One of my many favourite moments of being in a theatre group was staggering to Ric’s in the Brunswick Street Mall, at three o’clock in the morning, and ordering a big breakfast.

Ric’s has gone through a few name changes since I first went there, Fat Ric’s and Fatboys to name 2, but the coffee has always been welcome and the food has always been pleasing.

I am not sure if it is still open 24 hours or not, but it used to be a long time ago, and used to be one of the places to find drunk, annoyed thespians at four am. Having just checked the website, it is open from seven am to nine pm Sunday to Thursday, and from seven am to ten pm Friday and Saturday. It is also apparently still called Fatboys. So today’s title is changing to…

R is for the Royal George Hotel Fatboy Cafe

Though this is also not the exciting bit about this weekend.

It was a good bit though.

Most of the time when I go to Ric’s (you all know where I mean, and if you don’t when you go there Ric’s is written above the door) I have FatRics breakfast. I love it. It is something that has helped me on numerous occasions. It has helped me to sober up enough for a walk home, when I was a lot younger. It has helped me kill time while waiting for people. It has even been something for people to pick at while we muse about the day ahead of us, or catch up.

This time I wanted something different.

This time I went for a BBQ Meat Lover pizza. It was good. Not the best pizza I have ever eaten, but definitely worth contemplating if you are there for lunch. The biggish slices of meat were well spaced, lot’s of cheese and a pretty good barbecue sauce.

These were not my favourite bits of it though.

My favourite bit was the base. The base was great. It reminded me of, but definitely not as good as, the sourdough bases Pete used to make for our pizzas in St Lucia. I loved those things. It had the consistency and flavour of something home made. Much to the surprise of the guy working there, I asked if they made it in store. After realising this was not a question he was ready for, I went to walk away. He said he didn’t think they made the bases there, but they definitely make the pizza part there.

If I could get the crust Peking Duck Pizza on that base, I would be an incredibly happy man.

And the coffee was welcoming, as always.

This was the day after the best part of the weekend though…

The night before I had something I don’t think I have ever had before.

After the improv show, some of us went to King Tea.

Firstly, the menu has a small thing at the bottom left of it saying ‘We recommend using your hands’. Nice.

Secondly, the pickled anchovies here were not as good as Italian Street Food’s. They were ok though.

Thirdly, the blue valdean goat milk cheese, which has the words strong and tangy beside it, is only strong and tangy if you don’t like blue vein cheese (which I love). It is pleasantly mild for a blue vein. Mixed with apple and chutney, it is not an offence to hoard this for yourself. Mixed with what is coming next, it is definitely something I could get used to as a snack.

Finally, TERRINE, TERRINE, TERRRIIINNNNNE.

I may be a little impressed with the terrine. I don’t think I have had one of these before, and if I have it was not as memorable as this one. Smoked ham hock, duck leg, pistachio and pickle. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

The plate came out with three individual terrine’s on a bed of lettuce. There was mustard on it, but there is a chance that was from the goats cheese plate I had as well. Unlike the goats cheese I was not willing to share this one. The first mouthful was a good indicator of that. It wasn’t too fatty, it wasn’t greasy. It was just a burst of flavours from the different things crammed together into this brick of meat.

I had the first one on its own. The second one I mixed with some of the things from the goat cheese plate, including the goat cheese. The goat cheese, terrine, mustard, apple and chutney on a small piece of bread was pretty awesome. I don’t think it would have worked as well with a stronger blue vein cheese.

If you ever get the chance, go to King Tea and try the smoked ham hock, duck leg, pistachio and pickle. I am ending this here, as I have made myself very hungry.

 

Oh yeah, and go to Ric’s.

Have fun and eat well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Five Minutes

This weekend marked my 42nd year on this world. So to celebrate, I had a four day weekend, where I ate a lot.

No one surprised? Good.

It All Began on Friday

On Friday, I went to visit my Aunty in Sandgate. The place she is at had a barbecue for a mid morning snack, complete with animals and half a sausage and bread.

They were not tiny sausages, and half a sausage in bread was heaps for some of the people there. Those who wanted more had their own ways of getting more.

One of the people working there asked if I wanted one. I declined. He looked at me oddly, until I said it was too cooked for me. Then he got the ‘not going to ask’ look and walked off.

I walked my Aunty back to her room and said goodbye. My plan was to catch the train home and order lunch from there.

The train got stuck at Roma St. After a few minutes of delay, I thought bugger this and got off the train to head to the Winter Garden. As I got off, the announcement was made that the train was not going anywhere and everyone had to change trains.

It was looking like I was going to be going to town regardless. Onward to the Winter Garden.

Or so I thought.

As I was walking down Elizabeth street, the less crowded way, I looked over the other side of the road. I first spotted a Korean restaurant, followed by a Japanese restaurant, followed by a Korean Japanese fusion restaurant. Guess where I wound up.

Wara Wara is pretty good.

I climbed up the stairs and found myself in a  lovely place with hardly anyone in it. I was then presented with a huge menu, two thirds of which were for sharing. As I was debating between iced nectarine or something sizzling, I saw something on the share platters that caught my eye. Wagyu Steak and Octopus tartare.

I asked how big it was, and the waitress said big enough to feed two people. Sure, I’ll have one of them.

“Oh is this table for two?”

“Nope”

“Anything else”

“Hmmm”

“Are you sure?”

