Kaga #580

Next up is a Japanese Restaurant which is great as I love Japanese and Glenhuntly Rd usually does it well because of the Japanese school nearby.

We walk in on a  Sunday at 6.50pm and it is empty, dead, bereft of people, morgue like.  We sit at a wooden table placed on tiles that look like rocks and stare at the boring light fittings.

There is no ambience.

To make matters worse, the waitress sits behind a bar like thing and just stares at us.  The whole time.  Just stares. ......And listens in on our inane conversation. ........And stares

She does stop staring for a minute and goes to fetch a free starter.  Bean things in oil and displaying a subtle hint of chilli.  Promising!

And then she gets back to staring.......

Next we have the Gyoza - 5 pieces of japanese style dumplings.  It is hot and light.

Staring still............

Then we have a Okanomiyaki , a japanese pancake made out of grated cabbage and stuff topped with BBQ sauce and that mayonnaise stuff.  I do it at home and this one is far superior.  Mark is not that impressed.

Staring...........

We then get stuck into Kaga Sushi and Sashimi set (for 2).  I curse myself for forgetting my phone.  This really needs a photo to illustrate it.  It is served on one of those wooden boat things.  Good stuff.

Staring, staring, staring

This place serves good food and it is amazingly priced - just $59.

However, there is no buzz, ambience and you get stared at .  A lot.

White Village #582

10 (actually only 7) Things I learned about Greece by eating at White Village

1. Blue and White is not just the colours on the Greek flag but also the colours that all Greek restaurants must be.  Blue walls and tablecloths with white, scribble worthy paper over the top of it.
   
2. People are happy.  The hum in this restaurant was jovial, generous and welcoming.  We seated ourselves at the round table at the front.  
3. Greek waiters are unflappable.  The service was amazing - just one man (I think the owner), who served 20 tables without a notepad and with great good humour.  He has clearly done this before.
4. The food is delicious.  We ordered the dips, marinated octopus, pan fried calamari, flounder, moussaka, lamb gyros and salad.  The marinated octopus was better than the stuff you buy from Queen Vic market - fresh and home made.  The deep fried calamari was crisp. 
   
5. They know how to cook lamb.  It was delicious - well seasoned and melted in the mouth.
6. They also know how to grill a fish.  Just YUM. I forgot to get a photo of the flounder - sorry - just come and order it yourself

   

   The flounder- sorry

7. You can experience a little bit of Greece in Elsternwick by going to this restaurant.  And it is cheap enough to bring the kids.

Coco Thai # 586

Do you know that feeling of having something that you have absolutely loved to bits and then one day you realise you are over it?  Like a favourite pair of jeans that are a bit different (covered in zips for example) and one day you put them on and realise you are completely over them.  You have moved on.

 

Or the computer game you have obsessed over for a year (yes, I am talking to you Sims) and one day you log in to your finely curated families and houses and realise you are over them.  You have moved on and zombie killing is your new thing.  You just don’t feel that thrill anymore.

Well Mark and I had that feeling tonight.

Actually, the first feeling we had was one of dread.  The next restaurant was an Indian one that we had not heard good things about.   However, rules are rules and we had to take the good with the bad.  We took the kids to distract us from the food.

The next feeling was one of joy.  We had walked in to the Indian restaurant which will remain unnamed and the lovely mono-browed waiter informed is that they did not have a licence to serve alcohol. Not even a BYO licence.  One of our rules is that it a restaurant must serve alcohol.  So we skipped out of there and went to the next one which is an old favourite; Coco Thai.

Rules are rules.

 

The décor is unextraordinary.  All 4 walls are different but align to a brown flower theme.  They don’t follow the extravagant light shades theory that most of the other Glenhuntly Rd restaurants adhere to and have installed plain downlights.  There is a weird plant that greets you as you walk in the door.  Lisa checked it out – it’s fake.  The Thai royal couple smile down on you from a photo on the wall.

We ordered all the old favourites;

Prawn Crackers, Mixed Entrée, Chicken Pad Thai, Green Curry Chicken, Steamed Ginger Fish, Duck curry, Massaman Lamb curry, Steamed rice.

