Pizza (by Biggs)

The wheels have well and truly fallen off.

Hamburger and Wings Mexican Style (by G)

Still in Mexico city and still with the use of only one hand after an unfortunate incident involving an enthusiastic group of Mexicans and a train with limited capacity. My intention was to try a hamburger from one of the street carts but this Saturday night I could not readily find one that was open. What I did find was a small hamburger restaurant that was open so I opted for that. Happily they also had wings. There was nothing crazy about the hamburger, just a regular hambuger with lettuce, tomato and cheese - but good. I got the wings in ´diablo´ flavour, the hottest they had. They turned out not to be all that spicy, just hot enough to make me sweat out of my nose. I was pretty happy with the cook on them though, nice and crispy.

Note: You would think Hamburgers and Wings could easily be consumed one handed but you would be wrong.

Cheese (by Biggs)

I was 'working from home' today so decided to take a French approach to my lunch break by picking up a bottle of wine and wandering down to the local fromagerie.

I selected some King Island Black Label Blue Triple Cream, Heidi Raclette and Red Square Wash Rind. I also bought some mild German salami and anchovy stuffed olives.

After lunch there was still plenty enough left over for dinner.

 I wasn't too keen on the Wash Rind but holy shit the Blue was good. Sooooo rich, soooooo creamy. It just about killed me.

Chorizo Tortillas (by G)

I had a little misfortune on the Mexico City metro the first time I tried to take the train. After successfully getting the train as far as Pantitlan station I just needed to transfer trains and go one more stop to get me to the track to watch the Friday practice sessions for the Mexican formula one gp. It was rush hour and the crush to get on the train was crazy. On my second attempt to get into the train I soon realised I was nowhere near close enough to the door to succeed and was about to be crushed against the side of the train. This seemed undesirable so I put my hand out to push back, instead my hand was doubled back all the way so that the knuckles were pressed against the top of my forearm - the terrible crunching noise it made will haunt me for the next few years. At first I thought the hand might fall off, then I thought - best case scenario - all the bones in my wrist were broken. As it turns out the wrist was just horribly, horribly sprained.

Long story short, when I got back to the city that night I was looking for something I could eat that would not require more than one hand. Helpfully, tortillas are designed for just such a dilemma.

I found a cart that had a ´five for´ deal on mini-tortillas and scarfed down a bunch of the chorizo filled ones. The tortillas were good but probably the best thing was the theatricality of the taco guy. The way he tossed the tortillas on the plancha, the flair with which he snatched up the sausage meat and the panache with which he sprinkled on the onions and coriander. If I had to guess I´d say he had made a tortilla or two in his time.

Vegetarian Koftas (by Biggs)

$2 dinner, zero effort.

Chicken Enchiladas in Mole Sauce (by G)

Much as I’ve been enjoying the tacos and tortas and such from the street carts of Mexico city I decided it was time to branch out and try something else. I’m sure there is a cart out there somewhere that has enchiladas in mole sauce I haven’t found it so I stepped into a small restaurant for my evening meal.

The place had a set menu of soup, pasta or rice and a main. The soup was great, a light chicken flavour with rice, carrot and zucchini – with a squeeze of lime.  The pasta was nothing, like a pasta salad you would get from a supermarket.  The enchiladas were not to my liking – it looked as if they had been plated up earlier in the day and reheated before serving. The mole was bland and watery. In all I think it was not a great representation of what this dish could be.  At nearly nine Australian dollars (including a beer) this is one of the most expensive meals I’ve had in Mexico so far, but at that price it is hard to complain.

 

 

Beans on Toast (by Biggs)

Did I have beans on toast for dinner? Yes I did! I'm getting very used to this bachelor lifestyle.

It's the best!

Torta (by G)

Tortas have been on my list of ‘Mexican street foods I have to eat’.  I ventured out onto the streets of Mexico city at dinner time and, with very little difficulty, found a cart selling tortas.  There were a lot of combinations on offer, none of them exactly what I was after so I picked one at random. The main protein was a crumbed and fried mystery meat, ‘pierna’ I think it was. It probably checks out because ‘pierna’ is Spanish for leg. I’m not sure even what animal it was but at a guess I would say the leg of a pig. Along with the leg meat there was tomato, avocado, an odd pink coloured processed meat and some extra gooey cheese. The cheese was the best thing. I will be eating many more tortas in the future.

Note: after finishing the torta I went to a bar and, along with a few beers, I had a couple of tacos al pastor.  While I am in Mexico please assume that after dinner I have gone to a bar to drink a few beers and eat a couple of tacos al pastor.

