Morks, New Kingston 9 April

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

Morks is now in new Kingston, that new area next to the lake teaming with new apartment blocks.   It's a bit hard to find if you are not familiar with this area.  It's on the canal, that part nearest to the Lake.  But fear not, you will be able to find it because of the noise.  Yes, it's one of those restaurants that want to drown you out with noise, goodness knows why.  Is it because they want you to leave as soon as possible so that the table is free for the next guests?  Anyway as I approached Morks I had that sinking feeling, oh another place where I will have to shout and won't be able to hear anyone.

At least that means the place was full, which means that the food is good.

Wine:  2013 Tatara Sauvingon Blanc Marlborough

Jelka Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 McLarenVale

Food:

For the entrees, we had the scallops, prawns, salad and chicken and crab claws.  The scallops were delicate, beautiful.  The texture of the pig's ear complemented the scallops perfectly.  The prawns had a lovely lime leaf spicy flavour.  The salad was quite chilli hot.  The meat was a bit indistinguishable but the rice cakes were nice. The crab balls were okay, interesting, different but not outstanding.

Of the mains, we could detect that some were straight down the line Thai, and others were a bit more imaginative, more fusion inspired.  We had the mussaman beef, tofu and vegetables and barramundi (Thai) and  pork, duck and chicken (fusion).  All were tasty, beautifully presented, best to be shared.

The desserts were delicious and rich.

Other comments (apart from the noise) were that some of the dishes were hard to divide up; some of the servings a bit on the small side; service a bit slow but overall food was delicious.

 Topics of conversation?  Oh the usual, retirement, super pensions, money, families.

Artisan, Narrabundah Shops, 12 March

 

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

 

We decided to have one of our special dinners, to mark Ron’s retirement, so Artisan was it.

And of course we had the degustation, which we always seem to do because Ron likes them.

We started off with an “amuse bouche” (I think that is the current term for them), a neat little spoon with figs and nectarines, a cute, tasty little temptation.

 The first of the degustation options was oysters, which I was the only one to take up, the others turned up their noses and chose scallops.  The oysters were brilliant, the presentation was quite spectacular, and the oysters sublime.  The others found the scallops to be “wonderful”, the waygubeef and combination of flavours was brilliant.  One comment was that the scallops were not well cooked, a bit rubbery.

The ocean trout was not fabulous, the flavours were a bit odd.  It came with air dried tomato, gin compressed cucumber and quail egg.  It didn’t quite work.
Next up were the zucchini fritters, with crisp zucchini flowers, butternut pumpkin and goat cheese with nettle sauce.  Um, not really impressive, it came into the category of  “I could have done this at home”.  The pumpkin came in tiny little dots, the goat’s cheese added something but it still needed a bit more to make it more interesting.

The pork, ie pork jowl and gruyere croquettes with coriander mayonnaise and apple slaw, were  okay.  The were very light, crumbed and with the crispy apple a great juxtaposition of flavours. 

The veal was interesting, came with sake marinated mushrooms, radish and snow pea tendrils. Interesting but a bit bland.The lamb (gremolata brushed with parsnip puree, broccolini, baby carrot and jus lie) was great, tasty, cooked perfectly, we all enjoyed it.

 The desserts (donuts and chocolate something) were sublime.

 

Overall, not really sure that this was their best night.  The menu sounded great, but some of the dishes just missed out a bit, and they didn’t quite work. While it was nice, it was more suitable for a restaurant that isn’t trying to sell itself as gourmet, top of the range.

Joe's Thai Wannissa 26 February 2014

Megan, Ron, Andrew, John, Jim, Karen

 

Wine: 

Rob Dolan True Colours 21012 Sauvignon Blanc Semillion  Yarra Valley
Wood Park 2005 Kneebones Gap Shiraz King Valley 

Food

• Money bags
• Curry puffs
• Thai larb with pork
• Chilli and basil stir fry with tofu and vegetables
• Mussam beef
• Thai style roast duck salad
• Stuffed eggplant
• Crispy calamari with 5 spice

The group, minus Andrew and Megan had been there last fortnight, and Karen thought it was so good that we should try it again with a full contingent, though Kim had to pull out at the last minute.

The money bags were very meaty, could have done with a bit more coconut.

Curry puffs, well I thought they were nice but the consensus was that they were okay, average, about right.

The eggplant was amazing, but last time it was crisper.  The duck was great, nicer than last time, though a bit chewy and not enough lime.

The larb was too chilli hot, though that didn’t stop Ron from finishing it.

The mussaman, very nice, well cooked with a lot of flavour.

Overall, we felt that we had chosen a nice range of dishes, fresh ingredients, nice quality, fresh vegetables.  AND the important thing, the ambiance was good, not too noisy, the layout and décor very much a suburban restaurant, nothing special but very pleasant and relaxing.

