Peter's Fish Market

Many moons ago, LGS and I went to the Spit with our dogs and afterwards, we ended up at Peter's Fish Market after a long day of trying to persuade my cowardly dog to enter the surf. We took some great photos and videos of that day but its full of crappy audio so its never seeing the light of day.

The look on her face and her body language spells:
I hate water.

I went again with my friend, Jubi, once she got her green P plates and we went to the beach. It was one of the first really hot days of spring this year and it was an absolutely gorgeous day. It was so bright I couldn't see my phone screen for trying haha.

Clear blue skies

The Spit!

We walked up and down this beach for 3 hours

Ohhh she's so fluffy!

We spent some time trying to find a place to go to afterwards that was dog friendly. Its pretty retarded to leave your dog in a car while you get lunch and we didn't know the area at all, so we went back to Pete's Fish Market after all, since I remember its right near the Spit and there were dogs everywhere.

Pete's Fish Market is a really open little spot, and to me looks like a trailer park opened up and started to sell stuff. Its right on the top of the local Fisherman's Co-Op but it seems to carry a lot of internationally caught fish. Its always packed whenever I've been, no matter the time of the day. The service is really brisk and to the point, but they're always swamped and its a fish and chip shop so I didn't really expect any better. Its full of locals, tourists and their dogs and there's an extensive seating area of shaded tables to sit at and they call out your docket number when your order is ready.

On the inside, there are four large displays of frozen/fresh fish for self service. You can pick your own fish to be battered or crumbed as part of your meal, but they price it by weight as well as an additional cooking fee of xxx/100g.

There is also this really creepy boat on top of one of the displays.

So creepy.

There's an area around the front that is just full of salads, fish products like dips and caviar as well as condiments for fish. The lady manning this area seems to stock all the available fish displays and the drinks as well.

This is a very distinct look but I can't describe it

Just below this sign, is where you actually order. There's also a large display to the right of it with fancier options than your standard fish and chips. Things like marinated fish or prawn skewers, lobster mornay, scallops and a whole selection of dodgy looking salads.

All the specials!

Salads!

Fancy stuff!

More fancy stuff

On the day we went, Jubi persuaded me to split a lemongrass snapper as well as a side of salad for each of us, cause she's on a mega health kick and lost crazy amounts of weight. I, only the other hand hadn't tried any of the marinated options and was also feeling motivated to lose weight. The lemongrass snapper was really fresh, well cooked and perfectly seasoned, we didn't even touch the lemon wedge that went with it. It was a huge piece and we just finished it between the two of us.

The Arizona Lemon Black Tea I had originally picked had expired several months ago, and I didn't even realise until I had almost all of it. The lady at the front of the shop apologised profusely and got me another drink, which was handy cause I was still thirsty. I didn't get sick from it thankfully.

I picked the seafood salad, thinking for some reason that since it was a fish and chip shop with such a huge selection of seafood, the seafood salad would have seafood extenders, celery and mayonnaise. I was wrong. That's all it had. I was a bit disgusted and immensely regretted my choice. The huge amounts of mayo made it sickly sweet, the celery was over powering and I got onion breath from the large chunks of green onion.

Really gross

Jubi got the Greek salad, and who cares because everyone has had Greek salad. Her tomatoes looked a bit watery but she thought it was quite good.

Average

Here is the picture of one of the specials with dodgy frozen fish, chicken salt chips and calamari rings. Delicious, unhealthy, greasy and delicious once again.

Delicious

Peter's Fish Market:
Atmosphere: 7. Solid local fish and chip place, packed, high turnover, cheap and efficient.
Service: 4. They take my order and that's about it. That one lady got an 8 for actually apologising and replacing dodgy drink
Food: 5 - solid fish and chips. I've had better and Swampdog is much closer and much higher quality.

Kettle Corn

I've always wondered about the Popcorn Man stall at the Jan Power Markets. They're a very distinctive red and yellow booth with bags and bags of fresh kettle, caramel and butter salted popcorn made in huge metal vats with rice bran oil and stirred with a long stick. This is their website.

I've always wondered what kettle corn tastes like since its touted as having a lightly glazed salty and sweet flavour. One day, when my Boyfriend and I were planning what to pick for a picnic at the Botanic Gardens, I decided to get some as a snack while we were shopping.

Our first kettle corn

Admittedly, our first taste of the stuff wasn't the best. Alternatively super sweet, and buttery salty, it was like someone had mixed a batch of movie popcorn and caramel corn together and not quite amalgamated the pair. We ate the entire cup but we weren't sure if we liked or disliked it, because we would get a good taste of one flavour, to have the next kernel of corn spoiled by the other flavour and so on. The popcorn itself was fantastic, crunchy, light, fluffy with a predominately lovely mushroom pieces and not many of the butterfly around.

