Another trip, another city. This time we visited Brisbane, staying in an apartment in the CBD. This post describes our grocery list for the week, the meals we prepared and some of the restaurants and cafés we visited.
This trip we were away for eight days. The apartment we stayed in had a kitchenette with microwave, cooktop, oven, refrigerator, toaster and tea-making facilities. We discovered that we were only a couple of blocks away from a supermarket and the Queen Street Mall Farmers Market. Unfortunately, we found out about the markets too late on the Wednesday to be able to purchase produce and the following Wednesday we were busy trying to run down our supplies before we left the following morning.
What we bought
- Bakery
- One loaf of bread
- Fruit and vegetables
- Chilli, 3 red
2 chillis were used as a condiment for meals, the third was used for an oyster dressing - Cucumber, Lebanese
- Dill, 1 bunch
- Garlic, 2-3 bulbs
- Lemons, approximately 3
- Lime, 1
- Lettuce, 2 bags of mixed leaves, 1 bag of rocket
- Mushrooms
- Potatoes, approximately 2
- Sweet potato, 1
- Tomatoes
- Fruit for snacks
- Meat
- Turkey steaks, 500g
- Herb and garlic marinated kangaroo kebabs
- Seafood
- Salmon fillets, about 300g
- Oysters, 2 dozen
- Canned and packet food
- Pickled onions, 1 small jar
We added the pickled onions in our salads. - Chilled and frozen food
- Cottage cheese
- 8 small tubs of yoghurt for dessert and snacks
- Other groceries
- Olive oil cooking spray
- Dijonnaise
- Sachets of quick oats
In the apartment, only milk and sugar were provided.
We did well. We left behind the cooking spray and some tomatoes, and brought home the dijonnaise and oats.
Meals we prepared
Breakfast
As we did in Melbourne, breakfast was oats, toast with grilled cottage cheese and tomato, or toast topped with cottage cheese and sliced stawberries.
Lunch
We only prepared one lunch in the apartment; most of the week we bought takeaway or dined at cafés.
The turkey salad comprised:
- Cold, marinated turkey steak (leftovers from the previous night's dinner) cut into strips
- Salad vegetables
- Salad dressing of lemon juice, dijonnaise and dill
Dinner
- Marinated turkey steaks served with salad and low-fat garlic bread
The turkey marinade comprised the juice of one lemon, 1-2 tsp dijonnaise, 1-2 cloves of grated garlic and chopped dill.
To make our low-fat garlic bread:
- Finely grate 5-6 cloves of garlic.
- Toast four slices of bread.
- Spread the grated garlic on the toast.
- Spray the slices with cooking oil and then place under the griller for about 5 minutes.
- Entrée of oysters followed by salmon served with a salad and low-fat chips
I used two types of dressings for the oysters:
- Lemon juice, dijonnaise and dill
- Fresh diced chilli, lime juice, and sugar to taste
The salmon was cooked with a bit of lemon juice and dill.
- Kangaroo kebabs with salad and low-fat chips
Very handy buying the kebabs already marinated.
With the meal we paired this fun drop: Squealing Pig Marlborough Sauv Blanc.
On Easter Sunday we had dinner at our friends' home—roast turkey and potatoes, steamed vegetables, lemon syrup cake. Yum! Best meal of the week.
Places we visited
Following are some of the Brisbane restaurants and cafés we enjoyed:
- Chilli & Spice Restaurant, Brisbane CBD
The dishes were all beautifully presented. We ordered chicken croquettes for an entrée - just for something different - but I found the mix of potatoes and Thai spices a bit confusing and unexpected. The larb gai (chicken salad) and pad cha talay (hot and spicy seafood with tumeric) were delicious. The calamari in the seafood was so tender it just seemed to melt in your mouth although the serving seemed small. Finished off with coconut icecream, so rich and creamy and decadent that I forgot to take a photo!
Larb gai - The Coffee Club, Albert Street, CBD
One morning we woke up to find there was no electricity in our apartment. After reporting it at Reception we walked around the corner to The Coffee Club for breakfast.
The Coffee Club is an Australian franchise and, after having breakfast at a local franchise near home, this would not have been my first choice. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The breakfast special was a Salmon and Avocado stack. I particularly liked the cottage cheese, dill and lemon spread on the ciabatta and I appreciate that the kilojoule count was provided for all dishes.
- dot. espresso, South Bank
dot. espresso is a little, box-like space in the Stanley Street Plaza at Southbank. We stumbled onto it (and the weekend markets) while searching for a relatively healthy lunch spot. We didn't try the coffee, even though the name suggests that coffee is its main business. Instead we sat at an outside table watching passerbys and enjoying our tomato and avocado sourdough. The dish was accompanied by a knob of butter, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper.
