multicultural food fest #3

Yesterday, I went to one of my favourite events in Canberra – the Multicultural Food Festival. It was crazy busy and in comparison to previous years, the fest was more spaced and there were more and a different range of stalls. Seemed like there were new stalls – for example Croatian, a wider variety of Indian, cider stalls etc. Or maybe these stalls were always at the food fest but they were in more prominent locations or this was the first time I acknowledged them. I realised that there weren’t as many Asian food stalls as previous years – my theory is that Sunday (today) is Chinese/Lunar New Year. I guess families who own Asian restaurants and normally would host a stall were busy with festivities and their own families.

A lot of the festival was a haze – I was parched and quickly drunk ½ a cider and a cocktail before I ate anything. I went to cider stall hosted by ‘The Apple Thief’ – I don’t think I’ve seen this brand before so was excited with the possibility of something new. There were three types of cider – pink lady (sweet), granny smith (dry) and pear (in between). As I usually over consume on sweet foods, I got the granny smith one… regrettably though… it was like light beer – a light taste while you’re drinking it and a dry aftertaste. I ended up handing it over to a guy. The cocktail from Digress (Italian and Indian restaurant) was refreshing – probably one of the better things I’ve had from the restaurant in my experiences.

I made an effort to avoid eating one large meal and feeling completely full so opted to have small bites from different stalls… This was difficult because all I could find was deep fried stuff and Chinese stuff that I didn’t want to eat (my family makes better). I ended up getting ‘Aloo Tikka’ balls from the Digress stall (curry potato balls) that were very salty (best served with a dry alcoholic drink). I also got a chicken kebab stick from the Samoan stall, which tasted like plain barbequed meat. If you are like me and like trying lots of different foods, it’s definitely best to go with a group with the same mindset and share.

In my experiences of the food festival, I normally ‘over-consume’ on food/drinks. However, today I feel more gross/bloated than I normally do post-festival. My flatmate reminded me that I’ve been pretty good with my diet in the past few months (including not eating a whole piece of cake by myself) so the food’s probably not reacting well with my body. To balance out my excess calorie intake, I have an urge to exercise… but today so far, the weather has been very temperamental (rain, shine, rain, shine), so it’s been very difficult to exercise outdoors. DETOX STARTS NOW.

Newtown festival

One of my favourite places to be in the world is the Inner-West of Sydney with my friends. Last year was the first time I didn’t feel an impending doom of due dates of uni assignments – it was the first time I went to the Newtown Festival.

The festival was in Newtown Park – it was filled with organic food stalls, eclectic clothing and accessories, everything indie/rock/hippie. It was buzzing and a breath of fresh creative air away from Canberra.

I got a mixed plate of food from the Govindas food stall – Govindas is a fantastic Indian vegetarian buffet near Kings Cross (Sydney) and has amazing healthy food. It’s one of my favourite places to eat in Sydney and one I repeatedly visit.

I also bought a raw energy food bar, which contained veges, herbs, carob and lots of other things. It looked disgusting (like compacted cow manure), but it was strangely delicious, wholesome, didn’t taste foul or green at all and gave me a great energy boost.

On the lines of environmentally-friendly, anti-corporate food, I just watched Food Inc, a doco which seeks to expose the origins of mass produced and unethical food sold in fast food lines, local supermarkets etc. The doco suggested that consumers ‘vote’ in the food industry by using their buying power to purchase certain types of food. I know I would vote buy preferring vegetarian, organic and macro food. However, is one person’s effort enough?

street food, street art

As much of a health-freak I am, I love street food for its simplicity and easiness. With a friend, I enjoyed gözleme in The Rocks Markets. We walked around the area to see MCA's Primavera exhibition. I love stumbling upon art on the streets and the quizzical moment of 'is this meant to be here and is this really art?'

We also checked out Outpost, the street art exhibition on Cockatoo Island. Can you see my friend's repeated tag in the pictures? It's a statement that would permanently alter the landscape of politics...

food with friends

I haven’t put too much effort into this blog because on the blog, I’m having a one-way conversation with my friends and others. I prefer socialising with my friends in real-time and in person.

