Feast on Brisbane September 14 – the latest news for Brisbane and around Queensland for food and travel lovers.
New Granite Belt food | New Brisbane CBD Thai | the overseas holiday you can have | free Negroni cocktail book | Steakhouse restaurant review | new beach lightshow | Recipe: the best chocolate caramel brownies| Good news story – One Table One Farm
Photo above: You can still visit this overseas destination.
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Got to love these new Granite Belt burgers. Photo: Kerry Heaney
Eight new food finds
There’s always something new to discover on the Granite Belt, but my last road trip revealed eight new finds. Expect everything from awesome burgers and artisan chocolates to brunch in the orchard (doesn’t that sound nice?) in this updated guide.
Naga – Jaimee Baturo (L), Andrew Baturo, Anna Spiro (R). Photo Grace Elizabeth
New Thai with Brisbane River views
Those fabulous views that used to belong to Pony Dining will now be part of a new Thai restaurant Naga Thai from one of Brisbane’s restaurant champions, Andy Baturo and his wife Jaimee Pickless.
Head chef Suwisa Phoonsang, ex-Libertine, will pay homage to both Bangkok and the northern village of her upbringing, with a balanced mash-up of freshness, spice, heat and herbs all with a focus on quality Aussie produce, in particular, local seafood. The menu will feature a roster of modern-day Thai dishes such as Moreton Bay Bug Pad Thai, a Seafood Dumpling Green Curry and Thai street food faves like grilled Pork Neck Salad and Massaman Beef Milk Buns.
The Naga Thai interior will get a bold retro 60s and 70s makeover from designer Anna Spiro accompanied by a playlist of non-stop 60s and 70s tunes.
Can you believe this prime location was once a McDonald’s? The premium dining location here is on the terrace – perfect for a city fireworks event!
That time we stood on Mt Pitt on Norfolk Island
The overseas holiday you can still enjoy
Remember driving to Brisbane’s International airport for a holiday departure? While most destinations are closed due to COVID, you can still get the feeling with a trip to Norfolk Island.
Flights to the island leave from the International terminal although you don’t require a passport as it is still part of Australia.
Here’s how you could spend three days or much longer on this beautiful island.
It’s negroni week
To help you make the most stunning negronis at home, Campari Australia have collaborated with 55 of the most innovative bartenders in the Southern Hemisphere to produce The Negroni Cocktail Book.
The book is free to download with an option to make a donation to Help Out Hospo – an Australian charity that provides much-needed financial assistance to hospitality staff affected by venue closures and restrictions.
Download the Negroni Cocktail Book here. I like my negronis with a twist of flamed orange peel.
Restaurant review Feast on Brisbane September 14
The Boatshed Steakhouse shows its beef cred as soon as you walk through the door with a dry-aged beef cabinet filled with labelled cuts. It is flanked by a two-metre-long flame grill where there is a mouth-watering line up of cooked steaks resting before they hit the table.
I dined at the Boatshed, which is part of the Regatta Hotel at Toowong, to celebrate a family birthday.
Here you choose your steak by weight, region, marble score, grass or grain-fed and the ageing process. It’s good to see a strong selection of Queensland beef from the Darling Downs, Gulf region and Diamantina along with family farm products and it shows in the eating.
My choice was the petite 180gm eye fillet ($33) with a baked potato and blue cheese and port butter sauce. The star of the night was the 1.2 kg Angus Tomahawk ($120) served sliced from the bone.
If you are tempted to add a topper, Boatshed has plenty to make your surf and turf dreams come true. Think grilled bug tail and prawns or top it with Kilpatrick oysters.
Vegans can relax too. There are bruschetta and grilled cauliflower or tomato risotto for you.
- Food – 8.5/10 only praise for these juicy, tender, full-flavoured steaks.
- Service – 6.5/10 patchy with not enough follow up.
- Noise level – an ear-splitting 93 decibels in a partly full restaurant.
Where else can you get a good steak in Brisbane?
Got to love those Caloundra beaches!
Get Up And Go with Feast On Brisbane September 14
Caloundra lights up
Caloundra will host a free, three-night, walkthrough festival featuring unique light installations, music and markets from Friday, October 2 to Sunday, October 4. The Luminate light show will be visible in Felicity Park and the boardwalk on The Esplanade. There is also a mini festival with local performers at CBD venues Drift Bar, Greedy Gringo and Whispers Cocktail Bar.
While you are there, ride Australia’s highest travelling ferris wheel offering 360-degree views of Caloundra.
Here are two more reasons to visit Caloundra
It’s blooming fabulous in Toowoomba!
The Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers from September 18 to 27 has more than 30 events including floral displays, music and parkland entertainment, a Ferris wheel, food trucks and twilight tours. Over 170,000 blooms have been planted across the city’s major parks and public spaces to create a spectacular canvas of colour. All events, experiences and areas will be managed with COVID-19 safe plans in place
Recipe of the week
With school holidays fast approaching, it pays to have a few treats on hand. The best brownies ooze soft chewy goodness with every bite, but this recipe also gives hints of chocolate caramel with a delicious crunch. Dust with a little cocoa powder and serve with some rich caramel sauce for a very adult chocolate caramel brownie.
One Table Farm calves. Credit One Table Farm
Coolest thing this week
Did you know you can learn anything on YouTube? Cree Monaghan, a former zoo vet, and her husband Tim Hall, a former corporate training manager at One Table Farm in Margaret River, a ‘climate change aware’ farm-based cooking school put it to the test. They discovered everything from building a mobile chicken tractor, pruning fruit trees to moving pigs – from watching YouTube.
YouTube have shared their story in a four-minute video that has amassed over 2.8 million views as part of ‘YouTube Learning Stories’ to show how Australians are learning new skills on YouTube.
Cree and Tim lived in Perth and always had the dream to live sustainably and regenerate the land. Cree also followed her passion for cooking and attended culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, Tim ramped up his sourdough baking and after buying 100 acres in 2014, they made the tree change with their three children.
“There was nothing here, just the land, no water except the dam, no power, no shed, no house, no driveway, nothing,” Tim said.
“What we did first is plant the fruit trees, then built the house and the cooking school while also establishing the garden. It’s been a lot of work, and the work never ends, but it’s also immensely rewarding.”
Cree and Tim share their farm and what they have learnt as much possible offering sustainable farm tours, paddock to plate cooking and their popular sourdough workshops. Cree also has an additional veterinary qualification in animal welfare and ethics, so they discuss how to raise animals ethically and how to make informed food choices at the supermarket.
“If we run this farm in isolation and don’t share it with anybody, then it doesn’t reach its full potential,” Cree said.
Tim and Cree are looking to expand their farm vision through collaboration with people sharing a similar ethos – be that a ‘Biggest Little Farm’ model, or small boutique industries such as a market garden extension, bush food production or ancient grain growing for bread making.
Feast on Brisbane September 14
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