Fun filled weekend – The Forage

After hours of eating at the AAA BBQ festival, my friend and I decided to go up the car park at the Little National Hotel located in Barton and check out Hustle and Scout before eating again at The Forage. She had been to The Forage previously when it was last held at the Kingston Old Bus Depot and said that The Forage this time was much bigger and had much more variety of food stalls. It looked like they upped their food game.

We had to be careful how much we ate because I still had my heart set on dinner somewhere specific even after the days events. Please note that more friends joined us so we didn’t eat all this between just the two of us.

Starting from the top left (clockwise):

Miss Van’s fried chicken wings garlic and sriracha marinade  ($8.00). This was a fabulous way to start the event. The chicken wings didn’t take long to be served and they were hot and crispy with lots of flavour. I hope they eventually add this permanently to their Westside menu.

Yang’s Malaysian food truck chicken wings with mamee noodles and slaw ($8.00?). The chicken didn’t taste as good as Miss Van’s but we all really enjoyed the slaw and loved the addition of the mamee noodles.

Yang’s Malaysian food truck Roti canai with chicken curry. I loved the flaky buttery texture of the roti and the delicious curry didn’t make it soggy even when you’re a slow eater.

B St. Bakery white chocolate mudcake with raspberries, white chocolate ganache and vanilla buttercream. TimmyC ran off somewhere and came back with this slice cake, I thought it would be too rich but I could have easily eaten the whole piece of cake myself. Everything was just sweet enough and it had a great dense texture while looking beautiful.

54 Benjamin’s house made peach and lime soda ($5.00). Eating and shopping can be hard work, so a refreshing drink was a must and this was perfect!

Dream cuisine short bread ($3.00 a piece). I had a ‘sample piece’ knowing it was going to be delicious and it was! The crumbly short bread texture had a great buttery taste with a subtle salt finish leaving you wanting more. Unfortunately TimmyC ate most of my short bread, dammit I should have bought more!The new location was nice and spacious but not knowing the Barton area well, it was harder to find parking. Everyone looked like they really enjoyed themselves and the weather had cooled to a nice temperature by the time we got there. I wonder if they will keep the event here?This had to be the saddest thing about the event, when Get Lucky sold out of ice cream sandwiches before I got there. 😦I always thought the timing of the event was odd but now they have changed the time to 3pm – 8pm which at least covers a meal time (previously it was 2pm -7pm). I really enjoy the Forage and Hustle and Scout as it pairs two of my favourite things: food and shopping. I hope they only get bigger and better from here.

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Eat Local markets

I had hours of late night shopping a head of me but that didn’t stop me from ducking over to the Botanic Gardens to check out their inaugural Eat Local market, where they encourage people to buy local and eat local by offering chemical and GMO free produce from the Riverina, Tumut and the Canberra region. As I drove through the front gates, I was directed to the car park on the left hand side which was a short stroll to the markets. I parked and figured I didn’t have to pay for parking because it was sort of after hours (after 5pm) and I could only stay for a short while.I was there just in time to see Costa Georgiadis officially cut the ‘ribbon’ to the inaugural Eat Local market with help from some children.I was limited to what I could purchase because I wasn’t really home over the weekend and I only had a small cooler bag as I was heading to the mall afterwards but I still went to every stall to see what they had to offer. I have been to a lot of food markets in my time and I could only recognise two market stalls which means that it’s not the same vendors that you see at the rest of the Canberra markets. This market also had the advantage of being on a weekday for all those who want to do their food shopping early, keeping their weekends free.

The markets were on the small side but they had a vast variety of stall holders from apples, flowers, seafood, fresh vegetables, frozen blueberries, honey, eggs, pies, cheese and sauces; really everything you would need to make a lovely home-made meal.  I would definitely go back and try things from different vendors and stay a while longer. I really wanted to try the locally made halloumi but they had sold out before I got there. 😦The only hot food available at the market was the Floresco cafe and Cooper’s handmade pies which made a huge variety of flavours; I chose cold items to heat and eat later.

Waygu beef and beer pie local Yalandra Wagyu beef mince, with sautéed onions in a Jamieson Mountain ale gravy ($8.00). The filling was very dark, rich and delicious.

