Mr Wei’s 15-12-16

• Duck pancakes and soup
• Honey black pepper and mustard mint fillet steak
• Master cut baby egg plant
• Yu xiang pork
• Combined flavour fish

 

Attended by Andrew, Jim, John, Karen, Kim and Ron.



We asked to have the duck pancakes, since they are always so good and are presented so beautifully. They would only let us have the pancakes if we either had soup as a second course, or duck and rice. We chose the pancakes and soup option.

The pancakes were very good as always.

The fillet steak was satisfactory, with a really obvious mustard flavour.

 

The Yu xiang pork was nothing exciting. They could at least have given us enough buns so we could have one each.

The egg plant was outstanding as always.

The duck soup was a significant disappointment. Just a pile of duck bones in a flavourless, watery soup.

We were feeling let down by the bland attitude and also the lack of cheery service. This is not how we remember Mr Wei's from the past. The menu is also still the same as it has been from time immemorial.

The dessert menu is still boring and has also not changed. Since none of us felt inspired, we didn't order any.

I found the overall experience a big disappointment from what I had come to expect from past visits. I don't want to go back to Mr Wei's again.

Wild Duck 16 November 2016

Present:

Andrew, Ron, Megan, Jim, John.  Karen was having car issues and Kim was in Perth with her parents.

Wine: Champagne: Domaine de la Grande Cote Brut Cremant de Bourgogne
Grant Burge Barossa RSZ6 Reserve Shiraz 2006

Ron persuaded us to have the tasting menu just because and it was rather special but there was rather a lot of it. 

We started with the sort shell crab with squid on the side.  The squid was a bit chewy but the rest of it was wonderful, the crab was tender crunchy, not too heave batter with salad and a touch of pineapple, making the combination just perfect.

The dumplings were a nice plan contrast. Waygu beef and prawns with pickled ginger sauce.  Both sauces complemented the dumplings perfectly.

The lamb skewers with a bun were very spicy, almost too much for some, but the spiciness was compensated for by the refreshing salad and the warm bun. Yum

Pork belly was smooth, falling apart.

The beef was tender with a mustard sauce, a great flavours.  Fish was plain with a soy sauce.

The dessert was spectacular but not very much of it.  One plate to share between four blokes (I had left by this stage). 

John and Andrew liked the pork belly, Jim though all were fantastic, beautiful, wondrous repast had by all, no dish was below standard.  The fish was thought to be bland, but that's just how fish is, it never seems to absorb flavour.

Another hit by Wild Duck

Daana Restaurant Curtin

Previously located in the shipping container village at Westside@Acton Park, Daana moved to its current home in Curtin in September 2015. The restaurant specialises in “authentic Southern Indian cuisine” which we were surprised to find quite different to other Indian restaurants in Canberra.  The most obvious difference is that the dishes are not necessarily served with rice–instead we could choose roti or Paratha or a light rice batter crepe known as NeerDosa as a side dish.   The other difference was the combination of rice and lentils in many of the southern specialty dishes such as the lentil-rice based crispy crepe (Dosa) or the more fluffypancake (Uttappam) and the steamed lentil rice cakes served with a vegetable and rice stew (Idli Sambar).

The different style of cuisine together with an oddly structured menu made it difficult for us to choose our dishes. We therefore relied on the excellent advice on our waiter and no doubt benefitted from their knowledge!

Our entrees were from the “Street Chaat” section – PaapdiChaat and Samosa Chaat. The first was similar to Punjabi Chaat(a long time favourite dish) - fried potatoes with papdis (deep fried, rice crisps) served with sweetened yogurt and tamarind chutney sauces. In the Daana verson, bite size pieces of potato were served on top of small crispy fried shortcrust pastry bases (almost tapas style). While this provided some extra “crunch” to the base, it would have been better if that crunch was in the potato mixture itself.

In contrast, we loved the Samosa chaatwhich was a variation of a standard samosa but sooo much nicer (even Karen was a convert!). The pastry casing was light and crisp worked perfectly with the light and tasty lentil vegetable filling. Rather than served whole, the samosa was “smashed” onto the plate and then lavishly covered with the same sweetened yoghurt/tamarind sauces as the PaapdiChaat…yum, scrum…

For mains, we ordered aUttappam (fluffy lentil-rice pancake) with chicken curry, KolambiCheHiraveKalvan(prawns in a coconut and coriander green curry) with steamed rice and Bisibele Bhat(a one pot dish made with rice, veggies and lentils).

The Uttappamwas quite bland and thick and we suspect the thinner crepe (Dosa) version might have been a better choice. Nevertheless the chicken curry was superb - tender and tasty without being oily or overly rich (all the positives of Indian cuisine with none of the negatives!)

