Into Africa

As you all probably know, the Brisbane Festival is on the go at the moment. One of the events I'm glad to see is back again this year is Into Africa, which is being held next Saturday, 25 September 2010.

Into Africa takes place at Yeronga Park, and features live music, traditional dancing, food, coffee, and arts & crafts from all over Africa. If you haven't yet made it to one of the terrific African restaurants in Brisbane, Into Africa is a great place to tuck into some traditional African food for lunch.

I went along last year and really enjoyed it, especially the food that was on offer. This year I'm looking forward to seeing Hassan M'Souli's cooking demonstration. I've got one of his cookbooks (Modern Moroccan) and seeing as I'm about to rustle up a Moroccan dinner for the next Gastronauts Supper Club night, I'm keen to pick up as many tips as I can get.

On the music front, the featured artists include King Marong and Afro Mandinko, Samoko, Afro Dizzi Act, the Big Fela Afrobeat Orchestra and the 200 strong Into Africa Choir, who will be performing a tribute to Miriam Makeba.

It all adds up to a terrific day, so get along and experience a slice of Africa next Saturday.

Into Africa
Saturday 25 September 2010, 11am to 6pm
Yeronga Park
School Road, Yeronga
W - http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/Events/0,261,4747,026100906.aspx

Into Africa

This year's Brisbane Festival kicks off in a couple of weeks time, and there are a few food related events that have caught my eye.

The first one is Into Africa, on 26 September. Out of all the events in the program last year, this is the one I really wanted to get to, but then something came up on the day and I missed it. So this year its in the diary and I'm going no matter what.

Into Africa is free event, celebrating Brisbane's African community. It will feature plenty of live music during the day (including King Marong, Afro Mandinko, Ajak Kwai, Samoko, Afro Dizzi Act and the Big Fela Afrobeat Orchestra) along with food stalls, craft, dancing and drumming. I'm really keen to see what African food will be on offer - hopefully there will be plenty of authentic meals.

Into Africa
Saturday 26 September 2009, 12pm-8.30pm
Yeronga Park
School Road
Yeronga 4104
W - http://www.brisbanefestival.com.au/Events/0,101,4646,010100906.aspx

food bling photos - Morocco

I'd really love to have more photos up on my blog. Although I've got a pretty handy Canon SLR camera (it's a 450D for all you real photographers), I don't want to lug it with me into every restaurant. So most of the photos you'll find on the blog are taken with my phone. While my phone takes some decent photos, it's hopeless in low light (ie most restaurants).

As I'm currently enjoying a week at home with our first bub, I've been slowly trawling my way through the ridiculous amount of photos on my hard drive. I thought that surely there would have to be a few decent ones to throw up on the blog.

The first batch of photos come from our honeymoon in Morocco in 2007. We had an amazing 3 weeks in Morocco, and food played a huge part of the overall experience. It's hard to find a bad meal in Morocco, and even travelling on the Australian dollar it wasn't difficult to enjoy fantastic food.

The first two photos are of the Djemaa el Fna in Marrakech.

The Djemaa el Fna is the main square in Marrakech. Our riad in Marrakech was about 2 minutes walk to the Djemaa el Fna. At night time the Djemaa el Fna completely overloads your senses. It's impossible to give the full sense of the place on this blog, and these photos don't even start to do it justice. Just as it gets dark, hundreds of food stalls set up all over the square, serving all kinds of amazing Moroccan food. But it's not all just about the food - there are snake charmers, dancers, live music and these guys that tell amazing stories to huge crowds of people (I understand about 3 words of Arabic, but would listen to these incredibly theatrical story-tellers just for the entertainment and the reaction of the crowds).

As most Moroccans tend to eat dinner fairly late, we'd sit up on the roof of our riad in the early evening, wondering where we would end up for dinner. In the meantime, we'd hear constant drums and music from the square, see smoke rising in the air from all the ad-hoc restaurants and (best of all) smell the magical aromas of dinners being cooked for hundreds of Moroccans. As far as I'm concerned, visiting the Djemaa el Fna is one of the food (and sensory) highlights of the world.

To be perfectly frank, I have to admit that I got terribly sick in Marrakech, after eating at one of the restaurants in and around the Djemaa el Fna. Although I ended up not being able to eat or drink anything for two days, it will never deter me from eating with the locals. I'd rather end up sick for a couple of days than spending my holidays at the closest McDonalds.

The next photo doesn't include any food at all. But it's probably the most amazing setting in which I've ever been lucky enough to enjoy breakfast, anywhere on our travels.

This photo is the terrace at Madada Mogador in Essaouira, where we were served breakfast every morning. Our room actually opened up onto this terrace. We'd drag ourselves out of bed after a lazy sleep-in and walk out onto the terrace. What followed was a beautiful breakfast of fresh orange juice, yoghurt, fresh fruit, Moroccan pancakes, honey, jam, tea and coffee. As you can see, the terrace looked out over the whole of the bay that surrounds Essaouira. It was incredibly hard to actually get back out of the chair and leave - why would you bother with a view like this?

The last photo again lacks any actual food, but it's another table with an unbeatable view. This photo is the view from the terrace of Dar Mouna, our beautiful hotel in Ait Ben Haddou. Again we were lucky enough to eat breakfast from this terrace, admiring the view of an incredibly well preserved kasbah. Ait Ben Haddou is one of the most famous kasbahs in Morocco, which has been used as a background for films such as Lawrence of Arabia and Gladiator. In the foreground is the bed of the Ouarzazate River, which is almost always dry.

