KEY POINTS:
"Do you use saffron?" asked my foodie friend. "I have some in the cupboard," I replied, "so I must have bought it for something. I can't remember what." "Could you taste it?" she asked. "It seems not to have made a deep impression," I admitted. "Why do you ask?" "Well, it's always seemed to me that it's a lot of money to pay for colouring."
The subject had come up because the Blonde, feeling in a brunch frame of mind, had ordered "saffron-scented" scrambled eggs for lunch and our friend - a longtime aficonada of the finest things in the kitchen - had been more than a little sceptical of the description. I had to admit that the eggs, when they arrived, did not yield any discernible scent other than eggs.
Perhaps they were slightly more golden than normal: was this thanks to a tinge of the spice's characteristic red-orange or were they just damn good eggs? We passed a forkful around, took turns inhaling the aroma and trying to look knowledgeable.
"I'm getting raisins and lawn clippings after rain," said the Blonde, but she was just being silly. The Foodie and I were getting nothing.
I'd be tempted to dismiss the idea of saffron-scenting scrambled eggs as an unbearable affectation if it were not for the name of the place that was serving them.
Lumbini, it turns out, is the birthplace, in southern Nepal, of Siddhartha Gautama who would come to be known as Buddha.
The restaurant of the same name occupies a slightly down-at-heel villa, just next to the wine shop whose grammatically impossible name, La Vino, makes me cringe every time I pass.
The Nyima Tashi Kagyu Buddhist Centre is accessed by a path running down the side and marked by colourful prayer flags fluttering in the wind. Could the saffron in the scrambled eggs be a nod to the saffron robes of the Buddhist monks? My meditations on that met the same fate as all the meditation I've ever done: within seconds my mind was on to something else.
If the place's name is Buddhist-inspired, the menu certainly isn't, unless they've recently changed their policy on reverence for all sentient beings.
Quite a few formerly sentient beings - feathered, finned and variously hoofed -feature on the lunch menu which is what they offer on weekdays and on the three evenings they open for dinner.
On weekends, the lunch menu is the breakfast menu, which includes brekky standards and works its way up through those eggs to a calamari salad and a small slab of sirloin with bok choy and roasted tomatoes.
They made a fine job of both of those - the calamari in a light tempura-style batter was tender and grease-free and served with roasted fennel and shallots, and the steak was superb.
The Foodie's potato dumplings in a creamy gorgonzola sauce were melt-in-the-mouth, rather than the rubbery objects widely passed off as gnocchi. And the Blonde chose the afternoon's tour de force, ricotta doughnuts with mascarpone and a chocolate sauce, which alone are worth driving across town for.
Lumbini's menu is eclectic (indeed the place was briefly known as The Eclectic Eatery) and full of comfort-food standards. It was quiet when were there, but it deserves to become the kind of place where it's hard to get a table.
Lumbini
20 Williamson Avenue,
Grey Lynn
Ph: 361 2303
Open: Daily for breakfast and lunch; dinner Thursday to Saturday.
The Bill
$96 for three
Eggs $17
Dumplings $15
Calamari $16
Steak $18
Doughnuts $12.50
Cakes (2) $8
Coffee (3) $9.50
Wine list: BYO.
Vegetarians: Three choices.
Watch out for: Prayer flags.
Sound check: Conversation-friendly.
Bottom line: Comfort foods.
- Detours, HoS
