Per Se - New York

Per Se written by Karen with assistance from chickwithguts and Nes

When CWG asked us if we would like to go to Per Se as she had booked us for lunch online – we were thrilled to bits – it seemed a long way ahead so really we didn’t think too much about it until we got to NYC. The day we were booked for was the same day as the NY Marathon and as luck would have it the restaurant overlooked central park where the runners came across the line.

We entered the restaurant through a pleasant but ordinaryish building, the setting and the view from the windows was anything but ordinary. We were greeted with “you must be the party from Australia” and that was really the beginning of a very very delightful experience from beginning to end.

The expansive view over Central Park took over the room, it had immediate impact and the spacious round tables, high backed chairs and simple but beautifully fresh tuberoses on the table said “welcome”.

Our waiter was a diminutive young woman who asked if we would like to look at the menu and she was happy to answer any questions we might have. We were asked if we wanted still or sparkling water (I think this is an excellent sign that we were not going to get an enormous bill for water – well I hoped any way). At this time our waiter whose name is Olivia mentioned that she had noted that Nes didn’t want onions or any similar vegetable from the onion family and she was happy to accommodate any other preferences. We all felt very happy and at ease. The cutlery was the classic silver heavy but plain, the napkins were heavy damask again plain and a very generous size. Everything was crisp and white but not that just dry cleaned bleached sanitized white more the rich deep white of Irish linen.

There were 3 menus – two of the menus were $275 for 9 courses, one vegetarian and the other meat. The other menu was $175 for 5 courses and this was our choice.

The first little surprises to come out of the kitchen were gruyere cheese puffs, tiny little surprises that were light in texture delicious and beautifully presented in silver bowls. These little delights were quickly followed by small cornets which were delicate black sesame seed covered fine waffle cone with tiny creamed cheese and caviar – all engineered perfectly both in respect of the food itself and its presentation. They were hanging from little hooks from a circular silver cone. Everything was elegant, simple and playful even whimsical without the sometimes heavy fussy overtones of formal dining that can happen when silver service is involved. We were all happy to note that the friendly waiters, the easy conversation about the food and the food itself seemed effortless even though we could see clearly the precision in everything that was presented to us.

The first course we all enjoyed was granny smith apples cooked sous vide (CWG explained this as food being cryovac’d and suspended in a water bath like being poached and can be held at the correct temperature bringing out the most exact taste of the food being cooked). Well the tiny balls ball bearing sized balls of granny smith were exceptionally ‘smithy’ tart with a tiny hint of lime. They were sitting in miso butter which had a velvety texture with the tiniest piece of the brightest green water cress looking like a lucky four leaf clover atop! The dish was small and looked like a small Japanese painting but it packed a very decided punch of flavour.

This dish was served simultaneously (like the old fashioned silver service) with the little porcelain lids of the bowls being removed at the same time adding drama to the dish.

The second course for CWG and I was a type of ‘toad in the hole’ which was a circular brioche with a small piece of sausage in the centre. Surrounding this little meal was a prune jus (not my favourite description but that was what it was). The lightness of the brioche was perfect foil for the sausage and how the chef came up with prunes in there I will never know, but it worked a treat. The brioche seemed to soak up the prunes but only enough to bring out the taste of the sausage.

Around this time we looked at the wine list and I decided on a champagne and asked Olivia’s opinion. She suggested one that was made in France especially for the restaurant and I very quickly agreed to having that with the next course ($34 glass and worth every cent). CWG and Nes ordered a sparkling Normandy cider which was served in champagne glass like mine and they both looked extremely pleased to be part of the ritual and looked very happy with their choice.

Also around this time a waiter brought out a large square shallow wicker basket (I noted that it was close weave and was spotless not a crumb to be seen. The basked contained rows of tiny rolls and bread pieces – we each chose different breads, I had sour dough (the starter for this bread was almost 12 months old and the taste was sour and chewy and memorable). CWG had a rye with duck fat and swooned as she ate and Nes chose a soft pretzel again, saying it was delicious. We were offered salted and unsalted pots of butter and we began an experiment where we discovered unsalted butter is excellent and had a subtle cheesey flavour but once we tried the salted butter the unsalted seem to lose its initial delight. It was at this time that we agreed the staff all had exceptional product knowledge which made for excellent conversation without an intimidating use of language which was difficult to understand or unnecessarily formal.

The first main course for all of us was turbot and we all had the same dish. Prior to eating the fish, a waiter came to the table with a very delicious looking chunk of fish showing us the meal we were about to eat prior to its carving. The fish was baked with tiny new onions, celery tops…. We all sat back in our high backed chairs with satisfied smiles happy in the knowledge that we were eating delicious food while marathon runners were moving over the finish line in central park NYC several floors below us.

The second main course for me was lamb off the rack which was a lamb chop cooked like no other lamb chop I have ever had before!

The second main course for CWG and Nes was veal cooked three ways which was 3 cuts of veal with sweet breads – both girls smiled as they saw the dish spread out before them. Each of the cuts they described was very different and they were surprised at how different each cut tasted Nes was particularly surprised that veal could be so different. CWG said the dish evoked a sense of the Sunday roast with the roasted turnip, greens and elephant garlic.

During the course of the meal we each made visits to the bathrooms which were in keeping with the restaurant surroundings. CWG managed to get lost in the toilets trying to exit through the other toilet and battled with the sensor operated tap in the wash basin to be rescued by K before she imploded in the bathroom. She agreed she was having a Mr Bean episode for what seemed like a very long time.

We were very excited about the dessert, even though we were not given a choice we were all pleased to see chocolate 3 ways. When the dish arrived it contained a rich chocolate brownie, mousse and chocolate shavings in the shape of a cigar with a hint of citrus, caramel icecream was to the side of the dish. CWG pointed out that each of the tastings were the separate elements of the chocolate brownie. We were thrilled to bits with the dessert it offered us everything we had hoped for in taste, texture, presentation and a feeling of indulgence.

Before the dessert was served we were asked if we would like coffee or tea. I chose a coffee as did CWG. Nes asked for green tea. When the coffees arrived CWG and I were bright eyed and bushy tailed to see the most delicious looking coffee ever presented before us. It was perfect consistency and ratio milk to coffee. I noticed that the coffee liquid didn’t fall about all over the place it was about 2 inches under the top of the cup and sat there all proud of itself.

We were all happy by this time to lie down and die as we really believed this was as good as it gets only to be asked after the remnants of the dessert dishes were taken away “can you go another one”. Why yes we can!. Within a short time a delicate little shallow bowl was presented to each of us with the most perfect crème brulee complete with tiny pieces of vanilla pod and toffee top we had seen. This delicious morsel was welcomed with open arms, because of the delicate and creamy subtle taste but also because it was such a sweet and generous surprise.

However, we were in for more surprises.

The waiter appeared with a silver tray covered in hand made chocolates, there were approximately six different flavours and we were invited to choose two of each! We were almost at the end of our culinary tether and we chose one each, I enjoyed a raspberry infused chocolate – not a chocolate which had raspberry helper flicked over it – no a truly rich raspberry chocolate confection the taste of which I can still imagine. CWG enjoyed a dark chocolate and pronounced it sublime and Nes chose a praline with dusted cocoa – she said it was perfect thickness of chocolate and the nut was fresh and alive. We were happy diners and both CWG and I ordered another perfect coffee ready to leave happy.

Again, the waiter appeared with a little silver container which when pressed at the side sprang out into little compartments each section containing confections again hand made at Per Se. We were astonished at the engineering feat of the elegant silver contraption as much as the delights that were inside. We asked the waiter what his preference would be if he only had the chance to have 1. He thought the salty caramel would be his choice – CWG and I went in and truly it was remarkable – it was truly salty and sweet and rich. Again, if I try not too hard I can imagine the surprise and pleasure that tiny chocolate gave.

It was a perfect day – only to get better. Olivia asked us if we would like to see the kitchen and I kid you not we looked at each other with such excitement! and got to see the cleanest most efficient happy staffed looking kitchen imaginable. THEN we were given take home bags of cake. It was a perfect day in every way.

Chick with guts would like to apologise.....

For the lack of posting!!! The Chick was wandering the mean streets of New York's lower east side (LES to those in the know) for a month eating and eating and eating some of New York's finest grub and has been in the pit of despair since coming home. Not conducive to long expressive posts about food. But to keep you in the loop I will post up a guest blog that a good mate wrote about our trip to Per Se, Thomas Keller's 3 Michelin starred restaurant in the Time Warner Centre overlooking Central Park!!!!