 

 

Chorizo Pasta (by Biggs)

The media world and workplace kitchenettes across the globe exploded today with the news that processed meats are in the same category of carcinogen as cigarettes. Horror! We're all going to die, etc, etc! It was a frustrating day to tolerate the general public.

Of course they're terrible for you if you eat them in the quantities I eat them. Do you know why I eat them in those quantities? Because they are delicious!

So, for dinner I had pasta with tomato, onion, spinach, cheese and chorizo mixed through. Most excellent.....tasted like the tears of my smug diet-ridden colleagues.

I realise it's Tortilla Tuesday but I think G is in Mexico so I refuse our Tuesday tortillas to be compared.

Real, no fooling, tortillas (by G)

¡¿Can you believe it, I´m in the home of the tortilla on tortilla Tuesday?!

I got into Mexico City in the mid-afternoon but by the time I´d taken a taxi through the chaotic traffic and checked in to my hotel it was after dark. With no idea of how to find food I decided to just walk around and around until I found some. Eventually I found a pedestrian mall with a bunch of international chain restaurants KFC, McDonalds etc... fortunately there was also a taco restaurant (not exactly the street cart I was hoping for but it did the trick.

To start off with I got a grande el pastor and a beer and some ´tortillas de harina´. I knew I knew what harina was but I had temporarily forgotten.  The pastor was excellent, the tortillas de harina turned out to be plain flour tortillas, no topping. No problem, there were chopped onions, pickled vegetables and about half a dozen salsas to flavour them up.

After finishing those off I got a couple of small tortillas, one with sausage and one with ´suadero´ which turned out to be a cut of meet from the cow somewhere near the belly - both were excellent, though I didn´t know what either of them was when they came and had to translate the menaing of the toppings later. I was pretty convinced the sausage tortilla was lung - which, I guess is not far wrong. I am pretty excited to be be in Mexico, next meal on my list is a torta - keep an eye out. I´ll try not to be so slack with updating the blog from now on.

Salmon Noodle Salad (by Biggs)

After a massive bender of a weekend I decided it was time for something fresh for dinner. I'd planned for more vegetables than this but at least it's 100% more vegetables than I've eaten for the past few days. Or, perhaps infinity percent....is that higher than 100%?

I really like noodles and smoked salmon and capers so I mixed these together with two of my favourite salad ingredients - snow peas and cherry tomatoes.

I didn't even add any dressing. I thought something plain and fresh was probably best for my body. It worked.....I can feel my body coming back to life.

Wings and a Burger (by G)

My last night in Austin and I had nowhere planned for dinner so I wandered around aimlessly until I came across a place with an Iguana painted on the side. Looking at the menu it appeared to be some kind of concept place but I´m not sure what the concept was supposed to be. I like wings, I like burgers - so I went in.

The wings were fantastic. They had a great texture on the outside and that venegary flavour that I have only had a few times before but go nuts for.

The burger was good, one complaint - the bacon barely registered. It´s not that I had been hunting out bacon in Austin but I was disappointed whenever I got it because they would always describe it as, like, the best bacon ever - then the quanity of bacon was so small that you hardly notice it´s there.

Oh, I also got a salad. This was a sudden implulse  -  dictated, I suspect, by my head rather than my heart.

Samosas (by Biggs)

I refuse to leave the house this weekend but ran out of food. Fortunately, after a quick search through the freezer, I discovered G left a bag of vegetarian samosas in my possession presumably for safe keeping. Fear not, I'm keeping them super safe right inside my belly.

Fish 'n' Chips (by G)

I finally got to race day in Austin and saw some formula one action. Damp, but not drenched for once, I decided to eat at the first decent looking place I could find and have an early night.  I found a bar and grill which seemed okay. It must have been popular because there was no room inside so I took a seat on the balcony. I made a bad choice getting fish and chips at a grill place - my only excuse was that I was kind of keen for something different after a lot of wings and ribs and genuine Texas fare.

Anyway, so I froze my nuts off on the balcony - what with me being damp and the galeforce winds and such. The batter on the fish was good but too thick, the fish itself was a bit knackered, the dill tartare sauce was awesome. All in all and okay meal that I inhaled as quickly as possible then dashed off to get warm and dry.

Bacon and Eggs (by Biggs)

Like I said last night, I've got the house to myself. G is a great housemate but this home alone business is truly tremendous. I decided to celebrate with one of my favourite meals - bacon and eggs! Bacon steak, an egg and some mushrooms and spinach cooked down in Old Bay Spice. Perfection!

World Famous Fried Chicken (by G)

I´d been eyeing off a fried chicken place in Austin since I got there - Sam´s Fried Chicken (World Famous). After a cold, wet, miserable day sitting at the track hoping to see some formula one action I decided that some fried chicken would turn my frown upside down.

