Australia & NZ 2011 (3 April)

Last day on the road. Some of the international travelers left the hostel when I was still sleeping, including my roommate. You know what that means, right? The whole room to myself, for a much-needed yoga session. Breakfast was similar to the previous day’s: a banana, scrambled eggs and sautéed frozen spinach.

We all met in the Buddhist centre and helped to disassemble the tables and tent. We also gave the locals a hand with the leftover food: apples, muffins, cookies and coffee. I behaved myself and had just healthy stuff: three apples, a spoonful of peanut butter and a handful of almonds.

Around noon we got in several cars and headed to the airport. Our lama and his team were the first ones to depart. We hugged them good-bye and waited for our flights. In the meantime I had a cappuccino and a berry blast smoothie (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, yogurt and skim milk).

On board of our last flight, we were given the choice of butter chicken or beef lasagna for lunch. I had lasagna the day before, so butter chicken it was. With rice and green beans as sides, it was good and comforting. I wasn’t planning to eat the bread roll but the rice wasn’t enough to soak all the sauce so I *had to* mop it up with the roll. Dessert was the best (taste-wise) of the ones I’ve had on planes during the tour: hokey pokey ice cream.

Lunch Christchurch – Sydney

Back at home I had a shower and started unpacking. My sister came over, I gave her and Alvaro the humble souvenirs I brought from NZ and started telling them everything about the trip. We went for dinner to Kammadhenu.

I had great expectations after reading a number of reviews about this Sri Lankan restaurant. Gladys had no expectations and Alvaro only hoped we got food that was not too spicy for his over-sensitive palate. We ordered vegetable samosas to start, plus lamb rojan josh, mixed vegetables (in a curry sauce), basmati rice and garlic naan to share.

The samosas were great. Not as tasty as the ones that were served in the office around 8:30 pm when I was working in Delhi, but I think in this case context makes a big difference (a samosa after 11.5 hours of work definitely tastes better!).

Vegetable samosas ($1.50 each)

With the mains we shared we had two issues. First of all, they were not as big as we expected (that’s why we ordered garlic naan). Secondly, and most important, they lacked salt. The bottled sweet green chilli brought to our table helped us lift the flavour of our meal. We were definitely not impressed by the food.

Lamb rojan josh ($12.90), basmati rice ($2.50 pp)

Mixed vegetables ($11.90), lamb rojan josh ($12.90)

We had some room for dessert but the sweets in the menu didn’t sound promising to us. Instead, we walked to Cafe C and had a massive slice of lemon tart to share, washed down with delicious chai latte.

I want to apologise again for the poor quality of the photos in the last few posts, as I explained earlier my camera died in Wellington and I had to rely on my mobile (sadly not an iPhone). Now I’ve got a new old camera (one that my friend Matt doesn’t use anymore) with a brand new lens that I’m learning how to use. Good photos will take a while but I’m on my way!

Kammadhenu
377a King Street (also 171 King Street)
Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9557 2186
www.kammadhenu.com.au

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Cafe C
281 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9550 6621

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Australia & NZ 2011 (2 April)

A jog to the park and a body weight workout marked the beginning of a new day in Christchurch. Then I had a massive breakfast: a banana, a cup of instant coffee with milk and three soft-boiled eggs on a (king-size) bed of cooked frozen spinach. There was home-made bread available for free on the hostel’s kitchen bench, but I couldn’t fit any more food in my stomach. I heard the bread was really good.

Breakfast at hostel

After the morning teachings in the Buddhist centre it was time to decide again what to do for lunch. I had the previous day’s soup leftovers in the hostel’s fridge, so I went back to save a few dollars while feeding my body a healthy meal. A quick detour to the supermarket satisfied my craving of eating an orange before lunch.

I added a bunch of frozen spinach to the soup while heating it up on the stove and finished it with a soup-poached egg. A little trick to keep things interesting :).

After the afternoon public talk in the Buddhist centre I had some almonds and a banana and then headed back to the hostel with Andrey and Neil to try to solve some problems with extra charges in our credit cards.

When we got back to the centre, most of the people had gone to the city centre, the most affected area, to see the effects of the earthquake. We had to wait until they came back and then dinner was served. For 15 NZ dollars you could have some salad (mixed leaves, cucumber and cherry tomatoes), bread and butter, and your choice of beef or vegetarian lasagna. There were also some leftovers from the night before that didn’t taste very fresh.

