Kiama gluten free report

we are home from our holiday in Kiama (unfortunately!) I'm glad to say that Kiama redeemed itself as i hated it last time i went there for a winter holiday as a pre-teen LOL

I'm so glad i did my gluten free research before we went, it really does make it easier to have a list of places to try!

so where did we go and how was it?

Hanoi on Manning
10 Manning Street
http://www.hanoionmanning.com.au/

we got takaway from Hanoi on Manning one night and it was very yum! even their spring rolls were gluten free (made with rice paper) so i'm guessing they have a coeliac in the family. would definitely recommend them - especially their beef salad.

Domino's Pizza
40 Terralong Street

we also grabbed a couple of pizzas for the kids one night. dominos is dominos, not world class but did the job without making her sick ;)

Cafe Parkview
82 Terralong Street


we went to cafe parkview ummmm 3 times i think LOL rora decided it was her fave and kept insisting we return. we had mixed service and food from so-so to great. i would recommend it though, mainly because our experience at short black was worse lol

Short Black Coffee cafe
88 Terralong St

we had brunch on our final day here and regretted it. the coffee was pretty good, the food was OK-ish, though i watched the chef toasting the gluten bread on the same grillplate used to cook all the bacon, fried eggs, tomatoes etc. i assume the gluten free bread was toasted on it also though that didn't occur to me til after we'd left so we spent the whole trip home waiting to see if rora would be sick or not :( luckily she'd selected poached eggs so they were safe :)
our meals took 40 minutes to arrive (we were STARVING by this time) and as we sat right across from the coffee machine and owner, we had an hour of listening to her berate her young staff. it seemed they were new and needed some guidance but a full hour of it was quite offputting.

other places we tried which were not on the list included:

Harbourview Thai Restaurant 
48 Terralong Street Kiama NSW 2533‎
https://plus.google.com/100200849563187798217/about?gl=au&hl=en

we had takeaway from here one night (we don't usually buy so much food when we camp but we had food storage issues lol). it was nice though not as nice as we get from our faves in canberra.

My Chocolate Shoppe
Shop 13, 106 Terralong Street, Kiama
http://www.mychocolateshoppe.com.au/

we didn't actually eat here but we did buy handmade chocolates for my mum (to say thank you for looking after our menagerie) and they were all gluten free :)
they do have a full gluten free menu which i have just found and am now wishing we'd gone there to try it!

Photo of Cafe Parkview, by Emelia (8)

Kiama Gluten Free

We will be camping in Kiama in the next few months so I thought I'd start a list of places we might be able to eat out.  If you know of any others or have feedback on any of these please comment!

I'm actually pleasantly shocked at how many options there are, not used to so much choice!

oooh i just found this, great place to start! (after i've done all the work below lol)
http://illawarraglutenfree.blogspot.com.au/2009/09/illawarra-restaurants-with-gluten-free.html

Restaurant 1871
Sebel Harbourside, 31 Shoalhaven St (Cnr Minnamurra St)
http://www.mirvachotels.com/sebel-harbourside-kiama/restaurant-1871

Hanoi on Manning
10 Manning Street
http://www.hanoionmanning.com.au/

Burgers and More Takeaway
127A Queen St, Berry
Burgers, Fish and Chips

HedgeHogs Coffee Shop
4/98 Queen St, Berry
http://www.hedgehogscoffeeshop.com.au/

Minnamurra Cafe + General
1a Rangoon Rd
Breakfast/Brunch, Coffee, Modern Australian

Pippy's Seafood & Australian
68 Manning Street
Modern Australian, Seafood

Domino's Pizza
40 Terralong Street

Stonegrill Anchor Inn 
Anchor Inn Gerringong Level 1, 139 Belinda St
http://www.anchorinn.com.au/restaurant.html

Seabreeze Dining
31 Shoalhaven St
http://www.seabreezedining.com.au/

Harbourside Brighton Restaurant 
4-6 Terralong St
http://www.harboursidebrighton.com.au/index.php

