Kitchen Confidential: Latest Qld food news and gossip
It might just be the most stunning rooftop bar and pool deck in Brisbane. And for a limited time, you’ll be able to hire it for your own private party.
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Welcome to Kitchen Confidential, your weekly helping of Queensland dining news and gossip.
APPLE DUMPLINGS ANYONE?
Brisbane’s West End is set to welcome a new specialty dumpling shop and Chinese restaurant.
Impressive Dumplings will take over the space formerly occupied by Greek taverna Ouzeri along Boundary St, and will be a sister restaurant to the Sunnybank Hills operation of the same name.
Owned by Chinese couple Jay and Peng Li, the eatery will offer both dine in for up to 30 guests and takeaway.
Expect dumplings filled with everything from cuttlefish to chicken, shiitake and corn, even apple, alongside interesting-sounding dishes including beef tripe in Sichuan red oil, crispy crab claws and pickled cabbage and lamb noodle soup.
Li said the restaurant would be the second of many, with his eyes set on sites at Everton Park in Brisbane’s north, and Bulimba in the east.
It’s due to open at the end of August.
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Brisbane’s flashy new Mei Wei Dumplings fails to impress
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FLASHY BRISBANE HOTEL RENTS OUT POOL DECK FOR PRIVATE PARTIES
Want to party like a rock star and have a hotel’s entire pool deck for just you and your friends?
The ultra flashy W Brisbane is allowing guests to do just that with their new Riverside Revelry package, which launches this Friday.
For the next six weeks, the chic CBD rooftop bar with views across the river to South Bank will be serving a luxe barbecue experience including three hours of drinks.
Up to 25 guests can hire out the entire space for $175 per person, with a minimum expenditure of $3000. There’s also the option to add a DJ to pump up the vibe, but unfortunately there won’t be any dancing, with all patrons required to be seated under new COVID-19 venue restrictions.
Meanwhile, downstairs at W Brisbane the famed Three Blue Ducks restaurant will again reopen this Friday after being closed for about four months because of coronavirus.
The eatery is a sister venue to Byron Bay’s hugely popular The Farm and is run by a team of celebrity chefs including Darren Robertson and MasterChef’s Andy Allen.
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BIG CHANGES FOR GLAM PORT DOUGLAS RESTAURANT
The glamorous Harrisons restaurant at Port Douglas’s Sheraton Resort has ditched its high end edge to become a more relaxed all-day eatery.
Consistently finishing in The Sunday Mail’s delicious.100 top restaurants in Queensland, the venue has introduced breakfast, created a more “consumer friendly” dinner menu and lowered prices across many of its dishes.
“We’ve got to be clever and appeal to the local audience and Queenslanders,” said owner Spencer Patrick.
“We’ve always had a good local following anyway but in these times we’ve got to keep on pushing forward and adapting.”
The changes come as the venue tries to acclimate to coronavirus restrictions, which have wiped out its overseas clientele and dramatically limited interstate travellers to the popular holiday destination.
Harrisons’ more approachable menu now includes the likes of a spanner crab linguine and steak and fries at dinner, while lunch has been moved outdoors to the Lagoon House serving light, on trend items such as poke bowls and tacos. The new breakfast offering runs from overnight oats to Ora king salmon on a toasted bagel, with an Apero hour featuring drinks and snacks also introduced of an afternoon.
“We’re still pushing forward and creating new dishes and we’ve got a great team in the kitchen,” said Patrick.
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Honour Ave Cellars in Graceville to open to only 8 patrons
DELICIOUS PRODUCE TO COME OUT ON TOP
The cream of Queensland’s artisan food crop will go head-to-head with producers from across the country next week to determine who has the best ingredients in Australia.
The annual delicious. Produce Awards Gold Medallists will be announced next Thursday with 21 Sunshine State foodie businesses in the running.
The competition includes four main categories: sea, earth, paddock and dairy, with the winners judged by some of the best chefs and culinary identities in the country including Neil Perry, Peter Gilmore and Matt Moran.
Up for gongs from Queensland include cultured salted butter from Tommerup’s Dairy Farm in the Scenic Rim, quark from North Queensland’s Mungalli Creek Dairy; Abiu fruit from North Queensland’s Fruit Forest Farm, goat meat from Eggcettera between Toowoomba and Warwick, and scarlet prawns from Cape Moreton Scarlet Prawns.
The big winners will be revealed next Thursday in Hibernation.
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THE HOTTEST DRINK OF SPRING AND SUMMER
Hard Seltzer – never heard of it? Well now is the time to learn because, come summer, it’s set to be the hottest drink in town.
In loose terms it is known as an alcoholic fizzy water, created either through fermentation or a spiked-water method, and often tastes like slightly fruity but not sweet soda water.
While it falls into the RTD (ready to drink) category, it is standing out among the crowd as a health-conscious alternative, as it contains low or no sugar and low carbs.
After its popularity boomed in the US, first to the market in Australia was brewing giant Lion, with Quincy, which is made from fermented rice and tastes like a sparkling sake. A slew of offerings have since followed from the likes of Great White, Good Tides, Sips, Lost Palms Brewing Co and ‘Ray. Even Stone and Wood have jumped on the trend, releasing their Sunly seltzer in three flavours.
If you’re after a lighter alternative to beer or a less sweet and sugary replacement for cider or traditional RTDs, hard seltzer is well worth trying.
