Monthly Archives: February 2011

Indi Hots

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SEE MORE RECENT REVIEW – WITH NEW ADDRESS – HERE.

68 Hopkins St, Footscray. Phone: 9687 4626

When I moved to Melbourne – in the late ’80s – Indian eating was restricted to your more formal establishments.

I love that kind of food in those kind of restaurants, I really do.

But as I often eat out with just a book for company, or with Bennie or a pal such as Kurt, they are often impractical.

As well, once you start ordering pappadams, various breads, pickles, chutneys, rice, lassi and so on, the price can very quickly attain fine-dining levels – even when you’re part of a larger group.

Which is why I adore the explosion of cheap eats places of an Indian bent that has occurred in the past decade.

The CBD is festooned with them – and now the west has its fair share, too.

At such cheapies the main avenue for getting a feed is via a thali meal – served on stainless steel platters with sections for a variety of dishes, condiments and rice.

Even at the best of places, though, thali meals can be a hit and miss affairs.


Often the food is barely warm and sometimes there’s a suggestion the “chef’s choice” amounts to getting rid of straggling remnants of that day’s cooking.

But the ease with which it possible to get a well-rounded meal without busting out the credit card means the allure of thalis will endure for me for a long, long time.

I’ve had a brilliant vegetarian thali at the brand new Hyderabad Inn and some great versions at Classic Curry in Sunshine.

But one of the earliest thali joints in the west was and is Indi Hots, which I’ve revisited a couple of times recently.

It’s a very basic eatery, but the staff are friendly and I always feel at home with clientele that usually is made up mostly of taxi drivers, students and young families.

On both recent visits, the highlight was a beaut goat curry – one that seems, based on photographic evidence, quite different from that braved about by Ms Baklover at Footscray Food Blog.

The goat-on-the-bone I had with my thali ($10.50), in a meal shared with Kurt, was very dark, very oily, VERY salty – and delicious!

I find through cooking at home that if I leave out salt altogether from my Indian cooking, the results usually fall into the realm of “vegetarian food” – of which I ate plenty in my youth. No thanks!

So what I usually do is put in a teaspoon of salt where the recipe calls for three or four. You really do need a strong salt quotient for dishes to taste anywhere near authentically Indian, but I try for a compromise.

Eating out, though, all bets are off – so Kurt and I were happy to indulge and enjoy the pronounced saltiness of our goat.


He had his as part of non-thali $7.50 meat-and-rice deal that left him wishing for more curry.

My thali was rounded out with the usual runny but fine raita, a pappadam, a curry of peas and capsicum that had too little of either and too much oil, and a really good mild potato curry of the dry variety.

We’d started our meal with a shared plate of onion bhaji.

They were cold, chewy, had a nice chilli kick and tasted fine with the minty dipping sauce.

Indi Hots has been around long enough to be taken a bit for granted, but I like dropping by reasonably regularly for a reliably enjoyable Indian feed.

Indi Hots on Urbanspoon


Aksaray Turkish Kebab House/Stephz Gourmet Deli

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Aksaray Turkish Kebab House

74 Glengala Rd, Sunshine. Phone: 9310 1377

Stephz Gourmet Deli

64 Glengala Rd, Sunshine. Phone: 9364 7488

Having scoped this west Sunshine place out, unhungry, a few nights previously, I hold no great expectations on entering Aksaray for lunch – maybe a nice Turkish kebab plate: meat, salad, rice, dip, bread.

That changes as soon as I walk through the door and am immediately served a sample of a freshly made soup – as is every customer who follows me –  free of charge.

It’s a fantastic vegetable concoction – just carrot, onion, celery and seasonings of pepper, salt, oregano. It’s blended just right – well short of being a creamy soup, leaving some grainy texture that gives it substance. Marvellous!

Turns out this is the start of a major overhaul of the offerings available at Aksaray – an overhaul I suspect will make it far more interesting than just another kebab/dips joint.

In a few weeks time they’ll be unveiling a revolving lineup of soups, casseroles, stews and more home-style Turkish food – and I reckon that’s exciting.

For all that we love the normal restaurant fare of our various Mediterranean eateries, we all know it’s just one aspect of the various cuisines involved – eatery food and home food is different.

Bring it on – I’ll be there with my bib on!

