Jus Burger visit for top quality 'fast food'.

We are back in Canada! After a very long and tiresome journey. And very pleasantly we arrived back into Canadian Summer too, with temperatures in the high 20s feeling like high 30s to 40 with the humidity (the humidity part I could gladly skip). Almost like how it was when we first arrived in Australia over 3months ago. One of my greatest pleasures of being back so far has been buying bananas for 79 cents a pound. That may not make much sense to some of you but bananas were extremely expensive in Australia, like $7/lb (which looks even worse when it says $12.99/kg!). Needless to say we didn't eat them much, twice in fact, as very guilty indulgences! They were a steal at $2 per banana, you could count the cents per bite! Anyway, this is all due to the terrible flooding that happened over there which has affected the banana plantations so that puts it in perspective for you. However, when we came across them at the price they were over here, we took 2 bunches (thank you very much!), one ready to eat and one greener so that we can keep on eating them once the first run out! Banana a day keeps the Dr. away today!

This has nothing to do with Jus Burger, so I guess I should return from my digression and get on with it. On our last night in Perth we went to Jus Burger for dinner because we (mostly hubby who has a burger love thing) had wanted to try it out and never got around to it. We sat outside on some brightly coloured and abstract furniture with lovely heaters that made it warm enough for me to take my sweater off!

The menu was very colourful and well presented. The place is doing all the right things - catering to all diets and lifestyles with the highest quality products from as local as possible. I was very impressed. You go up and order yourself and we were given a very funky welded table number, that would break a foot if you dropped it!

Hubby went with the Wagyu beef burger with wasabi mayo after a little persuasion from me. I thought this would be the most amazing burger, and it was. I was trying to be kind to my digestive system before our 30 odd hours of travel commenced so went with a chicken breast burger that had been marinated in garlic, herbs and oil. The burgers average $14 I would guess, maybe $12 or $13 for a vegetarian one, and for an extra $5 you can get a meal combination with some chips, coleslaw and green tomato relish. We both took this option. Hubby had a coke in a bottle and I had a lemonade made from local lemons and perhaps there isn't much local sugar to be had as it was very, very tart! I did like it though, I could almost feel it burning away the fat from the chips as we ate (wishful thinking!). No seriously, it was very refreshing. 

Every aspect of the meal was outstanding. The bread, the vegetables in the burger, the chips, the coleslaw and the relish was particularly good! Everything was consistently impressive. The Wagyu beef patty blew everything out of the water though, oh my goodness, it was so juicy and full of flavour, insanely good! It did make my chicken burger pale in comparison, especially as I found it considerably under seasoned. I let this slide because I feel like they are going for the healthiest options all round and less salt (or no salt in this case) is healthy. You can always add it right?! 

The presentation of the meal was very different and the effort is noticed. The little side pots are the perfect size for just a taste and even though I ate about 1/4 of my bread and not even the whole inside, I was full. Maybe that was the affect of the tart lemonade? Or the fact that I knew I could have been having the divine Wagyu delight had I followed my own gut. Or perhaps the 2 bites I had of it were filling! The only thing I would say on a remotely negative scale is that it is really hard to eat off the pretty but narrow board. I had to turn it oddly to cut my burger in half (though perhaps not everyone does that) and move things around to gain access to other stuff, though this is so minor in comparison to how good it all was. 

Anyone can eat here. There is gluten free bread, every kind of meat option, fish burgers, vegetarian patties or even just vegetables in a bun like pumpkin. There are 3 different kinds of coleslaw and salad so you make it as healthy a visit as you like! And even some milkshakes if you have a sweet tooth. If you were craving food that essentially comes with a 'bad for you' name tag, this is the place to go because they make it as 'good for you' as they possibly can. What a great way to end the trip of a life time; simple, good food and a perfect WA evening.

Breakfast at Lemon Station.

Having visited Lemon Station regularly over the last 3months for great coffees and tasty (and very naughty for you) muffins and to see Manager Kate, we decided that on our last day we should go down and have proper breakfast. In hindsight I should have looked at the menu better and picked bits and pieces off it to make what I ended up eating but it turned out that we got to try a vast quantity of food which was a good experience in itself.