After careful scruitiny of the menu I decided on a leg and a thigh, a chicken tender, beans, coleslaw and a pickled jalapeno on the side - the slice of white bread, I think, is unavoidable.

I haven´t eaten a huge variety of fried chicken so I don´t have much to compare it to, it was moist, great chicken flavour not overwhelmed by seasoning, grood crunch on the crust. A1.

Wine and Cheese Toast (by Biggs)

It's Friday night, I've got the house to myself, I found cheese toast in the freezer. Life is very, very good!

Beer and Doritos (by G)

Um, yes... well. My reason for being in Austin, Texas is to watch the formula one, however, the weather was cyclonically terrible and they called the first day of the event off at about 2pm. By the time I got back to town it was still pretty early and dinner time, as everyone should be aware, is 7:30pm. As I was at a loose end I decided to have a few beers to kill some time. That it did.

At some point I decided I should work my way through all the beers on tap in the bar. I probably got about half way through before I unaccountably fell into a deep power nap. I don't believe in jet-lag but extreme tiredness probably had something to do with it. The next thing I knew two burly fellows were escorting me from the premises. At that point I realised that I would probably benefit from a lot more sleep so I went back to the motel stopping for some Doritos en route.

Wine and Hash Browns (by Biggs)

It's almost Friday night, I've got the house to myself, I found hash browns in the freezer. Life is very, very good!

Too Much Authentic American Food (by G)

I decided to try some authentic southern food while I was in the south of North America. The difficulty I find when dining alone is that I want to try a bunch of things and always end up ordering too much food - then eating it all. This is what I did on this occasion. Wings followed by ribs.

The wings were okay, not the best I've had. They were spicy and molasses-ey and incredibly messy to eat. I used up a ton on napkins and a refresher towel and still ended up covered in wing sauce. It must have been an obscene thing to see for the other diners.

The ribs were a disappointment, fatty and bland. The sides were the highlight on that plate. Mac 'n' Cheese, jalapeno creamed spinach and coleslaw - which was refreshing after all the meat and fat.

Cheap Chinese (by Biggs)

I had a craving for cheap Chinese tonight and fortunately Bundaberg had plenty on offer. I could choose from New China Dragon, Eastern Dragon or, of course, New Eastern Pearl....amongst others. I went with the one closest to the hotel which was....ummm, definitely one of these, or one of the others.

Oh man, I didn't realise how much I had missed small country town Chinese restaurants. Stodgy tasteless smorgesboard hazzar! I got all of the things - deep fried pork, chicken, calamari, fried rice, beef and black bean, spicy pork chop, dim sims, omlette....all of the things. Soooo good and soooo bad all at the same time. But, mainly good.

I was gifted a fortune cookie upon purchasing dinner: "Happiness will always follow you". I guess it's just never caught up.

Cubano (by G)

I anticipated that after flying from Brisbane to Austin and being awake for nearly 30 hours I would not be in much of a mood to hunt around for dinner so I did my research in advance and found the closest acceptable place to eat dinner near where I was staying. The place in question is a bar that serves food. The place was exceptionally busy for a Wednesday night so I took a seat at the bar, drank a few beers and ordered a cubano and a jalapeno pickled egg.

The cubano was good, much what I expected - beef, ham, cheese and pickles. The beef patty was cooked to medium which was refreshing. I like that menus in the United States warn you of the risks of eating raw or undercooked meats rather than just banning them. The egg was awesome, a little spicy with an enormous yolk - the yolk is the best part of the egg.

Chicken Parmie (by Biggs)

I know Chicken Parmie has been featured a few times on the blog, especially since a lot of my work is now based in regional Queensland, but, this particular Chicken Parmie saved the day.

Anita generously gave me a lift from Hervey Bay to Bundaberg this evening so I wanted to buy her dinner. We were struggling to think of anything beyond Sizzler for dinner but really couldn't bring ourselves to do it. Then Anita remembered a fish and chip shop her Mum has spoken highly of. It turns out it was just a lovely kilometer walk along the waterfront from my hotel. I was blown away when we approached the cafe. It was stunning - an house with a huge verandah overlooking a rolling hill down to the river, the water sparkling in a bright orange sunset. Just stunning. Then instant horror - not open on a Tuesday night. It would have been a perfect dinner date!

I down-spiraled into deep despair and we accepted we were probably off to Sizzler. But, eagle-eyed Nita spied a promising sign across the road from my hotel spruiking cheap Tuesday parmies. IN!

I've had a large number of parmies in my time and this one was particularly good - nice toppings, not too many chips and a delightfully herby salad.