My first plate had salad, a piece of bread and a portion of beef lasagna. Surprisingly (for me), the salad was the least impressive component. The bread looked average but was very tasty, soft with a crunchy crust and slightly sweet. The lasagna was very tasty and gained the approval of our Italian friend Paola.

Salad, beef lasagna and buttered bread

Of course I wasn’t satisfied with that first serving. I made sure most of the people were already eating and went for seconds. This time I had half a piece of the vegetarian lasagna, plus some more salad, a bit of leftover pasta salad and another piece of bread. The vegetarian lasagna was not good at all. The spinach pasta had been overcooked and was completely mushy. As said before, the leftover salad didn’t taste fresh, especially the broccoli, which was bitter.

The last heap of food that touched my plate was a spoonful of leftover couscous. Again, not fresh. Luckily, there was dessert. We were freezing our asses of but couldn’t resist the temptation of having a bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup and tinned peaches. We scattered around the heater and ate the ice cream quickly before it melted down.

Ice cream, chocolate syrup and tinned peaches

Australia & NZ 2011 (1 April)

Christchurch at this time of the year is pretty chilly. A few drops of rain in the early morning followed by a dry, crisp air, got me ready for sprinting. I walked to the park I’d seen in the map, a few blocks away from the hostel. I had been warned that it was pretty small, and that the road along the river would be a better running scenery, but my knees are happier on soft surfaces.

Back in the hostel, my breakfast was two apples from the organic supermarket in Wellington and a handful of almonds. Then I went to the supermarket to stock up for the next days. That simple act of walking a hundred metres to get basic food was quite an interesting experience. On one hand, there were several shops that were closed due to the earthquake, showing different degrees of destruction. On the other hand, the supermarket staff had an amazingly positive attitude, I guess they were happy to be alive and grateful to still have their jobs. It was the first time after my first visit to Australia that I bought bottled water in a civilised country. Due to the earthquake, the water supply was not suitable for drinking, and you could tell everyone was being cautious because the water shelves in the supermarket were almost empty.

There was a morning session of teachings in the Buddhist centre. For lunch, they had set up a cafeteria with coffee, tea, fruit, sweets (slices, muffins, etc) and sandwiches. The grill was being fired up to sell sausages with sauerkraut on white sliced bread smeared with butter… not exactly my idea of a healthy meal. I decided to walk back to the supermarket, eating some almonds on the way. I bought half a pumpkin and an onion, and made a simple but comforting soup in the hostel kitchen with some five spice and milk that were available in the free food shelves. There was a giant jar of with some leftover peanut butter on one of the shelves, too; I had a spoonful that reminded me how bad the processed stuff tastes compared to home-made peanut butter.

Cafeteria in the centre

Dinner was as usual after the second teachings session of the day. There were leftovers from the previous day available for a donation to the centre (ie, pay what you want) but a bunch of us decided to get food from an Indian restaurant nearby, one of the few that are still standing in the area. Andrey had rented a bike, so he took our orders and rode to It’s Indi to buy the food.

The menu was quite long, I had a hard time deciding what to order. I was sold after reading “very popular worldwide” in the description of the lamb tikka masala (roasted lamb marinated in special spices, cooked in recipe of yoghurt cream & spices).

Basmati rice and lamb tikka masala ($14.50)

Meals were huge and the flavour was good. I enjoyed my tikka masala and had a few spoonfuls of Paola’s dal tadka (yellow split lentil cooked with turmeric, ginger, garlic & tomatoes), which was also good. A perfect meal for such a cool evening.

It’s Indi
345 Stanmore Road/72 North Avon Road
Richmond Village, Christchurch
(03) 389 9997
www.itsindi.co.nz

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Australia & NZ 2011 (31 March)

It was a beautiful day in Kaikoura. The sun and the cool breeze created the perfect climate, not too hot, not too cold. Most of the people left early to the dolphin encounter (some of the swam with the dolphins, others watched from the boat). I went to the gym instead. I know, I know.

Cate and I looked around for a place to have breakfast. Prices were higher compared to cafes in the cities. Cate bought an apple strudel at a bakery; I wanted something more substantial. I decided to stay at the Why Not Cafe, only because of the name. Seriously. Cate ordered a cappuccino to drink with her strudel, I ordered a skim latte and an omelette with cheese & mushrooms.