Waves at the Beach ???
87 Manning St

Cafe Parkview
82 Terralong Street

Short Black Coffee cafe
88 Terralong St

Out Of The Blue Cafe
Terralong St


from http://www.coeliac.org.au/nsw-act/Content/NSWRestaurantLists/Illawarra.pdf
COUNTRY ILLAWARRA
BULLI
Sea Salt on Bulli Beach Lot 68 Trinity Row 4284 8808
DAPTO
Dapto Bowling Club 70 Marshall Street 4261 1652 Gluten free lasagne and other dishes
GERRINGONG
Gerringong Pizza  123 Fern Street 4234 2454 Gluten free pizza bases available in small size only. Good knowledge of suitable toppings
JAMBEROO
Jamberoo Pub  12 Allowrie Street 4236 0270 Range of gluten free options including pasta, bread, chips etc and items marked on menu
KIAMA
Manning Street Café 14 Manning Street 4232 4030
Cafe Parkview Kiama 82 Terralong Street 4232 1152 Gluten free items marked on the menu
Dolphins Diner & Deli 38 Terralong Street 4233 2333 A range of gluten free options
SHELLHARBOUR
Muffin Break Shellharbour Square Shopping Centre
UNANDERRA
Unanderra Thai Restaurant 127 Princess Highway 4271 3844
WARRAWONG
Muffin Break Westfield Shoppingtown
WOLLONGONG
Lorenzo’s Diner Keira Street 4229 5633 (Professional Member)
Piato Coffee & Fine Food  Shop 322, Level 3 Crown Street Mall, Wollongong Central 4229 4499
Cold Rock Icecreamery  Shop 3, 22 Market Street 4227 3143
Zweefers Great Cakes 43-45 Princes Highway 4285 4155 Gluten free cakes and savoury items
Muffin Break Wollongong Central Shopping Centre
Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar Shop 105, 53 – 61 Crown Street 4226 4479 (Professional Member)
WOONONA
Lucy & Bears Café Shop 3/373 Princes Highway 4285 7060 (Professional Member)
Domino's Pizza 413-415 Princes Highway (Cnr Cambell Street) 4251 3633
Pai-Tong Thai Restaurant  Shop 5/409 Princes Highway 4284 0321 Separate gluten free menu
available - please advise staff of requirement

Disappointingly average...

Tonight a friend offered to babysit the kids while we went out - our first choice was closed so we ended up in Dickson.
In the mood for Thai but with our planned restaurant shut we ended up at Thai Garden in Dickson (behind Zeffirelli). We had rice paper rolls which were quite nice, full of fresh herbs. For mains we had chicken with five herbs and beef rendang. the beef was very tender but lacking flavour, and i had the sneaking feeling it wasn't a made from scratch dish.
the chicken with five herbs was nice enough but not at all what i'd expected - i thought it would be heaps of fresh asian herbs tossed throughout the dish. instead there was a bare minimum of herbs cooked into the sauce, with a vague flavour of the dill the only recognisable herb.

the restaurant certainly seemed busy enough, particularly for takeaways, but it was a bit of a let down, so we won't bother again.

Review - Southern Cross Club - Jamison

G's sister was down with her new partner (also gluten free) this weekend and wanted to catch up with us over dinner. So we had to find somewhere where we could get gluten free, something ryan would eat, and affordable.

first choice was Digress, which sounds amazing and comes highly recommended by a friend. however we just couldn't afford $25 for ryan's lasagne plus another dish for each of the rest of us. Plus they never called me back to confirm they were gluten free...

so then i had the idea of the Southern Cross Club. we'd only been to the Woden one (for my nephew's birthday a few years ago) and while it had been disappointing (and expensive as they'd made us sign up as members, though it expired a month or so ago) we figured it was worth trying the Jamison one , and we wouldn't have to sign up as no one else in my family had needed to at Woden, just us (error on the part of the girl on the front desk)

well, we were wrong. we DID have to sign up just to eat (this is ridiculous) but at least this time it was only $12 for the family, not the $40 the woden one was.

after a short wait in the queue i ordered - kids meals for ryan and emelia (ham and cheese pizza, and a junior beef burger). Rora and i had the malaysian chicken curry, and G had the chicken parmigiana.

by the time my SIL went to order she had a looooong queue to wait in, and it took about 15 mins to order - they only had one person taking orders. not to mention stupidly having the cash register right next to the door to the kitchen, so every order in or out had to go through the line waiting...