Sausage roll (recently award Silver at the Royal Melbourne Fine Food Awards) Rockgilla beef sausage mince, with locally grown onions, garlic, fresh home-grown parsley and our secret blend of herbs and spices in our flaky pastry ($6.00). The sausage roll filling was very thick and dense which stayed in a sausage shape. I really liked the flavour but I wish there was more of a fluffy texture to the filling rather than a solid roll.
I was heading to dinner so I couldn’t buy a hot pie and eat it at the market, although I was really tempted when I saw the ‘injection’ options.I had also bought some cheese from Boosey Creek cheese, their cumin gouda was unique and I loved the taste but their vintage cheddar won me over and I knew I was going to have some awesome jaffles in my near future.

I’m hoping that the warmer weather will encourage more visitors to the markets which may in turn drive more interest from other growers to attend. It was slowly getting dark just before 6pm, when I asked a stall holder about how they will see things when the sun goes down, they said they were hoping for day light savings to kick in soon to help them out with a bit more light but some stall holders were set with some lighting until then. There are ATM and bathroom facilities within the cafe.

Venue: Eat Local markets

Address: in the Botanical Garden’s top car-park and concourse, Clunies Ross street

Opening times: markets are on every Friday from 2:30pm to 7:00 pm

Patty’s Patisserie

With clear descriptions from SheisMelen and Wita, I was able to spot Patty’s Patisserie and their red top marquee located at the centre of the Epic markets pretty easily. I had never seem them before despite them attending the markets for the past three months, it must have been bad timing because up until now they had attended the Farmers markets every second week.

There wasn’t much left by the time I got there but it still took me a long time to decide what I wanted.They take much pride in their work and it was really nice that they stuck the cakes/sweets down into the box as it would have definitely been found upside down by the time I got around to eating them.Raspberry rose vanilla cake ($7.50). This was a delicate cake consisting of what seemed like raspberry mousse, vanilla bean panna cotta and a raspberry jelly layer. It was very easy to eat and reminded me of summer. I would want this cake in a bigger size.Raspberry and vanilla, a match made in heaven.Strawberry tiramisu ($7.50). There is no coffee component to this dessert at all, in fact the only thing it has in common with a tiramisu is the layers of sponge biscuit and cream. The custard cream component was thick and luscious which was really soaked up by the sponge and sweetened by a little strawberry sauce. With what started off as ‘just one bite’ turned into TimmyC almost finishing the whole thing to himself.Chocolate and caramel cake ($7.50). Sorry for the photo, it had spent a few hours in the box before I got around to eating the cake. I thought this would be an OTT really rich cake but all the textures and flavours were rather light and so you could eat a whole cake easily without feelings of regret and sickness. The caramel mousse-y layer was particularly good.Orange and chocolate eclair ($6.00). This was shared around between some friends who like the chocolate/orange combination. TimmyC who doesn’t like the combination, still appreciated the choux pastry texture and the creme patissiere. I wish we got there earlier to try their many other eclair flavours like: chocolate, vanilla & chocolate, pistachio and white chocolate, coffee and chocolate or their salted caramel.  
It is nice to know that when you rock up past 11am that there was still some choice of sweets (albiet limited), according to their cake menu there should be eight cakes available(?). My friend who had been to the markets on the same day but two hours earlier, was able to pick up a V8 cake that was originally recommended to me by my friends.

I think as the word gets out about their producst, their popularity will grow and they would sell out much quicker. Hmmm, should I be telling people who wake up earlier than me about them then?

You’ll be happy to know that Patty’s Patisserie will now come every week to the Epic Farmers market and that they also sell jars of salted caramel.

Venue: Patty’s Patisserie
Address: 556 Olive Street, Albury, New South Wales, Australia
Email: patriciapastrychef@gmail.com
Canberra outlet: Epic Farmers market (every Saturday 7:30 – 11:30am)
Phone: (02) 6021 4662

Enlighten Festival – Night Noodle Markets re-run

With only two nights of the Enlighten festival left and three more nights of the Night Noodle markets, if you haven’t been there yet I’d suggest you get there soon. Gates open at 5pm weeknights and 4pm weekends for the Night Noodle Markets and while everyone is munching on food, we are happily reminded about Enlighten when projections turn on promptly at 8pm. After my first run through with the Night Noodle Markets, I was back to deal with business as it was my last chance to go before they all packed up and left for the year.

