Black Coffee Po Up at Bunker

A couple of weeks back I attended a pop up event at one of my favourite coffee haunts in Brisbane. I've spoken before about being somewhat of a coffee novice. As a child I remember watching my mum drink coffee and dunked my biscuits in hers occasionally. However as an adult I really had no interest in it. That was until I started drinking coffee at Bunker. I think they really educated me on the fact that coffee done the right way is amazing.

Bunker being one of the leading coffee spots in Brisbane seemed like the perfect place to host this event. Black Coffee was founded last year after creator Mark Free suggested friends stay home to enjoy a home brew. The premise of Black coffee is to do away with all the distractions like machines, milk, sugar and to simply appreciate coffee in it's purest form. The espresso machine had been taken out of Bunker and instead replaced with humble AeroPress and Siphons.

Mark brought Elieen from Market Lane coffee with him to help show case some of the single origins from Brisbane and Melbourne's best micro-raosters like Market Lane and Cup. Mark told me that roasters will use a roast to disguise a poor quality bean but using quality single origins you really get to taste the true bean flavour rather than the roasting process. I was surprised myself at how delicate, light and fruity black coffee in this form tasted. After all as Marcus owner from Bunker says "Coffee is actually a fruit."

Black Coffee has no fixed address they do hold weekly pop ups mostly in Melbourne. Even though I am a coffee novice I was appreciative to be able to see and taste coffee in this environment. If you are a coffee enthusiast or even if you just want to learn more like myself I think this is great with it's ability to not only serve coffee but educate about it.

Black coffee works off a donation basis and Mark and Elieen both happily answered questions from the crowd at Bunker that day. It's clear they do it for the love, Eileen even told me she deferred a uni degree to focus on coffee. It was a pretty good experience and I'm grateful for people like Mark, Elieen and Marcus for supporting events like this to give people a better appreciation of coffee.

If you want to know more here are some links to both Black Coffee and Bunker and also some of the photographs from the day.

http://blackcoffeeshop.com.au/ 

http://www.bunkercoffee.com.au/ 

This is also a previous blog post on Bunker itself.

http://ittybittybitesbrisbane.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/bunker-21-railway-terrace-milton.html

Food to See and Eat at the Ekka

I love the Ekka. I've taken my kids there pretty much every year and even Wade and I had our first date there. I still remember telling the guys in the office I was going to meet a guy that year and get him to take me on a date to the Ekka. They weren't convinced any guy would want to go to the Ekka so lucky for Wade he just happened to meet me a few days later so I could prove them wrong!

So as some of you may be aware I visited The Ekka last week on Thursday it's official open day for the year. I went with sole intent of trying this year's Strawberry Sundae after speaking to Grant and Carina from Lick! Ice Cream. It sounded amazing so of course I had to get in asap.

I'm a little slow with posting this up but I thought better late than never and there is still time with 2 more days left of the Ekka for you to feel inspired to go. Right?

I won't bore you with anymore details of the day but here's some food I saw and ate there. It was good though I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think it's definitely an annual must do on my calendar.

It's only really a fraction of what is there so I also recommend you go on an empty stomach. Obviously must eats are the Dagwood Dog and Strawberry Sundae. It's not really the Ekka with out them if you ask me.

You can also read more and see more pics about the Iconic Strawberry Sundae in the post below.

http://ittybittybitesbrisbane.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/ekka-strawberry-sundae.html

Kerbside - Ann Street end of Constance Street - Fortitude Valley

Recently I caught up with one of my favourite Brisbane bloggers - Philistine. He showed me a favourite of his Kerbside and I agreed to collaborate and take some shots. I liked Kerbside it had a relaxed atmosphere, great service and the cocktails were delicious! If you want to read more here is Philistine's review and some pictures I took.

http://philistinebrisbane.com/2012/08/15/kerbside/

Vanilla Pod's Ekka treats!

If you saw my post yesterday you would have seen the amazing cake Vanilla Pod made for Ruby to share with her school friends. 

http://ittybittybitesbrisbane.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/six-years-and-day-ago-i-was-lying-in_14.html

Vanilla pod make some of the most delicious and cutest cakes in Brisbane. Seeing as it's the Ekka holiday today and Ekka 'People's Day' I thought I would share some of the cute Ekka inspired creations at the Pod at the moment. 

There are also some cute little hamburger and hotdog cupcakes I saw on their page as well. However they must have been extra delicious because there were none left by the time I arrived. They did however have the cutest cake pops, Bertie Beetle cupcakes (squeal!!!) and of course their take on the humble Brisbane icon the Strawberry Sundae.

Don't fret if you miss the Ekka though as the Pod makes beautiful cakes and cake pops of all varieties all year round.

Ekka Strawberry Sundae

Recently I blogged about the local ice cream company Lick! who secured the contract to make the ice cream component of the famed Strawberry Sundae. For 20 Years this Brisbane institution has been raising money for medical research. If you've ever been to the Ekka at some point you most likely have eaten one of these. While the original supplier no longer makes the ice cream Lick! had some big shoes to fill this year to impress the diehard sundae fans.

I went to the Ekka yesterday the first day of it being open with sole intent of trying a Strawberry Sundae in all it's glory. The verdict? Outstanding! Lick worked tirelessly for month on the strawberry ice cream getting it just right so that while it is reminiscent of the old fashioned original it still has that distinctive Lick! taste. It was beautifully creamy and just melted in my mouth like a dream. The 13 tonnes of fresh strawberries and the cream from Queensland cows this year was also amazing quality.

I asked around and the general consensus was that of a positive one from the public. The volunteers serving up these delicious treats also said they had no complaints and that a lot of people were very impressed. Seems the Ekka have done them selves proud with this years Sundae! Definitely get down to the Ekka and try one this year because you won't be disappointed!