Eating at Norwood, Adelaide

Eating on the Parade at Norwood – Bravo and Buongiornio

Good food in the suburbs? Well yes, why not you say. It has not always been that way, with traditionally the better restaurants being in the city, or even well within the CBD.

Probably has not changed a lot, but there is a developing range of decent eateries removed from the CBD. These are not necessarily top flight restaurants with attendant stars and awards but good solid restaurants and eateries – from smaller local restaurants with a good table service and a reasonable wine list [or even better BYO], bistro style and “pub grub” that provide good value for money and decent food for both locals and visitors. And with pleasant staff – that is a big plus!

Adelaide has a range of these venues for example, along the Parade at Norwood, with two notable places being Caffe Buongiorno and Cafe Bravo on diagonally opposite corners on The Parade.

They have a strong returning clientele, decent food and coffee and a good to even great atmosphere. Local lunch time patrons, those for a quiet coffee as well as some coming for a coffee and a chat, mothers with kids in tow and / or their parents, business people for lunch. A typical bustling scene with a somewhat noisy background reminiscent of a good Italian trattoria!

A recent extended visit to Adelaide had a few visits to both of these cafes / bistros – for both coffees and food. You can feel the vibe when you visit. A look around sees locals and visitors, staff being pleasant and treating customers with appreciation – and a smile, a busy kitchen, customers obviously enjoying themselves, plenty of food being prepared and served, a range of patisserie offerings and reasonable prices. And guess what ?...........they always seem to be busy!!

Check out both of these locations for decent reasonably priced food when in Adelaide. They do a decent coffee too.

Caffe Primo - Mawson Lakes, near Adeaide

Caffe Primo – at Mawson Lakes

There is a campus of the UniSA at Mawson Lakes along with a nearby light aircraft and training airfield and the area has a developing Business and Technology Park with quite a few medium sized developing businesses. Mawson Lakes has also been a site used as part of the Tour Down Under international cycle race in January each year – sometimes as a criterium or a start location. It has a fair share of business visitors, who now have a few locations to stay, rather than in Adelaide itself.

While there are some eateries along the Promenade and overlooking the lake that have been the main location to service these visitors, location does not always ensure decent service and food.

A recent extended stay for several weeks at Mawson Lakes recuperating after surgery has meant opportunities for a more than one visit assessment of some of the local eateries, and at different times of the day. One is a bit vunerable when unwell, and a bit rickety on the legs, a time to assess how staff operate with people not as vigorous as normal.

The best of the bunch award would have to go to the local Caffee Primo on Main Street. This is a combination of coffee shop, bar and restaurant, with the prominence of the component s of the mix varying over the day and week. Hard to miss, with a very large outdoor sign draped across the upper building levels [ also serves to stop the western afternoon sun].

Coffee shop in the morning can become a bar at night, yet the food service is generally pretty good at all times, with a decent weekend buffet breakfast on offer too, although not during the week – it is a cooked breakfast style “to order” then, and that is a reasonable price, a lot better than a motel “breakfast pack”.

They offer a modest range of well priced lunch meals [about $13] including pizzas and a range of pastas as well as a la carte meals. The chicken Caesar salad is particularly good value and very tasty, and has been my number one choice. Wine is available by the glass [reasonable range] and bottle as well as beers and spirits.

Dinner has essentially the same range as lunchtime plus a wider range of more expensive meals including steaks and there is a complimentary pancake and ice cream dessert too.

Meals are a good size, and the pasta range especially is very filling. The pasta is of good quality, obviously fresh and very tasty.

Staff have been exceptionally pleasant and helpful, and pull a decent coffee too. That alone is quite important for a coffee shop – both the staff and of course the good coffee! All the staff have been tremendous - without exception; a pleasant smile, a "hello" and that is seen when they deal with other customers too -it does bring out the pleasant side of your customers, almost always.

Tables are more bistro style, and they have some outside as well. Some of the original leather chairs are a bit run down, but are obviously being replaced, since most have already gone, with similar style wooden ones as replacements.

