Green Bamboo at Mawson 15 July 2020

 

Present: Jim, Karen, John, Megan, Ron, Kim.  Andrew was absent, thinking that Ballarat was a nice place to be in the winter time (go figure).

We decided to arrive early at 6pm, our new time.  Partly so that Jim can walk the dog Bella afterwards, partly to avoid Covid?  It didn't seem to make much difference for the latter, maybe the former because I'm sure they were not paying much attention to social distancing, and the number of people in the restaurant didn't seem Covid appropriate.  It seemed to be almost full at one stage, which put the pressure on the one waiter who was run off his feet, hence the 6pm start didn't really mean that the meal was that early either.

Anyway, when the food came it was very nice.

Entree was calamari which was lovely and crisp with a lemon pepper sauce which was brilliant.  Then the crab spring rolls which were light and fluffy and crisp.

The mains:

• Chicken and pepper with a bit of salad on top. Very nice sauce
• Caramelised meats with cashews, yum, yeah, good, really good.
• lemongrass pork: wow, yum
• lemongrass tofu: deep fried with a lemon pepper coating: really nice, couldn't work out how they managed to deep fry the tofu so well.
• Lamb with mint: brilliant with the mint flavour.

Desserts were the predictable deep fried banana and deep fried icecream.  All very nice.

Lovely evening all round, recommended as the go to Vietnamese in the Woden area.

Indian Affair Woden 1 July 2020

Flavours of India 1-7-20

John, Jim, Karen, Kim, Megan and Ron attended.

For entrees we had sweet potato and spinach chaat, onions and corn bhaji, pepper squid. We shared them as usual. They were all excellent. The chaat is served cold and is a special favourite. The other two dishes are served hot and provided a nice contrast.

For mains we had butter chicken, beef saag, shahikofta, coconut lamb, chanamasala, prawn balchao. Saffron rice and naan as well. We shared all the dishes again. It was noted that we neglected to order any other vegetables. The saag had to do, with the spinach in it. All the dishes were very nice, with the butter chicken the favourite.

Dessert was gulabjamun with Belgian chocolate mousse, almond pistakulfi, shared amongst us. Yum. A fitting conclusion to the meal.

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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