Thursday, January 5, 2012

s t i r c r a z y & Stir Crazy

That's right. I've been going STIR CRAZY! Not because I need to get out of the house here or anything, and not because I'm having an awful time, I'm having a GREAT time! But I've been in DIRE need to do some COOKING or baking... which I'm sure you all know is difficult when you're not in your own home. SO, we've discovered the answer to my strange illness is to try completely new restaurants, with food that I don't normally cook so that I can at LEAST get some inspiration from somebody else's genius over the stove. Well this time it worked...

We met up with our amazing pals, Dave and Sav (affectionately called 'davannah') at this really tiny, funky thai restaurant called "Stir Crazy." It's shoved in a strange little spot, not really next to any great shops or even on a pretty sidewalk, but just so happens to sit right in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. FABulous. Best view ever. Also their kitchen is exposed, which I TOTALLY love and appreciate, (and you should too at any restaurant you go to!) the bar is mirrored and lit up with gorgeous white twinkle lights to make the little space seem intimate and glowy, and the wait staff couldn't have been nicer. And to top all THAT, it's a BYO joint... so you sit down and they ask if they can pour you a drink... if you brought one for yourself! Isn't that wild? At first I was a little weirded out and then I thought, "score!" You don't HAVE to buy some not-so-great wine that's overpriced for retail benefit because that's you're only option! You can walk LITERALLY next door from the restaurant to the bottle shop, pick up a cheap, good bottle of whatever and there ya go! So we did. (Come to find out that's a really common thing in Sydney... so strange right?)

The food..... oh the food. You guys.... the FOOOOOOD. Listen, all I'm saying is I actually think I got a little emotional over how PERFECT, unique and FLA-VOR-FUL my red curry was. And I'll tell you this (and then I won't say any more because I won't need to) : every single dish we ordered, we ordered 4 completely different things, was the best of the best of the best I've ever tasted. I didn't just hold them up to my own standards, or even my husband's standards, who has such STRONG opinions about what great thai food actually is.... I held them up to my extremely picky, oddly finicky when it comes to food, unbelievably harsh and rightfully so food critic sister's opinion. And by her standards, these dishes would have received a 10 out of 10. And that, my friends, is all you need to know.
 "davannah" ... how cute is she?! ps she has a great, fun blog! great writer, great woman, check her out.
 "sames"
 so smart.. we had a tiny table and 4+ dishes, so they served it pizza style
 Beef with Black Bean Sauce and sauteed vegetables
 Red Curry with chicken
 Pad Thai
Vegetarian Pumpkin Stir Fry with carrot, snowpeas, broccoli, chinese broccoli, egg and sweet basil

xo!

3 comments:

  1. OH. MY. GOSH. That looks SOOO GOOD. Made me hungry & wish that there were more unique restaurants in CLT too! Have fun, babe & I miss you!!! p.s. how was the spice rack? crucial.

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  2. Jord!! I need you! Sick of not being able to hang out and eat WITH you!! Gotta be honest, I didn't touch the spice rack cause I didn't want to change anything. Really THAT good! But hey.... Sydney's got nothin on Charlotte... There's no La Unica here. ;) LOVE YOU!

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  3. Hey...we missed that spot! Next time we're in Sydney we'll go directly there! Miss you Sid, can't wait to see you in two weeks time!

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