Tag Archives: Fish

My weekend in food was good

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This weekend I completed my income taxation return and caught up on some work. I also spent some time with Bron and managed to enjoy some delicious meals. If you follow me on instagram you can see how I ate this weekend as well as some of my other activities.

Thai salmon cakes

Bron’s fish cakes were really nice.

Sticky date pudding with homemade custard and butterscotch sauce

Bron makes the best sticky date pudding. Her homemade custard and butterscotch sauce are to die for.

Spring in Canberra

The deciduous trees are blooming and my allergic rhinitis is getting worse. I must be snoring like a train because every morning I wake up with a sore throat like razor blades are cutting it.

Lake Ginninderra

Before breakfast I went for a walk and captured some images. We had breakfast at Black Pepper which is on the corner on the left of the image.


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Dead carp

Fishing is popular in Canberra waterways. The lakes are full of carp. They are a pest and regarded as feral. If a carp is caught it is not allowed to be thrown back into the water. From what I’ve seen people go fishing, catch carp and then leave them anywhere they choose.

Green eggs and ham

Bron chose green eggs and ham. The scrambled eggs have avocado in them.

Poached eggs, Kransky and hollandaise sauce

I ate poached eggs, Kransky sausage, mushrooms and hollandaise sauce.

Pan seared salmon served with a tower of potato mash, wilted spinach, pine nuts, peas and corn along with asparagus and broccolini. The mash potato was made with blue cheese.

Tonight I cooked a light meal of salmon. Click on it if you want a larger resolution view.

Oh and if you’re interested, next weekend I want to see the Melbourne Storm defeat the Canterbury Bulldogs. I also want to see the Sydney Swans defeat the Hawthorn Hawks.

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Fekerte’s Ethiopian Cuisine

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Last night we went out for another birthday celebration. It was M’s birthday, that is last night was the designated birthday celebration as opposed to the impromptu birthday celebration we had a few weeks ago. Apparently M has wanted to eat at Fekerte’s for a long long time.

Fekerte’s has a long Canberra tradition. I recommend reading the introduction to their menu which is very informative and explains a lot about the food there.

Last night we selected a banquet (banquet three) which consisted of:

Entrée
Samosa
Pastry filled with a mixture of whole lentils or lean minced beef, coriander, shallots and other fresh herbs served with sauce

These were amazingly good samosas. Full of meaty goodness.

Kita
Ethiopian pan bread brushed with olive oil and spices

This bread came out first and at first I didn’t know how to attack it. It was nice with a pancake consistency.

Cauliflower Fritters
Finely cut cauliflower and fresh herbs mixed with chickpea flour and egg deep-fried and served with a yoghurt sauce

These fritters were really very good.

Main
Lega Tibs
Lamb marinated in white wine and Ethiopian spices sautéed with rosemary, onions, and green peppers

The lamb was tender and very tasty. The green chilies weren’t too hot.

Key Wat
Diced beef gently simmered until tender in a blend of onion, exotic spices and berbere

The beef was tender and the sauce was great on rice and with the enjera

Zilzil Alicha
Diced lamb and seasonal vegetables slowly cooked in a green pepper sauce and seasoned with ginger and jalapeno pepper

This lamb was a lot spicier and the sauce was great.

Ater Alicha – Mildly Spiced Pea Stew
Yellow split peas cooked with garlic, turmeric and basil

Nice and spicy and full of fibre.

Assa Curry
Nile Perch fillet lightly curried with garlic and coriander

The Nile Perch is a nice flaky fish. A little mushy though. The fish tasted great.

Salad

Mixed with the sauce from the fish curry and this rocked.

Served with enjera and rice

This had a lovely citrus sourness alone and amazing with the sauces.

Traditional Spiced Tea or Traditional Coffee

This tea was great. With a little sugar it was sweet and spicy.

The entrée selection was really good. The samosas especially. They were full of meat and full of flavour. Each of the main meal dishes had its own distinctive spice mix and when eaten with rice and enjera the sauce was nicely absorbed and oh so delicious.

For dessert Bron brought along a little container of poppy seed orange biscuits with chocolate and nutella filling. These were amazing little packets of flavour. So yummy. Bron also brought a couple of pecan brownies which were fantastic.

These were full of buttery goodness.

This brownie had a nice pecan crunch and flavour.

Fekerte’s is definitely worth visiting.

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Black Friday

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I’m not a superstitious person. Today was just another day. I went for a walk at 0445 AEST and as usual was listening to 2UE via 2CC on my 2CC iPhone app. Tim Shaw does the overnight program. He’s okay, he’s certainly not my favourite radio host. He was banging on about Black Friday like most radio presenters would be today. It got me thinking, will today be a bad day or a good day. Each day is what you make it. Sometimes things happen that we don’t like, it’s how we react that determines how we feel.

