Grill'd

Unfortunately for the last 3 years or so, hamburgers have been wiped out from my essential food groups. Surely it can't be that hard to source gluten-free rolls for a hamburger? Apparently it is. Other than Raw Energy (who make amazingly good, healthy hamburgers) I haven't come across anywhere around Brisbane that actually serves gluten free burgers. That was until I got the tip to mosey along to Grill'd.

To say that I was pretty happy when reading through the menu at Grill'd is an understatement - I was over the moon to find out they'll do any burger with a gluten free bun. I know it probably sounds a bit lame to be so excited about eating a burger, but I had 3 years to make up. I've been repaying my delight by becoming a very regular customer of Grill'd at Rosalie ever since.

Now don't think that Grill'd only does food for crazy, fussy, gluten free types like me - they have a range of burgers for everyone (even vegetarians!).

You'll start off by choosing a bun - panini, traditional burger roll or gluten free. All buns at Grill'd are baked daily, and a gluten free one will set you back an extra $1.50 (small change as far as I'm concerned).

After you've picked your bun, you need to decide on a filling - beef, chicken, lamb or vegetarian - all up there are 18 burgers to choose from the menu.

We've slowly been working my way through the menu, and here's my thoughts on what I've munched away so far:

Crispy Bacon & Cheese - lean beef, crispy bacon, tasty cheese, salad, relish and herbed mayo ($9.90). As much as I hate to admit it, I ordered this with distant memories of greasy, yet so tasty bacon double cheeseburgers from Hungry Jacks. As you'd expect, this tastes way better than anything I ever had at Hungry Jacks. I thought this burger worked really well - none of the fillings overpower the others, the bacon was actually crispy and I really enjoyed the relish.

Mustard & Pickled - lean beef, Dijon mustard, dill pickle, tasty cheese, salad & relish ($9.90). If we're sticking with the fast food analogy, I suppose this would be the equivalent of the golden arches' quarter pounder. I wasn't the biggest fan of this one - there were so many pickles on the burger that, combined with the mustard, you couldn't really taste anything else. Luckily that's easily fixed by just removing a few pickles. Order this burger if you're a fan of big, robust flavours.

Baa Baa Burger - lean lamb pattie with avocado, tasty cheese, salad, relish & herbed mayo ($11.50). This is my pick of the burgers so far. Although I'm in the middle of a major avocado fad at the moment, this burger is spot on - the relish, avocado, cheese and lamb pattie all combine so well together. I think the Baa Baa burger is going to be hard to top, but I'll keep trying.

Field of Dreams - grilled field mushroom, roasted peppers, basil pesto, tasty cheese, salad & herbed mayo ($10.50). This is my wife's favourite burger and I have to admit it did look very tasty. There's no vegie pattie on this burger - just a giant grilled field mushroom and the pesto gives the burger a real lift in flavour.

Garden Goodness - veggie pattie (which is vegan) with beetroot, tasty cheese, avocado, salad, relish & herbed mayo ($9.90). This one only gets an average score - my wife wasn't that impressed with the vegie pattie, which was a bit underwhelming in the taste department.

So I've still got another 15 burgers to try before exhausting the menu. You'll need to bring your appetite - the burgers are large, and it can be a challenge to get the whole thing into your mouth. But if you're ravenously hungry, their thick chips are very good ($4.30). You can order a little pot of herbed mayo, tomato relish or sweet chilli mayo to dip your chips in (70 cents extra). Out of the sauces, the tomato relish is my favourite, although I wish they had an aioli.

Grill'd seems to be popular with a good cross-section of the community - kids, teenagers, families and uni students. I've found the staff at Rosalie very friendly, particularly on my last visit, when I was just there with our 3 month old bub.

Although I've only put the contact details for the Rosalie store below, check out the Grill'd website for other locations around Brisbane.

