Global Gobbler guest #8 - Aimee and Lauren

Name: Aimee
Age: 23
Occupation: Marketing manager and official Jagermiester taster
Favourite food: Silverbeet, I mean spinach, or maybe silverbeet…?
Why she deserves the Global Gobbler experience: I need some evidence to back up my nightly claims about Joel’s WEIRD food!








Name: Lauren
Age: 23
Occupation: Marketing manager and and barrista stalker
Favourite food: Pop corn - Aimee-style
Why she deserves the Global Gobbler experience: Surely my awesome taste in movies deserves a free meal.

A review from my two Kiwi friends is on the way - so I am told...

Some highligths from the evening:

• An opening statement from Aimee that she isn't that into 'spicy food' - hard to marry with Thai cuisine...
• A chilli in an eye incident - always funny unless you're the person suffering
• A classy ambience created by the background viewing...Gladiators...

The Verdict

Aimee: Considering my mouth is pretty much a hater of anything with a hot spice to it, one couldn’t help but worry with the first dish having a raw red pepper as garnish on the top. More worrying than this, was the fact that a fellow hung-over passer-by had decided to handle the chilli prior to rubbing his bloodshot eyes, the screams of pain we're errmmm encouraging on tasting the dish. However I was pleasantly surprised with the mild yet tasty combination of flavours which complimented each other nicely. Fantastic way to start this 4 course meal!

Lauren: as a lover of hot food I ate my chillies and really enjoyed them. The laska cocktail was really nice and may I add beautifully presented.

The next course looked very interesting as the combination of purple rice textured middle, garnished with fresh papaya around the edges. The centre was quite nice, very mild and plain tho, which went along nicely with the fruit. This actually appeared to be more like a dessert at first, but after sampling was indeed savoury and very filling, quite unique.

Aimee: Already full by this state, but very keen to sample as always, the rice paper rolls came out. This would have to be my favourite. The preparation for this was obvious and definitely worthwhile. Although not entirely sure at the time exactly what the combination of many colours and flavours was within, they were downed in no time. Delicious!!

Lauren: A lot of work had gone into the rice paper rolls. You could see the amount of time and the vast number of ingredients that went in. And they were extremely good - and you could also tell very good for you. A nice light meal with a really authentic Thai taste.

Lauren: I’m not usually a dessert eater and was rather full by the time this came out but this was surprisingly my favourite. To have a hot desert brought out with such a good combo of spices and currents was really delicious. 10/10 for me on that one - really good coming from a girl who doesn’t have a massive sweet tooth.

Overall a delicious and very unique combination of foods presented beautifully, well done JOEL, and thanks again for opening our eyes past the standard frozen veg mix, pasta snacks and silver beat that would usually fill our tummies!

Thinking Thai - RIP 27 April 2008

Chef Notes
The creamy consistency of the laksa was just how I imagined and the bite of galangal, ginger, turmeric and lemon grass cut through the coconut cream while the bok choy gave it the required fresh hit. Hot snow peas got the taste buds going but i'm not sure about the fried bean sprouts, maybe they needed the tempura treatment.






Chef Notes
The first time I’ve used green papaya and it didn’t quit live up to expectations – was expecting something a little more sour. The tangy marinade lifted it above it’s disappointingly bland beginnings though. Black coconut and kaffir lime rice is such interesting combination – a good balance to the hot papaya.





Chef Notes
These were the highlight for me. The fresh vegetable filling accented with crunchy peanuts and ginger would have would have worked with a simple soy and sesame oil dipping sauce. The spicy persimmon jam had a great flavour but may have been slightly out of place – might work a little better with Brussel sprouts or something a little less oriental.





Chef Notes
Evidence cardamom seeds can cut through even the richest flavours. Coconut cream and palm sugar made sure this wasn’t mistaken as a standard boarding house ‘baked custard’. The pear sandwich could have stood alone with the sweet currants offset by the roasted walnut flavour and spicy cloves – traditional Thai
? Hmmm…

A meal shared in front of the intellectually stimulating Gladiators on a cold Melbourne night. A world away from the street stalls of Langkawi but hopefully the flavours bridged the gap.

Thinking Thai

E
Layered laksa and bok choy cocktail served with crispy sesame flavoured bean sprouts and hot snow peas.
S
Green papaya carpaccio marinated in sweet lime, tamarind and chilli and served with black coconut rice infused with kaffir lime.

M
Steamed rice noodle rolls filled with baby sweet corn, shitake mushrooms, red pepper, snow peas, mixed chilli, garlic, ginger, roasted peanuts and spring onions and served alongside spicy persimmon and mint jam.

D

Baked coconut and cardamom custard topped with palm sugar and served with a pear sandwich of clove, currant and walnut paste.

Thai food - in my opinion the most versatile - so many influences and flavours makes it easy yet also challenging to put a menu together. Lemongrass, ginger, turmeric and chilli are highlights while persimmon might be a stretch...

How does this menu rate? Are there any takers for the GG experience? If anyone is game for four courses of Thai send me an email globalgobbler@gmail.com. And for those who might be daunted with the one-on-one set-up, bring a friend. See you at the table.