Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Spring for Brunch

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Spring - Reblog
http://www.spring.com.au/


Continuing on from the 'Adventures of Trying to Pick up my Steam Mop' (click here to see what I'm on about), I rescheduled an inner city car trip to get brunch at Spring last weekend. This time, we finally brought home that accursed appliance so it was a successful outing. Furthermore, we had a fantastic meal at Spring and it has established itself in my mind as one of my favourite Brisbane eating venues. Read on for details...


Sunday, November 24, 2013

Hong Depot for BBQ Dinner

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Hong Depot Reblog
193 Melbourne Street, South Brisbane


I blogged this place about a year ago as a lunch spot. I noticed at the time that the dinner time menu was very different and I resolved to try it again at night. The perfect occasion presented itself when my old friend Andrew came up to Brisbane for a business trip earlier this week. We decided to catch up over dinner in West End. Originally, we planned to meet in the central dining area (Melbourne Street meets Boundary Street) but when Marc and I got there first, Hong Depot smelt so good that I decided to forgo all other options.


At night, Hong Depot is primarily a Korean barbecue restaurant. There are lots of those tubular ventilation arms that extend from the ceiling to prevent the place from getting too smoky. We kept it simple and went for the barbecue with three varieties of meat, plus a large seafood pancake to share. The seafood pancake turned out to be so delicious that we ordered another of the same.

Norman Hotel for Dinner

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Norman Hotel
http://www.normanhotel.com.au/


This place must have the most successful marketing campaign of anything in the food industry. "Worst vegetarian restaurant" really resonated with me and I became convinced that Norman was synonymous with a carnivore's paradise. Long time readers of this blog should know that I am in no way anti-vegetarian. I love vegetables and in my day to day home eating, I risk iron deficiency through my reluctance to cook meat (out of laziness rather than morality). I am often attracted to menu descriptions containing terms like 'sweet potato', 'pumpkin' and 'roast vegetable'. The thing is,even though I love veggies, I am just as enthusiastic about meat. When a venue touts itself as being exceptional at any form of cuisine, it is a sure way to peak my interest.


I was feeling particularly lacking in iron (read = "lethargic and tired") this week so I suggested to Marc that we go out for a steak dinner. He didn't really need much convincing. I wanted to try the Norman because of all those billboards I had seen and because Marc had been there once and had a good experience.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Assorted Treats from Eat Street, Hamilton Harbour

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Eat Street Markets
http://www.eatstreetmarkets.com/


Our friend Garthritis had the brilliant suggestion of checking out the Eat Street container market in Hamilton. Once upon a time, I was an individually whose finger was very much on the pulse of the Brisbane Dining scene but work, age, tiredness and poverty have gotten in the way and more often than not, I spend the weekends previously dedicated to documenting food to watching movies at home with takeaway pizza. I'm glad that Garthritis was there to inspire us to explore beyond our hovel and experience life as cultured human beings once again.


Eat Street is news to me but I had heard about it from a variety of sources. I believe that it has become a weekly occurance (every Friday and Saturday night from 4pm to 10pm) so if you're at a lost over what to do on the weekend, pencil a visit in. On the weekend that we went, there was also the Northshore Containervale, which finished up on the 16th of November but don't worry, the food stalls will remain. I wasn't sure what to expect, especially because the term 'Containervale' drew a blank in my mind. The concept is that old shipping containers (for those who, like me, are vague with this kind of thing, shipping containers are huge units used for transporting cargo, each about the size of a large caravan) are transformed into food and drink outlets. While we were there, we also got to see some interesting boutique clothing, art and accessory stores.

Fish Roe for Dinner and Wine

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Fish Roe Seafood Cafe, Milton Location
http://fishroe.net.au/


I'd like to think of myself as a very planned individual. I love organising things and scheduling things and coordinating things. Unfortunately, it's quite often that my laziness overrides my plans and the result is: things do not get done.


Long story short is that I live in an apartment and own a puppy. As toilet trained as he is now, the pee's still gotta go somewhere and it accumulates on the balcony and becomes quite a nose-full. I ordered a steam mop to help tackle the situation and had it delivered to Marc's work in the city. He rides a bike to and from work and the steam mop was decidedly too big to fit on it. I've had bad experience after bad experience of trying to pull over for a short stop in the city. The one way streets, no stopping zones and wild pedestrians fill me with fear. I point blank refuse to drive to the city during the day. But... I needed that steam mop.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Mrs Luu's for Lunch

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Mrs Luu's
25 Railway Tce, Milton 


It may be many months since my last banh mi post but keep in mind that three of those months were spent in Europe where Vietnamese cuisine is rarer than gold. My desire for banh mi has in no way diminished over that time. I had listed Mrs Luu's as a restaurant I had to try because of its reputation for amazing banh mi (amongst other things). I figured that Milton is close to West End and that I'd easily get there once I moved from Carindale to West End. I didn't figure how inconvenient the stretch of river in between would be. If you, like me, are unwilling to pay a toll to travel 50m, it's not as straightforward as you'd think to get from A to B.


One day, I happened to need a filing cabinet from Officeworks so I jumped on the opportunity to try Mrs Luu's. It was actually a short stroll across Milton Road to get to the eatery from there.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Charm Sushi for Dinner and BYO

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Charm Sushi
Albert Street, Brisbane CBD


My friend Jaws was really excited about this new establishment in Brisbane. He took me there when we first caught up after I got back from Europe. I had suggested we meet up over coffee but it was overridden with his suggestion of 'a Korean BYO eatery with its own bottle shop'. He touted this venue as the greatest invention to hit our city in the last decade.


Although it was described to me as a Korean restaurant, I later learnt that the place was called Charm Sushi, which sounds more Japanese. Whatever the true identity of this eatery mahy be, it does contain both Japanese and Korean style dishes and plenty of sushi options.


I've been to Charm Sushi twice now in total. The first time was with Jaws. I had dinner plans later on that night so he ate and I just had a drink. As promised, it was extremely convenient to walk on into the bottle shop corner, pick up a six-pack and plop ourselves down to eat, drink and catch up.

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Swampdog for Dinner

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Swampdog
http://swampdog.com.au/


Alrighty then, readers! After yet another achingly long hiatus, I'm back. This time, I haven't been jetsetting the world enjoying endless days of sun, hotels, wine and food. I've been doing the exact opposite of holidaying which is facing reality and transitioning to an 'official adult'. The lack of blog entries can be blamed on the fact that I haven't had internet until this week, after moving into my new home just over a month ago. Honestly, at this point I'm so used to things not working out smoothly that I hardly batted an eyelid. Aside from the usual stresses of relocation, I've also started a new job and adopted a puppy (my 'son' Odin, a keeshond) so unfortunately for fans of this blog and for my tastebuds, dining out has taken a backseat.


Marc and I had the rare dinner together last week. It's an oddity for us because we work on different time schedules. I've usually left for work before he's even awake and I tend to be asleep by the time he's home. I can't remember exactly what day of the week it was but we both hapened to be awake and hungry at the same time and I nominated Swampdog for an easy and nearby dinner option.