 The end of the year is a great time for reflection ... which were the most memorable dishes for the year?
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Sitting above Kensington's Spice Alley is Mekong, serving a melting pot of cuisines from all the South-East Asia countries along the Mekong River. Dishes from Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are all represented. The restaurant is split into two parts, a more casual eatery serving predominantly Vietmanese food downstairs and the full service restaurant upstairs.
We started with their signature Squid Ink Dumplings. The squid ink dumpling skins were very delicated, encasing a Thai crab meat and prawn filling. It was served with a amazingly fragrant chicken pho broth poured from a teapot. The broth really elevates the flavour of the dumplings and was definitely the highlight of the dish. 
Squid ink dumplings with thai-style crab meat and prawn stuffing, in broth $12
Next was the Thai grilled pork neck wrapped in betal leaf with housemade tamarind sauce. These little parcels packed plety of flavour and the pork neck had a lovely sticky caramel texture.
Pig in betal leaf blanket $13
The Lao crispy omelette was stuffed with sliced pork roll, sour pork, morning glory and accompanied with a soy chili sauce. Another tasty dish but not as memorable as the preceding two.
Spice of the omelette - Lao crispy omelette with sliced pork roll, sour pork, morning glory & soy chilli sauce $14
With the aim of tryig as many dishes as possible, we ordered the Indochine shareplate. The highlights were the Lao sour pork sausage and the Vietnamese rice flour cups with prawn, sweetcorn and cucumber relish.
Indochine shareplate: Lao sour pork sausage, sweetcorn harvest, little stack and housemade mix skewers $22
Onto the mains and the quality food just kept on coming. The Sweet lemon rumdul, a Cambodian beef rib curry with sweet potato and lemongrass paste was utterly delicious. It makes me wonder why there aren't more Cambodian curries on menus in Sydney. The beef fell apart at the slightest touch and the sauce was wonderfully rich.
Sweet lemon rumdul - Cambodian beef rib curry, sweet potato and lemongrass paste $28
Next was the more familiar Thai red curry with duck confit. The duck was exceptionally cooked - juicy and moist on the inside whilst retaining its crispy skin. The cherry tomato, and pineapple added some freshness to the creamy and aromatic sauce.
A duck at sunrise - duck confit w red thai curry, cherry tomato, basil oil & fresh pineapple $30
For a lighter dish to offset all the curries, we had the Young Ginger, a stir fry with Vietnamese black soya chicken. It was well executed and the quality of the produce was clearly on show.
Young ginger: Vietnamese black soya chicken w young ginger, yellow bean, onion & oyster sauce $24
The Royal Seafood Amok is one of the more famous dishes of Cambodian cuisine and Mekong's intepretation is definitely on point. It's a coconut based yellow curry with a ton of seafood - here, it was served with barramundi, scallops, prawn and pipies. The seafood really soaked up the flavour of the sauce and we had no trouble finishing this off.
Royal seafood amok - panfried barramundi, scallops, prawn & pipi w asparagus in house made Cambodian curry $32
Luckly, we still had room left for dessert. The Bangkok ice cream bowl was just the refreshing dessert I was after. It consists of Coconut ice cream with pomegranate, sweet corn, roasted peanuts and palm seeds sitting on a bed of coconut sticky rice and served in a coconut shell. The Coconut ice cream is the best I've ever had. It's super smooth and creamy, and packed with coconut flavour. All the other accompaniments just fitted wth the ice cream perfectly. It definitely left a smile on my face.
Bangkok ice cream bowl: coconut ice cream w pomegranate, roasted peanut, sweetcorn & palm seeds in coconut shell $10
Of course, one dessert wasn't enough. The Basil panna cotta with raspberry puree, walnut and lemon meringue was another flawless essert. Strawberry and basil is a great flavour combination and the puffed rice and walnut gave the dish a great crunchy element.
Basil panna cotta w strawberry foam, sponge, puffed rice & walnut $10
The food at Mekong was very impressive, both in taste and presentation. It's wonderful to see the cusines of Laos, Burma and Cambodia featured along the most common varieties. It's a bit more expensive than your average South East Asian restaurant but well worth it. My only gripe is that the menu is a bit hard to decipher as the title of the dishes aren't very descriptive e.g. 'Grandma in the garden' or 'Full moon' but I can overlook it when the food is so delicious.
The team from Automata has opened a brunch pop up, and it's every bit as delicious. Taking residence in the Old Clare Hotel, it's definitely not your run of the mill cafe menu. The classic Eggs Benedict has been given a modern twist, with the addition of black pudding. The hollandaise sauce was divine and the houseade black pudding made it even more indulgent.  Eggs benedict with house made black pudding, Kurobuta ham Who says you can't have fried chicken before lunch? Auto.Lab's Fried chicken, ube waffle with smoked maple syrup sounded too good a combination to resist. The waffle took on a lovely colour from the ube (purple yam) and the fried chicken was perfectly cooked - what more can you ask for.  Amazing food in a great location. It's a pity that it's only a pop-up, Get in quick before it closes on Dec 24th!
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