Grilling Art

I was driving to my best friends house one night, and stopped in to buy a bottle of red to have with dinner, just off Rode Rd at the border of Chermside and Stafford. As I left the carpark of the BWS I noticed 2 of those big flame heaters out the front of a restaurant. On this chilly winter’s ever, I thought it looked absolutely charming, if not a little out of place in the Northern ‘burbs.

Once I had gotten to my destination, ate dinner and had some wine, I thought I’d look up this charming mystery restaurant I had seen on my journey. I was Grilling Art, and had very good internet reviews/ratings..

Now before I go on, I would like to state, I think the Brisbane burger market is incredibly flooded at the moment, it seems you can’t go more than 2 blocks without passing a trendy burger joint announcing itself as gourmet or otherwise.

For me, a great burger doesn’t take too much: a bun that holds together, juicy, well seasoned meat, a good sauciness ratio, texture differentiation and a great side (chips, onion rings et al.) (See GBK Liverpool post / Paris airport post). Truffled fries, wagyu pattie, lettuce imported from Iceland… none of this is important if those other things are spot on.

So in this Great Burger Flood of 2011 onwards, it would seem, some burger joints are destined to drown.

It was actually the night of my birthday that an imprompu catch up with my brother had lead us to to visit Grilling Art.

For a bitterly cold Wednesday night, it was a pleasant surprise to see a two thirds full restaurant in the 'burbs, we were shown to an indoor booth and given menus. Grilling Art offers beer, wines, spirits and mocktails or BYO.

The menu is expansive, with breakfast lunch and dinner offering, burgers and other mains. We decide to go all-out. My brother is very health conscious, so I always feel blessed when he opts to have a ‘cheat day’ with me.

Bro orders a meal deal that comes with a drink and fries, and chooses the Tokyo Art Burger (meal $15.40), I go for the Art Works Burger by itself ($11.90) and between us we order the half serve of beef ribs ($22.95) which also comes with fries and a serve of the chicken nibbles ($7.50).  To drink I grab a glass of Giesen Sav Blanc ($8.90).

 Full Menu here

We request everything come out at the same time, and it does.

The burgers are presented beautifully, with their 'hat's a little off to the side. The ribs are a huge glistening rack and the wings are a very good size indeed.

The Tokyo Art: chicken, teriyaki, caramelised onion, cos and aioli.

Bro doesn’t rate his burger as highly as I do, but I sense he is a little underwhelmed with the size. I think for the circa ten dollar mark, they are excellent value.

The Art Works, beef, salad, onion relish, egg, bacon, beetroot, cheese, aioli.
My burger is outstanding, everything I love in a burger. Great amount of sauce (channeling Manu)

Perfect burger ratio.

 Chicken nibbles

The ribs are absolutely sumptuous, so much juicy, slow cooked meat, no taste of fattiness and the marinade is good enough to drink.

Even the fries get a sold 4/5. (Although, like the Great TFP, I also believe meat should not be served on top of fries as it has a steaming effect and makes the fries prematurely sioggy.)

As we eat our meals, the restaurant fills with diners, all seem very happy with their meals.

The staff is chatty and courteous and the décor is warm and inviting, (and not a plastic crate seat or jam jar glass to be seen *bonus 5 points).

I really enjoyed my visit to the Art of Grilled and look forward to my next visit.

Oh and yes, we ate everything we ordered.

Shop P1, 734 Rode Road, Stafford Heights

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

(07) 3359 0003

Open

Today 7:30am - 9:00pm

Menu

http://www.twitter.com/Grilling_Art

E'cco Bistro

The second of July was this blogger's birthday, and also the one year anniversary of the Supper Club.

We had decided on E'cco Bistro on Boundary Street in Brisbane, and met just prior to 7 for a pre-dinner drink at the lovely Gresham bar for a Whisky Sour.

As per usual, I had perused the menu before we arrived, and all three of us were so excited to get in and make our choices.

We started by ordering drinks: a half carafe of red for Miss A and Miss C to share and I started with a glass of bubbles. The waitress gave us a selection of breads to choose from.

