Fifty-Six Threads Cafe
Posted: April 16, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: Cafe, cheap eats, Coffee, Kensington, Melbourne, western suburbs 7 Comments »
This guest post has been written for us by Consider The Sauce pal Peppy/Karen. You can read her reviews at Urbanspoon here – as you’ll see, she’s very much on the same page us! Thanks for the cool company, fine conversation and the write-up!
Fifty-Six Threads Cafe, 56 Derby St, Kensington. Phone: 9376 6885
This one is a diamond in the rough – newly opened Fifty-Six Threads Café sits at the bottom of the imposing brown public housing block on Derby St in Kensington.
The name is a combination of the street number (56), with the “Threads” representing all of the different cultures and communities entwined like thread – very fitting for the latest social enterprise by AMES in conjunction with Urban Communities, in which the “main objective is to provide employment and training opportunities for new migrants”.
How good is this? Get a good feed and help those who are new to our shores obtain hospitality skills!
After following Consider The Sauce since moving to the area 12 months ago, I finally got around to telling Kenny how much I liked what he was doing in his blog. Less than a week later we had arranged to meet to check this place out for lunch.
Both Kenny’s blog and Footscray Food Blog have been favourites of mine since moving to this side of the city and they have helped me to discover the amazing places to eat and go to on the west-side, so I am honoured to be able to contribute a review to CTS.
What is nearly as important as the food to me is the service, and this place won me over as soon as I walked in – very friendly and welcoming.
Nothing seemed like too much trouble and I think they were genuinely interested in making sure that we enjoyed our meal there. The fit-out is full of timber and cool suspended lighting – honestly, you could be at any of the fancy new cafes in the area sitting in the sun-drenched dining area.
Now on to the food!
The menu is split into two sections, All Day Breakfast and Weekly Specials.
Sadly the chick pea chips had sold out (cry) so Kenny went with the chick pea, bacon and thyme broth ($8) and I went with the Beetroot tamarind and dill spring rolls ($12).
I must admit I did have a bit of food envy when Kenny’s huge bowl of chick pea goodness arrived – it was a generous serving of bacon and vegetables cooked with garlic, carrot, onion and of course chick peas with two slabs of sourdough just waiting to be dipped in.
However, when my spring rolls arrived I think we both ordered winners.
The substantial cigar-sized spring rolls were filled with chards of rich beetroot that the chef tells me were cooked in a sauce consisting of tamarind and rosewater syrup – I will be on the lookout for a bottle of this when I’m in the Asian grocers next time.
I have a crop full of beetroot at home that I need to use and this was such an awesome way to cook it. The pastry on the spring rolls was crisp and flaky, the salad was fresh and the orange segments were a great addition.
I love a good mayo, too, and could have probably done with 10 of those little pots as it tasted so good.
I also had a latte, which was from the Social Roasting Company – couldn’t fault it. They also have a coffee loyalty card system there as well – bonus!
I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to go and check it out for breakfast and lunch the next day, so I dragged the husband out for a snack.
We shared a 56 Threads Breakfast ($15) and the pita bread pizza with chorizo ($8).
OMG you must try this pizza out – it was a cheesy, meaty, saucy plate of awesome.
The breakfast was everything it should be – well cooked and runny poached eggs. Oh and the red onion jam – far out loves it sick – all big breakfasts should come with a serve of this.
And don’t think I didn’t take home a freshly cooked almond and apple muffin, a little slice of baklava and a plum jam tartlet – all amazing.
I wish there were more homemade goodies to take home – I bet those chefs out the back have lots of awesome recipes for cakes and slices – or maybe I just came on a day where they were cleaned out of the cakes.
I honestly just love this kind of initiative that supports the neighbourhood – sometimes I feel that I don’t do enough when it comes to being an involved citizen of my new community.
I wish I had more time and money to give.
When I went to pay (by the way, they accept Visa/Mastercard) I had to double check the amount due – after the quick (bad) calculation in my head I could have sworn I needed to pay more.
The guy behind the counter tells me “it’s not all about the money”.
Amen to that!
It was lovely to meet up with you for lunch Kenny, hopefully more of us western suburbs food addicted bloggers can get together again soon!
Corio Bay Roadhouse
Posted: April 16, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Geelong, Hamburgers, Melbourne, Truck driver food, western suburbs Leave a comment »
Corio Bay Roadhouse, 383 Melbourne Rd, Corio, Geelong. Phone: 5275 120
The Corio Bay Roadhouse has the look to go with the name.
There are frequently trucks parked outside.
My waitress has a big, wide smile and tattoos on her fingers.
A month or so before my visit, the place had been burgled then torched by the same culprits, but happily this local landmark is up and running again.
Despite having driven past it twice on each working day of the past couple of years, I’ve taken my time about checking this place out.
Maybe that was to do with some of scant online information I was able to find referring to burgers stacked up like soldiers in a bain marie.
Yes, they’re here but there’s plenty of scope for fresh-cooked food, too.
Of course, this being a temple and monument to good nutrition and healthy eating, there’s a lot of frying going on.
Sarcasm aside, this place does good diner-style grub.
If I lived around here, this is where I’d come instead of hitting any of the various franchises that dot this same strip of highway.
My open burger with chip is an immense amount of food for $12.
The chips are good and the bacon really fine and crispy.
The egg is gooey and runny, but I doubt it’s free range.
Given the food genre, I’d happily do without the vegetable quotient and pay even less.
The burger itself is just OK – along the same lines as those served up by the Embassy Taxi Cafe.
If you want to go without unmeaty trimmings, then the $15 mixed grill could be for you.
Even the magazine rack keeps the ambiance going.
