Utopia

If I had to pick an idyllic spot to live somewhere in the South-East Queensland/Northern New South Wales area, it would be in the lush green hills around Bangalow. It's such beautiful countryside - amazing views out over the ocean, only a short drive to the beach and best of all the town of Bangalow would be the local "metropolis". The town itself is fantastic - a really unique range of shops, some great restaurants & cafes, a butcher that sells Bangalow sweet pork and a small grocery store that stocks a quirky range of food that covers all the essentials.

Very very sadly, my bank balance doesn't allow me relocate to Bangalow just at the moment, so we have to make do with short visits instead. I've already written an earlier post about Utopia, but we popped in again on our last trip and had such a memorable morning tea that it would be mean not to share it with you.

One of the reasons I keep going back to Utopia is because they always have a selection of gluten free cakes. So many cafes around Brisbane mistakenly seem to think that having a couple of friands or a Byron Bay gluten free cookie is all you need to keep gluten free customers happy. Luckily places like Utopia are 10 steps ahead of the pack, always offering a good selection, which usually makes my job of ordering pretty tough. Not only are there always a good selection of cakes and pastries, but they are all cooked on the premises.

On this occasion I couldn't go past the lemon curd boat. As you'd guess from the name, this was a pastry shell in the shape of a boat, filled with lemon curd. The pastry was lovely & crisp, but held together well (a rarity for gluten free pastry). The filling was the complete opposite - slightly runny and very tangy. The pastry boat was served with a slice of lime and some creme Anglaise. I'd have to say that the lemon curd boat was the best gluten free pastries I have eaten for a long, long time. After it disappeared off my plate and I'd cleaned up all the delicious creme Anglaise, I seriously thought about ordering another. I only stopped because I knew we were driving down to Byron for lunch, and wanted to leave room for a serve of nachos from Ozymex (which are my favourite nachos anywhere).

My wife ordered a mascarpone tart with passionfruit curd, which looked equally as impressive as the lemon curd boat. The base of the tart contained plenty of coconut, and was filled with a lovely light, tangy mascarpone. The tart was generously drizzled with passionfruit curd and was another memorable morning tea staple. Of course my lemon curd tart was better, but I'd happily eat one of these any day (even if I couldn't eat the base).

We each had a flat white, made with Zentveld's coffee. They were both good coffees, and were served with a little biscuit on the side of the saucer.

If you've never been to Bangalow, make a trip there one of your new year's resolutions. You can start the day with coffee and morning tea at Utopia, wander around the shops for a few hours (make sure you visit the very cool Japanese gift store) and then have a late lunch at Ate or Fresca on the deck of the Bangalow Hotel. High on our travel agenda this year is a weekend at Bangalow. Not only would I love to have morning tea and lunch at Utopia, I'm very keen to try out the degustation dinner at Satiate, which sounds like an absolute bargain at $65.

In the meantime, if anyone's selling any cheap properties in the hills of Bangalow, please think of me...

Utopia
13 Byron Street
Bangalow NSW 2479
P - 02 6687 2088
E - utopia.bangalow@gmail.com
W - http://www.utopiacafe.com.au/

Schulte's Meat Tavern

For so many years I've driven past Schulte's Meat Tavern on the way back from Toowoomba, wondering just what they sold (other than meat of course). Recently, on the way back from Peppers Hidden Vale, I dropped in to investigate.

To start with, there's a great range of meat, including beef, lamb and pork sourced from the local area. In addition to the fresh meat, there's a selection of smallgoods, including house-made wursts, which are famous for miles around (even my local Brisbane Woolworths sells Schulte's wursts). You can also buy a selection of wines (including Ballandean Estate) and plenty of specialty German food, like gherkins and sauerkraut.

I picked up two Kumamoto Wagyu rump steaks ($11.65 - which is actually grown on the property at Peppers Hidden Vale), some delicious prosciutto ($5), a bottle of Ballandean Estate Sylvaner ($16 - one of my favourite dessert wines) and a can of Almdudler ($2.35) which I'd never come across in Australia before. Almdudler is an Austrian soft drink, which I used to buy to wash down various kinds of wursts from the little snack stands in Vienna. Seeing a can on the shelf brought back some great food memories, so I just had to buy one.

Anyway Schulte's is a great place to drop into next time you're heading back to Brisbane from Toowoomba way. Not only will it break up the drive, but you're likely to walk out with some great local meat, smallgoods and wine.

Schulte's Meat Tavern
4424 Warrego Highway
Plainland 4341
P - 07 5465 6592

Choux Box

I've just come back from our annual relaxing beach trip to Kingscliff, where once again we enjoyed some terrific food.

