Those who know anything about the usual delights of my culinary world know that Preston's Noodle Kingdom is perhaps one of my favourite places to eat in the world. With this in mind, along with the fact that there are a whole host of other fine Asian eateries I frequent (Ben-K in Hawthorn, Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ Hall in the CBD, Basil House in Preston and random food stolen from awesome colleagues Yasuko Murakami, Cyndy Chan and Bridget Kinsik) can mean only one thing:
The thing that I am most homesick about is Asian food.
I managed to last nearly a month without any Asian food whatsoever, and believe me, it's been hard. During my trip to The Netherlands almost two weeks ago I finally caved when Paul suggested Wagamama's for dinner, and after a delicious bowl of Ramen, I knew it would be only a short amount of time until I bit the bullet and tried out Tartu's very own Žen Žen Buffet.
They didn't even have friggen chopsticks!
I really wanted this to be at least semi-authentic, I'd have accepted even an Albury-Wodonga level of Asianity to my food but alas, even this was too much to expect. From the minute I walked in and realised that not a single Asian person even worked in this restaurant, I knew I was doomed.
The pasta, as I am going to call it because referring to what I ate as noodles would be stretching it a bit was full of some very inauthentic ingredients, I can not recall eating a single dish in China with pieces of tomato or olives in them, yet here they were. Rest assured I complained about this to dining companion Mark Lemon throughout the entire affair.
"Spring Rolls w/ Tomato Sauce"
Our entrée arrived after the main, which would not have bothered me, but what did bother me was that the dish we ordered barely resembled what I requested. I thought that it would be nearly impossible to mess up spring rolls, but lo and behold, the samosa/pastie combination which was placed on our table with a little bowl of tomato sauce left me without any amusement at all.
At the end of the meal, the only real highlight was the cherry juice they served us. It's a regular Estonian brand, but at least it tasted like I expected it to.
Final thought?
God damn I could go for a good laksa right now...
Hey Liam, so! How where The etherlands to you? (digging up earlier blog posts now)
ReplyDeletehttp://pang.ee/et - I don't know, Estonians like that Chinese food pub. Maybe that one is a bit better?
ReplyDeleteI did hear a rumour that that place was better, but honestly I doubt it would be any more authentic given that it's a pub, might have better tasting food though?
ReplyDeleteI have been trying to create my own home-made rice paper roles.. But failing miserably. Boo.
ReplyDeleteI miss going to Noodle Kingdom with you! xxxxx
PS. Im gonna be vegan for a month in November, Mari and I are doing 'the vegan challenge'. I have been eating lots of vegan food with the guy from work already (he's fulltime vegan), and it's a bit odd but quite good. No egg noodles for me tho.
ReplyDelete