Seven bites of Brisbane

July 2-9, 2017

I visited Brisbane for a week this month. My trip was scheduled for work, and I stayed on campus at the University of Queensland. My accommodation was on the pretty lake side, near a bus stop and a bridge that didn't exist when I was a student there 15 years ago. I made the best of them, venturing to my old neighbourhood in West End, meeting up and eating out with friends, family and past colleagues at every available opportunity. The weather was stunning and I clocked up more steps on my phone's pedometer than I have since summer. Here are the seven meals that most delighted me during my stay.

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The Tibetan Momo Cafe is less than a month old, and located just around the corner from my first sharehouse in West End. It is a total charmer, with friendly generous hosts just bursting to share their traditional foods with new customers. There's a full vegan menu in addition to the standard meaty one, and they make both flour-based and gluten-free momo doughs on site (they recommend booking ahead for the gluten-free options). I sampled a mix of their vegetarian momos (7 for $15.90), including a gently sweet pumpkin one, a lovely savoury mushroom mix, and an ultra-comfort-carby potato. At my host's recommendation I sampled the vegan version of their Tibetan butter tea ($6) and obediently mixed in lots of salt as I was told Tibetans do. It reminded me, weirdly, of my grandmother's salted butter scones.

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Word is that the Lakeside Cafe (on the far side of the water body in that top pic) does the best lunches on campus. Its menu is short and includes just two veg options, but they are good. I loved the vegetarian noodle salad ($13) for all its fun trimmings - a spring roll, strips of mock meat, crispy fried shallots and roasted peanuts. The vegetarian rice paper rolls ($7.50) are presumably the gluten-free choice, but check with the staff before ordering.

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Suki at Southbank is leading the poke bowl craze in Brisbane, and pushing this 'sushi burrito' nonsense too. There's a lot of fish going on, but us vegos can pick tofu as our centring protein. I was pretty disappointed to note that it was uncooked, unseasoned tofu but the ponzu salad dressing I chose had plenty of zest to carry through my salad bowl (~$16). I sprang extra cash for avocado and didn't have a moment's boredom as I nibbled through my radishes, carrots and edamame. Three days into my trip I was already starved for fresh veges!

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Visiting the Pizza Caffe at UQ brings the pleasure and pain of nostalgia, as it has outlasted the Schonell Cinema that it originally served. Their menu runs through the alphabet with many pizzas named after cinematic greats; I ordered the Zurlini ($15) and picked off the onions, while enjoying the sprawling pumpkin slices, feta bursts and pine nuts. I only wish I'd noticed their new smaller, cheaper pizzettas. As it was the staff and the pigeons squabbled over who could take my leftover slices when I got up to leave.

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The Davies Park Markets are another fond favourite from my years as a local. I looked longingly at the fresh produce, skipped past the faith healers, admired some beautiful, hand-made cotton clothes, lingered over the second-hand jewellery, and tasted the grain-free seedy crackers. I could barely believe that the Ykillamoocow team still have a stall, selling vegan dagwood dogs (!), pies, and samosas. A no-bull pie ($5) was the only thing I pulled my wallet out for all morning; I ate it sitting on the edge of the sports field and spilled tomato sauce all down my dress (no regrets).

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The Burrow has been displaced by an enormous development since our last visit. It now inhabits an old Queenslander home that lends it a relaxed, sub-tropical atmosphere even mid-winter. Beyond breakfast, the menu's all pizzas, fries and burgers with a couple of token salads. Michael dug into a vegan Sausage Scandal Dawg ($18) generously stuffed with sauteed sausage chunks, capsicum, onions and mushrooms plus relish, lettuce and mustard. I was mostly just in the mood for a mojito ($18), but picked at the beer battered chips and a fattoush salad we'd ordered to share across the table.

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Lokal + Co is another eatery within an old Queenslander residence. Where the Burrow around the corner is rambling and casual, L+C is all reserved white walls and spartan Scandinavian design. We would gladly have picked three dishes each from the menu and were roundly satisfied by the ones we settled on: for Michael, De-Puy spiced lentils, roasted cauliflower, braised silverbeet, coconut sambol & taro crisps ($20) and for me, an apple pie waffle served with hung cinnamon sour cream, braised apple and toffee crunch ($19). 

It was a strange sensation to walk down that same street and check in on the first apartment Michael and I rented together - a time before food blogging, when we rented DVDs from Trash Video and relied on a meagre dial-up internet quota supplied through my UQ enrollment. In my sun-drenched week, I eagerly found both comfort in the old and plenty of positives in the new.