Jason King
AmyHuangHanuman's Restaurant, Alice Springs
December 26th 2009 21:13
A favourite dining experience for locals and visitors since 2001. Hanuman Alice Springs is conveniently located inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel, a 5 minute drive from the centre of town. When I told people I was heading off to Alice Springs, good friend Annie, knowing I am a foody, told me that Hanuman's is a MUST VISIT restaurant. I found this not only by miles the best restaurant in Alice Springs, but one of the best in Australia. I LOVED IT. I would consider it the best Thai restaurant I have eaten at in years. It is described as a fusion between Thai and Indian but the beautiful gold statues and feel of the restaurant led me to think of Thai. The food was a definite mix of the two and I could also feel influences of Nepalese foods, now I am an expert after eating once at The Nepalese Kitchen. 
On the one night I decided to take myself out I discovered that Hanuman's was way too far for me to walk from the centre of Alice Springs so stayed local (RED SEA RESTAURANT) and had kind of given up on making it to Hanuman's. But my fate was in the hands of Hanuman himself as the VERY nexy night the people I was in Alice working for picked me up and took me to dinner. Half way there I asked them where they were taking me "To Hanuman's, the best restaurant in Alice" - I actually did give a squeal of delight
Hanuman, the mighty ape that aided Lord Rama in his expedition against evil forces, is one of the most popular idols in the Hindu pantheon. Believed to be an avatar of Lord Shiva, Hanuman is worshiped as a symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion.
The Asian mood is created through the clever use of decor, artifacts and lighting - a stunning contrast to the surrounding Central Australian desert landscape.
The atmosphere is out of this world with large golden statues that you can offer money to the gods at and it is dark and warm with beautiful decore. It helped us immensely to have a table of people next to us with African ladies all dressed in national bright colored clothes, they were stunning. This placed is constantly packed - and bookings are essential!
Then there is the food - OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We started with soft shell crab fried crisp and served with a tamarind sauce, absolutely heaven. This was actually the first time I have eaten soft shelled crab and I am now in love with it and have ordered soft shelled crab everywhere I have eaten since Alice Springs and not one of them has gotten close to the delicate tastes and heaven inducing belly rumbles created by the first time. I did get into trouble from Annie for ordering this one as I chose it over one of their signature dishes she said I must eat. We did not eat the Hanuman oysters with vivid tastes of lemongrass & sweet basil but I will next time!
We did however eat the other dish Annie told me to eat, OK, she said to eat the Pandan Prawns but I found Pandan Chicken Parcels in fragrant pandan leaves, served with tangy caramelised sauce and fell in love with this dish. First of all, Karly and myself could not decide whether you eat the pandan leaves with chicken or without. The first few we ate without and unscrolled the wrapped chicken but then I went in and fell in love with them entirely - MENTAL NOTE: EAT WITH LEAVES!!!
On a quick side note tangent:
Pandanus amaryllifolius is a tropical plant in the screwpine genus which is known commonly as pandan and used widely in Southeast Asian cooking. It is an erect green plant with fan-shaped sprays of long, narrow, bladelike leaves and woody aerial roots. The plant is sterile, flowers only very rarely, and is propagated by cuttings.
The plant is rare in the wild but cultivated widely for use as a flavoring in cooking. The leaves are used fresh or wilted, and are commercially available in frozen form in Asian grocery stores in nations where the plant does not grow. They have a nutty, botanical fragrance which enhances the flavor of Indonesian, Filipino, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese and Burmese foods, especially rice dishes and cakes. The leaves are sometimes steeped in coconut milk, which is then added to the dish. They may be tied in a bunch and cooked with the food. They also may be woven into a basket which is used as a pot for cooking rice. Pandan chicken, or gai ob bai toey, is a Thai dish with chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and fried. The leaves are also used as a flavoring for desserts such as pandan cake and sweet beverages.
In Indonesian it is called pandan wangi, soon-mhway in Burmese, and in Vietnamese it is called la dua. The leaves of the plant have a repellent effect on cockroaches.
We also had for our entree chicken satay marinated with candlenuts, ground coriander and cumin seeds, this was quite nice but I eat so many chicken satays as a snack that it will forever be hard for any of them to standout. The vegetarian spring rolls of shitake mushrooms, glass noodles, taro yam, and chinese five-spice were very nice and I have to say that these definately stood out as a spring roll entree.
Our biggest mistake of the meal was ordering rice to accompany the entree and not to wait until the main. By the time the main arrived the rice had swollen with our entrees and bottles of wine that we were pretty much full of food before sticking into the divine mains.
I knew immediately what I would be ordering for our main meal. I am addicted to pork belly and if I see a good one somewhere then this is what I will order and the one on Hanuman's did not disappoint. It was slow cooked with star anise and cinnamon teow chiu style and was a dish from the gods themselves. Gary could not decide what to order and I said I would have ordered the Roasted Red Duck curry in a spiced braise of coconut, sweet basil and kaffir lime if I had not seen the pork so he ordered that questioning the waitress if it was hot and spicey, the answer was a no so it was settled. And Karly went one of the the veggo options of eggplant pacchadi cooked in a sauce of onion tomato, spices and finished with tamarind.
We all shared the mains and fortunately for me the Red Duck Curry was too spicey for Gary anyway so I got to eat some of the divine dish but unfortunately for me the pork belly was the table favourite so I had to share it around and this was the only one completely devoured. The other two were doggy bagged for taking home.
The desserts looked just as sensational as the other dishes but I was at the stage where I was having difficulties in getting out of my chair so we had to skip them until next time.