The Pad Thai is oily but has a nice citrus tang.  We thought we would get a whole steamed fish but we just got rubbery bits of it.  Do not order.  The duck is tender and sweetened with pineapple.  It was voted “good”.  The green curry chicken is OK but even the kids believe it should have been spicier.  The lamb in the massaman was a cheap cut , expertly slow cooked.  The star of the evening.

This place really is a good, family friendly, basic entry level point into the world of Thai food.   But I think we have moved on to more  complex flavours and ideas like those found at Red Shallots.

Sorry Coco Thai, you have been relegated to the place where I put the Sims and those interesting  zippy jeans.

Tavlin #678

After our brilliant experience with Danny’s we were looking forward to Tavlin – another Israeli restaurant that feature shasliks.  It is on the corner of Royal Parade – a street I lived in for about 3 years but never stepped foot into this restaurant.  The whole Israeli thing was a bit daunting, however, thanks to  this challenge, we walked boldly in and scored a window table. 

It is a rowdy place.  Loud groups arguing about whether it is safe for the 16 year old daughters to catch public transport to school each day, oldies eating huge platters in studied silence, young couples checking each other out.  It was all good.  I wonder what demographic Mark and I fit into? 

Nice light shade

We want these skewers

Our meal

 

We decided on ordering salad, dips, a chicken shaslik and a lamb kofta.  The latter came out on huge, thick skewers – we want some.  The Laffa (bread) was good and even better when dipped into the hummus.  Gee they can make unleavened bread.  The chicken was expertly marinated and the koftka full of flavor.  For salads we had “Ada’s corn salad”, “morroccan carrot salad”, “roasted beetroot salad” and mixed pickles.  Order the carrot salad. 

 

We spent the time waiting for our food by  listing our favourite restaurants so far.

 

Top 5 (in no order)

 

Danny's( #525),  Tandoori Valley (#245), Mexico City (#313), The more the better, Pad Thai

All up, this is a healthy cuisine and rather cheap - $51 with BYO.  Lovely service.  Recommended but if you can swing into Danny’s, I would go there first.

Red Shallot #680

This restaurant made Mark sweat – a lot. 

We thought we were going to The Little Hungarian Restaurant and were not really looking forward to it.  Hungarian always seems a bit “stodge”.  However it is not open on a Sunday night, so we skipped down , past countless hairdressers (no bad hair days in South Caulfield) to a rebadged old favourite, a “thai fusion” restaurant.  There was a banquet seat on one side with mismatched checked cushions – very groovy.  Not a sound of tinny thai music ringing from the speakers instead we were treated to slow crooning from the female side of the population.  On the table were plates with curved holes for the chopsticks – groovy and different.

So we stuck with the theme and ordered something different rather than the good old green curry chicken.

We ordered entrée number 10; Sabai which was 4 marinated tiger prawns in a light pastry served with sweet chilli sauce.   It was crunchy and fresh.

While we waited I did the obligatory checking of the lighting fixtures.  They did not let me down.  A classic chandelier hung near the door to the kitchen – we haven’t had one of those before. 

We chose 2 main meals to share; number 38 which was spicy lamb (with 3 chilli’s next to it – the maximum) and number 50 , a seafood salad.

This is when Mark commenced sweating.  The stir fried lamb was really, really spicy and we guzzled the water.  Ahh water

So, not having the normal green curry chicken and red curry beef to benchmark it with other thai restaurants, we cannot really tell whether this is good thai or not.  We will have to take the kids back and try all the normal suspects out before we make a decision. 

However, what really intrigued me was the tables that had inbuilt hot plates in them.  I have never seen this before and could not work out what dishes were cooked on them.  Again, Different.  That is how we summed up this place.

 

Princess #720

What a weird name for a Chinese Restaurant!

It is Saturday night and we have lots to celebrate;

Matt and Sally won basketball Grand finals and Lisa won her netball grand final, term 3 has finished and the kids are doing well.   All good.

We walk into this overly bright restaurant as an unhappy bunch; Sally dropped her phone on Lisa's head and we are never going to hear the end of it.  Really, people lucky enough to have iPhones should treat them with more respect.

As I mentioned, the restaurant was overly bright, sporting countless naked light bulbs in weird shapes.    A great big red coffee machine sits incongruously on a counter.  Chinese food and expresso coffee - it could only work in Melbourne.  The other noteworthy feature is a Barbara Streisand vinyl record and cover hanging on the wall.  Maybe that has something to do with the name "Princess"?  It is all beyond me.  To the food...

