Dinner at a great Chinese restaurant in Canberra
I wanted to thank some friends for something they did for me last year so I thought a dinner out at one of Canberra’s Chinese restaurants would be ideal…it was!
Since its opening in 1992, the Chairman & Yip has become one of Canberra’s longest standing and highly regarded restaurants. A couple of years ago it moved from the centre of the city to a suburb just out of the city. I last time I dined at its previous location was in 2015 and really enjoyed the cuisine. I am not sure why it moved but for parking reasons I am glad it did. The city is so hard to get a park without paying enormous fees. 
The new restaurant’s interior is dimly lit with lots of black gloss with dark red drapes and chairs – all I think adds to its ambience and the middle section of the restaurant hosting a whiskey bar with lounges and all sorts of whiskeys from around the world.
And tables are very nicely presented…
We ordered a couple of dishes to start; the Sichuan style crispy chicken with barley and caramelised onion and salt and pepper tofu and we also shared a bottle of white wine. I did like the serving bowls the dishes arrived in!
We also ordered the roast duck and mushroom pancake and a mushroom vegetarian pancake for me. These were put together at the table by our waiter so whilst it doesn’t look that great in my photo both were delicious. I also borrowed a photo to show what they look like inside.
(source: http://www.thefoodpornographer.com)
Another dish ordered was the fish of the day (can’t remember what it was) but my friends said it was very healthy and tasty and finally the sweet and spicy eggplant which came with sesame, shallots and fried peanuts. I think the eggplant dish was the most delicious and it looked pretty colourful and appetising when it arrived.
(source: http://www.tripadvisor.com)
A really nice evening and an excellent way for me to thank friends for being so generous.
(Firstly apologies but this post is a little longer than my usual posts)
And a nice view of the city from my window…
We then walked to Aria. The entrance is not what I expected; it’s a little unassuming but once you are inside it’s a completely different story – the walls are full of original art, the atmosphere is fabulous and the views….wow!!
The restaurant is located down near the Opera House with those magnificent views I just mentioned and as its web page says Aria is one of Australia’s finest restaurants. 
Our table was not right next to a window but we still had good views of the Bridge, Harbour and a docked cruise ship.
We decided on three courses; entree, main and dessert and started off with a bottle of French champagne before selecting our dishes. Some of the vegetarian options contained non-animal rennet cheese and all desserts contained gelatine so the waiter kindly brought me a vegan menu.
I was rather disappointed with my first course which although arrived beautifully presented, was cold. But…it was supposed to be cold but I didn’t know that and unless the dish is a salad I am not a fan of cold food…perhaps I should have checked before I ordered!!
Ray ordered a seafood bowl which was very nicely presented and Nat had the blue-eye trevalla with almonds, capers and razorback prawns. That was presented so beautifully.
Service was top quality; our waiter was so friendly and our Sommelier was extremely knowledgeable. We ordered a glass of wine each for our main course and a different wine for our desserts. My next course was a sweet potato, Jerusalem artichoke and nasturtium – this was lovely.
Ray ordered a duck dish with treviso, sausage and sweet potato mash and Nat ordered another fish dish; the Murray cod with an angasi oyster, white radish, miso and celeriac…they loved all their dishes.
Our sides which I think were complimentary, were a mashed royal blue potato (absolutely delicious) and a beautiful leaf salad with a delicious dressing which Nat kindly displayed with serving utensils for my photo.
My dessert was pineapple, coconut and almond (forgot to photograph this) and we were also given complimentary cones with a raspberry sorbet which was a very nice way to finish our mains and wait for dessert.
Nat and Ray ordered some nice desserts but I think Ray’s was the winner. Nat’s is the pie and Ray’s is the chocolate ball with a chestnut, cognac and cocoa crumble which once broken there flowed an amazing caramel like thick sauce. How good does this look!!
Nat also chose a selection of Australian and international cheeses to share with Ray which came with quince paste, grapes, fruit and lavash bread…
And then more complimentary dishes; some dark chocolate and small treats. I could only eat the nougat on the small treat platter as the lemon sweets contained gelatine. But lucky I had very willing friends who managed to eat them. It was a lovely few hours and I am glad I have been; it’s not a cheap restaurant but the service, food and views were all part of the wonderful experience.
After our long lunch we went back to our respective hotels and I met Nat a little later to walk to the Harbour. I did pop into Ray and Nat’s room at the Intercontinental Hotel to see fabulous views of the harbour.
