decided to give them another go for a quick post-rehearsal dinner, and they are now back on. We ordered a beef saag and an aloo cholay, with naan and raita, and it was very nice indeed. We asked for medium heat, and that was pleasant for us, but also the cholay (chickpeas) were interestingly spiced under the heat. The beef was lean and tender, if a little bit dry, and its spinach puree sauce was tasty. Neither sauce was at all greasy. I still think that Bollywood is nicer - a bit classier presentation, a bit better cooking. But they are also a bit more expensive, and often full.
Carlo's at Watson is one of them. I had a very pleasant pre-rehearsal brunch there with B1, and enjoyed a mango & passionfruit frappe ($5) and a "half" breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and tomato. The food arrived in good time. The radio in the kitchen wasn't set to deafening levels, and there wasn't even a powerful smell of cooking oil! Even more miraculous, the waitress was polite and helpful, and she even went and organised an off-menu side order for B1. Incredible!
I shall put Carlo's back on my list of possibles. OK, the breakfast was a tiny bit overdone - the scrambled eggs were a bit watery - but I like my bacon crisp and my tomatoes well done, so no great harm. Carlo's has usually had pretty good food - I like the buckwheat pancakes particularly - but in the past I've had such terrible service that I haven't gone back in 5 years. This was such a huge improvement on my previous experiences there, I'm quite delighted. They still won't split bills, though.
The other place I revisited was Taj Agra in Dickson. In their case, the service was never a problem, it was the food. I had a couple of very oily and bland curries,from them shortly after they opened. One also had very gristly meat. I was completely put off, and even a second try didn't improve it, so I crossed them off my list.
But last week the Bloke and I decided to give them another go for a quick post-rehearsal dinner, and they are now back on. We ordered a beef saag and an aloo cholay, with naan and raita, and it was very nice indeed. We asked for medium heat, and that was pleasant for us, but also the cholay (chickpeas) were interestingly spiced under the heat. The beef was lean and tender, if a little bit dry, and its spinach puree sauce was tasty. Neither sauce was at all greasy. I still think that Bollywood is nicer - a bit classier presentation, a bit better cooking. But they are also a bit more expensive, and often full.
Friday, 8 January 2010
Back again
We've finished the first week back at work, and tonight we're celebrating with a G&T or two, a scratch dinner of leftovers, and Children of Earth just finished on the telly. An early night with a book to follow - the bloke has a Mike Carey and I have a Robert Harris. And a sleep-in tomorrow. It's been a hard Xmas, and parts of it were rather horrible, so I'm pretty glad it's over. Even if that does mean going back to work.
The week in cooking has been quite minimal - a curry from the freezer, a bolognese spaghetti sauce from the freezer, hot dogs with coleslaw, and a quick bite at Tien, a Vietnamese place in Dickson that opened late last year. The curry was very nice - I'll put more about that up for my next post.
Tien was rather good, too. I had the pancake stuffed with prawns and minced pork (about $14). Tasty food, the pancake is more eggy than a western style pancake, almost an omelet. It came with lots of fresh salad including some Vietnamese herbs that I don't know the names of. The Bloke had a chilli basil chicken stirfry - very fresh and light, with lots of crisp onion and carrot. We'll be going back there, for sure. In fact I have a cunning plan involving their steamboat...
I haven't managed to get myself moving very fast in the mornings yet, and I've been eating breakfast at my desk around 10am. Bring in some fruit and a peanut butter sandwich, and I'm set. Or failing sandwich making time, eat a muesli bar from the stash at work. But I exhausted that stash on Thursday, and I tried to restock at As Nature Intended at the Belco market.
I was out there having lunch with infoaddict at Beppe's - a favourite cafe of mine, they serve one of the best coffees in town. It's a drive rather than a walk for lunch, but Momo and Plunge are both closed this week. I picked up some good fruit from Wiffens, but the muesli bar shopping did not go well. The range at As Nature Intended is very small, probably because it's all organic. I bought one box from each brand, the Norganics blueberry and the Aribar raspberry.
Norganics is available widely in supermarkets, and I find them tolerable. A bit too sweet for me, but still it has chewy oats, dried blueberries and an appley tang, and it's made in Australia. I give it a credit grade. The Aribar, on the other hand... utter fail. The ingredients of wholegrain brown rice and raspberries sound fine. But I really should have checked more carefully. In the fine print, all is revealed. Norganics: 16.1g sugars/100g. Aribar: 32.8g/100g. Yes, it's unbearably sweet, and on top of that, it's made in Canada. Shipping right across the world, what a waste! Not that I'm a total local food purist; I am happy to buy imports of true specialties like real maple syrup. But there was no point to this import at all. I could easily have made a batch of chocolate crackles at home, to very much the same effect. And no, I wouldn't want them for breakfast, either.
The week in cooking has been quite minimal - a curry from the freezer, a bolognese spaghetti sauce from the freezer, hot dogs with coleslaw, and a quick bite at Tien, a Vietnamese place in Dickson that opened late last year. The curry was very nice - I'll put more about that up for my next post.
Tien was rather good, too. I had the pancake stuffed with prawns and minced pork (about $14). Tasty food, the pancake is more eggy than a western style pancake, almost an omelet. It came with lots of fresh salad including some Vietnamese herbs that I don't know the names of. The Bloke had a chilli basil chicken stirfry - very fresh and light, with lots of crisp onion and carrot. We'll be going back there, for sure. In fact I have a cunning plan involving their steamboat...
I haven't managed to get myself moving very fast in the mornings yet, and I've been eating breakfast at my desk around 10am. Bring in some fruit and a peanut butter sandwich, and I'm set. Or failing sandwich making time, eat a muesli bar from the stash at work. But I exhausted that stash on Thursday, and I tried to restock at As Nature Intended at the Belco market.
I was out there having lunch with infoaddict at Beppe's - a favourite cafe of mine, they serve one of the best coffees in town. It's a drive rather than a walk for lunch, but Momo and Plunge are both closed this week. I picked up some good fruit from Wiffens, but the muesli bar shopping did not go well. The range at As Nature Intended is very small, probably because it's all organic. I bought one box from each brand, the Norganics blueberry and the Aribar raspberry.
Norganics is available widely in supermarkets, and I find them tolerable. A bit too sweet for me, but still it has chewy oats, dried blueberries and an appley tang, and it's made in Australia. I give it a credit grade. The Aribar, on the other hand... utter fail. The ingredients of wholegrain brown rice and raspberries sound fine. But I really should have checked more carefully. In the fine print, all is revealed. Norganics: 16.1g sugars/100g. Aribar: 32.8g/100g. Yes, it's unbearably sweet, and on top of that, it's made in Canada. Shipping right across the world, what a waste! Not that I'm a total local food purist; I am happy to buy imports of true specialties like real maple syrup. But there was no point to this import at all. I could easily have made a batch of chocolate crackles at home, to very much the same effect. And no, I wouldn't want them for breakfast, either.
Saturday, 12 December 2009
A New Start, A New Cafe
The first week back in full time work, after all this time off, has been a bit of a shock to the system. I'm lucky in that I have flextime, and my supervisor is quite happy if I start work at 9.30am. Also, I never got into terrible late night habits during my time off - a lot of the time builders were arriving at 7am. But I'm out of the habits of planning meals and doing some dinner prep in the morning.So last week we had simple dinners. One leftover curry; one mixed grill with steak, sausages and oven chips; one quicky pasta with a pre-made tomato sauce and some cauliflower, capsicum and sausage pieces chucked in; one pide from the Dickson TurkOz - the best pide in town, IMO!
And I bought lunch three times, all from Cafe Momo. This little cafe is right next to my new job, less than five minutes walk away. It caters to a range of tastes, with a hot box of chips and pies and such; a sandwich bar; and a sit down cafe with some full meals and a short wine & beer list. There's inside tables, a pleasant little deck out the back, and a small room that can be closed for a private group of maybe a dozen. There are some pictures on their website; I snaffled one showing the approach that I take, walking in from the back. Pretty!
The prices are very reasonable compared to town. Once I had a chicken and avocado salad sandwich ($5.50 I think) which was nicely fresh and well filled. Another day I took in some fruit, and supplemented it with a pepper steak pie ($4). It was a good pie, made in house, with big chunks of lean meat and a lovely golden pastry top. The pastry bottom was a bit soggy, though.
And I had a sit down lunch with my friend F, who works across the road. She had a Thai beef salad ($16), and an iced chocolate heaped high with cream. I had zucchini fritters ($14.50), which you can have with smoked salmon or roast capsicum. I chose salmon this time, and the serve was generous. The fritters are those standard blobby shaped ones, Turkish restaurant style, drizzled with yoghurt and served with mixed leaves. They were cooked well - no soggy insides. F's salad looked good, too: plenty of beef and beansprouts, and made a bit substantial with noodles. I'll try that one sometime soon.
I also bought a muffin one day when I missed breakfast. That was due to chasing down our wandering sick cat, and then making him take pills and coaxing him to eat. But I wasn't rapt with it - too cakey for my taste. I don't like muffins to be too much like cupcakes, I prefer less sugar and a more solid style, given some guts with bran or wholemeal flour. Cake for breakfast is just wrong. Next time that happens, I'll just get a vegemite sandwich on wholegrain.
I'm pretty pleased with Cafe Momo, despite its minor flaws, and I'll certainly be a regular there. The coffee is decent, too. It's not the greatest, but it's not too bad. A little on the weak side, it's overly light and sweet in flavour. But hey, at least it's not burned or cold or obviously stale. Canberra is not strong on great coffee, unfortunately. I count myself lucky to find a drinkable one out here in Bruce.
Cafe Momo is at 14 Thynne Street, Fern Hill Park, Bruce. They are open Mon-Fri 7.30am to 4.30pm, and Sat 8am-2pm.
Friday, 25 September 2009
Rocksalt and freekeh
B1 has been sick for some time, but she's finally out of bed. To celebrate her recovery we had lunch at Rocksalt in the Hawker shops. It was terrifically good, and I'd recommend it highly. It's modern Australian fine dining, with a relaxed casual edge.
