The Gunshop Cafe: Food Review

Being someone who usually sleeps in until the last minute in the morning, I don't always eat breakfast. But don't get me wrong, I do love eating breakfast - it is the most important meal of the day, as it gives you the energy to plough through the long day ahead. I especially love eating breakfast out, as cafes are usually more creative with their menus than I am at home. Creativity aside, I also expect better-tasting food than what I can make myself; afterall, what is the point otherwise of travelling the distance and paying the price premiums?

The Gunshop Cafe is located in West End, a suburb close to the Brisbane CBD. It is very popular with locals, especially on weekends, when there might be a waiting time for a table, if you come in the later morning hours for breakfast. It has won awards in the past, including Best Cafe in Queensland and Best Cafe in Australia in 2010. Naturally, one would expect then to have an exceptional dining experience here; however, I regret to say that I have not been overly impressed on the occasions I have dined at this cafe. The first two times, I went for lunch. On the first occasion, I think I had some sort of soup with toasted bread, because I was not that hungry. I recall the dish tasting alright, but afterwards, when I got home, I had a bit of tummy cramping and then diarrhoea. Strike 1. Now, I'm someone who likes to give second chances, and I reasoned to myself that maybe my tummy was just not feeling 100% that morning. So I went again a second time for lunch. This time, I ordered a mushroom risotto that the waitress recommended. I love mushrooms and I love risottos; surely I would love this dish, right? Wrong. I managed to find an image of it that I took with my old mobile phone at the time, so you can see for yourself what it looked like:



Mushroom risotto

As you can see, it was dry for a risotto, and not very visually appealing. I wouldn't care so much for looks, if it was delicious... but it wasn't. It was just okay. I didn't, and couldn't, finish it. Strike 2.

I was in the area with a friend last week, as we planned to have brekky at one of the cafes there that she  highly recommended. As luck would have it, the owners decided to stop offering a breakfast menu for that particular day, so we had to look elsewhere to feed our hungry tums. My friend wanted to go to The Gunshop Cafe. I considered the fact that this cafe had won Best Breakfast Restaurant in Brisbane for the past consecutive 4 years, and decided to give them another shot - Maybe, just maybe, the breakfast menu will wow me. Without further ado, let's go in.....

A spacious interior. There is also a courtyard out the back, where people can dine.

Fancy busts adorning the barrier between the kitchen and the main dining area

The very first time I came here, there was a slightly putrid smell hanging in the air, and I wondered whether it was because they seated us near the restrooms. I didn't experience this on the last 2 times I was here, so I will just take the first as an anomaly. The long padded seating against the wall was comfortable and the cafe had a nice, relaxed feel. The waitstaff were friendly and cheerful (probably because it wasn't as busy as it could be) and the time from order to food-on-table, although not speedy, was acceptable, especially since with breakfast dates, chit-chat time is of key importance.

The food

I ordered the toasted bagel with poached eggs and herbed hollandaise sauce, hot smoked salmon and asparagus, as well as a freshly squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice 'with a twist of mint'. I know grapefruit juice isn't meant to be sweet, but this was so tart that I didn't enjoy it at all. I would have sweetened it with a little bit of sugar if I was preparing it, in order to make it more palatable. I tried to drink it all anyway of course, because it costed me $6.50. 

My freshly squeezed ruby-red grapefruit and mint juice

When I see 'toasted bagel' on a menu, it usually means lightly toasted, so that the outside is crunchy but the interior is still soft. In this case, both halves of the bagel were toasted to a crisp, such that I felt like my oesophagus was being scratched every time I swallowed a bite of it. It was hard to cut through and hard to bite through. The poached eggs weren't the best I've ever had, and the yolks were not as runny as I like them to be (overpoached). As you can see from the photo, they weren't being very generous with the hollandaise sauce, and it was a bit gluggy in consistency too. The asparagus was dull and didn't look fresh. Worst of all was the salmon. This was the first time I've been presented with a thick chunk of cooked - no, overcooked - salmon when the menu says 'smoked salmon'. I don't know about you, but for me, smoked salmon is thinly sliced and, well, smoked, as opposed to fully cooked until firm and dry. I did not like this cafe's interpretation of it. Pas du tout. Strike 3.

Toasted bagel with poached eggs and herbed hollandaise sauce, hot smoked salmon and asparagus

My friend ordered the Canadian brioche French toast with caramelised banana, double-smoked bacon, candied pecans and maple syrup. I tasted a bit of it, and it was okay, but probably not something I would want a whole plate of. Of course, that's probably more because I'm the type who doesn't like to eat sweet things for breakfast, than because of the taste itself. Also, I like maple syrup, but the dish looked like it was fully drenched in it, which is also a negative for me. My friend seemed to enjoy it though.

