Jaz (00:00):
Hey there. Welcome to 'My mate in...'. Today I am catching up with my mate Stew in Canberra. Hey there Stew.

Stew (00:07):
Hey, how you going?

Jaz (00:09):
Good. How you doing?

Stew (00:10):
? I'm good. I'm a little bit nervous and I've started to go a bit giggly, actually. ,

Jaz (00:16):
I'm very excited to have you here having a chat today. And I'm wondering, what is your favorite food slash drinks location in Canberra?

Stew (00:25):
There's basically one place and I go there every day.

Jaz (00:30):
Okay.

Stew (00:31):
Just over the road from my work. There's actually two places and they are the same place, but they've just got two different locations and it's called Brew Bar, in Tuggeranong. And I take Alex there every weekend. I get myself a Skimm latte, he gets himself a white choc mocha on our way, we grab our takeaway cups and I go Brew Bar bro? And he is like, Brew Bar bro. . And gotta be honest, having a full-time job, the one thing that I give myself to reward myself with is that I can afford to buy a coffee every day, even with Canberra Tax on top.

Jaz (01:07):
Yeah. Those nice rituals that kind of take that moment in the week or in the day, right? Yeah.

Stew (01:12):
Yeah. It's good. And like I make one at home and I take it with me to work and I log on 'cause I'm an early riser at work. I sip on my morning coffee and then when people start to come in I'm like, Ooh, it's getting a bit too peopley in the office at the moment, . So that's my cue to go over the road and take about five or 10 minutes to myself, grab a coffee, walk back. Sometimes I might, uh, treat myself to a tasty snack too, so.

Jaz (01:40):
Oh, what kind of snacks do they have there?

Stew (01:42):
Oh, okay. Jaz, we've known each other for ages and you know that I used to make a lot of cakes and a lot...

Jaz (01:49):
Yes

Stew (01:50):
In recent years I haven't been much of a cake person. But they have these muffins that I just love. I dunno what's in them. It could be meth, it could be pixie dust, it could be anything . But I love them so much. Um, and they do raspberry and white choc, which is really good.

Jaz (02:10):
Mm-Hmm.

Stew (02:11):
And they used to do a blueberry muffin, which was my favorite. It's got this vanilla sort of flavor to the crumb and it's just, you heat it up in the microwave just for a little bit and ah, I'm salivating thinking about it.

Jaz (02:24):
Nice. So you'll buy it with your coffee and like take it back to the office or take it home and heat it up?

Stew (02:30):
If I'm feeling giving and I see two of them on the shelf, they've usually got like a freshly made ones. I might buy one for Alex. I might eat that before it gets home . But yeah, just take to my...

Jaz (02:43):
And Alex will never know.

Stew (02:45):
No, no, because the end of, but

Jaz (02:47):
You, you also will feel good that you bought it for Alex, but then you also got to eat it so everybody wins.

Stew (02:53):
Well, yes. And I'm also saving him from the carbs and the sugar, so he's eating healthy by me eating the bad stuff for him.

Jaz (03:02):
Flawless logic. . Do you think because you were, um, you were a big time baker and a, a standout baker, do you think things taste a little bit better when you don't have to put the work into cooking it?

Stew (03:16):
Oh, that's a good question. Um, yes and no. Like it depends what it is when it comes to baked goods and pastries. Yeah. I love it when someone else makes it, I think they taste much better. 'Cause I can never quite sort of get the fillings right. Like if it was like a Sfogliatelle or something.

Jaz (03:35):
Mm-Hmm. ,

Stew (03:36):
Um,

Jaz (03:37):
I dunno what that is, but it sounds impressive. Sounds very technical.

Stew (03:40):
They used to make them at Brew Bar. They actually made me some on request, which is really good. And I literally bought like half a dozen of them and they're like $7 each. And I just bought a whole heap and I just gave them away to people 'cause they're just so good. . But it's, it's like a filo pastry that's been rolled and rolled and rolled and it kind, and they do it in a certain way, so it kind of looks like a lobster tail.

Jaz (04:03):
Mm-Hmm.

Stew (04:04):
But then they fill it with custard that has orange and citrus flavors inside it.

Jaz (04:11):
Mm-Hmm.

Stew (04:12):
And oh yeah, you'll have delicia-orgasm if you have one of them. . They're flaky and they're cream filled and they're warm and Oh, yep.