I figure it’s probably a good thing this place is not open when I’m driving past on my way home after a night shift.
Cafe Advieh
Posted: April 8, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Mediterranean food, Melbourne, Middle Eastern food, western suburbs, Yarraville Leave a comment »
Cafe Advieh, 71B Gamon St, Seddon. Phone: 0432 241 276
More often than not, Bennie gets over-ridden when it comes to choosing where we go to eat.
He’s a bit of a homebody at heart, so his dad’s wandering eye often has his eyes rolling.
He tolerates with good humour my restless adventuring.
But, really, instead of the long haul to Coburg or Deer Park – or even Sunshine or Moonee Ponds – he’d generally stay at home or within walking distance.
Today he gets his way – and we have a spectacularly fine lunch as a result.
We’d taken Cafe Advieh for a review outing early in its life, and have been back periodically – mostly ordering what we had the first time, the mixed grill plate.
Today we take a different tack.
Bennie’s small dips platter ($10.50) looks rather modest in size but does the job.
He likes the two stuffed vine leaves, preferring them unheated as they as they hold their form better.
He likes all the dips, but rates the eggplant number the highest.
I try it – and as on previous visits am knocked out.
This coarsely textured take on a classic is simply wonderful, with a robust smokiness.
The serving of toasted Turkish bread is in correct proportion to the amount of dipping fodder, and that’s even with dad filching some to have with his meal. He lets me eat most of the kalamata olives, too!
This puts to shame the lacklustre dips platters served at so many cafes.
My zucchini plate ($14.50) has more of the same very good hummus and yogurt, cucumber and dill.
The latter goes well with my zucchini fritter.
This, too, is unheated and all the better for it. It’s quite wide but rather thin, nicely salty, and its unheated stature gives it a nice leathery chewiness. Leathery in a totally good way!
My two salad choices are amazingly, lip-smackingly fine.
The coleslaw is not so much slaw in the common mayo meaning of the word but more a regularly dressed salad. Its mix of two types of cabbage, onion and carrot is homely, crunchy, heavy with lemon and utterly moreish.
So often I’ve been served – often, surprisingly, in kebab places that should know better and care more – tabbouleh that is an unappetising jumble of dry, undressed parsley and bulgar.
As far as I’m concerned – and based somewhat on repeated makings of the version found in Claudia Roden’s Arabesque – it should be damp almost to the point of dripping wet.
As it is here, with even more of a lemon accent than the coleslaw.
On the evidence of this lunch and others, Cafe Advieh has mastered the terrific trick turning out food that is refined but also has more than a few rough edges.
That is likewise reflected in a slice of tremendous house baklava ($4) with which I reward Bennie for making such a great lunch call. As on previous visits, it’s luscious and heavily scented with individually identifiable spices.
As a friend sitting at an adjacent table – Hi, Peter! – remarks, this is Middle Eastern food that seems less like restaurant fare and more like home cooking.
Yummy India
Posted: April 7, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: Deer Park, Indian food, Indian restaurants, Indo-Chinese food, Melbourne, western suburbs 4 Comments »
Yummy India, 21 Westwood Drive, Deer Park. Phone: 8337 0760
Yummy India in Deer Park has long been on our radar and finally the day has arrived.
We just didn’t think that in a million years the day would arrive on a Good Friday.
We’d already made Good Friday plans that involved the eating of Lebanese food in Coburg, but then the Yummy India folk posted on their Facebook page the day before that, yes, they’d be open over Easter – including for Good Friday lunch.
Really?
A pre-drive phone call ascertains that all is good and as advertised, so off we go.
The allure of Yummy India has for us is certainly to do with the pursuit of a good feed.
But it must be confessed the appeal is also undoubtedly to do with the restaurant’s location – on a Deer Park industrial estate and surrounded by fencing and swimming pool companies.
Of course, on this Good Friday there’s not a lot of traffic or any other kind of business going.
Like us, our mate Tony is transfixed and delighted by the sheer perversity, magicality and uniqueness of such a setting for such a restaurant.
Unsurprisingly, we are the only Good Friday lunch customers, although the service we receive is of the highest order and very friendly.
Our genial waiter tells they expect some takeaway orders and more trade by dinner time.
He certainly does the right thing by us right from the start be preventing us from over-ordering in a spectacular fashion.
The sort of rich and hearty food available here is quite a ways removed from the dosas, snack food and cut-rate thalis that are our normal Indian fare.
Nevertheless we’re out with a good friend and prepared to spend some money in order to get a fulsome, well-rounded lunch.
Three entrees, three mains and all the bits and pieces?
No, no, we are told – that’s too much.
And so it proves to be.
When asked about spice levels, I say – over Bennie’s protests – that medium will be fine.
Our entrees – which are at the upper end of our spice capacities – prove Bennie correct, and luckily we are in time to have the rest of our meal adjusted towards the mild end of the spectrum.
We are still learning our way with Indo-Chinese food, but that learning is involving increasing levels of enjoyment.
Apart from spice levels a tad too high for us, chilli and garlic mushrooms ($11.95) and chicken 65 ($12.95) have the high levels of oil we are coming to expect from this kind of food.
Moreover, despite the different names the flavours of both seem very similar, and the chook and mushie protagonists chewy where elsewhere I’ve enjoyed a more explosive crispness.
Not to be too picky, though – we enjoy both.
These are, of course, rather pricey for what are listed as entrees, but the serves are very big.
That trend continues with our main course curries and even the super large serve of raita ($3.50).
Indeed, I’m pretty sure the metal pots in which our curries arrive are bigger than those used in many other Indian restaurants of this type.
Nawabi chicken ($13.95) is, I’m told, based on a cashew nut gravy with your standard Indian spices and some tomato paste.