Mushroom vs butterfly

Read up the Wiki article on it for a more in-depth understanding of the difference. It basically boils down to, mushroom are less fragile, are small/compact, tend to weight the same, have more hull pieces and are better for lots of stirring like with caramel/kettle corn. While butterfly are more tender, melt in the mouth texture, they take up a lot of space and have way less hull. Hull being that shiny brown stuff that sticks in your teeth or braces!

So I was really surprised to find myself craving it again the week. That time it was perfect! A wonderful crunchy mixture of salty/sweet caramel like salted caramel! It was amazing. Then I realised, four dollars for a cup of popcorn was ridiculous.

So then I had a brain wave. I knew that one of my friends, NZ-A, knows how to make popcorn the ol' fashioned way, with a hot oiled pan, some popcorn and a deep saucepan. If she could make it, and she said her kids loved making it, then I would do fine as a relatively solid cook. I vaguely remember seeing a packet of popcorn kernels sell quite cheaply at around $1-2 per bag. I googled quite a few recipes as well as the history of kettle corn, good work North American Dutch settlers.

The first batch I made was at my Boyfriend's house. It was terrible, I used a tiny saucepan and a quarter of the popcorn burnt with nowhere to expand into. There was a terrible charred caramel base at the bottom and despite all this, we ate it all.

That saucepan eventually came clean

Not bad looking. Noticeably smoky notes

The second batch I made, scorched the bottom of my saucepan and my mum declared it ruined. She then ate all my popcorn and said it was pretty good, she didn't like the hard kernels leftover but she still ate them. My aunt said the same thing, about how lots of fibre isn't good for her, she has diverticulitis, but she still sat there eating it whilst complaining.

Second batch. Notice the more caramel notes. More shaking required

The third batch was for night shift. This was by far, the most perfect batch I've made to date. Evenly coated, golden brown popcorn pieces with a good combination between salty and sweet. On coming home from work, my mum shoved her fist into the box and ran off to her room with about a third of the box in her hand. When I was shouting at her that it was for work and that she couldn't have any, she was yelling back at me, "JUST GIVE ME A LITTLE. ITS SO GOOD."

Dat popcorn.

Anyway, this is the slightly tweaked recipe I stole from this random blog I found.

Kettle Corn

Uses: pre picnic snacks, night shift snacks, feeling fancy with popcorn

Ingredients:

1-2 tbsp of oil, high smoke point oil is preferable
1/3 cup popping corn kernels
1/4-1/3 cup of sugar*
3/4-1tsp of salt

Ingredients.

*Brown gives a better colour, but clumps, which is hard to separate over burning hot oil. White is easy to distribute. Raw sugar is halfway between both.

Random stuff:
The biggest goddamn saucepan with a lid you have. Preferably cast iron, or something with a heavy heat retaining base. Something that doesn't burn easily.
A hot stove, like induction or gas burner. 
No loose handles.
Oven mitts or a tea towel, so you can hold down the lid without burning.

Instructions:
1. Fill up your saucepan with oil and half the salt. Heat over medium to high heat
2. Once the oil is just starting to smoke, throw in three kernels of popcorn. Put on the lid.
3. Once popped, throw in all your corn.
4. Then throw all your sugar/sugar on top, as evenly as possible
5. Put your lid back on, hold on tight and start shaking your pan. After 2-5 seconds of shaking, put back on heat for another few seconds until it starts popping.
6. Expect nothing to happen for the first 10-30 seconds? Once the kernels start popping, start shaking more vigorously, in a fancy arse tossing salad type motion. Try to do it away from you, so if the lid comes off, you don't get a face full of burning caramel.
7. Once the kernels stop popping every 1-2 seconds, take off heat and keep shaking until the popping slows down. Pop it back on the heat for another few seconds if the popping stops and once the popping restarts, keep shaking.
8. Dump in a large bowl immediately, do not keep it in the pot or it will continue to burn. Eat ASAP or it will go soggy, still delicious but not as delicious as it could be.

There are no pictures of the process because of how fast it cooks. Also my Boyfriend didn't think to help me with making this.

Also! In other news, I've risen to the top 50 of Urbanspoon's Brisbane blogs yay!

Random stats for my blog show that my first post, "Becoming a Cat Lady", is the most popular post. The next most popular food related post is my Cirque review.

The most commonly used search words to get to my blog are, "Crazy cat lady." With 56 hits.

