Side dishes

Tonight Michelle and I tried out a new dining venue at Bardon – Mundo Churrasco.

Self-served plate with sausage

Mundo promises a feast of Brazilian cuisine centred around South American style BBQ (the Churrasco), and they deliver in spades.   After we were seated, we were each presented with wooden cubes, painted red and green on opposing ends.  This was a signifier that things are done a little differently here.  Mundo is staffed by carver waiters, who continually emerge from the kitchen carrying racks of barbecued meat – beef, chicken or pork – vegetables and fruit.  Turning the green end of the cube up signifies that you would like to be offered a serving of whatever the waiter is carrying, and red signifies that, for the moment, you are satisfied.

The meal started with Brazilian-style cheese bread and then stepped up a notch as flavoursome side dishes were served in individual bowls – salads, rice, toasted manioc (Cassava) flour with spiced beef, and Cassava chips.  We turned our cubes green-side-up and waited, and within a minute or two we had some of the best tasting beef sausage I’ve ever experienced waiting on our plates, and things only got  better from there.

Papaya Creme with Cassis Liqueur

Coconut Creme Broule with Plum Sauce

The standard Churrasco at Mundo is all-you-can eat ($30 / head for dinner, a little less for lunch but there is less variety being served), and we ate a lot.  Barbecued joints of beef and pork, sausages of the same, barbecued pineapple dusted with cinnamon – all the while our side dishes and water being dutifully replenished by the friendly wait staff.

After we were sated with the Churrasco, we decided to treat ourselves to dessert, and this was another highlight in itself.  Mundo offers desserts I have never seen before.  I ordered Papaya Creme with Cassis Liqueur, and Michelle a Coconut Creme Broule with Plum Sauce.  Both were without fault and brought us from the point of satisfied to  bursting at the seams.

Definitely going again.

Recentish stuff …

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Seen

• Micmacs – interesting, quirky
• Welcome – depressing, no punches pulled
• Agora – underrated and underexposed, a little loose in its historic portrayal
• Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky – intense, lavish and introspective
• 2012 – lol
• Iron Man 2 – hell yeah
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – brutal, great cinematography, intriguing, too many endings?

Dined

• Thai Country, Holland Park – awesome food (pumpkin curry, thai green curry with king prawns), average service, food makes it all worthwhile
• Treacle, The Grange – always a pleasure
• Asian Fusion, Fortitude Valley – red curry, a bit salty
• Wah, City – great food (thin-sliced pork & kim chi, kim chi pancakes), a little stuffy, service is ok
• Hien Vuong, Sunnybank – hellz yea – crispy skin chicken in glass noodle soup, combination spring rolls, pork & chicken with rice vermicelli – can get a bit crowded, service without a smile

Cooked

• Signature Roast Pumpkin & Salad with baby spinach, green olives and fetta-stuffed peppers
• Some concoction with kim chi, chicken dumplings and rice vermicelli stir-fried in sesame oil.  Needs refinement.

While the weather’s been gloomy this weekend, I managed to have a great one anyway hanging out with Michelle and going to a few different places.

Saturday morning I popped into Photo Continental to have a 20×24 print made of Dove Lake and Cradle Peak, and investigate their range of pre-made frames.  I then caught up with Michelle at Garden City and we had some lunch, before heading into the city to take some photos at St. Andrew’s Uniting Church.  On the way, we popped into an alley in the CBD, where I shot the following 360 degree stiched panorama, which I call “Factory Fresh Coffee”!

We then made our way to St. Andrew’s, where a wedding had taken place and guests were clearing out.  We met Rev. Ray Hermann and got the okay to start photographing, but our time was a bit limited.  I managed to get 5 of the stained glass windows, and hope to head back for some more expressive architectural shots at a later point.

The following is a combined image portraying the 5 stained glass windows I shot.  Each of the stained glass windows was combined from 3 images, and each image was combined from 3 bracketed exposures.

After a bit of window shopping we were famished so made our way out to Underwood and had a steamboat dinner at Antarctic Circle. The service was fast, and the food was great.

Sunday we met up for lunch again, and went to Treacle, a favourite of mine.  One of the daily specials was Zucchini Flowers stuffed with seafood mousse, which I went for without hesitation.  We then went to Newstead House which neither of us had been to before.   It was quite interesting, especially the “Rum Warmer modeled after an early steam train”.  To cap off the day we had a quick browse at Wray Organic at Newmarket, where I picked up some chai tea, cacao powder and a Mangosteen, as I had never tried one!  I totally recommend them.

After I got home I managed to formulate a spiced chai mocha but combining 1.5 tsp of chai tea with my normal measure of ground coffee and pouring an espresso shot from that mix.  I combined that with 2 tsp cacao powder, 2 tsp demerara sugar and the stretched milk.  Awesome!

All in all, a really great weekend

Last night I went to Baguette in Ascot, for dinner with Michelle.  Baguette is an award winning restaurant / lounge bar with stellar service and pretty awesome food.  We went for a three course meal, as they have a $39 special running over January / February on mediterranean platters.

We had a French platter which consisted of

• Duck and Pork Terrine, Cornichons and Toast
• Crusted Loin of Veal with French Peas
• Pear and Almond Tart with Sauce Anglaise

The service was outstanding and the meals were excellent.  Definitely worthy of a few return visits.

Baguette is located at 150 Racecourse Road, Ascot.