Roti road was my first stop as I was disappointed on missing out the first time around. The line was relatively short although this might have been because I compared it to the super long long long line next door for N2 gelato. There are two lines for Roti Road though (a common motif at these markets I believe), one for ordering and paying and one for collection. I was trying to out smart the system by getting TimmyC to line up in the pick up line first but with sequential ticketing system it didn’t matter, we ended up waiting to the side until our number was called.

I was disappointed to find no roti at Roti Road but proceeded to buy all their food menu items anyway. Malaysian BBQ chicken wings ($10.00 for three) and Ayam Percik (spicy BBQ chicken $10.00 for two). I really liked both and although the chicken wings are on the smaller side they have a beautiful sticky glaze to them. I really liked their chicken skewers, it stands out from the rest of the other stalls as they have a thick not too hot sauce on them that we kept re-dipping our chicken into as the sauce dripped into the tray.

From there we divided and conquered. I bee lined straight for my favourite Hoy Pinoy BBQed skewers as everyone proceeded to meet me in the line with lots of plates of food. Needless to say, Hoy Pinoy had one of the longest lines but for good reason and thankfully everyone agreed when I finally met them at the picnic area with a bouquet of pork skewers with a banana ketchup glaze (2 for $10.00 they ran out of chicken ones) .The line was long, but my stomach knew what it wanted: Hoy Pinoy skewers!Hoy Pinoy workers cooking away as we wait patiently in line.TimmyC came back with a plate of mini pancakes, they didn’t have ice-cream but the whipped cream and maple syrup did just fine. They are bigger and had more of a crispyness compared to the Dutch mini pancakes that you would find at the multicultural festival. He said that the line was relatively short and they were worth going to. I think I got two out of the 12 pancakes on the plate, they went fast.My other friends had headed for SpanThai and came back with:

Chicken and chorizo paella ($15.00). To me this tasted like yellowed coloured rice until I had a bite with chicken. Vegetarian pad see ew. This didn’t look like much but it tasted nicer than it looked.Mango with sticky rice ($13.00). I really liked this and not many people would be used to sticky rice but I liked the coconut flavours they had put in the rice and the mango tasted sweet and fresh. The sticky rice was a bit glutinous to break apart with just a plastic spork.The lines were waaaay too long for me to go back to N2 gelato so we all went to Braddon for Frugii.

I really also wanted to try let’s do yum cha but I was told that everything tasted like frozen store bought stuff.
I hope the lines aren’t too bad when you go and you get to try what you want to eat. After the success of this year’s Night Noodle Markets, maybe it will be bigger next year?

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Enlighten Festival – Night Noodle Markets

I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek of the Night Noodle Markets before the hoards of people came in at 5:30pm on the dot last night. The grounds were eerily still as everyone was preparing food inside the stalls but the peace and quiet did not last as waves of people continued to flock the area until they ran out of food/shut for the night (just after 10pm).

The highlights for me (although I do have a lot of places I want to go back and try) were:

Morks boat noodles – As an Asian I find so much comfort in noodle soups, although both ‘soupy’ and ‘dry’ were delicious and there is so much flavour in the beef brisket. I love beef balls and they are paired it with a really good noodle that keeps its integrity and doesn’t get too soft.

Hoy Pinoy – the skewers just had so much charcoal smokey flavour topped with a sticky glaze, I started to develop a glaze moustache towards the end.

N2 gelato – I really liked both flavours; ‘ferrero reveal‘ nutella gelato with crushed hazelnuts, a crunchy rice bubble choc top and a warm chocolate ganache syringe and ‘brokeback moment‘ vanilla gelato with layers of honeycomb bites, a honeycomb choc top and a warm caramel syringe (both $8.00 each). My suggestion is, after waiting so long in the line, you may as order both and enjoy everything they have to offer.

Daniel San – I love the Japanese style of flavour they have to these skewers, I am a huge chicken yakitori fan all the way. Plus I love all their witty names!

So hopefully we have shown that Canberra’s love of food is strong and that we have proved this to our interstate vendors to take Canberra seriously as a foodie area and encourage them to come back next year, maybe even have this market expand and grow for years to come.

p.s. The National Portrait Gallery has my favourite light projections this year.

