Rubicon 24 May 2017

 

 

 

Ron's birthday restaurant pick!! 5 course degustation (included dessert) – we chose 4 mains dishes from the a la carte menu plus we each had an individual dessert of our choice.

We chose 2 "starters" and 2 "mains" Diners: John, Jim, Ron, Kim, Karen and Andrew

Starters: Roasted pork belly – delicious

Seared scallops and confit chicken - lots of flavour for bit sized portions

Mains:

Wagyu Beef Fillet with béarnaise sauce – Delicious with generous serve of béarnaise sauce.

      Duck confit, with oyster and Swiss brown mushrooms – very good

Dessert:
Spiced rum panna cotta, fig and ginger ice cream, drunken figs – very rich and creamy (Kim had this)

Chocolate tart – looked good (Jim chose this one)

Sorbet (John had the sorbet) Pedro Ximenez cheesecake, strawberries, rhubarb, citrus crumb, basil (Ron had this and so did Andrew)

Ginger and lime crème brulee – lovely and light and a nice complement to the richer mains (Karen had this one)

Accompaniments:

Complimentary shoestring fries with smoked paprika – delicious. Came at the same time as the steak and the béarnaise sauce. The béarnaise sauce was a great dipping sauce for the fries Additional comments: Complimentary amuse bouche: 1st Calamari (prior to the commencement of the meal) 2nd lemon sorbet (before dessert)

Kinh Do Macquarie 26-4-17

Jewel of India 29-3-17

Diners: John, Megan, Jim, Karen, Ron

Entrees:  Chicken Tikka and Tali Macchi, Pappadams

Mains: Prawn Curry Goanese, Dum ka Gosht (lamb), Malai Kofta Kasmiri (cottage cheese dumplings), Dal Makhni (Black Lentils), Rice, Naan, Raita

Desserts: Gulab Jaman, mango and pistachio kulfis

Our most recent Wednesday night dinner was at the Jewel of India in Manuka.  The service and food were excellent – yet another good Indian restaurant in Canberra (who knew we would have so many!) 

For entrees, we started with Chicken Tikka (boneless tandoor chicken) and Tali Macchi (Fried Perch fillets flavoured with carom seeds and black pepper).  The chicken tikka pieces were beautifully moist and charred nicely on the outside.  The fried fish was also good – perfectly cooked fish coated in a deliciously spiced batter. 

The mains were all fantastic and we couldn’t pick a favourite dish.  We all enjoyed the Goanese prawn curry whose mild lime coconut curry sauce complemented the sweet delicate prawn meat. Our only meat dish (Dum ka Gosht ) was  also divine.  Described as meat “napped” herbs and spices and simmered in a smooth gravy over a slow fire, the meat (lamb) was so tender, it just melted in our mouths. 

We ordered 2 vegetarian dishes – the Malai Kofta (Cottage cheese dumplings in a cashew nut gravy) and Dal Makhni (black lentils with tomatoes, garlic, butter and cream).  The kofta were very nice but similar to other dishes we’ve had. The black lentils were more unusual and these REALLY yummy – the butter and cream gave the dish a nice mouth feel which worked a treat with the more robust lentils. 

We were all very full with the rich food but as usual, could still fit in dessert – Ron ordered Gulab jaman (with icecream), Jim had a mango kulfi and Megan and Karen shared a pistachio kulfi – standard dishes but all done well…a great way to end the meal!

China Plate Wednesday 1 March 2017

Present:

Jim, Karen, Kim, Ron, John, Megan.  Andrew was in Ballarat.

We had:

Entree

Beijing Duck Pancakes

Rock Salt soft Crab

Main:

Eggplant with Spicey Salt

Lamb with Spicy Cumin
Fish fillet vietname style
Yuxian Shredded pork

 As soon as John and I walked into China Plate we realised that we had made a mistake that night.  There was one very large table right next to us and the noise was overwhelming (75-80 decibels) but Karen had already broken a glass so it was too late to decamp next door to Portia's, so we were stuck with it.

Not their fault I guess, but it did limit the conversation to whomever we were sitting next to.

 The food was good, as always.  The duck pancakes though were not up to usual standard.  They came out already rolled, very meaty with not enough hoisin and no spring onion.  There was much disappointed expressed around the table.

 The soft shell crab was well received but we should have ordered two servings and the one plate did not go around enough for all of us.

The mains didn't disappoint. The fish had a lovely smell of fish sauce or blachan, we couldn't agree which.  Although deep fried, it didn't taste oily it was so light and with the veges it was a lovely dish. The lamb was very crisp and tasty, maybe a bit too dry for cumin lamb, but well received none the less. The pork was brilliant and was voted the best for the night until the aubergine with spicy salt came out and disappeared quickly without a trace.  This seems to be their signature dish at China Plate and is just delicious, a fabulous way to serve aubergine, crisp and salty.

Desserts were the standard banana fritter (do they really have them in China?) and sago pudding, enjoyed by those who still had room.