Ryan enjoyed his burger with chips and ate the lot. emelia got chips with her pizza and that was all she ate. she said she didn't like the pizza and i have to say it was DROWNED in cheese and looked awful (unless you like extra cheese!). Our curry chicken was disappointing. it was edible sure, and it was great quality chicken (either tenderloins or sliced up breast) but the whole meal was chicken! there must have been a good 400g of chicken on the plate if not more! the sauce was kind of bland and there were NO vegies in the meal :( it did come with boiled white rice. G said his parmigiana was ok, so so...

for dessert ryan and emelia got a free icecream to go with their kids meal (nowhere on the menu did it say this, or that they got a free soft drink), ryan had a frog in a pond, and rora tried the GF chocolate mousse, which she didn't like much. G & I ate the leftovers and it was DELISH but i think maybe a bit too much of a grown up taste for rora. G said there were around 4 different gluten free cake options which is great :)

there was an outdoor play area for the kids which was great (even though we hadn't thought to bring coats ;)) and an indoor play area where you had to pay to buy tokens to play etc, bit of a money sucker. especially when the kids won 59 tickets and went to ge ttheir prizes only to discover it was minimum 100 tickets for a prize which was one tiny bouncey ball, or one tattoo. bit disappointing.

the place was VERY busy though, so obviously popular. while it wasn't faublous it's certainly nice to have another option that can meet all our needs and keep the kids happy!!!

New Grill'd at Belconnen

New Grill'd at Belconnen, a photo by brazen20au on Flickr.

We visited today for the first time...

we were curious, and excited, because they said they did gluten free!!!

unfortuantely when we read on it turned out that the gluten free buns were toasted in the same toaster as the gluten buns, so therefore not safe for rora. As it turned out we sat right next to the salad bar / assembly line and there is NO way they are gluten safe, and unfortunately rora won't be having anything except chips and possibly the meat from there (and she didn't like the chips lol). I watched them put too much sauce on a bun, scrape it off, back intot he bowl... put too much  salad on and pick up the excess of the bench (which i hadn't seen them clean) and throw it back into the salad bowls. I guess if she really wanted salad i could insist it not be from the salad bar but it all seems too hard. I also watched the way the girl doing the buns handled the GF ones (there were a few went through) and there was plenty of opportunity for cross contamination out of the toaster, quite apart from the toaster crumbs...

so, geoff had the "front" (something) steak sandwich, i had the "simon says" chicken burger, emelia had the chicken & cheese burger kids meal and ryan had the beef (and bacon instead of cheese) kids meal. I also ordered a regular chips for rora and one for G & i to share. this was a mistake as they were way bigger than i thought and we could have all shared one serve, especially at $4.80 per serve and with rora just licking the (way too much) salt off!

to buy that, with no drinks for G, rora or I was over $50, so a pretty expensive lunch. Ryan and Emelia LOVED theirs and can't wait to go again, G & i enjoyed ours but didn't think they were special enough to justify the price. we'll probably do it again but not in a hurry.

oh, it is worth mentioning that from time of ordering to delivery of food was less than 10 minutes, closer to 5 i think - excellent! they seemed to have great customer service :)

My chicken burger

Geoff's STeak sandwich

The kids' meal in box

and the queue a few minutes after i ordered (i only had one person in front of me ;)), out the door!

Grill'd website

The Perfect Bean (GF)

This afternoon we are off to the Perfect Bean Cafe in Florey for a Coeliac Society GTG. we have been there before (well, Rora and I have) but i can't find the photos i took!

they are opening especially for our group :)

i will take more photos and report back this afternoon (well, now that I come to think of it, i have no idea where my new phone puts my photos either lol i will TRY)

apparently questacon has heaps of GF food options!

Geoff took the kids to Questacon today for fathers day :) when he checked the canteen he found heaps of GF options, which he didn't remember seeing before.

Rora had a GF spaghetti bolognese & chips which cost around $5 with our member discount. excellent!

keep it in mind if ever at questacon in canberra :D

---- Sent from my 3 mobile

More Master So Scrumptiousness!

Today we managed to get rid of both our boys so i decided it was a good day for a another visit to Master So - our local chinese restaurant, which has gluten free options (we hadn't managed to get back there since our last visit)

funnily Emelia was wearing her supergirl shirt again so the owner recognised us straight away and asked if I was the lady who wrote about them on my blog - so this is a big hello to her :D she is hoping to have their menu updated soon to make gluten free options easier to see

today we ordered lots (taking it home for dinner for geoff & i too ;)) and it was all utterly delicious, especially the yum cha... mmmm

Har Gau (Prawn Dumpling)
BBQ Pork Bun (not GF)
Beef Chow Mein done GF
Garlic Chicken and rice

apparently the people at the next table were in the photo from our last visit too lol

happy birthday geoff !!

dinner at our favourite restaurant - flavours of india in gungahlin.

