The Pink Peppercorn

Well! Ever tried Laotian cuisine? Neither had we, that was, until Saturday night. Doing our usual favourite pasttime of searching out new and fabulous eateries, we stumbled across a great little gem called the pink peppercorn. It is located on Oxford street in the centre of town and it just goes to show how lucky we are with our food in this country.

While the above picture is a bit obscure, it is of the decor in this place. They have huge photos that have been blown up to cover 3 walls, depicting everyday life in Laos. The other wall is covered in large brightly coloured squares.....Not sure why, but it makes the place seem happier and more alive.

Laotian food is obviously from Laos, and is not quite like any other cuisine I've tried. It mainly revolves around lemongrass, dill, chilli, coriander and lemon juice. I started with a divine spicy prawn and chicken dish with prawn crackers for dipping. It was half way between a dip and a (chunky) soup. So fresh and so perfectly proportioned. I followed this with a sweet/sour Lamb stir fry. Stir fry is probably a rather underwhelming description of it. The lamb was so tender you would have sworn it was slow cooked for 7 hours, and the dressing/sauce was a delicate blend of lemon, dill, chilli and crisp cucumber. The resemblance to a stir fry, I guess, begins and ends with the fact that it was tossed with greens and served with rice.

Flit had a wonderful salmon entree wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in a creamy light curry sauce. This, he followed with a prawn and chicken curry that kind of resembled a Thai green curry. The food was so fresh and the atmosphere so vibrant.

The only real criticism I would make was that the service was a bit slow, but once they got in the swing of things we couldn't keep them away (which may be another criticism, but whose counting??)

The finishing touch was the bill.....so cheap...well for the city at least. We ended up paying about $80 for the two of us which covered 2 courses and corkage. Pretty great value for such a good feed. It's also the perfect place for communal dining, so stay tuned for an invite in the next few months.

After dinner, we were walking down Oxford street and dropped into Q bar! What a blast from the past! I haven't been there since my clubbing days in early 01! We played some pool and had a drink or two and wandered out of there just as the serious clubbers were arriving. It was an amusing end to a fun night.