“Ok, I’ll have the Takoyaki as well”

“Yes”

I played around on my phone until the food came out.

The steak was not minced very much, which was fine by me, and the octopus was cut up into tiny pieces. I grabbed a pair of chopsticks and began eating. I mixed the egg yolk through it as I went.

Raw octopus is a lot firmer than I was expecting. It is slimy, and it obviously tastes of octopus, but I was expecting it to be a lot squishier. Still pretty tasty.

The takoyaki was the same as the takoyaki you get at most places. I like it, but not worth raving about.

Saturday is a good time for eating…

Saturday started at the Rocklea Markets with a couple of wonderful friends who took me there and ate Langos and sausages with me.

I really like Langos with garlic oil. It’s pretty much just deep fried pastry in garlic oil, but it is really tasty. Also, langos and a short black are a great way to start a Saturday, followed very quickly by a bucket of sausages.

There is something about the sausages at the Rocklea Markets that make me want to get them every time. I think it is that they look like each bite should be the last thing you do before your heart cries out no more and stops beating. They are not that great though. They’re not bad, but not fantastic.

After a brief respite from food,  a small group of us went to lunch at Eight Street in Garden City.

As some of you may already know, Eight Street is one of my favourite places in Garden City. I love everything about it. All the choices, all the people and all the delicious food. As I managed to get distracted before reaching Okonomi House on Friday, I wound up there for lunch. I had every intention of getting something I hadn’t tried before, but this did not happen. I got what, after one visit to the one in the Winter Garden, had very quickly become my favourite. Spicy Chicken Okonomiyaki Hiroshima style.

I love this dish. I love mixing the egg and chicken and noodles all together. I love the blend of flavours. Most of all, I love the pancake at the very bottom, which has collected all the flavours from everything else. For a small dish it’s surprisingly filling…ok it’s not, but I have no need to rush out and keep eating after I finish it.

Topping the day off was dinner at my favourite place, Detour. I am always greeted warmly there, and I love that I have a table, table 26.

I got my usual, emu tartare, and I also got braised leek as well. I have raved about the emu tartare before. This is one of my fall back dishes if I can’t think of what I want to eat as well. The braised leek was pretty good too.

I was not expecting the braised leek to be as tasty as it was. Pork braised leek mixed with candied cashews is surprisingly tasty. The freeze dried leek garnish was also pretty good. It had the texture of seaweed chips but tasted of mild leek.

This was followed by pannacotta. The reason this was my choice was the bees. I love the bees. The rest of the dessert is good, but I love the bees the most. If I could combine the bees with one of their other desserts, I’d be in heaven.

And finally my birthday day.

My actually birthday breakfast was down at Lady Marmalade’s. I think this shall become a tradition from now on. Especially after being presented with a surprise lemon and poppyseed small cake covered in cream with a little chocolate on top, while everyone sang happy birthday to me. Even strangers joined in. It was a bit embarrassing but made me feel very loved.

I had a double smoked bacon and egg burger for breakfast. It was good. I use to get them a lot before the refurbishment, but this one was a lot better than those.

Sorry to the old staff.

It didn’t have sriracha on it though, which would have made it better for me, but it was still good.

I am going to have to start going there again more frequently.

Dinner for my birthday was gyoza.

I had been asked what I wanted and it took me a while to decide what I wanted. It occurred to me, on Thursday I think, that what I really love eating, more than most things, in a group is gyoza.

Even when I get full, if there are gyoza in front of me I will keep eating. There is something about the individually wrapped morsels that i can’t help thinking, one more won’t hurt.

Ok, I have rambled enough about my three days of eating.

Have fun and eat well everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This weekend was Q, which meant off to Quench. I know Quench as somewhere to get good gelato in Gasworks. It may be for other food as well, but that isn’t important.

Quench is part of The Standard Market. There is also a patisserie attached to this and the Standard Market itself. Not talking any more about the Standard Market.

Let’s talk about the most decadent neapolitan gelati I could think of.

I had been told that quench had one of, if not the very, the best vegan chocolate gelato that there was, in Brisbane at least. This is why Q was Quench. I had been here before and deliberately not gotten it so that I could get it on Saturday for the first time. I believe my initial visit is in my Italian Street Food entry. Which will be on facebook somewhere, if not here.

I got a sample.

Before it even hit my lips I could taste the chocolate in the air. Then I put the spoon in my mouth. This was definitely good chocolate. It’s certainly the best vegan chocolate gelato I have ever had, and now I feel compelled to actively seek out others to find out. It was almost like having chocolate crackles without the crackle, or the sweet cloying aftertaste, that I really do love. I felt a little like I was tasting a good wine or a good coffee, letting it swirl around my mouth, discovering the the myriad of flavours, ok the lack of myriad of anything except chocolate.

That’s it, it was like eating unsullied chocolate, but in a good way. No surprise lumps of ice, which I have had in both ice cream and gelato, no hint of sugar or syrup, no odd milky flavour. Just chocolate.

Chocolate is sometimes better with other things. Caramel, chili, ham, freeze dried mandarins, silkworms and peanuts, are all things I have found chocolate is normally enhanced by. Especially silkworms. So as I looked around the many tubs of gelato, wondering what would go best with this magnificent flavour, I spotted french vanilla. YES

I have a plan.

To the chocolate I added French vanilla and strawberry. This was the most the most decadent neapolitan I have ever had.

