Rice Paper Rolls and Books

Specialising in two completely separate things is a hard gig. There's nothing worse than a fab homewares store that serves crap coffee or a great gym that sells those awful prepackaged salad rolls (that's an example I made up, I never go to the gym).

Buuut, I caught up with an old friend today and we both suggested Riverbend Books & Teahouse at Bulimba. I wanted to go there for the food (specifically, the rice paper rolls I'd read about in a review) and my dear friend is an avid book reader, so she was there for the books.

I have to hand it to them, they do both really, really well. There's a gorgeous, breezy deck out the front for dining, overlooking bustling Oxford Street, and Brisbane put on a spectacular, sunny day. Inside, the bookstore is cosy and warm, stacked to the ceiling with bookliness with the smell of freshly printed literature.

They take their food seriously, with a modern, fresh menu. If I hadn't ordered the rice paper rolls (vegetarian version), then my next pick would definitely have been the Soba noodles with shitake, mango, spring onions, ginger and soy. Anyway, my rice paper rolls were divine, super fresh and simply but beautifully presented. Similarly my lunch date's Salmon Nicoise looked delectable...even to a vegetarian and the servings being a decent size we probably could have forgone the thick cut chips with Japanese mayonnaise. But I ate them anyway. Had I noticed the dessert cabinet before I ate them I would have saved room.

The service was quick and friendly and the coffee was good. AND..they got the bill right. I love that.

To be fair and balanced I did actually go into the bookstore. I'm not really a reader at all (yes, I'm aware of the irony), so I wasn't actually sure what I was looking for. Josh had mentioned that he liked a book they were reading at school so I asked a lady in there for some help. She was unbelievably helpful. She took a while to find it because it was under the shelves right at the very back. All up I think it took about 20 minutes to find, but she regularly popped her head up and said, "I'm still looking", and handed me no less than 3 other age appropriate books to consider while she found the other one. All that effort, for the $16.99 I eventually spent. And she seemed genuinely chuffed she'd been able to help. I think secretly she was harbouring the notions she might convert me to a book reader.

No way. But I'll definitely go there for books, even if they are for someone else. And I'll definitely go there for the food...next time though I'll start with that dessert cabinet.

Barefoot Bowls

Took the boys to barefoot bowls today. It was fun, and actually harder than it looks. I didn't realise they weren't perfectly round, and they need to be thrown on a certain angle to go straight. So subsequently the majority of my balls ended up in the gutter.

This is the closest I got

I bought the passes on one of those group deal sites. It came with 2 hours of bowls and a food platter. It was really just loads of deep fried stuff, but I kinda liked it. The boys certainly liked it.

Believe it or not, this was actually on my bucket list. Another tick. And...I think I found my birthday venue for next year :-)

Valley Fiesta!

After our regular Friday night dinner at Kuan Yin, we went for a walk through the Valley and happen to walk straight through the opening night of Valley Fiesta - the Valley's annual music festival.

How cool!

I call it an "accidental festival ticket". The atmosphere was awesome. They had a live band playing from the balcony of one of the buildings and all down Ann Street, they had performers in the shop windows.

These guys were my favourite. I think they were some sort of Marie Antoinette Zombies. There were loads of other great performers too.

This guy was dancing to the robot flower on the floor

These guys were giving piano lessons

Clowns in the Ultra Suite window

Our Regular

Some people have a regular bar, or a regular cafe, our regular is Kuan Yin Teahouse, a slightly divey, vegetarian cafe run by Buddhists in Fortitude Valley.

We eat there probably every second Friday night, early, given they have very odd opening hours. We love their "fake meat" dishes like Thai Spicy Chicken and Fish and Vegetables - looks like meat, tastes like meat, but it usually made from vegetable protein or mushrooms.

We popped in on Friday night and the place was packed! Fuller than we'd ever seen it in the years it's been our regular.

This pleases me.

This place is as cheap as chips, I guess cause they're not in it to  make loads of money, so I love to see them do well.  The most expensive dish is this "Delicate Combo" a vegetable pancake with miso soup served on an individual gas cooker. At $14.95 it's pretty filling and basically an entree and main in one.