There’s some whole cashews, too, and what seems to be largish chunks of chicken breast are tender.
It’s good, rich chicken curry.
The lamb lajawab ($12.95) is our meal’s highlight.
It, too, is based on a cashew nut gravy.
But this one is heavily laced with honey, giving it an aromatic flavour that is unlike that of any curry any of us have previously tried.
It’s delicious!
The lamb pieces are on the small side, and there’s not that many of them, but the meat is tender and lovely.
Apart from the advertised nuts and spices, I suspect both our curries also likely have a cream quotient on board, but if we were going to get squeamish about such things we would never have come.
Our garlic naan ($3.50) is oddly unbuttered and even quite crispy but still fine.
The aloo paratha ($3.50) has an obvious and oily sheen, but is quite good, too.
Despite a few mis-steps, Yummy India has restored our faith in the value of more formal, “special occasion”, expensive and rich Indian food.
The prices seem very typical, but the serves are large. Our lunch fare ends up costing us about $22 each, which is very good value indeed.
Where else would you get such a fine Indian meal on a Good Friday lunch-time?
And certainly, parking is never going to be a problem here, no matter the time or day.
(For those seeking lighter food, Yummy India also does idli, vada and dosas.)
Hoyts, Highpoint
Posted: April 3, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: Cinema food, Highpoint, Hoyts, Melbourne, western suburbs 2 Comments »
Hoyts, Highpoint.
The Highpoint Hoyts movie that was involved has long been forgotten.
But the consequences of asking for the smallest possible soda pop drink and smallest possible container of popcorn at the concession stand have been in force for quite a few years now.
So exorbitant was the price quoted, so great the shock, that I have maintained the momentum ever since of NEVER, EVER paying for in-house moving crap.
But today I relent – only to find my own personal willpower has all the rigidity of a wet noodle.
As with our family and friends gathering at Grill’d a year before, this is a Bennie birthday celebration, although in this case somewhat belatedly.
For company, we have our mate Rakha, who was enlisted for Consider The Sauce duty in our appraisal of Yummie Hong Kong Dim Sum.
While I know it’d be easier and maybe cheaper to merely wander around the corner to the Sun Theatre in Yarraville, that simply doesn’t have the same frission or buzz for a boys’ day out.
So Highpoint it is.
And it’s Grandma’s shout!
We have preserved money allocated by her and her loving ways specifically for this purpose.
So Highpoint and over-priced movie munchies it is.
As part of some sort of mid-week daylight hours deal, all our tickets cost a reasonable $11 each.
Without being too heavyhanded, I convince the boys that the “medium 2-drink combo” at $18.80 is the deal for them.
I still consider it a ripoff, but in truth and given the outing’s context, this deal doesn’t seem too bad at all.
I utter stern words about confiscating their drinks for a while in case they get carried away with salt-inspired slurping that may require even more soft drink expenditure before the popcorn is anywhere near finished.
After we are seated, I lose it completely.
I have a mouthful of popcorn.
And another.
Before I know it, popcorn lust has completely consumed me.
And I am taking hefty slips of Bennie’s Coca Cola stuff along the way, between popcorn sorties that are tantamount to elbowing my movie mates out of the way.
It is Bennie, not I, who – while the trailers are still running – proclaims: “No more popcorn until the movie starts!”
After a few minutes, I hear Rakha mutter something along the lines of: “Hey how about some more popcorn?”
I almost whimper in full-blooded sympathy.
MORE. POPCORN. NOW.
The popcorn and soft drinks last some way into the movie proper.
I am shocked, however, by the really high amount of unpopped corn that becomes part of our scarfing as the bucket goes lower than a quarter full.
These are hard little grenades just waiting to detonate into oblivion Very Expensive Dental Work.
I go slower and more carefully.
Eventually, even the boys give it up.
As for the movie, I have done my research and the portents all look good.
John Carter has been cheerfully slagged by such august figures of the film critic world as David Stratton and widely reported as being the biggest, most expensive movie flop of all time!
Awesome!
Moreover, it is based on a story by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
I have been gently trying to entice Bennie from his otherwise admirable fondness for vintage period Marvel and DC comics into the sometimes noirish otherwordly realms of his dad’s fantasy and scifi interests.
I even bought a cheapo paperback version of the The Land That Time Forgot trilogy to see if he’d rise to the bait, so this flick’ll do us fine!
I am entirely correct – this is a beaut popcorn-style movie.
While we all find it hard to follow at times, we all groove on its whacko, campy mix of scifi, (wild) western, fantasy, sword and scorcery epics, Star Wars and more.
The computerised landscapes and their stark beauty evoke, for me, not just Burroughs but also the writing of the likes of Leigh Brackett and Robert E. Howard.
Cracking!
On the way out, I ponder once more the potentially calamitous threat posed by all that unpopped corn.
What if … one of them did its worst, with the result my dentist was heard to say: “Sorry, Kenny, that’s root canal for you – and another $15000!”
Kaching!
What if … that happened?
What would Hoyts have to say about it?
Does the company even have a policy regarding unpopped corn and dentistry?
The Highpoint in-house Hoyts junior management representative, Jessica, fields my queries with grace and humour – but confesses such issues are well out of her area.
She gives me the number of a Melbourne-based Hoyts media staffer, from whom I am awaiting a return call as we go to press.
Seddon Wine Store
Posted: April 2, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at, Places we like to shop at | Tags: Antipasto, cheap eats, Melbourne, Seddon, western suburbs, Wine bar, wine stores 3 Comments »
Seddon Wine Store, 2/101 Victoria St, Seddon. Phone: 9687 4817
There’s competition facing Seddon Wine Store within spitting distance – one a big wine and beer and spirits emporium right across the road, the other a smaller bottle store more like your local pub, just up the way in Charles St.
