Lazy weekends of brunch and afternoon tea

Everyone has their own daily stressors to deal with and, when we manage to steal ourselves collectively away from them, more often than not the important women in my life will gather around to dissect and analyse life over cups of tea or coffee and plates of food.

We especially love afternoon tea, for it is the experience as much as the food – afternoon teas are always offered in such calming surroundings – that makes it so enjoyable. The physical act of making tea – steeping, pouring, stirring – is therapeutic in itself, and sets the atmosphere for the languid conversation which follows.

An afternoon tea enjoyed months ago at The Gallery Tea Lounge of Sheraton on the Park, was preceded by a shared club sandwich. (Club sandwiches are such a delight at hotels.) Savouries were bite-sized and tasty, but the scones were disappointingly dense and powdery. The top tier of petits fours entirely redeemed this whilst some of the handmade chocolates were rather intense in flavour.

Sunday in London

Our weekend in Paris had been planned around sightseeing on the Saturday and relaxed shopping on the Sunday. I suppose “planned” isn’t the most apt descriptive for it, as it was more of a hastily agreed-upon schedule whilst en route mid-air rather than a well thought-out itinerary. We came somewhat unstuck when we hit the streets of Paris on the Sunday morning only to discover that nothing – nothing! – was open. At least eateries in Munich do business on Sundays, but in Paris not even that.

So London, as well as being about the food we didn’t eat in Paris, also became about the shopping we didn’t get to do in Paris. We stayed in a hotel off Oxford Street so were well-positioned for retail action, but not before a room service breakfast to get us going. Some fluffy waffles, rich hot chocolate and eggs Benedict with curiously browned Hollandaise sauce later, and we made our way to Selfridges.

Augustiner Keller, and more

A trip to Germany is not complete without a visit to an authentic biergarten, and even better when it is a rather large one with its own lagerkeller beneath.

Danks Street Depot, Sydney Airport

There are many things I associate with airports – tearful farewells, joyous reunions, the romance of leaving your cares behind and travelling to faraway places and, unfortunately, bad airport food with jacked up prices. But all this has changed with Danks Street Depot’s outpost at Sydney Airport, with many more non-fast food dining options to come.

I first ate here when seeing Mum off on a trip in November, and again a month later when Monsieur Poisson and I left for holidays ourselves. There were small changes to the menu in that short period between visits, which is testament to Danks Street Depot’s mission to use seasonal, sustainable produce.

Jamie in the Park, 14 March 2010

Jamie Oliver recently graced our shores and performed a couple of his energetic brand of live shows in Melbourne. The bonus part was that following these he came to Sydney and performed an open-air show in Centennial Park for free! I came to know about this event through the powers of mX on the way home one day but the advertisement was vague. The Centennial Parklands website was not much better and only described the event as featuring ‘live entertainment’, so for all anyone knew it could’ve just been a pre-recorded show played on a large screen in the park. Nonetheless, I made sure I remembered to try for tickets come 9am on Friday 5 March when they officially became available because who doesn’t like a free event?

I was all prepared and made sure I was logged in, fingers poised at the ready, prior to the time tickets would be ‘on sale’. When the little notice went from ‘tickets available soon’ to ‘tickets available now’ I clicked away furiously in the hope of securing some tickets. Fifteen minutes went by without reward but my spirits were high. At 9:30am I still held hope and at 9:50am I officially gave up. I was disappointed, until the husband let me know that he’d managed to nab 4 tickets, the maximum allowed, within five minutes of them becoming available.

Show evening swung around, the skies were clear and the evening featured the company of my two lovely ladies, Wifey and Mistress. The instructions for the event were to bring-your-own picnic dinner and I absolutely love picnics. Contributions from me included savoury tartlets made simply by pressing squares of store-bought shortcrust pastry into a muffin tray and filling them with mushroom, sundried tomato, pesto and haloumi, as well as ones with peas and haloumi and baking at 190°C for around 10 minutes.

And another rendition of finger sandwiches from me as well!

Wifey bought a small cheesecake that had a wonderfully fluffy texture that was topped with a berry jelly layer and encrusted with flaked almonds around the outside.