The prawn dish (KolambiCheHiraveKalvan) was also very good. Fresh and perfectly cooked, the prawns had a nice chewy texture and were not overpowered by the light style green sauce.  Both the prawn and chicken curries were very mild but still quite flavoursome.

The final dish (Bisibele Bhat)was a lovely textured combination of rice, lentil and vegetables. Healthy food never tasted so good! Our only criticism was that there was a lot of cinnamon in the dish which was a little too strong.

By the end of the main course, we were completely full but the desserts looked too tempting and we ended up sharing 2 between the 5 of us – the Mitahi [a selection of Indian sweets] and the NeiPaysam (slow cooked rice, jagery and ghee garnished with sultanas and cashew nuts).  The Mitahi was lovely  –decadent and very sweet. It was far too much for one person but good to share among 5. In contrast, the slow cooked rice was a little disappointing. Made with basmati rice, it disintegrated with the slow cooking process leaving a very sweet mush with a strong flavour of cardamom.

Despite this, overall the meal was really enjoyable.  We loved the lighter style Indian cuisine and enjoyed exploring the Southern Indian cuisine (it might even be hard to go back to the Northern style!).

Mings Wednesday 2 November 2016

Mings is a popular restaurant amongst most of our group.  Its wide ranging Chinese-Malaysian menu includes tasty Malaysian curries, interesting vegetarian dishes (particularly tofu and eggplant), nice seafood and good Hawker style noodles (including Kim’s favourite Char Kway Teow).  We have had some great meals there but oddly never when Megan is there - we call it the “Megan curse”.  Despite this (and always willing to tempt fate), we chose Mings to welcome Megan back from her holiday.   

It didn’t start well. Unusually (for Mings), the service was slow and surly but our night started to pick up when entrée arrived - one of our favourites (crispy duck in pancakes).  The duck is deep fried and then served (Peking duck style) in pancakes with hoisin sauce, green spring onions and cucumber. Soooo yummy… this dish is always a winner!! 

For the main dishes, we ordered barramundi served 2 ways, fillet steak with samboy sauce cooked with Thai basil, vegetable hot pot with tofu (Nyonya style), rock salt eggplant with mushroom and Gulai Ayam (boneless chicken cooked with red curry).  There was more than enough food for 5 of us especially as the barramundi really counted as 2 dishes.

The barramundi dish cooked 2 ways looks fabulous and is a fantastic banquet dish. Half the barramundi was coated in water chestnut flour and then deep fried (on the bone).  The deep fried fish was moist and tasty and the flour crust added a nice crispy element to the dish. However the serving sauce was disappointing.  Described as a “Schezuan chilli sauce”, it was almost entirely a (bottled) sweet chilli sauce with a couple of black beans thrown in – too sweet and no depth of flavour.  The other half of the fish was cooked as a stir fry with a garlic, ginger sauce and lots of snowpeas (already a winner for Jim).  This part of the dish was quite tasty and nicely contrasted with the other (deep fried) element of the dish.

The fillet steak with samboy sauce cooked with thai basil was very nice.  The meat was extremely tender presumably treated with bicarb soda to get that fantastic melt in mouth texture of many Chinese dishes.  We weren’t sure what the “samboy sauce” actually was – it was quite sweet with a hint of ginger and perhaps a touch of sour.  The addition of Thai basil seemed unusual but it added a nice fresh element and worked reasonably well with the dish.

We ordered the vegetable hot pot having seen it served at a neighbouring table. Unfortunately our version didn’t look anywhere near as nice (always the way…something about the grass being greener…).  While there was plenty of deep fried tofu in our dish to soak up the sauce, there weren’t a lot of other vegetables to add texture, colour or flavour.  The very mild coconut sauce was also quite boring when it should have been a highlight of the complex Nyonya style of cooking.

Our bad luck with vegetable dishes continued with rock salt eggplant with mushroom dish. This was simply battered eggplant (or mushroom) slices, deep fried and then sprinkled with a salt/chilli mixture.  While the dish was OK, the batter was very heavy and did nothing for either vegetable.

Our final dish was the Gulai Ayam (boneless chicken cooked with red curry). We were expecting a rich red curry but it was more yellow in colour. Tastewise, the meat was very tender but there was a strong curry powder flavour which needed to be better integrated into the sauce.   There were also far too many potatoes in the curry which not only detracted from the flavour but also made the sauce look cloudy and “starchy”.

Overall, the meal was OK but we have had much better meals there which made this one seem a little disappointing. We also ended the night the same as we started (with surly service).  Without being asked for, the bill came as soon as we finished our mains and dessert was never offered.  It was only 8:45pm and we felt as if we were being kicked out of the restaurant…..ah, they were obviously worried about the “Megan curse”!   

