Tamarind Asian and Cambodian restaurant, Mt Hawthorn

On a friday night after a long working week, S and I decided to finally try Tamarind, an asian restaurant that we had driven past loads of times but never actually gone into as yet... We looked at the menu, decided there were things we could both find that we would like, and made a booking easily.


Parking isnt great around there, right in front of the place, but the Mezz shopping centre is behind it and so we just parked in the carpark round the back - theres plenty of parking there.


We were seated quickly, in the corner, we were a bit against the wall, I had to move the table out so I could actually get in! Its BYO so we cracked open our bottle of wine, just after the waiter had asked if we needed our wine glasses and we said yes, S said he'd also use the water glasses. Then the waiter took my glass. Huh? I just took another glass from their table where they store everything...


We ordered chicken spring rolls which came out really fast, and were as to be expected. They were pretty tasty, but much  better with the sauce, which was a sweet, spicy thin and clear dipping sauce which comes standard with most spring rolls. Sometimes this sauce is a bit hit n miss but this one was great. Forgot to take a pic though, as we were starving and they were gone in a few mins!


For mains I ordered a chicken laksa with yellow noodles (egg noodles, you could also choose rice noodles, seafood or vegetarian), and S had Jungle Curry.

Jungle Curry

They both came out just as we had finished our spring rolls, so any chance for a bit of a drawn out meal weren't happening. The Jungle curry came out first, with the rice we had ordered in a little metal bucket which were cute. We werent sure if what had been put down on the table was the right thing, as the waiter muttered something incomprehensible when he delivered the food and we didnt hear if he said Jungle Curry. It didnt look much like a curry. It did say that it was a dry curry, using Nyonya curry powder, but this looked like it had very little sauce at all! I might be wrong but I expect curries to have a thicker coating than what this curry offered. Nevertheless, it was tasty, and a bit spicy! I only tasted a few pieces and it had some heat, so no doubt after a couple of mouthfuls you'll be feeling the fire! It was served with stirfried bok choi and broccoli, and was a generous serving. I think it would have been 2 breasts of chicken worth - S was stuffed once he finished! He enjoyed his meal and finished almost all of it (cept alot of the greens, which is no surprise!). He ordered some extra chillies on the side which he really enjoyed - they were really fresh and hot, with a strong chilli flavour which he loves. If you were expecting a saucier curry then this might dissappoint, but it didnt lack flavour which is the most important thing! It resembled more of a stir fried dish.

Chicken Laksa with yellow noodles

My order came a couple of minutes after the S's, and it looked awesome. Like I said, we were hungry, and having this massive, steaming bowl of laksa put in front of me was a definate win! It smelled great. There were plenty of veges (sugar snap peas, brocolli and asian greens), and good chunks of chicken. Underneath were lots of egg noodles and bean sprouts. The sauce was rich, coconutty and spicy with a great flavour. It warmed me to my bones! I loved it, to me it was exactly as I was expecting, and as I wanted it to be. It was a big serving and I ended up being greedy and putting rice in the leftover sauce to soak up and spooning it up into my mouth to finish it off. I was stuffed. I ate way more than I should have of it, but I couldnt help it. It was a delicious laksa. It did remind me ALOT of the bamboo chicken from Hans Cafe, but I love that dish, so didnt mind that it tasted the same! Ill definately go back there for another one - but there were a few other things I wanted to try as well!


Tamarind also do takeaways, and we noticed alot of people coming in and out picking up orders. The restaurant was pretty busy, but not too busy that we were neglected, and it wasnt too noisy. There were alot of kids there though, Im not sure if that was just last night or if its like that all the time, but it seems like a kid friendly place to go! I dont mind kids and even though some of them were being a bit loud and acting up a bit I didnt really care, it was more funny than anything. However if you're easily annoyed by kids then it would have been an average night out for you!


Our food came out really fast and we only managed to have one drink each, we were booked in for 6:30 and were out of there by about 7:15 or so. If youre looking for a fast feed this is the place to get it!


Things to note;

• Tamarind is BYO everything (we rang and checked) and they had no probs with S bringing in a 200ml bottle of whisky to mix with coke we bought there, and I had a bottle of wine. They charge $3 per person.
• The menu is gluten and MSG free, so those sensitive to these, come and get a belly full of food without the bellyache!

