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.