Anouk

Anouk
212 Given Tce, Paddington



I've started the grueling task of Christmas shopping. One of my stops was a gourmet food store (Gourmet Providores) on Given Terrace so we decided to also get lunch around there.

It's been a while since I ventured onto Given Terrace. I remember the last time I went, I spotted a cafe that I wanted to try. We walked past it again yesterday and I realized it was Anouk.



Anouk was packed. We decided to try our luck by asking for a table and if there weren't any free, we would move on to someplace else. Amazingly, we acquired a table for 2 (what appeared to be the last vacant spot in the entire cafe).

UQ Schonell Pizza Caffe

UQ Schonell Pizza Caffe
Schonell Theatre, Uni Of Qld Union Rd, St Lucia



The past couple of years, the only time I've stepped into St Lucia campus was for exam revision so I don't exactly have kind associations there. Yesterday was graduation day and I took the chance to enjoy the only thing one thing I'm guaranteed to miss from uni - the pizza cafe (which is spelt with double 'f' on their website).

No one is allowed to touch the food before I get my shots :D

To provide some scene setting, I'll first say that yesterday was steaming hot. I was sweating so much I had to peel myself from the seat of my car, and that's WITH the air-conditioning provided by my car. When I got outside, I had to deal with the impossibilities of trying to find my mum ("Where are you??? The library?? There are more than 5 libraries here!!! Which one are you at?? What do you mean there's grass here?? There's grass everywhere!!!").

Siana in the Valley for a platter with bubbly

Siana Bar Dining Lounge in Fortitude Valley
http://www.sianavalley.com.au/



I've been to the city Siana once before for a curry Buffet and dessert platter. The meal was lovely and I left with a good impression so I was keen to see if the Valley Siana was in the same vein.



After the trouble finding parking (I think they have on-site parking but we missed the turn and parked a few streets away), we got to the restaurant, which is located on the ground floor of the HQ complex. On first sight, it looks like an office building, tall with lots of glass.

Fab Fish & Burger Grill

Fab Fish and Burger Grill
Shop 12, The Barracks, 61 Petrie Terrace, Paddington



I don't often head to Paddington because I've got it in my head that parking is really difficult to find. Luckily, that's not an issue when someone else is driving and it's their job to find parking.

Paddington street art

I heard about Fab as I was browsing other food blogs and suddenly got a burger craving. We headed there today for lunch.

Banana Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting and Cashew Praline

Banana Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting and Cashew Praline
Home Cooking



We had a banana crisis in our house last week. Usually, bananas get eating up fairly quickly because they're easy to eat and don't require washing or cutting (we're very lazy). This particular bunch contained GIANT bananas that no one seemed to want to touch. Mum went through a few by cutting them in half and eating a bit at a time but by the end of the week, we had these giant, browning bananas and dad, who never gives me baking requests said 'please do something with those'.


I've made many banana breads before so to try something different, I typed banana cake into Google to see what would come up. I was instantly attracted by this recipe and ended up using it. I followed it for the most part but forgot to buy sour cream so I substituted that for yogurt instead. I know it's normal to substitute natural yogurt for sour cream but I admit mine was just a normal flavored tub, the type you snack on. The cake still turned out fine and I couldn't taste any of the yogurt at all... though, if you must know, I used 'stick date pudding' flavor. I also modified the frosting a bit (left out the sour cream).

Garnish Bistro

Garnish Bistro
http://www.garnishbistro.com/



I have a special short list of restaurants that NEED to be attended to before I leave for Toowoomba. We decided on Garnish for today and drove out to Kangaroo Point in the rain to see what they were all about.



The Garnish Bistro website is put together with some cheesy graphics and a retirement village color scheme (sorry web design team!) so I expected it to be, well, amateurish... but when I saw the actual restaurant, I was pleasantly surprised.

Pasta with Ben and Jerry

Pasta with Ben and Jerry
Home Cooking



Today, a tray of 4 tomatoes cost me $13.

This is the story...

Last night, I was watching Gourmet Farmer on SBS and Matt made this really simple pasta that somehow looked amazing. He was investigating the use of goat produce, namely goat's milk and goat's cheese. The pasta involved fresh tomato, basil, olive oil and goat's cheese tossed with freshly cooked pasta. Sounds easy, yeh?



I woke up today with a huge craving for it and thought 'I won't even need lots of ingredients... this will be a cinch'.

Salt @ Rosalie for Dessert

Salt Food Wine Coffee
5 Nash St, Paddington



After finishing a gloriously heavy meal at Archive, what better to do than find somewhere to have dessert? Look, it's not because I'm piggy, alright? I haven't been out to eat in a long while. I have obligations as a food blogger. This is about doing it for Hungry Kittens! And not at all about my sweet tooth :D.



I've exhausted most of the 'dessert' places around Brisbane. It's a mark of how dedicated I am to finding new restaurants to write about that I resisted the temptation of going to Max Brenner. Where else then? With Freestyle out of the question (I've blogged that place twice now), there are limited options. Most cafes that specialize in desserts don't last long (I only just found out today that Room4Dessert has closed down) or have been visited already (Milany and Mud come to mind) so we thought we'd just find a random restaurant and try out their dessert menu.

Archive 2 for 1 Wednesday

Archive Beer Boutique and Bistro
www.archivebeerboutique.com.au



I'd heard about the Archive two for one special a few times from Hien but just never really paid attention. Then, I stumbled across the information myself and told him on Facebook 'hey, check this out!' and he did the whole exasperated 'I told you this already' thing.



Irrespective of whose good idea it was, we went to Archive tonight to take advantage of their sweet deal. It is located in West End beneath the Uber night club. As I approached the restaurant from across the street, I said 'it looks pretty quiet'. The moment we stepped up to it (passing the bouncer who checked ID and decided we were of legal dining age), I ate my words... the place was packed.