Chong Co Woden 15 March 2017

 

 

 

Diners:John, Jim, Karen, Ron, Andrew and Kim

Entree:

Golden Prawns – Delicious. Piping hot fried spring roll with whole prawn (including tail) and pork mince. The pastry and the tail of the prawn were crispy (not oily).  Some decided to leave the crispy prawn tail but others ate it.

Mains:

Duck salad – Delicious.  Lovely mix of duck, chilli jam and coconut milk with fresh lime.  The salad was served in a lettuce bowl.  While the presentation of the salad in the lettuce leaf was very pretty the texture of the salad would have been improved if the lettuce was shredded and tossed through the duck salad. The duck salad was the favourite of the night.

Soft shell crab with tamarind sauce – Generous serve. The crab was well cooked but the distinctive flavour of the tamarind was lost because the sauce was too sweet.

Lamb shank massaman curry - delicious.  The curry was mild and creamy and the lamb shank was very tender and came away from the bone very easily.

BBQ fish with special garlic and pepper sauce – generous serve and fresh. Barramundi fillet, pan fried and covered in a garlic and pepper sauce.  The sauce was a bit too salty.

Cashew nut vegetable stir fry  – tasty.

Pad Siew with pork – lovely charred flavour. 

Dessert:

Pumpkin custard – the custard was an egg custard with pieces of pumpkin.  It was more salty rather than sweet (which was a bit odd for a dessert)

Banana sticky rice – good.

Accompaniments:

Steamed rice

Additional comments:

Reasonably priced

Ginseng Southern Cross 15 February 2017

The up-market Chinese-Malaysian restaurant (Ginseng) is located in the (very) Greek (Hellenic) club in Woden.  Despite this odd juxtaposition, the restaurant has one of the best yum chas in Canberra. These have become so popular that you need to book well in advance.  The restaurant on a week night is much quieter and we were keen to try its à la carte menu to see if it was as good as its yum cha. 

We started really well with our first entrée (duck pancakes – what else!).  The peking style duck was beautifully tender with crispy skin and wrapped in thin pancakes with just enough hoisin sauce to cut through the rich duck meat.  These were absolutely divine - Ron declaring (with no one disagreeing) that they were the best he’d tasted in a long time. 

Unfortunately our second entrée (5 spiced white bait) was nowhere near as good.  The whitebait was battered, deep fried and flavoured with chilli, garlic, salt and 5-spice.  The coating was a bit oily and there wasn’t near enough flavours (particular salt) to compensate. In fact, the strongest flavour was garlic which seemed to be a little bitter.  

For our mains, we ordered seafood stuffed eggplant, wasabi beef loin steak, Nark Duck, baby spinach with shitake mushrooms and King Prawns with Thai basil, chilli and lime.  Our favourite dish was the seafood stuffed eggplant. The prawn based stuffing was sandwiched between 2 wedges of eggplant and the whole parcel deep fried.  Without any batter, the skin of the eggplant was almost crispy, a lovely contrast to the silky soft eggplant flesh beneath. The seafood stuffing was very tasty and added both texture and flavour to the dish.  The light sauce brought the seafood and eggplant elements together and complemented the dish very well. 

The other main dish that most of us enjoyed was the wasabi beef loin steak. It is a dish that tends to divide us.  I don’t think any of us (apart from Kim) like wasabi on its own. However in this dish most of the heat is absorbed by the meat and rather surprisingly the residual complex wasabi flavour matches the beef really well.  It is a particularly stunning combination if the meat is very tender and the wasabi flavour isn’t too strong.

Our third dish (Nark Duck) wasn’t as good as either the beef or seafood.  According to the menu, “Nark Duck” is a Southern China country style double cooked duck. It is firstly steamed with Asian spices, then pan fried and topped with crushed soya bean gravy and then served with poached Asian vegetables.  The duck was well-cooked but the bland gravy was a poor choice. It didn’t complement the meat, masked the flavours of the Asian spices and made the green vegetables go a little soggy.  

The fourth dish (baby spinach with shitake mushrooms) was quite nice but there was too much spinach and it needed more shitake mushrooms for balance and flavour.

Our final (and least favourite) dish of the night was the King Prawns. Served as a Thai-style hot pot dish, there was none of the balance or subtlety of Thai cuisine and far too much lime completely overpowered the dish.   

There was heaps of food but Ron and Jim were still keen to try dessert which was the usual Asian fare. Ron ordered the fried banana and Jim and Megan ordered deep fried ice cream.  Both desserts were fresh and well cooked. The pick of the two desserts was the fried banana – perhaps because bananas are currently in season.  The banana flesh was really soft and contrasted nicely with the light and crispy batter coating.  The caramel sauce also added a lovely toffee element. 

Overall, serving sizes were good and we really enjoyed some of the dishes (the duck entrée, the eggplant and the beef). However at around $40 per head, the restaurant was expensive and you’d expect the quality of the dishes to be more consistent for that price.  Also as Andrew noted, most of the dishes had a shiny glazed sauce. This not only made the dishes look similar but they also had similar mouth feel. It therefore became difficult to appreciate the individual nature of each dish.  It was much like the range of dim sums at a yum cha.  I know they’re all meant to be different but somehow they always all seem to taste the same…..