Don't expect anything fancy - the crockery and cutlery don't match, the decor is questionable and translation in the menu is amusing, but that's actually what I love about the place. The service is always friendly and did I mention the cheap dishes? All vegetarian with vegan options so it's ethical as well. 

Did I mention the cheap dishes?

Flashback Friday - Penny's Computer Book

When I was little, my little brother Marc and I LOVED the cartoon Inspector Gadget. Mum and Dad had a TV in their bedroom and I remember sitting on the floor and watching it, and when we bought a VCR (that's "Video Cassette Recorder" kids) we would watch it over and over again and drive Mum crazy.

The basic premise of the story centred around bumbling Inspector Gadget, who was made up of a multitude of gadgets and fumbled his way through cases helped by his much cleverer niece Penny and her supersmart dog, Brain. It was based on the 60s show "Get Smart" and the star of that show, Don Adams, was the voice of Inspector Gadget.

Anyways, Penny had an awesome computer book, which looked like a normal book from the outside, but when she opened it up, she could communicate via VIDEO to Brain, and look up things INSTANTLY. Oh..and it had a built in calculator. I just thought it was the most amazing device EVER!!

So I was look at our iPad the other day and thought..this is Penny's computer book. This is the device I wanted someone so desperately to create. And here it is. Again, Steve Jobs, we are eternally indebted to you.

Just Because

Sometimes people do nice things. Really nice things. 

About 18 months ago I caught up with an old friend I used to work with. He said he and his wife had an idea for a special event and were we interested in helping out with the planning.

Turns out that special event was to take a bunch of their family and friends on an island holiday for 4 days of fun activities, fabulous food, entertainment and relaxing indulgence. And when I say a bunch of people, I mean about 50.

Why? Well, just because. Just because life's too short to need a reason to catch up with your loved ones. Just because they could, and why not. 

So of course we would love to help out. It's once in a lifetime that someone would ask that. They decided on the luxurious 5 star Hayman Island in the Whitsundays for the location. It was picture perfect, with its inky blue waters and sandy white beaches. 

We called the event "Just Because", because it really did capture the essence of it all.

It took 18 months to plan and we had a few hiccups along the way, mainly the damage caused by Cyclone Yasi cancelled our original date and it had to be put back another 6 months, but in the end we got there.

We did the organising and branding (more on that later), but their aim was just for everyone to have a good time and enjoy being together. And they did...a bunch of people who were genuinely grateful and happy to be there.

Harrow Homestead

I loooooove visiting old homesteads and historic homes. Is that weird? I just love the mystery and romance of a bygone era, the craftsmanship of builders back then and the history of the owners and occupants of the home over the years. It's usually a combination of boom and bust, happiness and tragedy and sometimes riches to ruins and back again.

This is Harrow Homestead on the Darling Downs. I'd never heard of it, but Graham's sister Sue had been there 10 years ago, when the gardens were open, but the homestead was closed. She heard they were opening it for the Carnival of Flowers so we decided to stop in on the way back.

The Sitting Room

What a magnificent old homestead, with all the period features still intact - high ceilings, cedar wall panelling, lush pile carpet. It was built in 1860 and extensions had been added (some not very sympathetically) but it all told a story.

Like all historic homesteads, there always seems to be a tragedy. This was the death of a little boy. Didn't say much...but still such a feeling of sadness.

Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers

In the Champion Garden

Today I ticked off another item on my bucket list...visiting the gardens during the Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers!  (Yes, I know, and that's from my OFFICIAL bucket list, I have another private one I'll never blog about!)

We've been back in Brissie for almost 10 years, and every year I say I will go and something always comes up. It took Graham's sister to get me going with the lure of...a bus tour!! Yep, it was full of old people (God love em) but it took you to 10 of the winners gardens, including the champion one.

Magnolias are one of my favourites 

I couldn't believe how much enjoyment I got from just going from garden to garden, with the town bursting with Spring colour. What was really lovely though, was the pride each of these winners had in their garden. They'd obviously put hundreds of hours into their beautiful gardens and were genuinely chuffed to have (literally) bus loads of people tromp through them. Some even had cups of tea for people.  

