Waiter (heartily): “Bonsoir!”

Me: “Uh, hello.”

Yeah, this is going to be good.

"It's amazing what you can do with tofu!", says Emily from Sweet Bones, as we shovel another bite of her vegan chocolate and peanut butter cupcake into our mouths.

At school, I always wondered what it was like to be one of those kids that moved around with their families every few years (or less). Having grown up in little ol’ Canberra, I wondered how much more of the world they’d seen; how much collateral knowledge they’d picked up on the way.

The words ‘Grease Monkey’ are on everyone’s lips at the moment – and judging by the number of Instagram posts about them, so is the taste of their delicious burgers. If you haven’t heard, Grease Monkey is the newest Braddon hotspot (at least until something new comes along), located on the corner of Lonsdale and Elouera Street.

The Chairman Group has been one of Canberra’s hospitality mainstays over the last two decades. Since opening in 1992, the iconic Chairman & Yip restaurant in Civic has been serving up refined yet honest Cantonese food, attracting a loyal following of politicians and suits along the way. In 2008, the group (headed by Josiah Li) added the Lanterne Rooms to their stable, followed by Malamay in 2012; and both restaurants have been great successes.

Fresh off the back of their My Kitchen Rules experience, Canberra girls Gina and Anna Petridis opened up Pâtissez in Manuka just a few short weeks ago. Normally I wouldn't be too excited by ex-reality show contestants opening up their own place, but I couldn’t pass up the chance for a one of those damn Freakshakes.

Akiba’s opening in December 2014 was greeted with much anticipation from Canberrans. The concept, the location and the marketing (who didn’t walk past the 2m high decals spanning the whole width of its windows at some point or other?!) was a breath of fresh air and reminded us that it was worth detouring from Lonsdale Street or the Kingston Foreshore to dine in Civic once in a while.

Occupying the space that Dieci e Mezzo previously held, Akiba is neither strictly a bar nor a restaurant – more a space to hang out and have a good time (albeit where you also pay money in return for food and drinks). Its name represents the Akihabara ‘electric town’ district in Tokyo, and the fitout and atmosphere of Akiba reflects this with its neon light features and vibrant colours.

Growing up in a Chinese household, you tend you get fed some weird and wonderful things - cubed pig's blood, pig ears and sea cucumber to name a few. Thankfully for me, hot pot (while not being that weird) was also one of those things. 

We were lucky enough to have a electric hot pot at home (which isn't unlike an electric frypan really) - it was a garish green colour on the outside and would be placed in the middle of the dinner table, with an assortment of meat, seafood, vegetables and noodles sitting around it just waiting to be cooked. I remember the worst thing being how long it took for the broth to heat back up after you'd dropped some pork or seafood in (mum and dad said the water had to boil again before it was good to eat), but it was always worth the wait!

i only had a chance to get down to canberra's annual enlighten festival on a weeknight this year, thereby missing the weekend performances and 'extras' (such as fiers a cheval & the fire garden). however, the day i did manage to get there was the same day Sydney was throwing up some crazy weather (i think this photo says it all) so the skies here had a bit of action about them as well!

while i spent a big part of the night (unsuccessfully) trying to capture the lightning that was striking every 10 seconds or so - it didn't detract from how awesome the projections looked on canberra's most iconic buildings.

so we went and checked out the Royal Thai Embassy's 11th Annual Thai Food and Cultural Festival today (along with most of canberra, it seemed!). as always, it was a busy affair of massaman beef, pad thai, mussel omelettes, satay sticks, and mango sticky rice, not to mention the free flowing chang and singha beers - had i known they were selling for $4 i would've made more of a day of it!

the main stage area also kept everyone entertained in between courses, with constant rotations of cultural performances that ranged from traditional dancing (who knew you could see ladyboys in yarralumla...) to muay thai and stick fighting. if you haven't been to this great event - don't miss out next year! 

i've recently purchased a sigma 30mm 1.4 and have been keen on taking it out for a test drive - unfortunately saturday's rain kept me confined photographing whatever was around the house... which meant a photoshoot with my watch.    

however, on sunday the skies cleared and so we took the chance to head out to the sporadically developed suburb of bonner (somewhere around here: http://goo.gl/maps/b0Zer) and look back towards canberra. it was super windy, the ground was muddy, and there were beer cans everywhere, but it was still worth a look.

for most, a visit to pialligo usually means looking at plants, terracotta pots, and ornamental gargoyles. but not for me. i remembered driving, a while ago, past an old barn selling apples, and was keen to see if it was still there.

so after a quick trip to costco and a moderate salt overdose from their $3 pizza slice, my other half and i wandered down beltana road and found the old barn - sadly it was barren and bore a 'closed for 2013' sign out the front, but was still surrounded by plenty of autumn-ness.