Jaz (04:23):
Anything with pastry and custard is a, a weak spot for me. Yeah.

Stew (04:26):
Oh, tell me about it. I'm, I'm gonna have to request them to make it again, to be honest. So,

Jaz (04:31):
And then post them to Melbourne.

Stew (04:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, . They won't make it to Melbourne. They won't even make it to the post office Jaz.

Jaz (04:39):
. Oh yeah, we've established that . What's the, um, what's the atmosphere like?

Stew (04:49):
It's good. Like the people that work there, they're very, they're laid back, but, um, they're very proud of what they do.

Jaz (04:57):
Mm-Hmm. .

Stew (04:57):
Um, they take care of their workers, which I don't see a lot in other places. So everywhere seems to be open, you know, 24/7 every day of the year except for Christmas.

Jaz (05:09):
Mm-Hmm.

Stew (05:10):
Um, these people, they go, no, we're gonna shut shop for three weeks over Christmas. We want everyone to have a break. They're really good like that to their staff in the way of the clientele. It's very public servanty. 'Cause it's Canberra,

Jaz (05:24):
Right.

Stew (05:25):
They're situated between several buildings that all house like, um, the Department of Social Services and Services Australia and a few other places. So the clientele's a bit, um, what's the word. I'm gonna say 'Restrained'. That's how I would probably.... It's a nice way of putting it. It's a good place. Like the barista takes care of me. He, he gives a little flirt every now and again and I'm just like, nah, thanks buddy. You walk away a smile and a coffee. .

Jaz (05:54):
Yeah, exactly. He gets it. .

Stew (05:57):
Yeah, . He goes home to his girlfriend. Like he, he knows it's all harmless fun. ,

Jaz (06:05):
When we were talking about teeing up this conversation, you actually had another place you had in mind that you wanted to mention, and I'm gonna hold you to taking me there when I visit Canberra next, what was that place?

Stew (06:16):
Oh, okay. It's called Cartel Taquería.

Jaz (06:19):
Mm-Hmm. .

Stew (06:20):
And so this is kind of, it kind of got set up as a popup I think. And it's a bit of an out outdoor restaurant. And it was so popular when it first opened that there was a line literally down the street just to get in to have food. And we, Alex and I rocked up our first time and they went, uh, we've run outta food, but we can give you a margarita. So we . So we bought Margarita .

Jaz (06:47):
I just, I just recently did this, um, conflict resolution training and one of the main points in this whole day of the training was don't say no without giving another option. So I love that they're like, okay, we don't have any food left, but we can give you a margarita and that doesn't feel like a loss.

Stew (07:06):
. No. And and it wasn't. It really wasn't. And it was one margarita and it was nice and potent . And we got up and we walked back to the car and I went, oh, Al, I'm not sure I can drive. And he is like, me either. So we kept on walking and went to the KFC and you know, tried to soak up the alcohol .

Jaz (07:31):
I like that. 'cause it turned into an unexpected adventure.

Stew (07:34):
It did. And it really was. And yeah, it's such a, like, they do like traditional tacos and they were so yum. Like there was a grilled pineapple salsa that was put on like a pulled pork.

Jaz (07:45):
Oh...

Stew (07:46):
There's prawn, chicken, there's vegetarian ones. And they did this, um, drink called Horchata. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. But it's kind of like, um, the best way I can describe it is get a really nice sort of chai tea and rice pudding. Stick it in a blender and warm it up and it's like a drink. And it was just so good.

Jaz (08:12):
Oh, so it's thick?

Stew (08:14):
Yeah, it's nice and thick and they're hot like with their hot chocolates too, like a nice good hot chocolate kind of, um, consistency. It was, and it was just so damn good. He took me there for my birthday last year and we had just about everything and it was just so damn good and you would love it, Jaz. Can you remember the Mexican Fiesta we had?

Jaz (08:36):
Yes.

Stew (08:36):
At my place in Wagga?

Jaz (08:37):
Yeah.

Stew (08:38):
Imagine that. Like amped all the way up

Jaz (08:42):
With very potent margaritas. . Oh, that's awesome. I love Mexican food and, and tacos in particular because you don't just, it's not a meal that you just have the one and you fill up on it. Then you can have variety, um, that, that pineapple um, sauce that you're talking about. Sounds awesome. Salsa.

Stew (09:02):
So good. Are you still, um, um, vegetarian or have you...

