Silo, Canberra

Last week we headed down to Canberra for a few days holiday. For Sydneysiders, Canberra is not exactly known as a classic tourist destination.  It's almost the opposite of Sydney's sparkly busyness that is saturated by people, cars and culture.  Canberra is serene, quiet, organised but if I'm completely honest, a little bit lacking in energy.

But truthfully, this change in pace made for a great holiday. Canberra makes things so easy. Nothing is more than 10 minutes drive from where we were in Kingston. There was a superb range of museums and galleries just around the corner, and no need to hop in the car to get great coffee or groceries.

Silo is probably the rose-coloured tint for me. One of the best bakeries/cafes that I have ever experienced. We first went there 12 months ago on the recommendation of Not Quite Nigella, and we're disappointed. This Canberra visit I made sure I could fit more than a few visits in.


This place is constantly busy. Even when we turned up for breakfast before 8am we had to wait for a table. But with good reason. Everything they produce is outstanding and is baked in house.

Unfortunately I only took my camera the one time we went, for a light breakfast of coffee, juice and croissant. On another occasion we had a gruyère omelette, and vegetarian quiches (ooops forgot my camera!)

The croissant was the best I've ever had outside France. The right balance of crunch on the outside with soft buttery inside.

We also sampled Silo's Sunrise juice, freshly squeezed orange and raspberry.  A gorgeous combination which both the toddler and I really enjoyed.

With Good Living to accompany my breakfast, who could want for more. A must if you visit Canberra.

Baking with and for toddlers part 2: banana bread

I have something to admit. This was my first time baking banana bread. Yes really.

Banana bread to me has a slightly evil element to it. It's cake masquerading as bread. And calling it bread seems to make it an acceptable foodstuff to eat at breakfast. Honestly, it's cake, and great cake at that. But I'm not going to be baking this every day so I'm sure I can achieve some sort of moderation with it.

Bananas are practically a foodgroup in our household these days. Even when bananas went up to $14/kilo here in Australia, we couldn't give up our habit.  The little girl says only a couple of words in the morning before she starts shouting 'naannnaaa' and then 'more please'. She normally eats at least one, sometimes two. It will be a sigh of relief for our grocery bill when they come back to $3/kilo.

We found some relatively cheap (very ripe) organic bananas so I decided it was time to try out making banana bread. And I knew that the preparation would keep us busy for an hour or so.  The little girl loved pouring in the ingredients, and mashing the bananas, despite the massive temptation to eat them!  We'll definitely be making this again, it went down a treat just with butter and also toasted. Very dense and moorish.  The little one loved it too.

Link to recipe by Fig and Cherry

Baking with and for toddlers: Carrot & pineapple muffins

For a while there with the little one I wasn't able to do much baking. We have a fairly old school standup gas oven that gets boiling to touch, both on the front at sides. A major hazard for any toddler who likes to touch everything! She also is far too short to be able to watch what I'm doing on the kitchen work surfaces, and she's too young to stand on a chair. Plus her concentration just couldn't last through the entire process of baking, and we'd have to go and do something else.

Things seem to be changing though, in the last week we've had lots of fun in the kitchen. She has her own Miffy apron, and already knows lots of key words; 'mix', 'bowl', 'cake', 'bake', 'oven', 'chocolate', 'tanies' (or sultanas) 'spoon', 'fork' and 'hot'.  All in all, very helpful words for baking.  We bring her little IKEA table into the kitchen and I kneel down with her.  She enjoys seeing the raw ingredients, I weigh them out and place them in small plastic bowls for her so she can add them, and sometimes taste them. She also loves watching my Kitchenaid work away. Who wouldn't really, it mesmerises me too!

A few days ago we made these Annabel Karmel Carrot & Pineapple muffins. They're reminiscent of carrot cake, with the spices and sultanas, but a big healthier as they come un-iced. I followed a friend's recommendation to halve the sugar, and they could do with even less as the tinned pineapples are so sweet.

We then proceeded to enjoy teatime with all its rituals. The little girl already enjoys pouring, adding milk or sugar and stiring, before passing out cups of tea.

 

 

Plastic galore at kids' teatime!

A visit to Eveleigh Farmers' market

One of the flower stalls at the markets

 Yesterday I managed to tick off a Sydney foodie 'must do', and something I've been meaning to do for quite some time - Eveleigh Farmers' markets. It's probably one of Sydney's most well known farmers' markets, and it deserves to be. Not quite as showy and glamourous as the Pyrmont Growers' market on the edge of Sydney Harbour, but bountiful and with an amazing range of produce on offer.

The granny bag appeared to be the Urban market goer's bag of choice! We saw many of them!

It's located behind Sydney University, next to the railway line, and near Redfern. The area is bustling with arts projects like the Carriageworks, student buildings and facilities and small businesses. The market itself is housed in a large covered shed that appears to be part of an old railway yard.

Katie and I met early, after all that is strongly encouraged to get the best of everything at Farmers' markets. It was already buzzing, with lots of families bringing their kids for a morning out. There is lots to see and taste, even if you're not really interested in food.

Some of the entertainment

We headed straight to Billy Kwong for their famous asian breakfasts. Pork dumplings, asian pancakes and green tea were on offer. I've heard that Kylie Kwong is a frequent visitor, unfortunately she wasn't on the stall yesterday.

The lovely Katie

Billy Kwong's Asian pancakes

Katie and I chose the pancakes. They were light and flavoursome, and the large quantity of fresh herbs took us straight back to our travels in Vietnam. We also picked up a coffee from Toby's Estate and settled ourselves down on the communal tables at the edge of the market to feast.

The Eumundi Smokehouse

With so much to see we didn't sit and chat for long. We both looked to make some special purchases, firstly chocolate brownies for our absent husbands.  Then some fresh herbs and vegetables, flowers, and handmade butter from Pepe Saya.  I was also tempted by the Fungi stall selling black truffle oil. There were so many stalls that we had to walk up and down at least three times before we could decide where to purchase even.

 

The Bird Cow Fish stand

Fare Gourmet with the biggest selection of brownies ever

I thoroughly enjoyed my morning. One of my favourite ways to spend a girlie morning.

My bounty