Category Archives: Food & drink

Blather on food and drinking opportunities.

The Dili Club finally closes

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It’s finally happened. The Dili Club premises on Avenida de Portugal have closed and the site reduced to a blank space within days.

It has been an institution on the esplanade for 5 or so years and while stories from the peak of the UN days suggest the place was a bit rough, a certain gentrification has obviously occurred, although probably little in decor.

Dili Club before

Last drinks were on Friday 17 February, after having called last drinks at least 4 times over the last month or two.

Phil should be re-opening as Phil’s Grille by next Saturday directly cross the road from Timor Toyota on Comorro road (ie also across from Leader supermarket).

The last I heard was that Phil was building some fancier premises back on Avenida de Portugal west of the Esplanada Hotel – elevated sea views etc. More later.

Moving hotels

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It was the earthquake that did it. We finally found somewhere else that was reasonable, so we moved from Hotel Timor to Hotel Dili.

Hotel Timor (HT) fits into the normal definition of an accommodation-based hotel, with foyer, front desk, restaurant, cafe, business centre, room service, bar fridge stocked with miniature spirits etc. etc. It has room service, a pool, tea and coffee-making facilities in the room – the usual stuff. And it is of the monolithic style.

Once you leave HT, the word “hotel” is used in a completely different fashion. Although there are a couple of others in the monolithic style, most are little more than a collection of pre-fab or demountable rooms, ranging from backpacker style to serviced apartment in style. Many of these were put together for the massive influx of highly-paid aid workers and defence personnel moved in here along with the UN 5 or so years back. I include Hotel Dili, Hotel Dili 2001, Hotel Esplanada and Timor Lodge Hotel in this latter category. I suspect most of these would be in the 1.5 to 2.5 star category.

Of course, I may be a little unfair, but they do in general, provide solid accommodation with the essentials. The essentials being bathrooms, toilets, a restaurant and air-conditioning.

After a couple of days, I have to admit that giving up the Hotel Timor business centre was pretty easy. And parking my bicycle 3 metres outside the front door feels nicer than 200 metres away in the Hotel Timor storeroom out the back.

And the almost invisible Hotel Dili restaurant is actually not too bad at all. Virtually all the long-term residents eat here every night and life is good … except for the mosquitos.

Coffee Shops – First Try

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Coffee is Timor-Leste’s main export so you might think that coffee is sold everywhere and perhaps, there may be a number of worthwhile coffee shops.

It is fair to say that all restaurants and bars will offer some form of coffee, from espresso machine stuff through to standard Indonesian style (1 teaspoon ground coffee then pour on hot water then add lots of sugar).

One day when I have a kitchen to entertain myself in, I will get right into roasting and grinding my own. However, I have been told that all the good stuff is sewn up by the big operators and goes straight into the export trade. The implication was that the stuff sold on the roadside and in markets was the left-overs. This may be true.

However, I am talking coffee shops here and I am making a subtle distinction between coffee served in a restaurant to the (often alfresco) coffee shop experience. I am restricting myself to espresso machine output in a “coffee shop” atmosphere – that “feeling that I am somewhere else for 15 minutes” experience.

Cafe Timor (in the Hotel Timor) – For many foreigners, this is the best. Coffee is good, it is air-conditioned and it has a bright and breezy atmosphere. It also has some quite superb Portuguese pastries.

Tropical Bakery (near the UN barracks) – This has a very relaxed atmosphere but you are restricted to ceiling fans and no AC. Partly outside but with a strangely impeded view of the outside world thanks to some very heavy wood and bamboo decor. Again coffee is good, pastries are available and a full menu are available.

Sanan Rai (near the Central Garden Hotel) – Recently renovated, perhaps the cutest and OK if you can bear being sandwiched between a souvenir counter, dress shop and beauty shop. Good AC, coffee and a full menu available.

Cafe Brasil – The newest cafe with solid wood tables and cane chairs with a marquee out the front. Has AC and ceiling fans but hard to see how the AC can compete when the doors and windows are always open. Definitely feels like being somewhere else, plays cool background music and also has a wide ranging menu.

City Cafe – A long-standing favourite among the UN community. More a cafeteria/restaurant, but if you sit out the front, the Mediterranean style can feel like the real thing. No AC.

Some that don’t quite fit my definition of coffee shop but do have espresso machines are Vasco da Gamas restaurant, the Hotel Timor restaurant, Hotel Turismo, Castaway Bar, Esplanada Hotel restaurant and the Metro Cafe. I guess there will be more. I will keep hunting.

The Humble Dimma

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A few weeks back, I had my nirvana-like experience. However, for 99.9999% of the world’s population, going into raptures over “Marathon dimsims” is a rather pathetic thing to do.

