Nu Thai

After shopping in the markets we felt like some south-east Asian food and I was curious to see whether Nu's deserved its reputation of doing an exciting new twist on Thai cuisine. As this was a spur of the moment thing we hadn't booked and the restaurant was pretty packed but we were fortunate enough to snare a little table. The place was fairly minimalist, and as with all these wannabe minimalist places, was rather noisy.

The menu wasn't too extensive but had some interesting takes on some favourite Thai dishes. For starters we decided to go with the garlic chive pancakes and prawns with betel leaves. The garlic chives pancakes were similar to the batter my mum makes and fries up. It was basically chopped garlic chives in a rice flour batter and fried up resulting in what can best be described as pancakes with a pleasant, satisfying bite of flavour and texture.

The prawns were dressed with a fragrant blend of herbs and some betel leaves. The waitress told us to wrap the prawns in the leaves to eat. The herbs went well with the prawns and the betel leaves added an interesting herbaceous flavour and nice crunch.

For the mains we had a noodle dish consisting of spicy seafood and vegetables with flat rice noodles. This is apparently one of the more traditional dishes and was quite nice with the salty sourness of the seafood and vegetables marrying well with the chewy texture of the noodles. We also had a beef in a hot and sour sauce which had quite a nice tangy kick to it.

This was all served with coconut rice which has a lovely rich texture going quite nicely with the sharp flavours of the main dishes. However it is rather filling and you probably don't want to eat just that with the meals, some plain rice would have made a nice contrast and refresher to it. Whilst the menu at Nu's may be smaller than most Thai establishments, they did have quite a selection of special with most of the dishes we had coming from the specials board.

Overall Nu is indeed an interesting take on Thai and deserves the praise for its culinary innovation and quality. The restaurant had a certain liveliness to it and the staff were brisk and efficient, always ready to serve. Overall it was a pleasantly suprising dining experience and one to keep in mind when wanting something more from Thai cuisine than the usual fare.

Horde of Amazons

Got the rest of my shipment of books from Amazon today. Unfortunately they charged my credit card only when they shipped, which was after the last financial year. Guess I won't be able to claim these ones, except for the cook book which is obviously not work related, as deductions for this year. The books that arrived are as follows:

Hearn, D. & Baker, M. P. 2003, Computer Graphics with OpenGL (3rd Edition), Prentice Hall. [Hardcover, US$83.75]

Bruegge, B. & Dutoit, A. H. 2003, Object-Oriented Software Engineering: Using UML, Patterns and Java (2nd Edition), Prentice Hall. [Hardcover, US$62.84]

Lafore, R. 2002, Data Structures and Algorithms in Java (2nd Edition), Sams. [Hardcover, US$40.79]

Chung, S. Y. 2001, Korean Home Cooking (Essential Asian Kitchen Series), Tuttle Publishing. [Hardcover, US$13.57]

Suprisingly these books arrived ahead of schedule, shipping for the books came to $US24.62 which is better value than the first shipment. The condition of the books wasn't as good as at a local shop but this is international shipping after all. Still it was disappointing to find the data structures book with a big puncture in its spine.

The computer graphics book is a good combination of graphics text book and OpenGL primer. It doesn't quite go into as much practical detail as the official OpenGL programming guide. However between that and resources on the web most things should get covered. The other two computer textbooks are pretty comprehensive and will make great references (well I should hope so after spending hundreds on textbooks so far this year).

The Korean cook book is actually written by a Korean woman living in Sydney. It contains a good range of recipes but some of the classics are missing such as kim chi jiggae (kim chi soup with tofu). Still it's my first and only Korean cook book, should keep me occupied in the kitchen for a while.

Amazon Delivers

Ordered some books from Amazon late last month hoping to get them in before the end of the financial year to claim tax deductions. Only two books shipped and were charged to my credit card before the end of the financial year and they were:

Barfield, O. 2002, History in English Words, Lindisfarne Books. [Paperback, US$9.31]

Vince, J. 2001, Mathematics for Computer Graphics Fast, Springer. [Paperback, US$16.97]

The shipping for this order ended up being US$12.31, definitely not worth the money to ship just a couple of paperbacks. I've got another four books on the way and they're all hardcover so the shipping should be a reasonable fraction of total price. Still should remember to ship the books all at the same time to save on the shipping charge for each order.

The books arrived in reasonable condition albeit slightly dog earred. History in English Words is a fascinating read although it can get a bit tedious due to the archaic language and idioms as it was published in the 1950s. The maths book is a useful reference although I did hope it might be a bit more depth but what can you expect from a book with fast in its title.

Matsuri

For a special treat we decided to dine at Matsuri on Gouger St, a well regarded place in the media and at work. It's a cosy Japanese restaurant tucked upstairs on the quieter end of Gouger St. We were lucky to get a table as we had not booked and the manager was not the most welcoming of people.

It is a pleasant enough place, with a sliding door entrance and little bar at the front. There's a small room for regular diners and an even smaller room at the back for more traditional Japanese dining. The manager had the novel idea of putting up a draped kimono between us and another set of diners.

