Tag Archives: Salmon

Back in Canberra

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I got back to Canberra last night after a weekend in Darwin. After a sleep in I went for a walk and then to lunch with Bron.

Click on the images for high resolution versions.

On my walk I said hello to Mr Owl

On my walk I went past Weber’s circus

For lunch Bron and I went to Ricardo’s Cafe.

I had a really nice caramel thick shake. Sadly it didn’t agree with my IBS.

I had a Wagyu cheese burger. Sadly a part of an upper left molar broke off while eating it. The burger was delicious.

After the burger I had a pineapple. This was made with meringue and pineapple marshmallow.

This is the inside of the pineapple.

For dinner I had a light meal of salmon.

Salmon with mashed potato made with blue cheese plus asparagus and broccolini.

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Steak, crabs, flowers and sweets, lots of sweets

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Okay where to start? This last week has been pretty good for food. Too much really but who can say no. I mean when it’s good it’s good.

On Monday night crusted some salmon with herbs. I’m still doing towers with my food tube.

Tuesday morning late in September, you know Spring, it was still –2 °C. Yikes. Canberra weather sucks.

On my morning walk I came across a possum. This tree is right in front of a shopping mall. He/she was fat. I bet he/she had been plundering rubbish bins.

Halfway through the walk I pass the Owl Statue and say hello. You can see it has started to warm up.

On Tuesday night Bron made three different sorts of pizza. they were delicious. I haven’t eaten pizza for so long. These were mouth watering. Each type of pizza, even the vegetarian versions were delicious.

You may recall from my Daydream Island post I had my first dessert pizza there. Bron has broken me now for dessert pizzas. This is the uncooked stage. Notice the milk and white chocolate, the banana and the marshmallows.

This is the cooked stage. This was unbelievably good. the marshmallows were perfectly cooked and not too hot. I had marshmallow all over my lips and cheeks and chin. It was so good.

This was a weird weather week. On Wednesday morning, it was a much warmer 9.2 °C. The Owl was happier.

On Thursday night Bron made her David Lebovitz inspired meatball hoagie or grinder or sandwich. It was fantastic. So tasty and so full of flavour. Much better than my effort from Saturday night.

On Friday morning it felt tropical. Do you see the temperature? It’s 17.2 °C. I was in heaven. If it had rained it would have been perfect. Mr Owl was very happy.

On Friday we said goodbye to a friend who was going on maternity leave. One of my work mates made this vanilla slice with sweet lattice biscuits. My Mum used to make vanilla slices like this. The custard was so light and smooth and just the right amount of sweetness.

On Friday night Bron and I went to a Hog’s Breath cafe and we enjoyed a prime rib steak. Mine had curly fries and mushroom sauce. I like mine rare.

I had dessert with Bron at her place and we had a chocolate self saucing Gü

For breakfast on Saturday Bron made me a poached egg. As always, perfect! :-) The parsley was the only vegetable matter I had all weekend (not something I’m proud of).

On Saturday night we went to Kingley’s steak and crab house for a friend’s birthday. Bron and I wanted Alaskan King Crab. Here are the tools which I didn’t really use.

We planned to make crab sandwiches. This is a sourdough cob with lots of butter.

We also added thick cut hot chips to our sandwiches.

I asked for 400 grams of crab.

This is me eating a crab and hot chip sandwich. Notice the bib I made for myself from the serviette. Yes I wear reading glasses sometimes when I eat so I can see the food better.

This is my first ever Affogato. It was nice.

I’ve had this dessert before and it’s always good. Cheesecake with peanut brittle.

For breakfast on Sunday Bron made her scrumptious scrambled eggs. As always they were gorgeous. We were still a little full from the crab dinner, but there was no way I wasn’t eating this delightful dish.

On Sunday afternoon we went to Ricardo’s and I chose a chocolate raspberry meringue. It was very good.

Today is a public holiday in Canberra. We went to Floriade. This is a black swan. They’re common in Australia. I have been told they are a rare sight in the northern hemisphere.

For breakfast this morning we had a bacon and egg roll with barbecue sauce.

Floriade is great. A sea of bulbs. I liked the composition of this image.

At Floriade there is always a gnome contest.

Beautiful flowers.

Walking through the crane forest at Floriade.

This is the route we took this morning. http://runkeeper.com/user/garydlum/activity/121791194

For lunch today we went to Grazing at Gundaroo. For a main we had the beef (rare). It was accompanied by crumbed bubble and squeak. It was pretty good. I would happily go back for more.


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For dessert I had the poached pear with honeycomb and ice cream. It was okay but afterwards I thought I should have chosen the cheese platter.

It’s been a good week in food.

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Herb crusted salmon

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Today was pretty busy and I ended up with a headache and didn’t feel too flash. Rather than preparing a lot of different things, I spent time crusting a piece of salmon and boiling a potato. I crusted the salmon with mixed dried herbs, spike, chili flakes and curry powder. I also wilted some baby spinach.

Click on the image for a higher resolution version

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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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My new food tube

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Miss15 bought me a couple of food tubes this weekend. I was up in Brisbane visiting my daughters and we went shopping and Miss15 asked if I wanted anything for the fathers day just past a few weeks ago. We were in kitchenware shop looking at cake decorating stuff and I saw a couple of food tubes.

Click on the images to reveal higher resolution views

I seared some Atlantic salmon and mashed some potato and sweet potato in my ricer. I put it into the food tube and created a mash tower in the centre of the plate. I topped this with spring onions. I made a thickish honey soy sauce (it had caramelised and become sticky) to drizzle on the mash stack and vegetables.