Lonely Stretch

Alawhatthefucka! is what I would like to call Alaturka Restaurant after last nights debacle. You know when you go to dinner somewhere you've really been interested in going to and then it all goes bad and wrong? And so it was in this case - started out well and yeah, it all kind of took a wrong turn. In the immortal words of the Triffids: I took a wrong turn off an unmarked track...I did 7 miles I couldn't find my way back...

First impressions: I walk in the door and get a little bit lost. The register and maitre d are all WAY down the back of the restaurant which is somewhat - howyousay - cavernous, so I'm left standing like a bump on a log. Luckily when I hail a waitperson she is over in a flash and I'm seated quickly. I have a look around and it looks pretty flash - iconic turkish pictures on the ceiling, pretty paintings, nice furnishings, candles on the table, a palpable hum in the air... all boding well for a good night. Service attentive, drinks come quickly - I'm feeling good! So where exactly does it start going wrong... ?

Is it churlish of me to mention the bread? First course is dips, eggplant, hummus and the turkish equivalent of tzatziki - but served with STALE turkish bread and some random lebanese bread thrown in for good measure. Passable - even I can forgive stale bread. Benefit of the doubt and all that. So we move on to the other appetiser, which is presented on a very imaginative garnish - a capsisum that's been carved to look like a crocodile! Even I am impressed by this. The meatball that comes with it - a minced lamb meatball that the menu informs me will be rolled in nuts n stuff and covered in lashings of cous cous - comes out and is very very tasty, although I can find no evidence of cus cus (SP). Tick. Moving on.

Mains arrive. Now let me tell you that the menu was quite specific in listing the components of both the dishes that we ordered - for me, mini chicken stuffed with rice, sultanas, peanuts and turkish herbs, for her, swordfish skewers with grilled potatoes and mushroom sauce with pomegranates. What came out? Hmm well.....my mini chicken was definitely not stuffed with any of the ingredients stated, it was stuffed full of greenness, which led me after the fact to suspect that perhaps it was one of those leonards mini rolled chickens. It was nicely presented though, came out with a mound of rice, a wee bit of salad, some yoghurt, oh and did I mention the wedges? Yes, you read right, WEDGES, the lesser known staple of turkish cuisine. Dining partner looked at her dinner in dismay - 3 swordfish skewers in the middle of the plate stuck into a lemon half and some scattered busyness around the plate which kind of gave the illusion of food without actually providing any - oh and yes - again with the wedges. No grilled potatoes, no mushroom sauce. Taste-wise - the chicken was ok, a bit dry, and didn't taste of sultanas, peanuts or herbs really but the swordfish skewers were pretty unlovely - if it had been my dinner I would have cried my eyes out. And the worst part was that it cost almost $30! $30 and not a side in sight!

Moving on - just let me mention here that while the service started with a bang, it's totally disintegrated by this point in the meal - the restaurant is totally packed and our table is full of old glasses and plates n shiz - so the logical thing to do is to visit the toilet. So I head down the back to find the toilet and find the ambi-pur toilet fresheners are kicking around the floor in the hallway OUTSIDE the door of the toilets. When I go inside I can't find the lock on the door, there's no toilet paper on the toilet-roll holder and I'm trying not to look at all the dust on the shelf. I have a mate who calls this kind of stuff "dirtyflash" - it's all good on the surface, but if you poke around a little you uncover all the hideousness.

By the time I come out I'm done with this place. It's inconsistent and overrated. Mama turkish lady is scowling at me everytime I walk past her. But I gird my loins to tackle dessert. Kadiyifi with icecream. It comes. It's yummy. The icecream (3 flavours) is good. The sweet turkish coffee i've ordered is FABULOUS. But nothing can bring me back from the wedges.

Look what I found! Nigel's website!

http://nigels-kneads.com/page004.html

Signatures (from a source)

And my source says: Got a tip from a kiwi builder friend of mine (Hi Duncan!) ... Signature’s Cafe in the Chinatown building. Had a quick lunch there today and it was damn good. A little Greek lady serves it up and just wants you to be happy – calls everyone darling (couldn’t really understand much else she said!). I had a skewered sausage thing – looked like some kind of native mammal poo to tell the truth – but it was delicious and meaty and garlicky, with extra garlicky-ness in the yoghurt sauce. There were also stuffed cabbage leaves and a spanakopita about the size of a truck tyre. Greek sweets too. I think my poo skewer plus salad was $8.50.

Nigel - we love you

I wrote before about Nigel and his Kneads (bread) - he is just becoming more and more prolific. His breads can now be found, albeit in limited quantities, every day at Greenies Wholefoods in the Rapid Creek Shopping Village, Parap Fine Foods on Parap Road, the Gourmet Deli on Knuckey St in town, at the Mitchell St night markets (not sure when these are on) and somewhere else... *thinking* dammit I know there's somewhere else, but my memory is failing me - oh and I hear that Martin of Martin's cafe in Coconut Grove is selling Nigel rolls to go with his soups. His rye bread really is the bomb - I brought some into work the other day and it was snapped up by my workmates - he makes a mean sourdough.. it's all really really good.
You heard it here first.

Silent Disco Imix

Just for something a little bit different.... a month ago I played at the Silent Disco at the Darwin Festival.. you can download the imixes from Itunes here:

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=333212640

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=333212641

Gourmet Traveller

not Mingy in the slightest!

Ming Court... what to say what to say. Last night as I tucked into my second straight night of Ming Court Pizza, somebody asked me if I had blogged about it, to which I thoughtfully replied in the negatory. The reason it was a thoughtful reply is that I spend a lot of time blogging about really good places or really bad places, but can forget to write about the staples that sustain us - and we regularly eat their pizza.

Ming Court Pizza has never been my favourite pizza place, there's too much in the topping department, the bases bend under the weight like nobodies business and sometimes I can't tell a Margerita from a vegetarian, but it's the closest to our house, the one with the funniest service (and possibly the most helpful if you get them on a good day) AND never in my puff have I come across a Chinese restaurant that makes pizza, which surely makes it the most unique pizza place in Darwin, if not Australia. They are pretty expensive for what they are, but they are loved far and wide, have a massive wait on weekends of up to an hour, are cherished for their wide range of pizzas that span standard aussie toppings to gourmet vegetarian (the Meditteranean with blobs of greek yoghurt), not to mention their range of Asian pizzas (never been game enough to try one but they even have a Thai-style pizza). The garlic bread is usually a bit limp but it's ok. It's all ok. It definitely deserves a mention.

Ming Court

Jingili Shops

18 Jingili Terrace

Jingili NT

Ph: 89851755

BEST BURGER

A little while ago the NT News ran a competition to see locals vote on the best burgers in town. It was narrowed down to 3 finalists and the taste test saw Melissa's Takeaway win hands down and I've been meaning to get down there ever since. So today I did. Well OH MY GOD is not all I have to say - I also have to say that it was the PERFECT burger. Soft white bun, home-made meat patty that definitely contained fresh herbs and spring onion, beetroot, fried onions, perfectly shredded lettuce (iceberg, thin), thin slices of tomato - it was the bomb.

Melissa's Takeaway
Shop 12, Westlane Arcade
Darwin NT
89422001

Bull or no bull?

Suffice to say that circumstances led me to the door of the Raging Bull Steakhouse in Parap, in the far end corner of the Parap Village Tavern (15 Parap Rd, Parap), or if you're really motivated you can check it our here: http://www.parapvillagetavern.com.au/categories/Raging-Bull-Steakhouse/

Now I've never eaten at a Steakhouse, let alone one in Darwin, the NT, or a pub, so I had no idea what to expect.... except that I figured it might be grimier, harder and involve more guns. But I had heard (word on the street and all that) that this was a good place to get a steak. Which is not something I get to eat a lot. So I pushed open the doors and found.... a bright, inviting, well lit space with polished concrete and wooden floors, highchairs, families, clean bathrooms, good service, wine, lots of Australian and imported beers and meat - lots and lots of meat. The only thing I found marginally offputting was the faint odour of smoke drifting through from the pub next door, but to be fair it was very very faint - detectable only to a nose-to-the-wind-ex-smoking-nazi (me).

