Darwin - 4 Birds

When I lived in Darwin I was constantly moaning about the lack of cool breakfast places to go to grab a good coffee and something yummy in the mornings.  Not that Darwin doesn't have some good breakfast spots, but they can be a bit hit and miss eg Roma Bar (good coffee, average, cheap breakfast unless you stick to the more eclectic end of the menu offering dhal and homemade roti, the sago with coconut cream and palm syrup or the toasted coconut bread with lemon curd - yum!), Ducks Nuts (good coffee but shit food). 

My last few visits to Darwin I've taken to stopping in at 4 Birds in the morning to grab a coffee and some breakfast, usually a bagel, always with ricotta and honey!  4 Birds has been open for about a year and a half now, located in Star Arcade next to Simply Vegetarian, it's probably the first of Darwin's truly funky cafes.  Run by sisters it serves good coffee, a pretty simple breakfast menu consisting of bagels, toast, muesli and fruit salad.  They even cater for the kids with nutella toast!   At one point I think they were offering savouriness for breakfast, but now you can just choose to have a savoury bagel if you are that way inclined.  Lunch works around fresh panini, bagels and salads.  Ingredients are fresh, delicious and seasonal.  They serve a cracking range of home made cakes and slices.  Seating is either in the cafe at seats or benches or outside at little tables with cushion-covered milk crates - I thoroughly recommend the latter if you have kids, there's even a little black cat that hangs round outside the chocalatier to keep them entertained and they can have the run of the arcade once you've exhausted them at the playground in the mall.

4 Birds
Star Village Arcade
Just off Smith St Mall

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.

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

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.

*2011 update:  Sadly my joy has turned to disappointment.  The sushi has taken a dramatic downturn (missing dishes, wrong dishes coming out, big drop in quality) and the service, which I once dismissed as quirky and lovable in its eccentricity, is frankly, terrible!

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

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)

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.

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.

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

my uninspired eating week - oh wait, is it only Tuesday?

It's been an uninspired eating week for the ole chickwithguts. The best thing i've eaten was tiny little limey/lemony meringue tarts whipped up by my good friend and favourite Dessert Doctor. They were all golden crispy meringue, perched on top of this beautiful citrussy filling and then the pastry! homemade, just the right combination of buttery and flaky, not sweet - a good counterpoint (!!) for the sweetness of the rest of it... honestly if she opened up a place in Darwin she'd make a killing!!!! I was only supposed to eat 1 and then i ate another half and then a whole nother 1 *sigh* talk about moreish!! I had to step up the workouts this week to burn up those babies.

Sunday i went back to box jellyfish at nightcliff swimming pool for another toastie and got charged $4 for a bubacino *frowning* pretty funny cos a proper grown up coffee costs $4.50 - maybe i should have just hyped the squids up on coffee for bang for my buck - LOL (just imagining it). Toastie was good. They had free muffins this time and asked for my blog address - so HI!

Monday arrived *sigh* and Director Chick 2 had pointed me in the direction of a cold chicken noodle salad they make at roast and noodle 328. i have to say i don't reckon it's up to their other offerings. a sign i should have paid attention to was my tummy growling at the sight of the bowls of roast pork rice and bok choys being wolfed down around me ... a lesson in sticking to what i really really want in the future :-( anyway, the noodle salad was pretty nice - steamed chicken pieces on some rice noodles with chilli and soy and bean sprouts.. but yeah, kind of uninspiring. MAN just thinking about that rice and bok choy makes me want to run down and get some now *burp*

Tomorrow - Sari Rasa :-))) yeah!!!

and welcoming.... a guest blog from NGO chick!

Mmmm pastries. I love you.

My latest Darwin food experiences include...

Some pretty good curries from Saffron in Parap on the weekend - Lamb Roganjosh and Eggplant something - both yummy and lasted well in the fridge for a couple of days. Oh, and a roti that was almost up to Hanuman standard!

Saffron on that rainy night had sexy wait staff but an offhand supervisor person who irriatated me and wasn't so kind to staff I didn't think - oh, and there's a woman working in the kitchen, and that's always a good sign :)

It also has a highly confusing method of take away ordering. It was an intelligence test, and I failed, so someone else had to support me through the process... it was however a very 'green' ordering system - recycled orders from other diners where on the flip side... I'm not sure if that made me feel dirty or not...

