Holiday Hoopla

Family Shanks decided to take our much needed annual holiday earlier this year to recharge the batteries and take advantage of the free accommodation, free flights, and free entry for MiniB - free free free!!!

Surf, sun and sand is what the doctor ordered so we headed for Sunshine Coasts' Alexander Headlands. But these days a holiday is not complete until we've explored the foodie side of things.


First stop after settling in our apartment was to rustle up some lunch. Being right across the road from the beach fish and chips was a must. Unfortunately due to excessive hunger pains or QLD's lack of daylight savings, I lost my senses and broke the foodie code: "Thou shalt not consume sustenance until adequate photography is had". They were nothing special anyway.

How do you choose what to eat at a food market?

With all the wonderful sights and smells from all the food stalls of Eumundi Markets, we walked around the foodie area 3 times in 41 degree heat before I could decide on what to eat.


I succumbed to the fragrance of freshly fried salt and pepper calamari - mmm!! I also felt sorry for the stall tenders as it was a majorly hot day + they had to stand next to 100+ degrees of boiling hot oil for the day. They cooked the calamari fresh to order. It comes with a choice of Garlic Mayonnaise or Chili and Lime Aoli. Melt in you mouth tender strips of calamari with a salt and pepper crunch, mellowed with a smooth garlic mayo came with every bite - Perfect!! For $10 the serving was quite generous too.


But seriously, who stops at one dish at a food fair?
I can't seem to go past a good German sausage yah! Fresh succulent sausages served with onions, sauerkraut, seeded mustard and tomato sauce on a soft wholemeal roll. I love how they dumb down the menu and also remind you that they are "Very Tasty". We ordered the "Long Thin One" and the "Big Brown One with cheese" and as the sign says, they were very tasty.

This trip I couldn't find the Nepalese stall for their Momo's. Fist sized pork dumplings that are steamed or fried.

We finished off the day with Dutch Pancakes. These stalls are popping up everywhere and boy are they popular. We had to queue for about 15mins for our order. Freshly made fluffy pancakes with strawberries, ice cream, and chocolate drizzle. We were struggling from the heat so this really hit the spot, along with a freshly made ginger beer, and a mango smoothie.


Another blistering 43 degree QLD day for our trip to Australia Zoo to pay homage to Steve Irwin (RIP). MiniB is so fascinated with all animals (like her papa and mama bear) and got a chance to touch a baby crocodile and pat a possum. She was so excited that she still remembers it to this day. To reward ourselves for traipsing around in this heat we shared Terri's Death By Chocolate.


Pretty pedestrian with standard ice cream and chocolate fudge sauce - but who cares it's ice cream and chocolate fudge sauce!! The sundae glass was literally filled to the brim with sticky chocolate fudge sauce + two large scoops of chocolate ice cream, topped with whipped cream. It was a ice cream mountain rapidly avalanching into the pool of warm fudge. In this sort of situation shovelling is required, and shovelling into our gobs we did :)

Best foodie moment of our trip is awarded to ..... Capones Gourmet Pizza.


At first look, this place seemed like your average gourmet pizza / theme restaurant. Capones has a 1930's Chicago gangster theme with sticker bullet holes on the windows and pizza names such as Godfather, Tommy Gunn, Mafia's Revenge, and Mugsy's Meatballs. Our gourmet senses kicked in warning us that the gimmicky facade probably hides the quality of thier pizzas. Boy, were we wrong!! These were probably one of the best pizzas my mouth has ever encountered. The balance of flavours on a crispy exterior base with a slightly chewy yet fluffy interior was purely a delectable combination.


The highlight was the Lamb Souvlaki pizza, not really Italian, or American but very tasty indeed. Capones were not shy with the toppings as well giving loads of marinated lamb strips, creamy melted fetta cheese, chunky tomato, and frangrant basil lathered with garlic sauce. Even with the generous amounts of toppings the base was still able to stand firm and not make the pizza a oily sloppy mess.

Yes it was a very memorable and fun holiday. We were lucky that we swam, beached and sweated every day to make sure all this food didn't add as excess baggage for the flight home :)


Till next time .... we eat!!

Shanks