Freshwater Creek Cakes
Posted: December 22, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to shop at | Tags: Bakeries, Cakes, cookies, Geelong, Sponge cakes 2 Comments »
650 Anglesea Rd, Freshwater Creek. Phone: 5264 5246
Despite its apparent fame – with those who live locally and those headed for some serious leisure time on the Surf Coast or Bellarine Peninsula – online information about Freshwater Creek Cakes has been hard to find.
So I am singularly unprepared for the fact that business does not have EFTPOS facilities.
The staff member who greets me tells me there’s an ATM at the gas station a few hundred metres down the road, so off I go … to find there is no such ATM and that I am left to make what I can of the single $10 note I am carrying.
No matter – it’s a pleasure to be around so much old-style goodiness.
Freshwater Creek Cakes has been operating at the same site since the mid-1980s.
It’s housed in a rather charmless building – the cool roadside signs give a much more evocative reflection of what I am expecting inside.
The No.1 hot-ticket item here are the sponge cakes.
They make about 100 a day and they come in four basic configurations – chocolate, vanilla with passionfruit icing, ginger fluff and a real old-school item called Victoria sponge with just jam and cream.
I don’t need EFTPOS or heaps of cash to know how very fine they are.
My Geelong Advertiser colleague Shaun had brought a couple to work a few nights previously and I happily slurped up a slice of the passionfruit/vanilla number.
Oh my! Deep, rich icing, feather-light sponge and the incredible, smooth and unmistakable texture of real whipped cream. None of that canned garbage here, folks!
Forget your chef’s hats and fancy awards – there is surely no greater praise than “just like mum used to make”!
The sponges cost $15.95 – a fair price given the quality of the product.
Like the cookies and cakes also on display, the prices here seem quite high – but that’s what you pay, I guess, for quality.
As far as bargains go, the day-after sponges are the go.
The bakery gets phone calls every morning inquiring if such items are on hand – not always the case.
They cost $8.
And as everyone knows, day-after sponges can often be even tastier and have, um, more structural integrity than fresh ones.
Confusingly, the cakes and loaves – which sell for about the $12-$13 – are both presented in loaf form.
What’s the difference between a loaf and a cake anyway?
The Freshwater line-up includes apricot and fruit loaf, date and nut loaf, pineapple and carrot loaf, banana cake, chocolate cake, lemon cake and orange cake.
The cookies sell for $7.95 a bag – and it’s on a bag of raspberry shortbreads that I squander the best part of my meagre $10.
They, too, taste “just like mum used to make”!
Freshwater Creek Cakes has a coffee machine but the eating-in options seem to be restricted to a couple of picnic tables to the side.
Closing Yarraville’s Ballarat St – what say you?
Posted: December 20, 2011 Filed under: Blah blah blah, Food media, Places we like to eat at, Places we like to shop at | Tags: Ballarat St, cheap eats, Melbourne, Street closure, western suburbs, Yarraville 9 Comments »I was interested to read in The Age about the plan to close Yarraville’s Ballarat St between Murray and Canterbury streets for up to three months from January.
I’m not sure about this at all! What about parking? What about Anderson St? Does it just get left to get even crazier?
Or will closing Ballarat St effectively close Anderson St to vehicular traffic as well?
The closure is on the block directly outside the Sun, but being intimately familiar with the area and its intense traffic flows, I reckon the following quote is debatable: ”The area to the north (of Anderson Street) outside the Sun Theatre is not a central traffic route.”
The closure of such a small portion of the street with unknown but potentially severe ramifications for the surrounding area seems iffy.
This just doesn’t seem very imaginative – or good value for money.
I’d be happier to consider the complete closure of Ballarat AND Anderson streets – big upsides all round and not much greater downside.
Without doing a head count, I’m pretty sure there are more Anderson St traders than there are on Ballarat St – so why choose the latter over the former?
And I can certainly understand the concerns of the non-Ballarat St trader: “I sympathise with those cafes not getting $50,000 spent on beautification on their doorstep.”
