Tag Archives: Barbecue

Smoque barbecue in Canberra

Last night a group of friends went to Smoque restaurant on London Circuit. We had been talking about going to this place since about October last year. We’d heard good things about the quality of the food and the serving style. Over Christmas other friends had been to Smoque and weren’t that impressed. Because of its popularity it has at least two seating sessions for dinner which begins at 5 pm. Our reservation was for six at 6 pm and the table had two cards. One for Natalie who organised our party and one for Christine who was due with her group of six friends at 7.30 pm. Smoque boasts slow cooked food at fast food speed. It’s not the place for a romantic dinner for two or for a leisurely get together over food. Given the quantity of food I think I’d prefer to have more time to enjoy dinner rather than feel rushed.

The menu can be downloaded from here It is similar to rib joints I’ve eaten at in North America although there were no collared greens. The North American fascination with macaroni cheese (mac’n'cheese) comes through strongly with mac’n'cheese as a side.

I went with the BBQ Trifecta

At first I went with coleslaw and then thought why not have mac’n'cheese.

I also bought a can of root beer. I wasn’t that excited about the root beer but the only other non-alcoholic offerings were Cherry Cola and Dr Pepper. The root beer tasted more like Sarsaparilla which is not a bad thing

All the meals came with corn bread and a pickle. The size of the pickles varied from plate to plate and Nat who likes pickles enjoyed two including a big one.

The decor was as expected.

This is me looking content after the meal (photograph courtesy of @macjam1 )

The ordering of food is done at a counter and it doesn’t take long for the food to be delivered at your table. We had arrived at 6 pm and we had all finished our dinner shortly after 7 pm (it felt rushed). It was still light outside so we decided to go to Koko Black for something sweet.

I chose Chocolate Affogato

It was an early night but we had a lot of fun. I would suggest if you like slow cooked North American style barbecue this place is worth trying. I thought the prices were a little too high. On my plate the ribs were good. They weren’t overcooked which is a common problem I’ve noticed. The brisket was very nice. I’d eaten brisket in a place in Ottawa in June 2012 and it was awful; it was dry and tasteless. At Smoque the brisket is good. I was looking forward to the pulled pork and I’d heard from friends on Twitter that it was excellent. The texture was fine but I found it a little oily and the spices didn’t do anything for me. It wasn’t too hot but it was an odd tasting combination. My palate is not refined enough (life long allergic rhinitis) to analyse and describe the separate elements. I just know I didn’t really like it. The mac’n'cheese was very stodgy as expected. It wasn’t too salty which is good. The pickle I got was also good. I felt too full to eat the corn bread and it wasn’t as if I hadn’t eaten corn bread before.

Smoque location Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/gJgFa

View Larger Map

Koko Black location Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/fDbHS

View Larger Map

Other awesomeness

Menz MiniChoc honeycomb with vanilla ice cream.

Friday was warm

http://instagram.com/p/UnZ3fBRNM6/

My Uncle Charles from NZ is at the very end of this http://youtu.be/PRGUi2MorJ8

Barbecue Pork Mac ‘n Cheese Casserole (heartfeltbalancehandmadelife.com)
Macaroni cheese 02 the healthy version (feedthepiglet.wordpress.com)

Thai barbecue lamb at Chong Co Thai Restaurant

6 Replies

Today was busy and hectic. Bron and I finished later than normal. We agreed on a quick meal at Chong Co. We’ve been there many times before.

Tonight Bron had the barbecue perch and I had the barbecue lamb along with some coconut rice. Bron also tried the house wine, suitably named, Chong Co Chardonnay.

Barbecue lamb (iPhone)

Tonight the lamb was not as tender as previous times. The perch though was very nicely cooked. It was delicious. Bron enjoyed her Chardonnay and the rice was nicely cooked and flavoured.

The Chong Co restaurant in Belconnen is worth visiting and trying.

Chong Co Thai Restaurant and Max Brenner (garydavidlum.com)

A really great tweet up

12 Replies

Prologue

About a month ago Meredith @macjam1 asked a bunch of us to her place for a Christmas barbecue.

Canberra has a really good and very active group of tweeps. There are circles within circles. I’ve found myself spending a lot of my twitter and facebook time with a small group of friends based in Canberra. We’ve met a few times already and have become firm friends. Some of us know each other through listening to @markparton on @2CC and others have work connections. Mostly though it’s through twitter and facebook. In addition to this group we also have some close twitter buddies in Queensland and Victoria who one day we will visit.

