Brett's Extras

Brett fancies himself as a reasonable cook and most of his guests have lived to tell the tale.  Here he has placed a few of his delectables (all of his own creation) for your perusal. Email him and let him know what you think.

Restaurant Reviews

On a recent two day business trip to the Melbourne CBD we decided to wander the food district and simply pick a restaurant that looked ok for our first evening's meal. What an unfortunate choice we made. We decided on Thai thinking that it was difficult to ruin this style of cooking. Chilli Cafe on Russell St proved us wrong with what was possibly the worst meal we have ever eaten. Kellie was served up a mundane chicken with chilli and basil whilst my satay chicken looked like yellow gruel with peanuts. In both cases we had to hunt to find the chicken pieces which were minuscule - perhaps a handful between us both.
Our rating out of 5... frankly we couldn't be bothered.

On our second evening we decided to be a little more creative in our restaurant choice and enlisted Google to help us search for somewhere nice. Have you ever tried doing this for yourself? Using "good cheap eats" as the basis of our search we finally came across a couple of obscure references to somewhere called Ants Bistro in Corrs Lane. Both had some nice comments for this unusually named place so we made our decision and went for a walk downtown to Chinatown. First off it is not easy to find (especially in the rain) being in a little lane off Little Bourke St but the trek proved to be worth it. The food and service here is simply amazing. First you peruse a menu that will make you smile with their use of the English language. It is worth reading from cover to cover to discover each of the quirky listings. We chose Chicken Choi Bao as our starter followed by Beef Dumplings with black vinegar. For our main we had "Tender of Beef" (I said the menu was quirky). All three were simply delicious. With some inexpensive Chinese restaurants the flavours of everything seem to be the same. Here each was unique, fresh and delightful. Each dish melded beautifully and we were left sated yet wanting more,,, so we toured the dessert menu. Kellie chose an old favourite, Deep Fried Ice cream with caramel sauce and I experimented with Apple spring roll. Guess what - we were not disappointed. Her ice cream was perfect, hard in the centre and coated with a coconut crumb that was not greasy at all. The caramel sauce was translucent, home made and had that wonderful bitter sweet taste of brulee. My apple spring roll was like Chinese strudel with a scoop of quality ice cream surrounded with raspberry coulee. It was divine. After dinner we chatted with our lovely host Rennis. She told us how the restaurant got it's name and all about the style of food they serve. This place is definitely on our "best eats of all time" list and even the bill was a pleasant surprise. They can be contacted on 03 96392908.
Our rating out of 5... this is our first 5 out of 5.

It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money, that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do.

The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it’s as well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.
My dad was rather wise.