Quick Bites - Beer and Fish (where's the beer)

Beer & Fish HK

One of the things I miss most about my former home, a country that is one big island where most of the population lives on the coastline, is the variety of fish available when visiting a fish and chip shop.  In most fish and chipperies in Australia, you have a myriad of options available, all of it amazing quality.  So far, I've discovered that there is a distinct lack of fish and chip joints, and the few good ones I've found, there are limited options available.

My favourite so far has been Hooked in Soho (see post here), but even this New Zealand run little joint has very few options for an adventurous diner.  So, it was with a little trepidation that we visited the new the SoHo fish and chip joint, Beer & Fish.  We'd had a few false starts over the last few weeks, walking by  a couple of Saturday afternoons in a row, only to find that Beer & Fish was 'not quite open' yet.  Then, one day, it was open!

Being brand new, Beer & Fish had that shiny new feeling about it, everything was shiny and clean and it looked pretty cool.  Exposed light fittings gave it a slightly industrial feel, as did the metal benches that doubled as serving benches.  Like a lot of dining spots in SoHo, Beer & Fish took up very little room, in fact it was tiny, and would probably only hold half a dozen diners at any one time.

Casual Dining - Hooked fish and chips

http://hooked.hk/

Typical for a Kiwi to make a claim for the best fish and chips in the world, but that's exactly what the team from Hooked have done.  I make this statement as an Aussie, because it's clear that Aussies make the best fish and chips in the world.  It was with fond memories of wonderfully cooked fish and golden brown, crunchy chips that I set out to find Hong Kong's best fish and chips, which is how I stumbled across Hooked.

Located on Caine Road, right in the middle of Expat territory, Hooked is one of those little food spots that you could easily walk by if you weren't looking for it.  It's a tiny little space that has room for standing only and is run by a Kiwi with grand designs.  To bring the best of New Zealand's pristine waters directly to Hong Kong, with all fish caught using sustainable practices.

Now, I'll be the first to admit, New Zealand has some of the most amazing produce in the world, the land of the 'long white cloud' is far away from much of the worlds pollution and the Kiwi's do have a reputation for great fish and chips.  But so do the Aussies, who typically also think we're the best at everything (LOL).  

Only one way to find out and that was get into Hooked and give it a go.

Statler & Waldorf - Gastro Pub

https://www.facebook.com/TheStatlerWaldorf?fref=ts

It was a Saturday night and the girls had arranged to visit one of Brisbane's many cemeteries as part of a ghost tour.  It used to be that the boys were also invited to go along for ghost tours as well, but after a number acts of bastardry, we are no longer invited.  I guess that's what you get when you try to scare the bejesus out of your friends in dark and spooky spots.  So instead of hanging out with the girls at the South Brisbane cemetery, we decided that we would have a boys' night out and hit one of the many restaurants around town.

In a clear case of irony, we ended up hitting a new gastro pub in town called Statler and Waldorf, or for those of you who are not Jim Henson and Muppet fans, a place named after the two crabby old bastards that would shout abuse to the entire Muppet crew (see clip here).  While I wouldn't normally consider myself a bastard (defined as objectionable person), something comes over me when I'm in a dark and spooky spot with girls who are easily scared....

There are multiple cultural references to Statler and Waldorf, both names also reference quite well known hotels in the United States, with the Waldorf being one of the most recognisable hotel names in New York. Aside from the cultural references, Statler and Waldorf is is just a really cool name for a gastro pub and it conjures up all sorts of images about a stately and stuffy building.  Nothing could be further from the truth, with the new gastro pub located in Caxton Street pretty much being a hipster hang out.  

South Bank Surf Club - New Summer menu 'TweatUp'

http://www.southbanksurfclub.com.au/

I was pretty excited.  We had been invited along to a 'TweatUp' over at the South Bank Surf Club, a restaurant that I had been wanting to check out for a long time.  I say we because SC was invited along to join me for the TweatUp, she normally doesn't get to come along to events like this, so its probably more appropriate to say that we were pretty excited.

South Bank Surf Club opened up to much fanfare a few years back for a couple of reasons, firstly it was celebrity chef Ben O'Donoghue's first restaurant in Brisbane and secondly it's uniqueness of being a Surf Club right in the middle of the CBD.  South Bank may at first seem like an odd location for a Surf Club but when you consider we have a huge man made beach that is as popular as Bondi on a sunny Saturday afternoon, then perhaps it's not really that surprising.

A few things have changed at the South Bank Surf Club in recent times, most notably Ben O'Donoghue parting ways with the diner and moving on to do his own thing.  What has not changed is the gorgeous location of the venue and its amazing views of the Brisbane skyline and proximity to the man made beach and lifeblood of the CBD that is the Brisbane River.  New head chef Tye Higgins has continued the tradition at the South Bank Surf Club and is heavily influenced by fresh local seafood with an eye to sustainable dining.  Tye officially took over the kitchen at the start of the year after working at well known restaurants the Zen Bar and uber fine diner Urbane restaurant.