He insisted on ordering the vindaloo described as 'very very hot' lol

---- Sent from my 3 mobile

Gluten Free Shopping & Eating, Where? (Canberra ACT)

It's ALL gluten free at Deeks in Dickson ACT :)

I've just been tweeting with a young girl in the US who was bemoaning the fact she has to drive 40 minutes to get a gluten free meal, and has to order most of her food online (mail order shopping is much more a part of life in the US than in Australia though). It has made me feel very grateful for what is available in Canberra and in Australia!! but I thought that any gluten free visitors, especially those from overseas, might like to read about where we buy all our gluten free supplies and food.

Gluten Free Supplies:

• Aldi (we buy these things). I shop here probably once a fortnight.
  
• Coles and Woolies - they tend to have different stock so I do shop at both, though Woolies more often as they are more local. I can use my Coeliac Society discount card at Coles though. They both have a selection of gluten free products in the health food section & frozen section, as well as a lot of products that just happen to be gluten free. I get Rora's bread (Country Life) when i haven't baked any, Diego's corn tortillas (Coles) and San Remo pasta from there. I usually shop in one or the other at least once a fortnight or more.
  
• Occasionally I shop at IGA (national chain) or Supabarn (a local chain) - both of them have quite a good choice of GF products that the larger chains doesn't stock, and IGA actually marks the GF products on the shelf.
• I manage to find a lot of GF products in the discount stores such as GoLo, the Reject Shop or the $2 shop. This is the easiest place to buy lollies of all kinds in my experience. I can also often buy GF snacks such as Rice Rounds, Mamee Snacks and Rice Wheels for less than in the supermarkets.
• Toys R Us is another good place to buy lollies and marshmallows
• I get most of my health food store ingredients such as GF flour in bulk and nuts in bulk from the health food store at the Belconnen Markets (Natural Living) or the Organic Store (As Nature Intended)
  
• Indian ingredients and products I can find elsewhere - such as jowar or sorghum flour i get from Bharat International Shop in belconnen. (it's a great place to eat too!)
• All of the places above are within 10-15 minutes of home. If i want to go a bit further afield and see what different products I can find I have occasionally been to Mountain Creek Wholefoods
• I can also get some GF supplies at our fruit & vegie shop Choku Bai Jo (which we don't get to as often now that neither of us work in the area :()
• Other shops that we don't use include Brumby's Bakery (am lol at them having a GF FAQ with no answer) and Deeks Bakery (though my saviour when Rora was first diagnosed)
  

So far I haven't had to buy anything online, though if I could buy in bulk and save by ordering from somewhere great online I'd love to!!

Muffin Break in Campbelltown NSW

As for eating out, we are very lucky here in Canberra, there are lots of places we can eat out. For a morning or afternoon tea the choice might not huge but most cafes in Canberra will have GF options such as a cookie (most likely) or a cake. Cafes that we know will always have something include:

• Gloria Jeans almost always has 1-2 cookies (Chocolate Mud & White Chocolate Macadamia) and now has the Jaffa Cake too - well they've had that cake for a while but we didn't know! We do have to be careful now though as some stores have started putting marshmallows in teh babycinos - though the one time rora ate one by accident she wasn't sick so we suspect they're gluten free (but so far our local store hasn't had the packaging available to double check). also while our local store gets you to put your chocolate / sprinkles etc on yourself, some stores do it for you so we sometimes get caught that way...
  
• Michels Patisserie usually has a pre-packaged orange cake, though rora is not so keen...
• Muffin Break always has gluten free sweet and savoury muffins and usually another product as well. We don't go to MB often at home as they will only accept cash and are quite pricey, but it's great to know they are around if we are travelling.
  