The Station is very homey, with huge windows that open up in the Summer making you feel like you are outside, walls covered in posters, fresh flowers and magazines to keep you entertained. Hubby and I both lunged for the food magazine and then settled with me browsing through it and him with the travel one and both of us interrupting each other constantly to 'ooh' and 'aah' over delectable dishes and destinations!

He announced that he was hungry. And wanted a proper breakfast. With eggs and about half of the things that were in the Sides. I wasn't hugely fussed about what I had but I thought I had better have eggs as well and half of the sides that he wanted so it didn't look bad!

I had 2 eggs scrambled on rye toast with a side of balsamic mushrooms and wilted spinach, hubby had poached eggs on a potato hash cake with bacon and roasted tomatoes and a side of multigrain toast.

Hubby didn't even know that his dish came with roasted tomatoes, it was just the best combination covering all the things he wanted with the least amount of sides needing to be ordered. I was very excited to see them and took one straight away with the home made pesto on my rye toast and was in heaven. I ate this with the spinach and some mushrooms which were really good. The mushrooms were sweet from the balsamic being reduced and the spinach was only just wilted rather than being over done and slimy. Tasty! The scramble eggs were yummy too, though I was a little scared knowing that they are made with cream instead of milk so you know it isn't good for you, but it did taste good! The bacon, which was actually pancetta now that I think about it, was crisp which is hard to find here as most bacon tends to be under done in my opinion, so that was very pleasing! I think the pesto deserves another mention, it was delightful! I would go there again for something with pesto, maybe just tomatoes on toast with pesto all over again!

It was a lot of food, hubby managed to work his way through quite a fair whack of it and then said the backs of his knees were sweating! I wondered if this were a side effect of over consumption or just sitting in the same position too long having been distracted by food! The place was heaving, creaking at the seams with people and orders but the staff were still chatty and friendly and the food was still up to scratch, they seem to take it all in their stride and with a smile on their faces. You are always told if there is a wait for food, and how long and most people seem happy to sit and chat and just be there for the experience as much as for the food and coffee. It really does have a homey feel to it, very inviting.

Half way through breakfast I remembered the muffins and asked for a raspberry and white chocolate one, which was a good idea because by the time we left they had run out of those, though there were another 3 kinds (including a savoury one) to chose from. We brought it home and about 3hrs later I was able to face it having let breakfast subside enough. So lovely and moist in the middle and packed with filling and crunchy on the top!

What a great way to spend our last morning in Australia. Bags and suitcases are all packed now, roll on the endless journey that begins tonight.

Lamb chops, zucchini risotto and Greek salad.

What to do when your flight home to Canada is cancelled due to the volcanic ash and you can't get another one for 5 days?! Cook! I have to say, we are particularly grateful that we were still at our friend's abode when the news came through so we have had the luxury of continuing uninterrupted basically whereas thousands of people were mid travel and stranded in airports or forced back to hotels and eating out. We also didn't particularly have anything to be home for on that specific day either, which always helps (there is a bonus to being unemployed?!). Anyway, life aside and back to the food. 

We had recently indulged in a full on home made Indian meal (one of the meal perks of being delayed), I had made a curry the day before and left it to mature and then it was a group effort to make everything else though Chef Stu really came through with the rice and raita! I had picked up some mint paste for lack of the real thing so we could have raita, and I announced that we should have lamb now that there was some mint to go with it! And so we did. On the way home from watching a movie in Freo, amidst a huge storm, we dragged our soggy selves into the store to pick up some lamb chops and a couple other bits for dinner the next day. I had bought some rice to make risotto months ago and never got round to it so I decided that the extra days were a gift for risotto making too.