I got to work and on my walk to the post office the view of the sky was magnificent. Anyone who knows me knows how often I bang on about how much I dislike the weather in Canberra. It is too cold and dry in Autumn, Winter and Spring and too hot and dry in Summer. I much prefer tropical and sub-equatorial weather like in Darwin. The only glorious thing about Canberra though is the bright blue clear sky on most mornings.

From the Woden Wind Tunnel Check out my instagram post http://instagr.am/p/JVbX5ERNMP/

This morning at work was busy but profitable. By profitable, I mean it was a good morning. More importantly I had lunch with Bron at Thai Spice. The menu is pretty good. we started with (#10) coconut and almond prawns (Deep-fried King Prawns coated with shredded Coconut and Almond flakes served with Sweet Chilli Sauce). You get two of each, that is four per serve. These were delicious.

Coconut and almond prawns

One of the great things about this restaurant is the quirky attitude they have to serving drinks. We simply had diet coca cola, yet each time we have a drink they are served in different styled glasses. Sometimes wine glasses, sometimes dessert bowls, and often with odd fruit. Today our cokes came with apple wedges. We’re assuming is deliberate and not cluelessness.

My diet coke served in a wine glass with an apple wedge.

For mains we each selected a curry. Bron chose a delicious (#19) Gaeng Mussa Mun Nuea/Gai (Beef or Chicken Curry with Peanuts & Potato in Coconut Milk). I chose a reasonably nice (#18) Gaeng Phed Nuea/Gai (Red Curry with Beef or Chicken in Coconut Milk). I say reasonable because the beef was a little tough. The sauce though was heavenly. It was rich a spicy and went well with steamed rice.

Gaeng Mussa Mun Nuea

Gaeng Phed Nuea

I like the Thai Spice in Woden and happily recommend it for anyone who wants a lunch time meal near a big shopping mall.

This afternoon was really good at work. There were some last minute urgent things, but mostly a good afternoon.

I have wanted to try the take away place in Jamison for a while. There is also a foursquare entry.

I wanted battered fish and potato scallops. They serve them in a cardboard box that gets wrapped in fish and chip paper.

Fish and potato scallops in the box

When I got to my place I ate from a plate. The meal was pretty good and I’ll happily go back. As one twitter friend says though, this is nothing like the Stokes Hill Wharf in Darwin.

Fish and potato scallops on a plate

For dessert I had ice cream.

Ice cream with cream

So my Black Friday has been a good day.

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Maestral Mediterranean and Seafood restaurant in Weston

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Yesterday was a slow kind of day. We started with brunch at Black Pepper in Belconnen. This is a local café that does a good breakfast and brunch on weekends. It is very popular amongst locals and especially cyclists and walkers who exercise around Lake Ginninderra.

Bron asked for Eggs Benedict on Turkish bread and I asked for the Black Pepper big breakfast with Turkish bead. Black Pepper Menu July 2012

When our meals arrived, the Eggs Benedict were sitting on a muffin. Rather than waste time and send the dish back, I shared my Turkish bread.

Beautiful eggs Benedict

The plates were cold and the bacon was also cold. The eggs were slightly over cooked. The yolks were still soft but they weren’t really runny like we like them. Otherwise, the Eggs Benedict and Black Pepper Breakfast were very nice. As you can see I also asked for a bowl of hollandaise sauce to go with my breakfast. Along with our coffees, it was a good start to the day.

The day got better with a visit to Costco. I wanted to see the optometrist, although I didn’t realise I needed an appointment. I’ll be returning next Saturday. To compensate my disappointment we went to look at the meat section. There is a whole cold section dedicated to Australian produced Wagyu beef.

Costco's Wagyu cabinet

I will blog soon about cooking Wagyu beef.

The Maestral Mediterranean and Seafood restaurant is on 13 Trenerry Street in Weston. The menu is a combination of Croatian, seafood and beef. The surf and turf/reef and beef options look amazing.

We started with baby fried calamari and then went onto a Maestral seafood platter.

Baby fried calamari

The calamari was perfectly fried. It was juicy and tender.

The Maestral seafood platter. The soft shell crab was the highlight.

The platter had a combination of oysters (natural and oysters Maestral [see menu]), scampi, prawns, fish, soft shell crab and fried potatoes.

Me smiling because I love seafood platters

I would definitely go back and try other dishes on the menu. It’s a very popular restaurant. We saw a number of familiar faces and friends there last night.

After the Maestral we thought we’d enjoy dessert at Max Brenner in Belconnen. I chose the waffle with strawberries and vanilla ice cream.

Max Brenner waffle with strawberries and vanilla ice cream

And so finished a pretty good day.

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