Roll back a couple of days … I bumped into a fellow Australian who mentioned he was going to the informal Australia Day function organised by the embassy for all OZ passport holders. Initially, I was aggrieved as I knew nothing about it, but it turns out that there are advantages in registering oneself with the embassy. (Later in the day, I did in fact receive an invitation, indirectly.)

I met this guy about 3 hours drive from Dili and he mentioned he was on his way to Dili for the OZ Day BBQ and he was looking forward to some OZ food. I casually mentioned my Marathon dimsim nirvana experience and (saints be praised) not only was he from the State of Victoria (home of the Marathon article) but he too was a Marathon dimsim-eating gastronome.

As soon as I mentioned that Phil (another Marathon gastronome) at the Dili Club was a potential supplier, his eyes lit up and he was on the case. The Dili Club has arguably the best pizzas in town and Phil has a home delivery service, but due to the government wanting to take over his bit of land, he was asked to move. There was a bit of umming and ahhing as Phil decided whether to carry on at all and a couple of weeks ago, the future of the Dili Club was up in the air.

But my new mate has confirmed already that a new Dili Club site has been signed, sealed and delivered. Its now up to Phil to supply. You see, I am not so unique after all.

A Few Days of Fun

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Living in the hotel is certainly becoming a drag, so any alternative suggestions are met with great glee. On Friday, an invite to after-work drinks seemed a good way to start the night.

So I started off with gin and tonics. The group decided to move onto the Audian Hotel for Chinese food. I switched to beer. The food was variable ranging from as authentic as I know to very average.

The group decided to move onto Carlo’s (?) Bar for more gin and tonic and some beer. At 1am, what was left of the group decided to move onto the Coolspot nightclub. I had passed this place many times but was oblivious to the fact that this place only rages after midnight. As it turns out, I must have been tired and emotional and when I walked in without paying (there was no sign !) was met by a surly security guy who instructed me to pay. When I saw that women went in for free, I complained and standing on my principles refused to go in under such sexist conditions.

I was to later find out that the entry fee was redeemed in beer and was designed to keep out locals who went in for nothing and spent nothing all night. Next time, I hope they don’t remember that surly white man’s face !

Next day, I was going to a hash house harriers run with some military guys. I told them the (incorrect) location. We got to the wrong place and found that none of us had brought a mobile phone, so we rushed back to pick a phone. Fortunately, “Jack Brabham” was driving and even more fortunately, he tailed an ambulance with all sirens going. Lets just say you couldn’t do this in any other part of the world and keep your licence ! And we weren’t late either.

Next day, I had some mail to be sent to Australia. A military acquaintance was spending a 1 week R&R in Darwin, so I asked him to hand-carry my mail and post it there. (The Timorese mail service is said to be woefully slow as mail goes via Portugal, or at least seems to.) So I had to deliver to aforementioned military guy who was having his last drinks at a bar. USD66 of drinks later (3 of us), we left the bar, leaving my mail behind.

Having corrected the mail error, my courier was too drunk to come to dinner later and next day, his military flight was cancelled and delayed for another week. But it’s still the fastest way to deliver my mail !

Beer glasses

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The more western-oriented bars/restaurants around town know their stuff when it comes to looking after their beer glasses, but outside this relatively small group, it is the wild west.

I should point out that beer, soft drink and fruit juice are the only beverage options outside the more western-oriented bar/restaurants. And yes, I usually have fruit juice at lunch !

Now for a bit of theory. One of my old mates from years ago was a renowned destroyer of beer glasses. He knew it and everyone around him knew it. You could pour him a beer with a perfect head and within 1 minute of his first taste, the head would have disappeared and his beer looked like a ginger ale. And curiously, the effect was to destroy the glass’s ability to maintain a head for some weeks after this.

He had a problem of either curiously different body chemistry or was a really bad saliva dribbler into his glass.

The other well recognised method of destroying a beer is poor washing techniques. Not that I understand why, I never use any soap or detergent on my beer glasses and everything is fine. Any soap residue will destroy a glass.

But perhaps the biggest error is to wash beer glasses in water previously used to wash dinner plates, pots, pans etc.

I have no doubt this last error is the reason behind the almost total absence of a beer head in most establishments around town (apart from a select few who have separate beer glass washing machines).

So I made the ultimate decision yesterday – one of my faithful beer glasses will be drawn into daily duty and accompany me to all establishments. You gotta maintain your standards.

Gong Bao Ji Ding

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In deference to my gong bao ji ding (henceforth known as gong bao) loving fellow blogger in Beijing, Wanbro, I feel I must report on the local supplies of the essential gong bao in Dili.