What does all this mean? Quality burgers with fresh, tasty fillings that are light years ahead of their fast food cousins - the perfect emergency lunch.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Good (order at the counter)
Ambience - Very casual
Value for Money - Good
Wine - Very limited selection and a few beers
Vegetarian - Good
Gluten Free - Top Shelf

Grill'd
19-21 Nash Street
Rosalie 4064
P - 07 3367 1555
W - http://www.grilld.com.au/

Brisbane's Budget Bites 2010

Want to know where you can eat around Brisbane without burning a hole in your wallet/purse? More interested in spending your money on good food than propping up high rents at mediocre city restaurants? Then rush off to your local bookshop today and pick up a copy of Brisbane's Budget Bites. For the measly sum of $20 you'll be the owner of a great guide to bargain restaurants around Brisbane. I picked up my copy from Borders in the city a couple of weeks ago - they're widely available.

Brisbane's Budget Bites covers restaurants, coffee shops and specialist grocery stores. Some of the featured restaurants that I'm looking forward to trying out are K'mer at Sunnybank (Cambodian), Best Friends Kainan Sa in the Valley (Filipino) and The Persian Restaurant at Coorparoo.

Best of all it's independent and well written - pick one up today.

Brisbane's Budget Bites 2010
W - http://www.brisbanebudgetbites.com.au/

food bling, Brisbane turns two!

Well its now 2 years since I kicked off food bling, Brisbane. At the time there were only a handful of Brisbane food blogs around, but it's great to see that there are now so many people blogging about the food scene in and around Brisbane.

I'd like to pass on a very special thanks to all my readers - numbers have doubled in the last year, with almost 20,000 visits in the last 12 months. As always, I'm only interested in the best quality food, wine & service around Brisbane, rather than the current place to be seen.

The last year has been a huge one for me, especially with the arrival of Josephine, the newest food bling, Brisbane team member. Although she's not quite four months old, she's already visited a good few restaurants around Brisbane - she's off to a good start in the food stakes (even though she can't actually eat anything at the moment).

Top of my never-ending list of places to eat at the moment are The Buffalo Club, the three new Urbane venues (due to open in a few weeks), Wasabi at the Sunshine Coast, The Sardine Tin, Bar Barossa and Desmond & Molly Jones. There are also a load of new bars that have opened in the Valley this year, which I'm keen to visit before Christmas.

I'm currently in the middle of doing a photography course at TAFE, so hopefully you'll all notice a marked improvement in the standard of pictures on food bling, Brisbane. Although I'm not sure how much help the course will be when it comes to taking photos with my mobile phone...

As always, don't be shy in posting comments or passing on any feedback - it all helps to improve the blog. And of course, I'm always on the lookout for new restaurants, cafes and bars to visit, so keep the suggestions coming.

Thanks everyone for reading,

Richard

2010 Gourmet Traveller Restaurant Awards - Part 3

Just to wrap up my posts about this year's Australian restaurant guide, here are the top 10 restaurants in Brisbane according to Gourmet Traveller:

1. Montrachet
2. E'cco
3. Restaurant Two
4. The Buffalo Club
5. Alchemy
6. Gianni
7. 1889 Enoteca
8. Sono Portside Wharf
9. Siggi's at the Port Office
10. Era Bistro

There are no real surprises in that list - the obvious place missing is Urbane, but that's because it is currently closed (re-opening very soon). I'm sure it will be back up at the pointy end of the list next year. It will also be interesting to see if Aria makes it into the top 10 next year.

Any thoughts from readers on the list?

Good Food & Wine Show

If you haven't already heard, the Good Food & Wine Show is coming to Brisbane this weekend.

What's it all about you ask? The Good Food & Wine Show features a celebrity theatre, cheese masterclass, cooking school, wine theatre, bar and restaurant. There will also be about 300 exhibitors, showing off both food and cooking equipment.

The main attraction of the show though is the chefs taking part over the course of the weekend - including Matt Moran, Tobie Puttock, Alastair McLeod, Ben O'Donoghue, Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris.