To start, I could not go past the scallops, pork belly and mushroom in duck consomme ($24.50) . It was all of my favourite things in one dish, and it was incredible. The scallops were fresh and sweet, the pork belly was flavoursome, and the consomme was delicately accentuated with Asian inspired flavours, the ginger was divine.

Miss C also went for this option and Miss A had decided to get the gnocchi with prosciutto and clams ($24.50). The gnocchi was absolutely breath-taking. These two entrees were by far, two of the best I have ever tried.

For main I decided on the slow-cooked wagyu short rib ($42.50) served with pumpkin puree, swiss brown mushroom and chestnuts.

The meat was rich, and cooked to perfection, the puree sweet and all of the extras were delectable. This was a great choice for a mid-winter's eve main. I loved every second of it.

Miss C had the eye-fillet of beef with char-grilled vegetables ($42.50) which looked divine, and Miss C looked and sounded very happy with her choice.

We also ordered a side of greens and a side of chips and aioli ($8.50 each). Miss A and I always get the chips, and it always drives Miss C crazy cause we never get close to finishing them.

What can I say? I am really intrigued with chips. I've had great chips and really bad chips in both greasy spoons and top restaurants, you can just never pick what you are going to get.

In this instance they were seasoned immaculately and perfectly crisp, but I do believe they were from a packet.

Miss A was kind enough to let me try a bit of her lamb- porcini crusted with mushrooms and leeks ($42.50). It was very impressive.

I really believe that E'cco has their winter menu perfected.

With my main I also treated myself to the Bindi premium pinot noir ($25 glass). I really enjoyed its lightness (as I am not much of a red drinker), however Miss C, who only drinks red, didn't rate it at all.

The dessert menu was platinum, and we were all certain that we would be happy with out choices.

Miss C chose the affogato ($17.50):

I got the milk sago with passionfruit sorbet and rum bananas ($16.50). When I used to work in a Leagues club years and years ago, the kitchen used to make sago for the oldies, that's where I first fell in love with it, and have loved it ever since, even making it myself. The texture can turn people off though (fish eyeballs).

I loved everything about this dessert, it was fruity and tropical, not too sweet, I loved the varying textures and flavours.

Miss A loves peanut butter and chocolate and this dessert was obviously made with her in mind. She loved every bite. Chocolate brownie, peanut butter mousse and dark chocolate ice cream ($17.50).

Overall, a very enjoyable night.

The restaurant and service is refined but still has a casual air. The menu had something that each of us truly loved.

Would really like to go back in either spring or summer to try a change in the seasonality of the menu.




A great big thank you to Miss C for taking the photos and thus allowing me to enjoy a few birthday drinks.


E'cco Bistro
100 BOUNDARY STREET, (CORNER ADELAIDE STREET), BRISBANE, QLD 4000 (07) 3831 8344 MAIL@ECCOBISTRO.COM

Eating Civitaveccia

 It's amazing how much of my time is spent doing exactly this.

My first port of call in Italy is Civitaveccia, the coastal port for Rome. It gets several cruise ships and ferries in every day, and thus, is loaded with tourist-friendly cafes and pizzerias.

I stopped here for 3 days as an R&R stop after pounding the pavement in Barcelona and chose a little hotel in the hinterland with nothing around it but hills, sky, ocean views and cows.

One of the great parts of Tenuta dell'Argento is it has a courtesy bus for trips into town. And as the restaurant was closed on monday (and I was out of fags) I chose to have a drive into town and a little look around.

The town is how you would imagine any cruise-port-tourist-trap, with expensive boutiques and 'THIS IS ITALIAN FOOD' cafes.

I chose to head off the main drag and found a small cafe with predominantly locals in. I ordered a 66cl Heinekin and a Pizza el Funghi con Bufala Mozzarella- A Mushroom pizza with extra buffalo Mozzerella.

For my first 'Italian' pizza, I was very impressed.  
 A stone-baked base. Plentiful with mushroom and very very tasty.

 This little devil lives around 50 m from me.

 The stables.

A very pleasant view.

The meat, raised just outside.

A wee carafe of vino and some aqua.

