[Dining Review]

[cheebacheeba]

Wow, you do have an assorted palette!

Yeah it's a bit allover the place isn't it?
I just like to not limit myself...most of the places I do "frequent", if you can even call it that, I'll try to not get the exactly same thing all the time either.

I'm typing this at 5:21am, been up all night...if there's one place open between all this Anzac day-ish stuff and the Easter weekend it's were I just came from - My local frasian (they open at 4:30am, how fuckin' awesome is that??) for fresh bread rolls, a big-ass damper, a vietnamese pork & salad roll with chilli and soy, an apple crumble and a chocolate cupcake. Haha not all for me and not all for right now either...I just love getting bread that's that damn fresh...

I've never actually had a full kebab - I have a strong dislike of Onions and whilst I know I can ask for it without, I prefer to just get Kebab meat with fries

You should. I don't think the subtraction of onion would kill it. There's a lot to a full kebab, a really huge range of flavours going on there. Give it a shot, probably a little bit healthier to throw salad into the mix. Ha, yeah at times I've gone the meat n chips boxes too. Bad-ass munchie food.

As for Indian food - I genuinely want to move out there just so I can experience it.

You know, I've always been convinced the UK is pretty well in hand for Indian food? Maybe it's just certain towns/places though?

There's a pretty decent place just 20 minutes or so away from me that literally just sells Bangers and Mash, however they have about 30 types of each, plus a selection of gravies, and you just select the mixture that most appeals to you.

Sounds oldskool to me, I'd check that out in a second.
Don't know why the whole bangers n mash didn't make the move with the rest of the UK expats that came here...should've done...love that shit. Peas, potatoes, carrots, mash , gravy...hell fuckin' yeah.

[BookZombie]

Wow, you do have an assorted palette! I've never actually had a full kebab - I have a strong dislike of Onions and whilst I know I can ask for it without, I prefer to just get Kebab meat with fries. As for Indian food - I genuinely want to move out there just so I can experience it.

I love kebab, and I usually do not have onion in mine and I think it still tastes great. I do have extra of other vegetables in it instead though.

I think it is good like allot of things, it is good for the body and for the mind to have a little variation I think.

[cheebacheeba]

I think it is good like allot of things, it is good for the body and for the mind to have a little variation I think.

Yep, that's how you keep loving food.
I think the variety is an important and enriching part of life.

So I just had one of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1nh_m%C3%AC
Fuckin' delicious.

[BookZombie]

Sounds yummy, I have to try making some of those for my hubby and me as it looks real tasty.

[cheebacheeba]

Well, since you're considering it...they're actually super easy to make at home, they end up even cheaper too.
Here's a quick recipe that might help, for the chicken one:

With the chicken, get a whole chicken (or more)and cut into pieces.
Boil
*some water
with some
*vegetable stock
*lots of light soy
*a little dark soy
*some peppercorns
*a bay leaf
*a few star anise
*garlic
*ginger
*some chinese cooking wine (Shoaxing)
*a bit of sichuan pepper if you can get it
*maybe 1/4 of a cinnamon stick
*a couple of dried (preferred, fresh is fine) large red chillis
*a little sesame oil
*some chopped onion.
*Dried onion
No exact amounts here, I never do that, each to their own taste so experiment a bit.

Just simmer/boil your chicken in that for quite some time. There's no maximum really but what you want is to be able to pull the chicken off the bone.

Now one thing is you can actually keep the liquid to cook with another time, something a bit like what they call a "master stock", you can top it up with more flavours every time you cook with it, or use it to add to things like stir-fry etc. The important thing to remember is proper storage - Strain it well first, then into an airtight container and frozen as soon as it's cooled sufficiently, only take it out when it's going to be used again.
To add to it at first, or later if you want to cheat a bit there's store bought master stock mixes, though I'm not sure how good they are on their own.

Get your bread rolls, as you like them, butter or not.

With the carrots traditionally they're pickled but if you don't want to go through the trouble I see little difference, I simply grate fresh carrot for mine.

Get/chop:
*Carrot
*Spring onions
*lettuce (butter or coral)
*Corriander (cilantro, the leaf bit)
*Red chilli - Can be left out, but IMO should be at least a little on there.
*Cucumber (in "sticks", no pulp)

Throw that on your roll with the chicken which can be either served hot or cold, and drizzle a little bit of light soy over the top, and some white pepper if you have it, though any will do.

There you have it...it's the relatively basic version and once you have a pre-existing stock it's even easier. They're awesome to make at home and/or for when friends come over and basically one of the most economical and healthy things to throw together for yourself.

[Diabolical]

Originally Posted by ferretchucker

Not necessarily McDonalds. I tend to think of chips as the thick, softer ones and fries as a crispier affair. That's how it tends to be viewed in England.

yeah, i know what you said, twice. its called steak fries. food from england fucking sucks. period.

[cheebacheeba]

No, you call them steak fries because you're from a country that calls them and mostly anything like them "fries", and calling them chips I would gather, would have people confusing them with ah, "crisps" or the savoury snack you call chips over there.
Here, there's both. All 3 actually.
Crisps, for some reason, we call chips too.
When referring to the variety under discussion here, quite often we'll say "hot chips".
Here and I'd say in the UK and probably NZ, Fries are generally thinner, or of the "shoelace" variety (pommes frites, or fried potato).
Chips are the thicker variety.
We have "steakhouse chips", which are thicker still than most "chips", a bit flatter, something like between a chip and a wedge, on occasion with skin left on one side.
So yeah I'd say that it depends upon where you're from...so, saying it sucks on account of being from the England, is a little strange as you've probably been eating a similar, if not the same thing?

Ferret...nothing beats oldskool non-commercial chips though eh...

[Diabolical]

Originally Posted by cheebacheeba

No, you call them steak fries because you're from a country that calls them and mostly anything like them "fries", and calling them chips I would gather, would have people confusing them with ah, "crisps" or what you'd call chips over there.
Here, there's both.
Fries are generally thinner, or of the "shoelace" variety (pommes frites, or fried potato).
Chips are the thicker variety.
We have "steakhouse chips", which are thicker still than most "chips", a bit flatter, something like between a chip and a wedge, on occasion with skin left on one side.
So yeah I'd say that it depends upon where you're from...so, saying it sucks on account of being from the England, is a little strange as you've probably been eating a similar, if not the same thing?

Ferret...nothing beats oldskool non-commercial chips though eh...

either fucking way. its fried fish (probably not even good fish)and fried potatos. i guarentee i could cook both better than you've had. like i said, there are 100 diffeerent way people cook potatos in america. where did this arguement even come from? cause the guy who cant fry up some food? i dont fuck with england period. so i will argue anything.

[BookZombie]

Thank you for the recepie Cheebacheeba I have to try this for dinner, and perhaps even serve it the next time I have the RPG group over for a game.

[Diabolical]

Originally Posted by BookZombie

Thank you for the recepie Cheebacheeba I have to try this for dinner, and perhaps even serve it the next time I have the RPG group over for a game.

lofl. do you wear costumes?