Ben went with banana and blueberry pancakes:

And Michelle and I went for the classic breakfast:

Yes, you’d be hard pressed to criticise them on their presentation, but taste is another matter entirely! Sadly, both Kristy and Ben rated their meals as “rather meh”. Not bad – just not great, either. On the up side, the classic breakfast was delicious, especially the toast (which was sourdough, I think)!

And so, two good meals out of four isn’t too bad I guess, but since the good two were actually the same meal, it’s more like a score of one out of three. Poor! And yet, I’d be happy to give it another chance, simply because the overall experience was good, and their coffee was above average. And as an added bonus, there was a nice chap in the park across the road that was happy for Ted and Oscar to play on his ride-on tractor.

Vroom vroom!

Anyway – we added one more visit to the tally this weekend. I took Friday off work (time in lieu after working on Australia Day), and we headed up to Caloundra after lunch. Since the car ride was going to be Oscar’s only chance of a nap for the day, we took the “long way” via Steve Irwin way, out to Peachester, then down through Maleny. Or at least that’s what we had intended – the road from Peachester to Maleny was closed due to land slip, so we had to double back and go via Landsborough instead. Never mind – it was a nice drive, and Oscar slept for most of it!

As soon as we arrived in Caloundra, we took a walk along the boardwalk to stretch our legs.

Sadly, that was the only decent weather that we experienced for the whole weekend! By the time Mom and Dad joined us in the evening, the rain had set in – though sporadic, it was enough to put a total dampener on going to the beach!

Worse still, Oscar had a terrible night’s sleep on Friday night. He just wouldn’t settle! Eventually, we brought him into our own bed, which we never, ever do. But we had no choice – it was either try him in our bed, or let him scream it out in his own, so we went with the former. All I can say is that now, the diagrams make sense. Especially this one.

The rest of the weekend was a bit of a blur after that, though it did make us appreciate just how lucky we are that (generally) Oscar is (now) a good sleeper. We still managed to take a day-trip to Gympie on Saturday to visit one of Mom’s oldest friends (they met on the plane when she migrated to Australia!); but otherwise, the weekend basically turned into a festival of food! Here’s the list of places we hit up:

• Jow Noodles – An awesome noodle bar on the main drag at Caloundra. It’s the traditional evening meal whenever Mom and Day stay up the coast. The seafood Nasi Goreng is fantastic!
• Cafe 21 on Bulcock – One of the only places that was open for breakfast on Saturday morning in Caloundra. Their big breakfast was big.

• Cafe Envy – Just off the main strip at Mooloolaba, they served one of the biggest and best value breakfast burgers that I’ve ever had!

I suppose that a weekend of eating is nothing to be sneezed at, but it’s still a pity that the weather wasn’t more encouraging of outdoor activities. I guess that’s a good excuse to go up again before it becomes too cold to swim!

Unfortunately, every time we tried to find a class with Dominique, we came up disappointed – none were ever listed, no matter how far in advance we looked! As it turns out, she’s now too expensive for the school, so she no longer teaches there; despite this fact, she remains listed as the number one resident chef on their webpage, which I personally think is a little shady. We probably wouldn’t have bought a gift voucher for Mom had we have known we wouldn’t be able to take a class with Dominique.

Anyway – what’s done is done – we had a gift voucher to be used, and so we booked in for the Chinese peasant class with one of the other chefs – Tony Ching:

This class shares my Chinese heritage with dishes perfect for the busy, time short family. My mums fantastic food – simple, cheap, fast, healthy and very tasty.

