Bhindi (Okra) and Potato Curry Recipe

Ingredients:

• 312 g baby okra (bhindi)
• 1 large potato, diced

• 1 onion,thinly sliced

• 2 green hot chillis

• 1/2 tbsp ginger,garlic,chilli paste

• 1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

• 1 tsp coriander powder (dhaniya)

• 1 tsp chilly powder

• 1 tsp turmeric powder

• 1 tsp garam masala

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

• Salt to taste

Ingredients

Spices (from the top left):Cumin seeds,ginger,garlic,shilli paste,tumerick,garam masala,coriander powder,chilli powder

Method:

1. Clean,peel and chop potatoes into small pieces
2. Peel and slice onion
3. Heat saucepan,add oil and cumin seeds till they start crackling.
4. Add ginger,garlic,chilli paste,onions, chilli,salt and all other spices and sautee for 1 minute or till onions become translucent. (If spices start sticking to the pot then add some water till it looks like a paste)
5. Add potatoes and cook for 5 minutes
6. Add okra (bhindi) with the potato and spices mix and cook for 10-20 minutes on low flame stirring in between intervals till potatoes are cooked and okra slightly looses its slimy texture. 
7. Serve with roti,Lebanese bread or rice

Step 5:Cooking the potatoes with the onion and spices

Step 6: Add okra and cook with potatoes and spices

Okra (Bhindi) and potato curry served with Lebenese Bread and yoghurt

Athenian Greek Restaurant

Athenian Greek Restaurant  is a classic and upper class restaurant located in an old bank building very close to Wynyard station. The first time I visited the Athenian Greek Restaurant was on my 20th birthday and for the second time this time it was for lunch with my friends after donating blood at Red Cross.

Athenian Greek Restaurant  is very elegant and looks like a very expensive upper class restaurant mostly aimed towards more older aged,office worker,rich old men type customers (lol). 

Outside the restaurant you'll be welcomed by a grand statue of Athena the Greek Goddess and as soon as you enter the restaurant your eyes will straight away widen towards the big halls,the tall Greek style columns and high ceilings and the Greek inspired mural painted on the walls.
Now me and my friends came here for lunch so it was really empty but I believe from the many tables in this restaurant that it might get very busy at nights. We were welcomed by a smartly dressed waiter who ushered us to our seats and handed us our menus. After a few minutes of figuring out what to order we finally were ready to order.For appetizers we ordered Greek pita bread with Taramasalata dip and tzatziki dip and for mains Miss M ordered Vienna Schnitzel,Miss B ordered Lamb Souvlaki with chips and salad,Miss K ordered Grilled Grain Fed Porter House Steak with Diane sauce and I ordered Grilled Chicken Fillet with white wine,cream,mushrooms and shallot sauce and hand cut chips. The waiter we had today was very unfocused and unprofessional and wasn't even paying attention when i was giving my orders,i had to repeat to him twice my orders for him to get it correct.

It took quite a long time for our meals to arrive i believe around 30 minutes. It took more then 15 minutes for our appetizers to arrive,and by this time we were feeling really really hungry so when the appetizers did arrive we straight away jumped on to the pita bread and dips.

Greek pita bread ($6.00)with Taramasalata dip and Tzatziki dip ($10.00)

The pita breads were so aromatic and nice and had a slight taste of dukkah (Middle eastern spices) on the bread as well. The dips were very tasty and matched quite well with the pita bread. The taramasalata was slightly salty but it it matched well with the bread and the tzatziki had a great burst of flavour and was very similar to the Indian raita dip.

After 15 minutes more finally our mail meals arrived.All the meals were piping hot and the portions were HUGE.

Vienna Schnitzel with Chips and Salad ($20.50)Miss M's Vienna Schnitzel looked very appetizing and reminded me of crumbed eggplants. I didn't try her meal as it was beef but she said that the schnitzels were very dry and very hard to chew on,not at all moist as you would imagine with schnitzels. Her chips as you can see from the photo above were very dry and didn't look like the chips were made fresh to order.

Lamb Souvlaki with chips and salad ($25.50)

Miss B's lamb souvlaki was so big and i did get a chance to try this and to both our dismay this dish wasn't good as well. The lamb had lack of flavour and was very bland and very hard to chew and swallow. We had to chew for more then a minute to actually be able to swallow the lamb pieces. The salad was alright however the chips again were dry,lack of flavour and old.I always expected lamb souvlaki's be full of flavour with garlic and herbs but this lamb souvlaki tasted like you were chewing on boiled lamb pieces.

