Manoli's (again), happy greek easter, the best bbq pork sausage EVER and thailicious!!!!!

In case my pics come up all skewiff, they're of the Thai Food Fair here in Darwin. One day i'm gonna figure out the photo thing with this blog!!!!

Things have been a little slack at chickwithguts lately - the sissy has arrived from Perth and has been settling in, plus a bit of generalised anxiety and a mother-in-law visit have all been taking up a bit of time and space in my head. If i was a different person i would be furiously blogging away regardless, but i'm not, i disappear up my own ass. So i'll do a quick catch up instead:

Took the sissy to Manoli's for lunch last week, our first lunch visit - lunch very different to dinner. Some offerings on the menu that don't appear on the dinner menu - a home-made moussaka, spanakopita, all served up with a bit of uninspiring greek salad on the side. I don't know whether it was the lunch time ambience, my head, or WHAT, but it lacked the usual Manoli's magic. But then everything has lacked magic for me lately, so I won't hold it against them.

This weekend was Greek Easter, so we decided to do a bit of a greek-themed dinner party on Saturday night - everyone got very inspired, Hungry whipped up a very spinachy spinach and ricotta pie, the sissy a bit of her own made-up-recipe Tzatziki, I made a Horitiaki salad and the Dessert Doc made a greek rice pudding with some little citrussy orange shavings that rocked my world .... then we sat outside in the tropical humidity clutching our stomachs, pouring with sweat, so very very far from the Greek islands... MMM!

Sunday I took the sissy and the wee grrl to the Nightcliff Markets. I know I've talked before about a vietnamese stall there that does a lemongrass fish salad which is fresh and minty and perfect for Darwin.. well I was standing in line waiting to order it when the woman next to me ordered the BBQ pork sausage salad. An odd combo you might think, but this stall does the best BBQ pork sausages. Simple rice paper rolls are elevated to new heights when you stick one of these babies inside. So I decided to branch out. Try something new. Create a new neural pathway. God it was good. SO good. Fresh. Cool. Minty. The sausage sliced into big rounds of porky goodness, nestled into the rice noodles. Meaty, but not unpleasantly so, and very very tasty. I have absolutely NO regrets about this decision, the sissy was so taken by it she had to get one too.

Later Sunday afternoon we joined all the other adventurous Darwin locals looking for a bit of Thai and Laos food fair action. These food fair fundraisers are held a couple of times a year at a civic hall in Malak (?) and they are sweaty stinking hot affairs where you can get Thai and Laotion specialties that you wouldn't find anywhere outside well, say, Thailand or Laos. There are always safe options like Pad Thai for sale, or things sitting in Bain Maries (yuk) - but the more adventurous souls cruise around sampling the real deal - like the steamed prawn and chive dumplings ... the fried chilli mussels... fish maws... the fish soup so hot that when i ate it my lips swelled up like i'd done a quick round with the botox doctor... yup. If you are ever in Darwin and see that one of these is on, you need to get down. The sissy and I spent a minimal amount of money for great food and then perched on the wall with what looked like the whole Asian population of Darwin and tucked in. Good stuff.

Manoli's take 2

Hungry and I slipped into Manolis Saturday night after a trip to the movies to see Milk - i guess after having such an amazing first experience at Manoli's we wanted to see if it was a flash in the pan. Earlier in the week I had tried to book us in, but they were booked out! So on a tip we decided to slip in at 845 pm and ask if we could be seated near the bar, which is where we were last time. Sure enough, they were sweet and accomodating and within seconds we were whisked inside, seated and fed. Very similar to last time, but if anything the food was better!

New things we tried: Saganaki - greek cheese in a pizza sized wedge, fried and golden and deliciously bad for you... Bougatsa, a puffy golden pastry dessert filled with custard and dusted with icing sugar... more greek coffee, Hungry got a taste of extreme latte art when she was directed by the Barista to notice the image of a cat on her latte! Mama Manoli came and sat with us for half an hour.. we met Papa Manoli, chef Manoli, sisters Manoli and family friend Alex (all working at the restaurant of course). Then when we went to leave, free Baklava and Kataifi were pressed into our hands to take home. In Perth i've had this kind of experience before - i call it going thru the portal - by which i mean that speedy service, great food and nice atmosphere don't necessarily equate to a magical experience, but sometimes, just sometimes, you hit the jackpot and it feels like something magical is happening. That's Manolis.

When we left it was raining and we pressed our free desserts into the hands of some people sitting in the rain on the street - seemed only right to share the love :-) :-) :-)

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.