I'm slowly catching up on posts related to our holiday back in April. (Four months ago ... that's a lifetime in our fast-paced world!)
Following the format of my Away from home posts, this post describes our grocery list, the meals we prepared and some of the restaurants and cafés we visited.
We spent a week in Townsville, arriving about midday on the Tuesday before the Easter long weekend and flying out the following Tuesday morning. We had a family dinner on the Friday night and my Aunt's 90th birthday celebration on the Sunday, so we were not expecting to prepare many meals.
What we bought
I'm not going to provide a detailed list. So much time has past but I can kind of guess what we did buy, we tend to be quite consistent.
There's always the essentials—bread, salad vegetables, milk, spices—but there were a few out-of-the-ordinary items such as asparagus and haloumi. We tended to buy small quantities and shop every couple of days to stock up.
Even though we were only there for a week, we purchased half a dozen eggs - enough for two breakfasts. Generally we would eat out for cooked breakfasts but we weren't sure where to eat and what cafés would be open over the Easter long weekend.
It was also handy being able to buy pre-prepared meats like the turkey rissoles and kangaroo meatballs, each just enough for a meal for two.
We packed the dijonnaise, sachets of oats, coffee, and tea to take with us to Melbourne.
Meals we prepared
Breakfast
Generally, breakfast was oats, grilled tomato with cheese or cottage cheese, or cottage cheese and raspberries on toast.
I was a little more adventurous this time when it came to cooking breakfasts in an unfamiliar kitchen. My Instagram feed had been filled with photos of eggs and ‘smashed avocado’, and I had been experimenting with haloumi.
So, we had eggs for breakfast in the apartment twice:
- Poached eggs, fried haloumi, tomato and mushroom stir-fry, and sliced avocado
- Fried egg with a runny yolk on top of fried haloumi, blanched asparagus, tomato and smashed avocado
Lunch
We were always out at lunch so we grabbed whatever we could find whether it was takeaway or a café. I used the last of the bread, salad vegetables, and haloumi to make sandwiches, which we ate in the airport lounge when we stopped over in Brisbane.
Dinner
-
Turkey rissoles accompanied with a salad dressed with lemon and pepper, and fresh corn on the cob
Quick and easy to prepare and exactly what two tired and hungry travellers needed.
- Kangaroo meatballs, salad with orange and mustard dressing, potatoes and fresh corn on the cob
Our low-fat chips can take 20-30 minutes to cook in the oven, not counting the time it takes for the oven to pre-heat. So I microwaved the potatoes, cut them into segments and then shallow fried them in a pan.
- Leftover seafood and salads
It must be something in our Chinese blood—there are always lots of leftovers from our family gatherings. After our family seafood feast we brought home oysters, crumbed fish, coleslaw and pasta salad.
The New Zealand oysters were huge! Four oysters barely fitted on a bread-and-butter plate. As an entree, we enjoyed the oysters with a lemon juice and dijonnaise dressing.
I re-heated the crumbed fish in the oven and supplemented the salads with a chicken salad and potatoes (microwaved and shallow-fried).
- Soup with toasted sandwiches
After my Aunt's birthday lunch we were so full, we just wanted something light.
We bought a chicken, vegatable and rice soup. The toasted sandwiches were basically grilled tomato and cheese on toast.
I toasted the bread, placed one slice under the grill and then grilled each of the layers:
- Cottage cheese spread with garlic and chilli
- Tomato
- Mushroom
Finally I topped the grilled fillings with another slice of toast.
Places we visited
Following are some of the Townsville restaurants and cafés we enjoyed:
- Aqua Restaurant Jupiter's Casino, Sir Leslie Thiess Drive, Townsville
For my Aunt's 90th birthday celebration my cousin treated us all to lunch at the Aqua Restaurant. The Aqua offers a daily buffet at breakfast, lunch and dinner. The weekend lunch buffet includes seafood.
There was quite a selection of cold meats and seafood, hot dishes and desserts.
Something which I had never seen before was a wine buffet where you could pay to have unlimited drinks (I think) from a selection of wines. Quite economical for those who enjoy a few glasses at lunch.