General tickets are $20, or if you pay $22.50 you'll also get a ticket to the celebrity theatre. There is plenty more information on the website.

Good Food & Wine Show
Friday 6 November to Sunday 8 November 2009
Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre
Corner of Merivale Road & Glenelg Street
South Brisbane 4101
W - http://www.goodfoodshow.com.au/

Bittersweet Chocolate

For years and years Hot Chocolate at Paddington was my favourite place to buy chocolates in Brisbane. Many a weekend afternoon we would wander in there, take about 10 minutes to decide what chocolates to buy and then leave with big smiles on our faces, knowing that they'd be lucky to last a couple of hours at home (one of my friends would eat hers in the car on the way home).

So I was very disappointed to find out that Hot Chocolate had closed. That was until I found out that Ann Atkinson, the owner, had opened a new chocolate store at The Barracks, called Bittersweet.

Its taken me months to actually pop in for a chocolate fix, but I dropped in recently. It's only a small shop, just next door to Coles, but once you step inside the door you are surrounded by chocolate. Not only that, but you'll be overwhelmed by the amazing aromas of high quality chocolate.

Getting in the store is the easy part - then you have to decide on what to buy. I stuck with two of my past favourites - a white chocolate macadamia cluster and a macadamia caramel (and yes I do like macadamias). Branching out a little, I also picked up a champagne truffle, mainly because it looked delicious. Although I do love the macadamia chocolates, I have to admit that when it came to eating them, the champagne truffle was an amazingly decadent ball of chocolate.

My wife picked out a dark chocolate ginger disc, orange & coconut truffle and a dark chocolate truffle - out of those three the dark chocolate truffle was the winner by a nose.

All up there are 60 different flavours, including ginger & benedictine truffles, whipped cream snails and kumquat clusters. You can buy chocolates in boxes of 4, 8, 12, 24, 48 and 96 (if you're really in need of a chocolate fix). Otherwise you can select as many as you like for $15 per 100 grams.

If you haven't been to Bittersweet, you're missing out on some fantastic hand made chocolates. As you've probably guessed, I'll definitely be back.

Bittersweet
Tenancy 8, The Barracks
61 Petrie Terrace
Paddington 4064
P - 07 3367 3323
E - info@bittersweetchocolate.com.au
W - http://www.bittersweetchocolate.com.au/

Frankland Estate and Ngeringa Wine Dinner

Wineaway's last wine function of the year is a Frankland Estate and Ngeringa Wine Dinner, which is being held this Friday night, 30 October 2009.

Frankland Estate is a rising star on the Australian wine scene, particularly because of its amazing single vineyard rieslings, from the Great Southern region in Western Australia. On the other hand, Ngeringa is a small, boutique producer from the Adelaide Hills, making biodynamic wines - its first vines were only planted in 2001. I've only tried one Ngeringa wine so far, which was part of a degustation dinner at Absynthe.

The evening will be jointly hosted by Hunter Smith (Frankland Estate winemaker) and Erinn Klein (Ngeringa winemaker). Tickets are $90 and Brent Farrell will be in charge of dinner.

The wines on tasting during the night will be:

2008 Ngeringa JE Rose

2008 Ngeringa Chardonnay

2008 Ngeringa Viognier

2007 Ngeringa Pinot Noir

2006 Ngeringa Syrah

2009 Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Riesling

2009 Frankland Estate Cooladerra Riesling

2009 Frankland Estate Poison Hill Riesling

1996 Frankland Estate Isolation Ridge Riesling

2007 Frankland Estate Malbec

2007 Frankland Estate Olmo's Reward

1996 Frankland Estate Olmo's Reward

1996 Frankland Estate Cabernet Franc

1996 Frankland Estate Petit Verdot

Frankland Estate and Ngeringa Wine Dinner
Friday 30 October 2009, 6.30pm
Wineaway
Unit 3, 276 Abbotsford Road
Bowen Hills 4006
P - 07 0852 1891
E - email@wineaway.com.au
W - http://www.wineaway.com.au/

Alchemy

I've been wanting to eat at Alchemy for ages, so it was very fortunate that I managed to get an invite to a work lunch there recently.