Chow Mein

Mark asks us what we want to eat and Matt replies with "meat".  We all laugh and the iPhone on the head issue is forgotten.

We order prawn dumpling and BBQ pork buns for entree.  Then we have cantonese beef, peking steak, chilli prawn, chow mien, chicken curry and fried rice.  The kids are given glass jars with a handle, lid and straw.  Very different.

No one is dining here.  It is just us and Babs.

Cantonese Beef

The pork buns are ok, maybe a bit rubbery.  The chow mien was fresh veggies with a deep fried something on top.  Not bad.  The cantonese beef is like popcorn.  Yummy.  The Peking Beef was the highlight and the special fried rice has pineapple on top.

A nice, simple chinese restaurant which will not break the bank with our bill reaching $125.  It is just a bot lonely sitting here with no one else.

Big Boy BBQ #764

My mother gave Dad the best Fathers Day present ever - his first son.  Given that I don't think I could ever top this, I gave Mark nothing for Fathers Day - I think he is used to it.

The whole family did take him out for dinner to "Big Boy BBQ" which cheered him up after the dismal Tigers loss.  Kind of.............

We walk into this American style diner and snag a booth up the back.  Loud blues music trumpets over head and the booths are full of families making a fuss of Dad.  It is a Dad sort of place as the main star are huge meat platters.  Lisa, who is getting close to being a vegetarian is not amused.  Really not amused.

We go for the $99 "Big Boy" platter.  You cannot get any bigger and it claims to feed 1 to 6 people.  Let's see how we go.

The platter includes;

• Saucy beef brisket
• Beef pastrami
• Pulled pork scotch fillet
• Pulled lamb shoulder
• 1/2 rack of Kansas City pork ribs
• 1/2 rack of lamb ribs
• Regular wings
• 3 sides of your choice - we went for crunchy chips, chilli con carne chips and the green salad with fat free dressing (our attempt at being healthy)

I went up to the counter to order and then they brought it to us.  We need to get our own ice, plates and cutlery.

Not recommended

The guy that owns this place went over to research the whole American BBQ thing so apparently this is going to be authentic.  I wonder whether some American chap has come over here and researched our authentic fish and chip shop and has brought it back to suburban America - burgers with the lot, chip oil changed weekly and dim sims on the counter?  Maybe even an old chiko roll poster on the wall?  It would be nice to think so.

The wait isn't too long - just long enough to work out some creative ways to destroy my Blackberry - good times.

So what was good?  The Pastrami was the least favoured (I liked it - I think it would go well in my Don Shaved meat range).  It was smokey and would go really well in sandwiches.  The Chilli con carne chips were a hit.  The Grape fizzy drink tasted like medicine - don't order it.

The chicken was a hit - there was none left for me to try.  The ribs were slow cooked and just amazing.  All of the meat was place on bread which becomes permeated with the BBQ sauce.  Pretty cool.  The napkins are paper towels on rolls and they need to be that heavy duty because it is a messy experience.  Sally was they paper towel operator and her services were in great demand.  Well done Sally.

This is dude food and its finest.  I liked it.  Lisa never wants to walk in here again.  Ever.

Radha #796

We have crossed the road.

Yep, we are now heading west back down Glenhuntly Rd and we are probably half way through our challenge. 



Fine Dining

 To mark the occasion we have invited the kids out.  We are going to another Indian restaurant and like all the Indian Restaurants we have been to so far, there is no one in it.  Yes, all the other restaurants on Glenhuntly Rd rock on a Sunday evening except if they are Indian.  (or that Chinese one from a few Sunday's ago).


Poppadoms on a basket covered in
Aluminium Foil?????

 Well actually, there is one patron in Radha's.  He seems like a homeless man and he is loudly chanting "bloody arsehole".  He then starts talking a whole lot of very loud crap.  We sit at a table by the window and try not to stair, hoping he will GO AWAY.  And he does.  Thank you.

We stare over at "Sapa Rivers" restaurant which is heaving at the seams with people and we recite lines from "The Castle" to amuse ourselves.  No music.  No "9" in front of the phone number painted on the window (how long ago was it when the "9" came in - more than 10 years?), wow, an old paint job.