The barbecue

Each of us had in mind something to bring along while @macjam1 and her husband provided an excellent venue and more meat that we could throw a stick at. The weather ended up being great after forecasts of rain and cold. The afternoon and evening air was fresh but not cold. The sound of mosquitoes was held at bay with Aeroguard and Citronella candles.

The food was heavily influenced by most of us recently taking to various weight loss programs. Some are doing variations on low carbohydrate systems, others are exercising like crazy (cycling and Zumba are popular) and there are those on combinations. We started with combinations of spicy sausage and mushrooms cooked on the barbecue along with a cheese ball and Turkish bread and dips. Then @NatMcNazz brought along these awesome Parmesan cheese biscuits flavoured with chilli and fennel.

Fred the tooth pick holder was popular

This image reveals @tinythecabbie ‘s hand

Turkish bread and dips

Here is a close up of Fred and his partner Cork

Fred and his mate

The tooth picks later became popular with the kids who lit them in the candles and then played with fire (all under close adult supervision of course).

There was so much great food. By the time it was dinner time, I’d already eaten enough for a few nights anyway. Our gracious hosts and other friends had brought along enough to feed us all including children and then some.

Plate one for me

The coleslaw brought by @Bron99 was awesome and not traditional. I the potato bake was fantastic. Creamy and good. I haven’t had a snag and hamburger for ages. So this image has been captioned Plate one for me because I ended up going back twice more. My second plate was piled high with coleslaw and potato bake and a piece of honey soy chicken. The third plate was mainly coleslaw and another piece of chicken.

Then came the desserts. I’ll just list them through photographs.

Pavlova, Australia's greatest invention. I LOVE PAVLOVA!!!

I can never resist pavlova. It brings back so many happy childhood memories.

This white chocolate cheesecake was amazing

@Bron99 made this lovely white chocolate cheesecake which came with a strawberry coulis.

Apple pie

I confess my eyes were bigger than my belly. I wanted apple pie but after the pavlova and cheesecake I could not go back for the apple pie.

Chocolate wafers, jaffas and spearmint leaves

I do not know what this is called but @TinyTheCabbie brought them. So colourful and everyone raved about them.

My plate of dessert

I have with much sadness and self condemnation have to admit I could not finish this lovely plate of food. My grandmother’s voice echoes in my head about the starving children in Africa, but after the gluttony of snacks and then three plates of dinner, my dessert stomach (also known as the œsophagus) failed me and certain sphincters sending signals to my brain to stop eating or eject food upwards.

At the end of the evening, we had a tweet up photograph which I won’t upload because I don’t have everyone’s permission to share. Suffice to say it is a great photograph and it was a wonderful and happy evening.

I think I can safely post one blurry image of a subset of us who preferred the company of mosquitoes so they could talk about the others

Some of the tweeps

It really was a fantastic evening.

Epilogue

This morning I woke up feeling full. What better way to celebrate a new day than with brunch. Off to Black Pepper we went for a Black Pepper big breakfast.

Black Pepper big breakfast poached eggs, bacon (lots of bacon), chorizo sausage, mushrooms, tomato and a potato cake

Did I say there was lots of bacon?

Lots of bacon

Yep lots of bacon.

My Favorite Coleslaw (claimingliberty.wordpress.com)
Blue Cheese Bacon Coleslaw (shanehalbach.com)

Francisco’s Mexican Cantina—A night out with friends

1 Reply

On Friday night I went out with friends after work for a meal at Francisco’s Mexican Cantina. We’d read the reviews on eatability.com.au and felt if we had modest expectations and acknowledge this was not fine dining then we’d experience an enjoyable meal in good company.

The reviews were quite diverse, ranging from really awful to genuine Mexican cuisine. In truth it was enjoyable TexMex. The service was interesting. It was friendly and pleasant. On asking about the serving sizes of nachos I decided on small beef and frijoles nachos so I could have a full rack of Dave Nelsons BBQ spare ribs. My friends asked for a small frijoles nachos to share as a starter and then they ordered Chimichangas and Burritos for mains. The server seemed to think I wanted a large beef and frijoles nachos and the full rack of ribs all served as a main so I had to watch my friends eat their nachos while I wondered where my dinner was. When I was told the nachos was large I explained I requested small. In the end she got it right. I ate my meal all in one go. Fortunately I like to eat (with my hands) and my friends didn’t seem to mind. More importantly I was wearing a white shirt and managed not to soil it. [Check out the slide show].

One friend however, received a cold plate of food which needed to be reheated. After a discussion, that meal was wiped from the bill.

To be honest, I’d go back with mates and enjoy nachos and ribs again. It’s not fine dining and no one should have high expectations. I enjoyed myself. I ate well and enjoyed the company of my friends.

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