The Robert Burns Hotel - Spanish food vs Scottish Poet

(degusted 19/9/2011)

Outside the RBH - Smith St. by night

"An unassumingly-named pub with Spanish food is a good twist, and serving tapas in a bar is a sensible pairing against which few would argue. As long as the quality and consistency of food stays high, this face-lifted Spaniard with the name of a Scottish poet might just do alright".

If you were to be asked –off the top of your head - what Spanish names come immediately to mind? What do you come up with –
Antonio Banderas…sure. 
Penelope Cruz… ahh yes. 
Salvador Dali… oh yeah, that “melted clock” bloke. 
Robert Burns? Excuse me – who was that last one?

The name associates more with a Scottish poet than with a tapas bar - perhaps that's why it took considerably longer for us to register that the Robert Burns Hotel (RBH) specialises in Spanish fare. Fear not, however, for if ever there was
a match made in that figment of peoples' imagination they call Heaven, it must be the serving of tapas and the (responsible) service of alcohol at the same location. And so it goes, from this day forth, the Robert Burns Hotel will, to us, now be duly known as the Spanish tapas pub on Smith street, in Collingwood, 'till death or cirrhosis do they part. We hope it will be a long and loving relationship.

Saltwater at Kings (Sunshine Coast, QLD)

(degusted 9th Aug, 2011)

What a great place to catch up with friends!

You cannot beat this location – right on Kings Beach, Caloundra – quite literally a hop, step and a jump onto (or off from) the sand. Saltwater cafe has a number of outdoor tables and chairs which catch the morning sun, but some of that sun gets blocked by high-rise apartments in the early afternoon. Parking is always difficult on the beachfront, but on our visit at noon (winter, mid-week) we had plenty of spaces to choose from, immediately adjacent to the cafe.

Thank goodness...

It's a pleasant spot to be, for sure. Our local friend mentioned that the cafe supplies blankets for the cold days, so everyone can be toasty warm even if one (un)dresses to show off their latest body art or sculpted abs... A word of warning for the likes of Tony Abbott or Vladimir Putin if they are thinking of coming here:  "No dick togs allowed".

 

The menu boasts a good list of breakfasts, and a comprehensive set of “starters” (around $20, and unless you’re Hulk Hogan, probably big enough to suffice as a main) and mains (around $30). We went for a few of the starters rather than a single main – so as to get a range of tastes.  The espresso was good, and came with an unexpected little treat – a small chocolate mini-mud cake. 

We love little unexpected espresso bonuses.

Good coffee. Good sweet bonus treats!!

The Japanese crumbed calamari was an obvious choice for us – mention Japan, calamari, bonito and wasabi aoli in one menu item description, and we were already sold... you had us at 'Japanese'.. These tasted as good as they looked - the sesame and mild wasabi flavours lifted this from "just another calamari" into something a bit more special.

Japanese crumbed calamari. Sesame and Wasabi complements the food well.

Next we degusted the Greek Lamb 'salad' with baby beets, goats cheese, olives and others. This was a good, hearty lamb salad with plenty of flavour, and the lamb was lovely and tender. The sweet beets are such a good accompaniment to offset and balance out the strong olives and goats cheese. Delicious.

Greek-style Lamb salad.

The third dish we ordered was the almond-crumbed brains, with sweet potato, parmesan and prosciutto. When ordering this one, even the waitress was unsure about the brains. 

You are what you eat, right? So with fingers crossed (that it would make us smarter and not turn us into gooey grey blobs floating in cerebrospinal fluid), we tucked into the golden-crusted brains. Verdict: in a word – AMAZING.   

 Brains have never been on our "top-foods" list (at least not until this point), but these little beauties changed that. Not having tried brain dishes elsewhere, we can't definitively say whether this place does to lambs brains what TDK cassettes used to do to your system – amazing things – or whether brains are intrinsically good. All we can say is that we would order these again, and recommend others to do the same!

Almond crumbed brains on sweet potato, topped with prosciutto. Incredibly good - A must-try.

For dessert we degusted through two dishes: first, an Ooey Gooey chocolate fondant – which was everything the name promised and more. Cutting into the cake 'shell' with the spoon set free a seductive molten chocolate river... Oh yeah...  Bring a spare insulin pen for this one. The other dessert was a white cholocate creme brulee – rich and creamy, it was delicious. Served with some biscuits and strawberry 'salsa'. Unfortunately, the biscuits looked as though they were courtesy of the local IGA - a bit cheap looking, and probably not even necessary on the plate.

