Party Poppin' Power Rangers

Suze recently got older, and part of the celebrations was dinner out with the UWS food type folks, over at Eurolounge at the towers.

The food was alright I suppose. The place had a lovely ambience though, with a live jazz band and lovely warm colour changing non-flammable table lamps which I came oh so close to bringing home. Seeing as there was a crispy skin duck option I immediately sprang for it (I love duck, no not in that way). I can't say that it was very crispy skinned (the Chinese have that down pat, I don't know what went wrong here), but duck is still duck, even soggy-skinned, and the tenderness and flavour saved the day for me.

Surprisingly enough for a 'Modern Australian' menu they served Wagyu beef, and two pairs took this option. Personally I'm not really able to stomach Wagyu well. Wagyu needs to be sliced quite finely and served closer to raw (to preserve the flavour, and so that the fat deposits don't reach that stage of gammy chewy grossness), and my ability to eat raw beef decreases with the thickness of the beef. Tataki? A-OK go for gold. Inch thick barely cooked beef tongue (even at one of the best Japanese BBQ restaurants in Sydney, Rengaya)? Gag reflexes setting in. Unfortunately the chef at Eurolounge chose the (relatively) thickly sliced and somewhat cooked (I'd hazard a guess at medium) option, resulting in those inedible solidified fat deposits rather than the almost liquid fat that usually makes wagyu so good. This didn't stop the birthday girl from taking on (and losing) a challenge to eat a smacking huge gob of solidified and cooked fat within 45? seconds. I think I gagged just watching her try it.

At the end of dinner everyone was quite surprised however by a 'cakage' fee of $27 (considering that there was 9 of us that would equate to about $3 a head). It was a lovely cake done up in the shape of a rose, however I think the cakage fee was equal to a substantial proportion of the cost of the cake, and noone was really expecting it (there was a bit of a 'did someone short us' moment on the bill before we found this out). In retrospect I'm guessing it was to cover the cost of the (alcoholic) shots provided to us - not exactly the best idea in light of the large number of P platers we had with us, but only one gave it a miss. I mean I've heard of corkage fees, but this was the first time I'd been cakaged (if its even a word).

Unfortunately there was a bit of an incident at the end of the night, with the birthday girl getting accidentally 'popped' in the face. This is as close as an approximation to the event as I could find during my one minute youtube search(there's a wealth of party poppin' shenanigans), just without the warning or the protective camera. Fortunately medical staff (slash family members, having both in the one place is quite handy) were at hand to save her from a life of canine-co-dependence.