Queanbeyan Carnivale – Multicultural Festival

 

I had to stop and clarify with a friend when she started to describe what sounded like a smaller Multicultural festival just across the border. Could it be? A festival in Queanbeyan that involves food which may have happening for years that I have never heard about?

The Queanbeyan Carnivale is on this Sunday and I am getting excited! One of my friends is performing and I’m hoping to make it out there to support her with a meat skewer in hand.

This is what I saw from the Visit Queanbeyan website but I’ve highlighted in bold what I actually read.

“Queanbeyan’s Multicultural Spectacular

Queanbeyan celebrates it’s cultural diversity annually by holding the Multicultural Festival at Queanbeyan Park.  The festival features a stunning line-up of performances every year on the centre stage and sports plenty of great activities for the family, as well as dozens of food stalls.  The Carnivale theme was chosen to reflect on the energetic dance and music performances that abound from many different multicultural groups and the events lend the entire event a vibrant theme from the performances down to the food options which range from BBQs to sweet cakes to Asian delicacies.

Each year the park comes alive with all community groups working together to produce and offer the best in dance, food, and song to attendees. The result is quite diverse as Queanbeyan is home to many people including those from India, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Greece, Italy, the UK, and more, with each group offering their own song and dance performances.

The Queanbeyan City Council supports the festival along with the Queanbeyan Multilingual Centre, and everyone is encouraged to head out to take part in the festivities.”

Has anyone actually been to this? Please let me know what to expect.

Venue: Queanbeyan Carnivale – Multicultural Festival

Event date: Sunday 22nd February 2015

Address: Queanbeyan Park Lowe Street, Queanbeyan 2620 NSW

Opening times: 10am-4pm

Phone: 02 6285 6170

Website: www.qcc.nsw.gov.au

Use your noodle!

I have always been disappointed with the food choices when the beautiful Enlighten festival comes to Canberra. It always reminds me of the over priced, mediocre food that you would find at Floriade, but one event at a time.

This year, the Night Noodle Markets presented by Citi will coincide with the Enlighten Festival, bringing with it a whole lot of yummy food from interstate as well as some Canberra locals including Morks and Thirst Thai. I have finally found the list of vendors who will have a stall at Canberra’s first Night Noodle Market.

You’re welcome 😉

Restaurants at Enlighten Night Noodle Markets

 

Business Name	Cuisine Style
Spanthai	Thai
Zagyoza	Japanese
Teppanyaki Noodles	Japanese
Shallot Thai	Thai
Bao Stop	Bao
Let’s Do Yum Cha	Dumplings
Let’s Do Yum Cha – Trailer	Dumplings
Hoy Pinoy	Filipino
Daniel San	Japanese
Thainabox – Food Truck	Thai
Roti Road	Malaysian
Thirst Thai	Thai
N2 Extreme Gelato	Liquid Nitrogen Gelato
Mini Pancakes	Dessert
Morks	Thai
Song Laos Cuisine	South-east Asian cuisine
Kiyamachi Tei	Okonomiyaki

 

 

Get excited Canberra!

Venue: Enlighten Night Noodle Markets

Address: Reconciliation Place, Canberra

Opening times: February 27 to March 8

Mon – Wed 5pm-9pm

Thurs – Fri 5pm-10pm

Sat 4pm-10pm

Sun 4pm-9pm

Bradley Street Festival – Don’t forget

All I heard was blah blah blah, Two Before Ten Jaffle Van!? 

Bradley Street Festival

• 13 Dec 2014, 10:00am
• Bradley Street (Hoyts side)

Event Details

Westfield with Earlybird Events presents the Bradley Street Festival, Canberra’s newest street event!

See the Veronicas perform live alongside some of the best local performances including Kulture Break, Wassa Wassa from Red Hill, the Launch of Club Lime’s Kids Born to Move Classes, and more throughout the day.

Former BMX World Champion Cam White will be performing stunts as well as signing autographs!

There’s heaps more action to get involved in as well with:

Live Cooking Demonstrations with Kate Freeman

Blender Smoothie Bikes

Facepainting

Pop up Cold Press Juice

Two Before Ten Jaffle Van

Roving characters including Paddington Bear!

