PPP: Little Greek Taverna

I have an awesome story to tell about how we got to this PPP, but that would be revealing too much about one of my friend's alibis hahaha. Anyway, we had a hard day of studying for a work related exam so we decided to pack it in and head to Little Greek Taverna in West End for a quick meal. V., suggested Little Greek Taverna because she has always gotten a good meal from here, the service is good, its always bustling with people too and I had never tried it. The other girls, V., Lu., and L., and guy, my Boyfriend who was dragged along, heartily agreed.

It was not the first choice, Trangs was, and it, like all my other first choices was closed. The curse strikes again! Since none of us are particularly used to driving in West End, I'm a car license-less hobo for those of you not aware, although I do own a car. It was a bit hectic navigating from work to West End, we ended up travelling along the M1, along Vulture Street and to my erratic memory, "that street that goes all the way up to West End past South Bank and Brisbane State High."

I was getting yelled at the entire way because one of the girls at work S, had given me some very fragrant garam masala and fenugreek seeds for a planned butter chicken later on. V., who drive us there, was frantically cranking up her air con powered air freshener to chase out the smell but just succeeded in spreading it around more. To this day, she still grizzles at me about it, like I regularly carry around freshly ground spices.

Minus the thumb and people, this looks a lot like the picture on their website

We spent quite a while chatting before we ordered and I ordered some pita bread and taramasalata for the table, V., ordered a large Greek salad and Lu., got barbecued octopus. Everyone ordered mains besides my Boyfriend who wasn't feeling hungry and just picked at random foods that day.

This is their Greek salad. I'm not sure if V., would've still ordered one if she knew that everything seemed to come with a Greek salad. I didn't particularly like it, the feta was very strange, it was in huge chunks and very thinly sliced. There was also a weird off putting smell with it, like when forget about feta in the fridge and it gets that really gym sock like smell. It tasted very strong. The olives were very good, and the tomatoes were as well. I didn't really care for the peppers though, I think we just threw them off to one side.

Bleh

The pita bread was okay. I remember thinking we should've gone with the bread on the day but for the life of me I can't remember why. I think I was also disappointed with how little we got considering it was extra for the pita bread instead of the complimentary bread. Or maybe that's how it seems when four other people are tearing at your pita bread. It was actually soft and easy to tear considering its golden brown shade.

Taramasalataaaaa

The taramasalata was amazing. Commercially produced taramasalata is a lurid pink concoction of salted fish roe and then some mystifying combination of potato/bread, vinegar and other things I'm not quite sure of. Whatever it is, its tasty. Lu., had it for the first time and once the pita was all gone, happily sat there eating it off her fork for the rest of the meal.

The barbecued octopus was a bit rubbery. That's all I have to say about it. It doesn't look particularly appetising either.

Not a fan.

V., and Lu., got chicken pita wraps which I didn't take a photo of because paper bags aren't particularly attractive. They were picking at their food and they both didn't finish the final third of their meals. I had a nibble of one of the chicken pieces and found it to be bouncy, tender and a good piece of chicken although I didn't particularly like the seasoning used.

I chose garlic prawns, I don't know why since I don't like prawns. I just felt like seafood that day and had no idea why. These prawns were very good though, take one look at them and see. They had that bright pink translucency that perfectly cooked prawns have, they popped nicely in your mouth once bitten, were deliciously juicy and covered in a garlicky sauce. That sauce was overly rich by my standards, very garlicky and buttery in an almost oddly cheesy/creamy sort of fashion. I didn't eat my Greek salad, my Boyfriend ate the vegetables ignoring the feta and the pepper.

Delicious garlic breath

L., chose the feta stuffed field mushrooms. I had a nibble and didn't find them very tasty although L., really enjoyed them. For some reason whenever I see cooked mushrooms that large, I always feel very impressed.

