Tags
ACT, Australia, Australian Capital Territory, Braddon, dinner with friends, Eggplant, Lao-Thai street food, nam jin sauce, seafood platter, Tofu, Zaab Streetfood Restaurant
Dinner with friends
Zaab (pronounced sahp) Street Food is a local Lao-Thai restaurant in a suburb I regularly visit to meet friends for dinner. I had been to this restaurant once before and ordered the Pad Thai noodles and didn’t really love my meal, but my friend Jane really loves the food so I said I would give it another try…and can say I am very happy I did.
Inside is a spin on a classic southeast Asian street food restauarant – beer ads hanging out the front, corrugated iron panels and graffiti on the walls, and low tables and stools to enjoy a casual evening meal. 
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.
