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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Wednesday 28 June 2006

Red Turban Indian Restaurant, Cannington

We've been to this restaurant once a couple of years ago and really liked it so we decided to go back there one more time before going to Japan where any non-Japanese food is probably not going to taste very authentic and is also most likely to be very expensive. For a buffet spread, we thought it was well-priced and very good quality (the food were pretty authentic prepared by Indian chefs). They have a great buffet spread of 12 hot dishes (plus butter naan bread, rice and pappadums), 8 cold/salad dishes and 4 choices of dessert with tea and coffee. All for $28.90pp. The price hasn't changed, but back then a glass of mango lassi was included as well, and we were disappointed this time to find out that it is no longer included. Vegetarians are very well-catered for (all of the 8 cold dishes and 7 of the 12 hot dishes are vegetarian), and if you inform the staff of any special dietary needs (e.g. gluten free, more/less spicy) they are willing to meet your needs. It is a spacious restaurant, but it is very popular (and oh my, there were several large diners!!) and bookings are highly recommended.

Now, I like Indian food, but am not a huge fan of Indian food (I find the curries much too rich and heavy). I found that I reached my limit far more quickly than I usually do at buffets. Rob definitely did not eat as much as he usually would at buffets as well however he felt that he still ate his money's worth. Cold dishes included fruit salad, pasta salad, coleslaw, potato salad, beansprout salad and beetroot with condiments like mango chutney and raita. Hot dishes included dahl, gobi korma, butter chicken, rogan josh, beef vindaloo and of course the tandoori chicken. We thought their garlic fish and fried chilli mushrooms tasted like those sweet and sour dishes at those chinese food stalls at food courts, probably to suit the palates of those who prefer those food. Dessert, there was the Gulab Jamun (sweet milk dumplings - Rob loves these!), jelly for the kids, fruit salad for the health conscious, and a creme brulee sorta thing for those that want to play it on the safe (but highly indulgent) side. Honestly, we didn't go 'Wow' at the food this time round. In fact, Rob thought that the food didn't taste as authentic as he remembered (methinks that was mostly thanks to the 'sweet and sour' likeness of the fish and mushroom dishes).

My verdict? The quality of the food is pretty good for a buffet spread, and there are so many good reviews of this place. It won a Gold Plate award for the Buffet Asian category which is pretty good for a place that is only a couple of years old. If you like Indian food, and if you can eat a lot of it, then you ought to try Red Turban's buffet. They do have a-la-carte and take-away options too if that's what you want.







Friday 23 June 2006

Mummy's cooking..

I adore my mother's cooking. This is something I will miss a lot during my stay in Japan. Hot, spicy and tasty (greasy) food. Mmm yum.. My mum celebrated her birthday last Saturday and she had a mini 'party' at her place. Although it was her birthday, she wanted to have a do at home rather than go out for dinner so unfortunately she spent a lot of time preparing the food and cleaning the place.. But anyway, her food didn't go unappreciated. Far from that - they were so yum!

This blog entry is really for the benefit of two of my sisters who couldn't make it due to exam preparations or being out of Australia. You guys missed out big time!

My mum's chicken curry - the one that I've been going on and on about!


The noodles she cooked were yummy too!! It had prawns and pork and egg in it..


She steamed sea bass with julienned ginger, soy and some white wine - it was delicious! I used to love it when we had steamed fish for dinner (pan-fried fish was my mum's preferred cooking method therefore steamed fish didn't happen very regularly when I was still living at home)


To help out with the food, we went to Hong Kong BBQ to pick up a whole roast duck ($21) (I recently did a review for this place). Pretty greasy, but pretty tasty roast duck (probably the best I've had in Perth).


One of the guests made this dessert which I can only describe as a dumpling made of Pulut Hitam (black glutinous rice - usually cooked with water, pandan leaves and sugar to a consistency similar to a pudding/porridge and served as a dessert with coconut cream) filled with Kaya (a sweet jam made from coconut, eggs and pandan). I love Pulut Hitam, and I thought that this was an ingenious and innovative way to present it.


Went to Regent Cakes on Francis Street in Northbridge to buy a birthday cake for my mum. Regent Cakes is an Asian bakery and makes quite good cakes. You can also buy other Asian bakeries like those sweet or savoury buns with various fillings like custard, red bean paste or bbq pork. This cake is a fresh fruit and cream pandan cake. The cake is for 15-18 people and costed $45 (!!). Need to preorder at least one day in advance for a big cake, and at least 2 days if you want a pandan cake.