Observations over several weeks would indicate a steady stream of regular customers for both meals and coffees.

A recommended good value choice for meals and coffee in Mawson Lakes.

Pompidou - THE Cafe NOT that other place in Paris!!

The coffee and cafe scene in Brisbane some think, starts and ends around New Farm and the Valley. Those trendy areas are full of the young and [ think they are] beautiful. Good for observations, but are the areas all that good for coffee?

There is good coffee in Brisbane, with di Bella coffee a stand out producer of an excellent range of coffee blends, and their products are used around the area as well as at their own site in Bowen Hills, on Abbottsford Road. Even have a drive through coffee bar.

But most have a desire to sit down for a coffee.

Try an easier location with a visit to Pompidou in Balmoral. Relatively easy parking on a side street, around the corner from their location at 236 Riding Road. A great di Bella coffee blend, and a well produced cup of coffee. And pleasant staff.

The site has been there as a coffee shop for a while under a prior name and owner, with the new owners operational now for several months. The changes are not monumental, but evolutionary, with a subtle but welcome change of menu and coffee brewing.

Try the place if out on the southside of Brisbane - Norman Park, Balmoral, Murrarie, Bulimba all are close by.

They do a great well priced range of breakfasts, and the eggs benedict are excellent!

Mt Lofty House - Accomodation on High

Mt Lofty, the high point of the Adelaide Hills also has a great older converted house as up market accommodation, very close by.

Actually, on the east, below the edge of the hills, so you miss the westerlies, although when there are southerlies or sou' easterlies, well they do come up the valley.

It is a rebuilt old established estate house, originally built in the mid 1800s, but burnt down in bushfires a few years ago, and rebuilt and converted to accommodation.

Just up the freeway from the Cross and Portrush Roads / Glen Osmond Road intersection, and about 35mins to the airport. A great place for a weekend with some great views and options to do a few walks around the grounds or at the adjacent Botanical Gardens annex or even hit the bicycle [ for serious cyclists though- it is a bit hilly, so be prepared].

We have only been there in cooler months, and it can be cool,VERY cool at night during the winter.

It is well known as a restaurant for dinner, and even for breakfast they do a great muesli with yoghurt and fruit coulis [ I really like these - very addictive for a second one!]. Have not had dinner there but reputation is excellent.

They seem to have had a few specials on some of the accommodation web sites eg www.wotif.com over the past few months so check those for a good deal - and they have been!

Recommended, as something a little different. Their website is here - http://mtloftyhouse.com.au/ lots of photos

Radiator Wrecking

NOT a good afternoon.........the trusty Subaru Outback blew the top off the radiator - literally, pieces of plastic everywhere, when about 70km out of town, on a reasonably isolated road. just as the vehicle arrived on location.

Meant a very tricky limp back into town. Had 6L of water, but had to fill up water bottles quite a few times at various places along the way.

This sort of event can really put a major hole in a road trip, of any length. Especially tricky if in the remote parts of Australia.

You can plan for blown radiator hoses, loose clamps, but to literally blow the plastic top off the radiator is a bit odd to me. Maybe the older cars mostly had metal tops on radiators.......and hence rarely, if ever, actually broke.

This will mean several days off the road and a costly repair, and no doubt parts will have to come from interstate. Removing and repairing the radiator will have a high labour component - so will be costly.

Italian Food in Adelaide

It has been cold in southern Australia. Good warm food and a nice red wine help warm the inner self.

For a reasonable feed of some decent Italian food, along with a very respectable coffee try a near city restaurant, not an upmarket expensive city eatery.

More than a trattoria, more than a coffee shop but not an exclusive restaurant the Caffee Buongiorno at 145 The Parade at Norwood offers both all day eating and coffee as well as decent wholesome Italian style evening meals in a friendly, sometimes a bit noisy atmosphere [hard surfaces do not help - eg tiled floors]. It has a good ambience. There is an alfresco dining area too, maybe nice for summer but definitely cool to cold over the past few weeks of June 2011 for sitting outside.