Seating for the event was unallocated across an expanse of grass although there were several rows of fold-up chairs at the front of the stage presumably for guests that were circulating in the VIP tents on our arrival. A band provided live musical entertainment pre-show and stayed on as Jamie’s back-up music throughout. And why would he need music, I hear you ask? Well, the first dish he demonstrated was pan-fried scallops with asparagus and prosciutto which he cooked on an adjacent stove burner whilst playing the drums to Oasis’ Wonderwall! At times he even used a drumstick to double as a wooden spoon.

The evening continued in Jamie Oliver’s inimitable excited manner and featured television clips from his time at River Café as well as other television series. Ben O’Donoghue was invited on stage to help out with a version of River Café’s infamous Chocolate Nemesis. Jamie talked about his plans to start a Ministry of Food in Australia and all proceeds from sales of the $15 show program were going towards this cause. Now to be involved with something like that would be a dream job for people like us!

I wasn’t able to attend any of the Taste of Sydney events in the lead up to Jamie in the Park due to wedding planning commitments as well as having to attend a friend’s wedding, but you can read about it and drool over photos at various blogs. However Jamie Oliver’s free event at Centennial Park was a most ample consolation prize for me, especially when we spotted the shadowy outlines of Manu Feildel, Pete Evans, Matt Moran and Alistair McLeod in the distance with the VIP crowd.

happy cooking & happy eating!

Five days in Brisbane: L’s Espresso Bar & Yogen Früz, 20 October 2009

We had passed by L’s Espresso Bar in Brisbane Arcade, a quaint little eatery that wouldn’t look out of place in a small town, during our quick wander through the city the previous day. It looked quite cute and had a nice sounding breakfast menu, which is how we ended up here the following day. It was after 11am by the time we walked in so we asked if they still served breakfast. Unfortunately the answer was no, so we chose items from the lunch menu instead.

Orders are placed at the counter at L’s Espresso Bar and you’re given a table number before finding yourself a table. Monsieur Poisson and I decide to perch ourselves at the bench seat looking out the front window of the store into the arcade. Most of the tables in this café are for two people and are occupied this particular morning by elderly patrons. Monsieur Poisson’s caffe latte arrives soon after but is a bit weak tasting. The brand of coffee is Merlo but neither of us are familiar with it.

Food-wise, I’ve ordered a toasted sandwich of smoked salmon, avocado, capers and onion on Turkish bread. Sound familiar? I think I ordered this stemming from our lunch the previous day which had not exactly met our expectations. The sandwich here arrives on thick pide with a thick slice of smoked salmon, lots of avocado, scattered capers and chopped spring onions. When I had read ‘onion’ on the menu board, I was expecting sliced red onion, as that is the usual, but not in this case. However this is easily rectified by picking off the spring onions. There is also a side salad of coleslaw with pleasant honey mustard dressing.

Monsieur Poisson has ordered himself a bacon and pineapple open melt for nostalgia reasons – apparently as a child, his mother made this for him frequently as an after-school snack. The surprising part when it arrives is that there is only one slice of bread, albeit a sizeable inch-thick one. There are plenty of tinned pineapple pieces intermingling with bacon pieces underneath a blanket of melted cheese, and more of the same salad on the side.

We leave to go for a walk around the city and to familiarise ourselves with directions and landmarks. By mid-afternoon the sun is beaming down and it is quite warm. We pass by a yoghurt joint and decide to have a sticky-beak to see what cooling refreshments are on offer.

We walk in and I am immediately transfixed by the multiple cool-fridge displays of tubs upon tubs of ingredients. We (okay, maybe it was just me) must have looked either curious, lost, bewildered or a combination of all three, because before long we are approached by a staff member explaining how their yoghurt concept works.

It’s a custom frozen yoghurt bar where there are various flavour bases where you can have frozen fruits blended in and/or other toppings sprinkled over the top sundae-style. There are numerous breakfast choices, like muesli and dried fruits, so you are not limited to the yoghurt being only a dessert-type snack.

Monsieur Poisson chooses to try the flavour-of-the-month matcha (green tea) frozen yoghurt while I go for the plain yoghurt to have raspberries and blackberries smooshed through. The matcha is a delight and is incredibly fragrant of green tea. It’s like eating matcha soft-serve that is firmer and less creamy in texture, with the slight after-taste of yoghurt. It is luxuriously smooth but melts more quickly than my berry one.

