Fish grilled and Fish Fried

Home again. While away I had a good meal at what appears to be Newtown's largest restaurant - the Patong Thai. Three of us went and we had a fish and mango dish, a chicken with tamarind sauce and another dish which I will incorporate after finding out from the others its name.

While on other meals last Saturday we had a "bring a dish" party for the Dickies at Colin's place. The food was good and company is shown here.

Back home Thursday we had one of our "standards" - deep fried fish. Slices of a large fish (often king fish but in this case a large mackeral) are lightly salted then deep fried until cooked. There is no batter and no other preparation. The oil does not cover the whole fish and the fish is turned half way through cooking.

The accompanying picture is not good quality but you will get the idea of the final result. Along with the fish was a tub of soft been curd with a light drizzle of sesame oil and crispy seaweed pieces. The other dish was a stir fried asparagus and mince.

Friday was another fish night. This time the fish were small stripy mackeral. Again the fish was lightly salted and then grilled on a regular outdoors barbecue. Normally the fish are stuffed with a blachan, chilli, garlic, onion, tamarind mix that is blended together. Sometimes - as in this case - it is lightly cooked. The mixture was served separately because the fish heads had been removed at the fish market. In the unlikely event that all the mixture is not eaten it is good on bread or toast. Many people in Indonesia simply have a mixture such as this with white rice.

The salad was tomatoes, cucumber, and rocket. For dessert we had some banana muffins cooked from some overripe bananas.

The garden is growing well and while we have a few edible plants (like the rocket) most of the space is taken up with decorative plants. At this time of the year we are particularly pleased with the ground cover in the central courtyard.