My workmates are a source of the great joy. I really enjoy working with them. It’s even better when they all enjoy lunch. Last Thursday one particular area I work with decided to have lunch at the Conservatory Restaurant at the National Arboretum. It was a sunny day, warm and clear so the view from the Village Centre was very good.
When we arrived we asked if we could share some of the entrées and we were offered a couple of antipasto planks. These were nicely laid out with smoked salmon, prosciutto, beef, pickled onions, olives, sun dried tomatoes and eggplant. They also came with a nice garlic sourdough bread.
The Summer menu is available on-line while a specials menu is available as a card on our table.
The specials menu
Antipasto plankMy antipasto plate
As we were enjoying the antipasto our orders were taken for a main meal. I decided on the Canberra Bouillabaisse from the specials menu which was a tomato based soup with a scallop, a couple of prawns, some calamari and some snapper. It was served with a big wodge of garlic buttered sourdough bread.
Canberra Bouillabaisse
The soup was quite nice and the seafood was perfectly cooked. None of it was tough and it all went down quite nicely.
Raspberry and mango Eton mess
After listening to many funny stories and anecdotes from my workmates over the main meal were were asked about dessert. I chose the Eton Mess from the specials menu.
I’d happily recommend lunch at the Conservatory Restaurant. I really enjoyed all the food but what made it special was eating with great people.
A local Canberra blogging friend http://talesofaconfectionist.wordpress.com/ posts multiple times a day with photographs of food she is eating. Sometimes she will write a longer and more descriptive post. I really like receiving multiple e-mails a day knowing that when I click the link I’ll see something delicious. If you like a broad mix of delicious food, I can recommend following http://talesofaconfectionist.wordpress.com/ Once there you’ll read stories of food and how her fiance keeps her happy with macarons
Today I made Mum and Dad a simple sandwich made from tinned red salmon and avocado on Helga’s traditional wholemeal bread (with some butter and pepper).
Saturday lunch. Salmon and avocado on Helga’s traditional wholemeal bread. Apple iPhone 6 Plus with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/15sec, ISO 50Saturday lunch. Salmon and avocado on Helga’s traditional wholemeal bread. Apple iPhone 6 Plus with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/15sec, ISO 50
Mum and Dad enjoyed their salmon and avocado sandwich. I hope you do too
It was a great day for a drive in the country. Warm relatively humid weather. Not too much glare and not too much traffic.
Junee is about two and a half hours drive from Canberra. Junee is known as the home of NSW and Australian rugby league player Laurie Daley and rugby league broadcaster Ray Warren. It’s also the home of a licorice and chocolate factory which in a former life was a flour mill.
The factory does tours and has a gift shop plus restaurant and cafe. We went looking in the gift shop and the theme was mainly kitchen appliances and gadgets plus Crocs® The cafe is aligned with the sales outlet for the licorice and chocolate. There are all sorts of flavours and shapes. They seem to do a big trade in freckles, frogs and boobs. Yes boobs, milky white boobs. And also milk chocolate boobs.
The restaurant has a nice big spacious feel and a country style menu with steak sandwiches, hamburgers, fish and chips, steak and some salads.
Bron chose a Junee lamb burger with red beans, guacamole and sour cream plus a granny smith cider. I chose a sirloin steak with a garden salad and chips. I asked for the steak to be cooked rare and to come with a peppercorn sauce.
Junee lamb burger Apple iPhone 5s with iPhone 5s back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/30sec, ISO 100
Bron liked her burger. The meat was juicy, flavoursome and tender and the bun was nicely toasted and still soft. The guacamole and sour cream with red kidney beans worked really well together. The chips had a great flavour, but we’re a bit too soft for Bron’s liking.
The cider was crisp, dry and wonderfully refreshing. Perfect for a warm 32 °C plus warm windy day looking out to the lovely shade of the vine encased outdoor dining area.
Sirloin steak with garden salad and chips Apple iPhone 6 with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/15sec, ISO 50
My steak was good. It was mostly rare with some areas a little more medium rare. The fat was mostly rendered but there was some gristle which tasted good but it was tough. The salad was lightly dressed so no splashing of vinegar and oil on my white shirt 🙂 The chips were tasty but soft. I also had a caramel thickshake which was pretty good.
