james test

September 9, 2015 Michael's job has shifted locations from Fitzroy to the north-western CBD. As a result, Middle Fish has become middle ground between our workplaces. Originally focused on breakfast and lunch, this Thai cafe now trades for dinner, too, and the menu has expanded substantially since our last visit (erm, that was probably me sneaking in for banana roti with a textbook for cover). Most helpful is a double spread headed "Not Meat". Here Middle Fish spell out that their vegetarian dishes may contain eggs, fish sauce or shrimp paste - it's not quite my definition of lacto-ovo, but there are six dishes clearly marked vegan among them. There are also pages of Thai desserts and street sweets I'd not encountered before, extending their past roti offerings to sago, sticky rice and root vegetables steeped in coconut milks and syrups, some with icecream. But we were here for dinner. Once we'd placed our order, we were presented with a plate of prawn cracker...

February 24, 2015 For our last night in Sydney we decided we should grab some Thai - the city's specialty. We tracked down Sugarcane, a slightly fancy option in the neighbourhood with good reviews and a decent range of veggie options. We nabbed one of the last few unbooked tables and scoped out the menu. It's the kind of place where you compile a meal out of bits and pieces - there are little dishes like grilled corn with coconut cream ($5), seasoned cashews with shallots, chilli and garlic ($6) and more sizable options like veggie pad thai ($15) and tofu with Malaysian curry sauce, snake beans and baby corn ($13). We started with a plate of roti with curry sauce, cucumber and chilli ($10). It's pretty hard to go too badly wrong with fried bread and curried sauce, and Sugarcane didn't mess this up - probably not quite up to the standards set by the likes of Mamak , but excellent nonetheless. Next up: vegetarian dumplings with soy, coriander and ginger dressing ($12). Th...