However, the food is not old.  We order pakoras, lamb biriyani, saag paneer, fish mekhani, chicken marsala and roti.  (well we do have Matt with us).  All hand made, with some kick and nice unconfronting suburban flavours.  The saag paneer is voted the favourite - you really can't go past the creamy spinach dish).  The lamb biryani is voted the poorest dish with the lamb being a bit tough; definitely not slow cooked.

No one enters all night so I would not recommend opening an Indian restaurant in Caulfield Sth or Elsternwick.  It is just not going to fly.  However, we have enjoyed it and Lisa now has enough fuel for her PE lesson tomorrow.  They are doing "Ultimate Frisbee".  What the?

Matsuzaka #809

Remember when the kids were young and you never went out?  If you did, you were so tired you just went to the nearest restaurant and marvelled at being child free for a couple of hours?  Matsuzaka was one of those restaurants we bolted to when we had a few child free hours.  It was a real treat.

Matsuzaka was also the first restaurant we took the kids to for Teppanyaki.  Matt caught the food in his mouth - I can't remember whether Lisa and Sally did.



Parsley?  Really?

 We haven't been back for years as we have found a new favourite Japanese place to go to which will feature on this blog when we get to it.  So, we were wondering whether it was still a decent Japanese restaurant or not.  The first thing we noticed was that there were Japanese dining here which is always a good sign.  The place was busy, humming and trays filled with beers were coming out.

Matt had lost his footy grand final just a couple of hours ago so we were ready for a drink.  Gee, we had to be patient though.  Service was slow and when we finally got glasses they were served to us by a waitress with blue plastic gloves on.  Weird , off putting but definitely germ free.  Another first.

Also another first was the twigs on the roof.  I tried to take a photo of them but it was beyond the Blackberry's camera.  No wonder they have gone broke.

We ordered a main size sashimi to share for an entree.  After a long wait we were served a not particularly dramatic looking sashami plate with 4 types of fish on.  There was tuna, salmon, yellow tail king fish and something else we couldn't work out.  It was delicious anyway.

The kobe steak (eye fillet steak cooked with green garlic and soy sauce) was an absolute highlight.  Just melt in your mouth gorgeousness.  The spinach dish was artistic but rather bland.

All up, this is a good serviceable Japanese restaurant that is relatively cheap enough so that you can bring the kids and introduce them to tepanyaki and food throwing.

Orient #829

Things that were once really popular but have now been taken over by something better;

1.  Blackberry phones
2.  Coffee machines that dripped the coffee through a paper filter
3.  Walkman
4.  Phonecalls
5.  Video rental shops
6.  The macarena
                         7.  Chinese restaurants

So here we are at a Chinese restaurant. The door is really difficult to open.  I don't think it gets much use.   It is dead quiet.  There is no one here and only one couple enter throughout our visit.  Chinese restaurants have been over taken by other cuisines in this neighbourhood and fair enough too.  There is just not enough flavour to these dishes and we have all got a bit more sophisticated over the years.

The kids are with us and we take a seat at a table with a Lazy Susan.  This is the highlight of the night; spinning the Lazy Susan and rehashing the old conversation about why it is called Susan?  Anybody?

Rice paper rolls -deep fried

The ambiance is terrible; bright lights, paint chipped walls and silence except for the Chinese shouting happening in the kitchen.

The food is bland.  We order Chicken with cashews, fried rice, beef with black bean sauce, pork with BBQ sauce (probably the highlight) and fish curry.  The entrees come out murdered by the deep frier - even the rice paper rolls. 

The bowls are chipped and why do we only get the one bowl?  All the sauces get mixed up and the sauce from the last dish you ate imposes on the new dish.  This whole cuisine needs a rethink.

Still, it was nice to go out with the family and spin our food around.  Do go somewhere else.

Sapa Rivers #803

My salad

This place is busy.  We get the last table and it is a tight fit; thank goodness we did not bring the kids.

I admire the weird light shades as it has been some weeks since we visited a restaurant with light shades that I could remark on.  These ones are like upside down fishermen baskets and they cast amazing shadow patterns on the roof.

We have often visited this restaurant when it was a much less sophisticated Vietnamese restaurant.  I used to love the rice paper rolls. 

