SSSSSSaffron

The other afternoon I had the luxury of an afternoon sleep and when I woke up, I couldn't get the Morroccan Soup Bar out of my head *see last post. So I lay there for ages yearning for MSB takeaway for dinner that night.. which led me to dark thoughts about Darwin's shitty takeaway options. THEN I thought that, actually, you know, I've become complacent. Goddammit. We regularly get TA from about 5 places - all pretty ordinary. Why not get something GOOD I thought, strike out on a limb. And Saffron popped into my head.

Now I've only been there once and from what I remember the service was weird, they tried to rope us into a banquet that none of us wanted, no-one knew where to get cutlery, crockery or water and we all got jack of it pretty quick and then never went back. BUT from memory the food was really good. This being a classic case of cutting ones nose off to spite ones face, I decided that Saffron was the TA option I had been denying myself. And you know what? It was really really really really nice! I could go even go WAAY out on a limb and say that it was as good as HANUMAN!!! (crazy I know). Have I mentioned that it's Indian food?

We started off with small ordering intentions, but by the time the sissy and I had finished with the menu we had ordered 90 bucks worth of stuff including saffron rice, steamed rice, some very yummy very deliciously charred sweet breads - one was a garlic naan and the other was a onion and cheese bread that was soooooooooooooooo good - tender sweet, really tasty....we got butter chicken (average - oh maybe that's unfair, I'm not a huge fan, so I'm probably not the best judge), a green dhal that i LOVED, and a paneer dish with peas for the vego girlfriend - my only criticism of it would be that they were all a bit sloppy - a lot of liquid and perhaps not huge amounts of other content and paying what we did, I would expect there to be CHUNKS of THINGS dammit - especially when it's peas and cheese!!! The other massive bonus for kid bearing folk is that they offer a kids menu, which looked so yummy I would have been quite happy to eat off it :-)))))) baby vego spring rolls, baby vego curry puffs, breads, chicken with coloured rice - yum!

Ok so Saffrron is out the back of the Parap Markets - near the alleyway that contains 24 hour Art. This is so slack but you might have to look it up on the net - incidentally you can see all their menus and contacts on the internet, which is pretty handy.

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 :)