Ooey Gooey chocolate pudding (fondant), with vanilla bean icecream

White Chocolate creme brulee (hidden under the strawberry slices)

All up, we lunched from midday through to mid-afternoon, enjoying the atmosphere, the company and the food. Soaking up the sun, and washing it all down with a bottle of bubbly and a few good short blacks - now THIS is what winter lunches on the Sunshine Coast should be all about.

Rating:  Nom (x3) - Go back if you get the chance!

Meh                      It’ll Do                   Nom(x3)                              Must go back!

Done and Degusted @ Saltwater at Kings Beach

-Japanese crumbed calamari

-Greek Lamb 'salad' with baby beets, goats cheese, olives and others

-Almond-crumbed brains, with sweet potato, parmesan and prosciutto

-Ooey-Gooey Chocolate pudding with vanilla bean icecream, and cinnamon marscapone

-White chocolate Creme Brulee with shortbread and strawberry salsa.

-Espresso (and bonus choccies!)

You might also like our other Sunshine Coast posts:
 Buderim Tavern,   Chopping Block Cafe in Buderim,   Reserve Restaurant and Cellar in Maleny

Or if cafe style food is your thing, in Victoria:  Main St Cafe, Mordialloc;   Degani's cafe in Eltham

Khe Sanh Seafood - (Springvale, VIC)

(degusted 24th August, 2011)

We stumbled across information about this little out-of-the way Vietnamese-Chinese inspired restaurant, but never followed up on it until it popped up on our radar while we were scanning Urbanspoon. It's in Springvale south, in a small shopping plaza.

I guess you can say a ‘perfect storm’ brewed up - through a combination of laziness, a craving for chilli and seafood, and a cold winter's night – together this all conspired to force us to head out mid-week on a school night. Tut tut!! Also, one of The Degusters has a not-so-secret penchant for singing Cold Chisel songs while driving (Saturday afternoons), and knows that 'the last plane out of Sydney is almost gone'. With that in mind, this restaurant was a must-try.. ;)

First impressions were of a fresh and clean dining area (thanks to a recent renovation)– and this was a pleasant contrast to our pre-conceptions of the place (based on their website). There are some nice big tables, it was kid-friendly, and there’s an outdoor area for the socially rejected (smokers). Service was excellent.

Fresh and modern dining room. Pleasantly unexpected.

In true gluttonous style, we had two serves of the famed calamari – one serve was done with salt and chilli, and the other Hong-Kong style. The calamari was everything you could want (soft, tender, tasty), and none of the bad things (not oily, not chewy). This would be an ideal bar-food and if you come here with a table full of mates, be sure to order a few of these plates. At around $10 for a generous serve, you'd be wise to order up big!!  The chilli was not really that hot however, and it was more of a salt and pepper calamari – the HK style was similar, with mild fried garlic, sugar, salt, and fried onion in the flavoursome crumbs on top. Both had a nice little spicy salsa with chilli, capsicum and spring onion.

Fried Calamari - both serving styles looked similar - this one is HK style (the crumbs on top).
At around $10 a plate, you can't miss this!

We tried the hot and sour soup, which had a great flavour – it was not overly 'sour', it was more spicy and slightly tangy. With tofu, BBQ pork, corn, egg and bamboo this was hearty and tasty. A surprise, actually.

Surprisingly good Hot and Sour soup.

One of the mains we degusted was the coconut king prawns. This was unlike anything else we've tried from any Chinese or Viet menus. We had expected the coconut would be dessicated and in bigger pieces, but in fact the crumb looked more like sand (thankfully though, it did not have any sort of gritty texture that a mouthful of St Kilda beach’s finest would typically provide). Flavours were quite delicate, the whole dish surprisingly light. Prawns were big and juicy with a nice pop when bitten. They were very more-ish, and while we wanted to love them, there was something about this dish that held us back –perhaps it was the want for more crunch, or more complexity of flavours and textures...  Granted, you could pair this with a plate of vegetables to get that variation, so this should not be a cause for complaint.

Coconut King Prawns. Looked like sand, but was soft and coconutty.

  (It seemed that shredded carrot and parsley was the standard garnish)

Fresh whole steamed Barramundi.

