Veggie Bites

We had a bit of trouble finding a restaurant that was open on New Year’s Eve and, believe me, we tried. We had been painting all day, so we really wanted something that would be delivered, however, we had to make do with take away that we picked up. It didn’t matter that much – as long as I didn’t have to cook! We tried to order things that were quite different to what we ate here the other night, so we had the red curry, veggie pad thai and spicy fried tofu with capsicum, baby corn and carrot. As usual the food was great, I really liked the spicy fried tofu dish – it was something different to what we would normally order. The red curry was also good, but I find their pad thai a little bland… I think I will definitely continue to try some of the different dishes on the menu – they are proving to be worthwhile!

We always go out for dinner on Boxing Day, since it is our anniversary! We weren’t exactly in the mood for Thai food, but it seemed that a lot of other places were closed. As it turned out, the food was great, so we were definitely not disappointed! We had the Tawho Tod for entree and then vegetarian mussamun curry, stir fried bean curd with cashew nuts, and the vermicelli, shallots, egg and coriander. When we ate meat, mussamun curries used to be my favourite Thai dish – but I think it was actually more to do with the potato than the beef! So, it is always nice to see a veggie version – though they do vary greatly – some are far too meaty, but this one isn’t! The stir fried tofu with cashew nuts was also great – a little spicy – just the way I like it! The vermicelli dish was something we had never tried before, and it was different, but I don’t think it was something that I would order again – there were a lot of bean shoots in it, although they weren’t listed on the menu… Oh well, it is good to try new things!

This was a pre Christmas family dinner, and there were quite a few of us, so I was pretty impressed with the service! We ordered garlic bread and bruschetta to start, which were pretty good, however the garlic bread is the flat pizza variety – which is definitely not my favourite! For mains, Martin went for the fajitas veggie style, and I ordered the penne arabiatta – which was pretty good for a “family style” restaurant, but nowhere near spicy enough or “Italian” enough for my tastes. How can pasta not be “Italian” I hear you ask – well, I’m not really sure, but it may have been something to do with the fact that I wasn’t even offered any parmesan cheese! For dessert, I had the chocolate mousse, and Martin had a banana split – they were pretty good. All in all, an ok meal – I guess at least it caters for a large variety of tastes!

Well, I said that I wanted to try more food from this restaurant so, after a really hard day in the garden, I was leafing through the take away menus trying to find something that I felt like eating and that did home delivery and I came across their menu. And guess what – they deliver – well to some areas which luckily includes mine! We had spring rolls, a green veggie curry, the mixed veggies with garlic, chilli and basil and the spicy noodles. I actually ordered the tofu with garlic, chilli and basil, but wasn’t too disappointed with the veggies. The green curry was great – nice and spicy, but it did however contain peas (which I picked out!). The veggies were also good, and also quite spicy. In comparison to the two previous dishes – the spicy noodles were actually quite mild! Although it could be that our palates were already over-spiced and couldn’t cope with any more! Considering how good this food is – and it seems to be very consistent too, along with the fact that they deliver – this may well become the new favourite Thai restaurant!!

This was a Christmas lunch, so we ordered from their special Christmas lunch menu – which sounded really good, and was very reasonably priced – $21 for entree and main, with a free drink. Dessert was an extra $8 if you wanted it. While the menu sounded really good, it was a little disappointing that there wasn’t a whole lot of veggie choices, the salads and pasta of the day all contained meat. For my entree I had zucchini dumplings which came with feta and leek wrapped in filo pastry and a roasted tomato mayonnaise. I have to say – this was pretty good. Although, in comparison to the zucchini dumplings you get at Turkish places, these ones were quite small. For my main I ordered the roasted field mushroom, marinated bocconcini and roasted vegetable strudel – which was pretty good too, although I have to admit I am not a fan of veggies stuffed into filo pastry. My main meal was a reasonable size, however, some of the meat ones were quite small, and there was a lot of rocket in all the dishes which I think constituted ‘salad’. I ended up ordering dessert and opted for the liqueur dark chocolate mousse with almond pastry mille feuille. Thank goodness I have been watching some cooking shows recently and knew what a mille feuille was! The dessert was great – the highlight of the meal I think! Although, the point with these Christmas lunches is not really the food – it is the fun and good times that go with it!

Since I am on the look out for a new favourite Thai restaurant, I suggested that we try this place when we were organising dinner with some friends. We have eaten here a few times, and the food is always good, but for some reason, we haven’t really made it a regular haunt for Thai food. This time, however, I was particularly impressed with the food. Since our friends eat meat, they ordered their own meals and Martin and I shared, as usual. We started with the veggie spring rolls and they came out super hot (temperature wise, not chilli wise!). And they tasted good too. There were a number of mains that I wanted to try, but we managed to restrict ourselves to just two, and leave some to tempt us to return again soon! We ordered the red veggie curry and the tofu with chilli and basil. A red curry is pretty standard in Thai restaurants and therefore is a pretty good comparison tool… and this one was great – it was pretty spicy, had a good variety of non-soggy veggies (including peas unfortunately!), was the perfect creamy consistency and had all the appropriate curry and lime leaves to indicate that it was freshly made! The tofu with chilli and basil is a favourite of ours and is a dish that we order on a regular basis. And I have to say, this was a pretty good version! Lovely sauce and lots of lovely fresh basil. One of our friends ordered the meaty pad thai and it looked pretty good, so I am waiting to try the veggie version. They also had a dish called chilli noodles on the menu which I am also keen to try. We finished with my favourite Thai dessert, bananas in coconut milk – which was divine! Needless to say, we’ll be returning in the future… this place is definitely in the running for the title of my favourite Thai restaurant!