Canadian brioche French toast, caramelised banana, double-smoked bacon, candied pecans and maple syrup

I have given this cafe three goes in all, but unfortunately, it has disappointed me time and time again. Three strikes - it's now permanently off my eat-out options list. The founder of this cafe also opened another one in Paddington, called Anouk, which I have also been to before for breakfast. Like the original business, it is quite a popular breakfast spot. Sadly, it also failed to impress me. I'm sure there must be some redeeming factors in the menu somewhere for others to like it so much. I suppose if you're not that picky about food like me, then you probably wouldn't mind the food.

For a smashing breakfast experience, I would highly recommend Bills (www.bills.com.au), which is owned by the fantastic Bill Granger, the next time you're in Sydney (the original one is in Darlinghurst, and there's also one each in Surry Hills and Woollahra). Actually, he has expanded his business to Japan and London (Granger & Co, www.grangerandco.com) as well in recent times, so you can try out his scrumptious menu, even if you don't live in Australia. I think his breakfast menu should be the same. I'm not sure about the lunch menu, but I'm sure anything created by Bill would be nothing short of fabulous. I'll do a proper review complete with pictures of his delicious food the next time I visit Sydney :)

My chocolate love affair

Monty's Chocolates at Paddington is my favourite chocolate shop in Brisbane thus far. They import and sell chocolates that are made in many different places in the world, including Madagascar, Germany and France. On my latest venture into the shop, I was served by the owner himself, who introduced me to what he believed to be the best chocolate bar in the entire shop - Francois Pralus's Barre Infernale from France.

This thick chocolate bar comes in two different versions: milk (45% cocoa solids) and dark chocolate (75% cocoa solids). The milk version contain whole toasted hazelnuts from Piemont in a delicious almond and hazelnut praline filling, all of which is then enrobed in a crisp milk chocolate shell. The dark version is the same except with whole toasted almonds from Valencia and with a dark chocolate coat.

The shop owner finger-estimated that a 1.5cm slice (yep, it's supposed to be served in slices, and not attacked directly with the jaws - if you could resist that urge!) would be enough for one serve. I laughed out loud. I am not one to count number of serves when it comes to chocolate. I was torn between the dark and the milk chocolate choices, as I adore both; but I ended up going with the milk chocolate bar, as my siblings, with whom I planned to share it, prefer milk chocolate - not that that ended up being very relevant, because I ate most of it myself! I was drawn to it, like Edmund to the Snow Queen's Turkish Delight. It made me a selfish, greedy person, who coveted every slice, the evil, devilishly scrumptious thing! It's a delicious combination of textural qualities: the nuts, the chocolate coat, and the praline filling truly created the perfect balance of crunch and soft, melt-in-the-mouth creaminess. I tried to resist, but the whole bar was gone in 2 nights. Frankly, I was surprised I had enough self-control to stash the remaining third of the bar away that first night.

Heavenly bliss in every slice!

In terms of price point, I will have to admit it was on the high side, which is why I really shouldn't be surprised that the chocolate tasted that good. AU$29.90 for a 160g bar is pretty pricey, and I realised after checking it online that the owner put a huge mark up on the product. The official online store sells each bar for 10 euros, which, at the current currency conversion rate, works out to be AU$11.76. I'm sure even after you include shipping price it would not cost much extra. Unfortunately, the shop does not deliver to Australia, so we really have no choice but to pay the extortionate overhead costs. Ah, the lengths we go to in order to indulge in good quality chocolate!

Despite the crazily high price for this product, I would definitely purchase it again when I feel like treating or rewarding myself, and I strongly recommend it to everyone who is not allergic to nuts, chocolate or dairy products. Forget Prozac and alcohol, this is the best pick-me-up, which will instantly improve your mood; or at least it successfully does so for me. It's definitely not something you would be munching on casually everyday, unless you are in the high income bracket. In fact, the shop owner recommended this product as a gift that will be loved by all recipients. I don't doubt that, but somehow, I don't think my gift of Francois Pralus's delicious creation will ever make it out of the house!

Degustation at Brents

Brents, 85 Miskin St Toowong 4066 www.brentsrestaurant.com.au

There are different types of foodies out there, but I would say that while I love baking and generally prefer my own cakes and bakes to some of those sold in shops, in terms of actual meals, I am more the type that likes tasting and appraising what restaurants make, rather than physically preparing the dishes myself, especially when it comes to fine dining. Thus, I like trying out different restaurants when I eat out, and what better way to taste all that they have to offer in one sitting than by indulging in their degustation menu, when this is an available option? A few weeks ago, I decided to try out the degustation menu at Brent's with a friend of mine.

