Sandra enjoying her dinner at the BelforteMains at BelforteSample from the seafood platterRestaurant at Belforte
The old fort is perched on the edge of the Harbour at Vernazza. Hanging off the side is a small veranda with six tables, perfectly situated to watch the Mediterrenean sunset. The best time is from 7.30pm to catch the sun dropping over the Hills behind Monterossa.
The menu, as expected, is based around fresh, local seafood. We started with a shared platter of Hot Vernazza Seafood. The generous serve included scampi, incredibly tender octopus, small, sweet mussels and prawns. the local Cinque Terra whites are light and dry and perfect with the seafood.
For the main, I had the Seabream with baked vegetables. Andrea (yes, we are on first name terms by now) brings the whole fish to the table and expertly fillets it and plates it up. The Seabream is perfectly cooked, with the white flesh falling apart. Sandra ordered the platter of grilled local seafood with scampi, gamberoni and fillets of local fish. We finished off with an empty bottle of Cinque Terra Sassarini and an emply bowl of Tiramisù.
By the end of the meal everyone on the little veranda was swapping stories on where to go and what to do and Andrea was singing a la Dean Martin.
We carefully walked down the 50 stairs from the fort down to the square and climbed one more time the 70 steps back to the apartment.
The Sourced Grocer in Florence Street Teneriffe is an inner city oasis of seasonal food and good eating. Opened by owner Jerome Batten in June 2011, the grocery and cafe quickly became central to the life of many locals. There are many ways to approach the Sourced Grocer. For regulars, the cafe is the first stop of the morning, where after ordering at the counter, you can squeeze in at the communal table or find a spot out the front or on the stairs. The cafe is set up to assemble a range of fresh meals but it is not a full kitchen.
The Sourced Grocer specialises in fresh, quality produce and this flow through to the food prepared. For breakfast there is a choice of Farmer Jo’s muesli ($11), a breakfast trifle, Chouquette croissants or my favourite, the smashed avocado on Levain sourdough with labne ($11). For lunch, choose from a couple of healthy sounding salads made with freekah and quinoa, upmarket sandwiches ($12.50) full of Bangalow ham and mixed leaves as well as handmade falafel with a Moroccan dip, piles of baby spinach and cherry tomatoes ($12.50). Service can be slow on the weekends when the crowd builds before the doors are open, so if you are the impatient type, get down there early or go during the week.
After eating, it is time to cruise the shelves and see what has come in. Sourced Grocer Manager Willow Humphreys said they source as much produce from southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales as possible. This means there is a range of high quality meat including Bendale Farm organic chickens, Bangalow pork and Eumundi Smokehouse sausages. A whole fridge is taken up with Gundowring ice cream, which may seem a little excessive until you get your own flavour addiction going. Willow swears by the lemon curd.
Willow Humphreys
The deli range has really grown over the past 12 months. Like a middle eastern bazaar, shelves heave with grains, spices, nuts, artisan pasta, oils, jams, exotic chocolate, dried figs and persimmons. Boxes of locally sourced produce take up the back part of the shop and to the right is the cold room with more fresh produce, cheese and dips.
Willow believed the Sourced Grocer has attracted so many regular customers through consistency and keeping the produce interesting. “There are people who only shop here”, she said. “As I say to the staff, work with love in your heart”. The team at the Sourced Grocer are young, friendly and professional. After you turn up a couple of times they are pretty good at remembering your name, which all adds to the sincerity of the experience at the Sourced Grocer.
Friday night in early spring and thoughts turn to a Chicken Parmigiana eaten overlooking half an acre of rolled, green lawn. Time to go to the bowlie. The two Bowls clubs in New Farm crank up over summer surge through Christmas and New Year, to slow down again into winter. They both offer cheap social memberships of a dollar a year and similar menus of club grub with a couple of higher end specials. In this time of public service cuts and financial austerity, which one should get your patronage over the summer months?
Merthyr Bowls Club
The Merthyr Bowls Club was the first in Brisbane to open its door to the ‘youngies’ and offer barefoot bowling and a relaxed social atmosphere. It has the advantage of outlook, being right on the Brisbane River and has slowly improved facilities over the years to cater for the Club’s surge in popularity. For a cool drink on a hot afternoon, it is hard to beat. But what about the food?
