New Experiences

After finding ourselves in the city after a lesson at CAE at 9.30 on Monday night, we were starving and frankly, the thought of food was the only thing keeping us from not going home due to exhaustion of busy-ness. C thought of Supper Inn, which excited me beyond belief. Supper Inn holds a bit of nostalgia for me, as it was the place where my parents took me the night before I was due to start orientation at uni a while ago. Also, in my two-and-half years in Melbourne, I had heard lots about the famed congee (or rice porridge) and I was itching to try it. At that point though, probably anything hot put in front of me would have been OK by me. Nonetheless, we trekked to Chinatown and up the rickety stairs, and after a 2 minute wait, we sat and ordered. C ordered a thousand-century egg and pork congee, whereas I went with the less conventional, but more appetizing (to me, at least) roast duck congee, as well as some fried dough sticks to go with it. Mmmm. The congee was flavourful even on its own, without any smidgen of MSG (or perhaps they just cooked it so well that I didn't taste it). The duck was delicious, tender and slim with barely any fat. The chinese donut, sliced into little bits, dunked into the congee was just the icing on top of the cake. Speaking of cake, we didn't have any cake, but we did have banana fritters with vanilla ice cream covered with some type of heavy syrup. I loved every bit about that meal, including the fact that it was mostly conducted in Cantonese, there were a large number of Caucasians there appreciating the authenticity of the food, and also I'd been waiting to eat this meal for a few years now. Though the congee was a little pricy ($6 each), the meal worked out to $10 for each of us, so we were pretty happy with it. Perusing the menu, C commented that a proper meal with dishes a la carte would probably have worked out to way more expensive. However, it was still delicious and I pronounce it one of the Best Meal Ever, the first of its kind here at The Secret Foodie. In fact, just thinking about it is making me hungry....

As for tonight, on the pretense of 'research', I trekked to the Moroccan Soup Bar accompanied with T, C and a bunch of other girls. We arrived at 6.20 to be told that they were all booked out (we forgot to book ahead of time), but if we could eat fast, we could have the tables that were reserved for 7.30 onwards. So we plonked down, and little glasses of sweet mint tea were handed to us as we waited for the rest of our group to turn up. I, of course, had heard all about this place for a long, long time and had, again, been meaning to try it out. We all decided to go for the $17.50 banquet, and platters of pita bread and dips were brought out to us. The hommus was a particular winner in my books, and other parts of the entree platter included marinated carrots, potatoes and olives, broccoli dip, tzatziki. As soon as we had wiped the last bit of hommus off the plate, more plates laden with beautiful looking food came out and were put in front of us. We had spicy vegetable stews with couscous, roasted eggplant, lentil stew with rice, a potato dish with rice, the famed chickpea bake and homemade dolmades. The meal became a bit of a blur, as everyone tried to juggle spooning food into their bowls, passing all the dishes around and trying to eat at the same time. Everyone loved the chickpea bake, whereas I, though enjoyable, had concluded that perhaps I just am not necessarily that partial to chickpeas. I don't know. It was still really very good though, and I loved the not-so-crispy-yet-not-soggy bits of baked pita bread in the dish. I particularly liked the spicy veggie stews with couscous. My utmost favourite part, though, was the cardamom sweetened coffee and the sweets that came at the end. We had a slice with pistachios, which was very nice. There was also a cream puff that looked rather like a spring roll which I didn't try, as I was more partial to the biscuit which was crumbly on the outside and had a nice dollop of sweet paste (perhaps date?) in the middle. Delicious. At that point, the 7.30 party arrived and we thought it might be prudent to scooch off so they could have their pre-booked table. Also we were just itching to go home to drink our bottle of wines in our bags.

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Supper Inn Chinese Restaurant
15 Celestial Ave
Melbourne

Moroccan Soup Bar
183 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North

Gaylord Indian Restaurant - Test-run Anniversary

After the boy and I decided on a date for Wednesday night, I met him to discover that he had (unintentionally mistakenly) thought that our one year Anniversary was in fact this week. Although I was quick to rag on him a bit about 'forgetting', it was pointed out to me that although I may go by the actual solid date, he was more about "celebrating our time together as a couple. I thought that was the point of an anniversary.". Um, yes, but dates matter. Particular dates. ESPECIALLY Anniversary dates, to the actual day.

We bickered (playfully - we do it a lot) all the way downtown in search of a nice dinner place before our movie at Melbourne Central. Being the indecisive couple we are, I decided to take charge and took him to Camy's Shanghai Noodle & Dumpling to introduce him to the wonderful world of dumplings, and in my opinion, some of the best Chinese food around. Plus it's a cheap satisfying feed. When we got there, the expected out-the-door-line was firmly in place. Not willing to hang around and wait (again, his call, not mine - can you see the pattern of blaming him for everything tonight? It only gets better), we walked the 5 feet to Gaylord Indian Restaurant.