The coffee was alright, nothing especial for the price. The omelette was huge. My guess is there were at least 6 eggs in it. It was almost falling apart but the flavour was good, the mushrooms were a bit too watery (it’d had helped to sautee and drain them before adding them to the omelette). They gave two slices of toasted white bread and butter as a side, I ate one slice but I surely didn’t needed it.

Skim latte, cappuccino ($4.30 each)

Omelette with cheese & mushrooms ($13.50)

We went for a walk and bought some souvenirs for our families. Then we hung out in the hostel until a bus picked us up. This time we headed to Glentui, where our “mother” Buddhist association has bought land for a retreat centre. In the bus there were all sorts of snacks circulating back and forth. I had a couple of squares of really good dark chocolate.

We were greeted in Glentui with beers, cheese, sausages and crackers. Our lama blessed the place, we had a short meditation and then got back in the bus heading to Christchurch. I was starting to get hungry (yay! the mega omelette was finally digested!) and from the various goodies offered I had a bite of a gigantic chocolate chip cookie, some mixed nuts and a dried fig.

We arrived at the hostel just before 8 pm and got out of there approximately one hour after, when the girl finally managed to sort out all of bookings. We went to the Buddhist centre to hang out with the locals (there was no program that night). We saw photos of the destruction caused by the earthquake, really shocking. Then we proceeded to nibble on the dinner leftovers that were in the kitchen: chips, cheese, roast beef, some lettuce and basil leaves, bread, vegetable quiche, chocolate chip cake, all washed down with a couple of glasses of merlot.

Why Not Cafe
66 West End
Kaikoura 8280
(3) 319 6486

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Australia & NZ 2011 (30 March)

I woke up at 6 after only 4 hours of sleep. We had been in the party last night, then helped tidying things up and left with our hosts for the night.

The reason we could not sleep longer was that we had to catch a shuttle bus to the ferry terminal to get to Kaikoura, a beautiful seaside town, for a well-deserved rest. By the time we arrived at the ferry terminal we were already getting hungry. Luckily, the guys had brought the panini that were left from the party. My breakfast was two vegetarian panini and a latte.

The trip lasted three hours. We were on board of one of those huge ferries that carry vehicles, apart from that it had a shop, a bar and a cafe. I got a bit hungry but there was no way I would spend money in eating there; instead I ate one of my organic pears and used the money to buy a few megas of internet access. We disembarked in Picton and had to wait more than an hour for the bus to pick us up. In the meantime I went for a walk, and had another panino plus an apple.

As the bus approached the town centre in Kaikoura I looked through the window and saw a community gym. I immediately knew I’d like this town. We were dropped in our hostels and everybody found something to do in the few hours we had before the program continued. Some slept, some went for a walk, some had coffee in cafes nearby. I went to the gym, and not any gym: a decent one, finally, with heaps of free weights, weighted bars, a squat rack, benches, pull-up bars (assisted and non-assisted), a heavy bag, boxing gloves, etc.

That night we had a BBQ in a couple’s house. Because they’re American, there were no sausages or steaks, but burgers and buns, plus bagged potato chips, baked beans, lentil salad, pasta salad, potato & gherkin salad, a green salad (leaves and cherry tomatoes) and applesauce.

Before the photos start, here’s the disclaimer. As written in my previous post, my camera died in Wellington. The only option I had was taking pics with my mobile, which unfortunately is not an iPhone. Plus, I had limited memory and didn’t have the cable to download the photos to my netbook. What I’m saying is that starting from now, photos of the tour will be few and crappy. Sorry about that.

Salads and chips

Chips, salads and buns

Grilling burgers

The burgers were awesome, as most of the other stuff. The only salad I didn’t find very tasty was the lentil one. I had seconds and a couple of glasses of merlot, and even when I was quite full I couldn’t help myself when I saw the trays with cake. Chocolate-gingerbread, carrot and banana cakes. I had a small piece of each until my stomach couldn’t stretch no more. It was time to go back to the hostel.