• If we are in the Dickson area we know we can always go to Deeks or to My Rainbow Dreams for a yummy vegetarian meal
  
• Ricardos at Jamison strangely has only a couple of options for morning / afternoon tea, but its entire menu for breakfast / lunch is available gluten free!!! (that's about 30+ options, which i plan to post on here one day)
• The Coffee Club is a bit unreliable because sometimes they will have a cookie or two, but other times they will have nothing, only "low gluten" things

OK, I've just about had enough now and I'm not even half way through, i think this will be part one lol...

babycino & cookie at Gloria Jeans

Master So Kitchen, Holt - Gluten Free - Review

Master So Kitchen website (it takes a while to upload unfortunately)

a few weeks, on our way to the library, we noticed that the Chinese restaurant in Holt was advertising gluten free. we hadn't eaten Chinese since Rora's diagnosis, so we went down and got a copy of the menu to have a look at and discovered they had heaps of gluten free options!!

today we were one (fussy) child down so decided to go there to try it for lunch. when we walked in we discovered that they also do yumcha, and that there were also some gluten free options in that too!

so we decided to have a combination of regular and yum cha style gluten free dishes, with the help of the lovely lady who was there (an owner?).

Pork Ribs with Garlic

the end result was that we were very impressed and will definitely be back! we enjoyed the food - some of the dishes seemed a bit bland at first, but then as you ate more the true subtle flavour came out and was delicious! the service was good, though the young male waiters (who said they were only new) were a bit unsure of the whole gluten free thing but the lady who helped us mostly was very helpful and seemed to know a lot about the gluten free side of it. the prices were quite reasonable too.

here is what they can do gluten free (you need to specify GF), with stars next to what we tried:

Yum Cha Menu:
Seafood Dumpling
Har Gau (Prawn Dumpling)
Mixed Veggie Dumpling
Scallop & Snow Pea Dumpling
King Prawn Fun Gao
Prawn & Crab Meat Wrap
Pork Ribs with Garlic *
Plain Cheong Fun
Beef Cheong Fun
King Prawns Cheong Fun
BBQ Pork Cheong Fun
Salt & Pepper Calamari *
Desserts:
Chilled Coconut Pudding
Chilled Mango Pudding *
Sticky Rice Pudding * (girls LOVED this one!)

Salt & Pepper Calamari

Regular Menu:
Entree:
Steamed Har Gau
Sang Choy Bow
Soup:
Chicken & Sweet Corn Soup
Crab Meat & Sweet Corn Soup
Combination Short or Long Egg Noodle Soup
Specialities:
Fried Squid with Hot Rock Salt
Peking Shredded Chilli Beef
Lamb with Lemongrass & Fresh Chilli
King Prawns with Hot Rock Salt
Thai Specialities:
Thai Red or Green Curry with Mixed Veggies
Thai Red or Green Curry with Beef or Chicken
Thai Red or Green Curry with King Prawns or Seafood
Cashew Nut Dishes:
Sliced Beef or Chicken Breast Fillet with CN
Combination with CN
Meat Lovers with CN
King Prawns with CN
Curry Sauce Dishes:
Sliced Beef or Chicken Breast Fillet with Curry Sauce
Sliced Lamb Fillet with Curry Sauce
Combination with Curry Sauce
Seafood with Curry Sauce
Scallops with Curry Sauce
Ginger & Shallot Dishes:
Sliced Beef or Chicken Breast Fillet
Sliced Lamb Fillet
Seafood with Curry Sauce
Scallops with Curry Sauce
King Prawns
Sweet & Sour Dishes:
Boneless Battered Chicken
King Prawn Fritters
Seasonal Vegetables:
Sliced Beef or Chicken Breast Fillet
Meat Lovers
King Prawns
Seafood
Omelettes:
Vegetable
BBQ Pork or Chicken
Combination
King Prawn
Chow Mein:
Beef or Chicken * or BBQ Pork Chow Mein
Combination
King Prawn
Seafood
Vegetarian Delights:
Red Cooked Bean Curd
Bean Curd with Hot Rock Salt
Stir-fried Mixed Seasonal Vegetables
Lightly fried Chinese Broccoli with Ginger
Lightly fried Vegetables with Nuts
Law Hon Jai
Rice:
boiled rice
Fried Rice
Vegetable Fried Rice
Master So Special Fried Rice

Sticky Rice Pudding

PS: you know it must be ok when it is so busy on a Saturday lunch and more than half full of chinese people ;)

gf jaffa cake at gloria jeans!

we just found out the jaffa cake is gluten free - that makes 3 choices now - yay!

