Daily Archives: March 29, 2012

Slavonija Continental Butchers

2 Comments

 

Slavonija Continental Butchers, 75 Main Rd West, St Albans. Phone: 9366 2336.

The lovely staff at Slavonija Continental Butchers tell me the business has been in operation at these premises for about 30 years.

They answer my pesky questions as a succession of regular customers come and go.

They stock a nice but restricted line groceries such as pickled vegetables and so on.

But the main action here without a doubt surrounds the smoked meats and sausages.

Everything bar the salami is made in-house, I am informed.

There’s several different kinds of Polish sausage, the difference between them being something I only dimly grasp.

I buy a long length of low-fat Polish sausage at $20 a kilogram. If it tastes as good as it looks, it may become our default position for pastas, salads and bean soups and stews in which we use chorizo.

I buy, too, a half dozen frankfurts at $11 a kilogram.

This is about twice what we pay for unsmoked beef numbers at Al Amena at the Circle in Altona but still way short of what Andrews in Yarraville charges for their franks.

These are fat and pale pink, as opposed to the long, skinny and red that is more familiar. They are smoked, though.

Most of them go in the freezer, but I have two for dinner – just with bread roll, dijon mustard and pickled cucumber slices.

They’re damn fine, juicy and with a only a mild smokiness.

And yes – joy of joys – they go “pop”.

At that sort of acceptable price, these, too, could become regulars in our household.

I’m looking forward to exploring the Slavonija range at greater depth, especially with a view to tarting up our work/school lunches.

Pho Kim Long

Leave a comment

Pho Kim Long, 60 Alfrieda St, St Albans. Phone: 9364 4960

That the street frontage of Pho Kim Long is set a metre or so back from those of its neighbours and pretty much the whole of one side of Alfrieda St seems fitting.

This is an unfussy, utilitarian eating place, one unlikely – I suspect – to get much trade from visitors from elsewhere who are liable to gravitate towards some of the shinier establishments.

This is where locals eat – and there’s a lot of them.

As I saunter in, only two other tables are taken – one by a group of slurping senior citizens, a very comforting sight indeed.

By the time I’m done, the place is packed, with all heads over bowls.

Everything about the place – the tiles, the Buddhist shrine, the furniture, the menu, the tabletop accoutrements, the smell – is familiar and reassuring.

Pho Kim Long does pho every which way, but in only one size – and that appear to Large for $9.

That is what most of my fellow customers are tucking into.

I take another tack, ordering the vermicelli with pork and spring rolls ($9).

At first this looks a little on the drab side, but it’s fine.

The pork is on the oily side, quite thinly sliced, almost has a curry kind of tang to it and goes down a treat.

The spring rolls are ungreasy, crisp, hot and really good.

All the other ingredients are present and accounted for – crunchy peanuts, pickled vegetables, herbs and leaves including mint and some cabbage.

It’s good, even if not of the same stellar level of the vermicelli dishes at Pho Hien Saigon.

This is a nice lunch in a really soulful restaurant.

Pho Kim Long on Urbanspoon

Big Sam’s St Albans Market

Leave a comment

Big Sam’s St Albans Market, 3 St Albans Rd, St Albans. Phone: 9366 2237

Despite becoming quite familiar with the many wonders of the shopping and fun precinct that surround Alfrieda St in St Albans, Big Sam’s has until now escaped our attention.

For one thing, it’s often been closed when we’re in the neighbourhood.

For another, I heard – somewhere, somehow – that it’s nothing special.

A single, quick glance about as I enter amply demonstrates that latter point is untrue.

Instead of being just a single business, this appears to be many under the same roof and inhabiting quite a large space.

I don’t see any ordinary supermarket items such as loo paper or detergent, but between them the many stalls appear to have just about all the other bases covered. Certainly this is much more than a fruit and vegetable place.

There’s even a florist!

In that way, it’s a sort of multi-purpose market along the same lines as Sunshine Fresh Food Market – only a lot more meatier and a lot less halal.

There’s only a single seafood stall but a handful of butchers, each with a slightly different emphasis.

The prices are pretty keen.

I see several lots of tomatoes under the $2 mark. These are all very ripe – which is how I always buy them. Some are spoilt – but I have no problem at all finding some good still-firm ones to take home.

These bargain basement red capsicums are blemished – each one has what looks like some sort of frost burn the size of a 20 cent piece. But that aside, they are firm and fabulous. If the freezer at home didn’t have plenty of roasted and peeled ready to go, I’d be on them in a flash.

The market cafe has an Elvis thing going on … note the bongos.

I can see this place getting some handy usage from us when lunch adventures take us to St Albans.

It’s our kind of place with a really nice vibe.