We wanted to try some fresh offerings, and while there were some large crabs in the tanks, we went for a steamed whole barramundi – fresh from the water to the plate. We didn’t have to wait long, as catching fish around here is like scooping fish from a tank… Actually, this is literally the case. The fish was done well, but the sauce was very sweet. The soy and ginger were the flavours we liked, but there was probably a bit much palm sugar in there. Apart from the sweetness, all other flavours were good, with shallots, ginger and coriander for good measure.

Khe Sanh seafood restaurant seems to have everything you could want, and we will probably head back there to try out a number of (non-seafood) items, including the lobster and the crispy skin chicken that we’ve read some good reviews about.  The menu covers a real variety of dishes –  many of which you won't find elsewhere. Like jelly fish and pork hock, or wasabi duck feet with jellyfish. There's game, too – like venison and crocodile, then there's all the usual suspects – beef, chicken, poultry. A range of hot-pots (including sea cucumber, abalone, and others) round off the varied menu.

A good enjoyable meal can be had here, although our fathers would probably complain about the cost (for asian meals in Springvale).

Rating:  Nom(x1)

Meh                      It’ll Do                   Nom(x3)                              Must go back!
 

Done and Degusted @ Khe Sanh Seafood

Salt and Chilli Calamari

Hong-Kong style Calamari

Hot and Sour Soup

Coconut King Prawns

Whole steamed Barramundi with soy and ginger sauce

The Boathouse on the Maribyrnong

(Degusted 16^th July, 2011)

We've degusted out in the West a little more than usual lately, and we were impressed with some of the offerings out this way. The food at the Boathouse in Moonee Ponds is one such example. Only a few kilometers out of the CBD, this is another of Gary Mehigan's restaurants –  a sister to Fenix in Richmond. Apart from the pop-cultural link to the owner, The Boathouse has a lot of things going for it – prime placement on the banks of the Maribyrnong river which affords it some pleasant views – and a welcoming, open-plan space inside supplemented by a nice outdoor deck space, which one could imagine would be delightful in summer.

Fish Pie. Served on a thick, chunky wooden board.
This was 'food presentation 101'

The lunch menu has a predominance of pizza options – and these are some serious contenders. The pizzas are the thin-crust, sparse topping type – the authentic kind of pizzas one would expect in Italy.. There are a number of other cafe-style meals to choose from, and you can be pretty sure that with Gary calling the shots, these are not going to be your ordinary “run of the mill” bar snacks.

Service... or lack of.

The service to our table was pretty slack – we were offered water and glasses to start with, but that aquatic refreshment was never topped up, despite draining the reservoir after one round... In addition to this, we had to flag down the waiter every time we wanted anything – there was never any pro-active offers of assistance from them. Disappointing to say the least - and the place was not even full.

Eggplant chips are a must-try.

Food... Excuse me while I stuff my face...

We started off with the famed Eggplant chips- (they looked more like croquettes)- and they were a great balance of crispy fried exterior and that slightly gooey cooked eggplant texture inside. Yum.

When the mains came out, the first impression was that the presentation of the food was terrific. The fish pie looked beautiful and tasted every bit as good as it looked, and most importantly, not too “fishy”. 

The burger and chips – ordered by a friend – was a stand-out for presentation; oozing an old-world rustic charm.  The pizzas looked good – yet they were oozing as well (perhaps a little bit too liberal with the olive oil?). We had the pizza with lamb, mint and and mushy peas – and were more than pleased with it. The pictures speak for themselves, but suffice it to say that the promise of thin, traditional-style pizzas was upheld with aplomb.

How is this for presentation - Burger and chips
- food envy much?

Lamb, Pea and Mint pizza. A little oily perhaps,
but otherwise an unexpected triumph.

Drinks.. stay true to the bean

Hot chocolate looked good, but tasted, ummm.....
a bit like muddy water drawn from the Maribyrnong.

The Soy hot chocolate was – in a word -  a failure. Served in a low-slung “cappucino cup” it looked the part, but really didn't come through with the goods in terms of flavour.

The espresso was, on the other hand, an absolute delight. This shorty was obviously made with good coffee, by a barista who knew what they were doing – the right grind, the right temperature water -  it was all over “just right”. Stick to coffees here we reckon.

An excellent little shorty. Not good, GREAT.

Views of the river from the dining area.

One can imagine that The Boathouse would make a great function venue – especially during summer – when you can take advantage of the outdoor decking to soak up the rays and the views..

