Portia's Kingston 18 June



Duck pancakes

fish

eggplant

beef

chicken and beans

banana spring rolls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

black rice pudding

 

 

Jim, Karen, Ron, Megan, Kim

Andrew was still in LA and John in Germany, but Kim was back, with tales of what she had been doing in Malaya.

Wine: Kalimna Shiraz 2002 Bin 28

Lovely Portia's never disappoints, but no pollies this time, oh well.

We started with the duck pancakes, what else.  Portia's speciality, and brilliant as per usual.  We had double helpings.
I'm afraid we had some of the tried and true dishes which we know we like, but what the heck.  The stuffed eggplant was lovely. Sizzling fish with ginger and shallots, mmm, not so good, a bit bland, we'll have to give that one a miss next time. BUT, having said that, Ron liked it, said the plainness was a good combination with the other more spicy dishes. The beef (wasabi steak) was voted the winner for the night, tender melt in the mouth beef chunks in a rich, sweet sauce.  Not sure how they got it so tender whilst being a bit rare in the middle, but we lovely it especially with the plain broccoli. The minced chicken and beans in spicy sauce was, well spicy, really tasty.  The smokey flavour of the beans was delish.

 Desserts, brilliant, black rice pud and banana spring rolls. 

The Olive, Mawson 4 June

 

Present, Karen, Megan, Jim, Ron.  Kim was in Singapore, John was in Germany, Andrew was in San Francisco.

Wine:

Cape Mentelle 2000 Zinfandel

Wither Hills Marlborough Sav Blanc 2011

 Karen and Jim suggested this because their kids liked it and the bread was good.  Do we need any more reasons to try somewhere?

 The Olive is an unassuming little restaurant, in the unassuming Southlands Shopping precinct.  It's clientele seemed like relaxed locals (how can we tell?  I don't know).  The tables were well spaced and had TABLE CLOTHS, the wait staff friendly and knowledgeable.

 
We shared the entrees, but kept the mains to ourselves.  As Karen promised, the bread was fabulous, went superbly well with the dips.  We had soft shell crab, nicely done, still not quite up to Ron's high expectations.

Ron (of course being Ron) had to have the seafood stack, and yes it was stack, but was it worth $45?  Ron was not convinced, he enjoyed the flavours of the seafood but there were no sauce or veges added.

 Karen had the seafood spaghetti, but thought that a bowl rather than a plate would be the best way to serve it, as the sauce disappeared down to the bottom.  The hero of the dish was the seafood, not the spag or the sauce.  Was the spaghetti home made???

 Jim had a great big lump of sirloin which was really nice, but he decided he preferred it without the sauce.

 And I had the pan fried whiting, which was very nice without being spectacular.

 We succumbed to dessert, as always, which was delish.

 

Next dinner we decided to go pollie watching at Kingston, if Parliament is still sitting

Ardeche Civic 21 May

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

I think we went to Ardeche to celebrate Ron's birthday (which was the actual day) and Karen's imminent retirement.  Lots to celebrate so we went a bit upmarket.

 

In the excitement of the evening I forgot to take notes, so not very much to report.  It's a bog standard French restaurant, always reliable, always good quality with many of the standard French dishes on offer.

We had the French onion soup, twice cooked souffle, crepes, duck a l'orange, steak, chicken, all done with lovely rich french sauces.  The seafood crepes were fabulous, as was the steak, the duck was lovely, but just a standard a l'orange nothing special.  But we got what we came for, so that was enough. (Can we go to Asian next time?)

The ambience pleasant, but a bit noisy.  Wait staff good,