Sarocha Thai Dining Room #289

Mark and I used to never be late.  Punctuality was our friend.  Then kids came along and we have been running late ever since.

So, it is quite fitting that we celebrated Mothers Day a week late.  To Do this, we spent Sunday evening at the next restaurant on Glenhuntly Rd which was Sarocha Thai  Dining Room enjoying their food.  IT all sounds really grand and as you walk in and immediately notice the walls are tastefully wood paneled to waist height and then covered in subdued, dining room type wall paper. 

True to trend, I checked out the lighting situation and was not surprised to see a tasteful, luxurious chandelier.  Not your normal Thai neighborhood restaurant ambience.  A bit posh……….

Which is why I guffawed when I noticed the daggy paddy rice workers hats hanging on the wall, looking like colourful pimples exploding from the walls.  This is more familiar Thai restaurant territory.

So to the food.  I felt like eating fish having spent the last week eating a whole lot of “wursts” in the crazy but wonderful town of Dusseldorf, but it was all deep fried.  Disappointing but there was still lots of choice.

We ate

·         BBQ pork

·         Seafood salad (Lisa and Matt ate all this before I got to it so we have to take their word that it was delicious)

·         Chu Chee Prawn

·         Pad Tha

·         Fried Rice

All worth returning for and great value withal 5 of us eating only $115 worth.

Mark began behind all of us because he started off forkless and was rather upset by this.  I empathise, being forkless in a yummy Thai Restaurant with 3 starving children means you really get nothing to eat.

So Mark and I will have to return another night to giggle at the pimples on the wall and give the seafood salad a try.  Better late than never

Bistro Goemon #281

Interesting name for a Japanese Restaurant.  Interesting Restaurant

Tonights restaurant meant a lot to us for 3 reasons;

1.  This was our very first restaurant we have visited on our Glenhuntly Road odyssey that features in The Age Good Food guide under $30 2014.  Yep, it is in the  more sexily named "Cheap Eats Guide" that used to be our bible before Matt came along and we got distracted with baby blankets and Hours of Sleep.
2.  This restaurant is on the same site as the old Taj Tandoori Indian Restaurant; a restaurant that has figured largely in Mark and my life.  When we were doing our MBA's we used to get home from uni at 9 pm on a Monday night, exhausted from a full day of work and 4 hours of lectures and we used to crash this restaurant and eat some of  the best salak paneer alongside the ABC talent (Ripponlea Studio is just down the road).  It was our joint.
3.  This restaurant site was also the first and last time I ever tried out a joke in public.  It was a Saturday night and I was with  my mates from Monash Engineering and I found myself in the middle of delivering a joke. Quite a foreign thing for me.  It seemed to be going well , it was about an elephant in Africa, I cannot remember the details , however, I remember stuffing up the punchline spectacularly and receiving a massive laugh for doing so.  My first and last commiedien act.

So, to tonight.  We sat at the sushi bar as all the tables were busy, the only other time we have done this is at the groovy japanese bars in Russel St in the city.  We chose a bottle of pino grigio from the Mornington Peninsula as it was not BYO; another notable feature in Glenhuntly Rd.  The menu features many saki wines (not our cup of tea)  and then only "tapas" meals.  I am getting used to this mish mash of European and Asian ideas.

I looked around nostalgically.  Where the bar is used to be where the tandoori oven was.  Where despairing silence was (see the blog about the unpopularity of indian restaurants in Elsternwick) is now bustling, fresh, juicy optimism.

We ordered Spicy pork salad (not that spicy but fresh), Soft crab shell spring roll (recommend), king fish wanton ravioli (too creamy for our taste) and assorted sashimi (the best sashimi ever - new exciting fish cut thickly and true such as scallops with roe on top, crunchy kale and seaweed salads).

Yum.  Made even yummier by the fact that it was not done by some Alpha male dressed in white that kept all the waitresses in fear of their jobs but 2 groovy sashimi creators in black t shirts exuding artist concentration and one was a girl.  Love it.  

The japanese city restaurant has appeared in Glenhuntly Rd and we loved it.  Not too bad at $111 inlcuding our /$45 bottle of wine but don't come too hungry or the bill will be hefitier.  And,  you will be happy to know the light shades did not assault the senses.   

Pad Thai Food #279

You have to come to Phad Thai Food even if you dislike Thai food just to have the water.

An odd statement but nevertheless true.  The silver glass vessels do not have flat bottoms so roll around the table in an alarming manner.  Also, the water is served in medicine bottles which are probably rather trendy but are mildly unsettling as you wonder what medication has been added to it. 

First impressions of  Phad Thai were a little concerning.  The light shades take your breath away; massive big Christmas bells hanging and reflecting in mirrors.  We are seated next to a water feature that was lambasted by the judges in The Block.  The phone is ringing and ringing and ringing.  There is no front wall and I regret not bringing a cardie.  I take a deep breath and vow to enjoy my night out with Mark .................and the ringing phone.

We are handed a big menu.  I mean BIG, literally.  At least 40 cm high and orange.  They stand out nicely from the lime green banquets we are sitting on.  The background ambiance is "women screaming in the kitchen".  I take another deep breath and look around some more and notice that the heater that is hanging from the wall (and features in one of the photos that we took) is exactly like the heaters found in St Patricks Cathedral in Ballarat.  I was always cold in that cathedral.