Choux Box is one of the cafes on Marine Parade at Kingscliff that is perennially busy. That's because it is an excellent cafe.

On our first visit, we ambled up for morning tea after a swim at the beach. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling the best, so I couldn't enjoy any of the scrumptious looking cakes sitting in the display cabinet. My wife on the other hand was only there for the cakes.

Part of the Kingscliff experience is walking past cafes like Choux Box every day, checking out the range of cakes they have on offer every day. On this visit, the daily specials were chocolate eclairs or a variety of friands. One of those cakes and a coffee or tea was only $7.50, which was a great deal. I had to settle for a black tea, while I watched the chocolate eclair vanish off the plate in front of me.

Next time round though I was over the stomach bug and was looking forward to a tasty beach breakfast. Tables at Choux Box fill up quickly for breakfasts on the weekends, so it can be a bit hit and miss if you show up at the wrong time. Luckily we were a little bit later than peak breakfast hour, so we snagged a table out the front.

The breakfast menu at Choux Box isn't huge, but it's very tempting. After a bit of indecision, I fell back to my old favourite, bacon and eggs. It turned out to be a good choice. The eggs were perfectly poached, with the whites straggling across my plate. There was also loads of bacon, which just so happened to be crunchy, exactly how I love my bacon to be cooked. It was the biggest serving of bacon I've come across on a breakfast plate for a long time. I also had half a cooked tomato and some good gluten free toast. Sometimes a simple breakfast, cooked well, takes a lot of beating. I washed this heavenly breakfast down with a good strong flat white.

We also ordered a corn fritter with avocado and tomato. When this dish arrived at the table, it turned out to be a large, almost pancake sized corn fritter, that had been drizzled with basil pesto. It was topped with half an avocado, some cooked tomato and a bit of rocket. I was too busy wolfing down my bacon and eggs to try any, but I was assured that the corn fritter was one of the best vegetarian breakfasts my wife had eaten for a long time. The corn fritter had a good, light consistency, the pesto was obviously freshly made and the avocado was perfectly ripe. I did manage to steal a bit of avocado and immediately made a mental note to order more avocado for breakfast.

As well as the flat white, we had a coffee frappe. Although we were expecting it to be an icy frappe, it turned out to be more like a coffee thickshake. But it was a good coffee thickshake, with a proper coffee bitterness to it. Miles better than the sweet iced coffees that tend to be the norm in the cafe world.

All up our breakfast was $37. Service was very snappy, and we hardly waited at all for our breakfasts to arrive (not that we were in any kind of hurry). Heading back to Brisbane after a swim and such an excellent breakfast sure was hard to take. I could easily be convinced to have breakfast at Choux Box every weekend.

Sorry there are no photos, but my excuse was I was on holidays.

What does all this mean? Excellent breakfasts, cakes and coffees served in a casual beach-side atmosphere.

food bling ratings
Food - Great
Service - Great
Ambience - Relaxed, beach feel with outside tables on the footpath
Value for Money - Good
Vegetarian - Good
Gluten Free - Good selection

Choux Box
94 Marine Parade
Kingscliff NSW 2487
P - 02 6674 1993

Euro 2008 - Poland

Poland will be be counting their lucky stars if they make it through to the quarter finals. After only picking up one point from their first two games, Poland can only progress if they have a big win against Croatia, and hope that the result in the Germany v Austria game goes their way. It's going to be tough, but Poland still has a chance of progressing.

If you're looking for somewhere to support the Polish team or just to try some terrific Polish vodka, head to the Polish Club at Milton. Here is what Natascha Mirosch from The Courier Mail had to say about the Polish Club:

Forget trendy and expensive bars, if you're a vodka fan head instead to the real deal – the home of vodka (it's said the Russians appropriated it from the Poles). The Polish club (now called Polonia) has at least 20 Polish vodkas, from the innocuous-sounding Balsam Herb Vodka to the sledgehammer Spirytus which is 95 per cent proof. Try a herb-infused vodka with real slivers of silver or the Wild Bee Honey Vodka. Prices range from a ridiculous $3 to a silly $5. There are also Polish beers like Okocim Palone, Perla or Zywiec and Polish liqueurs at $2.50 each.

At the bar or the club's restaurant you can sample some traditional Polish staples like pierogi (dumplings stuffed with meat), or the national dish, bigos (a hunter's stew made with venison, lamb or beef, wild mushrooms, and juniper berries, or apples). Golabki are the famous Polish cabbage rolls, stuffed with minced meat and rice, while fasolka po bretonsku is a rustic bean and sausage stew.