Brent's is a restaurant located at the bottom of a very steep road in one of Brisbane's inner city suburbs. It offers an a la carte menu, but is largely known for the different degustation menus that it offers. Not long ago, for the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic, the restaurant created a special Edwardian 10-course degustation menu based on the dishes served in the first class dining saloon on April 14, 1912 - the last meal of the first class passengers. It's an interesting idea, but personally, I'm not sure I'd want to eat a 'last meal' on the day that marks the tragic death of so many people. I'm aware that some other eateries and boats both here and around the world planned similar things to celebrate the 100 year anniversary, but I am at a loss as to what there is to celebrate. It is a sombre event, afterall. If that's not enough to make you want to skip the 'celebration', the Brent's degustation also came with a hefty price tag of $250 per head. But anyway, this gives you an idea of the creative degustation menus that Brent's creates from time to time.

Back to my own degustation experience - an everyday degustation menu, their 'Gourmand menu', at $99 a head. Let me walk you through it...

Along the verandah and through to the dining room entrance we go

Let's go in!

The main dining room (there are dining spaces upstairs also, probably for private functions)

The ambience was quite nice, and the dining room was cosy and intimate, dimly lit, with tea candles on each table to provide extra illumination. The staff was attentive, and wore gloves when presenting the dishes, probably more so to protect the plates from fingerprints, than for hygiene reasons. Either way, it was nice to see that level of service.

The food:

Both my friend and I ordered a fruity mocktail to start off. Now, I am aware that mocktails, being alcohol-free, are generally just made with different blends of fruit juices and ice, but still, I've had some great-tasting mocktails before. This one, however, was not to be one of them. It tasted like orange and pineapple juice from the bottle. At the price they charged - I think it was the standard mocktail price of about $7 or so - I was expecting a bit better.

I can't remember what the amuse bouche was exactly, but it was salmon with some creamy thing, which didn't taste too bad.



Fruity cocktail + amuse bouche

The mushroom cappucino, essentially a creamy mushroom soup, was my favourite dish of the night.

Wild mushroom cappucino, truffle oil and prosciutto crumbs

I adore cheese, and was delighted to see this dish on the menu. However, I always cut the (usually) bitter rind off my cheeses, because I dislike its taste. Unfortunately for me, the goats cheese was crumbed and fried with rind and all. I still ate it, but I think I would have enjoyed it more had the rind been removed. The other elements on the dish were very tasty though.

Crumbed and fried goats cheese, beetroot and sorbet, candied pecan and charcoal lavosh

The next dish was a nicely balanced dish of fresh and light vs creamy. My only complaint would be that when a dish is described as 'red claw yabby', I expect to see a decent portion of it; however, rather disappointingly, as you can see from the picture below, there was only a very small piece of yabby, the size of half a prawn. Other than that, the dish was delightful to eat.

Red claw yabby, citrus cured salmon, cucumber, melon, nasturtium and mandarin jam

The following was presented to us as a palate cleanser. Now, I don't know about you, but in my degustation experiences, the palate cleanser is never listed as a dish in itself on the menu. This one, however, was. It looks pretty, but I didn't like this palate cleanser at all, and the fact that I don't like cucumber doesn't help either. 

Palate cleanser: Chartreuse marshmallow, cucumber snow, compressed apple, and milk wafer

The confit duck was quite nice, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well the lemon curd complemented the dish. I should mention, though, that it was more like a slice of duck terrine with the skin layered on top, rather than a natural cut of the duck, as you can see.

Crispy confit duck, butternut pumpkin, lemon curd and liquorice

The beef cheeks were cooked beautifully and literally fell apart at the lightest pressure from the fork. The meat was deliciously tender and melted in the mouth. Unfortunately, the sauce/pan reduction was extremely salty and the meat was doused in it. The mash would have helped to cut through the saltiness, had it not been also drizzled with the sauce, making the dish as a whole too salty for my liking.

Slow cooked beef cheek, paris mash, sauteed mushroom, prosciutto and garlic croutons

As mentioned before, I love cheese. That is, all cheeses with the exception of blue cheeses. Unfortunately for me, the cheese course of the day happened to be just that. I ate the toasted bread and the raspberries.

Cheese course of the day - blue cheese

The dessert was fabulous, faultless, moreish. The flavour of the ice-cream initially was a bit strange for me, but I quickly developed a liking for the unique combination of flavours.

Coffee and fennel seed ice-cream and wafer, chocolate and cocoa nib coulis

All in all, the food was nice, and if we factor in all the other elements, like environment, service, and presentation, it's quite a pleasant dining experience. Would I come back? Hmm if a friend would like to try it out, then yes. My best degustation experience so far would have to be at Esquire, a larger, dining space in the city centre, which serves degustation only. Having said that, they have also produced some dishes that I did not thoroughly enjoy. At the end of the day, it's down to personal preference, as each person's tastes differ. I hope this review has been helpful to those who were contemplating dining at Brent's!