Hubby and I did a joint effort on this meal and it was highly satisfactory if I say so myself. We tossed the lamb chops in olive oil and salt and pepper and let them sit for a while to warm to room temperature while I made risotto. I cut up an onion finely and cooked it in olive oil with about 3 grated garlic cloves, then added some arborio rice. I didn't measure the amount, I guess a cup or cup and a half is good for 4 people. The reason I didn't measure it is a) there wasn't a cup close enough and b)you need to add liquid till the rice is cooked so there is no point relying entirely on measurements as it may not be reliable. The back of the rice bag gives a guideline! I fried the rice with the onions and garlic for a few minutes then added a finely chopped zucchini and let that cook a little too. I found some white wine in the fridge and finished that off in it, about a cup, let it cook down, then started adding hot stock ladle by ladle and letting it cook. I am pretty sure there is a detailed entry on risotto somewhere in the blog. Keep adding stock bit by bit and tasting it until the rice is soft and how you want to eat it.

In the meantime hubby was cutting up 2 green onions, half a cucumber and 2 vine ripened tomatoes then crumbling about 3/4 cup of soft feta into it. We dressed it with the juice of a small lemon and some olive oil and pepper, done!

I had a spare zucchini which we just quartered and marinated in olive oil, balsamic and salt and pepper and bbq-ed with the chops. 

The chops didn't take long, I think hubby did them for a couple minutes a side on a very hot bbq and then let them rest for 10minutes. The zucchini got the same treatment. The lamb was medium rare which was perfect!

I rustled up a mint sauce with the mint paste some vinegar and sugar. 

The risotto was seasoned with mint and coriander (both in paste form as that was what I had, couple tsps of each), a few dashes of Worcester sauce, salt, pepper and of course the usual grated parmesan dumped in at the end with a little butter! 

Very yummy! Very happy to have had the opportunity to eat some fresh lamb again before we leave.

Cheat pizzas using old bread and odds and ends of cheese.

The back end of a Ciabatta loaf has been sitting next to the toaster for days now. Feeling very sorry for it and hating waste, I decided to make a tasty snack out of it. I found some odds and ends of cheese in the fridge, aged cheddar and part of a mozzarella ball and some pizza sauce in a bottle. This stuff isn't all that bad, in fact, I think you would find that a lot of people use 'cheat' pizza sauce rather than toiling over the stove top! It will never be home made, but it will certainly do. If you don't have the luxury of ready made sauces then some tomato ketchup would probably do too.

I sliced the old bread and toasted it under the grill, I turned it and let it toast ever so slightly on the second side too. Then I spread a little pizza sauce on it and a mixture of the cheeses and returned it to the grill until the cheese was molten and going brown. You can probably see a stripy pattern in the photo, that's me alternating mozzarella with cheddar for an even taste spread. 

You could use any old bread (instead of throwing it out) as toasting gives a little bit of life to stale bread, or even crumpets would work. And any cheese. And you could add any other toppings to it too if you were so inclined. I think that this could be something fun to do with and for kids too! (Both adults who ate this thoroughly enjoyed it).

Fancy fish cakes, hearty beans and over the top omelette at Deli Chicchi.

Chef Stu has recently tweaked the menu at Deli Chicchi and we were in there yesterday to sample some of the new items and give our take on them. We all left very full and very impressed!

We started with some muffins and great coffee, definitely worth a revisit for that alone! However, there is so much more to go for whether it is a first visit or regular re-visiting!

The first item off the new menu to head our way was smoked cod and leek cake topped with poached eggs, a side of wilted spinach and a lemony/dill cream cheese. It was so packed with flavour, punching you in the mouth with every bite that by the time it even registered to me to take a photo the dish was devoured. I cannot emphasise enough how great the dish is and how everyone needs to try it! The cake was perfectly cooked with lovely chunks of smoked fish in it, the spinach and egg were the perfect marriage for it and that lemony heaveny side sauce was the icing on the cake. Wow, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

The next delight we sampled was a vegetarian omelette. I am not a fan of omelette I am going to be honest here, but I did try it, and the toppings were amazing. In fact, all together, I actually wasn't doing too bad for a non omelette lover. The omelette lovers amongst us thought it was wonderful on all levels! A lovely, thick, plain omelette with pesto flavours melting all over it, topped with a glorious combination of roasted tomatoes and creamy feta and a fresh peppery bite from the rocket. I cannot see how anyone would not be impressed with this dish.