Average

Little Greek Taverna
Atmosphere: 9. I really liked the atmosphere, it was a lovely afternoon. There were large groups everywhere, and we were seated outside in a cool breezy spot. You could tell every other person there was a local who frequented the restaurant all the time from the greetings to other patrons and staff.
Service: 9. Probably the best service I've ever had. The waitress was attentive, friendly, could offer recommendations, got us water instantly, asked about when we wanted our entrees, they went around checking if we were okay 2-3 times during the meal and cleared the table rapidly.
Food: 4. I liked the taramasalata and the garlic prawns and that was it.

I feel like I'm going to get slammed for this review but I liked everything about Little Greek Taverna but the actual food. I've already been hassled at work already when I disagreed with someone's plans to go to Little Greek Taverna, with the person in question stating I was too picky and that they had always had good food there.

I would go here again, but I don't know if I would eat anything.

Dark Chocolate and Macadamia Cookies and Meatball Stew

So I've been wanting to make this dark chocolate and macadamia cookie recipe for months now. I saw it many moons ago in some woman's magazine like Woman's Weekly or something. We get these magazines all the time at my workplace and we normally get given them by patients once they are done with them. The only issue is that when it comes to recipes, they normally go missing.

This is because some scum bags at work like to rip out the recipe instead of photocopying it or taking a photo like a civilised human being. You hardly deserve to be called ladies, and I hope that the recipe was fantastic and you fail badly at it. I always feel so annoyed when I see the recipes have been ripped out because it means it must've been good enough, and by the low standards of my workplace, easy enough for someone to pull off and still look good.

Dark Chocolate and Macademia Cookies

Super delicious

Uses: bribing house mates, study rewards, nurse fodder.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of sifted cocoa

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of white sugar

250g of cubed butter

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup and 1/2 cup of sifted SR flour and plain flour. Or use 1 cup plain and a tbsp of baking powder

1 cup of halved roasted macademias

150g of good dark chocolate or cooking chocolate

Seems like a lot of ingredients, but its not!

Note:

I didn't use milk in this recipe at all. I thought I was going to but decided on a mostly shortbread style biscuit, which doesn't require any milk. I'm never a fan of using plain flour and baking powder, so I normally use weird ratios of SR and plain flour.

Instructions:

1. Preheat an oven to 180C while you are doing all this. Line several baking trays with baking paper

2. Whiz together the sifted cocoa, sugars and butter together until creamy brown paste is formed.

Simple!

3. Scrape out the mixture and mix in the beaten egg

4. Begin sifting the flour onto the mixture, don't be shy, tap it.

There is an egg somewhere under that

5. Mix briefly until no white parts remain, but don't overmix or it gets weird and starchy.

Nice and smooth

6. Mix in the macademias and dark chocolate. Don't overmix, just mix until just combined

Good enough

7. Space far away from each other, a small 50c piece sized ball of dough, flatten slightly and continue. Or do it however you want, its a cookie, its going to get eaten not admired

This will not end well. They turned into a flower, see the top image :)

8. Bake for 10-15 minutes to desired consistency. They will firm up once cooled down, but will be very crumbly until then. 

On the day that we made this, my Boyfriend's housemates were cat calling us all evening, trying to score some cookies. We left the plate out overnight and he said in the morning there was a hand written sign saying, "OMG I ALMOST HAD ONE, SO TEMPTING." He promptly printed out a sign of this:

Her response was: OMG BEST RESPONSE EVER. Then when we left the house half the plate went missing haha.

As usual, I made a savoury dish but this time it was as more of an afterthought since I really wanted to make the cookies first and foremost. This is just a basic meatball stew/soup recipe cobbled together that I normally make for lunches in winter. Change/adapt to whatever is in your kitchen but here is my basic recipe. Its not the fanciest thing in the world, but its cheap, filling and smells delicious, and nearly everyone has this stuff in their pantry.

Meatball Soup

Uses: warm belly lunches. Making salad eating nurses jealous.