The french vanilla was also good, but not raving on about it for ages good, as was the strawberry. Both combined on their own, ie sans chocolate, were beautiful. A wonderful creamy pairing, with a slightly tart aftertaste. Just enough tart, mind you, not too much. I had to eat a bit of both of these to get to a point where I could finally merge all three flavours.

…

…

The french vanilla and strawberry, on it’s own, is a beautiful combination. It makes your mouth smile on the inside as well as the outside. It makes your tongue roll about your mouth lazily, like it is stretching and writhing over smooth sheets. Smooth vanilla and strawberry flavoured sheets. Now let’s move away from your sheets. Chocolate is not a happy sheet thing.

French Vanilla, Strawberry and Vegan Chocolate however is a mouthquake of the best kind. The three flavours swirl around your mouth in a sweet symphony sung by syrup sirens of seductive swirliness. My mouth vibrated with delight. Even now my mouth is thrown back into  the throes of passion as the three flavours slowly left my palate.

I am aware not everyone has this reaction to flavours. I do, this is why I am sharing.

Where was I…

I eventually, after too few blissful mouthfuls of the three flavours, was left with just the chocolate. While the three flavours combined were amazing, to me at least. Just being left with the chocolate was still a great ending to this. It didn’t take long before the chocolate flavour dominated my mouth and I was enjoying swirling it around, and tasting the unsullied chocolate flavours.

I have just realised, thanks to word count, I have written about six hundred and fifty words about a triple scoop gelato cup. Yes, yes it was that good. If you wish to try, please do not go in thinking you are going to be blown away. Please go in thinking, I am going to try something that is ok.

It’ll be better that way.

Next weekend it is my birthday. As you can guess, there will be a lot of eating happening during the weekend.

I will tell you all the best bits.

 

 

I had decided, due to the web resource I can’t remember the name of, that I was going to go to pancake manor for P. I know it is in the city, but whichever web restaurant guide thing I looked at only had a couple of P places in the valley and they were permanently closed. It had neither Phat Pho or Peng’s Chinese Restaurant. It didn’t even have Ponycat. I need to change my web resource.

Anyway…

Pancake Manor and Nostalgia

So after a brief think about the best way to get there, I got the train to South Brisbane and ambled across the bridge to The Pancake Manor. This is one of my favourite walks to do of an evening. I love watching the gaggles of people waddling toward Southbank. Sometimes they are walking but usually, if there is enough of them, this is hindered by the ones at the front marvelling at the view of the river and the city from the bridge. This in turn slows the whole group down to an awkward waddle as they have to make way for the people that, much to their surprise, seem to need to use the bridge to go the other way.

I wound up stuck behind some waddlers going toward the city, until there were none coming toward me and I could stride around the gaggle and walk off.

I hit the Queen Street Mall and turned left to my destination. On a path that I am sure has had my boot/sneaker/foot prints worn into it since the mid 90’s along with countless other gamers, goths, students and everyone else who suddenly goes “What’s still open it’s 3am?”.

I climbed the all too familiar front steps, and paused briefly as I contemplated what I actually wanted.

As I walked in, I felt the general wave of nostalgia that generally hits me when the door shuts. The amount of times I have been in here, and three of us ordered one basket of chips. The first time I could afford to eat everything on the menu I wanted to. The first time I regretted this decision due to volume of food, yeah yeah same time.

I was seated and shown the menu.  Out of curiousity does anyone who reads this long winded thing have any menus from there from about 20 years ago? My mind insists they looked the same as they do now, but I don’t think that is right.

Crepes are pancakes too man…

I looked through the menu, there were a lot of things on it I wanted to eat.

I settled on Crepe Escape and The Ultimate.

Crepe Escape is 3 ham and cheese filled crepes, all resting on a little cushion/dollop of mashed potato, with one grilled pineapple ring and some sort of thin tomato sauce. The menu didn’t mention the dollop of potato, this isn’t a bad thing necessarily until you get surprise potato in your mouth.

I did not get surprise potato, I am observant. The potato mixed with the ham and cheese crepe was ok. It wasn’t great. I was not expecting great though. It was the way I was expecting it to be, which was the good bit.

I have had a few different crepes from pancake manor, the seafood one is my favourite, and I got this because I couldn’t remember having it before. I am pretty sure I was wrong.

It may not have been mine though.

The Ultimate followed. I have had this many times, I love this. Two crepes filled with cream cheese and sultanas, with raspberry coulis and vanilla ice cream. The whole thing combined seems so simple, yet tastes wonderful.

Ok, maybe raspberry coulis is not simple to make.

I can’t help wolfing this down.

I look at it. I think maybe I shouldn’t eat this that quickly. I wonder where the first half disappeared to. I realise that I must have already eaten it as I am cleaning up the last of the crepe and coulis.

As always I was left contemplating whether or not I could eat a second one. I chose no and went home.

Happily I felt like I had eaten enough for the night.

Waddling home.

I was feeling a bit full and wandered to the Myer centre to catch a bus home. There are few times I wish I had a car. This was one of them, but I really only wanted it to drive to the Myer Centre to get the bus.

I don’t mind walking home feeling full. Ok waddling home full. I forget that there are people around me and my mind just wanders. This occasionally leads to my  mouth wandering.

So if you ever see me walking along a path, singing and laughing to myself, I am not drunk.

I am full.

Good night.

