Cooking at Home - Buttermilk Pancakes with Caramelised Bananas

This morning, I made buttermilk pancakes with my sister!

We had leftover buttermilk from baking other desserts so decided to use it up before it went off. Coincidently, my sister had made caramel sauce a few nights before for other desserts as well so we combined it with fresh bananas by frying them together.


It tasted quite nice but next time, I would want to try and focus on getting more of a fluffy texture (perhaps, adding more butter/oil?)

Gunshop Café @ West End

Gunshop Café was probably the one of the earliest cafes that had been recommended to me by friends. My sister also went to try it sometime last year and recommended it. Every time I walk past it on a Saturday or Sunday, there is always a huge line of hungry patrons waiting. I never really got why they were willing to line for an hour or so to get brekkie.

I finally got to visit Gunshop Café today. It wasn’t too busy at all. The café’s indoor seating area is small, but out the back, it opens up into a nice and cosy courtyard area where you can escape from Brisbane for a little while.

I met up with a friend for brunch on a weekday and when we got there, the courtyard seating were already mostly occupied so we opted for indoor seating. By the time we left, most of the indoor seating was occupied. And this was on an ordinary weekday.

My friend and I were caught by the attention of one menu item, and that item only: potato feta hash cakes, spinach, tomato and herb sour cream. I remember this being highly recommended by my sister when she came.

Because each serve of the hash cakes as a meal came in threes, we decided to get 2 sides of the hash cakes, to spare our stomachs a little.

Because so many people had recommended the hash cakes to me, my expectations of it were already high. However, the hash cakes did not disappoint me! The lightly battered hash cake was crunchy on the outside and when you bite into it, the aroma of the feta and herbs just melt away in your mouth. The herbed sour cream complemented the hash cake because it didn’t make hash cakes taste dry.

We both also shared the Swiss brown mushrooms, herbed ricotta, spinach, heirloom cherry tomatoes, olive oil and olive sourdough. Even though they were simple breakfast items, the quality of the produce used was amazing!

 

The mushrooms were juicy, the tomatoes were sweet and juicy, the herbed ricotta not too overpowering and just right, and the olive sourdough itself was quite special and went extremely well with everything.

We both got smoothies: I got the mixed berry smoothie…

 

…and my friend got the banana and passionfruit smoothie

 

You could really taste the fresh berries used in the smoothie. They use Barambah organic yoghurt and this really did make a difference as well!

Even though I don’t usually drink things other tea, coffee and water, this smoothie left me wanting for some more!

Avocado, Barambah quark, flaked sea salt on sourdough was petty average – not that special.

Overall, I think the quality of Gunshop Café’s food is topnotch and when they are not busy, the food quality turns out better as well. However, for the portion size of the food, I think the price range here is too overpriced. With what you’re paying for, you could easily get something very nice and more in quantity at other cafes e.g. Campos Coffee.

Shimbashi Soba So Good @ Chevron Island, Gold Coast

I first found out about Shimbashi Soba when I visited Duo Deli Café just a few shops away on Chevron Island. Shimbashi Soba hand makes their own soba noodles, which are Japanese buckwheat noodles. The restaurant is small but tidy. We went there for lunch and ordered:

Oroshi Soba

Cold soba noodles with grated radish and seaweed. This dish was my favourite. Their soba noodles are very aromatic compared to commercial packets. You can really taste the buckwheat and it went extremely well with the grated radish and seaweed. Price wise, this was worth the most as well.

Lunch box with small udon

The lunch box included: salmon sashimi, sushi, salad and rice, with a side of cold udon noodles.

With their lunch boxes, you can choose between salmon sashimi, chicken teriyaki, tempura or beef teriyaki as your main. With the side meal, you can choose from cold or hot udon or soba. I think the lunch box was too overpriced for what you get. The quantity was adequate – a lot of carbs including sushi, a bowl of rice and a decent bowl to noodles to fill you up. However, taste wise, it wasn’t anything special.

If you’re planning to visit Shimbashi Soba I would recommend you to stick to the Soba dishes to try hand made soba because it does have a special taste to it. Perhaps, you could try a Soba dish with some tempura?

Black Coffee Lyrics @ Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast

On one of my afternoon study sessions with a couple of friends, one of them brought us to a café hidden in an area of mainly Asian restaurants. In a way, this café doesn’t really belong in that area because of it’s atmosphere - hip and vintage.



Each corner of the café had its own theme and there were interesting : artworks hung up on walls, piles of books stacked next to comfy armchairs, drinking bar with tall wooden chairs and vintage couches for those who feel like a nice cuppa tea. Each theme created a little bubble of distinct atmosphere and these are united by the hip music played.

We were mainly visiting the café because it had a good atmosphere and apparently their iced coffee was something not to be missed out on! The café didn’t have a menu, which made ordering a little complicated. However, we were already too full to eat more so were content with drinks.

The iced coffee was indeed quite nice, not too sweet and very aromatic.

I would want to come back to try their meals here one day, but for the mean time, I’ll be spreading words about the secret location of this café because the atmosphere is quite amazing!

New Farm Cafe and Deli @ Merthyr Village, New Farm

New Farm Cafe and Deli is a convenient location for brekkie. Situated in Merthryr Village near Coles, the deli sells a wide range of foods and produce as well as food to eat in at.

The coffee here wasn’t very good – quite bitter and the ratio of milk and coffee wasn’t quite right.

The food is good only if you’re a quantity-over-quality person. The banana and walnut bread was dense and you could taste the walnuts but there was nothing special about it.

The vego brekkie with avocado, smoked salmon, poached eggs and potato rosti was the nicest. The potato rosti was quite nice but avocado, smoked salmon, poached eggs didn’t require that much skill to make it anyway.

The homemade beans with poached egg and sourdough wasn’t anything special either.

That being said, the things they sell at the deli section are fresh and if you shop carefully, you can find quite interesting things!

Tempo Café @ West End

Tempo Cafe is situated in the midst of the main street of cafes in West End and has a relaxing atmosphere outside at the front of the café, where you can enjoy and absorb all the sunshine you want on a nice winter morning.

Their coffee I must say was a little bitter for my liking.

Big Vego Brekkie – Grilled haloumi, mushroom, hash brown, avocado, Tempo relish, scrambled eggs and thick toast. There wasn’t anything really that special about the big vego brekkie but because I like vego brekkies, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Breakfast wrap – bacon, scrambled eggs, avocado, tomato salsa, rocket in a wrap. This is something that is always good but a filling brekkie that will keep you up and running well and truly ‘til noon.

Brinx Café & Deli @ Stanthorpe

On my recent trip to Stanthorpe, I stumbled across a nice and cosy café/deli  and stopped by for lunch only to find out from the locals that it serves the best coffee in town! I just it was just good sixth sense for picking out a good café along the strip of shops in central Stanthorpe.

They use Campos coffee beans (YUM!) but I never ordered coffee because I didn’t really feel like it.

Their lunch special that day was: pizza on Turkish bread with prosciutto, pumpkin, spinach, pine nuts and goats feta! It was the perfect way to start off my trip in Stanthorpe!

Apart from the pizza, they also have a selection of house-baked desserts and freshly made sandwiches, frittatas and all-day breakfast options!