The New Farm Food Stories team visited on a quiet Friday night where playing the pokies was the focus of patron’s attention rather than eating. The menu starts with casual club food such as dips, nachos and dips. There are a couple of burgers ($14.90), pasta, fish and chips ($17.50) and Rayners bangers with mash ($19.90). We ordered the special of pan-fired barramundi with chips and salad ($26.90) and the Atlantic salmon, wilted spinach and mash ($23.90), lubricated by a bottle of Tim Adams Riesling ($25.00).
Salmon and mash
The food was OK but expensive for what it was. The salmon was properly cooked and still pink in the middle but the mashed potato was a bit ‘wet’ and there was a lot of it. It all looked messy on the plate. The barramundi wasn’t bad and the chips were from the corporate catering truck. My main concern was with the cost. There is not a lot of thought in the menu and the club probably dishes up the kind of food people want to soak up a few drinks by the Brisbane River. If the meals were under $20 I would probably treat it in that spirit, but when they creep up to the mid-twenties, then I am looking for a bit more in flavour and presentation.
New Farm Bowls Club
The New Farm Bowls Club was later to the barefoot bowling scene and still retains more of that 1970s traditional ambiance. It feels more ‘clubby’ with a large, brightly lit dining room and some table and chairs on the front veranda for a Friday night drink. There is a separate room for pokies off to the left of the entrance and a long bar near the dining room. The dining room was pretty empty when we arrived on a Thursday night but soon filled up with groups of people eating before the Trivia Night. The menu was similar to that of Merthyr Bowls – dips and nachos for snacking, a wagyu burger ($16.90), fish and chips ($16.90), and a bistro salad with rocket and prosciutto ($15.00).
Thai Beef Salad
For consistency, I ordered the Atlantic salmon with mashed potato, wilted spinach and salsa verde and the review team club connoisseur went for the special of Thai beef salad ($15.00). We also ordered a side of chips. The food came out smartly and the serves were very generous. The Thai beef salad had a respectable chilli hit and the salmon fine, though the large amount of salsa verde , tasty as it was, overpowered the dish. There were enough chips for a table of six and we could only make a small dent in them.
The New Farm Bowls club feels more member focused than Merthyr. There is discounts on food and drink for members and the prices are much more reasonable. It is the sort of place you could hang out a couple of nights a week and not feel the pang in the pocket too much. The club is attracting different crowds with music and trivia nights. After dinner, we stayed for the first round of trivia but with the question ‘what is the name of the second contestant kicked out of the Big Brother house?’ knew we were out of our depth and vacated the competition.
The Winner Is….
So who won the Battle of the Bowlies? For my dollar a year, I’d happily become a habitue at the New Farm Bowls Club. I like the 1970s feel of a real club for locals and their understanding that a cheap drink and a meal is at the heart of any bowls club.
Gerard’s Bistro is my new favourite place. Tucked in off James Street it is a lovely textured space put together with a mixture of arched wooden battening, cream bricks and Moroccan tiles. The room is divided into different eating areas. There is a formal dining area down one end, a long bar and communal table near the kitchen and outside more casual seating. Whatever your mood, Gerard caters for it. And the food is pretty good as well.
My first visit was on a Sunday night, and the restaurant was quiet. My friends ordered lambs brains crusted in spice with tahini and yoghurt ($18) and the free range quail with honey, lavender, pomegranate and sage ($26) for entree. They both looked pretty good and disappeared without too much pain. For the main, I had the best bit if beef I have had for some time. The wagyu with smoked eggplant, wilted leaves and black cardamom ($34) was not a large serving but all the elements pulled together on the plate. The charcoal wagyu sang to the smoked eggplant and with the wilted leaves, I felt my iron levels soaring. We shared a side of heirloom tomatoes, shanklish (don’t ask …oh OK – it’s a middle eastern sheep’s milk cheese) and onion crisps ($12).
For dessert we shared the blood orange creme catalan ($10) and the pistachio financier, charred quince and halva ice cream ($16). Shared is probably nor the right word. After the first mouthful, I pulled the pistachio cake closer and growled at all comers. I did get my spoon into the blood orange catalan and that was pretty damned good as well.
