Bartley Tavern dinner

It's Thursday again, our eat-out day! As usual we went to the library to return and borrow some books and dvds. The kids had fun playing there too, they always do.

After our library session, we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner, the Bartley Tavern at West Lakes. We love going there as they also have a self-serve salad bar which includes cold and hot options.

Today I chose the Grazing Plate which includes a prawn & scallop skewer, stuffed bell peppers, marinated lamb back-strap, grilled chorizo, salt & pepper chicken, prosciutto, marinated mushrooms, crumbed haloumi, dips, bread & toasted ciabatta. It's huge even for a 1 person portion. Everything on the plate was delicious.

Hubby chose the one of the specials of the day which was not on the menu, lamb shanks on a potato mash with a tomato and vegetables sauce. This seems to be a winter dish but nevertheless was good even on this breezy summer's evening.

Golden Crown Chinese Restaurant yum cha

There are a number of yum cha restaurants in Adelaide but lately we seemed to frequent Golden Crown because 1) it's close to our home and 2) we almost don't need to make a booking unless there's more than 3 of us.

We would not say it's the best yum cha place available but then its standard is acceptable, if you don't compare it to Maxim in Hong Kong...

So each to their own, when we go for yum cha, we have some dishes all 3 of us like.. and some things that a person prefers more than the others. I don't take chicken feet, while my beloved doesn't touch the prawn dumplings. My princess has her own favourites too like siu mai, bbq pork puff pastry, steamed rice noodle rolls and egg tarts. We also went for some unconventional yum cha dishes like the salt and pepper soft shell crab (seafood, my preference) and duck feet (to my beloved's delight).

Yum cha is always enjoyable, and I think the more (people) the merrier but it always gave me feeling that I had more than I should...  it's hard to keep track of the amount of food that goes into our mouths as the portions look small but it all adds up!

Salt and pepper soft shell crab

Siu mai, fried flat dumplings, stir-fried chinese turnip cake with XO sauce, chicken feet, steamed fish balls and steamed pork ribs

Deep fried yam with pork mince & prawn and BBQ pork puff pastry

Egg tarts, Portuguese tarts, steamed rice noodle rolls and congee with century egg and lean pork

Duck feet with sesame sauce served with cucumber

Sushi Train

Mom has been on my back to resume my blog writing so I'm dedicating this comeback post to her..

Whenever I am doing/eating something which is Japanese (or related).. I always think of mom.. hence mom is on my mind again when we went to lunch at Sushi Train. As it name suggests, Sushi Train serves mainly sushi but also offers a variety of other authentic Japanese food.

Japanese cuisine is international, well-loved, and I honestly do not know a single soul who dislikes it.. It has a wide array of choices which promises to have something to suit everyone's palate.

Sushi Train brought the rotation sushi bar system, a unique part of the Japanese food culture, to Australia originally over 17 years ago. It began with its first restaurant in Queensland's Surfers Paradise in 1994 and had since set up 30 more around Australia and 1 in New Zealand. It was named Sushi Train because it originally used a unique concept of using a model train railway system to bring food to its customers. This has now been replaced by a more conventional conveyor system which goes round and round, bringing food to its customers regularly.

At Sushi Train, my better half and I like almost everything available while my princess prefers the soup udon we ordered specially for her. And I would like to leave you here with some (not all) of our choice sushi for the day.

Ika (squid) nigiri, tuna sashimi, salmon nigiri and tiger roll (tempura prawn and avocado)

Ramune strawberry soft drink and hot Japanese green tea

Gyoza, hamachi (kingfish) nigiri and salmon roll with salad

Teriyaki unagi (eel) roll

Karaage (fried chicken) udon soup and spicy tuna ship

My little princess' favourite foods

One can sometimes tell what kind of food my princess likes.. Generally she eats quite slowly but we can see that she speeds up when we place her favourite foods in front of her.

Children need to be trained from young to eat healthy food. My little princess was not allowed to have french fries, soft drinks and junk food (chips, chocolate, ice cream, sweets, lollies, etc) until she was about 3 years old. She had her first french fry during her friend's birthday party held in McDonald's. Each kid had a Happy Meal which consisted of a cheeseburger/chicken nuggets, french fries and juice/soft drink. We didn't really want to make a special request to replace the french fries with apple slices as we usually do when we bring her to McD's. We also let her have an apple juice instead of the milk we normally order with her meal.

Up till today, she doesn't like soft drinks as she doesn't like the burning sensation down her throat but like every other normal kid she loves most types of junk food like chocolate and ice cream. She loves potato chips and popcorn too but we try to control her intake of all unhealthy snacks. Not letting her take them at all might cause her to crave for and binge on them when she has the chance so we figured the right way would be to let her have them but in limited portions. Recently I found out her love for fairy bread which is somewhat unhealthy due to the sprinkles which are made of sugar but I reckon her having them once in a while is acceptable.

During dinner, she also has her favourites like white creamy pasta with cheese, koay teow, wantan noodles, and certain types of vegetables like corn, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber and lettuce, although we insist she takes all types of vegies which are available for the meal. She had also developed a strange liking to spring onions and doesn't mind having lots of them on her rice or noodles. Eggs in all forms are also one of her favourites and she often asked me if we were having them for dinner. She also loves to have soup with her meals, like ABC soup and even takes most of the Chinese herbal soups which we cook, including ginseng (if it's not too bitter) and also bah kut teh. I also found that she likes sushi, which pleases me because her dad and I love them too..

Nowadays I try to include dishes which she likes in a meal to increase her appetite and also to try and train her to eat faster as I don't think she will have meal breaks in school in future as long as the ones she takes at home. I'm not even sure she finishes her food in preschool at the moment. Just a few days ago, hubby was working late so little princess and I had a quiet dinner at home. I cooked rice for her with a hard boiled egg, and stir fried some chicken pieces with garlic, thickened up the sauce with a little bit of cornflour and stirred in some fresh cucumber after switching off the stove. This proved to be a dish she liked.. and she did finish up her bowl of food in a reasonable amount of time. She went for the hard boiled egg first and finished it up so quickly before I remembered to take a pic with the egg..

Our lunch date

      

3 weeks ago, hubby and I had a lunch date up on Mount Lofty, fine dining in the Summit restaurant. We had always brought visitors up there for the panoramic views of the Adelaide city but never stepped into the café/restaurant there. 

It was a relaxing day for us with the little monster in preschool. The food was good, and we had afternoon tea at Jenny’s Gourmet after that, not on Mt Lofty, though, it was after the drive down from there. We had some nice desserts there, a Portugese tart and a blueberry friand to go with the latte and hot chocky.

Fine dining at the Summit Mt Lofty was not much different from dining anywhere else except for the view which could only be seen on a clear sunny day in the daytime…

We ordered an entree to share: Sauteed prawns in garlic cream sauce with saffron rice. The texture of the creamy white sauce was just right and the number of prawns was quite generous for an entree

I had my usual pick, something with seafood: Seafood Linguine with scallops, mussels, squid, white fish and prawns tossed with soft herbs and fresh chilli. It's a welcome and refreshing change from the normal red marinara sauce which normally accompanies seafood pasta. Hubby had a his usual pick too, a meat dish: He ordered a pork cutlet with baby spinach and sweet potato. We also had the rocket, walnut & pear salad with blue cheese vinaigrette on the side.