Ginseng Southern Cross 15 February 2017

The up-market Chinese-Malaysian restaurant (Ginseng) is located in the (very) Greek (Hellenic) club in Woden.  Despite this odd juxtaposition, the restaurant has one of the best yum chas in Canberra. These have become so popular that you need to book well in advance.  The restaurant on a week night is much quieter and we were keen to try its à la carte menu to see if it was as good as its yum cha. 

We started really well with our first entrée (duck pancakes – what else!).  The peking style duck was beautifully tender with crispy skin and wrapped in thin pancakes with just enough hoisin sauce to cut through the rich duck meat.  These were absolutely divine - Ron declaring (with no one disagreeing) that they were the best he’d tasted in a long time. 

Unfortunately our second entrée (5 spiced white bait) was nowhere near as good.  The whitebait was battered, deep fried and flavoured with chilli, garlic, salt and 5-spice.  The coating was a bit oily and there wasn’t near enough flavours (particular salt) to compensate. In fact, the strongest flavour was garlic which seemed to be a little bitter.  

For our mains, we ordered seafood stuffed eggplant, wasabi beef loin steak, Nark Duck, baby spinach with shitake mushrooms and King Prawns with Thai basil, chilli and lime.  Our favourite dish was the seafood stuffed eggplant. The prawn based stuffing was sandwiched between 2 wedges of eggplant and the whole parcel deep fried.  Without any batter, the skin of the eggplant was almost crispy, a lovely contrast to the silky soft eggplant flesh beneath. The seafood stuffing was very tasty and added both texture and flavour to the dish.  The light sauce brought the seafood and eggplant elements together and complemented the dish very well. 

The other main dish that most of us enjoyed was the wasabi beef loin steak. It is a dish that tends to divide us.  I don’t think any of us (apart from Kim) like wasabi on its own. However in this dish most of the heat is absorbed by the meat and rather surprisingly the residual complex wasabi flavour matches the beef really well.  It is a particularly stunning combination if the meat is very tender and the wasabi flavour isn’t too strong.

Our third dish (Nark Duck) wasn’t as good as either the beef or seafood.  According to the menu, “Nark Duck” is a Southern China country style double cooked duck. It is firstly steamed with Asian spices, then pan fried and topped with crushed soya bean gravy and then served with poached Asian vegetables.  The duck was well-cooked but the bland gravy was a poor choice. It didn’t complement the meat, masked the flavours of the Asian spices and made the green vegetables go a little soggy.  

The fourth dish (baby spinach with shitake mushrooms) was quite nice but there was too much spinach and it needed more shitake mushrooms for balance and flavour.

Our final (and least favourite) dish of the night was the King Prawns. Served as a Thai-style hot pot dish, there was none of the balance or subtlety of Thai cuisine and far too much lime completely overpowered the dish.   

There was heaps of food but Ron and Jim were still keen to try dessert which was the usual Asian fare. Ron ordered the fried banana and Jim and Megan ordered deep fried ice cream.  Both desserts were fresh and well cooked. The pick of the two desserts was the fried banana – perhaps because bananas are currently in season.  The banana flesh was really soft and contrasted nicely with the light and crispy batter coating.  The caramel sauce also added a lovely toffee element. 

Overall, serving sizes were good and we really enjoyed some of the dishes (the duck entrée, the eggplant and the beef). However at around $40 per head, the restaurant was expensive and you’d expect the quality of the dishes to be more consistent for that price.  Also as Andrew noted, most of the dishes had a shiny glazed sauce. This not only made the dishes look similar but they also had similar mouth feel. It therefore became difficult to appreciate the individual nature of each dish.  It was much like the range of dim sums at a yum cha.  I know they’re all meant to be different but somehow they always all seem to taste the same…..     

 

Five Rivers Swinger Hill 4-2-2017

Five Rivers Indian Restaurant, Swinger Hill

We headed back to Swinger Hill this week to the Five Rivers Indian Restaurant after Ron realised to his horror that there was a restaurant in town that the group had tried without him.  Was it coincidence that Jim brought the same bottle of wine as last time [a Tyrells Vat 9 Shiraz (2010)] or were we sub-consciously trying to re-create the same meal for him?

