Wild Duck Kingston 17 June 2020

Wild Duck Kingston 17-6-2020

Jim, John, Karen, Kim and Ron attended.

We decided that it was too hard to share dishes between all of us, so we ordered our own meals.

Entrees were Lotus Root and Pork Parcels, Basil Chilli Squid x 2, Peking Duck, Salmon Tataki.

Mains were Typhoon Shelter Ocean Trout x2, Peppercorn Angus Cubes, Wild Mushroom Duck Breast, Grandma Sticky Lamb Ribs. Szechuan Green Bean was shared between us to add some greenery to our meals.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed their respective entree and main course. All of them were beautifully presented and tasted as wonderful as they looked.

Desserts were specially made up for us on request. Since we were celebrating two birthdays, the restaurant kindly brought out two of the desserts with a candle on top. One of us had Hakubai Sticky Rice with a special extra scoop of Honey Peppercorn Szechuan Ice Cream. A great combination – the peppercorn ice cream was amazing. Another dessert was Creme Brulee, which normally includes a scoop of the peppercorn ice cream. Also excellent. The other dessert was Five Texture Mousse with Summer Berries. Deemed to be very nice, but not quite as exciting as the menu description suggested.

Overall, a really enjoyable dinner and a lovely night was had by all. The service and ambience were impeccable and the meal was right up there with the best of them.

Zoom Dinner Tuesday 14 April Beechworth Canberra San Francisco

Our third Zoom dinner: Andrew still being naughty and staying in San Fran with dog and friend

Karen and Jim had main meal was pumpkin and zucchini vegetarian lasagne matched with an Anderson (Rutherglen) 2008 Reserve Petit verdot. For dessert, we had an impossible pie (coconut, flour, eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla essence)

Megan had indo lamb curry and hot cross bun bread and butter pud.

Ron had Lamb Tibbs (prime lamb pieces, pan-fried fresh with berbere spice, onion, capsicum and tomato), rice and Injera bread from Ethiopian Down Under in Pearce. In hisusual eclectic fashion, for dessert he had a cherry pie with cream from Dobinson's at Woden

John had curried sausages and vegetables, accompanied by herbal (orange and cinnamon) herbal tea

Virtual Dinner - Canberra, Beechworth, San Francisco - 7 April 2020

Virtual Dinner No. 2.  Still in lockdown.  So who had what?

John joined us for this one hurray!  Andrew still being norty and insisting on staying in San Fran.

Megan: Slow cooked lamb cutlets in red wine sauce: Rice pudding for dessert.

Ron: Beef mussaman cury with hot cross bun for dessert.  Eclectic as always.

John had steamed vegetables and a mug of herbal tea.

Andrew had water because it was 1am in the morning.

Karen and Jim:  osso bucco and Spanish rice custard

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Virtual Dinner - Canberra, Beechworth, San Francisco - 31 March 2020

Coronavirus shutdown so we decided to have a virtual dinner courtesy of Zoom:

Who had what for dinner?

Ron - Steamed potatoes in their jackets with lots of butter and salt and pepper. Simple and one of my favourites. Anzac biscuits for dessert - another of my favourites. Ok, so I have eclectic meals when it suits me.

Megan: I had frittata with fresh tomato on the side and home made apple crumble with lots of cream for dessert

Karen and Jim:  We had slow cooked pulled pork with bbq sauce and coleslaw (comfort food at its best!) matched with a Tyrrells 2016 Verdehlo.  Dessert was a home-cooked rich chocolate, macadamia brownie with cream served with a 2012 Knappstein late harvest semillon (the sticky was even nicer than the brownie!!).

Otis Dining Hall Kingston - 11 March 2020

Only four of us this time, John, Jim, Ron, Megan.

A special meal so not much of a write up.

Positives: the food was really good. Some of us were allowed to have the 5 courses, other allowed to have the 3 courses: Jim had the accompanying wines, the rest of us didn't. The desserts were fabulous, the creme caramel very rich.  The sommelier knew his wines and gave Jim the full explanation: Ron raved about the kimchee: the sauce with the steak was fabulous: the potatoes were wonderfully crisp: the gnocchi out of this world.

The negatives:  I was not allowed to have two entrees instead of an entree and a main (go figure...): Jim's glasses of wine kept getting smaller as the meal progressed: the "greens" were just a minuscule plate of mixed lettuce ("what's wrong with that" said Ron).   Ron's quail was a bit tasteless but the kimchee with it was perfect:  Jim doesn't like pinot grigio.  There's no real a la carte, you have to choose from the banquet/degustation menu.

Otherwise the ambience was good, music appropriate and quiet and not too crowded.  We were not rushed, it was a relaxed and pleasant evening.

Propaganda at Erindale 26 February 2020

Present: Karen Kim, Andrew, Ron, John

This is a Vietnamese restaurant in the process of developing its menu and atmosphere.  We think it is trying to be a restaurant come wine bar. As soon as I walked in they turned on the loud music (not appreciated) which I then asked them to turn down, which they kind of did, but then turned up by degrees as the night progressed, despite others in the group asking them to turn it down.

We decided on their banquet menu which looked the best of their otherwise limited menu, which to be fair they said they are developing after a recent trip to Vietnam so I'd assume that it will expand in the next few months.  The banquet menu however was perfectly interesting and different for us.

We started with two types of fried spring rolls which were brilliant and authentic, particularly the lace ones.  The rice paper rolls with pork were particularly yummy.

The mains, we had mixed sprouts with beef, very fresh and healthy, the meat was a bit chewy but very nice with the lemongrass and the touch of chilli.

The egg pancake was the favourite, served with fresh salad and 2 types of vietnamese mint, difficult to eat but very healthy and tasty.

The chicken was like a casseole, not really like a standard curry, almost like a Japanese curry, very light.  It went really well with the bread roll..

The dessert was the perfect finish, it didn't seem like  icecream, frozen banana with frozen coconut icecream with peanuts and toasted coconut on top.

We liked the food and the friendly staff, but the loud music put us off  (there was only one other table there, why bother?).  I know these places that are trying to set themselves up as "bars"  seem to think they need the loud music as part of the "vibe" but when you have only two tables of basically older people wouldn't you tone it down a bit?  We won't go back there for that reason.

China Plate Kingston 12 February 2020

In attendance were Andrew, Jim, John, Kim, Megan and Ron.

Entrée was duck pancakes as usual. They included a huge piece of beautifully tender duck. Fabulous.

Mains were:

Red curry with duck
Honey pepper lamb hotpot
Wasabi fillet steak
Egg plant with spicy salt
Hot crispy fish fillet

The red curry duck was very different from what we have had elsewhere. Very savoury, no tomatoes or lychees. Nothing special.
The honey pepper lamb hotpot was brilliant. Lovely and sweet with the honey, in contrast with the heat from the pepper.
The wasabi fillet steak was great as always. The smooth heat of the wasabi and beautifully tender beef.
The egg plant with spicy salt is one of our perennial favourites. Just like chips, but so much better.
The hot crispy fish was very good.

Dessert was from a choice of one - banana fritter and ice cream. Really lovely banana in the crisp batter, chocolate topping on the ice cream. Yum. Someone forgot to take a picture first, so all we have is the empty plate.