The final dish we tried yesterday was the hearty beans. I think we should have maybe had this first because it was so filling, but then we wouldn't have had the heart or stomach for the other dishes! A large, crisp piece of sourdough bread heaving under the weight of homemade beans, fried mushrooms, poached eggs, goat cheese, rocket and a lemon and herb crumble. What a meal! While you may question the price for some dishes, once you have them in front of you and see their size and quality you will not be disappointed. This hearty meal will leave you full for the day!

The food is out of this world. A huge amount of thought and creativity has gone into the menu, combining tantalising flavours and colours and textures to make works of art that fill you up and let you leave satisfied. There is a lot of passion coming from the kitchen, I only hope that the other staff know how good the food is that they are serving and approach their diners with an enthusiasm and welcome that says 'Hey, we serve great food here, welcome to our home, we are happy to have you here, please come back again'.

Blue Manna crabs, Leatherjackets and prawns from The Boatshed Market in Albany.

We were at the local farmers/seafood market in Albany and in between the snacking on gourmet pastries and pies and tarts etc we hunter gathered some local seafood and veggies for dinner. The crabs looked very tasty, we were all curious to try the Leatherjackets and the fresh sweetcorn and silverbeets were tempting! We cooked up a feast of seafood to sample and had it with sweetcorn and salad, what a delight (the silverbeets I did with chilli another night). Luckily we had Chef Stu on hand to help out with all the weird and wonderful craetures.

We dropped the crabs into boiling water, in a large pot, then let it come back to the boil for 5minutes and they were done. They were small crabs so it didn't take long and you can tell with the beautiful colour change when they are ready, they will start to turn pink as soon as they touch the water.

Chef Stu cleaned out a lot of 'stuff' in the bodies, anything that is slightly brown, or yellow, is not meant to be eaten. Only the whiter meat in the body and legs. Which was so sweet! We dipped it in garlic butter just to add to the intensely amazing flavour! I love crab!

The Leatherjackets were new to everyone. They came de-headed and with the skin removed, Chef Stu dried them, salt and peppered them and fried them in some oil in a hot pan. They were rather meaty fish and thicker in certain areas and still in a rounded shape as they were on the bone, but it didn't take long, a few minutes per side and they were ready.

The flesh was really dense and it peeled off the bone easily. I had been flaking it off initially but if you put your knife in at the darkened bit and slide it along the bone to the outside it came off in large pieces (Chef Stu figured that out!). We were all fans of the fish, though it could be classed as fairly rich, and if you don't like the richness of crustaceans (crab, prawns etc) then be warned with this one too.

The sweetcorn and a simple salad of Aussie greens, cherry tomatoes, spring/green onions, feta, lemon juice, olive oil and pepper were a perfect accompaniment to the seafood. 

Chilli update and silverbeets.

Our trip down south was a little wet, cold and rather windy but it was nothing we weren't expecting and certainly didn't stop us doing anything that we had wanted to! Being by a blazing wood fire very evening was pure heaven. 

We had the chilli from my last entry while we were away and I think it was a huge success. It re-heated perfectly, I would definitely recommend it as a take away meal if you are going on a self catering trip or camping. All we needed to go with it was rice, though having the luxury of shops close by we also picked up a few other bits and pieces. In the local farmers/seafood market I had found some rainbow silverbeet which I dediced we would have with it as a green. I have never had silverbeet before, the multicoloured stems definitely won me over. It looked very like swiss chard. Call me stupid but I was not expecting it to taste like beets, which I don't particularly like, but this was not an overpowering flavour and I really liked it and thought it went really well with the chilli. I soaked it in a sink full of water (especially as it was bought at a farmers market and not in a bag already washed!) and got 5 snails, a green stink bug and a handful of sand off it! Then I removed the tough part of the stems and just finely sliced the rest of it. I threw it into a pan of olive oil and butter mixed, already hot, and fried it, tossing occasionally with tongs and put some salt and pepper in. I think garlic would be a good addition but we were already having garlic bread and the chilli had lots of garlic in so I gave it a miss this time. I cooked it till it was fairly soft to eat which took longer than I thought it would as the stem part is quite thick. We also had some finely sliced green/spring onions and sour cream to go with it, bits of cheese for those who wanted and some garlic bread! Very tasty by the fire!