Anyway, it was reasonable priced as well - all that for $45, and for good sized meals.

Cornucopia...
Life is always a gamble there.
There were three cakes doing the rounds that day. My pal, Food Doctor and I choose the French Apple Flan loveliness (we hoped) thing and the Chocolate Mousse number cos I figured the Chocolate Mud would be far too dry and oh so Sydney in the 90s, that I couldn't bear to eat it... Hungry knew better though..

The bottom layer of the Chocolate Mousse was so laden with gelatine that I thought I'd been beamed up into dead horse heaven, the rest of it didn't compensate for being unceremoniously and without consent, dumped in pony world. I love chocolate, and moussey food and I wanted with all my heart to gobble it up, but I couldn't, and neither could my partner in eating, the Food Doctor.

The apple number was even more heart breaking, this day too, was rainy (like the Saffron experience), I think I may have even been slightly cold! I've just returned from Paris and the mere mention of any thing apple-y and french sent me into a twist! I looked into that condensated cake fridge at Cornucopia and squeezed my eyes shut, praying to the cake Goddess that she would make it all OK at Cornucopia, just once, just for me...

But alas, the cake Goddess may have been caught at the Travelling Sydney Film Festival in town, or in the storm over Darwin harbour, cos my Apple French tart, weren't a tart, it certainly weren't french and it was only just apple.

It was ice cold, hard, and it was a cake. And I was sad.

Hungry's Chocolate Mud Cake (it was so retro it may have even been called a 'Mississipi' Mud Cake!)was almost perfect (by Darwin cake fridge cake standards). It was tall and dark, moist and chocolately with a very generous chunk of chocolate ganache / icing on top!

Thanks Cornucopia!

More to come :)

that reminds me

In a fit of pique (the reasons i won't go into here, suffice to say BURNETT HOUSE YOU ARE ON MY HITLIST!!!) on sunday afternoon i flounced down to Cornucopia cafe at the museum for tea and cake. Cornucopia isn't high on my list of Darwin cafes to frequent, because, as was noted by NGO chick (was that you NGO chick with your hilarious account of saffron and cake?), the cakes are soooo often disappointing, clearly made somewhere (that crappy generic place where all crappy generic cafe cakes are produced) that is not there on the premises. Anyway we were treated lovely-ly (this is is a word by the way) by the staff who happily pulled together a table for 15 people, and they were very accomodating of the 10 adults ordering different things at different times and all paying separately and the 5 screeching, running kids who galloped around the museum gardens climbing trees and hiding in their sculptures. i bravely decided to order the french apple loveliness and you know what? Perhaps my eyes were clouded with the rose glasses of it all but it was apple-y and it was moist and it went pretty nicely with my T2 tea ( i could have been in Melbourne but for the howling rain coupled with the brown sea and darwin humidity). Cornucopia, you did good that day.

its been kinda slow lately i know.....

I dunno why is is that it's harder to blog when i'm not inspired than when i am.... which is kind of like the opposite of journal writing which i only write when i'm miserable!!! send me tips for places to check out :-))) leave comments for me down the bottom puhleeze!!!!

in the last 5 days i have been to:
Emilio's italian on mitchell st: good garlic bread, good smell, crappy entree sized gamberi pasta with only 4 PRAWNS!!! oily, with weird sour aftertaste - wouldn't recommend in a hurry :-(
Martins vegetarian in coconut grove - bircher muesli with walnuts and freshly grated green apple - tick, quinoa for brekky - tick, bali curry made with a fresh home made curry base -TICK!
Noodle House on mitchell st - tofu rice and veges - fresh and yummy. not much tofu tho (only 3 pieces). chunks of fresh ginger and i think i got too excited with my cut chilli and soy and threw it over everything... ow ow ow
Darwin's Little India (again) - this time i had Aminah's fish curry, the dhal, potato and roti - tick!

see i'm on a roundabout. someone get me off with some ideas! (not in a sexy way you understand)

:-)))

post traumatic stress

Met up with Hungry and an old mate today for lunch - lets call her NGO chick - admittedly, our friendship is relatively young, but when you've lived in darwin together, its like going to WAR man! We hooked up at the roast duck/pork/chicken place cos i needed to check out the steamed chicken to see how it compared to yesterdays lunch and it. shat. all. over. it.

for $10 i got the steamed chicken combo, but unlike a combo at nandos, maccas or any other such hideousness, this consisted of chunks of pillowy steamed chicken on steamed bok choy and fluffy rice served with a small dish of soy sauce and cut chillis, a bowl of sweet corn and egg soup and a bottle of water. WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!

i took photos with Hungry's phone but will have to bluetooth them and post them
later :-))))

mush!