Alchemy is in a great spot, overlooking the river next to Customs House. Although it doesn't have the wide frontage of Jellyfish, it's still a great view out over the river. Our friendly waiter came to the table with lunch menus - all the staff were wearing their "Vote for Brad Jolly GQ" shirts.

When I opened the menu, I was impressed with the range of food on offer - there were 12 entrees and 12 mains (including specials). The flip side is that with so many dishes to choose from, decisions are very tough.

Entrees that I wanted to order included the spiced sweetcorn soup with sautéed spanner crab ($24), cod brandade with coddled duck egg, herb vinaigrette and petite salad ($26) and the charcuterie of cold cured meats, venison bresaola, salami, prosciutto marinated olive and crusty bread ($28). After plenty of to-ing and fro-ing, I picked the scallops with slow roasted peppers, confit cherry tomato and garlic puree ($26). I'd had scallops as an entree for lunch at 1889 Enoteca the day before, so I thought I'd see how the two dishes compared.

After enjoying a refreshing gin & tonic (made with Bombay Sapphire - my favourite gin), we shared a bottle of 2007 Escarpment Pinot Gris from Malborough ($79). Although I'd had the Escarpment pinot noir before, this was my first taste of the pinot gris, which turned out to be a good match with the scallops.

We didn't have to wait too long for the entrees to arrive. The scallops were impressively presented and were perfectly cooked. There's nothing worse than a tough, overcooked scallop, but these were excellent - only just cooked in the middle. I found the flavour of the slow roasted pepper and cherry tomatoes overpowered the delicate flavour of the scallops, so I didn't end up eating too much of the puree, and focused on the lovely scallops instead.

In between the entree and main course, our table (and most of the restaurant) were startled by some very loud swearing being shouted around the room. I thought that some crazy person must have wandered in to the restaurant and started shouting some pretty terrible language. I won't repeat what was said, but let's just say it made Gordon Ramsay sound like a kitten. We were even more shocked when we realised that it had come from the kitchen - not what a diner wants to be hearing at a top Brisbane restaurant while enjoying a slow Friday lunch. If that's going to happen in the kitchen, then the door to the dining room should remain well and truly shut. As the person said sitting across from me - if her mother had been there, she would never return. I think that probably went for a few others in the room as well.

After that bizarre event, our mains arrived. All except one of us on the table had ordered the beef cheeks, which were one of the specials for the day. I had a really hard time choosing my main course from the menu, which included swordfish sous vide with tomato compote, celery & artichoke noodles and jus gras ($38), glazed pork loin with white wine cabbage, apple and cider purée, pork crackling and mustard dressing ($38) and grilled rare tuna with braised orange endive and red wine sauce ($38).

The beef cheeks were served with big, chunky lardons, button mushrooms and potato mash. As you'd expect, the beef cheeks were meltingly tender - our waiter told us they'd been cooked for 18 hours. Although I enjoyed the dish, it reminded me of a beef bourginon, and just lacked a bit of wow factor. Maybe I had just ordered the wrong thing off the menu.

We had a bottle of 2005 St Hugo cabernet sauvignon from Coonawarra ($75) which was drinking well, and went down very easily with the beef cheeks.

I hadn't really been blown away by my food so far, so I was really looking for something different by the time it came to dessert. Luckily I noticed on the menu that they were offering liquid nitrogen gastronomic nibbles, which was exactly what I needed. It immediately reminded me of the frozen chocolate I'd had as part of an amazing dessert at Absynthe.

Apart from the liquid nitrogen nibbles, there were some delicious sounding desserts, like coconut and palm sugar panna cotta with caramelized pineapple financier ($17) and hot chocolate marbre with crunchy honeycomb and vanilla bean ice cream ($17).