I did forget to take a photo of it, or rather I couldn't tear myself away from it to take one once we were eating! Please imagine for yourself.

Photo update of the toilets for the Greenhouse blog entry in April folder.

Tweaking chilli to take away with us.

I cannot believe that we have less than 2 weeks to go of our 3months here in Australia, oh how time flies! We do still have one last mini adventure to take though, 6 days in the South of WA where it is cold and wet apparently! Very painful when we look at temperatures back home in Canada....anyway, we are going to love our getaway with friends, in an ecolodge villa on an inlet with a roaring fire and forrests all around. We are also going to enjoy some hearty meals with all this cold weather too! We planned on taking down 2 ready to eat meals and then picking up local produce to make other meals. My meal was chilli, which I was very excited to make as I been wanting to make it since we got here. 

I used about 400g of ground pork and about 500g of ground lean beef, both of which I fried in a hot pan with some oil to brown. There is always lots of stabbing motions with the spatula as I try to break apart the chunks of meat, not in anger or anything, just technique! In a large pot I started sauteeing about 3 small onions chopped up and about half a head of garlic roughly chopped, about 6 or 7 cloves I would guess, or if you are using the lazy garlic (pre chopped in a jar which I love and miss dearly because I use garlic every time I cook and it is highly labour intensive!) about 3tbsps. The meat then joins the onions, along with a couple of beef stock cubes, a very generous squeeze of tomato paste (easily 1/4cup), 2 cans of diced tomatoes, a large stick of celery finely chopped, 2 red peppers chopped, and a can of Mexican beans. These are your kidney beans that already had some seasoning and sauce with them (peppers, garlic, chilli etc) so it only added to my base! Plain kidney beans will do just fine too. When it comes to the spices it gets a bit tricky because I tend to just shake and stop when I think there's enough in there so it is hard to tell you how much to use really. I like things well seasoned and I am going to guess that I used about 3tsp of ground coriander, 2 tsp of ground cumin (which Chef Stu says is vital and everyone forgets to put it in, not me! I was beaming with pride!), 1/4 cup of fresh coriander paste ( the actual fresh leaves were absent at the store) probably about 1 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika, 13 cloves (because that's how many fell into my hand when I tipped the bag) and a stick of cinnamon. And easily 2tsp of chilli flakes. And lots of salt and pepper. You need salt to bring out the flavours, do not be afraid of it! There was also a few shakes of Worcester sauce, a small squeeze of ketchup and a couple tbsp of brown sugar. I overdid the sugar!!! I also found it wasn't seasoned enough for me so added a little more of each spice towards the end, you need to let it cook out to see how it is going to taste. Chef Stu suggested I add some lemon juice to counteract the over sweetness I had created, which I already tried to fix with balsamic vinegar though as he pointed out that can be a bit sweet itself once it reduces. So, to cut the sweetness I added the juice of an entire lemon! And then a little bit of cider vinegar too for good measure!  I would say the dish gently simmered on the lowest heat for a couple of hours while it softened and combined and then reduced when I took the lid off. I fished out the cinnamon stick and the cloves (which took forever really and I was about to give up only the thought of being the unlucky one to chew on one made me continue the search!). 

I was very pleased with the final product though the moral of the story is go easy on all seasoning as it is easier to add than take away at the end. However, there is generally always something you can do to fix a mistake, like adding some lemon or vinegar if it is too sweet, or sour cream/yoghurt if it is too spicy, never fear, cooking is like a science ( says Chef Stu) there is always a way to rectify things. Or just learn for next time! In future I won't add any sugar to my chilli, unless it needs it when I taste it at the very end. I guess it depends on the tomatoes etc in it. The final product is thick, rich, warm, well seasoned, dense with flavour and held together well, you can dollop it onto rice rather than pour it sort of. I couldn't find any pickled banana peppers to top it with here so we will have to be alright with sour cream and green onions! I'll try to remember to take a picture of it when we eat it next week as it is in the freezer right now in tupperwares!