My adana kebab lunch platter doesn’t reach the same heights as the soup, but does the job.

Chewy lamb adana is overshadowed by the strips of doner kebab provided usasked for; nice rice, tabouli that is of my preferred wetness, OK bread, slightly fried.

The star is the cacik – a creamy yogurt dip zingy with garlic and chunky with cucumber.

As I’m enjoying my lunch a steady parade of regulars comes and goes, many leaving with kebab sandwiches to go, many with lovely looking boreks of chicken or lamb, all having sampled the super soup.

The chicken borek ($3) I take home for the night’s dinner is brilliant, the shredded chook stuffing subtlety flavoured with parsley and pepper and the mouthfuls of pleasure enlivened by finely diced  onion, cooked but still a little on the crunchy side..

From there I amble up the road apiece to Stephz Gourmet Deli.

This is classic western suburbs.

Sited in what once was a servo, it’s a mix of continental grocery, Greek bakery and coffee bar – all with a Maltese waitress!


I have a crash-hot $3 latte and a 50c piece of what looks like biscotti, but which is emphatically non-Italian. It’s plain, almost savoury, topped with sesame seeds, is called – as near as Athena, another waitress, can translate – pazematia. Subsequent research reveals that a more precise term may be paximathakia – in any case it goes great with my coffee.

Being too full from lunch to countenance richer sweet goodies, I nevertheless ogle the cake/cookie displays. All the goodies are baked on the premises, with a range of rum balls looking particularly evil and desirable. I settle for a slice of very fine baklava to take home with me.

Aksaray Turkish Kebab House on Urbanspoon




Amin Cafe

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Little Khartoum Arcade/The Footscray Hub. Phone: 0401 008 957

The signs at either end – one on Nicholson St, the other on Albert St – still describe it as The Footscray Hub “Business Centre” – but in some quarters at least it is known as Little Khartoum Arcade.

Walking through it has become one of the “secret” treasures of living in the west.

There are money transfer places, shops selling T-shirts and cosmetic products, others with perfumes and spices – and even a few old-style barber establishments, one that recently gave me a fine haircut.

All of it speaks of Footscray’s African diaspora with a relaxed and “we belong” vibe.

The only disappointment for me has been the lack of an eatery from which to chow down and enjoy the great atmosphere.

I walked past the only place selling food many times, but was unimpressed by scant display of large samosas – sambusas in African parlance – so ambled on, bound ususally for Babylon or some other food place.

Than I heard  a whisper that more substantial fare was available from Amin Cafe for the asking.  I think I heard this very valuable information from Ms Baklover of Footscray Food Blog, but have been unable to find proof in either emails or blogs.

In any case, thanks!

For this information inspired me to inquire – with happy results.


After a brief discussion with the welcoming proprietor – yes, I am hungry, yes meat and rice will be fine – I am served with a meal that, no surprise, was familiar from our delicious forays to another Somalian refuge, Safari Restaurant in Ascot Vale.

My $12.50 lunch had some pan-fried lamb (halib) that looked a little gray and lacklustre, but was fine and tender. Also on board was a terrific chicken drumstick (doora), slightly coated with bread crumbs and seasoned. And there were some lettuce and tomato for colour and crunch.

But the star was the rice – as with so many of our experiences with north African and Middle Eastern food.

This was magic – but magic of a minimalist kind.

No sultanas, strands of fried onion, peas, almonds or other colour – just the odd bit of translucent onion and perfect rice, cooked in chicken stock with some lemon pepper and a seasoning mix called Zacin.

All my lunch was very mildly seasoned, but a small plastic tub of a fiery chilli condiment helped kick things along.

There are only three small tables at Amin Cafe, but they’re all taken as I enjoy my meal – all by what appear to be regulars.

As well, there was a steady trade from what I take to be similarly frequent customers for the sambusas – either lamb or fish – so I buy two for my next day’s work lunch. Even cold they’re good – lamb in one, canned tuna in the other, both with fine chewy pastry and filling given texture from cooked but still crunchy onion.

I’ll be back to Amin Cafe, for it gives me the same delectable satisfaction as eating at the communal table in the kitchen at Pelligrini’s in the CBD


Sekai Japanese Ramen

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Shop 194, 81 Hopkins St, Footscray. Phone: 9687 1088

Best to be upfront about it: If you hold to notions of purity when it comes to Japanese food, if you like real Japanese tucker – not Japanese-style – then Sekai will likely disappoint.

