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!!!

the dry season cometh?

While i was sitting at the park in the rain on saturday nite, i had heard tell of a new venture based in the Nightcliff swimming pool carpark and always intrigued by tales of toasties and coffee and bacon and egg sandwiches, i made a date to check it out next weekend. but. when i woke up yesterday morning i peered thru the louvres and lo and behold! hark! yay and verily! it was sunny!!!!!! i can't emphasise how good this was after all the shitty grey wet season-ness i've been dragging my ass through so i rallied Director Chick and the two squids round to the pool to check it out on the way to the markets yesterday.

They're called Box Jellyfish, a blue trailer that's hard to miss as it's right on the edge of the walkway to maximise the traffic (foot and otherwise) cruising by. they sell Vittoria coffee, which i really really like, they grind it then and there and though my flat white and DC's latte were on the weakish side, it wasn't hideous. they made a good toastie (we got a plain cheese one and a ham and cheese), judging by the way they were wolfed down and i enjoyed my bacon and egg s/wich (although you'd have to do something really really wrong for me to not like anything that involves bacon and eggs). they also delivered everything to our table as we chased squid 2 around which was sweet and they brought over chocolate frogs for the squids to eat (nothing like chocolate on an empty stomach at 10am) the other thing is that its such an excellent place to eat overlooking the sea and the sun.. ah the sun... i soaked it up as i ate, watching the three crazy people swimming in the sea below me with the box jellyfish..perhaps they too had been tricked into thinking it was a dry season day?

Box Jellyfish: Nightcliff Pool Carpark - definitely sat and
sun mornings.

my greasy emilios italian dinner :-((((

cos i didn't post a photo of it earlier but look at all that oiliness! *shuddering*

look what i made! *squeal*

For Director Chicks 40th!

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

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)

:-)))

Parap Fine Foods - Saturday morning

NGO chick sent me a text the other day saying that i should blog about the parap fine foods pastry selection - she reckons it's the best selection of gourmet breads and non-brumby/bakers delight type pastry yumminess in Darwin. This is not the first time i've been told this - Hungry told me some years ago now that she used to wait out the front of PFF on Saturday mornings to buy 2 of only 8 chocolate croissants that are available!! Not sure if this is still the case, and having not checked it out myself, i can only tell you what they've said and suggest it might be worth checking out. Not sure where they get their bread/pastriness from either...... it's all a mystery!

http://www.parapfinefoods.com/ i think they're open from 8am, 9 on Sundays.
Parap village, 40 Parap Rd, Parap.