To dinner: well they have a big, well set out menu focussing on meat, but providing seafood, vegetarian and kids choices and there are also daily specials (check that link for massive schnitzel nite, massive steak nite etc etc - salads and greenery of any kind are definitely an afterthought). My dining partner (podner) and I ordered some calamari as an entree and it took ages to come out. It was ok, a generous serve, tender (if a bit floury) but passable. Mains saw me asking for some guidance from the staff and they recommended ribs (ribs! how .. how... meaty!!) with a smoked sauce, mash and salad and my podner ordered steak. Steak steak steak. He was very happy with it, it came exactly as he'd ordered it (rare) with a little rare flag on the top, HUGE, with mash. I didn't love mine, although I felt the romance of being at one with the wild west with my ribs - they fell from the bone, tasted ok, but my tummy definitely paid the price for it all later! Mash was very creamy but untasty and the salad was fresh with a little mustard vinaigrette that I didn't mind. Dessert was pretty uninspiring - choc mousse slice with icecream and cream - it wasn't hideous and if I hadn't thought to put my spoon down I would have absentmindedly eaten the whole thing....all in all I would probably go back in a pinch, I've had much much worse food.

I must apologise for my all over the font-ness

I’ve been sending my blogs via email and they come up in all different fonts and sizes!!!

 

So if anyone can tell me how to fix it….. !

 

 

Gourmet Traveller mention

An honourable mention – stoked!

 

---

From: Sam
Sent: Monday, 14 September 2009 2:25 PM
To: J
Subject: RE: [chickwithguts] so not Thailicious!!!!

 

Hi there – have you seen gourmet traveller? Your blog gets a mention in the restaurant guide!

 

so not Thailicious!!!!

After I dropped my sunglasses off to the optometrist today I ducked past Roast Duck and Pork 328 and came up beside Thailicious – it’s a relatively new joint that opened up in the arade about 4 months ago and it’s still open. Which is why perhaps my better judgement eluded me today. When I stopped by previously to have a look at the menu, I wasn’t convinced. It’s largely a selection of bain marie dishes, none of which look very appetising with a very limited specials menu.. why today of all days, for the LOVE OF GOD I decided to stop and eat I have no idea. Especially with the quality of food streaming out of 328!!! But I did – taken perhaps by the sign that declared “steamed chicken and rice” (say no more). Really, a dish that if done well is delectable and if done badly, really really sucks - and I’m betting you can figure out which end of the spectrum this landed. That’s right. Dry stringy chicken, tasteless watery stock, dry old cucumber – the only thing I would rate at all is the rice, which is if I had to come up with a descriptor is ….. *thinking*….pleasant. And that is now my lunch. I’d take a photo and put it up on my blog, but it might put you off yours. MMMMM rice – lucky I love you. The irony is that the woman who served me brightly tried to persuade me to attend the OTHER Thailicious on Mitchell St! Not. Bloody. Likely.

Thailicious. Don’t go there. Ever! Just head to the lunch stall at the very very end of the arcade where the thousands of other (not foolish foolish me) people are.

A town called Alice...ooo oooo oo yeah

A week in Alice saw me eating out a LOT!

Bar Doppios – I’d heard a lot about Bar Doppios, decent coffee, lots of lesbians etc etc so it was a must go to for me. And while I didn’t find lesbians, I did find a cool, hippy, warm place tucked down an alleyway with decent coffee that certainly made my time in Alice more bearable. I got adventurous (never a good idea in a small country town) and ordered a tofu burger on my first visit there which took forever to come out and was pretty ordinary when it did. The latte I had was great though. On another visit I tried a soy latte which was also great (and cheap).

Casa Nostra – I had heard from the sissy who had just returned from Alice and from Director Chick’s ma who lived in Alice for many years, that the Casa Nostra vanilla slice is so popular in Alice that you have to order it in advance! Of course I did – and it was yum. Fresh custardy centre, a thick layer of creaminess, icing sugar sprinkled on the top; yes I can see why people would order it. In a place like Perth or Melbourne there would be a hundred other choices, but here in Alice, it’s kind of like the Manolis of Alice. Later I heard from a co-worker that the ambos in Alice had told her that it’s the leading place for calls about food poisoning! But I thought it was fine. Can’t be too woosy about these things. Oh I also tucked into some takeaway Gamberi pasta w prawns which were surprisingly tasty.

Red Ochre Grill. Well it wasn’t as shit as the Walkabout Hotel in Gove, but pretty unappetising nonetheless!!! Scary cooked breakfast of bain marie eggs, baked beans, tomato….I stuck to the pretty harmless side of things…. Got my coffee from Bar Doppios…. For a place that’s selling itself as a decent hotel restaurant…… well it’s not that good.

Teashrine. OMG I loved it here!!! It was delish. Hot, flaky Roti cannai with vege curry. Delicate and delicious…bought some beautiful teas home to the family – it was packed full of locals and that’s always a good sign.

Thai place in the same alley as Bar Doppios – really nice, fresh, cheap Thai food. Take your book, settle in with some water (living it large I was) and have some sticky rice for dessert :-)

Hanuman – I love Hanuman normally, but the service was for shit.

the great chicken rice challenge

Sam 1 and Sam 2 were chatting to me one day and we got onto the topic of all things chicken rice in Darwin. This was inspired by my visit to Singapore at Christmas where I became OBSESSED with chicken rice: the cheapest, the yummiest, the most authentic, the biggest serves… and then I came back to Darwin. With a thud. But figuring that Darwin has a massive Asian population, there MUST be chicken rice. But where? Thus the great chicken rice challenge was begat. Admittedly, we started it after Christmas this year, and it’s now July *sheepishly*. I would like to offer up this excuse: I was so scarred by one of our chicken rice experiences that I couldn’t write about it, plus I ate chicken rice 3 times in one week and after that it was all over – no more chicken rice for CWG *gag*

We ate our first chicken rice at the Waterfall Café (Saturday and Sunday only). Mine was singularly unappetising, the chicken a greyish colour, but everyone else was pretty happy with theirs. They serve up their chicken rice with BBQ pork, but again, mine for some reason was very random, the pork all cut against the grain looking very weird. There was also a very unpleasant tasting soup. The spice mix served up is lovely; the rice nice, and it was mixed opinions all round. But they clearly have a faithful following as the times that I have been there it has been full of locals chowing down on chicken rice!

Later that week was a chicken rice experience in town, Asian Pot I think it was called, in an arcade off Smith St and it was foul! No pun intended. The chicken had been deep fried I suspect, to expedite the process and it really doesn’t do anything for the chicken. Even remembering it makes me sweat. I liked the soup; the rice was dull, and all round it was pretty shite.

Then there was Roast Pork and Duck 328 – always a winner. Chicken plump, pillowy, chunky, slices of fresh cucumber served with chicken and sweet corn soup (admittedly this is breaking from tradition but it’s sooo good), spice mix delicious, steaming jasmine rice … to say that this place has a faithful following would be to misrepresent what happens in this arcade every lunchtime – it’s almost religious the way people queue up. Service is always quick and efficient and it’s also excellent value for money. So 3 for 3 and the clear winner is Roast Pork and Duck 328 – but wait, there’s more….. or is there?

Zushi

BarZushi in Casuarina Shopping Centre is one of 3, yes 3 places in Darwin where you can get decent sushi. I'm pretty much avoidant of anywhere but Go Sushi Train in town, but when you you're far far away on a shopping jag and you need a sushi fix (cos it's either that or the shitty food court) then BarZushi is an acceptable substitute. I'm not a massive fan of the layout of the place because the train annoys me, it's hard to get a seat if you don't sit right in front of it, tables are a superfluous afterthought, it's usually packed and noisy and all the stuff in the fridge looks like it was made really really early in the morning and is still sitting there at 2pm which is usually when I get around to visiting... so imagine my joy when I spyed a new BarZushi joint near the Coffee Club in Casuarina! (Near Colorado)! *dancing

Yesterday after taking one of the squidgy didges to the movies (Ice Age 3 - enough intertextual references to keep a grownup happy), we headed there. No train, heaps of seats, heaps of tables, hardly anyone there, yay! The menu was a scaled down version of the other BarZushi joint and I kept my expectations low, but surprisingly everything that came out of the kitchen was awesome - this included some inside out beef contraption where the beef featured as the nori, plain avacado sushi (simple, fresh, perfect) and miso soup (lots of bean curd and spring onion). YUM! Oh and fresh San Pellegrino to wash it all down in really tall glasses with lots of ice. Yeah.

SSSSSSaffron

The other afternoon I had the luxury of an afternoon sleep and when I woke up, I couldn't get the Morroccan Soup Bar out of my head *see last post. So I lay there for ages yearning for MSB takeaway for dinner that night.. which led me to dark thoughts about Darwin's shitty takeaway options. THEN I thought that, actually, you know, I've become complacent. Goddammit. We regularly get TA from about 5 places - all pretty ordinary. Why not get something GOOD I thought, strike out on a limb. And Saffron popped into my head.

