Aromas

We lunch in this cafe on Hastings Street, in Noosa recently. The atmosphere is very casual and you get either a view of Hasting Street or a view of some funky water fountains, depending on which side of the restaurant you sit on.

The lunch menu was mostly made up fanciful items such as quail, salmon steaks and the like and we were hard pressed to find something "normal" on the menu. I finally settled on a Chicken baguette and Annie had a garden salad and a bowl of chips. We got 2 lemon-lime and bitters to go with it. The food was a little expensive. For example, the bowl of chips was $9!!

The baguette was average. The real highlight, as funny as it sounds, were the chips! :) They were coated with a somewhat sweet crusting and the aioli was excellent! The garden salad was about average as well. The lemon-lime and bitters were were excellent too!

I would recommend this cafe based on it's drinks, chips and excellent location on Hastings Street.

Rating: 6/10








[There were 2 baguettes. I unfortunately ate 1 before I took this pic]



Aromas - Modern Australian
32 Hasting Street
Noosa
07 5474 9788

Pizza Italiana

A pizza with a spice tomato base, topped, with veggies and ham.

Steps

1. Prepare/buy a pizza base
2. Apply the spice pizza sauce with a basting brush.
3. Add sliced mushrooms in a circular fashion starting from the outside working inwards with each rotation.
4. Sprinkle thinly-sliced green capsicum
5. Sprinkle coarsely chopped semi-dried tomatoes
6. Sprinkle some coarsely cut champagne ham (optional)
7. Add a few generous shakes of mixed italian herbs [mixture of Marjoram, Basil, Red Bell Peppers, Rosemary, Oregano, Parsely and Thyme].

We found that adding in the herbs, just before the cheese, as opposed to directly on the base, brought out flavours of the spices much more.

8. Add your pizza cheese.
9. Pop in the oven/Pizza oven
10. Enjoy! :)


Before



After

Spicy Pizza Sauce

Keeping in line with all the pizza-related posts, here is my "spicy pizza sauce":

Mix the following in a bowl:

1. 4 tablespoons of tomato sauce.
2. 1 tablespoon of chili sauce
3. 1 teaspoon of Leggo's Basil Pesto (or any other Pesto me thinks)
4. 1/2 a teaspoon of olive oil
5. Salt and pepper
6. A sprinkle of paprika (optional)
7. 1/2 a teaspoon crushed garlic (about 1 pod) (optional)
8. Tabasco and/or chili powder (if you want it a little more spicy) (optional)

Mix the above with a spoon and spread over the pizza base with a basting brush. Add toppings! Pop in the oven. Enjoy! :)

Simple Pizza Base Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 cups bakers flour (other flour can probably be substituted)


• 2 tbs olive oil


• 1 tps salt


• 1 tps castor sugar


• 1 cup warm water


• 1 sachet dried yeast (2 teaspoons)

Preparation

1. Combine flour, yeast, salt, sugar and 1 tbs oil in large bowl (I use a glass bowl, which helps with the proving later).


2. Gradually add in the water, until a good consistency is reached (depending on the ambient temperature you may not need all the water).


3. If dough is too wet (it'll be sticky & glisten), add in more flour while kneading.


4. Sprinkle flour on bench, and knead dough (around 5-10 minutes until the dough is supple).


5. Roll dough into ball, place into bowl.


6. Pour remaining 1 tbs oil over the top of the dough.


7. Cover bowl with cling wrap and leave in a warm spot for 1-2 hours, preferably in the sun. Using a clear glass bowl for this helps, as the sun shines directly on the dough, helping it to rise (prove).


8. Once dough has risen, make a fist and punch out the air.


9. Take out of bowl, cut in half (for two bases). You may freeze one base now in cling film


10. Take one base and roll it into a ball again and allow to rise again for 30 mins in the covered bowl.


11. Sprinkle semolina on bench, and roll each ball out to fit the size of your tray/stone. Base should be about 8 mm thick. Depending on your oven, this may be too thin, so play it by ear.