Our desserts took a long time to arrive, even though there were only four ordered around the table of six people. For the liquid nitrogen nibbles, I was invited up to the special station at the front of the restaurant. The chef put his industrial gloves on and poured in a decent amount of liquid nitrogen into a little bowl - it was all very theatrical. First up was a small chunk of honeycomb, which had been flavoured with a bit of mint. After a minute or so floating around in the liquid nitrogen, the chef popped it onto a little napkin and told me to throw it straight into my mouth. It pretty much disappeared as soon as it hit my tongue - even more crumbly than normal honeycomb. The mint gave it a great zing on the finish. This was my kind of dessert!

Next up was some apple sour mixture, which was probably my favourite of the liquid nitrogen nibbles - it had a fantastic tang to it after being completely frozen in the liquid nitrogen bowl. Finally I was served some black forest cake mousse, which was probably the least impressive of the three nibbles. While the chef was whipping these up, a few restaurant guests came up to watch and had a chat with me. It's great to be able to interact with other guests during a meal - I thought the liquid nitrogen stand was a great idea.

I had an espresso to finish up the meal, which was very well made - if only I didn't have to go back to work afterwards.

All up, the location and view over the river meant this was a really enjoyable lunch, on a perfect Brisbane afternoon. I walked in holding extremely high expectations, and although they probably weren't completely met, it's hard not to enjoy a lunch in this fantastic setting.

What does all this mean? A huge selection of modern Australian food, solid wine list, unique liquid nitrogen desserts and a super view out over the Brisbane river.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Great
Ambience - Modern, understated room with a fantastic river view
Value for Money - Ok
Wine - Good

Alchemy
175 Eagle Street
Brisbane 4000
P - 3229 3175
E - mail@alchemyrestaurant.com.au
W - http://www.alchemyrestaurant.com.au/

Rice Paddy

I go out of my way to support neighbourhood restaurants, so after seeing a few ads for the Rice Paddy in our local newspaper, we popped in for dinner on the weekend.

The Rice Paddy is in a fairly innocuous block of shops on South Pine Road at Everton Park. If you didn't know it was there, you'd probably drive right past it - luckily we were looking out for it. The main reason I wanted to visit was because there were dishes on the menu that were different from the regulars you usually come across at suburban Thai restaurants around Brisbane.

We arrived to be greeted by a couple of friendly staff, who showed us to our table. We were offered menus straight away, and two glasses of water were brought to the table. A wine cooler was brought out in a stand next to the table, with plenty of ice, and two glasses of wine were poured. By this stage, we felt very welcome.

The entrees didn't jump off the menu at me, so I ordered satay chicken, my favourite Thai starter. Other entree choices include vegetarian spring rolls, golden bags (rice pastry filled with stir fried chicken, coconut, corn & oyster sauce), fish cakes and Thai dippings (roti pastry served with chilli jam and satay sauce).

When I saw the size of my four satay chicken skewers, I was very concerned about how I would ever finish my main course. They were four very generous satay skewers, with plenty of chicken. Although a couple of bits of the chicken were a little gristly, they were otherwise tender, properly cooked and covered in plenty of Thai peanut sauce. Even though I didn't need to eat them all, they disappeared off the plate.

We also ordered a serve of the crispy tofu. These were little squares of tofu that had been deep fried and served with a peanut chilli sauce. When this dish arrived at the table it was obvious that it had only just come out of the deep fryer. The outside of the tofu was beautifully crisp, while the inside was still delicate and soft - they'd been perfectly cooked. I've had some great tofu dishes recently and this is another very impressive one (they were also great to dip into my satay sauce).

If none of the entrees are your bag, order a soup instead - tom yum (lemongrass, mushroom, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice and chilli) or tom kha (coconut cream with lemon juice, mushroom, galangal and chilli). Each of the soups can be served with chicken, king prawns, seafood or vegetable & tofu.