I once exchanged rather angry words with a tour bus driver who was attempting to take his Very Large Vehicle across the train tracks and along Anderson St.
“It’s none of your bloody business,” he shouted at me.
Uh, buddy, I live here – it most certainly IS my business! 
Phong Dinh
Posted: December 19, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Footscray, Melbourne, Vietnamese restaurants, western suburbs 4 Comments »
152 Hopkins St, Footscray. Phone: 9077 9098
A couple of previous incarnations at this address – one of them Korean – came and went without us taking them for a whirl.
Going by the good trade they are doing this Monday lunch time, it seems a good bet that Phong Dinh will be around a good deal longer.
It’s a lovely room, cleverly using some of the more upmarket vibe of several of its Viet neighbours yet still playing the role of affordable noodle house, a fact attested to by the menu prices.
The colour scheme is a bit darker than your standard noodle joint, though, and the effect is calming and tranquil.
As well, there’s a semi-alfresco area containing a handful of tables from which observing the street hustle and bustle is no doubt a lot of fun.
My can of soft drink is presented alongside a tumbler packed with ice cubes – always a nice touch.
You’ll find pho here, but the list is a lot broader than that – there’s a heap of interesting noodle and rice dishes.
The “hu tieu mi”, which precedes the restaurant’s name in its signage, denotes a focus on rice and egg noddles, in soup or dry with soup on the side.
Bun thang ($9) is described as Hanoi chicken soup with vermicelli.
From what I’ve been able to discover, it’s a northern dish rather than one specifically associated with Hanoi.
And while there is some chicken – poached, small pieces, some with fiddly bones – it is matched and more in terms of quantity by the traditional ingredients of slices of splendidly eggy omelette that is both yellow and white and Vietnamese pork loaf (cha).
One seemingly knowledgeable source I found says the stock should be a mix of chicken and pork, but this – as far as I can tell – is chicken only, delicious as it is.
The accompanying plate of greenery includes not only the sprout-and-herb combo that comes with pho but also lettuce and cabbage of both white and yellow varieties.
This all adds some handy crunch and colour to a dish that needs it.
It’s a beaut lunch but very mild of flavour.
I usually leave the addition of lemon juice until near the completion of most soup noddle dishes I order; here it goes in early on – along with slices of fresh red chilli – to give it all a bit of a boost.
Still, the lighter touch is a winner for situations in which more meaty options may be a matter of too much of a good thing.
Phong Dinh strikes me as a very handy addition to the range of Footscray Vietnamese eateries.
You can Ms Baklover’s review at Footscray Food Blog here.
More meals on wheels
Posted: December 18, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: Food trucks, meals on wheels, Melbourne airport, Mobile food, Mr Whippy, plane-spotting, Soft serve ice cream 2 Comments »
We are way too early for picking up Bennie’s mum from the airport.
Chronic earliness is a Weir family trait, but this is much more than a sometimes unhealthy obsession with punctuality or a matter of 10, 20 or even 30 minutes.
It’s a bungle – I got the time wrong, so we left home an hour before we had originally planned.
So after going around and around a few times in the endless dance of avoiding extortionate airport parking fees, we embrace the moment, relax and head up the highway to Sunbury a ways just for a look-see.
Just past the roundabout we come across what appears to be a new and improved parking spot for those watching the planes go by – well, it seems more organised than the last time we were hereabouts.
The wind today has contrived to have planes departing in flight paths that take them right above the parking spot.
So close you feel like you can reach up and pick them out of the sky.
Whoosh!
Of equal interest to us, though, is the magnificent soft-serve ice cream vehicle and one of its slightly smaller siblings.
Interestingly, both are flying flags of Australia and Turkey.
We leave the road test for another day, upon which we will doubtless find out exactly what constitutes “soft-serve gelati” and whether, indeed, it is any different from your standard soft-serve fare usually heralded by the chiming muzak of Greensleeves arriving in our neighbourhood.