Lunch

Tantula's Hors D'Oeuvre: including carpaccio (right), and the one on the left tasted like slow cooked, pulled beef- both were to die for. The carpaccio had the most beautiful pink peppercorns which exploded to the bite in a pleasant, not-at-all overbearing pepperiness which was so complimentary.

ALSO on the hors d'oeuvres (yes this was just a starter) was deep-fried beef meatballs, and two pastry covered beauties which were both different but both resembled the most wonderful little pasties. So yum.

I partially chose this hotel because I had read about the steak, and I asked the waiter for the best one they had. Here... is.. my 1 kg organically reared on-site T-Bone.

Served au naturele, apart from some olive oil and strangly enough a scattering of meat charrings- which tasted INCREDIBLE! I only added salt and pepper to witness its' true flavour.

It tasted so beautiful and natural and wholesome. It was utterly divine and needed nothing else.

Cooked to rare.

I actually surprised myself by finishing the whole lot.

Needless to say, I need a lie down after that, especially seeing I had promised myself dinner in this restaurant as well.

Starter: Caprese- tomato and mozzerella. It's amazing how perfect such a simple dish can be with nothing but 2 fresh ingredients, plus virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Drink- persecco.

Main: risotto el funghi. Beautifully cooked and seasoned with the most intense Porcini mushrooms throughout.

I really love when I develop a repertoire with a waiter as I had here. It had literally gotten to a point where he would ask what I wanted, and I would give him free reign to bring me wait he willed.

He certainly didn't fail in the dessert department.

Behold: Puff pastry with chantilly cream, pepper and fragrance.

As hardcore as it looks, it was surprisingly delicate, and surprisingly light. The puff pastry was lighter-than-air, the cream was velvety and sumptuous. Quite possibly one of the most beautiful desserts I have ever eaten.

I called my waited back for a digestif (as you could imagine), and it was the perfect finale to a perfect day of eating.

If this is my intro to Italian food, I can't wait for the rest of my adventures.

What's for Dinner Vol 1. Savoury Mince

Today I did my very irregularly spaced weekly shop (which can incidently be anywhere between every couple of days and month-to-month) at M&S. I think M&S have the best quality produce you can find in central Edinburgh (apart from the Farmer's Markets) and I really don't think their prices are too bad.

So loaded up with fresh fruit and veg and some reduced-to-clear mince, I headed home, had a glass of wine and started on Dinner. NB Jacobs Creek Sav Blanc is horrible- thus the reason I am typing this and not sloshed right now!

I thought a savoury mince would be good, so I cut up a bunch of spring onion, shallots and garlic, and sauteed with rapeseed oil. Once translucent, I added the mince and browned.

To flavour I added chili flakes, curry powder, a beef stock cube, dried mixed herbs, salt, pepper and tomato paste.

To this I added a truckload of diced veg- beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, cauliflower, and peas, and added a splash of wine and some water, and let simmer.

As it cooked I tasted and it needed something a bit bold in it so I added Vegemite. Don't be grossed out, it's a yeast extract, and commonly used in Oz to flavour casseroles et al. I also added a good spoonful of dijon mustard and pepper jelly.

Then a little more simmering and that was done.

I was going to serve it with rice, but I am really bad at cooking rice- like one of 2 things I have never mastered in the kitchen- perfect rice, and cracking eggs without getting shell in the pan/bowl.

So whilst still deciding, I decided to do a wee guacamole to go with it. Guacs are so easy... spring onions, tomatoes, mayo, salt, pepper, lemon and a touch of tobasco, moosh together- done.

Then I figured out what to have with the chili. Inspired by my old Aitkins' Diet days (completely carb free- don't do it, it'll turn you bonkers), I remembered omelette noodles, which is basically an omelette cut into fine, tortellini-esque noodle strips.

Gluten-free, tasty amazingness.

I do have to say, I love Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals, but this meal took me about 20 and that's a good 10 mins more than I usually ever spend on a meal. It was also tastier than many of the take-outs I have had recently, and healthier. Fast healthy meals are really doable, and not to mention cheap. The Farmfoods/Iceland shopping lifestyle over here is so very sad I think. I wish people could realise this, and stop living out of their freezers and get into fresh food.