Mass packed cliveas, bursting with colour

Everyone on the bus was in such a happy mood . The bus driver was a jovial Italian man who gave us random tidbits of Toowoomba trivia, making the trips between each garden seem much shorter than they probably were.

Gorgeous banksia roses

The champion garden was something to behold. I think it was probably an acre just bursting with colour over various terraces. Next year I'm going to bring my Mum, she is the horticultural nut and I know she would love this.

Next on my horticultural bucket list - Floriade in Canberra, then the Chelsea Flower Show.

Maggie Beer Ice Cream

Maggie Beer. Australian culinary icon. Awesome ice cream maker.

Mango Cheeks

Mango season...means Christmas is around the corner

I had my first mango of the season today. Ohhhh and was it delicious! That heedy mango smell, that sweet, juicy first bite, with all that stickiness running down your arms. Sigh. It means summer is just around the corner.

I paid $2.95 each for these sisters. When you come from North Queensland, that's sacrilege. Where I come from, these babies fall from the trees around the town and you just need to go for a walk and find one.  You either have a tree (or trees) in your backyard, or you know someone who does. No one actually PAYS for them. Except me. Now that I'm in Brisbane.

My summer childhood was filled with mangoes, lychees, peaches, cherries and apricots. I loooove them all, but mangoes are one of my favourites.

These were delicious. But I had to share with Graham. I don't like sharing.

Happy 40th Birthday!

We went to an awesome 40th birthday party on the weekend. It was in an old church hall that's also been used as a local theatre since the early 80s. It was simple and fun and reminded me of when I was a kid doing dancing lessons in the old church hall. Times were so simple back then.

The theatre part was so very authentic. The lights were rigged up to old wooden beams and there were photos of all the previous shows performed there since 1980. 

They had old fashioned spit roast catering, served up in the old hall kitchen. There was loads of food that I remember from childhood Christmas parties - roast potatoes, roast chicken, lamb on a spit, potato salad...and cake served up on individual plastic plates. How very authentic!

And...love this GIANT cookie birthday cake.  Happy 40th birthday Malcolm!

Homewares and Treats

How much am I loving all these homewares stores that are opening cafes as well. Shopping and coffee...love it. 

I love the homewares at Lily-G, but I'm so loving the cafe inside. They're serving Blue Sky Coffee, which is divine (and local I think), but this pistachio and Lime muffin was melt in your mouth delicious.

My other favourite homewares/cafe is Hampton's Home Living. I looove that place!

Lunch with my baby boy

Sometimes I feel like I live an insanely hectic life. We're always going somewhere, doing something, getting ready to go somewhere or getting ready to do something. Work, schedules, lunches.

Josh was born in Melbourne and we lived there until he was about 3 and then we moved to Sydney. I had him pretty young and I carted him everywhere. He grew up in cafes, museums, festivals, concerts, everything. And he was a good baby and good little toddler. 

In the last few years he's grown up and we haven't had the time to do the stuff we used to do. So for the first weekend in what seems like months, we went to lunch. 

We had sushi. Josh's choice. It's been his favourite food since he was about 2. He used to like picking all the dishes off the sushi train and dipping them in soy sauce. 

Hard to believe he's 12. He still loves sushi though. Some things will never change.

Our Haus

Another weekend, another catch up with friends...another haloumi breakfast. Caught up with foodie cousin Tehana and her hubby just back from their tour of China and hankering for some Western food. I drive past Our Haus at Hawthorne every morning before work and it always looks busy. Another great Brissie cafe - food was great, service was great, coffee was great, atmosphere was great. *Smiles*.

PS: I noticed bacon and egg ice cream on the breakfast menu...wtf?

Fabulous Finds

Sometimes you find the coolest stuff in the oddest places. We've been working on a big project now for a few months, but in the last couple of weeks we've been doing the most insane hours. 3am nights have been the norm. It's killings us, but there just doesn't seem like enough time in the day.

