Tag Archives: prawns

Thai to die for | The best Canberra restaurant experience in some time | Morks of Florey

On Wednesday evening Bron and I ate dinner at Morks in Florey. When Bron mentioned Morks and said it was Thai I wondered why it was named Morks. It didn’t sound Thai but what would I know. Bron had found Morks on-line (TripAdvisor.com) when searching for a good place to eat locally. She’d also heard recommendations from work friends.

Florey is in the northern suburbs of Canberra in the town of Belconnen. I didn’t realise until speaking with a friend at work that the rent at the Florey shops is pretty high and the move of Morks to the Kingston Foreshore in August this year will be economically wise.

Morks

It will be interesting to see the new shop front presentation in Kingston. As you walk out of the restaurant you are confronted by a Dominos pizza sign which immediately makes you feel happy you’ve had a fantastic meal in Morks

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Tasting menu

Sorry about this poorly focused shot, it gives you an idea of the tasting menu. As soon as I saw this I wanted it. Then I looked at the rest of the menu and wanted that as well. Bron and I have agreed we will return to eat through the menu. Tasting menus are fantastic to get an idea of the style and tastes of a restaurant. This tasting menu had us wanting to try everything. We’ve had degustation meals before which we’ve always enjoyed but this one just looked so balanced.

Mork’s menu PDF

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Scallop and pig

Okay, so it doesn’t sound that great unless you’re an offal lover like me and @DrOffal http://droffal.wordpress.com/ The scallop and the pig’s ear were beautifully cooked. The chilli relish and grilled spring onion gave the flesh amazing heat and taste. The taste is amazing. I loved everything about this dish. The scallops were soft with a beautifully caramelised surface.

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Eggplant

I love the way the tasting menu alternates between a meat-based dish and a vegetarian offering. This eggplant was delightful. I loved the fried shallot. It had a wonderful smoky flavour and the coriander sauce was a great accompaniment.

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John Dory

For both Bron and I this was the surprise dish of the night. I’ve been a long time fan of John Dory. I don’t think Bron has tried it before. It was cooked with a crispy crusty coating and the flesh was delicate and tender. The Kaffir lime curry was superb. Words cannot describe the sauce and the lovely wombok surprise hidden in the fish. I wanted a spoon and had to make do by applying the back of my fork to the sauce and quickly licking the sauce from it and repeating the process. I seriously was wanting to lick the plate and mentioned this to Bron. I asked her to distract the other customers somehow while I applied my tongue to the plate. She declined When Benn took our plates we mentioned how much we loved the sauce and he jokingly offered to get us more.

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Lychee sorbet

This sorbet did exactly as it was meant to. It refreshed our palates. On putting a spoonful in my mouth I was transported to my childhood in Brisbane. My grandparents and my grandfather’s brothers all lived together and raised me when I was very young. There was a farm just outside of Brisbane and the owners grew lychees with small seeds. I remember going there once a year and getting large wooden boxes of lychees and spending days eating lychees. We also grew a tree in our back yard and it was right up to when my parents sold the house a few years ago that we were still enjoying lychees from that tree. Thank you Morks for reviving olfactory memories.

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Cauliflower

Bron mentioned she needs to do more with cauliflower after tasting this dish. The cauliflower was coated in a crumb and cooked just right. All too often we over or undercook cauliflower. I want to know how these fritters were cooked. I could eat this all day. It’s a vegetable right? It must be good for me and more must be better for me.

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Prawn

I’ve been watching MasterChef Australia the Professionals and admiring Marco Pierre White. His common refrain when served one of something is why wasn’t there two. This prawn and pea open wonton dish (it says prawns [plural] on the menu Mork) was delightful and I wanted a second prawn http://www.marcopierrewhite.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Pierre_White

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Pork rib

I assumed when we sat down and decided on the tasting Menu that this would be the dish of the night. It almost made it. The John Dory pipped it for me. That said, this was a great dish. The flesh fell from the bones and melted in my mouth. We got some rice to soak up the sauce which was so nice. The sauce was a perfect consistency, not too thick not too thin. It was soy salty and soy sweet.

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Coconut

This dainty dessert was just right. Coconut and passionfruit together. A party time of happiness in my mouth. The ice cream was complemented nicely with the warm sticky sweet rice it was served on.

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We got home to my place and I still had macarons that Bron had given me.