 

 

O was Oyama. A japanese restaurant in Cathedral Village, attached to Cathedral place. It’s a beautiful,little place that is very inviting and welcoming. As soon as we walked through the door we were warmly greeted and the waitress had already figured out which booking we were for.

We went for the teppanyaki.

I thought I hadn’t tried teppanyaki before, until I remembered I’d been to Kamikaze in Garden City. Before I get onto the experience I had on Saturday, and how much better it was than Kamikaze, I would like to say that Kamikaze is a great place that does awesome crocodile and kangaroo dishes. The cooking style is the same, but the whole experience at Oyama is better, almost warmer.

Stepping Inside

As I mentioned before I felt that Oyama was a warm place to go and eat. All the staff were very friendly and we were never made to feel rushed. This could be because there were only 7 other people in the place, including staff. The place is very nicely laid out, there is a sushi bar on the opposite side of the restaurant (which I want to go and try because it looked like the guy was making the sushi just before each plate) and there are a lot of seats for just regular dining. To the right of the entrance was our destination, two giant hot plates surrounded by a single oval shaped bench and about 14 chairs.

There were only 2 of us, and it felt a little empty for a few seconds until we were presented with the menu. There are 4 set menus. The only 2 I really remember are bamboo and pine. We chose bamboo because I prefer moreton bay bugs to lobster. Next time I am getting pine.

Preparing to be impressed

As we sat down and our coffees were brought out to us, we eagerly awaited the spectacle to begin. Their coffee machine was broken, and they warned us they only had instant, but it still was presented as if it was good ground coffee. I was enjoying this already.

The dipping sauce was also handed to us. A lemony, honey type sauce on the left for seafood and a miso based sauce on the right for red meat. Being curious I tasted both sauces on their own.

The lemony, honey based sauce was pretty nice and if someone had given me a cup of it I would have drunk it thinking it was some sort of lemon tea. The miso sauce was a milder miso flavour than I usually have, and on it’s own was not that appealing. It wasn’t bad just kind of bleh on its own.

We were given a salad, that I almost forgot about entirely. It was pretty simple and had a really nice vinaigrette. I was very hungry so the salad lasted all of a minute. Not long after I finished it the first dish was being prepared.

Moreton Bay Bugs and Salmon

Watching the chef cook this dish was amazing in its own right. He would throw the seasoning around and tap the spatulas on the hot plate. All the while scooping and flipping the moreton bay bugs. Two pieces of salmon sat close to us being ignore, or so it seemed.

He added some sauces to the bugs and some more seasoning and served it up to us on two rectangular plates. This was the tastiest bug I have ever had. While we were eating this and savouring every mouthful, the chef cooked the salmon. This was then put onto the plate that the bug had been on so you could have the sauce with it.

This combined with the lemony sauce was really good. I tried a little of the salmon with the miso, you never know, but it didn’t work that well. Not unpleasant but not brilliant either.

Scallops and Steak

These two were cooked separately. We got the scallops first, this was followed, obviously, by the steak.

The scallops were big, for scallops. Watching the chef cook them, like most things he did, was impressive. As he cooked he told us a little bit about what he was doing. He added a splash of this and a dash of that, but wouldn’t say exactly what he was adding just referring to it as seasoning if he said anything about it at all. Every now and then a dollop of butter would be dumped into the middle of the cooking food.

My mouth is watering just thinking of it.

The scallops were beautiful, I didn’t want to dip them in the sauce as I loved them on there own.

The steak was cooked very quickly, being flicked over the hot plate through the seasoning as we watched. I don’t recall what we were talking about at this point, I was more curious about the meat itself. The seafood had been great, how was the steak going to be?

Great. Especially dipped in the miso. On its own it was ok. Mixed with the miso it was great. It, like the salad, vanished quickly.

I was thinking it would be more cooked than it was when watching it being flicked around the hot plate. I thought that maybe this would be too well cooked for my liking. I was very wrong. It wasn’t raw, but medium rare, which is the most cooked I like things. Like most of the dishes, I could have easily eaten more of this.

Stir Fry Vegetables

After a ten minute break, we had stir fried vegetables. I think they were cooked in soy sauce, amongst other things. The chefs hands were hard to follow as he cut up the mushrooms, zucchinis and other vegetables as he cooked.

Eating it was just as good as watching it. The sauce and seasoning made everything taste amazing. As I was eating it I watched as the chef put 2 eggs on the counter, and smiled.

Fried rice and spilled eggs

After we had eaten the vegetables we were both given small bowls. The chef then flicked an egg toward the bowls. One of us caught it. It was not me. I wound up with egg down my shirt and egg on the floor. The chef had already prepared another egg, knowing one of us was going to break one.

He poured the egg onto the hot plate and made the fried rice. This is the best way I have ever seen to make fried rice. It was thrown around the hot plate with ease. Scraped up and flicked around with flair. Finally it was bowled and thrown to us.

This time I caught it.

The fried rice was amazing. It also reminded me of my mums fried rice. This had fresh vegetables instead of frozen in it, and didn’t contain frankfurters (for those who haven’t had frankfurters cut up and put through fried rice you need to try it), but it tasted just as good. I love my mum’s fried rice, and was really impressed when this tasted similar. More impressed with my mum.

Fruit and Fried Ice Cream

Finally we got to the end of the meal. There was a small plate with a decoratively carved piece of apple, orange and rockmelon.

They were fruit. Nice fruit, but nothing exciting. A good way to end the teppanyaki.