We actually lose track of time. Graham said, "need some dates" (the food variety, not the relationship variety), so off we went, in search of dates.  I thought it was about 8.30pm, Graham thought maybe 9pm so we were both shocked when we found out it was 11.30pm. Not much open for dates at that time of night, except the IGA at East Brisbane. 

This place is open until midnight every night, stocking all your standard convenience store supplies, but also a treasure trove of ice cream!!

Look at this!! I didn't even know Maggie Beer made ice cream! This place rocks! We found our dates...and $63.95 worth of other "stuff".

Casting Couch

Ohhhhh *want*

This is so going in my category of "things I have to have".  You can't really see the colour very well, but it's a gorgeous baby blue and the most beautiful couch ever! I went to see my Bestie Bernice in at Dumonde and ended up falling in love. She tells me it's the same company that made Big's couch in the Sex & The City 2 movie. Great. That just makes me want it more.

Hamptons Home Living

I'm loving all these homewares stores lately that have or are adding a cafe. I can't imagine anything better than browsing homeswares AND enjoying breakfast or lunch with friends. Faaaaaabulous!!! 

Hamptons Home Living at Paddington is one of my favourite places for this. Gorgeous homewares, divine food and a view out the back to the city. Ahhh.

I was having lunch with my favourite Courier Mail journo, and this was my crispy corn cakes, chorizo and pepper salad, rouille and preserved lemon, without the chorizo...they substituted it with persian feta. Soo delicious. Thanks @hamptonshome.

Cupcake Wednesday

Passionfruit Cupcake

From the Oxford Street Bakery...of course.

Rice Paper Rolls and Beef Pies

Vegetarian Rice Paper Rolls

Do you ever go to a cafe or take away that just seems to have an odd, non-complementary selection of foods? I looove these vegetarian rice paper rolls from Stockman's Pies, not far from where I work. I have them a LOT. Their usual offering is only pork or chicken, but if I ring ahead they will make vegetarian ones for me and charge less for meatless. 

The thing that is a little odd is they have a fabulous selection of rice paper rolls, chicken and beef pho and all things Vietnamese, but also a huge range of blokey meat pies.  And, they're well known for both. Add to that a cabinet of lamingtons, tarts, cakes and other sweet treats and I think we have Brisbane's most bizarre mix of specialty items in one shop.

They're still awesome rice paper rolls.

Nectar of the Gods

I really don't know what the deal is with that trucker hat

Meet my friend Tim. Tim likes Nandos. A lot. A lot, lot. He calls it "The Nectar of the Gods". So  when we catch up, we go to Nandos. I like Nandos, not the point I would elevate it to the gods, but their vegie burger and is nice and so are their chips. I'm also good with their spicy level, I find it acceptable.

I'm usually really good with spicy stuff, I can have the hottest of the hot and be OK, so a little harmless cob of corn should have been easy. This was hot. And I don't just mean a little hot, I mean burning my lips, tongue, inside of my mouth and down my throat hot with a burn that lingered for hours.

Was still nice though.

Peasantly Surprised

Photo from Peasant website

I absolutely LOOOVE tapas, but I've never yet left with the feeling that I've had value for money. I guess I compare it to yum cha, where the dishes range from $3-$6, so you can lots of variety and really enjoy the experience.

I'd heard a lot about Peasant at The Barracks. My foodie cousin Tehana raved about it and so did lots of reviews, so I was  pretty curious about it - how good could tapas really be?

My bestie Amelia was over from Dublin and she's always wanting to try new places when she's in town, so it seemed like an opportune time. Her poor hubby David caught a nasty case of gastro on the flight over, so what started out as double date ended up with just her and I on a girl's night.

Oh this place is divine!! Love the communal seating, and although it was chilly outside, it was warm inside and just dark enough to be cosy but light enough to still be able to see each other and your food. The thing that amazed me were the mix of people in there. 7pm on a Friday night and there were some super hot Gen Ys at the bar, loved up young couples in the booths, fellow Gen Xs, middle aged having a dinner party and young families with babies. Babies! It was the most bizarre mix of demographic I'd ever seen in a restaurant and yet no one batted an eyelid and it just seemed to fit?