Quail with wilted greens
I have since slipped back to Gerard’s for a quick lunch just to make sure it works for lunch as well as dinner. I ordered the quail with wilted greens and again all the flavours were there. The four little quail legs sat on rice with pomegranate mixed through with citrus zest. I cleaned off the plate in under a minute and was looking for more at the end.
I do like Gerard’s Bistro. The space works for both formal dining and a casual meal. The menu is well thought out and the produce used is of a high quality. But, for me, the servings are on the small side and the prices just high enough for it to be an issue. When the two meet up, Gerard’s will cement its place as my new favourite bistro.
One of the few frustrations of yum cha is waiting for the trolley to make its way across the restaurant, only to watch it run out of steamed dumplings just as it reaches your table. For those too impatient to wait, they can join the fast moving queue at Happy Little Dumplings. Despite the lunch time rush, the staff were polite and upbeat in wrangling the many and complex orders.
James Street is the second shop of this mini-franchise which started with a stall at the markets and then opened in Oxford Street, Bulimba. The yum cha menu has gourmet, vegetarian and seafood dumplings to choose from, as well as steamed buns and Vietnamese rice paper rolls. They are slowly increasing the choice with Asian salad and gluten free dumplings on the way.
Because I don’t like to miss out, I ordered a serve of Vietnamese rice paper rolls as well as two types of dumplings. The marinated chicken rolls ($7.50 for two) were huge and filled with lots of fresh ingredients such as carrot, lettuce and herbs. A serving of two would be plenty for lunch. Next, the prawn and coriander Har Gow ($2.50 each). They were gelatinous and subtly flavoured little parcels with a generous amount of prawns. The Chinese Chilli Duck Dumpling ($2.00 each) had a great chilli hit, offset by just a touch of sweetness.
Prawn har gow and chiili duck dumplings
Happy Little Dumplings is open seven days a week, and when I was there, a constant stream of people arrived for a quick takeaway or sit down lunch. The food is fresh, carefully made and well priced. The rituals of yum cha restaurants are pleasant. A big table, sharing lots of plates, washed down by endless cups of jasmine tea. But if you want the dumplings without the ritual, head to Happy Little Dumplings and join the queue.
Address: Shop 10, 65 James Street, Fortitude Valley
The value of doing one thing well can never be over-rated. The latest enterprise of the Bellas family, Spanakopita, in Newstead follows this principle. They do pie, Greek pie. The kitchen is in a glassed in area at the back and when you walk in there is always something warm waiting to be eaten.
32A Chester Street, Newstead
Spanakopita is a modern space set up as a bakery and cafe. They cook a range of both savoury and sweet pies, as well as other Greek treats such as yoghurt cake and chocolate and fig baklava. Whole pies ($30) can be ordered for functions and parties and slices available for takeaway or to eat in the cafe.
Slices are generous ($8) and as well as spanakopita, there is prasokolokithopita (leek, roasted pumpkin and garlic) and an agginarotiropita (artichoke and feta). The pastry is crunchier than shop bought filo and nicely browned. The flavours of the fillings are robust with the spanakopita filled out by wild weeds as well as spinach and feta.
Galaktobourek0
From the sweet menu I tried the galaktoboureko ($4.50), the Greek citrus custard tart. Sitting in a light, sugar syrup, the custard was perfectly set with subtle undertones of vanilla and citrus. Not at all heavy, and a very different experience from the sweet, soggy Greek pastries I was used to.
Spanakopita is a simple formula, perfectly executed. It provides high quality Greek pies that expand the repertoire of the normal Aussie Greek experience and the owners have designed the perfect space in which to do this. The cafe is modern and bright, with the added advantage of the Bellas trademark modern art on the walls. I have been there a number of times and am always surprised there is not a queue lining up for a slice. It is the sort of place that once you have tried their food, you will be looking for a reason to drop by and pick up another slice.
Address: 32A Chester Street, Newstead
Phone: 385 24130
Hours: Open for breakfast and lunchWeds-Fri 8am to 6pm; Sat 8am to 4pm; Sun 8am to 2pm.