Nevertheless, it’s made a handy go of it by specialising for the wine set.
Which is probably why we’ve never tried the place out – Bennie is as much a wine buff as his dad is.
Besides, we’d long ascertained that what food there was on hand was of a lightweight variety.
But today that seems just right, as my lunch companion, Lady Rice, is no more hungry than I am but we’re both up for some vino and engaging conversation.
The Seddon Wine Store food list – see below – was actually introduced some time after the store opened.
It reads like something between tapas and antipasto.
As neither of us are ravenous, we go for the grazing plate ($18).
The olives are the hit – few in number, big in flavour.
The terrine, too, is good, especially wrapped the fine bread and a dab of mildish but tasty mustard.
The pancetta (or maybe it’s prosciuitto?) seems rather flavourless to me, as do the marinated mushrooms, which look like enoki, but are darker and bigger.
The hard Italian cheese – that’s as good an explanation as I afterwards get – is good with the little dab of quince paste.
All this is OK, but the conversation is better.
We talk about the Lady’s new blog, my slightly older one and our respective journeys.
The contrast, in a Melbourne context, could hardly be greater, but oddly enough we’ve ended up in spaces and places that are recognisably of the same planet and city.
Our light and snacky lunch suits us fine.
But while it may be unfair, it hardly bares comparison with the fresher, zingier, superb, significantly larger and only slightly more expensive antipasto spreads the Consider The Sauce boys regularly enjoy at Barkley Johnson.
And while there may be ways of chowing down with more specific items on the food list here, I suspect treating the place as a tapas bar could get rather pricey.
It’s prudent, I surmise, to think of it as a place that does some eats for drinkers rather than as a place that does drinks for eaters.
Pho Kim Long
Posted: March 29, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Melbourne, St Albans, Vietnamese restaurants, western suburbs 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.
Lara Food & Wine Festival 2012
Posted: March 26, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at, Places we like to shop at | Tags: Festivals, Lara 5 Comments »
Lara Food & Wine Festival, Pirra Homestead, Sunday March 25, 2012
As a Lara Food & Wine Festival newbie, the first thing that strikes me as I pull into the dusty paddocks that are serving as carparks just a tick after noon is the sheer number of cars already in place.
Obviously, this is a much bigger and sexier operation than I had perhaps envisaged.
Inside the grounds of Pirra Homestead, I find the festival is set up with stalls swinging in a big semi-circle away from the lovely buildings and back, with more stalls in the middle.
On the homestead veranda, local musos do their thing at a suitable volume.
Somehow the endless parade of cover versions of such ditties as Sweet Home Alabama and the like seems just right.
The place is crowded in a companionable way and a long way short of discomfort.
The only queues of any magnitude are for prawns, calamari and Twistto Potatoes (“Korean spiral potato on skewers, with a choice of dipping flavours”).
At the other end of the festival set-up, a big crowd looks on as Matt Preston presides over the Ultimate Chef Challenge – basically cooking displays featuring locals chefs such as Leonie Mills from Jack & Jill Restaurant.
Despite the fact that MasterChef and the like make me grind my teeth, Preston impresses as charmer and it’s quite a lot of fun hearing him and the various chefs do their thing and tell their stories in the process.
I wish he was still doing the Unexplored Territory column in The Age.
I’d been warned by Kristine – long-time Consider The Sauce friend, American-born Melbourne resident, foodie and all-round good gal – to keep my expectations in check regarding the festival’s barbecue stall.
Nevertheless, I pretty much make a beeline for Smokin’ Barry’s Barbeque.
I expect to be able to spend some serious money on a plate of ribs and sides … or something similar.
So I am disappointed to discover they only have available beef and pork rolls and something called BBQ nachos, all for $10.
Verdict: Kristine is 100 per cent correct.
Bummer!
My pork roll is so bland it’s fast approaching tasteless.
I don’t know which is more surreal – that I paid $10 for this or that this outfit uses terms such as taste, flavour and succulent on its website.
I do oh-so-much better with a rabbit pie from the folks at Western Plains.
This is very yummy indeed and well worth the $7.50 I pay for it.
There’s quite a high bunny quotient, aided and abetted by chunks of sweet, tender, beaut carrot.
I stop and talk with Vanessa and Jonathan, who are manning the Cobram Estate olive oil stand.
I tell them that in our household their products have become the default setting when it comes to olive oil – fine products well-priced and widely available.
And if that’s the case for us, it must be so for many others, too.
How have they achieved such notable depth and breadth of market penetration?
A lot of hard work over a sustained period of time right throughout the company and with various assisting agencies, they tell me.
Along with substantial investment levels.
And the rapid growth of consumer awareness regarding the dubious nature of many imported oils has helped, too!
No such festival as this would be complete without at least one outfit doing the vego thing in the long and venerable traditions of the Hare Krishnas sustaining happy punters the world over.
Here that happy chore feels to adherents of Supreme Master Ching Hai.
They’re doing good business, too, with what appears to be simple noodles and the like, but as I’m full of rabbit and dodgy BBQ, I make do with a simple piece of tempura seaweed.
Oily but good!
I am given a show bag by a nice fella. It’s full of literature about the groups and its aims.
On the outside, the bag is printed with slogans promoting vegetarianism – “change your life” and the like – and a chook that proudly boasts that “we pray for you”.
Under “Be a vegetarian like them” are name-dropped a whole of host of celebrities and historical figures.
I tell the bag man that advocating the vego way by using the name of Gwyneth Paltrow makes me feel like heading straight out and tucking into a great big juicy steak.
A very rare great big juicy steak.
