Fun food on the Sandgate mudflats at low tide

It’s been a quiet week. Last weekend I was down with a head cold, you know, ManFlu. I ended up working from home on Monday because I was really congested and coughing badly. I’m still coughing but at least I feel okay in my head.

Work was busy with a heap of small or medium sized tasks that just had to be done. Wednesday though was a bad one. Wednesday morning, I woke up at 1 am with something on my mind and I just couldn’t get back to sleep. Coupled with the head cold it meant I felt like a zombie while I was at work. I suppose it doesn’t matter in the scheme of things because Wednesday’s productivity across the globe was probably down slightly because it coincided with the US presidential election. Yummy Lummy isn’t a place for political commentary so all I’ll say is that I made sure I had a nice meal while I was watching the television reporting of the results including the victory and concession speeches.


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The highlight for me this week was flying to Brisbane on Friday night and spending the weekend with my daughters and my parents.

The flight from Canberra to Brisbane started well. I got a seat in the exit row and had a meal of meatballs and mashed potato.

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Meatballs with mashed potato
Meatballs with mashed potato

On landing the doors opened and a wave of humidity travelled backwards and hugged me like a child runs up to greet you at an airport and grabs you around your legs. Best feeling in the world!

Ms19 was working Friday night so after arriving at my parents’ place I suggested to Miss15 that we go see Ms19 and get ice cream. Ms21 couldn’t join us, so it was just me and Miss15.

I had a nice caramel condensed milk ice cream with a Ferrero Rocher crushed into it.

Caramel condensed milk with Ferrero Rocher
Caramel condensed milk with Ferrero Rocher

After a pretty crappy sleep (I don’t travel with my CPAP machine) we went and had breakfast at The Groove Train in Chermside.

I had a nice granola which I think did something to really stimulate my gastrocolic reflex because my irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) went crazy. It’s a good thing I was close to a clean toilet.

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Now that Ms19 has retired from gymnastics we’re not totally bound to a sports schedule. Miss15 had a gymnastics evaluation from 2.30 to 5.30 pm and Ms21 was working so what to do between 11 and 1.30? We ended up taking a short drive to Sandgate and walking from the swimming pool to the big jetty and back. All up it’s about a 5 km walk. It was really warm and overcast and it was low tide. The sea breeze was really nice. The smell from the mudflats though wasn’t that good. In fact, it was pretty rank. That part of Sandgate with a view of the water and the sea breeze is really nice. The low tide smell though would make me think twice about living there unless I could keep the house fresh.

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After a pretty good walk, we went to the Sandgate fishmonger and bought some potato scallops with crumbed squid. Like most good shops, especially in Queensland, when you ask for some potato scallops you inevitably get n+1 with n being the number of scallops you ask for. These potato scallops were really nice. The crumbed squid was also really good. If you’re visiting Sandgate and want a nice takeaway deep fried meal, I can recommend the Sandgate Fishmonger.

Potato scallops and crumbed calamari
Potato scallops and crumbed calamari
Sandgate fishmonger
Sandgate fishmonger
Potato scallops and crumbed calamari
Potato scallops and crumbed calamari

After taking Miss15 to gymnastics, Ms19 and I had been thinking about going out for a milkshake somewhere. As it turned out we were pretty full from lunch and the weather put on a show which made driving less than ideal. Brisbane was treated to a really nice thunderstorm. The rain was heavy, the thunder was loud and the sky almost went black. I love this sort of weather. The rain lasted about 45 minutes and afterwards the air freshened and the heat was gone. Perfect subtropical weather. You can’t ask for better.

For dinner, we went to Thr3e Restaurant in the Kedron-Wavell RSL club. This is a cheap and cheerful buffet affair with upgrades. I had a nice seafood platter and Mum and Dad had a bucket of prawns.

Seafood platter
Seafood platter
Seafood platter
Seafood platter
Buffet plate
Buffet plate

We all went to bed feeling fairly sated.

Sunday broke with a brilliant warm and moist morning. Mum and Dad had planned a big breakfast. We had bacon, sausages, pikelets, fried eggs and cooked tomatoes. It’s always good having breakfast with my daughters and parents.

Bacon, sausage, tomato, egg and pikelet at Wheller on the Park #breakfast #yummylummy #foodporn #yummy #delicious #instafood #iphone #bne #brisbane
Bacon, sausage, tomato, egg and pikelet at Wheller on the Park
#breakfast #yummylummy #foodporn #yummy #delicious #instafood #iphone #bne #brisbane
Maply syrup and bacon on a pikelet
Maply syrup and bacon on a pikelet
These plates are older than me
These plates are older than me

I’m now back in Canberra where it is cold, windy and wet. I wish I was back with my daughters in Brisbane.

13 Responses

  1. You and your love of humidity!!! Argh – give me the cold any day! Yay for pancakes for breakfast. It must be hard being so far away from your daughters.

    1. It is hard but it is what it is and I make the most of the time I have with them.
      I really ate well last weekend. It was made better with weather that makes me feel great. I know it’s not for everyone. I just feel alive when I’m warm and when my skin isn’t painful.

  2. I love your description of humid weather Gary! And are the meatballs all to one side or is there something black to the left? Still beats what they were serving (crackers and weird dips).

    1. I’m guessing the box fell on its side at one stage. It was empty to the left. On the flight back it was olives, feta cheese and lavosh crispy things all in neat little packages. Not enough for a snack, but enough to make me hungry.

    1. I know that feeling. I’ve been awake all night with a headache and nausea. I hope we both recover soon Sarah 😃

  3. YES! You love the humidity just like me! 😀 But waking up at 1am? Poor you, Gary. It doesn’t sound pleasant at all for you… Leave that to me. I’m used to staying up til 1am most nights and getting into work before 9am in a few hours time feeling not too bad… I have still got it in the tank 😉

    That looked and sounded like a wonderful weekend, and I enjoyed following it all on your IG. Your family certainly knows how to eat and does it well 😀

    1. Thank you very much Mabel.
      I expect as a fellow oriental, we can appreciate how our families spend much of our waking hours thinking about food 😃👍
      Hopefully I won’t have too many days of poor sleep.

  4. Good to see you back again and your food looks amazing 🙂
    I think, it has been global with sickness, I was sick in the week before and others I know, were before or in same time as I was.

  5. Hope you’re feeling much better now. And enjoying all that lovely seafood with your renewed appetite. I’m curious how pikelets and pancakes differ.

    Winter is here so even your chilly Canberra is probably much nicer.

    1. I think pikelets are smaller and thicker. We used to have pikelets with butter on them as a snack some days when we got home from school especially if we had friends come to visit.
      Canada is definitely not a place I could live for a long time.
      I am feeling much better too. Thank you 😃

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