Banana and chocolate-gingerbread cake

Chocolate-gingerbread and carrot cake

Australia & NZ 2011 (29 March)

Being in a single room at the hostel in Auckland meant I had the rare and precious opportunity of working out in my room. After that I went to a nearby supermarket to get breakfast: a banana, an apple and a light berry yogurt. I hadn’t noticed that there was a deli almost in front of the backpackers, I got in there and felt like a kid in a toy store. I wanted to buy everything but couldn’t help myself and got something healthy: a bag of almonds. Aussie almonds, mind you.

Unfortunately, we only stayed for a day in Auckland. We got in an Air New Zealand flight to Wellington, and because it was a short one we only had a very light snack. Light as in grams, not as in calories. Options were a bag of vegetable chips, a cookie or a bag of lollies. Vegetable chips was a very ambiguous definition, but it still sounded like the least unhealthy choice. They were made out of cassava flour, canola oil, sugar and salt, just four ingredients and no mysterious chemicals. I also had an awful coffee with milk and some water.

In Wellington a bunch of us stayed at a hotel a block away from the famous Cuba street, the Kiwi version of King Street. Cool cafes and pubs, multicultural restaurants, bohemian vibe, it had it all. Everything but Cuban restaurants, ironically.

Alexis, Matt and I had lunch at the Bristol Hotel. They offer $10 meals at lunchtime (12 to 3 pm) but unfortunately we were late for that. The pub has the classic vibe to it, with lots of wood involved.

Bristol Hotel

I was happy to see the interesting beer selection on tap. Because I’m not very familiar with Kiwi brews, I asked the girl for a nice ale. She poured a bit of Speight’s Gold Medal Ale in one glass and a bit of a pale ale in other for me to try. The Speight’s was more of my taste, we got a jug to share.

Beers on tap

Jug of Speight’s Gold Medal Ale ($13.50)

To eat, Alexis ordered the smoked salmon fettuccine (smoked salmon & mushrooms tossed in a light garlic cream sauce), Matt the teriyaki pizza (marinated chicken, spring onions, capsicum, sweet chilli sauce & topped with sesame seed) and I the Moroccan lamb salad (spicy lamb, tomato, cucumber, red onions, olives & a mint yoghurt dressing). The meals took a while to be delivered and they didn’t arrive together.

Smoked salmon fettuccine ($16.50)

Teriyaki pizza ($17.00)

Moroccan lamb salad ($15.00)

All of the dishes were pretty average. Typical pub food. I didn’t try the pasta, my salad was not very interesting and Matt’s pizza had that thick sweet bread-like crust I don’t like at all (I still had a few pieces because my salad was not enough). On the bright side, the beer and company were great.

During lunch, one of the worst bloggers nightmares became true: my camera started failing, the lens wouldn’t come out completely. I managed to get it working after a few attempts but I knew something was really wrong.

I went for a post-lunch walk. My main intention was getting something for the following breakfasts but I couldn’t help myself and got into a few other shops. My quest took me to an awesome organic supermarket, Commonsense Organics, which had everything from fruits and vegetables to supplements, awesome cheeses and deli meats, and healthy baked goodies.

Commonsense organics

I wanted to buy everything but I had the limitation of not knowing where I would sleep that night, that “small” detail would be sorted out after the public talk and party. That meant that I couldn’t buy the organic non-homogenised milk I was craving. Instead, I bought a few apples, pears, and a coffee yogurt (plain yogurt with a sweet coffee topping), which I ate straight away. The yogurt was smooth and creamy, the coffee wasn’t bitter at all and its sweetness complemented the slight tartness of the yogurt perfectly.

I wanted to take a photo of the yogurt to remember the brand but my camera had died completely. Trying to figure out how to solve the situation for the rest of the tour, I went back to the Buddhist centre. The lecture and small party were great. I had a couple of beers (Gold Mac this time), plus a couple of panini (cheese & hummus, and salami & sun-dried tomato).

Bristol Hotel
131 – 133 Cuba Street
Te Aro 6011
(04) 385 1147
hotelbristol.co.nz

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Commonsense Organics
260 Wakefield Street
Te Aro 6011
(04) 384 3314
www.commonsenseorganics.co.nz

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Australia & NZ 2011 (28 March)

I woke up feeling like crap, even after sleeping in my own bed. Wondering how does my lama manage to travel the world year-round gave me the energy to squeeze a micro workout before taking a shower.