Thrice cooked pork belly, at last!

I have been dying to make this for weeks and as soon as we were back from our last mini adventure I set about making it happen. Even as I was making my first meal back (meatballs) the pork belly was sitting in the fridge lathered in salt already on the start of it's glorious journey. I had been reading restuarant menus, consulting whatever chef would talk to me, including one we stayed with in Uluru and the one putting us up, Chef Stu! I had also done some online research and read recipe books and at the end of the day there are so many ways to cook it that I doubt you could do it wrong so I just went with it. 

So, the pork belly sits in salt for about a day, with the skin scored to let in more salt. My piece actually had the ribs still attached which I wasn't expecting but I was glad that they would be there to add to the flavour. You then rinse the meat so that it isn't too salty to eat and I laid it in a deep baking dish to braise for a while. I filled the dish to just below the pork skin with chicken stock and let it gently cook in the oven, I think it was at about 150 degrees or less for a couple of hours. In theory, with the skin being exposed, it should have started to crisp, mine was not. I kept topping up the liquid, with water once the stock had run out, to keep the meat submerged and moist. After somewhere between 2 and 3 hours I decided that maybe things were too moist in the oven and that was why the skin wasn't crisping, so I drained the liquid, turned the oven up slightly, re-salted the skin and let it be. After about an hour there was no progress on the skin though the rest of it was looking and smelling heavenly! I cut the skin off the meat and tried to lay it out on it's on to see if that would help, but no. This left the top of the pork exposed and the fat started to crisp nicely and all the edges of the meat were golden and crisp too, very exciting! I knew the meat was going to rock, but I was still disturbed at the lack of crisp on the skin. At the end of the day we (Chef Stu and I with some input from the significant others) decided that the only thing to do was to slap it under a hot grill! Which worked! Almost instantly! Apparently their oven is a little 'moist' which may have been a cause, or there are a multitude of other reasons it could have been, the moral of the story is that if there is a hot grill around, you can still save the day!

The slab of pork belly was melt in your mouth when I eventually took it out after 5hours of braising and roasting. The crackling actually crackled! I roasted some blue and white potatoes whole to go with it, added some mushrooms to the pork tray for the last hour (which have such an intense flavour when they are roasted!) and made cauliflower and broccoli with a smoky cheese sauce. I had found a smoked cheddar with a hint of paprika which I thought would do the trick very nicely, and it did! The gravy was a combination of a packet (as always) and some of the reduced chicken stock I had braised the meat in and the roasted mushrooms, some apple sauce, squeeze of tomato sauce (as always too) and that was about it. We had my cousin over for dinner too as pork belly is his favourite. And because we wanted to see him of course!

I almost mourned the fact that I didn't take a picture of the pork belly whole before dishing it up, I think I was a little flustered in the kitchen and keen to get things on plates and into peoples bellies. I cut the belly into strips along where the ribs allowed basically. I also separated the crackling into strips too. It worked out really well, though perhaps a little rich, but only some of us felt that. I actually was rather badly affected by it all and feel that perhaps there is an ongoing aversion with pork in general, which is very sad indeed, but I won't stop me making it for other people because I know how wonderful it is!

At last, pork belly conquered, successfully! Perhaps I shouldn't have tried to serve Amarula and dark chocolate cheesecake following such a rich meal, everyone had bite size portions and was done!

Leftover meatballs in a sub.