Many of the local businesses have discovered the Polish Club, says manager Kamilla Serek, and the clientele is eclectic, from students to pensioners. Every second Friday, the club also hosts a small market in the downstairs hall, where you can buy Polish cakes, doughnuts and delicatessen goods as well as Polish sausages. Smacznego!

You can read the full article at The Courier Mail's website here. My favourite Polish vodka is Zubrowka (bison grass vodka) which I got hooked on in Poland. You can try it for yourself at the Polish Club, otherwise it's popping up at more and more good bottle shops in Brisbane.

Another Polish restaurant to try is The Polish Place at Mt Tamborine. At the Polish Place, you can taste Polish specialties like pierogi (dumplings), gołąbek (cabbage rolls in tomato sauce), bigos (sauerkraut cooked with smoked meats, porcini mushroom, prunes and herbs, served with Polish sausage) or kaczka z jabkami (duck confit stuffed with apples and marjoram, baked and served with red cabbage, apples, sour cherries & Polish gnocchi). If you decide it's too far to drive to Mt Tamborine for dinner, then book one of their chalets and make a weekend of it.

Polonia (Polish Association of Queensland)

10 Marie Street

Milton 4064

P - 07 3369 2747

W - http://www.polonia.org.au/

The Polish Place

333 Main Western Road

Tamborine Mountain 4572

P - 07 5545 1603

E - info@polishplace.com.au

W - http://www.polishplace.com.au/

Euro 2008 - Germany

Germany was hotly tipped before the tournament started to be this year's champions. But after their loss to Croatia the other day, Germany now has a must win against Austria tomorrow. Austria, as one of the co-hosts, will be pulling out all stops to win that game, so there are no guarantees we'll see Germany going through.

Whether or not Germany does manage to progress, winter is a great time in Brisbane to check out a few of our German eateries. If it's a big, hearty meal you're craving, take a trip to the Black Forest German Cafe Restaurant at Highgate Hill. I've only eaten there once, and the meals were so big, most of us couldn't even finish them. So make sure you work up an appetite beforehand. You can kick off your meal with bratwurst, herring salad or cold cucumber soup with onion. Be warned though, go easy on the entrees or you're going to have a few problems cleaning up your main course. Mains cover German specialties like Muenchener schweinshaxe (oven roasted pork hock with sauerkraut and Bavarian dumplings), bregenwurst & gruenkohl (mettwurst, kaiserfleisch and kasseler served with kale and mashed potatoes) and Deutsche rinder roulade (thin slices of beef filled with ham, pork mince and sweet/sour cucumber, served with red cabbage and mashed potatoes). There is a good selection of German beers here to accompany your Muenchener schweinshaxe, or if beer isn't your thing, try the schnapps or Asbach Uralt brandy.

Another place where you can be assured of a good German feed is at the German Club. The German Club is across the road from the Gabba, and holds various events during the year including the Brisbane Oktoberfest. I've never eaten at the German Club, but have been in there for a few German beers before and after games at the Gabba. At the restaurant, you can try herring & apple salad ($8.50), kassler (smoked pork loin chop with fried potatoes & sauerkraut or red cabbage - $14.50), grilled Atlantic salmon with potato rosti, braised cabbage & fennel and dill hollandaise sauce ($17.90) or roasted pork knuckle with fried potatoes, sauerkraut & beer gravy ($14.90). It goes without saying that there is a range of German beers and schnapps to wash down your meals.

If you're anywhere near Maleny, you can pop into King Ludwig's Restaurant and Klaushouse Mountain Bar. King Ludwig's serves morning & afternoon teas, lunch and dinner. Meals here include Bayrische brotzeit (Black Forest ham, Swiss meat loaf, Hungarian salami, beer stick and cheese served with pickled gherkin, rye bread and butter - $17.50), rinderfilet “Schwaebische Art”, risotto und gemuese (grilled medallions of beef eye fillet on a piquant mild mustard sauce with herb risotto and garden vegetables - $34.50) and schweinekotlett, kartoffel puree und blaukraut (grilled pork cutlet on a sage and red wine gravy served with garlic mash and red cabbage - $29.50).

If you are in the Cleveland area, you can try Bavarian Blue and Ditche's Rheinkeller Restaurant. I haven't been able to track down their menus on the web, but I've put contact details for both restaurants below.

Guten Appetit!