- Cafe Nourish, Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island
Along the beachfront at Horseshoe Bay there are a small number of eating places offering different dining options and cuisines. We were looking for something light and ended up at Cafe Nourish for a late lunch.
We sat at a shady sidewalk table, looking towards the park and beach, enjoying the view and our drinks while we waited for our meal. Our ‘something light’ were vegetarian felafel wraps, toasted and chock-full of felafel and salad with beetroot hummus and tzatziki. Just what we needed.
- C Bar, The Strand
Back in 2012 Mum and I had lunch at a restaurant at this location, I'm just not sure if it was the C Bar. The C Bar is located on a pier looking out over Cleveland Bay. It's a lovely place to sit and talk and watch the life around you.
We decided to try the C Bar for breakfast. Hubby chose the Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, which he enjoyed although he felt that the egg was a little undercooked.
I decided to try something different - a pumpkin, pine nut, fetta and sage omelette. It was a generous serving, just a little too rich for me.
- Fish Inn at Rock Pool, Howitt Street, North Ward
This restaurant is located below Kissing Point on the Strand, overlooking the Rock Pool and looking out towards Magnetic Island and Cleveland Bay. This is where Mum and I ate our first meal in Townsville when we visited in 2012 and we enjoyed both the view and the fish and chips. It was also in walking distance of the apartment where we were staying so I really wanted to take Hubby there.
We ended up visiting twice because it was so conveniently located. I didn't remember it being an ‘order-at-the-counter’ service so it's possible that the restaurant is under new management or it was not the Fish Inn back in 2012. Basically, there were menus at the counter. You ordered at the counter and were given a table number to place on the table you selected.
The back of the restaurant consisted of two levels of tables and large open windows. We selected a table on the upper level where we could look over the Rock Pool and catch the cool breeze off the water.
The first night we both ordered the local red throat sweet lip “grilled lightly in lemon pepper butter, served with chips and choice of small salad”. Lovely! Only problem was that they forgot the chips and it wasn't until we had finished our meal and were leaving that we remembered we were suppose to have chips. The garlic bread we shared as an entree was so soft, buttery and garlicky and a generous serving for two.
The second night we shared the “Couple Inn”: two pieces of grilled fish, salt and pepper calamari, chips and a garden salad.
The wines we selected with our meals—Pocketwatch Chardonnay and the New Zealand Marlborough Ara Single Estate Sauvignon Blanc—went very well with seafood. And for a refreshing non-alcoholic drink I totally recommend the Strawberry Crush, strawberries, watermelon and orange. Delicious!
- R&R Bar and Restaurant, Picnic Bay Hotel, Magnetic Island
Picnic Bay seems to be one of the quieter spots on Magnetic Island and, the R&R Bar and Restaurant seemed to be the only eating place open when we arrived. The restaurant has both indoor and outdoor dining options. Outdoors there was a wooden ‘counter’ all around the deck with benches to allow diners to look out over the bay and jetty, and tables that were carved and shaped from the trunks of trees. We sat at one of the outdoor tables enjoying our coffee and the view.
We both chose the Breakfast Bruschetta - poached eggs, fresh basil, tomatoes, bocconcini and avocado on sourdough toast. It was beautifully presented but the yolk was a little overcooked. I can't complain too much - I always find it difficult to get that balance between cooked whites and runny yolk when I poach my eggs.
- Yumma Mia's, Flinders Street, Townsville City
Yumma Mia's was probably my favourite of all the places we visited in Townsville. Red, brick wall; paintings on the wall; brightly-coloured cushions; eclectic—the decor inspired and delighted me.
Hubby had the Moroccan Chicken Salad and I selected the Thai Beef Salad. My salad was delicious.
I also really enjoyed my berry frappe. I wasn't exactly sure whether there was milk in the frappe (it seems to vary from cafe to cafe) and I think I gave the lady the impression that I was lactose intolerant. She ended up making the frappe with a more yoghurt than she would normally use so it was thick but I found it delicious, filling and refreshing.
More photos
Photos of our meals are available on my fromdebskitchen Instagram feed, the first photo taken on 31 March of our home-cooked dinner and the last taken a week later of our meal at the Fish Inn.
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