He thinks I’m joking.
Like all festivals, there’s an element of hit and miss about which tucker to select, while the festival scenario itself seems to restrict or compromise in some ways the available selections.
But the prices are good.
As well, there are plenty of stall offering samples of breads, relishes, olive oil and much more.
Entry to the Lara Food & Wine Festival is by gold coin donation.
The carparking is free.
Stallholders pay a little over $200, a price that is actually subsidised by the festival in terms of provisions of tents, tables and so on.
That latter information comes courtesy of the festival’s media person, Tara Iacovella, who I phone the next day for the lowdown.
This a purebred community event – there’s not a single person involved who is on any sort of payroll, and that includes the musicians and the likes of Matt Preston.
Oh, OK – yes the local scouts get paid for their clean-up efforts.
But nor is the festival in any way amateurish.
But really … all-round this is a brilliant event, one that shows nothing but contempt for the hard-bitten cynicism of this journo/blogger.
And for that, I love them!
Los Latinos
Posted: March 24, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Latin American restaurants, Maidstone, Melbourne, tamales, western suburbs 8 Comments »
Los Latinos, 128 Mitchell St, Maidstone. Phone: 9318 5289
We were random but regular visitors to Los Latinos in the months after our write-up of the Maidstone Latin American eatery, early in its life.
But it’s been a while, so it feels nice settling in for lunch.
I’ve done what is almost unthinkable for me – leaving home without a book – but am satisfied enough with a house copy of one of the weekend rags.
It’s the wrong one and the wrong size, but I enjoy reading the foodie bits and the sports section anyway.
The menu seems to have grown quite a bit – featuring more seafood, more main courses and dishes listed by nationality – than found on the menu at the restaurant’s website.
The first thing I am told by a staff member is that tamales – one of several dishes on the menu marked with “not available” stickers – are in fact very much available.
I order them and end up very glad I have done so.
Isn’t there something totally magical and mysterious about food that comes in packages?
Think of dumplings, for instance.
In this case, the banana leaf wrapping on my two tamales unfolds to reveal two good-sized slabs of cornmeal masa (south-of-the-border polenta?), each one filled with some tender chicken on the bone, a couple of green olives, a long and well-cooked green bean and a big chunk of super potato.
It’s all delicious and filling – and a pretty good bargain, too, at $10 for the lot.
The benign seasoning levels and smooth pastiness of the corn mash are the perfect foil for the salsa/tomato sauce on the side. Drizzled across both tamales, it has a nice slow burn that eventually has a sheen of perspiration breaking out on my forehead.
Since Los Latinos opened, Melbourne seems to have contracted some form of Latin American fever, with quite a broad range of eateries generating a lot of talk and blogging and reviews.
And queues.
My lunch is a timely reminder that there’s a fine place just up the road doing lovely work along such lines – without the trendoid brouhaha.
Brimbank Festival 2012
Posted: March 24, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at, Places we like to shop at | Tags: cheap eats, Festivals, Melbourne, western suburbs Leave a comment »
Brimbank Festival, Hampshire Rd, Sunshine, March 24, 2012.
Nice vibe, pleasant weather … but surprisingly little in the way of foodie excitement.
Maybe my expectations were too high.
So just the pictures this time out …
Casa Italica: Out with the old, in with the new …
Posted: March 20, 2012 Filed under: Blah blah blah, Places we like to eat at, Places we like to shop at | Tags: cheap eats, Italian food, Melbourne, western suburbs, Williamstown 1 Comment »
Despite being fond of Casa Italica, it’s not been a frequent haunt for us – much like the rest of Williamstown.
I am surprised, then, when in the neighbourhood to discover the place has been gutted and a major building operation is underway.
However, the two young builder blokes I talk to assure me Casa Italica will still be present when the works are completed.
There’s apartments being built – and a carpark to service them.
And the Casa Italica space looks like it’ll be a whole lot more roomy and expansive.
This is pretty exciting, as the previous configuration was a little on the pokey side, and was perhaps even hampering the sort of service and products and eats they were of a mind to offer … in a neighbourhood in which such expansion will surely be a winner.
Walia Ibex
Posted: March 19, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: African food, African restaurants, cheap eats, Ethiopian food, Melbourne, Sunshine, western suburbs 2 Comments »
Walia Ibex, 2B Clarke St, Sunshine.
It seems a little odd that the flowering of African culture and food that has occurred in the past decade or so in Footscray has not been mirrored in Sunshine or even slightly further afield St Albans.
Well, Walia Ibex – named after a threatened Ethiopian species – is making a start in Sunshine.
The place is kitted out in such a way that it could be interchangeable with any one of half a dozen African eateries in Footscray. No bad thing, that!
A lunch here about a year ago was quite nice, but more in the meat-and-rice Somalian tradition.
These days, the place is more like a proper organised restaurant, with a menu and all!
And the food is a whole lot more focussed – this is Ethiopian tucker through and through, with three different kinds of tibs, doro wot, kitfo and gored gored all featuring on the list.
All meals are a very reasonable $12.
I order the vegetarian combo – “yetesom beyaynetu” – not because it’s cheaper, it’s the same price as the rest, but because I don’t feel like a meaty meal.
The serve looks quite modestly sized but proves more than adequate for a lovely lunch. The single piece of injera is matched just right with the food in terms of proportion.
There’s lentils three ways - a dry and crumbly mix of small brown lentils studded with slices of fresh green chilli; smoother and wetter red lentils that look like they’re cooked with tomatoes but are actually made, I’m told, with a special “Ethiopian chilli powder” (it’s very mild and unspicy); and finally a luscious and turmeric-yellow mix that looks likes it’s made with moong dal or channa dal but which is described as being made with “African beans”.