Tasty, indeed! We cooked three dishes – rice with chinese sausage, beef and black bean, and sesame pork. None of the dishes were ground-breaking; but I was more interested in the techniques and tid-bits of information that Tony shared. Here’s a few of the said tid-bits – note, this is what we were taught on the course, not (necessarily) my own opinions:

• Pork is the safest of all meats, and pork fat helps to break down the “bad” fats in your body. Tony even went so far as to eat (a small quantity of) raw pork mince in front of us in order to test if it was adequately seasoned.
• Recommended brands to buy are: Lee Kum Kee for stock, Shao Hsing for cooking wine, and Kikkoman for soy sauce. Avoid Chinese brands of soy sauce (e.g. Pearl River) as they’re often padded out with crushed human hair, which makes them cheaper to produce, while still meeting the minimum requirement for protein quantity.
• Buy garlic from Australia; avoid garlic from China (often grown in human feces) and Mexico (where they still use DDT)

Overall, both Mom and I enjoyed the course; we both learned a few things, Tony was a great chef, and the food was delicious.

Today, it was back to Willow & Spoon, this time with Laura and Tim, Bill, Inge, and Monique! Once again, deciding what to order was a task in itself, but I eventually settled on The Harlequin – Smoked Cod, brioche, avocado, tomato & green onion salsa, artichoke, veloute. Of course, I had no idea what that translated to, but I was pleasantly surprised when it came out looking like this:

Delicious! And, it was great to see so many Foleys again; we hadn’t seen Monique since shortly after she was born!

• Photos from breakfast with Joe, Shamine and Harry on Google+ and Facebook
• Photos from Willow & Spoon with the Foleys on Google+ and Facebook

Oh! Right. Willow & Spoon! As I was saying, Laura told us about this little gem of a cafe in Alderley, promising “amazing food” and a “gigantic backyard”. And she delivered on both of her promises! Their brunch menu was unlike anything I’ve seen before – to the point where they bring you a separate menu which explains what on earth all the options are. And, it changes monthly! How exciting!

The only downfall I could see was that the menu looked too good – picking just one thing was quite a challenge! But in the end, both Kristy and I couldn’t go past the “Voodoo Chicken”, which is briefly described as “Southern Fried Cajun Chicken, ‘creole’ baked beans, poached egg & ‘Papa Ghede’ salsa. A picture paints a thousand words, so:

Ohh, that salsa was spicy! Lea and Dean joined us for our Sunday brunch escapade, and between them they managed to pick two different meals: Dean had “The Diabolical Pact” (Banana, date & rosted green chilli loaf, kalamanta labna, ricotta, confit pineapple), and Lea went for the “Sleeping Beauty” (Poached Eggs, mushroom & tarragon ‘muffin’, tomato-honey, garden pea sauce). Both meals looked equally impressive as the voodoo chicken, and both Lea and Dean were happy customers!

So yes, I would highly recommend Willow & Spoon for your next brunch outing – though, given that it was recommended by Laura, I was pretty confident that it was going to be good before I even knew what it was. Yum!

Gerrod: Think you know beer? Matt Kirkegaard certainly does, so he’s the perfect person to be launching Beer Academy in Australia. Beer Academy is a beer appreciation class which started in the UK in 2003. And now, it’s come to Australia – starting in Brisbane, no less! My brother Jason and I went along to a Wednesday lunch-time class to check it out, on behalf of Eat Drink Brisbane.

Jason: “Free beer and snacks, can you come?”….. Well there was much more to the conversation and that, but they were the strong points! Gerrod called me last minute to see if I was willing to take one for the team and be his accomplice. Luckily it was my first day of annual leave, and I couldn’t think of any better excuse to get away from the computer, and work!

Bitter Suite at New Farm was playing host to the event – it was quite a small group in attendance, which in my opinion worked well. It was also great to see the crowd was split pretty much 50 / 50 between males to females.

Gerrod: Yeah I agree, the small class size was great. Beer Academy limits its class sizes to 20 people at most. They’ll even come to your home/office/etc if you want a private class!

Jason: Again taking one for the team, as I walked in the door I was greeted by a ice cold glass of Stone & Wood Pacific Ale – it was like summer in a glass!

Gerrod: It was so light and fruity! Matt explained that it’s actually a dry beer – the fruity flavour comes from the smell, which tricks your taste buds into thinking it tastes like passionfruit. I would have been happy drinking it all afternoon; but there were more beers to be sampled!