Paola and Norris stayed with us that night, but Norris left early to uni. I oven-roasted some almonds, cashews, macadamias and shredded coconut and served them with bananas, yogurt, and an organic plum & mango preserve I bought in the Eveleigh market a while ago.

We had coffee in the airport and lunch on board. Air New Zealand gave us the option of a hot meal (ham & Brie sandwich) or a cold meal (Thai beef salad). I had the salad, which came with a coriander vinaigrette, a bread roll (not in the photo because it was delivered warm a short while later), butter, and a chocolate brownie that I didn’t eat. The beef had a nice flavour, it had been marinated and stir-fried with lemongrass. The salad had mixed leaves (a few of them old), two strips of capsicum, bean sprouts and one-inch pieces of fried flat rice noodles, which should have been on top of everything and not mixed with the greens to avoid sogginess. I wished the dressing container was bigger.

Cold lunch

We arrived at Auckland, checked in the hostel (I scored a single room, yay!), left our stuff and went to get something to eat. The ladies I was with decided to buy some stuff to eat in the lecture venue but I wanted a restaurant dinner. I ran into a few other friends, who were heading to La Porchetta, an Australian franchise of Italian restaurants that I didn’t knew about.

Given that I only had 45 NZ dollars that were supposed to last until I managed to change money the next day, I was after something that wouldn’t break the bank. A bowl of minestrone and a side salad would do the trick, but unfortunately they didn’t have any soup left. I had the warm chicken salad instead, which was awesome. The ingredients were quite simple: lettuce, cucumber, tomato, sun-dried tomato, and grilled chicken breast, but they worked really well with the balsamic/mustard/white wine dressing.

Warm chicken salad

The event in Auckland was so well organised that after the lecture, the locals distributed sandwiches, sushi rolls, and juice bottles. I ate a sushi roll (it was chicken, not my favourite but good when hungry), and a ham, cheese & avocado sandwich.

We went to a bar for the usual post-lecture drinks. Apparently, the GPK was the only place open in the area. It looks very fancy and I almost feel under qualified to be there but fortunately we were almost the only customers. And we were a big bunch. There had Stella Artois and Beck’s on tap but it would have been really silly to not try any local beers. As a dark ale lover, I got a Black Mac’s, which was great. Good body, slight sweetness, clever label (the back label states “you hold what many believe to be one of the ugliest beer bottles in the world”), it had it all.

GPK

Black Mac

The friendly bar tender served us a few snacks: good tasting olives and extremely salty Parmesan sticks, presumably intended to make us drink more. I had another beer before we all headed back to the hostel.

La Porchetta
304 Posonby Road
Posonby 1011
(09) 360 0318
www.laporchetta.com.au

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GPK
262 Posonby Road
Posonby 1011
(09) 360 1113
www.gpk.co.nz

http://maps.google.co.nz/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&q=gpk+auckland&fb=1&gl=nz&hq=gpk&hnear=Auckland&cid=0,0,13712511451678721449&ll=-36.850767,174.744283&spn=0.006295,0.006295&iwloc=A&output=embed
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Australia & NZ 2011 (27 March)

Our time in Canberra was coming to an end. My morning was not different from the others: a banana, a gym workout, and the same breakfast (with microwaved eggs instead of soft-boiled because the fancy electric stove wasn’t working).

A final morning session was the end of the course. Most people went for lunch, but I wasn’t that hungry. Instead, I bought cashews, macadamias, and 2 apples, and ate them with some almonds I had left. We returned to Sydney by bus.

It was great to be back home, even when it was just for one night. I re-packed my suitcase for the rest of the trip, took a shower, and left with Alvaro to get some dinner before heading to the Buddhist centre. Out of the restaurants in the area that were still open, we reckoned our best choice was Happy Chef.

Happy Chef is an Asian restaurant (I know the term is broad, but they don’t do a single cuisine) that has a very well-earned reputation in the area. We knew that it was good and good value for the money, but somehow we hadn’t eaten there before. A photo menu displayed (old-fashioned fast food-style) reveals a wide variety of choices from soups to stir-fries, noodles and rice, each of each with different meat/tofu options.

Alvaro chose the fried rice with chicken and I the tofu & vegetable laksa. The lady who took my order advised me that they used chicken broth, which is definitely a good thing to advise to vegetarian/vegan customers.