Mark's Laksa

So, we try the Peking duck rice paper rolls and love them - they could be better than the ones at Tatakami further down Glenhuntly Rd and that is saying something.

The service is fast.  Mark orders the Laksa.  You can design your own noodle soup for $10.  What a great idea.  Mark declares that it is not as good as Ah Loys but it is pretty good.  It is quite creamy and could have been a bit warmer and contain more ingredients.

I have a vegie salad and it is fresh and crunchy and swimming in dressing. 

This is a good place to bring the kids and have a Laksa - just book first.

And guess what?  After owning my blackberry for 18 months, I have worked out how to get the flash to work - so these photo's are not as bad as they usually are.

Grill Danube Restaurant # 729

We are really east now, hooning towards Hawthorn Rd.  This restaurant is near a barber's shop called "Baldilox" and a crystal shop that will solve all your issues if you just buy one of those spooky looking crystals.  It is opposite the kindergarten that I helped save during a maternity leave - I was happy to get back to work.  Mark and I hurry past. 

The room is welcoming and the blues music is discordant given that we thought we might be transported to Austria.  The blurb on the menu sets us straight; we are going on a journey through the 10 countries that host the Danube.  We can't help ourselves - we spend the next five minutes debating what the countries are.  Mark , smarty pants, gets most of them right when we finally look back at the menu.  The menu lists the 10 countries as well as every single town it passes through - there are 4 capital cities.  This river is long.  It is kind of a cute conceit for a restaurant. 

There is one older guy doing the waiting and three other tables are full of people speaking accented English - not an unusual occurrence in South Caulfield. We are seated at a table covered in a white table cloth and our candle is lit with one of those stove lighters - matches are so much more romantic.  There is a green counter at the back of the room featuring wine shelves.  Homely and welcoming. 

The menu offers Greek dips and dolmades, Serbian platters, Hungarian Prebranak (slow cooked baked beans), schnitzels, cabbage, goulash, Balkan style cabbage salad.  Greek??  the Danube does not go through Greece.

We order dip and Greek goat cheese however the waiter does not think much of this choice and tells us we need to replace the dip with a warm capsicum dip.  We defer to him and when we sample it we are delighted.  For mains we order goulash and a Vienna schnitzel.  They are homely, simple meals, slow cooked and in the right portion size.  We award the goulash with the "best ever" award.

The music becomes very eclectic, no style is ever on twice as I try and get through Peter Gabriel.  Not sure where he fits into the Danube theme.

This is a restaurant Mark and I would never have walked into if not for this challenge.  We may never walk in here again but we are glad we tried it.

And what are the 10 countries?  Germany, Austria, Slovakia , Hungary , Croatia , Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria , Moldova , and Ukraine.  The 4 capital cities?  Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Belgrade.

Class dismissed

Arda #619

On Arda's menu, it states that there are three major types of cuisine in the world; French, Chinese and Turkish.  Really?  What an interesting premise.  What about Japanese?  Latin American?  Aboriginal?  I am not sure about this whole statement but I suppose they know better than me.  They are professionals.

As we walk into Arda, we are confronted by an odd little, boxy kitchen that juts out into the eating area.  It is a bit of an eyesore. 

There are 7 tables and all filled up as the evening progressed, even though I thought it was a bit expensive as far as Glenhuntly Rd restaurants go, specially one that is on the Caulfield side of Kooyong Rd.  There is dried chilli flakes on the table which is a first for me.  I am not sure how to take it, surely the chef would like to be the final arbiter of the flavour and not us? 

The menu features the usual Turkish fare and we order green beans, a feta cheese salad, a kebab and a mixed grill for one.  The green beans are Delicious, just like my mother in laws peas.  She fries an onion,  adds a bag of  frozen peas, cans of tomatoes, too much salt and just lets it stew away on low heat for hours.  She stirs in massive wads of butter and serves it hot to cries of delight.  Arda's green beans are much like this but served cold.  I like them.

Mary's peas kind of look like this

These guys serve a juicy lamb cutlet and the shaslik is good too (although Dannys is better).  We like this place but still cannot forget that Danny's is just a couple of blocks down.

