restaurants

Eating Chicken Feet: A question of taste…

Posted on by Chanie

Yum Cha Lunch

It’s only 32 days till Vietnam…

…and my once eager palette and taste buds have hit a roadblock.

It happened last week when I was out to Yum Cha lunch in Bourke St with my mother… Salivating at the thought of an endless supply of dumplings and Chinese delights mum and I ordered eagerly from every cart that rolled past our table for 4, that even though there were only 2 of us we had somehow managed to fill with steam baskets and plates within the first 10 minutes. Prawn dumplings, shark-fin dumplings, Prawn and vegetable, chinese broccoli, steamed eggplant and prawn rolls, warm tofu custard, crab meat parcels and every single way you can think of to cook, bake or fry a prawn trundled past…

Then… came the chicken feet…

Now, chicken feet are on my list of things to try in Vietnam… and there they were, sitting in their bamboo basket all crispy and golden and part of the “All-you-can-eat” lunch deal right in front of my face… a million thoughts went through my head like “why not? you’re already here anyway!”, “ew, you can’t eat that!” and “can my mum stomach the sight of my gnawing on chook toes?” Finally I settled on a lame excuse that “I wanted to leave room for more dumplings” and politely declined…

Declined an opportunity to test my mettle, and if I’m honest I “chickened out” when put on the spot…

… so the question is, do I risk wigging out and possibly missing out in Vietnam? Or do I drag myself back to yum-cha, order a plate of fried chook feet and get stuck into them claws and all?

Chicken Feet

I also passed on the tripe… but who doesn’t?

Side note: After discussing chicken feet with a few friends who have been game enough to try them, apparently they are delicious… especially with plum sauce, and that if I can’t do the feet that the un-born eggs will be no-chance for me!

Eating Ethiopian food in Melbourne

Posted on by Chanie

Ethiopian food is something new to me…

I need to recommend a certain restaurant I REALLY enjoyed the other day!

Highly recommended by various Internet sources, I found myself at “The Abyssinian” in Kensington one Friday night who serve up Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine “From the Horn of Africa”. It was suggested to order the chef’s meat platter selection, to which we were greeted with an absolutely MASSIVE plate of food…

Spicy lamb, beans, white lentils, goat, dark lentils, chicken casserole, roasted spicy pumpkin, and fish all served upon delicious Injera bread that has the consistency of a bubbly thick crepe with a tart but not too strong vinegary but also sweet taste. I’ll have to eat there again to remember all the names…

Some of the spices are were not for the faint hearted in fact the lamb was pretty darn hot on the spice-o-meter, but all the meat just fell apart in the mouth, even the goat which I have previously found gamey and tough, was not chewy in the slightest.

The entire meal reflected flavours that have been honed to perfection for donkeys years, which i would describe as comforting food that feeds the senses. The colours, the smells, and the tastes all blend together, and it was impossible to find a dish on the plate that didn’t go beautifully with all the others…

Except the salad, not sure it belonged there with what tasted similar to an Italian style dressing poured over it… That said you could have rolled me down the street afterwards from the amount of food consumed so there’s not much point getting hung up over a few lettuce leaves!

There is also something incredibly satisfying about not having to use cutlery to eat… The bread that covers up the plate is your cutlery and does a better job than a spoon would in mopping up all the sauces… my top also did a great job, bibs would be a great idea when eating with your hands, especially if you’re as clumsy as I am!

Got a hot tip from the restaurant boss too… Each restaurant has its own signature dishes so it’s a good idea to try as many of them as you can as they all have something different to try…

Challenge accepted!

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Check out The Abyssinian on Urbanspoon:
The Abyssinian on Urbanspoon