The Burman Kitchen, Surry Hills, Wednesday 3 October 2018

The Burman Kitchen has recently relocated from the western Sydney suburb of Granville to the foodie end of Crown Street, Surry Hills. The restaurant is run by two sisters-in-law and they put a lot of effort and love into their food. The flavours of the food were a meld of cuisine from the countries surrounding Myanmar.

To start the lunch we had an unusual Margarita which had a tequila base with an interesting balance of tamarind and chilli.

Burmese margarita

The canapes were a Tofu Triangle with a spicy sauce and a Speciality plate of pork rounds.

Tofu triangles

Rork Rounds

The tofu triangles were filled with ground yellow split peas and needed the spicy dipping sauce to provide some flavour.
The pork rounds were served on lettuce and were a spicy/sour combination of flavours.
The first course was a Steamed Banana Leaf Fish wrap.
This was a delicate flavoured fish course and the accompanying lemon helped lift the flavour.

Wrapped fish parcel prior to opening

Opened fish parcel

Main courses were
Street Style Chicken Curry with Melon
Mango Pork Curry

Both curries were cooked with the right combination of spices and chillis to be flavoursome and not one flavour overpowering.

Chicken Curry with Melon

Mango Pork Curry

Both main courses were served with not only steamed rice but two delicious salads that offered fresh ingredients with a crunch.

Pickled Tea Leaf Salad – a great texture of broad beans and topped with roasted cashews
Seasonal Green Mango Salad

Green Mango Salad

We were offered two desserts from our generous hosts – Banana Coconut Semolina Pudding and a fruity Semolina Pudding.

Banana Coconut Semolina

Fruity Semolina Pudding

Both desserts were tasty and enjoyed.
The wines on the day were :

2016 Dopff Gewurtztraminer Au Moulin, Alsace France – This wine was a sweet style and the food did not balance out the sweetness
2013 Zema Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Coonawarra – This Cab Sav balanced well with the spicy food

Some comments :
“Very different style of food which is good for our Society. Extremely enjoyable and wish the owners well.
Really enjoyed the whole experience – great to have a lengthy talk from the chef on the food which gave an interesting insight into the cuisine”.

‘Brick Lane’ Stanley Street, Darlinghurst, Wednesday 5 September 2018

This popular restaurant serves Indian food with a modern twist. The organisors of the lunch kept the modern theme by offering a Lime & Gin cocktail to the ladies on arrival.
The cocktail was mixed with fresh lime and went down well as an aperitif.
The lunch was in a private room which was great for the ladies to be able to hold a quiz and discuss the food and wine. The private room also made for an intimate atmosphere.

The menu was broken down into Snacks, Light Bites, Mains, Dessert. This seemed like a lot of food but the portion sizes were sufficient for a very tasty lunch.
Snacks were tasty morsels of the following :
Chips & Dips – Poppadoms, house made relish and raita
Chat Bomb – Crisp bread puffs, spiced pea and potato, tamarind and cucumber water
Duck Samosa – Duck, cinnamon, smoked eggplant raita
Onion Bhaji – Shredded onion fritter with cucumber raita

Chips & Dips

Chat Bomb

Duck Samosa

The Duck Samosa was the most favoured snack (excellent) with the Chat Bomb coming in a close second. The Onion Bhaji was considered average due to being such a dry dish and subsequently needed more raita.
Light Bites were :
Kingfish Tostada – spice curried Kingfish, zesty avocado salsa, coconut, crunchy wonton
Naan – Mi – Spiced pork belly, pate, curry sauce, coriander, chilli, roti
Garlic Prawn Curry Leaf – prawn, garlic, chilli, spiced tomato, basmati rice, betel leaf

Kingfish Tostada

Naan – Mi

Garlic Prawn Curry Leaf

The Kingfish Tostada was the standout favourite of this bracket of food, followed by the Nan Mi pork belly.

Main dishes being :
Brick Lane Chicken Curry – fenugreek, garam masala, cardamon, zesty cucumber and cabbage slaw with spiced basmati rice
Eggplant and Potato curry – potato, eggplant, tamarind, masala spice, coconut cream.

Brick Lane Chicken Curry

The Chicken Curry and Eggplant and Potato curry were marked equally and received a rating of good, tasty food.
The Dessert on the day was the all time Indian favourite ‘Gulab Jamum’. This dessert was considered a little heavy at the end of a substantial meal.

Gulab Jamun

The wines offered on the day were :

2016 Mad Hatter Pinot Gris from Adelaide Hills
2017 Rozaina Grenach/Syrah from Margaret River
2017 World’s End Shiraz, South Australia

The wines matched well with the Indian food.
General comments were “A very good day, well done to the organisors for their initiative and organisation.
An amazing friendly waiter doing the whole room on his own and managed to serve the food efficiently and with good timing.
A good idea to have a quiz, loved the quiz.
Very enjoyable lunch in many ways. Loved the questionnaire and learnt a lot about Indian food and spices.
The ambience was good, a clean restaurant “.