Oh, and for all the fashion enthusiasts out there who might be interested, here's what I wore on the night (left):

So Sweet dress by Review, 3/4 sleeve cropped blazer by Review, Halt pumps by Wittner, Classic Q Karlie bag by Marc Jacobs, and birdy earrings by emoceans.

Sticky date pudding

I had homemade sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce for dessert tonight. I bought the ingredients to make it last week, but have delayed making it till today - because the thickened cream for the sauce expires today. I soon found out that today wasn't to be such a good day in the kitchen for me.

Where to start? First, I developed a painful blister on the palm-side of my index finger from hand-dicing 1/1/4 cups of dried dates (someone had decided to store my packet of dried dates in the fridge, making them even harder) over at least half an hour with a knife that begs to be sharpened - but of course the self-sharpening knife sheath is no where to be found when I need it. Cutting a large amount of fridge-cold dried fruit with a small, blunt knife is definitely not a good idea and I'll never do it again. Next, as I am wiping clean the electric hand beater, the cable catches one of the two eggs that I have left out to come to room temperature, and it flies off the bench and splatters on the floor and over my foot (good thing I was wearing an over-sized long apron). Then, as I was grabbing something off another bench, I accidentally nudged a container, which was for some reason sitting right at the edge, and before I knew it, I had half a kilo of halva in a heavy, thick, hard, plastic tub fall squarely onto my big toe, which is now wholly sore and bruised from the main toe joint. It's very tender to touch between the joints too, so I wonder if the bone has been smashed, me having weak bones and all. I breathed deeply and hoped the resulting cake would be worth the pain.

The recipe I used was an Australian Women's Weekly recipe, which was posted on the community recipe section of the Nigella Lawson website. I'm not sure if I am allowed to post the recipe here, for copyright reasons, so I will provide the link to the recipe instead: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/sticky-date-pudding-1934

I didn't make any changes to the recipe, except that instead of using the food processor to do everything, I did everything manually. There's two reasons for this: firstly, I think that one of the main joys in baking is derived from the actual manual process. On the practical side, toddling about in the kitchen also keeps the mind from idle thoughts and provides much needed exercise, if, like me, you spend most of your days off work during Winter largely housebound. The second reason for not using the food processor is quite simply that I have a gorgeous, brand new, top of the range (I think) lipstick red Kenwood handmixer/food processor thing that is still in its massive box in the kitchen, and I have been too lazy to take it out, clean it, and clean and make a clearing on the kitchen bench to provide a permanent station for it, amidst my assorted mess of cake tins, mixing bowls, cake plates, etc. Of course, after this finger blister experience, I am going to assign all date chopping chores to the food processor from now on. I should point out though, that through hand-chopping, I was able to discover a whole pip that had been left in one of the dates (Freshlife brand, in case you're interested) - imagine if someone had unknowingly bitten into it! I don't imagine processing the pip in the batter will make the cake taste that great either.

If you are also someone who prefers to make the pud without the aid of a food processor for whatever reason, you could follow what I did:

Hand dice the dried dates, then soak them in the boiling water, in a bowl, with the bicarb stirred through. Then cream the sugar and butter together; beat in the eggs, one by one; stir in the date mixture (being careful if you are using an electric beater when doing this, because it is likely to splatter); and lastly, fold in the flour.

The 1 hour baking time seemed a bit excessive to me, but when I poured the batter into the cake pan, it did look rather thin, so I assumed that was probably why it needed so long in the oven. The cake tester came out clean after exactly an hour, but I was concerned it might be a bit dry.

For the butterscotch sauce, I decided to make it in a make-shift double-boiler, i.e., I combined everything in a large mixing bowl and cooked it over a saucepan of simmering water. The reason I did this, instead of making it directly in the saucepan, as per the instructions, is because I used a portable gas cooker, the temperature of which is hard to control, and which has a tendency to very quickly burn things, as per past experiences. Turns out today was destined to be a fail day for me, because although I kept the mixture over the heat for a very long time, until all the water in the pan had evaporated, the sauce only just thickened ever so slightly. I gave up after all the water was gone and it became a safety hazard, and ended up with a butterscotch sauce with a runny consistency, so it was more like a syrup.

Plating up time was the moment of truth. 

When I turned the cooled cake out (though I would have liked to have served it warm), I found it to be well-risen (considering how thin the batter looked), damp, moist and tender. I can't say I've had sticky date pudding on many occasions, simply because there's always been other more appealing desserts on the menu that would win me over, so I am not particularly well acquainted with the taste. If what I made is anything to go by, I enjoyed it, because it's moist and tender, without being overly sweet, but I'm not a big fan, especially of the smell of the dates. From memory, I believe the pudding is supposed to be wetter...but I could be wrong. I drenched mine in the butterscotch sauce/syrup, and the sweetness of the sauce definitely adds a nice dimension to the dessert. I do wish we had vanilla ice-cream in the freezer to accompany it though!