It is, by our reckoning at least, firmly of the latter persuasion – but our latest visit there tasted fine and seemed more, ahem, “Japanese” than the lacklustre “sushi rolls” hordes the have become so popular as lunchtime fare.

As such, Sekai is virtually identical to many ramen/udon joints found the length and breadth of Melbourne’s CBD.

Nor would I go as far as one punter at Urbanspoon, who opined there was “nothing Japanese about it”.

Our visit came about by way of Bennie’s determination to eat “on the other side of the street”, indicating the Footscray Market – and less restaurant-cluttered – side of Hopkins St.

On a much earlier visit, just after it had opened, I had the gyu tan don – ox tongue in red wine sauce  on rice ($10). It was wonderful.

This time, with son on hand, a mandatory order was always going to be a serve of their seaweed salad ($4).

Bennie loves it, and I do too, so I figured it was about time to find out what makes this dish tick – and if, as I suspected, it wasn’t half as healthy as it appears to be at first blush. Could something as slinky, sexy and delicious be all good?

Some subsequent research reveals that other than seaweed, the dressing commonly includes sugar, vinegar, a little chilli, sesame oil and seeds, soy sauce and even dashi.

Far from the evil I feared, then.

In any case, the Sekai version was sensational – more coarse and crunchy than we’re used to, but every mouthful was a slithery taste delight, with a lovely balance of sweet and sour flavours. It lasted – maybe – two minutes.

I really dig the way Bennie is fast developing a feel and intuition for what will work for him when scanning a menu.

A paternal guiding hand is still sometimes required, but this time he got it right – his katsu don ($8.50) was just what he needed and desired.

A generous serve of crunchily crumbed pork doused in tonkatsu sauce rested atop what amounts to an omelette laced with carrot, peas and red onion, which in turn sat on a solid bed of rice.

Bennie loved it.

My pork ramen ($9) was more murky when it comes to matters of Japanese heritage – another Urbanspoon poster had a point when he quipped: “Ramen?? More like 2 minute noodles…”

It’s true the broth seemed more Sino than Nippon, and had little or no miso/soy tang, while the noodles likewise seemed far from authentic.

But it tasted good, the roast pork being generous of serve, both tender and chewy – and profoundly unlike Chinese roast pork. Greenery came via some nice spinach.

It was a quick, cheap and satisfying lunch.

If you’re happy with Japanese-style food and are prepared to select carefully, Sekai remains worthy of consideration.

Sekai Japanese Ramen on Urbanspoon

Hyderabad Inn

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551 Barkly St, West Footscray. Phone: 9689 0998

We’re surprised how many folks assume that because we’ve embarked on a food blog that we’re eating out more than ever.

That’s simply not the case – we’re just doing what we’ve always done, which means we dine out three, maybe four times a week.

I’ll concede that’s more than most people do – even in the cheap as chips west – but it hardly seems excessive to us.

The highlight, though, is always Saturday lunch – work/school done with, chores/shopping performed, it’s time to get on the fang with relish. So to speak …

This Saturday we are delighted to have our buddy Kurt along for the ride.

He broke his ankle a few weeks back, and has been experiencing varying degrees of pain, discomfort and inconvenience ever since, so we’re chuffed to get him out and about for a few hours.

Even better, this is his first dosa experience – and we’re thrilled it turns out be an excellent one.


We’d been keeping an eye on this place, half a video store refurbished, for a couple of weeks, waiting for it to open – ever since Bennie noticed the new signage.

In fact, we’d turned up a few days previously only to find it was their first day and they wouldn’t be opening until 5pm.

Happily, another new place – Wok Noodle – was a more than adequate stand-in on that day.

But it’s all on at Hyderabad Inn for Saturday lunch!

This is a nice, big room, tastefully kitted out in a somewhat spartan fashion – which suits us fine.

Unlike so many other places that serve doas, idlys, vadas and the like, this is a full-service Indian restaurant.

The menu boasts a full range of curries, tandoori dishes, Indo-Chinese tucker and so on. Most curries are priced around the $11 mark.


But we’re here for the south Indian goodies. They suit our budget better, we like the flavours and textures, and a fully satisfying meal doesn’t leave us feeling full … as in over-full.