Junee Licorice and Chocolate factory white chocolate boobs NIKON D7100 with 90.0 mm f/2.8 at 90mm and f/8, 1/30sec, ISO 400Junee Licorice and Chocolate factory white chocolate boobs NIKON D7100 with 90.0 mm f/2.8 at 90mm and f/8, 1/30sec, ISO 400
A couple of weeks ago Mum and Dad celebrated 50 years of marriage. Mum wanted a family celebration with her children and grandchildren. There’s 15 of us including Mum and Dad.
A favourite restaurant for my parents is Morgans Seafood at Scarborough.
Morgans Seafood Restaurant
We had a booking for noon because basically the Lums don’t like to wait too long to eat. On the drive (we had a convoy of three cars), I had a niece with me and she said she was a real Lum because she preferred meat and fish and dessert over vegetables.
We get to the restaurant and Dr47 tells me I’ve been here before but I can’t remember. Not long after, Mr42 arrives with his kids and we’re all seated at a long table with a water view. I find myself at the end with all the kids which isn’t a bad thing since I’m a big kid 🙂
Inside Morgans Seafood Restaurant. We got there just before 12 noon.
Because we had decided we were also going to go out for dinner we all elected to enjoy a main course. The menu doesn’t have a huge selection but every item looks like a winner to me.
It’s been nearly a decade since I enjoyed a seafood platter (my favourites being at Crustaceans and Christos in Darwin). I was so excited when Miss17 said she’d like to try a platter with me. It was the second most beautiful thing I’d heard all weekend. The most beautiful was when Miss19 told me that when I visit in October she wants me to cook for her a meal like I used to when we lived in Darwin. I nearly cried.
Even though I had a camera with me I didn’t want to annoy everyone by capturing images of their food so I took a couple of ninja snaps.
Miss17 and I chose the Moreton Bay platter because it was a combination hot and cold creation and focussed on the local crustacean, Thenus orientalis, which is a slipper lobster and known locally as the Moreton Bay bug. In Cockroach territory (aka New South Wales) it’s known as a Balmain bug. Fittingly Dr47 described it to his Miss8 as the cockroach of the sea (not that that description would put her off eating it). I loved her description of calamari. She calls them Japanese chips (fries for my North American friends).
The Moreton Bay platter consists of Chilled Moreton Bay bugs, Florida lobster, Pacific oysters, and ocean prawns, with Grilled Coconut crumbed prawns, Moreton Bay bugs, half shell Queensland scallops with macadamia nut and lime butter, salt and pepper calamari (aka Japanese chips), and crumbed fish fillets.
Crumbed calamari (aka Japanese chips)Seafood pastaSeafood tasting plateMoreton Bay platterMoreton Bay platterMoreton Bay platterChilled Moreton Bay bugs and fruitGrilled seafood on the Moreton Bay platterMmm…Queensland scallops with Queensland nut and lime butterMy plate at the end
It’s meant to be a platter for two but the quantities are not served evenly, so there is an odd number of oysters, bug tails and only one lobster tail. This could create a little tension, fortunately, I’ve learnt to be less macrophagic in my eating habits and so Miss17 and I made very equitable decisions on the division of the spoils.
After the mains were devoured a spectacular cake was produced. A white chocolate mud cake for Mum and Dad.
We all had a great time at lunch. The kids loved their meals and the setting was perfect. Brisbane turned on a beautiful day for Mum and Dad. They shared that on their wedding day it was brighter and more blue but a little colder in Brisbane. On that day the Beatles were playing in Brisbane and the Wallabies were playing the All Blacks. An uncle from New Zealand asked if he could skip the wedding party and attend the test match. So fifty years on and my parents have a family they love and in Mum’s words they’ll just take each year as it comes now.
I give it 4 colonies out of 5. Really good. I will aim to return. As a bonus they use cloth napkins and the mens’ room had good hand basins and soap to wash off all the seafood odours.
If you have any comments or questions please send me a comment in the space below.
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