Ginseng, Hellenic Club Woden 10th April

I wasn't really looking forward to this, because the last time I went to Ginseng at the Hellenic Club, shortly after it opened, I wasn't really impressed.  But, majority rules, so I went with an open mind.  And, was pleasantly surprised, the food was excellent, well presented, tasty, genuine (Kim said Cantonese).

Present: Jim, Karen, John, Ron, Kim and myself.  Andrew was enjoying himself in some fancy resort in the Philippines as per usual.

Ginseng is not BYO, so we had to buy wine off the wine list.  Stonefish 2011 Chardonnay and Stonefish 2010 Shiraz, both well chosen by Jim of course.

The entrees were duck pancakes (as per usual, are we getting too predictable) and Peking beef pancakes. The duck came as big chunks of duck, with spring onion and hoisin.  The whole dish worked, the duck was lovely and tender.  The beef pancakes were beautiful, quite sweet, maybe too sweet with the shredded honey beef?

Honey pepper beef, tender with a nice hint of pepper

Char kwey tau: voted by Karen to be the best in Canberra

Prawn and scallop lemongrass: intense ginger flavour with lots of snow peas

Chinese broccoli with shitake mushrooms, lots of lovely sauce.

Seafood stuffed eggplant, just divine, voted the best dish of the night.

We also had dessert (well some of us did anyway): lemongrass and coconut pannacotta with a really delicious lemongrass flavour.  And chocolate mousse with blue berries, jaffas and chillis, which Jim claimed was Yummy.

John and Ron texting

Jim and Ron who is still texting (oh well, Jim is texting too.)

A good night.  One downside was that we had to be signed in to the club, a very complex process with a machine.  The restaurant was not crowded or noisy, a real plus.  The menu was the same as it was 5 years ago, which is not a bad thing.  One other slight downside was that they were a bit tardy in taking away our main course dishes.  Not a big deal. 

Well worth a repeat visit

Mings, Phillip 27 March 2013

Only photos, sorry.  I was at Beechworth and no-one took any notes.  Ron did take photos though and I believe they enjoyed it.

Kusina Coolamon Court March 13th 2013

Present: Kim, Jim, Andrew, Karen, John, Megan, Ron

Andrew, back from his latest Phililpine adventure, recommended that we try this restaurant, and since we are always keen to try something new, we all readily agreed.

We had three entrees, Alimasag (soft shell crab), Pritong Manok (crispy chicken wings), Priton talong (fried eggplant, tomato, salted duck egg) and the mains were Pinkabet, adobong Manok, Inihau na liemp, sizzling sisig (sorry I forgot to note what was what).

Wines: Willson Family SB 2011 Langhorn Creek
Sonoma County Old Vin Zinfandel 2010 Kirkland.

For most of us (not Andrew) the menu was entirely new, we had no idea what to order, what was good, what flavours were what, so this was a bit of an adventure into the unknown.  But what an adventure, we were pleasantly surprised, delighted by all the new flavours, tastes, spices and different ways of presenting the dishes.

The chicken wings were oily, but tasty, the eggplant deep fried with salad and salted duck egg was a real surprise, the duck egg had a real tang.  The pork was fabulous with a striking lemon flavour, the vegetables we guessed were done with shrimp paste.  The special was a diced pork which some of us thought was similar to Asian hawker food, with chilli, lime, mayonaise (?) and egg.  The deep fried fish we thought was reminiscent of Catonese food.

The comments were: Really nice: pleasantly surprising, a good variety, but very rich: never seen mayonaise used in Filipino food (Andrew): very filling; fabulous; service really quick: really tasty:

We all came away feeling that we had eaten a style of food that was a bit different, a bit new and exciting.  We couldn't determine the exact style of the food, the closest we came to was Malay Nonya or Spanish adobo.  But maybe it was just its own distinctive style, Filipino.

The only downsides were that maybe the service was a little too quick, did they want us out early?  And maybe we had ordered too many deep fried dishes, but this probably comes from not being all that familiar with the style of food.

It was definitely put in the "to return to" category.

What did we discuss?  The usual work, politics (Rudd v Gillard), travel.

Tosung Firewood Barbeque Manuka 27 February 2013

Accompaniments

Charcoal burner and salad

Pork and prawns cooking

Chicken and beef flap

Chefs John and Andrew

More meat

Even onions and mushrooms

Present: 

all of us, Karen, Jim, Kim, Andrew, John, Ron, Megan

Wine:

Peter Lehman Layers 2010 White wine blend

Westend Bridges 1998 Shiraz

Food

We’d been to Tosung before and liked it, so thought it was time to go again.