Either way, it was a pleasant mid-week summer night and the restaurant was empty apart from our group. Apart from the distraction of a Bollywood movie playing in the background, we were treated to a lovely quiet space and attentive service.

We ordered 2 different entrées – Dehli Chat Papdi (2 serves) and vegetable samosas (3 serves).  Papri chaat is a common (and very tasty) Indian street food and generally made of thin wafers of fried dough, yogurt, tamarind and hari (green) chutneys, chickpeas and potatoes.  It’s a favourite dish of ours – we love the mix of the sweet/sour tamarind chutney with the silky yogurt as well as the textural contrast of the crunchy papdi (fried flour crispies) with the soft potatoes.  The dish had been the highlight of our previous visit but while this version was quite tasty, it wasn’t as good as last time (is anything ever?). The tamarind chutney was still delicious but the dish needed more crunch to contrast with the potatoes.

Our second entrées (vegetable samosas) were really nice.  Well packed with a tasty filling, they were fresh and not too heavy or oily.  The accompanying tamarind chutney was also yummy but we found the contrasting yogurt mint sauce to lack a bit of body and flavour.  

After entrées, we ordered 4 mains (Gosht Saagwala, fish curry, Punjabi chicken curry and Aloo Baingam Masala), plain rice (3 serves)and naan (3 serves) which was more than enough for six people.  The pick of the dishes was the Gosht Saagwaala curry (lamb and spinach).  The sauce was rich, thick and tasty and the meat just melted in your mouth.  

The chicken and fish curries were not as successful.  Without Megan there, we had ordered all our dishes “mild” but even so the chicken curry was still too hot for our taste.  Apart from the level of heat, the fish and chicken curries otherwise looked and tasted very similar making each individual dish seem a bit generic.  This was particularly so for the fish curry because the flavour of the sauce didn’t seem to penetrate the fish.

Most of us liked the final dish (Aloo Baingam Masala) - an eggplant and potato curry.  Everyone enjoyed the texture and flavour of the eggplant in the curry but Karen thought the starchy texture of the potato didn’t quite work with the silken eggplant.

Although there was a lot of food left over from the main course, we felt obliged to test their dessert options  In this case, there was only one choice (mango kulfi) but it was delicious and a nice, refreshing way to finish the meal.     

Green Bamboo January 18th 2017

Present: Megan, Jim, Karen, John, Ron, Andrew

Back in action

We started the new year back with an old favourite – the Green Bamboo in Swinger Hill.  It’s a fairly standard Vietnamese restaurant but the food is always reliable and reasonably priced.  It ticks a few other boxes for us - quiet, close-by and plenty of parking.   Although the evening was hot, the restaurant was nice and cool when we arrived - no doubt helped by the blinds being drawn. These were raised later in the evening for us to enjoy the spectacular sunset….a highlight of our first restaurant night for 2017.

We started our meal with 2 serves of Vietnamese spring rolls – a standard entrée but done well.  We then shared 5 main dishes (lemon grass lamb, caramelised pork, chicken with cashew nuts, sizzling fish fillet and stir fried vegetables with bean curd).  With steamed rice, this was plenty of food for the six of us without over-indulging.  The 2 most popular dishes of the night were the lemon grass lamb and sizzling fish.  The finely chopped lemon grass added both taste and texture to the dish and nicely complemented the lamb.   The fish had a crisp (fried) battered coating which married well with a light, sweet-style sauce. 

The other dishes were all individually nice but unfortunately they were very similar in both presentation and taste which made the banquet seem quite boring. Each dish was also very sweet and seemed to overpower the fresher elements of the dish, particularly the vegetables.          

