13/02/2008. I met Jac after work and we drove to the International Eating House food hall at East Victoria Park for a midweek dinner date. Jac ordered the regular teriyaki tofu set (AU$6.00 – I think). Yep, that’s right – this was the regular size, not large!

The tofu has a very thin, crispy coating of batter, and the sauce is served separately in a dish for dipping, which I think is a great idea – this way, the tofu doesn’t get soggy prematurely. Underneath the cube of tofu on the right are some pickles.

I decided to try a chicken and vegie stir-fry with rice from one of the Chinese stalls. I can’t remember the stall’s name, but it’s the one with a picture of a little Chinese man with a sign that says “Nathan” (I don’t know why!). They stir-fried the chicken and vegies to order, and the resulting dish looked appealingly abundant and fresh. The broccoli and straw mushrooms (really nice big ones!) were especially good. The one low point was the baby corn, which may have come from an old opened tin and tasted a little odd – sourish. I usually love baby corn, but ended up leaving most of the spears on my plate. I wasn’t that bothered by the questionable corn, and ate the rest of the dish with apparently no ill effect whatsoever. They call this dish “mushroom rice with stir-fry”, and you can choose chicken, beef or seafood. The chicken or beef version costs around AU$9.00, seafood a little more.