"Bring the goods and I'll give you the money."
"How will I know where to go exactly?"
"There's only one place around, just around the corner from the pub so it shouldn't be hard to find."
Arrangents had been made. An exchange of goods and money would take place at the above location. Was this some black market exchange of illicit drugs? Well, if you consider vanilla beans a drug, then it was.
The above discussion was actually the exchange between myself and fellow food bloggers Duncan and Sarah about a quick catch up dinner. I was going to grab some vanilla beans off Duncan as well and pay him for it. After a bit of email ping pong, Duncan suggested a cheap good Japanese place he knew. But he forgot the name so the plan was to meet on the corner of Exhibition and Bourke. We all got there on time and managed to spot each other (well Duncan spotted me from across the street and I saw Sarah walking along). This meal was actually from a week and a half ago, and I'm the first to write about it. It just shows how slack we all have gotten or how far behind we are on our posting.
The restaurant turned out to be Japanese Cafe Restaurant. Despite Duncan writing that it was around the corner from the pub, I didn't read that properly and would have never found it in a million years. The small restaurant window is hidden under a large shade cloth.
Once inside and seated in our cosy table, we got some drinks and chose our dishes. Look at these wonderfully strained faces because my camera was having trouble focusing in the low lighting and took forever to snap a photo.
For dinner, despite having Sushi and Sashimi for lunch, I decided to have it again. Duncan went for the Teriyaki Chicken Bento from memory and Sarah got the Salmon Rice.
Despite being three food lovers sharing food, we all failed to talk about our meals completely. We were too engrossed in talking about a million other diverse topics, only some of which involved food. It's amazing how you can get to know people well from their blogs and exchanges of comments and emails. A lovely time was had by all and for the record, everyone enjoyed their meals. My sushi and sashimi were quite good, the fish being fairly fres. Only the tuna sashimi was a bit lacking in flavour.
We all finished the meals with dessert, which all consisted of some green tea ice cream and other elements such as fruit, glutinous rice and jelly.
Goods and money were exchanged when I got my aromatic vanilla beans from Duncan. I had them in my pocket on the train trip home and they smelt amazingly good. Now I need to find lots and lots of recipes utilising vanilla beans. Any suggestions would be welcomed.
It was great to meet up with my fellow Melbournian food bloggers. The internet can be used for good and you can meet other like minded people and enjoy their company. Thank you Sarah and Duncan for a very fun meal. May we do it again soon.
Wonderful to have such moments frrrrrozen in time Thanh! We'll trade blows about that photo another time;)
ReplyDeleteIt was lots of fun and you have to sleep with those vanilla beans until the whole world can smell you coming:)
Hey Thanh!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I am *soooo* behind on my posts, lol. My internet is capped as well so that's slowing me down even further.
Had a great time at the dinner; hope we can do it again soon.
With your vanilla beans, I vote for custard and icecream and trifle!! Oh, and vanilla kipfel, which are these amaaazing German Christmas cookies. (Kinda like shortbread, kinda like Greek almond crescents). I'll blog them soon but lemme know if you want the recipe. :D
xox Sarah
Duncan, I told you not to make that face or that it will freeze when the wind blows hehehe. :-)
ReplyDeleteI do like the smell of vanilla, but not so much I want to smell like it all day. I'm more a Joop person.
Sarah, capped Internet eh, what have you been downloading?
Please email me the kipfel recipe. I'm actually going to make biscuits for Christmas presents this year. So far I'm thinking of making choc chip cookies, fig and pistachio biscotti, jam drop biscuits and now I can add these kipfel and I'm done.
Oh, I don't think I've tried that place - a shame since I'm just up the street.
ReplyDeleteGreat to hear it was a fun evening :) The food looks good, and that ice cream looks very nice - was it?
Maffy, it was a fun evening and the ice cream was good. I had the Anmitsu dessert I think it was called. That contained green tea ice cream, fruit and agar agar jelly. Duncan had the Parfait which had the ice cream and green tea sponge cake. Sarah had the green tea ice cream with the gelatinous rice ball that had red bean in it.
ReplyDelete