We paid about $60 for spring rolls (4), 2 mains, 2 serves of rice and corkage, which isnt too bad, but Ive been to asian places that were cheaper, but not really by that much...  Atmosphere is a bit average, but that was ok. Place was full of the sound of diners and chatter.




Considering its walking distance away, Id come back here!

Kitsch Bar - Leederville

Last night my bf and I decided to go out, on the spur of the moment. He was googling places that were close by and came up with Kitsch Bar, that we had never heard of, in Leederville. The menu looked cool so we rang up for a reservation. The guy we spoke to said that they were busy, but to call 30mins before we'd get there, he'd see how they were going and they'd reserve something for us, if not to have another drink or take our time getting there. He was quite accomodating and very friendly. We got there amid a staff member telling some customers lining up that they had no table as yet, but have a drink and when a table comes up we'll come get you. Take note, its a busy place! Book ahead!!

Graphics from the Kitsch Bar website, which gives an indication of the decor inside.

We got straight in and were shown to a table. Well it wasnt a table really, it was some wood sticking out from the wall, with another smaller platform above it for putting drinks etc. The table was REALLY small... It was also REALLY dark, we needed to use our phones to read the menu, which wasnt ideal! We ordered some drinks, which came out quickly, and our food ordered were taken quickly as well.

We ordered;
sechuan peppered duck, w/green apple, and ginger salad and candied chilli
spiced green papaya salad w/peanuts, cherry tomatoes and sweet, salty pork ribs
steamed pork dumplings w/hot chilli sauce and sticky soya
serve of rice 

Our table was really small and so we were a bit worried about all our food coming out and it not fitting, but the waiter told us that the food comes out as its ready, and so more than likely we'd manage it. We got the duck and pork dumplings first, as well as a serve of rice which pretty much filled our table! Our drinks were on the little platform above, and we had no more room! But we were managing.

The duck was SO GOOD!! It was crispy and crunchy, deliciously salty peppered skin, and the meat was easy to pick off the bones. My bf didnt talk much during this part of the meal, he loves fried chicken and so fried duck was pretty special in his eyes! I let him have his moment with the duck. The salad it came with was really nice, it was nice n sharp, really lemony which was great with the fatty salty richness of the duck.

The pork dumplings were really small, smaller than we expected for $10. They looked cute though, and they had a little dollop of spicy chilli sauce drizzled with sticky soy sauce. While they were small, they were tasty, and the sauce that came with them in a little spoon was good, I couldnt put my finger on what it was, but it was nice! Just wish they were bigger!

Pork Dumplings (Photo courtesy of http://www.spicyicecream.com.au/)

The green papaya salad we both didnt really like... to be honest, Ive never had it before so dont know what its meant to taste, like but I had high expectations because so many people have gone on about it. I found it too heavy on the fish sauce, and the other elements of the salad didnt add much to it, there were no other flavours t hat really stood out, and I found it quite unexciting. The pork ribs though were really nice, sticky and sweet, slow cooked to falling apart deliciousness! However, it was so dark that we couldnt see where the little bones etc were so it could have been a danger! Would love to order it again but without the salad... There was alot of it, and considering we werent huge fans of it, less of it would have been better!

Green papaya salad w/pork ribs (Photo courtesy of www.spicyicecream.com.au).

We had a great night at Kitsch. The vibe was really cool and we loved the way it was decorated. It had a really good feel to it, everyone in there was laughing and having a great time, we found the service to be friendly and generally prompt. Our waiter was very laid back, always had a smile on his face, he had a chat to us about the phone I was using, and was generally very friendly. The guy in charge of FOH was also very friendly, stopping by for a quick chat.

Beer garden at Kitch (Photo courtesy of www.perthnow.com.au)

For another great review of Kitsch check out this great review from Spicy Ice Cream.

Unfortunately I didnt take any of my own pictures at Kitsch, because we were planning on heading out later on and I didnt want to take my SLR out with  me. I wasnt going to bother using my phone to take pics because it was simply too dark for my phone to capture any kind of quality image. So I used others that I found on the web and have given full credit for all of them.

San Choi Bow!