Meatball recipe:

Ingredients:

500kg beef/chicken/pork/veal mince

1 small onion, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/4 cup of tasty cheese
1 large egg, beaten
Salt and pepper to taste

All the ingredients in one!

1. Mix all this stuff together

Before

After

2. Make small 50c piece sized balls or whatever shape you want. Squeeze them hard like you're strangling your worst enemy

Nice. Also a wild hairy foot is spotted!

3. Put in the fridge for at least 15 minutes so they hold their shape,
4. Briefly fry them in hot oil until golden brown edged

Mmm meatballs. Ignore burnt bits, they will add flavour to your soup!

5. Set aside and begin making soup

Soup recipe:
1 large onion, sliced/diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced

2x 500g cans of diced tomato

1x 500g can of 4 bean mix

2x carrots, sliced
1 large potato, scrubbed, diced
1 small capsicum, diced
1tbsp Tomato paste
500ml-1L of chicken stock
1tbsp mixed herbs
Salt/Pepper/Brown Sugar/Balsamic Vinegar to taste

Ingredients:

1. Brown off the onion on a medium heat until slightly browned

2. Throw in your garlic and stir until you can smell cooked garlic

3. Throw in everything hard, like potatoes, carrots, all your canned goods and all your stock. Bring to the boil. Hard herbs go in now as well.

Classy.

Overcrowding ftw

4. Remember to skim off scum. Reduce to a simmer until the potato begins to soften, throw in meatballs and softer vegetables such as mushrooms, capsicum and friends

SKIM SKIM

5. This is the time for seasoning with salt, pepper, sugar, balsamic vinegar and soft herbs if wanted.

Lastly, here is a picture of the first blog related injury sustained in the kitchen.

Poor darling.

What happened? Well the can opener I picked out was apparently one of the two dodgy ones in my Boyfriend's share house and it doesn't maintain equal pressure when being used. So I had to keep repuncturing the can. Once I failed to open it, I called in my Boyfriend and he got out his actual can opener which works, and did another go around the can, which resulted in this razor sharp second ring on the can. He then pried out the fallen in ring and flicked it up against his thumb quite deeply. Thanks for taking one for the team darling :)

Freestyle Tout

It came like a bolt out of the blue.

"TSG! U working this week!"

"I have monday and tuesday off, you in town?"

"YESSSSSS"

"yessssssssssssssssssssssss"

That's right, Yassmin from http://redefiningthenarrative.com.au/ was back in town and it was time for another intense meet up. Every time we meet up, we go out for food, talk about everything under the sun since we met, our jobs, our love life or lack of one, the books we've read, the books we're reading, ethnic family dramas, I lose my voice and then Yass has to run off to a meeting somewhere. 

I'll save you the pages and pages of WhatsApp conversation but the trouble with Yass is, she is her own secretary. While she is a brilliant visionary, she is quite forgetful, and doesn't seem to understand that if you book a meeting that ends at 11am, you can't be on the other side of the city at another meeting or meeting up with a friend by 11.30am. We were talking about ideal super powers one time, and she said she'd love to be able to teleport from place to place and I don't blame her. She books herself back to back, meeting up with the hoards of Brisbanites she calls friends, her work commitments and saving the world.

Pretty much her day. 

This time was no exception with Yass originally intending to meet us at Three Monkeys in West End at 9.30am before running off to the Emporium in the Valley for her next meeting at 11.30am. We then decided to go to the movies, at Garden City, South Bank Cineplex and then the Barracks. Then we were going to meet up somewhere in the Valley, because she had a meeting at the Emporium at 8.30am, had to meet us at 9.30am in West End then had to be back for her 11.30am meeting. Then we were back at Three Monkeys at a different time cause she was meeting up with another friend. In the end, we went to meet up with Yass at the Emporium in the Valley between meetings.