I also learn that you have to be careful when you buy Pepperjack as it may not be Shiraz.  They also make a Can Sav which is not as good as the Shiraz.  Just a tip. 

Dannys #525

This was really, really great and we will be back with the kids.  I need to write a poem;

Bright Lights
Busy
Filled with Oldies (it is pension day)
Massive plates
Friendly service
Outside loo (not okay)

Menu explained
Helpful waitress
Huge schnitzels (eaten by all)
Amazing dips
Avocado mashed and seasoned
tahini the best (yes a big call)

Just too yummy

Restaurant full
Buzzing
old ladies cackling (with abandon)
old men, gruff and greedy
All connecting
Service fast (and with aplomb)

Ate lamb shasliks
yummy
with 3 salads (and chips)
Israeli
Simple done well
A real find (doing back flips)

and really cheap

Rich Curry #517



Sally, Lisa, Gonzague and Matt in our pool in Seminyak

 I know lots of people like this restaurant, but Mark and I are not recommending it.  There are much better Indian restaurants out there.  I really don't like saying this, because the waiter was really, really nice and you can feel that they care about the food.  We have just had better.

It also did not help that we had just spent 2 glorious weeks in Bali eating the best food and paying nothing for it.  And the night was so cold (after the balmy weather of Bali) that I could not feel my hands.  My fingers were too cold to write or even take a photo using my annoying Blackberry.  So, this blog features Bali photos.  Sorry.



Fish Foot Massage in Seminyak - it tickled


We were served free poppadoms with a creamy, garlicky mayonnaise type sauce - not the normal green concoction, it was rather nice.

No crazy light shades here, sorry.  We saw lots in Bali though.

We had lamb in rogan josh sauce, a fish curry and goli pakoda (cauliflower in chick pea batter and "crisp fried" - which means deep fried - as you know, I am not a big fan of this type of cooking).  The curries were just too watery and not filled with a lot of protein.

Creepy dolls hang from the wall.  All a bit disturbing given the news report of young lower caste girls in India hanging in villages after being raped.  Quite off putting.



Lisa and Sally at a coffee plantation sampling coffee and tea

 I wish I was back in Bali and I could feel my fingers.

Mediteranean Greek Tavern #511

We are moving east at a rapid pace, passing the Coles, leaving the restaurant dense 300's and have hit the 500's. 

We have visited 12 restaurants since we started this journey in February.  The stats are;

1 Italian
1 "Asian Fusion"
1 Indian
3 Japanese
1 Hungarian
2 Thai
1 Korean
1 Mexican

So a nice variety with Japanese being the most represented.  Tonight was the first Greek restaurant on the strip.  And this could be any Greek tavern in the world.  Blue and white theme, TV blaring, paper tablecloths and 2 guys waiting the tables (although they do have broad Aussie accents).  Lot's of Greek families having good, honest Greek food and loud conversations.  The obligatory photos of Santorini beam down from the walls.


However, there is no whitebait or octopus on the menu which is rather un Greek Tavern like.  So we settle for the unremarkable dolmades which are definitely home made. 

This is followed by a good Greek salad with the familiar lump of feta sprinkled with herbs featured on the top.  We get free steamed potatoes covered with oil and herbs and fat kalamata olives.

The snapper (which comes out with a bonus one) is light, well seasoned and does not let us down.  Gee, they can cook fish well.  The lamb is OK, a bit tough,  but the snapper is the star tonight.

These guys know how to run a Greek restaurant, placing the load families with kids in one area and the grownups in a separate area.  They follow up on the genuine Greek restaurant experience by ensuring the toilets are crap.

However, we do get a complimentary dessert and the whole thing costs us $71. 

Recommended for no nonsense Greek fare that will appeal to people that want to go back to the 1980's and TV lovers are well catered for.  Order the seafood, drain the oil from the salad and it is a pretty healthy meal.

Haru Haru #315

Being a parent means that you have to spend time adequately equipping your kids to cope out there in the big world.  You ensure they know all the important quotes in The Castle, that they are familiar with most of the footy songs and they can use chopsticks without embarrassing themselves.

Hence, we start off our dinner at this "Modern Korean and Japanese Cuisine" with Mark giving Lisa and Sally a lesson in using chopsticks.  Matt misses out on this life lesson because he is at a refugee camp being a leader.  He is probably learning something a little more important - like how lucky he is.

