I'm Back

Selection of butter, Eastside Inn  (photo courtesy, The Grubworm)

I'm back but before I dive in, I just want to let you know of some changes that I'm planning. Restaurant reviews can get a bit formulaic so I'm going to experiment in how I present mine. I'm not sure what direction I'm going to take but one decision I've made is to use Chinese characters in my reviews where appropriate.

I'm doing this because Chinese food can be inaccessible with the same dish having a number of different names in English. It can be confusing and it often deters non-Chinese speakers from being adventurous. In the past, I've used Mandarin pin yin and transliterated Cantonese to describe dishes but unless you speak Chinese, it isn't entirely helpful. By using Chinese characters in my reviews, you can print them out and show staff the dish you want to order, no matter which restaurant you end up in.

If you want to learn more about reading Chinese menus then I can recommend the excellent Adventures in Kake. I'm also hoping to use native languages for my write-up's of other Asian cuisines. Although this will be trickier, as my knowledge of Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese etc is non-existent.

Back to the photo of the butter at the beginning of the post, this was from the Eastside Inn. I was lucky enough to tag along with The Grubworm, who had been invited by co-owner Justine to check out their new bar snack menu. I thought the bar snacks were brilliant but who'd have though that the butter would be the star of the evening. My favourite was the seaweed butter in the middle of the photo.

My outing here was an unexpected pleasure and this post is a belated thank you to Justine (and Bjorn) for their kind hospitality, fine cocktails and excellent bar snacks. For a proper write-up of the evening, please click here.

{Update - a few short days after writing this, Eastside Inn closed for business. It's always sad when a decent joint closes and I'd like to wish Bjorn and Justine, the best of luck in their future endeavours.}