A family dinner with my loud and loved lot always means chaos. My siblings and I have all seem to have inherited various percentages of the drama queen gene from dad (he's not going to like that, but I will refer him to his published poetry where I believe I was referred to as GANGLY. touche mon papa, touche) and we all like to contribute our 10c to the conversation. Only it rapidly turns from a 10c input to throwing handfuls of shiny shiny coins at one or more of the 5 topics we are currently discussing. The conversation moves. QUICKLY.
And did I mention darling dad has also strictly ingrained a deep respect and interest in the culinary world? The mere reference of pineapple on pizza sends him into hysterics (dad, one comment from you on my descriptions and I will be forced to mention the butter chicken incident. You have been warned) and he has been known to travel extraordinary distances to test out a recommendation.
Needless to say - we are tough on restaurants.
For the night to be a success we need staff that can flirt and engage appropriately, but who also realise that when I have begun my 'you'll NEVER believe what happened to me...' monologue it's best to melt back into the shadows until I'm finished.
We also need a lengthy and varied liquor list to lubricate our conversation and encourage scandalous revelations. And to assist us to recover from and dissect these revelations. And to erase all memories of these revelations.
Delhi 'o' Delhi had the staff, had the booze, but the food?
Sadly not up to scratch.
The dishes were adequate, but not impressive enough to stop anyone mid discussion for an 'oooh that's good try that one' comment. Although conversation at family dinners never stops entirely, great food can mellow us into having (gasp) only one person speaking at a time. The presentation of the food was lovely, but the flavours were a bit ho hum and to be perfectly honest I can't recall all the dishes we tried, they all faded away post event.
Sadly this means that Delhi 'o' Delhi will not be receiving my families (highly sought after) thumbs up. Sorry guys, but we will be taking our messy chaos elsewhere next time.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Mary likes to eat Piadinas
La Piadina
93000160
106 Glenayr ave
Bondi
Tues – Sun
BYO & Licensed
My monthly dinner club was brought to Bondi under the promise of a baboon (but that’s a story for another time) and we were consoling ourselves (due to the absence of said baboon) with a lovely white wine and trying to decide on a location for dinner (we had one criteria – BYO and a bottle shop near by)
‘I know a great Panini place’ I volunteered.
‘I know a great pizza place’ another member contributed.
After a brief discussion we settled on pizza and walked to the very place I was thinking of. La Piadina doesn’t serve pizza or panini and I’m blaming the baboon for our muddled concept. What it does serve is beautiful Italian flat bread folded over and heated on a grill (kind of quesadilla style) with a variety of yummy fillings. We ordered 3 to share, and fillings included prosciutto (sliced in store), buffalo mozzarella, grilled eggplant, mushroom and rocket. Desert was little dough pockets filled with Nutella, again grilled, and absolutely delicious (but a little explosive when first bitten).
There is very minimal seating (one 4 seater, a two seater and a window bar) and the space is tiny, but the open design makes it cosy rather than cramped. The lay out keeps your dinning experience feeling private (very important for an all female crowd discussing women’s issues, such as the latest Sex in the City movie) and we truly enjoyed our non pizza and non panini experience. Even without the baboon.
93000160
106 Glenayr ave
Bondi
Tues – Sun
BYO & Licensed
My monthly dinner club was brought to Bondi under the promise of a baboon (but that’s a story for another time) and we were consoling ourselves (due to the absence of said baboon) with a lovely white wine and trying to decide on a location for dinner (we had one criteria – BYO and a bottle shop near by)
‘I know a great Panini place’ I volunteered.
‘I know a great pizza place’ another member contributed.
After a brief discussion we settled on pizza and walked to the very place I was thinking of. La Piadina doesn’t serve pizza or panini and I’m blaming the baboon for our muddled concept. What it does serve is beautiful Italian flat bread folded over and heated on a grill (kind of quesadilla style) with a variety of yummy fillings. We ordered 3 to share, and fillings included prosciutto (sliced in store), buffalo mozzarella, grilled eggplant, mushroom and rocket. Desert was little dough pockets filled with Nutella, again grilled, and absolutely delicious (but a little explosive when first bitten).
There is very minimal seating (one 4 seater, a two seater and a window bar) and the space is tiny, but the open design makes it cosy rather than cramped. The lay out keeps your dinning experience feeling private (very important for an all female crowd discussing women’s issues, such as the latest Sex in the City movie) and we truly enjoyed our non pizza and non panini experience. Even without the baboon.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Mary likes to eat dumplings
Chinese Noodle House
Prince Centre
Thomas st
China Town, Sydney
While travelling for the last year the most common statement from Sydney-ites was ‘I miss the dumplings from that little place with the plastic vines on the ceiling!’. As soon as I returned to home base I booked the girls for a food-coma educing dumpling extravaganza. We were met with a devastating sign announcing the Chinese Noodle RESTAURANT was closed for kitchen renovations. Turning to leave, we discovered that opposite it the Chinese Noodle HOUSE was open, and almost a mirror image (complete with plastic vines/grapes on the ceiling). This raised the question, what was the difference between restaurant and house? Not the staff (the trick for dealing with these surly waitresses - order CLEARLY and early, give them the evil eye while waiting and they will bring out the plastic cups so you can crack open the [cheap] wine, and most importantly once inside ALWAYS keep your chopsticks in-hand while hovering over a piece of food or they will bill and exit you faster than you can say linger), not the interior (tiny, noisy, crowded, loved), but the food? The hand-cut noodles were excellent, the dumplings were brothy inside (as they should be), but for me the dry fried garlic beans lacked punch, and the special style eggplant was definitely not up to scratch. Verdict? Although the ‘house’ is acceptable, we would rather eat out at the restaurant.
Prince Centre
Thomas st
China Town, Sydney
While travelling for the last year the most common statement from Sydney-ites was ‘I miss the dumplings from that little place with the plastic vines on the ceiling!’. As soon as I returned to home base I booked the girls for a food-coma educing dumpling extravaganza. We were met with a devastating sign announcing the Chinese Noodle RESTAURANT was closed for kitchen renovations. Turning to leave, we discovered that opposite it the Chinese Noodle HOUSE was open, and almost a mirror image (complete with plastic vines/grapes on the ceiling). This raised the question, what was the difference between restaurant and house? Not the staff (the trick for dealing with these surly waitresses - order CLEARLY and early, give them the evil eye while waiting and they will bring out the plastic cups so you can crack open the [cheap] wine, and most importantly once inside ALWAYS keep your chopsticks in-hand while hovering over a piece of food or they will bill and exit you faster than you can say linger), not the interior (tiny, noisy, crowded, loved), but the food? The hand-cut noodles were excellent, the dumplings were brothy inside (as they should be), but for me the dry fried garlic beans lacked punch, and the special style eggplant was definitely not up to scratch. Verdict? Although the ‘house’ is acceptable, we would rather eat out at the restaurant.
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