The group was looking at photos taken by Ian at the wedding of our pastor's son who got married on the previous weekend (the pastor and his wife are the only non-Asians in the photo. Oh, besides Rob that is - I keep forgetting about Rob). Great opportunity to grab a group photo shot without that fake posed look.


Hehe, I like this photo of my mum. She doesn't usually smile in photos, and the ones of her smiling usually look fake. Ian gave her the rabbit ears..

Thursday 22 June 2006

Best wishes, Hon

If you recall, I mentioned in a previous post that my sister Honey left for Malaysia for a beauty comp. The latest update is she got into the finals and I think she is one of 16 beauties vying for the Miss Malaysia/World title.. Anyway, just wanted to devote a post to wish her the best :)

Monday 19 June 2006

Thai red curry

I like curries, and I like cooking them. I don't know how easy it is to obtain chillies and spices and curry stuff (not Japanese curry :P) when I'm in Japan, so I might miss cooking curry a lot. This recipe is one of my favourite recipes and I've cooked this several times over the past few years. It's one of them dishes that I'm confident to cook for guests. This is a relatively easy curry recipe which doesn't require a long cooking process.

This recipe calls for "Thai Red Curry" paste, which has lemongrass, galangal, shallot, oil, chilli and shrimp paste (which I am guessing is belachan) in its ingredient list. It would be pretty easy to make this from scratch, so I might do that when I have the chance to.

As with all curries, it is recommended to cook this the day before to allow the flavours to develop to its full potential.

Ingredients
Oil (1-2 tabspn)
1 onion, finely chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped/minced
2.5 tabspn thai red curry paste
600g chicken breast fillet, cut into bite-sized pieces
200g potatoes, cubed
1/4 cup coconut cream or 1/2 cup coconut milk (more if you like it milder or more
coconut-y)
1 capsicum, sliced
water (approx 1 cup? Enough to cover ingredients and simmer)
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 tab soy sauce or fish sauce
pepper
1 can of sliced bamboo shoots, drained


Optional additionals
dried chilli flakes - as hot as you want it to be
1 tsp ground galangal
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cumin seeds

Method
Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onion on medium high heat until soft and brownish. Add garlic and stirfry for a further 1 minute before adding the red curry paste (and any of the optional additional ingredients). Cook the paste (and optional spices) on low-ish heat until fragrant (1 minute) then turn up the heat to the highest setting and add the chicken and potatoes and stirfry for one or two minutes. Add the coconut cream/milk, capsicum, water, kaffir lime leaves, soy/fish sauce and simmer for a few minutes until the chicken and potatoes are cooked. Add the bamboo shoots, stir well to combine and simmer for another couple of minutes until bamboo shoots have soften to a more palatable texture (taste to test).

Serve with rice and veges.


Friday 16 June 2006

Jean's JET placement goes to... (drumroll)

Noto-cho! "Where?" I hear you say. And that, is a very good question (I can already see myself quickly growing weary of this question).

Last Monday, I received a short welcoming email from my new supervisor who is a Japanese Teacher of English (JTE) at one of the schools I'll be teaching at, and another more lengthy email from my predecessor (the one whom I will be replacing). On one hand, it was good to finally know exactly where in Japan I'll be living for the next 1 year, but on the other hand I wasn't too terribly excited about this inaka area. However, I do see many good things about my placement, and I am quite excited with anticipation. The idea of living in little Noto-cho is growing on me.

Noto-cho is a fishing town on the Noto Peninsula on the west coast of Japan in Ishikawa prefecture. It is pretty rural, but I see many advantages to this placement (unfortunately we don't get to choose our placements in the JET Program). Great seafood, good exposure to 'real' Japanese culture and relatively inexpensive living costs. Plus it's on the coast (I'd much prefer the beaches than the mountains!) and the two schools that I will be teaching at specialises in marine and maritime stuff, which is probably why I was was selected for this area being a maritime engineer (well, I like to think that way - it gives a bit of a reason behind my placement rather than it being a random selection process).

