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

Mr Wei's, Civic, 2 july 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Megan, Ron, John, Jim.

Wine Tamburlaine 2005 Members Syrah

Baily Baily Folio King Vallet 2011 Pinot Gris

 

Only a few of us tonight, Karen's off tripping, as is Andrew and Kim, not sure. 

Talked mainly about travel, ice, John's trip etc etc

We started with a couple of unusual entrees, lotus root and pork parcels, and master cut baby eggplant.  The parcels were quite different, minced pork in the lotus root pastry (I assume) deep fried.  Quite nice, but a bit heavy.  The eggplant was quite exotic, lovely and crisp.  It seemed to have been deep fried in a tempura batter with a sweet chilli sauce (ketcup manis).
So without the selection expertise of Karen we all had a go and deciding what to eat.  And of course the peking duck had to happen, didn't it.  What can we say except it was extremely yummy.  The accompanying duck dish was duck fried rice.  And this was served with Mussaman beef cheek, yushiang pork and a fish dish.
The beef was not spectacular or spicy, but tender none the less.  The pork really tasty, spicy with wood ear mushrooms.  And desserts (only two) were a cheesecake thingey and profiteroles.  We shared them (sort of).
A nice little restaurant, the wait staff were friendly and helpful, it was not too noisy, recommended

Chiang Rai 20 August 2014

(photos to come)


Attendees:  Kim, Jim,  Ron,  Andrew

Entrees:
Curry Puffs
Fresh Ricepaper  Rolls.   Filling prawns and vegetables.

Mains:
Stuffed Aubergine
Roast Duck Red Curry
Macadamia Scallops (scallops & macadamia nuts, stir fried with snowpeas, onion and basil in chilli paste)

Dessert:
Dark Sticky Rice with Coconut Ice Cream

Wine:
Tumberlaine 2005 Syrah

Comments:
(1) Prawns in the fresh ricepaper rolls were quite large. 
(2) The three mains were all very different styles.  Generous size servings.  The Stuffed Aubergine strong spicy . The Macadamia Scallops was a very good refreshing combination.   The three mains went very well together.  Excellent choice.
(3) Dessert was Yummo
(4) Jim's wine was up to usual very high quality .  

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,