We dig the hell out of the artwork and signage on both vans, though.
Note, for instance, the image of Pinocchio getting ready to tuck into a hot dog!
Nourishment, various
Posted: December 17, 2011 Filed under: Blah blah blah, Places we like to shop at | Tags: bentos, Hound Dog's Bop Shop, Japanese food, Victoria market 2 Comments »
Under-11 cricket, Hansen Reserve, West Footscray
Hound Dog’s Bop Shop, 313 Victoria St, West Melbourne. Phone: 9329 5362
Sushi Kissaten, Shop 26-27, F Shed, Queen Victoria Market , Melbourne. Phone: 9328 8809
As a parent, I’d love to be able to say – with a straight, sincere face – that the sacrifices and time spent fostering my son’s growth, development and happiness are nothing but a matter of sheer joy.
That, however, would be an outright lie.
It is, therefore, with some wonderment that I can say that time spent attending the Saturday morning cricket matches, supporting him and his team and watching their skills develop has very quickly become a sublime pleasure.
The start is early enough to leave room for other activities – and we have a few planned for today.
The previous week we’d been at ground adjacent Altona Beach, upon which I had a nice mid-game walk/paddle.
Today we’re at Hansen Reserve in West Footscray.
There’s shade trees and a nice breeze.
In the corner, wedged between two different industrial and/or commerce properties, I find a beaut picnic table and two attached bench seats that will surely come in handy in the forthcoming holiday break.
The park bench I choose manages to contrive shade coverage for most of the morning and the cooling breeze takes care of the rest.
Although not an ardent cricket fan, I’ve been around more than long enough to be able to effortlessly switch into the rhythm of reading but looking up just a ball is about to be bowled.
In this case, the subject of my attention is the latest tome by Stephen King.
As with cricket, I am no diehard King fan, but have read many of his books with pleasure and more.
Enough, in fact, to rate him as a master storyteller – and perhaps the greatest living American author.
A few months previously I was surprised when friend, learning of my King fandom, pronounced: “But he’s just a horror writer!”
Well, it’s been a long time since I considered King merely that.
In this case, I tumble right in, breaching the 100th page as the match progresses.
After the game, we head straight to Hound Dog’s Bop Shop in West Melbourne.
Denys Williams has been running this glorious emporium for something like 30 years, but will be closing up shop on December 24.
I think he’s had enough, although I suspect the ease of online buying has something to do with his decision, too.
That’ll leave a mighty big hole in the lives of several generations of roots music fans in Melbourne and around Australia for whom Hound Dog’s has long been a magnet stuffed with all sorts of rockabilly, country, western swing, bluegrass, doo wop, soul, pop, gospel, R&B and blues goodies and much, much more.
I remember when I first entered Hound Dog’s upon my arrival in Melbourne in the mid-1980s.
I looked around for a few minutes and then hastily departed. Spending any time at all in a place brimming with such musical riches while being flat broke was just too painful.
In subsequent years, indeed decades, Hound Dog’s became a focal point, a place of good friends made, a gazillions beers drunk and countless records – vinyl and CD – purchased and discussed.
For a while there, my life and musical interests took me elsewhere, but recent years have seen me once again become a regular.
The Hound Dog’s farewells have begun, overseen today by the continuation of a long and venerable tradition – a gig out front.
In this case, it is the mighty Dancehall Racketeers doing the business, laying down some fine western swing.
For most long-time customers and friends of Hound Dog’s it’s been a while since the joint was a social magnet, so it’s good to catch up with old friends not seen, in most cases, for many years.
It’s especially nifty to catch with my old mate Peter Bruce.
Now a retired taxi driver, Peter – from what I can tell – has become something of a man about town. Or, perhaps more accurately, a man about the country.
Moreover, I am delighted to find that he, too, has become a blogger.
I Was A Teenage Rail Fan details at glorious length his railways fandom, he being one of quite a few Hound Dog’s regulars who have always had a thing about trains.