There's plenty of parking around the football oval – just bear in mind that the area can be crowded by footy families if there is a game on... then again, why not park your car around the nearby Aberfeldie or Fairbain parks and stroll to The Boathouse along the banks of the river. Very pleasant.

To sum up:

The food was great, as was the coffee. Our hot chocolate was average, and the service was a bit slow (especially considering the dining room was only about 60% full). Location and setting is as good or better than you can expect for a quiet cafe/ restaurant. 

Child-friendly, but no "play area" inside, but a really good playground right outside though - with slides, shade sails etc !

             Out this side of town? you might also like Nosh @ Newport

Rating:  Nom (x1) 
out of the ranking:
Meh                      It’ll Do                   Nom(x3)                              Must go back!

Done and Degusted @ The Boathouse (in Moonee Ponds)

Eggplant chips

Lamb, mushy pea and mint leaf Pizza

Fish pie

Espresso

Soy hot chocolate

The Boathouse
3 The Boulevard,
Moonee Ponds

(03) 9375 2456

PS:

home-made cupcakes,
not actually available at the boathouse...

If we may say so ourselves, the stand-out were the cup cakes... Actually, the Degusters baked themselves and brought along for our friend's birthday, for which the waiter was happy enough to provide a plate for us to serve them on.. 

Cheers, A.M.   :-) 

Nosh @ Newport - a neat little cafe that is usually pretty good

 (degusted 23rd July, 2011)

Chai Latte at Nosh

The critical function of a good local café on the weekend – we reckon – is to serve up all-day breakfasts (or brunches) to the sleepyheads and the party-goers who shun the thought of facing the world at any time before midday. During the week, the local café serves as the local caffeine dealer – keeping the shakes at bay for the zombie-like hoards who make their way to the daily grind. For both these functions, a good local cafe needs to have a kitchen that pumps out quality breakfasts, and a barista or two who are passionate about pulling a good shot. It helps to be located in a handy spot for access to public transport. In these three regards, the Newport stalwart “Nosh” seems to have the essentials covered.

First up we must admit that this was not our first visit to Nosh, and our friends have made this place something of a regular stop-off. On this particular occasion we decided to sit outside – the fresh air was working wonders for the hangover. Perhaps this was our first mistake.

Service please!

After taking our own seat, we had to help ourselves to the menus, and water and glasses...After waiting 10 minutes, and still no love from the staff, we went inside to alert them to our presence, and the waiter came and took the orders. Shortly after our orders had been taken, the wait staff were quick to pounce on a table with father + 3 kids + dog, who – although ordering after us – received their meals well before us. Service was poor for our table on this occasion, and this was out of the norm for Nosh…. A real shame - especially as this was the visit about which we were going to blog!

The food...  NB: Nosh do an all-day breakfast - winner!

 First up, we ordered the breakfast paella. Now, if there's anything that comes close to our love of bacon, it's paella. (I really like saying “paella”, too).. "Paella".

Breakfast Paella. Does it get any better?

The breakky paella came served in the pan – all saucy and flavoursome. Chunks of chorizo, flavour hits from paprika and the golden molten cheese over the top were the king ingredients that made this dish “pop”.

The other dish for the table was a special item - the scrambled chilli eggs and bacon with avodaco in roti bread roll. It was a simple way of packaging up the good old Bacon and Eggs – (ordered on this occasion without the chilli) the meal was good enough – but with the chilli included - and the consumer feeling a bit less hung over – this might be a delicious dish.

Egg & Bacon Roti wrap.

 

Mocha @ Nosh

The Drinks:

In terms of the drinks – the essential café ingredient, we would argue - well, we almost didn't try them out. Not for lack of trying though.... Thirty minutes had passed before we got our drinks delivered to the table. Yes, you read correctly - 30 minutes. Now, just let that sink in for a few moments while your brain explodes...and pieces itself back together... Okay, so most people would not wait this long without complaining, so perhaps such a wait would never happen "in the real world" for anyone else, but we wanted to see how long the wait would be sans intervention. The soy mocha and chai latte were good enough, but after half an hour the latte should have been filled with gold leaf and the mocha oozing with the finest Belgian chocolates; which they weren't... Hmmm.

