Dinner at Moda Restaurant

Moda Restaurant
http://www.modarestaurant.com.au/

I'm not the kind of girl who only gets excited about fine dining. Most of my recent dinners with Marc have been spent at trendier, casual spots and during the day, I tend to bounce between cafes. Every now and again though, I do get in the mood for a proper sit down meal with several courses and a bottle of red. We scheduled such a dinner aside last weekend and I selected Moda out of my list of contenders.

A Spanish red, recommended by our waiter

I only knew of Moda by reputation, and the fact that it's located where Gianni's used to be. It's a smallish restaurant with a predominantly outdoor dining space that succeeds in achieving a contemporary garden party atmosphere in the middle of the city. Not bad. Marc commented that he liked the style of furniture, minus the chandeliers. I liked the chandeliers.

Breakfast at Sassafras

Sassafras
http://sassafrasfoods.com.au/

I admit to going through phases with my blog. Whilst there are periods of up to months that I lose enthusiasm and reduce my writing, I've also had bouts of feverish, once-a-day post updates. These past few weeks, I've been very involved, filling my weekend food slots with new venues, and spending my weekdays writing new reviews. Overall, this blog has been my most consistent and enduring hobby throughout my entire life.

Last weekend, Kat and I caught up at a cafe of my choosing, Sassafras in Paddington. As is usual for me, I arrived early and due to a hiccup in her schedule, she got there a bit late. By the time Kat arrived, I was starving so I left her to peruse the menu and got up to order my food. When we swapped places for her to order, she ended up getting the same thing as me albeit with fried eggs on white toast rather than scrambled eggs on organic toast. I have a rule where I'd like to have at least 2 different food items to write a complete post. I made the executive decision that eggs done two ways wasn't different enough so I ended up returning to Sassafras for breakfast again the next day. A bit crazy, yes? But I like to think I'm dedicated:).

Chinese New Year Feast at Little Nyonya

Little Nyonya
24/262 Warrigal Road, Warrigal Square, Eight Mile Plains

My family is not the most traditional of Chinese but we try to follow along with the celebratory occasions like Chinese New Year to get the family together and enjoy some good food. My grandparents proposed going out to eat this year. We were apprehensive about how busy the Asian restaurants would be on the actual Chinse New Year weekend so we brought our gathering forward by a week. My parents had reported a good meal at Little Nyonya and I was curious about the restaurant because I'd never it tried before so that's what we decided on.

Marc and I arrived first, which is a huge rarity for us. We were taken to the round table that my dad booked and I noticed that the restaurant was already nearly packed. It is a medium-sized restaurant with stylized old-fashioned Chinese teak furnishings and paintings. I quite liked the decor.

Joey Dents Pi Bar

Joey Dents Pi Bar
Hooper Centre, 187 Hume Street, Toowoomba

It's becoming a rare occasion where I find myself excited over a food venue in Toowoomba. One evening, Byron and I were at Paton's in the Hooper Centre to buy dog food. Well, he was buying dog food and I was pacing around outside, bored, and I spotted a pie store.

Pie's are my 'thing' of 2013, or at least, 2 months into this year, they are featuring heavily on my cravings list. I was never a big fan of pies and thought of them as very unhealthy but 'just ok' in terms of taste so not a worthy food intake. Something's changed and now, all of a sudden... I have pies on my mind.

Lunch at Mario's at The Dining Room

Mario's at The Dining Room
http://www.thediningroom.com.au/

Marc and I were recently invited to have lunch at Mario's at The Dining Room in Hendra by none other than Mario himself. We were encouraged to peruse the menu online beforehand to get an idea of what was on offer. I hopped onto their website straight away and found tantalising descriptions a-plenty. Honing down to one or two dishes would be a challenge.

We chose a Friday for our lunch excursion and made our way over. As a Southside girl, I had never been to Hendra before. The suburb is dated but afluent. We found Mario's situated unsuspectingly amongst residential buildings in a rennovated cottage. The inside of the restaurant was charmingly fitted, and the resultant space was both comfortable and stylish.

Lunch at Chill on Tedder

Chill Dining and Wine Bar
http://www.chillontedder.com.au/

A trip to the Gold Coast is always a great opportunity to catch up with Blossom and Matt. We went over the Australia day break and the weather was near cyclonic by the Sunday of our 3 night stay. Without the options of beach or pool, all we really had to look forward to that day was lunch at Chill. It was a restaurant that Blossom recommended and she has superb taste in everything so I was excited to try it.

Marc and I parked in a side-street off Tedder Avenue on Main Beach. We then literally sprinted to the shelter of the restaurant, getting drenched at a point where we ran in opposite directions, unsure of exactly which block Chill was located (Marc turned out to be correct, resulting in me getting more drenched than he).

Teppanyaki Dinner at Murasaki

Murasaki Japanese Restaurant
11/91 Surf Parade, Broadbeach

There's no greater sense of disappointment than spending months looking forward to a weekend retreat at the coast, fantasizing about sunshine, sand and warm waves and arriving to find yourself stuck in a hotel from relentless rain and wind of cyclonic proportions. I had booked 3 nights at the Gold Coast over the Australia Day long weekend. Whilst my hometown of Toowoomba was being drenched, Brisbane was threatened with floods and the coast was being visiblly blown apart in the storm. The 'Big Wet' ruined any chance we had of enjoying the beach but we made the most of the weekend with good company, lots of booze and a couple of food excursions.

The Coffee Boutique

The Coffee Boutique
Shop 1102, Level LG, Westfield Carindale Shopping Centre, Carindale

This is a post that I should have written up a long, long time ago but with all the eating I've been doing, it got lost at the bottom of my unfinished blog post list. Westfield Carindale has undergone a phenomenal make-over. It's now HUGE. It's not quite Chermside huge but it's almost unrecognizable from what I remember as a child or teenager loitering around there after school. There are entire new wings and what isn't brand new has been renovated.

One such renovation was done on The Coffee Boutique, which is a cafe that mum and I sometimes go to when we're at the shops. I don't know how I feel about shopping centre cafes anymore. I used to be fine with them but now they make me anxious. What's changed between then and now is that I used to catch public transport and frequented shopping centres just for fun, whereas nowadays not only do I drive everywhere but I never have time to do physical shopping (my shoes, clothes and even groceries are purchased online and delivered to work/home). The driving part is relevant because I'm terrified of parking, especialy at unfamiliar shopping centres, ESPECIALLY at Carindale because it's so bloody competitive and ESPECIALLY now because they have this annoying new ticket system.

Breakfast at Brew Revisited

Brew Cafe and Wine Bar
http://brewgroup.com.au/

In the spirit of revisiting old favorites, I stopped by at Brew on the weekend. I first went there about a year ago, which on the scale of things isn't that long. It FEELS like a long time ago though. At the time, it was newish and hidden and there weren't many other laneway establisments.

Snag Stand at Queens Plaza for Lunch

Snag Stand
http://snagstand.com.au/

Hot dogs and sausage sizzles are something that I love but rarely eat because my meals are too often occupied by 'proper' dining. During the week, I eat at home. On the weekends, I work through a list of cafes and restaurants that need trying. There's no allocated space for fast food.

When Kat and I were in Sydney, I spotted a gourmet hot dog vendor at the food court of Westfield Sydney. That day, we had lunch at Xanthi instead so I missed out but the idea of hot dogs chefed up in the same way that burgers have been really appealed to me. When I read that a 'haute dog' vendor had opened up in Queens Plaza, I was more than excited that there was a local option.