Brisbane & Byron

You know you are in Queensland when the hospitals have banana vending machines, maybe it should have a big warning sticker on it for renal patients.

Fancy dark chocolate mousse cake with mandarin jelly from a French patisserie Le Bon Choix in the city.


When I typed "food Brisbane CBD" into google, Urbanspoon presented me with a top 10 list which I can't remember any of, but one immediately caught my eye - Bun Mobile! (Every time I said this out loud, someone would mishear this as bum mobile).

So on Friday night after our course, Johanna drove us around the burbs of Brisbane until we found the Bun Mobile.. and where else would it be parked but be outside Kevin Rudd's office! So we sat on the pavement outside KRudd's office and ate our fluffy white Chinese-style buns stuffed with burger fillings like pulled pork and beef with chorizo.. what a perfect Brisbane dinner.

The next day we went to Byron and stopped off in Gold Coast for lunch. This was the ridiculously crispy roti with smoked salmon and tahini yoghurt (their name, not mine), which was delicious if a little small..

When we got to Byron Bay, we ran down to the beautiful Tallows beach (at the Suffolk Park end), where the sun had migrated to just the right place on the horizon to give these lovely long shadows.

Sunset bathing the town in a golden glow.

Sunrise the next morning.

An almond croissant from the Suffolk Park bakery, where we discussed vaccination and obesity.. thought we might get stoned to death by all the hippies there!

Another view of Tallows beach from the lighthouse headland. At the lighthouse we saw so many whales it was incredible - there was a mother with a calf who were frolicking just a few hundred metres away from the shore, and some kayakers had gotten so close up to it I thought they might just get flicked by the whale.

Waffles with fruit, greek yoghurt and honey from the Byron markets.

We went up to Bangalow for lunch, which was such a lovely little town away from the hustle and bustle of Byron, which felt like it had grown way too big for its own good. We had trouble deciding between the Town cafe and Utopia, but in the end decided Utopia looked more airy and spacious. Our waiter was so ridiculously friendly I wanted some of what he was on.

This was the excellent handmade papardelle with chilli crab and basil I had there - it was so good it made me want to go home and make pasta myself.. more on that another day.