Found this cafe in UQ tucked in a nice shaded enclave. Been here twice in one week. The environment is quite nice, they serve you coffee in proper cups and not paper ones. (Darwin cafe charges extra if you want your coffee in cups.) Plus, the force (wifi signal) is strong with this one …

What’s not to like? Except that I don’t think the pie nor the lasagne that i had was that delicious. And I thought I found the perfect escape from the daily grind.

Yes, I can watch Simpsons again, and Austalian Idol as well. I received a flyer saying there was a sale at retravision which turned out to a non event as all the stuff there were still terribly expensive. Nearby there was a garage sale which I read about in one of the free newspapers, so I popped in expecting to buy nothing. But there was a TV for $40! Actually I knew that I could get TVs at cash converters for that price, but without a car, I had given up on the idea of getting one. Well the garage sale man looked at me and thought I was a student. “Have you got a car?” He offered to ship it to my place and the deal was done!

I had to look for an antenna but once connected it worked beautifully. In the afternoon, I was at south bank, there was the duck race. I didn’t stay though as I was headed to the Gallery of Modern Art for a screening of Peter Greenaway’s J’accuse. The film was quite interesting and I do love Rembrandt’s Nightwatch. It makes me feel like going back to the Riksmuseum again. The GoMA was quite interesting, there were two sculpture pieces which I really liked.

Best steak in aussie so far, is the home cooked porterhouse. Not that the restaurants here are that bad, but it’s just that the both times I had steak, it was overdone and tough.

I rubbed some lemon juice and olive oil and sprinkled salt, pepper and oregano. Pan fried for about 4 minutes and a perfect medium steak. No need for any sauce at all. Add side salad, and some cooked onions with mushroom, washed down with the nice fruity Lindelman chardonnay. At $5, that’s the cheapest wine I’ve ever bought but it’s not bad at all. The steak costs $3 with onions and mushroom perhaps a dollar. There is also this reduced price tuscan soup.

I also had a delicious grilled baramundi from Tippler’s again together with another local beer called Hahn, slightly better than XXXX I think. The left over fish was added to the carbonara pasta with asparagus. After meal desert was red rock chips – again reduced price only $2 a packet.

Saw the weekly supermart catalog that a rice cooker at 30% off, went down last Saturday to get it. Woohoo. The first batch cooked beautifully and I had my first home cooked Chinese meal in Brizzie. Stir-fried chicken in plum sauce with broccoli and carrots. Today I did another stir-fry, this time with Japanese noodles (comes with sauce), beef and baby broccoli.

Earlier in the day, I took a nice run/walk to the Mt Coot-tha botanic gardens and look-out. It was really nice, although on my way back, I went the wrong way and had to walk on some infrequently used path, destroying about 10,000 spider webs. Thankfully, I had refueled at the look-out with scones with strawberry jam and cream and coffee. It should be quite nice to come back here in the evening twilight – with a car of course.

Lastly, bought a pair of columbia tagori to replace the columbia trail meister. Every part of the shoe was still in good condition except the sole which was coming off. Still no complains because the pair lasted 4-5 years, I almost always travelled with it, to US, NZ, HK, including up Kinabalu. We had good times.

Prior to arriving, I had the impression that Aussies live on fish & chips. But it’s not really true, at least not in this part of the country.

There is this fish and chips shop near where I’m staying called Tippler’s Seafood. So I wanted to have my dinner there last Friday. But several others had the same idea and the shop was packed. So I went back to cook my own frozen fish and pan fried chips. Plus smoked salmon and brie and a green salad, washed down with XXXX – the local queensland beer. Not too shabby at all.

The other night, I finally got a chance to try out Tippler’s again, at $13 the mixed platter for one was enough for my dinner and lunch the next day. Lots of people actually call and came in to collect their fish, probably to add to their dinner. The staff were really nice and friendly people, unlike the ultra grumpy asians manning asian takeaways.

That’s a 2008 wolfblass red label shiraz / cabernet sauvignon. Quite nice to drink, not very heavy. I didn’t want to buy another wolfblass again but the red labels were going 2 for $16. The XXXX beer wasn’t that good, there’s a slight aftertaste but it was quite cheap $13 for a sixpack.

I’ve been here a month and eaten at Song three times. Chicken rice, wontan noodles with char siew and chicken laksa. The dining experience got worse and worse, both in terms of food quality and service. Sure it’s not a full restaurant and I shouldn’t expect much, but if I had no expectations at all, I would take my business across the road to chez tessa where prices are about $3 cheaper. Yesterday I was served by a different lady who perhaps just arrived, and came with the full package of lousy english and lousy attitude.

By the way, the restaurant name is only clever for singaporeans/malaysians and probably makes no sense to aussies and is a search engine’s nightmare.

2008 Riesling, a little too dry for my liking. So my dislike with Jacob’s Creek wines continues. Still it was only $7, I suppose I can use it for cooking.

Oh, that’s the 3 berries light and tasty which costs less than $6 for a big pack. Not as tasty as the macadamia with honey one though.

The steak was cheap only $10 but it was well done when I ordered medium, so was tough. The grilled pork rice at chez tessa @ Hawken village was ok.

It’s Saturday and generally quiet everywhere except at the food outlets. Pizza caffe is one of those that open on weekends and serves crisp pizzas. I had the Juliette of the spirits which is a fancy name for pizza with prosciutto. ($12.50)

Not bad at all, except I’m having it al fresco and it got cold quite quickly, plus the irritating bird that is hovering around and ready to plunge into food on the table.

I’m guessing this was individually cooked and so it’s like going to hotels and ordering chicken rice. Still some chinese food is good and rice is wonderful after night after night of ravioli. At 8.90, it’s certainly good value compared to the Nandos ($15.35) or the tempura udon ($8.60). Portions are huge and I had slight trouble finishing and that’s not considering the 30min walk home after that. Rice isn’t the type you are used to back home and the chicken could be nicer but still this could be as good as it gets in Brisbane. I’m already thinking of coming back perhaps once a week or something.