2 October - Dumplings with Risotto, Pilaf, Lamb, Yoghurt, Tuscan Cabbage

An impromptu lunch date with a work colleague was really pleasant, since half our team was away from the office, we thought it be nice to enjoy some of this wonderful Spring weather that Melbourne was throwing at us and went down to the local PekoPeko in South Melbourne. Always reliably good.

We both ended ordering the same thing, and that was chilli calamari and Taiwanese sausage bento ($15)
And when it came out it wasn't exactly what I had expected... I had expected crispy battered calamari pieces with a chilli sauce (why would you make a beautifully crispy thing into a soggy mess????? Doesn't make sense!)

So anyways, flavour-wise, it was really quite good but boy oh boy was it spicy! My little portion alone must've had something like 20 whole dried chillis in it. It was so spicy it literally brought tears to our eyes.

And just to cool our tastebuds a bit, we ordered and shared a dessert, something they called "yoyo pancakes with vanilla icecream and caramel sauce"

And dessert was a good choice!
It was delicious.The yoyo pancake had some sort of eggy custard in the middle, something like a "kaya" (look it up) which I grew up eating but hadn't had in many many moons.

So by evening, and while the sister and I spent a night trawling the ginormous aisles of Costco replenishing much needed supplies, the awesome housemate made our dinner. She's such a great asset to have around the house, everybody should get themselves one of these awesome housemates :)  (just don't steal ours, she's not for sale).
 

Now, I'm not really sure what to call this mish mash of flavours....
It's dumplings (which I had pre-made) with risotto? Pilaf? Risottolaf??
Anyway, it tasted good and had a tomatoey-lamby-vegie type of sauce in it.
And was served with mint yoghurt and tuscan cabbage.