Rose water and vanilla macarons

These were lovely with a cup of peppermint tea.

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The Tasting Menu cost $130 for both of us. The restaurant is BYO and doesn’t sell alcohol. This suited us well. I cannot say in words just how much we both enjoyed this dining experience. We’ve both eaten well in Canberra and have had many dining experiences, but this rates amongst the top of any resturant we’ve eaten in in Canberra. The service was perfectly paced. We were never ignored and plates weren’t removed in haste. The team were friendly and they all looked like they worked well together. There was a familiarity amongst them that was clear to the entire restaurant. It was nice to see Adul out and about from the kitchen. Benn was friendly and helpful when he could see I was posting images to Instagram he told us the Instagram handle for the restaurant and the blog address.

Morks is so worthwhile, I’d say if you live in Canberra and if you like food, you should eat here. I know we will be going back again (and again and again).

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Morks http://morks.com.au/
Google map http://goo.gl/maps/AO0WX

View Larger Map

Morks Dining Menu http://morks.com.au/index.php/menus/main
http://morks.com.au/templates/wa_theme/images/mork_menu.pdf

Meet the team at http://morks.com.au/index.php/team I am assuming Benn maintains the social accounts.
You can follow Morks on instagram at morksrestaurant facebook and Tumblr

Week 52 2012 Christmas

16 Replies

I hope I have one more post for 2012 to close out the year. This post however, will focus on the lead up and execution of Christmas 2012.

The last weekend was another quiet one. I didn’t have much to do besides wash clothes and clean the apartment. I’d completed all my Christmas shopping and so I enjoyed a weekend of lounging and watching DVDs. I ended up seeing the end of series three of Breaking Bad and watching what in the US is the first series of Strike Back. Apparently in the UK, there were six episodes shown before the US saw the seventh episode which it calls the first episode. I don’t understand the reasoning. The story can be found at IMDB and Wikipedia.

Because I was travelling for Christmas and New Year I needed to go through the contents of my refrigerator. Toasted sandwiches are always a good weekend lunch option.

Tomato, tinned red salmon and pumpkin seed bread.

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For dinner I had a scotch fillet steak.

I served it with a mango salad that also had salad leaves, cherry tomatoes and lots of Australian feta cheese. I made a light gravy from the marinade which was sherry, oil and soy plus some honey and mixed herbs and some minced garlic. I thickened it with some corn flour and used a little red wine to deglase my fry pan. I like my steak rare so this got about 90 seconds on each side and was rested for 10 minutes.

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On Saturday night a storm brewed but we didn’t see any rain. The clouds though were very pretty. I captured this image from my balcony but there were some much better ones from other IGers.

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I forgot to mention in my last post, that on Thursday evening when dining with my friends they gave me a book for Christmas. http://garydavidlum.com/2012/12/22/week-51-2012-christmas-party-season/

I like watching Jamie Oliver on television and if you search this blog for Jamie Oliver you’ll see a number of references. http://garydavidlum.com/?s=Jamie+Oliver&submit=Search I’ve heard though with Jamie Oliver’s recipes that sometimes they’re wrong, that is, quantities can be significantly off. This doesn’t always get corrected. If you know enough to know that’s fine but if you’re pretty ignorant like me, that can spell disaster.

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WARNING Sad Image

One of the saddest images I’ve captured is this one. Last week I posted this image of a friendly blue tongued skink. Sadly it was run over in my apartment car park.

From last week

What I came across on Sunday morning.

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I love pistachios

Snack time.

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Another toasted sandwich for lunch.

This time with blue cheese because like bacon and butter, everything tastes better with blue cheese.

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On Sunday night I cleaned out the refrigerator.

Salmon with mango salad and blue cheese.

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Normally when I’m walking back from the post office you can see heaps of people at work.

Barren on Christmas eve.

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There are no calories for the next two weeks.

Caramel doughnut.

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I was tempted, but this was for a work friend.

Jam filled doughnut.

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Because a work mate was ill last week when we went to the snag stand, we went back with her on Monday.

Spicy cheese kransky on brioche. This was delicious. Our plan is to eat through the entire menu.

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I finished work early on Christmas eve and I went to the airport as soon as I could.

A White Christmas snack at the Qantas lounge.

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I also had a couple of chilli beef pastizzi in the lounge

They were a little hot.