“Trainspotters” has never been a term that fits for these folks!
It’s time for lunch, so Bennie and I head up and down Victoria St towards Victoria Market.
We are amazed at the number of eating places that are closed on a Saturday just before Christmas.
We’d love to hang for a while at Dolcetti but move on after confirming our fears that it’s sweeties only.
Thus it is rather by accident that we end up at Sushi Kissaten, which is part of a foodie laneway at the market but which has a street frontage not too far from the Spanish donut operation.
Apart from sushi rolls, the menu is pretty basic – various don dishes for $9.50 and three bento offerings – curry chicken, teriyaki chicken and beef – for $11.50.
Chicken teriyaki for him, beef for me, please.
Our bentos are identical, even if the protein components are different.
This is not like teriyaki like we have been served before elsewhere – like my beef, it’s more of stew with sweet onion strands.
In both cases, OK-to-good but nothing really notable.
The rest of our bentos are better – very good, in fact, especially for the price.
Rice with pickle; two excellent pieces of roe-crusted sushi; two hot, fresh but rather anonymous spring rolls; two deep-fried and very tasty dumplings encasing cellophane noodles and prawn; an elongated crumbed offering of what could be fish but may be, ahem, seafood stick; salad bits and pieces.
It’s good and we’re happy, especially considering our rather haphazard lunch hunt in an area all hustle and bustle with pre-Christmas activity.
As I say to Bennie: “With a bit more effort we may’ve done better – but we could also have done a whole lot worse around here!”
We wouldn’t go out of our way to get to Sushi Kissaten, but it works for us on the day.
Back at Hound Dog’s, we catch a few tunes by second band of the day, the Starliners, before saying our goodbyes and heading home.
Back in Yarraville, it’s serious chill time.
Into the old iron pot go a pound of red beans soaked overnight, hambone trimmings, celery, onion, green capsicum, garlic, sugar, vinegar, bay leaves, thyme, ground allspice and ground cloves – it’s red beans and rice New Orleans-style for dinner tonight!
Consider The Sauce Top 10, 2011
Posted: December 14, 2011 Filed under: Blah blah blah, Places we like to eat at, Places we like to shop at | Tags: cheap eats, Melbourne, western suburbs 4 Comments »Everyone loves lists!
We love lists!
Our Top 10 for 2011 should not be taken to be in any way definitive.
If we did it again next week, the results would quite likely be quite different.
Nor does it necessarily include our favourite and/or regular eating houses, or even our most memorable meals for the year.
It’s just 10 things that caught our fancy and made our tastebuds sing for one reason or another.
The most shocking about our list is that there is no overlap at all with the equivalent list drawn up by the restaurant critic of The Age. Poor thing – how did she ever miss all this Good Stuff?
What are your highlights?
In no particular order …
Barkley Johnson antipasto platter
We could get this divine offering tailormade if we so wished, but we prefer to leave it up to the staff. That way we may get marinated pumpkin, which Bennie likes but dad doesn’t, but we also get the marinated sardines (as above) – a surprise that delighted. But some things are standard – always a very good dip, three or so incredible cured meats, several different kinds of olive, marinated vegetables, a stuffed vine leaf and more. Always with just the right amount of bread. As a light/medium meal for two, it’s brilliant at $21.
La Morenita new sandwiches
We love ‘em all and the extra variety they add to one of our fave haunts – especially the the chacarero ($5) of steak, cheese, tomato, mayo, greens beans and hot green chilli.
Heather Dell coconut tart and jam slice
Mmmmm … classic and sensational old-school sweeties.
Classic Curry gol gappe
Despite our passionate liking for Indian snack food, we’d never come across these before trying them at Classic Curry in Sunshine, so have no way of knowing how good they are by comparison. But we love the fun of them and the tamarind tanginess.
Cafe Advieh baklava
We like your standard baklava, too, but this is different and better – rustic, chunky, fragrant with spices, delicious. They do excellent salads and dips, too.