In contrast, my berry yoghurt is icier no doubt due to the inclusion of frozen berries. The texture is also rougher from the berry seed bits but what I love is the wonderful tartness of berries married with the tang of the yoghurt. I eat it a bit too quickly and suffer several brain-freezes in the process.

We were given a customer loyalty card at Yogen Früz but didn’t get a chance to use it again before we left. And not being from Brisbane ourselves, we wondered when we would get to use it again…

L’s Espresso Bar

Ground floor of Brisbane Arcade, 117 Adelaide St, Brisbane QLD

Tel: (07) 3210 6900

Yogen Früz

225 Albert Street Mall, Brisbane QLD

Tel: (07) 3211 1338

happy eating!

LATEST UPDATE: Yogen Früz has recently opened an outlet at World Square Shopping Centre and apparently there is an outlet at Westfield Hornsby as well. Their website also says there is a store coming to Chatswood soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Five days in Brisbane: Coffee & Chocolate, 19 Oct 2009

Monsieur Poisson and I spent just short of a week in Brisbane back in October for a mini-getaway. Apart from the fact that I had never been to the sunny city before, I also wanted to go somewhere warm for once. All the other trips we have ever taken together have been during the colder months of the year, so I was looking forward to a holiday where we didn’t have the need to lug coats and boots.

This trip was planned at somewhat short notice so I didn’t get a chance to research places to eat as extensively as when we went to Melbourne, but I did get to consult Gastronomy Gal for some recommendations. I unfortunately didn’t do her suggestions any justice as we didn’t make it to any of them, mainly because we were lazy and stuck to places close to where we were staying.

After arriving in Brisbane and checking into the hotel by the early afternoon, we head out for a stroll through the city in search of a late lunch. We wander into Queens Plaza and I am attracted by a kiosk café with the simple name of Coffee & Chocolate. I often bring back chocolates from various trips and I immediately rush over to press my nose against the display cabinet.

Some of the chocolates look similar to those I’ve seen in Melbourne from The Chocolate Box and Cacao but I hold off buying any in favour of having lunch first instead. The process of which involves ordering at the counter, collecting a table number, seating yourself and waiting for the food to arrive. The bulk of the food consists of pre-prepared rolls, quiches and pastries sitting in a display window. There are no visible prices so I am a bit lost when the waitress asks me, “Did you want a side salad with those?” – does this mean the salad is an optional inclusion, or an optional extra?

Monsieur Poisson orders an iced chocolate to try, seeing as chocolate is part of the store’s namesake, but we are grossly disappointed. The poor execution and presentation of chocolate syrup sunken to the bottom of the glass did not give us a good first impression. It might taste wonderful!, we remind ourselves, but we are disappointed in this department as well because the chocolate flavour is muted despite the presence of what appears to be ample syrup. We’d like more chocolate in our iced chocolate please!

To eat, I’ve ordered the ‘Salmon Bagle’ [sic] which is not actually served on a bagel but rather pide. Within the pide is a filling of smoked salmon, ricotta and iceberg lettuce which is slightly wilted from the whole thing having been toasted in a sandwich press. The side salad comes with a sweet chilli vinaigrette-type dressing, but there is much less of this dressing on Monsieur Poisson’s side salad compared to mine. He has ordered the chicken and mushroom filo which arrives looking rather pale.

The filo roll is warm to the centre so we know it has been heated adequately, but somehow the pastry itself is still light in colour and seems undercooked. It is neither crispy nor flaky and there are very few mushrooms inside. There is a generous fillet of chicken within the roll which is wrapped in a slice of ham, but there is an overwhelming amount of thick, white sauce hogging the rest of the space. We remove and leave most of this sauce behind.

We were left quite unsatisfied following this meal and its accompanying price tag of $39.50, which entailed almost no table service and of which we did not know the breakdown. Needless to say, we finished our food and left without trying their coffee or purchasing any of the aforementioned chocolates.

Coffee & Chocolate

Shop KUL-01, Level 1, Queens Plaza, 226 Queen St, Brisbane QLD

Tel: (07) 3229 7799

Opening Hours:  Mon  7:30am-5pm

Tues-Thurs  7:30am-5:30pm

Fri  7:30am-9pm

Sat  7:30am-5:30pm

Sun  9am-4pm

happy eating!