Joy Cafe in Northbridge

It has been cold weather in Perth, especially the mornings and the nights.  I’ve went to Perth international airport just recently to drop off my friend who was going back to Jakarta.  It was around midnight and the air was freezing cold.  Inside the airport wasn’t that bad, but I still couldn’t take off my jacket.  On the other hand, the friend seemed to be ok with it and took off his jacket and put it into his check-in luggage.  If it was me, I would keep wearing it or at least keep in a cabin luggage in case it becomes cold in the plain.  I sometimes have to ask for an extra blanket to a cabin attendant.

It often takes some time for me to decide what to wear when getting on a plain.  Mostly, the countries I’ve been flying from Perth is either Japan or Indonesia.  The climate in Indonesia is always hot and humid.  The seasons in Japan and Australia are totally opposite.  So, whenever I fry, I always have to think about the climate and the season of the destination.  If I fly to Japan in February, I have to bring a thick coat or jacket with me on the plain, otherwise I’d be freezing from the snowing weather.  But I wouldn’t be able to wear even a long sleeve clothes to Perth airport as the temperature would be around 40 degree in February here.

Anyway, he was flying to Jakarta, a place where you start sweating right after getting off the plain, so he was just wearing half sleeve shirt until the boarding time.  The reason for him taking off his jacket could be also the sweet ginger dish that we ate at Joy Cafe in Northbridge before going to the airport.  As he was flying with Jetstar, and it was his last night in Perth, we all had dinner together at this Chinese restaurant.

We ordered a banquet for 4 which comes with today’s soup, choice of 4 main dishes, steamed rice and Chinese tea for four.  It was $62.00, so we thought it’s a pretty good deal.  It was only three of us when we got to the restaurant, but we were expecting three more people to join us.  In the end, two canceled and one showed up with full stomach, so three of us had to finish up the four dishes. :p  We ordered stewed beef brisket, honey king prawn, spinach with two kinds of egg, and Peking pork ribs with mayo.

The food was good, but what surprised me was the speed of their service.  It may be because of the time we arrived the restaurant (late night), but they served the soup and 4 main dishes within 5 minutes we ordered. All the ingredients were ready to be cooked, I guess.

You can’t imagine how full we were!  But, unbelievably, my husband and the friend ordered dessert (#0#).  They ordered peanut balls in warm ginger syrup soup, and Chinese pancake with sweet red beans and vanilla ice cream….  and we also finished them up too.

With warmed-up body, he flew back to his home.

Chinese New Year 2010

As you may know, this Chinese New Year is the same date as Valentine’s Day.  We, Japanese, don’t celebrate Chinese New Year (as our New Year Day is the 1st of January), but I attended the dinner with in-laws last night at a Chinese restaurant in East Perth, called Han Palace.  The outside and interior of this restaurant is just about what I imagine of “China”  

We had a course meal, which contains 13 dishes.

Yu Sang - Prosperity Raw Fish Salad

Shark Fin and Crab Meat Soup

Ginger and Shallot Western Rock Lobster with Yee Meen

etc etc.

The food was …. to me, not really special.  Maybe it’s because those food are special New Year’s food, I don’t know.  Well, I did enjoyed the atmosphere though.  There was a big screen of tv showing a New Year’s event show, and we started the course meal by mixing up the Yu Sang together while yelling “Happy New Year”.

While we were about halfway through the course meal, it started … - dragon dance!  

Two dragon started to look for ang pows (red envelop with money) and all the customers in the restaurants were feeding ang pow to those dancing dragon.

Dragon must get the ang pows : a customer stood on a chair and held an ang pows in high position, and dragon also has to stand up and get the ang pows.

It was a fun night.  I didn’t eat much, but the service was great.

Fun Experience at a Chinese Restaurant

The other day I went to Hon Kong BBQ in Northbridge with my friend for dinner.  I just wanted to have a chat with her as we hadn’t seen each other since I came back from holiday.  We had so much to talk about!

It was still early when we went in, so there’s just few customers inside.  We sat down, and had a look at their menu.  Then we noticed that the menu is written in 3 languages: English, Chinese, and Japanese.  Naturally we were browsing the Japanese words, and we both couldn’t stand but laugh…  We didn’t want to be rude, but the Japanese description was really funny.  I don’t know how they translated the menu into Japanese, but if they are thinking to remake menu books maybe I can help to write Japanese for them.  All the Japanese words on the menu does make sense, but are really funny…  It was a good laugh though, not trying to make fun of them!  

BTW, Japan also do the same thing to English.  We sometimes use English for sign boards, business cards, posters etc, but some of them are wrong-spelled or totally doesn’t make sense.  Like engrish.com, people make fun of it … and I agree, it’s funny!  

At Hong Kong BBQ we ordered braised beef with oyster sauce, and Chinese vegetable with mushrooms.

They’re delicious.  With just those two dishes and steamed rice, we stayed there for 2 hours!  Then we noticed some customers were waiting for the seat, so we left the restaurant.  

We still had 30 mins until my friend’s bus, so we looked for a place to have a quick coffee… Chutney Garden - an Indian restaurant.  Unfortunately they didn’t have any coffee menu, but they offered us Masala tea.  We didn’t really have time to move to another place, so we decided to have the tea.  The restaurant was filled with some kind of spice smell …  Indian Curry?  After few minutes very polite wait staff came to our table with 2 cups of Masala tea.  The spicy tea was fragrant, delicious, and warmed up our body.  It was really nice.

Bamboo

Although I said that dinner wan’t so nice at Banboo restaurant in Willetton, I still liked their salt & chili pepper squid.  It was nicely crispy, and I enjoyed it with pickled chili and vegetables.  In some restaurants (not only Chinese restaurants) texture of squid is like rubber.  I really hate when someone serve such dish at restaurants.  I think they are using frozen cheap squid, and they don’t cook properly.  I know one Chinese restaurant on South Street that sells rubbery seafood clay-pot dish.  I don’t only hate the fact that seafood is like rubber, but also the taste!  I can tell they use MSG…  I really didn’t wanna pay for the dish

Talking about seafood, I really loved Honey Prawn at Yu (Burswood Entertainment complex).  The prawn was reasonably big, and juicy.

Saigon

Located at the centre of Northbridge, I’m sure that lots of people know this restaurant.  Saigon is a city in Vietnam, and as this name indicates this restaurant serves Vietnamese/Chinese food.

I was still learning English at TAFE (Technical and Further Education institute) when I first tried this place. (6 years ago!)  My classmate (who had been in Perth for few years) recommended a dish called “Saigon chicken rice” to me, and since then I order this dish every time I go to this restaurant, even now.

Besides the taste, the price was also another big factor why I kept eating this dish.  Back then it was just $4.50!  Now, however, it’s about $7? $8?  I’m not sure…  Price’s been gone up.

I usually order fresh spring rolls as entree.  I love the sauce!  shredded carrot and crushed peanuts…

Then, Saigon Chicken Rice…

The sauce is kind of sweet, and you can eat lots and lots of rice with just this sauce.  (which is not a good thing if considering the calorie, actually :p)  The chicken is roasted or fried first, so it’s crispy outside.   This one dish really fill me up, I think men will like this dish.