The Loose Caboose Cafe

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Loose Caboose

date of visit: Saturday 15 September 2012

We make it to what might be called the “inner western suburbs” very infrequently. In fact, it’s been almost a year since my visit to Tongue Thai’d and over two years since we visited Vietnam Sunrise.

As we had to head out to Thebarton I was on the look out for somewhere new and interesting to check out while we were in the vicinity. Twitter came up with plenty of ideas but I got over excited by the idea of visiting a converted railway station building and so we decided on The Loose Caboose Café.

This café in Bowden hasn’t been open very long at all (early August), and the heritage listed building had a complete overhaul (and the addition of a very modern deck) prior to opening. Being a part of the Bowden station means that the Loose Caboose must get a fair amount of passing traffic and is probably doing a roaring business in early morning coffees.

We turned up about 2pm on a Saturday – no booking and no idea really whether we were going to go for lunch or coffee and cake. The café was busy and I suspect that had we been definite about wanting to sit inside we might have had a little wait on our hands. Fortunately (for us) we were happy to sit outside and nabbed a table.

Loose Caboosesmashed avocado & thyme buttered mushrooms

The Loose Caboose offers an all day breakfast so I opted for thyme buttered mushrooms with smashed avocado served with poached egg, Persian feta and sourdough and Andy chose the pulled pork sandwich. For the baby, our choice was a little limited: the dishes are all quite big and we’re not big on handing him things like massive muffins. The staff made helpful suggestions (and were patient!) while I ummed and aahed before deciding on ordering him a sausage (one of the sides available with the breakfasts). Of course, coffees and babycinos all round.

Loose Caboosepulled pork sandwich

The food all looked beautiful: even the sausage came on its own plate dressed with rocket. And it was very tasty too. I really enjoyed the combination of egg, mushrooms (all buttery and thyme flavoured, as advertised) and avocado and Andy rated the pork sandwich very highly indeed. The small bits of sausage we were allowed to taste indicated that the sausage was good too (and highly popular with the under-twos).

We both scored the coffees highly. Overall, I thought the food was definitely a cut above average, particularly in terms of the completeness of the dishes offered. I did think some of the cooking was a little uneven. For example, my poached egg was just slightly under. Not enough to warrant sending back, but enough to notice.

The Loose Caboose isn’t cheap: we spent $45 which felt like quite a lot for a late brunch. Having said that, it’s money I’d be happy to spend again (for a treat) – especially if the cooking can be tightened up. It’s clear that careful thought has gone into the menu and the dishes deserve to come out flawless.

The Loose Caboose Cafe on Urbanspoon

Arriba Grill Glenside

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Disclaimer: James Peebles from Arriba Grill invited us along to the opening Saturday night and Arriba treated us to burritos.

Date of visit: Saturday 18 August 2012

If you’re an intermittent reader of this site, you could be forgiven for thinking we eat a lot of Mexican. And perhaps we do. When James from Arriba Grill got in contact and asked us to pop in for Arriba Grill’s opening Saturday at its new venue in Glenside, I was as keen as mustard.

Due to the way things worked out, we arrived at Arriba uncharacteristically early – around 6pm – and the place was already busy. There is a casual eat in area, but a lot of people were waiting for take away orders too. We chatted to one lady who lived nearby but had been driving out to Prospect for her Arriba fix …

Being Arriba novices, we had no idea what we were doing, so spent a bit too long standing around chatting to people, before we realised we were in completely the wrong spot to hand in our order. At Arriba, you take a card, customise your burrito, place your order and, if you’re dining in, you sit back and wait for your name to be called.

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We both ordered white burritos (one pork, one chicken – wholemeal tortillas are also available, or you can order a bowl which is the burrito without the tortilla), and I opted for the hot tomatillo sauce, while Andy chose medium. There are vegetarian options, very clearly marked on the menu, and, naturally, there are the usual extras: jalapeños, lettuce, cheese, sour cream. The burritos are $10, with guacamole $2 extra. As Zambrero has put up its prices (now $10.50 for a burrito or bowl) Arriba is cheaper.

And Arriba is considerably better. The first thing I noticed was how well wrapped the burrito was – it was really easy to eat and neither of us ended up spilling burrito all over the table or ourselves. A massive plus – I’m always surprised by how some so called ‘street food’ ends up being really difficult to eat, so it was great to be able to stay clean while polishing off my dinner.

The actual tortilla was excellent – it didn’t develop any of the kind of stodgy clagginess that so many commercial ones do. The fillings were both tasty in their own right and I personally thought I had won with the spicy, hot, vinagery tomatillo sauce. I thought it was plenty hot enough but I do have a couple of friends who are Arriba fans who think it could go even hotter …

Service wise, the staff at Arriba actually looked like they were enjoying their work – rather than coming across as bored teenagers earning minimum wage on a Saturday night, there was a genuine sense of engagement with customers.

