Spicy Ginger 11 March 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had

• duck pancakes
• cumin lamb
• chicken and noodles
• spicy king prawns
• spicy beans
• stir fry pork
• eggplant fritters

Wine: Gallagher 2014 Sauvignon Blanc

Penfolds Bin 28 Cabernet Shiraz

 

Present: Jim, Karen, Ron, John, Kim Megan and Eric

Ron, Megan and Eric had just been to Politics in the Pub nearby, which is why we had chosen this restaurant.

The food was beautiful, very generous serves, the house special (chicken with noodles) was enough for two, the flavour of the chicken went right through the dish.  Kim said it reminded her of a dish her family would cook.  The chillie beans were nice, the lamb lovely and sharp flavour with the cumin and the onion.  The batter on the eggplant was heavy, oily, but without being too bad.  The prawns some of us liked, some didn't.

Red bean pancake for dessert, yum!!!

Overall, it was a good night, service was quick and friendly.  Noise level 77-82 decibels, too loud for us aging boomers.

China Plate Wednesday 4 March 2015

It was just the three of us that night, Megan, Ron and Jim and China Plate on the Wednesday night of a sitting week must be the place to be pollie spotting.  .  As Ron emailed later  "We had a fun dinner last night at China Plate. Quite a representation from the political scene were present. There was a gaggle of journos sharing a table with pollies from both sides of the house of reps. JC and PC were recognised among them. MF from the senate was spotted at another table. The star performer of course was CP with entourage, at a table down the back. His charming act for the evening was to be seen eating his meal from a bowl perched on his rather substantial belly. "

(Ref photo of Jim with two tables of pollies and their acolytes in the background)
Wine: Mc Clay Rod Shiraz, Beechworth 2009

Food: soft shell Crab: a duck dish (forgotten what) and aubergine.

 Apart from all that excitement, we had a beaut meal, with the aubergine chips the highlight as it always is with China Plate.  Always reliably good food, not outstanding but that's why you don't pay top price.  Value for money though excellent, service very prompt and noise level quite okay for us seniors.

Red Hill Tea House

Present: Kim, Jim, John, Andrew, Ron, Megan.  Karen not well.

We talked about the usual stuff, holidays, Kim going to Malaysia/Singapore, politics, new technology.

 
We'd been to Red Hill Tea House about 12 months ago and Ron made a captain's call that we should go again. 
It's one of those small suburban Asian restaurants, so small that you wonder how they manage to stay afloat, but we guessed it was probably the take aways rather than the people at tables.  We left at 9pm and we had been the only ones there for a while.
It's main attraction is that it offers Burmese and Thai as well as Asian, and while it could not be seen as being at the forefront of experimental Asian/fusion/new Australian etc, it's still offers a good range of traditional dishes with a bit of difference.
We had:

Deep fried scallops, nice but not amazing.

Angel prawns, nice and amazing.
Burmese red curry, nice, tasty, not too chilli hot
Pad Thai which some of us thought was the best we'd had for a long time.
Lamb yushiang.
Stirfry veges with beancurd, but ordinary, what we asked for is what we got.
Spicy Crispy fish, voted by some of us as the best dish.

A pleasant evening, all the food was good, you take no risks eating there, noise level was low, ambience pleasant.

 Wine:

Brown Bros Prosecco

You me and the gatepost Shiraz 2008.  Great Southern, Western Australia

Joe's Thai Wanniassa 28 January 2015

Crispy Pork Salad
Soft Chell Crab (chilli basil)
Stuffed eggplant
Chicken Nut stir fry
Mussaman beef curry

Wine: Katnook Estate Coonawarra Cab Sauvignon 2005


The comments about the meal were as follows -

The stuffed eggplant, mussaman curry, soft shell crab and pork salad were all very good. There was no consistent agreement on a favourite. The chicken cashew was chosen as a token ordinary dish and was perfect in that role.

Jim, John, Karen, Kim and Ron were there. Andrew and Megan didn't come.

Mr Wei's 14 January 2015

 

 

 

Present:

Megan, Ron, Andrew, Jim, Karen.  (Kim sick, John in Sydney)

Wine;

The Little Wine Company Chardonnay 2013

Molly's Cradle Mudgee Shiraz 2009

Entrees: Scallops and prawns. Scallops were fried which gave them a nice caramelization on the bottom and had  XO sauce on top, spectacular.  The prawns were lightly cooked with a chives, garlic and coriander dressing, a light a fresh flavour.

The eggplant was fantastic, sliced and fried in a light tempura batter with a kecap manus sauce.
Chicken with a dusting of coconut deep fried on a bed of lettuce was different, a bit dry.  And I thought that the chicken was from a cheap cut, not the nicest,
This all set us up for the mains, which started with peking duck pancakes, how can one go wrong.  It is one of their specialities, and very yummy.  Also, combined flavour fish, lightly fried with a yummy sauce and the lemongrass chicken which again was very nice but for some of us too much chicken.  The veges were nice and light, not too much sauce.
Dessert was profiteroles and icecream, yum.

Highly recommend this restaurant, the food is fabulous, the service fantastic, friendly and helpful.  The noise level VERY LOW, thank goodness.

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.