There’s a wide range of dosas, uttapams and the like from which to choose – including a variety of combos.

Kurt goes for the Dosa Deal – dosa of choice (chicken in this case), one apiece of idly and vada, sambar, the usual coconutty sides and a can of soft drink.

This is an outstanding deal for $9.95.

The crumbly minced chicken is delicious, the vada doughnut is unique of flavour and surprisingly soft on the tooth, and the whole deal, including the sambar and coconut chutneys, is a delight. The idly, served on a separate plate, is less to Kurt’s fancy at first … but it, too, disappears in due course.

Bennie and I order the Chef’s Dosa ($10.50) and a lamb biryani ($10.50).

The Chef’s Dosa is stuffed with the same chicken and also separate portions of equally crumbly lamb, spiced paneer with coriander and the usual spuds. It’s all great, with the potatoes more gooey than found in your average masala dosa – almost like a stew.

I’ve never seen Bennie enjoy a dosa more.


The biryani is fine, if not quite meeting the same top-shelf standards as the rest of our order. Embedded in the spicy rice are fried onion strands and three tender portions of lamb on the bone, while the dish is rounded out by a lovely hard-boiled egg, runny raita and a gravy that also seems to have a high coconut quotient.

Cheap Indian food can sometimes mean cheap service.

Such is emphatically not the case at Hyderabad Inn – and that alone seems to make its chances of prospering, in what is becoming an ultra-competitive neighbourhood, very good.

We’ll be back for sure!

Hyderaabad inn on Urbanspoon

Hyderabad Inn website here.


Wok Noodle

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Shop 1/92 Charles St, Seddon. Phone: 9689 9475

Noel, Wok Noodle’s front man, reckons his joint is the first Malaysian restaurant in the western suburbs – and I reckon he’s right.

There’s a few places in Foostcray central, and a few more in Williamstown, from whence you can order a laksa or a mee goreng, but often the only relationship such dishes ordered in such places have with Malaysia is strictly nominal.

The nearest dinkum Malaysian, and really fine Malaysian at that, is to be had in Flemington – well within Consider The Sauce territory but not, as Noel points out, strictly speaking in the western suburbs.

So Wok Noodle is it – and very welcome it is, too.

In fact, it seems truly bizarre in a neighbourhood wherein within a few kilometres one can dine Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian and various African styles that it has taken this long for a Malaysian eatery to set up shop.

The previous inhabitant of these Charles St premises had lived a relatively long but obviously hard-going life as an awkward compromise between a snacky cafe and one of those places that sells pre-made meals for heating up at home. But their curries, stews, salads and soups always seemed so preposterously over-priced that I am suspicious of Wok Noodle in case there is connection or hangover from the previous tenants.

No, there is not.

Indeed, the prices are all ball park for this kind of food – soup and wok noodles all $10.50, Hainan chicken rice for $11.50, sambal dishes for $14.50 and up depending on your taste in seafood, two curry puffs for $5.

A plain roti costs $3.50, or you can have it with potato ($7) or chicken curry ($8.50), or peanut sauce ($6).

Gado gado costs $9.50.

As the above illustrates, the menu range at Wok Noodle is orthodox Malaysian – but that’s fine by us, particularly if the food is as consistently good as that presented us in our first meal.

The interior is bright and breezy, there is a good view of the kitchen action and chilled water is delivered unasked to our table.

My mee goreng is minus the tomato tang often part of this dish, and very mildly spiced, but nevertheless delicious. Big and bursty prawns, fishcake, tofu, chicken, egg, sprouts, some greenery all dance delightedly with a lip-smackingly fine dark brown curry gravy and egg noodles. It’s topped with shredded lettuce, while a slice of lemon on the side does good work near the end of my meal, tarting things up just when needed.

Not for the first time, Bennie finds the lure of both dumplings AND roast pork impossible to ignore, so orders the wonton broth – a basic brew of thin egg noodles with very good dumplings and slices of pig, greenery courtesy of choy sum, all in chicken broth. It’s plain but satisfying.

And that’s our first of what is likely to be many meals at Wok Noodle.

Wok Noodle on Urbanspoon

Melbourne (or Victoria if you must …) is food crazy – and here’s more proof

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Last year, Urbanspoon changed its category for us from Melbourne to Victoria.