Swampdog Fish and Chips

I have no idea how long I've wanted to go to this restaurant for but its been at least a year. I remembered when it was the talk of the town on Urbanspoon and I was so excited, once I had read the reviews. I had big plans to go here after work. It was only a short distance bus away, somewhere in South Brisbane, serving freshly caught sustainable fish and chips as well as other exotic seafood combinations like deep fried school prawns, pesto grilled barramundi and tempura'd soft shell crab! Their pictures made my mouth water and the prices were very affordable. They even gave you free cups of lemonade with your purchase!

Unfortunately I am cursed with full time work, gym junkie friends and a poor sense of direction so I never did find where it was or someone to go there with me. That is until one afternoon when I was walking home from my Boyfriend's house and I saw that instantly recognised hairy bone fish sign! Swampdog I proclaimed! He didn't care, anyone who knows me is used to me saying this place is good, or that place is great, or my friend told me to go here but yet when asked, I don't have any actual desire to actually eat there.

Woo!

So he was very surprised when we actually went inside one day haha.

I quite liked the outside look of this place. Its very salvaged from the sea haha, the tables are made of old doors and the doorknobs still turn! Its not just a look. There was a place to sit out at the back with a kitchen garden beside it, with strung up light bulbs that the kitchen leads to. Its nice at night actually but during the day, I wasn't keen to go anywhere near it actually, so I didn't even bother to take a picture of it.

They work!

Rustic!

Here's the solid menu as well as a shifting everyday specials one written on chalk on the wall. It looks like its taken a lot of beating with the cloudy haze left behind by other days specials.

I'll be back to try most of these!

The first thing I spotted inside aside from that was the cold drinks fridge. Not sure if boxed water is any better for you, but its probably environmentally better with recycled paper as opposed to plastic? The secret recipe tea range is very good.

Boxed water!

As well as these ice cream sandwiches, I'm very interested in trying one of these someday. They come in a variety of flavours and we were eventually too full to try one, despite planning to have a shared one for dessert.

All the different flavours!

But uh, they don't look that tasty . . .

There's also this big communal table inside with plugged in iPads that you can use.

This table is oddly sticky.

Here is a shot of the free lemonade pitcher. I've read a lot of reviews saying its sweet and tasty but the day we went it was quite diluted. Like someone had made a lemon simple syrup and just kept topping it up with water when it ran low, that's the kind of washed out taste I was getting. The second time we went here, we got a freshly made batch which was much better, and had pretty curls of lemon zest everywhere.

Bit hit and miss. Get it when its full.

This is the owner of the place! How do I know? I stalked him from the Swampdog blog of course. Creepy much. His blog is worth a read if you want to know about sustainable fishing. It can be found here, alongside a legible and non-blurry version of the menu. Oh and a link to their app, which gives you specials, cheaper deals and lets you know what the catch of the day is, handy if you decide to become a frequent customer. They hide the QR scan cards under the counter, so ask if you wanna scan it!

Stalking 101.

Anyway, you ordered with him, paid, collected your meal when it was rung up by the kitchen staff behind this tall wall/bench. At night time, there are way more people and they actually ask you for your name.

There's writing all around but I didn't care about what it said

I decided to get us crispy fried popcorn shrimp as a shared meal. The fresh looking butter lettuce is a deception! Its not healthy at all! Check out those deep golden brown school prawns, they were covered in a paprika, salt and something else batter that was very simple but very good. You ate each of these tasty little morsels in one go, head and all! Not for the faint of heart, since they're school prawns, their shells are quite thin and just crunch deliciously rather than get stuck. Sorta like soft shell crab and how you can eat its shell without getting bits stuck in your teeth. I dream about these prawns when I'm craving something deep fried.

My Boyfriend got the fish and chips, he chose crumbed whiting fillets, of course. For me crumbed is always the option. I associate batter for gross things like corn dogs, banana fritters and that sort of thing, I don't like its potentially sodden nature. Crumbed on the other hand, while unhealthy, is nearly always appealingly golden brown and crunchy as a potato chip. On the second time, we went here, he went with fish and chips with mackerel, BUT BATTERED. I ate the fish and scrunched up my face at the batter portion. We got tartare sauce that was quite average, tangy and creamy but missing that sour note that you get from the inclusion of pickles.

Lettuce in MY fish and chips

I got the salt and pepper squid as my main meal the first time around. It was too pale! I did like the crushed pepper bits and how soft and tender the actual squid was but once again, I want my salt and pepper squid to be unhealthily crunchy! Golden brown heart attack style! You couldn't taste the salt at all. They came with a preserved lemon aioli that was very creamy but didn't carry through the preserved lemon very well to my taste.