Being the polite people we are, Yassmin, my Boyfriend and I had a hard time deciding where to go to eat. I didn't particularly want to go to Mecca Bah, which I know is halal. Yassmin told me she normally eat seafood or vegetarian if the place we're going to doesn't serve halal food. I didn't feel like seafood, or Japanese. As usual, my Boyfriend said he was happy with whatever we ate. In the end, we went over to investigate Freestyle Tout because I said, I've never been there when the kitchen was open for savoury food.

Woo Freestyle!

I really like Freestyle Tout, in addition to their fixed menu, they have a weekly specials menu that is constantly changing. This was the menu from the week that we went.

Another attraction is that they do cocktails by the jug. I'm just saying haha.

Nice. Classy binge drinking.

The cafe is lovely, with a circular room in the front with tables all around the sides, backed up against a very comfortable window seat with scattered cushions in front of huge windows. The view is terrible however, of a busy road and all the car dealerships nearby but the breeze is lovely. It knocked over a lot of our stuff though, I lost a napkin, cushions were knocked over and at one stage I'm pretty sure Yass was hit in the back of the head with one of the curtains. Around the back are some communal dining style long tables and seats. Its also quite a bit darker around that side hahaha, we've sat there before when we've come here on previous occasions. They did ask if we wanted the curtains closed but we were happy to be basking in the cool breeze.

So bright. The light, it burns!

Woah did we actually sit on stools?
I don't remember that

I was the only person to get a drink, the Berrylicious iced tea. A very pretty house iced tea with bits of crushed raspberries floating everywhere. It wasn't actually very tasty, tasting like unsweetened fruit tea. For something so pretty with such a nice name, I'd have expected a splash of berry juice or something to boost up the flavour.

Not very Berrylicious tea.

We order the trio of tapas for the three of us, and my Boyfriend and I split a Caesar salad wrap for a more substantial meal.

Salt and pepper squid with soft herb and candied citrus salad. The salad I think is that collection of lemon wedge with some flat leaf parsley, some spinach leaves and what looks like a red pickle in a horrible picture I took and didn't include. I think it goes without saying that no one ate the salad.

I normally think salt and pepper squid is always a good idea wherever you go, but I always find its never as good as the ones my mum makes deep fried oil, crispy tentacles and all. Its never quite as salty, its never quite as crunchy, it doesn't have that little sweetness from briefly cooked capsicum. These were tenderly cooked, possibly quickly pan fried? Mildly seasoned with salt and pepper despite the little black flecks you can see here. I did like the cross hatch scoring on the squid pieces though, I think it makes it very pretty and very easy to do too! I probably wouldn't get it again, not bad though.

Salt and pepper squid!

Individual tartlets of caramelised fennel, blue cheese and roasted truss tomatoes. Random microherbs everywhere, literally everywhere. I can't really see why they put them there, they look very disorientated. I quite liked this actually, the caramelised fennel was surprisingly sweet! I've never had fennel before but I've read somewhere that its supposed to have a strong aniseed taste and I'm no fan of licorice, so I was pleasantly surprised. The blue cheese was very strong, that sweaty gym sock smell and it made my boyfriend steer right clear. The gorgeously coloured heirloom tomatoes were soft and sweet. I like it all in all.

Our tartlets of blue cheese, roasted truss tomato and caramelised fennel

Croquettes of roasted mushroom and goats cheese. We got a dish of garlicky, super creamy aioli to dip with. We dipped it with everything, I would just buy a big pot of that aioli and eat it with chips or something. It was fantastic. The croquettes themselves were a bit fiddly to share between three people, for some reason I was expecting little deep fried balls not these long oblong shapes. They were very creamy and that's all I have to say about them. I didn't notice any noticeable pieces of mushroom and the goats cheese wasn't enough for me to comment on.

Delicious sauce and some fried croquettes

Oh man this Caesar salad wrap. We were all super impressed when it came out. It came with its own serving PLANK and was the size of a tissue box. Its bloody huge and absolutely delicious. My boyfriend and I normally lovingly share bites between each other, he was sneaking bites when my head was turned, and claimed it as his dish. No bloody wonder with those charry, crunchy slabs of rasher and loin bacon, the grilled chunks of chicken, that crisp unidentified lettuce leaf, that house made Caesar dressing drizzled over the insides and the soft pita wrap.