My predecessor is really friendly and so helpful with thoroughly answering all my questions (and I have heaps!), and the other JETs in Ishikawa Prefecture have likewise been really welcoming and helpful (they have their own website and forum. It seems like the JETs in this prefecture are pretty close-knit and are quite a social bunch. They've been saying to come prepared for the hot humid summers and the cold snowy winters. I lived in Malaysia for the first 11 years of my life and I'm pretty sure that the heat and humidity can't be worse than Malaysia. As for winter, the first time we see snow will be when we have to live with it! It'd certainly be an experience driving on icy roads...

No doubt there will be many things I will miss from home. Most obvious one is my family and friends (of course), but next in line will definitely be the food. I really am spoilt for choice here, and I'm not just talking about fresh produce. The fact that Australia is so multicultural means that we get a huge variety of food from different cultures to choose from when dining out. I am really gonna miss giving lots of restaurant reviews. I'm also going to miss the many days of sunshine that Perth is blessed with, the great cycle paths around Perth, living in a great location at Highgate close to the city, Subi and Leederville. I'm a bit daunted by the fact that fresh fruits and veges are expensive in Japan because I eat so much of the stuff!! But living in Japan will be an exciting cultural experience on the whole, paying a bit more for food seems like a small price to pay, and I am looking forward to it!

We will be quite busy for the next few weeks in preparation for my departure for the Tokyo Orientation on 5th August, and I will be in Tokyo for a few days, and then will fly to my new home where I will do more induction/orientation stuff and settling in. It makes sense then for Rob to leave Perth one or two weeks after me since I'll be quite busy with work stuff for the first week or so in Japan. That way I can suss out the things we need that we can't get in Japan, and get Rob to pack and ship them over..

Anyway, I thought it would be nice to conclude this post with a quote that I used in my essay for my JET application:

"Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Twain

Wednesday 14 June 2006

Jean's version of Beef Rendang

Rendang is a Malay-style dry curry usually made with beef, although it will work very well with lamb as well. I know I've said that I don't like red meat much, but rendang (like many other Malaysian dishes) has a somewhat nostalgic value for me and I wanted to try it again. Besides, I am trying to incorporate more red meat in our diet.

My mum has never cooked rendang before so I had to search online for recipes. I didn't have the luxury of having many of the ingredients available to me (eg fresh galangal) so I resorted to using the ground version and hoped that it would turn out well anyway. Traditionally, I'm supposed to roast fresh coconut then pound it with all the (fresh, not ground) spices to a paste with a pestle and mortar, but alas, where was I to get the coconut, or even the pestle and mortar? Admittedly, I could have used a blender, but it was near my bedtime and I figured that since 1) I'm using ground spices and 2) having to stew the curry for more than one hour, the ingredients would eventually meld together to a similar consistency (I actually forgot I had it on the stove, until I walked into the kitchen just before bedtime and wondered what the bubbling sound was :P).

So basically, I used what I had with the method I thought would work and hence my reluctance to give this recipe a straight "Beef Rendang" title. It is really my version of rendang because it deviates quite a bit from the traditional recipe you can find online. Naturally, I was quite concerned that it would taste nothing like rendang, but it actually turned out not too far from what I wanted. I packed some for lunch at work, and my friend had a taste and said it was really good and tasted like rendang. Yay! :)

Like all curries, it is better to cook rendang the night before to allow the flavours to deepen and develop. In fact, I think this was better two days after it was cooked. Next time, I'll be a bit more prepared and buy lemongrass stalk and steal some kaffir lime leaves from my mum's garden to improve this recipe.

Ingredients

1kg beef, cut into large-ish cubes (maybe 2cm?)
2 tabs curry powder for meat
2 tabs soy sauce
pepper

Spices
2 tsp ground galangal
2 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp ground paprika
1.5tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp cumin seeds
1.5 tsp ground ginger

1-2 tabs oil
1 large or 2 med onions, chopped
2 tsp ginger, chopped or grated
4 cloves of garlic, minced/chopped/crushed
1tsp sugar
1/2 cup coconut milk
enough water
1 cinammon stick

Method

1) Marinade the beef with the curry powder, soy sauce and pepper for 30minutes (long marination time is not essential in my opinion because this is pretty much like a stew and all the flavours are cooked into the meat during the long cooking process - I did it out of habit really).
2) Pre-mix the chilli flakes and ground spices together (helps to avoid burnt spices).
3) Heat the oil in a saucepan until hot, then cook the onions until almost brown.
4) Add the chopped ginger and garlic and stirfry for a minute before adding the chilli and ground spices. Stirfry for a minute until spices are roasted and fragrant, then add the meat and mix well, scraping the bottom of the pan which may have spices stuck to it.
5) Add the coconut milk, water, sugar and cinammon stick, stir well and bring to a simmer.
6) Let it cook for at least one hour, stirring occasionally to ensure nothing sticks on the bottom of the pan.
7) Cook until the beef is tender and the rendang is almost dry (to your liking). Season to taste if necessary.