Actually, we've liked this place for a long time, and I've been a little puzzled by the occasional bad reviews online. Perhaps the service was erratic in the past, and we were always lucky. If you had a bad time before, do try it again - the management is new this year. Co-owner and maitre d' Geoff is a charming character. We chatted with him quite a bit yesterday - the lunch trade was very light, so he had time.
We started with light meals, to save room for dessert. B1 had a beetroot and kipfler potato salad ($18), B2 went for the crispy tofu with green salad. (Both $18 in small sizes, mains for $28 I think, I didn't record it.) I had a goat ragout with housemade gnocchi, last chance before the spring menu changes come in. I'm quite attracted to wintry food at the moment. I've been making baked puddings, for instance. It must be that "last chance for the year" effect.
We all enjoyed our mains very much. They were well-balanced and interestingly complex without fussiness. I had a lovely Tasmanian pinot noir with mine, and B1 and B2 split a glass of Innocent Bystander pink moscato - and yes, Geoff was happy to split a one glass serve into two glasses. He's quite the wine buff, and an enthusiast for the Canberra region wines. When we had dessert, he gave us a sample of a local sticky - and again I neglected to record what it was. Maybe the Lerida Estate Botrytis Pinot Gris? He's trying to find the best match for B2's dessert - a divine pannacotta with banana walnut bread and caramel sauce - and was keen to get our feedback.
It was a good match, and I thought it went pretty well with my hazelnut creme brulee, too. I was impressed with that - I love a good creme brulee, but I find that fancy flavoured ones can often be overdone. This was beautiful - a rich custard with a good clear unfussy hazelnut flavour. A sprinkle of hazelnut praline on side, and a house-made frangelico icecream were excellent complements.
While you may not get quite the same level of personal service when the place is busier, I'm sure it will be good with Geoff at the helm. And they make a very good coffee, too. Ah, coffee - there's one advantage to going out to lunch. I can't drink coffee at night, so I always miss it when I review. And the final note, a little melting moment petit four was delightfully melting and lemony.
Our gud wimminz day out to celebrate the rising of the near-dead continued after lunch, with a spot of shopping. We went to Jammo, where B1 bought some new skirts at Cassidy's and B2 picked up a few cheap plants from Aldi. And we toured a new food shop. Fresh Mart offers middle eastern foods, including fresh baked goods. The young man at the counter was the baker, and he gave us a sample cookie. I was a bit full to appreciate it properly, but it was light and lovely.
The grocery range includes the fresh baked middle eastern pastries and biscuits, and several breads - Afghan, Turkish, Lebanese. There's a hot box of roasted nuts and seeds, and interesting cheeses in the fridge. Plenty of pulses, both bagged and tinned, and syrups of rose, date, tamarind and more. It's not quite the Aladdin's cave that you get in Mawson at Cedars of Lebanon, but it's definitely worth a visit if you're a northsider.
I resisted the temptation of the baklava and almond shortbread and bought some novelties. A Lebanese honey of orange blossom and spring flowers from Jabal el Sheikh, and a box of freekeh from Jordan.
Freekeh? Wut? Well, I have seen this mentioned on the internet and SBS, but I have not until now seen it in real life. It's roasted green wheat, and can be used as a side dish like rice or couscous. The instructions on the box are in beautiful Engrish. The idea is that you wash it, pan-fry in butter for a few minutes, then add twice its volume in stock and cook on "calm fire" for half an hour. Then "serve the FREEK in rather big plate putting the meat or chicken on the top.Then throw roated almond or pine on the surface." Nom? We will see, sometime soonish.
Actually, we've liked this place for a long time, and I've been a little puzzled by the occasional bad reviews online. Perhaps the service was erratic in the past, and we were always lucky. If you had a bad time before, do try it again - the management is new this year. Co-owner and maitre d' Geoff is a charming character. We chatted with him quite a bit yesterday - the lunch trade was very light, so he had time.
We started with light meals, to save room for dessert. B1 had a beetroot and kipfler potato salad ($18), B2 went for the crispy tofu with green salad. (Both $18 in small sizes, mains for $28 I think, I didn't record it.) I had a goat ragout with housemade gnocchi, last chance before the spring menu changes come in. I'm quite attracted to wintry food at the moment. I've been making baked puddings, for instance. It must be that "last chance for the year" effect.
We all enjoyed our mains very much. They were well-balanced and interestingly complex without fussiness. I had a lovely Tasmanian pinot noir with mine, and B1 and B2 split a glass of Innocent Bystander pink moscato - and yes, Geoff was happy to split a one glass serve into two glasses. He's quite the wine buff, and an enthusiast for the Canberra region wines. When we had dessert, he gave us a sample of a local sticky - and again I neglected to record what it was. Maybe the Lerida Estate Botrytis Pinot Gris? He's trying to find the best match for B2's dessert - a divine pannacotta with banana walnut bread and caramel sauce - and was keen to get our feedback.
It was a good match, and I thought it went pretty well with my hazelnut creme brulee, too. I was impressed with that - I love a good creme brulee, but I find that fancy flavoured ones can often be overdone. This was beautiful - a rich custard with a good clear unfussy hazelnut flavour. A sprinkle of hazelnut praline on side, and a house-made frangelico icecream were excellent complements.
While you may not get quite the same level of personal service when the place is busier, I'm sure it will be good with Geoff at the helm. And they make a very good coffee, too. Ah, coffee - there's one advantage to going out to lunch. I can't drink coffee at night, so I always miss it when I review. And the final note, a little melting moment petit four was delightfully melting and lemony.
Our gud wimminz day out to celebrate the rising of the near-dead continued after lunch, with a spot of shopping. We went to Jammo, where B1 bought some new skirts at Cassidy's and B2 picked up a few cheap plants from Aldi. And we toured a new food shop. Fresh Mart offers middle eastern foods, including fresh baked goods. The young man at the counter was the baker, and he gave us a sample cookie. I was a bit full to appreciate it properly, but it was light and lovely.
The grocery range includes the fresh baked middle eastern pastries and biscuits, and several breads - Afghan, Turkish, Lebanese. There's a hot box of roasted nuts and seeds, and interesting cheeses in the fridge. Plenty of pulses, both bagged and tinned, and syrups of rose, date, tamarind and more. It's not quite the Aladdin's cave that you get in Mawson at Cedars of Lebanon, but it's definitely worth a visit if you're a northsider.
I resisted the temptation of the baklava and almond shortbread and bought some novelties. A Lebanese honey of orange blossom and spring flowers from Jabal el Sheikh, and a box of freekeh from Jordan.
Freekeh? Wut? Well, I have seen this mentioned on the internet and SBS, but I have not until now seen it in real life. It's roasted green wheat, and can be used as a side dish like rice or couscous. The instructions on the box are in beautiful Engrish. The idea is that you wash it, pan-fry in butter for a few minutes, then add twice its volume in stock and cook on "calm fire" for half an hour. Then "serve the FREEK in rather big plate putting the meat or chicken on the top.Then throw roated almond or pine on the surface." Nom? We will see, sometime soonish.
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Market Report
The Handmade Upmarket, that is. And look - they had beer! So the bloke was happy. He and I have just got back, though with very little loot. Just another bit of food-themed bling from cardog, which I might designate as a birthday present if anyone gives me moneys, and some Crankypants pickled onions, and some Xmas cards. I almost bought some cute purple underwear, but the stallholder did not take cards and I was at the end of my cash.The market has moved to the Yarralumla Woolshed, and the food has increased hugely in variety. We got there a bit after 2pm, after running some errands in connection with the Bloke's new bike. (The old CBR1000 has now gone, after thirteen years of faithful service. The new one has yet to arrive.) As we approached the woolshed, there were cars parked out on the verges. It was huge! We were almost going to turn around and go home, until we spotted a lucky park.
We started with the food outside in the sunshine. The woodfired pizza place was closing up, but the Mountain Creek sausage inna bun folks were going strong. They were fabulous - a gourmet snag in a good substantial crusty white roll, with pumpkin and onion and relish and salad ($9). A Zierholz pils (middy $4) helped wash it down nicely. There was quite a queue at the Alchemy slushy place and the icecream by Ross, but I did get a little tub of Ross' rather good chocolate icecream ($4.50) a bit later, just before we left. Most flavours had sold out. No wattleseed, choc-chilli, black sesame or fig left.
Inside there was a Crankypants cafe - pie oven, hot food and so on, with tables and chairs - and again most was sold out. They had a stall for their jams and pickles and marmalades. I am resisting buying chutneys and pickles and sauces, as I have far too many that need using up, but some pickled onions seemed like a good idea. They're using plastic jars now, which seems a little odd but I suppose must be lighter to carry around. I see they've also just started a website, which is as yet not much use.
And there were local wineries, and coffee carts and cupcakes and chocolates and many more good things. Not to mention all the gorgeous scarves and jewelry and photography and pottery and clothes and handbags. I am so pleased that this market has taken off as it has. It's such a great thing to be able to support local craftspeople as well as the local growers. If you missed this one, don't worry - there's one more coming before Xmas. There will be a twilight market on Friday 20 November 6-9, and the main market Saturday 21 November 10-4pm.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Well, that was annoying
On Monday I went off to Mitchell to look for river pebbles for the garden, and wardrobe makers' showrooms to fix up our awful hall cupboards. I checked the yellow pages and made a list, but had very little success. One place had no pebbles, another didn't do retail at that site, two of the showrooms were closed... I finally went off to Stonehenge in Pialligo to look for pebbles and found that they also had none. And then I went to Braddon to get a leaking tire fixed - and found out that it was unfixable, we needed a new one for that, plus two more were badly worn. Three tires, $500. Bummer.
So grump, grump, grump, I walked into town and treated myself to a nice lunch. I went to Cream, which I like very much on weekdays when it's not so packed and noisy. The dislike of crowding is my taste, not their problem: they manage very well on the packed and noisy days. I've had some pretty good brunches there - though I think their blintzes are too sweet - and the service has mostly been good despite the crowds.