Hyderabad Inn dosas
Most of all we’re grateful the dosa experience is now easily available in the west, and we’re happy to frequent any of the places that sell them and similar food. But Hyderabad Inn remains our choice for quality and diversity of combo deals and the like.
Broadmeadows Station Kebab House lamb shank soup
We have yet to make the trek to Broadmeadows so Bennie can have a crack at this ambrosia. When we do, he’ll love it in a slurping, joyous kind of way – guaranteed!
Yoyo’s Milkbar feijoa lollies
Where have these been all our lives? We love the pineapple chunks, too!
Pace Biscuits
Leo is our go-to man for divine and affordable choc-covered cookies, cookies in general and nougat.
Affordable bananas
Now they’re going for well under $2 a kilogram, the nightmare months of insane prices of well above $10 are starting to fade. Yay!
Kebab Shops In Melbourne – An Architectural Survey
Funky, fantastic Melbourne ethnic food finally gets the sort of academic scrutiny it deserves.
Africa Taste
Posted: December 13, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: African restaurants, cheap eats, Melbourne, Seddon, western suburbs 2 Comments »
124 Victoria St, Seddon. Phone: 9687 0560
It’s something of a shock to realise how long it’s been since we went African.
We’ve been pleasantly distracted – Indian, Asian, kebabs and all sorts of other stuff.
Nor have we got around to enjoying Africa taste and blogging on it, despite the fact we were regulars even before CTS lumbered into their cyber air.
So tonight’s the night.
The place has undergone some natty renovations. The kitchen has been moved further to the rear of the building. There’s a bigger counter area and more room for hungry folks, though Africa taste remains comfy rather than roomy.
Sadly, it seems the days of us waltzing up any old time we like and grabbing a table are gone.
Even on this Monday night we are lucky to grab an unbooked early table.
We presume this is to do with the booking of two separate birthday groups, but later learn this is pretty much a standard situation on any night of the week.
It seems bookings are the go here now, not that we resent any success Africa taste has earned.
We love the food, the points of difference from Footscray’s African eateries and the fact it’s closer to our home base. The relaxed charm seems to have faded away a little, but we can live with that.
Our standard order on most of many previous visits has been chicken or lamb tibes and the Africa Taste salad – a magnificent jumble of leaves, tomato, cucumber, onion and crunchy spiced pita bits.
Tonight, at dad’s insistence, we venture further afield.
We’ve been a bit wary of some menu items previously, fearing an uncomfortable level of stodginess.
We are delighted to proven so wrong by the Genfo African Fufu (Gnocchi, $10.95).
The gnocchi of toasted barley flour are plain yet delicious. Some of them have a little crunch, though there is little or none of the chilli mentioned on the menu. Instead there is a rich brown gravy and a big dab of cream.
It’s much more filling than it looks, and we are glad we went without the $5 option of extras such as chicken, lamb or fish.
Bennie, extremely fishily ambivalent as he is, is somewhat unimpressed by the inclusion of Spicy Fish Tibes ($13.50) in our order.
But even he, injera in hand, likes the viscous and spinach-infused gravy that is very garlicky and, like the gnocchi, lacking much of a spice bite despite the menu description and the clearly visible red flecks.
His dad loves the many and generous chunks of butterfish that are tender and mild of flavour.
It’s a fine meal and a bargain at $24.45.
And it’s swell knowing there are still several dishes on the menu that await exploration by us.
But we know now that future visits will require a little more premeditation than has been our impromptu habit.
Mishra’s Kitchen
Posted: December 9, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Indian food, Indian restaurants, Melbourne, western suburbs, Yarraville 12 Comments »
A more recent review can be found here.
Mishra’s Kitchen, 18 Wembley Ave, Yarraville. Phone: 9314 3336
As we approach the Wembley St shopping trip that has previously left us untroubled in an way, we have contingency plans.
