not another one

No no...The Moomba doesn't serve African food. It's an Aussie place, although it's missing the prerequisite kangaroo steak.

I'd read about The Moomba's Level 2 in BT (if I remember correctly) and was kinda interested because... well... because it's reportedly a nice wine and finger food place. So us girls decided to go but somehow we ended up at The Moomba instead. I suppose it was the desire to have something meaty, although the menu has some lovely sounding vege offers as well.

It was a rainy Thursday, but the rain had slowed to a teensy drizzle by the time evening came along. But the rain made it a nice night for a good warm main course and a hearty bottle of red.

I get there first and the polite waiter places two red clothed menus in front of me. I open the first one and look suspiciously at the list of wines by the glass. Do I not look like a drinker? If I were a guy would he have given me the "wines by the bottle" list automatically? I call him over and request for the bottle menu. He looked slightly taken aback. I decide to ignore that and settle down to peruse the pretty extensive (although description-less) list.

The others arrive and we eventually decide on a Voyager Estate Cabernet 1999. I'd visited the Voyager Estate, which is in Margaret River, for an event a couple of years ago and have fond memories of food that was good and wine that was freeflowing...

It was a nice wine - fruity, supposedly chocolately although I can never taste chocolate in wines, although a bit tannic. (anyway we're the people who like to go: mmm. grapey... so you should never trust my descriptions of wines. I just know what I like and don't lah)

We started with the parmesan spinach bread ($4). Didn't look like we expected it. Was thinking it'd be more pizza-ish eg some crusty cheese sprinkled on top, with maybe even bits of spinach visible. But no it was an ordinary-looking bread with a greenish tinge. But quite tasty.

We shared the squid cakes ($16) adding $2 more for an extra cake, to make it three. It's breaded and deepfried, like a crab cake, and very yummy. It's accompanied by a spicy nutty mango salad. Highly recommended.

Then both J and I went for the kurobuta pork($35) with sauteed Japanese pumpkin and haricot verts, and topped with two grilled tomatoes on the vine, which were just bursting with red tomato-ness. The pumpkins (I don't know how different a Japanese pumpkin is from an unJapanese one) were done just right, bringing out the sweetness yet leaving a slightly crunch. But the pork, mmm how I love a piece of kurobuta pork! A nice juicy hefty cut (none of those rubbishy thin slices) with a nice piece of er... crispy fat around the edge. (If I'm not wrong kurobuta pork is known as the pork equivalent of kobe beef.)

Eps had the red snapper ($27), which came on a bed of a very yummy mash of daikon, potato and carrots on which rested "pea shoots" or dou miao (cheh...)

I was so stuffed after that piece of meat, so the three of us shared the bittersweet chocolate thing - a profiterole stuffed with brandy ice-cream, encased in a frozen chocolate mousse and topped with berries. Delicious. (It's not on the menu online though)

We were the second last table to leave. Another group, also of three women, continued to chat and dine away. All of them, boringly, had the same desserts.

Eps: That's gonna be us in 10 years
J (or maybe it was me): Nah.

But what if she was right? What if 10 years from now we were like them? Three women, still single, wearing their age on their faces and bodies, sitting at a nice restaurant sipping rose champagne and savouring identical chocolate desserts? (Ok, I dont know for sure, they might all have husbands waiting for them at home or something) Some people will make the comment: what is so wrong with that? Nothing really I suppose. 10 years down the road I would be grateful to still be friends with my friends, and be able to eat out at nice places. But something would be lacking.

All I can say is: we're not getting any younger. And yet I don't feel any wiser.

(Here at olduvai's, you don't just get restaurant reviews.)

The Moomba
(website's not firefox-friendly)
52, Circular Road
Tel: 64380141