Main course is where the menu gets more interesting. I went straight to the house specials, which include stir fried fish with ginger, duck garden, chicken kaffir lime leaves, king prawns tamarind, king prawns clay pot (sauteed king prawns with glass noodles, fresh ginger, black peppercorn and sesame sauce) and crying tiger (BBQ beef marinated with Thai herbs & oyster sauce, served with crushed roasted rice and spicy & sour sauce).

There were also some eye catching salads, like the lime pork salad (spicy pork cooked in lime sauce mixed with fresh vegetables), Rice Paddy golden salad (fresh salad greens with tofu and boiled egg served with peanut sauce and crispy sweet potato) and the prawn salad (cooked fresh prawns with lemon juice, fresh herbs and seasoned with chilli & lime dressing). I'll have to go back for the salads.

As much as I loved the sound of the crying tiger and the salads, I opted for the duck garden, thinking it might be presented in some very impressive fashion. Although there was no magical presentation, no-one would be disappointed by the size of the serving - it was huge. Unlike some duck dishes at Asian restaurants, this one was full of tender duck pieces. There were also plenty of vegetables - zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, carrot, sweetcorn, celery and cauliflower. While there was a distinct sesame flavour to the sauce, it didn't overpower the duck. A good (but not great) dish.

My wife ordered the stir fried vegetable & tofu with basil and chilli. As soon as it hit the table I could smell the amazing aromas of Thai basil. I only had a quick taste, but it was a lovely dish. The sauce was excellent - a bit of chilli kick complemented by the fragrant Thai basil. Plenty of vegetables and some more well-cooked tofu rounded off a delicious dish.

There are numerous other main courses, many of which you will find at your local suburban Thai restaurant - red, green, panang, massaman, yellow and chu chee curries, together with ten or so stir fry dishes. Most of main courses can be prepared with tofu and vegetables, so there are loads of options for non-meat eaters.

We both had so much of our main courses left that we asked for a couple of take away containers, not wanting to waste the food. The staff happily obliged and packaged them up with the coconut rice we didn't manage to eat either.

Service was terrific and friendly throughout the night. Our waitress happily re-filled my wine glass continually (which is almost unheard of at a BYO restaurant) and we were never short of water on the table. There was a good, comfortable space between courses, which we really needed because of the amount of food. All up our dinner was $55 (which included a Thai style iced tea), so it was a great value meal.

Although I wouldn't say the Rice Paddy is the best Thai food I've ever had, its a solid suburban Thai restaurant that I'll happily return to, so I can explore the rest of the menu.

What does all this mean? Well priced, tasty Thai food with very friendly service. Worth a visit to try interesting Thai dishes you don't often see around Brisbane.

food bling ratings
Food - Good
Service - Great
Ambience - Casual suburban restaurant, with Thai decorations
Value for Money - Great
Wine - BYO
Vegetarian - Great

Rice Paddy
Shop 5, 544 South Pine Road
Everton Park 4058
P - 07 3162 5219

Luke Nguyen's Vietnam

Unfortunately my favourite food show of the moment, My Family Feast, has now finished up. Luckily for all of us though, the great people at SBS have replaced it with another food show - Luke Nguyen's Vietnam.

Luke Nguyen was born in Vietnam, but is now the chef and owner of Red Lantern restaurant in Sydney (I still haven't made it there yet). I watched the first episode last week, and he cooked some amazing dishes around Saigon - he makes them look so easy. The beef with wild betel leaf and lemongrass that he cooked on a street vendor's little van looked particularly tasty.

If you love Vietnamese food, then its definitely worth adding to your viewing schedule - Thursday nights at 7.30pm on SBS1. And stay tuned afterwards for Costa's Garden Odyssey, which is the most entertaining gardening show I've ever seen on TV - I'm hooked.

Luke Nguyen also seems to have a new cookbook out, called The Songs of Sapa, which I've been eyeing off at Borders. I think it will find its way into my cookbook collection sooner or later...

Luke Nguyen's Vietnam
Thursday nights, 7.30pm - SBS1
W - http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/lukenguyen