It is impossible to miss the decor in this place as soon as you walk in the door. I think the best way to describe it is kitsch. Nonetheless, I'm all for the kitsch. The more outdated and slightly tacky the decor, the more character it adds to a place. The walls were brightly coloured, there were brass elephants and fairy lights and plastic flowers galore. It gave me a whole "it's cute, but..." feeling, and I only hoped that this was one of those places where people go because the food is so great that the owners didn't have time to modernise their restaurant. There were only a few tables occupied in quite a large restaurant area when we arrived, but the arrival of a party of 20 Indians a few minutes later was a bit more reassuring. After all, if the locals are eating there, it must be good, right?

We were served a basket of pappadums the instant we sat down, although the water arrived 20 minutes later, and only after asking 3 separate waiters - and, might I add, after the food arrived. After a short perusal, A decided on lamb vindaloo and shish kebabs while I went with a dish whose name I can't remember, but was eggplant cooked with tomato, ginger and peas. Naan and saffron rice were ordered as accompaniments.

The food arrived literally 5 minutes after we'd ordered, piping hot and filling the air with smells of spices and cooked meat. The shish kebab was apparently nothing too exciting, as was the lamb vindaloo. I tasted some of the sauce, and it was OK; not bad, not great, not too spicy, not too un-spicy either. I found myself using the vindaloo sauce as a dip for naan towards the end of the meal in an eating-absentmindedly kind of way, but I suspect this was because I wasn't really thinking about it as opposed to the dish being fantastic. My eggplant dish was nice, although it seemed like all the ingredients were simply cut up and cooked together into a mush without having the flavours and textures meld together. It was pleasant enough, but again, not fantastic. The best part of the meal was the naan - steaming hot, crispy in the middle and thick and chewy towards the outside.

Just as I had decided to write off our dinner at Gaylord as an experience, but never to be repeated, A told me quite frantically that he wasn't feeling too hot and dashed off to the bathroom. 20 minutes later, he reemerged with a slightly queasy look on his face, but determined to sit through our movie. Fair enough. Half way through Sunshine, he then disappeared for another 20 minutes. After we decided to head our separate ways home, he messaged me later to tell me that his dinner had come back up, but at least we got to spend the time together tonight. Sweet, but indigestion isn't really what I'd had planned for our Anniversary. Lucky I'm only counting it as a normal date.

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Gaylord Indian Restaurant
4 Tattersalls Lane
Melbourne

A Light Detox

After weeks of balls, 21sts, housewarmings and good times, I feel as though I've been steadily adding onto my winter bulk with my overindulgence of delicious, yet not figure flattering foods. What I need now whilst feeling bloated and overindulgent is a light soup broth that is easy to make, yet nutritional enough to make a meal out of it. I yearn for the days of living at home, where my detox diet would be substituting my dinner meal every day with a large platter of steamed vegetables, steamed tofu topped with soy sauce, a piece of fish and to finish off, a plate of assorted fruits. More often than not, there was also a large steaming bowl of soup broth left to boil on the stove for hours, slaved over lovingly by my grandma as she added corn on the cob, pieces of tender pork, pork bones that gave the soup such rich flavours and many other ingredients with high medicinal and nutritional value. I never quite knew what were in those soups, but I did know that they were light, yet filling and definitely good for me.

These days, I wouldn't dream of going to such lengths to produce a good bowl of soup. An easy alternative I've come up with is miso soup. I never used to be a big fan of miso soup, especially the complimentary soup that comes with bento boxes at Japanese restaurants. However, after buying a packet of miso, I figured I should probably do something with it. Because I often find miso soup too salty, I've remedied this by adding more water to the soup broth as I make it. I then add whatever I can find into the soup, depending on what I feel like - instant buckwheat ramen, vegetarian dumplings from Chinatown, wakame (Japanese seaweed), other veggies, slices of silken tofu. It makes for a warm, light, yet filling winter meal.


Miso Soup
2 tbs miso
2 1/2 cups boiling water
frozen vegetarian dumplings
silken tofu, cubed
wakame

1) Pour boiling water into a saucepan.
2) Add spoonfuls of miso into the water and allow to dissolve slowly. Add or omit water depending on personal preference for saltiness levels (typically, the packet advises 1 tbs of miso to 1 cup boiling water).
3) Once the soup is prepared, add other ingredients and let boil for several minutes.
4) Serve hot.