Overall this one-off experience was really disappointing, and completely out of character for Nosh. As mentioned previously, we've been there before and friends have been many times – without a doubt this was the worst service ever and was not the norm. Perhaps it was 'out of sight, out of mind' and a result of our seating outside and beyond the gaze of the wait staff...Perhaps the waiters were new or having a bad day. Neither reason is an acceptable excuse, and this poor service is amazing when everyone is a potential reviewer and (potentially angry) posts and tweets spread those reviews far and wide.. 

Despite the poor service on this occasion, we note that this is still an exception rather than the rule, and in the past we've been impressed here. Other tables nearby to ours were getting considerably better service, so it could have been the table location, being a little out of the way. The food is good enough that we'd risk another visit and hope that next time the service might be back to normal (or at least we'd make our plight known). Nosh is far enough away from the Williamstown clutter, but close to the Newport station which makes this place handy, if nothing else. Furthermore, there does not seem to be any shortage of locals lining up for a good “Nosh” - so perhaps one should join the herd and enjoy a breakfast here. 


You might also be interested in breakfast at: Main St Cafe, Mordialloc

Rating:  Nom (x1) - good food, but inconsistent service.

on the scale of:
Meh                      It’ll Do                   Nom(x3)                              Must go back!

Done and Degusted @ Nosh@Newport

Breakfast Paella

Scrambled egg and bacon roti roll.

Soy mocha

Chai latte

Nosh@Newport
24 Hall Street, Newport 
   - just near the train station

Splendid :)

Afghan Pamir - Great service, some good dishes.

At Afghan Pamir we got fantastic service, and there were some really good dishes that you should try. Unfortunately there were also some dishes that were a bit boring. That doesn't mean it's not good - in fact we like it - it's just not a stand-out. 


(degusted 10th July, 2011)

We heard about Afghan Pamir because of their involvement with the Melbourne food & wine festival, from which they received good reviews in the media, most notably for The Degusters, through the food reviewer Ela Carte on radio station 3aw. 

3AW? scoffs one Deguster to the other..
Yeah, yeah.. OK, before you all think one of us uses a walking stick, wears a hat and drives a volvo, we should point out that we’re proudly well out of 3AW's target demographic, but one of us just happens to enjoy a bit of talk-back in the mornings...

Afghan Pamir has therefore been on our “must try” list for most of this year, so when we found ourselves at a loose end on a Sunday for lunch, it was a good chance to finally go and see what all the fuss was about.

First up, please don't judge by the fact that this restaurant is in Dandenong. 

Dandenong – apart from the drag racing - is currently undergoing something of a revitalisation- roadside rejuvenation, new housing developments. It’s a melting pot of cultures – mainly middle-eastern and African – and this always seems to bring out the best in a town.  Granted, it will probably never find itself the Toorak of the south-east, but in the meantime a visit to Dandenong is not all that bad.  On a street back from the Princes Hwy, Afghan Pamir is currently located in a quiet(ish) street, so it felt a bit remote... or peaceful, depending how you look at things.

Afghan Pamir - Dining room. All the menus are clean
and laminated, unfortunately, so are the tables..

Walking through the modest looking shopfront you enter the quite large dining room, the tables had thick plastic covers, which gives the dining room a bit of a “cheap” feel. You can get away with this if you’re a Pho restaurant selling $7 bowls of soup, not when you are a restaurant with mains that cost $25 and over..

After this first impression, everything improved.

The waiter was the perfect example of what you should expect in a restaurant – courteous, helpful, and friendly – on this occasion we could not have been treated better. It's as simple as that. 

Being our first time here, we were guided through the menu, given lots of information and suggestions. Apparently, their most popular orders are the set menus – 5 to choose - including one vegetarian, and one meat lovers. We opted for banquet #2 as it included dessert and enough of the items from the menu that we were interested in trying anyway. They are firm on the ‘no changes to set menu’ rules, so don’t bother asking, unless you have specific dietary requirements – but then everyone at the table will probably have to all have the same.

Off to a flying start

Once the order was placed, we had bread and dips out and on our table really quickly. The bread was nice and fresh,. The salad was a bit so-so, but that didn't worry the salad-dodger...

The naan (bread) and dip.

Salad, & yummy Chatney (chilli dip).

The Chatney (a chilli & pepper sauce made with vinegar, cilantro and chillis, we believe) was awesome. When we told our waiter how much we enjoyed it, he went and got a container of it for us to take home. How good is that!?

 

Chicken and Lamb mince skewers. The Chicken was PERFECTION.