Now I've only been there once and from what I remember the service was weird, they tried to rope us into a banquet that none of us wanted, no-one knew where to get cutlery, crockery or water and we all got jack of it pretty quick and then never went back. BUT from memory the food was really good. This being a classic case of cutting ones nose off to spite ones face, I decided that Saffron was the TA option I had been denying myself. And you know what? It was really really really really nice! I could go even go WAAY out on a limb and say that it was as good as HANUMAN!!! (crazy I know). Have I mentioned that it's Indian food?

We started off with small ordering intentions, but by the time the sissy and I had finished with the menu we had ordered 90 bucks worth of stuff including saffron rice, steamed rice, some very yummy very deliciously charred sweet breads - one was a garlic naan and the other was a onion and cheese bread that was soooooooooooooooo good - tender sweet, really tasty....we got butter chicken (average - oh maybe that's unfair, I'm not a huge fan, so I'm probably not the best judge), a green dhal that i LOVED, and a paneer dish with peas for the vego girlfriend - my only criticism of it would be that they were all a bit sloppy - a lot of liquid and perhaps not huge amounts of other content and paying what we did, I would expect there to be CHUNKS of THINGS dammit - especially when it's peas and cheese!!! The other massive bonus for kid bearing folk is that they offer a kids menu, which looked so yummy I would have been quite happy to eat off it :-)))))) baby vego spring rolls, baby vego curry puffs, breads, chicken with coloured rice - yum!

Ok so Saffrron is out the back of the Parap Markets - near the alleyway that contains 24 hour Art. This is so slack but you might have to look it up on the net - incidentally you can see all their menus and contacts on the internet, which is pretty handy.

melbourne

What to say - I LOVE MELBOURNE FOOD!!!!!!

Such good food - such good coffee. The standouts:

The Moroccan Soup Bar - situated in North Fitzroy, when a friend suggested it, I had to get on-line to check reviews. I was a bit cynical I admit about a place that had soup in the title, even though I love soup. What I found on the internet were unequivocal raves about the place, which it totally lived up to. It's hard to quantify exactly what is so appealing about this place and I tried - I took a poll with all the people I was with. The results?
The line snaking out the door, so that if you get in you feel like one of the chosen people. Really.
The spoken menu - nothing written.
The attention to personal detail - food intolerances, allergies all catered for.
The ambience - cluttered, warm, bright inviting colours, rickety chairs so you feel like you've been invited to someone elses house.
An owner that obviously feels passionately about what she does.
The price! 20 bucks for a banquet that included 4 extremely delicious courses and was so massive that we were in danger of exploding. I had to go for a walk in the middle of it.

Atomica - Brunswick St, Fitzroy.
I'd never been to Atomica before but what I found was great coffee (their own blend), a comprehensive menu with some good sweet and some good savoury, good service despite crowding, a communal table that was great to sit at. I had some french toast with caremalised bananas and pecan crunchiness that was the bomb.

Marios - Brunswick St, Fitzroy.
I always go to Marios to feel like a local. They've been there forever, the food is always consistent (not fantastically innovative or anything, but nice), the coffee is lovely, the service is soooo quick and I love the gruff waiters in their ties, waistcoats and aprons, they do breakfast all day and you can bet your bippy you'll run into someone vaguely famous there. Not Tomkat sadly, but still, Spicks and Specks is pretty good.

Babka - Brunswick St, Fitzroy. Are we detecting a theme here?
Oh. My. God. What can I say about Babka that hasn't already been said? The BEST croissants, baked yummy things ever. The smell. The warmth. There's always a queue to buy baked stuff or to get a table. Locals come prepared with a paper and take up a posi against the wall until they get a seat. I got up super early (for me)(on Saturday) and headed down to share a table with a complete stranger and it was soooo worth it as I tucked into my citrussy blintz filled with cottage cheese. YUm!

Cafe Bedda - High St in Northcote.
So good! Italian never tasted so fresh and clean.
Starters: Warm olives, (yuk I thought, but promptly changed my mind when I ate them), eggplant fritters, pork and fennel sausages - yum!
Mains: I had some soft pillowy gnocchi in tomato sugo with scattered basil leaves - so simple. Awesome.
Great desserts: a twice baked chocolate souffle that looked like heaven!!! I had cannoli and coffee and felt all italian.

melbourne baby!!!!!

Off to Melbourne tonight - expect breakfast/coffee/food blogging from around
Melbourne on my return :-))))

we gove there

No we didn't, we flew there, but i had to slip that into my header somehow!!! hmmm.... songs for nhulunbuy....on the wings of a gove.... i'm not in gove...
and i gove her

I've just been to Nhulunbuy.

Ate at the Walkabout Lodge restaurant two nites running - it was really nothing special. The first nite I had chicken with wasabi butter on a thai salad. Even though the chicken was pretty nice, there was nil evidence of wasabi and the thai salad seemed to consist of mostly western salady type things. Second nite I had pesto encrusted lamb with market vegetables, which i think should translate to vaguely pesto-ey tasting lamb with a lot of fat but cooked very nicely, with some yucky old veges i bought down the local Woolies and didn't bother to cook very well (am i sounding negatory yet?). Had coffee (twice) at Munch'n'Crunch. Hard to trust a cafe with that many apostrophes in its name *frowning* Nothing to report there either apart from lots of preparation and elaborate pouring-milk-off-the-back-of-a-spoon type business. Had a coffee at the three C's cafe, which would be my pick of the bunch.

Gove - I gove in.

let's groove tonight

Friday nite was a big night out for us ... yes.... woohoo.. get down.. wait for it.. we went to the Groove Cafe! For dinner!

Those of you in the know will know that over the dry season the Groove (out the back of the Nightcliff shops in Nightcliff) is open for occasional Friday and Saturday nite shennanigans - Off the Page poetry and spoken word events, dances, bands, solo guitar performers etc etc. When I came to Darwin I described the Groove as being like a lesbian nite in the 80's LOLOL. ALSO, its pretty close to the kids playground at the shops - so if you get a strategically placed table - or just place one strategically like we did, you can watch your munchkins wearing themselves out while you eat. Anyway I get a bit excited about going which is pretty sad I know. So off we went.

The Groove is pretty casual, a little hole in the wall cafe where you order, a fridge full of drinks you can buy or just help yourself to water - in front is a fridge with a selection of salads and baked pastry and quichey type things and outside is a massive open air but undercover dining area under a huge awning. The dinner menu for these nites consisting mainly of pizzas and burgers - none of which are fantastic, all of which are part of the charm of the place. That and seeing the chef meander round the corner in his stained apron with a handful of salad greens he had obviously just picked up from the 5 Star Supermarket!!! The real bonus is that its licensed, so you can get a beer or a wine while you eat. And they have decent coffee too (fairtrade), good chai and yummy smoothies. Also the lunch stuff there is very very good and whilst I have never been the recipient of a good breakfast there, loads of people go there regular like, so there must be something keeping them coming back!!!

So to the picture (not the one of the cafe) - the picture i've posted is NOT of anything we ate at the Groove because it was dark by the time it arrived, and not worth photographing really - it's of some VERY hot, yummy crispy chips that we got from Nightcliff Fish and Chips to tide the kids over - a variable fishnchippery that somtimes just hits the right spot.

Groove Cafe, 4/35 Progress Drive, Nightcliff
Nightcliff Fish and Chips - same shops, different corner

wouldn't you think if your name was "Just Coffee" that you'd do it well??!!!!

evidently not!!!

Just Coffee - Nightcliff markets. Just don't do it.

Martin's

I always enjoy stopping in at Martin's Cafe on my way to work, feeling like I've stolen time (I usually have), slipping round the corner near the clocktower into my carpark out the front of the hydrotherapy centre. It's always cool and quiet and vaguely hippy-feeling...Martin is always beavering away alone trying desperately to get everything ready before the rush.. I love the neatly stacked piles of dhal and rice, bali curry, beetroot curry in the fridge. This morning I stopped to grab one of his vegan salads. I can't remember if I've ever talked about them before but they're a wicked option if you're looking for a healthy lunch. Big chunks of roasted veges (carrot, pumpkin, beetroot), crunchy red capsicum, green olives, hummus, kidney beans, sunflower seeds and lettuce - lots and lots of lettuce, which I'm not so much a fan of cos I reckon it's one of those fluff items that canny retailers use to bulk out salads to make them seem like you're getting a lot when you're not. And occasionally - just occasionally, if you come too late in the week, the lettuce in these salads can be little, how you say, BROWnish around the edges. Martin usually makes them fresh on Monday mornings so they're ready by lunch time, so I reckon getting one on Monday or Tuesday would be your best bet.