There is plenty to entertain the entire family and a great way to celebrate the holiday season!

Enlighten Night Noodle Markets is heading to Canberra

I shared this to my FaceBook page, but for those who missed out on the news:

Save the date now for the much anticipated Enlighten Night Noodle Markets, launching in the ACT from February 27 – March 8, 2015. Expect an exciting array of Asian-inspired dishes, themed bars, music and heaps of atmosphere, all amid the spectacle of lights that is Enlighten. Restaurants interested in participating can register here.

Bradley Street Festival

All I heard was blah blah blah, Two Before Ten Jaffle Van!?

 

• 13 Dec 2014, 10:00am
• Bradley Street (Hoyts side)

Event Details

Westfield with Earlybird Events presents the Bradley Street Festival, Canberra’s newest street event!

See the Veronicas perform live alongside some of the best local performances including Kulture Break, Wassa Wassa from Red Hill, the Launch of Club Lime’s Kids Born to Move Classes, and more throughout the day.

Former BMX World Champion Cam White will be performing stunts as well as signing autographs!

There’s heaps more action to get involved in as well with:

Live Cooking Demonstrations with Kate Freeman

Blender Smoothie Bikes

Facepainting

Pop up Cold Press Juice

Two Before Ten Jaffle Van

Roving characters including Paddington Bear!

There is plenty to entertain the entire family and a great way to celebrate the holiday season!

The Forage

To keep me happy and distracted, TimmyC took me to The Forage out in Hangar #47 that was on today between 3 – 8pm . He is so sweet to me.Nothing perks me up more than a market and a variety of food. I haven’t been out to The Forage since they have moved out to the Hangar but now there is a lot more space to move around, 2000 car parks and access to ATMs. I think it is an improvement to being squished in the New Acton area.

Pop up barber shop, how cute!

 Mr. Papa

Chanchito Peruvian pork belly sandwich with sweet potato ($12.00). We added extra sauces to all that tasty pork belly which was all melty in our mouths. I thought it was funny when the gorgeous server looked at TimmyC and I when passing our food and said “Hey I was in your house!“, hahahaha. This never disappoints me.Chicken wings ‘Alitas’ ($10.00). These were really tender and the sauce complimented the lovely smokey flavour really well.Inca Kola. Carlos was sweet enough to treat us to a couple of Inca Kolas which washed everything down really nicely.

Nookie

Iced Chocolate ($7.00). It was a little bit of an extortion price (like everything else) for something that was mainly ice but it did the trick of being refreshing without being overly sweet which is what I really wanted.

Maple and Bacon glazed doughnut ($4.00). This sounds OTT and crazy but it was really nice. The maple sweetness was evident but not too sweet and the doughnut had a really nice texture without being oily.

Gelato Joe’s

Two scoops mango and strawberry ($7.50). I was hesitant to try their gelato as their store left me really disappointed before they shut down, they had really gritty textures to their product. This time the texture of the gelato was much smoother but the flavour themselves were slightly disappointing, I think Frugii has ruined me for life. I tasted mango, strawberry, salted caramel with macadamia and Cassata Siciliana.

Street Bites

This guy’s shirt made me giggle. I appreciated the display food because you then know what you’re expecting.

Fried calamari tempura calamari with shallots, chilli and Asian rock salt ($10.00). The calamari pieces were crispy and the thicker pieces weren’t too tough and chewy. It had good flavours of salt, shallots and chilli but eating the whole thing without sharing would have been too oily.

Strawberries ‘n’ cream vanilla soft serve combined with frozen strawberry yoghurt topped with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, coulis and mint ($9.00). After being disappointed with Gelato Joe’s, TimmyC was hoping to finish on a high and was wanting a second dessert so he went back to Street Bites to get this. The flavours were the perfect marriage, I don’t recall tasting any mint in it though, maybe they forgot about it. The strawberries were very sweet and all of it was gobbled up before it melted.

They also had other indulgences sweets like chocolate sundae, sticky date pudding and banana split.

Honourable mentions

I wish I had a chance to try these other places, maybe next time but their stuff looked amazing,

There was also New York Minute, Dinner rush and a pork place that I didn’t take a photo of but I wanted to try.

I like their new location and I look forward to many more delicious adventures out at The Forage.