Malamay February 13th 2013

Wine:

Chapel Hill.  The Chapel Verdelho Mc Laren Vale 2012
Stanton and Killeen Moodemere Red Durif 1992
Canobolas Smith Chardonay

Ron had made an executive decision to go to Malamay just because he wanted to and no-one dared to contradict him.  We were all there including Kim who had just come back from her holiday in the USA with lots of photos.  Jim and Karen's son Daniel's had also been to the US so there was heaps to talk about.

Food

Because there was a degustation and only a degustation, we had the degustation.  And because there was a choice of  6 courses with or without dessert we chose the dessert.  Plus we asked to swap one course for another, but instead they offered to give us an extra course for no extra charge.

 First up was the 3 chillied relish and bonito marinated prawns on hand made noodles, voted delicious, spectacular, a hint of wasabi with a nice chilli after taste.   Karen thought the chilli taste was a bit strong but some of us loved it: we agreed that with the noodles it was a bit filling  for the start of a seven course degustation.

 The crabmeat scallops and soft prawn cakes were certainly different, we didn't quite know what to make of it.  Some of us felt that the scallop/crabmeat mixture was a bit bland and a bit soft.  The prawn cake was almost sweet but it was needed to sop up the scallop-crabmeat.  Others thought that the dish would have been enhanced with something like a crunchy salad.  Some of us liked it, others not, we couldn't quite agree.

Next up, the white fish with burnt green chilli and black bean radish crumbs. The fish was beautifully cooked and the green chilli sauce very strong in flavour.  The "sand" on top was intruiging.  Again there was a difference of opinion on this, some of us liked the chilli flavour, others didn't.

 Tortellini of pork and prawns with garlic chives and chilli jam on top.  Very delicate, nicely presented, what we saw is what we got.  It went down without many comments and much approval but it didn't strike us as being remarkable different from what we could get at any Asian restaurant.

Green lip abalone with beef fillet and congee.
A very interesting dish, quite unique.  The beef came with a sliver of abalone and in a bed of congee with oil.  We couldn't quite work out what the tomato coloured part of the sauce was.  A tasty dish, but we found the beef was a bit too chewy, tough for fillet at least.  Some us minded this, other's didn't.

Lamb with cumin with salted chilli.  By this time of the night most of us (except Ron) were starting to feel a bit full, but this was certainly worth putting in the extra effort.  The cumin flavour wasn't that strong, but delicious altogther.

The last dish was the dessert, a chocolate charcoal with yoghurt cream, which slithered down very well, with a hint of chilli and cinamon in the chocolate.  A rich finish to a big meal.

The overall verdict?  A few of us were happy, some others not so.  Their web site claims that "The Sichuan fusion cuisine of Malamay is characterized by its heady aromas and vibrant colours, at one rich, earthy and sensual.".  Andrew said that this was a nice meal but not as outstanding as expected.  I can see what he means, because we went there with high expectations having been there before.  This didn't quite live up to those expectations and I"m not sure if we were expecting too much, or they have let their game slip a little bit and are relying on their reputation.  Or maybe not such a good night or maybe it was just the menu they are offering at the moment. 

Red Hill Tea House February 6th 2013

The Red Hill Tea House is my local Asian (doesn't every suburb have one?) and I"ve been there several times for a quick after work/end of week meal and liked it.  They've had Burmese food available for a while now, as well as Thai and Chinese and I usually like to try something from that menu.  It's always been tasty, a bit different, so suggested it to the group.  It is a bit out of the ordinary for us, because while we only go to the top end restaurants every now and then, we usually like something a bit more fancy than the "local".

Anyway, they agreed to come along.  We were all there except Kim who was still in the US, but we were plus Lara.

Jim, as per usual came out tops with the wine:
He brought Westend 3 Bridges 1998 Shiraz
and the other one was Seven Marlborough Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc

And the boys ducked out and bought a Wynn's Coonawarra Cab Shiraz Merlot 2010  from the local IGA because we had almost gone through the above two bottles (there was 6 of us drinking after all)

The entrees were Burmese beef dumplings; Burmese prawn spring rolls; deep fried scallops.
We really loved the dumplings, nice and light, delicate. The scallops were nice, though not that exciting  and a bit like just fried fish.  The prawn spring rolls came out as a prawn wrapped in spring roll paper and fried. There was a lovely coconut flavour to it.

The Angel Prawns came out in their individual serves, with a little cover over each of them.  They looked very appealing and tasty equally, very aromatic, flavours of lemon grass and lime leaves.

 The red curry fish was very different from the prawns (well, to be expected really because the prawns were from their Thai menu).  The red curry sauce was very onion based, very different from the traditional Thai red curry, quite rich, and earthy.  Andrew told us that the Burmese curry powder is closer to the Indian curry powder, than to Thai.  It was presented with a mixture of fish and potatoes which appeared to have been fried beforehand, quite delicious.

 The chicken curry with pancakes was a bit of a disappointment.  The pancakes were okay, well nice really because they were fried, but the chicken curry was basically like a soup, very liquid.  Maybe that's the way it was meant to be.

 The mixed vegetables and tofu, from the Chinese menu, were well, forgettable.  Nice, full of vegetables but not new or exciting, it was your standard Chinese stir fry veges.  Oh well, we got what we had asked for.

Chicken Curry coconut rice was delicious.  Ron in particular wanted to try the coconut rice, I don't think he was disappointed.  It wasn't quite as exciting as some of the other dishes though.

SUCH AS , the Tea Leaf Rice which I forgot to take a photo of.  This came out as a serving of rice cooked with tea leaves and smoked nuts of some kind, it had a wonderful depth with a nutty flavour.  It came with a crispy skin chicken drumstick, but difficult to share but we managed.

Some of had dessert, which didn't go much beyond deep fried ice cream, but who's complaining.

Overall, the group thought that it was well worth coming to, something nice, wonderful. Nice as a local restaurant with interesting food, a "hidden gem".  The restaurant wasn't full by any means, but there were people popping in and out for a quick bite to eat or takeaway.  The staff were very friendly, happy to help out and move tables around, although one end of the table was being blown by the air conditioner.  By choice though.