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Another one bites the dust.... Korean Home-town Cooking has closed. A tiny shop, bright right fluorescent lights, half a dozen cheap tables and excellent food — I had a soft spot for the place since it first opened and the owner sat me down and gave me a pot of tea and a snack to help make the wait for my take-away meal more bearable. Closed, and in its place — and in its premises with the old decor — there is now Soban.

What better day to try them out then. Or perhaps not! Tonight was their very first opening and the two waiting staff didn't seem to know where anything was, and seemed in great danger of crashing into each other as they frantically hurried back and forth in and out of the kitchen. Placing my order I was told it would take half an hour or so — not good — that's double the wait we used to be told. “You go for walk,” accompanied by vague hand-waving towards the door. Even less impressed, it's around 8°C outside and starting to rain, but maybe if I go and walk around the block for quarter of an hour it'll make them less nervous.

Sure enough, it's half an hour until my food arrives, many smiles and wishes of good luck, and off back home.

Sadly uninspiring. How can anyone provide Bul-go-gi with no Kim-Chi? It all looks — and tastes — like generic bland shopping-mall food-court Asian food.

We'll have to give them another try in a few weeks once they're established.

...or watermelon pips through the fingers

Sometimes it seems that just when you've found a favourite restaurant that isn't too expensive, isn't too far away, that serves good food and has good service, sometimes it seems that they just don't stay open for very long.

I've no idea how long Gasi Busi had been there on Poath road, from the freshness of the decor only a year or so I suspect — a suburban Korean restaurant with a little more atmosphere than the all-too-common laminex tables and bright fluorescent lights. The food was fantastic and the staff always friendly.

Tonight we went to visit and were surprised to find that although still a Korean restaurant the name has changed — they're now Kimchi Country, the owners and staff are new, the lights are turned up as bright as they'll go, the repainting makes it look a little too much like a factory floor, the food isn't as good as it used to be and the service could definitely be improved.

There's a lot of Korean competition in the nearby area, I guess Gasi Busi had their day and have moved on. I guess we'll be moving on too.

During the post-Christmas cleanup I found a piece of the cardboard box from a rather dubious fruit mince pie in a “Christmas hamper.” The ingredients are:

Wheat flour, Fruit Mince 30% (Sugar, Dried Fruits 32% (Sultanas (Vegetable Oil from Soy), Citrus Peel (Sugar, Citrus Peel), Food Acid (330), Preservative (223)), Currants (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil), Apple Pulp, Glucose Syrup, Humectant (320), Water, Thickeners (1442, 440), Spice Extracts, Acidity Regulator (320), Colour (150c), Salt), Margerine (Vegetable Oils (Palm, Palmoleum, Soybean, Cotton Seed, Rice Bran, Sunflower, Sesame), Water, Salt, Emulsifiers (471, 435), Antioxidant (319)), Shortening (Palmoleum, Rice Bran Oil, Sesame Oil), Vitamin A, Vitamin D), Sugar, Glucose Syrup, Egg, Milk Solids, Raising Agents (450, 500, Wheat Starch). MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF NUTS

Not surprisingly, it tasted revolting. It took a second bite to verify, then spat it out and threw the whole thing in the compost. I am impressed by the multiple levels of brackets in the paragraph, it starts to look like a lisp program!