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I managed to secure an upgrade on flight QF960. The flight was meant to leave a little after 1745 however a couple of storm cells hit Canberra and to keep the ground crew safe they were evacuated from the tarmac and we stayed in the aeroplane for more than an hour connected to the aerobridge. If you follow me on Twitter you’ll see were we able to use our telephones.

For dinner I had the crumbed beef. The crumb also contained feta cheese. While the beef was well done and tough, everything else was very nice.

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When I got to my parent’s place I put out presents for them and my girls (who I’ll see later this week).

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It’s Christmas Day. I had a poor night’s sleep, not through Christmas excitement, but because I’m sleeping on my childhood bed. Dad woke up early and we sat together for a couple of hours while he told me stories.

I had a light breakfast in anticipation of a big lunch. The breakfast of champions, vegemite on toast with a couple of coffees.

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And so lunch preparation begins…

This is chicken after we’d tightened the skin with boiling water.

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Mum made a 1000 islands dressing for our lunch time prawns. If you click on the image you can work out the ingredients in a chat with Hilah from hilahcooking.com

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The poultry preparation continued with a duck drying and draining.

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The bowl may not look elegant but that mattered nought.

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I love prawns.

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I could not help capture an after image.

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The duck had a reasonable neck attached. You can tell my intent by the strategically placed Chinese meat cleaver.

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I want a role on The Game of Thrones as an executioner.

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Because everything is better with bacon.

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Side by side, don’t they look a treat (and very cute too).

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Mum makes a mean stuffing. Check out https://www.evernote.com/shard/s183/sh/b0224e03-ecac-4ec6-93cd-7f8246b75d18/45f16c08058a64d34147000cbd21095d for the details. I had my eye on the Maryland at the top of the image. It has the cloaca attached. I love a chook’s cloaca when it’s been roasted.

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With the duck added. I like to cut the breast off and slice it. It makes it easier to eat because you bite end on into the grain of the meat. Do you see the size of the duck’s neck and cloaca? I’d already bagsed (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bagsed) them.

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Because of the small size of Mum’s kitchen and oven, rather than roasted vegetables, Mum made a potato bake yesterday and we heated it up in a small toaster oven at lunch time. We also had broccoli, asparagus and peas.

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This is my plate. Mum made a nice orange flavoured sauce too. It was sublime.

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The neck has such nicely flavoured meat. I also managed to dissect out the trachea too. This started a nice little chat on twitter and instagram.

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So that’s it for now. Mum decided against making a pudding or a pavlova. This evening we’ll have fruit and some cheese. I’m pretty grateful. I don’t really want to blow out. I can fit into a pair of shorts I like to wear at Christmas time so I’m happy holding back a little.

I hope everyone reading this blog had a wonderful time if you celebrate Christmas. I hope your day was full of happiness and peace and good food.

Merry Christmas friends,

Your friend and fellow blogger

Gaz

Things and places mentioned in this post

Kransky sausage
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kranjska_klobasa

Strike Back
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Back_%28TV_series%29
IMDB entry http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1492179/

Pastizz
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastizz

Another week in Instagram and schoolies week (garydavidlum.com)

Week 51 2012 Christmas party season

15 Replies

Saturday night I went to a Christmas barbecue with some friends. It was a good night with lots of tasty food and good company. I’d like to say it was unseasonably cold, but this is Canberra. It’s snowed close by on a Christmas day before. What can I say, I’m looking forward to being in Queensland for Christmas where the weather is more to my liking.

Again like Friday night I was a bit slow with my iPhone and I didn’t capture images of the nibbles. There were lots of nibbles. Lots of nuts, dips, cheese, pâté, crackers, bread, chips, and stuff. For dinner we had a barbecue with steak, hamburger patties and sausages plus potato bake, coleslaw and other salads.

Like a lot of my previous posts I’m using images from my instagram profile. You can get more information on each image by clicking on it to see comments from other IGers.

The spread

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My plate

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Some of my friends queried my burger contents of steak, sausage, hamburger pat tie, coleslaw and potato bake. I thought it all went well together.

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For dessert we had pavlova.

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I was cold

I was cold. I’m glad I brought a hoodie and was given a wrap.

View the twitter conversation here and here and here

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I spent most of Sunday relaxing. I did a little grocery shopping and then got into watching series two of Breaking Bad. This is a surprisingly good series. Like The Walking Dead I’m addicted.

