stock test

I took a flex day and stayed at home today. I needed it as I was starting to feel a little bit bitchy and whiny. My bad. I'm spending today chilling at home doing things for myself and things that I enjoy. I hacve no schedule to follow nor any undesirable outcomes to achieve. I am in my baggy trackies and wearing my 'Harry Potter' glasses that have circular frames. These are my most comfortable pair of glasses that only my family (or one/two friends) has seen me wearing. Since I've got a small nose, lots of glasses slip down the bridge of my nose and I have to constantly push them up. However, these glasses are so big that I don't have to bother. Screw trendy glasses.

In the name of comfort, soup weather creeped up in Canberra a good few weeks ago. Essential to any good soup is good stock. I did a taste test of Campbells, Aldi and home made vegetarian stock.

I made my own stock using a stock mix from Coles/Woolies, containing a fresh potato, onion, celery stick, suede, turnip and carrot. I boiled the mix for about an hour and it was well worth it. The stock was fresh, clean and pure.

I compared my home made stock (far right) to stock purchased from Aldi (middle) and the Campbells brand (far left). The colour tones of each stock differed, but there wasn't anything alarmingly distinct between them.

The Campbells stock was a bit zangy and has a familiar taste - the base of many commercial soups that you get, and canned soups. This one was very salty, so maybe it was the salt that reminded me of commercial cooking. The Aldi stock tasted fresh and 'green'. My home made stock had a 'warm' taste and was comforting. Obviously, you could add different stock ingredients to a home made stock to suit what you like.

My preference would be the Aldi or home made stock. I'd happily use the Aldi version if I was short on time. However, I think I'll try to create my own recipe for home made stock til I find one that suits my tastebuds and soups that I'd like to make.

Eating and stackin' dinos

In a land before time, Elizabeth and I worked on a grey landscape. A newcomer, David, brought with him miniature dinosaur figurines. What would be better than to stack these creatures? Stacking four (without blutac) was an easy task. Dino step by dino step, we added another one and another. The stack kept collapsing but we kept on stacking.

We gathered an audience in the office. One girl promised us gluten-free dinosaur cookies if we stacked twelve dinosaurs. We were determined and set ourselves on a mission. After days and days of stacking... we finally did it and got our just dessert. The cookies tasted like sweet victory and were delicious.

It was Elizabeth's time to leave the office. In memory of our dino age, David and I arranged to get an ice cream cake from Goodberry's for her farewell. The cake below has a vanilla base, with two mix-ins (violet crumble and choc fudge). I had a weird conversation with them when I had to request a 'silohuette' of a dinosaur, but they were so accommodating and keen to help us. The cake looked and tasted AMAZING.

what's my name?

Everytime I go down to the cafe to get my coffee or hot chocolate, the same girl spells my name wrong. Once I even spelt my name letter-by-letter but there was still a fail. My colleagues call me 'Antha' now. When they are trying to get my attention, they say 'Antha Antha Antha' really quickly, as if they were a bunch of toddlers. Wonderful.

another expensive sandwich

According to the website 'Stuff White People Like', white ppl tend to enjoy and consume expensive sandwiches from cafes (see here). I wonder why. Maybe its that we dont get into hot noodle lunches, rice with a meal etc so sandwiches are convenient. They are like a bit of protein squished bween layers of carb... or just glorified carb.

Anyway, at the Pure Oxygen cafe in Woden, i got a 'renoir gourmet sandwich' with toasted pumpkin bread. I dont understand why the cafe names its food after famous european artists. I dont see the correlation bween the sandwich fillings and the name. And why does it cost 50c more to toast the sandwich? Funny how applying heat to food costs money. It seems a bit clumsy to me.

Decent meal tho

seedy bread from bakers delight

I don't often eat brekkie outside so when i do, its a massive novelty. When i was young, my mum would encourage me to get out of bed by saying she's got hotcakes from maccas. Now id get something more wholesome - a cape seed bun and cape seed fruit and nut bun from bakers delight. Fresh, doughy and i didnt even need margarine. Love that there's bread that is wholemeal and fruity at the same time.

what?! decent japanese food in canb?

I usually go to Sydney for my drug-like fix for japanese food. I love the sweetness, quality servings (as opposed to quantity) and the healthiness (though this is an illusion with tempura stuff).

I caught up with a friend over lunch at the Kagawa Japanese Cuisine restaurant in Dickson. I was really sniffly and blowing my nose - apparently doing the latter in public in japan is rude. I got a bowl of pork ramen, which was heaps comforting and more than sufficient. The bowl must've been larger than my face. There are plentiful menu choices and the tea was beautiful.

Kagawa Japanese Cuisine
55 Woolley St
Dickson

Barramundi in the middle of the dessert (alice springs)

I stayed at home today, sick. It started with a sore throat... when I thought I was recovering, BAM, I developed a harsh dry cough, blocked nose and ears, slightly runny nose. I currently feel gross and want to get better for the long weekend. I got this bloody cold right after coming back from Alice Springs for work.

Alice Springs was amazing - gorgeous landscape, refreshing demographics. One evening, we had dinner at the 'Barra on Todd Restaurant' in the Chifley Hotel Resort. I was quite sceptical of the quality of fish served at the restaurant as Alice Springs is very inland. The seafood in Canberra is a polarised hit and miss, so I was reluctant to try put my bet on Alice Springs.

However, I was pleasantly surprised - the menu had a variety of barramundi, such as one with a mustard and Parmesan crust, macadamian crust on Mediterranean veges. I got the barra with a almond crust on kipfler potatoes. The fish was thick, fresh, not too dry and the almond crust was done well. It was not pretentious and generous.

Barra on Todd Restaurant and Bar
34 Scott Terrace
Alice Springs
http://www.voyages.com.au/nt/barra-on-todd/

red bean and green tea tawainese icecream

Individual servings of ice cream purchased from the larger asian grocery in Dickson (canberra) - green tea ice cream with a layer of red bean enclosed in a soft biscuit. It wasnt overly sweet and would be favoured by those who are familiar with asian desserts.

hearty work lunch in Woden

Other than a warm hug (awww... vomit) there's notjing better on a winter's day than soup which tastes home made. Check out the Edelweiss Deli in Woden for their daily soup specials. Here the soup's got beef, veges and rice. Free bread too!

lunch at Gus' cafe

I have a friend who doesn't like Gus for its customer service and other reasons... but ive never had a bad experience there. I like the food cos its vegetarian friendly. This time i got a roast pumpkin wrap served with tortilla chips. More than enough for my lunch. Loved the tortilla chips for the novelty and crunchiness

eww, pixelated image - I expect more of you smartphone

delicious salad at 3seeds cafe in fishwyck

Hey all - I'm becoming increasingly busy and less willing to sit on my arse at home after work to post things up on this blog so I'll have to make my posts short and sweet. I'm also going to try to post things from my new Android phone.

This salad I got at the 3seeds cafe in the Fyshwick Fresh Food markets. Although it was overpriced, it was amazing. My favourite part were the walnuts covered in maple syrup. The salad had the right amount of green salad leaves, protein, colour and crunch.

3seeds - School, Store, Canteen & Catering

Fyshwick Markets (2nd level above the larger seafood store)

http://3seeds.com.au/