I love the way these three pulse components complement each other with contrasting colours and textures and flavours.
A highlight is the gorgeously multi-coloured mix of beautifully cooked beetroot and potato – I wish there was a whole lot more of it – while the stalwart mix of cabbage and carrot is tender and just about as lovely.
This is plain, homely food and I love it. It’s a little less oily than similar fare I’ve enjoyed elsewhere, too.
Walia Ibex already has the feel of being something of an African community hub, with lots of folks coming, going, chatting.
If I lived anywhere nearby, I’d be there on a weekly basis.
Selina Hot Bread
Posted: March 17, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Melbourne, Sunshine, Vietnamese food, Vietnamese restaurants, western suburbs 6 Comments »
Selina Hot Bread, 5/30 Hampshire Rd, Sunshine.
After some routine hanging out, goofing off and frisbee, it’s time for lunch in Sunshine.
We head under the Sunshine station underpass for Dragon Express, only to be disappointed to find it’s not open for Saturday lunch.
No matter – there are choices aplenty.
We settle on banh mi.
Selina Hot Bread is a Hampshire Rd fixture.
It may not have quite the same renown as Footscray’s Nhu Lan or the franchise-style signage recognition factor of Fresh Chilli Deli, but it’s busy and going by the customers coming and going it has its share of devoted regulars.
Roast pork for Bennie and Daniel, BBQ chicken for me – all at $3.50.
Our lunches are very, very good.
The rolls are super fresh and wonderfully crusty.
All the bits and pieces – including caramelised onions, pickled vegies, chilli rings, spring onion, coriander – are present in suitable quantities and quality.
When ordering and tossed the standard inquiry – “you want chilli?” – I’d replied, “Yes – lot of it!”
It seems my server took me seriously, however!
I love the extra kick and the tingling lips at the finish.
But the chilli levels are a bit over the top for Bennie and even Daniel, so I relent and buy two cans of that Coca Cola stuff.
It’s still a cheap and wonderful lunch.
In the process of writing this post I find a glowing review for the Selina banh mi – and a brand new blog seriously concerned with western suburbs food.
Welcome to Lady Rice!
Banh mi – such a familiar part of our scenery it’s sometimes easy to take it for granted.
But I know there’ll be a bunch of folks who will read this post and immediately say: “Damn – want one NOW!”
The Grand Tofu … again
Posted: March 11, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Flemington, Malaysian food, Melbourne, western suburbs 3 Comments »
The Grand Tofu, 314 Racecourse Rd, Flemington. Phone: 9376 0168
It’s been a pleasure attending the first rugby practice for the new season.
Bennie has dug being with his teammates again and running the drills.
The location – Footscray Park below Victoria University – lends itself to heading in various directions for a quick feed before heading home.
Bennie favours Ebi, but I persuade him Flemington is the go by mentioning that friends have tipped us that the fried squid tentacles at The Grand Tofu are hot.
After our recent and first post from there, I have been a little surprised and also gratified to learn – from comments left, other reviews and the tentacle recommendation from two former work colleagues whose family always has a firm grasp of the Flemo eateries – The Grand Tofu is widely regarded as a beaut spot that is more than holding its own with the famous alternatives around the corner in Pin Oak Crescent.
We’re happy to pursue the matter further.
After parking, we pass one of the few non-Asian eateries in the area.
We find it impossible not to glance at the dips combo an inner-city hipster with a Hitler moustache is eating at a window table.
He glares at us.
Much to my surprise, Bennie is largely unmoved by the tentacles – but his dad loves them.
The batter is unoily, crunchy and beautifully seasoned; the tentacles themselves are right on the good side of the chewiness concept.
Beware though – this a big serving, much bigger than it looks in real life or in the photo above.
Really, Bennie and I could share these and a single bowl of noodles for a perfectly filling meal.
Bennie goes for the yong tofu – six pieces, noodles, soup for $10 – his first experience with this particular eating experience.
He rejects the combos available and chooses his own – no surprise he steers strongly towards the meatier dumplings and away from the stuffed vegetables.
At first, this kind of meal seems just right for the lad – hey, it’s just like yum cha for one, right?
But he tires of it quickly and even leaves a couple of the dumplings uneaten. A case of too much of a good thing, perhaps?
His dad chooses the Penang king prawn noodle soup ($12.80).
This is good and a huge serve, but it strikes me as a tad uninspired.
The broth is suitably prawny, though the two fat beasties themselves are a on the doughy side.
Given the price, though, I suspect there are plenty of Grand Tofu dishes that’ll be more to my liking on future visits, while Bennie will definitely want the BBQ pork dry noodle next time around.
We’ve tried too hard, but that lessens not our affection for this establishment.
Bennie’s experience with oysters is minimal but his eyes glitter as spectacular, fiery serves of flaming lemon grass oysters are carried to adjacent tables.
And perhaps this’ll be the place to come when we feel like splashing out on chilli mud crab.
Returning to our wheels, we notice that the inner-city hipster with the Hitler moustache is talking to a lady friend at an outside table.
And having just about as much fun.
VU Halal Kitchen
Posted: March 6, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Footscray, Lebanese food, Melbourne, Middle Eastern food, Victoria University food, western suburbs 1 Comment »
"Baba-ghanouj" plate at VU Halal Kitchen.
VU Halal Kitchen, Building M, Level 0, Victoria University, Footscray. Phone: 9919 4300
Given the radiant brilliance of some of our Middle Eastern adventures lately – particularly at Coburg’s Abbout Falafel House and Al-Alamy – the surprise isn’t that the newish VU Halal Kitchen doesn’t quite match them but that it delivers a good and worthy shot at it with very similar prices.