I felt pretty full from the night before so my breakfast and lunch was an iced coffee banana smoothie.

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You can tell it’s Christmas with cars wearing reindeer antlers and candy canes. I’m not a fan

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I love pineapple and a pineapple smoothie was in order for afternoon tea.

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I took home a left over potato bake from Saturday night so now I have potato bake for a few nights this week.

This meal was a piece of salmon, some potato bake and some salad.

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On Monday morning as I was checking out my post office box the new art was standing proud, all shiny and new.

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One of my work friends turned 32 on Monday.

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Monday evening’s dinner was a rasher of pork, some salad and some potato bake.

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I read today the new terms and conditions of use for Instagram. If Instagram wants to use my images I really don’t mind, I can’t imagine any of them are worthy. My only concern is that some of my images contain people and I may not always have permission to include them. Many IGers moved to Flickr. I received more e-mails from Flickr in the last few days than in the few years I’ve had an account. http://www.flickr.com/photos/garydlum

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Tuesday night’s dinner was a piece of salmon, some salad and the last of the weekend’s potato bake. The drink is made from pineapple and mint leaves plus some lime cordial.

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On Wednesday I forgot to make my lunch.

This was a smoked salmon and capers quiche from Urban Bean Espresso Bar. It was very nice. The raspberry soft drink was also pretty good too.

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Food regret

Jess went out for doughnuts and I said yes. I shouldn’t have. It came from Breadtop in Woden. The Breadtop franchise has grown well in Australia. See below for details.

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A friendly visitor

This cute blue tongue lizard greeted me when I alighted from my car in the apartment garage.
Wikipedia entry

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Wednesday dinner was a pork rasher and mango salad. It was delicious.

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On Thursday we had our branch Christmas morning tea.

Many sections, branches and divisions have out of office get together. When we’ve tried that in the past something has gone wrong like a health emergency necessitating staff to return to the office. It’s just part of working in an emergency management team.

These were amazing. Cylinders of crunchy nutty brownie goodness topped with a chocolate ganache with a white chocolate tipped strawberry which is sitting in a white chocolate disc for stability. The person who made these has made some great strawberry based treats in the past, especially her chocolate drizzled strawberry and marshmallow kebabs. I think nearly everyone in the branch has a cooking or food bent. It’s amazing.

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Everyone in the branch received an end of the year award.

I think everyone knows I love capturing images of food and then posting them to Instagram.

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At lunch the other SES (Senior Executive Service) staff from the division went to lunch. We went to The Palette which is in the Beaver Galleries.

I’m sorry this is so blurry. I was so excited to be having crumbed lamb brains with a capers and vinegar side. The piquancy of the capers and vinegar offset the fattiness of the brains perfectly. The brains were lightly crumbed and not overcooked. Kept into small portions like these, the taste is delicious and not overpowering. Lambs brains brings back great childhood memories of Mum cooking crumbed lambs brains with a white sauce with onion and parsley.

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The Beaver Galleries are a landmark of Canberra art and culture. I’ve been there a couple of times now. The gallery is full of exquisite pieces. That said, the prices are very high.

One of my favourite food bloggers is Hannah of Wayfaring Chocolate fame. Earlier this year she did a review of sweet selection at The Palette

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The trifecta for Thursday was Christmas dinner with dear friends.

We started with freshly cooked prawns. These were cooked in sea water, yes sea water that had been specially collected.

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The main was a roast pork and vegetables. The crackling was sublime.

The peas were home grown in the garden along with the snow peas.

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For dessert we devoured a violet crumble semifreddo.

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While Friday was not the last day of work for 2012, it had a very holiday feel. Ursula, our branch executive assistant gave me a toy car filled with lollies for Christmas.

I played vroom vroom throughout the day.

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I moved offices as part of my new role. In my old office I had a big pin board on which I could hang my favourite flags. The top one is Queensland’s flag. A quick search of this blog will reveal how I feel about being a Queenslander and Queensland.

The bottom flag belongs to the Northern Territory of Australia. Brisbane may be my home town and I am a passionate Queenslander, however, Darwin is my spiritual home, it’s where my soul lives. For that reason the flag has always been hung upside down in my office. An upside down flag is a maritime distress signal. I want to return home. I expect Australian readers to recognise it’s upside down, for my non-Australian readers, the stars represent the Southern Cross and it is upside down.

