Saturday 15 April 2023

Brisbane: eating out and street art

I have only been to Brisbane a couple of time before for business and not seen much of the city.  I had another brief trip there for a work event in March.  There was no sightseeing but we stayed in the busy inner suburb of South Brisbane area so there were some fine cafes and street art. 

I stayed at Rydges South Bank Brisbane Hotel on the 11th floor but didn't have much time in my room.  I felt like I spent a lot of time in the elevator getting confused about which floor I was on because the display showing the floor number was broken.  The breakfasts were also very good with a (vegan) fry up from the buffet on each of the two mornings to keep me going during busy days.


On the first afternoon I had lunch with my manager.  We walked to the Cordelia Sourdough Bakery (47 Cordelia St, South Bank).  I had the Vegan Bagel (avocado, sundried tomatoes, tomato, balsamic reduction and rocket). which was just what I needed.


It was quite warm when we arrived in Brisbane.  The bakehouse was a pleasant shady place to sit and relax with a pleasant breeze and good food before setting up the meeting.


In the evening I met up with a college friend who lives in Brisbane.  We went to the Grey Street near my hotel where there are lots of nice restaurants the face onto Grey Street on one side and on the other face across Little Stanley Street to the South Bank Parklands by the Brisbane River.  I saw the Arbour arched walkway with its purple bougainvillia flowers, which I remember from a previous visit.  If I had had more time I would have loved to have wandered along during the day to check out the man-made Streets Beach, statues and galleries.  We just had time to check out a bit of street art (above) and a some twinkling tree lights (top photo).

I chose Ahmet's Turkish Restaurant because it was $9 pide Tuesday but I was just as happy to see they offered mocktails.  I loved the Turkish apple tea while travelling in Turkey so I had a "jar" of Turkish apple frappe; an icy drink of apple tea with apple, pineapple and lime juices.  It was very pleasant drink on a warm evening.  I loved all the colourful patterned table linen on the outside tables where we sat.

I had a pumpkin pide which was generously topped with roast pumpkin, red onion, feta and garlic.  It was lovely.  Nicki had a vegie pide with spinach, mushroom, onion, tomato, feta and mozzarella cheese.  I had some of this and it was also nice but as with some vegetarian pizzas was a little soggy.  It was lovely to catch up with Nicki who I don't see very often.

I really liked the caterers we used for our event (FigJam Indigenous Caterers).  We had some really nice food like Spanish-style potato & onion frittata with beetroot relish and anise myrtle, and Scones with bush plum and fresh cream, with riverapple dust.  I was too busy to take many food photos during our meeting but I have a photograph of the wonderful fruit platter which had lots of dragonfruit, figs, passionfruit, grapes, peach, strawberry, watermelon and orange.  I am not sure what the yellow fruit at the top is but I am guessing ebony fruit.

At the end of the first full day of meetings, I walked back to my hotel on the scenic route past lots of interesting cafes.  I was surprised at all the street art.

I really liked this banana painted fridge.  (Traditionally Queenslanders were called Banana Benders so it amused me.)  I noticed a few other painted fridges as I walked about and wondered why fridges were being used as a canvas for street art.  To make people feel cooler in the warmer climate of Brisbane?

As I walked past the South Brisbane train station, I photographed this lovely Indigenous street art (above and below).

I was also surprised to see street art referring to the 1988 World Expo in Brisbane (below).  I remember friends planning to go there.  Now all the talk about town is of the Brisbane Olympic Games in 2032.  Nicki said it would be crazy but I was sure she would find something to entertain her.  I remember the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne with all the fun cultural activities around the city which we enjoyed without seeing any sport.

I liked these mosaic (diamond?) sculptures along Grey Street near our hotel. (below)

We had a work dinner at Chu The Phat (111 Melbourne Street, South Brisbane) on the second night with participants from the meeting.  I had intended to take a photo of the feast but, at first, dishes came out one by one with just one piece for each person, and for the meat items I got nothing.  By the time we got past all the starters and reached the mains of pumpkin and peanut curry, sesame broccoli, greens and steamed rice, I was so discombobulated.  As the dishes were cleared away, I reflected on how nice it had been and that I should have taken a photo.


The food was actually very good in general and everyone was very impressed by it.  I also enjoyed a Virgin Passionfruit Mojito mocktail of passionfruit, lime, mint and soda.  Chu the Phat was quite spacious and modern but I particularly loved this outside area in "fish alley" with the street art.


After dinner I walked home because I was really full and needed some cool air.  As I walked past the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre I was quite taken by how the lights in the ground not only uplit the tree but also left tree-shadowed patterns on the underside of the roof.

The next day we had a morning of discussions and lunch before heading back to the airport to fly home to Melbourne.

1 comment:

  1. Looks like you had a nice time in Brisbane. There's certainly plenty to eat in the neighbourhood that you stayed. I have happy memories of visiting Ahmet's 20 years ago! And I was there as recently as last year, ordering the same pumpkin pide.

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