Anyway, back to the chopsticks.  Mark has picked the correct restaurant to teach this particular skill because he has plenty of time to do it.  The service is slow.  Slow to get the menu and, once we have ordered, slow to get our meals.  The menu features pictures (oh no) and starts at dish number 41.  Not sure what has happened to the first 40 dishes. 

We order edamame, pork gyoza, a large sashimi as entrees and then for mains we have salmon steak, chicken teryaki and Hot Pot Binumbab with Beef.

We then waited and waited.  Once the chopstick lesson had ended we spent the time calculating how many sporting things we do between the 5 of us.  We added it up and worked out there are 40 things we do each week.  No wonder we are always exhausted and hungry.

Finally our entrees appear.  The girls pronounce the gyoza as "ok", I pronounce the edamame as stringy and the sashimi features only tuna and salmon so Mark misses out on his kingfish fix.  Not impressed.

The girls are doing well with their chopsticks.

The Hot Pot (pictured) is smokey, crunchy and not too spicy for the kids. 

All up, the restaurant was OK however, there are better Japanese restaurants along Glenhuntly Rd.
   

Mexico City #313

Mexican by the numbers;

0 weird lights.  They also did not get the memo about the mandatory "statement" light shades

7 pearly white teeth are shown to us as we arrive in the form of a smile and a wave to a spare table.

10 free corn chips in a Little bowl and a freshly home made salsa with real chillies are placed on our table

2 sangrias are ordered as we try in vain to bring back the warm spanish July we experienced years ago to this cold Melbourne Autumn evening.  The sangrias consist of red wine, cointreau, soda, oranges and lemons.  Not bad, although they fail to transport us to Madrid and the dry, oppressive 40 degree heat of July.

20 or more menu items that feature the normal tex mex foods like enchiladas, burritos, quesadilla, paella, chilli con carne and taco's

3 minutes into our guacamole I declare that I am over corn chips.  Mark agrees.  We decide that we are not that into Mexican food but if we were, this would be a good place to be.  The dip is freshly home made, the vibe is happy and the restaurant is full and humming.  I think our kids would love it here.

5 minutes spent waiting for our chicken fajita to stop sizzling.  It is tasty, filling and not too unhealthy

1st time writing in this bright pink notebook while eating has paid off.  I must look like some sort of food critic because we get a complimentary caramel mousse to share.  It is decadent and highly recommended.

48 dollars.  That is how much this meal cost us.  I don't think I have had a cheaper dinner ever.  And we leave feeling full and just a little embarrassed that we have spent so little.

Khun Thai #311

Sometimes kids can be so annoying.  Specially the 7 year old girl at the next table at this Thai restaurant that is standing very close to her Nana and rubbing her all over.  Head, hands, arms, legs.  It is just really annoying.
I am so happy when they leave. 

It is another Sunday night and I have had a great day reading and playing my Broken Sword game and doing 6 loads of washing, then sorting it and then trying to get my head around losing yet another after -school baby sitter and the issues that causes with getting Sally and Lisa to netball training.

I really didn't need an expensively dressed, annoying girl at my much anticipated dinner.

So, let's move on.

Mark and I  have been here before and loved the Tom Yum soup.  Hot, fragrant and spicy filled with fresh ingredients like corn, tomato, coriander, prawns and spring onion, although I am a real girl and only ordered mine medium because when they mean hot they really mean hot.  Yum, yum yum.

While enjoying my Tom yum, I cannot help noticing that this restaurant did get the memo about statement light shades but did not have the wherewithal to invest heavily.  Hence, they have grabbed lots of baking paper and done weird shapes to cover the light bulbs.  Weird.

We had the Pia Choo Chee (Thai style steamed fish).  We love this.  We also had a stir fry which came out colourful, hot , fresh and we devoured the lot.

I really like this place for a cheap and cheerful Thai.  They take a bit longer than normal but they make no apologies for this explaining that "each dish is made with care".  and I believe it.  The whole time you have to listen to the sizzle coming from the open kitchen which I don't find annoying because it proves that they are living up to their promise and also because it drowns out the very annoying Thai violin music. 

Just steer clear of this place if you see that annoying girl rubbing her grandmothers hair into knots while the parents look on fondly.