It's a big open space, high ceilinged and retro-outfitted, with a central coffee and cake service area and a big kitchen up the back. They serve modern Australian cafe food - the usual eclectic mixture of dozens of cultures. Indonesian, Chinese, Italian, French, and English all rub shoulders on the menu.
I had the Barbecued Atlantic Salmon Salad ($19), which is a nicoise-inspired dish
with green beans, potato, egg and olives. The salmon was warm from the grill and cooked nicely moist, the potatoes were kipflers, and the olives were good ones generously ladled out. It was delicious. The coffee was also good - rich, and with just enough bitterness for character. A good brew.
I finished off with an Italian custard doughnut. That was good too - it's nice to have a doughnut with a good solid yeasty chew, instead of over-sweetened insipid fluff. I think the patisserie is bought in, not house made, but it's well chosen. A good lunch, a good book (Iain M Banks), a good coffee - that definitely made the day better.
Also, while I was faffing around Mitchell not finding things, I stopped into Jindebah coffee and stocked up, so even that wasn't a dead loss.
So grump, grump, grump, I walked into town and treated myself to a nice lunch. I went to Cream, which I like very much on weekdays when it's not so packed and noisy. The dislike of crowding is my taste, not their problem: they manage very well on the packed and noisy days. I've had some pretty good brunches there - though I think their blintzes are too sweet - and the service has mostly been good despite the crowds.
It's a big open space, high ceilinged and retro-outfitted, with a central coffee and cake service area and a big kitchen up the back. They serve modern Australian cafe food - the usual eclectic mixture of dozens of cultures. Indonesian, Chinese, Italian, French, and English all rub shoulders on the menu.
I had the Barbecued Atlantic Salmon Salad ($19), which is a nicoise-inspired dish
with green beans, potato, egg and olives. The salmon was warm from the grill and cooked nicely moist, the potatoes were kipflers, and the olives were good ones generously ladled out. It was delicious. The coffee was also good - rich, and with just enough bitterness for character. A good brew.
I finished off with an Italian custard doughnut. That was good too - it's nice to have a doughnut with a good solid yeasty chew, instead of over-sweetened insipid fluff. I think the patisserie is bought in, not house made, but it's well chosen. A good lunch, a good book (Iain M Banks), a good coffee - that definitely made the day better.
Also, while I was faffing around Mitchell not finding things, I stopped into Jindebah coffee and stocked up, so even that wasn't a dead loss.
Sunday, 14 June 2009
Stone Cooking
On Friday I had both lunch and dinner served with hot stone. The Bloke & I had errands in Civic and decided to lunch at a favourite place of mine: Godori. There is not much better for lunch on a cold day than a hot stone bowl of BiBimBab. You can warm your hands by it (don't touch!) and your lunch stays nice and hot all the way through your meal. A cup of lemon and ginger tea was also very welcome - their variety includes some honey-preserved lemon, kind of like marmalade. You get a little sweet nibble at the bottom of the cup.
Dinner was a friend's birthday do at Maddison's way down south in the Tuggeranong Vikings club. This is a big club restaurant, and a big club, too. The club seems like a pretty good thing for people down south: they have a lot of different sporting groups affiliated with them. it's not just football or bowls. We even bumped into another inner-northie friend who was there selling tickets for a bicycle club fundraising raffle.
So, Maddisons - it's big, it's the usual clubby thing. You have to be a member or a guest, but as with most clubs that's easy. There's a big batch of pokies to the left of the entry way, but you can ignore them in the main body. The club has a Zierholtz beer on tap. I'm told there's a nice view of the Brindabellas, but it was dark.
You line up cafeteria style to make your order, but they serve your meals to you at your table. There is a self-serve salad bar stocked with a decent array of fresh salads. The lettuce is iceberg and there's tinned beetroot, but there's also some more modern styled options. I tried some of the chickpea salad, celery salad, and a very good potato salad with skin-on new potatoes.
I had a prawn cocktail ($10.30), which was an off-menu special. A totally retro construction of prawns, iceberg and pink sauce, it was a good one. The prawns were large, fresh and sweet. I had their "hot stone" specialty for a main course. This is a gimmick: you get a hot rock with a slab of raw meat on it - in my case a thick sirloin. A tiny space at the side of the stone houses a small potato and a bowl of gluey cheap pepper sauce. The idea is that you cook the meal to your own satisfaction - and it works more or less. It was also quite handy for reheating the Bloke's cold chips. The main difficulty is that the non-stone space is very small, so getting your steak off when it's done enough is a little tricky.
They do steaks, chicken, kangaroo and seafood options in this hot rock style, as well as other more standard meals. My steak would have been $19.50, but we got a meal deal: for $30 you get a stone grill, coffee or tea and dessert, and a Hoyts movie ticket. You don't have to have the coffee & cake option at the same time as the main, though I did since I'm not planning on returning any time soon. This is not bad value at all. Now we have to pick a movie.
Dessert was a "Murray Mudcake". This was described to me as their gluten-free option - I'm not 100% sure that's true, not that it's relevant to me. It's a chocolate cake base with a chocolate mousse filling and chocolate ganache topping. Not the greatest by any means, it was too sweet and not chocolatey enough for me, and the mousse seemed rubbery with too much gelatine. I googled it and find that it was bought in from Albury-Wondonga, probably frozen. They didn't stock any herbal teas, but there was a jasmine green tea, so I had that. It was a Lipton's teabag in a cup of off-boiling water.
So, not a gourmet destination, but it was cheap and cheerful and easy for a large group including kids. We had a good time, and my steak was cooked just right :)
Oh, if you've been wondering what else I've been doing in the last week, the answer is not much. Continuing my slow recovery from the flu, I made up some simple basic meals: a spaghetti bolognese and a keema. I cheated a bit using pre-sliced mushrooms for the spag, and a curry powder for the keema.
Dinner was a friend's birthday do at Maddison's way down south in the Tuggeranong Vikings club. This is a big club restaurant, and a big club, too. The club seems like a pretty good thing for people down south: they have a lot of different sporting groups affiliated with them. it's not just football or bowls. We even bumped into another inner-northie friend who was there selling tickets for a bicycle club fundraising raffle.
So, Maddisons - it's big, it's the usual clubby thing. You have to be a member or a guest, but as with most clubs that's easy. There's a big batch of pokies to the left of the entry way, but you can ignore them in the main body. The club has a Zierholtz beer on tap. I'm told there's a nice view of the Brindabellas, but it was dark.
You line up cafeteria style to make your order, but they serve your meals to you at your table. There is a self-serve salad bar stocked with a decent array of fresh salads. The lettuce is iceberg and there's tinned beetroot, but there's also some more modern styled options. I tried some of the chickpea salad, celery salad, and a very good potato salad with skin-on new potatoes.
I had a prawn cocktail ($10.30), which was an off-menu special. A totally retro construction of prawns, iceberg and pink sauce, it was a good one. The prawns were large, fresh and sweet. I had their "hot stone" specialty for a main course. This is a gimmick: you get a hot rock with a slab of raw meat on it - in my case a thick sirloin. A tiny space at the side of the stone houses a small potato and a bowl of gluey cheap pepper sauce. The idea is that you cook the meal to your own satisfaction - and it works more or less. It was also quite handy for reheating the Bloke's cold chips. The main difficulty is that the non-stone space is very small, so getting your steak off when it's done enough is a little tricky.
They do steaks, chicken, kangaroo and seafood options in this hot rock style, as well as other more standard meals. My steak would have been $19.50, but we got a meal deal: for $30 you get a stone grill, coffee or tea and dessert, and a Hoyts movie ticket. You don't have to have the coffee & cake option at the same time as the main, though I did since I'm not planning on returning any time soon. This is not bad value at all. Now we have to pick a movie.
Dessert was a "Murray Mudcake". This was described to me as their gluten-free option - I'm not 100% sure that's true, not that it's relevant to me. It's a chocolate cake base with a chocolate mousse filling and chocolate ganache topping. Not the greatest by any means, it was too sweet and not chocolatey enough for me, and the mousse seemed rubbery with too much gelatine. I googled it and find that it was bought in from Albury-Wondonga, probably frozen. They didn't stock any herbal teas, but there was a jasmine green tea, so I had that. It was a Lipton's teabag in a cup of off-boiling water.
So, not a gourmet destination, but it was cheap and cheerful and easy for a large group including kids. We had a good time, and my steak was cooked just right :)
Oh, if you've been wondering what else I've been doing in the last week, the answer is not much. Continuing my slow recovery from the flu, I made up some simple basic meals: a spaghetti bolognese and a keema. I cheated a bit using pre-sliced mushrooms for the spag, and a curry powder for the keema.
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Melbourne Report
O hai. Mai naem is Perl and mai hoomanz let in sum straynj hoomins to stae at mai hows. Thay wented owt 4 sooshee and ated THIS MUTCH and did nawt brings me anny!1!! But thae patteds me lotz sew iz OK reely.Who said they wanted more cats on this blog? You're sorry now, aren't you? At least it's a nice photo despite, or rather because of, the crappy phone camera.
So anyway, the Bloke and I were in Melbourne recently, and of course ate and drank at many varied places. We stayed with A, J & C, the people illustrated by the pile of plates. They live in Coburg, which is an easy tram ride from the city centre, and a magical multicultural wonderland for food shopping. I noticed Greek, Lebanese, Turkish, Italian, Vietnamese and Indian places. J obviously loves it - he introduced me to George the Greek deli owner, and the lady in the Bollywood sari & bling shop, and pointed out all the best places for fresh roasted coffee, nuts, cakes, bread and much more.We also went out to eat a lot. Our first night we dined up at the Paris end of Collins St, dahling, near Bvlgari and Gucci and all that. We ate sushi from a sushi train - hence the collection of plates - and it was wonderful. The standouts for me were some seriously excellent sashimi, a tataki beef salad, and some cute little red bean paste buns that looked like mini-iced chocolate doughnuts. The place is Sakura, at 1/61 Little Collins St.
