The FAT Website est. 1999
On Sunday, I attended the inaugural ‘Delectable’ Brisbane Food Bowl, a sort of Big Day Out designed for people like me who dedicate large portions of their weekends to eating. Hosted at Brisbane’s Botanical Gardens, its an event where a bunch of restaurants set up a kiosk and sell one of their dishes for five to ten bucks. The event fell on a beautiful, balmy Brisbane winter day where the sun was out and the thermostat was pushing twenty five degrees.
The Food Bowl was attended by Brisbane’s biggest and best loved restaurants: Il Centro, Aria, Sake, Ortiga, Brett’s Wharf, 1889 Ennoteca, Confit, Tank, Stokehouse…they were all there. Some of the stalls were a bit underwhelming: Ortiga is a wonderful restaurant but all they had on offer were croquettas. Others were caught out by the unseasonably warm weather and were clearly anticipating a colder day where you’d have more luck selling nothing but cups of hot soup.
Overall though, it was a fun afternoon and I enjoy the concept of building your own meal by combining dishes from a whole bunch of your favourite eateries. Aside from a couple of logistical issues with the ticketing, the rest of the day went off without a hitch and I look forward to Food Bowl 2013.
Here’s what I had:
Ortiga – chicken and lemon croquettas
Vintaged Hilton Brisbane – Biggenden lamb skewers with tomato and red onion salsa
Harveys Bar + Bistro – beef oyster blade braised in Pedro Ximenez sherry, root vegetables, walnut and white anchovy
Tank – kingaroy pork ramen, egg noodles, shitake, peas, bamboo shoots
Lick Ice Cream – vanilla bean ice cream with rhubarb ripple
Confit – custard tart with Red Hill raspberries
