Rangla Punjab Indian Restaurant for Dinner

Rangla Punjab, New Farm
http://ranglapunjab.com.au/ 

Indian food is interesting to me. I'm not always in the mood but when I do want it and I get it, nothing feels as satisfying (besides a slice of chocolate cake). West End has an abundance of Indian restaurants but a couple of weeks ago, Marc and I ventured slightly beyond our neighbourhood to try Rangla Punjab in New Farm.

The first thing to note is that the restaurant is huge. There are tables outside but once you step into the building, it felt like there was dining space as far as the eye could see.

Corner Store Cafe for Brunch

Corner Store Cafe
http://www.cornerstorecafe.com/

Prelude: I've changed phones more times in the past year than any sensible person should have (lost, stolen, broken x 2) and as a result, I lost all my photos from my first trip to Corner Store Cafe bar a montage I uploaded on Instagram. I made a special extra trip to get more piccies for a complete post. Most of the start of this post below was written at the time of my first visit with a summary of my second visit at the end.

I've recently become obsessed with Instagram. And I mean obsessed. I'm refreshing/uploading at least as often as (if not more than) Facebook. And for me, this is ALOT. I came across some mouthwatering photos of breakfast items at Corner Store Cafe uploaded by a fellow Brissie foodblogger. I'd never heard of this cafe before but the photos were enough to put it on my radar. When Kat and I decided to have a midweek lunch date, I knew that's where I wanted to go.

Roast Capsicum and Goats Cheese Tart

Roast Capsicum and Goats Cheese Tart
Home Cooking

This post is an example of what could be called Cooking Vanity. This again, goes back to my family Christmas dinner where we were all supposed to bring some food. I wasn't even going to bake a tart; in fact, I initially was just brining salad and later stretched that to include and ice-cream. I was leafing through Nick Malgieri's The Modern Baker for dessert recipes (where I found this) and accidentally fell onto this recipe for a goats cheese tart. I decided right then and there that I would also bake that for my family.

Lan Zhou Noodles for Lunch

Lan Zhou Noodles
Shop 46/342 McCullough Street, Sunnybank

My parents and I went on a really lame adventure last weekend trying to track down a new restaurant dad read about in a local Chinese newspaper. It turns out (after embarrassingly sitting down and then moving on from 3 incorrect restaurants) that the place he had in mind hadn't even opened for business yet. Our last stop took us near Lan Zhou Noodles, which is also a newish venture and interesting enough that we decided to have lunch there instead.

The shopfront is long and narrow with a window at the front where you can watch the noodle master at work.

Lan Zhou is a part of China famous for something called pulled noodles. This doesn't need much explanation because in summary, it describes noodles that are literally stretched and pulled into shape before being cooked.

Torba Restaurant for Dinner

Torba Restaurant
http://www.torba.com.au/

I was really curiously excited about Torba Restaurant, not only because it's close to me and I'm lazy but because it offers Eastern European cuisine. What on earth is Eastern European cuisine? I spent 3 months in Europe recently and whilst I've pizza'd, gelato'd, French fried, kransky'd, souvlaki'd and streusel'd my way through Western Europe, we didn't venture further east than Germany.

Torba may or may not be the first Eastern European restaurant in Brisbane but it's definitely the first I've ever tried. Marc and I made our way there on a Thursday night speculating about what kind of food we were in for. When we reached the restaurant, most of those thoughts exited my mind because it looked far too trendy to be thinking about food. In my puzzlement about what Torba would feed us, I forgot that it was also a lounge and cocktail bar. I admit that I expected, I don't know... stone walls and low rustic wooden benches with mounted boar heads and buckets of potatoes. Instead, Torba is chic and totally suited to the South Bank Parklands night scene.

Plenty in West End

Plenty
284 Montague Rd, West End

I've always been a fan of the West End dining scene but in some regard, it's sort of tiresome because I do mean I've always been a fan... since my prepubescent days. As such, most of the spots around here are tried and true rather than groundbreaking. When I do read about a new venue that also happens to be in my neck of the woods, it's doubly exciting. Even more so when it's walking distance from my nest.

I read about Plenty on The Urban List but it took me a while to piece together that it was literally down the road. I drive past at least 4 x a week and one of those times, I looked up and thought "hey, that's that cafe I read about!" One Saturday morning, I woke up early and there was no prospect of Marc getting up so I decided to go for a stroll.