The costs are not too bad with $35- being the most expensive main meal. If you do make it to Alice Springs then this is a MUST VISIT RESTAURANT!!!!!!
They are located within the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 82 Barrett Drive, Alice Springs and it should be noted they also have a restaurant in Darwin and Cairns.
On the one night I decided to take myself out I discovered that Hanuman's was way too far for me to walk from the centre of Alice Springs so stayed local (RED SEA RESTAURANT) and had kind of given up on making it to Hanuman's. But my fate was in the hands of Hanuman himself as the VERY nexy night the people I was in Alice working for picked me up and took me to dinner. Half way there I asked them where they were taking me "To Hanuman's, the best restaurant in Alice" - I actually did give a squeal of delight
Hanuman, the mighty ape that aided Lord Rama in his expedition against evil forces, is one of the most popular idols in the Hindu pantheon. Believed to be an avatar of Lord Shiva, Hanuman is worshiped as a symbol of physical strength, perseverance and devotion.
The Asian mood is created through the clever use of decor, artifacts and lighting - a stunning contrast to the surrounding Central Australian desert landscape.
The atmosphere is out of this world with large golden statues that you can offer money to the gods at and it is dark and warm with beautiful decore. It helped us immensely to have a table of people next to us with African ladies all dressed in national bright colored clothes, they were stunning. This placed is constantly packed - and bookings are essential!
Then there is the food - OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We started with soft shell crab fried crisp and served with a tamarind sauce, absolutely heaven. This was actually the first time I have eaten soft shelled crab and I am now in love with it and have ordered soft shelled crab everywhere I have eaten since Alice Springs and not one of them has gotten close to the delicate tastes and heaven inducing belly rumbles created by the first time. I did get into trouble from Annie for ordering this one as I chose it over one of their signature dishes she said I must eat. We did not eat the Hanuman oysters with vivid tastes of lemongrass & sweet basil but I will next time!
We did however eat the other dish Annie told me to eat, OK, she said to eat the Pandan Prawns but I found Pandan Chicken Parcels in fragrant pandan leaves, served with tangy caramelised sauce and fell in love with this dish. First of all, Karly and myself could not decide whether you eat the pandan leaves with chicken or without. The first few we ate without and unscrolled the wrapped chicken but then I went in and fell in love with them entirely - MENTAL NOTE: EAT WITH LEAVES!!!
On a quick side note tangent:
Pandanus amaryllifolius is a tropical plant in the screwpine genus which is known commonly as pandan and used widely in Southeast Asian cooking. It is an erect green plant with fan-shaped sprays of long, narrow, bladelike leaves and woody aerial roots. The plant is sterile, flowers only very rarely, and is propagated by cuttings.
The plant is rare in the wild but cultivated widely for use as a flavoring in cooking. The leaves are used fresh or wilted, and are commercially available in frozen form in Asian grocery stores in nations where the plant does not grow. They have a nutty, botanical fragrance which enhances the flavor of Indonesian, Filipino, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese and Burmese foods, especially rice dishes and cakes. The leaves are sometimes steeped in coconut milk, which is then added to the dish. They may be tied in a bunch and cooked with the food. They also may be woven into a basket which is used as a pot for cooking rice. Pandan chicken, or gai ob bai toey, is a Thai dish with chicken wrapped in pandan leaves and fried. The leaves are also used as a flavoring for desserts such as pandan cake and sweet beverages.
In Indonesian it is called pandan wangi, soon-mhway in Burmese, and in Vietnamese it is called la dua. The leaves of the plant have a repellent effect on cockroaches.
We also had for our entree chicken satay marinated with candlenuts, ground coriander and cumin seeds, this was quite nice but I eat so many chicken satays as a snack that it will forever be hard for any of them to standout. The vegetarian spring rolls of shitake mushrooms, glass noodles, taro yam, and chinese five-spice were very nice and I have to say that these definately stood out as a spring roll entree.
Our biggest mistake of the meal was ordering rice to accompany the entree and not to wait until the main. By the time the main arrived the rice had swollen with our entrees and bottles of wine that we were pretty much full of food before sticking into the divine mains.
I knew immediately what I would be ordering for our main meal. I am addicted to pork belly and if I see a good one somewhere then this is what I will order and the one on Hanuman's did not disappoint. It was slow cooked with star anise and cinnamon teow chiu style and was a dish from the gods themselves
. Gary could not decide what to order and I said I would have ordered the Roasted Red Duck curry in a spiced braise of coconut, sweet basil and kaffir lime if I had not seen the pork so he ordered that questioning the waitress if it was hot and spicey, the answer was a no so it was settled. And Karly went one of the the veggo options of eggplant pacchadi cooked in a sauce of onion tomato, spices and finished with tamarind.We all shared the mains and fortunately for me the Red Duck Curry was too spicey for Gary anyway so I got to eat some of the divine dish but unfortunately for me the pork belly was the table favourite so I had to share it around and this was the only one completely devoured. The other two were doggy bagged for taking home.
The desserts looked just as sensational as the other dishes but I was at the stage where I was having difficulties in getting out of my chair so we had to skip them until next time.
The costs are not too bad with $35- being the most expensive main meal. If you do make it to Alice Springs then this is a MUST VISIT RESTAURANT!!!!!!
They are located within the Crowne Plaza Hotel at 82 Barrett Drive, Alice Springs and it should be noted they also have a restaurant in Darwin and Cairns.
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Comment by K @ the Lair
Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
I am keen to cook some duck so there maybe a red duck curry with lychees on the horizon.
Thanks for the comment.