And to prove I could do it again, this is from Monday night.

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The Park Hyatt Buffet lunch

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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.

A little explosion of happiness in my mouth

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Maybe I’ve overplayed the title, but here goes…Oddly enough it’s not about chocolate or dessert.

Today was busy, not insanely busy and not crazy stupid make me angry busy. It was busy enough to give me a headache though.

I found myself this afternoon thinking about what to cook for dinner. I settled on some Atlantic salmon (from Tasmania), some mashed potato, broccolini, asparagus and carrot. There would also be parsley and spring onion and some honey soy deliciousness.

Okay so what caused the explosion of happiness? It resulted from laziness and some miscalculation. I made the mashed potato with my ricer and added spring onions, some grated ginger and parsley. I also added a little butter from the refrigerator. I used it as a bed for the salmon and roughly mashed it with a fork. I like my potatoes looking rustic so it wasn’t a thorough mashing. As I was eating the last of the salmon and mash, a few of the portions of mashed potato still had a little solid butter in them and when I put that with some salmon in my mouth there a small explosion of buttery goodness in my mouth. My headache went away and I felt at one with the universe. :-)

It’s the little things in life that keep me smiling.

Digress Restaurant and Lounge (and a language warning)

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Last night Bron and I went to Digress Restaurant and Lounge on a recommendation from one of her work mates. When first described I was a little puzzled because Digress boasts a fusion Italian and Indian cuisine. I was thinking fusion food earlier in the week (see my last post) but this dinner was something different. They publish a menu online but what is not available is specials. The specials are seasonal. The wine and dessert menu is available online.

The Digress is located in civic and you need to walk down some stairs to the main areas which are broken down into two sections. The lounge and the restaurant.

The decor in the restaurant is mainly Indian and at one end of the restaurant is a large screen television playing Bollywood and Indian talent shows. I wonder if in the Summer if they will show cricket. The tables and chairs are comfortable and the ambiance inviting. I would prefer cloth napkins though.

The service is very good. The owner comes out and greets the guests and asks how we are after each course. She does it in a good way and is in no way annoying. The other wait staff are delightful. She informed us that our choices were interesting in that they weren’t common requests but in particular the mint naan was her Mum’s favourite.

For an entrée we chose Mozzarella and Paneer Fritters (A blend of two traditional Indian and Italian cheeses infused with roasted cumin and fresh coriander brought together with egg and breadcrumbs – served with a spicy jalapeño aioli) and Mint Naan (Naan bread filled with a combination of fresh mint, Spanish onion, and a selection of spices – a naan like no other!). The aioli was magnificent for dipping the fritters and bread. The entrée was a great start.

Cheese fritters

Mint naan

For main courses Bron chose a spicy steak (New York strip steak marinaded and cooked low and slow and covered with Indian spices and served with a salad) from the specials menu and I chose Penne Al Salmon (A blend of succulent salmon, chunky tomatoes, baby spinach leaves and shallots tossed in a creamy white wine sauce – a delight!). Both meals were delicious. That said, Bron felt the steak could also be described as having a Mexican flare to it.

Spicy steak

Penne Al Salmon

For dessert Bron chose the Punjabi Kulfi (Mum’s traditional home-made ice cream cooked on a slow fire with added pistachios and cardamom powder) and I chose Gulab Jamun with Gelato (Golden-fried dumplings soaked in rose syrup served with a scoop of pistachio-flavoured gelato, garnished with desiccated coconut). Mine was very rich and Bron’s was served around a chop stick. Both were delicious.

Bron’s dessert on a chop stick

My dessert

I would highly recommend a dinner at Digress Restaurant and Lounge. I want to return and try something different.

 

I felt very full because earlier in the day I attended a work lunch to say goodbye to a friend. We went to the Asian Noodle House in Phillip and I had a duck laksa with tofu.

Duck laksa

Okay so now an apology for those concerned about bad language. On the menu at Digress they serve Penne Arrabbiata (A traditional Italian pasta dish with fresh ripe tomatoes, roasted onions & Digress’ signature spicy chilli sauce – try if you dare…) which made me think of Eddy Izzard and the Death Star Canteen.

Menu with Penne Arrabbiata

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Honey soy salmon

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After such a big weekend in food and a long day at work I thought something simple was needed. Then I remembered I still had some Zymil lactose-free gluten-free light cream in the refrigerator. I had opened it early last week and I needed to get one more use out of the small bottle. On the way home I bought a couple of spuds and thought salmon on a bed of mash with some veges. Bron regularly mentions the lack of greens on my plate so I steamed some asparagus and broccolini as greens.  I also steamed some carrot and added some honey after it was soft and tender. The honey is important because when it is warm it’s runny and along with some of the water from the carrot I used it for the honey soy sauce at the end.

I love my potato ricer. It is such a neat invention and makes such great mash. I boiled two spuds and put them through my ricer and added a dollop of cream plus a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and a teaspoon of garlic from a bottle of raw garlic. This was stirred in along with some finely sliced spring onion and some salt and pepper.

After pan frying the salmon and making sure the skin was crispy I added the honey juice from the carrot to the fry pan and then a dash of soy. I reduced this a little and spooned the sauce over the salmon.

The result was a delicious meal of salmon, mash, greens and carrot.

Honey soy salmon with asparagus, broccolini, carrot and mash (Nikon D90)

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