---- Sent from my 3 mobile

Travelling in Australia and need to find places to eat gluten free?

here are some links that might help. If you have any others please feel free to suggest them :)

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~coeliac/dine.html
http://www.glutenfreeshop.com.au/gluten-free-restaurants.htm
http://yourrestaurants.com.au/guide/index
http://www.glutenfreeeatingdirectory.com.au/
http://www.coeliacsociety.com.au/
http://www.glutenfreepages.com.au/
http://www.menulog.com.au/browse/gluten_free#dining

Little Chef Cafe - Gluten Free Pizza in Belconnen

One of my friends whose mum is a coeliac had told me about a store in the Oatley Court area of Belconnen but I really wasn't sure where it was. I had to go to the nearby lighting shop a few weeks ago, with the girls, and bribed the girls with pizza if they were well behaved in the lighting shop (nightmare place to take children lol) AND if we could find it!!

Anyway, we did find it and discovered that it was a lovely place to have found! (thanks Sal ;))

Little Chef is in Nettlefold St, opposite the lighting place and the hairdresser. Their online menu doesn't feature any gluten free options, but their (hard copy) takeaway menu does. However, it is ONLY pizzas which are gluten free.

They are ahve an idea about what is and isn't GF, and very happy to check ingredients for you if you ask.

The pizza was reasonable, different to Zeffirelli, and perhaps not quite as nice (to my tastes) but certainly yummy, reasonably priced - GF is $3 extra i think, so just under $20 - and it's nice to have more options, both in places to go and in toppings. we had a chicken pizza as they roast / BBQ their own chickens and do them gluten free - yay!! you can also pick your crust size, which you can't do at Zeffs.

We ate in and it was quite nice, they get a lot of the workers from around that area, but you can also pick up and take home too. oh, they also deliver though it was a $5 charge to our suburb.

I definitely recommend giving them a try :D




posted by Karen on http://brazen20au.blogspot.com/

exploring...

we are meeting friends for lunch today at Myer belconnen's cafe (bellacinos?). i went in this morning to check on gluten free lunch options for miss aurora and they had 2 - the caesar salad (with no croutons of course) or the lunch special of a chicken, sundried tomato and rucola risotto. we know what a risotto fan she is so that is what she is having :)

will report back soon, and must report on my birthday dinner too!!!

Rora's Gluten Free Eating Adventures

we do tend to eat GF out and about quite often, but I never remember to take any pics! anyway, now that geoff has put a shortcut to the camera on my phone i am trying to take more ;)


on Monday we went to Deeks for morning tea. Rora had (2) babycinos and i had a chai latte (delish) and we shared a 'hazelnut wafer' which was like a creamy slice. it was quite heavy in texture but very nice none the less. I used to eat at Deeks occasionally when i worked in Dickson and i always found the meals nice (though I preferred to eat next door at Rainbow Dreams as I'm a curry addict, in case you didn't guess lol) Rora really enjoyed her morning tea and i think half of the slice each was more than enough.


On Sunday Geoff was trying to study, ryan had gone to friends' to play, emelia was at a birthday party and so rora and I went to the Kingston / Old Bus Depot Markets. I hadn't been there since having kids (!!) but had a vague feeling I'd heard good things about GF food there. I wasn't wrong!


There were so many stalls with yummy things labelled gluten free, and many with taste tests - Rora lOVED the honey macadamias I picked up as we walked in (she loves nuts).

AT the Divine and Delicious stall (photo 2nd from top) she picked out a yummy cake to have later - It was something like STicky caramel and date cake. it was heavy but very rich, moist and yummy, with a ltitle spice and topped with a creamy frosting.


we then set out looking for something to have for lunch. after asking at the asian (thai?) stall where they had nothing - but at least they knew they did! - i found the ethiopian stall next door. perfect as I've been wanting to try ethiopian and the dinner date i organised to try it didn't work out (well, the dinner date did but we went to zeffs instead lol). anyway these curries were from Fekertes in Dickson and were absolutely delicious. we had a chicken curry, which was similar to a thai curry, a lentil dish which was divine, and a bean curry which was very nice too. rora loved them (they were all mild, though the bean curry was a little spicier than the other 2) and ate more than me! at $12 for the plate you see above they weren't as cheap as some meals but so good they were worth it. i think ethiopian curries might become my new love LOL

anyway, i highly recommend an outing to the kingston markets if you want somewhere interesting to go with GF options to tempt you!

