Last week I was lucky enough to attend a media lunch for the Chiva Som Spa Cuisine cookbook. Thai Chef Paisarn in consultation with Serge Dansereau from Bather’s Pavilion cooked us a delicious four course lunch. The food was light but also flavoursome and I recall thinking “I could quite happily live on this”.  Of course living on this also does entail forking out a considerable sum to stay at Chiva Som-and sadly my gold bar supply has been depleted…ok it never existed but I like pretending that I had one.

Chef Paisarn

Apart from the tasty savoury morsels we were also served this dessert. I know the idea of using what is traditionally known as a savoury ingredient (water chestnuts) might seem odd for some but this is sweet, light, gluten free, dairy free and only 50 calories a pop. I am willing to try anything so I popped one of these treats into my mouth and was rewarded with a lovely bite sized dessert. On top was a creamy custard and at the bottom was a slightly crunchy and sweet water chestnut layer.

Chef Paisarn trying to show us how to make the pandan leaf boxes

For those of you unfamiliar with traditional Asian desserts, they are quite different from Western style desserts. For starters wheat flour and dairy items are rarely used. You may find yourself eating sweet beans and in this case, sweetened water chestnuts. However despite the lack of cream and cake, these are often very tasty, especially the desserts where coconut is used (sadly which means that the dessert isn’t quite as low fat as you’d want).

Vegetable Roll

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There’s a well known  quote from the Australian film “The Castle” that Mr NQN and I occasionally like to say to each other. It’s about bargains.

Darryl Kerrigan (father): Jousting sticks? What’s he want for ‘em?

Steve Kerrigan (son): Make us an offer. Give him a call?

Darryl Kerrigan: Yeah.

Steve Kerrigan: Dad? 450.

Darryl Kerrigan: For jousting sticks? Tell him he’s dreamin’!

And when we find out that that seafood curries are a tiny $14 at this little unassuming Thai restaurant in Marrickville we find ourselves crowing “13 bucks for a seafood curry? Tell him he’s dreamin’!”

Outside it looks like any other suburban Thai restaurant. A neon “open” sign flashes outside and there’s a large plasma television screen stuck to the back wall. A high chair sits at a large table and there is a  family dining in the corner. It could be just like any Thai restaurant except that the chef behind it is from Spice I am Polawat Danphasukul and his wife Phanissa Sricharoen is the sweet, smiling face on the floor. We take a look at the menu-legend has it that a seafood curry can be had for $13.90 and we’re excited. I realise that my Cheap Thrills $20 and under category hasn’t had many entries lately- I started it 2.5 years ago when it was actually possible to get a meal under $20 per person but these days it seems like it’s getting rarer and rarer. I had read about it Tina’s blog Food. Booze & Shoes knowing that Mr NQN would love it.

Curry puffs 4 for $5.90

We start with the curry puffs which are filled with potatoes and spices and a firm, crunchy pastry. I personally prefer the deep fried puff pastry (deep frying puff pastry has got to be some sort of genius move) and these are harder and a touch drier.

Lemongrass salad $10.90

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A smile spreads over his face as I sit down at the table next to his. He takes out his point and shoot camera and gives me a look. It’s a look I’m familiar with. It’s the look I give my nearby dining companions when I know I’m about to embark on strange behaviour i.e. taking pictures of my food and I hope for some merciful behaviour and don’t stare at me like I’ve grown a second head. “We take pictures of our food” he says by way of explanation. I laugh and assure him that it is absolutely fine with me and he and his wife happily snap away. You see if anyone understands, I do

Moments before I had stepped out of the taxi onto the plush carpet and entered the minimalist lobby of the Crown Metropole Hotel and ascended the curved staircase. The interior of Maze was designed by a Melbourne firm who worked with Gordon Ramsay previously on some of his overseas restaurants and the first thing I notice (apart from the extreme darkness – arrgh photos!) are the lovely lighting fixtures. Although the courses on the menu are priced very reasonably this is not budget dining and they’re designed to be made into a five course per person affair. I’m delighted to meet with my fabulous friend Nic and we’re both dithering over the choices so we do what any good food obsessed person does and we go with the degustation. There are seven courses for $95 and  three of the courses are alternate dishes so we get one of each course and share them. The cutlery set holder is quite novel with the spoon, fork and knife slotting into their compartments and between every course each set is replaced with new ones.

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