We spent an evening at the Tiki Lounge in Richmond. We had a pre-dinner MaiTai in a ceramic tiki mug, then popped round the corner to the Grand Hotel for pub grub, on the recommendation of the Tiki Lounge bartender. Their dining room is quite expensive and the menu reads like very fine food. It has a one chef's hat rating. But the Lounge Bar is more affordable. For $24 I had a superb veal pot roast, with potatoes and spinach, the meat melting tender and the juices as good as my friend HH's pot roast chook. Which is high praise, let me tell you. The Bloke had a $13 pizza, which he pronounced to be good. After that we went back to the Tiki Lounge for dessert cocktails and slightly tongue-in-cheek lounge music from the Kahuna Daddies.
I also enjoyed a scenic brunch at Fairfield Boathouse. I inhaled coffee, fruit salad with cream, and porridge with cinnamon apples and maple syrup, chatted a bit blearily, and declined to go boating. It didn't seem quite right the morning after several cocktails. But it was lovely sitting on the terrace looking over the water and watching the others row about.
We met up with some other friends at Cookie, on Swanston St. This upstairs bar boasts antique pressed tin high ceilings, a long wooden bar, and absolutely massive wine and beer lists. I'm told they do good Thai food, too, but we just had a few chips for bar snacks.
We had one takeaway lunch from Akaar, the Lebanese pizza spot in Coburg (254 Sydney Road). I saw a couple of other "Lebanese Pizza" places about, but as far as I know this idea hasn't spread to Canberra yet. It's good food: a thin yeast dough with fillings baked on top like a woodfired pizza, but then it's folded in half. Sort of like the missing link between Italian pizza and Turkish gozleme.
And our hosts provided for us as well, even though we were out and about so much. A made us a great pancake breakfast one day. She also made a cauliflower curry soup, which I'm using as inspiration to make my own variant. Very unusual, and good.
Monday, 25 May 2009
A Very Canberra Walk
On Sunday, I took a walk along the lake shore with B1 & B2. The lake wasn't looking its best from close up, but there were still black swans and cormorants, flaming red Manchurian pear trees and yellow weeping willows, and the carillon was playing Bach. A flock of black cockatoos was flying overhead. The mist sculpture was running in the National Gallery sculpture garden as we walked through aiming for the Portrait Gallery.
We followed up our walk with lunch on the Portrait Gallery cafe verandah. This is a lovely spot, looking over Reconciliation Place and the High Court, towards the lake. I had a rather good artichoke, spinach & goat cheese toastie ($7) with a fresh mesclun side salad ($4) and a sparkling guava and cranberry juice ($4). It's cafeteria style - you queue up, order and pay, and a lot of the food is in the counter fridges and bains-marie. But they do bring your food out to you: no wrestling with trays.
The food was pretty good, and there is a nice range on offer. There are several different vegetarian choices: there were two toasties, two pies, an omelette and a soup yesterday. The sweets were unusual. There was a quince and almond bread and butter pudding, which was tempting, but I ended up choosing the toasted sour cherry and walnut loaf ($5). I also love the idea of the extra small cupcakes, biscuits and caramel slices ($2). It was all very pleasant, with a minor exception - the cashier made a typo with our table number and in consequence the server couldn't find us with our desserts.
It's a good affordable casual lunch stop, this place - unlike the revamped Waters Edge, which no longer offers brunch. I was happy to see the change of management, though. We had very poor and snotty service there a couple of years back. But it's now run by Canberra's star chef James Mussilon, and has recently got a Canberra Times rave review (by Bryan Martin, not me). We stopped to peek at the menu as we walked past, and we're talking $36 mains, or $70 for a 3 course meal. Lunch is only a little cheaper. It's well into serious fine dining territory, and I'd love to go there sometime and try it out. Perhaps for a birthday lunch.
After our walk and lunch, we went back to B1's place and she gave me a lot of lemons and spinach from her garden. The spinach came with a few yellow ladybirds, which I tried to shake off. But I still ended up with four of them in the car, that I felt obliged to catch and release outside. To top it off, there was a huge flock of sulphur-crested cockatoos in my front garden when I got home, feasting on the autumn crop of acorns from our massive pinoak street trees. A beautiful day, in a very Canberra style.
We followed up our walk with lunch on the Portrait Gallery cafe verandah. This is a lovely spot, looking over Reconciliation Place and the High Court, towards the lake. I had a rather good artichoke, spinach & goat cheese toastie ($7) with a fresh mesclun side salad ($4) and a sparkling guava and cranberry juice ($4). It's cafeteria style - you queue up, order and pay, and a lot of the food is in the counter fridges and bains-marie. But they do bring your food out to you: no wrestling with trays.
The food was pretty good, and there is a nice range on offer. There are several different vegetarian choices: there were two toasties, two pies, an omelette and a soup yesterday. The sweets were unusual. There was a quince and almond bread and butter pudding, which was tempting, but I ended up choosing the toasted sour cherry and walnut loaf ($5). I also love the idea of the extra small cupcakes, biscuits and caramel slices ($2). It was all very pleasant, with a minor exception - the cashier made a typo with our table number and in consequence the server couldn't find us with our desserts.
It's a good affordable casual lunch stop, this place - unlike the revamped Waters Edge, which no longer offers brunch. I was happy to see the change of management, though. We had very poor and snotty service there a couple of years back. But it's now run by Canberra's star chef James Mussilon, and has recently got a Canberra Times rave review (by Bryan Martin, not me). We stopped to peek at the menu as we walked past, and we're talking $36 mains, or $70 for a 3 course meal. Lunch is only a little cheaper. It's well into serious fine dining territory, and I'd love to go there sometime and try it out. Perhaps for a birthday lunch.
After our walk and lunch, we went back to B1's place and she gave me a lot of lemons and spinach from her garden. The spinach came with a few yellow ladybirds, which I tried to shake off. But I still ended up with four of them in the car, that I felt obliged to catch and release outside. To top it off, there was a huge flock of sulphur-crested cockatoos in my front garden when I got home, feasting on the autumn crop of acorns from our massive pinoak street trees. A beautiful day, in a very Canberra style.
Saturday, 9 May 2009
Of Markets, Graft and Delivery
I'm not fully up and cooking yet, but it's getting closer. Meanwhile, I do have a couple of points of interest.
Markets
The quarterly Handmade Market is coming closer - only two weeks to go. Sat 23rd May, 10-4 at the Albert Hall - bring cash, there's no money machine. Many vendors do take credit cards, but not all. There's going to be a Crankypants food stall there, selling not only their yummy jams and spices that you can get at Kingston market, but also food for eating on the spot. Julie forwarded me their menu; this is a selection:
* lightly curried pumpkin soup with coconut milk and yoghurt
* creamy cauliflower and blue cheese soup
* hearty vegetarian gluten-free minestrone
* homemade chicken and leek pies, chunky beef pies & roghan josh pies
* roast pumpking, mushroom and lentil pie
* cranky in a blanky (ie kransky in a puff pastry)
* mild green chicken curry
* pumpkin and red lentil curry
(Tee hee at "pumpking". It's their cute tyop, not mine.)
Graft and delivery?
Graft
I've been contacted by the Perfect Italiano Cheese people, a curious experience that I'm still not quite sure what to think of. They have sent me some free cheese and recipes, and in return I write about it on my blog. I have full editorial control, so I can say "it sucks" if I want to. My first commercial. Hmm. Obviously it's very cheap for them, but then my readership isn't huge.
Well, hey. Free cheese, and it's a brand that I do buy anyway. It's no imported Italian premium brand, but then neither is the price. It's perfectly good for routine home use, though I'd probably crack the wallet at Manuka Fine Foods for a dinner party. And being made in Australia, there's no air-miles on it either.
I do have some cooking plans, but so far I have tried three of the products.
* Shaved parmesan: I used some to jazz up a supermarket tomato minestrone soup with a tasty garnish. I've also used this before to make a variant on a cheese salad. My linked recipe used aged provolone because I had some, but any decent parmesan will be good shaved into a rocket and balsamic kind of a salad.
* Pizza plus: I had some of this in the freezer anyway. I keep it there because I don't use it fast enough, and grated cheese goes mouldy rather quickly. It's handy for a quick home pizza if you have a pre-made base or some lebanese bread. I made one with fresh tomato and capsicum, plus salami and olives. This pre-grated cheese is a mix of mostly mozzarella, with some cheddar and parmesan. I like this quite a lot - it melts nicely but not quite as stringy as pure mozzarella, and it's also tastier that pure mozz.
* Ricotta Light: this sucks. Well, it sucks on its own: I suspect it will be OK in cooking, and I do intend to use up the rest in a gratin or maybe pancakes. I tried some on pikelets with jam, where I'd normally have cream cheese or butter. It's pretty tasteless and has that slightly granular ricotta texture. The texture doesn't work well here, even though it's nice when there's also the creamy freshness of regular ricotta. I'll be sticking with low fat cream cheese or full fat ricotta on my toast and pikelets. Full fat ricotta is still pretty low fat as cheese goes, about 10%.
Delivery
The inner north has gained a new delivery place: Yum Thai from Woolley St, Dickson now deliver! Yay! They have a $35 minimum order and tack on $2.50 for a delivery fee, but I don't care - if need be I'll fill it out with extra food for lunch leftovers or a second dinner. I'm very happy to have a home delivery option for Thai food, and especially from a place that doesn't suck. Yum Thai does good food; I've eaten there several times. It's my favourite local Thai, though the even newer Little Thailand seems to be shaping up as good competition.
We ordered grilled salmon with chu chee sauce ($23.50), which is one of their priciest meals but well worth it - two very good sized pieces of salmon, cooked just right to moist and flaky, served with some green beans and a good spicy sauce. The saffron (really turmeric) and coconut rice ($3.40) is aromatic, and also quite a large serve. Just what I wanted. Yum. We also had a chilli basil chicken ($14.50) and a beef massaman curry ($14.60), both pretty good, though the meat in the massaman was a bit dry.