Plenty is a lot bigger than I first gathered from driving past. There are a few tables outside but there's much more action inside the ample-spaced building. There's a large counter slash open kitchen around which there are an assortment of tables and chairs. At the back of the building is a separate room with long dining table. I heard someone mention 'upstairs' too but I haven't yet investigated.

Peel Street Kitchen for Dinner

Peel Street Kitchen
http://www.peelstkitchen.com.au/

Continuing on with my theme of online coupon shopping, I was thrilled when I found an offer for Peel Street Kitchen. The excitement stems from the fact that Marc used to live right around the corner from Peel Street and even though it's no longer a neighbouring building, it still sorta feels that way. The new kid on the block, so to speak.

I made a booking for Monday night this week and remind me to never organize dinners out on Monday ever again. It's the most unromantic night of the week and we both had work/tonnes of other things to do so it felt stressful to have to go out rather than nice and fun. Luckily, our dinner itself more than made up for this.

Pawpaw Cafe for Lunch

Pawpaw Cafe
898 Stanley Street, Woolloongabba

I'm developing a theory that friendship ismay be built on rituals. The daily texts. The weekly coffee sessions. The monthly girls night out drinks. Or, in mine and Nina's case, the brunch/lunch dates in one of Brissie's best whenever she's in town. Ever since my most faithful dining buddies have decided to move on to other parts of Australia (Mochi, I'm looking at you :p), I'm finding it more and more difficult to bother checking out new places. I can't drag Marc up that early and while I used to find motivation to visit cafes alone, I seem to have (at least currently) lost that drive.

Nina's trips back home have become something I really look forward to. I gave her a list of cafes I wanted to try and she selected Paw Paw, based on their menu. I've been to Green Papaya many years ago and Pawpaw is the casual, cafe project by the same people. I parked down the street but then discovered they had a parking lot adjacent to the building. It was easy to find street parking anyway.

The most magical thing has happened...

I might just start believing in miracles.

After I got back home from a 3 month trip in Europe (May-Sept 2013), I accidentally reset the iPhone I'd been using to take all my holiday snaps and subsequently lost ALL MY PHOTOS.

Yes. It was devastating. I had actually drafted tonnes of country-specific food posts to publish on this blog but without the corresponding photos, there was no story. Needless to say I felt like a huge booboo.

I've had nothing but bad luck (stemming from irresponsibility, I admit) with the new phone since, resulting in not one but TWO new phone swaps at Apple. The most recent replacement was just received yesterday.

Somehow, stumbling around with the settings, I discovered a lost iCloud backup from right after I got home from Europe. Fingers crossed nothing goes wrong but AS I TYPE, Europe photos from Switzerland onwards are downloading onto the phone.

I still don't have anything from our Shanghai and UK dining escapades (which sadly involve Heston's Dinner and Lobster & Burger, both of which I enjoyed immensely and wish I could share) because I had yet another phone incident in France (gypsy theft) but that's a whole other story.

Hopefully, after x hours of downloads, I can FINALLY document my European food travels. Marc and I ate so much on our trip. Even though we were active and incorporated many hiking trails, I put on 5kg. And I don't even regret it! We did a number of food tours and cooking excursions too. I can't wait to share our experiences with you guys, 5 months after the fact.

REMEMBER TO ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS.

Tibetan Kitchen for Dinner

Tibetan Kitchen
http://www.tibetankitchen.info/

I recall the first time I saw a Tibetan Kitchen (in Fortitude Valley), I was 16-17 years old, completely unworldly and couldn't believe how exotic that sounded. Even in 2014, Tibetan and Nepalese cuisine is hardly widespread. I have tried a few different restaurants offering this style of food and would describe the flavours as a cross between Indian and maybe Thai. Since Indian and Thai are two of the most popular styles of food in Australia, I'm surprised not more people are jumping onto Tibetan fare.

Recently, I found an online coupon to try three courses at the Tibetan Kitchen in West End. Marc and I actually ordered takeaway from them on one of the first nights we were living in our new place. It was a messy ordeal eating runny curry dishes with hardly any cutlery and no tables or chairs. We sat on milk crates and ate off beer cartons. Despite all that, the food left a good impression on me so I was looking forward to tasting it again in a nice, restaurant environment.