Black Forest German Cafe Restaurant

196 Gladstone Road

Highgate Hill 4101

P - 07 3217 2180

W - http://www.blackforestrestaurant.com.au/

Brisbane German Club

416 Vulture Street

East Brisbane 4169

P - 07 3391 2434

W - http://www.brisbanegermanclub.com/

King Ludwig's Restaurant and Klaushouse Mountain Bar

401 Mountain View Road

Maleny 4552

P - 07 5499 9377

W - http://www.kingludwigs.com.au/

Bavarian Blue

Shop 9, 381 Main Road

Wellington Point 4160

P - 3207 2255

Ditche's Rheinkeller Restaurant

Shop 7, 22 Middle Street

Cleveland 4163

P - 07 3286 7756

Restaurant Vue

Restaurant Vue is the in-house restaurant at the Boonah Valley Motel. We stayed here for a couple of nights recently, and thought we'd give the impressive looking restaurant a try for dinner.

It's a pretty enormous restaurant. There are seats inside, and also a big outside deck. It was a bit cool on the night, so the deck had been closed in with those clear plastic shutter things.

Anyway, we sat inside, where there was also a combustion fire going. The first thing we noticed on the menu was that cocktails were $8. $8 for a cocktail is a bargain in anyone's language, so we ordered a couple of those. They were a bit hit and miss, but at $8, who cares?

I was planning to leave room for dessert, so we ordered a bowl of the hand cut potato, sweet potato and eggplant chips with aioli ($6) for an entree. This turned out to be an absolutely enormous bowl of the various chips. The aioli was good, but we didn't get close to eating all the chips. This dish was great value at the price.

There is a compact wine list, including wines by the glass, at reasonable prices. I ordered a glass of pinot noir with my main course. I was amazed to find out it was served cold. I know some people like to slightly chill red wine in the warmer months, but it wasn't remotely warm weather, and this wine wasn't just chilled, it was cold. Of course the flavours of the pinot were completely masked by the temperature at which it was served. If restaurants are going to serve red wine cold, they should at least check with the customer first. I didn't order any more red wine after that glass. I should have stuck to the cocktails.

Next was main course. There were some interesting sounding mains, like tempura salmon in sea salt with purple wakame ($25), prawn, pumpkin, opal blue, salmon and black sesame tortellini ($17) and marinated char grilled lamb rump with Israeli cous cous, green olives, preserved lemon and eggplant ($25). There are a number of gluten free options, which are clearly marked on the menu.

The roasted duck breast on fig and mandarin salad with orange blossom and cinnamon water and warm chickpea falafel ($25) took my fancy. I don't see mandarin in many main courses, so I thought I'd give it a try. Unfortunately the dish wasn't as good as it sounded. Although the duck had been spiced with some lovely flavours, I found it overcooked and a bit tough. When it comes to duck breasts, I enjoy them when they are just cooked, still pink, juicy and tender. The fig and mandarin salad was ok - the figs in particular were a good match with the spiced duck. The falafel turned out to be a giant size and seemed to overwhelm the rest of the ingredients. It was also a really floury consistency once you broke into it. Overall, this dish just didn't work for me. I think a smaller portion of each of the accompaniments would have worked much better. With less mandarin and a much smaller, chunkier falafel, the flavours and textures would have been more balanced. A good idea, but not quite carried off on the plate.

Vue Restaurant has a separate vegetarian menu, which is always good to see. We ordered the halloumi with with falafel and fig & mandarin salad from the vegetarian menu. This was basically the same dish I had ordered, but with halloumi instead of the duck. The halloumi turned out to be a great match with the mandarin segments - the salty, squeaky texture of the cheese a perfect foil for the juicy, sweet mandarin. Again though the falafel was very powdery and overwhelmed the other ingredients due to its size.

We were both a bit disappointed with our mains, but decided to give dessert a run. We ordered the trio of house made ice cream tasting plate with sides of figs, rosewater Turkish delight and fresh berries ($8.50). Other desserts include pumpkin brioche bread and butter pudding with double cream and vanilla bean ice-cream ($8.50) and poached nectarines in amaretto with buttermilk puddings, fresh passionfruit and Italian meringue (also $8.50).

Our dessert turned out to be a winner. We had fresh figs at a few places in Boonah, and they were delicious every time. The ice cream flavours tonight were Midori, rosewater and mango. All of the ice creams were beautifully made, but the rosewater was the standout. A lovely delicate flavour, churned into an extra creamy ice cream - I could have eaten about 4 scoops of it. The Turkish delight was also good, its customary chewiness providing a good contrast of texture to the ice cream, figs and berries.

Other than the cold glass of pinot, service was excellent throughout our meal. There were only 2 waitresses for the entire restaurant, but they were both friendly and efficient, and no-one seemed to be waiting for meals.