And the Bloke ordered tempura vegetables ($7.50), which was a mistake. I usually make a point of not ordering deep fried food for delivery, because it will almost certainly go gluggy and horrible, as indeed this one did. I guess, based on the thinness of the soggy remains of the batter, that it would be good to eat in the restaurant. It must have been a very light batter; ten minutes steaming away in the foil bag in the car totally ruined it.
Markets
The quarterly Handmade Market is coming closer - only two weeks to go. Sat 23rd May, 10-4 at the Albert Hall - bring cash, there's no money machine. Many vendors do take credit cards, but not all. There's going to be a Crankypants food stall there, selling not only their yummy jams and spices that you can get at Kingston market, but also food for eating on the spot. Julie forwarded me their menu; this is a selection:
* lightly curried pumpkin soup with coconut milk and yoghurt
* creamy cauliflower and blue cheese soup
* hearty vegetarian gluten-free minestrone
* homemade chicken and leek pies, chunky beef pies & roghan josh pies
* roast pumpking, mushroom and lentil pie
* cranky in a blanky (ie kransky in a puff pastry)
* mild green chicken curry
* pumpkin and red lentil curry
(Tee hee at "pumpking". It's their cute tyop, not mine.)
Graft and delivery?
Graft
I've been contacted by the Perfect Italiano Cheese people, a curious experience that I'm still not quite sure what to think of. They have sent me some free cheese and recipes, and in return I write about it on my blog. I have full editorial control, so I can say "it sucks" if I want to. My first commercial. Hmm. Obviously it's very cheap for them, but then my readership isn't huge.
Well, hey. Free cheese, and it's a brand that I do buy anyway. It's no imported Italian premium brand, but then neither is the price. It's perfectly good for routine home use, though I'd probably crack the wallet at Manuka Fine Foods for a dinner party. And being made in Australia, there's no air-miles on it either.
I do have some cooking plans, but so far I have tried three of the products.
* Shaved parmesan: I used some to jazz up a supermarket tomato minestrone soup with a tasty garnish. I've also used this before to make a variant on a cheese salad. My linked recipe used aged provolone because I had some, but any decent parmesan will be good shaved into a rocket and balsamic kind of a salad.
* Pizza plus: I had some of this in the freezer anyway. I keep it there because I don't use it fast enough, and grated cheese goes mouldy rather quickly. It's handy for a quick home pizza if you have a pre-made base or some lebanese bread. I made one with fresh tomato and capsicum, plus salami and olives. This pre-grated cheese is a mix of mostly mozzarella, with some cheddar and parmesan. I like this quite a lot - it melts nicely but not quite as stringy as pure mozzarella, and it's also tastier that pure mozz.* Ricotta Light: this sucks. Well, it sucks on its own: I suspect it will be OK in cooking, and I do intend to use up the rest in a gratin or maybe pancakes. I tried some on pikelets with jam, where I'd normally have cream cheese or butter. It's pretty tasteless and has that slightly granular ricotta texture. The texture doesn't work well here, even though it's nice when there's also the creamy freshness of regular ricotta. I'll be sticking with low fat cream cheese or full fat ricotta on my toast and pikelets. Full fat ricotta is still pretty low fat as cheese goes, about 10%.
Delivery
The inner north has gained a new delivery place: Yum Thai from Woolley St, Dickson now deliver! Yay! They have a $35 minimum order and tack on $2.50 for a delivery fee, but I don't care - if need be I'll fill it out with extra food for lunch leftovers or a second dinner. I'm very happy to have a home delivery option for Thai food, and especially from a place that doesn't suck. Yum Thai does good food; I've eaten there several times. It's my favourite local Thai, though the even newer Little Thailand seems to be shaping up as good competition.
We ordered grilled salmon with chu chee sauce ($23.50), which is one of their priciest meals but well worth it - two very good sized pieces of salmon, cooked just right to moist and flaky, served with some green beans and a good spicy sauce. The saffron (really turmeric) and coconut rice ($3.40) is aromatic, and also quite a large serve. Just what I wanted. Yum. We also had a chilli basil chicken ($14.50) and a beef massaman curry ($14.60), both pretty good, though the meat in the massaman was a bit dry.
And the Bloke ordered tempura vegetables ($7.50), which was a mistake. I usually make a point of not ordering deep fried food for delivery, because it will almost certainly go gluggy and horrible, as indeed this one did. I guess, based on the thinness of the soggy remains of the batter, that it would be good to eat in the restaurant. It must have been a very light batter; ten minutes steaming away in the foil bag in the car totally ruined it.
Friday, 27 March 2009
The Merino at Gunning
Last Sunday I went off to Gunning with B1 & M, for an afternoon in the country. M was singing in a concert: the Oriana Chorale's "Choral Cabaret" at the Gunning Courthouse. We had lunch and wandered the streets looking at the antique shops and art galleries - like many country towns, they do aim for the tourist trade. Then off to the Courthouse for the concert, a quick beer at the pub, and home.We had lunch at the Merino cafe, one of the two cafes on the main street. It's the one that doesn't serve chiko rolls... Yes, these sheep sculptures are out front. Their menu is quite modern city cafe in style, but with some excellent country touches. I had a mediterranean salad ($14.50) for lunch, since I had a big meat feast planned for dinner. It was a good one - plenty of marinated eggplant and fetta and a swirl of pesto, with nice fresh greens.
We were sitting under a shade sail in this lovely back garden full of roses, with the interesting corrugated iron fence decor. It looks like a Rosalie Gascoigne art installation. Up the back, a garden bed featured a flourishing stand of silverbeet.
The burgers ($8) looked very tempting - they have several varieties on offer, including a couple based on lamb rather than beef. I saw some being made, and they were based on huge sesame seeded rolls, with lots of fresh salad, and served just so, with no chips. B1 and M took advantage of the all day breakfast menu, and reported that their food was good. There's a good range from toast on up to the "Shearer's Breakfast" - for $17.50 you get egg, bacon, sausage, lamb chop, onion, tomato, spinach, tomato relish and toast.I also liked the look of the cakes and slices. I had a florentine ($3), of the inelegant but satisfyingly thick peanut and cornflake style. Yummy. There was also an unusual meringue-topped jam slice, and some other things that looked homemade. Or at least, not made by the same kitchen that supplies half of Canberra's cafes. I didn't have a coffee, but B1 that said hers was surprisingly weak. It might be worth trying a double shot - I find weak coffees to be a very common feature of country cafes.
By the way, I don't much recommend the pub: gentrification and the tourist trade have passed it by. It's totally old-school, both in decor and in stock. There's Reschs & Tooheys & Hahn light on tap, with no fancy boutique beers, or even premium beers. Not even in bottles - not a James Squires or a Cooper's to be had. There's also a barren and depressing "beer garden" out the back. The tables out the front verandah on the street were much more pleasant, so that's where we sat with our downmarket beer, wine & G&T.
Friday, 13 March 2009
Five Easy Pieces
I've eaten out quite a few times in the last month, and not written about it at all. It's probably time I did, so here you go.
Italo-Australian Club
The Italo-Australian Club is in Forrest, not far from Manuka, on Franklin St between Dominion and National Circuits. It's a club, with pokies. You walk in past a bank of them facing a row of Michaelangelo posters on the opposite wall. We were there for a Shortis & Simpson gig at the Folkus room, for which I got comped by Culturazi in exchange for a review. We ate at the Italian bistro, which the Folkus room largely takes over for their evenings.
It was a wonderful night because of the show, but our food was not so great. The bistro was overwhelmed with numbers, and had stopped taking pizza orders. This was a pity, since the couple sharing our table had got in early enough, and they declared the pizzas to be very good. The Bloke ordered a canneloni ($15), and I gamely tried the veal parmigiana ($20). Well. It took a long time, as we were warned, and when it finally arrived, his canneloni was unaccompanied by anything. No veg, no salad. A moderate serving size: just add a salad and it would be a decent meal. I offered him some of my veg to make up for it, but they weren't exactly appetising, being rather soggy and overdone. Possibly they were responsible for the fact that the crumbs on my veal were not crisp, but totally soggy and horrible. I scraped them off, and then the meat was quite OK, as was the eggplant, tomato and cheese topping. The Bloke's canneloni was actually pretty good and tasty.
I expect we'll be back, whenever some good music turns up. But the lesson learned is to order pizza, pasta and salad. They all looked rather good.
Read on for the other four...
Rubicon
Rubicon is in Griffith and it's lovely. Fine dining, with cleverly crafted dishes and and a good long wine list. We went with friends, and I picked a vegetarian main just because it sounded so good. And it was.
I had an entree of seared scallops wrapped in pancetta, with plum vinaigrette, lemon and fennel salad ($19.90). I love that scallop/salt pork combo - it's ubiquitous for a reason. My main was the chargrilled balsamic marinated field mushroom, port and red currant glaze, caramelised garlic, eschallots and creamy rosemary polenta chips ($28.90). Amazingly good: rich, tender and soft, with all the flavours matching perfectly. I was less thrilled with my dessert: Angostura bitters meringue with passionfruit, pomegranate syrup, clotted cream and pistachio praline cigar ($14.90), because I felt it was texturally unbalanced. The flavours were great, but the quantity of meringue was too much for the small amount of cream, so it came out a bit dry in texture. I'd hoped for more of an Eton mess kind of thing.
This is not an everyday sort of place, but I do recommend it for a flash night out. I especially like the covered courtyard out the back, with the fairy lights overhead like stars.
Blu Ginger
This one is in town, across from the new Griffin Centre and adjacent to the new Tongue & Groove bar. We were there on their second night, and I swear the staff were all auditioning for the role of Manuel in Fawlty Towers. "¿Qué?" The acoustics didn't help matters, and their unfamiliarity with the menu and ordering system was almost comical. They did seem to be very nice and eager to please, so hopefully the glitches will get worked out soon.
The food was pretty good Indian fare. Naan breads were fresh and hot out of the oven. The vindaloo was nicely hot and with more wine than vinegar in the sauce. The unusual pumpkin & almond lamb was gentle and tasty, and there was a good range of vegetarian dishes. They did a mattar paneer variant with mushrooms, which I particularly enjoyed, and the coconut veggie curry was also very good.
