Indian Affair Wednesday 22 February

John and Andrew

Karen and Jim

Karen and Megan

And Ron of course



Wine:
Deviation Road, Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc
Grand Vin de Bordeaux Chateau Bichon Cassignols Graves 1996

Food:
Entree
Vegetable pakoras
Punjabi Chaat
Samosa Chaat
Mains
Prawn Korma
Mali Koftas
PunjRatna Dal
Lamb Saag
Butter Chicken

The Samosa Chaat was a potato patty with a yoghurt sauce, with shredded coconut.  Quite unusual and very tasty, we all went back for more.  Vegetable pakoras were very moist.
Punjaib chat, cubes of potato and tomato in a yogurt sauce with spinach fritter on top.  Very tasty, very fresh.

The mains were basic Indian curries, lots of heavy sauces but differing flavours. The prawns, yum, saag, very nice, the malia koftas had a very sweet flavour: butter chicken (everyone's favourite) was as per usual nice, rich and sweet. the lentils were okay but not remarkable.

The highlight for me, always was and always will be, the punjabi kulfi, which comes out wrapped around a long stick.  I don't really care, it was delicious.

Overall a nice meal, no surprises, typical Indian fare.  The head waiter (owner) is chatty, friendly, likes to joke with people.  The televisions with Bollywood movies screening in the background are a bit of a distraction, but part of the package with Indian Affair.  Usually we go there in winter, because somehow the heavy flavours go best in cold weather.  But since we haven't really had much of a summer in Canberra so far, it was probably appropriate to go there in February

Alanya, Manuka. 8 February 2012

Vine leave and fava bean dip

Mushrooms

Fetta cheese fingers

Zuchini balls

Eggplant

Stuffed Zucchini

Prawns grilled

Lamb on eggplant puree

Baclava

Dessert

Dessert plate



Wine

Pfeiffer Riesling 2011

Cranswick Estate Vignette Range Shiraz 1997

FOOD

Entrees, all nice.  The pea/broadbean mash was voted the favourite, but the mushrooms were also pretty good.  The pastry cheese fingers, bit hard to taste the cheese.

Mains:

Prawns, very nice, Ron pigged the extra one.

Lamb on eggplant puree excellent. 

The stuffed eggplant was John and Jim's favourite.

Stuffed zucchini really nice. 

Dessert:

Ron's mixed plate was a winner, he had no problems scoffing it down.  My dessert was very much like gulab jamun but too too sweet, too much cinamon for my taste.  Jim's baclava was pretty good.

Overall, a satisfying meal, but didn't reach the heady heights of say Sage or Lantern Room, but it's not trying to present that kind of food, so it didn't matter. Good basic turkish tucker.  Service was good, friendly, restaurant not too noisy, so it was a good night

Noble Palace Wednesday 25 January

Wine
Matua Valley Marlborough Sauvignan Blanc 2011, lovely, very drinkable
Westend Bridges 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon - excellent, beautiful

FOOD
Duck Pancake - very nice, missed the left overs that we get at some other restaurants
Honey King Prawns - nice
Vegetarian Eggplant Hotpot - fabulous, wow!
Pork Fillet with Lemongrass and Chilli- the tomato based sauce dominates
Chicken Chow Mein
Fish Fillet with hot Rocksalt - goeswell with the white wine, "standable" as in meets the minimumstandard, loved the light batter
Fillet Steak with Beijing Sauce - somepeices of the meat were a bit tough but had a nice flavour, nice sauce
Sago Pudding - very enjoyable
Coconut jelly - nice, tastes like coconut,poor presentation, a winner
Banana Fritter - Ummm, Orrrrr, the bananajust melted, ohhhhh Um, I didnt like it at all, that was great, beautifulbatter, that was really good, that was fabulous 
General comments
We thought that we had over-ordered,but Ron proved us wrong.