There is a reasonably quick lunch time menu - soups, pizzas, various pasta options for a filling lunch. We had the calzone pizza which came with a napolenta tomato sauce on top and was very tasty - enough for two at lunch time [ about $16]. Coffee was good too, and there were quite a few italians imbibing coffee - usually a good sign in these types of eateries.

Some days later after a pretty cold late afternoon we decided italian food was the go for dinner. Scoloppine and saltim boca were the dishes of choice and they did not disappoint either and prices were around the low $20 range. Wine available by the glass too. The night we were there, a family group of about ten including quite a few children were having a group meal - so it does cater for small groups too. Meals are available until later in the evening, which is something to remember as many places seem to stop food service around 8 or 830pm, often too early if you are travelling or working.

The tenor of the place fits between cheap eateries and the upper range with good, tasty wholesome Italian food as you would expect. The evening meals had a great range of vegetables included in the price - something not always the case. The veggies were a great addition to the evening meals, and welcome after short order food over a few days prior to that. You do not get much change from $10 even at fast food chains, so meals around $20+ is a reasonable option.

Somewhere to test drive if you are in Adelaide for a few days and think Italian food is your preferred option for that meal.

We would go again!

The Ice Cream Seller

Watch for and enjoy the simple ice cream slice, cut by hand, between two wafers.

Many around the city areas, and this one was down near the Double Helix Bridge, where you walk over to the Marina Bay Sands precinct.

Great value ice cream for $1.20 - gone up from $1 in 2010!

The Joys of Airline Travel -NOT

The Joys of Airline Travel – NOT

Fellow passengers can be friendly, pesky or just downright awful, annoying and a menace.

A recent flight delivered one of the latter into the middle seat in the row in front of us. As usual, the plane was very near full, and it was a Friday evening after an especially stressful week for airlines with volcanic ash disrupting flight schedules, and the subsequent delays often annoying to passengers.

BUT........you can do little to solve the issue, and safety does come first.

However, the male [ cannot describe him as a gentleman] seemed to be a little more than well charged as he got on the flight, which had been delayed well over two hours – time seemingly spent imbibing at the bar.

He was raucous, calling to a fellow passenger who was known to him a few rows in front and generally a bit disruptive to those around him. He was a large framed guy, and with waving his arms around and bopping to music it seemed a bit chaotic in the row in front of us.

But wait.......there is more!

Soon we were airborne, and out came a pizza along with about a dozen oysters. The latter were consumed promptly in conjunction with a citrus liqueur as oyster shooters, and the pizza also promptly was eaten. Then the airline meal, all the while hopping and bopping in the seat with the headphones on and loud.

We then had some clear air turbulence for a while and I wondered if his bopping in the seat was causing some of it......he was that vigorous. That incident slowed the meal service for a little while but as soon as service resumed, he was after more beers.

About three hours into the nearly five hour flight........he promptly passed out, rather than went to sleep. Peace ensured.

Prior to landing it was a major effort to wake him to raise the seat back for landing. Very bleary eyed it seems. But awake enough to call for the steward and hand her the bag of oyster shells – she looked absolutely stunned. That was priceless and almost worth the previous annoyances!!

As the guy next to him in the window seat said..........lucky it was only five hours and not a sixteen hour flight to north or south America.

There have been quieter evening airline flights.

Muthu's Curry House Singapore - Little India

Muthu’s Curry House – Singapore

Three ethnic groups predominate in the polyglot brew of nationalities and races that is Singapore – Chinese, Malay and Indian.

Seems it might be a good location to sample some decent Indian food. And over the years we have had some great meals, mostly favouring the smaller places, food halls, and hawker stalls. Great prata, various roti types, Chicken briyani, korma curries and similar relatively common and well known dishes. Places such as the Tekka Centre where food is both good and very well priced.

But if you wish to venture into some better Indian food in Singapore then Little India is obviously the location to head for.......and Muthu’s Curry House, serving Indian food for three generations is an excellent choice. It has been upgraded and has excellent air-con if a bit fainthearted. Do not be put off by the word “curry” – there is much more to Indian food than just a throat tingling hot curry.

