Life with Bees

Why only nine in this list? Well, I just wrote until I ran out of good brunch restaurants. If I find a 10th I'll add it on.

1. Poachers Pantry
Hearty, well-executed food in a pleasant rural setting. Stacks of potato rosti, thick omelettes and a “breakfast pie” with smoked lamb sausage will get you out of bed. Or go the whole hog with generous platters of smoked meats, kangaroo prosciutto and duck breasts.  But make a booking - it’s a 40 minute drive out of Canberra and walk-ins often get short shrift. And the brunch menu lasts a rather measly 1.5 hours until 11.30am.
Nanima Road, Hall, (02) 6230 2487, www.poacherspantry.com.au
Open Sat-Sun. Brunch 10-11.30am, lunch 12-3pm. 


2. Artespresso
Since winning back a star in the Australian Good Food Guide awards this year, Artespresso has been consistent and a little more adventurous than the run-of-the-mill Kingston cafes. A kimchi omelette with shreds of duck and soy sauce is tender and savoury while a croque monsieur with jamon is good but not amazing. The french toast features brioche with pear and quince. There are standard burgers, pasta and risotto from the lunch menu for something bigger.
31 Giles St, Kingston, (02) 6295 8055, www.artespresso.com.au. Open Sat-Sun, 9am-2.30pm 


3. Beess and Co
Good food options decently put together in a posh inner south neighbourhood. A rosti with layers of bacon, chilli jam and egg is filling while Moroccan baked eggs are smoky and sprinkled with spices. It can be a bit crowded.
29 Bentham St, Yarralumla,  (02) 6285 0116. Open Sat only, 10am-5pm 


4. HaHa Bar
Right on the waterfront at Lake Ginninderra. There are American-style hotcakes studded with corn and capsicum and huevos rancheros with braised beans, fried eggs and sour cream. There’s a shared breakfast for two with smoked trout, scrambled eggs and fruit salad. Even dieters have an option with scrambled egg whites (no neither).
102-104 Emu Bank, Belconnen, (02) 6251 6110, www.hahabar.com.au. Open Sat-Sun, 8am-late 


5. Urban Food Store+ Cafe
One for the hippies and hipsters in equal measure. Good for taking vego friends for brunch - the list includes a vegan rosti stack, scrambled tofu on toast and a spinach and feta omelette. The bread is all organic quinoa sourdough and the coffee is fairtrade. Be prepared for an overload of cool kids.
Corner Edinburgh Avenue and Marcus Clarke St, Civic, (02) 6247 9044, www.urbanfoodstore.com.au. Open Sat-Sun, 8.30am-2.30pm


6. Old Bus Depot Markets
The world food stalls are pricey (the Lao-Thai offering is particularly exxy for what you get). But go for the crepes and baked potatoes filled with bolognese and cheese. Or pick up a slice or two of Ethiopian kita bread, which is dusted with just the right amount of grease and magic red spices.
21 Wentworth Avenue, Kingston, www.obdm.com.au. Open Sun only, 10am-3pm 


7. Urban Pantry
If you can overlook the competitive brunchers and the local luvvies this isn’t a bad choice for brunch - as Manuka goes. Brekkie ranges from vegetarian omelettes and vanilla-and-white-chocolate pancakes to the standard big breakfast platter. The usual suspects - burgers, pasta, risotto - fill the lunch menu, but beware, some of the bigger mains are over $30. Random note: the frappes are enormous.
5 Bougainville St, Manuka, (02) 6162 3556, www.urban-pantry.com.au. Open Sat 8am-late, Sun 8am-4pm 


8. Bookplate
Go for a walk on the lakefront before stopping into Bookplate for a coffee on the terrace overlooking the water.  The dishes are reasonably priced though nothing too adventurous - a ploughman’s lunch, a hot pasta, a lamb curry. There’s a lovely view and the food’s excellent for a cultural institution cafe. Always have the cake and pastries.
National Library of Australia, Parkes Place, (02) 6262 1154, www.bookplate.com.au. Open Sat-Sun, 11am-2.30pm 



9. Noble Palace
The search for decent yum cha in Canberra is ongoing but Noble Palace does the best of a rather poor bunch. There’s a wide spread of dishes, though none really rock the boat - varieties of dumplings, well-stuffed shau mai and plates of leafy greens. Sesame balls and mango puddings finish off a leisurely meal.
28 Corinna Street, Phillip, (02) 6282 8915, www.noblepalace.com.au. Open Sat-Sun, 10.30am-3pm 

Bowral - a sort of upmarket hill station for Sydney colonials - is where ladies who lunch retire. They go to country house hotels for a pedicure, trawl the shops for vintage furniture and take their antiqued mothers out once a week for afternoon tea and champers. So what is a trendy joint like Biota doing here?

