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.