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We’d heard some weeks ago about the Snag Stand. A new franchise from Sydney and Melbourne had opened two outlets in Canberra, one very close to where we work.

They cook and assemble onsite. It’s a pretty busy place.

The menu for the Sydney outlets is here and for the Melbourne outlets here. They don’t have the Canberra ones posted. I assume they are similar.

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We brought our food back to work.

I chose a Swiss Bratwurst. It was topped with a really yummy Sauerkraut

It was excellent. Not too big and not too salty.

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Last night I needed something light.

Organic free range chicken drumstick and salad.

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This morning on my walk I tried the new Instagram Mayfair filter when saying hello to the Owl Statue.

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I hope at the end of next week to write a short piece about 2012. It won’t be much. Hopefully I’ll be enjoying myself in Brisbane where it will be warm and moist.

Places and things mentioned in this post in more detail.

Breaking Bad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/
http://www.amctv.com/shows/breaking-bad

Breadtop
http://www.breadtop.com.au/
http://www.westfield.com.au/au/retailers/breadtop/woden
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/Z5Bdv

View Larger Map

Beaver Galleries
http://www.beavergalleries.com.au/
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/Di7Yr

View Larger Map

The Snag Stand
http://snagstand.com.au/

View Larger Map

http://www.westfield.com.au/au/retailers/snag-stand/woden
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/Z5Bdv

#BoycottInstagram? Instagram Lives On (tcjock.wordpress.com)
Instagram says it now has the right to sell your photos (gloryartgallery.wordpress.com)
Instagram or not to Instagram ? (since198x.com)
Instagram: “All Your Photos Are Belong to Us!” (beanstalk-inc.com)
Photo Friday – Insanity Instagram (insanityofmotherhood.com)
Moving From Instagram to Flickr (kinlane.wordpress.com)

The Park Hyatt Buffet lunch

8 Replies

Bron and I went to lunch today. We went to the Park Hyatt Hotel‘s buffet lunch in the Promenade Cafe. The buffet lunch is well known to residents of Canberra and is an institution at the Park Hyatt like their afternoon high tea is. Interestingly enough John-Bryan Hopkins of Foodimentarian has blogged that today is “I Love Food” day. It seemed fitting to enjoy a buffet lunch.

I’ll describe the lunch in pictures of each time I went up and came back to my chair.

Plate 1

In the background is part of a whole cold salmon. It was the best dish of the day. It only came out once and I kept looking around for more, sadly there was only ever one tray. My tip is to get in early before 1230 to get some. It was later replaced with smoked salmon which was also very nice, but not as nice as the whole cold salmon. In the foreground is a small saucer of prawns and greens. This was very tasty. I’d have a whole salad plate of it if I could. The Moreton Bay bugs were fresh and full.

Plate 2

I got my share of salad with a Caesar salad, some sardines, octopus, and cold meats. The sardines were nice but a little bony. The bread was also amazing. Very tasty.

Plate 3

Here you can see fresh prawns, oysters, mussels, octopus and smoked salmon.

Plate 4

The hot food options were disappointing. I chose a chicken thigh and creamy mushroom dish with some potatoes and a warm baked salmon. The salmon was really disappointing. It was tough and smelt “fishy”.

Plate 5

I finished off with some more seafood.

Cheese and dried pear

One of the waiters told us the blue cheese was fantastic. It was.

Dessert 1

Okay the lighting was pretty poor for this. I’m sorry. This is a strawberry mousse cake with a lavender macaron plus a caramel cheesecake supported by whipped cream. The chocolate thing was tempered nicely.

Dessert 2

This is a creme caramel which looked better than it tasted. It was a little too firm. A fork went through and the dessert stuck to it tightly.

Ear Grey Tea

Like John Luc Picard, I like Earl Grey tea. It was a great relief after a large lunch. I was so tempted to loosen my belt. I waited until I got in the car.

So what is the verdict. It’s definitely worthwhile. It’s not the best buffet meal I’ve had, not even close, there are many other places that do it better in terms of quality and quantity. Certainly the Park Hyatt is not about quantity. That’s a good thing too. Can you image how much food is wasted every day, especially all the glorious seafood. Probably the best buffet I’ve enjoyed is the Sidewalk Cafe at the old Sheraton Hotel in Brisbane. That was amazing. The quality was always high and the quantity and variety out of this world. That was probably the disappointing thing about the Park Hyatt, the variety wasn’t huge, especially the hot offering. It was the usual stuff but nothing exotic and nothing like a big international hotel might have in Hong Kong for instance. Even the cheap and cheerful seafood buffets in Darwin would rate slightly better in terms of quality (freshness of seafood) and value for money. I apologise to the Park Hyatt if they think I didn’t enjoy myself. I did, it was a great lunch today, great company, good service and fabulous food. I would definitely recommend Canberra residents and visitors to enjoy a lunch at the Park Hyatt Canberra.