I didn't make note of the prices at the time. They seemed pretty standard Indian restaurant rates, but there were a couple of sour notes. The raita serve was tiny, in a little chutney pot. The pappadams were undercooked, and really, $8 for those 3 small baskets? 6 pappadams? Seriously? And they charged us $27 for rice, and all we had was two medium sized bowls between five of us. The first serve was really not enough. This is probably a marketing error. You really shouldn't charge for extra rice, it looks mean and stingy. Add a dollar or two to the mains, and it looks much better and everyone feels happier.
This one will be worth revisiting when it's had a chance to settle in.
The Oaks Brasserie & Gallery
This cafe is set in a stunning English garden adjacent to the Yarralumla Nursery near Weston Park. The gallery is in the adjoining cottage, where the kitchen and cash register is. The seating is outside: huge oaks, white beeches, outdoor tables on the grass beneath the trees; it's gorgeous. Sadly, though it's also slow and expensive. Last Saturday lunch, with a largish group, we waited half an hour for our drinks, and a full hour for our meals. Luckily I ordered an iced coffee, so I had a substantial drink with icecream and cream. Otherwise I would have been starving.
The Bloke and I both had focaccias, and for $12.50 what you get is exactly what's on the menu. Turkey, cheese and cranberry sauce. One parsley sprig. No salads in or beside the thin toasted focaccia. That would have been $6 extra.
While we were waiting we had plenty of time to peruse the menu. They have a section for dogs, which is nice. But I was startled by some of the breakfast prices: mushrooms & tomato on toast $23! Eggs Benny for $20. No, not in a deal with coffee and juice, just as is. I've been there before, on a weekday afternoon, and enjoyed it more. Coffee and cake, or Devonshire tea is more reasonable value for money, and the service is better out of rush hours. The scones are good, though the jam was a cheap Kraft packet and the cream a substanceless whip.
Subway
Yes, this is a cheat to fill it out to five. Sorry. I have eaten Subway once in the last month, when we went to see the Burlesque Hour at the Street Theatre. We were very short of time for some reason, and just grabbed a sandwich en route for fill-up purposes. What can I say? It's better than Maccas. Their olives are those Californian ones that always remind me of rubber-tire fragments, but otherwise it's edible. The breads are too sweet and soft for my taste, but it'll do in a pinch.
Italo-Australian Club
The Italo-Australian Club is in Forrest, not far from Manuka, on Franklin St between Dominion and National Circuits. It's a club, with pokies. You walk in past a bank of them facing a row of Michaelangelo posters on the opposite wall. We were there for a Shortis & Simpson gig at the Folkus room, for which I got comped by Culturazi in exchange for a review. We ate at the Italian bistro, which the Folkus room largely takes over for their evenings.
It was a wonderful night because of the show, but our food was not so great. The bistro was overwhelmed with numbers, and had stopped taking pizza orders. This was a pity, since the couple sharing our table had got in early enough, and they declared the pizzas to be very good. The Bloke ordered a canneloni ($15), and I gamely tried the veal parmigiana ($20). Well. It took a long time, as we were warned, and when it finally arrived, his canneloni was unaccompanied by anything. No veg, no salad. A moderate serving size: just add a salad and it would be a decent meal. I offered him some of my veg to make up for it, but they weren't exactly appetising, being rather soggy and overdone. Possibly they were responsible for the fact that the crumbs on my veal were not crisp, but totally soggy and horrible. I scraped them off, and then the meat was quite OK, as was the eggplant, tomato and cheese topping. The Bloke's canneloni was actually pretty good and tasty.
I expect we'll be back, whenever some good music turns up. But the lesson learned is to order pizza, pasta and salad. They all looked rather good.
Read on for the other four...
Rubicon
Rubicon is in Griffith and it's lovely. Fine dining, with cleverly crafted dishes and and a good long wine list. We went with friends, and I picked a vegetarian main just because it sounded so good. And it was.
I had an entree of seared scallops wrapped in pancetta, with plum vinaigrette, lemon and fennel salad ($19.90). I love that scallop/salt pork combo - it's ubiquitous for a reason. My main was the chargrilled balsamic marinated field mushroom, port and red currant glaze, caramelised garlic, eschallots and creamy rosemary polenta chips ($28.90). Amazingly good: rich, tender and soft, with all the flavours matching perfectly. I was less thrilled with my dessert: Angostura bitters meringue with passionfruit, pomegranate syrup, clotted cream and pistachio praline cigar ($14.90), because I felt it was texturally unbalanced. The flavours were great, but the quantity of meringue was too much for the small amount of cream, so it came out a bit dry in texture. I'd hoped for more of an Eton mess kind of thing.
This is not an everyday sort of place, but I do recommend it for a flash night out. I especially like the covered courtyard out the back, with the fairy lights overhead like stars.
Blu Ginger
This one is in town, across from the new Griffin Centre and adjacent to the new Tongue & Groove bar. We were there on their second night, and I swear the staff were all auditioning for the role of Manuel in Fawlty Towers. "¿Qué?" The acoustics didn't help matters, and their unfamiliarity with the menu and ordering system was almost comical. They did seem to be very nice and eager to please, so hopefully the glitches will get worked out soon.
The food was pretty good Indian fare. Naan breads were fresh and hot out of the oven. The vindaloo was nicely hot and with more wine than vinegar in the sauce. The unusual pumpkin & almond lamb was gentle and tasty, and there was a good range of vegetarian dishes. They did a mattar paneer variant with mushrooms, which I particularly enjoyed, and the coconut veggie curry was also very good.
I didn't make note of the prices at the time. They seemed pretty standard Indian restaurant rates, but there were a couple of sour notes. The raita serve was tiny, in a little chutney pot. The pappadams were undercooked, and really, $8 for those 3 small baskets? 6 pappadams? Seriously? And they charged us $27 for rice, and all we had was two medium sized bowls between five of us. The first serve was really not enough. This is probably a marketing error. You really shouldn't charge for extra rice, it looks mean and stingy. Add a dollar or two to the mains, and it looks much better and everyone feels happier.
This one will be worth revisiting when it's had a chance to settle in.
The Oaks Brasserie & Gallery
This cafe is set in a stunning English garden adjacent to the Yarralumla Nursery near Weston Park. The gallery is in the adjoining cottage, where the kitchen and cash register is. The seating is outside: huge oaks, white beeches, outdoor tables on the grass beneath the trees; it's gorgeous. Sadly, though it's also slow and expensive. Last Saturday lunch, with a largish group, we waited half an hour for our drinks, and a full hour for our meals. Luckily I ordered an iced coffee, so I had a substantial drink with icecream and cream. Otherwise I would have been starving.
The Bloke and I both had focaccias, and for $12.50 what you get is exactly what's on the menu. Turkey, cheese and cranberry sauce. One parsley sprig. No salads in or beside the thin toasted focaccia. That would have been $6 extra.
While we were waiting we had plenty of time to peruse the menu. They have a section for dogs, which is nice. But I was startled by some of the breakfast prices: mushrooms & tomato on toast $23! Eggs Benny for $20. No, not in a deal with coffee and juice, just as is. I've been there before, on a weekday afternoon, and enjoyed it more. Coffee and cake, or Devonshire tea is more reasonable value for money, and the service is better out of rush hours. The scones are good, though the jam was a cheap Kraft packet and the cream a substanceless whip.
Subway
Yes, this is a cheat to fill it out to five. Sorry. I have eaten Subway once in the last month, when we went to see the Burlesque Hour at the Street Theatre. We were very short of time for some reason, and just grabbed a sandwich en route for fill-up purposes. What can I say? It's better than Maccas. Their olives are those Californian ones that always remind me of rubber-tire fragments, but otherwise it's edible. The breads are too sweet and soft for my taste, but it'll do in a pinch.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Best of Corinbank
Corinbank was totally awesome. I'm not going to dare to judge the acts or the art. But I had a wonderful time, and the highlights for me were:
* the choir. I got to sing backup to Chanel Cole and Simone Penkethman. Yay! I am so rock!
* the lineup at the Bally: Madame Mona Chromatique, Petite Sideshow presents Petite Freak, Bawdeville Allsorts Burlesque
* Mr Fibby!
* just wandering around taking in all the different artworks and people and music.
In terms of food and drink:
Best beer: The Backyard Brewery (as run by The Bloke)
Best breakfast: Huevos Rancheros by the Mayan Coffee stall
Best coffee: Non-colonialist coffee from the Mayan Coffee stall
Best cold drink: Iced Guarapo (panella sugar, lime, chilli) from the Mayan Coffee stall
Best dinner: Chicken mole from the Mayan Coffee stall
Umm... is anyone else seeing a pattern here?
An honorable mention goes to the sausage inna bun folks. They sold huge Kranski sausages from the Calwell butcher, who I am told smokes his own meats. They were indeed rather good, but the amount of fat in them is rather daunting. I don't often eat Kranski, and that one will probably suffice me for another year.
* the choir. I got to sing backup to Chanel Cole and Simone Penkethman. Yay! I am so rock!
* the lineup at the Bally: Madame Mona Chromatique, Petite Sideshow presents Petite Freak, Bawdeville Allsorts Burlesque
* Mr Fibby!
* just wandering around taking in all the different artworks and people and music.
In terms of food and drink:
Best beer: The Backyard Brewery (as run by The Bloke)
Best breakfast: Huevos Rancheros by the Mayan Coffee stall
Best coffee: Non-colonialist coffee from the Mayan Coffee stall
Best cold drink: Iced Guarapo (panella sugar, lime, chilli) from the Mayan Coffee stall
Best dinner: Chicken mole from the Mayan Coffee stall
Umm... is anyone else seeing a pattern here?
An honorable mention goes to the sausage inna bun folks. They sold huge Kranski sausages from the Calwell butcher, who I am told smokes his own meats. They were indeed rather good, but the amount of fat in them is rather daunting. I don't often eat Kranski, and that one will probably suffice me for another year.