Biota - sorry, Biota Dining - has only been open for a couple of months. It’s modern and stylish with a  kitchen garden, a tiny pond and an automated greenhouse (no, neither). It’s set incongruously next to a pink motel but clever hedging makes the restaurant and its surrounds seem secret and sanctuary-like. There’s one of everything - a sunny stone courtyard, a private dining room, a lush garden, a chic cocktail bar, a verandah for alfresco eating, a casual lounge for tapas.  It’s a wonder they remembered to include the restaurant itself but everything is cleanly put together, from the wide, theatrical kitchen window to a centrepiece table full of glassware and bonsai.

Biota’s gastronomic aspirations are made clear very soon. Two glass beakers with cubes of rhubarb are set down and a chef arrives armed with a chrome soda siphon. Oh dear - it’s the liquid nitrogen. “No, no, it’s an infusion,” he reassures, filling the beakers with a gleaming froth. The eucalyptus-infused foam is mentholated without being harsh, its sweetness cut through by the tart rhubarb cubes. As an amuse bouche it works well, bringing a little smile and setting out the terrain that this kitchen wants to explore.

TK opens with potato in smoked buttermilk with burnt beetroot and egg yolk ($19). The potato is light and fluffy with hints of smoke. It’s accompanied by a perfect yolk wrapped in foam that simulates the outer white of a boiled egg. A thin strip of duck breast in juniper sugar ($20) is tender and sinuous like sashimi, surrounded by crunchy grains of cereal and served with another perfect, buttery duck’s egg.




The mains are equally interesting - a fillet of mulloway ($38) is straight out of the Heston Blumenthal “Sound of the Sea” playbook. There’s sea-foam topped with a grey curl of what appears to be kombu, salted and crispened to emulate fish skin. The fillet itself tastes a little plain, but is tender to the fork. As the foam dissipates, the briny broth yields sunken treasures, including green soybeans and tapioca pearls like fish eyes.  TK has a lamb rump ($41) which is clean and juicy without being, as he puts it, “mindblowing”. It’s set off by oat milk,  a smoky “garlic ash” and bursts of olive, all flavours that make welcome but sporadic appearances.

Crappy iPhone shot

 For dessert, a cold infusion of eucalyptus with fruit ($14) is refreshing and exceptionally pretty. There’s no foam here, thankfully, just a chilled eucalyptus liquid over soft plum segments, pumpkin and rhubarb. Cubes of cucumber and speckled chia seeds add to the pleasure. It’s a lovely summer dessert but at odds with Biota’s seasonal mandate, given that we’re nearly into winter. TK’s honey and pumpkin cream over a pumpkin shortbread ($15) is silken over crisp shortbread with a ginger sorbet. The individual elements are excellent but the dish becomes a little overbearing.

The food is intelligent and the work of a thoughtful chef who backs himself. It’s nicely executed and some of the combinations may not be to everyone’s taste but there’s no doubting the skill underlying the trendy locavore manifesto. Worth stopping over on your way to Sydney just to see what they come up with next.

www.biotadining.com
Kangaloon Road, Bowral
02 4862 2005

We moved house a couple of months ago and the camera charger disappeared in the move, leaving us without photos. I only found it today during a frantic attempt to clean up the spare room and have been reliving ancient memories from Christmas and the new year.

Among them was this glorious monstrosity - my birthday cake. TK couldn't decide which of my favourite cakes to make: black forest, red velvet or chocolate. So he made all three, bless him.

It's got layers of red velvet and Scharffenberger chocolate cake sandwiched together with a ready-made choc mousse. TK pierced it through with kirsch syrup, covered it in cream cheese frosting and topped it all off with kirsch-soaked cherries. It fed eight people at birthday dinner and we were still cutting tall, ship-like slices off it well into the next week. TK was definitely my cake hero that day. And he still is!