I finished my meal off with fried ice cream with caramel sauce.

I love fried ice cream. Whoever thought this up in the first place is a culinary genius. A ball of battered ice cream in a bowl covered in caramel sauce is the second best way to end this kind of meal.

 

If it had bees it would have been perfect.

Night All.

 

 

N is for NEW FOOD…

It happens rarely these days. I don’t usually find something I haven’t eaten before, and I have to admit I did find this online, but I found something I haven’t had before. I had chocolate coated bugs.

Chocolate coated bugs.

I will repeat, with much enthusiasm, CHOCOLATE COATED BUGS.

THEY CAME. FROM THAILAND.

About four or five weeks ago I decided I wanted to eat bugs. A quick google search later and I discovered a website that could accommodate my desire, Thailand Unique. I put in my order. I waited. Two weeks passed, still waiting. Maybe people were right and it didn’t make it through customs. Oh well, it didn’t cost too much, worth a shot.

Then one day at work someone asked me if I had ordered anything from Thailand, there was a package on my desk from there. I dropped what I was doing and ran, for the first time in a while, to my desk. THEY MADE IT.

I held them in my hand and raced to one of my friends at work to show her. Later on we would have one each.

I got chocolate coated scorpions, chocolate coated crickets, chocolate coated sago worms and chocolate coated silk worms. I ate them in that order.

Chocolate Coated Scorpions

I waited until the person at work I wanted to share it with was free to do so. It was the first tin I opened. Two small chocolate coated scorpions were in the tin. She had one and I had one. They were crunchy, but mostly tasted of chocolate. Mostly. There is a dish at my favourite restaurant, Detour, called gun powder salmon. It has black ants on it to give it a kick. The scorpion had a similar kind of kick. It was pretty good, but had the same sort of aftertaste as the ants did too.

Aside from the crunch and the chocolate, there isn’t much flavour to a scorpion. There is some though. In hindsight the only thing I can think to describe it as is scorpion flavour, which sounds kind of obvious when you think about it. It tastes less like prawns or crabs than I thought it would.

All up, I like it. I also liked walking around work complaining legitimately about having scorpion shall stuck in my teeth.

Chocolate Coated Crickets

This was the next tin I opened.

Oh yeah, all the insects came in these small tins the size of small cat food tins.

Anyway, the next tin contained the crickets. They were a little disappointing in chocolate. Like the scorpions and the ants, they had a slight ant like after taste. If you have never eaten ants, it is a tiny bit like vegemite and alfoil had a baby and it is now jumping around on your tongue, in a subdued fashion. If they leave the sting on, or that bit at the end that bloody hurts if it is a green ant, you get a little kind of popping feeling too.

Crickets don’t have the pop. They don’t have a stronger flavour than chocolate either. If it hadn’t been for the bits of shell stuck in my teeth I may not have noticed the flavour at all. I want to try crickets on there own to see what they taste like, or with chili.

Chocolate Coated Sago Worms.

Sago worms are wormish for the most part, with a crunchy head, and small chunk of crunchy torso. Like the others, they had the odd aftertaste. At first I thought it may have been any bug that had chiton, bug armour if you will. Then I realised, bees don’t have that. Bees are kind of sweet, and mostly crunch. Maybe it was being in the tins that did it. Not sure, will have to have more to find out.

The worm itself had the first real bit of flavour that stood up to the chocolate. It was a mild flavour still but I could taste it. Kind of smooth and nutty works. I think they use nutty to describe something that has a blandish kind of flavour that leaves you desperately searching for a description. Also woody.

Brendon’s food terms – Nutty – no real describable flavour but you need to tell them something, see also Woody.

Oh, I think if you had just the right amount of olive oil and mixed enough salt in it to shift it up slightly higher than bland, that would be the flavour mixed with the chocolate.

As much as I haven’t sold it here, they were not bad. Try them one day.

Chocolate Coated Silk Worms

These were my favourites. They were beautiful and smooth. They had an almost creamy flavour, not very sweet, but really smooth. If any insect is destined to be mixed with chocolate flavour it is these. I could probably eat a kilo of these.

Shouldn’t but could.

They tasted like the kind of flavour that you know is probably not good for you to eat a lot of. No odd aftertaste. No real crunch, you can’t have a perfect win. No chiton caught in my teeth. I loved these.

Given my general taste in food, I am not going to say go buy them they are amazing. Not many people share my tastes, but please don’t pass up an opportunity to try them. Once you get over the fact that you’re eating a silkworm, you might like it.

In conclusion

This is definitely something I am doing again. There are more bugs to eat and more flavour combinations to try. Chili crickets. Waterbugs. I want to try them all.

If you can wrap your head around the bug part they are pretty tasty.

 

Oh, that’s right. Burnt marrow. That tastes a little bit like the scorpion and ant after taste. Learning.

 

It starts with M. My Saturday adventure started in the Morning (another M word) and went through to about 6:30 at night. It wasn’t the best adventure, and it had a low point, but it was an adventure, and more importantly it was Mine (M again).

The reason I am reminding you about the letter M in weird spots is because I didn’t make it to Mr Fitz, or any other places that started with M, unless you count Movies.

Part 1, intro to impro

I started the day by heading to an introduction to improv thing. On the way I had breakfast at a little place across the road from the location, that I can’t actually remember the name of.

I had a long black and a salmon and cream cheese bagel.