At the Tosung BBQ you are in charge of cooking your own food at the table over charcoal burners.  These are  loaded up with red hot charcoal after we ordered our meal.  The emanating heat would be a bonus on a winter’s night, not so sure about mid Summer.

You order from the menu which has a photograph of every single dish as it looks before cooked. After ordering, trays of uncooked food arrive promptly.  There is plenty of food and it's cooked exactly as you like it, since you do the cooking. All the meat had been marinated beforehand and the flavour came through particularly in the chicken,   We ordered mainly trays of beef, pork which did give us a variety of flavours and textures, but perhaps we should have ordered a bigger variety, as the mix of beef seemed to taste the same.  They are accompanied by a salad and some small dishes of mashed potato, sauces, pickled onion and pickled cabbage.

The service was fast and efficient.  You summon the waiters with a call button: the food was tasty, and fun to cook.

The dessert menu (very important) was limited so we didn’t stay for dessert but opted for icecreams at the nearby gelateria.

Would we recommend it?  Yes, it was a fun night.  The only issue was that it would have been good if the waiters had cleared the table when we had finished as there was not much room on the table and the emply dishes contained raw meat juices.  But that is a small quibble.

Malamay February 13th 2013

Wine:

Chapel Hill.  The Chapel Verdelho Mc Laren Vale 2012
Stanton and Killeen Moodemere Red Durif 1992
Canobolas Smith Chardonay

Ron had made an executive decision to go to Malamay just because he wanted to and no-one dared to contradict him.  We were all there including Kim who had just come back from her holiday in the USA with lots of photos.  Jim and Karen's son Daniel's had also been to the US so there was heaps to talk about.

Food

Because there was a degustation and only a degustation, we had the degustation.  And because there was a choice of  6 courses with or without dessert we chose the dessert.  Plus we asked to swap one course for another, but instead they offered to give us an extra course for no extra charge.

 First up was the 3 chillied relish and bonito marinated prawns on hand made noodles, voted delicious, spectacular, a hint of wasabi with a nice chilli after taste.   Karen thought the chilli taste was a bit strong but some of us loved it: we agreed that with the noodles it was a bit filling  for the start of a seven course degustation.

 The crabmeat scallops and soft prawn cakes were certainly different, we didn't quite know what to make of it.  Some of us felt that the scallop/crabmeat mixture was a bit bland and a bit soft.  The prawn cake was almost sweet but it was needed to sop up the scallop-crabmeat.  Others thought that the dish would have been enhanced with something like a crunchy salad.  Some of us liked it, others not, we couldn't quite agree.

Next up, the white fish with burnt green chilli and black bean radish crumbs. The fish was beautifully cooked and the green chilli sauce very strong in flavour.  The "sand" on top was intruiging.  Again there was a difference of opinion on this, some of us liked the chilli flavour, others didn't.

 Tortellini of pork and prawns with garlic chives and chilli jam on top.  Very delicate, nicely presented, what we saw is what we got.  It went down without many comments and much approval but it didn't strike us as being remarkable different from what we could get at any Asian restaurant.

Green lip abalone with beef fillet and congee.
A very interesting dish, quite unique.  The beef came with a sliver of abalone and in a bed of congee with oil.  We couldn't quite work out what the tomato coloured part of the sauce was.  A tasty dish, but we found the beef was a bit too chewy, tough for fillet at least.  Some us minded this, other's didn't.

Lamb with cumin with salted chilli.  By this time of the night most of us (except Ron) were starting to feel a bit full, but this was certainly worth putting in the extra effort.  The cumin flavour wasn't that strong, but delicious altogther.

The last dish was the dessert, a chocolate charcoal with yoghurt cream, which slithered down very well, with a hint of chilli and cinamon in the chocolate.  A rich finish to a big meal.

The overall verdict?  A few of us were happy, some others not so.  Their web site claims that "The Sichuan fusion cuisine of Malamay is characterized by its heady aromas and vibrant colours, at one rich, earthy and sensual.".  Andrew said that this was a nice meal but not as outstanding as expected.  I can see what he means, because we went there with high expectations having been there before.  This didn't quite live up to those expectations and I"m not sure if we were expecting too much, or they have let their game slip a little bit and are relying on their reputation.  Or maybe not such a good night or maybe it was just the menu they are offering at the moment. 

Red Hill Tea House February 6th 2013

The Red Hill Tea House is my local Asian (doesn't every suburb have one?) and I"ve been there several times for a quick after work/end of week meal and liked it.  They've had Burmese food available for a while now, as well as Thai and Chinese and I usually like to try something from that menu.  It's always been tasty, a bit different, so suggested it to the group.  It is a bit out of the ordinary for us, because while we only go to the top end restaurants every now and then, we usually like something a bit more fancy than the "local".

