All great things must come to an end. Michael Jordan’s Basketball Career, The Beatles and Patrick Duffy’s hilarious 90’s sitcom “Step by Step” (some would say a modern “Brady Bunch”. Good Mates Eating, in what was a great new innovation brought about by Shane McCurry with all the best intentions, had gone through a troubled patch. Lack of commitment by key members had also brought GME to the brink of extinction like those once infallible masters of their domain mentioned earlier. That was until it was turned around by none other than Gurkhas Nepalese Restaurant and the combined celebration of one Matthew Carroll, otherwise known to himself as “The Oracle”.
Gurkhas Nepalese restaurants hail from humble beginnings in 1995, five years after Shane McCurry’s part went out of fashion for the third time.
It had two purposes and that was to not only serve the finest/only Nepalese cuisine in Australia, but also house a host of illegal immigrants who were able to negotiate deals via the black market of nepal in exchange for free Onion Bahji’s. Nepal is the birthplace for the Lord Buddha and Lumbini a pilgrimage for many devout Buddha worshippers.
Gurkhas on the other hand has been the birthplace of many unsuccessful relationship attempts for myself and a number of close shaves with psychopathic women. A perfect date venue Gurkhas has the perfect combination of fine food (a number of tasty vegetarian dishes for those who may have a few screws loose and don’t like munching on a steak), travel photography (to help display my own travel stories and integrate my charismatic personality into conversation) and cheap prices (to identify gold diggers and at times escape from potential disaster, still with change from a fifty).
Fortunately for Melbournians the founders of Gurkhas has fused traditional (see below)Nepalese to suit the Western Palate along with housing the family that owns the establishment.. Gurkhas really knew how to draw a crowd and save a flagging champion in Good Mates Eating.
With debutants joining the crew we had lots to celebrate. Jason McCurry, the favourite son of the McCurry clan due to his predictability and consistency over older brother Shane was a welcome addition. Along with Jason was tightarse Shaun Monohan who was able to produce 3 separate discount dockets giving him access to a free bottle of wine, 20% off his meal and a free onion bahji on redemption. Matty was in good spirits for the night as he had celebrated his 32nd birthday just days before.
The mood was light as we waited on the arrivals of Shane and Fishy who were struggling to find a park, however CCTV footage was able to fill us in on their parking troubles (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsR1aFF-r3c) . As usual the late exclusions in Height, McGlone and Campbell had their commitment questioned, however for some reason I think the scrabble bat may have had a decent excuse. Scoot sent his apologies as he claimed to still be writing the blog from 2 Sessions ago. This promises to be the most awaited release of any material since Guns n’ Roses flop “Chinese Democracy”.
The debutants introduced themselves and according to Tommy Jase is quite the handful in bed. We got off to a great start with some mixed MoMo’s and some BBQ chicken for entrée. As the mains came out we were treated to Chicken Marsala, Kuhra Ma Krim (Cream Chicken), Chilli Beef and some Calamari. The waiter took a particular shine to Shane’s part and here you see the exchange of numbers that took place at the end of the night.
All in all I give Gurkhas a 9.5 out of ten with a 0.5 deduction for Nepals crown Prince Dipendra lost his s@# and gunned down his entire family back in 2001 in a drug fuelled game of paintball that went horribly wrong. The heir to the throne. apparently threw his toys when his mum wouldn’t let him marry the bride he loved. After viewing his bride to be I think his mum was doing him a favour. He should have just come to Melbourne, flashed his coin and chased skirt around the tennis over summer… A lesson to us all.
goodmateseating 