It's finally here. October is all about food as The Canberra Times Good Food Month starts. It's part of Australia's largest food festival, Good Food Month, which started in Sydney and has now expanded to Melbourne and Brisbane. The Canberra festival begins Wednesday, October 1, with a tapas and cocktail night at Parlour Wine Room, and includes more than 30 events throughout the month. See full program at canberra.goodfoodmonth.com.
Wood and Coal opens
Wood and Coal is the newest restaurant in the Canberra Centre and is all about the flame with lunchtime specials of souvas and meat from the spit. It's downstairs in the "north quarter" at the Canberra Centre, next to Jamie's Italian where the old Babar restaurant used to be.
The Merchant Deli and Restaurant opens at Kingston foreshore
Another dining spot at the Kingston foreshore – the Merchant is a deli and providore, the first to open on the foreshore to serve the residents on the lake front. It's also doing dinners and meals.
Fried crickets for dinner?
How adventurous is your palate? Can you handle heat and spice and exotic ingredients? Jeff Piper, chef and owner at Thirst Wine Bar in Civic, is looking to challenge your tastebuds with a special dinner for The Canberra Times Good Food Month. On October 16, he's doing a very unusual Thai dinner that will push your boundaries – and mine, because I'm helping him host. The dinner starts with a big challenge – fried crickets to nibble on, like beer nuts. It moves on to spicy salads, a green trout curry, a peppery Thai sausage with pig's blood and Piper says he'll also be serving up a salad with fermented fish and enoki mushrooms. But there will also be several classic but slightly less adventurous Thirst dishes, including Piper's crispy fish salad, which is textural and tasty at once. It'll all be matched with three wines including the Thirst house riesling, made by Nick O'Leary. It sounds extremely fun and very, very different. I just hope I can handle the chilli. Thursday, October 16, at 7pm, Thirst Wine Bar, 20 West Row, Civic. $80 a person. Bookings on 6257 0700.
Hospitality night at Lucky's
Have you ever had to try and describe Lucky's Speakeasy bar at QT Hotel in NewActon to a Canberran of a certain vintage? And then had them exclaim, "Oh, yes, I know what you mean, it's the old Bobby McGee's." Well those Canberrans will be pleased to hear that Lucky's is reviving an old tradition that used to be a staple at Bobby McGee's. Lucky's is hosting a hospitality industry night every Monday, the traditional night off for chefs, bartenders, waitstaff and all the other people who look after us at restaurants, hotels and bars around Canberra every weekend. It's called "HIP Night", which stands for Hospitality Industry Party. The idea is to eventually work towards a special membership for hospitality insiders. The launch party is on Monday, October 13. Entry is free.
Beware the Cakewich
What is the cakewich? It's possibly one of the more odd pseudo-novelty foods to be dreamt up by a corporate chain. In this case, the chain is Gloria Jean's, which has apparently conducted research showing that Australians love cake but don't eat enough of it. More than 10 per cent of people surveyed said they didn't remember the last time they had cake, which means conversely that nearly 90 per cent of people surveyed had had cake within living memory. But let's not quibble about statistics. The cakewich. It's a triangular piece of sponge cake, which purports to mimic a sandwich. According to GJ it's the "perfect snack for the 42 per cent of people who enjoy eating in their car". Well, let them eat cakewich.