This is my food adventure still , so that is the bit I’m talking about. The improv course was good, and I am going to go and do a course, but back to the food.

The coffee was not bad, not great but average. The bagel itself was ok. I am not usually a fan of bagels, nothing against them just not what I usually reach for. The smoked salmon looked and tasted like the stuff you get in the packet from a supermarket. It had philadelphia cream cheese and green capers too. All up it was ok, when I managed to get a mouthful that contained a caper, some cream cheese and some salmon it was pretty good, but there were only a few of those bites.

After eating this I went in search of a slurpee to a Quick-E-Mart that no longer exists, so I wandered back to the place where the improv was and wound up a little lost.

Part 2, My Favourite Detour

After the improv intro I went home very briefly before heading to a place that has become one of my favourite restaurants, Detour.

It has 2 things I love about it.

1: It is about a 15 minute walk from my house, if I dawdle.

2: BEES, if you order the right dessert you get to eat BEES. Only 2 but that’s ok.

On Saturday I went in to get my favourite thing on their menu. I ordered Emu Tartare and Salt and Vinegar Beer Battered chips, and also Panna Cotta with the BEES for dessert. Ever since I had it the first time Emu Tartare became one of my favourite things to eat. This time was no different, even though the dish was.

When I first got it, the emu tartare was on a giant cracker. When you ate it, you’d break a bit off and make sure it’s got the emu tartare on it. The new way has the emu tartare on a plate and a small bowl of crisp polenta strips, which you are meant to put the emu on. Unfortunately I wound up with just the polenta strips. There is something I can’t resist about raw-ish emu, egg yolk and onion.

I have had the salt and vinegar beer battered  chips before too, this time they were better. I hate to admit this, but the first time I had them they weren’t that good. The first time they weren’t that crisp and the salt and vinegar flavour was mild. This time, straight off the bat, you could taste the salt and vinegar. They had a little bit of crunch to them, and were soft on the inside. I would have liked to have mixed the emu with one, but the emu wasn’t there anymore. I want more emu dammit.

All of this was followed by their panna cotta. I love the bees part of this. Bees are crunchy little balls of a little bit of sweet. Mixed with the flowers and panna cotta, they are a small burst of nectary sweetness. Only tiny, and it could be easily missed. If I could mix the bees with the mandarin gelato (I think that’s what it is it’s cold and mandarin flavour and awesome) from another dessert I would be in heaven.

Part 3 A small scandinavian festival

After Detour I went to a small Scandinavian Festival. If this is only their first or second festival, keep trying, please don’t give up.

I wandered around the whole thing twice in ten minutes. There wasn’t really a lot to see, and it looked like there were more coffee stalls and generic food stalls than there were scandinavian food stalls.

I saw a few scandinavian food stalls, but it was all stuff I have had at West End or the Rocklea markets. There was a viking display, that looked pretty good, but I was a bit late for that. After completing the second lap, I went to the movies.

Part 4 Finally the movies

Instead of trying to figure out what to do in the valley, until I was meant to go to Mr Fitz for ice cream, I went to the movies.

I went and saw IT, it’s not bad.

The only thing I ate when I was there was a large tub of popcorn. Movie Popcorn at that. I think I had finished the large tub about 30 minutes into the movie.

I am pretty sure that the degree of saltiness, from salt and butter, means that you should really get two drinks with this. My large drink was gone about a third of the way through. Make that three drinks. I prefer this kind of popcorn for movies at the cinema. I have had caramel popcorn before at the cinema, and I wind up with it everywhere. Buttered popcorn just goes in my mouth or on the floor. Sometimes it does fall on my clothes, but, unlike caramel popcorn, buttered popcorn just falls off. Caramel corn sometimes remains stuck until I go to fo my washing.

On that note I am off, have a good night everyone.

 

 

They only do one thing.

On Saturday night I went to Les Bubbles for dinner with a friend. For those of you that don’t know Les Bubbles, at least main course wise, only has one dish.

Steak Frites(fries) and green salad.

You get the green salad first and then the steak and fries. Unless you ask for something else, there is a sign on the menu that says it is cooked medium-rare. I will get to the meal soon though.

Atmosphere

When you go into Les Bubbles, you are greeted by a rather friendly individual. We had originally booked for four, and fortuitously only two of us could make it. I say this as the table we were at was a touch small. The man who led us to our table said that he knew it was small, but people are surprised at how easy it is for 4 people to eat at such a tiny table. I suspect part of the reason for this is that once you start the steak you stop caring about space and just think about the steak…and the fries.

We were seated and almost immediately I notice the photos on the walls, though in hindsight I don’t entirely remember what they were of. I mostly remember the staff buzzing about. They were remarkably good at quickly walking through the small space behind the guests without too much intrusion, the place is a little narrow due to the layout, but not for those sitting down. There were booths that looked like they could seat six, and a few larger tables, one of which began filling when we got there and seemed to continuously get more people as we ate.

The kitchen was on the other side of the bar, you could see all the cooking happening. I enjoyed the view out the window of Fortitude Valley, and looking in the direction of the photos, that I now realise I paid absolutely bugger all attention to.

Choices, choices, choices…

Mainly, how do you want it cooked.

As most of you know, from a very recent entry, I prefer my steak to be blue, if not raw. This was what I ordered. I also ordered a long black, which wasn’t too bad either. I have rather happily developed the habit of ordering coffee over soft drink if it is available.