A night at Rama's...

we haven't been there often, but Rama's is one of the few gluten free restaurants in Canberra. On Sunday night we were looking for somewhere to go out with Geoff's family and decided on Rama's. it's a Fiji-Indian restaurant located in Pearce, just south of woden, next to Ethiopia Down under (also GF recommended), 2 doors from Deeks GF cafe and next to the foodworks where you can buy deeks products when deeks is closed. a real little GF hub!

Luckily we were able to squeeze in on an early table and it proved to be a great place to take kids as it is noisy enough to cover their noise (but we could still hear) and all the staff seemed very patient of the children.

the owner of Rama's is really lovely and my memory of her from our other (pre-kids) visits was that she likes to personally visit each table for a quick chat at some stage in the evening.

we opted for the cheaper banquet on the menu and it was quite delicious and very popular with us all - there was none left! despite us carefully picking a largely GF restaurant the kids only ate pappadums and rice LOL rora did try some of the lamb and wanted more but unfortunately by the time she realised it was all gone :(

not everything at rama's is gluten free but the menu clearly sets out which items are and which aren't. in our banquet only the samosas and roti were gluten foods.

"Rama's Delight"

Entree:
Pappadums
Samosas
Bhajia

Main Meals:
Lamb Rogenjosh
Beef Vindaloo
Chicken Korma
Vegetable Bombay
Rice

Side Dishes:
Roti (Bread)

Dinner: $29.00 per person
Lunch: $25.00 per person (cash only) or
$29.00 per person (Credit Card payment)
Inc. GST

i highly recommend Rama's for a GF meal, eat in or takeaway - if you want to eat in you WILL need to book, it is VERY popular!

Gold Coast Gluttony

well it kind of felt like gluttony yesterday as my tummy took all day to recover! i think i ate more than i do in a normal week, and i certainly drank more alcohol than i normally would in a whole year!!!

i don't have time to do a thorough post so here are some pics and a brief outline of our food and drink weekend...

after arriving on Friday morning and driving from brisbane to the gold coast we met some of the others at the Wildlife Cafe at Pacific Fair. Nic & I shared a so-so Nachos (only discovering that the meat sauce was under the corn chips when we got half way through!)

Friday night we had our own cocktail waiter in the gazebo by the pool at our destination - the Arc Resort in Broadbeach and we made the most of it (well until we got in the pool and couldn't be bothered to get out LOL we just got someone to bring down the 'Bucket o Love" and then we didn't have to get out ;) The girls who had organised the weekend provided munchies and the lady who runs the resort brought us hot food which was very good (but you wouldn't want to be a vegetarian lol)

she is from an asian background of some sort and it showed in the delicious snacks she made:

• chicken teriyaki sticks
• mini fritattas (no idea what was in these)
• fried noodles with chicken
• chicken balls
• mini beef balls

drinks consumed by me on the night included

• sex on the beach (above) - however we had no oj so we used cointreau instead ;)
• c***sucking cowboy shots
• oh gosh i can't even remember now! i know i had another cocktail before deciding to stick with the sex on the beach!
• and of course the bucket of lurve (see the big pink bucket in the photos??)
  

i know there were lots of fruit tingles drunk, and cosmopolitans, but i can't remember what else! (maybe some of my fellow drinkers might remind me lol)


we finished early on friday night as there was a noise complaint - at 8:30pm LMAO!! can you believe it, 8:30pm!!! some people...

Saturday morning we headed off to Jamaica Blue at Pacific Fair where Carol had spotted a $10 cooked breakfast including coffee.

it was good and definitely good value - also just what the doctor ordered lol

lunch was a picnic of sorts - we bought bread, crackers, cheese and dips, and had a late lunch sitting around the coffee table in our room - we thought about going to eat by the pool but it seemed too far away hehehehe

Saturday afternoon was spent in the pool and included bottles of omni and a pseudo bucket o lurve (carol and laura just tipped most of the leftover alcohol and juice into the bucket and mixed it up lol it was delicious like lolly water but very very potent)

Saturday evening was included in the cost for the weekend and it was divine!!! we ate at Sage Restaurant. I'll scan our menu and post it but i had the

