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.

The More the Better #305

Yahoo.  We have hit the 300's.  That took ages to get from #213 to here.  This part of Glenhuntly Rd teems with restaurants. 

A confession.  I don't think we have been to a Korean Restaurant and we had to break one of our rules (see side bar) to get to this one as it does not open on a Sunday night.  So we went on a Saturday night because we did not want to miss it.  It was written up in The Age so we just had to go look for ourselves.  The More the Better explains itself to be a Korean restaurant with a difference - popping in some American influences.

So we walked into a happening place full of bright young things trying to work out what was gluten free.  The music is groovy, the walls exposed brick and the bar well stocked.  I think this may be our first non BYO restaurant as well.  A night of firsts.

No statement lights here, just tasteful little drop lights.  Clearly did not get the memo from the Glenhuntly Restaurant Society which clearly mandated statement light shades.

So, to the food.  We started off with something that was a flat , tasteless damper thingy.  Don't order that.  However, Marl's pulled pork was welcoming , filling and delicious.  My miso mushroom was bland.  Don't order that.  The Bao Bao must mean boring .  We then had the Bin Bin with beef came out with all the ingredients placed separately on the plate.  The carrot, beancurd, beef and egg yolk all had to be mixed together after pouring over the chilli sauce.  Just really yummy.  Do order this. 

I loved the cheesy, chicken , sweet pot bake thing was something I would like because I love all things cheesy.  Apparently it is not really Korean but I thought it was OK.  And I really get the whole Kimchi thing that is sweeping Melbourne. 

It was a crunchy, salty blast of brewed flavour. 

There is a sign on the wall , feature the following message and no punctuation; "The more the better is an old Korean saying.  Whether its friends, family, drinks or food.  The more the better."

Not sure about this.  Living by this creed could get us all into a lot of trouble.