Our choices made from the exhaustive list of one option, we sat back and waited, for a short amount of time before the salad was presented as an entree.

The salad consisted of soft green leafy bits, walnuts and dijonnaise, or a dijon based vinaigrette not sure. All in all, it was just the right amount for an entree, even for me. The whole thing was simple, like something you could make at home if you could be bothered…which I can’t.

The steak and fries came out next. Oh, you do get to make a choice on sauces. There was Sauce Cafe De Paris, Sauce Bearnaise and a Green Peppercorn and Cognac. I naturally got all three. I looked at the steak and the decent sized hill of fries next to it, I was going to say mountain but I reckon you could have gotten more on the plate.

Cautiously I cut a big enough piece off of the steak to see whether or not it was blue. YES. It tasted great and it was blue. Nice.

I tried a frie. They were really good too.

I was blown away. I was expecting to like the food, but the steak was better than I was expecting. I tried it with each of the sauces and while I did like it with the Sauce Cafe De Paris the best, I much preferred it on its own.

After the steak vanished, I began on the fries. Any leftover sauce I had went onto the fries. The fries were thin, the right level of crisp and full of salty, potatoey goodness.

I leant back in my chair and finished my second cup of coffee, and the remaining bread.

Oh yeah, there was bread and butter too.

Now for Dessert.

At this point we headed down the small street next to Les Bubbles to Mr Fitzy’s. I had a craving for ice cream and about 50 steps from dinner, maybe 55, was some ice cream. I got three scoops. Butterscotch, called something else, Raspberry sherbert/sorbet type thing and a blue one.

The blue one tasted mostly of vanilla, but was that bright I felt like I was eating playdough.

The butterscotch one was pretty good and so was the raspberry one.

Next time I go to Mr Fitzy’s I am going to get an ice cream cookie sandwich.

Next time I go to Les Bubbles I am not going to bother getting sauce.

Next week is M, and I am not 100% certain it isn’t just going to be an ice cream cookie sandwich.

We shall see, dear reader, we shall see.

 

 

It always starts with a mild plan…

I started with the mild plan of going to Les Bubbles a week ago. I unfortunately left it too late to book the time I wanted. So a mild plan of going to Les Bubbles turned into a lemon and herb plan of going to Longtime.

For those who don’t get the Nando reference; I wasn’t completely committed to the first plan, I thought I was at the time but mild doesn’t really do a lot for me, and I haven’t been a fan of lemon and herb for a long time, not since I discovered that extra hot Nandos is my favourite. So when it came time for me to leave the party I was at on Saturday to head to Les Bubbles, I flipped a coin.

Heads I ventured forth into the Valley and to whatever I found that was open, had space and preferably started with L.

Tails I stayed at the Brook, in Mitchelton, and continued to party.

2 coin flips of “Tails” later and a magic 8 ball reading, which said it was inevitable that I stayed (paraphrasing), and I wound up having dinner at the Brook. Which I will get to later, but it was not the L  I wasn’t expecting.

The L I wasn’t expecting…

About a month and a bit ago Lady Marmalade’s shut its doors for renovations. Not too long ago it reopened its doors. I hadn’t been there since the renovations, and there is a more convenient cafe on my way to work where I can sit and draw and feel slightly less rushed.

Sunday I figured it’s time to go back. Some of my friends had already been and said it was very different.

I was a little afraid of what they may have done. I was prepared to look in, look around and go “This is not my Lady Marmalade’s”. I didn’t.

I walked through the door and was instantly greeted by the people there that recognised me, and ushered through to a seat at the bench/bar. Every one was asking how I had been and if I was still drawing. It was pretty welcoming actually. It felt like they would have moved the furniture to make space for me, it was pretty awesome.

I sat at the bench and began to work on the tattoo design I am doing. I got a long black while I debated what I wanted to eat. Finally I asked if they still had waffles, ice cream, salted caramel and berries, which I usually added sriracha to. They did not. They did have french toast with rhubarb, ice cream and FAIRY FLOSS. It was brilliant.

I only managed to get a few mouthfuls of all the flavours at once, fairy floss doesn’t last very long with me. The whole thing worked really well together, and tasted a bit like sweet, sweet breakfast decadence. I think coffee goblin and booze monkey may become a 6 day a week comic.

Also, whoever decided we need to have more flowers in dishes, thank you. I love eating flowers.

The Brook

As I mentioned before we went to the Brook for a friends birthday on Saturday night. It has been a while since I have eaten at a pub.

I ordered the rump fillet with ribs. When asked how I would like the rump I said what I always say. Blue. As blue as you can make it. The guy looked at me and asked me to repeat myself. I said blue again, he said no one had asked for blue before the whole time he’d been working there. This is something I have gotten used to. It is also becoming a good sign, as places that don’t question it tend to give me rare or medium rare.

I watched everyone else getting their food and began to get a little worried, if blue takes too long to get to you, probably not going to be blue.

Then I heard the magic words, ‘rump and ribs, dianne sauce Blue’.

That was mine. It was rare. It was also only a centimetre thick so I am not going to hold that against them. Doing a thin steak blue is very difficult. The other reason I am not holding it against them, it was pretty good. As I cut it open I could see that a definite attempt had been made to make it blue, which I appreciated.

The ribs were pretty good too. The chips were too, but very rarely have I had bad pub chips.

