EatDrinkBrisbane

Who watches Man Vs. Food? It’s AMAZING. I totally have a crush on Adam Richmond. He is the biggest ladies man, and it’s not hard to see why. The man knows every delicious food joint in North America – actually, probably the world. Anyway, Adam is always moaning over pulled pork. Pulled pork is very popular in Southern USA y’all, and involves slow-cooking pork until it’s so tender it can literally be ‘pulled’ off Sir Oinksalot.

D loves these slightly pornographic images of pulled pork. Whenever they come on the screen, he clutches my arm and looks very flustered. Unfortunately, pulled pork has been neigh impossible to find in Australia. So, when we went to FaB Burgers the other night, we were both pretty excited to see it on the menu.

D went for the ‘Miss Piggy’, a burger with pulled pork, lettuce, tomato, apple chutney, and aioli ($13, above). I decided on the ‘Blues Brother’, which had a beef patty, blue cheese, roast pumpkin, and tomato ($12, top left).

Our burgers arrived and D happily tucked in to his precious pulled pork, happily chewing away. My burger was solid. The beef patty was lean and flavoursome, and paired well with the pumpkin and melty blue cheese. I can’t complain about the burger, but it didn’t really blow me away either; it was tasty, but not out-of-this-world.

D’s burger was tops. The pulled pork was piled high on the bun, and was succulent and tender. The apple chutney was an absolute perfect match. Oinking good.

Kudos must go to FaB for their terrific beer selection. They feature all the old favourites, as well as craft and microbrew varities. We got the Feral Beglian White Beer ($7.50), which I pronounced my new favourite beer, and the Red Duck Pale Ale. It’s stupidly hard to find craft and wheat beer in Brisbane eateries (hell, even bars), so this was awesome.

We also go the chips with aioli ($6), which were fine; again, nothing to complain about, but nothing mind blowing (yes, potato products can be mind blowing). The aioli was tasty, and there was a generous serve so we weren’t fighting over it.

While the beef burger at FaB was pretty standard, they really must be applauded for featuring such rarities as pulled pork and craft beer. It may have been saved me from a life time of D moaning about the lack of pulled pork in his life. I thank you for that, FaB.

FaB

Fish and Burger Grill

11/5-61 Petrie Terrace (The Barracks)
Brisbane
(07) 3367 8088

Despite my writing-related education and job, sometimes I really muck up language. Only a few years ago I said “grand prix” phonetically, much to the ridicule and peals of laughter from my mother. I can now add Ceylon Inn to my list of errors – but only in terms of pronunciation.

D and I went to Ceylon Inn in Rosalie (not ‘say-lon’, as we thought; our waitress corrected us and said it was ‘sigh-lon’. Got it) recently for a romantic (ew) dinner. We picked the Indian restaurant because it is rather sexy. It’s honestly got to be one of the most attractive restaurants on the Nash St/Baroona Rd strip. Lighting is very dim inside, save for very large and warmly-coloured lamps. There’s exotic-looking furniture, warm-coloured paint on the walls, and a simple terracotta tile on the floor. It’s romantic, but in a very cool, Eastern way – i.e., you could take your best mate there no worries. It’s so sexy and dim-lit in fact, that I could not get a single decent photograph. Blurry photos, hurrah!

We started with naan. Of course we did – let’s face it, most of us only get Indian for the naan, am I right? We went with a Kashmiri Naan ($5.50), which was stuffed with dried fruit, coconut, and nuts. I usually love this flavour of naan, but the dried cherries in it were a little weird. The very sweet, almost maraschino-like cherry seemed at odds with its low-key coconut, nut, and date friends.

I got a Vegetable Hatu curry (peas and potatoes cooked in garlic, ground onion, cashews and coconut milk, around $17), and D went with the Ceylon curry with chicken (around $19). I enjoyed mine, although I couldn’t really taste the cashews and coconut milk that was the base; I suppose I was expecting a richer flavour. D’s curry was also fine; the flavour wasn’t mind-blowing, but the meat was tender and well-cooked. A generous serve of rice accompanied our curries.

D also tried a mango lassi ($4.50). The drink was refreshing with a tang from the yoghurt; it would have been an ideal match for a hot curry, had we had the balls to order one.

Service was excellent at Ceylon Inn; despite the girl correcting our pronunciation (this is a bit rude, right?), she was very sweet, friendly, and polite. She checked on us during the meal, but wasn’t pushy or hovering. Prices at Ceylon are a little bit higher than your average Indian restaurant, but I think it’s worth it given the ambiance. Admittedly, I have had better Indian elsewhere, but the surroundings at Ceylon are really just gorgeous. It’s hard to find a lovely place to eat dinner at for under $30 a head, but Ceylon have managed to do it.

It’s the perfect place for a ron-day-voo.

Ceylon Inn

Indian Restaurant

165 Baroona Road

Rosalie

(07) 3505 0990

(also at Toowong, Kenmore, Graceville, and Bulimba)

http://www.ceyloninn.com.au/

(To view all pictures in this post, click on the title above)

A dear friend of mine is utterly obsessed with pilots. No trip to the airport is complete without her feverishly clutching at your arm, loudly whispering, “Look! There’s another one! Another pilot! DO YOU SEE? DO YOU SEE THE PILOT??” She has a similar obsession with bouncers, but that’s another story. Anyway, in her mind, it seems there’s a rule that all pilots must be good-looking.

Choo Choo

It’s the reverse situation with sushi trains. For some reason, there’s a rule that they have to be butt ugly inside (with the exception of maybe Hanaichi in the CBD). At the end of the day, I don’t really care because I freaking LOVE sushi and would bust some heads to get my fix. But still – as I sat in Hanabishi recently for lunch, I couldn’t help but think (as I glanced around the clean yet uninspiring room at the uncomfortable chairs, the garish lighting, the tired serving plates, and all of the cats waving madly) this could be a lot nicer.*

Hanabishi California Roll

But, let’s face it: it’s cheap, it’s tasty, and it’s usually a form of take-away, so who am I to get on my high horse about ambiance at a sushi train. Speaking of the sushi – I tried a California Roll, and a Salmon Roll. Both were tasty – the California obviously wasn’t using prime chunks of real crab or anything, but the avocado was fresh and the rolls held together well.

Hanabishi Salmon Roll

The Salmon Roll
was also good, although some might snort at the idea of canned salmon in a sushi roll. I don’t know why, but I quite like it. Again, these little guys held up well against the wrath of my chopsticks.

Hanabishi is very well priced, considering it is the more upmarket inner-city Barracks center. From memory, plates start from about $3.50. The sushi is good value, although not the best I’ve ever had (but take this with a grain of salt, as I only had two plates). Plus, they’re fully licensed. You can also order a variety of Japanese dishes from the menu, like sashimi and tempura vegetables, as well as more heartier meat-based dishes.

Pilots, bouncers, and people nicknamed ‘wagon’ (don’t ask) aside – I have my own rule about sushi trains too, which is that they’re always worth a shot.

Hanabishi

Sushi Train and Japanese Restaurant

The Barracks Shopping Centre

61 Petrie Terrace, Petrie Terrace
Open for lunch and dinner, seven nights a week
(07) 3367 3889

*I recently looked at The Barracks website and Hanabishi looked different – so, there’s a chance they have renovated since I visited. If so, many apologies!