We had good seats and both Nat and I loved the opera (Ray is not an opera fan so he didn’t come). 
The usual merchandise could be purchased of course…
And wonderful sunset views over the Opera House and Harbour Bridge…
When I bought our opera tickets on-line I also bought two drink tickets for intermission as there was a pop up bar which was beautifully decked out with tables, stools and lovely fresh flowers. It was a nice way to spend thirty-minutes so Nat and I enjoyed a white wine each.
A great opera after which we walked back to our hotels for a comfortable sleep. And the next morning, I went to the restaurant for my complimentary breakfast from the huge buffet [I don’t usually have this much tomato sauce; it poured out way too quickly].
I love going away for short breaks and this was such a lovely weekend away.
A few months ago my friend Jane invited me out to dinner and said she wanted to try an Afghani restaurant near the city. I had no idea what Afghani food tasted like so took a look at the menu on-line and it looked great with lots of vegetarian dishes so off we went.
We decided on a banquet as both of us were relatively hungry and Jane suggested all vegetarian was great for me, but we really could not eat all dishes as there were so many!
We were then served a traditional Afghan dumpling which is steamed and topped with yogurt, chickpea tomato sauce and garnished with a little bit of mint. Again very good and so tasty…feeling a touch full at this stage!
Our next dish was called Kachaloo Loobia Korma; a chef’s special comprising a korma sauce with red kidney beans, mild spices and herbs accompanied by a really good naan bread. As you can imagine very full by now but had to taste this delicious dish and eat the naan bread.
At this stage I took a little break from eating and took some photos. It really is a lovely restaurant with great traditional ornaments, pictures and wall carpets. 
And the iconic photograph of the young beautiful green-eyed Afghani girl who appeared on the front of National Geographic in 1985.
I did find a photograph of her now on the internet [courtesy NY Times)…still with same amazing eyes just probably not staring as intently at the camera.
But back to our restaurant…still more food to come…the Banjan Boranee arrived which is another traditional Afghani dish of fried eggplant covered with cooked tomato and yogurt sauce and it was supposed to be garnished with dry mint but I couldn’t see any. Loving this dish so much along with a separate [large] dish of rice topped with a layer of julienne caramelised carrots, sultana and almond nuts [had to pick out the sultanas but apart from that a delicious aromatic rice].
A really good restaurant that I must take my friend Naomi to as she lived in Islamabad for over four years and I think she would love the food and ambience which I know is similar to that of Pakistan.
We decided to share an entree and chose a tomato bruschetta with a difference. This one was huge, it was a large wood fired Italian bread with tomatoes, red onions, basil, olives and oregano and some extra virgin olive oil – delicious!
I ordered the vegetable risotto which was absolutely delicious and came with baby spinach, asparagus, mushroom, shallots, sliced avocado, semi-dried tomatoes and fresh chilli, topped with a perfectly cooked poached egg.
Katrina ordered the lamb salad with avocado, feta, oregano, fresh rocket and semi-dried tomatoes with a garlic aioli dressing – fabulous she said too.
And Sharon ordered the beetroot salad with roasted pumpkin, goats cheese, shredded carrot, roasted walnuts and fresh rocket with a raspberry dressing along with a side order of haloumi. The food here was an absolute winner. This is a chain restaurant and is also located in other locations in Sydney and Melbourne…just wish it was in Canberra.
It was great to catch up with these friends and enjoy good food and after a while another friend joined us and he chose a healthy option of a marinated chicken salad with cos lettuce, sliced avocado, cherry tomatoes, red onion, shredded carrot, feta, semi-dried tomatoes, roasted capsicum, mushroom and cucumber with a chilli aioli dressing…looked pretty good too.
Like me, two of my other friends retired last year, so I said I would travel to Sydney and go out to dinner to celebrate their retirement. I chose a restaurant serving South East Asian cuisine and known for being very popular (Longrain) and had come highly recommended by my ‘foodie’ friend Jane.
Some of the girls tried the desserts which I was told were very good and presented beautifully. A coconut sorbet and a coconut ash ice cream swirl with a cashew nut praline were the desserts of choice.
In the main the food was very good but it was an incredibly hot restaurant (too many tables with too many people I think) which made me rather uncomfortable and extremely noisy. Made it very hard to hear friends across the table and those up the other end of the table, I had no idea what they were saying!
