Afanti Uyghur Restaurant for Dinner

Afanti Uyghur Restaurant
5/95 Mains Road, Sunnybank

I'd known about Uyghur cuisine for a while but didn't know that's what it was called or much about the culture behind it. In China I often saw people selling lamb skewers who looked sort of Chinese but slightly not. Uyghur people are of Turkic decent and amongst other things, they make bloody good lamb skewers. I would have thought this was an obscure type of food to bring to Brisbane but I was excited to learn that Uyghur cuisine is a trend that may soon break mainstream.

I saw some posts about Afanti Restaurant on Instagram by a fellow Brisbane foodie and that's what initially sparked my interest. Add the fact that these past couple of weeks in Brisbane have been bitingly cold so the thought of hot and spicy food was very, very appealing. We arranged to have dinner at Afanti last Friday night.

California Native for Dinner

California Native
420 Cavendish Road, Coorparoo

I've written at lengths about how much American food is trending in Australia at the moment. California Native is another development on this front with a focus on Mexican influences. Kat and I arranged to have dinner there last Wednesday night.

I thought it was really quiet when I walked in but it's because I had made a ridiculously early booking and they had only just opened. Even though California Native is quite a large restaurant, it was nearly full by the time we finished eating. That's not bad for a Wednesday night.

Gold Coast - Grocer and Grind for Breakfast

Grocer and Grind
Shop 1, 1 Sunshine Boulevard, Gold Coast

Last Friday I went on a wonderful excursion. There's nothing quite like getting up at 5am on a freezing winter morning to drive your fiancé to the Gold Coast for a breakfast meeting. The thought that I could've have been in bed instead was like a knife through my heart. I perked myself up with the bribe of having breakfast out once we got to the coast.

Blossom used to live at the Gold Coast and I remember her recommending Grocer and Grind as one of her favourite cafes. I looked it up and it was walking distance from Marc's meeting venue so I parked my car and made my way there.

Gauge for Breakfast

Gauge
77 Grey Street, South Brisbane

I was very excited when I heard a new cafe had opened up in my neighborhood, by the brains behind Sourced Grocer no less. When reviews started popping up online, I was intrigued by the photos and menu descriptions I saw. Black garlic bread? Buckwheat waffles? Curiouser and curiouser.

I arranged to have breakfast at Gauge last Saturday morning with my old friend Pizza from Toowoomba. We hadn't made a booking but it was fairly early so there wasn't any drama getting a table. Gauge looks sophisticated inside and out with neutral tones and clean, contemporary lines. It's full table service so I sat down, ordered a coffee and perused the breakfast menu.

Strauss for Breakfast

Strauss Cafe and Bar
http://www.straussfd.com/

Long gone are the days when I attended uni in Brisbane CBD and had a vast array of food outlets to decide between at each lunch break. Even though the elderly recluse in me hates crowded places, I can't help but feel envious of the suited city workers who have coffee meetings at glamorous corporate cafes.

I got a taste of this last Tuesday morning when I headed into town for a course. There was something going on in my building so I left early with the intention of having breakfast in the city. I did a quick Zomato search on the bus and decided to try Strauss. Walking through the city, I felt like a country bumpkin on excursion 'the Big Smoke'.

Bing Boy, Post Office Square

Bing Boy, Post Office Square
Shop 032, 270-280 Queen Street, Brisbane CBD

I heard about Bing Boy opening up in Post Office Square a while ago but didn't get the chance to check it out. From what I understand, they're looking to branch out as a franchise. I'm probably late to the party but better late than never so I figured I may as well review my experience, now that I finally got to try it.

Jenny and I had a course in the city last week and we rushed out for lunch. She had tried Bing Boy previously and found them to be fairly authentic so I was eager for a taste.

Mizu Teneriffe for Dinner

Mizu Teneriffe
http://mizurestaurant.com.au/teneriffe-2/

The older we get the harder it is to find time to catch up with friends. Everyone's got work, family and hobbies to balance, as well as special occasions, housework, sickness, so on and so forth. Now it's starting to make more sense to me why my mum and dad only really had any social events once every few months. Everyone's just too busy or too tired.

A couple of my work friends moved on to start families and I hadn't yet had the chance to meet their babies. If there's one type of person that's busier than a new mum, it's a new mum who also runs a business. With some degree of struggle, we finally found one weekend where the whole crew was available and booked Mizu at Teneriffe for dinner.

Donut Boyz West End

Donut Boyz West End
Mollison Street, corner Boundary Street, West End

Donuts are the dessert fad of 2015. Every man and their dog is baking them, eating them, blogging about them and photographing them. Not one to reject a trend, I put on my sheep's outfit and tagged along. Not that it's a hard task to try a bunch of donuts anyway.

My crusade started at Doughnut Time which was a stroke a luck for me to even get to because of difficulty parking in the valley. I encountered my first sliver of confusion as to how donut is actually spelt. I still don't know for sure so I'm going to hedge my bets and alternate between blog posts.

Dinner at Vege Rama, West End

Vege Rama
Shop 2a, 220 Melbourne Street, West End

I'm not vegetarian by any means but I love the sound of certain vegetarian cuisine. I tried to become vegetarian for a month just so I would be forced to order more vegetarian options at restaurants. They often sound like the best dishes for me but I feel like I 'should' get a meat option or I'd be missing out. I always see Vege Rama when I'm driving around West End and I was curious to try it but there was no way Marc was ever going to come with me to a vegetarian restaurant. Even if I did manage to pressure him into it, he would have sulked and whined the entire time with variations of "where's the rest of the meal" comments. Luckily I have some girlfriends who are more open minded.

Blossom and I arranged a catch up over dinner last week. I got to Vege Rama a tad early and they were almost packed. At first I tried to squish up on the high seating at the window but then I spotted more spacious seating outside. The waitress was happy to relocate me and even turned on the heater.

Weekend at Byron Bay - Treehouse on Belongil for Dinner and Drinks

Treehouse on Belongil
http://www.treehouseonbelongil.com/

I was unsure about writing this review because as you'll soon see, the photos are horrendous. Treehouse is a very atmospheric establishment and typical of what you would expect Byron Bay locals to enjoy in their down time. We went on a Saturday night as part of our Mana Yoga Retreats group farewell dinner. It was busy without being hectic and crowded, I struggle to think of a more appropriate word than 'chilled'. It was dark though. Being as blind as I am, I squinted my way through the menu. Normally I wouldn't think twice about having the flash on to get better quality pictures but I think it's too rude and distracting for a group dinner so I opted without. I decided to publish this review anyway for reasons of completeness (I hate having 'food experiences' that remain unblogged) and because the pizza was worth writing about.

Lychee lasso and mojito

We ordered food as a big group and drinks at the bar. Kat and I got there as part of the earlier group so we made a beeline for the bar. We had cocktails on our mind so cocktails we received. For my first, I ordered a mojito and Kat, a lychee lasso. They were both strong quite fairly well balanced although I found the lychee to be too sweet for me.