This is yummy with bread or rice. Here I served it with basmati rice and some stir-fried veges.

Monday 12 June 2006

Happy Birthday Robbie!

Yep, it is Rob's birthday, and he's at the ripe old age of 26. Hope you enjoyed your weekend, Rob :)

(btw, this post also serves as a reminder to Rob's friends of Rob's birthday...)

Thursday 8 June 2006

Hong Kong BBQ, Northbridge

This last weekend (long weekend) was absolutely packed with social commitments. No time for me to bum around doing my own thing, or to watch any episodes of the Korean series DaeJangGeum that my friend Amy got me hooked on (actually Rob's hooked as well. It has 75 episodes (!!), and we're trying to finish them before having to return the dvds before leaving for Japan. There are lots of food in it!! Oh and the drama/action is pretty good too - it must be good coz even Rob's watching it and he usually snub so-called 'chick' shows).

Anyway, after spending the morning and early afternoon on Sunday with my family (my mum arrived back to Perth the night before from her trip to Malaysia), we did some winter clothes shopping in preparation for Japan's cold cold winter. You would probably never ever hear/read this from a (norm) female again, but I HATE SHOPPING!! I seriously honestly do. I just don't have the patience for shopping and arsing around with taking off my clothes to try on clothes that either don't fit or look nice, then having to put my clothes back on to look for ones that look like they might fit and then going back to the changeroom to do the iterative process again. It can be so frustrating, and I hate the fashion style out now at the moment in Perth (for the past year or so). So unflattering and unwearable. And so expensive for a little piece of cloth. I do, however, like winter clothes. I find that winter fashion tend to be a bit more wearable.

I digress. Later that day, we went out for dinner with my friends to Hong Kong BBQ Restaurant. You would think that the word 'BBQ' in the name of the restaurant implies that the food is cooked at the table, like at Korean BBQ restaurants, but that is not the case. The name just indicate that this restaurant specialises in dishes like roast duck, bbq pork (char-siew) and the like. Quite nice - I have previously bought a whole roast duck ($21) for my parents and it was pretty good. My group of friends have been to this restaurant before, and they really liked it, and hence the reason why this place was chosen again. It is a very popular restaurant, usually full of Chinese diners (book early). This is an authentic Chinese restaurant, with pretty simple decor and crowded floor as is typical of these type of restaurants. Service was quite helpful and friendly enough although it would help a lot if the lady serving us wouldn't spontaneously chat to us in Cantonese (she assumed the Asians in the group were all Chinese and knew the Cantonese dialect).

Although there were ten of us, we didn't take very long to decide on the dishes - the others pretty well left it to us four girls to choose the dishes. The prices of the dishes ranged from around $10 for the simple vegetable dishes to $20 for the seafood dishes like prawns (and market prices for the crabs, whole fish, scallops etc).

Sizzling Egg Tofu: This was soooo yummy! I love Japanese egg tofu, and the eggs served in this dish complemented the tofu very well. I couldn't tell whether the meat in the dish was diced chicken or fish.


Combination BBQ Platter: With this one, we could choose three or four 'BBQ' meats - I think we went with Charsiew, roast pork and roast duck. Quite yummy, although probably not very healthy..


Combination Tofu Claypot: I'm pretty sure I mentioned previously that when trying out new Chinese restaurants, I have to try the claypot dishes. It's like the benchmark dish to decide if the place is good or not. Anyway, this was pretty good - it had prawns, squids, tofu, chicken, pork, veges etc. Pretty tasty (except for the coriander).


Szechuan Prawns: This was quite nice - big fresh prawns with a nice sauce, although I didn't think the sauce was very spicy as is typical of the Szechuan style dishes. Oh well.. This was a popular dish and I believe a few of us at the table missed out on trying this one.


Lemon Chicken: Haha, I knew someone would order one of these 'typical' dishes. It was okay, but honestly, quite ordinary. I generally don't like food that has been battered, deep fried and drenched in sauce. It seems rather 'food-court' like (I worked in a food court place for a year).


