Saltwater at Kings (Sunshine Coast, QLD)

(degusted 9th Aug, 2011)

What a great place to catch up with friends!

You cannot beat this location – right on Kings Beach, Caloundra – quite literally a hop, step and a jump onto (or off from) the sand. Saltwater cafe has a number of outdoor tables and chairs which catch the morning sun, but some of that sun gets blocked by high-rise apartments in the early afternoon. Parking is always difficult on the beachfront, but on our visit at noon (winter, mid-week) we had plenty of spaces to choose from, immediately adjacent to the cafe.

Thank goodness...

It's a pleasant spot to be, for sure. Our local friend mentioned that the cafe supplies blankets for the cold days, so everyone can be toasty warm even if one (un)dresses to show off their latest body art or sculpted abs... A word of warning for the likes of Tony Abbott or Vladimir Putin if they are thinking of coming here:  "No dick togs allowed".

 

The menu boasts a good list of breakfasts, and a comprehensive set of “starters” (around $20, and unless you’re Hulk Hogan, probably big enough to suffice as a main) and mains (around $30). We went for a few of the starters rather than a single main – so as to get a range of tastes.  The espresso was good, and came with an unexpected little treat – a small chocolate mini-mud cake. 

We love little unexpected espresso bonuses.

Good coffee. Good sweet bonus treats!!

The Japanese crumbed calamari was an obvious choice for us – mention Japan, calamari, bonito and wasabi aoli in one menu item description, and we were already sold... you had us at 'Japanese'.. These tasted as good as they looked - the sesame and mild wasabi flavours lifted this from "just another calamari" into something a bit more special.

Japanese crumbed calamari. Sesame and Wasabi complements the food well.

Next we degusted the Greek Lamb 'salad' with baby beets, goats cheese, olives and others. This was a good, hearty lamb salad with plenty of flavour, and the lamb was lovely and tender. The sweet beets are such a good accompaniment to offset and balance out the strong olives and goats cheese. Delicious.

Greek-style Lamb salad.

The third dish we ordered was the almond-crumbed brains, with sweet potato, parmesan and prosciutto. When ordering this one, even the waitress was unsure about the brains. 

You are what you eat, right? So with fingers crossed (that it would make us smarter and not turn us into gooey grey blobs floating in cerebrospinal fluid), we tucked into the golden-crusted brains. Verdict: in a word – AMAZING.   

 Brains have never been on our "top-foods" list (at least not until this point), but these little beauties changed that. Not having tried brain dishes elsewhere, we can't definitively say whether this place does to lambs brains what TDK cassettes used to do to your system – amazing things – or whether brains are intrinsically good. All we can say is that we would order these again, and recommend others to do the same!

Almond crumbed brains on sweet potato, topped with prosciutto. Incredibly good - A must-try.

For dessert we degusted through two dishes: first, an Ooey Gooey chocolate fondant – which was everything the name promised and more. Cutting into the cake 'shell' with the spoon set free a seductive molten chocolate river... Oh yeah...  Bring a spare insulin pen for this one. The other dessert was a white cholocate creme brulee – rich and creamy, it was delicious. Served with some biscuits and strawberry 'salsa'. Unfortunately, the biscuits looked as though they were courtesy of the local IGA - a bit cheap looking, and probably not even necessary on the plate.

Ooey Gooey chocolate pudding (fondant), with vanilla bean icecream

White Chocolate creme brulee (hidden under the strawberry slices)

All up, we lunched from midday through to mid-afternoon, enjoying the atmosphere, the company and the food. Soaking up the sun, and washing it all down with a bottle of bubbly and a few good short blacks - now THIS is what winter lunches on the Sunshine Coast should be all about.

Rating:  Nom (x3) - Go back if you get the chance!

Meh                      It’ll Do                   Nom(x3)                              Must go back!

Done and Degusted @ Saltwater at Kings Beach

-Japanese crumbed calamari

-Greek Lamb 'salad' with baby beets, goats cheese, olives and others

-Almond-crumbed brains, with sweet potato, parmesan and prosciutto

-Ooey-Gooey Chocolate pudding with vanilla bean icecream, and cinnamon marscapone

-White chocolate Creme Brulee with shortbread and strawberry salsa.

-Espresso (and bonus choccies!)

You might also like our other Sunshine Coast posts:
 Buderim Tavern,   Chopping Block Cafe in Buderim,   Reserve Restaurant and Cellar in Maleny

Or if cafe style food is your thing, in Victoria:  Main St Cafe, Mordialloc;   Degani's cafe in Eltham

Thai Viet Bibigo - quick bite for lunch... with "Guest"ronomer, the Cinnamon Stig

(degusted 8th July 2011)

We all like to fine-dine every now and then.. (more now, less then).. but what about the little lunchtime bargains, the little guys - the hole-in-the-wall type of places?.... We reckon these are often the best to find, and in a way they are the true gems of the city of Melbourne, and it’s these that make us want to search for more!
 