Martin's Cafe, Coconut Grove

Cawfee - next day

Coffeenut

I've been bagging out Coffeenut ever since it first opened. Fair? Definitely not. Never had a coffee there ever. Completely unreasonable. Stopped in there the other morning to try a short black with a mate and it was gooooood!!!!Admittedly the boy on the machine had to ask how long she wanted it, but at least he asked. It was black. It was tasty. It had golden crema. Even though that word *crema* makes me feel sick, even i know it's one of the hallmarks of good coffee.

Coffeenut (all they do is coffee) - open in the mornings in Smith St, Darwin (next to Manoli's)

Cawfee

Jays Coffee - Take 2.

I really like the fact that after my fish and chips (they must be good for you, the Health Minister was lurking in Finnegans kitchen with a beer) I could stroll over, get a coffee from Jay's and take it out on the jetty. How cool is that!!!

First impression - he looks STRESSED. Of course this may be because, coffee wanker that I am, I'm (after asking of course) SNIFFING his single origin coffees. *shrugging* Anyway I end up opting for a very delicious smelling Brazilian Coffee, but disappointingly, it tastes weak - good but weak. One of my friends tastes it, if anything a bigger coffee wanker than I am - and pronounces her theories:

1) the beans have been slightly over-roasted and that's why the flavour doesn't have as much depth as it should

2) the cup is too big and therefore the ratio of milk to coffee is too high

And promptly dumps her short black (also Brazilian and very tasty, if a tad long) into my latte and LO! the coffee is perfect. Problem solved.

My advice? Go for a small coffee. It's only $3 bucks.

Spread the word ....

a tip from a source:

Sari Rasa is now open for dinner from Tuesday to Saturday nights: more or less the same yummy bain marie gear* as they serve at lunchtime, cheap as chips, BYO.

Tell all your friends – there was hardly anyone there last night, which is almost criminal.

*There was a prawn and potato dish I hadn't seen before.

hark! THE GOOD BREAD HATH COMETH!!!!

How long have I been saying ad infinitum (and ad nauseum my loved ones would say) that Darwin NEEDS GOOD BREAD?!

Well it's here. Nigel is a German baker and he is turning out a range of organic breads that just beg to be eaten. Dark, chewy Rye, Baguettes and organic Sourdoughs - they are just GORGEOUS. You can find his breads at Greenies (Shop 12, Rapid Creek Shopping Centre) and at Parap Fine Foods (40 Parap Rd, Parap). Fresh on Tuesdays and Fridays @ Parap and fresh on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday? (I made up Sunday, it just seems logical cos thats when the Rapid Creek Markets are on). Yeah!

FULL BALL!!!!!!! Glenti or bust (and I nearly did)

Went(i) to Glenti this weekend! LOLOL For those of you that don't know, every year Darwin's Greek community has a massive Glenti festival down on the Esplanade in town. I realised that I've been in Darwin for over 3 years now (eek!) and I'd never been, so I talked Director Chick into coming downwith me. Shit was it FULL. ON. People swarming everywhere. Masses of greek specialites on sale, loads of calamari, souvlaki's, honey puffs - even a dessert tent. To be completely frank about it, I wasn't paying as much attention as a food blogger should cos I was so overwhelmed I ran in to get food for everyone and then ran out and retired to a shady tree to have a picnic away from the fray!! By the time I had eaten 5 little rice and mince filled vine leaves, some delicious and very special pork sausages from Crete containing bits of onion and herbs, loadsa dip, some chips (curious), calamari and about 8 of those honey puffs, I was fit to burst! And yet, foolishly, I persuaded Director Chick to come with me on an adventure to check out Jay's Coffee Van..... *flourish*

Jay is an obvious coffee afficianado who has set himself up in a cool little position down on the lefthand side of the Nightcliff Jetty. After hearing about him 3 times in one weekend, I persuaded DC to head over there on the way home from Glenti to get a coffee to share (sample the goods) and to check out his set-up. There he was, surrounded by old folk sitting on foldup chairs enjoying the sunset, struggling with a line of small children clamouring for icecream and trying to make coffees on his little coffee machine. The set up consists of a trailer containing said machine, a Logastro icecream freezer, a little fridge selling cool drinks and water, sink, stereo etc. I also noticed that he offers 6 different types of coffee (I'll have a better look next time) which from recollection were offered as a single origin coffee. He also sells bags of freshly ground coffee. His permit says that he is able to operate on weekends and public holidays from 6am - 8pm, but the covert intelligence I've been able to gather tells me that he is most likely to be found at the Jetty around the 2pmish mark, Friday to Sunday and public holidays.

So - the coffee. Well for all the hype it wasn't a bad coffee - it was much better than the swill that Box Jellyfish are offering in their similar operation located at the Nightcliff Swimming Pool carpark on weekend mornings. Creamy and hot - and cheap! $3 for a small and $3.50 for a medium - 50c for extra shots or soy milk. It tasted okay, but in my limited knowledge of coffee, I would say it lacked a depth of flavour - it sure didn't make me go WOW! What's that coffee! I MUST buy some! But nice enough for the foreshore. My only criticism would be the size of the coffee machine - he was really only able to comfortably make one coffee at a time and what with the icecreams and the soft drinks and the taking of orders and money you really need to have two people on board making it all happen.

Anyway - good to see another small operator and coffee freak creating another option around town!!

Jay's Coffee

Left-hand side of Nightcliff Jetty

Weekends from Friday to Sunday from 2ish - 8ish

Bahn Me?

It was a tough day at our place yesterday and it only allowed for a quick trip to the Nightcliff Markets - luckily though, the sissy went back later on a food run and picked up a Bahn Mi for .. me! From that stall - the one with the best pork sausage ever - comes the Bahn Mi - one of THOSE pork sausages, tucked into a crispy Vietnamese roll, lots of coriander, chilli, cucumber and carroty bits.. the sauce (what is it!!) oozes into the roll.. yum yum yum. I could eat 3. *burp*

i've been called a slacker before y'know!!!

It's been brought to my attention that chickwithguts has been VERY slack lately. it's not like i didn't know that, its that ive been working really really hard at work (not slacking off) so have slacked off in the area that previously i wasn't so.. well... slack in! Plus my phone died which meant that my super dooper photos suffered cos i had to go back to my old phone.. anyway none of this means that i haven't been thinking of food, obsessing about food, EATING food (altho this has suffered too from recent tummy bug action, which has just meant a lot of miso) and taking photos of food, it just means that none of it has made it's way onto my blog...

Anyway.

A round up of the past month. I went to Perth. Had some GREAT food there. My standout would have to be Divido in Mount Hawthorne http://www.divido.com.au/index.htm Check out the dinner menu and you will find the thing, the dessert, the ONE if you will - my new grrlfriend, Croatian Doughnuts with almond and vanilla custard and summer berries - although on the nite I had it, it was served with roasted rhubarb!!!!! Words cannot express how i loved this dish - it had everything i love in a dessert - it was comfort food with great flavour and flair ... it was divine..it was divino! Sadly I was too taken with my new love to take any photos of her....Croatian Doughnuts - will you marry me?

Old Bud (OB) and i checked out Voyage Kitchen and Deli at 128 West Coast Drive cos a friend had said it had great coffee - the brekky menu looked good and it was PACKED - old bud and i got take away coffee and lunch and sat in the sand on the beach opposite - so it could have been the general ambience of gorgeous sunny perth day on white sandy beach with sea lapping at stuff, but the coffee WAS rich and yummy and my ham and cheese panini (which i swore off years ago cos perth got completely panini obsessed and i decided that panini was the foccacia of the 00's) did seem to be particularly tasty.

Went to Cimbalino in Dalkeith too - last time i couldnt taste anything, this time i could taste too much! the coffee always rocks here, but the bircher muesli was too sweet for me and the croissant i ordered came out cold, not warm and flaky - i was only consoled by OB, who told me in no uncertain terms that in Paris croissants did not arrive all flaky and warm...? Still not convinced by that, but it worked for me at the time.

I had two brekkys at Sayers at Shop 1, 224 Carr Place Leederville (swapping my old haunts for new this trip). OH. MY. GOD. So good!!!! I went to Sayers when it first opened, drawn by the tenuous link to Tarts in Northbridge. I was unimpressed by the froufrou cushions, the massive gilt mirror on the wall and the businessy clientele - but this time.. well maybe i've just chilled the fuck out. It's 2 years on and the mirror is still there, so are the cushions, but the music was good, the ppl a mix of business types...hipsters and well...us! The first brekky i opted for some savoury bizness - poached eggs, home made beans, rocket and parmesan, potato cake - again, my words fail me.. it was all just so and tasted amazing. The second brekky i opted for sweetness and being partial to a pancake, i ordered the ricotta pancakes with strawberry compote, double cream and maple syrup. well. pancakes - light, fluffy, just a HINT of ricotta oozing from the centre, fresh strawberries, dusted in icing sugar. And MAjor brownie points for all the rest of the things on the plate coming in little individual pots so that you can mix and match everything until its just how you like it. PLUS the woman who took our order recognised us from another cafe we used to hang out at all the time and was very enthusiastic about it, which stroked my pathetic ego. Only drawback - the coffee. Looks promising, not unpleasant, but fails to really drive it all home. Nevertheless, double thumbs up to Sayers.