The food comes.  Actually, that is not the correct way of describing how we got our food.  It was offered to us and I found that authentic and charming; they were proud of their food, respectful of their customers and it all came out in a very unconscious act of offering us our food before they put it on the table.  For entree, we had the deep fried chicken wrapped in pandaman leaves.  A bit dry and I really don't do deep fried food as a rule; it does not treat me well.

Then the car alarm begins and it goes on and on and on and on; a drawback from having no front wall on a busy street.  I then have my first soft shell crab dish ever.  I know, where have I been?  Given the aforesaid aversion to deep fried food, I enjoyed the accompanying vegies more; crisp and glorious. 

All this fabulous theatre set us back $51 so not too bad. 

And the final act featured all of the many young wait staff downing all tools, sitting at a banquet near Mark and I and staring at their screens until we asked for the bill.

Go for the water, stay for the theatre.                                         

Budapest #273

Budapest
30th of August 1994 was the last time we ate in an Hungarian restaurant.  It was a hot, hungarian night, my first and only ever birthday that I have celebrated in a summer dress.  Birthdays before and after have always been in the chilly Melbourne / Ballarat winter.

So, given that that was 20 years ago, we really couldn't remember what Hungarian food was all about.  The first thing we did when we sat down in the bustling, full restaurant was to check out the menu. 

Goulash
Crumbed mushrooms
Schnitzels
Cabbage Rolls

in huge servings is the order of the day.

Families were eating with great gusto schnitzels that were larger than the plates, elderly men with their middle aged sons were enjoying a beer and goulash and the young crowd were sipping (not gulping as it was a Sunday night) big pitchers full of Palinka; the legendary fruit and herb spirit.

I was staring with envy at the pressed metal ceilings (I am getting a real thing about restaurant ceilings and lights in these blogs).

I then had an attack of food envy as my cabbage roll was too salty but Mark's goulash was yummy, tender and slow cooked.  I ate all the creamed spinach though; soul nourishing food.

The waiters and waitresses were all blonde gods speaking Hungarian (I assume), the hard wooden chairs did not treat my bike- saddle- sore bum with any favour.

We left at 8pm, along with all the oldies and fellow Block addicts as the blonde gods were opening up the front wall to transform the restaurant into a "Palinka Bar".  Kind off cool for suburban Elsternwick.  We paid $114 for the two of us so not the cheapest out there.  However, it you want to treat the family to the "best schnitzels" (as the back of the Hungarian Gods/Waiters tshirts state) this would be the place to go.

Momoko Sushi # 255

Momoko Sushi

Gee the weekend goes fast.  Specially when you have to trek all the way to Caribbean Gardens Market to get your PS3 fixed.  I don't think I need to go back there for another decade.  At least Matt got some good driving practice in although he does need to realize that RED means STOP, specially on the intersection of Wellington and Dandenong Road.

 

The service here is fast.  And pink.  The pink tshirted waitresses served us up generous sashimi pieces, salmon wrapped around cream cheese with roe on the top (popping little bubbles in your mouth is fun).  The beef teryaki was tender and flavoursome without the sweet notes that can make it sickly tasting.  And I love real black beans........................

The light shades look like big pieces of pineapple with dead insects caught in them.  They need a rethink.  However, I love the artwork on the walls.  The featured Japanese girl reminds me of Athina out of my Phoenix Wright Nintendo 3DS game; my latest gaming addiction.

This is not 5 star (a waitress regularly lugs a bucket full of dirty diches through the restaurant - creating the ambience of a fish market) however, it is cheap (for Japanese- $86 for two) fresh, uncomplicated Japanese foods set in a bustling restaurant.   

Tandoori Valley Indian Restaurant # 245

Life is full of mysteries;

1.       Why do Blackberry phones and Lotus Notes still exist and why does my work insist I use them?

2.       Why do we spend the first 6 years of our kids life hoping that they would just stay asleep and then the next 10 years screaming at them to WAKE UP NOW OR YOU WILL MISS YOUR TRAIN AND I AM NOT DRIVING YOU BECAUSE I HAVE TO GET TO WORK EARLY SO I.T. CAN FIX MY LOTUS NOTES?

3.       Why don’t the good folk of Elsternwick dine at Indian Restaurants?

Tandoori Valley was empty. Sooooooooooooo empty.  Mark and I (no kids tonight) hesitated at the door.  Was this going to be terrible?  We bravely walked in.  What were we letting ourselves in for?

Bad music.  First that Indian tinny stuff then extraordinarily bad elevator music.  And really bright lights.

These were the only challenging things about the night.  The food was fresh, healthy Indian fare.  The spinach and lamb was flavoured with anise, the cauliflower tandoori was crisp (and made me mentally note that I must use this vegetable more).  The rice was fluffy, light and fragrant and the Roti crunchy.  We had asked for spicy and were blowing our noses with glee.

This was the best restaurant yet on our Glenhuntly Rd challenge and it was empty (and cheap – a true find).  We have been back since.