Joe's Thai Wanniassa Wednesday 5 October 2016

Only 4 of us were able to make dinner at Joe’s Thai restaurant in Wanniassa (Kim, John, Ron and Karen).  Aparticular shame given that the new look menu was more extensive than we remembered and there were a number of interesting dishes we wanted to try. In the end (heaven forbid) we had to forgo a duck dish to fit in our first choices.

For entrée, we ordered fresh rice paper rolls (with prawns). While these weren’t quite up to the Kinh Do standard, they were still very nice and a healthy way to start the meal. For mains, we ordered lamb shank Massaman, stuffed eggplant (with chicken and seafood), seafood steamed custard (HorMokTalay) and grilled pork salad (Yum Moo Krob). 

Each dish was very tasty and beautifully presented.Parts of the pork salad were perhaps a little hot for our taste – small pieces of (very hot) chilli lurked in the dish and caught us unawares. Despite this, the meat was beautifully cooked and the dish well-constructed. 

Stuffed eggplant is one of our long-time favourite Asian dishes. The eggplant imparts a lovely richness to the dish and we love the contrasting texture of eggplant with mince.  This particular version was very nice although we wondered whether the black bean sauce complemented (or distracted from)the other elements in the dish. 

We were intrigued by the seafood custard dish on the menu which we’d never seen before. When the dish arrived, it wasn’t particularly interesting but it was still light and tasty.  The seafood was fresh and beautifully cooked and the mild red curry sauce added a delicate flavour to the dish.  While the sauce (more the consistency of a paste) could have been a little more liquid, it was really nice to be served a dish where the seafood stood on its own and wasn’t swimming in sauce. 

The Massaman lamb was our final main dish. This is one of Ron’s favourite Thai dishes and he never passes up the opportunity to order it when available.  The meat was very tender and the sauce quite tasty although Kim found it a little sweet for her taste and Ron thought it was a little salty (go figure!!).

The four dishes and entrée were more than enough food for us but apparently we also had room for dessert and so ordered a couple of serves of the mango with black sticky rice. Everyone enjoyed this dish which (according to Ron) was the “usual delightful combination of the two ingredients”. Much to his surprise, what seemed to be a relatively small serving would have been enough for him to share. Despite this, he still managed to make his way through the entire thing.  Apparently it was just to make sure it was all of consistent quality!

The final bill worked out at $35 per person. It wasn’t cheap for a suburban Thai restaurant but still reasonable value for the quality (and quantity!) of food we ordered. Given how busy the restaurant was on a cold weeknight in Wanniassa, other people obviously agree. 

Kusina 21 September 2016

The rich colonial history of the Philippines is reflected in its food, a unique fusion of Chinese, Spanish, Indian and Malaysian cuisines. The restaurant Kusina in Weston Creek show cases this mixture very well. There were 5 of us for dinner (Megan, Kim, Ron, Jim and Karen) and we started our meal with 2 entrees – CamaranRebosado (deep fried battered prawns with a tasty mayo sauce) and deep fried soft shell crab. The prawns were the better choice.  They were fresh and well-cooked and the sweet Western style mayo sauce worked well with the saltiness of the Chinese style battered prawns.  The deep fried soft shell crab was less interesting - similar to the more standard Chinese/Malaysian dish, the batter was a little greasy and the crab chewy.

For our main meals, we ordered Baked salmon with 3 cheeses, KareKare (Filipino beef stew) and Inihawnaliembo (grilled pork belly) accompanied by Java rice (garlic and turmeric style fried rice) and green papaya salad.  The baked salmon was particularly well cooked. The light and salty blend of cheeses complemented the fish and the dish was brought together with a mild (sweet style) chilli sauce. 

With the KareKare, we were expecting a rich slow-cooked meat stew especially with the addition of beans, eggplant and coconut sauce. However while the meat was incredibly tender, the stew on its own was quite bland. The dish was saved by a fermented shrimp paste sauce which was served separately. On its own, this sauce was a little strong (even bitter) but when added to the stew gave it much needed flavour and added a more interesting dimension to the dish.

The flavours of the grilled pork belly were lovely but the meat itself was chewy and overcooked. It was the least favourite of the dishes.  The papaya was a fresh and nice addition to the meal without being spectacular. The Java rice worked well with the other dishes and was a more interesting choice than plain steam rice.

Filipino cuisine generally excels in desserts and we enjoyed both our desserts immensely.  We had a mango cake where the mango flavour just melted in your mouth and a layered meringue layered dessert with cashews and a berry compote (Sans rival). The meringue was rich, buttery and very tasty and perfectly complemented by the tartness of the berry compote.