It’s also noteworthy that many of Arriba’s ingredients are certified organic. While I suspect the debate about the health benefits or otherwise of organic food will rage for years, many people rate the more holistic and sustainable approach to agriculture that comes with organic farming. It’s good to see Arriba Grill wear its colours on its sleeve and demonstrate that this type of food doesn’t have to come with a hefty price tag.

All round – Arriba scored a massive tick from both of us. If we lived near a branch (in South Australia we’re talking Prospect, Cumberland Park and Glenside) we’d be best mates with the staff. If you live near a branch, you’d be wise to start making friends …

After our visit, I took the opportunity to pose a few questions to James about Arriba’s philosophy and plans for the future.

AP: Firstly – Prospect, Cumberland Park & Glenside … not bad for a business that’s been around for about a year … any plans for further expansion, particularly into the city?

JP: We would love to open another store in Adelaide and a city location would be brilliant. Our location choices are based on where our Guests have suggested they would like us most. The community feel afforded to us by having our stores in the suburbs is something we are very grateful for. We get to know our Guests by name, share plenty of good times and feel genuinely included in their lives. The people of Prospect have given us tremendous support and we are experiencing similar encouragement at Cumberland Park and Glenside too. Our hands a quite full at the moment but we’re hopeful a city store could happen in the future.

AP: A lot of the produce you use is organic … what drives that decision?

JP: A lot of the produce we use is organic as we agree with the conscientious methods used in organic agriculture and value the nutritional benefits of eating organic food. We always use organic produce where we can. Having the opportunity to share and in some cases introduce organic food to our Guests is a great thing. Personally I find it reassuring to know where our food comes from and so I make a point of meeting with our suppliers, getting to know them, their product and how they produce it. Being able to pass on that knowledge about our food and its sources to our Guests is hopefully reassuring for them too.

AP: And finally – why do you think Mexican food has taken off in the last couple of years? A few years ago there were only a couple of Mexican restaurants in Adelaide – now they’re springing up everywhere in all types of forms … why?!

JP: Why do I think Mexican food has taken off, oh wow, where do I start?!! That question excites me! I think Mexican food has taken off because it is fun, exciting and full of flavour which can be attributed to combining the best of simple fresh ingredients. It’s affordable, quick and easy to make. Plus you get to enjoy it by eating with your hands. A meal that is fast, casual, healthy and inexpensive ticks a lot of important boxes for many people and so I feel it was only a matter of time before the joy of eating Mexican food caught on.

Arriba Grill Glenside on Urbanspoon

Chocolate and Pistachio Brownies

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chocolate & pistachio brownies

It’s been a long time between brownie recipes, hasn’t it? I think the most recent effort was back in June with a good but very sweet batch.

This recipe comes originally from The City of London Cook Book (a book that sounds pretty cool to me!) but I actually found it on the UK Marie Claire site.

Before starting on this I was a bit nervous because of the HUGE amount of sugar involved (brace yourselves – it’s in excess of 500g). However, as I was baking these brownies for a BBQ I figured I wasn’t going to have to eat too many of these myself.

Begin my melting 255g of dark chocolate with 255g of unsalted butter (as always, this happened in the microwave). I omitted the vanilla essence – I’ve decided it’s pointless in chocolate brownies.

Add 280g of caster sugar and 280g of soft brown sugar to the chocolate and butter mix and melt again (also in the microwave for me – but now you’ve added the sugar be sure to be extra vigilant!).

After this stage, I transferred the mixture to the KitchenAid and added the 5 eggs, one at a time, beating well between each egg. If your chocolate mixture is quite warm I’d allow it to cool a little before adding the eggs – you don’t want them scrambling!

Once the eggs are well incorporated, add 280g of plain flour, 2 tsp of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix well before gently mixing through 80g of (shelled, and NOT salted) pistachios.

Pour the mixture into a base lined tin and baked in an oven preheated to 170°C (conventional, not fan) for 30-45 minutes. The top should be crisp, the cake mixture shouldn’t be wobbly, but a toothpick inserted should come out a bit cakey. You most definitely don’t want dry brownies.

Allow to cool in the tin (they will collapse a little) before cutting and serving.

These were a big hit – and were rated almost as good as the exceedingly popular caramel brownies. By “almost as good” I mean that there was no audible complaining about a different recipe.  I thought these brownies had a much better crust and they were super fudgy – no doubt due to all that sugar.

What’s also great is that even though there’s a relatively small amount of pistachio in this recipe, the flavour really goes through the whole brownie, giving it quite an exotic twist.

This is most definitely a brownie recipe I will revisit – but only when baking for a larger number of people.

Of course – you can check out the full brownie collection if you need more inspiration.