Toronto to Los Angeles to Sydney to Canberra (YYZ to LAX to SYD to CBR)

Best meal ever and #StateofOrigin Game 2

11 Replies

Last night Bron and I visited some close friends who we often have dinner with. Mostly it’s us going to their place to eat wonderful food. Last night was no different. In the words of Bron (and I agree), “Best meal in my life“.

A few weeks ago we set up the date and started talking about a menu. We suggested we’d go to Costco and get King crab legs for an entrée and Bron said she’d make a lemon tart for dessert. P and LP came back and said they would happily prepare an Asian degustation for our main course.

Bron and I ventured out to Costco yesterday morning to learn that the seafood arrangement only came out every fortnight. We’ve been to Costco so many times on alternating weeks that we had not noticed this. This was disappointing because Bron was also going to make her gorgeous aioli and and another dipping sauce. Bron sent P a text message and explained. No worries, “We have prawns” came the reply.

The lemon tart was an experiment. Bron had not made this recipe before. She need not have worried. It was perfect.

So we started with a few prawns and homemade dressing. These had only been frozen once and were a delicious and certainly acted as an entrée or appetiser for us. I was so hungry.

What followed can only be described as awesome. I use that word advisedly. Like a good many words used on social media and on television and movies, “awesome” is over used. This meal was awesome.

We started with LP’s dumplings. Mouth sized and full of flavour. The spicy dipping sauce was just right. P then followed with some of his signature pieces, namely, a crunchy Chinese cabbage salad and seafood cakes. I could have eaten the salad all night. This was followed with LP’s tamarind prawns. Oh my the flavour was fantastic. This was a first time for LP. The Pièce de résistance was P’s twice cooked belly pork. The reduction could be smelled when we entered the house. The star anise and cinnamon wafting in our nostrils tempting us to pick up the jug and drink the sauce was an ever present danger.

With the ‘mains’ over, we entered the dangerous world of dessert. I say dangerous because no one gets between some of us and their dessert.

LP was preparing the chocolate soufflé as we arrived. She was so delicate in folding in the cream. It was certainly worth the effort. I have never had a soufflé so light and fluffy. Bron was concerned that I had left crusty bits of chocolate on the edge of my ramekin. I quickly fixed the problem without burning my tongue

Bron’s lemon tart was also a triumph. Earlier in the day Bron had received a gift from a dear tweep who shared from her bounty of lemons. The quickly prepared candied lemon rind was also delicious along with the cognac whipped cream that LP had provided with her soufflé.

To finish the evening we all enjoyed a half of a small pavlova that P has now perfected. It was a perfect evening with fantastic conversation, lots of laughs and dare I say, for me at least, belt loosening.

I apologise for the quality of my iPhone photography. I was trembling with multiple foodgasms that I had trouble focusing.

Prawns with homemade seafood sauce (iPhone)

Pork dumplings (iPhone)

Crunchy Chinese cabbage salad and seafood cakes (iPhone)

Tamarind prawns (iPhone)

Twice cooked pork belly (iPhone)

Chocolate soufflé served with cognac cream (iPhone)

Cognac cream (iPhone)

Lemon tart with Cognac cream (iPhone)

Pavlova served with Chinese gooseberry, passion fruit and strawberries (iPhone)

More as a post script than anything else, I have not blogged for a few days and I should comment on the second game in this year’s State of Origin series. NSW defeated Queensland. As much as I wanted the Queensland XXXX Maroons to win, it wasn’t to be. The game was fierce, it was tight, it was superbly played. Queensland played well and NSW played better. NSW were the best team on the night and deserved to win. This now means a decider in two and a bit weeks. This is not a bad thing. If Queensland had won, this would have made game three a fizzer and given Queensland has won the series in the last six years it would severely damage the State of Origin concept. Dare I say it, NSW winning the series in 2012 would not be a tragedy. The important thing is ensuring the greatest game on the planet, i.e., Rugby League is maintained for everyone to enjoy.

