Month: September 2012

Tapas at Legends Spanish restaurant

On By Tales of a ConfectionistIn foodLeave a comment

——-31/08/2012——-

It’s always the unplanned meals that are most memorable. I asked a friend out for a movie and surprisingly I didn’t even think about where we were going to eat. We walked past Legends Spanish restaurant and I didn’t even know it existed let alone had a meal there.

The creepy staircase leading upstairs.

7 course tapas degustation complimented by our Chef’s dessert trio (minimum 2 people $55.00 per person)~ We wanted a variety so we chose some seafood, some meat and something with a vegetable in it.

Balmain bugs- Baked balmain bugs with tomato, chilli sauce. The bugs seemed dry and a bit tasteless.

Cigalas– Scampi in saffron, cream and vermouth sauce. The sauce was absolutely delicious although it completely overshadowed the scampi meat.

Esparragos con jamon– fresh asparagus spears baked with Spanish ham. A simple but tasty combination.

Pulpo a la brasa– grilled baby octopus, marinated paprika and oregano. A little bit charcoal-y along the edges but not chewy.

Ternera– eye fillet medallions on truffle oil mash. My friend had eaten this before and she said it was not as nice as before. It was by far not the worse steak I’ve eaten and I found the mash very creamy and addictive.

Falda de cerdo– caramelised pork belly served with apple cider and mixed wild mushroom sauce. This was such a disappointment, which was a shame because it was one of the tapas I was looking forward to the most. The meat was so tough and the skin was just oily and chewy that I couldn’t eat it.

Chorizo– traditional pork and paprika sausage. I didn’t mind the chorizo, it went really well with the mash potato that came with the steak.

Complimentary Chef’s dessert trio (this is supposed to be shared by two people)– homemade passionfruit ice-cream, creme caramel, chocolate pudding. A lovely way to finish the meal. The ice-cream had  subtle passion fruit taste that was really good. The creme caramel was extremely smooth but there was next to no taste and not at all sweet like you would expect it to be. The chocolate pudding was a bit to rich for me which is not in contrast to the creme caramel, it was like eating a tasty cold rich chocolate cake batter. 

If you are wondering where everyone is when restaurants seem pretty empty but all the car parks are full in Manuka, they are probably all at Legends Spanish restaurant. They have a large capacity and a lot of large bookings were there that night. I do like the tapas style of food, we were able to eat a variety of food in reasonable sized portions and not be overly full from a ‘7 course tapas degustation’.

Venue: Legends Spanish restaurant

Address: 17 Franklin Street  Griffith ACT 2603

Phone: (02) 6295 3966

Legends on Urbanspoon

Breakfast at Podfood

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——-16/09/2012——-

Pod Food had a really narrow window for breakfast, but I got the motivation to get up and get there. I was lucky enough to book that morning for a table for two but when we got there, they were completely booked out for the morning.

A bit cold still to happily eat outside, but it would be beautiful during the warmer Spring.

A few hot beverages to warm us up.

Chai tea ($4.00) with soy milk (50c extra) and flat white (one size only $4.50). I was too busy talking to the waitress while Timmy went ahead and destroyed the pattern that was so lovingly created by the barista.

One more coffee because the first one wasn’t large enough.

So many things I wanted to try, I found it so hard to choose that I narrowed it down to four options and asked the waitress to surprise me.

Vanilla bean pancakes, rhubarb, butter caramel sauce (usually served with maple but they ran out that day), white chocolate ice-cream ($15.00). The white chocolate flavour must have been really subtle, so subtle we couldn’t realy taste it. Not much taste in the pancake itself but the crumb and the butter caramel sauce definitely made up for it.

Free range fried egg, crumbed pork belly, fried cherry tomatoes, caramelised onion and sourdough ($16.00). The first thing you could smell was the caramelised onion, it made my eyes widen with excitment. The next thing I notice was that there was only one small portion of the crumbed pork belly. ‘I’ll have to eat this sparingly in every bite’ I thought to myself. The bread was delicious, it had a crunchy crust without being chewy or hard. A bit on the small side but it was really good.

A inside look into the amazing crumbed pork belly. It’s so sad that there was only one.

Venue: Pod food

Address: 12 Beltana Rd, Pialligo Plant Farm, ACT

Phone: (02) 6257 3388

Opening hours:

Tuesday & Wednesday – 12pm – 2pm Lunch Only

Thursday & Friday Lunch 12pm – 2pm, Dinner 6.30pm – 8pm

Saturday Breakfast 8.30am – 10am, Lunch 12pm – 2pm, Dinner 6.30pm – 8pm

Sunday Breakfast 8.30am – 10am, Lunch 12pm -2pm

Entertainment card: Yes! And it makes a difference!

Podfood on Urbanspoon

Thai Basil

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——-02/09/2012——-

With Father’s day being on a Sunday, it left us limited options for dinner. We opted for Thai basil with lots of convenient parking and being close by.

Entree~

Vegetarian and meat spring rolls ($7.50), chicken wings ($7.50), vegetable fritters ($9.00) and chicken satay ($9.00). I couldn’t help myself but to try an array of entrees. Spring rolls were average, the chicken wings were nice and hot and I really liked the chicken satay. The vegetable fritters didn’t look like very appetising but it was surprisingly not oily and very crispy.

Mains~

Paad Thai stir fried rice noodles with chicken, bean curd, beansprouts, tamarind sauce and crushed peanut topping ($15.00)-Looking suspiciously red, I didn’t have high hopes for this noodle dish. It was way too sweet and didn’t taste like how a pad thai should taste.

Boiled rice for the table ($3.00pp) I thought $3.00 per person was a bit steep for just plain rice.

Paad moo Kratiem Prik Thai stir-fried pork with garlic and pepper– I didn’t think the pork wasn’t great quality  and I couldn’t really taste much garlic or pepper.

Massaman Nuea curry beef with potatoes, peanuts and spices with coconut milk ($16.50) – it was nice that they cut the potato into smaller chunks when I’ve had many that have had potatoes that were barely even cut. There wasn’t much meat in this at all but what little meat there was, it was nice and tender.

Paad Pak Preow Waan mixed vegetables with sweet and sour sauce ($16.50)– A nice mixture of vegetables.

Paad tofu Med Ma Muang Him Ma Paan– stir fried bean curd with cashew nuts in chilli jam ($15.00)– This was supposed to be ‘one chilli rating’ hot but we didn’t find this spicy at all and I thought the ribbed tofu was an odd choice.

Not to be confused with Thai herb out in the G (I got a little confused), although you must admit their names are very similar and they both have incorporated a basil leaf into their sign. I don’t think I would come here again knowing that there are still so many Thai restaurants to try.

Venue: Thai Basil

Address: 1b/38-70 Gartside Street  Wanniassa ACT 2903

Phone: (02) 6231 2365


Thai Basil on Urbanspoon

Bread Nerds re-run

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——-22/08/2012——-

A few of us from work headed over to Bread Nerds for lunch. I felt bad for sneaking there earlier to try their breakfast but lunch is a whole new ball park.

Piri piri chicken, roast capsicum, mayonnaise and mixed salad leaves ($8.00)

The rolls are HUGE! I don’t know how much I would enjoy the bread to filling ratio but my friends really enjoyed it.

A lot more hot food to choose from! Yay, but now to decide… Hmmmm

Pizza

Butter chicken pie– tasted more like a chicken curry with vegetables but I really liked it

Breakfast pie with bacon and egg– this was sadly disappointing, it was really dry and had the texture of a really dried out quiche.

Despite the out of the way location (for me), there are still so many pie flavours I want to try and pastries that I want to eat.