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Goulburn Blues
Every February, the Australian Blues Music Festival is held in Goulburn. The Bloke and I have been going for several years now, first staying in a caravan park on the edge of town, and more recently at a motel in the centre of town. There are dozens of musical acts, from all over Australia, and they perform in the various clubs and pubs around town. There's workshops and jam sessions, and a market day in Belmore Park, and a shop window decorating competition. Most places do some sort of blue theme - this bakery's blue cup cake faces cracked me up. The festival has downsized somewhat in the last couple of years. There used to be a big tent out the back of the Tattersalls hotel, but that stopped with a change of management. But it's still a terrific festival - and it really is an Australian Blues festival. All Australian acts, and all bluesy. No international acts, no pop, no hiphop - unlike some others I could name...
So what do you eat? Goulburn itself isn't exactly a foodie destination. The surrounding countryside is our own local region and has much good stuff, but wanting to get to various acts leaves you with very little time for lunch and dinner breaks. You're not about to drive off to a Lake George winery for lunch. The Saturday market tends to just knickknacks, jewelry and clothes, with no food. Sometimes a local vegetable and honey seller is there, and a Rotary Club does a sausage sizzle. But still, there's some quite decent stuff around.
We had dinner on Friday night at the Suwannee (how I love ya, how I love ya), Thai restaurant. It's pretty good food, and has quick service: we were in and out in under an hour. The chicken satay sticks were nicely moist with a good peanut sauce; the massaman beef curry was a bit too sweet for me, and the potato and sweet potato had been microwaved separately rather than cooked in it. But the beef chunks were large and tender and well-flavoured. The "hot" chilli basil stirfry prawns were probably frozen rather than fresh, but good nevertheless. They came with plenty of crisp veggies in the stirfry, though only a mild chilli.
I had breakfast on both Saturday and Sunday mornings at Cafe Book. This is new - last year there was some other cafe there, with dreadful slow service and very ordinary food. Cafe Book is a huge improvement: it's light and bright, with country style pale lime-wash painted tables down the centre. Dark wood and banquette tables line one wall, and bookshelves line the other. The books are second hand, for sale, and organised eclectically by author. There's no genre separation: China Mieville, Herman Melville, Val McDermid and Henry Miller all jostle in the Ms.
The menu is quite simple - variations on bacon and eggs and toast for breakfast; sandwiches, burgers, quiche, roast meat rolls and sausage in a bun for lunch. The coffee ($3.20) is not bad, as long as you remember that you're in a country town and ask for double shots. My bacon and eggs ($9.90) was served piping hot, with a baby spinach garnish, and the white toast served on the side so it doesn't get soggy. The eggs are free range, the bacon is short rindless rashers. On Sunday I had raisin toast and fruit salad, which was similarly sound without being flashy. Thick slices of toast, nice and hot, with butter. The fruit was varied and fresh - the apple was just starting to brown a little; they should learn the lemon juice trick. Good honest grub, friendly and competent service, and books, too! I'll be back. Beats waiting an hour for your coffee at the Paragon.
We also ate at the Astor, taking our food from the service counter to the upstairs bar where the music was playing. The electronic pager discs came in handy. The Astor had a makeover several years back. They seem to be aiming for upmarket pub grub, with some fancy presentations and interesting combinations. The menu reads well, but the execution is a bit patchy. I wouldn't choose to eat there purely on its merits, but it's not a problem if there's some act on that you want to see. Unlike the Bowling Club, which is very dire.
At the Astor, I had a chicken salad ($12.90) for lunch, which came with a mound of thin sweet potato crisps on top, and a generous sprinkle of sugar crusted kahlua pecans. A very nice combo in concept, and the chicken was nicely warm and moist, but the greens were a tad on the flabby side. The bloke had some bacon and cheese potato skins ($6.90) which he found over-greasy. They came in an edible bowl made of flat bread (I think) - a bit poncy and not so nice. We didn't eat the bowl and neither did a couple of other people around the room. Their pizzas ($13.50) were much more successful, I thought. The Astor kitchen has a wood fired oven, and the pizzas come out with a nice crust. The local cheddar mixed in the cheese topping gives them a bit of difference, the toppings are plentiful, and the tomato sauce has a strong oregano note that I enjoyed.
Down the Coast
I spent that recent hot weekend down the coast, with my mates B1 and B2, and it was just lovely. First stop was Braidwood, for lunch at Cafe Albion. This has changed hands in the last year, and the new management has extended into the former antique shop next door. It's in a simple and clean country style - a slow combustion fire, wooden furniture, open to the air in the heat.The menu has been fluffed up a bit, but it's still a cafe. Coffee and cake, sandwiches, light meals. I'm impressed - the coffee ($2.80) was good; my salad was pretty good; B2's tomato bruschetta ($9) was tasty with a noticably good olive oil. I had a smoked trout salad with mixed leaves and kipfler potatoes, beetroot and asparagus - the veggies were warm, the horseradish dressing was mild but good. The menu concentrates on local produce, with a few exceptions like Fremantle sardines. They have a license now, and the wine list is also mostly local. Lots of their cakes are gluten-free, too. Nice place - I recommend it without hesitation.
After lunch we grabbed some sourdough from the Braidwood bakery, and headed on down the mountain. B1 has a coast house at Guerilla Bay, not a fancy one but a pair of little shacks set in among the trees. The shade and the sea breeze keeps it pleasantly cool - even when in town it was sweltering up round the 40 degree mark. We swam, we ate random snacky meals of fancy cheese and fruit from the fridge, we threw fruit and bread scraps at the foraging possums, we lazed around and read books, we shopped at Mogo.
Mogo has quite a few places to shop, but mostly we went to the Trading Post and Suzanne's. The Trading Post is clothes, jewelry and knickknacks all in the general hippy eastern vein. I bought a couple of cheesecloth shirts and two rayon ones, and some shell earrings. And in a surge of fellow-feeling, the three of us now have matching beach cover-up shirts. It's like a club. I feel so teenaged!
We ate lunch at Suzanne's, which is now known in the local pamphlet guides as the "Blue Fox Cafe". This will not help you if you're looking for it: the only external sign says "Suzanne's". The cafe is on the left side of the entry, the bakery and organic grocer on the right. The bakery is deservedly well known: Suzanne bakes the most amazing sourdough breads. B2 and I shared a loaf of fruitbread to take home. It's $10.50, which sounds a lot, but it is a large heavy loaf. It's jam packed full of figs and dates and apricots, and baked with a layer of nuts on the base, and amazingly good.
I was hoping to come home with a loaf of 10-grain sourdough, too, but they were closed when we dropped in. We had placed an order for pickup on Sunday, and they said they'd be open to 5pm, but they were firmly closed when we got there just before 4pm. Damn!
I had sampled the 10-grain sourdough with my lunch on our Mogo shopping day. The Blue Fox does a simple menu of cakes, sandwiches ($8-14) and salad bowls ($12-18). They are very good. The salad bowl is the larger meal: it's accompanied by two slices of toasted 10-grain sourdough, as well as some home made potato salad. I had a tuna one, with a balsamic dressing, and some olives and semi-dried tomatoes. Very delicious - a good simple lunch. The coffee is organic and free trade, and not too bad. My macchiato was a little too bitter for perfection, but with plenty of flavour.
Our final meal was at the Star Deli in Bateman's Bay. This is a very reliable standard large cafe-restaurant, which is also open longer hours than most. It's light and airy, and looks out over the river. They do fish & chips, pizza, sandwiches and regular meals; they have a kids menu, and a standard type wine and beer list. The toilets are updstairs, I'm not sure if there's any disabled access.
This was our last meal before coming home, a very late lunch after clean-up. We had a mixed seafood platter to start, and two different veggie pizzas between the three of us. The platter was very good: 3 large oysters, quite a few large cold prawns, some dips, fetta and olives. The pizzas were pretty good, too - though the chef there has a big thing for roasted garlic. Quite a few huge whole cloves of it on both pizzas, not just a thin smear in the sauce. I thought it was a bit much, and only ate about half of mine. They were easy to pick off, being so large.
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
L is for Lyneham
I'm fond of Lyneham. When I was a student, my first group house was near the Lyneham shops. None of us had a car, so I did all the shopping on foot. I still visit regularly - it's close to a friend's house, quite handy to stop off to pick up some bread or meat for the BBQ. And I've often been to Tilleys, and more recently, The Front.
We have, for your foodie pleasure, an IGA with a nice range of European deli and bakery items. Their fruit & veg is OK but not brilliant - handy for top ups if you miss the markets. There's a Brumby's bakery, a pizza & takeaway joint, the Lyneham Pide Hut and the Mee Sing Chinese. The Pide Hut is, meh, not so great but OK. They do good zucchini balls. But given the option, I'd always prefer Dickson TurkOz. I've never tried Mee Sing, but I hear it's not bad at all.
Much more notable is the Lyneham Meat Centre, the home of Country Pride sausages (also available in many IGAs). This excellent local butcher sells a good range of award-winning sausages, all low in fat and most gluten-free (I asked). They actually bought the Country Pride recipes from the original owner, who has long since retired. There used to be a rumour going around that it wasn't legal to call these products sausages, because they contained too much meat, not enough fat and filler. My favourite is the hot chilli beef - they have a serious kick to them. Today I bought some of those, and some lamb and rosemary, and spicy Italian pork - all for the freezer, since I'm heading off to the coast tomorrow. They're all good, except I think the lemon chicken one is a bit weird. Most of them are $11 per kg.
Also notable is the Front, a cafe-gallery with not much in the way of food, but quite decent coffee. It's host to all sorts of music, performance art, exhibitions, and other artistic happenings. This is absolutely the hippest cafe in Canberra.
And then there's Tilleys. Oh, Tilleys, how you have fallen! Perhaps my rose-tinted nostalgia glasses are on, but I remember when it was new. It was just a single shop-front, and controversial because of their "no unaccompanied men" policy and their lesbian Friday nights. It was the hippest cafe in Canberra, no question. I heard my first live blues music there - Madam and the Ragtag Jazz Band. I danced the night away to DJs playing Do-Re-Mi and the Eurythmics.