Big day and a big result and shout out to @phonakins (#QUEENSLANDER #StateofOrigin) (garydavidlum.com)
A big day for Chinese food | Noble Palace | Dumpling Inn (garydavidlum.com)
Cheesecake returns (garydavidlum.com)
State of Origin 2 – NSW 16 Qld 12 (blogs.abc.net.au)
Mortimer backs Blues to repeat ’85 glory (news.smh.com.au)
Blues put heat on Carney, Pearce (news.smh.com.au)

Black Friday

16 Replies

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.

Dinner at Lemon Grass Woden and Max Brenner Belconnen (garydavidlum.com)
A Bangkok Thai Cooking Adventure – The Best Way to Blow Fifty Bucks In Bangkok! (salutadventures.com)
Chicken Massaman Curry (nourishednutrition.com)
Making Fresh Coconut Milk (southpacificengagement.com)
Prawns with coconut milk and spices (Prawn Malai Curry) (thesublimepalate.wordpress.com)
Spicy Prawn Curry with Roasted Tomatoes (thehungrygiant.wordpress.com)
King prawn recipes: grilled tiger prawns in Lampung sauce (telegraph.co.uk)
My weekend in food and ‘health’ (garydavidlum.com)
Buttery chilli prawns (gofullthrottlerecipes.wordpress.com)
Chalk and cheese | Onred and Central Cafe | Canberra and Queanbeyan (garydavidlum.com)
TGIBlackFriday.com Releases Free Black Friday iPhone App with Leaked Ads for Major Retailers Including Walmart, Best Buy, Target and More (prweb.com)
Black Friday Roundup: The Best Tech Buys, Toy Deals, Shopping Tips, and More! (bellasugar.com)
Black Friday Roundup: The Best Tech Buys, Toy Deals, Shopping Tips, and More! (fabsugar.com)
24 Hours in Canberra (hotelclub.com)

Seasalt Dining in Bruce

10 Replies

Last night we ventured out with friends to a newish restaurant in Canberra. Seasalt Dining in Bruce is in The Hub apartment complex in Bruce new The Canberra Stadium and the Australian Institute of Sport.

Last night the Brumbies were playing the Sharks at Canberra Stadium so we were a little nervous about parking. In the end it turned out well (the Brumbies were defeated too). They have dedicated parking and from the kitchen the chefs and wait staff can monitor the car park.

The service was really very good. The wait staff were cheerful and helpful. Nothing was too difficult for them and they enjoyed a little playful bantered when we “complained” our desserts weren’t big enough. The menu is pretty good and the place opens for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I elected not to have an entrée while my dinner companions enjoyed Thai fish cakes and seared scallops. I waited instead for the seafood platter, which according to the menu looked like a collection of entrée dishes plus a piece of fish (salmon last night). That’s what it turned out to be. It was very nice, although, compared with our recent Maestral experience, this was not a seafood platter for two. I ate this easily by myself without any discomfort. The fish cakes were a little rubbery compared with the excellent fish cakes from Lemon Grass. That said, the seared scallops were divine.

The restaurant has a nice cake cabinet and I chose white chocolate cheese cake with cream and ice cream.

I would recommend Seasalt Dining in Bruce to anyone living in Canberra. It will soon have its own dedicated website and all going well my fat face will appear after a photograph was taken of me last night with my seafood platter

I kept a parking spot for our friends.

Fish cakes

Seared scallops

Platter plate 1

Plate plate 2. Oysters natural and Kilpatrick.

It came with really nice potato chips (Fries for friends in the USA).

All together. I also got a plate of Thai fish cakes.

White chocolate cheesecake with ice cream and whipped cream.

Maestral Mediterranean and Seafood restaurant in Weston (garydavidlum.com)
The Fish Cake (gemcitytiffany.wordpress.com)
Salmon fish cakes with lemon herb mayo recipe (telegraph.co.uk)
Chalk and cheese | Onred and Central Cafe | Canberra and Queanbeyan (garydavidlum.com)

Maestral Mediterranean and Seafood restaurant in Weston

10 Replies

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.

Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon & Spinach in South Beach with Julia Child’s Hollandaise Sauce (cookingwithsherlockspice.wordpress.com)

My weekend in food and ‘health’

13 Replies

This week at work has been fairly full on. I’ve come back from a week away in Washington and there is a lot on in the branch. We also had senate estimates this week which just adds to the longer hours. We were there to give evidence at 2250 AEDT on Wednesday night. We finished after 2300 AEDT.

The weekend has been a much sought after break. I’ve been looking forward to dinner with friends this weekend. We had dinner parties planned on both Friday and Saturday evenings. Catching up with friends is always so good. Coincidentally we were repeating a weekend from earlier in the year http://wp.me/p16Zhd-jV

On Friday evening the menu was prawns, roast beef and pavlova.

The prawns were as fresh as they could be. Only frozen once and cooked as soon as they were thawed. The main course had a number of highlights. Freshly baked bread being one thing but the star was a slow cooked standing rib roast. The prime rib was cooked for about twelve hours at 50 °C and then pan seared to give it a lovely crust. Dessert was an amazing pavlova. The picture of the pavlova speaks for itself. It was served with home made vanilla bean ice cream. It was so rich and creamy.

Fresh prawns with a seafood sauce.

Yep, it's a salad. The olives are local.

Creamy potato bake.

Fresh bread made on the day. With real butter, what can be better?

Standing rib roast. Doesn't it look amazing.

Plated up. This dinner was so well balanced.

A heart shaped pavlova. Lovely fresh fruits including blackberries picked locally.

Pavlova served with home made vanilla ice cream.

It was a great night finished with dark chocolate and more good conversation.

On Saturday night we caught up with friends for a shared dinner party. Regular readers will know that Bron has become a star with Yorkshire puddings and a request came for roast lamb and yorkies plus Bron’s sticky date pudding. The main course was all about the lamb shoulder. The lamb shoulders (about 10 kilograms of lamb) had been prepared by a butcher and split to ensure an even cooking. The lamb pieces were placed over cloves of garlic and rosemary stems. Over the lamb more garlic and rosemary were added. Aluminium foil covered the meat and then the roasting tray was placed in the oven at 230 °C for 30 minutes after which is was turned down low to between 150 and 170 ⁠°C for seven hours. The low slow cooking ensures a succulent product with meat that pulls away easily from the bones.The secret to this meal was putting the lamb in the barbecue for about half an hour. The result was a beautiful caramelisation of the meat leaving us with some crackling too. It was accompanied by smash potatoes and roasted carrot, sweet potato and parsnips.

After the main we had Bron’s sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce, custard and vanilla ice cream.

10 kilograms of lamb shoulder in three oven trays.

This is me sampling some of the lamb. Look at that growing mountain of meat.

Smash potatoes and roasted sweet potato and parsnip.

Can you believe how much meat we went through?

Bron made enough yorkies for everyone to have two or three.

Ready to serve.

My first helping of lamb and vegetables.

My second helping of lamb.

My first helping of Bron's sticky date oudding with butterscotch sauce, custard and vanilla ice cream.

My second helping of pudding.

After dinner we had to have fruit.

Terry's chocolate orange ball.

This morning I woke up feeling awful. I had a headache, muscle pain and some joint pain. Even though room temperature was about 22 °C, I was shivering. A hot shower and a cup of tea didn’t help so I spent most of today in bed drinking water every hour and passing really concentrated urine. From time to time I could feel myself being viræmic. I still have a pounding headache but felt like I need to blog so I can say I did something today.

A weekend in food (garydavidlum.com)
Easy Pavlova, 366/30 day 17 (shanarose.wordpress.com)
Is there a word better than awesome for tonight’s dinner? (garydavidlum.com)
Standing Rib Roast (aminerecipes.com)
Tender Prime Rib Roast with Mushroom and Bacon Sauté (marksdailyapple.com)
facing my demons … Passionfruit Pavlova (stresscake.wordpress.com)

Yummy Lummy

Gary's rants and raves about food (and a little about life)

Tag Archives: prawns

Thai to die for | The best Canberra restaurant experience in some time | Morks of Florey

Week 52 2012 Christmas

Week 51 2012 Christmas party season

The Park Hyatt Buffet lunch

Toronto to Los Angeles to Sydney to Canberra (YYZ to LAX to SYD to CBR)

Best meal ever and #StateofOrigin Game 2

Black Friday

Seasalt Dining in Bruce

Maestral Mediterranean and Seafood restaurant in Weston

My weekend in food and ‘health’

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