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.