After all, the basis for our dinner – to be shared by Kenny, Bennie and neighbour Rob – is based solely upon my spotting a week earlier what purports to be an Indian restaurant in what is a plain old sandwich shop by day.
Our hopes are not particularly high.
Our downbeat wariness is given a swift kick in the bottom as soon as we enter the door.
Transformation!
This is indeed an Indian restaurant – albeit a humble one that doesn’t try to hide its daytime non-Cinders gig.
More importantly, the welcome from the eager staff is wonderful.
So much so that as we are nutting out the menu and ordering, and it becomes clear that Rob has less experience with tandoori oven rituals than us, I ask if our mate can witness up close and personal the making of our naan order.
The chef – Mr Mishra himself – obliges by not only explaining the whole process to Rob and Bennie but also by giving Rob crack at making his own naan.
Marvellous!
To keep the costs down, we go without starters or snacks and soft drinks, staying with the water. In doing so, we have what I suspect is much more like your average Indian family meal than an outing replete with samosas and the like.
We do good, ordering bhoona chicken (“in medium spices and pot-roasted with ginger and tomatoes”, $11), jhinga Madras (“South Indian spicy prawns curry with mustard seeds and coconut milk”, $14) and mixed vegetables ($9), joined by plain rice ($3), plain naan ($2) and tandoori roti ($2).
Mixed vegetables and bhoona chicken.
Jhinga Madras.
What a wonderful feast we have, with a marvellous combo of varying colours, textures and spice levels.
The difference between our most recent and rather unhappy experience in taking our Indian food habit slightly upmarket and this lovely dinner in a restaurant a mere three weeks old is stark.
The vegetables come in a mild, creamy sauce (cashews, maybe?) and include mushrooms, peas, cauliflower, green beans, fried onion strands and potato.
For Rob and I, this is our pick of the night, with the individual vegetables cooked through but holding their shapes and flavours. Lots of mushies!
About four medium-size prawns for each of us come in a sharper sauce that has the advertised mustard seeds and a tantalising whiff of a spice more exotic than usual that defies my analysis – despite asking the chef the dish’s particulars. That’s how it goes in Indian eateries sometimes!
Bennie loves the chicken, but to me it is merely a good chicken curry.
Taken as whole, and with two fine breads as accessories, our meal is an outright winner.
So is the cost – a mere $41, which is both outstanding and ridiculous.
What a find this place is.
How happy the immediate neighbours – not blessed with an excess of eating out or even takeaweay options – must be.
And how emblematic of the west, in an excellent way, it is that Mishra’s Kitchen joins the likes of Cafe Centro and At 43 in making do and doing great with what is at hand, even if that means making a premises undertake different duties by day and by night.
AND we got a parking spot right outside.
I reckon that’s quite enough, thank you very much, of newspaper stories lauding the livability of Melbourne’s west and other such like preposterous notions.
Hrrrumpf!
It’s disgusting – Highpoint replies
Posted: December 8, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to eat at 14 Comments »As Caron points out below, there will be many who write this off as “typical corporate gobbledygook”, but I appreciate the reply nonetheless. Kenny to tour Highpoint next week and ask even more pesky questions! Some research of shopping malls and their history is called for!
This is a reply to my letter to Highpoint, which you can read here.
Dear Mr Weir
Thank you for taking the time to raise your concerns with respect to recycling the plastic food utensils at Highpoint Shopping Centre. One of the challenges we have with your observations is that these products are currently deemed non recyclable once they come in to contact with cooked foods. This is the same for cardboard and the polystyrene food boxes.
GPT and Transpacific, whom are our waste service provider and constantly looking at viable ways to improve our waste streams and to ensure we recycle as much as possible. GPT Highpoint currently recycles between 40-50 % of the total waste from our shopping centre via the following waste streams:
1. Cardboard
2. Polystyrene
3. Plastic bags
4. Light globes
5. Used cooking oil
6. Wooden pallets
7. Coat Hangers.
A large proportion of our development work is also underpinned with sound sustainability principles with the majority of the demolition materially being recycled. There are also very strong sustainability initiatives being installed as part of the development of Highpoint
You may or may not know that GPT are currently one of the leaders in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and has been externally recognised many times for it’s approach to sustainability. As a business we are constantly looking at new technologies as they come to market as well as investing in many initiatives to improve the communities we live in and to minimise our impact on our environment and resources.
