From yuk to yum

It was a weekend of two food experience halves. Things got off to a bad start on Friday evening when I opted to try Fijian Indian takeaways. For years I've eyed up a Fijian Indian place not far from where I live but, for some inexplicable reason, I've never got round to giving it a go.

Now I know I was wise. I don't know whether the guy picked my Kiwi accent on the phone and assumed I wanted totally flavourless food, or whether all Fijian Indian food is like that. I suspect it's the former.

The dhal tasted of split peas, salt and little else. There were a few mustard seeds floating disconsolately on top, but there were not enough to impart any flavour. Usually one would expect to taste curry leaf and chilli in such a dahl, but not in this case. Snore.

Things didn't get any better with the goat curry and bhindi (okra). Both were seasoned with salt and nothing else. The bhindi was finely minced and fried, but not sauced. Anyone who knows okra knows it has mucilaginous properties and the nett effect of this dish was (skip the next bit if you're squeamish) like eating snotty green lumps (see, warned you).

The warmed up goat and bhindi leftovers the next day were no better, despite a pathetic attempt to jazz it up with a dollop of pad Thai sauce.

Fortunately Saturday night's dinner more than made up for Friday's Fijian flop.

I love spicy, tasty food but my husband does not. Rather than cry into my mashed spuds, earlier this year I decided to form a dinner club of likeminded people. 'Fire Eaters' aims to relish the following: authenticity, flavour, variety and expanded culinary horizons.

I identify a restaurant - Cambodian in last night's case - and work with them to develop a reasonably priced set menu. I then email my fellow Fire Eaters and let them know what's on the menu, how much it will cost, and where and when. People love it because it's so easy - all they have to do is pay me beforehand and turn up.

Twenty-one of us enjoyed last night's dinner at Auckland's only Cambodian restaurant - Sopheara. It was a great evening. Cambodian food is a cross between Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese. We had a number of dishes, but I think my favourites were the two pictured below - battered prawns on a bed of red curry and broccoli, sprinkled with peanuts. What's not to like about battered anything, especially battered prawns?

I really liked the curry sauce, which was more like a light peanut sauce.

The beef salad with fresh Asian herbs, salad greens and crushed peanuts was delicious and refreshing, even if the beef was a little chewy.

We rounded of our meal with sticky rice and coconut milk, which was - oddly enough - accompanied by a scoop of French Vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. The sticky rice was topped with a disconcertingly grey sauce but despite its unpromising appearance, it all tasted pretty damn good.