Replying to disgruntlement about the ramifications of the change, an Urbanspoon spokesperson posted the following:

There is an SEO perspective which we considered – however, we were expanding the geographic range far beyond the city of Melbourne, and so we felt that “Victoria” was a more accurate designation.  Expanding the neighborhood list (click “See all” under Top Suburbs) breaks down the restaurant distribution into subgroups that include Melbourne City neighborhoods, and suburbs by general area.We aren’t locals, and could well be missing local nuances (let us know!)  We want to reach the most potential diners for obvious reasons.  So far, our site traffic has more than maintained pace in our Australian metros – in fact, Victoria is our second-most trafficked metro, trailing only New York City (which has more than 3x the number of restaurants).  Victoria also ranks fifth in total blog posts.

Blimey – even I’m surprised!

Lemat Injera Bakery

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157 Nicholson St, Footscray. Phone: 9689 006

There is much more to Ethiopian food – and the broader north African food culture that has become such integral part of western suburbs life – than injera.

But in many ways, injera is emblematic of colours, flavours and aromas that are so alluring.

So I am thrilled beyond words to be invited to witness injera being made at Lemat Bakery, in the heart of Footscray’s lovely African hub of Nicholson St.

The establishment is managed – and the injera made – by Sesen Assefa. Her genial and voluble husband prefers to stay in the background, but is happy to provide me all the information I need.

The couple met in the very early ’90s, in Sudan, and like so many endured many long years in exile and of menial jobs before opening their bakery in 2006 – just as the influx of north African diaspora into Melbourne’s west began in earnest.

In Ethiopia, injera is made with teff.

As it will soon be in Australia, restrictions on its importation apparently having been lifted or soon to be.

Given that teff is a grain of mightily ancient heritage, I reckon this can only be a good thing in a world in which the shrinking gene pool and diversity of seed stores is under threat.


In the meantime, like the Vietnamese community and others before them, the folks at Lemat have been doing just fine with what’s at hand, modifying recipes with locally available ingredients for the best, most authentic results.

That means the injera we have all been enjoying is made with a mixture of flours – maize, self-raising and wholemeal wheat, sorghum and barley.

The batter is fermented for 24 hours – no yeast or other agents are used – before being deftly poured on to hot, round platters.

In a minute or so, the injera – smooth side down, spongy side up – is ready to be equally skillfully slipped on to straw mats and placed on long tables with the rest of the day’s order.

As well the bakery produces “sweet”, unfermented injera for its Sudanese customers.

The Lemat output is split between restaurants, groceries and families.

The aroma is like that of any other bakery – but in many ways so very different. And quite intoxicating!


Out front, I delight in a half-hour conversation with Mr Lemat – a virtual crash course for me that ranges from injera and Ethiopian food in general through to Coptic Christianity, the dynamics of “facebook revolution” and the role they are playing in north Africa (including Algeria that very morning), the equally fascinating nuances and subtleties that accompany inter-actions between the various African communities in Footscray (and Melbourne in general), contemporary Ethiopia, the Sundanese separation referendum and much more.

As we are talking, the manager of Awash comes and goes with her daily order of injera, but it is no less likely that the staff of Khartoum – just a few doors up the street, and nominally a Sudanese restaurant – will drop in for injera to go with the Ethiopian dishes on their menu.

My humble thanks to the people of Lemat Injera Bakery for sharing with me their stories and their baking skills.


Yarraville Festival

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Yummo: Bennie hooks into a super iced chocolate ($6.50) at Co’klat; his mother wishes she was doing likewise.

Yarraville Central, February 11, 2011

The number of Yarraville Festivals we’ve hung out at is a bit of a blur, memory wise.

It’s always fun and cool in that it’s manageable in terms of size – just a few blocks and maybe 3-4000 people, tops. The St Kilda Festival it is not.

In terms of food, as with all festivals – it seems to me – the idea is better than the execution. All too often it seems we all get excited about paying for food that is not as fine and funky as we’d normally get, pay more for it and consume it in less than ideal circumstances from plastic containers.

This year I made do with a platter of rogan josh, rice, onion bhaji and samosa from the Tandoori Times stall – with a can of that Coca Cola stuff, the damage was a tad under $10.