Peking Spareribs: Another 'benchmark' dish when trying out new restaurants. This was done okay - we have had nicer ones.


Red Bean Pancake: For desserts, we went for these sweet pancakes (admittedly, there wasn't much to choose from. I think there was a choice between fried ice cream, standard lychee and longan stuff, and these pancakes). It was so greasy, with not much red bean filling at all. I can't say I liked these very much which is a pity because something like this has good potential to be yummy.



We had a great time. I think Rob and myself have established ourselves as freaks amongst this group, with Rob's ability to raise both his brows individually and do weird facial stuff, and my ability to wiggle my ears. We always have a good laugh with this group (yes Tung, we still remember you dancing in that kimono at Thad's).

My Good Friend's Wedding

Went to a good friend's wedding on Saturday. Shona is one of my oldest and probably dearest friend, and I've known her since primary school. Now, unlike a lot of women I know, I'm not usually one to go all teary-eyed at weddings, but when Shona walked down the aisle with her father, I found myself choking back tears. She looked stunning, and I guess it hit quite hard then that we are onto the next stage of our lives. It was a very nice ceremony - Jimmy, her husband, sang for her in the procession song as she walked down the aisle. It was so good - great voice, lovely song - it was so nice. And the ceremony was short and sweet, followed by photographs, and then a lovely spread for lunch. It was great catching up with our mutual friends from primary and high schools.

The blushing bride walks down the aisle with her dad:


The romantic moment shared between the soon-to-be newlyweds:


Us with them:


The yummy lunch food:


We were invited to the reception dinner later that day held at Grand Palace Restaurant on the Esplanade. It's a Chinese restaurant with a modern style and decor. The food was quite nice, and the presentation was well done (as you would expect it to be for a wedding reception function). This is where we tried sea cucumber for the first time. Here it is served with some sort of giant mushrooms which I assume is one of them not-so-common Asian varieties that have been dried for preservation. Sea cucumber doesn't have much taste to it and quite jelly-like. (Just an aside: honestly, I don't see why it's such a delicacy. It's the same with abalone - I don't understand the hype surrounding this stuff - it's not that tasty and not very nice to eat when it's overcooked.)

It was great catching up with my friend Germaine who flew back from Melbourne for the wedding:

Germ and me


Here are some photos of the food (most of them were portioned out for us in individual servings, and these are the few the waiters left for us to dig in ourselves):

Sea cucumber with giant mushrooms


Roast duck


Dessert plate (Rob loved those sweet potato fritters)


The newlyweds were then subjected to a number of games, one of which involved extracting the hazelnut in the centre of a Ferraro Rocher chocolate using only their mouths. I have lots of photos of that but I don't think I should post any without asking for their permissions.

It was a great day, and a very nice wedding. I was very privileged to join in the wedding celebrations for one of my very good friends.

Wednesday 7 June 2006

Jam and Coconut Slice for picnic

I made this slice recipe to bring along to this impromptu picnic my friends from primary/high school organised at our friend's wedding on Saturday. We had the picnic at King's Park on Monday (long weekend holiday), and it was a beautiful day for a picnic. Perth is one of the very few places blessed with many days of sunshine during winter. The size of the group present at the picnic is only a fraction of the huge size we were when we used to hang out together in high school. The group was so big that we had to spend our lunch and recess breaks in one of the school's demountables fit for 30 students. We had a great time catching up with one another and reminiscing the good ol' days.



Germaine wanted to 'pose' for our photo and I went along with it because it is not very often that she visits us in Perth..



Anyway, back to the topic. This is pretty simple and easy to make. The original recipe called for 1 cup sugar which I thought was a bit excessive given that jam will already be quite sweet. I reduced the sugar but it was still pretty sweet. I added sultanas to add a bit more fruitiness to the slice. This is such a buttery sweet treat - definitely not something to snack on if you are trying to lose weight! I think, in future, I will reduce sugar content a bit more and probably reduce the amount of butter as well in an effort to make this a more healthy treat. The original recipe suggested storing this in the fridge - I've kept it out the fridge because I don't want the slice to soften too much.