Grilled Grain Fed Porter House Steak with Diane sauce ($26.50)

Miss K's Grilled Grain Fed Porter House Steak with Diane sauce  may look small but it was very filling for Miss K, she couldn't even finish it all.As this dish was beef again therefore i couldnt try therefore i documented Miss Ks veiws towards this dish. The steak and thin slices of garlic on top and the sauce was very salty for Miss K and overpowered the flavour of the steak and again the chips were old and yuck.

Grilled Chicken Fillet with white wine,cream,mushrooms and shallot sauce ($23.50)
 I was very excited in trying my Grilled Chicken Fillet with white wine,cream,mushrooms and shallot sauce as i have never tried any dish with white wine used in it plus it had mushrooms which is my favorite vegetable currently.The chicken filled was very big and i didn't get a chance to finish it all as i was full to the max.The chicken filled had lack of flavorful and salt and the sauce tasted a bit strange for me.It might me because i haven't tried this type of sauce before but i found it tasted too cheesy for me and the flavor overpowered the taste of the mushrooms and i couldn't even taste the shallot element in this dish.The mushrooms were quite big and meaty but it couldn't taste any mushroom flavour due to the sauce.I believe that they used to much of the cream in the sauce which reduced the taste of the other ingredients. Plus i found a hair in my meal half way through my dish and when we told this to our unattentive waiter he couldn't give us a great explanation and apology as to why the hair was in my meal.

And as all our meals came with chips which were old and not fresh we asked if we could have a fresh batch of chips and the other waiter said that the chips we received are fresh but after a bit more explaining to him and telling him the obvious that our chips don't even look fresh he finally agreed in providing us with fresh chips.After a 15 minute wait our fresh chips finally arrived.I haven't pictured the fresh chips however you could tell the difference between the new chips and the old chips and the new chips were much crispier.

Mint Turkish Delight

After we finished our meals we received complimentary after meal sweets which were mint flavored Turkish delights. Now none of my friends are fond of Turkish delights however i did have a bit to try even though i myself hate mint and Turkish delight. The Turkish delight did taste quite minty however the texture was very stodgy and it tasted like we were chewing on flavored dough.

Our Bill

In conclusion i was very disappointed with the Athenian Greek Restaurant and this was my second visit and the food was completely opposite to what i ate and tasted on my first visit. On my first visit the food was so tasty,full of flavour and the meats were very easy to cut and basically just melted in our mouths so i have no idea what happened in our second visit. Therefore i give this restaurant a 3/5 due to lack of flavour,dry old chips and hard to chew and swallow meat.

Address:
Greek Athenian Restaurant
11 Barrack Street
Sydney,NSW,2000
Tel:02 9262 2624

Adventures in Kings Cross,NSW

Colloquially known as The Cross, the area is known as Sydney's red-light district, and is reputed to be home to organised crime groups.It is dominated by bars, restaurants, nightclubs and strip clubs.

Alice Fountain Cafe,Kings Cross

Me and my friends thought it be a great time to finally visit the long awaited Kings Cross which we had forever planned to visit but never really did.We did visit it at day time so there really wasn;t any interesting people and sites we got to see however we did notice many strip clubs and joints already open with there bright,fluorescent inviting lights and it was only 1.30pm.

As we were stumbling thorough the main strip (Darlinghurst Rd) in finding a nice cafe/bar to have out lunch in we really couldn't find any that really ticked our fancy as many were too expensive or just the atmosphere wasn't that great and inviting until we say the lovely alfresco cafe situated right in front of  El Almain Fountain and the police station called "Alice Fountain Cafe".

Alice Fountain Cafe is a very laid back local cafe and great place to people watch as it's right next to the park. When we visited there it seemed like there was only 2 staff working however the service was very good. Our waiter was really friendly and service was great. Alice Fountain Cafe have many specials as well such as Rump Steak,Chip and salad with a free glass of house wine for $15. As we were all sitting down i did have a quick look to see what the other customers were eating and may i say the food looked very delectable and the portions were huge so i was really excited in eating here.

Majority of the meals are pretty fairly priced and mains range from $15-25 and have a variety of typical cafe foods such as pastas,burgers,sandwiches and other yummy dishes. Therefore i opted for the all time favorite chicken burger which came with chips and salad,my friends Miss M ordered the chicken parmigiana with chips and salad and lemon,lime-bitters to drink,Miss B ordered chicken schnitzel with chips and salad and Miss K ordered Bacon Carbonara and a jug of water for all of us.

Miss M's drink came first and she absolutely adores lemon,lime and bitter drink so she can really tell the difference between a good lemon,lime bitter drink to a bad one. She stated the this wasn't a proper one as there was no bitter element to the drink and it tasted more like lemon cordial was added to ice and water.