Aeroplane Breakfast (by G)

I figured there would be an issue travelling into the past on 'Back to the future' day. Travelling from Australia to the United States you travel for hours and hours and end up arriving shortly after you left - I think it has something to do with the international date line.

I figured it would create a problem at some stage. The flight did not serve dinner just a snack some time in the afternoon and breakfast at about midnight. Anyway, this is the closest meal I had to regular dinner time - I forget what the other option was but I chose the flan. I was pretty good, a side of mushrooms and beans. I'm not much of a one for fruit or dessert but on planes I always eat and drink everything on offer (even the weird milk) because I know I'll regret not taking in those extra calories if the plane goes down and I find myself stranded on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere.

I accidentally took this photo with the flash on so everyone in economy was alerted to the fact that I'm one of those dickheads who photographs their food - the photo turned out pretty well though...

Ribs (by Biggs)

I worked late tonight so room service was inevitable. I was secretly excited because the hotel restaurant is called Smokey Joe's BBQ (or something similar). I ordered their specialty pork ribs which oddly turned out to be beef ribs.

They were great - they really were. If I'd eaten these in a restaurant or someone's house I would have been blown away but half-way through eating these they started to taste depressingly like hotel room service nothingness.

Lucky I bought a bottle of room-service priced wine to wash them down with.

Pork and Cheese Toastie (by G)

Pork Chop (by G)

Golden Chicken (by Biggs)

Last time I was in Hervey Bay I said on the blog:

"This isn't Golden Chicken! I'm very disappointed that this isn't Golden Chicken. I swore next time I went to Hervey Bay I would have Golden Chicken. What's Golden Chicken you may ask? Golden Chicken is an amazing take away chain shop, if three stores make a chain that is. G and I went through a significant stage of spending our days eating Golden Chicken and playing mini-golf. I have no idea how we had time to do this or money to support such a lifestyle but it was a good time. They had excellent little chicken wings and when you ordered 8 they would give you about 20. I was in Hervey Bay for work today so was very much looking forward to re-living the glory days. Alas my wish was not fulfilled."

Well, I was once again in Hervey Bay for work today so was very much looking forward to re-living the glory days and, with Anita's help - my wish was well and truly fulfilled. It was as amazing as I remembered. Anita was particularly taken with Golden Chicken - the drive thru, the unique architecture of the building, she even wanted to take photos of me out front....which I rightly refused. Golden Chicken should be kept a private pleasure.

Ham Hock and Chicken Salad (by G)

Thai Boat (by Biggs)

This photo really doesn't do the meal justice. I was hanging out at Bonnie's tonight and we decided on  Thai for dinner. Some pad see ew, chicken fried rice, massaman curry, money bags and satay sticks. Everything was moist and flavourful and delicious. Heaps of leftovers so Bonnie is set for the weekend.

Pork Dahl on Noodles (by G)

Mizu (by Biggs)

Tonight was a bit of a celebation, thanks and farewell night for G. How do you best celebrate, thank and farewell G? Mizu - that's how!

We ate ALL OF THE FOOD.....

Where's G going I hear you ask? Stay tuned to your favourite blog and all will be revealed soon.

 

Fritters, Potatoes and Cheese (by Biggs)

It's ALWAYS Vegetarian Wednesday!

I had this grand plan to stuff Cowboys Breakfast with vegetarian sausages into a potato. Great idea right? Things alas went wrong. The potato didn't roast up nicely, they broke up when I was trying to scoop out the innards, then it all got a little dry when I put it in the oven.

The fritters were meant to be zucchini and pea but, for whatever fucking reason, this house does not contain one single frozen pea. What is that about? The fritters weren't terrible. They just tasted like zucchini slice.

The halloumi salvaged dinner.

Airport Chicken (by Biggs)

I found this chicken at the airport. It was cooked. The chips were not. None of it tasted like anything.

Huevos Rancheros Tortillas (by G)

Lasagne (by Biggs)

I tell you what, regional hospitality is pretty terrific. I'm in Mackay for work and the reception staff at the hotel were very concerned about me getting feed. Their restaurant is closed on Mondays, I wasn't finishing work until late and they let me know the only thing open that late for dinner in the area would be the Golden Arches.

I wasn't too worried but they were very, very worried and went to the lengths of moving me to a room with a microwave, then going out and picking me up dinner in the evening to leave in my fridge for me to heat up when I eventually finished work. Seriously, that's a thing that they did. Incredible.

The lasagna however was not incredible but I ate it all up out of gratitude if nothing else. The mini-bar beer option was of course XXXX Gold which I wouldn't normally dabble in but I drank it all up out of gratitude too.

These people deserve a one million dollar pay rise.

Chicken Noodle Salad (by G)

Lamb Chops, Souffle and Salad (by G)