In the 2011 edition of the Queensland Food and Wine Guide, there was just a single restaurant given their coveted three star rating – Ortiga in Fortitude Valley.  Owned by Simon Hill, who ran the acclaimed Isis restaurant for twelve years, Ortiga is a Spanish restaurant that houses both a tapas bar on its ground floor as well as a ...

Paul, the story of two British nerds in America who stumble upon a fugitive alien who is trying to return to his home planet is a lovingly written homage to nerd culture by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost who are both giant nerds.  As you’d expect then, the jokes, references, novetly t-shirts and cameos from sci-fi actors all hit the ...

On Friday, we had dinner at Park Road in Milton for our friend Chrystal’s birthday. I love Park Road.  It’s the same street I used to work on when I managed the Service Centre and it is basically an extensive strip of cafes, bars and restaurants.  Like Lygon St in Melbourne but about 1/500th of the size. Allegria Bar & ...

I can’t believe it’s Friday already.  It’s a long weekend for the Queen’s Birthday! I enjoyed this clip on Youtube.  Its an advertisement for the Alama Drafthouse, a movie theatre in America that actually enforces its rules regarding mobile phone usage.  Apparently after they kicked out a girl for constantly texting, she left them a voicemail message which they now ...

DISTILLERY Jura ALCOHOL 41.% REGION Isle of Jura COLOR Dark amber NOSE Smokey, hints of ginger and pine. PALATE Has a bite to it, like a grapefruit.  It’s got a spicy quality to it which blends with the smokiness from the peat.  Very tasty.  You could have this with your cornflakes for breakfast. FINISH Lovely drawn out finish.  It’s the ...

It's neither here noire there

I’ve worked at the same company for seven years now and one of the things that never gets old is the occasional opportunity that pops up to do something out of the ordinary.  I’ve been set on fire at a stunt school, had a chance to mingle with Formula One drivers, worked out with a trainer from The Biggest Loser ...

Sake is a popular new restaurant serving contemporary Japanese cuisine that first opened in Sydney to rave reviews and a Chef’s Hat rating.  It’s success saw it expand to Brisbane with a second restaurant that opened on Eagle Street Pier in October last year, located near other well established eateries such as Aria, Cha Cha Char and Jellyfish. On Sunday, ...

After enduring a tough sequence of games against the competition’s best teams such as the Blues, Crusaders and the Stormers, it was a bit of welcome relief to have a home fixture against the out of form Brumbies.  The once mighty Brumbies, the only Australian team to actually win a Super Rugby competition, have been out of form this season ...

Since I didn’t do a Youtube clip last Friday, I may as well do two this week. I quite like this cover of Nicki Minaj’s Superbass song.