I dunno how many different ways there are to spell san choi bow.

Who cares though, I made it last night, and it was great! Whats even better though, it took about 15mins from start to finish, I think the most fiddly part was breaking off the lettuce leaves, washing them, and placing them carefully in a bowl.

I found a recipe online somewhere, but true to fashion I didnt use it once I was home... another typical thing for me to do, is to eat everything before taking a photo. We were starving, we didnt wanna wait.

This is a really forgiving recipe though, and the quantities, in my opinion can be adjusted according to your taste. Im sure there are some SCB purists who believe things must be put in the pan at the right time, with the right things otherwise its been bastardised.

However, I believe that food is there to be eat, enjoyed, and plates licked clean. So ill include here a rough guide, to the ingredients I used, in roughly the quantities I guesstimated. However as I said, they're there to be changed. If you like more chilli - add more. I need not explain this concept further!!

San Choi Bow

250g mince (I used beef, its what we had, however its traditionally made with a mix of pork/chicken. So suit yourself to your tastes, what you have and whats on special!)

2 garlic cloves (grated/blitzed/chopped/crushed)

1 chunk of ginger (prepared like the garlic, I grated it, skin on. Throwing caution to the wind me)

1 green chilli (we used green cos we like the freshness, and took the seeds out)

3 generous tsp of sambal (indonesian chilli sauce - delicious, buy some, use it, love it)

1 tsp chinese 5 spice

1/4 cup chinese cooking wine (or thereabouts. I didnt measure, just splashed)

1/4 cup oyster sauce (free pour - I love this stuff)

1 tbspn thick soy sauce

Quantity of noodles of your choice (good way to bulk out this meal, with cheap noodles. Makes it uni student suitable)

Sliced spring onions/water chestnuts/bamboo shoots

Method

1) Get ready to wok. Heat oil in your wok, and have everything already good to go, cut up and sorted. This is a fast meal to make, but easy to screw up if youre leaving things to burn in your smoking hot wok while you catch up on prep. Depending on which noodles you have, prepare them now (I had rice noodles, that needed to be soaked in hot water for 5-10mins).

2) Add your sambal, garlic, chinese 5 spice, and ginger, and stir it. Alot. Hot wok = burnt garlic, which tastes crap. Keep it moving. It smells good, doesnt it.

3) Add your mince, give it a stir to coat it all in the chilli/garlic/ginger goodness. Depending on your wok, and how much you're cooking (if you're like me, you havent followed the ingredient list and are reading this with a kilo of mince in your hand... never fear, you can make this work), cook the mince in batches, in another pan, or in the wok, it doesnt matter. If you have too much meat in a pan, it brings the temp of the pan down. High temp = sizzle
Sizzle = flavour.
If the temp of the wok is reduced too much, there isnt enough sizzle. You dont want the mince stewing in the juices it releases cos the wok isnt hot enough, you want it sizzling, and the meat should become brown, not a pallid grey being simmered in mince water.

4) Once youve tackled the mince, and its all in the pan, add your sauces, chopped chilli, spring onions, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots. Get stirring, keep it moving. Make sure its all covered in deliciousness.

5) Cooked noodles are drained, and chucked in. Stir. Make sure its all coming together - have a taste, add anything you feel is lacking. This is your dinner, not mine, add what you like!

6) Serve in iceberg lettuce cups, fold them up and prepare to make a mess!

Allow about 1 or 2 serving spoons full of the mixture per lettuce cup.

This would also be great rolled up in rice paper rolls - which is my next plan!

If youve done it all right, this whole meal shouldnt really take longer than 30mins (if youre really taking your time chopping and generally pottering in the kitchen) however it took me about 15-20mins.

Apologies for no pictures............ we ate it........... it was really nice, with a real chinese flavour. Once youve got the sauces/spices, this is a real pantry meal. Grab it all and go.

Fun for kids to wrap their mince up in lettuce leaves, good way of coaxing bf to eat his greens. Can sub the meat for soy mince/quorn/tofu of choice for those less carnivorous. Add more veges, carrot, chinese greens, baby corn - just make sure you add them when its appropriate to make sure they're cooked properly.

Try it, its so easy and fast, its a definate winner for mid week dinners!!