Sharing plates and platters

Sharing plates and platters can really be your friend. They offer couples and groups the chance to try a larger range of taste experiences in smaller amounts rather than just being limited to one or two dishes, that may or may not be so good.

They are often also full of interesting and beautifully presented foods. A treat for all the senses. These can be ordered per person/two people and extra breads or crackers are usually available if you need them.

Some around Canberra include……

Dionysus Winery Murrumbatemen

Tilba Valley Wines Ploughman’s Lunch

$3 extra bread for Hometead Cafe’s Entree Tasting platter

Homestead cafe (Wallaroo Rd) Entree tasting platter $22 (extra bread $3), pesto, hummus, olives, Poacher’s Pantry Proscuitto, caramelised onion (all fantastic) BYO $3.50 pp

Santa Lucia Antipasti platter

Pistachio Dining Room Torrens, Dessert tasting plate $20 (a favourite) (Entertainment Book -25% discount)

Pistachio Dining Rooms Torrens Trip of Entrees $19 (Entertainment Book Discount -25%)

Punjabi Hut Manuka Entree Platter for two $19 (Entertainment Book -25% discount)

Adore Tea, Gold Creek, meat platter

Trev’s Dickson, 3 entrees platter (25% discount with Entertainment Book)

Jamie’s Italian, Canberra Centre, meat platter (veg platter and seafood platter also available) served with breads tin

And still on my wish list….

Sutton Forrest Estate Winery and Cafe (McDonald’s turn off) Hume Hwy half way to Sydney, great spot, extra bread offered and wine available (photo shows platter for two, but it looks like it could serve four)

The Green Herring Special (Serves 2 (but is really enough for 4) $32

Dessert plate at Green Herring

(Gold Creek, Nicholls)

Includes morsels of the maple and banana pudding, spring rolls, brulee and apple pie

Maple and Banana Pudding – Butterscotch sauce, vanilla bean panna cotta, cinnamon ice cream

Spring Rolls – Chocolate and Bailey’s filled spring rolls, peppermint ice cream, cocoa crumb,

and a coffee dipping sauce

Individual Apple Pie – Vanilla anglaise, apple sorbet, rosemary and apple gel

Lavender Brûlée – Raspberry macaroon, honey crème friache, almond crumble

And….

At Thirst Wine Bar:

Starter plate for 2 people $27.90

A selection of house specialities ;

Your choice of relish, chiang mai sausage, corn fritters & fish cakes

Relish options:

A hot & spicy chilli relish of shrimp paste and tamarind (hot) /nam prik gapi makaam Chef’s favourite

Mushroom and peanut relish / lon het tua li song

Northern chilli relish of tomato and eggplant / nam prik nuum

all served with rice cakes, seasonal vegetables & fresh herbs

dinner menu

Coffees are more like mini meals than you think!

It’s so easy to think of milk based coffees like lattes, cappuccino and flat whites as just drinks that don’t really count towards your kilojoules.

But when you realise that even the smallest sizes have around the same kilojoules as a slice of bread, medium potato, small yogurt or a piece of fresh fruit, it becomes clear that they are really more like a mid-meal.

A small milk-based coffee even a skim one, has similar kilojoules to a small yogurt

And then if you order a medium sized coffee, it’s one and a half times more and a large is double.

A large milky coffee has the kilojoules of two pieces of fruit or two small yogurts….

So it might make you re-think about whether to add a coffee to your morning or afternoon tea snack, or to just have it instead?

Piccolo lattes can be a good alternative. They still give you the coffee, but not so much milk and far fewer kilojoules.

Might be cold in Canberra but there was no end to the Saturday food delights about town

Breakfast at The Cupping Room – Civic

‘Not So Raisin’ Toast Maple and Cinnamon Ricotta on Fruit and nut loaf (good for two)

Cooking Mexico Masterclass with Andrea

Andrea’s Mexican Black Bean Soup

Andrea’s Green Chilaquiles

Penny University

Coffee and Almond Crossiant

‘Window shopping’ at Ricardo’s Jamieson

The Forage Street Food Festival New Acton

Poacher’s Pantry menu- so hard to decide

Smoked Chicken on flat bread with pumpkin kasundi, labna and salsa (and wine)

Smoked tomato soup with lamb, pesto, puy lentils and soda bread looks great too

Cheers for helpful Canberra restaurants & cafes (for sharing)

When a restaurant or cafe has tried really hard to make it easy to share, they deserve a special mention:

Noy at Thai Chiang Rai, Kingston was more than happy to prepare 1 1/2 serves of his wonderful Five Spice Prawns and serve them in two dishes.

3/4 serve Five spice prawns (about 10 prawns per one serve)

The staff at Chong Co, Kingston, likewise, did not hesitate to offer 1 1/2 serves of their soft shelled crab and duck salad dishes.

Pho Quoc in Dickson and Meccabah in Manuka, both happily offered extra serving bowls and spoons to split their soups.

Rare beef Pho at Pho Quoc – delicious

Meccabah’s Harira Soup

A delightful new wait person at The Palette Cafe (Beaver Galleries, Deakin) surprised us by arriving with our soup already split into two bowls.

Half serve of soup at The Palette

Soju Girl have been really great at making sure small plates come with enough pieces to share.

A great free audio from George Blair West available until tomorrow from Portion Perfection

A great free audio from George Blair West available until tomorrow from Portion Perfection

Post by Portion Perfection.

Portion Perfection has made some free content available through their Facebook page.

Available to download for free until tomorrow.

The fourth piece of this free content from Dr George Blair West is really fantastic:

Eating Mindfully – Tasting More to Eat Less.

It explains the 5 Steps – to be expert at mindful eating:

Tune out distractions – TV, screens, driving, etc;

Tune in to how hungry you feel;

Taste the food not using your taste buds;

Taste using your taste buds – remembering there are none in your stomach!

Tune into how hungry (not how full) you feel – To eat mindfully engage as many of your senses as possible – don’t talk, unless it’s about the food;

‘Weight loss for food lovers’ Dr George Blair-West

Australian Psychiatrist, Dr George Blair-West has useful ideas, that make good sense of why it’s so hard to lose weight and keep it off. He also tells us what makes it easier, especially if you enjoy and appreciate food.

I particularly like his explanation of the ‘what the hell effect’ , ‘restraint theory’, and the ‘last supper effect’ . He has good logic as to why it’s so important for success, to be able to keep incorporating the foods and food sharing occasions that are important to you. This is what he calls the ‘low sacrifice diet’ and involves working out which are your food priorities and what you can do without.

He is big on the concepts of mindfulness and savouring and explains why depending on will power and trying to just use exercise to lose weight, doesn’t work.

George also helpfully unpacks the ‘law of diminishing returns’. This explains why the first mouthful is always the best and pleasure declines rapidly after that. However, the good news is, that if you stop after the first few mouthfuls and then enjoy it again later, the pleasure of the ‘first’ mouthful, returns – a great reason to take the rest of a beautiful meal home with you if you can, once you’ve enjoyed enough the first time.

To listen to several radio interviews that give a good overview of George’s ideas go to:

Radio

For more about George and his helpful book go to:

1 – Landing Page – New Homepage

‘Tasting plate’ a good option at Flute Bakery, Fyshwick Canberra

Flute Bakery in Fyshwick has the most beautiful cakes. So beautiful it’s hard to choose. But a great option is the $8 Assiette option which gives has four different small serves. It is also ideal for a ‘savour some now, enjoy more later’ option, or for sharing with a friend.