Jason: The next drop was quite unique – it was a Brut des Flandres. Unlike your usual beers, this one presents in a champagne-like bottle. The beer is brewed and aged in Belgium, before heading off to France for a yeast fermentation before final capping of the bottles. It was matched with some coffin bay oysters. I’m not sure if it was the combining with the beer or not, but they were some of the creamiest oysters I have ever had.

Gerrod: Those oysters were goooooood. For my birthday this year, I’m going to replicate this exact combination. Matt also suggested that scallops pair well with this beer. Its only downside is that it has a peculiar smell – someone suggested Steak and Kidney pie, and I don’t think they were far off.

Jason: Next came the Burleigh Brewing Hefeweizen, or “Hef” to the locals.

Gerrod: Hahaha…. “Hef”.

Jason: Hef’s an unfiltered wheat beer in the classic Southern German style. To me this beer smelt just like banana lollies – I really enjoyed it, and being paired with the goat’s cheese feta was unbelievable. A perfect example of how pairing beer and food can heighten the taste of both.

Gerrod: I couldn’t believe how much the first three beers didn’t smell like beer – banana lollies was bang-on for this one. Matt reckons that beer (in general) is “the gymnast of beverages”, because it’s so flexible with the way it can be paired with food. Personally, I preferred the cheddar cheese with this one… Hef and cheddar should get together to make some sort of beer-cheese love child.

Jason: Number five on our list was the Four ‘Wives’ Pilsener from the Malt Shovel brewery (one of my favourites!). It’s not one I usually drink, but the malty goodness of the beer – thanks to the pale and munich malts – paired with some chorizo sausage really made me consider buying it more often. One interesting fact that Beer Captain Matt told us was the malt in beer helps breaks down the capsaicin (the really spicy bit) in chili, hence why in most SE Asian countries, beer is the beverage of choice.

Gerrod: And here I’ve been dousing spicy foods with milk, like a sucker! The Pilsener was the first beer that actually smelled like beer – as did the next drop we were presented with – the Fighting Falcon IPA, from Brisbane’s very own Bacchus Brewing Co, at Capalaba. This one was also paired with the chorizo and the cheeses, but I didn’t think the pairing worked quite as well as the less bitter beers. Maybe it’s because I’m generally not a fan of pale-ales.

Jason: The Falcon was another great drop – it had a great body to it, and a nice depth of flavour. I tried it with most of the foods and didn’t remember any being a stand-out.

Gerrod: The last two beers were served at the same time, as they were both porters, and both paired with dessert – vanilla-bean ice cream, and a chocolate brownie.

Jason: Not just any brownie – a Dello Mano Luxury Brownie!

Gerrod: I’m not sure I’ve had a porter beer before, and Matt explained that even though they weren’t very common nowadays, they were basically the beer of choice back in olden times. In fact, the first fleet were sucking down porters when they landed in Australia! The two that we enjoyed were Baltic Rum Porter (another number from Bacchus), and The Temptress from Holgate Brewhouse in Victoria.

Jason: I had previously tried the Temptress, so was excited to see how it performed with the pairings. Sadly my first experience of the temptress a few weeks ago was rather lack-luster as the bar staff at the establishment I purchased it from had no idea what it even tasted like, so I was a bit apprehensive trying it. This is where I see the Beer Academy being a great thing for Australia – not only can the average punter go along and become better educated about beer, but bar staff can learn more about this ancient beverage, and hopefully share more love of beer with their patrons.

Back to the Temptress; pairing it with the Dello Mano brownies really changed the profile of the beer, making it a perfect after-dinner dessert option.

Gerrod: Agreed – the chocloate notes in the beer did a great job matching up with the brownie – but the Rum Porter was the stand-out for me. Emphasis is definitely on “rum” in that one.