The first meal I made once we were back in a functioning kitchen was meatballs with spaghetti. Very simple recipe, not too sure if I have done an entry on it before or not to be honest? Anyway, it is a hugely simple recipe using half ground beef and half ground pork and some cracker or bread crumbs for the meatballs. Some seasoning if you so wish. I shape the meatballs and actually drop them into the sauce so that they cook by gently boiling, rather than frying them first, which I know is a popular method. I just find that this way tends to make them stay really moist. The sauce is super simple, starting with a fried pork chop or any piece of pork with a bone in it for extra flavour and some finely cut onions. Then you add cans of diced or crushed tomatoes and tomato paste and water and let it boil away until you get the consistency you are looking for. I also add about a cup of grated parmesan to the sauce for thickness and flavour (I use the really cheap powdery stuff for this and save the nice stuff to shave on top of it at the end). This also gives it some saltiness and you may even need to add some extra salt as I find tomatoes require it. Drop your meatballs in and if the sauce needs reducing more when they are cooked just take them out, reduce the sauce and add them back in when it's ready. We had it with fresh spaghetti and really nice parm and some wilted spinach, wonderful meal. 

Anyhow, I really wanted to talk about using them up the next day in a different way to how we ate them the first time round. We bought a fresh sub which I sliced in half, added garlic butter to it and toasted it under the grill. I then added some sliced Gouda to it and let it melt under the grill. Slice the meatballs in half and heat them up in some sauce (in the microwave is fast), they will lie nicely in the sub half cut and are easier to eat. Spread them over the sub with a little sauce, top with mixed leaves or rocket or spinach or whatever you have, I used mixed leaves. The lid had also had the garlic butter and cheese treatment too. Eat straight away before it goes soggy. The bread is lovely and soft in the inside but ever so crisp on the outside and a little crunchy on the inside from the grilling. The garlic and cheese compliment the meatballs and the leaves add some freshness. Awesome lunch! Hubby made sure there were more meatballs left so that he could have another sub the next day even before he had finished eating the one in his hands.

Seafood Platter for 2 @ Cervantes Country Club.

On the way back down South we stopped for a sundown tour of The Pinnacles. They were spectacular, despite the fact that we could have had better weather - though we did get some good sunset photos in the end! I would put some in here but I don't think it is good to start digressing from the food or there would be blog after blog of whale sharks and sun sets all over the place! See, the digressing begins already!

So, following our sunset tour we decided we needed a substantial meal before the rest of the drive down to Perth, the Country Club won over a greasy roadhouse meal. They had a deal on for this seafood platter for 2 for $55 which I thought was pretty reasonable, especially because it contained a local crayfish (lobster) which we have been wanting to eat for a while now but always found them really pricey. We were sold. 

The platter contained a crayfish (which we had hot with garlic butter instead of cold with dips), 2 pieces of snapper, some salt and pepper squid, chilli mussels and cold prawns. And chips, and access to the salad bar (that we weren't too enthralled with but were full enough anyway). We were so excited to try the crayfish and it was really good, maybe slightly overdone but good anyway, especially with lashings of garlic butter! I ended up dipping my prawns into some of the garlic butter that had oozed onto the platter rather than the weird dipping sauce they provided, which worked out well. We were also really happy to have snapper again so soon. 

Don't be fooled into thinking that there is nothing in Cervantes! This platter for 2 was worth the delayed start to the end of our journey home and we drove along very happily full of yummy seafood. It was the end of about a week of eating nothing but seafood, luxury!

Fin's Cafe in Coral Bay.

We are back from an amazing coastal trip! Tanned this time. And I have to say that I take back my comment about not expecting any fine dining while we were away for not only did we sample lots of fresh fish we also had it very well cooked! We did cook for ourselves most of the trip to keep costs down and even then I couldn't really complain about the meals we threw together I don't really want to write about that when I could write about the nice food we had when we did eat out. I also want to rave about how much I love alfresco dining! We ate every meal, every day, outside, bar one when there wasn't a table outside. I love it!

The town of Coral Bay on Ningaloo Reef is tiny, we covered the main street in minutes and that includes checking the menus of the few places there were to eat in. We decided on Fin's Cafe because the menu was awesome and it was packed! Sure enough, at just after 6pm, we got the only table available! We enjoyed it so much that we made a reservation for the next day straight away to ensure a spot, I couldn't believe it as I watched the waitress disappear off and come back with an extra table from a coffee shop next door to add to their dining area! So encouraging to see a humble place in a tiny town be so absolutely buzzing all the time! And the cook was full of passion for his food too. Although some of it could have been different/better in my opinion (which isn't much) it is hard to fault someone who is making such a huge effort in a place that is hours and hours away from the nearest proper food store and is still making creative and fresh food every day. I loved that the menu was in chalk and they could alter it as the night went on and dishes ran out or they come up with new ones. It was on the wall and you had to go over to look at it before ordering.