I’d first stumbled across VU Halal Kitchen after trying out Cafe Noodle House, which is situated in a nearby campus building.
Subsequent attempts to try the campus Middle Eastern fare were thwarted by the festive season, catering commitments and the end of the academic year.
Now, in early March, Team Consider The Sauce is on the job and mighty hungry.
While we understand the business requirements that dictate the food cater to a broad base of students, you’ll be unsurprised to learn we ignore completely such fodder as the burgers, parmas, pastas and the like … although those seem to be the choices of the few other customers there are.
After being told several times the dips came with “Turkish bread” only, what turns up is a pleasant surprise.
"Hommus" plate at VU Halal Kitchen in Footscray.
The trimmings aren’t quite as substantial or sparkling as we get in Coburg, but they’re much appreciated anyway. Both kinds of pickles are commercial but lovely and crunchy.
The terrific bread is made on the premises.
I subsequently am told by VU Halal Kitchen proprietor George that it’s oil-free, which helps give it a nice chewiness when fresh and not unpalatable crunchiness when an ancient half-hour or so old.
The “baba-ghanouj” plate ($7) is the star of our lunch, the dip itself being redolent of smokiness, lemon and garlic in about equal measures. Very good!
The “hommus” plate, at the same price, is not as impressive, with the dip sporting a blandness that makes it seem like a wallflower.
Spicy potato curry pie at VU Halal Kitchen.
We order the spicy potato curry pie ($4) out of sheer curiosity and are a little disappointed. As you’d expect, it’s quite a lot like an elongated samosa – except that the curry potato stuffing is very much at the outer extremes of mildness. It’s OK.
Dressed zaatar pizza at VU Halal Kitchen.
The dressed zaatar pizza ($4.80), too, suffers by comparison with the superior equivalents available at our usual local haunts – but not by much.
After lamenting that our otherwise incredibly vibrant westie food situation lacks an Al-Alamy or an Abbout Falafel House, I am gratified to learn from George, who is of Egyptian background, that VU Halal Kitchen in fact boasts an Al-Alamy connection.
That operation’s Ahmed is overseeing the kitchen affairs here in a supervisory role, which hopefully augurs mightily well for the future.
Falafels are in the near future, as will be – I fully expect – a degree of tweaking and improving.
A western suburbs place serving Middle Eastern food that goes beyond pizzas and kebabs needs to be encouraged.
George, by the way, highly recommends the awarma (minced meat cooked with scrambled eggs, $10) and shak-shooka (scrambled eggs mixed with tomato, onion and cheese, $10) – both served with aforementioned bread and pickles.
Two more points …
Given the possibility the bar set-up of which the kitchen is part may be otherwise needed for a function, we strongly suggest phoning an hour or so before your planned lunch … just to make sure.
And the drinks situation is far from ideal – extremely small bottles of soda pop and Mount Franklin water all clock in at $3. But then again, this is a bar – rather than a campus cafeteria.
Abbout Falafel House
Posted: March 4, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Coburg, Falafel, Lebanese food, Melbourne, Middle Eastern food 9 Comments »
Abbout Falafel House, 465 Sydney Rd, Coburg. Phone: 9350 4343
My falafel plate is breathtaking in its awesomeness.
It costs $10.
Food, in my world, simply does not get any better – at any price.
Even better, my faith in the eternal goodness of falafel – shaken somewhat earlier in the week – is emphatically restored.
It’s easy to miss Abbout Falafel House.
It has an unremarkable facade and is flanked on either side by several kebab shops.
But what makes me persevere is the endless stream of people trying to get a table in the dining room that adjoins the food preparation/takeaway area.
When I discover how good the food is, and why the place is so popular with many folks who are obviously regulars, the five-minute wait dodging staff members coming with empty plates and dishes and going with full ones seems a mere trifle.
Even if I am wedged between a tiny wooden table in the front area and one of the drinks fridges.
This is not a kebab house.
The fare is almost all vegetarian of the Lebanese variety – but it’s exceptional.
There’s dips and labneh and foul, all of them served with beaut trimmings.
My six falafel balls are amazingly unoily, true lightweights and terrifically tender – although some may find them a little under-seasoned.
The labneh and “hommos” are likewise state of the art, sprinkled with parsley, paprika and olive oil.
The pickled cucumber slices and turshi – pickled turnip – are sour and crunchy in their own different ways, just as I like ‘em.
The pickled chillis are sour, too, although with a nicely mild kick.
The olives fall somewhere between green and black, and are fine.
The two pita breads arrive fresh out of the oven, plumped up like bladders and emit a puff of steam when punctured.
How good is that?
As much as I love our west, I have to concede it lacks a place just like this or Al-Alamy.
Abbout Falafel House is open for lunches only seven days a week.
World’s longest lunch
Posted: March 4, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: Melbourne Leave a comment »This, the first ever guest post at Consider The Sauce, was written, photographed and produced by our pal Daniel, winner of the two tickets provided to us by Melbourne Food & Wine Festival and the Bank of Melbourne. Thanks for taking the time!
The first thing that grabs your attention about the World’s Longest Lunch is the logistics: 1,200 people enjoying fine dining along the Yarra, across from the Melbourne’s Olympic Park precinct. A table that seems to stretch forever. And today, after Melbourne’s rolling wet weather, a perfect day by the river.
It was a three-course seasonal meal, covering:
* Entrée: salad of Harrietville smoked trout and autumn fruits (Simone’s Restaurant).
* Main: free range turkey thighs, tomatoes and tomatillos and Mexican flavours with a salad of avocado and succulents (Sunnybrae).
* Dessert: Rhubarb vacherin (Annie Smithers’ Bistrot).