Not surprisingly after a lot of sweet main dishes, Andrew, Megan and John opted to skip dessert but our dessert aficionados (Ron and Jim) were still keen and ordered fried bananas and Karen decided to try the fried ice cream.  The desserts were quite standard but again done well.  The fried ice cream was the nicer of the two desserts – it was perfectly cooked in fresh oil and the “cakey” coating had a lovely coconut flavour.

Overall, we would have preferred more freshness and variety in the dishes but it was still nice to be back in action and we’re looking forward to more restaurant nights in 2017!

  

China Tea House 30-11-16

•  Tea House duck pancakes
• Gone with the wind (shredded, crispy chinese broccoli leaves topped with ground spiced chicken) 
• Shredded premium beef eye fillet stir fried with pickled mustard and a complement of vegetables on a bed of fried vermicelli
• Diced aubergine and bean curd with mushrooms
• Deep fried ice cream
• Banana Fritter and ice cream

Attended by Jim, John and Ron.

The duck pancakes were delicious. The restaurant kindly obliged by making a serving of three - one each.

The Gone with the Wind was a new dish for us. It was really, really good. The crispy chinese broccoli was a great contrast with the beautifully spiced chicken.

The beef was also a new dish. It was very nice - tender and a lovely flavour from the pickled mustard, with again a contrast of crunch from the fried vermicelli.

The aubergine and bean curd was a nice combination, with a good flavour over the top from the mushrooms.

The deep fried ice cream was as to be expected, nothing special but still good.

Jim reported that the banana fritter was up to his demanding standard.

All in all a very enjoyable meal, We liked every dish and were just nicely full when we wandered off home.

Mr Wei’s 15-12-16

• Duck pancakes and soup
• Honey black pepper and mustard mint fillet steak
• Master cut baby egg plant
• Yu xiang pork
• Combined flavour fish

 

Attended by Andrew, Jim, John, Karen, Kim and Ron.



We asked to have the duck pancakes, since they are always so good and are presented so beautifully. They would only let us have the pancakes if we either had soup as a second course, or duck and rice. We chose the pancakes and soup option.

The pancakes were very good as always.

The fillet steak was satisfactory, with a really obvious mustard flavour.

 

The Yu xiang pork was nothing exciting. They could at least have given us enough buns so we could have one each.

The egg plant was outstanding as always.

The duck soup was a significant disappointment. Just a pile of duck bones in a flavourless, watery soup.

We were feeling let down by the bland attitude and also the lack of cheery service. This is not how we remember Mr Wei's from the past. The menu is also still the same as it has been from time immemorial.

The dessert menu is still boring and has also not changed. Since none of us felt inspired, we didn't order any.

I found the overall experience a big disappointment from what I had come to expect from past visits. I don't want to go back to Mr Wei's again.

Wild Duck 16 November 2016

Present:

Andrew, Ron, Megan, Jim, John.  Karen was having car issues and Kim was in Perth with her parents.

Wine: Champagne: Domaine de la Grande Cote Brut Cremant de Bourgogne
Grant Burge Barossa RSZ6 Reserve Shiraz 2006

Ron persuaded us to have the tasting menu just because and it was rather special but there was rather a lot of it. 

We started with the sort shell crab with squid on the side.  The squid was a bit chewy but the rest of it was wonderful, the crab was tender crunchy, not too heave batter with salad and a touch of pineapple, making the combination just perfect.

The dumplings were a nice plan contrast. Waygu beef and prawns with pickled ginger sauce.  Both sauces complemented the dumplings perfectly.

The lamb skewers with a bun were very spicy, almost too much for some, but the spiciness was compensated for by the refreshing salad and the warm bun. Yum

Pork belly was smooth, falling apart.

The beef was tender with a mustard sauce, a great flavours.  Fish was plain with a soy sauce.

The dessert was spectacular but not very much of it.  One plate to share between four blokes (I had left by this stage). 

John and Andrew liked the pork belly, Jim though all were fantastic, beautiful, wondrous repast had by all, no dish was below standard.  The fish was thought to be bland, but that's just how fish is, it never seems to absorb flavour.

Another hit by Wild Duck