I also had a cheapo sausage on a roll with heaps of mustard from one of several stands selling such like and gyros. I gobbled it up while talking to Keith from Heather Dell.

I got the day’s caffeine hit from Co’klat, a small, new place specialising in all things chocolate that had escaped our attention until our next door neighbour, Dulcie, spoke of its excellence.

I had two good coffees there, the second with Bennie and his mum. The boy loved his iced chocolate.

Co’klat was reasonably busy, but also like a little calm oasis in the middle of the festival noise and bustle.

As always with festivals, especially one as neighbourhood-oriented as this, was running into friends – crash, bang, wallop!

As I was wearing the official Consider The Sauce Spongebob T-shirt, a regular reader, Kristine, spotted me in the crowd and introduced herself. She’s also a fan of Footscray Food Blog, Bear Head Soup and the Africa Taste salad.


I saw the Ross Hannford Trio playing Tequila.

We marvelled at the mindblowing diversity of dogs in attendance – everything from microwave oven size to outhouse size, from drop dead gorgeous to the most ordinary of mutts.

We noted the high number ageing hippies, of both genders, in the crowd.

We walked round and round.

We went home.

Doing research into Winston Churchill’s third nipple.


Steampacket Hotel

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13 Cole St, Williamstown. Phone 9399 9600

I was in it for the company – which was all to the good, as I’m hardly enamoured with pub food.

Especially after our recent disappointment at the Ashley.

Our most local “local”?

Yikes!

But this was a fun night out – $12 steaks and free entry into that night’s trivia quiz.

My three dining partners – Deb from Bear Head Soup, her bloke Dave and Ms Baklover/Lauren from Footscray Food Blog – had heaps of good things, mind you, to say about the Station Hotel in Footscray.

And between the four of us we fancied we had enough all-round general knowledge – and few areas of arcane expertise up our sleeves – to put in a good showing in the trivia.

My previous visit to the Steampacket had been about five or so years before – to see my mate Ashley and his pals from the Louisiana Shakers pounding out some of their old-style New Orleans jazz.

Like so many pubs in the west, it has undergone change – although not so much as to completely ruin the place.

And there are no pokies!


The place was packed on Thursday’s steak/trivia night – and therein lies the biggest criticism we had.

The noise level was very, very high.

For most of the night it seemed to be at almost rock concert levels, forcing tablemates to shout instead of converse.

Indeed, such was the racket that we – cocooned in the pub’s dining room – were utterly unaware there had been a no doubt loud and raucous thunderstorm outside until I split for a few minutes to move my potentially ticket-attracting car.

The Steampacket boasts an inviting menu and a blackboard of specials at the rear of the dining room. It covers a broad range of steaks, seafood, pastas, salads, burgers, parmas and so on. If I return with Bennie in tow, it’ll likely be for the $11.90 main meal specials that are served on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6pm – see poster below for that week’s line-up.

But as pre-trivia repast, our entire table ordered the same meal – medium rare porterhouse. There are other, more pricey cuts available as part of the Thursday night deal, but none over $20.

We were all pleased with our meals – they did what was expected, if without sending us into raptures.

Steaks of a decent size and little on the chewy side. Yeah, yeah, I know – what did we expect for $12?

My chips were on the flabby side, and I could’ve done with more of them, and the salad bits and pieces were a tad straggly.

But the onion gravy I asked to be served on the side came in a little bowl, and was sweet and delicious for dipping into it every forkful of beef.

Yes, tartare sauce does float in beer.

The trivia was something else.

Bracing ourselves to be quizzed on all sorts of wide-ranging topics, we were instead assailed with probing queries on what amounted to little more than bogan pop culture.

We even had to take a punt on one of five entrants in a pot-skulling contest. We got that one right.

Still, we far from disgraced ourselves – or should that be the other way round, given that we did quite well and considering the general nature of the questions?

Dave stepped up with a few sports answers, and I opined – correctly – that if Winston Churchill had a third nipple I’d have known about it.

In the “sink or swim” section, and basing our answer on the fact that oil floats, we correctly guessed that tartare sauce would float in beer.

The trivia guy proved it – and then got a punter to skull the result. Heck, I don’t think he got any points for his for his brave efforts, either!

But mostly it was a matter of movies, TV programs, pop music and celebs that I’d barely heard of, let alone seen or heard.