Hainanese chicken rice... mmmmmmmmmmmm.............in Singapore i became a little bit obsessed with it after finding out that it's regarded as the national dish of Singapore (just lucky it isn't kaya toast!!) - and i did a lot of compare and contrasting of HCR in different places, refining my criteria ...... the meat has to be tender, the flabby looking goosebumply white skin has to be easily removable *shudder*, lots of cucumber on or near the chicken is excellent, the rice must taste good......naturally i've carried the hunt over to Darwin and on the weekend, Director Chick 2 told me of a place that a mate refers to as the best hainanese chicken rice ANYWHERE. Try try must buy! I took off like a bat out of hell this afternoon (i even went to sleep last nite thinking about it) and found myself near the roast bbq duck and pork place looking at an unprepossessing place called asian cuisine on the mall ...lots of bain maries ... ? so i read the menu thinking this was surely the wrong place when suddenly i spied "chef's special - hainan chicken rice". As i hungrily read this i watched the chef ( a wizened woman) carry a massive tray of steaming chicken out of the kitchen - so i ordered it on the spot. I sat down, read my book, until a similar tray appeared .. big pile of tender chicken - check, skin off quick - check, lots of cucumber hidden under the chicken - check, broth yummy - CHECK! ok so it wasn't the best chicken rice i've ever had - that award would go to the lone man hacking up chcken with his cleaver at a stall at bugis junction dry market in Singers - but it was bloody nice. tomorrow i'm going to have a go of the steamed chicken from the roast pork and duck place and let you know which one is better :-)))))

chickwithnogutsy

For days now i've been wandering past a new Indian cafe slash restaurant on Knuckey St - Darwin's Little India, near the corner of Stradforth Lane. What pulled me in was the mention of Teh Tarik - a kind of frothy sweet pulled-milk tea that i became obsessed with in Singapore. Given my penchant for unhealthy attachment to weird things, the mere mention of it was enough to make me start stalking this cafe, which has been closed for the past week. I agreed to meet my mate Hungry for lunch today to get sushi and decided to poke my head in on the way back if it was open to check it out and try their tea..... anyway we stuck our heads in on the way on a whim and the proprietor, a delightful woman called Aminah, engaged us in a lengthy conversation about the evils of backpackers who don't turn up for work and by the time she'd finished talking, Hungry and I were starving. Also she had done a fine job of convincing us to stay - the shop which used to look pretty grimy has been renovated and is all sunny yellow paint, captivating indian music and good looking food! and Aminah offered us loads of it!!

I had the chicken biriani (chef's special) and tried the medium lamb, the beef and the butter chicken. The food was fresh, delicious, aromatic, all good and there was no greasiness, no hideous gutsache or any other unwanted, unanticipated after effects......(sadly she made me a teh tarik and it wasn't as good as Singapore, just proving that you can never really recapture the past).....

Darwin's Little India is open from 830am to 8pm, 7 days a week and Aminah does a chef's special every day. She offers a lunch special at $9.50 and does catering!!! Get down there.

sexy sari

Sexy Sari Rasa............mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Shit my camera phone sucks!!!!! I take a photo thinking this will tell you all everything you need to know, no words necessary, and it looks like crap really *frown*

What you can't see here is the sexy pile of fried potato chips underneath all the little beefy nuggets of dried beef. Steamed green beans in coconut milk. Silky chilli eggplant. All from Sari Rasa, a little hole in the wall indo place on Cavanagh St in Darwin. It's so popular with the locals that it's only open for about two hours every day for lunch. As usual I dont know where until i turn down the arcade. But it's soooo good - my lips are still burning from the chilli :-) :-) :-)