Oh damn Caesar salad, you looking good enough to eat hahaha

Where's the egg you say? In this picture. Its been deep fried and was deliciously gooey in the centre. Disgustingly deep fried and brilliant. This is the best Caesar salad wrap I've ever had, and if it appears on the Freestyle Tout menu again, buy it, and buy one for later too. For $12 it fed the both of us admirably.

Peeking out!

We were fatties and ordered dessert too. We did sit there for about half an hour afterwards and then decided to get dinner.

Bread and butter pudding with vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce for Yassmin. My god, it was good. The bread and butter pudding was meltingly soft, with plump juicy raisins studded throughout the pudding and a marmalade glazed top. The butterscotch sauce was apparently fantastic but I had eyes only for that pudding. I ate more of Yassmin's pudding than she did I think. The vanilla ice cream was delicious as well with a dense, creamy texture and real vanilla bean seeds throughout. Yassmin and I both agreed its one of the best we've ever had.

Bread and butter pudding

Smooshed

My Boyfriend went for the creme brulee, raspberry sorbet, vanilla ice cream, forest berries, pashmak fluff and a slice of biscotti. Pashmak is a Persian dessert made from sesame seeds and sugar and it has a noticeably nutty grit to it. I've had this before with a friend and I advised my Boyfriend not to get it but he did cause apparently he makes a mean creme brulee. Like me he ate everything but the creme brulee, I thought it tasted like pure cream set with gelatine and not much else. He was criticising it for having an unevenly golden top, not being crunchy enough when broken through and that he's made better ones before.

Creme brulee

Poor abandoned creme brulee. The pashmak fell on the ground.

I got a rapidly melting Cocolusicious sundae made of coffee, chocolate and vanilla coconut based ice cream with an organic chocolate coconut sauce. It had the first few spoonfuls of this and regretted choosing it as I tend to not really like sweet/creamy thing and have a dessert taste for things that are sweet/tart. It wasn't bad though but no one was keen to help me finish as they were all struggling to finish their respective desserts.

Cocolusicious sundae

Well that was a pathetic effort

That's what greedy food blogging gets you, overindulgence and uneaten desserts! I guess I haven't developed that second dessert stomach yet hahaha.

Many thanks to my Boyfriend for taking the food shots! He did a much better job than I usually do hahaha. I took over during desserts cause the noon sun had gone down a bit and the change in quality is noticeable!

Freestyle Tout
Atmosphere: 8/6 Inside, light and breezy. Outside parked right outside some parking spaces.
Service: 6. Given some menus, cheerful smiling staff, help yourself drinks, they did come to take away our plates though.
Food: 7, split between my love of their savoury and my general indifference for their desserts.

RJIE 5: Parker's Organic Lightly Sparking drinks

We always pass by this health food store on Boundary Street when we're heading back home. Like most health food stores, its got some really weird/interesting stuff in it. I always find myself drawn in, whether its by the weird drinks on stock, eyeballing specials, deciding whether or not I want one of those handmade popsicles or just out of curiosity, I always find something interesting. This time we were walking home to mine and decided to pop in and buy a drink.

We got a Parker's organic lightly sparkling ginger beer.

Woah hairy arms

And a Parker's organic lightly sparkly lemon, lime and bitters.

Magic floating bottle

Impressions of both drinks? Would not buy them again. Due to the lightly sparkling element, it really reminded me of drinking that bottle of soft drink you opened at the party, shoved back in the fridge and found days later. The taste is roughly the same, but all the bubbles are gone except a few of them, and without bubbles soft drinks are just gross, at least cordials have proper flavour to them. The ginger beer had a nice hot ginger kick to it and was the better drink out of the two. The lemon, lime and bitters tasted like it was watered down? Odd since I had just opened the bottle. I personally wouldn't drink this again.