And walk along beautiful paved pathways…
Whilst enjoying a number of iconic cherry blossom trees. The planting scheme is mostly trees, groundcover plantings and specimen shrubs. The trees include twenty-four cherry blossoms, four Crepe Myrtles, ten Japanese Maples, and one Japanese Red Pine. Shrubs include Japanese Lily of the Valley, one of Japan’s earliest spring bloomers which is still the most common shrub grown in the city of Nara’s parks because the deer will not eat it.
Central to the park is the eight-metre tall pagoda, crafted by a Japanese sculptor. It stands as a miniature replica of Empress Komyoh’s towering pagoda, which was erected in Nara in 725AD. 
Other structures within the park are two large tōrōs, or Japanese lanterns, which weigh five and three tonnes respectively. 
And the World Peace Bell… 
The 350-kilo brass bell came from Japan and is a replica of the peace bell at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Its design includes 103 coins from nations of the UN.
And the final structure is a ‘Toku‘ which was commissioned to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of Nara. The sculpture has three main elements: A five-storied pagoda form which represents Canberra; a floating stone representing Nara; and the form of a small bird symbolising peace. The bird resembles a Latham’s Snipe, a species which migrates annually between Japan and Canberra (long way to go!!). 
A really lovely place to visit and enjoy the peacefulness and beauty.
The menu is small and includes nice range of vegetarian options and lots of other dishes to share.
Since retiring last November, I make an effort to catch up with the good friends I used to work with and as I hadn’t seen Kylie or Xenia since I retired I felt it was time for a catchup. Jane booked and we met up for a pre-dinner drink and chat and together walked to the restaurant. There is an extensive beer menu but none of us ordered beers; Xenia started off with a cocktail which arrived in a funky plastic bag with straw, Kylie’s came in a normal cocktail glass and Jane and I ordered wine.
Most of the smaller dishes are for sharing so we ordered a few including the chicken satay sticks and crispy tofu with fried noodles. The tofu was so (so) good.
Jane ordered two serves of the betal leaf which contained a spicy pork filling [she has had this several times before and loved it] – you roll them up and eat in one bite…loved by the girls.
Also ordered was the Crying Tiger dish which is a Thai dish comprising strips of beef and a hot sauce. A lot of my friends enjoy this dish and whilst the girls said it was spicy, they did say it was very tasty.
We also ordered two serves of the corn fritters and I ordered a roasted eggplant dish (no surprises here) to share with the other girls. Wow… this was very good as it was cooked to perfection with a particularly spicy tomato sauce…the girls loved this dish too. 
The final dish ordered by the girls was a grilled seafood platter to share. It came with king prawns, barramundi fillet, mussels and calamari and a nam jin sauce which I now know is a hot, sour and tangy Thai dressing. Looked pretty good I must say!
As we were leaving I saw a noodle cart with fairy lights that serves meals during the day. And on a Friday/Saturday night it transforms into a DJ station – probably too late in the evening for me but guess it would be great for the younger crowd!!
Always great to catch up with friends; we have decided to make this a regular event and will try out other restaurants in Canberra.
The gardens celebrate the sister city link between Canberra and Beijing and is designed in the imperial Chinese garden style of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). The garden’s main feature is a traditional Chinese welcome gate guarded by two stone lions.
Once you have taken in the lovely views through the welcome gate you walk down the handcrafted steps which were made by the Chinese stonemasons and past Chinese stone sculptures depicting the four celestial symbols in Chinese mythology.
There are also lovely roof figures on the pavilion. These are statuettes placed along the ridge line of official buildings in particular in the Chinese empire. It is said that only official buildings (palaces, government buildings, and some temples) were permitted to use them but of course times have changed and I was able to buy some in Beijing whilst living there.
There is also a Stone of Appreciation which has been brought from Tai Lake near Shanghai. Limestone pieces such as these were often used as garden ornaments in the Tang Dynasty. Actually the Forbidden City has a large stone garden at the rear which is quite beautiful.
Then onwards toward Lotus Bay where there are lovely individual sculptures of cranes…
After seeing these lovely statues you walk towards the lake to a large replica statue of the Bronze Galloping Horse Treading on a Flying Swallow known in Chinese as Ma Ta Fei Yan马踏飞燕 and is regarded as a national treasure in China. 