Ingredients

1 cup (100g) oats
1.5 cups (180g) plain flour (used 1 cup plain, 1/2 cup wholemeal plain)
0.5 cups (50g) dessicated coconut
3/4 cup (150g) raw sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
170g melted butter
75g sultanas
Jam (I used about 120g)

Method

1) Preheat oven to 180degC and line a 20cmx20cm tin with baking paper.
2) Mix oats, flour, coconut, sugar and cinnamon. Add butter and stir until all ingredients are moistened with butter.
3) Press 2/3 of the mixture into the base of the tin and spread over a thick layer of strawberry jam. Add the remaining pastry mixture, pressing gently with a fork.
4) Bake for 30-35minutes or until light golden. Allow to cool and cut into fingers.

Friday 2 June 2006

Zebra's African Steakhouse in Bicton

Last Saturday, Rob and myself met up with Rinnie and Matt for a movie (The Da Vinci Code) and dinner. The movie itself was only okay - all of us had already read the book and agreed that the movie didn't quite give the same feel. Not certain if this was due to the actors' performances or the layout of the movie itself.

We had dinner at Zebra's African Steakhouse in Bicton. Dinner was very enjoyable, and thanks guys for humoring me by allowing me to take photos of your plates. The decor of the restaurant was done very well - you definitely can tell it is meant to be African. The photos below give an idea of the decoration inside and outside the restaurant (we arrived pretty early - even before the steakhouse opened its doors at 18:30 - and we had the opportunity to take photos with an empty diner). The interior of the restaurant is quite spacious and I think it would be a great place to have a function at. There is also an outdoor bar that one encounters upon entering, which is also just as nicely decorated. Service was friendly and polite, although my main meal arrived at the table 5-10minutes after the others. Otherwise the service was faultless and the waitstaff always had smiles on their faces.







Entree

Rin's sister had recommended the Matopos Mushrooms ($10.50) - grilled mushrooms stuffed with cheese. It was quite nice, but I thought was quite simple and (of course) easily done at home.



Matt had the Prawn Jabulani ($13.75), which I believe is served with avocadoes. I didn't have a try of it, so I can't say whether it was good or not, but Matt said it was nice. It certainly looked yummy.




Mains

With the main meals, you get baked potatoes or rice and vegetables or the salad bar. All of us went with the salad bar which had a good variety of salads. There is also the option to change the sauce served with the meat - from memory, you could choose from creamy garlic, bbq or piripiri. Like Rob said, the dishes tend to be simplistic (how many different ways can you present steak, except to change the sauces?), but delicious.



Rinnie ordered the Piripiri Prawn ($29.75), and it looked really good. It tasted damn good as well. The prawns were big, fresh and done well.



Matt went for the Piripiri T-bone Steak ($27.75) which was huge! It came out sizzling on a hot plate and drowned in the hot piripiri sauce. It was apparently quite yummy.



Rob, always the adventurous eater (more so than myself), ordered the Safari Platter ($29.75) which had crocodile, ostrich, buffalo, boerewors served with monkey gland and piripiri dipping sauce. Boerewors is a sausage, and according to this website, monkey gland sauce was invented as a joke. We've had crocodile before (it wasn't so bad, was it Rinnie?) and we still love it. The ostrich meat unexpectedly had a similar texture and taste to red meat, and the buffalo meat tasted similar to beef.



Last, but not least, I went for the Chicken Shosholoza which was meant to be served with a creamy garlic sauce, but I opted for the more spicy piripiri sauce. Like Matt's t-bone steak, the chicken came out sizzling on a hot plate, drenched in the sauce. The chicken breast was done quite nicely, and wasn't overcooked or dry at all.




Desserts

After the meal, almost everyone was looking forward to dessert. All the desserts were very nicely presented. The only thing on the desserts menu I knew was traditional to African cuisine is the Koeksister ($8.25) - which is basically pastry which has been braided, deep fried and then dipped in sugar syrup. It is similar to the doughnuts as we know them in the western culture. Obviously, Rob and I ordered one to share. It was nice (included ice cream too), but would probably have been a little bit too rich for me to finish one on my own.



Rinnie ordered this Passionfruit Granadilla ($8.25), which is a very creamy dessert presented like a creme caramel, but with passionfruit sauce. I had a tiny taste, and it was yummy, but I am rather intolerant to creamy things and have to conclude that I would not be able to have more than one bite of this dessert. I believe Rin enjoyed her dessert :)



Matt ordered Coffee Crunch ($8.25), which from memory is a coffee-flavoured ice-cream.




All in all, movie and dinner with a couple of our friends was a very nice way to spend the latter part of the Saturday. We had a good time, and this African steakhouse gets our thumbs up (especially if you have the Entertainment Card handy).