I enjoyed the laksa a lot. It came with thin noodles and bean sprouts in the bottom, plus bok choy, cabbage, snow peas and fried tofu. The broth was very tasty and with the right amount of spiciness (for me, Alvaro found it too hot). I wasn’t a big fan of the texture of the tofu, I found it a bit too spongy and chewy, but other than that, the soup was perfect.

Tofu & vegetable laksa ($10.80)

The fried rice was very good, too. In the beginning Alvaro was tempted to put some soy sauce on it (a Peruvian habit, I suppose) but he realised it had the right amount of seasoning. I enjoyed a few forkfuls, which didn’t feel greasy at all.

Fried rice with chicken ($10.80)

I was pretty stuffed but Alvaro had space for ice cream. Gelatomassi is right next door so it was hard for me to refuse. Oddly, he chose the mango sorbet, which he qualified as “amazing”. I tried a tiny bit that tasted like pure fruit. Reminded me of Peruvian fruit ice pops. Good stuff.

We headed to the Buddhist centre where a bunch of people were already having drinks. I had a beer and a glass of wine, followed by some grapes, nuts and cheese. We watched The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, not exactly a film to relax and chill out, but a good movie anyway. Then we went back home to sleep for a few hours before the flight to New Zealand.

Happy Chef
266 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9550 3423

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Gelatomassi
262 King Street
Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9516 0655
www.gelatomassi.com.au

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Australia & NZ 2011 (26 March)

The travel effects were showing by this stage: bigger belly, less energy and many hours of sleep debt that unfortunately cannot be paid back. I woke up late and decided to do some yoga in the room instead of going out to sprint, followed by the same breakfast than the day before.

I had long black with sugar in Tilley’s and thought it would be my only visit of the day. I was wrong. After the morning lecture Catalina and I went to check out a Chinese restaurant nearby that has good online reviews, but they only open for dinner. Our choices narrowed down to kebabs, cheap pizza or Tilley’s. Guess where we went.

Following Catalina’s suggestion of sharing a few dishes, we ordered vegetarian spring rolls with sweet chilli sauce, basil pesto bread, and a Greek salad with tasty cheese instead of goat’s cheese (she doesn’t like it).

Food took long to arrive, as usual, but it was fine because we weren’t in a rush. I don’t know why I thought the spring rolls were the ones that come with rice paper (usually labeled as “fresh”), and when I saw the bowl full of fried rolls I panicked a bit. Well, I thought, at least we had a healthy salad on the table.

Vegetarian spring rolls with sweet chilli sauce ($7.50)

The Greek salad was great. I would have enjoyed it more with goat’s cheese, but the grated tasty was not bad at all. The salad came with one slice of basil pesto bread, and the additional serving we ordered had three, which made it easier for us to share.

Greek salad with tasty cheese instead of goat’s ($17.50)

They use good sourdough bread in Tilley’s, and I found out the pesto was not bad at all. The whole meal turned out to be a tad too greasy, but we were satisfied with both quality and quantity.

Basil pesto bread ($8.00)

Dinner, however, was a different story. Again they ordered Asian takeaway (I think from the same place as two days before). I wasn’t planning to have dinner but 3 hours of teachings and 30 minutes of meditation made me hungry. I went to the feeding tent to see what was left, and grabbed a half-eaten container of a tofu dish with carrots, rice noodles, capsicum, onion, and lots of ginger, plus some rice. I must admit it was a bit better than the curry, but I wouldn’t consider it a nice meal. I also had a greasy fried spring roll and a piece of chocolate birthday cake.

That night Matt and Tiffany, who are already legally married, had their Buddhist wedding, a really nice ceremony with a special blessing from the lama. They invited family and friends and had a party while we continued with our course. At the end of the night we had a big party, and managed to eat some leftovers from the wedding reception table, including an amazing dark chocolate & nut cake. The party went on until 5 am, I left around 2 to get some rest.

Tilley’s
1/94 Wattle Street
Lyneham ACT 2602
(02) 6247 7753
www.tilleys.com.au

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Australia & NZ 2011 (25 March)

The third day in Canberra was when I finally got my routine up and running, which consisted in a banana, a hotel gym workout, and my signature breakfast for that leg of the tour (a banana, a pear, almonds, and two soft-boiled eggs).

