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Last time I vis­ited Ray’s Kit­chen, I was dis­ap­poin­ted. I returned as a hungry cyc­list look­ing to con­sume a roti or two. I pre­vi­ously enjoyed roti from Mak’s Place, before it changed hands and became Ray’s Kit­chen and on my last visit here the roti served on the next table looked and smelt great. After being spoilt […]

Every small bar I have vis­ited in Perth has had a great and dis­tinct­ive atmo­sphere. Be it the busy George full of suits hold­ing a late after­noon busi­ness meet­ing, The chaotic Ezra Pound with hip­sters and their long­necks in brown paper bags or a laid back and almost empty Wolf Lane on a wet even­ing the day after the Mel­bourne Cup. That was until I walked into the Aviary …

A side pro­ject of mine, was a blog above gov 2.0, but after two years without updat­ing it. I decided enough was enough, and did not renew the domain name. The posts are not lost as I have archived the site at gov2.nickcowie.com.

A group of friends meet for lunch in the CBD between Christ­mas and New Year. Sas­sel­las was selec­ted prob­ably as it was licensed. Which was a poor choice see­ing of the seven, only two of drank alco­hol, the rest were far more respons­ible than me …

I was won­der­ing down Wil­liam Street, one lunch­time won­der­ing what to eat, when I spot­ted Hoka’s lunch time spe­cial list which included Singa­por­ean Style Fish & Rice. Intrigued, as I never heard of Singa­por­ean Style Fish before, I walked in as a hungry cyc­list and ordered a large Singa­por­ean Style Fish & Rice for $10.

aka les­sons in Tequila

My last visit to the George had the bar man­ager con­vince me to start drink­ing rum, as he said he had a far bet­ter dark rum selec­tion than single malts. He was a bad influ­ence on me and I now reg­u­larly drink and appre­ci­ate qual­ity dark rum. He also said next time we will get you drink­ing tequila.

So this visit, I decided to take him up on the offer and try tequila. Unfortunately …

Sometimes I don’t realise I lucky I am

I had to head to West Perth for an appoint­ment and took the oppor­tun­ity to catch up with a couple of friends for lunch. The eat­ing estab­lish­ment of choice was Tim’s Thai, which soun­ded ideal for a change in cuisine as I have yet to find a Thai res­taur­ant in North­bridge I enjoy eat­ing at.

The lunch­time menu, was typ­ical gen­eric south east asian noodle house. …

Ray’s Kit­chen has taken over from Maks Place on Wil­liam Street. Still has the same sig­nage, same tired decor, and an almost identical menu of Malaysian/Singaporean hawker dishes. While I ate spar­ingly at Maks Place, I really enjoyed their Roti and Mur­t­abak, but gen­er­ally found the noodle and rice dishes dis­ap­point­ing. So what did I order first time at Ray’s Kitchen …

Any­body who knows me, knows I am not a morn­ing per­son. So break­fast reviews will be a rare occurrence, …

The decor had been described to me as chic bor­dello, and that pretty much covered it. Large leather lounges, cush­ions galore, candles and art deco light­ing fit­tings with lamps turned down low. The nature of the build­ing, with a num­ber of small rooms con­ver­ted into the bar, led to a num­ber of inter­est­ing spaces and […]