The only thing that I wasn’t much of a fan of was the slaw. When did a little bit of cabbage, some carrot and a small fleck of dressing dancing around the cabbage like it had a phobia of plants. I have had slaw like this a few times from various places now. Maybe it’s the new trend. Next time, no slaw.

I also finished off someone’s wings. They were pretty good too. Definitely have to go back some time.

Now for something completely in character…

Soooo, Jilder bought me a packet of “2 x Spicy Chicken flavoured noodles”. They claim to be the hottest you can buy. They have their scoville score written on the back, 8706 apparently.

I discovered today there have been people doing this as a youtube challenge or a blog challenge.

This was neither of those. I like really hot food. I have been able to tolerate spicier food as I have been eating it, and it was gotten for me because I would like it.

I did. I ate all the noodles, but didn’t drink the broth. The burning lasted for 45 minutes, but I loved it. My eyes were watering so bad I had to take my glasses off. Every mouthful was burning and a really nice chili flavour. When you get used to it, chili has a flavour. I actually like the flavour.

Next time I have it I will drink the broth. I am also thinking of adding dumplings to it, and maybe some wurst from the Brat Cave.

hmmmm wurst.

Have fun people, I have made myself hungry and am now off to find a snack.

 

 

 

 

This weekend I was very busy, and a combination of odd public transport experiences and a lack of desire to be traipsing over the Valley in the course of a morning meant that I did not do L this week.

I did try something new, which I will get to soon. This is very rare, as a lot of you know. I have a tendency to seek out new things, and what starts as a pool, turns to a puddle and then a trickle if you remain in one city doing this. The trickle eventually becomes a drip, especially if you have friends from all over the world, but now reside here, helping you to find things you have never eaten.

The drops come in the form of fusion, Crocodile Teppanyaki, or odd flavours, wasabi and mint ice cream. There are still heaps of things I haven’t eaten, but the things available in Brisbane that I haven’t tried are getting fewer. Not that this is bad, if anything it means I need to get a passport.

Until then, I shall continue to eat at new places (for me) in Brisbane. Sunday we ate at Pit Boss American BBQ & Eats, in Coorparoo.

I love Ribs

I’m not ashamed to admit it, I love ribs. I love the mess they make, I love the flavour and if I can get away with it I love licking the plate clean. I usually miss bits of sauce on my face when I clean it afterwards, and most the time I wind up with sauce on my clothes. Once on my forehead. Sticky fingers. The lingering taste of sauce.

My favourite ribs are from Ribbets, but Pit Boss had some pretty good ribs too. They weren’t very fatty, it mostly felt like I  was eating lean meat, and they came off the bone pretty easily. Naturally I ordered them spicy.

The plate came out with a small stack of ribs covered in bbq sauce. With a bowl of chips and slaw on the side, not a lot of slaw but it was there. The chips were good, they were well cooked and covered in bbq salt. I really liked the bbq salt flavour, but I am really glad I ordered 2 cherry colas as well. The slaw was there, it tasted like an afterthought. I am pretty sure if you are buying a plate of ribs you are not thinking “I hope I get slaw”. Maybe you are, but I am not. I am thinking “I wonder if it will actually be spicy”.

Not for me.

At first I thought it was just that they gave me mild ribs, and they may have, but as I look at the packet of 2 X Spicy Hot Chicken Flavour Ramen I think it may have been my palate. They were still delicious. Not as good as Ribbets, but definitely worth having again.

This combined with dessert made me want to nap.

Dessert

I got three scoops of ice cream for dessert.

The first scoop I am going to talk about was the last one I ate. Key Lime pie ice cream. t was bright green and sprinkled with biscuit crumbs. It tasted like key lime pie plus. Making this thing into an ice cream flavour was a great idea. By the time I got to it though, it had melted enough that it took me about 30 seconds to eat it. Still tasted pretty good.

The second scoop, and the one I ate, or at least finished, second, was Peanut Butter and Jelly ice cream. It tasted like someone had a make your own ice cream kit and thought that using actual peanut butter and jelly was better than using just those flavours. They were right. I am not usually a peanut butter person, unless it is mixed with garlic (my mouth not was so lump it) but this was really good. It felt like there were chunks of peanut butter throughout it. I want more just thinking about it.

The last scoop I want to talk about.

The first one I ate.

The new flavour I hadn’t tried before.

I had always wonder what something like this would be like ever since I saw a similar thing on a Heston Blumenthal show.

Was.

SMOKED MAPLE BACON FLAVOURED ICE CREAM!

Ok, this stuff was everything it said on the box. I tasted like smoked maple bacon. It tasted like ice cream. The texture got a little weird toward the end, but hey IT’S BACON. I was amazed at how this tasted. I was expecting it to taste more like ice cream with a hint of bacon. Like when your friend makes home made spirits and it tastes more like the alcohol bit and less like the flavour it’s meant to. This genuinely tasted like smoked maple bacon. It was pretty good.

I know I am known for adding chili sauce to a lot of things, such as waffles and ice cream, coffee, popcorn, chocolate etc, but I genuinely think this would go awesomely with hot chili sauce. On it’s own it was great, chili smoked maple bacon ice cream though would be amazing.

Stopping there…

I am going to wrap up here as my head now is trying to imagine what Sriracha, Smoked Maple Bacon Ice Cream and Bees would taste like combined.

I love the fact I actually have all of those flavours in my memory to mix in my head.

I wonder if I supplied my own bees and Sriracha would Pit Boss be upset?

Probably not.

Have fun.