When I returned the next day to take some pics, the staff said the previous night’s line of questioning should not necessarily to be taken as normal, and that the trivia quiz differed from week to week.

The Steampacket Hotel website is here.

Steam Packet Hotel on Urbanspoon

Babylon Restaurant

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152 Nicholson St, Footscray. Phone: 9689 3323. Open six days.

You can go the whole hog if you visit Babylon – or rather the whole sheep.

Roast whole lamb – pre-ordered and with all the trimmings of “rice, meat ball, boiled egg, nodule (sic), green beans, pistachios, carrots, fried onion” – will set you back $220.

You can also order a regular Aussie-style pizza or a Lebanese pizza – even though this nominally an Iraqi restaurant – and pasta or spring rolls.

There’s even a kind of chicken or lamb curry usually available from the servery out front.

There are heaps and heaps of the more expected kebabs, seafood, salads, dips and soups – and knowing just how good the soups around here, perhaps the Babylon variations should be a priority.

Whatever its ethnic heritage, Babylon fits in right swell with the swirling colours, tastes and general all-round good vibes of this part of Nicholson St, rubbing shoulders as it does with eateries and cafes of Turkish, African, Indian and Vietnamese persuasions.

But my favourite for some time has been the lamb shanks, which are also dispensed from the servery, the contents and quality of which seem to depend on the time of day. I suspect the later the hour, the more advisable it becomes to go a la carte, as sometimes the servery options look a tad jaded and dry.

On my previous visit I enjoyed an outstanding $10 meal of adana kebab with all the bits and pieces.

But for my latest lunch I’m in luck, with the platter of shanks sitting and glistening and waiting for someone to eat them. Can glistening be a verb?

One meaty shank with salad, dips and rice costs a really fine $12.

I’m happy to go with flow at Babylon so am unsurprised that this meal is different from the same order previously made.

The three dips – eggplant, carrot, yogurt/cucumber – are not quite as great and tasty as on previous visits, nor the salad.

And instead of the distinctive flat bread that manages to be both chewy and flaky, I receive a bowl of bread more in the Turkish vein. Though as its hot and fresh out of the oven, I’m happy.

The rice, as with that of so many businesses around here, is to die for – laced with sultanas, almonds, green peas and ma’akarona (vermicelli fried in butter). My thanks to Ms Baklover at Footscray Food Blog for the details of that last listed ingredient!

But it’s the shank that’s the standout – meat so very tender and easy to pry from the bone, smothered in a thick, gooey tomato-based gravy given added richness this time round by the addition of some soft white beans.

Despite the usual – and actually welcome – variations from visit to visit, Babylon sets a high standard and I intend to spend the next several years mining their menu to its depths.

It’s a big, roomy restaurant that can seem a bit gloomy when you’ve just wandered in from outside, but it’s fine for dining.

At night, there are often cheerful tables of Iraqi families. By day, a veritable rainbow of locals can be seen chowing down.

The coffee is very good, too, as are the sweets such as baklava.

There’s a five-item kids menu – all at $4.95 – that includes spag bol, chicken/lamb souvlaki and chicken fillets.

As I am paying for my lunch, I am bemused to notice a row of slim bottles of Crystal Hot Sauce – the very same brand that tarted up so many of my meals in New Orleans, but in this case the labels also printed with Arabic!

For coffee this time, though, I wander across to Cafe D’Afrique for a very excellent $2.50 latte.

I love this neighbourhood!

Babylon Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Chu Nam quan

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65 Alfrieda St, St Albans. Phone: 9364 5880

By the time I make it to the bustling Viet precinct of Alfrieda St, a sublime appetite is upon me.

First stop is Cairnlea, where I am keen to pursue some unfinished business at Kabayan Filipino Restaurant.

To my dismay, I discover it’s no longer there, being replaced by an Indian joint I deem to pricey for a quickie Sunday lunch.

Just around the corner and a few doors away, though, a shop in the process of being overhauled has a big sign bearing the Kabayan name, so maybe it’s merely moving house.

I figure some tangy, tasty Vietnamese tucker will do just fine, but on the way to Chu Nam Quan I stop by at not one but two Filipino groceries also bearing the Kabayan name, hoping to ascertain the restaurant’s fate.

At the first, I consider the staff are a tad too busy to trifle with me.