The servings at Restaurant Vue are big, and prices are good. But our main courses didn't quite hit the mark. Maybe we just made bad choices for mains (after all we did almost have the same dish). It's certainly an ambitious menu.

Restaurant Vue is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was doing a good trade with the locals on the night we were there. Hopefully there will be more restaurants like this popping up in country towns all over Queensland.

What does all this mean? Big servings, good prices and an ambitious menu, but some dishes don't quite hit the mark.

food bling ratings
Food - Ok
Service - Good
Ambience - Modern, stylish interior and outside deck seating
Value for Money - Great
Wine - Compact selection
Vegetarian - Great
Gluten Free - Great

Restaurant Vue
Boonah Valley Motel
3908 Boonah-Ipswich Road
Boonah 4310
P - 07 5463 4738
W - http://www.boonahvalleymotel.com.au/restaurant.htm

Boonah Trip

Recently we drove out to Boonah for a long weekend of relaxing, bush-walking and general exploring. We did our bit to support the local cafes, pubs and restaurants, and here's my wrap of where we ate...

We went to Cafe 17 a couple of times, once for lunch and the second time for coffee. It was absolutely packed at lunchtime, both with locals, bike riders and day trippers. The menu at Cafe 17 covers sandwiches, salads and a few hot options.

I had the Mediterranean salad for lunch ($13) and it was really tasty. I don't usually find loads of gluten-free options in country towns, so it was good to find a decent salad selection here. My salad was made up of warm chorizo, rocket, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum, feta and artichokes. It was a good serving for the price. We also had a salad sandwich ($5.50), which was groaning with salad fillings. There is also an organic food store which adjoins Cafe 17, where you can pick up all kinds of supplies.

On the Friday night, we had dinner at the Dugandan Hotel, along with plenty of the locals (who apparently know it just as the Duggie). The pub was so busy it was hard to find a seat anywhere, and people were standing around waiting for tables to clear. The Dugandan Hotel serves up fairly traditional pub food, including steaks, roasts, fish & chips and calamari, together with other options like quiche and a selection of salads.



I thought the best option here would be to go with one of the steaks, and ordered one of the large T-bones ($20). The steak was so big it even came with its own oversized plate. Although the steak was not spectacular, if you do order a steak, you also get to serve yourself from the vegetable and salad buffet. I've had some pretty memorable roast vegies at country bowls and RSL clubs, and was hoping that the Dugandan Hotel would be in the same boat. It didn't disappoint. Although the hot vegies were sitting in a bain marie type arrangement, the volume of people ordering food meant that hardly anything was there for more than a few minutes. The mashed pumpkin, green beans, carrot and potato salad were particularly good. This is what vegies should taste like. They were just cooked simply, but had us both scraping every last bit off our plates.

At one stage one of the local kids tried to head back for a second serve of the vegie/salad bar, only to be warned off by one of the staff. The thought had definitely crossed my mind, but if the local kid didn't get away with it, I sure wasn't going to. We had to be content with what we could load onto our plates the first time round. Luckily with my oversized T-bone plate, there was plenty of room for vegies.

The steak aside, it was a great country pub dinner. There are plenty of tables inside, where there was a fire going. We found inside a bit too warm, so sat outside under the covered deck. The Dugandan Hotel is definitely worth a visit, if only to remind yourself what good vegetables should taste like.

We also had breakfast one morning at Flavours Cafe. Again, this seemed to be a spot favoured by the locals. You can sit inside or out, and there's even a pool table if you're not in a hurry once you've finished your meal.

I went for the full breakfast ($12.95), which was a generous serve of bacon, eggs, tomato, 2 hash browns and toast. Flavours Cafe uses local bacon and sausages in their breakfasts, which is always good to see. We also ordered a serve of their fruit toast ($4.75) which was sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. They serve Monte coffee, and both our coffees were well made.

Flavours Cafe is a busy spot, with a relaxed, friendly feel, open for breakfast and lunch. It's a good place to fill up on a big breakfast before heading off for a walk in one of the nearby national parks.

We stayed at the Boonah Valley Motel, which was great. The motel also has a restaurant, with a fairly adventurous menu. I'll put up a separate post about our dinner at the motel.

Cafe 17
17 High Street
Boonah 4310
P - 07 5463 2671

Dugandan Hotel
Boonah - Rathdowney Road
Boonah 4310
P - 07 5463 1048

Flavours Cafe
8 Railway Street
Boonah 4310
P - 07 5463 2699

Boonah Valley Motel
3908 Boonah-Ipswich Road
Boonah 4310
P - 07 5463 4738
E - info@boonahvalleymotel.com.au
W - http://www.boonahvalleymotel.com.au/