Chocolate Peanut Butter and Caramel Cake

I found this recipe in the back of a fairly recent food magazine, although I couldn't tell you for the life of me which one this was. I just looked at the recipe and it was love at first sight. A tall, double storied fluffy cake made with delicious peanut butter and yoghurt. I've always wanted a yoghurt cake to make since apparently they are lusciously light. It coated in a thick chocolate ganache and in the centre of the cake was a gooey caramel. It looked like if I ate some, I'd have a heart attack

Hrnghhh that cake is so delicious

 I actually made this cake for the dessert of my Pad Thai Party, once again attendance was pitiful. It went down a treat, Amy and her boyfriend Doug, ate all their pad thai, two massive slices of my cake and then they ate a massive slice of the cake they bought over from Le Bon Choix, a weird pear and white chocolate mousse one.

I also made this cake for J2's going away party. One of the senior nurses at work walked into the handover room, she asked what the cake was and she said, "I'll need the old epipen if I had a slice." She then proceeded to cut herself a slice and when I tried to stop her, she happily reassured me and said, "I really did bring my epipen today."

No joke.

Anyway, that shows you how good the cake is, a nurse would risk anaphylatic shock to have a piece. Comments about the cake were about how light and fluffy the cake was, how gooey my homemade caramel was and that my ganache was amazing. Knowing something is bad tends to make things taste better. Here is the recipe anyway!

Peanut Butter, Chocolate and Caramel Cake

Uses: Assorted parties and ruining diets

Ingredients:

Peanut Butter and yoghurt cake:
1/2 cup of natural yoghurt
200g butter, chopped at room temperature
1/2 cup of peanut butter
4 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup of self raising flour
Extra chocolate/peanuts for decoration

Yay, all the ingredients!

Caramel:
150g white sugar
50g of butter
50ml of cream

Really all you need

Chocolate Ganache:
100g milk chocolate
50g butter
50ml cream

For the cake:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line your chosen cake tin/s with baking paper for easy removal
2. Put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl barring flour, mix with a some sort of mixer or like hand whisk or something, until a smooth, disgustingly beige paste is formed.

MIX EVERYTHING BUT THE FLOUR.

Whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

3. Sift the SR flour into the bowl and lightly mix until just combined. It should now resemble a cake batter.

Huh, not bad

4. Place in either 2x 20cm cake tins and bake in a preheated 180 degree oven for 20-30 minutes until lightly golden. Or if you're like me and only own a 23cm deep cake tin, bake at 180 for 45-60 minutes until golden brown and cake skewer isn't gooey.

Noice

Not bad.

5. Stand for about 10 minutes in pan and then allow to cool elsewhere.

For the caramel:
1. Have cold water ready on standby in case of caramel burns
2. Heat a tall pot to medium with the sugar inside
3. Whisk the sugar occasionally, it'll make weird chunky white crystals, keep whisking!

A bit lighter than this

4. Once the sugar begins to become lightly golden, throw in the butter, it should foam up like crazy. Keep the pan on heat though

Work fast! Mix it all up!

5. Once the butter is incorporated, throw in the cream as well, continuing to whisk. It'll foam up high again.

For the chocolate ganache:
For some reason I never take photos of this. Use your imagination!
1. In a double boiler or a bowl that fits above a saucepan, melt the chocolate
2. Once melted add the butter and cream until it becomes smooth

ASSEMBLE ALL THINGS!
1. Either slice your solo cake in half or thirds, or I don't know put your two or three cakes together

Not bad for a first effort

2. Apply a later of caramel over the centre
3. Top with the other bit of cake
4. Dribble/coat with chocolate ganache. You can put other things on top like crushed peanuts or chocolate curls

GANACHE

Peanuts!

5. Let the cake set for at least 20 minutes but you can serve it as soon as possible too