12. Place bases onto tray/stone, possibly with some flour or smear of oil (or spray) underneath to stop sticking.


13. Add toppings, etc.

Makes 2 large bases.

Simple pizza delight recipe

Ingredients & steps

1. Prepare a pizza base.
2. Add a thin layer of grated mozzarella.
   
3. Combine tomato base with garlic and herb spice and smear generously over pizza base.
4. Add sliced asparagus.
   
5. Add sliced mild Hungarian salami.
6. Add thinly sliced pieces of feta.
7. Add sliced tomato.
8. Sprinkle some fresh sea salt and some grounded black pepper over the tomatoes.
9. Add a final generous layer of mozzarella cheese and sprinkle some mixed herbs on the top.
10. Add into heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 13.5 minutes.
11. Remove from oven, cut and serve.

Before


After

Enjoy :)

Cod Piece

Restaurant: Cod Piece - Gourment Fish & Chip Restaurant
Location: Shop 5, 572 Brunswick St, New Farm [3254 4844]
Date: 12.04.2008
Time: 7pm

I was dreading to go to this restaurant since I am not a big seafood fan. However, I love eating fresh fish and fish which does not taste like fish. The whole concept of this restaurant is that they don't freeze fish and it is freshly delivered in the morning. There were not many fish varieties available. There is a board which lists the fish available. There were around 5 to 6 types available.

The restaurant had a good atmosphere and friendly staff. It felt like I was inside an aquarium. Although, water was provided for us, they were not refilled. We had to wave our hands to get the attention of the staff to provide water for us.

I asked the waitress, "Can you recommend a fish which does not have a strong fishy taste". She recommended "Red Jew", which apparently does not have a strong fish taste. There was an option for grilled or deep fried. I chose crumbed.

I got the meal with the fish, salad and chips. Not only Red Jew did not look like fish and it did not taste like fish either... Actually, I cant even describe the taste (Wierd!!!). However I did finish off the fish. I tasted Swordfish (Deep fried) and Spearfish (Deep fried) and they were absolutely tasty especially the Spearfish. The fish were indeed fresh. I regretted ordering the Red Jew.

Overall, I would go back to this restaurant for the fresh fish.

Score: 8 out of 10.

Vancha Ghar

Restaurant: Vancha Ghar - Nepalese Restaurant
Location: Shop 2, 63 Macgregor Tce, Bardon, [3367 3070]
Date: 19.04.2008
Time: 6pm

I went to this restaurant with a bunch of friends on 19th of April 2008 after a bush walk. I was absolutely starving so I was looking forward to a big feast.

After reading a lot of good reviews about this Nepali restaurant, I was rather surprised to find the restaurant absolutely empty. We were the only customers. The Italian Restaurant next door was completely full. Anyway, we were welcomed into the restaurant... To my liking, the water was promptly provided and refilled at regular intervals... The restaurant had a large TV and was showing a Nepalese wedding... It was interesting to watch some dancing and wedding formalities of the Nepalese people... However, my friend was quite annoyed since the music was repeated over and over... I did not mind though.

The menu was quite large and there were a lot of dishes available. The waitress made a mistake or we did not order correctly since we wanted to share the entrees. We were surprised to get a plate each consisting of samosas and dim sims.... However, to my surprise, the entree was really tasty. I didn't really care about the mistake.

For the mains, I ordered Chicken Korma (Cannot remember the Nepalese name). The dish was tasty however did not have enough salt. I went about sharing and tasting all the other dishes ordered, however some of the other mains consisting of lamb, beef and paneer were quite disappointing. Many of my friends did not finish their mains (I finished mine though), which could only mean that they were not satisfied with their meals. Although we were charged for the rice, there was plenty of rice available, which is never the case when visiting other restaurants.

To conclude, the absence of other customers and some meals not being up to standards, I would not go back to this restaurant in a hurry... I am not sure how long this restaurant is going to last since we only saw 1 customer getting takeway during our visit.

Score: 6 out of 10.