FULL CIRCLE
Ever tried a tiger nut? A new Surfers Paradise eatery opening this Friday takes the classics and gives them a deliciously different twist, writes Sally Coates
THINGS locals know about Surfers Paradise No. 467: Circle on Cavill is a massive wind tunnel.
Fortunately, Circle’s newest eatery, Knox Dining, has a strategy to ensure the notorious gusts don’t blow your hat off as you sip your Toby’s Estate coffee and wolf down breakfast bruschetta.
Now we’ve got that out of the way, meet twin brothers Brad and Greg Turvey who, with more than 30 combined years of experience in hospitality, have set their sights on a new venture, which will open on Friday.
“We got to a point where we thought we’d like to do our own thing, then we found this place,” Brad says. “When we found the premises we said, ‘Right, what’s missing in Surfers?’
“Rather than saying ‘This is what we wanna do’, and shoving it just anywhere, we had a really good look around to see what’s missing.
“We spoke to people, to locals and came back with the same thing – there was nowhere to get wholesome food that’s healthy and tasty.”
And so the concept of a mostly healthy cafe was born, a realistic approach to dieting and eating out. A healthy compromise.
“We didn’t want to go to the extent of being an eatery such as BSKT –they’ve taken healthy eating to the next level, they own that market,” Brad says. “We still want to appeal to families on holiday and that means we are catering to people who want food they know.
“So we went with a bit of the 80/20 rule: 80 per cent you already know and are comfortable with, 20 per cent is throwing in a twist.
“I know when I go out to eat I look for things I know somewhat, but maybe with a different ingredient or flavour combination.”
The all-day menu is packed to the brim with examples of this philosophy: hot cakes made with buckwheat and soy; the beurre blanc Knox Benny with kale slaw; and crispy fried chicken breast on curried quinoa, asparagus and dehydrated leeks.
You may notice a few ingredients you haven’t tried before, such as amaranth (a seed with similar characteristics to quinoa and a slightly nutty flavour) and tiger nuts.
“Don’t worry if you don’t know what they are. I had to Google when chef mentioned putting them in our granola,” Brad laughs.
“They’re not actually a nut, they’re actually a tuber, a root, and they’re quite fibrous, a little sweet and high in carbohydrates They have a texture similar to coconut and they’re just perfect in our granola bowl.”
There’s Spanish, Mexican and Hawaiian dishes, but the main influence is Asian, with aburi ocean trout, edamame and mizuna salad; fried organic tofu on red miso babaganoush, ogo-nori seaweed and lotus root crisps; and Vietnamese prawn and rice noodle salad.
Brad says the all-day menu means, “you can have pork sliders at 7am and Knox benny at 3pm.”
Knox Dining, Shop T12, Circle on Cavill, Surfers Paradise