Ginger fish @ Beach Cafe

One of the more reliable restaurants in Dili, Beach Cafe is a Burmese restaurant along the beach, just near Castaways.  I like it most for its crinkle-cut chips (see below), and least for its swarms of mosquitoes (due either to the water feature inside the restaurant or the open sewer nextdoor).  It doesn’t have a view of the beach.  But don’t let that stop you from going.

The description on the menu for the “Ginger Fish” went something like this:  Fish fillet with ginger on a bed of salad.  And I suppose that’s what I got.  I guess I was expecting a simple “green and white” theme, which one may expect from a healthy steamed fish dish with salad and shredded young ginger.   I may have been in denial about the “bed of salad”.  I may have subconsciously thought, “Oh, it probably won’t be a ‘bed of salad’ – more like a side salad’”.  I wasn’t expecting it to be the kind-of gingery, sweet and sour dish with deep fried bits of fish that you might find in a Chinese restaurant, complicated by the “bed of salad”, which was in fact just lettuce leaves drowning in the sticky sauce to the point of impotence. 

The overall flavour was fine, albeit sugary.  I nibbled at the few pieces of lettuce around the edges, but I definitely couldn’t bring myself to eat the wilted dark green pathetic bits sitting in the bottom of the bowl.  I also wasn’t a big fan of the barely-cooked pieces of onion.  The capsicum was ok, but it gave the impression that it didn’t really understand why it was there.

I don’t think I’d order this one again.  The “Yangon Chicken Rice” – a Burmese specialty – is much fresher, healthier, and has the “green and white” theme that I mentioned above (green: sliced shallots; white: steamed chicken sitting in a bowl of flavoursome broth – served with rice (also white)).

For my drink, I ordered a fresh lime juice, which is really quite a popular drink in Dili. The sugar syrup, served on the side, gives you control over your glucose intake.  It came in an awkwardly tall glass, which made for awkward photography.  But it DID have a swizzle stick!

It doesn’t quite compare with my “soda water with lime” that I ordered at Castaways, but it was a passable beverage as far as non-alcoholic beverages go.

Wade ordered a fish burger.  No surprises here.  He orders these a lot, which is why I quizzed him recently on which place rates the best fish burger in Dili.  His pick was this one:

Beach Cafe’s fish burger with crinkle cut chips.

A soft, sesame-seeded bun, a breaded fillet of fish, cheese and salad.  A standard combination, made spectacular by the addition of crinkle-cut chips, cooked to perfection.

I would be lying if I said we weren’t total greedy gutses and didn’t order an entree.  We were.  And we did.  The vegetarian spring rolls.  They were good, albeit rather heavy on the cabbage.  The sweet chilli sauce was: (a) watered down; and (b) not nearly enough to dress the massive mound of rolls, so we had to ask for a second lot.