One such place is Thai Viet Bibigo in the Capitol Arcade, Swanston Street Melbourne (although some – including a number of people checking in on Foursquare) call it “Thai Viet Bibig” – apparently the circular shaped letter at the end of the sign (the “O”) has long been ignored.  There is not much of a digital footprint for this place - no website, no menu (that I could find) - nothing, except a really basic facebook page offering "$6 Japanese curry with free miso"...

We did not plan to find this place, nor know of its existence. It was found almost by accident – a curious little sign on Swanston St (that you’ll only see if you walk past). The sign points to enter the arcade, and confuses with the name “Thai Viet Bibig(o)” and images of sushi. Confused yet?  We were...  With the sign piquing our interest, we just had to check out this (what might just be the first) “Vietnamese, Thai, Korean Japanese sushi fusion restaurant”!

We quickly learned that this place was quite popular – at lunch time, there were limited seats rapidly disappearing.

To mix things up a little and get some fresh input into the blog – The Degusters have called in a lunchtime bargain “ninja” – who we hope will be a regular "Guest-ronomer" for Just Degusting. 

.

…..Some call him the “son of a gun”, but he is a gun in his own right – known to demolish the opposition from Melbourne all the way to Mansfield… Some say he can eat a kebab with both hands tied behind his back, or that he can achive a perfect score singing Bon Jovi's “Living on a prayer” on singstar... All we know is, he’s called our Cinnamon Stig.

Here’s the Cinnamon Stig’s  take on the Thai Viet Bibigo:

If you’re looking for a quick but tasty lunch in the CBD then I highly recommend Thai Viet Bibigo, which  is situated in the Capitol Arcade, just off Swanston Street, in a cosy little enclave with the thoroughfare doubling as table space. 

After finding a table, oddly with three legged stools, I lined up and surveyed the menu.

I ordered the Bulgogi Beef hoping that a warm dish would help with my winter blues. I was not disappointed.

After getting over the initial shock of being served my lunch in a huge stainless steel vessel (that gave the impression that the cast of 101 Dalmations might be joining us), I was nicely surprised with the dish. The beef was tender and full of flavour; there was also a hint of chilli which is always a winner. Accompanying the beef was a beautiful smokey sauce that also went well with the rice and vegetables. On the subject, the vegetables were cooked perfectly with a slight crunchiness, for those of you who can tell if your meal has been cooked in a wok – I can confirm. It also came with a complimentary bowl of miso soup.

Overall the whole package of food, atmosphere and service was really enjoyable - and truly worth the lunchtime bill of less than $10.

Would the Cinnamon Stig go back…?? Yes!!

Unfortunately, the bowl of beef bulgogi was finished
before our camera's shutter could open and close..

One of The Degusters who are with the Cinnamon Stig ordered the fresh Salmon bibimbap – which also came with the complementary miso soup. There was a nice hot sauce that added a good hit of heat – a Korean-style chilli paste. 

Salmon bibimbap. Clean, fresh, tasty, and good value.

Free miso, and yummy chilli sauce

The Cinnamon Stig ordered these strange croquettes – he cannot remember what they were, nor were they memorable in any way. Cinnamon Stig felt that they were not worth mentioning, but we think that in itself is worth mentioning. Just Degustings view - Just stick to the bibimbaps and bulgogi’s and enjoy this little hard-to-find place that pumps out good food with good value!

Worth mentioning is that the metallic chopsticks might be hard for some who are no so adept at the art of chop-stikkery (they didn’t have much grip). Also, all the cutlery and condiments (such as soy, sambal style chilli, etc) are available from a communal area to the right of the servery. This puts some people off, apparently.

All bibbimbaps came with complimentary miso soup, there is relatively quick service, and the quantity and quality of the food is worth paying for. 

This is the sort of place that makes Melbourne tick. It also makes you wonder what other little gems you might be able to dig up around town….

Rating:  Will go back!

Done and Degusted @ Thai Viet Bibigo

Beef Bulgogi
Salmon Bibimbap
 (both with miso soup)
Croquette things that we would not bother trying again.


Thanks Cinnamon Stig! Hope to degust with you again soon!

Artichoke + Whitebait - Much more than expected!

At Monash Uni, Clayton campus - open to everyone.

(degusted 30/6/2011) EOFY Lunch!

3 1/2 stars.

I’ve walked past this café perhaps a hundred times, had a few sit-down business meetings over coffee here as well. I’ve always known their coffee to be some of the best on the Monash Uni Campus, and I knew Artichoke + Whitebait offered lunches and breakfasts, but until now, had never had the pleasure of giving it a go. After today’s experience, I’ll be going back, and will be encouraging anyone in the area or even those driving past to give it a shot. The young and vibrant staff are the perfect example of friendliness and good customer service, and while it's not exactly fine dining, it's entirely worthy of a good degusting..

