Recommended by others
via Fineeating – Rice Tapas Bar – Garema Place, Canberra City
Nice post by Michele Walton on the hard-to-find upstairs restaurant Rice Tapas in Garema Place. Rice Tapas Bar – Garema Place, Canberra City.
Gozleme Cafe on London Circuit Canberra
Two #Canberra Beanies 
Many Canberra connoisseurs of Turkish cuisine were delighted to see this new café open up on London Circuit in Civic recently. After decades of being spoilt by such fine establishments as Taze in Lonsdale Street, Ottoman and Mavi in Barton and Turkish Pide Houses in Jamison and Yarralumla (and other places like my favourite in Charnwood) Canberra fans of Turkish cuisine are frankly spoilt…. Not to mention the dozen or so Gozleme sellers that pop up at every national Multicultural Festival and Canberra Show!
I’ve walked past this place a few times already and noted praise from fellow Canberra foodie reviews in UrbanSpoon as well as amongst the flurry of recent cheap lunch reviews by John Griffiths in City News.
Anyway, everyone obviously LOVES their $8 Gozleme so I thought I should try something a bit different. I’m still struggling on a diet (and not progressing as well as I’d hoped, seemingly stalled after losing 4 kgs in a month and still well short of my 12 kg weightloss target). So I picked a couple of vegetarian options at the counter, paid $14 and sat down to a very impressive looking table.
While sitting I had a sticky beak at the lunch specials menu, which is quite extensive.
I decided I would park my strange diet brain and try the Gozleme Plate next time. A bit over my normal budget but perhaps a good reward for the end of a long hard week of salads and fruit snacks. Whilst in this daydream my lunch arrived and it looked good. The lentil paste/dip had just the right amount of peppers added to fire it up without making it too hot and the lentil crackers were very tasty. That said the main $8 plate left me hungry and I was happy I had also ordered the $6 side of bean salad. Both dishes tasted great and I would recommend them in a flash to any vegetarians looking of a good lunchtime meal. My problem was that they still left me a little bit hungry. I probably should have more than coffee and toast for breakfast!
Gozleme Café is great. You can find more filling options or $14 in Civic but is good, healthy and fresh food served promptly and with a smile. Two #Canberra Beanies!
easy Chicken Adobo recipe via Housh Fallah (@Housh45)
If you like food from the Phillipines (who doesn’t?!) you will appreciate this quick and easy recipe for Chicken Adobo from Canberra Foodie Housh Fallah.
Social Media tips via @TweetCanberra
Great social media advice from Kylie Ofiu on the TweetCanberra website.
Worth a listen if you’re interested in blogging, business and social media. http://thesocialmediarevolution.com/episode-1/
A funny news.com yarn about “Food and Politics in Canberra”
Anyone who pretends food and politics have nothing to do with each other, please pay more attention!
I was a bit offended by sloppy Joe’s fictitious claim today that there’s “only a few restaurants in Canberra” to choose from. But no-one has more right to be offended by sloppy Joe than Clive palmer after Joe claimed Clive is having several dinners each night! That’s below the belt Joe!
Joe said “But it doesn’t surprise me, in Canberra you bump into each other at restaurants. I mean, there are only a few restaurants in Canberra.”
And in a jibe at Mr Palmer he said: “Well, obviously Clive might have more than one meal a night so it’s quite possible you’ll bump into him in a restaurant.”
The article goes on: “But the taunts soon were turning on Mr Hockey, with Bill Shorten going food mad over the mere mention of a banana split just before lunchtime today.
While addressing reporters about Mr Palmer’s rendezvous, the Opposition Leader picked out repeated cliches from the political cookbook. While he didn’t know what the meeting was about last night, Mr Shorten was sure about a few things.
“What I do know is that Malcolm Turnbull was eating Peking duck last night, Joe Hockey’s left looking like a goose this morning and we’ve got a lame-duck Treasurer,” he said.
Mr Shorten was certainly interested in the “late night meal”, despite insisting he had no idea what was on the “menu”.
When asked whether there was anything wrong with Secretary Parkinson dining with Mr Turnbull and Mr Palmer, he said the issue wasn’t about him being a public servant.
“The issue is that clearly Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey have wheeled Malcolm Turnbull out of the freezer where they keep him.”
