Drunken Geisha, Pyrmont (5th June 2011)
The weekend has been pretty quiet - most of Saturday was spent chilling out at home, and while Jono was at work on Sunday, I spent most of my day doing household chores and catching up with sorting out photos from our recent activities. Having spent most of my weekend at home, I suggested we go out for dinner at Drunken Geisha on Harris St in Pyrmont located not too far from Jono's work. Gets me out of the house, even just for a bit. Plus, we got to check out a restaurant we've not been before in Sydney!
I headed over to Google to meet Jono around 6ish and we walked about 3 blocks uphill to Harris St where the contemporary Malaysian-Singaporean restaurant was situated. We didn't expect Pyrmont to be this hilly! To be honest, I'm not sure why the place was named Drunken Geisha for it has nothing to do with the type of cuisine at all (I had thought it was a Japanese restaurant at first until I looked it up on the internet). Stylish design with plenty of dark wood and low lighting, this small restaurant was wedged in the middle of a stretch of townhouses which have mostly been converted to restaurants. As we approached the glass windows to check out the menu, the young waiter came to the door to greet us and ushered us to our table. Hmm, the have belacan kangkung (water spinach stir fried with chilli shrimp paste) - my mouth is watering just thinking about the dish! It's one of my favourite Malaysian dishes!! Can we order some of this, please? :)
We ended up with our table filled with a roti, their signature dish beef rendang (Malay spiced coconut beef), kapitan chicken curry (nonya style dry curry), belacan kangkung (yes!) and a pot of rice to share, and drinks of teh tarik and chin chow (black grass jelly with syrup). The food in general was nice but pricey (most dishes are above $15 and my belacan kangkung was $10.90 - ouch!) though I can't comment much about the kapitan chicken curry as I don't think I've ever had this dish growing up in Malaysia so unsure if it tasted as it should. We definitely ordered way too much food and had to doggy bag most of the kapitan chicken curry. I wasn't very impressed with the teh tarik when it came out a chilled drink - instead of 'pulled' hot tea, we could hear the young waiter busily shaking the prepared tea and ice in a shaker from behind the bar. Shaken tea IS NOT teh tarik!
I have to say my favourite dish tonight was the belacan kangkung - I could have just this dish and rice for dinner and be perfectly happy. "Sure you don't want anymore water spinach?" I asked Jono and he smiled, saying he has had enough. More for me then - yum, yum!! Jono was watching me with amusement as I polished off the plate and asked me why Malaysians enjoy stinky food. "There's the durian, the food we saw at the street stall in Malacca, and now this," he continued and I shrugged. I'm not sure why but I guess we were introduced to such food when we were young and just grew up loving them. Come to think of it, there are several Malaysian delicacies that can be quite stinky...
Cost us $42.25 all up inclusive of 25% off the bill (voucher from the Entertainment Book). I would recommend trying the place out if you are in the neighbourhood, perhaps even coming by on a Saturday so you can also try their Hainanese chicken rice (they only served it on Saturdays).
We left the restaurant around 8pm for home, making a quick stop at the nearby grocery store to pick up milk and cereal. Ah, Jono and his scooter - he's like a little kid, zipping ahead of me on his scooter with the groceries hanging in its bags on his handle bar, stopping occasionally so I would catch up and then zipping off again. Go on, run along now! I can't be bothered running after him for he's just too fast and I'm too full...
I headed over to Google to meet Jono around 6ish and we walked about 3 blocks uphill to Harris St where the contemporary Malaysian-Singaporean restaurant was situated. We didn't expect Pyrmont to be this hilly! To be honest, I'm not sure why the place was named Drunken Geisha for it has nothing to do with the type of cuisine at all (I had thought it was a Japanese restaurant at first until I looked it up on the internet). Stylish design with plenty of dark wood and low lighting, this small restaurant was wedged in the middle of a stretch of townhouses which have mostly been converted to restaurants. As we approached the glass windows to check out the menu, the young waiter came to the door to greet us and ushered us to our table. Hmm, the have belacan kangkung (water spinach stir fried with chilli shrimp paste) - my mouth is watering just thinking about the dish! It's one of my favourite Malaysian dishes!! Can we order some of this, please? :)
We ended up with our table filled with a roti, their signature dish beef rendang (Malay spiced coconut beef), kapitan chicken curry (nonya style dry curry), belacan kangkung (yes!) and a pot of rice to share, and drinks of teh tarik and chin chow (black grass jelly with syrup). The food in general was nice but pricey (most dishes are above $15 and my belacan kangkung was $10.90 - ouch!) though I can't comment much about the kapitan chicken curry as I don't think I've ever had this dish growing up in Malaysia so unsure if it tasted as it should. We definitely ordered way too much food and had to doggy bag most of the kapitan chicken curry. I wasn't very impressed with the teh tarik when it came out a chilled drink - instead of 'pulled' hot tea, we could hear the young waiter busily shaking the prepared tea and ice in a shaker from behind the bar. Shaken tea IS NOT teh tarik!
I have to say my favourite dish tonight was the belacan kangkung - I could have just this dish and rice for dinner and be perfectly happy. "Sure you don't want anymore water spinach?" I asked Jono and he smiled, saying he has had enough. More for me then - yum, yum!! Jono was watching me with amusement as I polished off the plate and asked me why Malaysians enjoy stinky food. "There's the durian, the food we saw at the street stall in Malacca, and now this," he continued and I shrugged. I'm not sure why but I guess we were introduced to such food when we were young and just grew up loving them. Come to think of it, there are several Malaysian delicacies that can be quite stinky...
Cost us $42.25 all up inclusive of 25% off the bill (voucher from the Entertainment Book). I would recommend trying the place out if you are in the neighbourhood, perhaps even coming by on a Saturday so you can also try their Hainanese chicken rice (they only served it on Saturdays).
We left the restaurant around 8pm for home, making a quick stop at the nearby grocery store to pick up milk and cereal. Ah, Jono and his scooter - he's like a little kid, zipping ahead of me on his scooter with the groceries hanging in its bags on his handle bar, stopping occasionally so I would catch up and then zipping off again. Go on, run along now! I can't be bothered running after him for he's just too fast and I'm too full...
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