Jason: I LOVED the Rum Porter! The labelling sold me on it – “dark, complex with hints of malt chocolate, roasted coffee, and a creamy finish”. Gladly the Rum Porter was all of that, plus delicious hint of rum and raisin. This was especially good with the brownie and the vanilla ice cream. On Matt’s recommendation, I spooned a large scoop of the ice cream into the beer, creating some kind of beeragatto, or beer spider float. It was so good – I would certainly do it again. It was just like Christmas pudding!

Gerrod: I thorougly enjoyed our beer excursion, and it was great to get more of an insight into the different characteristics of various beers. Before attending the academy, I would have thought that pairing food and alcohol was something strictly reserved for wine, but I was amazed at how well it works with beer. Anyone who appreciates a fine brew and delicious food should sign themselves up for a class, it’s money well spent!

Jason: Definitely – I’d encourage anyone with any interest in beer to get on down to a tasting session. I like to think I am pretty adventurous with trying different beers, and now having more knowledge on the beer and food matching, I think a trip down to my local bottle-o is on order!

The Beer Academy Australia
http://beeracademyoz.com/
Contact: Matt Kirkegaard, 0407 968 430

Bitter Suite
http://bittersuite.com.au/
a: 75 Welsby Street New Farm QLD 4005
p: (07) 3254 4426

Be honest now; does my hair always look that bad? What’s with the double sticky-up bit at the front? I mean, I can’t even blame hat-hair, or Oscar-on-top-of-shoulders hair; that was all me. What was I thinking?

Anyway; it was super hot in the sun! That didn’t stop the craving for hot food though, and between us, Kristy and I enjoyed some dim sum, coffee, and a German frankfurter before leaving. We also walked away with french bread and cheese, all of which was devoured back at Ian’s house.

An awesome way to start a Sunday morning.

First up, we joined Joe, Shamine and Baby Harry for Saturday lunch at Pepe’s Newmarket. They lean more towards the restaurant side of Mexcian dining compared to the fast-foody style of our regular Mexican haunt – Guzman y Gomez at Emporium. We’d be warned that their meals verged on being unfinishably large, and we consequently attended with our best appetites in tow. Burritos were the order of the day, and I can’t say we were disappointed – though I had no trouble polishing off my plate so I don’t know what the fuss was about!

Serving number two was of the home made variety, when we had Mel and Ben over for a very overdue birthday dinner for Ben. When I say “very overdue”, I mean it was very overdue – Ben’s birthday is in the middle of the year. In fact, we promised to make him fajitas so long ago that he’d completely forgotten that we’d promised to make him fajitas. But we are nothing if not true to our word, and so fajitas it was!

Even Oscar got in on the action, sampling, and somewhat enjoying – well, as much as Oscar enjoys any food, that is – his very first fajita!

Since digging up and replanting everything on the left-hand side of the garden, the plants there have been growing amazingly well. The basil grows faster than we can consume it (clearly we need more uses for basil!), and our cherry tomatoes have just started fruiting.

Given how well the left-hand side of the garden is now doing, we figured that the right-hand side should be treated to a little bit of replanting love as well. And so, we went through and dug up all of the dodgy old soil, and replaced it with about 150 litres of fresh new potting mix. The stuff that ended up on top was pretty loose, so we all had a go at stomping around to try and compact it a bit.

We’ve put in some new parsley and chives, and replanted the sage, oregano, plus the original basil plant. Only a few days on, the chives are already looking bigger and stronger – hopefully the same will be true for all the other plants soon too!

Because we’ve been a bit more organised about the position that the herbs are planted, we’ve got a decent chunk of space left over – I think we could easily fit another two plants in there. Any suggestions? We’d love to grow some coriander, but every time we try to, it dies! And we already have mint (growing very well in a pot), some lemongrass, and two chili plants (one which is doing exceptionally well this year). What are we missing?

Even Oscar got in on the action, throwing less food onto the ground compared to what he normally would!

Rounding off the weekend of pigging out was morning tea at Mark and Jen’s place (our back neighbours), where we did our best to consume as much coffee and sugar as possible. Kristy’s “North Pole” cupcakes were a rather impressive highlight.