The Cheapskate Date likes to watch his pennies when he eats out around the neighbourhood but he combines that with high standards. I am more tolerant of deficiencies at the lower end of the market but together we continue to search for the holy grail – cheap, tasty, well presented cuisine.
This search brought us to the doors of Ruen Place in Commercial Road, Teneriffe last Friday night. We walked in to be hit by fumes of chilli and deep frying coming from the open kitchen in the corner of the restaurant. This explained why the folding door at the front of the restaurant was left open to the cold air.
The restaurant, seating about 30, was three quarters full and there were a steady stream of locals coming by to pick up Friday night takeaway. While the Cheapskate Date checked the napery and turned over the plates to check provenance, I checked out the menu. It covered the usual Thai range – soups, curries, stir fries and noodle dishes. The Date spent so much time feeling the weight of the tablecloth and raising a eyebrow at the paper napkin, the long suffering waitress stopped by three times before he was ready to order.
Enjoying the Duck Curry
For entree we ordered the fish cakes and a Tom Yum soup with chicken. The fish cakes ($6.50) were slightly overcooked but the eye-dabbing chilli sauce compensated. The Tom Yum ($7.50) didn’t hit that hot, salty, sour balance with an over-enthusiastic flavouring of fish sauce. For mains we shared a Thai Beef Salad ($13.90) and a Duck Curry Penang ($13.90). The Duck Curry was flavoursome with slices of pumpkin adding to the mellow flavour but the Beef Salad was the most disappointing dish of the evening. Again the hot, sour salty dressing was way out of balance with too much fish sauce and combined with the acrid taste of the oil used for frying the food left an unpleasant aftertaste.
Thai food is all about balance and that doesn’t cost anything to achieve. The basics are in place for Ruen Place to be a good, local Thai restaurant but to achieve that they will need to take more care with presenting the flavours which are the hallmark of Thai cuisine.
Two things make me happy – carefully prepared food and high quality ingredients. Double Shot owners Michael DeLaurence and Ross Skinner bring this ethos and more to their new cafe in Oxlade Drive, New Farm. Opened in March 2012, Michael and Ross transformed a small coffee stop into a 35 seat cafe serving breakfast and lunch six days a week.
Double Shot, New Farm
Michael and Ross come from a background of high end dining, most recently Dish in Byron Bay which they sold two years ago. Before that they ran Utopia in Bangalow and from 1994 to 2003 well known gourmet retreat Taylor’s Country House at Byron Bay. This experience is evident in the professionalism in which they manage the kitchen and front of house at Double Shot.
Michael Skinner
Explaining their new venture, Michael said, ‘We made a deliberate choice to go from high end to small, neighbourhood and community minded.’ Already they have built a loyal customer base with many locals coming in a couple of times a day, and others dropping by to pick up some of Michael’s pastries and desserts to take home. In many ways the menu is tailored to the space. ‘We reorganised this tiny space to make it workable and the menu is oriented to the facilities. We wanted to do little with the food and the better quality the easier this is,’ Michael said.
Michael DeLaurence, Chef, Double Shot
All of the food is made in-house by Michael with a menu that is high on flavour and quality. Dishes are produce driven and deftly put together. For breakfast there is a range of home made croissant, Danish and muffins (4.50) as well Turkish toasties with fillings such as mushrooms, provolone, spinach and fried egg ($8.50). For a more substantial breakfast there is poached, fried or scrambled egg with bacon and tomato (14.50), a Croque Madam with a poached egg and onion marmalade ($14.50), and for the adventurous, Indonesian sticky black rice with banana and coconut milk.
Coffee and blueberry muffin
For lunch, diners can choose from a range of gourmet sandwiches ($10.50), salads such as Thai Chicken Salad ($16.50) and an asparagus, harlequin tomatoes, basil and buffalo mozzarella salad ($14.50). There is also a deli board filled with delights such as prosciutto, fennel seed and garlic salami, olives, roast peppers and eggplant, chick pea puree and buffalo mozzarella with warm baguette ($18.50). For those with room left, there is the array of Michael’s home made tarts and pastries, Rocky Road or shortbread. The coffee is Abrisca.
Double Shot is a local community cafe with all of the quality and flavours of high end dining. Double happiness indeed.
New Farm Food Stories 