Come Fry with Me, Come Fry, Come Fry, Come Fry

Yeah, yeah I know I've been slack. Perhaps I'll revamp this blog, perhaps I won't, I just don't know.
Continuing the theme of my personal notebook, I've been trying out all those lean cuisines/healthy choice/airline frozen meals.

They're actually not too bad when you compare to them to the slop you get at the cafeterias at the places I've worked. They're slightly cheaper, if you buy what's on special you can get them for under $5 which is actually cheaper than most cafeteria meals. Surprisingly they actually taste better than the stuff that passes for food at cafeterias.

Oh and apparently they're better for you and judging by the nutrition box they are. They're also actually quite filling which is a surprise given that most of them contain only a quarter of your daily energy intake at the most. After some soup, yoghurt, fruit and salad this manchild feels quite full by the end of a day.

Here's a summary of my frozen meal findings so far with the meal name and ratings for taste, texture and how filling they are (5 stars max for each from bad, poor, okay, good to excellent):

• Nestle Lean Cuisine Lean Beef Lasagne [4 | 1 | 3]: Possibly could have overcooked this one, the bottom layers were rather leathery but still quite nice on the top layers.
• Heinz Steam Fresh Beef Stroganoff with Curly Pasta [4 | 4 | 3]: Good flavour, beef was suprisingly tender.
• Nestle Lean Cuisine Creamy Mushroom Tortellini [4 | 3 | 3]: Quite tasty although creamy pasta isn't my favourite, perhaps that's because it's usually rather greasy unlike this one. The green bits lost a bit of texture in the freezing and heating.
• Heinz Weight Watchers Pasta Italiano [3 | 3 | 3]: The pasta and sauce were quite nice texture and taste wise. They were let down by the quasi-salami, horribly textured and more frankfurter than salami.
• Nestle Lean Cuisine Sundried Tomato Tortellini [3 | 2 | 3]: The pasta and sauce tasted alright enough. Texture was quite dry and mushy at the same time, perhaps not microwaved right.

Plenty of water, tea and diet soft drinks also help keep a fat bastard quite full. Here's a few of my favourite ones so far:

• Pepsi Max: I hardly ever drink Pepsi, yet this is a favourite, definitely beats Coke Zero.
• Sprite Zero: Not too much of a weird taste to it, still very lemonadey.
• Fanta Zero: Actually I'd say this is better than normal Fanta, as it's not as cloyingly sweet.
• Schweppes Diet Dry Ginger Ale: All that gingeriness hides the artificialness quite well.
• Solo Sub: Again the lemon tang hides that saccharine sweetness quite well, then again some days I'm ambivalent.

European Cafe

After a few drinks at the Colonist pizza was on the agenda. We decided to give the European Cafe a go, as some people have given it glowing reviews although a few years back I wasn't too impressed. It was rather crowded for a Sunday and we were told ours was the only table available, although funnily enough a few minutes later this couple were told theirs was the only table available.

The pizza menu did not impress me too much with its range or offerings considering people rave on about this place's pizza. As pizza was our objective we went for the European pizza which was a classic salami, ham, capsicum, mushroom and olive. To accompany it we got some garlic bread and green salad with some chinotto (San Pellegrino which is a nice rarity now).

The pizza arrived in under ten minutes which was a surprise, given Fellini took 90 minutes for an uncooked pizza. I suspect though that it and the garlic bread had been hanging around for a while. The pizza was nice but not enough to rise above the mediocrity of most cafe pizzas, although in its defence the toppings were balanced with prudente use of cheese.

It was a nice change to get a pizza that wasn't a grilled cheese sandwich like most cafe pizzas, although there still wasn't enough sauce for my liking. The garlic bread was pretty mediocre as well, a bit cold and stale and the green salad didn't distinguish itself from anyone else's green salad.

Overall I'm still not impressed with the European Cafe, sure it's better than a fair few other cafes but it still didn't distinguish itself well enough. The slippery waiter didn't help with impressions either and the food could have been served warmer. I would still prefer to spend a few dollars more and get a lot better pizza and service from a place like Amalfi.

The Colonist

A few weeks ago I spotted the Colonist pub on the Parade. Had a quick peek and was impressed that they had James Squire Golden Ale on tap. So this week we decided to go in for a Sunday arvo drink to chew the fat.

It's a cosy little pub with a rustic charm and some comfy seating. The crowd was a mix of people from the mid twenties to well into middle age. It had a decent gathering of people yet there was plenty of room and not much noise, a perfect place to relax on a Sunday arvo.

As mentioned the big draw card for me was the Golden Ale on tap. It's the perfect summer drink, so easy to drink with plenty of flavour and a lovely tinge. They also had a few other lesser-known beers on tap including the Steam Exchange's Steam Ale and Pipsqueak Cider.

The Steam Ale had all the makings of a great ale yet probably needed some food to go with it to counteract the slightly more bitter than usual bite. The Pipsqueak Cider wasn't too bad as far as ciders go with a well balanced tang and crisp finish. However it could have done with perhaps a tad more sweetness I reckon cos when people think ciders they usually think of something sweet.

I was pleasantly surprised to find they had whitebait on the menu, a rather big bowl for $8, nothing like eating a whole fish. Makes a nice break from the usual greasy chips and wedges, well whitebait's greasy but it's seemingly good grease. Apart from that I was a bit with the rest of the menu as most items were closer to $20 than $15.

Overall the Colonist was a pleasant discovery with it's old school cool. There was a good range of beers on tap and in the fridge, well any pub with Golden Ale on tap is tops in my book. The crowd was a good mix with some pretty young things.

The German Club

The weather was on the cool side of mild this Friday so I felt like something hearty for dinner. As it was the last week of October, we decided to catch the last Oktoberfest night at the German Club in town. For the princely sum of ten dollars each we got entry in with a plastic stein, just like at Schutzenfest. Just as pricey considering I can remember when we got glass steins for less at Schutzenfest.

There was the usual whimsical traditional German music, stein holding competitions and Bavarian dancing with people in traditional German clothes. However the reason most people go to German festivals is not for the tradition despite its charm but for the beer. Beer there was a plenty with pilsner, weissbier and witbier on tap.

The Erdinger witbier was lovely with a nice subtle tang and very easy to drink. The weissbier was more heavier on the gut but still a refreshing drink. Being Oktoberfest they also had Oktoberfest witbier, which had a more mellow but still noticeable tang.

Another reason to go to a German festival is the food, especially the wurst and sauerkraut. They had wurst and sauerkraut rolls for 6. The rolls were a bit too crusty for my liking but the spicy bratwurst with the sauerkraut and mustard was just the thing to go with the witbier.

The German Club also has a kitchen where they offered kasseler and bockwurst on a plate with sauerkraut and potato salad. The bockwurst was quite bland and the potato salad was rather underwhelming, definitely not worth the $16 for the plate especially when you can get a nice bratwurst roll.

The kasseler was a pleasant surprise from what I tasted. I'm not usually a fan of straight pork meat since I can taste the porkiness. The kasseler though is a pork chop, with not too much grease compared to the usual chop, with a texture close to a ham steak but with a pleasant bacon tang to it. It's a pork chop for those who don't like pork. Overall the German Club had a great range of beers and had plenty of German charm.