Basque Mashed Potato It's almost a meal in itself - a creamy mashed potato heaped with vegetables lightly cooked in white wine. I particularly like the mix of savoury pops of olive, crunchy onion and fresh tomato. This recipe is adapted from Buber's Basque website, which uses orange peel for flavouring. 4 large potatoes 3/4 cup milk (approximate) Salt and pepper, to taste 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil 1 Spanish onion, cut into thin slices 1 green capsicum seeded and cut into thin strips 1 large clove garlic, pressed 2 small tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch wedges 1/2 cup small chili-stuffed olives 1 teaspoon dried basil 3/4 cup dry white wine Half cup chopped parsley Boil the potatoes until tender and mash, beating in the milk till creamy. Season with salt and pepper and set aside to keep warm. Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion, capsicum and garlic for about 5 minutes. Toss in the tomatoes, olives and dried basil. Add the white wine and simmer another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onions and capsicum are tender. Season. Heap the cooked vegetables over the potatoes and strew with parsley.
Makes a perfect accompaniment to a winter dinner of Castilian roast lamb. The guys cooked this one for a couple of hours on the egg, with a simple salt and pepper seasoning.  Three's A Crowd
Let's praise friends who get things done. They make the bookings for the hotels, they remind everyone what time we were having drinks and harass everyone to pay their share of the bill. So thanks Al, for rounding us up and booking us in for no less than three Chinese restaurants in a month.
1. Spicy Ginger Cafe, 25 Childers St, Civic It's Szechuan and it works. Dip into a hotpot of pork filled with chilli flakes (two of us inhaled the fiery flakes and nearly choked to death). Try not to squabble over a nest of super-thin french fries seasoned with onion and spices. They're the savoury, deep-fried equivalent of spun sugar. A huge plate of thousand year eggs encased in aubergine is stodgy and less successful. Forget about desserts, which are mostly Western-influenced or old standards such as fried ice cream. It's student cheap - $99 for four of us. 2. The Scholar, 23 Woolley St, Dickson There's a slightly more upmarket feel to this restaurant, which sits upstairs from the Dickson strip. A tank of live seafood and abalone at the front of the restaurant looks promising and the menu is diverse. Roast pigeon is a little dry but comes well seasoned and complete with pigeon head. Al, who loves pigeon, eats the (admittedly rather tiny) brain. TK is enamored of a beef brisket hot pot and a plate of tofu layered with seafood is picked off by the boys, despite the meatier dishes on offer. Desserts include a complimentary and lightly flavoured wolfberry jelly but the fried ice creams are redolent with grease and soon regretted. The bill for four of us is $120. 3. Shanghai Dumpling Cafe, 35 Childers St, Civic This dumpling cafe sits on the same strip as its rival, the Spicy Ginger Cafe. But there isn't much to compare. For us, the food was a little forgettable. "What did we eat?" I asked TK a couple of days afterwards. There was an ominous silence. Eventually he did offer that the main dishes come complete with generous servings of rice, perhaps too much. The dumplings are a little thick but very reasonably priced. Desserts are possibly the best of the lot, with fried red bean cake and rice balls in sweet soup on offer. They're not terrific but it's a change from that damn fried ice cream. Another $99 for four people. Jimmy's Place, Dickson image by ulterior epicure via Flickr Canberra's not known for its busy late night dining scene, a fact that's pained anyone's who's ever stumbled home from post-work drinks at 10pm and realised they haven't actually had dinner. There were four of us cruising back from a Brumbies rugby game on the weekend, our enthusiasm for a late dinner growing as quickly as the number of dispiriting "closed" signs on restaurant doors. But the lights were on at Jimmy's Place and there were even a couple of people waiting for takeaway. A hopeful inquiry was met with a flurry of menus and a table for four. Hot tea appeared and the kitchen quickly produced a succession of plates piled with roast duck, silky steamed tofu and leafy greens. It was more than enough for four hungry rugby fans who hadn't eaten since lunchtime and were still a bit high after photo ops with the players. For a late night in Canberra, it was a pretty decent meal and, for our vegetarian friends, a much happier alternative to a drive-through burger or greasy pizza from a cart outside a nightclub. The kitchen at Jimmy's Place closes at 11pm on Friday and Saturday, the latest I've seen in Canberra. It serves standard Asian dishes, from shark's fin soup to fried noodles, with plenty of greens and tofu for vegetarians. Food is decent but not outstanding and service is speedy. Other restaurants in Canberra where you can get dinner after 9pm: Parlour Wine Room 16 Kendall La, New Acton Serves tapas and desserts until 12 midnight, when the kitchen goes to a very limited, four-dish menu. But it's such a popular nightspot and bar that dashing out for a quick meal in your polar fleece isn't possible. Portia's Place 11 Kennedy St, Kingston A bit hit and miss but the much-loved Kingston hangout does open until 10pm. Portia fed us happily at 9.45pm every other night for a week last year, when we were moving house by hand. Tongue & Groove Cnr Bunda and Genge St, Civic It's crammed with party-goers on the weekend but slip past the velvet rope to the restaurant section and you can often get a table or a big chesterfield sofa. It won't be quiet and there might be laser disco lights, but pizzas and mains are served until 10pm.
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