My last night in town i went to Jessies Curry Kitchen, which has had a number of really flattering writeups including respected Perth blogger Abstract Gourmet and the Beaufort St Bloggers:

http://abstractgourmet.com/2009/04/jessies-curry-kitchen/

http://www.eatingwa.com.au/articles/186/

In fact these were what led me there - that and the fact that when OB and i went on a reconnaissance mission to check it out, Jessie told us that she cooks fresh every day. Twice. Frankly, this shows the kind of foolhardy dedication to quality food that will suck me in every time, so we invited everyone down for a goodbye Jay, hello Jessie dinner. All that needs to be said is in the two links above really. Cheap as chips (cost $130 for 9 of us), yummy, good sized portions, personable service (Jessie's partner Jeya runs the floor), the best Teh Tarik i've had since Singapore (hurrah! Jeya told me you have to use Boh tea ONLY and he lugs it in from Malaysia packed into a suitcase LOL). Check it out.

http://www.ozeating.com.au/restaurants/dim-sim-cafe/

Last but not least, I had yum cha twice. Now you'd be hard pressed to find better dim sum than at Darwin's Tasty House, but in Perth the benchmark used to be Hoi's Kitchen (RIP). When i was informed that the chef from Hoi's was now at a new place, Dim Sim House on William St in Northbridge I had to check it out. The cafe is a new style cafe rather than an old school dim sum house, but the food rocked. And the SQUID! It brought a tear to my eye. Service was great. And they serve shanghai dumplings which made OB and Tables very happy. Ate a variety of dim summy type stuff and it was all delicious. So if you like it - get on and eat it.

ok nuf from me now.

:-)))

Manoli's (again), happy greek easter, the best bbq pork sausage EVER and thailicious!!!!!

In case my pics come up all skewiff, they're of the Thai Food Fair here in Darwin. One day i'm gonna figure out the photo thing with this blog!!!!

Things have been a little slack at chickwithguts lately - the sissy has arrived from Perth and has been settling in, plus a bit of generalised anxiety and a mother-in-law visit have all been taking up a bit of time and space in my head. If i was a different person i would be furiously blogging away regardless, but i'm not, i disappear up my own ass. So i'll do a quick catch up instead:

Took the sissy to Manoli's for lunch last week, our first lunch visit - lunch very different to dinner. Some offerings on the menu that don't appear on the dinner menu - a home-made moussaka, spanakopita, all served up with a bit of uninspiring greek salad on the side. I don't know whether it was the lunch time ambience, my head, or WHAT, but it lacked the usual Manoli's magic. But then everything has lacked magic for me lately, so I won't hold it against them.

This weekend was Greek Easter, so we decided to do a bit of a greek-themed dinner party on Saturday night - everyone got very inspired, Hungry whipped up a very spinachy spinach and ricotta pie, the sissy a bit of her own made-up-recipe Tzatziki, I made a Horitiaki salad and the Dessert Doc made a greek rice pudding with some little citrussy orange shavings that rocked my world .... then we sat outside in the tropical humidity clutching our stomachs, pouring with sweat, so very very far from the Greek islands... MMM!

Sunday I took the sissy and the wee grrl to the Nightcliff Markets. I know I've talked before about a vietnamese stall there that does a lemongrass fish salad which is fresh and minty and perfect for Darwin.. well I was standing in line waiting to order it when the woman next to me ordered the BBQ pork sausage salad. An odd combo you might think, but this stall does the best BBQ pork sausages. Simple rice paper rolls are elevated to new heights when you stick one of these babies inside. So I decided to branch out. Try something new. Create a new neural pathway. God it was good. SO good. Fresh. Cool. Minty. The sausage sliced into big rounds of porky goodness, nestled into the rice noodles. Meaty, but not unpleasantly so, and very very tasty. I have absolutely NO regrets about this decision, the sissy was so taken by it she had to get one too.

Later Sunday afternoon we joined all the other adventurous Darwin locals looking for a bit of Thai and Laos food fair action. These food fair fundraisers are held a couple of times a year at a civic hall in Malak (?) and they are sweaty stinking hot affairs where you can get Thai and Laotion specialties that you wouldn't find anywhere outside well, say, Thailand or Laos. There are always safe options like Pad Thai for sale, or things sitting in Bain Maries (yuk) - but the more adventurous souls cruise around sampling the real deal - like the steamed prawn and chive dumplings ... the fried chilli mussels... fish maws... the fish soup so hot that when i ate it my lips swelled up like i'd done a quick round with the botox doctor... yup. If you are ever in Darwin and see that one of these is on, you need to get down. The sissy and I spent a minimal amount of money for great food and then perched on the wall with what looked like the whole Asian population of Darwin and tucked in. Good stuff.

i really should be famous for my shitty photos by now

A Precis.

Istanbul cafe - eagerly anticipated (not by me, I reckon this AusTurk stuff is way overrated), newly opened, turkish music wafting forth, iron tables under the shade in the park outside the cafe in the stinking hot Darwin weather, they offer pide, meaty extravaganza's, kebabs, with some homemade desserts and cakes - the usual turkish stuff you'd expect. I had felafels with rice, salad and dips = $9 (score!), in a peculiarly Australian touch they gave me chips to have with my dips instead of turkish bread cos they'd run out - I had to refuse. Felafels were of average size, yummy, crisp, but only got 3 to a serve, rice was fluffy with mystery brown grains, the salad was more pleasing than the average salad, with mint and roasted red capsicum to offset the usual greens, fresh red capsicum, lettuce, cucumber and tomato, dips - well there was some weird dip that i didn't even bother tasting (it had a yellowish tinge and contained carrot so that was enough to put me off) and a mint, garlic and yoghurt dip that was yummo and i threw all over my lunch.

An update: The sissy and I ended up at the Istanbul Cafe for a quick dinner before a movie and ordered chicken kebabs - they were really really good! About $10. Yummy. Then I cried "your most turkish dessert if you will" and ended up taking away some minty rice pudding which I devoured at the movies - in my minds eye I could see myself sitting in Istanbul with a gritty Turkish coffee and my rice pudding. Not that I tend to romanticise or anything :-))))

Istanbul Cafe - Knuckey St, Darwin.

Chicken Photos

From a reliable source from the Yum Cha restaurant in Cavanagh St in Darwin City.... having sampled the goods which were thoughtfully heated up for me and delivered straight to my office (!!!), i can say categorically that it is very like chicken rice, just without the rice, the soup and the cucumber.. so not at all like chicken rice in that sense, but taste-wise is pretty damn good. I'mgoing to take Hungry and Gourmet chick there so that we can have a go of it. At lunch the other day we tried to decide the criteria for ranking places in the great Darwin Chicken Rice Challenge - the top 10 Darwin Chicken Rice experiences. I think we decided on taste, price, speed of delivery and qualityof service. Or maybe i just made that all up and it's just whether we like it? We'll be hard pressed to even find 10 I reckon. Anyway stay posted :-))))

Saigon Star and some unexpected latte art

I was talked into going back to Vietnamese Saigon Star to sample two dishes and perhaps do a little to counteract the very emphatic thumbs down I gave them previously. The first dish was the Rice Noodle Soup (pho) with Sliced Beef which came with a very sexy side-dish of mint, bean shoots, cut red chilli and wedges of lemon, all to add to the pho (this was given the double thumbs up by Hungry and my other lunch friend who i should nickname Referral Grrl this week). I, on a whim (and on a very clear recommendation) had rice vermicelli with grilled pork - which looked SOOOOO good when it arrived that the woman sitting next to me leant over to ask what it was so that she could order it next week! Grilled pork with a bit of crumbage, sliced very finely on a bed of rice vermicelli, bean shoots, cucumber, lettuce, fresh mints (oops i meant mint dammit!), coriander, chopped peanuts... mmm mmmm it was good.