Good friends and good food.

A good friend is someone willing to share a few plates of food with you - so I am truly blessed to share an office with a good friend. I ordered all the dishes I wanted to try, and shared them. The dishes are very generous, and while I’m a big eater, I think I would have been satisfied with any of the stand-alone lunch meals.

Bread and Olive oil.

The complementary bread and olive oil, with salt and pepper was standard fare – nothing exceptional, but all of totally acceptable quality. We started with the antipasto plate – prosciutto, artichoke, olives and octopus. Suspiciously though, none of the café’s namesake - whitebait – which would have been a nice touch. The items were good quality, good flavour, and I would have been happy to sit down to just these items alone (hint: roll the artichoke in a slice of prosciutto for a really yummy canapé!).

Antipasto - Olives, prosciutto, artichoke (no whitebait!?) and octopus.

Beetroot, bocconcini and walnut salad

Ordering the beetroot salad was a wildcard in my mind (beetroot, bocconcini and walnut) – I had no idea how this would be interpreted, bit it piqued my interest and I went with it. I should not have worried – the big chunks of sweet beetroot, generous pieces of bocconcini, and crunchy walnuts all combined to make this a hearty and solid meal - ideal as a stand-alone dish. (The photo does not do this salad justice).

A new addition to their menu, the Moroccan lamb on a bed of mash was the second item to be ordered. Wow. Uber-tender lamb, great tasting marinade/sauce, and cooked just right. With it came one of the creamiest of creamy mashes I’ve ever had – smooth as silk. If I had to order one item again it would be this one. A winner, and something for which to come back again*.

Moroccan Lamb and creamy mash. Standout dish.

Spaghetti w/ bacon, chilli and capsicum. Yum.

I ordered the spaghetti with bacon, chilli and capsicum – on the basis of three facts: (1) who doesn’t love bacon? (2) Chilli is awesome and (3) to see how the chef would handle a pasta dish. First impression was that there was a good amount of heat from the chilli – a pleasant surprise for myself and my Vietnamese friend who assumes that western cafés tend to err on the side of mundane to cater for the bland masses.. The saltiness of the bacon was offset by the sweetness of the capsicum – so a great balanced dish. The spaghetti was not over-cooked, perhaps just a fraction past al dente, but I don’t think it’s fair to compare a one-chef café’s spaghetti to that of a multi-hatted chef’s 5-star Melbourne restaurant (I’m comparing in my mind to a recent Grossi Florentino dish). To the ordinary punter (or student), this is a dish really well done – hearty and full of flavour punch thanks to the bacon and chilli. If you order your Nandos with the lemon & herb dressing, then this might be a touch too hot for you.

A look and a small bite of the chicken parma was all I sampled – the parma itself looked to be of good size, it was well cooked and on the small corner that I sampled, was crisp enough to make it worth a try. I guess that because the kitchen is so small there is no deep fryer, so there are no chips, just veggies. If you can overlook the lack of chips, the parma seems to be a reasonable option and good value - although I probably wont be trying it myself.

Chicken Parma with Veggies (no chips).

A few others on the table had some risotto, which looked average, and is not something I'd waste my time with either here or anywhere else - unless there's something really nice or unusual about it, like duck, truffle and chocolate, or something equally quirky to sucker me in.

My overall impression of Artichoke & Whitebait is of a small café that has tailored its menu to its strengths – meaning it can reliably pump out good quality, and value-for money dishes consistently. The chef, Chandra (I believe that’s his name), is doing an amazing job – getting out our group’s 15 covers simultaneously, and handling orders from the other 20 or so in the dining area. He works behind a glass spash-back so you can see him in action, and watch the occasional flambé go up in style! I hope the management realises his value and holds on to him.

If you’re in the area, traveling past or just looking for something to eat around Clayton at lunchtime, I would suggest coming into Monash Uni for a bite to eat here – it is open to the public, and there are usually plenty of paid (meter) parking (see the Campus map I put together here).

NB: Not Licensed.

Espresso was good and solid, nice crema, full bodied. The barista’s seem to know what they are doing.

* My experience of this lamb was exceptionally good. Another friend reported that in one visit she had a much saltier version, but the next time she tried it, it was back to perfection. Perhaps the chef had a bad day?

Rating: NomNomNom!
Meh                  It’ll Do                   Nom(x3)                              Must go back!

 Done and Degusted @ Artichoke + Whitebait:

-Antipasto plate (4 items)

-Moroccan Lamb on creamy mash

-Beetroot, bocconcini and walnut salad

-Spaghetti with bacon, chilli and capsicum

-Chicken Parma

-espresso

(+complimentary smiles)

 

artichoke + whitebait  Tel: 03 9905 3174

Grnd Floor, Building 10 - Centre Campus Monash Uni Clayton, VIC 3168

E-Mail: artichokeandwhitebait@gmail.com

Open time: Monday to Friday 7am-6pm