//
Queen Victoria Markets Melbourne (@VicMarkets)
will have to update this post later with some more links and tips… but for now…This morning I had a brief visit to the wonderful Queen Victoria markets in Melbourne. I’ve been many times before but it was still a delightful way to start a day.
During my brief sojourn through the sights, smells, tastes and sounds of what is arguably Australia’s most interesting food market I took a few pictures but nothing can match the experience itself . Don’t get me wrong I still love shopping at Jabal Kippax and Belconnen Markets, and Flemington in Sydney is impressive too, but Melbourne has something to be very proud of here. There is too much food to even try and sample in one day, let alone a week or two.
One of the first things which impresses about the QVM is the compact variety and diversity of food. This is a pretty lousy photo but it (sort of) shows a French, German and Polish deli-style outlet within a few feet of each other. This mix of smell aand sights (and tastes) is wonderful.
I’ll let the rest of the pictures speak for themselves now and add some more comments and links at a future date. Should just mention that sample box below only cost $12, so you can eat well without spending too much! 🙂
I should also mention the market was full of happy and friendly people. The family running the deli above were happy for me to chat with them and take photos and were very proud of the quality and variety of their delicacies. The guy below didn’t mind having his photo taken as he walked and hollarred about the discount meat available at his butcher’s window.
The donut van above seemed quieter than I remembered it during my last visit when I took this photo. I though for a few minutes that maybe I wasn’t the only one on a diet at the markets today. But I saw it again later and the line stretched for a few metres down the path!
During my trip I saw a few of these bike racks around the Melbourne CBD. I’d be interested to find out how successful they’ve been and wonder if they would work in Canberra?
Here’s some old and beautiful public art. Melbourne is full of it!
p.s. If you want to visit these markets and want a tip about somewhere to stay, I’ll suggest the Jasper Hotel on Elizabeth Street. I’ve stayed there a few times. If you book through wotif you can occasionally pick up a room for about $100. And, best of all, its only about 50m away from the markets and within easy walking distance of many Melbourne attractions as well as numerous tramlines that can take you all over the city with ease.
Want a cheap dinner in Civic? Sorted (Mondays and Tuesdays anyways)
If you’re looking for a cheap meal on a Monday evening or a Tuesday evening in Civic or just can’t be bothered cooking at home before or after some shopping on the way home from the office, here’s a couple of options:
1) Monday nights: $4 Burgers at the Uni Pub. Pretty hard to beat. Particularly if you live the life I lived while I was studying engineering at uni… i.e. spending most Monday nights at the Uni Pub (different uni though 🙂
Anyways, I tried one of their burgers a while back (check it out here) and it was quite ok. Beer was cold too!
2) Tuesday nights: $7.90 Chicken Schnitty (with chips & salad) OR Battered Fish & Chips (with salad) at the City Labor Club. They might charge you a bit extra for sauce but you’ll walk away full and satisfied. They also have a Movie Meal Deal with Dendy that includes a main meal and a movie ticket at the nearby cinema for only $15. Bargain!
Food Labelling – How well can you interpret a food label?
Local Canberra Blogger Healthy Kids Happy Mama has written a great post about food labelling. Very useful if you’re trying to avoid certain preservatives or just trying to maintain a healthy diet free from too many processed sugars and other additives.
Schnitty Post from a quality jernalism blog
You can probably ascertain from my previous posts here, here and here that I have a soft spot for a good schnitzel.
Recently via twitter I saw, read and enjoyed a blog about schnitties on a “jernalism” website so much that I wanted to share it with a few other Canberra schnitty connoisseurs as well as keep it somewhere handy for future reference next time someone in the mainstream media starts sprouting on about their so-called schnitzel expertise…
So here it is: 10 mistakes you make when writing a list about 10 mistakes other people make
I particularly enjoyed this line: “a schnitty served with a healthy covering of thick, rich gravy is one of life’s ultimate pleasures and if you think that’s wrong you really need to reassess yourself you miserable, soulless philistine”.
Apart from the schnitzel and parmy specials at the City Labor Club which I have previously reviewed, there was also this helpful list of Canberra schnitty options from a recent article in the Canberra times.
While you’re here, if you’re a really big schnitty fan, cop a load of this next time you’re in Melbourne. But read the rules carefully and whatever you do, don’t throw up!
AND… if you thought eating 1kg of schnitty in a single sitting was brave… this fine Melbourne establishment challenges you to eat 1.5kg 🙂
CBRfoodie 