Get Your Shabu On!

This is really just a quick post to mention a place that I've been going to with some friends for a couple of months now. Every Wednesday night, as part of my efforts to strengthen my core and prevent back spasms that lay me up in bed for weeks on end, I do an hour's pilates class in town. Now the timing isn't great, it starts at 7 and goes for an hour. Given that it's punishing the abs, food beforehand doesn't go down well, and if we waited til we got home to cook, we wouldn't be eating until 9-9:30. Hardly ideal.

Enter Mr. Shabu Shabu. A small Japanese cafe situated about 3 mins away from pilates in the "University Quarter" of town, this place does the best cheap ramen and udon noodles I've found in Canberra. For around $13, you can get a large bowl of ramen noodle soup, with a pork schnitzel (called tonkatsu) and japanese curry. This tastes fantastic, although I will admit if you haven't been addicted to it like I have, it does look a little suspect. But one taste and you'll be hooked. Throw in the fact that you get free Japanese green tea when you sit down and it's a lovely little place to go for a quiet dinner after a workout.

Pizzas @ Debacle

With my grandma making her annual 6 month pilgrimage back to the UK on Thursday, the family got together tonight for 2-for-1 pizzas out at Debacle in Braddon. Having not been to Debacle before, but having heard from a multitude of friends about their pizzas, I was looking forward to having some tasty pizza and beers.

The beers, while expensive (although less then the cost of a pint nowadays from an old favourite, The Wig & Pen), were very tasty. It's the first time I've been able to try Budvar on tap; It's certainly tasty, but shows once again how America makes a (very) poor imitation of foreign exports. I've only had Budweiser once, but vowed then and there to never have it again as it tasted, to me, as though someone had emptied half my beer and replaced it with water.

The pizzas, while tasty, weren't the taste epiphany I was expecting. Don't get me wrong, they weren't bad. But I think I still like the pizzas at Babar's in town better. Debacle's pizzas seemed to have an over-abundance of toppings, to the point of being a distraction from the dish. Having had my favourite pizza ever in a small cafe in the back-streets of Florence, I've come to enjoy the less-is-more approach to pizza toppings. You don't need to go overboard with the amount or number of ingredients to make a good pizza. Just get the taste balance right. And put it on a thin crust (this was an option at Debacle, but not one chosen by the family).

Having said all that, would I go back? The beers alone make it irresistible for me to go back. And on a 2-for-1 Tuesday, I'd certainly go another pizza. But it's not Florence.