Hubby and I opted for different ways to enjoy this. He broke his sourdough into pieces and dipped it in the olive oil and balsamic vinegar then ate the tomato and avocado together. I spread avocado on my sourdough and then topped it with tomato that had been dipped in the vinegar. Either way it was a nice, light meal at a very pleasant spot.
- The Fish Café, New Farm
Also referred to on some review websites as ‘New Farm Fish Café’, this café is located opposite New Farm Park and provides both eat-in and takeaway meals.
Reviews for this café are mixed but we were looking for something close to the ferry terminal that was likely to be cheaper that the cafés near the water and still let us select a healthy meal.
This café sounded perfect and our meal of grilled fish with a Greek salad was exactly what we were looking for, light and fairly inexpensive.
- The Groove Train, Brisbane Riverside
If you haven't guessed, I like a place with a good view and a chance to indulge in some people watching. So what could be better than breakfast by the Brisbane River watching commuters coming off the River Cat, people hurrying along the boardwalk to their offices, and the healthy amongst us walking, jogging or cycling.
The Groove Train is located right next to the Riverside ferry terminal and it felt so indulgent to be sitting there for a late-ish breakfast while the world passed by. The Groove Train offered a decent vegetarian big breakfast; it's amazing the number of cafés where I have had to order the big breakfast without the meat or order eggs and then add the vegetables. We opted for their Hearty Vegetarian: grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, wilted spinach, ‘home-made’ baked beans, hash brown and eggs poached to perfection. I judge my breakfast places on their poached eggs and these were lovely—cutting into the eggs I found the white completely cooked and the yolks oozing out.
Our only complaint? Possibly a little salty because we found ourselves craving lots of fluids for the rest of the day. However, this might be due to the fact that we've been on a low sodium diet for a couple of years so extra salt can make a dish too salty to us. In particular, we realised that the spinach had been cooked in salted water.
Anyhow, it didn't stop us from returning for breakfast on our last day and ordering exactly the same meal! And it was so nice to have someone else cook the big breakfast instead of me.
- Red & Grill, Brisbane CBD
Korean food is a bit of a mystery to me. I like it but I'm not sure what to order, how much to order, and how to eat it.
And because of some bad experiences with wait staff not being very communicative, we haven't ventured into many Korean restaurants by ourselves. So, it was with some trepidation that we tried Red & Grill.
Red & Grill is not the restaurant for a quiet dinner for two. It was noisy, busy and the waitresses seem to be continually on the move: clearing tables, taking orders, serving meals, and handling requests. Four-seater tables were joined together in long rows with a barbecue in the centre of each and a ‘doorbell’ on the end to summon attention. We were seated at a table in the middle of a row between two other couples.
Hubby didn't want to barbecue so we ordered a chive pancake as entrée and seafood hotpot for main, which the waitress advised us was more than enough for two. Expecting a Chinese-style hotpot we were surprised when a gas ring was placed on the table topped with a shallow pan filled with seafood, veges and a spicy soup. It was accompanied by two bowls of rice and a trio of condiments kim chi, glazed potatoes and I've forgotten the third.
The food was delicious, hot and spicy. Because the fish looked raw, we pushed it and some of the veges into the soup to cook. Speaking to a Korean friend when I returned home, that was exactly what we were suppose to do.
Unfortunately we had to shell the prawns and crab, and pick out the bones from the fish, something that I hate doing without fingerbowls. But we liked the ventilation in the restaurant; we didn't walk out smelling of barbecue like we have for some of the other Korean restaurants we've visited and we'll probably venture into another Korean restaurant, although not any time soon.
Seafood hotpot - Tibetan Kitchen, The Valley
My favourite of all the restaurants we visited in Brisbane.
The restaurant looks like it is the front room of an old two-storey house. It feels homely and welcoming. There were Tibetan and Nepalese artefacts and pictures on the walls and hanging from the ceilings, which stirred up memories of my travels in Nepal.
The food has Indian, Nepali, and Chinese influences although it wasn't as heavy as Indian and Chinese cuisines.
We started with steamed vegetarian momos (always a favourite). For mains we shared keema mater, a curry of lamb mince and peas; a vegetarian shakpa (Tibetan and Sherpa stew), a tomato-based stew filled with potatoes, bits of dumplings, and vegetables topped with coriander; and rice. To finish off? A cup of hot chai (milk tea with spices). Yum!
Keema mater and Shakpa
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