Lemon,Lime and Bitters ($8.00)

Miss M's drink came first and she absolutely adores lemon,lime and bitter drink so she can really tell the difference between a good lemon,lime bitter drink to a bad one. She stated the this wasn't a proper one as there was no bitter element to the drink and it tasted more like lemon cordial was added to ice and water.Also our jug of water and glasses came as-well  Now im very fussy with my cutlery especially glasses as they have to be spotless.Alice Fountain Cafes glasses were alright however the water tasted very odd.

Chicken Parmigiana with chips and salad ($17.50)

Next came Miss M's and Miss K's chicken dishes and might i say they looked mouth watering and huge.I expected that all our main dishes will come out together but i didn't mind.So after snatching a chip from Miss M's plate to try it was very nice and crunchy and fresh however i preferred to have a bit more salt to my chips but i wasn't really too fussed about it.I tried a bit of the chicken parmigiana and I was afraid that the chicken was going too be dry and sickly tart and tomatoey but it was very tasty and very well seasoned and the chicken was very moist and juicy and had a nice touch of parsley through the dish as well.

Chicken Schnitzel with chips and salad ($16.50)

Normally when i have eaten chicken schnitzel its always very dry and hard and the chicken breast isn't juicey as well but i was very taken aback by Alice Fountain Cafe's chicken schnitzel as it was completely opposite to what i imagined. The chicken breast was very juicy and very well seasoned and the breadcrumb batter was very crunchy and light and not at all tough and hard to chew.

Chicken Burger with chips and salad ($15.00)

Finally my dish came and was grinning from ear to ear and very excited as my burger was HUGE.The bun was very nicely buttered and toasted (just the way i like) and i noticed that the tomato and and lettuce leafs were very fresh looking. Also the lettuce leaves used in the burger wernt shredded as i normally imagined as all the burgers ive tried have had shredded lettuce but this burger actually had individual pieces of baby cos lettuce (i think) inside the burger which was great.The burger had avocado smeared inside the base of the bun,with a yummy tender chicken breast,cheese and mayonnaise as well) As soon as i bit into the burger i got a lovely burst of flavour from the very well seasoned chicken breast,the slightly buttery and saltiness from the butter,the rich creaminess from the avocado and the lovely sweetness and the tang from the mayonnaise. It was great. The salad that came with out meals was a loose leaf salad mix with cucumber,cherry tomatoes and shredded carrot throughout the salad mix.It was very well dressed with a balsamic dressing. Now normally im not a fancy salad fan as nearly all the salads I've tried it had those yucky butter green things in it and the dressing was revolting as well however this salad was very pleasing to eat and the dressing wasn't too sour for me as well and thank goodness there wasn't any of those bitter salad stuff in it.

Bacon Carbonara ($15.00)

 Last and not least Miss K's Bacon Carbonara came and it looked so creamy. I didn;t try Miss K's pasta dish as it had pork in it but it did look very creamy and had a good quantity of bacon throughout her dish. She said it was very nice and tasty and was so full that she couldn't finish it all.

Overall we were all very happy,full and content with our meals and service and our waiter so we thought we live a special message for our lovely water as-well (lol). I would rate Alice Fountain Cafe 4.5/5 as the meals were great for the prices we paid,very tasty and the atmosphere was good as well.

Address:
Alice Fountain Cafe
18 Darlinghurst Rd
Kings Cross NSW 2011
Tel:02 9358 6009

Andersen's of Denmark Ice Cream 

Our belly's full and our mind content,out fellow friend Miss B was having a bit of a sweet tooth craving. We had gone past a lovely ice creamiery joint which was right near Alice Fountain Cafe so that was the only spot we had in mind that we were going to visit. Now as soon as you enter you will be overwhelmed with the variety of flavors on offer at "Andersen's of Denmark Ice Cream" joint. As you can see from the photo below. 

Miss B ordered  just 1 scoop of hazelnut ice cream on a simple cone. She said it was very nice and hazelnuty however not the best ice cream she has tried. Also the prices in Andersen's of Denmark Ice Cream is very expensive compared to other ice cream joints but i believe it might be due to the high quality of chocolate and ingredients used at Andersen's of Denmark Ice Cream  as advertised in there website.

In conclusion i would rate Andersen's of Denmark Ice Cream 3/5 as the ice cream was pretty average and the price was very expensive.

Address:Andersen's of Denmark Ice Cream

1A Darlinghurst Road

Sydney, Australia

Tel: (02) 9358 3158

http://www.andersensofdenmark.com/Andersens_of_Denmark_Ice_Cream/Home.html