Afterwards we walked over the road to Dolce so that Hungry could get some of their very delicious chocolate gelati and the barista from Manoli's (Manoli's Greek Taverna) was there making the coffees, and i spotted a display of his latte art! You may remember i mentioned in a previous post that he had done a cat in the froth of Hungry's latte one night at Manoli's - man he is good! He does fish and dragons and all sorts of stuff. Check it out. Dolce on the corner of the Smith St mall. Oh and VSS? Yes. Give them a go. It was delicious. It may be dish-dependant, but at least you have two dishes you can be sure of. YUM!

karen's kitchen

I've been avoiding Karen's Kitchen for a while now, mostly cos it got really same same - the same boring sandwiches, the same boring salads. And my biggest gripe was that they never ever had eggs! On Tuesday, I ended up there cos Energy to Go on Mitchell St kept me waiting to be served for 5 minutes in a line with about 10 poor other fuckers and we didn't even get the common greeting of overstressed overworked lunch workers everywhere of "how you going, sorry to keep you waiting, be with you in a minute" and i fucked off. As i had promised Director Chick a sandwich, i was looking for a sandwich bar - so popped into Ks Kitchen on a whim... and LO! and BEHOLD! Fresh sandwiches! Home made lasagne! DIFFERENT SALADS (changing daily i noted)! Inviting interior (as opposed to the bare minimum being on display it looked as if there was lots and lots to eat)! Strategically placed fruit and veges for decoration! Got my sandwich (cheese, tomato and egg on multigrain that DC declared very yummy and she can be pretty fussy) and a salad for me (they had 3 or 4 housemade salads on display) - they're happy to let you have one big salad or two or 3 mixed up. The first day I had a barley salad with fresh veges and parsley and a roasted pumpkin, beetroot, fetta and spinach salad with a boiled egg. Dressing (accomodating or what) on the side. The next day I went back wondering if it had been a flash in the pan? No! Different salads, yummier again - i noticed some strategic recycling of Tuesdays salads - the barley salad had felafels added to it and some fresh parsley and more veges it seemed and the pumpkin etc salad made a reappearance with lamb koftas and couscous! Thursday ( i like to push these things) i didn't like the look of any of the house-made salads, so they were very accomodating and let me make up my own salad and when it came it was delicious. Lamb koftas for the second day running! Who said salad had to be boring!

Karen's Kitchen - next to Go Sushi Train in the mall just after the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Open for lunch. Ooh and they do catering.

Manoli's take 2

Hungry and I slipped into Manolis Saturday night after a trip to the movies to see Milk - i guess after having such an amazing first experience at Manoli's we wanted to see if it was a flash in the pan. Earlier in the week I had tried to book us in, but they were booked out! So on a tip we decided to slip in at 845 pm and ask if we could be seated near the bar, which is where we were last time. Sure enough, they were sweet and accomodating and within seconds we were whisked inside, seated and fed. Very similar to last time, but if anything the food was better!

New things we tried: Saganaki - greek cheese in a pizza sized wedge, fried and golden and deliciously bad for you... Bougatsa, a puffy golden pastry dessert filled with custard and dusted with icing sugar... more greek coffee, Hungry got a taste of extreme latte art when she was directed by the Barista to notice the image of a cat on her latte! Mama Manoli came and sat with us for half an hour.. we met Papa Manoli, chef Manoli, sisters Manoli and family friend Alex (all working at the restaurant of course). Then when we went to leave, free Baklava and Kataifi were pressed into our hands to take home. In Perth i've had this kind of experience before - i call it going thru the portal - by which i mean that speedy service, great food and nice atmosphere don't necessarily equate to a magical experience, but sometimes, just sometimes, you hit the jackpot and it feels like something magical is happening. That's Manolis.

When we left it was raining and we pressed our free desserts into the hands of some people sitting in the rain on the street - seemed only right to share the love :-) :-) :-)

Burnett house i salute you (and remove you from my hit list)

Sunday, Director Chick (DC) and I, who were fed up to the back teeth with squiddy illness in the house, received a spontaneous invitation to join DC2 and her mama for a spot of high tea at Burnett House at Myilly Point. A few weeks ago we had a bit of an altercation with Burnett House after we were unable to get into celebrate DC's 40th birthday - it's a long story - but i think a fair precis of the event would be that it was all their fault. Nevertheless and having no emotional investment in it working out in any particular way, we went. Burnett House is a lovely historical piece of the original Darwin, boasting original tropical architecture and a few bullet holes from world war 2 and has lush green tropical gardens and a slide to keep the kiddiwinks amused. Tables are set in the garden surrounding the house - free water is supplied. In the wet season people can squeeze into the main dining room inside if it rains. Luckily it was a beautifully sunny fake dry season day and the kids just got to trip around the garden until it got too late and they had a fight over a special rock and it all ended in tears...anyhoo that came later. The best thing about high tea here is that you can go and you don't have to get dressed up. And you can take the kids and let them run wild in the gardens - just keep them off the road.

We had high tea for 4 - this included lots of pots of very good tea (or you can have plunger coffee), scones jam and cream with little tropical touches - a corner of dragonfruit sitting in the cream for example - and CWA cakes (if memory serves there was a lemon tart smothered in cream that was out of this world), shortbread scrolls and savoury pastries as well as the traditional finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off - we also ordered savoury platters, which weren't that memorable - crackers, a few savoury pasry bits, some cheese, a lone piece of beef... really i just remember a lot of cheese getting very hot in the afternoon sun.

Burnett House high tea goes from 330pm - 530 or 6pm on Sundays pretty much all year round. Get there early to bags a table.

for once i have something interesting to say!!! Manoli's Greek Taverna Rocks!

Saturday nite I flipped my wig and not in a good way - so Director Chick told me to get out of the house, mingle, socialise! I suspect the subtext was 'get out of my hair dude' so I went. I was going to go to the Groove Cafe to check out the first spoken word poetry nite for 2009 and eat some of their pizza, but then Hungry called me and said do you REALLY want to go to the Groove? Gently suggesting I think that if we thought outside the square we could go somewhere
else. Anyway when I rocked up to their place (Hungry lives with her lovely partner the Dessert Doctor (DD)), we all lay around on the couch going thru the same old options... Hanuman, Vietnamese Saigon Star, the wharf, Char, Yots... we needed something that catered for the vego among us yet also gave Hungry and I some meaty options should we desire them (I was pretty sure we would). Suddenly l had an epiphany, leapt from the couch, declared we were going to Manolis, the new greek restaurant that my new friend had told me about. Not leaving any time
for argument or indecison we jumped into the car and sped into town spontaneous-like, not even taking the chance of calling them to see if they could fit us in (it was only 630 so I figured we were in with a chance). We asked whether they could take us and they very sweetly agreed to, despite being fully booked. Just a note - they've only been open a month, so to be fully booked (and it's a big restaurant) is a pretty amazing feat.

We had to squeeze around a table for 2 near the bar. Now I know that some people would prolly shit their pants at being seated near the kitchen with the swinging doors and waiters barrelling through, but personally I like the rough and tumble, so it was cool with us. Plates, napkins, cutlery all magically appeared in double quick time. Waitstaff charmed us (I was particularly smitten by the boy with the white-framed glasses - it takes a bold man to dress outside the square like that) and the menu was delivered. And to my joy, this was not at ALL like Vietnamese Saigon Star where I read and reread the menu to see if I could find just one solitary thing I wanted. This time I read and reread the menu cos there was so much! I should prolly explain, as the waitstaff did to us, that Manolis specialises in Mezedes - which is kind of like greek tapas. Lots of dishes to share. You can order them all at once or order a few and then order a few more. The menu was organised into 3 columns, one of which was almost entirely vegetarian which made DD very happy. Hungry and I were equally happy to see yummy calamari and meatiness. Also, I won't eat greek salads, I boycotted them after getting too many bad salads that feature slimy past-their-use-by-date kalamata olives, or those rubber tyre olives with no pips and squares of tasteless feta cheese. But I made an exception on this night and we ordered a variation on a greek salad and was DELIGHTED to discover FRESH, yes fresh herbs (not sure whether it was thyme or oregano) and rocket in my salad, deliciously tasty feta, chunks of imaginatively shaped cucumber and our own oil, vinegar and seasoning so we could DRESS OUR OWN SALAD!!!