Casual Dining - Reef Seafood + Sushi

http://www.reefseafood.com.au/

One of the coolest and most anticipated precincts in memory opened up with little fanfare recently but in a very short period of time has become one of my favourite spots around Brisbane.  Gasworks is located over on the river at Newstead that was for many years a mozzie infested eyesore, but always had so much potential being so close to the CBD.  One of the new breeds of 'master-planned' communities that are springing up all around South East Queensland, the precinct is centered around the historic Gasworks site.  

The beautiful and ornate framework of the original Gasometer frame, which has been carefully restored, is the highlight and centrepiece of the whole site.  Most nights you can pull up a bean bag, grab yourself a beer and sit under and around the Gasometer frame and listen to local bands, while the framework is lit up in a beautiful purple haze.  It's a top spot and it's only going to get better over time as more residential and commercial opportunities are realised.

We had tickets to see John Birmingham's 'He died with a felafel in his hand' and wanted somewhere quick and easy for dinner.  While the Gasworks is not on the way to the Powerhouse when walking, it's not too much of a detour, so we put on our walking shoes and headed out shortly after work.  Our plan was to hit the new fish and chip shop, Reef Seafood + Sushi and then continue on to see the play.  As we walked past the lovely Gasometer structure to the main dining area, we noticed a huge crowd milling around.  As we got closer, it was clear that we were not the only ones who thought a quick bit of fish and chips would be a great idea on a Friday night.

New York Series - The Spotted Pig

http://thespottedpig.com/

Many of the restaurants I wanted to visit were well planned out in advance.  I had done my research back in Australia and knew which Michelin starred restaurants I wanted to visit and had them squared away and booked nice and early.  

The Spotted Pig is a restaurant that I stumbled upon by accident.  We had just moved to the Chelsea area after spending some time in Little Italy and were just exploring the local area (well, it was a bit of a hike the first day), and found ourselves walking through the West Village.  The West Village is quite different from much of Manhattan in that the streets are a little less planned and a bit chaotic.  There are lots of little side streets to explore and it was down one of these that we stumbled upon The Spotted Pig.

The West Village is a great spot and has so many hip places to look at and visit.  Known as 'Little Bohemia' from 1916, the West Village is the centre of the bohemian lifestyle on the West Side and has lots of classical artist's lofts.  There is the re-instituted High Line (converted from an elevated railroad track to people's space) which connects this historic district to the art galleries of Chelsea and beyond.  The West Village is also home to many of New York's rich and famous and as a consequence property values are astronomical.  There are also lots of great restaurants and dining spots, like The Spotted Pig.

The only clue that it was a restaurant was a little pig above the door and apart from that, it looked just like any other semi industrial building (all-be-it a moss covered building).  We had walked past it without realising it was a restaurant and then curiosity got the better of me, so SC and I walked back to the building and had a peek inside.  Wow, talk about a surprise, this looked just like an 'Ye Olde English Pub' inside and was packed.  I made a mental note to investigate this further and then come back for dinner.

Helm Surfers - A surprise packet on the Gold Coast

http://www.helmbarsurfers.com.au/

This has been a very cold and very wet winter so far and I have not enjoyed it at all.  So when I had the opportunity to head down to the Gold Coast to check out a new restaurant, Helm Bar and Bistro, I was pretty happy to leave Brisbane behind, for a few hours at least.  It's pretty amazing really, as cold and miserable as it can be in the Queensland capital, just sixty odd kilometres down the road is a completely different story.

We were pretty lucky really, it was one of the few weekends where the sun had been out and while it was still pretty cold, there is nothing worse than heading down to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast on a rainy day.  It has been ages since I last visited the Gold Coast, the glitz and glamour of the nation's holiday strip does nothing to excite me.  In fact the last time we went down we had a pretty disappointing meal at a (then) hatted restaurant.

I alway forget how easy it is to get to the Gold Coast nowadays, with a pretty good road that is going to get better once the fourth freeway lane opens up and traffic flows even better.  What I always forget though, is how painful the bottleneck is when you get off the Pacific Motorway and head towards The Spit, it was like a car park.  It was also pretty painful driving into Surfers as well, with heaps of roadworks and lots of crazy coast drivers.

Gourmet Shoot Out Fish and Chips

http://www.thefishmongerswife.com/ versus http://swampdog.com.au/

The Champion versus the Contender

One of my staples over summer and for many Australians is the humble serving of fish & chips.  I'm not sure why, but during the colder months I don't often think of eating fish & chips, but once the warm weather strikes, I eat it pretty regularly.  The thing about a meal like fish & chips is that everyone has their favourite place to go and ends up being quite parochial, and I am no different, usually sticking to my own favourite.  Every so often though, along comes a challenger that makes you sit up and take notice of what they have to offer and my post today is about the two vying for my attention right now.