A bunch of us arrived a bit earlier to the Buddhist centre to help make sandwiches for the cafeteria to sell at lunchtime.

After the morning lecture Jane and Gary drove Angela, Catalina and me to Kingston for lunch. Following a suggestion from Lauren (Corridor Kitchen), I convinced the gang to go to Silo Bakery. Unfortunately, it was absolutely packed. We walked around the block and ran into Victor and Jeff, who joined us.

We had seen a few good-looking Italian restaurants, and decided to stay at L’Unico Ristorante, which was pretty empty. The waitress was Italian, which gave us (or at least me) high expectations. The specials menu didn’t have prices, which made us think that we’d better off choosing from the regular menu.

Gary and Jane ordered the Insalata Mista (radicchio, rocket, iceberg lettuce, cucumbers, kalamata olives, Roma tomatoes, red Spanish onion, dressed with an aged balsamic vinaigrette), which they shared with the rest.

Insalata Mista ($9.90)

As main, Gary had the Angus Osso Buco (slow braised in white wine for three hours for tenderness, finished with a thyme, parsley and lemon zest gremolata and served with seasonal vegetables), which was as good as it looked. The meat was super tender, the flavour was spot-on, the serving was huge. They advertise their Angus beef as totally grass-fed, as well as preservative, hormone and chemical free.

Angus Osso Buco ($29.90)

Jane had the Spaghetti Bolognese (a rich, slow cooked sauce of tomato, beef & pork mince), which looked like it didn’t have enough sauce and meat.

Spaghetti Bolognese ($16.90)

Jeff had the Crab & Moreton Bay Bug Lasagna (a delicious and generous mixture of sauteed crab and Moreton Bay bug meat, lovingly combined with Clare Valley white wine, a hint of dill, shallots, seasonings, Bechamel and Napoli sauces creating a perfect texture- all layered between sheets of fresh, home – made pasta). I was tempted to order this dish, too, but the price tag turned me off. It looked great, creamy, silky and classy.

Crab & Moreton Bay Bug Lasagna ($27.90)

Our pescetarian Catalina decided to go vego this time and had the Insalata Caprese (roma tomatoes & bocconcini cheese, freshly sliced and topped with basil & oregano, dressed with extra virgin olive oil) and the Profumata wood fired pizza bread (extra virgin olive oil, rosemary & sea salt). The salad came with a large bunch of rocket, which Catalina doesn’t like, so she donated it to me. I had a few pieces of the pizza bread, too, it was very aromatic and crunchy thanks to the semolina it was made with.

Insalata Caprese ($13.90)

Profumata Wood Fired Pizza Bread ($9.90)

We got a copy of the specials menu with hand-written prices on it. They were indeed pricey but this didn’t stop Victor and Angela. Victor ordered the baked whole fish and Angela the gnocchi. The fish was cooked en papillote, and arrived to the table wrapped in foil. It was way too watery but according to Vic, quite tasty. Apparently, it wasn’t enough food for him, though.

Baked whole fish

I completely forgot to write down Angela’s gnocchi description. I do remember that it included olives and vegetables. I tried one, it was a bit too soft and wet for my taste, but the sauce was alright.

Gnocchi

Because this place looked very authentically Italian and there were many appetising pasta options in the menu, I decided to try one. But when I saw everybody else’s pastas (and mine) I realised it was a mistake. I ordered the Pasta al Forno (oven baked pasta in a rich tomato sauce with beef & pork meatballs and pecorino cheese), which sounded like traditional comfort food but was pretty ordinary. The sauce was ok, but the meatballs were very dry and all the noodles on top were burnt.

Pasta al Forno ($17.90)

Pasta al Forno, meatball close-up

I think besides from Gary any of us was impressed with the quality of the food or the service. It took them around one hour to serve our meals, even when the place was almost empty, and the meals didn’t arrive together. Another average restaurant in Canberra not worth revisiting.

Dinner was again at the centre, this time they bought “burritos”, which were more like yeeros with rice in them. Choices were lamb or vegetarian, with either yogurt or chipotle sauce. I had the lamb “burrito” with yogurt sauce, which was very, very, tasty (and also very, very big).

Lamb “burrito”

L’Unico Ristorante
27 Kennedy Street
Kingston ACT 2604
(02) 6295 0777
www.lunicoristorante.com.au

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