What else did we order? A bowl of Greeky tasty chickpeas, the greek salad offshoot mentioned above, calamari (tender, small pieces, big plate, delicious), zouzoukakia which are greek meatballs in a red tomato salsa, 4 to a plate (of all the things this is the one i would prolly give a miss next time - there was nothing wrong with them, but there was a bit of a funny aftertaste), saganaki balls (little balls of fried cheesy crumbed heaven), fried eggplant with skordalia dip (garlic and potato) to spread over the slices - this was heaven. Heaven I tell you! Everything was served with big quartered chunks of local lemon and lime to squeeze over the food. There was a whole lot of appreciating going on at our table I can tell you! Afterwards I was craving a sweet thing, as you do, so I asked about desserts. They don't have a dessert menu as such, but I was told the milfe (pronounced mil-fAY) a greeky vanilla custard tart that they serve, is baked by the chefs mama and dropped off to the restaurant at 6- 630 before service! So I had to have a go of that. We ordered the milfe, baklava and a canaries nesty thing to share and coffees for two - Hungry got a latte and there was LATTE ART. Yes. And I got a sweet greek coffee. Previously I've not been convinced about greek coffee either, but this was delish. I found myself sitting in athens in a kafeneion sipping my greek coffee and tucking into my milfe. Really it was the best. Transformative and transportative! We patted our bellies and made our way to the counter where we paid the grand total of $94 for 3 people :-))))))

So in a word? Go. But don't tell anyone about it.

Manoli's Greek Taverna, Smith St, Darwin City. Near Throb Nightclub and Coffee
Nut.

vietnamese saigon star - 1 star :-( Is it just me?

It was pouring with rain when i set out today to get my lunch and i had a hankering for roast duck and pork 328, but i can't base my entire blog about my eating experiences there cos that would be tedious. So seeing as it was far, and the legs of my pants were soaked despite my umbrella, and i was only on the upper part of smith street, i decided to give a vietnamese restaurant a go today.

While Darwin is often described as having the best asian food outside asia because of the masses of asian families residing here, there is only one reknowned vietnamese restaurant here - Vietnam Saigon Star. I know it might be unrealistic to expect un-westernised asian food in the west, but there you go - thats what i was after - an authentic vietnamese experience. You can probably guess that wasn't what i got.... i wanted something fast and i was twirling (the phrase anyone knows me uses to describe the lightheaded crazy state i go into when my blood sugar drops and i need food FAST) which never helps my decision-making. So once the woman personning the counter established i was there to get something to take away i was handed the lunch menu. To my disappointment it wasn't that imaginative, pretty standard stuff - i dunno about you, but if a menu is interesting, things will grab my attention straight up - if i have to read it over and over again hoping to find something i missed the first time then its just not going to be good. But i was kind of in a spot - twirling, wet and needing to eat - so i resigned myself to an average eating experience.

I ended up spotting a tomato rice with diced beef on the back page of the lunch menu that in my twirling haze i thought was like the vietnamese stew you get at Annas in leederville in perth, which is rich and yummy and full of meltingly good beef and star anise - but no! Once i ordered it, i realised it said rice fried in tomato and when i tried to clarify with the woman, she mentioned tomato sauce and fried rice and i panicked not wanting any fried tomato sauce business. Then she said i could have my diced beef cubes WITH steamed rice which sounded even worse. So i did a redo. Asked for the proper menu. Cancelled the beef cubes, ordered prawn rice paper rolls for entree and beancurd and mushroom as a main off the vegetarian section of the menu.

This set me back $20 which was tooooooo much for what i got. I carried it back to my desk - i'd like to say it was with anticipation, but it was with something decidedly less than anticipation. What was it like? I ended up with 3 pork and prawn rice paper rolls - these didn't look flash but they were yummy and fresh and minty - and a bowl of very large tofu pieces, carrots and tender shitake mushrooms in a nondescript sauce - which is an odd thing to have for lunch. And an odd combination, those carrots just didn't belong there - and does anyone else have a prejudice about big round pieces of carrot? i'm not a carrot fan at the best of times - but when they're BIG and ROUND - well that's just not right. I truly believe that restaurants have a tricky time dealing with vegetarians and they throw these weird things together that just don't belong together just cos they're vegies! And there is just NO EXCUSE for not making it even a little bit memorable with a bit of coriander or basil, or SOMETHING! AND i ate it all and i'm still hungry. AND i spilt it all over my new pants which made me feel even sulkier.

So would i go back? I might. If i did, i'd order some pho and see if that made me feel like i was living in Vietnam. But I don't think it would, so i don't know that I will.

Vietnam Saigon Star
Shop 4/21 Smith and Knuckey St
Darwin Central
Ph: 89811420
Dine in/takeaway
Open for lunch and dinner

the adventures of NGO chick on the North Coast.

OMG!!! Even the badness of the baddest Darwin food makes my heart beat faster
with love than any of the trash I've been consuming in the sunny, homophobic,
racist and biggoted sea side town of Port Macquarie on the NSW mid north
coast!!!!! Toby's Estate coffee has made it all the way up here, the coffee at
the cafe that use it is pretty good, I can't remember the name cos THEY'RE NEVER
OPEN!!! So for all the good coffee (actually, the best coffee in town) they
certainly don't fit into the grand
daughter-hanging-out-with-unwell-grandmother-on-a-very-strict-routine, routine.
At times like these, we need: car parks available TICK, good coffee TICK, open
in the morning when I need them? NOTHING!!! For a town that surely sees its
share of metropolitan dwelling family members of expat-now-local retirees, Port
Macquarie really needs to pick up its act!

Last sunday night, after a long shift with Grandmother chick and Big Bro, I was
starving... Big Bro had promised a home cooked Ozi fave - lovely lamb chops,
eggs, and tomato sauce (and a few leaves of iceberg - if i was lucky -with lime
juice - Port Woolies was out of lemons!!! - and some salt that I'd nicked from
Maccas)...But we were knackered, so Big Bro offered to shout me take away! The
chops had to wait. Big Bro was happy with Kentucky Fried, but I had a hankering
for a steak sandwich with egg, MMMMmmmm mmmm just how I like it. Anyway, with my
hunger steaming out of my ears, and twirling like chickwithguts when she's
hungry, i sadly found that the local buger and kebab joint had their hot plate
off! AAAAAARRRRgggghhh! So I had some of Big Bro's hot chips and some KFC
chicken (only the skin!). Some things just don't change, 11 secret herbs and
spices? BIG FAT TICK!!!

I had an average coffee yesterday morning at the Toby's Estate joints neighbour
(PIER). I don't think it was my heart break at the Toby's Estate joint being
shut which made the coffee average, but it could have been :( I think it would
be difficult in this town for a nightclub that masquerades as a cafe by day, to
serve a decent brew... Then today I went to the ex-Starbucks Crema cos Toby's
Estate joint WAS STILL SHUT!!!! The coffee was better than PIER but not as good
as Never Open (Toby's Estate joint). And even though the name had changed, I may
as well have been at Starbucks. Cuz chick had a long black there with me, and it
looked burnt :( And there's a weird phenomenon happening down here. It's the
mug option. Everywhere I turn, I'm offered the choice of a mug or a cup for my
coffee, I feel as though I'm back home in Wollongong!!! Maybe it's due to the
demographic? I dunno, but it drives me nuts!

There's another trend gaining speed here, every cafe seems to offer piccolo
lattes, Crema even offered them in two sizes - 1/4 cup and a 3/4 cup...Speaking
of piccolo lattes, on Friday and Saturday last week, I tried Buzz cafe opposite
the Port library for my hit, its just down the road from our quaint motel -
Ocean Breeze, lovely accomodating people, running self contained motel rooms
right by the beach. I had a piccolo latte that felt a little bigger than the
piccolo's I have at home. Anyway, even though they are locally brewed beans, and
a local franchise(I think they have four cafes round town) TICK, they made the
classic take away coffee mistake - coffee too hot! NO TICK! Grandmother chick
liked it, but she's been on this Port coffee roundabout with me, and prefers
Never Open the best! I'll try them again tomorrow...

Back to today. After the coffee, we went to the local italian restarant. I
needed a gin, I knew it was going to be average, so with averageness expected, I
ordered my G&T as I always do, tall glass, loads of ice and lemon, please. An
average G&T arrived, but it went straight to my legs, which was all I really
needed, so yeah, TICK-ISH. Cuz chick had a massive childhood obesity inducing
iced choc, god it looked good :) Oh, to drink my average gin, I had to order
some food, the staff were very cool, and a hazelnut shortbread seemed to be
foodstuff enough to qualify as a food stuff for their liquor license, and that
was actually quite yummy! It was unusual as it was hazelnut flavoured, and it
had a choc dipped bottom just like those fabulous biscuits from the Alawa cake
shop in Darwin! Yum!

p.s. Big Bro cooked up that chops and eggs feed for me last night, sans lettuce,
he couldn't get it together for the greenery, and I couldn't be bothered. Port
Coles for a good ol' Ozi feed? TICK!