Definitely no beef around, but plenty of mutton and chicken is just as tasty.

Muthu’s is on Racecourse road, not that far from Farrer Place MRT [ less than 100m] and easily reached by public transport, with regular services up Selegie road, one street away. Get off at the Broadway hotel.

This is the original [and best?] location although other sites operate – Temasek Place [Suntec City] at Marina Bay. As a third generation restaurant [opened in 1969] they must be doing something right!

And based on a recent meal, they do seem to have it well sorted.

The night we were there was mid week, and the place was full. We went with local Singaporean friends in their car, and parking was a bit of an issue, but solvable. Nothing too unusual about that though.

As a group of four, we could mix food around a lot and that is a much better idea than just two people. The Kashmiri Naan was exceptional as was the Romali Roti. The Kashmiri Naan has chopped cherries on the top – very different and a great taste. Most other dishes were equally good. Our main dish was the inevitable fish head curry, along with butter chicken, a small serve of chicken tikka and briyani rice – basmati rice with attitude – that itself was great. There were quite a range of smaller side dishes – across vegetables, fish/meat and rice/breads.

Most dishes priced in the $6 - $12 bracket, with a few [often multi serve sizes] priced higher.

Great food and is worth trying. Would we go again – DEFINITELY!

They, like much of the wired place that is Singapore is online at:
www.muthuscurry.com and wifi is available and orders taken on a PDA!

Changi Airport Singapore - Food - Try Saboten

Changi Airport Singapore – Food

It is somewhat of a conundrum – you need food while travelling, but both airport and airline food notoriously has a reputation that is often well deserved for ordinary food - at best.

Unless you happen to be at the pointy end where food and service reaches silver service standards! That does not happen for most people!

Normally poor to ordinary food at both airports and airlines is a well deserved award – lack of choice, not to your personal taste and sometimes quite pricey [ even on some airlines these days] and catering to a market that is a captive one – you can rarely go elsewhere.

Recently had a meal with friends at Changi Airport in Terminal 1. Outside - that is on the Singapore side before entering the immigration and customs hall and transfer areas inside. This is a location you might consider to not be inspiring, catering as it does to departing travellers and friends, soon to move air side to a better range of options.

Quite a few choices now, mostly asian food with the local Singaporean and Chinese cuisines popular, and with a long line to enter the restaurants. We selected the Japanese Saboten chain – almost by default as it had the shortest – ie no wait time to sit down. That sometimes might have you wonder.........is it ok?

Food was really quite good, with the shredded cabbage [superfine shreds] and tonkatsu sauce salad excellent as an entree. All four of us thought the food very well presented, and tasty, with good service – and prompt, a bonus when you are needing to move off for catching the plane. We all chose one of the variations of the salmon fish dishes deep fried in fine bread crumbs, so cannot comment on the meat options, which were mostly based around pork. The salmon was excellent – tasty and flavoursome.

All dishes around S$ 20 -24, and service seemed to be prompt, even based on other tables. A real bonus for an airport meal choice. And it included ice cream for dessert too!

Would definitely recommend the Saboten as a good food option. A quick google search has also turned up some very positive reviews of the same place by local Singaporeans - try a search if you want.......but try the restaurant too.

Seems the renovation of Terminal 1 at Changi Airport, due for completion in 2012 has already delivered some good food eateries.

In reality, it was just as well we ate there – meals on our flight [ both dinner and breakfast] were both terrible, and many people [ including Asians] did not eat them- at all or many just partially. After all not everyone – not even many Asians - tolerates very spicy food and hot chillies in Asian food, and that was what the dinner meal was. And no choice. One of the worst ever airline meals – and that was on a Qantas flight – just awful food. It was just poorly presented and looked awful too. Breakfast was not much better.

Art Science Museum Singapore - Dali Exhibition 2011

Art Science Museum Singapore – Salvador Dali Exhibition 2011

It is new, innovative and attempts to marry art and science. Somewhat in the tradition of the great people of the past – da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and those of similar ilk.

