Lunch

Press, 14 July 1982, Page 24

Lunch

Southland Grill Noahs Hotel cnr Oxford Terrace and Worcester Street Phone 794-700 Licensed

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S. CARGOT

Some of us never eat fungus, regarding it disdainfully as the offal of the plant world — a pallid, shifty looking vegetable that no doubt has very good reason to hide . itself' most of the ■ time from the cold light of day. But hold, what is this? Mushroom soup, ordered purely in the line of duty because it happens to be the ( soup. of. the day at Noahs ' Southland Grill, suggests that the mushroomophiles might be on to something after all. "Home made." it said on the. menu (which is stretching things a- bit for Christchurch’s largest hotel kitchen) and most surprisingly pleasant and delicately flavoured. it turned out to be. This restaurant’ makes quite a thing of mushrooms - mushroom soup, marinated mushrooms- as an alternative starter, mushroom and onion salad. If the mushroom soup converts a disbeliever as it well might — there's mushroom galore to follow. There's no-one quite so zealous as a new convert, and you may find yourself wondering why hot explore the whole mushroom field — so to speak.

Why don't restaurants give us some others, you may wonder, of the 30 or so very edible species of mushroom — the chanterelle perhaps.

or the beefsteak fungus, the giant puffball, the shaggy ink cap. or the fairy ring champignon — not to mention the fabled truffle, uprooted by pig's snouts in the oak forests of. Europe. All we get here is the common field mushroom, not grown in the field of course, but in conditions that would presumably be just as suitable for those other varieties. There is the danger, though, of getting it wrong. Most mushrooms are a bit indigestible - but others are positively deadly. You have to know what you are doing, and the popular tests of folklore — that edible ones will peel, and that poisonous ones, while cooking will turn a silver spoon black — are of no value at all. Those two tests, when applied to Amanita phalloides. the most dangerous fungus known to man. both "prove" it eminently edible. But that is to digress. The Southland Grill's mushroom soup was both eminently edible and eminently safe. So. I was told, were the marinated mushrooms.

The Southland Grill is a quiet. L-shaped restaurant stretching around the firstfloor corner of Noah's Hotel, with excellent views from most tables, either out to the Scott statue and the Avon River bank, or down into Worcester Street and the

common throng below. It was empty when we sat down to lunch’— the perfect place for a confidential tete a tete. or to confirm the details of a merger. There's no-one to overhear you planning a corporate raid, or hear your luncheon companion tell you: "You've got soup in vour beard."

Mop up the soup, and up pops the übiquitous mushroom again, this time in the sauce which you may have with any of the half-dozen char-grilled dishes — prime, sirloin pepper st'eak. rump steak. T-bone steak, rib-eye and Canterbury lamb chops. It's good to see Canterbury lamb a permanent fixture on the menu of a tourist hotel. There were three of them on the plate, grilled in the American manner, still quite pink inside, which is fine for the Americans, but some would have liked them grilled longer. Dead, not just wounded, as they say. A nice touch with the lamb chops was the accompanj-ing half of stewed pear with mint jelly-

Also from the grill comes ham steak, mixed grill, fish of the day and deep-fried chicken.

The ham steak was generously thick and juicy — but ft was pressed ham. Would it be asking, too much to expect ham off the bone in a Noah’s restaurant? Perhaps they keep that for their

main dining room. Baked potatoes were served with each dish, and one of ours was so fresh that it still had a bit of garden soil clinging to it. Still, every one had a silver lining. The grill room has an excellent range of salads at the buffet including leek, cheese, celery and onion, red cabbage, egg. potato, and the aforementioned mushroom and onion. We chose a Montana Marlborough Riesling at the steepish price of $ll to go with the meal. To follow, we dithered over the temptations of the dessert trolley — cheesecake. pavlova. a mouth-watering gateau, fruit salad, lemon meringue pie and apple shortcake. The chosen dishes were, yummy, although the apple shortcake had to make two trips to the microwave oven to reach an acceptable heat. “Hope you enjoyed your meal, sir." said the dining room hostess — a nice touch, and one that did not demand an answer, but in our case we had enjoyed it. and we concluded that the Southland Grill was a nice central spot for a business lunch or a discreet encounter. (Meal with wine $41.)