Nestled in the leafy suburb of Paddington, at the start of Brisbane’s number one opshopping and vintage clothes street Sassafras has taken this unique Brisbane feel and run with it. A tiered outdoor eating area has the tables set amongst umbrellas, hedges and trees, inside the pastel painted cupboards and not quite antique tables and chairs make you feel right at home. Probably because your mum had the same kitchen table. Topping it all off is a random selection of strange paraphenalia hanging from the walls and ontop of the cupboards. Bookmaker bags, interesting photos and random teapots are a quirky addition that fit right in with the homely vibe.

The homeliness doesn’t stop there, a huge glass cabinet filled with seemingly home made salads, pies, cakes and tarts takes the place of a service counter, behind it a large hand written blackboard is the menu. The same staff that have been there for years cap it all off with their friendly demeanour and fast service.

The menu is broken into 2 parts, breakfast (until 2pm) and lunch (until 3pm). Breakfast is all the favourites, eggs, big breakfast, meusli and toast with a few interesting additions, three cheeses grilled on sourdough, buckwheat pancakes, chilli corn cakes and savoury mince on toast. The portions are generous and while the price isn’t cheap, it is reasonable.

Lunch has a distinctly mediterreanean feel, sandwiches filled with feta, peri peri chicken, grilled zuchini, eggplant, capers and olives all on sourdough or toasted panini are accompanied by an open steak sandwich, or a variety of pies or salads from the cabinet. With these slightly unorthodox flavours is where Sassafras really shines each dish is flavoursome and balanced again with good portions. The highlight is the peri-peri chicken BLT, an old favourite with a great, spicey touch.

For drinks, the milkshakes are amazing, taking this easily forgotten beverage and taking it to the next level. The coffee is neither here nor there, nothing to complain about but hardly standout, easily overshadowed by the quality of the food. If herbal tea is your thing, there is a large selection of T2 teas by the pot, or to take home.

Add this all together and what you end up with is one of Brisbane’s best cafes. Doing away with any of the yuppy pretentiousness that the inner suburbs of Brisbane often permeate and instead providing a familiar Brisbane cafe experience. Good food, good service, friendly faces and comfortable surrounds are easy to love, surely why this little cottage is packed all weekend, every weekend.

The only mistake this lovable cafe makes is not serving beer.

The 26th of January, Australia Day is probably the second booziest day on the international calendar (after St Patricks Day) but it isn’t only about the booze. Australia Day is a celebration of beer, food, sport and the process of talking a lot of shit. This is a quick guide to make sure your Australia Day is a good one.

1. Something to do. Whether you are holding your own barbecue, heading down to the bowlsy for a few ciders or going to the cricket, the important things is having a plan (something I don’t have this year.) This is no fly by the seat of your pants day, and things to do a usually in abundance. Just remember, what ever you decide to do you should be near a wireless and a TV so you can monitor the Triple J Hottest 100, the cricket and the tennis.
2. Booze. Not having enough booze is one of the easiest mistakes to make. You are going to be spending the better part of 18 hours in the sun drinking so at the very minimum a carton of beer is a good start. If you are going to a BBQ, you should think about the bloke who nobody likes stealing your beers, and your mate under-catering and needing a couple of yours, so purchase accordingly. If you are a sheila, a bottle or 2 of some Rose, Sauvignon Blanc and bubbly are good options and having a backup bottle of lemonade for a couple of chandies is a good idea.
3. Food. Pretty much any meat product would be considered Australian. The Australian Lamb Board would have us eat lamb, but personally I prefer steak and sausages. Homer Simpson said, “You don’t make friends with salad” but nobody will sleight you if you show up with a meat tray under 1 arm and a bowl of salad on top of you carton.
   
4. Sport. Most of the Australian summer revolves around sport and Australia Day is no different. There is always cricket and tennis on and regardless of whether you follow them, it’s worth reading the sport section of the paper the day before so you at least know what is going on in those arenas and you can sound knowledgeable when you are standing around the barby.
5. Mates. Probably the most important thing, is to have a couple of good mates around. If it’s having a hit of backyard cricket, on the boat fishing or just hanging around, it is all going to be better with a couple of your best mates.

What are your Australia Day tips?

As far as drunk and hangover foods go, the meat pie is one of the brilliant, can’t go wrong sort of selections. It’s beauty is in it’s ubiquity, it’s always available, it’s cheap, easy and as greasy as you like. But, not all pies were created equal, a frozen supermarket pie microwaved is always inferior to the same pie oven-cooked and at the top of this pyramid of brilliance are bakeries. Not just any old chain of bakery though, the sort that claim they have world class pies, the sort that have a 4 page pie menu and the sort that people drive from miles around just “for a pie”.

Arrowtown Bakery is one of these places, now they don’t make the outrageous claims of being world famous and the bit about the 4 page pie menu was a bit of an embellishment but people really do drive from miles around to get the pies. Now, let me assure you, they don’t dissapoint. The menu consists of a heap of different chicken pies; spicy chicken; cream of chicken; chicken and cheese and plain old chicken. They also have your normal staple of mince, steak, steak and onion and steak and cheese along with a couple of not so run of the mill – bolognaise and lamb and mint. Lamb is up there with my 4 favourite meats and it lends itself perfectly to being low cooked, roasted or baked. Needless to say I was heartily impressed by a lamb pie.

Not only are the fillings brilliant but that’s not all there is to a pie, the other ingredient is pastry and it doesn’t fail to impress here either. The pastry literally melts in your mouth, the top is crisp nut not tough and the pie itself holds itself together. This in itself is part of the genius, there is nother better than not having to worry about mince down your front when you are hoeing into your hangover cure.

All in all these parcels of oven-baked pastry-laden meat are amazing. If you are in the Wakatipu, hangover or no, the 15 minute drive to Arrowtown is well worth the effort.