• calamari - soooooo tender it nearly melted in the mouth. large serve with salad
• Sage chicken - a HUMUNGOUS serve, with delicious chips and salad. i absolutely couldn't finish it all!
• lemon meringue pie - this was ok, i think desserts are not their forte. they had put coconut on top of the meringe and toasted it all, it was a bit odd in taste and texture. the filling wasn't quite zesty enough for me (though many others were saying it was perfect).
• we also got a few rounds of free drinks though this is where i hit the wall - i had one gin and tonic and that was it - i didn't finish my second one and not a drop more of alcohol passed my lips that weekend lol

we then went on to another bar (owned by the restaurant owner, we had been given vouchers for free drinks) where the others had a quick drink, but it was not quite our style! (the crowd too young and hip lol) and finally onto Howl at the Moon. i didn't stay long before heading home to bed...

Sunday morning we were up for an early swim and then packed and at Jupiters Casino for their buffet brunch by about 830am...

it's $24.50 for brunch on a sunday and you really do get your money's worth.

breakfast is all kinds of breakfast options - i had a cooked breakfast including bacon, eggs, tomatoes, little pancakes, followed by fruit and danishes.

a few hours later - we were there for 4 hours all up, we weren't flying out til 845pm so we had a LOT of time to fill in on sunday lol - i followed it up with a selection from the 'lunch' buffet as they had changed most of the buffet over at around 11am.

the others had cold meats and salads etc but i have to confess that i had a plate full of sweets. though i couldn't eat them all, but they were so worth the aching teeth lol i think i have a photo on my phone which i will get off soon...

after saying goodbye to the others carol and i went and lay by the beach just north of coolangatta. we read for 3 hours! then we finally headed to the airport to wait for our flight.

what an amazing weekend! i had a fantastic time :)

eating out... and weekend plans

in the past week we've eaten out twice (unusual!)

on sunday we went to the Mawson Club with geoff's mother and aunts. we chose it because of the kids play area.

the meals were more expensive than we would usually choose and quite disappointing really. more disappointing is the service and the fact it took 45-50 minutes for our meals to come - including nuggets and chips for the kids! how hard are those to cook? thank goodness we'd ordered when we arrived instead of waiting for g's family to come (as they were an hour late - that would have meant the kids wouldn't have got lunch til virtually 2pm!)

the cake and coffee on the other hand is quite nice and VERY cheap (though i suspect i wasn't charged for everything i'd ordered this time around lol) . so after being there for coffee twice we've decided it's definitely the place for a morning / afternoon tea catch up but not for a meal.

it's very nicely presented though, the kids love the play area, and it's only $6.50/60 for 3 years membership.

last night we went out to jimmy's place in dickson. we decided not to go to the usual (pho phu quoc) and let ryan pick where he wanted to go. his criteria was the place that was brightest lit LOL

anyway, we were both a little disappointed. the food was nice enough, i wouldn't say it was horrible, but it certainly wasn't great, especially for the price. the meat tasted like cheaper cuts tenderised with bicarb though it was tasty and the portions were large. the kids ate mostly rice (with a bit of beef -rory- chicken - emelia- and broccoli -ryan- thrown in so they were happy enough). they are so gorgeous the way they try to eat with chopsticks! they manage to do quite well too, considering they can't hold them properly lol

eta: i've just come across this thread which may be useful for canberrans ;)

this weekend i plan to cook:

• those bran muffins
• beetroot and carrot dips and foccaccia for lunch one day
• a big slow cooker full of spag bol sauce
• and maybe a slice or cake for the kids
• apple mustard relish
• crumpets
  

menu plan

i think i might have overplanned for the coming week (given we are off to tassie on thursday and MIL probably doesn't cook my sort of food lol)

Roast of some sort
thai curry / laksa / soup type thingie
pumpkin risotto
spinach and potato soup
thai beef salad
penguin's chicken

we went out for dinner last night - yum! to my fave restaurant (i'm having a mental blank atm as to the name though). the kids were so well behaved given none of them were very well (just colds but they're exhausted on thursdays at the best of times)

rory, ryan and g had rice vermicelli with spring rolls (plus salad and nuoc mam for g)
emelia had rice with stir fried beef and baby corn (g ate the vegies)
and i had my fave pho (rare roast beef)

then g took us for frozen custard at rubees after, what a treat!

ohhhhhh it's called the PHO PHU QUOC in dickson :D