This past weekend, the Anderson kids who are in Melbourne for the quarter came to visit . They brought the rain with them. I blame them completely. The rain started the day after they got here, and it hasn't stopped since.
That did not, however, stop us from having a great time.
They were here for October Long Weekend. (It was the Aussie Labor Day, but apparently the Holiday name doesn't matter. If there is a vacation day, you refer to it as "Long Weekend") Matt and Laura came down early, and the Sabina and her fiance, Sam, came down on Friday, so that night we got things started by going out for Thai to a place in Haymarket, near Chinatown called Chat Thai. It was chosen by Sabina's friend and it was delicious!
It's a small space, but has a trendy enough look about it. With that trendy look comes the line, of course. Somehow of another, Seema, Sabina's friend worked it out though and got us right in. Like so many other places here, it's BYO. The idea of BYO takes a little getting used to, but usually corkage fees are really reasonable. When you consider how much wine is usually marked up in a restaurant, paying just a few bucks per person suddenly seems really awesome. We've definitely started to get behind this idea and we came prepared with many bottles -- it was a large group after all.
This menu is EXTENSIVE. It was a little late when we arrived and I was having problems seeing straight from hunger, so I was a little overwhelmed by all the choices. Somehow, with much help from G, we were able to navigate the menu and make some decisions. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait all that long, because the food here comes out with shocking rapidity. We were warned that our one of our dishes would take a little longer than most, but it was all out within 10 or 15 minutes.
To start we each got a skewer from the grill -- he got Mu Bhing (grilled marinated pork) and I got Lou Chin Ping (grilled pork meatballs). I remember mine being good, but I can't recall any details because I inhaled mine.
Next up was the Gai Tort. This dish consisted of fried chicken pieces that had been marinated in coconut milk, garlic, and coriander root (cilantro), with a sweet chilli sauce served on the side. It was tasty, but I think it was texture that was on display here. A thick crust forms around the chicken pieces that is chewy and very crispy -- I'll admit sometimes too crispy for me. It was tasty nonetheless.
Our main course was the star. We'd got the tip that this place has good seafood, so we opted for a dish called Bpla Lard Prik with a side of sticky rice. What arrived was a spectacular looking plate with a whole fried snapper covered with heaps of a roasted chilli sauce with coarsely shopped garlic, palm sugar and kaffir lime leaves. It was beautiful -- actually, all the fish dishes looked amazing.
Um, you might notice that the middle of the fish is missing.
I was so hungry that I didn't think about taking a picture until after we'd already started.
Now, so far our experience has been that "spicy" in Australia, really isn't all that spicy. Therefore, when the waitress asked us if we liked spicy foods before recommending this dish, we didn't hesitate. This fish definitely was. It was on the edge of too hot for G, but I thought it was perfect. The main thing is that despite being hot, all the individual flavors really came through. I loved it!
It's possible that Kate loved our fish a little too much.
Sabina and Sam were staying at the Hilton for a night, and we'd heard it had some cool bars, so after dinner we headed over to Zeta Bar for a toast. It's definitely a posh space on the hotel's terrace level. The drinks were expensive, but there is a great view of the Queen Victoria Building which gets colorfully lit up at night. The rain had started to kick in by now, and we were supposed have an early morning the next day, so sadly we were only able to stay a little while.
Check it out the article for a step-by-step on how to avoid the lines.
We called it an early night of Friday, but Saturday was a totally different story.
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