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.

 

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Mr. Papa Peruvian Street Food Catering

I’m sure you all know by now that we had Mr. Papa cater TimmyC’s 30th birthday party.  I’ve never had catering done for anything before but Carlos and his team made it super easy! I just let them know that papas (potato) and chanchitos definitely needed to be on the menu and everything else just had to be delicious and unique. And it was!

This is more of a food porn post more than anything.

Mama’s Chilli Bar Chilli Bar with 3 of our signature chillis- Huancaina (crackers cream, smoked chilli), Street Chilli and Pebres (lime, coriander and garlic).

I love this little guy, it always looks like he is greeting me when I make it to the front of the line when lining up for Mr. Papa!Soft Drink Station in vintage jars

Inca Kola (Peruvian’s favorite soft drink) not pictured and Passion Fruit water (Traditional recipe). They set up a chilli station as well as a drinks station complete with cute little glass bottles and straws.There was a bit of a suction issue with clumps of pulp getting stuck but the passionfruit water was very delicious and refreshing.Vegetarian CausasI am loving their new chalkboard trays.Grilled Chicken Anticuchos Andean spices marinated Skewers served with huacatay sauce.Obviously some people couldn’t wait for me to take my photo 😉Vegetarian skewers with vegetarian causas for all my vegetarian guests. Carlos was very accommodating for all our guests’ with dietary needs.Peruvian Tequeños South American style Spring rolls stuffed with braised beef cilantro and cider. How cute are the mini fryer baskets! I loved how all the food was served differently and conveniently. The different vessels were so cute!!!Empanadas South American Style handmade pies. The filling was a little dry but lucky I had sauce dripping on top of mine.Golden brown and beautiful.Arroz con mariscos mini serves seafood rice. This was thrown on the menu at the last moment but I really should have chosen it to begin with, if no one ate seafood I would have eaten all the boxes myself.”Chanchito” Mini Pork belly Sandwich pork belly patiently cooked for 24 hours, sweet potatoes and South American salsa Creole served in artisan Peruvian Bread. Of course one of the biggest stars of the day was the chanchito, it is sooo good.

You can see that I grabbed a chanchito mid empanda but I couldn’t risk not getting one. In the end there was plenty chanchitos to go around and we were able to have one each later that night. The Mr. Papa team came, set up, cooked, served the food, cleaned up as they went and then proceeded to clean everything to the point you couldn’t even tell that you had a party besides the fact that you have a full belly and very happy guests. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them for any function and I know their calendar is booking up fast! There was talk of a food van in the future, I hope it happens and I get to stalk their food truck.

If you haven’t tried their food, I suggest visiting them at Beer Day Out Canberra this Saturday 8 November. Where: Old Bus Depot Markets – Kingston Time: From 1 pm

 

Venue: Mr Papa Peruvian Street Food Catering

Email: mrpapa.au@gmail.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mrpapaaustralia

Cholo’s Peruvian Restaurant

**AIYA! I thought I hit post on this before I left for Asia, wah so late already!**

I haven’t eaten Peruvian food before and all I know about it is that they have guinea pig on the menu over there but that is not what I was particularly hoping for when I went to Cholo’s Peruvian restaurant in Dickson (there was no guinea pig on the menu phew).

I love their brightly coloured place mats and interesting ‘Inca Kola’ bottles that have been reused as water bottles.

Chicha Morada Peruvian purple corn drink ($4.00). This wasn’t overly sweet and had an aftertaste of bubble gum but not so strong that I wouldn’t finish the glass. YUM and very interesting!

Entrees~

Empanadas ($12.50).

The filling wasn’t dry but a bit crumbly when we tried to cut it up to share. I’m a huge huge fan of the accompanying green sauce (be careful it has a bit of a kick to it)!

Tequenos ($8.50). A smaller version of the empanadas with a different pastry. I think I prefer these if sharing with a bigger group, although it doesn’t have that wonderful green sauce (yes I liked it THAT much!).

Ceviche diced Ocean Perch delicately spiced and cured in lime juice served with Spanish onion, celery and coriander, served cold ($19.50). There was only one of these left of the night so we quickly ordered this while we were figuring out which mains to order. I didn’t really read the description, so I was quite surprised when I discovered it was a cold dish. There was lots of lime juice and coriander flavours. People either loved it or had enough after one piece. I found it very interesting and slightly addictive as I kept going back for more.

Mains~

Pollo a la Brasa 1/2 succulent, roasted Peruvian style char-coaled chicken  served with papas, fresh green salad and chili sauce ($25.00). This was a really moist char-coaled chicken with a really great seasoning on the skin. I thought the side of chips was a bit weird unless they eat a lot of chips in Peru?

Carapulcra slow cooked spicy Papa seca (sundried potato) and pork pieces served with rice and sarsa criolla ($26.50). This had nice pork stewed flavours but I preferred the roast chicken.

Crunchy cassava chips.

Lomo Saltado beef stir fry with Spanish onion, tomato and coriander tossed through crispy potato fries served with rice ($28.50). I didn’t think there was anything special about this dish and the beef wasn’t particularly tender either.

Locro de Zapallo potato and pumpkin casserole served with rice ($24.00). I liked this dish even though it seemed very mushy in texture. I would order this over the beef stir fry next time.

Desserts~
Everyone was too full for dessert but I convinced a friend to get a little something with me and somehow ended up ordering two desserts. 
Pastry horn filled with dulce de leche ($4.00). The pastry was very stale so I just focused my fork in the centre, as delicious as it was, it was very intensely sweet (like eating ‘caramel from a can’ kind of intense).

Torta Tres Leches sponge cake, smothered in 3 different milky creams. A taste you won’t resist ($12.50). I really liked this cake. The sponge was incredibly ‘light’ feeling and despite being soaked in syrups, I didn’t feel like the dessert was sickly sweet. It might seem a little pricey for a dessert but if money isn’t an issue, this is worth trying.

Cholo’s has a friendly atmosphere and this Peruvian menu has plenty of new and interesting things to try. Get the roast chicken, it isn’t too ‘out there’ if you’re not adventurous and it is really well made. The entrees that we had were really nice and I would probably order the pork and the potato pumpkin casserole again. There was a dulce de leche that I was dying to try but they had sold out and I was so disappointed, please take a photo if you happen to order this!

Venue: Cholo’s Restaurant

Address: Shop 68, 12 Challis Street, Dickson, ACT 2602

Phone: (02) 6248 86483