As a result of our honeymoon, Moroccan food will always stick with me. Morocco traverses the entire spectrum of food, from the absolute simplicity of fresh, tangy orange juice which is served with every meal, to the delicious complexities of a slow cooked tagine. Ever since we returned from Morocco, I've had a jar of preserved lemons in the fridge - such a simple ingredient, but such a distinctively Moroccan flavour. I'm yet to cook a tagine at home that approaches any that we had in Morocco, but I'm determined to keep trying! Hope you enjoy the photos, and I'll try to find a few more food related pictures soon.

Made in Africa

For ages and ages I was wanting to visit one of the numerous African restaurants popping up around Moorooka. Top of my list was Made in Africa, an Ethiopian restaurant/cafe.

The food which I ate in Ethiopia was some of the best in Africa. On our travels south through Egypt and Sudan we'd been warned that Ethiopia was going to be hard work, and that we weren't going to like it. Unfortunately that led us to have fairly low expectations for the country. Luckily that turned out to be completely wrong, and I found it to be one of the most interesting and amazing countries in the whole of Africa. The churches at Lalibela (see the photo) are some of the most memorable sights I've seen anywhere in the world - they were carved into rock in about the 12th century.

Food was a big part of the experience. We were lucky enough to eat at plenty of local cafes in the 3 weeks or so that we spent in Ethiopia. It's nice to go to a country where the concept of a tourist restaurant doesn't really exist. Almost every town (no matter how small or remote) had an amazing cake shop, that would also usually serve a range of fresh juices. The avocado "juice" was particularly popular with our travel group, because it was so thick you could spread it on your bread for lunch. Other food that I loved was ful (a thick paste made from mashed fava beans), tibs (tiny pieces of chopped meat often served with chilli) and their excellent coffee, which is served in a traditional ceremony, sometimes involving popcorn. We were also amazed to find excellent pizzas in Addis Ababa. Mussolini marched some troops into Ethiopia in 1936 - fortunately they surrendered during World War II, but there is still a lingering Italian influence in the country (including Ethiopian wine).

I'll spare you from my great memories of Ethiopia, other than to say I was really looking forward to our trip to Made in Africa.

Made in Africa is a fairly sparse looking cafe at the back of the Ranchhold Arcade on Beaudesert Road. Our group was the only occupant of the restaurant on the night of our visit, but we were greeted like old friends by the staff.

The dinner menu is pretty short. There are two appetizers and 11 mains. At least that makes it easy to choose what you'll be eating.

The starters are sambusa (pastry shells filled with lentils, onions, green peppers and herbs - $4.50) or meat sambusa (beef seasoned with spiced butter and mitmit, in a pastry roll - $5.50).

We skipped the starters, and went straight to the mains. As we had a big group, we adventurously ordered one of each of the meat main courses, together with a couple of vegetable dishes.

The main courses are served on a large platter covered with injera. Injera is a spongy bread, made from teff flour. To eat the main meals you tear off a piece of the injera, grab a bit of the food and pop it in your mouth. Cutlery is completely unnecessary. Because everyone is eating off one or two big trays, it's a really social way to eat. I really noticed that we all talked more about the food, just because we were all eating off the same huge platter.

Our mains were:

Tibes Wot - diced beef/lamb sauteed in herbed butter sauce, seasoned with onions, green pepper and rosemary ($12)

Keye Wot - beef simmered in a red pepper sauce seasoned with garlic & cardamom ($10)

Kifto - minced beef seasoned with herbed butter sauce and hot chilli ($12)

Gomen be Sega - sauteed beef, spinach, onions and peppers, spiced with peppercorns and cardamom ($12)

Gomen Wat - greens boiled with garlic and onions ($10)

Shiro Wot - split pea stew ($10)

Yakakilt Wat - green cabbage, carrot, potato, green pepper and onions sauteed in garlic, ginger & tomatoes ($10.50)

Lentil Stew ($9.50) - fairly self explanatory.


My favourite dishes were the kifto, which had a good chilli kick, and the gomen wot, which was a delicious, tasty serve of greens. Each of the mains were very distinctive, which meant we all kept grazing until there was nothing left (including injera).

Made in Africa is byo, so we happily drank a few bottles of wine and beer as the meal went along. There were no wine coolers for the table, but the staff will be happy to keep your drinks cool in their fridge.

Made in Africa is also sells Ethiopian food and coffee, if you'd like to keep the experience going at home.

I can't imagine that too many people in Brisbane have tried Ethiopian food, so if you're looking for something genuinely different for your next dinner, jump on the next bus to Moorooka and grab a table at Made in Africa. I've been back again since this visit, and enjoyed the food just as much the second time. My friends love it too, so it's never hard to round up a dinner party. Sure, the restaurant is fairly basic looking, but you're here for the food remember (James Street - take note).

Made in Africa is also extremely good value for money, so frequent visits won't damage your bank balance. Dinner for eight of us was about $90. Why bother with tasteless fast food, when you can have Ethiopian?

What does all this mean? Tasty, distinctive Ethiopian food, with genuinely friendly service.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Great
Ambience - Pretty basic
Value for Money - Top shelf
Wine - BYO
Vegetarian - Great

Made in Africa
Shop 8-9 Ranchold Arcade
197-201 Beaudesert Road
Moorooka 4105
P - 07 3848 6759
W - http://www.madeinafrica.com.au/