I used to sit there in the afternoon, nursing a coffee with a cheap second hand paperback, while my laundry ran in the laundromat two shops down. And they had a fabulous cheese and fruit plate which fed all three of us housemates lunch for $6. (Yes, yes, but then again, the rent was only $60 a week for the whole house and our weekly food kitty was $20.)
Anyway, Tilleys grew and grew, and absorbed the neighbouring shops and restaurants in a slow but relentless crawl. Much like All Bar Nun, in O'Connor. The Thai restaurant, the sausage shop, the post office - all gone. The laundromat now houses a post office agency, and the sausages can be bought from the butcher, and the excellent little second hand bookshop is still there, so it's not a total loss.
When we came back to Canberra in 2002, Tilley's had grown huge and rather staid. The size of the place made it good for large group brunches, or random evening post-choir meals. There's lots of outdoor seating, and brunch until 3pm. Also, the music acts drew us in, so I've been there quite a few times.
They had some really good music acts, on a regular schedule. Eric Burdon was perhaps the best I went to. It's an excellent cabaret venue, all dark wood and red interiors, with a nice little stage. And all the edges are lined with booths of varying sizes, fitted with comfortable cushions. But a couple of years back, unfortunately for us, they cut back a lot on the music.
In recent experience, the food has been up and down. I've had good, bad and mediocre meals there in the last five years. Today was bad. I stopped in for lunch, and had a macchiato that was mostly just bitter. And a Cajun chicken salad ($17), which was disturbing. The fridge-cold slices of chicken breast seemed a little dry and overcooked, but the mild spice was quite pleasant and the lime-yoghurt dressing rather good. So far, OK. But the salad was highly dodgy. The cherry tomatoes were a little too squishy for me, and the mesclun included not just lettuce that was slightly brown around the edges; not just yellowing baby spinach leaves; but even some that were actually slimy. Oh dear. I ate the chicken and some cucumber and onion, because I was hungry, but I left most of the salad behind.
There is currently an ad on the door for a new cook, so perhaps it will turn around again.
We have, for your foodie pleasure, an IGA with a nice range of European deli and bakery items. Their fruit & veg is OK but not brilliant - handy for top ups if you miss the markets. There's a Brumby's bakery, a pizza & takeaway joint, the Lyneham Pide Hut and the Mee Sing Chinese. The Pide Hut is, meh, not so great but OK. They do good zucchini balls. But given the option, I'd always prefer Dickson TurkOz. I've never tried Mee Sing, but I hear it's not bad at all.
Much more notable is the Lyneham Meat Centre, the home of Country Pride sausages (also available in many IGAs). This excellent local butcher sells a good range of award-winning sausages, all low in fat and most gluten-free (I asked). They actually bought the Country Pride recipes from the original owner, who has long since retired. There used to be a rumour going around that it wasn't legal to call these products sausages, because they contained too much meat, not enough fat and filler. My favourite is the hot chilli beef - they have a serious kick to them. Today I bought some of those, and some lamb and rosemary, and spicy Italian pork - all for the freezer, since I'm heading off to the coast tomorrow. They're all good, except I think the lemon chicken one is a bit weird. Most of them are $11 per kg.
Also notable is the Front, a cafe-gallery with not much in the way of food, but quite decent coffee. It's host to all sorts of music, performance art, exhibitions, and other artistic happenings. This is absolutely the hippest cafe in Canberra.
And then there's Tilleys. Oh, Tilleys, how you have fallen! Perhaps my rose-tinted nostalgia glasses are on, but I remember when it was new. It was just a single shop-front, and controversial because of their "no unaccompanied men" policy and their lesbian Friday nights. It was the hippest cafe in Canberra, no question. I heard my first live blues music there - Madam and the Ragtag Jazz Band. I danced the night away to DJs playing Do-Re-Mi and the Eurythmics.
I used to sit there in the afternoon, nursing a coffee with a cheap second hand paperback, while my laundry ran in the laundromat two shops down. And they had a fabulous cheese and fruit plate which fed all three of us housemates lunch for $6. (Yes, yes, but then again, the rent was only $60 a week for the whole house and our weekly food kitty was $20.)
Anyway, Tilleys grew and grew, and absorbed the neighbouring shops and restaurants in a slow but relentless crawl. Much like All Bar Nun, in O'Connor. The Thai restaurant, the sausage shop, the post office - all gone. The laundromat now houses a post office agency, and the sausages can be bought from the butcher, and the excellent little second hand bookshop is still there, so it's not a total loss.
When we came back to Canberra in 2002, Tilley's had grown huge and rather staid. The size of the place made it good for large group brunches, or random evening post-choir meals. There's lots of outdoor seating, and brunch until 3pm. Also, the music acts drew us in, so I've been there quite a few times.
They had some really good music acts, on a regular schedule. Eric Burdon was perhaps the best I went to. It's an excellent cabaret venue, all dark wood and red interiors, with a nice little stage. And all the edges are lined with booths of varying sizes, fitted with comfortable cushions. But a couple of years back, unfortunately for us, they cut back a lot on the music.
In recent experience, the food has been up and down. I've had good, bad and mediocre meals there in the last five years. Today was bad. I stopped in for lunch, and had a macchiato that was mostly just bitter. And a Cajun chicken salad ($17), which was disturbing. The fridge-cold slices of chicken breast seemed a little dry and overcooked, but the mild spice was quite pleasant and the lime-yoghurt dressing rather good. So far, OK. But the salad was highly dodgy. The cherry tomatoes were a little too squishy for me, and the mesclun included not just lettuce that was slightly brown around the edges; not just yellowing baby spinach leaves; but even some that were actually slimy. Oh dear. I ate the chicken and some cucumber and onion, because I was hungry, but I left most of the salad behind.
There is currently an ad on the door for a new cook, so perhaps it will turn around again.
Saturday, 17 January 2009
New Places in Dickson
I had dinner out twice last week - once I had some tapas at Sub-Urban with the Bloke and a workmate of his, and once I went with a small group to the new Thai restaurant. I'll be going back to both of them.
Sub-Urban is the new incarnation of Bellucci's. It's half bar and half restaurant, and so far I've only eaten at the pub side. They do a decent burger and acceptable chips; the chicken caesar salad is fresh and crisp, but lacking in anchovy zing. The tapas are mostly better: good crisp szechuan-spiced squid, a little mild, but perfectly cooked. Nice dips, and the spicy meatballs were excellent. I was less impressed with the crab cakes - overcooked on the outside and bland. They have some good beers on tap - Little Creatures and James Squires.
The decor is retro, rather 30s looking to my inexpert eye. I like the 1940s and 50s style cocktail posters on the loo doors. On weeknights, and weekends during the day, it's got quite a pleasant vibe - moderately busy, a mixed bag of customers. I'd avoid it on Friday and Saturday nights, though - at those times it's packed out to screaming volume with what I can only describe as Canberra's young Westies.
We saw this on Friday night from across the road in the outside seating for the new Thai place, Little Thailand. It's where the Addis Abbaba Ethiopian used to be. It's got fairly standard modern Thai restaurant decor, pleasant in wood tones with a large Buddha painting and a few bare-breasted classical Thai ladies on the wall at the exit to the loos. The menu is all in English, with no Thai names for the dishes.
The people I was with hit on the idea of asking the waiter to get the chef to give us his six favourites. I was a bit worried that we might get the clueless westerner banquet menu out of that, but after a bit of explaining it did seem to work pretty well. We had a very tasty and crisp salt and pepper squid dotted with hot chilli slices; a pad thai with prawns; red curry chicken with plenty of vegetables; a lamb and chilli stirfry; garlic chicken salad; and crispy fish with tamarind sauce. I was especially taken with the squid, and the chicken salad.
It came to $22 per head, with the rice and corkage. It was all very good - well cooked, fresh ingredients, a medium level of spice, nicely presented. It was a tiny bit slow in service, but they were busy. I'll definitely go back to try some more.
And just for information, one of the people I was with recommended the place next door, New Asia. She said it was a simple, standard no frills Chinese place, but the food is all fresh and very well cooked.
Sub-Urban is the new incarnation of Bellucci's. It's half bar and half restaurant, and so far I've only eaten at the pub side. They do a decent burger and acceptable chips; the chicken caesar salad is fresh and crisp, but lacking in anchovy zing. The tapas are mostly better: good crisp szechuan-spiced squid, a little mild, but perfectly cooked. Nice dips, and the spicy meatballs were excellent. I was less impressed with the crab cakes - overcooked on the outside and bland. They have some good beers on tap - Little Creatures and James Squires.
The decor is retro, rather 30s looking to my inexpert eye. I like the 1940s and 50s style cocktail posters on the loo doors. On weeknights, and weekends during the day, it's got quite a pleasant vibe - moderately busy, a mixed bag of customers. I'd avoid it on Friday and Saturday nights, though - at those times it's packed out to screaming volume with what I can only describe as Canberra's young Westies.
We saw this on Friday night from across the road in the outside seating for the new Thai place, Little Thailand. It's where the Addis Abbaba Ethiopian used to be. It's got fairly standard modern Thai restaurant decor, pleasant in wood tones with a large Buddha painting and a few bare-breasted classical Thai ladies on the wall at the exit to the loos. The menu is all in English, with no Thai names for the dishes.
The people I was with hit on the idea of asking the waiter to get the chef to give us his six favourites. I was a bit worried that we might get the clueless westerner banquet menu out of that, but after a bit of explaining it did seem to work pretty well. We had a very tasty and crisp salt and pepper squid dotted with hot chilli slices; a pad thai with prawns; red curry chicken with plenty of vegetables; a lamb and chilli stirfry; garlic chicken salad; and crispy fish with tamarind sauce. I was especially taken with the squid, and the chicken salad.
It came to $22 per head, with the rice and corkage. It was all very good - well cooked, fresh ingredients, a medium level of spice, nicely presented. It was a tiny bit slow in service, but they were busy. I'll definitely go back to try some more.
And just for information, one of the people I was with recommended the place next door, New Asia. She said it was a simple, standard no frills Chinese place, but the food is all fresh and very well cooked.
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