Anyway, they agreed to come along.  We were all there except Kim who was still in the US, but we were plus Lara.

Jim, as per usual came out tops with the wine:
He brought Westend 3 Bridges 1998 Shiraz
and the other one was Seven Marlborough Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc

And the boys ducked out and bought a Wynn's Coonawarra Cab Shiraz Merlot 2010  from the local IGA because we had almost gone through the above two bottles (there was 6 of us drinking after all)

The entrees were Burmese beef dumplings; Burmese prawn spring rolls; deep fried scallops.
We really loved the dumplings, nice and light, delicate. The scallops were nice, though not that exciting  and a bit like just fried fish.  The prawn spring rolls came out as a prawn wrapped in spring roll paper and fried. There was a lovely coconut flavour to it.

The Angel Prawns came out in their individual serves, with a little cover over each of them.  They looked very appealing and tasty equally, very aromatic, flavours of lemon grass and lime leaves.

 The red curry fish was very different from the prawns (well, to be expected really because the prawns were from their Thai menu).  The red curry sauce was very onion based, very different from the traditional Thai red curry, quite rich, and earthy.  Andrew told us that the Burmese curry powder is closer to the Indian curry powder, than to Thai.  It was presented with a mixture of fish and potatoes which appeared to have been fried beforehand, quite delicious.

 The chicken curry with pancakes was a bit of a disappointment.  The pancakes were okay, well nice really because they were fried, but the chicken curry was basically like a soup, very liquid.  Maybe that's the way it was meant to be.

 The mixed vegetables and tofu, from the Chinese menu, were well, forgettable.  Nice, full of vegetables but not new or exciting, it was your standard Chinese stir fry veges.  Oh well, we got what we had asked for.

Chicken Curry coconut rice was delicious.  Ron in particular wanted to try the coconut rice, I don't think he was disappointed.  It wasn't quite as exciting as some of the other dishes though.

SUCH AS , the Tea Leaf Rice which I forgot to take a photo of.  This came out as a serving of rice cooked with tea leaves and smoked nuts of some kind, it had a wonderful depth with a nutty flavour.  It came with a crispy skin chicken drumstick, but difficult to share but we managed.

Some of had dessert, which didn't go much beyond deep fried ice cream, but who's complaining.

Overall, the group thought that it was well worth coming to, something nice, wonderful. Nice as a local restaurant with interesting food, a "hidden gem".  The restaurant wasn't full by any means, but there were people popping in and out for a quick bite to eat or takeaway.  The staff were very friendly, happy to help out and move tables around, although one end of the table was being blown by the air conditioner.  By choice though. 

Thai Corner, Manuka Wednesday 17 January 2013

Wine:

• A New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, of which the name escapes me but we have had it before.

• Jelka of Blewett Springs: Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon 2006

Entrée

• Chicken satay
• Thai corner Almond prawns

Mains

• Stir fried deep fried duck with fresh ginger, shallots and mushrooms
• Crispy fish with green apple salad
• Green curry chicken
• Grilled marinated squid with salad and sweet chilli
• Spicy sour paw pay salad with green beans, tomato and cruched peanuts.
• Beef with oyster sauce and vegetables
• Stir fried eggplant fresh mushrooms  chilli and basil.

We were eight this time, even without Kim who is in New York, as Daniel and Lara joined us.  We chose the Thai Corner because we hadn’t been there for some time; it was a change from Kopi Tiam and just because Ron wanted to go there.

The prawns were fantasic, delicious, lightly fried with almonds.  We were not as impressed with the chicken satay.  The marinade had not penetrated or been absorbed, there was too much tumeric, “more flavour than colour” which gave the chicken a “more feeble flavour”.

Mains: 

• The fish was perfectly fried and the salad made a crispy contrast
• The chicken was normal, mild, plain and the coconut milk had curdled.
• The eggplant was delicious, robust.
• Beef: flavour lovely, they had got it just right
• The duck was smokey, with a rich sauce.  It was not overly fried (Karen had balked at the “stir fried deep fried description but we overcame her objections thank goodness).  It was voted our favourite for the night
• The squid had a very fishy flavour, and was a bit chewy.  It needed something else to contrast the squid flavour

The desserts were very Asian, I’ve forgotten exactly what they were, black sticky rice, something custard, coconut cream, palm sugar.  Delicious.

Overall, good meal.  Service quick, noise level not too great.  A perfect place for a casual meal, not really a place to settle in for a long evening's degustation, but what the heck.

Next fortnight we are going to try Burmese, the latest fad, at the Red Hill Tea House