Ginger Room Wednesday 23 May

Appetiser

Dumplings and peanut salad

Blue Cheese mouse and beetroot salad

Pork belly

Salt and Pepper prawns

Lentils and asparagus

Smoked duck

Kangaroo

Peanut butter icecream

ganache tart

We went to the Ginger Room (Old Parliament House) because it was Ron's birthday and he wanted to spoil himself, or whatever.  Karen unfortunately couldn't come, she and Jim had some very complicated child transporting arrangements to deal with.

WINE
Croser Petaluma Non Vintage Chardonnay Pinot, Jim assumed from the Adelaide Hills
Rockford Rifle Range Cabernet Sauvignon Barossa 2008: this wine is apparently hard to find, one needs to be on their "list" to get an allocation, so Jim was impressed with this.

We decided not to have the degustation, it did not appeal to us, so we had the 4 course meal instead, $79.

A little appetizer appeared, a little piece of beef fillet done in an asian marinade on a spoon, just delightful.

First course:
A few of us had the Fried Ginger, minted broad bean peanut salad, smoked tomato and basil dumplings.  The dumplings were really fried won tons with a tomato salsa inside, the nuts and broad beans were an interesting, crunchy combination.
John had the tarago shadows of blue mousse etc which he said had a very subtle flavour.

Second course
Jim had the salt and pepper prawns which surprised him a bit because he was expecting something with an asian flavour but it tasted nice anyway.  I had the five spiced lentils asparagus etc.  I felt that the lentils overwhelmed the rest of the dish, it was not particularly delicate, but nice otherwise, in a wholesome kind of way.
Ron (guts) had the pork belly for seconds.  Magnificent, nice and tender with a lovely blackberry sauces, sharp and full of flavour, really, really good.

Third course
We lost the plot a bit after this, most of us had the duck, lightly done with the smokey flavour coming through.  I think Andrew had the kangaroo.

Dessert
We revived a bit when dessert appeared, the peanut butter icecream was absolutely to die for, just worth going to Ginger Room for that alone.

So what did we think of the meal?  I"d been there a few months before and been disappointed with the small sizes of the entree and fish courses.  This time I was a little overwhelmed by the size of the portions, maybe someone had complained.

The Ginger Room is reliable, food good, not quite outstanding like say Sage is.  Maybe the boys won't agree with me, maybe I have been there too many times.  On the Wednesday night there weren't many other tables filled, so maybe it is going off a bit and people are finding out.

The ambience is lovely, refined dining room, beautiful panelling on the walls and ceiling, well placed tables, white table cloths, not too noisy.  I'd go back there.

Menu 

2 courses $59 3 courses $69 4 courses $79 5 courses $89

Vegetables

• fried ginger, minted broad bean peanut salad, smoked tomato and basil dumplings \
• san choy bow, chilli salted bean curd, tea quail egg
• tarago shadows of blue mousse, brioche wafer, quince tarragon beetroot salad
• five spiced lentils, asparagus, goats cheese, candied pecans

fish

• pambula rock oysters,
• mojito sorbet scallop, confit fennel, orange, pistachio,
•  rocket sesame crusted tuna, sake sticky rice, wasabi soy jelly, pickled ginger
• salt and pepper prawns, heirloom tomato, coriander, red nam jim

 meat

•  szechuan pork belly, bok choy, rice noodle, blackberry sauce
•   native pepper kangaroo, fried enoki mushroom, shimeji, macadamia
• cinnamon smoked duck breast, roast pear, watercress, radish, almonds chef's whim



• dessert
•  
• ginger poached pear, nashi, amaretto grapes, grape granita
•  wattle seed dark chocolate ganache tart, blue cheese ice cream, hazelnut toffee
• peanut butter mousse, nougat ice cream, chocolate praline wafer, caramel sauce vanilla marshmallow, lavender crumble, rosewater, black cumin ice cream