Bleh

The second time that I mentioned we went here was before some of my work mates and my boyfriend decided to go for dinner before we went to see the first showing of the Perks of being a Wallflower. I didn't take any photos cause I wanted it to be quick and since we went around 6pm, the lighting was pretty bad too. The very picky Ms K., regally decided that Swampdog was up to her standards and allowed us to go here. Ms M for Megababe was fine with whatever, and Lu and my Boyfriend was happy to follow my lead.

Lu., for herself mackerel wrap and said while she has never had one before, the fish was really good. She adds that, this is coming from a girl bought up on the Barrier Reef whose father goes out fishing all the time, so she has high standards. Ms M for Megababe got battered fish and chips, but I can't remember if she chose a fish specifically, she liked her meal and thought it was good. Ms K., got herself a fish burger and was the last to actually be given her meal, even she was happy with her meal.

I wanted popcorn prawns aka school prawns again but they had run out, so I went with tempura'd soft shell crab with Asian salad and it was terrible. The batter was soggy and it squirted hot oil into my mouth, so I got a mild burn, I didn't notice much crab inside the batter. My Asian style salad was terrible, mint, nappa cabbage, butter lettuce, celery, tomato and mostly red onion bits. Like I'm talking it was a red onion salad, it was wolfed down by my Boyfriend, but he's weird like that.

Swampdog Fish and Chips
Atmosphere: 9, its like fancy arse fish and chip shop, that should be plonked down on your local beach. This is the place that is a local secret and you can BYO whatever you want here, which you can do incidentally. I really like the door tables, and I know Lu., got a kick out of them too.
Service: 6, the owner is a super nice guy who is happy to chat to you about sustainable fishing and offer a recommendation.
Food: 7. The food is a bit hit and miss here, what I like I really like, what I don't, I really couldn't care less or even be bothered to eat. The quality of food is good and you can where they're going with the flavours, its just a bit lacking.

Chocolate Fudge Cake

I've decided that from now on, when I work on Sundays, I bring in a cake. It becomes Cake Sunday then and our drowsy afternoon shifts aren't so boring if there's a freshly baked cake to liven things up. Its makes really good for me, because then I can practice my baking skills and have other people eat the results, since I don't have much of a sweet tooth. As a result, I've spent most of November baking cakes, so expect lots of cake recipes in future posts.

Cake Monday was a thought, but nothing should ever celebrate a Monday. NOTHING.

The other nurses at work equally adore and loathe this new custom of mine because someone either misses out or sets back their diet for a day. Hahaha, its not my fault if you're not working a Sunday or have little self control!

Anyway, this cake went down a treat. 3/4 of the cake was gone in 15 minutes which is a new record I think. Its very rich, very very moist and yet oddly fluffy for such a chocolatey cake. I've reduced the sugar by a bit so its not as sweet as you'd think, simplified the instructions a bit, upped the temperature and reduced the overall cooking time. Its covered in my failproof chocolate sauce/icing thing, cause it turned out so ugly. The original recipe called for 140C for almost two hours. I originally got this recipe from Taste.com.au.

Thoughts on the matter

Chocolate Fudge Cake

Hey twisties!

Uses: Cake Sunday cakes! Feeding lots of workmates.

Ingredients for cake:
250g of butter, cubed
1 cup of cold water
1/2 cup of milk
200g block of dark cooking chocolate
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cups of SR flour, sifted
1 cup of plain flour, sifted
1/4 cup of good cocoa, sifted
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1tbsp of vanilla bean paste

Ingredients for go to chocolate sauce/icing/whatever deliciousness
100g chocolate
50ml cream
50g butter

Decorations:
1 smashed up Flake chocolate bar, or whatever you want

Instructions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 180C. Line your cake tin with baking paper. I used a 23cm springform cake tin, aka my only cake tin
2. Put the butter, milk, sugar, chocolate and water into a saucepan over a medium heat. Stir occasionally and remove from heat when it looks presentable

Starting off

All dat butter

Almost there

There we go :)

3. Whisk in the cocoa and flour

Its like an island!

4. Whisk in eggs and vanilla bean paste until smooth

:)

5. Bake for at least an hour until a skewer comes out clean

Spot the skewer mark. I lie, it was a chopstick.

Instructions for chocolate sauce thing:
1. Mix all the ingredients in a double boiler until smooth. Should be thick enough to ribbon when the spoon is lifted up before melting into rest of it.
2. Spread over cake or firm in fridge until you want to spread it. Will naturally thicken at room temperature in about 2-3 hours, even on a warm day.. Ideally refridgerate.

Decorations:
 1. Do what you want. I just smashed up a flake chocolate bar and sprinkled it on top.