Vknow is the sort of restaurant that you could go to once and go back week in week out for the next 10 years of your life. The only restaurant anywhere nearby, I’m certain that anyone who has dined there before and lives in Fernhill contemplates dropping in there for dinner, rather than the long trek in to town. I don’t know what it is about this sort of place, but it really does feel like you are sitting at someone’s dining table. This feeling was enhanced while we were there as we were asked to sit at the other end of a table as another couple, to who we were introduced by the waiter (and owner) as “good Queenstown locals”.

The decor consists of country style tables and chairs, and a vast array of art. The art are comic like water-colours depicting a random selection events and things to do, such as “Jumping around in Australia” with a paining of a couple of silly looking Kangaroos. Even though Vknow is situated right next to a road and the carpark is just there, you don’t notice it, there is hardly any traffic on the road and the large windows look out onto a few trees and gardens, all in all it’s very pleasant.

The menu consists of a very New Zealand (or maybe Queenstown) like selection consisting of lamb shanks, venison and fish. Don’t get me wrong, I love this style of food and the meals here did not fail to disappoint, my seared venison with mushroom risotto was exceptional if a little bit small and the lamb shanks with garlic mash and gravy was amazing. All of this great tasting food and reasonable prices is definitely a winner with our bill coming in under $100 for 2 meals and a bottle of wine.

I had been told that Vknow’s wine list was impressive and so it should be, considering the name. Due to being cheap arses we grabbed a bottle of the “budget and good” “Vknow bloody good red”. Turns out it was a bottle of the Australian Oxford Landing GSM, which I really enjoyed, not overly dry and definitely not too fruity. Often when you order the cheapest bottle on the list you walk away regretting your decision, but in this case I most certainly was not.

As far as Vknow goes catering to the world’s share of aching heads it gets my vote, not only do they have a takeaway menu (who would have thought, takeaway fine dining), they also host “Bluff oyster” evenings and beer and wine tasting sessions. I’m told that Danny the owner really loves his beer and wine judging by our experience I can imagine one of these sessions would be a great experience, educational and entertaining.

As far as curing a hangover there are few better remedies in the morning that Coffee and Bacon. As I’ve discussed previously, there certainly is a skill to frying up a good breakfast but that skill notwithstanding most of the time you are probably best to leave it to a trained professional. Now what I mean by a trained professional is someone you are going to pay to cook you up a feast. What I’m trying to say is that you’ve basically got 3 options of a heavy morning:

1. The hair of the dog that bit you
2. Sort yourself out something to eat
3. Pay someone to help you out with some food

Anyhow, I’m a huge fan of the 3rd option but my wallet isn’t yet that doesn’t stop me. There is a list of cafes as long as my arm that I’m planning on reviewing here on this site for starters the list is:

• Sassafras, Paddington, Brisbane
• Motogrill, Queenstown
• Bob’s Weigh, Queenstown
• The Parkhouse Cafe, Toowoomba
• Fat Boys, The Valley, Brisbane
• Joe’s Garage, Queenstown

It is a commonly held belief that greasy food is the be all and end all of hangover cures however I have don’t believe it is the grease in the food that is the cure. Now, don’t get me wrong a greasy bucket of KFC shared between hanging mates or a quick trip down to the local fish and chip store for a steak sammy certainly put the right (or correct) foot forward in getting back on the wagon but it is my belief that it is actually the nutrients and energy in what you are eating that is the solution to the night before’s problem.

All that being said, the Good, Old-Fashioned fry up is possibly the greates, possibly the 3rd greatest or perhaps just a good hangover cure. There are a couple of key factors to make it the success that it should be. First of all, there are a few ingredients that have to be there if you plan to cure even the slightest of hangover. This is by no means an upper limit, but at the very least: meat, bready stuff, and something else.

Let me explain, there is no substitute for meat. I don’t care if it’s pig, cow, sheep or sausage (I’ve not tried fish in a fry-up, but I’ll keep an open mind), but what ever it is it has to be there. I’m not saying this to rile up the vegetarians, (though I’ve been guilty of having a crack before) the high level of protein and iron these particular ingredients carry is imperative and whats more, tofu tastes like nothing and doesn’t compare to a steak no matter who you talk to. The bread, this doesn’t have to be bread, toast is fine, so is potato, pasta isn’t traditionally fried but would suffice and rice is a bit boring, but who am I to talk you can use your imagination – mashed potato from the night before also works (can anyone say bubble and squeak). The key part of this is the carbohydrates, slow burn energy is what you are going to need in 2 hours time so you don’t regress from feeling like having a shot at the title.

I just want to put this out there, I’m not a nutritionist so all of this jibber-jabber about nutrients isn’t worth a dime.

Finally, something else is important, ideally this isn’t just going to be 1 thing but a selection of goodies. My particular favourite is egg, scrambled or (preferably) fried, it doesn’t matter as long as it has a sprinkling of salt and some cracked pepper. There is a plethora of other options, mushrooms are great, tomatoes are tasty, not to mention onions and capsicum – fried together are amazing. What is important is that the extra flavours work with your 2 aforementioned staples. What’s more noone just wants a piece of bacon on toast, it has to have flavour.

Now what hasn’t been mentioned is preparation. If you can help it, you don’t want to be zipping down to the supermarket to grab supplies. Even if it is a 15 minute round trip, the chances are you are not going to be fit for public consumption let alone capable of making the important decisions. Ideally you have the ingredients in the fridge/freezer, it doesn’t matter if you can’t get 12 different ingredients on the plate the aforementioned guidelines need to be followed but if the choice is between frying 4 day old mushrooms and braving the supermarket take the option of the mushrooms.

Your head will appreciate it.