To celebrate the release of the book The Book of SPAM, this guy, who calls himself the SPAMFAN, is going to eat SPAM for 30 days straight, from 30 July to 28 August!

Did you know that it’s the 70th birthday of SPAM this year? Me neither, but now I’m inspired! Hmmm…

Entrées: salt and pepper squid with chilli, garlic, coriander and lime (left) / scallops in prawn butter (right) (enlarge)

Terahiki with silverbeet (enlarge)

Whole crisp-fried barramundi with three-flavoured sauce and bok choy (enlarge)

Ocean trout with coriander yoghurt on cous cous (enlarge)

Garfish with tomato relish on mash (enlarge)

The damage? A reasonable $160 for four (no dessert, excluding drinks or tips). I hear they’re opening another restaurant in Manly in October… can’t wait!

The Boathouse is really on the Noosa River, as seen from the shore at Noosaville

The Galley at the Boathouse Floating Restaurant

Delicious breakfasts and decent lunches right on the Noosa River. The staff may be forgetful, but they’re friendly. Best to get there by boat… just don’t try to destroy the jetty while berthing, like we did — three times! A pretty good 3.5 out of 5. (The place has another restaurant, a bar and a takeaway fish and chips shop as well, but we only ate at the lower-level restaurant.)

Noosaville, Queensland
www.boathouserestaurant.com.au

Ivory Bar

Good food, cool staff and a choice between decent entree-sized portions at great prices or very generous mains-sized portions (for most dishes). Incidentally, this is where my friends and I discovered the fine beer Eumundi Lager. Don’t miss the lamb shanks! 4 out of 5.

Hastings St, Noosa Heads, Queensland

Fish Face

Overrated, a bit overpriced and certainly overhyped… but ultimately undercooked — literally. I don’t buy the fish and chips in a cone concept at all as all it does is make sure the chips at the bottom are positively soggy by the time you get to them. It may be a one-hatter, but I really can’t give it more than a 3 out of 5.

Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst
www.fishface.com.au

Tapenade

Nice little tapas place with outdoor seating; just as well as inside it’s a little cramped. Mediocre food (with stale bread). Scrapes in at 2.5 out of 5.

Five Ways, Paddington

Thai Foon

How come every Thai restaurant’s name seems to be a bad pun? The food here is better than you might expect given its tourist-trap location, with open seating right under the arch at Harbourside. It’s pretty cheap too. So it’s a pity the staff are so plainly stupid — why serve rice long before any dish has arrived, let alone the salad?! Reasonable, but I wasn’t blown away. 2.5 out of 5.

Harbourside, Darling Harbour

Where have you all been eating while I’ve been on hiatus?

Garfish’s side street seemed unusually quiet to us, a contrast to the busier joints further down the street towards Bradfield Park. But being Saturday night we weren’t surprised to have to wait for a table. (We ended up waiting about half an hour.) Luckily, Garfish didn’t disappoint.

We shared an entrée of grilled Queensland scallops with potato pikelet, mushrooms and horseradish. The horseradish was a brilliant flavoring for the scallops, which went went very well with the delicious mushrooms and nice, creamy potato pikelet that they were served on.

We both went for one of the daily fish specials, with grilled salmon on a roasted eggplant puree for me and grilled garfish on lemon and thyme risotto for Lucy. They made a point of telling me my salmon would be cooked no more than medium-rare, but it still ended up slightly overcooked in my opinion. Still enjoyable, however.

On the other hand, Lucy’s garfish really tasted as good as it looked, nice and sweet. To be honest I’m normally not a big fan of fish, and certainly not a fan of fish like garfish that are riddled with bones. This time, it made me wonder if sometimes I should make an exception!

Grilled garfish with lemon and thyme risotto

To finish off, we had a Belgian waffle with hokey pokey ice cream, caramel and almonds. Extremely sweet. Very yummy.

Garfish’s location is actually very nice, with a wide footpath area allowing for permanent outdoor seating. The street is quiet enough that cars aren’t a bother (in fact, our waitress kept walking down the street itself to reach the tables closest to the street), except at one point during the evening a garbage truck came past. Pity it was only afterwards that I realised it would’ve been the perfect opportunity to throw out some fish bones!

Garfish is located on the quiet Burton St…

…so you can enjoy sitting outside

Garfish offers reasonable value, with regular mains ranging from $22 to $30 and daily fish specials at market prices (most under $30). For a decent feed though, don’t forget entrees, and maybe deserts too. According to their website, there is also a Garfish restaurant at Crows Nest that shares the same menu.

A solid 4 out of 5 — if you like fish, give Garfish a go.

Garfish
2/21 Broughton St, Kirribilli, NSW, Australia (entrance on Burton St)
+61 2 9922-4322
www.garfish.com.au

So by now we were desperate, petrified at the though of having to starve to death (in Sydney city no less). So we ended up at Café Fellini on Victoria St, Darlinghurst. Luciky, the kitchen was still open!

It’s a little place, open out the front, coolly lit. I had the Penne Calabrese, which was way too salty and Lucy had the Salmon Ravioli (with white sauce), which was miserable all-round. Oh, and we had garlic bread. What can I say? We were hungry. The service was cold and uncaring, but I must admit passable.

I give it 1.5 out of 5 — stay away unless you’re desperate.

Café Fellini on Victoria
332 Victoria St, Darlinghurst, NSW, Australia
+61 2 9360-5568