Kusina 18 December 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WINES

2011 Sav Blanc Tasmania

2009 McClay Rd Shiraz Beechworth

 Ron, John, Andrew, Kim, Karen, Megan

We had for entrée,  soft shell crab which met with great approval, and ukoy, which was prawn fritters, sweet potato, tofu and bean sprouts:

Baby squid with palm vinegar, soy and squid ink, we thought was a bit salty, an overdose of umami.  It had an earthy flavour,
Crisp pork belly with spicy coconut sauce was the clear favourite, the coconut sauce was fabulous, the pork was nice and crispy.
Grilled chicken lemongrass garlic ginger and soy was moist and crisp.
Sizzling beef stew was amazing.  It fell apart it was so tender.  The curry powder which was used was reminiscent of past times.  It came with some veges and cooked on the bone.

Salad with snake beans, pumpkin, eggplant and tomato; snake beans with garlic, soy and vinegar and green papaya salad were all lovely side dishes.

It was all very delicious, lots of different tastes: the service was good, the wait staff knew what they were talking about and were happy to take to time to explain things to us.  A great way to finish off our gourmet meals for the year.

Highly recommend this restaurant for quick, tasty, original food.  Decibels 68-70.

 

 

Portia's Place 4th December

Wines:

Two Churches, Barossa Valley Riesling 2011

Penfolds Bin 2 Shiraz Mourvedre 2006

Kim, Jim, Andrew,  Ron and Megan.  John was in Sydney, and Karen was looking after Koki who was afraid of thunder.

We had San choi bow, roast duck Hong Kong styles, sizzling seafood and peach sauce, King prawns salt and pepper, pork spare ribs and sambal green veges.
The San Choi Bow was delicious, it had chinese sausage and water chestnut, how on earth do they get the lettuce so perfect.
The veges looked nice, but were otherwise a bit ordinary.  The stems were too hard for Andrew, others said it was a bit salty.  The pork was a bit sweet, fatty and tough, although Jim liked it (Jim likes everything).  The prawns were the favourite; the duck well some of us thought it was ordinary but Ron liked it best, it had a cinnamon 5 spice flavour to it.  The seafood with the peach sauce was a bit different, we weren't sure about the sauce though, probably not repeatable, not spectacular, but we wanted to try something different, experiment a little.
Some of us had dessert, which were the reliable favourites at Portia's.
 Everything came out quickly, the service is friendly and efficient, the noise level an acceptable low 70's decibels.

Overall, you can always depend on Portia's to serve up a good meal.

 

Oriental Terrace 19 November 2014

Oriental Terrace

Wine: Drift  Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough New Zealand 2013

Present: Ron, Jim, Karen, Andrew (?) John (?) Lara and Lisa

Campbells Limited Release Shiraz Durif 2002

Crispy skin whole duck - pancakes
Beggars chicken
Barbeque pork and vegetables
Dry chilli beef
Char kway teow
Sambal squid
Seafood combination with vegetables
Light fried bean curd Peking style

Andrew, Jim, John, Karen and Lara, Kim and Lisa and Ron.

The crispy duck was amazing. Beautiful flavour right through the duck.

Karen and Kim said the Char kway teow was fabulous - like home made.

The Beggars Chicken was spectacularly presented. Lisa and Lara had great fun with the hammer to open it. It was so worth it. The chicken was moist with lovely subtle flavours from the various mushrooms in the mix.

The chilli beef was a crowd favourite.

The bean curd had a beautiful sauce.

The other dishes were also very good.

Karen said nothing especially leapt out of the page on the menu when ordering, yet we still got a spectacular meal with great flavours! And there was barely a scrap left at the end.

No room left for dessert after an entire duck, an entire chicken and all the other dishes!

Corvina, Swinger Hill Shops, Thursday 6 November

Present: Jim, Karen, Megan, Ron, Andrew, Kim.  John was still in Sydney.

Wine: Stefano Lubiana Pinot Noir Tas 2011
Brown Bros Prosecco.

Corvina has opened in Swinger Hill shops in the same place that Santa Lucia used to be, and the theme and style of food has changed very little.

We decided to do the sharing thing, starting with deep fried olives, calamari salad, zucchini fritters and a mushroom dish.  The olives were okay, we thought we could do better, the calamari was the favourite, very tender with a fabulous salad, really nice dressing; the fritters looked a bit strange and turned out to be quite bland; the mushrooms okay, a bit messy.  It was in a balsamic vinegar and sugar reduction.

We had three pastas, a linguini which was great with garlic and chilli, a gnocchi which had a beautiful texture and risotto served with a touch of basil - fabulous.

Desserts were fabulous also, "what a conclusion" was Ron's comment, lemon tart, ricotta cheese cake, and cannoli.

Corvina is a very basic but very good Italian, on par with most of the Italian restaurants in Canberra.  It wasn't outstanding, but if you go without any over the top expectations, you wouldn't be disappointed.  The service was quick, the dishes came out quickly and the wait staff were friendly and informed. The main negative was the noise level, again a restaurant not for the baby boomers.  We thought we would venture into the realm of rating restaurants by their decibel reading...this one measured at 80.

Mys, Weston, 23rd October 2014

Present: Jim, Karen, Kim, Ron

Prawn and zucchini fritters - brilliant.
Char kway teow - Kim - one of the best we've had.
Fish with special sauce.
Soft shell crab.
Twice cooked duck in plum sauce.

Ron's chocolate cake for Morning Tea

Chong Co Woden Plaza 8 October 2014

 

 

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

Wine:  Mt Pleasant classic Verhelho 2013

Star Lane Vineyard Beechworth Shiraz 2017

 Once we had sorted out which Chong Co we were going to, (there is also one at the Southern Cross Club), we settled ourselves into this new-ish addition to Canberra's asian eateries. We were all here, so there was lots of catching up on gossip, who had been where, what they did, (Megan USA, Andrew Philippines, John, Sydney, Karen South Coast )etc etc.

We started with mixed entrees, fish cakes, spring rolls, curry puffs and chicken satay.  Loved the spring rolls, a whole prawn in each, satay sauce was fabulous and curry puffs nice and crisp. 

For mains we had salmon fish green curry, duck salad, crispy soft shell crab, pork penang and stir fry chicken with garlic and pepper.

The crab won the favourite for the night, it was superb; the salmon curry had mixed responses, some said it was fabulous, it absorbed the sauce; the pork was Andrew's favourite, very tasty.  The duck won the second favourite, duck lends itself to salad as it has the right flavour and texture.  The chicken was just a stirfry, bit boring and ordinary.

Desserts, pumpkin something, banana fritters (I think) and deep fried icecream.

Flavours of India Thursday 18 September 2014

Present: Jim, Karen, Kim, Megan, Ron

Lost my notes for this, so can't go into detail, except we loved the food, especially the entrees.  Ambience good, not crowded, not noisy, wait staff were good, attentive but distracted at times. For once, the quantity was such that Ron couldn't finish it.  A good night though, to be recommeded