We would be more than happy to take you through some of our other initiatives such as our eco foot print calculator used when our tenants build shops and the work we do with several key community partners which may be of interest to you. Or we are more than happy to share with you the key sustainability initiatives that are being implemented as part of our development.
Should you wish to discuss your concern in more detail or want to gain further insights in how GPT and Highpoint shopping centre are working towards our sustainability objectives, we would be only to willing to offer the time to do so. To that end, please do not hesitate to contact me directly on 0402 147 807 if I can be of any further assistance.
Yours sincerely
Scott Crellin
Centre Manager
Highpoint Shopping Centre
The GPT Group
Cross-cultural hot dogs
Posted: December 6, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to shop at | Tags: Hot dogs, Pita bread 9 Comments »
We do love hour hots dogs and frankfurters.
Most regularly we keep a bunch of beef dogs from Al Amena in the freezer.
Sometimes we splash out on the smoked – and much more expensive – versions from Andrew’s in Anderson St, Yarraville and elsewhere.
Problem is, we find when eating them in traditional style – in a roll – the balance of meat to bread is out of whack.
No matter what kind of bread roll we use, there is too much of it compared with the frankfurters, making two of them quite a big ask even when we’re really hungry.
So routinely we split the bread rolls lengthways and scoop out the soft middles, leaving hot dog receptacles that look like canoes.
Load up with franks and our choice of extras and condiments, and we’re happy.
However, our most recent hot dog frenzy took a different turn initiated by the happy presence in the fridge of a bag of fresh pita breads.
Place hot dog on half a pita bread; dress with homemade roast red capsicum, dijon mustard and dill pickle; roll up so it’s like a big fat cigar; eat.
(Roll up one end as you would with a kebab so the goodies don’t ooze out!)
Perfecto!
And with a bread/meat balance pretty much attaining our ideal.
(We had an earlier version in our hot dog dinner that had the above ingredients PLUS chopped tomato. Turns out the halved pita bread is very moisture sensitive. Turns out, too, the mustard, capsicum and dill pickle provide enough flavour lift and moisture to do the job without the doggy wrap falling apart before its eating is completed.)
We sometimes also avoid the Bread Problem entirely by having our dogs with our version of spud salad – roughly mashed or chopped skin-on potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper and a handful of chopped parsley.
I googled “cross-cultural hot dogs” and was surprised to find the results mainly concerned with curry powder and franks of various kinds, along with some interesting results obtained through introducing Japanese elements such as bonito flakes.
Funny that – I had a hunch that a universal dog may’ve had just as much cyber action as, say, the many variants on deep-fried dough or the countless genres of fried rice.
Hot dogs: What works for you?
Taco Truck
Posted: December 3, 2011 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, meals on wheels, Melbourne, Mexican food, Mobile food, Tacos 7 Comments »
Phone: 9023 0888
Taco Truck, its snaggy cousin, Le Sausage, and other such recent phenomena may have mobility on their side, but such things have been around forever, of course – Mr Whippy had wheels, too, y’know!
Besides them, there are the ubiquitous kebab trucks, pie carts of yore, icecream/soft drink vans wherever and whenever there is a public gathering, the famous and revered Footscray Station doughnut operation and many more.
Still, having missed the Taco Truck’s visit to Newport in mid-November, and knowing its visits to anywhere in our vicinity are somewhat rare, I am keen to grab the opportunity in Essendon, corner of Primrose and Albion streets to be precise.
I pull up and park a few minutes after the advertised open time of noon to find the Taco Truck crew still doing their prep chores.
