Spice Kitchen

Spice Kitchen has been pretty reliable for lunch. This was the first time back for 2010, and the changes did not go unnoticed. Instead of the usual thali, which was served on a big metal plate with individual bowls for each curry, we now have a plate with everything piled on it. The papadum became soggy, the naan bread was covered in curry and the butter chicken way too sweet. What went wrong?! Now I'll have to find another Indian place, hopefully in time for winter.

Congee

One of my favourites - Congee with pork and thousand year old egg. Delicious!

Curry Laksa

Sambal Kampung has a Curry Laksa that is perfect for me - lots of flavour, fish meat balls, boiled egg and good pieces of chicken. The serving size is smaller than other restaurants, so there's actually a good chance that I will finish the entire thing.

Sushi Bar on Collins

Sushi Bar on Collins has the best seafood inari, the best! They pack it with so much crab meat. Delicious.

Training Food

Had a full week of training. Lunch was included :)

Butter Chicken and rice. Not very spicy, but a bit oily.

Bolognese Ravioli. There was -way- too much sauce, which tasted like ketchup. Not a favourite.

Fish and Chips. The fish was microwaved which made it a bit soggy, but it was okay.

Gigantic Sausage Roll and salad. It was quite tasty, but way too much!

Chicken Risotto. There was a lot of flavour (but that might have been all the chicken salt I poured on it) and very filling. I didn't have dinner that night!

Proscuitto pizza

Went to Trunk in the city for a coworker's farewell lunch. Everyone ordered from the 'cheaper' end of the menu :) Pizza. Large and filling. It was okay. I was hoping there was a salmon pizza but no luck.

Lunch: Barbagallo Pizzeria

Since the new pizzeria Barbagallo is so close to our work, we decided to try it for lunch. There is no menu outside, and it wasn't until later that we found out that its by the same guy who started the whole pizza thing in melbourne. Scott ordered the salami pizza. He gave it a score of 'meh'.

I on the other hand had the salmon pizza and really enjoyed it (although it was a struggle to finish it all by myself). The dough is nice and thin and the crust is so crunchy.

The prices were a little high (approx $20 a pizza) so I don't think we'll be making this a regular lunch haunt.

Vietnamese Lunch

I think this is called Bo La Lot. The pork fillings were wrapped with too much vine leaves, so they were a little chewy. I had very hot Nước chấm and tons of mint leaves with it.

Chicken and Prawn Noodle Soup. Very salty broth.

Schnitz

Visited Schnitz for lunch during the week after a year long hiatus. The schnitzel pieces are a lot smaller and thinner than I remember.

Shanghai Lunch

Chrysanthemum tea

Fried Eel. Sweet and crunchy

Shao Long Bao

Fried Pork Dumplings. Points for presentation, but I think I prefer the other places where you get 15 of these things on a chipped plastic plate for half the cost.

Sushi

Sushi is not complete without:

ooooh yeah.

Basso's

Fresh Rolls!

Supreme Pizza. Very crispy base with nice spicy salami.

Mushroomy pizza.

Boxing Day Fuel

Nothing beats a plate full of steamed dumplings to energize you for a full day of hunting down bargains in the boxing day sales. In the end I didn't end up buying anything but at least I had dumplings!

Korean

Can you believe that you get all this (and more) for just $10.50?!


Here's what you get:

Rice
Beef Bulgogi
Kim Chi
Salad
Prawn Tempura
Vegetable Tempura
Takoyaki (Octopus Ball)
Gyoza
Side dishes x 4 (not pictured)
Miso soup (not pictured)
Can of softdrink (not pictured)

10 Dollars. And 50 cents. That is all. This is definately worth a return visit (when I am more hungry).

Xmas Work Lunch

For our end-of-year team lunch we headed off to the Studley park boathouse cafe for a two course meal:


Smoked salmon on a potato croquette with capers and creme fraiche. Maybe it was the picturesque location, or the fact that we were out of the office on a work day, or maybe it was because we had to wait for 2 hours for everyone to show up before we could order, but this was DELICIOUS and I inhaled it.

The entree was quite filling (for me) so I needed some assistance in finishing off the Porterhouse steak with peppercorn sauce on top of the soft buttery potato mash.

Very satisfying.

Work Xmas

On this plate:

Bread Rolls
Greek Salad
Baked Potato
Roast Beef and Gravy
Boiled Egg with Mustard Mayo
Pasta Salad
Mustard
Horseradish
Green Salad

Needless to say, I did not need second helpings.

On a side note, horseradish on beef is absolutely fantastic!! Why have I only discovered this now?!

Spicy Fish

The name of the restuarant is not at all ironic. Check out the thick film of chilli oil in this fish dish!



It comes with a delightful (chillied) side dish. I could not feel my tongue for the rest of the day.

Fluffy dumplings. Delish!

Pasta

Basso's is great for a work day lunch if you don't want/plan to have dinner that day.



I should have put a can of coke or something next to this gigantic main plate of spaghetti to put it in perspective.

An entree chicken avocado penne. Filling!

Not pictured: the delicious complimentary bread rolls and butter (in case you weren't full enough!)