Stalactites - Lonsdale St

My friend and I lamented over lunch at Stalactites how we have put on weight during the festive season in December, January and March (Chinese New Year) which cannot seem to come off. 

Stalactites was probably not the best place to be commiserating about our weight, being surrounded by yummy plates brimming over with succulent meats and hot chips.

Nevertheless, we discussed the crazy diets we had heard friends are on, and the outcomes of those diets. Someone was doing the 6 day fruit and vegetable diet, and lost 2 kgs. Someone else was doing the paleo diet, weight loss total unknown. We decided to go with a balanced diet diet.

To start, we ordered the vegetarian platter. There were trio of dips, cheese, spanakopita, dolmades and potatoes. The hummus, eggplant and tzatziki dips were delicious.

We also ordered a mix gyros of chicken and lamb. I thought I would like the lamb better than the chicken, but it ended up being the other way around. The chicken was juicy and tender.

Stalactites is the only restaurant I know that is open 24/7 and serves delicious food. We enjoyed our conversation and the food there.

Niew Amsterdam - Hardware Lane

We already knew what we wanted to order even before setting foot in Niew Amsterdam. I wanted the clam chowder and pork belly, while Gaz will just eat the bits and pieces I leave on the plate!

We were both looking forward to enjoying a rich, tasty clam chowder and biting through a crunchy crackling. Unfortunately, the restaurant had run out on quite a number of dishes that afternoon, including the clam chowder.

But what the restaurant didn't tell us was that they had run out of crackling as well!! Well, either they had ran out, or someone forgot to add the crackling onto the tray before they brought the dish out. Either case was not good.

Since there were no clam chowder, we ordered the Reuben sandwich which came with salad and chips. Gaz thought it was well seasoned and the corned beef in the sandwich delicious. Indeed, the dishes here are not for the 'skim milk' or 'lite yogurt' people.
The salad is well dressed, chips well seasoned, beef tender. Read oil, salt and fat. Aren't all delicious food unhealthy?

This is my tray of pork belly.  As can be seen, there is no crackling. Where are they!! The pictures on the net for this dish all had crackling. On the tray were two cubes of pork belly, pickled veges, salad, potato salad and four pieces of bread with sauce.

Lots of carbs here, no crackling. The pork was tender and delicious, albeit a little porky smell. I enjoyed the potato salad. I would have liked crackling though. Did I say I missed the crackling?

I appreciate the American style cuisine and I enjoyed the dishes we had. But I felt 5 kgs heavier leaving the restaurant!

Circa - St Kilda

Circa has long been on our list of restaurant to visit and we are glad that we were able to visit it a few weeks ago.

We ordered:

Spanner crab salad. This entree was beautiful to look at and tasted wonderful. Each bite was a different taste and texture. There is the saltiness of the spanner crab, creaminess of the dressing, sweetness of the greens. Pretty perfect.

Burnt octopus with beef jerky. What a combination, right? The octopus was cooked beautifully. It was tender and very flavourful.

Cobia with cucumber. Another entree we enjoyed very much. The fish was done ceviche style, it was very refreshing.

Flinders Island lamb with celeriac puree. The lamb was cooked medium rare. The meat melted in the mouth, it was good. We avoided the fatty bits which haven't rendered.

Wagyu and mustard powder.

Blood plum ice cream. Very sour. Would not order this again. Was also quite surprised that the wait person did not mention anything about the dessert being sour.

Overall dinner was wonderful. We were seated by the window so we could admire the sunset views. Unfortunately, the dessert was too sour for us but there were plenty else to praise in this restaurant.