We devoured the chicken skewers which were the highlight of the meal– they had that smokey, char-grilled taste – with just enough bits of black - and were perfectly tender and soft inside – absolute perfection. The other highlight was the Afghani rice – which just has to be tasted to be understood: it was unlike any rice I've had before, and I loved it.  The meatball kofta were a surprise – really moist and tasty – two elements where meatballs often come unstuck. The bread was put to good use mopping up the sauce that these kofta came in.

Afghani Rice. So soft - you really just have to try it.

Meatball Kofta - surprisingly moist and tasty.

Mantuu - Afghan steamed dumplings.

One of the unusual dishes was the Mantuu – Afghan steamed dumplings, made from pastry, and served like a big ravioli. Interesting texture and flavour, we can only explain it as being a fusion of Asian dumplings and Italian pasta. It was genuinely a unique experience for us – and while we're not completely sold on this dish, and probably wouldn't make a special effort to go back just so we could have it again, it is really quite unique and we'd be happy to eat it again. I guess you have to try it once, right?

Sizzling plate of Doner kebab..
Nothing special, but good enough to eat.

Our vegetarian dish - thinly sliced potatoes.
Neither crispy, nor soft and fluffy. Could have done without.

The sizzling plate of doner kebab was mediocre, and the lamb mince skewers were ok – not enough flavours for our liking. There was a vegetarian dish included in this tasting, and according to the menu we were supposed to be able to choose which dish we wanted for this or leave it for the chef to choose (the waiter did not ask for our choice, nor did he tell us what the “chef's choice” was going to be – this was perhaps the only little let-down of the whole experience).. If you order the tasting plates, choose your vego dish and make sure the waiter gets it.. We were served this potato gratin style plate, which was uninspiring and a bit bland. There was nothing wrong with it, but with so many flavours and yummy things on the menu, it was a shame to have wasted our “choice” on this.

The desserts were tasty – the interesting Gulab Jaman which is like a little sweet, round dumpling ball, and the Baklava was just what you’d expect (although it was cold on the plate, which effectively subdued the sweet syrupy flavours). We found it best to let it warm up to room temperature for 5 minutes or so before eating it. Accompanied by a generous 3 scoops of ice-cream, our lactose-intolerance would have been better served with more of the Gulab Jaman or Baklava, and a bit less ice cream.

Dessert - Gulab Jaman, Baklava and ice cream.

In all, we really did enjoy the whole 'degustation' – there were a few items that we'd rather swap out if given the chance (but set menu’s are indeed set). For friendly service, this place gets an 11 out of 10. For food quality and taste, it’s harder to score, because some items are 10's, others are a bit bland.. Once you've done a tasting plate, it would be good to go back and order a la carte all the best things you know you’ll like. 

Degusters woz 'ere - 2011.

Will we go back? We would, especially for those chicken skewers, the friendly service, and the possibility of finding more things on the menu that we simply adore. In the meantime (and although it’s not Afghani) if we were after a big feed of bread, dips, similar quality meats, yummy rice and generally good value, we might stay a bit closer to home and pop into our trusty Turkish haunt – Guzel Istanbul Restaurant in Mentone.

Points of note:

Child Friendly?– the restaurant claims to be child-friendly, but the only evidence we saw of this was the supply of high-chairs. There was no obvious play area.

Vegetarian – Yes, there is a whole section of the menu devoted to Veggo meals, also a Vegetarian Banquet.

Drinks – not licensed. They will supply soft drinks!

Location – the waiter advised that they would be changing their location in the next 3 to 6 months – so perhaps check their website before you go!

Bookings – they say you should book for dinner. We had no issues walking in with no booking for lunch on Sunday, though.

Recipes - they have recipes on their website, so you can try and make their dishes at home.. COOL! 

Rating:  Nom (x2) - perhaps if we chose our favourites, this would be a Nomx3.

Meh                      It’ll Do                 Nom(x3)                              Must go back!

Done and Degusted @ Afghan Pamir

Set menu of Banquet # 2, including:
-Mantuu (steamed "dumplings")
-Afghani Traditional rice
-hot plate of shredded doner kebab
-chicken skewers
-lamb mince skewers
-Meatball Kofta
-"choice" of vegetarian dish
-naan (bread)
-dips
-salad and chilli/pepper dipping sauce
-"mixed dessert plate" including Gulab Jaman, Baklava and Ice cream
-can of soft drink (living it up!).