Thanh Binh on King

A few weeks ago Frankie and I went to one of my favourite Vietnamese restaurants in Sydney - Thanh Binh. I have been here a few times and pretty much always get the sugar cane prawn roll your own fresh spring roll things. They are sooo good and fresh and very filling! So this time it was good to come with someone where i could share that and get something else to try.

First off we started with the Calamari

Calamari stuffed with Chicken and Glass Noodles - $9

I hadn't had this before from here and found the calamari to be really tough. It shouldn't be like that should it? Like really really tough. I have had a few entrees from here before and they have all been really good, so I was quite disappointed. Oh well, I knew that the next course wouldn't disappoint!

Roll your own Rice Paper Roll - $20

There are several types of roll your own that you can get and they are all $20. I always get the sugar cane prawn, cause I love it, but other options you can get are lemon grass pork, garlic pork balls, grilled king prawns (in shell), lemon grass beef in wild betel leaves, and lightly battered tofu and mushrooms for the vegetarians. I always love meals where you can get involved in the making of it. Especially rice paper rolls, it's always fun to see people try and fit too much into the roll and for it to break while eating and spill all over the place!

Fresh Herbs and Vegetables

Rice Paper

Frankie about to make one!

Just be aware that the tables are quite small here and this one dish takes up a lot of room, which is why our second dish came after we were done with the rolls, and I was quite full..

Stewed Pork Belly and Quail Eggs - $19

I love pork belly, I don't have it that much cause it might be a bit bad for you....but it's so good. Especially when it just falls apart and melts in your mouth. The Vietnamese always do it well with their salty sweet broth. This was very very good.

Vietnamese Pickles

The pork also came with some pickles, which I wasn't too sure about. They had a funny taste to them which didn't really agree with me. We had plenty of vegetables in the fresh spring rolls, so we just left these.

Make sure you book when you go to this place, cause it is always packed. Be aware that on Friday and Saturday nights there is a minimum of $23 per person and I don't think that includes the corkage of $2.50 per person.

Thanh Binh on King
111 King Street
Newtown
Open Tue - Thurs 5:30 to 10:15pm
Fri 5:30 to 11pm
Sat Noon to 11pm
Sun Noon to 10pm

Kammadhenu

I had a couple of my friends over last Saturday to check out my new place have a few drinks, and then go out for dinner in Newtown. We had nothing planned, so we just walked along the streets for a bit when I thought of a place that I have been wanting to try.

I was watching the food safari series and they did an episode on Sri Lankan Food and had these stringhopper things which looked really interesting, so i did a search of sri lankan restaurants close to me, and Kammadhenu was the closest.

The menu is huge and is a combination of Sri Lankan, Indian, Malaysian, and Indo Chinese Food. The prices are very very reasonable too! The first page has a list of snacks which includes

We found the place on King Street and walked in and asked for a table for 3, we were told there were no tables downstairs and that we would have to go upstairs. So we waited for someone to take us upstairs, but apparently they meant for us to go upstairs ourselves and find a table.... Let me tell you the atmosphere downstairs from upstairs is very different. I would recommend if you are coming here to book a table downstairs. Apart from the erratic service, the food was very good, apart from the goat which was more bones than meat.

You really can't complain though when you order a smörgåsbord of food for 3 people for about $20/head and can't eat it all.

Tandoori Chicken

Masala Dosai

Stringhoppers

Butter Chicken

Lamb Rogan Josh

Goat Curry

Condiments

Kammadhenu
171 King Street
Newtown NSW
Ph: 9550 2611

Open 7 days 11am - 11pm

Delhi 'O' Delhi

Finally it is starting to feel like Spring in Sydney at the moment. Wednesday night was a nice balmy night and Erskineville was buzzing with people sitting outside at the local pubs. I haven't really been to Erskineville before, but it has such a nice village feel to it. After a few beers at the pub Frankie and I headed to a relatively new place on Erskineville Road called Delhi 'O' Delhi. Inside the restaurant it looked very fancy from which the prices on the menu didn't reflect which was good. Seeing as it was a nice evening, we took advantage of one of the two tables in the courtyard.

As soon as we sat down we were taken care of immediately with our wine being opened and poured, glasses of water brought to the table without asking, and a complimentary serve of pappadums.

We had a look through the menu and ordered a mixed platter entree to share as we decided what mains we were going to get.