Therése and I shared the meal with Almost Always Ravenous and other charming foodies. If you ever wanted proof of Melbourne’s sophistication and obsession around food, one of our food and wine festival events should provide that 
We found the entrée excellent. The main was fine but turkey isn’t my idea of a captivating meat (like duck). Dessert was a nice combination of rhubarb, cream and meringue: good texture, perhaps a bit more meringue would have been nicer.
Overall: we didn’t feel it was value for money food-wise (editor’s note: Daniel means, of course, if it had been the case that he’d actually had to pay!), but the affair was well-executed and a lovely experience dining by the Yarra in temperate weather. Plus it was my birthday, so a memorable occasion
Much thanks to Kenny for enabling the experience!
Pandu’s – an update …
Posted: March 3, 2012 Filed under: Blah blah blah, Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Footscray, Indian food, Indian restaurants, Melbourne, western suburbs 6 Comments »
Dropping into the site of the new Pandu’s in Barkly St, I find the man himself in the house.
He’s a little reticent about having his photo taken, but couldn’t be more friendly and is happy to show me around.
And I gotta tell you – the place is looking a million bucks.
He tells me he actually had ritzy expansion plans for the former site in Buckley St well advanced before the rail link developments nixed them.
The new site entails a hefty increase in rent and a major investment – as these photos indicate.
Inevitably, this will involve higher prices for his take on Indo-Chinese tucker.
However, the prices at the old joint were rock-bottom cheap and he assures me his new price tags won’t be in the same ball park as those of a somewhat similar establishment up the road apiece.
Pandu is aiming for a late March opening date.
There’s going to be nooks, crannies and booths all over the place.
Incredibly, all the furniture is being crafted and constructed on-site.
The new restaurant will boast an Indian-style barbecue – not quite Tandoori cooking but with some of those elements. Sounds like a heap of juicy, marinated meats and vegetables to me!
This space (above) will be the site of the new kitchen.
In this area will be a waterfall and fish pond.
Peko Peko
Posted: March 1, 2012 Filed under: Places we like to eat at | Tags: cheap eats, Japanese food, Melbourne, South Melbourne, Taiwanese food 4 Comments »
Pop culture shrine, Japan-Taiwan-style, at Peko Peko in South Melbourne.
Peko Peko, 190 Wells St, South Melbourne. Phone: 9686 1109
Peko Peko is tucked away in a back street near the junction of Domain and St Kilda roads.
This is a surprisingly large part of South Melbourne that seems to go largely unnoticed by the rest of Melbourne – unless we’re whizzing along Kingsway or headed for the South Melbourne Market or the gardens.
But, of course, it’s teeming with life and people.
Yes, a stack of office workers of various kinds, but there’s also a lot of apartment blocks hereabouts.
For those reasons, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised by the presence of lovely Asian joint like Peko Peko here.
But I am.
Perhaps that can be put down to lingering memories of a previous life spent working amid the eating blandness of the Southbank neighbourhood just up the road.
Peko Peko is done out in nice Asian cafe style.
It’s comprehensively packed for this week-day lunchtime, and I suspect it’s the same at night.
It’s menu is long and varied, though it concentrates on dishes of Taiwanese and Japanese derivation and has items that broaden their base quite a bit.
The prices surprise, too. The average price of the many main meals seems to be about $10-12 – no more than you’d pay for similar food in the CBD or the west.
The serves are big and generous.
The entrees include more than a handful of spring roll variations, as well as Peko Sausage (“unique house-made Taiwanese sausage”).
Curries all seem to be of the Japanese persuasion, while main meals can be had as either in bowls or in Peko Boxes, which turn out to be the familiar bento boxes of laminated legend.
My lunch companion chooses one of the left-field dishes – Singapore noodles ($10).
Singapore noodles at Peko Peko in South Melbourne.
She’s had it before so knows well what she’s getting into, and enjoys it accordingly. It seems more stuffed with goodies than most of its kind.
Yours truly goes for menu item No.1 – Pork Chop Addiction ($12.50), described as “traditional Taiwanese deep-fried pork cutlet, served w. pickled cabbage”.
Pork Chop Addiction at Peko Peko in South Melbourne.
The spring roll – hard to tell if it’s filled with pumpkin or carrot or both – is just OK.
The salady, cold beans are wonderful, tossed in – I’m guessing – some sort of sesame dressing.
The cabbage pickles lack any sort of pickle punch.
The deep-fried pork cutlet is heart attack material – and there’s a huge amount of it.
It’s crispy and nice, with a flavour that comes down to – I later discover – salt, pepper, garlic and five-spice. It’s also on the fatty side.
Still … a fruit salad dinner for me beckons tonight!
Peko Peko is a bit out of the way for us, but I have an inkling we may return – Bennie will love the pop culture shrine at the pay point and I’m learning he’ll eat just about anything, no questions asked, if it’s in one of those bento boxes.
Tasty CBD icon embraces nightclub-style crowd control …
Posted: March 1, 2012 Filed under: Blah blah blah, Places we like to eat at | Tags: cake shop, Cakes, Hopetoun Tearooms, Melbourne CBD, Royal Arcade 3 Comments »
Ahhh, Hopetoun Tearooms … beloved cakery in Melbourne’s Royal Arcade.
Home to old ladies of all ages and genders, famed world-wide for its flashy, calorific window display.
Hopetoun Tearooms, it of the incredible green felt embossed wallpaper.
Last watering hole for Bennie’s mum before she headed for the Mercy Hospital up the road.
It’s nothing unusual to see tourists ogling the cake display and even folks queuing for a table.
But, heck, seeing a velvet rope outside and a door bitch coming and going stopped me in my tracks while attending to some CBD business today!
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