The whole place was painted with fabulous murals, with an open kitchen giving just enough clang and clutter for that perfect atmosphere.  I've never been to Spain - is this what it's like over there? Cause I'm loving it.

The tapas dishes were $12 - $18 each...not loving that.  We started with 3. Well, I started with 3...with all the intentions of ordering more once I'd wolfed that down. I never imagined that 3 tapas dishes between 2 people would be nearly enough...especially if one of them was me.

We had:

Warm salad of cauliflower, greens, pine nuts, saffron and raisins.

Um...I can't remember what this was, I think it had sweet potato, but it was delicious!!

And chickpea & potato empanadas served with mint & cumin yoghurt

So, so good and surprisingly filling.  Didn't need anything else. Not even dessert. Sooo fabulous! Peasantly surprised ;-p. Am a tapas convert.

The Asos Addiction

I'm officially addicted to Asos. The Australian dollar is so good at the moment, it's cheaper for me to buy online from the UK and have it shipped over here, than for me to go down to Queen Street Mall and pick something up from Myer.  Insane right?

This is my latest purchase, a silk stripe dress from Warehouse (apparently Kate Middleton likes this "High Street" brand, so I'm in good company with the Duchess).

It's got kind of a 70s feel about it. I'm loving it...it's my new favourite dress. Until my next shipment...

Egg Bistro Brekkie

I'm not a morning person. I stumble out of bed and blindly claw my way to the kettle for a coffee before I coherent to anyone, and anyone is coherent to me. So, as much as I LOVE going out to breakfast, I HATE getting up early to get there. 

You see my dilemma?

So, all the reviews I've been reading about Egg Bistro have been, "awesome breakfast, get there early on the weekends or line up." So I did. The ridiculously early time of 8am. And it was already busy and there were a lot of tables reserved. But as luck would have it that we got a table just as someone was leaving. 

Nice atmosphere, buzzing with families and friends, the clanging of cups and cutlery and the sound of steam from the coffee machine. Nice wait staff, nice decor. PERFECT coffee. Tick!

For the THIRD time this month, I had haloumi. It was haloumi on soft polenta with marinated mushrooms and wilted spinach. So simple yet so delicious. Graham had a big breakfast and his hash brown looked sooo delicious, I had to have some. (Graham hates the concept of sharing food, BTW, but he's veeery good, and veery patient).

When the waiter came to clear the table, he said (in a very sexy French accent) "Enjoyed it, yes? You must have, I saw you taking it off his plate." 

Busted.

Ekka 2011!

August in Brisbane signals EKKA TIME! A time honoured tradition in Brissie, the Brisbane Exhibition is held for 2 weeks every year and affectionately known as "The Ekka". It started in 1876 and was more an agricultural show to showcase the latest industrial innovations but has evolved over the year and now has rides, attractions, deep fried, artery clogging food and overpriced showbags.

But we love it.

I went on the "Techno Jump" Ride with Josh

Josh and I have been going since he was about 7. He loves the rides, I hate them, but I love seeing his face and the excitement he has when he's on them. I promised to go on one ride with him and the "Techno Jump" seemed the lease likely to make me throw up. I didn't throw up, but I did scream the whole time.

Carn-Evil

This year we decided to go on "People's Day". The public holiday always on the second Wednesday of the Ekka. It was packed. It's the first time I've been on People's Day, normally we just go on the weekend. 80,000 people went that day, and it felt like they were all sitting on top of us. Some times, we were so crammed in we couldn't move forward or backward for a few minutes. We just sat there. Regardless, it was still fun.

These are the strawberry sundaes. They're another Ekka institution and an Ekka tradition for us. They're made from layers of vanilla ice cream, fresh strawberries (in the middle), strawberry ice cream, and topped with fresh cream and a strawberry on top! They're made to raise funds for the Prince Charles Hospital Foundation and each year they sell about 145,000 of them. We lined up for 25 minutes for one...totally worth it.

Another year another Ekka over. Love it.