Mixed Platter - $9.90

The mixed platter consisted of Seekh Kebab (Lamb mince skewered and grilled in clay oven), Murgh Malai Tikka (chicken thigh fillets in yoghurt and cashew nut marinade), Palak Ke Kebab (Spinach and roasted lentil patties, these were really good), and Machli Basil Tikka (Fish fillets marinated in hung yoghurt, fresh garlic and chargrilled). Everything tasted wonderful. The fish fillets were quite spicy, but I like spicy food so it was good. After we finished the entree we were asked if we were ready for our mains, which I thought was considerate, rather than some places where you are still eating your entree and then your mains come out.

Chicken Tikka Masala - $11.90

Usually I will always get butter chicken, as it's my favourite Indian dish, but thought it would be good to try some different dishes. The problem is that I wanted to try everything! That's the problem in going out with just 2 people, you can't try as much. The tikka masala (chicken morsels sauteed with tomatoes and fresh coriander) was chosen first and what a good choice! The chicken was so succulent and very tasty.

Baghare Baingan - $10.90

Next up was sauteed eggplant simmered in piquant peanut, tamarind and sesame seed sauce. This was quite spicy which probably the piquant referred to. Very good though and I love eggplant. We also got some sides of cucumber raita, mango chutney, and tomato and onion which were all $2.

Plain Naan - $2.50

Is that like the puffiest naan bread you have ever seen?? Naan bread is so good. I love all types of naan and always have to get it whenever I have Indian food. I definitely want to come back here and try more of their dishes, hopefully with more people! Apparently the chef used to work at Oh Calcutta as well. The waiter was quite cheeky too, which makes the night entertaining. The restaurant is BYO and licensed. I think we paid either $6 per person or $6 per bottle. Don't know as there was 2 of us and 2 bottles of wine, so not sure how they calculated it.

Delhi O Delhi
3 - 13 Erskineville Road (off King St)
Newtown
Ph: 9557 4455

Open 7 days 5:30pm till late

Mamma Maria

So i got these free tickets in the mail the other day for the Joe Strummer movie - The future is unwritten, so decided to use them last night at the Dendy in Newtown. I had never been to the Dendy there before, and was amazed that you were acutally allowed to buy alcohol and bring it into the movie! The chick behind the counter was not amused when Frankie asked for a bottle of champagne and she said you can only get glasses, we don't want people drinking out of the bottle in the cinema...like we were going to do that! Anyway the movie was really good and by the time it was finished we were ready to eat!

I don't really know Newtown that well, although there are heaps of places that I would love to try out, so I told Frankie to pick a place and he chose Mamma Maria. He had been there the week before with his parents and said it was really good. Also the movie finished about 9pm and this place is open until midnight, so we didn't have to rush our dinner either.

Crumbed Brains

Frankie said that we had to get this for an entree which i was happy about, cause I hadn't eaten brains for ages. When I was little and living in Albury there used to be this sandwich shop called Yums which we used to get sandwiches from all the time and my favourite were the brains, avocado and bacon. So good, anyway these brains were delicious. They were in a creamy tomato sauce with red capsicum and onion and garlic. Can't remember how much they cost but the food here was very reasonably priced.

Chicken Samir - $15.90

For mains I got the Chicken stuffed with ricotta and something else. Can't really remember the particulars, but I remember that it was damn good. The sauce was tomatoey (is that a word?) and garlicky and really good. The vegetables were cooked to perfection also and seasoned just right. I always love a meal where I don't have to add any salt and pepper to, and i love my salt too.

Veal Dawn - $15.90

Frankie went for the Veal Dawn which was stuffed with mushrooms and artichokes and had a creamy mushroom sauce. I tried a bit of his and it was very nice, although i was glad i went for the choice that i did.

Greek Salad

We also ordered a greek salad (at an Italian restaurant i know) which was good, not the best i have ever had, but it was still good. This was a medium sized salad too, which was plenty for the two of us. We also got some garlic bread, which reminded me a bit of pizza hut garlic bread, but

better. It was BYO as well, which is always a selling point for me. Overall a very good restaurant, a very family feel to it also and cosy. I will be looking forward to going back!

Mamma Maria
239 King Street (Cnr Church St)
Newtown

Ph: 9516 4428
Open Dinner Mon to Sat 6pm - Midnight