A yummy day out

Having to leave soon, I told myself to savour every last wonder of Brisbane for keep's sake so yesterday was a total full day out with friends and yummy food.

For breakfast, the 6 of us braved the early morning tiredness in search of Brisbane's iconic breakfast destination @ the gun shop cafe, west end.





































the interior.

Buzzing with people in the mornings, I can tell you it was worth the wait to sit and order. Jon and Jac have been there before and their recommendations were the omelette | hot smoked trout | kipfler potato | chives | horseradish crème frache $16.5o but when we got there, they had already run out of omelettes. We then decided to order something different each to try out the various breakfast combinations they had on the menu.



















grilled swiss mushrooms | spinach | cherry tomato | olive bread | herbed ricotta $13.5o

Candy had the grilled swiss mushrooms breakfast which was absolutely delicious if you're a fan of grilled mushrooms. Also, this dish is vegan.



















toulouse sausages | sweet potato hash | poached egg | bush tomato chutney $16.5o

Jon ordered the toulouse sausages and the verdict--I loved the sweet potato hash. Because the sausages are already salty, a normal potato hash would've made the salty taste too strong. The sweet potato hash gave it a balance so this dish has a combination of sweet, salty and sour from the bush tomato chutney.



















double smoked bacon | poached eggs | tomato | herbed hollandaise | toasted turkish $12.5o

Next up, Jac and Di shared the common bacon and eggs breakfast. For those wanting to have breakfast @ the gun shop cafe without having to spend too much, I highly recommend this. It might look simple but it tastes really good.



















croque madame | leg ham | gruyere | sourdough | dijon mustard | baked w.egg $14.5o

Matt had the croque madame which is essentially an egg topped on a baked sandwich. I only had a little try of the sourdough and it reminded me of french toast LOL.



















cheddar & chive cornbread | smoked salmon | scrambled eggs | spinach $16.5o

Finally, I had cheddar and chive cornbread which was the best out of all the above! Everyone who tried it said the same thing. The combination of cheddar and chive cornbread topped with scrambled smoked salmon and eggs was just so yummy. Not too heavy, AND having the spinach was a plus point! A well porportioned breakfast ;)



















With Di and Jac.



















Candy, Jon and Matt with their brunches.

Bad lighting with my cam cause my flash doesn't work >.<" Also, I might just go there again to try the omelette which is "so worth the money", according to Jon. After brunch we decided to go to SOL breads, which Jon said had delicious cake that blew him away LOL. SOL breads is also in west end, a little walk from the gun shop cafe and nearer to the West End City Cat stop. It wasn't really a well decorated shop or anything, just your typical small bakery with a few tables to sit around and have dessert.

They have a range of breads, foccacias, slices of pizza, cakes, tarts, coffee and pasta salads. Jac ordered a blueberry cheesecake, Di ordered a slice of carrot cake and I had a blueberry tart. By this time I was lazy so I didn't manage to take any pics of the cheesecake and carrot cake but those two were the best.

The cheesecake was really cheesy, unlike the commercial cheesecakes which are really sweet and not so cheesy. The carrot cake was just omg drool. I have never had such a nice carrot cake before. The cake was moist and soft, filled with lots of raisins and carrots and nuts--so worth the money. I however, ordered a tart. A tart which cost me AUD6.50



















The tart was nice, only thing was it was as hard as a rock. No kidding. I think it should've been warmed up before served. Then again, is it because it's a tart so it's supposed to be hard?

Since I titled this post yummy day out, the day wouldn't have ended without dinner right? Even during breakfast at the gun shop we were already planning dinner haha.

Jac wanted to cook us 수제비 Sujebi, which is a korean dish of spicy soup with handmade noodles, somewhat like our 面粉糕 Min Fun Gou and 해물파전 Haemul Pajeon (seafood pancake). Jon offered to cook dumpling and beef balls in soup, Candy wanted to bake cookies and I offered to make mango sago.

The four of us prepared at Jon's place and after much sweat and stress, the we all managed to churn out yummy food.



















The dough is spread out as thinly as possible then torn into bite-size pieces before cooking.



















Jac unni's sujebi. Her soup had spring onions (파 pa), potatoes (감자 kamja), tuna (참치 chamchi), onions (양파 yangpa), chilli flakes (고추가루 gochu karu) , chilli paste (고추장 gochujang), korean zucchini (호박 hobak), green chilli peppers (풋고추 putgochu), and some golden needle mushrooms.



















Jac told me the secret to making seafood pancake like those sold in korean restaurants--instead of using the usual flour for pacakes, use tempura flour (Jac unni used the korean version of tempura flour but it's all the same) to make it crispy. I saw her add a lot of chives in and was going like huh? isn't that too much? Nah uh, when a korean cooks, watch and learn! Look how it turned out! Just like those we eat in restaurants! Now I know why my korean pancakes fail.



















The dumplings from Jon's dumpling and beef ball soup were from a packet LOL but the beef balls were hand made by him and they were soooo good! He marinated the beef balls with fish sauce, honey, and sesame oil. Simple but delicious. I also realised the secret to having nice soup stock is to buy soup stock, not to make them yourself because unless you're a professional cook, your stock will be tasteless. Soup stock powder is the way to go!

























Candy our cookie girl.



















Candy's choc chip cookies filled with love in every bite LOL. She loves baking so I guess the bunch of us were blessed.

Because Jon's stove went crazy after the first batch of cooking, we couldn't use the stove and I was left to suffer without a pot to cook my sago and syrup. I had to use the microwave to make the syrup and kept pouring boiled water into a pot to cook my sago.

After all the turmoil and nearly giving up moments, I managed to do it. My first batch of sago was dumped because it didn't turn transparent but thankfully the second batch was okay. Stupidly enough, I forgot to take a picture of it too! My first ever mango sago attempt and nothing to prove it tsk.. I left out ingredients like mango juice but overall it tasted nice. One needs a cold dessert for the hot summer I guess.

p/s: Might I add that we had wine by the river at night while a friend strummed little tunes with the guitar. Fantastic atmosphere I should say, after hard labour preparing dinner =)