For those unfamiliar, gong bao is chicken cooked in peanuts with a dash of chilis. The variations are enormous in the amount of peanuts, heat of the chilis, added sweetness and the oft-suspected use of fake chicken (ie soy chicken).

Wanbro has achieved stellar heights in his quest for the perfect gong bao and when attained, his ramblings on the subject are legendary.

The China Town restaurant here in Dili is known to have several Beijingers in the kitchen and this is evident in a number of items on the menu. The jiaozi are an exact replica of what can be found in Beijing, and for us Marathon dim sim loving konnoyzers from Melbourne, jiaozi are an adequate substitute for the real thing. (jiaozi are known as dumplings which may contain a number of ingredients but my own favourite is the pork and cabbage, which emulates the Marathon reasonably well).

As for the gong bao, a bit light on for chicken, a bit heavy on the peanuts and a bit light on for chili. Surprisingly low on sweetness and perhaps lacking that satisfying well-balanced finish. Nevertheless, it came across to an essentially gong bao neutral audience as the pick of the courses.

I tried the other signature dish in my own repertoir (the shredded pork or “zhu rou si”) but it was pale imitation of the genuine article. When I finally get a kitchen, I feel like cooking up a batch of “zhu rou si” and giving the boys a few lessons.

The bill came in at US$7 per head for the banquet-style meal – about 30% less than your typical expat oriented eatery. As for decor, the ever-present white tiles and minimalist furnishings woud give a Salvation Army soup kitchen a run for its money.

More trouble in the guts

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Unfortunately, I have had a relapse of my earlier gastric difficulties. The doctor had warned that this particular stomach bug had proved to be a tough one to defeat. And so it proved to be.

The result was similar to last time. The hotel room bathroom copped a huge spray and like last time, I seemed to lose consciousness again. I am not sure I have ever been as sick as this. I couldn’t scratch myself for many hours.

The medical result was a move to drug number 3 and paternal advice re. eating simply etc. etc. As it turns out, for the last couple of days, any food seems to disagree with my digestive system. Normally, you pay big bucks for this sort of dietary control.

Besides the positive weight reducing properties of this gastronomic regime, it turns out that I have no trouble processing alcohol. I got bitten by a mosquito yesterday and have been “forced” to move onto the gin and tonic. Someone pointed out that in order to get any anti-malarial effect from the tonic, you would need to drink quite a few bottles of gin. So !!

Smallville

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It has already been driven home that Dili is a small town from an expat point of view. The reality is that most expats operate at significantly higher standards of living and incomes than do local Timorese. As a natural consequence, one tends to share similar experiences with accommodation, restaurants, shopping locations etc.

There seem to be about 10 restaurants frequented by expats on a regular basis. And although there are a number of others, food safety concerns tend to limit the patronage outside these ten.

As for your typical supermarket shopping, if you are after the one stop food shopping experience, you are limited to a handful of supermarkets which stock Australian, Indonesian or Chinese sourced stuff.

So whenever you go out to do any of this stuff, one invariably meets someone you know or will know sometime in the future.

And I can now say that I know 2 people (of the 20 on board) who were on our incoming flight from Darwin.

But perhaps the scariest moment was when someone who I met for the first time yesterday said “I hear that you are having problems with your house … I heard that the shower cubicle is so small, you can’t bend down to pick up the soap”.

I was speechless. I had made the (sarcastic but true) soap comment to someone quite far removed from the speaker above. Note to file : don’t gossip in Dili.

Approaching Nirvana

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Well, week 2 has not been one of my better health weeks. After getting off to a flier with severe gut problems and head-butting the bathroom floor, my guts have been particularly dodgy. The middle of the night visits to the conveniences certainly eventually knocks you around.

But things were looking up when the Dili Club had free drinks for 3 hours on Friday night. Now you have to go with me here. If you are from Melbourne, then no explanation is necessary. But for the others, many people have certain things that remind them of their past … places they went, things they ate, things they drank, people on TV etc.

On arrival at the Dili Club, I saw them … unmistakable … I pinched myself … no, still here. I went up to the bar and asked Phil (the owner) “Are you doing dim sims ? are they really Marathon dimmers ?”. His answer, “yep, sure are Marathins … absolutely love them … I’ll cook you up some”.

So out they come, with the prescribed soy sauce and I was on my way. Free beer (Melbourne Bitter at that) and free dim sims – highly salubrious.

Whenever I hit Melbourne, I am well known for seeking out the genuine Marathon article and re-living old times, even the time Shane and I had 18 each in one sitting. Aah, those were the days.

And Phil has assured me that he can supply bulk frozen Marathons no problems. Now this is approaching nirvana.