Already a handful of people have gathered for their taco hit.
In the time I am having my lunch and taking photos, a lot of people have come, eaten and gone.
Whatever its flaws – there’s a bit of griping about the enterprise’s unreliability, waiting times, running out early and so on at its Facebook page – its apparent the social media/eating connection is a winner.
The Taco Truck sells three kinds of taco – chicken, potato and fish – for $6 a pop.
I do as I’m sure just about all their customers do and order the combo of two tacos and corn chips for $12. A bottle of mandarin Jarritos pushes the price of my lunch out to $16.
This is a pleasingly slick and smooth operation – or at least it is today – and my meal is ready within just a few minutes.
The corn chips are quite distinctive. They seem a little bit cakier than your usual corn chips, but are no less crunchy. Very lightly salted, they are very extremely yummy. There’s simply not enough of them.
My potato taco, with its hard shell and topped with sour cream, a semi-bitter salsa verde and crisp chopped cabbage, looks like it’ll be a nightmare to eat.
It is not.
In fact, it holds together really, really well. The shell remains crunchy throughout yet does not shatter in the time-honoured taco fashion.
The potato filling is beaut and the whole thing is ace.
The fish taco comes in a soft shell. The same bits and pieces accompany, along with some creamy mayo.
This is simply incredible!
The fish – rockling I am told – is firm, juicy and flavoursome. The batter is not crisp, yet is just right, too, holding to the fish until the last delicious mouthful.
This could be the best taco I’ve ever eaten.
But I’m still hungry.
Look, I know a feed of top-class fish and chips will cost about the same these days, but in that case you’ll almost always get a ton of chips to fill you up – as opposed to the paltry handful of corn chips I receive from the Taco Truck.
And given that customers have to make do without tables and chairs, it’s a little alarming knowing that with a decent head of appetite up I could eat TWO of the combo deals – and that would push the price of a meal out to $24 and somewhat beyond the limits of cheap eats, or at least those of fast food.
Next time, we’ll make sure we take a bottle of water, to avoid the soft-drink trap, and order the combo with an extra taco for $6.
That’d be $18 for a light meal.
Still, there’s no doubting the quality of the tacos this mob is turning out.
Hey, it ain’t nuthin’ to do with us!
Posted: December 2, 2011 Filed under: Blah blah blah, Food media Leave a comment »US food lobby spends $5.6 million to get its way
From newsreview.com:
The U.S. Congress passed a revised agriculture appropriations bill last week that allows school cafeterias to continue to consider the sauce on pizza a full serving of vegetables.
Link here.
It’s disgusting
Posted: December 1, 2011 Filed under: Blah blah blah | Tags: Bad corporate citizen, cheap eats, Disposable cutlery, Melbourne, Shopping centres, western suburbs 17 Comments »Dear Highpoint,
We don’t have much reason to visit your shopping centre, especially now that Borders is no more.
However, today I was up there to get a Medicare rebate, and to save myself another stop on the way home I had lunch in the food court.
Not bad, actually. Well, passable anyway. Noodles, beef curry, five-spice calamari for under $10.
Like the many other hundreds of hungry shoppers, I ate using plastic, disposable cutlery from a plastic, disposable plate.
The more I thought about it, the more depressed I became.
Depressed thinking about the no-doubt thousands of meals served at your two food courts every day. Seven days a week. Year after year after year.
I have no objection to your establishment being a high altar of consumerism. I can and do go there myself.
But the disposable plastic ware that comes with your food delivery is a waste of epic proportions.
Frankly, it’s disgusting.
And even if it is all legal and proper, truth is it is morally wrong.
Is there not a better way?
Can your management, parent company, whoever not think of the bigger picture and be a better community citizen?
Whatever pain, financial or otherwise, that is endured while fixing this ridiculous situation will – in the end – more than repay itself in terms of goodwill and the ability to say: “It was hard – but we did the right thing.”
Cheers, Kenny Weir, Consider The Sauce
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