We started by sharing a sushi and sashimi plate. Whilst the sushi and sashimi were of an arguably better quality than most other places, it was not a significant step up above other restaurants such as Genki (also tucked away off Gouger St). However it is better than most restaurants (cough Sumo cough) with the sushi rice actually having some flavour and the fish tasting fresh like fish should.

For mains we went with the don set which basically consisted of two dishes served with rice each and dessert. I went with the salmon and steak for the don dishes. The salmon don was simply raw salmon sliced thinly served over sushi rice whilst the steak was pieces of tender steak cooked in a soy based sauce.

Whilst the salmon was nice I had probably had enough of raw fish by the end of it, besides the sushi rice didn't quite have the tang that I like. The steak was lovely and juicy with the sauce complementing it very nicely by adding that extra savoury flavour. Overall both dishes were satisfying enough but not quite amazing enough to warrant the high regard this place seems to garner.

We barely had enough room for the desert which consisted of green tea ice cream and red beans in syrup. The green tea ice cream was nice, with that lovely texture and richness green tea ice cream has, although it did seem a tad too powdery. I only had a little taste of the red beans in syrup, a very popular Asian dessert but a bit too sweet for my taste.

The service was a bit slow considering the place was not extremely busy and the bill was on the higher side for Japanese restaurants. Overall the food was nice and satisfying but certainly not worth the rave some people have given it. I think I prefer the more open ambience of Genki and I don't think the premium you pay at Matsuri is worth it compared to Genki. Then again compared to other Japanese restaurants it is one of the better ones and at least the premium is more deserved than say at Sumo. So I would sum up Matsuri as being one of the better Japanese restaurants but definitely not the very best.

War of the Worlds

Having decided to see the latest Spielberg blockbuster starring Tom Cruise, War of the Worlds, we decided to grab a bite somewhere first on the Parade in Norwood. There was a dearth of variety so we settled on an Italian joint called Gusto. It was a pretty roomy place with wooden floorboards and a nice lounge for takeaway customers.

For entrees we had the Tuscan flat bread and a salsicca (italian sausage) fry up. The Tuscan flat bread was rather nice, simply flat bread drizzled with some olive oil and herbs. The salsicca was flavoursome if a bit too greasy for an entree. For mains I had cannelloni stuffed with spinach and ricotta which was quite a nice and not too heavy main. Overall the place was ordinary but pleasant enough, although the bill was comparable to Amalfi the food was nowhere near as good.

War of the Worlds was an entertaining film, although the acting wasn't much to write home about. The characters just weren't believable enough and at times were grating. Spielberg has done well the capture the gloominess and confusion of the story. The ending could have been pithier, it seemed as though the writers had enough and just wrote that they lived happily ever after. Overall a visual feast but not too memorable.

Back into the Oven

Last night to I returned to Tandoori Oven to celebrate a mate's birthday. Of course I left it until the last minute to get him a gift but wine has always rescued me in such situations. I popped into Quaffers on Unley Rd just before heading off to the Tandoori Oven. They had a great range of wines with more obscure wines than Dan Murphy's. I managed to get him a bottle of St Hallett Blackwell Shiraz, from what I read a paragon of great Barossa shiraz and definitely one I'll consider putting in the cellar.

This time there was a big gathering but we ordered individual dishes. For entrees I went for a dish of barramundi fillets with a spicy coconut gravy wrapped in banana leaves. It was a wonderful dish, the flavours of the coconut gravy blending nicely with the lovely delicate flesh of the barramundi.

This was washed down with a bottle of Rockford Alicante Bouchet. The alicante bouchet grape is the only, or one of the few, grape variety to actually have red juice whereas most wines get their colour from the skins of the grapes. This results in a nice refreshing wine a notch above most other rose wines with a perfect balance of crispness and sweetness.

For mains I had to try the lamb rogan josh again. I'm not sure whether the mix of previous expectations, staff rosters and having a glass of shiraz conspired to be not quite as impressive as last time. It was still a nice dish but it lacked the intensity of flavour and tang it had the last time.

I should berate myself for not learning the lesson of not having beefy red wines with shiraz, the combination of the two dull the flavours of both. Having said that though the Woodstock Shiraz was a nice example of McLaren Vale shiraz and deserved a better partner. We all shared a variety of naan bread including a lovely potato naan bread. The naan bread at the Tandoori Oven is quite nice but not quite as fluffily delightful as Beyond India's. Having said that the potato naan bread was quite a pleasant suprise with a filling of spiced potatoe inside, very appetising and satisfying.

For dessert I had a pistachio kufli, which was basically a firm ice cream flavoured with pieces of pistachio and cardomom. The pistachio gave it an intriguing hint of bitterness and the cardomom provided a nice tang. This was accompanied by a thin sliver of pistachio biscuit and washed down with a glass of Hollick Nectar, a lovely botrytis wine which matched the richness of the kulfi quite nicely.

This was another nice meal at one of the better Indian dining establishments and the bigger crowd showed the Tandoori coming into its own for a big but cosy gathering. I'd still like to think Indian food is better done in a more down-to-earth style as at Beyond India. Still the Tandoori Oven is a great place to dine in style, whether just two people or a mob.