I noticed the Harbour View cafe has now closed its doors, so that’s one less Thai food outlet in town. It was confirmed to me that it closed finally on Thursday.

Although I rarely went there, it did have a good outlook over the harbour – if a bit noisy from traffic at times. I know that one other restaurant is looking for new premises – I wonder.

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Addendum : I am told that a major factor in the closure was hassles from the IDP camp next-door. Hassling the owners for food and perhaps making customers nervous. With the closure of the Little Padang restaurant just down the road, that means there are now no “by-the-roadside” eateries on the seafront from the Palacio east to Pig Bridge. Of course, there are Hotel Dili (a personal favourite) and Hotel Turismo but neither restaurant has a view.

The new coffee season is underway and local supplies of the good stuff are coming through now.  Due to late rains, the production this year is down around 30% over 2006.

When you consider that production was down last year by a similar 30% due to the security troubles, if the rains do the right thing this year by falling in October/November , then 2008 could be a bonanza year.

Quality is said to be up and despite the doom and gloom presented in a recent ABC radio piece, ongoing staged pruning and other measures are expected to lead to increasing quantity and quality of future crops.

Meanwhile, if you are here, just enjoy.

There have not been too many changes in this area of late so this post covers a couple of months now.

The Pinoy Filipino restaurant near the Esplanada Hotel seems to have closed again.

Hotel California has opened and despite its 1st floor view to die for, it doesn’t seem to have attracted that many customers. It can seat about 35 but if you go there with a group of 10 beer drinkers, they may not be able to supply cold beer for long. The menu is pretty ordinary.

I finally got around to eating at the Happy Chinese restaurant on Comorro Road near the heliport. At night, this is perhaps not the greatest location from a security point of view but the food seemed OK to me. It is Cantonese food we are talking about here. Mark down the Sichuan chili chicken as a pretty good version of this Chongqing-style dish. Chili lovers take note.

Down in the Metiaut area on the way to Christo Rei, a new Vietnamese restaurant is taking shape next to Little Pattaya. It is called Saigon which suggests it is related to the Saigon restaurant near the Vila Verde cathedral. It looks very close to opening time.

My favourite juice bar Sol e Mar is now completely overwhelmed with Portuguese types wearing tight swimwear and rippling muscle. It is not the reason I go there now !!

One wonders just how long the Metiaut restaurants can last. One would think too many but competition may sort things out.

I am still hanging out for the new coffee season crop – not expected for another week or two.

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I have updated my Dili Landmarks in Google Earth, so go here for the latest update.

The election period coincided with a time immediately before the 2007 coffee harvest which should start coming on-stream in mid-July.  For all the international election observers who have swarmed all over Dili over the past few weeks, you were out of luck.  Supplies of the good stuff are/were not to be found.

Except if have your finger on the pulse and arrange forward orders for your personal supplies.  We are doing fine with our top shelf Maubisse coffee and will be OK until the new season stuff starts filtering through in a couple of weeks.

I finally did get around to eating at the Indian Megha restaurant and it gets my thumbs up. It is still a bit rough around the decor edges but is the only Indian (South Asian) restaurant in town with AC.

As “Timor Diver” commented recently, it is the same Megha restaurant that once stood just south-west of the port entrance in the white house on the corner. I admit to being completely oblivious to its existence last year.

The owner Sukumaran, is a cheerful guy who left Dili in the middle of last year, packed his shipping container and headed off to Aceh to try his luck there. Apparently, he lost heaps of money as business was poor and has returned to give Dili another crack.

He would have been one of a number who filled their shipping containers last year and headed out. Business owners filling shipping containers by the roadside in the Audian shopping strip was a common sight in May/June last year.

I doubt I could have talked about losing a sizable chunk of my life savings and still have a beaming smile on my face. Good luck Sukumaran.

One of the 2 unfinished restaurants under-construction last week has opened for drinks today. It is called the Little Pattaya and is located between the Bachky and Bangkok Thai restaurants at Metiaut on the way to Cristo Rei.

They think they will have appetizer food ready to serve tomorrow. The menu is obviously a bit abbreviated until the kitchen is fully kitted out, but they do have padh thai for $5 and about 10 other snack-oriented meals.

The decor is above average compared to others on the beach strip and it has a very well situated bar made from a canoe and you sit behind it looking out to the sea.  The entire orientation is designed to focus your eyes to the sea and the sunset view is pretty good.

The restaurant at the Discovery Inn seems to be making itself known by having some form of opening this week.  It is known as the Diya restaurant, which is of unknown culinary origin to me at this stage.

My eating card is growing.

I once lived in a group house with a guy called John and for a reason that escapes me, we engaged in curry cooking competitions where the sole aim was to outdo the opponent’s previous effort in heat.  It just wouldn’t do to eat a curry without sweat falling off the end of your nose.

So I have a soft spot for this type of food.  Recently, I noticed a new Indian restaurant pop up just south of the ANZ bank – the Indian Megha Restaurant. It is still undergoing some final renovations but is operating and doing Indian breakfast from 7am on the weekend.  Typical main courses are $3 to $4-50 and Tiger beer is $2 a bottle and it is on my card to go soon.

There are 3 Indian/south Asian restaurants in the Tiger fuel area on Comorro Road – the Sun restaurant at the Backpackers, the Piyashi across the road and the Tandoor further west.  Indian food is also available at the Bangkok Thai on the way to Christo Rei.

A couple of times, I noticed the Metro Cafe with doors closed and I wondered if it really was. I am now convinced – concreting up the entire front facade was a dead give-away. With MyFali, Foodstart and Starco restaurants nearby, similar style of eating is still available. I have noticed Starco clientele increasing substantially lately.

People have reported Restaurant 99 across the road from the stadium as becoming popular. It is Chinese and on my card to visit one day.

On the road to Christo Rei, there are 3 new places still taking shape. The first is about 100 metres on the east (ie Baucau) side of Sol e Mar. Another open air style establishment which could still be a couple of months away from opening.

Closer in at Metiaut, a restaurant/accommodation establishment has been under construction for a while. The accommodation rooms look very small but an upstairs eatery is under construction which should have neat views over the water. They have hung up their shingle now and Dili now has its own Hotel California.

Closer in again, another bar/restaurant is taking shape slowly between Bachky and Bangkok Thai restaurants. It looks like it will have a bar (made in the shape of a wooden canoe) such that customers look out to the sea. Again still a few weeks away from completion.

I admit that I have been very gutless when it comes to purchasing fish. Ages ago, a Timorese gave me instruction on the fish inspection and purchase process.

Always in the morning as the fish sit out in 30+ degrees heat all day. Check the eye colour and the colour of the gills. I forgot the details and have never been brave enough to purchase myself. Any thoughts of me becoming a doctor went out the window based on my dislike of the fish gutting and filleting process. Yet I like eating fish but don’t like getting really crook like I did early last year.

The result is I buy all meat and fish frozen from one of the supermarkets. (I don’t like butchering an oxe either !)

Maybe I have been asleep for a while, but I noticed the fish vendors near the Lita supermarket are now using ice. These guys have only been selling from here for a month or so (or 3) and join the fruit and veg merchants who finally returned here after a long break courtesy of the events of last year.

Maybe it is time to reconsider fresh fish purchasing. A lot of the time, the fish are quite small (about 150mm in length) and probably not what most expats look for. Fresh squid hanging from a tree is not exactly the greatest look either. But if the boys provide a good selection (say 200 to 400mm length), put it on ice and offer a gutting service, I’m in.