Conversation?  Mainly the usual, travel, jobs, retirement (Ron has retired!!) and pending retirements (to be continued).

Mr Wei's, Civic, 29 January 2014

No report yet.

Joe's Thai - Wanniassa 12 February 2014

Entree

• Fish Cakes
• Fresh Rice Paper Rolls
• Spring Rolls (Prawn)

 
Mains

• Beef Massaman Curry
• Yum Ped? (Roast Duck)
• Stuffed Eggplant
• Crispy Calamari with five Spices
• Pad Thai 

Dessert

• Banana Fritters (Caramel)

 

Wine (BYO $3 per bottle corkage)

Xanadu 2005 Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon 
 

Present: Jim, Karen, Kim, John, Ron

This restaurant is fabulous - don't be fooled by the simple name.

The service was very prompt.
Loved the Rice Paper Rolls - very moist and the (accompanying/garnish) salad was very nice and very fresh.

The chilli in the roast duck dish was hot, but the lime juice sauce was great. 

All dishes were good but the duck was tops.

The Pad Thai had fantastic flavour.
The Beef Curry was well cooked.

The Calamari is beautifully cooked.

Banana Fritters - Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!

Red Hill Tea House Wednesday 15 January

Present:

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

Red Hill Tea House is an unpretentious little restaurant which seems to cater mainly for locals and take aways.  They have a Burmese chef, so as well as the usual Chinese dishes that you find at restaurants like this, they have added Burmese and Thai food.  We’d been there before and liked it, and decided to kick off the new year there, for no reason that anyone could think of.

We had:

Angel prawns

Duck and onion puffs.

Mains:

Stir fry duck chilli and basil

Red Hill special spicy crispy fish

Pad Siew

Burmese chicken red curry

Mapo tofu with beef

Yushian lamb

Wine: Three bottles, one sparkling, one white and Fox Creek, Mclarenvale, shiraz cabernet sauvignon cabernet franc 2011.

The prawns came in cute individual ramekins with lids on, tasted as good as they looked.  The main flavour was lime leaves, delicious

The puffs were not really a winner, too much onion, couldn’t really tell it was duck.  They all disappeared though.

Of the mains, our favourite was the duck with chilli and basil.  Cooked perfectly, nice mix of chilli and basil, brilliant.

The fish was a favourite also, really excellent with a beautiful mix of chilli and lime.

The lamb was tender, with lots of veges, and the chicken curry came in third, a lighter curry, no coconut cream, fabulous.

The disappointments were the mapo and the noodles.  The mapo was bland, the beef didn’t work and it needed more dark soy.  The noodles were too sweet, just not exciting.

We had some icecreams for dessert, yum.

The overall verdict?  Great little place to eat, not for a huge night out but for a nice relaxed meal with friends.

Elk and Pea 11 December 2013

Not byo, so we had:

490 metres Cab Merlot Central Victoria 2010

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

Elk and Pea, wow.  We saw an advert for it in the food section of the Canberra Times, thought we would check it out to continue our American continent food explorations.

It’s a new, “hip” bar/restaurant/café in the middle of all the bike shops etc in Lonsdale Street.  A cute little place, with cute décor, pictures on the ceiling, peacock on the rafters etc.  A very casual place to eat, some large tables, some benches etc, which seems to be the trend these days.  It could be a bit noisy perhaps, but we were in a table in the middle, not so bad.

The food is geared to sharing, so that suited us of course.  We were warned that one main is usually big enough for two people, which definitely turned out to be the case.

We had:

• Ceviche
• Quinoa and zucchini
• Mussels
• Pork belly
• Chicken jerk
• Goat stew

This list doesn’t really do it justice, the tastes were fabulous, new, interesting.

The ceviche was a lime/mango flavoured fish on top of a corn chip, with avocado and radish.  Really really nice (not sure about the fried potato chips though).

The quinoa was light, crunchy, with cumin, corn, tomato, and some other surpising ingredients.

The mussels came with a think tomato sauce, chilli and chorizo, it was very tasty and very Italian

The pork belly was tender, sweet, no bones.  Chicken was fabulous.  It was moist and flavoursome, chargrilled plus something else done to it, we couldn’t work that out.  It was not bland like chicken can sometimes be, but had a flavour we couldn’t identify, which I thought was allspice/pimento and which turned out to be one of a number of spices.

The goat, ho hum, a bit bland and nothing really.

Desserts?  Well Ron and I had the donut, very wicked and absolutely yummy.  Jim had the chocolate mousse thingey which tasted lovely but looked unfortunate.  Much hilarity ensued regarding its appearance.