Jaz (09:06):
99% of the time. So I consider myself vego, but uh, we went to Nashville in July and we are looping back to hot chicken in this conversation. , it was like, when we were there it was like, well, it's a cultural thing, you know, it's a, a travel experience thing. But then we found out there's a Nashville style hot chicken place not far from us in Fitzroy. And so we have had the occasional, uh, uh, meal with meat since we've been home. Yeah. But we kind of only, we only prep food at home that's vegetarian. And then trying to keep it, I guess more like a flexitarian kind of vibe now.

Stew (09:44):
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well if you ever wanted this to be a free pass, I'm not gonna judge you and neither should your listeners, so give me the names and they'll be sleeping at the bottom of the lake with the fishes .

Jaz (10:00):
Oh. Oh. I'm excited to try it. And to, to catch up face to face.

Stew (10:03):
Oh, hells yes. Yeah. No, it's a really good place. Like, we, like, like I said, like we went there and they had no food and then we went there again a few about a month later, couldn't get in. And they were at that point where they weren't taking reservations or anything and it was just, you had to rock up, best of luck to get the table. And now they've like sort of expanded a bit more. So it's easy to get a table. They've always got food and it's just so damn delicious.

Jaz (10:32):
Mm-Hmm. I love that they obviously, um, kind of, it sounds like they've scaled up well. Uh, and it's not bad to have a place that has a bit of hype, right. That you have to wait in line. It's got a little bit of atmosphere. Like you don't want that all the time, but that can be cool.

Stew (10:47):
So yeah. So Alex and I have our, a few favorite food places that we've now discovered in Canberra, but we're When we first moved here, we had come from Wagga, and Wagga food scene started to vastly improve and we were really, really enjoying it. And then when we came to Canberra, we were just like, oh, we can't find a Thai place that is, that's as good as Tammy's.

Jaz (11:11):
Yeah. Tammy's in Wagga is awesome.

Stew (11:15):
Oh, isn't it ever. And we still haven't found a place. We have found a Laos. Is it Laos Place?

Jaz (11:20):
Yeah?

Stew (11:20):
That's got really good food. Um, and they do this, oh, I'll take you there too, Jaz. Um, they do have a vegetarian menu if you wanna go off that, but they make this Snickers old fashioned

Jaz (11:33):
Stop it.

Stew (11:34):
No,

Jaz (11:34):
I love old fashioned. It's like my drink of choice.

Stew (11:36):
This one is to die for. It's actually garnished with a little bit of Snickers too.

Jaz (11:41):
Oh, .

Stew (11:42):
So I got burnt peanut butter rye in it and something else, and you just, oh, you're down it and you're like, oh, I want another and then another and then another .

Jaz (11:54):
What's that place called?

Stew (11:56):
It's called Zaab.

Jaz (11:58):
Zaab. Okay.

Stew (11:59):
Zaab. And they're just opening up now a I think they're opening up a street van. And you're gonna love the name of this. Um, from what we've been told is it is a translation of stringy noodles or long noodles.

Jaz (12:18):
Mm-Hmm .

Stew (12:19):
But in Laos it's called Send Noods.

Jaz (12:26):
I like that a lot.

Stew (12:28):
. I know.

Jaz (12:29):
It's a little bit cheeky.

Stew (12:30):
It is a bit cheeky. So I like that too. So we can't wait to try that when that finally opens. So

Jaz (12:38):
Well I feel like I've gotten my money's worth in this conversation. We've got a list of places like we'll have to do, uh, like a food crawl.

Stew (12:45):
Oh, Hells yes. I'm too old for a pub crawl. I'm still trying to re... I'm still reeling over your hens night to be honest. That snake bite drink someone fed me .

Jaz (12:58):
That was a pretty fun day, wasn't it?

Stew (13:00):
It was a really fun day. I think Alex said That was the last time I ever saw you really drunk . I'm like, I did it for Jaz .

Jaz (13:09):
Well this has been an absolute, uh, a charming and hilarious conversation. I would expect nothing less from a catch up with you. Stew, thank you so much.

Stew (13:17):
Uh, thanks for having me. I hope you all enjoy Brew Bar and Zaab and what was that other one? Cartel Taquería. I can never remember the name, but I remember it now.

Jaz (13:27):
But you'll never forget the tacos.

Stew (13:29):
No.

Jaz (13:32):
Thank you Stew. See ya.

Stew (13:33):
Bye.