The original sculpture is from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) and was unearthed by local farmers in Wuwei Country, Gansu Province in 1969.
I read about the horse some years ago and in late 2014 I returned to China to see both the bronze statue at the Gansu Provincial Museum and the Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park (Rainbow Mountains) – both were amazing.
The original statue is relatively small. It measures about 34 cm high and is 41 cm long. It’s posture is said to be unique and carefully balanced according to dynamics. The horse is raising its head, neighing and galloping forward and with one foot treading on a flying swallow. That swallow accentuates the power and speed of the galloping horse.
Located near the gardens are the Japanese Gardens which are also worth a visit [more on those later].
A thirty minute walk from my home is a suburb with many Chinese/Thai/Indian and Vegan restaurants. I usually eat at the Dickson Dumpling House which is definitely my favourite but I wanted to try something different, so with a good friend who I used to go to school with [all those years ago], we visited a Malaysian/Chinese restaurant called Rasa Sayang. This particular restaurant has been in this suburb for over thirty-five years so it must be doing something well.
The menu is extensive with over 100 dishes to choose from and has lots of options for us vegetarians. I ordered the tofu with peanut sauce and Anne ordered the deep fried spring rolls with a plum sauce. Pretty good but am glad the tofu comes with a sauce otherwise in the main I do find it rather bland. But this particular tofu was lovely and fresh so it was enjoyable.
I ordered some Malaysian bread [roti chanai] to share which was absolutely delicious. My friend had not tried this type of bread before and loved it so guess next visit she will order it along with her omelette.
The owner is very personable and enjoys a joke whilst taking your order and as soon as he saw us laughing at his jokes, he returned to tell us more…more laughter and now ready to order our main courses. Anne ordered the crab omelette with beansprouts, shredded onions and topped with oyster sauce…she said it was absolutely delicious. So delicious that since that visit she drives over from her home [about half hour] to pick up this omelette regularly. [no photo as forgot to take one].
I enjoyed the evening very much and loved chatting to my friend but as it was a week night [I was working back then], we just ate our meals and left rather than what I usually like to do which is relax, chat and enjoy a glass of wine. Next time!!
A little later we walked up to Surry Hills, an inner city suburb and found our restaurant which was pretty cute inside along with a very sweet and attentive waiter.
Another four of my friends met us and we ordered some fabulous food; everyone decided on the vegan menu which was great for me as I got to try all dishes. Our entrees were home made spring rolls with a light sweet chilli sauce, deep fried vegetable puffs and steamed dumplings with a side of dipping sauce.
All were very good. Our main dishes consisted of two curries; one a lemongrass tofu curry and the other a deep fried tofu with vegetable dish. Then a mock chicken dish with finely chopped lemongrass and onions. All ‘yum’. I was so lucky to enjoy such a large selection of food.
As for my second visit, every year since we attended a 25 year school reunion twelve years ago, three (now four) of my school friends and I meet together for a long weekend, usually at one of our houses, but last year we decided to meet in Sydney and see the Carole King musical ‘Beautiful‘. We all grew up with that fabulous ‘record’ ‘Tapestry‘…
The musical was excellent and we sang along to all the songs and had a bit of a tear during some parts. No photos allowed during the show of course but I managed one of the stage before the show commenced.
As we attended a matinee session, we were finished around 5pm so decided to walk back to our Airbnb through the city, Hyde Park and then through the main street of Paddington where we stopped and had dinner at an Indian restaurant I used to go to when I worked in Sydney all those years ago. Great to see it was still there.
Last month a friend of mine was departing Canberra to work in London so we met one day to enjoy some dumplings just days before she left Australia. We were the only people in the restaurant as we arrived for an early lunch, so had the full attention of the waitress who was very friendly. The walls are still adorned with colourful pictures and photos and there is a well stocked bar for evening drinks.
I had been to this restaurant previously and had been told that the menu was going to become more extensive especially in relation to vegetarian food, so wanted to give it another go; glad I did. There was a lot of choices for us vegetarians which was great.
Jen also ordered the Peking duck bao and I was going to order the fried green beans but the waitress said she thought I would really enjoy the mini Jian Bing which is also known as a Chinese egg burrito. The waitress was right; this was absolutely delicious.
It’s a nice little restaurant where you can sit inside or out [we sat indoors on our visit as it was a bit warm outside] and the food is really really good. Definitely worth a visit for anyone living in or visiting Canberra.
