Isthmus of Kra
50 Park St.
Sth Melbourne VIC
03 9690 3688
www.isthmusofkra.com.au

 

It is really encouraging when you go back to a restaurant that you haven’t dined at in five years and the food is not only as good as you remembered it. It’s better.

That applied recently when we went to the tongue-twister Isthmus of Kra. Had driven past it daily because it is just behind 3AW but when you get out of the habit of going somewhere you don’t consider it when the question arises: ‘ Where do you want to eat?’

To complicate things the restaurant is in the middle of the mini-red light district in South Melbourne and two of my colleagues, to put it indelicately, thought the facade looked like a ‘house of ill repute’.

Well, we were well-serviced but I am talking about food.

For starters, IoK, has a great ambience. The muted décor sort of prompts muted conversation which is soothing after a tough day at work.

And the first food we nibbled on brought back memories. Perfect roti. Those flat Thai envelopes of sweet, slightly oily, bread.

Another of my old favourites was still on the menu: six lightly grilled oysters nestled in wells on a terracotta plate and drenched with spicy lime and lemongrass dressing.

Mrs. Nosebag doesn’t eat oysters so reluctantly I ordered the vegetarian version with ‘silken tofu and abalone mushrooms’ replacing the oysters. With the same lime and lemongrass it was beautiful. Light, subtle, satisfying.

It got me thinking about usually adventurous diners who turn their noses up at Thai food. Maybe they hate coriander or find the Tom Yum too something or the curries too hot.

But it needn’t be. There are traditional rose-shaped blue dumplings, filled with caramelised minced beef and dyed with butterfly pea flowers. And of course the nutty Gado Gado.

On our last visit I was tempted by the spice-coated tempura king prawns but I’ve been eating  so many prawn dishes lately I should own a prawn trawler.

The menu description of a lamb dish got me instead. ‘Lamb Gulai. Nonya yellow curry gently flavoured with fresh curry leaves, various fresh mints, turmeric and roasted potatoes, $23.00’.  The curry was mild, the lamb was tender and the sauce was more-ish. Still, there was no way I could eat it all.

Mrs Nosebag had a very non-Thai sounding dish ‘a kaleidoscope of colourful vegetables and a variety of mushrooms’. It came in a ‘tangy,  light galangal flavoured citrus coconut broth’. They didn’t tell her how hot the curry was. Jeeez!

They had a seafood version and she opted for ‘a few’ prawns. Only three of them but they were so big they could have pulled a prawn trawler.

I’d say I really missed the Isthmus but it’s too hard to get the tongue around it. The food though was great to get the tongue around.