Baking day
One sunny/chilly afternoon, a bunch of the graduates and I gathered at someone’s house for a baking day! As domestic as it sounds, it was a fun way for like-minded people to hang out and boldly talk about the things that we are passionate about. Below are pictures of a colleague’s choc-chip cookie cake! The texture of the baking masterpiece was halfway between the density of a cookie and the floury/fluffiness of a cake.

Brodburger
In my last post about Brodburger, I criticised it for being average and commonplace. This view wasn’t taken well by people who I met in Canberra. So I decided to give the red caravan a second chance. This time it was daytime, I was with a good friend, and had a cider in hand. I had the fish burger without aioli – unlike last time, I noticed the earthy chargrilled smell/taste and the burger wasn’t overly oily. And I love love love the outdoor setting surrounding the caravan. I would go back again but still prefer the variety of other burger places.

Spider Cider

One evening, I was craving cider per se and icecream per se. A friend suggested that these two should be combined. We did this and it was amazingly good – essentially ‘cider spiders’. The froth that developed from the concotion was a fluffy, childhood-like dream that Heston Blumethal would extract and incorporate in one of his molecular masterpieces.

Bus Depot Markets

My spiritual cousin visited me in Canberra. I absolutely love visitors as it encourages me to do things I don’t normally do in Canberra. I guess going to the same places and doing the same things bores me. We went to the Bus Depot Markets and enjoyed organic strawberries and some filo wraps. We realised that one of the filo wraps had cream in it. This raised discussions of how some people have intolerances of dairy and gluten and how certain foods can affect your emotional wellbeing. I admire my cousin not only for her knowledge but motivation and courage to stop full-time work to continue studying.

hong kong

before i started full time work, i did a round the world trip - it was AMAZING. I went to the USA, Europe & HK... preempting this blog, i sacrificed my own self-respect and other people's respect for me and took an enormous amount of food pictures - and I'd love to share some of these with you.

This is my FAVOURITE treat in Hong Kong... I'm not sure what it's called, but my family would always make an effort to have these every time single time we'd go to HK. They are like waffles in a ball, but they are more eggy and fluffier. The outside would be ever so crisp and the inside would just melt in your mouth - maybe just like macarons, but hot and lighter and less sweet.

This was my first yum cha in HK during my trip. Once I arrived in HK, I demanded to my mum that we have to go to yum cha. I had heaps of fond memories as a kid/teen and can remember thinking: i could have yum cha for lunch everyday in HK, but could never do the same in Australia, due to the quality and oiliness of our yum cha here. In HK, there's different styles of yum cha, including: Shanghainese, Canton etc. This one I think was Cantonese. The restaurant had the decor of a wedding reception (note the mass white and chandeliers).

I caught up with my relos over a Chinese banquet (pics below). All these dishes were served in one 3 hour sitting. THERE WAS SO MUCH FOOD! My cousins thought it was a bit funny that I took pictures of everything that came out of the kitchen. They just said it was a 'youthful' thing for people in HK to take pictures of their food... Despite the embarrassment, I'm glad I have visual copies of the amazing food at this banquet:

As I've done a bit of travelling in the couple of years, I stacked up some Asia Miles points (frequent flyers) and I got this High Tea for free. It was at the Langham Hotel and was pretty casual. Delicious, but I wouldn't pay real money for it. There's no doubt that I've been better. Pretty, nevertheless:

And everything else: street food, street markets, shopping, visiting the Peak, sushi train, 'hong kong' style food and kitsch but cute edamame beans!!!!!



Jacqui's visit to Canberra

Jacqui recently visited me in Canberra and it was great! We looked at art, went market shopping and ate food :). This set of pictures shows us at the National Gallery and has food from the Babar Cafe Restaurant in Civic, Canberra. We had a pizza (not the best in Canberra) and an entree with Moroccan bite-sized lamb and cauliflower:

We visited the Gorman House Markets. I heart this place. It's quaint, has second hand clothes, art, fresh food. For lunch, we shared a plate of Ethiopian curry and had some Greek sweets (baklava & walnut and honey cake). The Greek sweets weren't the best I've ever tasted but I was more than happy with the curry. It was well worth the money, and I want to learn how to use spices to cook Ethiopian food :)

We also went to the Old Bus Depot Markets for a wonderful assortment of samples and had breakfast/lunch somewhere in Manuka. I love lazy Sundays!