The first night we started with a crab, prawn and avocado terrine. I was not a huge fan, not liking all the jelly stuff, but hubby wanted to try it. The garlic mayo helped a bit but I wouldn't order it again, he probably would.

I ordered the main for hubby and should have ordered it for myself but never mind! He got the last order of seared scallops with king prawn risotto, oh my! And we shared so it wasn't all that bad. The chalk board was immediately adjusted accordingly so no one was disappointed when they went to order it and were told they had run out, it just wasn't there any more!

This dish was perfect in every way. The scallops were perfectly cooked, the risotto was so freshly flavoured and winey and it all smelt divine before you even took a mouthful. I made a promise to myself to try and make risotto more el dente from now on because I tend to make it very mushy and creamy and almost stodgy, which we like, don't get me wrong, but I would like to try and make it like this too. The rice was sill in individual grains, I could taste the wine and all the fresh herbs so distinctly and then there were large prawns dotted through out it. The fresh tomatoes on the top gave it a lovely contrast.

I ordered seafood creamy/winey/garlicy linguine which was good but a little too creamy and lacking in the others, I think some more acid (wine) would have really cut the richness and made it more flavourful. I also added a lot of salt to it, which goes beyond me liking salt to the dish needing it I believe. That aside, the pasta was cooked well, it was absolutely packed with fresh fish and prawns etc, you could not fault them for being stingy on the seafood portions at all and it was topped with fresh baby spinach and diced tomatoes which again gave it a lovely finish and really changed the dish when I stirred them into it.

Like I already said, we booked a table for the following night then and there and because we had studied the menu I already knew what 'we' would order. We watched the sun set across the road from Fin's looking out over the ocean and then headed over for another great meal. 

This time we started with chilli scented calamari.

I loved the bit of bite that the chilli gave the calamari and it wasn't over cooked as it can be sometimes. The salad it came on was fresh and interesting as far as salads go.

I had 'Fancy Fish and Chips' which was King Snapper, chips and salad and well worth the 'fancy' price tag! I would say that King Snapper is now one of my favourite fish ever. Such great flavour and texture, I am now on the look out for more King Snapper!

Hubby had the prawn stuffed soft shell crab, which I was hankering after and he ended up ordering and I was glad it worked out that way this time! It looked spectacular when it arrived...

The crab was very tasty though the prawns inside were a little too green oniony/gingery for my liking. It came on an Asian themed noodle salad, cold, which was where the dish didn't sit well with me, not that it was made poorly because it wasn't, it was incredibly well prepared and flavoured, I just wasn't feeling cold noodle salad and rarely ever am. It had peanuts, peppers, mandarin and fresh coriander and the sauce was peanutty/sweet/gingery, there were pieces of ginger decorating the plate even, almost candied but without the sugar coating if that makes sense? As hubby said later on, it was good but he would need to be in the mood to order it again, rather than it being a dish you can tell yourself you will enjoy eating if it were put in front of you, and that isn't meant to take anything away from the dish, like I said, it was great, just make sure you want a cold noodle salad with the spectacular crab because I would tend to see soft shell crab and ignore the rest of what the menu was saying!

At the end of the day we were hugely impressed with this little alfresco cafe in a tiny town. Full of passion and care and great food where you least expect it. There is nothing better than spending the day on the beach or on the ocean and coming back to shore to eat fresh seafood, yum! 

I did hear a few concerns about the extent of fishing going on up there and am hoping that it doesn't get out of hand and affect the local eco-systems, after all, while I love eating seafood, my life doesn't depend on it like some creatures. One of which is the whale shark, which we had the privilege of swimming with while we were up there, an experience that was out of this world and left us on such a high and so humble at the same time. Ningaloo is such a hidden gem.