It is also a very distinctive building in shape and location – the new white lotus blossom form near the new Marina Bay Sands Casino and the equally distinctive three towers of the nearby Marina Bay Sands Hotel - the one with the boat on the top!
There is some irony having a museum next to a casino though.

Having watched the building take shape over several years it is interesting to see the final building.

The Marina Bay Sands precinct is quite easily reached over the very distinctive double helix Bridge, a footbridge joining Raffles Avenue across from the Ritz Carlton and Pan Pacific hotels plus Marina Square. That bridge is actually a work of art and science in itself.......maybe more on that separately.

Access is also possible from the other side of the Marina Barrage area, but public transport is a bit more difficult in that area, whereas getting to Raffles Avenue by bus or via the MRT is normally quite easy .

Current exhibitions in the mid to late 2011 period in the Art Science Museum are two well worth seeing – a multi media event based around the art of Vincent van Gogh [ actually a joint Australian – French production] and a masterful exhibition of art by Salvador Dali. He tends to evoke loathing or love – I am a great fan of his art works! Yes, I am biased.



Quite a large exhibition of Dali works with more focus on sculptures, although there are a lot of his smaller paintings in the show. Some of the sculptures are truly spectacular, and special, but there are none of his iconic paintings on show - those seen in textbooks, art books or in the world’s great galleries – maybe they are just too valuable! Do not be disappointed though, some of the paintings are very good.......but mostly smaller, art pieces.

Dali was a master at the surreal art piece, and those art works on display do not disappoint if you enjoy the art of Salvador Dali.

Definitely worth a visit if you are a visitor [or a resident] of Singapore in the last half of 2011, up to 31 October.

More photos here -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/surfie999/

in the Salvador Dali set.

Helicopters in Singapore at Twenty Metres

Helicopters at Twenty Metres

It was cloudy.......that typical tropical haze before rain – but there in the distance were one, then two then five helicopters, backwards and forwards across the horizon in the west – maybe just out to sea over the harbour. Below one seemed to be a large flag, the Singaporean flag.

I have seen that before, on National Day, when a large flag is held below a helicopter and is part of the fly past down near Marina bay. There has been someone - a real person - at the bottom of the flag to weight it down sometimes.

But this was in the distance, and a little hard to really tell what was taking place.
Then the helicopters turned and headed directly to our building. We were on the 27th floor – and they were very very close above us. A Chinook with the flag and a metal weight, plus four Tiger attack helicopters. Great view.

Not sure if a practice for National Day [ 9 August 2011]- but impressive.

If you are in Singapore for National Day – watch for the National Flag fly by and the festivities down at Marina Bay. Plus a fantastic fireworks display around 7pm.

Zam Zam Restaurant- Best Murtabak in Singapore

Little more than a hole in the wall opposite the Sultan Mosque on North Bridge Road, and not far from the Golden Landmark Hotel, this restaurant serves the best murtabak in Singapore. And they have won awards for their murtabak too.

Well known to locals, but rarely visited by visitors it has a great atmosphere and some good food too. Offers a take away too and the special "drive by", but you need to be organised for the drive by pick up - might be best left to the locals! watch out for it if you vist the place.

Chicken briyani is also good, but the murtabak especially in mutton is excellent, and represents top value for money. Have a fresh lime juice to go with it.

For visitors the food is prepared right in the front enclosed section of the streetside restaurant.

Upstairs is air conditioned, but most sit downstairs or even at tables on the street.

A great visual experience for visitors, as they throw the cover for the murtabak. A bit like throwing a pizza base.

It is halal, and the place is alcohol free. Should be expected in the muslim area of Singapore, I guess. But do not let that stop you from a great feed!

If Zam Zam is full, and it is usually busy, Victory Restaurant a few doors up the road is quite good too.

The photo is taken from Zam Zam - across the road showing the golden dome of the Sultan Mosque - an easy place for a taxi driver to find.