A few doors away is Vardar, at which Ms Baklover of Footscray Food Blog had a  fine old time a month or so ago. The sign on the door says, yes, they’re open for Sunday lunch, so up the stairs I go.

No they’re not.

(Aside to my buddy Roger: See, mate, I’d love to list the operating hours of the places we review, but even when there ARE stated hours, there’s no guaranteed they’ll be adhered to. Use the phone …)

At the second Kabayan grocery, right in the St Albans hub itself, I meet a bloke who turns out to be Mr Kabayan himself. He assures me his restaurant will be up and running at its new Cairnlea premises in a few weeks. We’ll certainly keep y’all posted on that.

So Chu Nam Quan it is.

Bennie and I, in our progressive exploration of Alfrieda St, marked this busy place down as one of supreme interest in our previous week’s jaunt to sup at Just Good Food. As well, a comment contributor at Footscray Food Blog had raved about it.

It is one of the rare places the trades in pho and a whole other range of soups, noodles and Chinese dishes.

I am aware that in ordering the tom yam soup in a Viet place I am taking a punt. But the truth is I’ve had me some fine tom yam soups in non-Thai places. And I really dig the idea of getting a taste of that irresistible flavour for a starter price.


My tom yam is emphatically not Thai – or not purely Thai.

Yes, it has that flavour, but it is viscous like Chinese soup – think chicken and sweet corn or, more appropriately, hot and sour.

Packed with lovely small prawns and chopped bits of calamari, tofu, carrot, broccoli, snow peas and red capsicum, it’s delicious – and at $4 quite a handy light meal all on its own.

This appears to be a fine thing, as I am initially disheartened by what appears to be a rather miserly chook portion that arrives with my order of rice with charcoal chicken (com ga nuong, $9).

But in this case at least, appearances deceive.

The chicken is more than substantial enough – and is right up there in the flavour stakes, too.

And like any punter who has eaten out Viet-style in the west with any regularity, I have had this dish many, many times.

The pickled bits of cabbage and carrot are joined – fabulously – by celery.

The dipping sauce is much spicier than I am used to, packed with long, fine strands of more carrot swimming around like the tresses of a punk hippie.

As both parts of my meal arrive more or less at the same time, the bowl of chicken broth that comes with the rice is barely warm by the time I get to it, but is too sweet for my tastes in any case.

Chu Nam Quan is a busy place – I reckon in the time I was there they turned over every table at least once.

Some of the meals I see being ordered and devoured around me look amazingly scrumptious, so we’ll be back.

For a moment, I wish there was some foolproof way of divining exactly the right dishes to order when trying a restaurant out for the first time.

But hit and miss is all part of the fun, eh?

Chu Nam on Urbanspoon

She’s Thai

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208 Somerville Rd, Kingsville. Phone: 9314 5556

How mindlessly presumptuous – and how profoundly wrong.

In all the years we’ve lived in Yarraville or thereabouts, we’ve driven past She’s Thai countless times, but never deigned to enter.

In my mind, I’d painted a picture of this eatery as a low-rent Thai place unworthy of our attention.

This was based on the unfounded inkling that it was just another cheap eat Thai place that mostly likely purveyed food that wasn’t anything special or worse – and at prices a good dollar or two higher than charged for similar and better at our many local Viet and Indian favourites.

But finally, mid-week, curiosity wins out and through the doors of She’s Thai I amble.

From the moment I cross the threshold it’s clear my presumptions are without any basis.

This is a lovely neighbourhood restaurant.


The open kitchen bustles, with adjacent casual area for customers awaiting takeaway orders and the neighbouring more formal dining room adorned with Thai woodwork and decorations. Thai music tinkles in the background and there’s even a table laid out with recent newspapers for those waiting or dining solo.

To cap it all, cackles of glee escape the kitchen as I start taking photos – always a good sign!

I question the gent of Western persuasion – as the nearby sign reads, “She’s Thai But I’m Not!” – about the Thai provenance of the chive dumplings ($5). The gist of his reply seems to be they are to be found in some areas of Thailand while having obviously having a transnational heritage.

I order them anyway. A mistake – but the only one of my visit. These Thai chive dumpling may be paragons, but for me they are too plain and lacking flavour. The two flat dumplings remind me of nothing so much as the spring onion pancakes you find in some Chinese establishments.

My gang massaman (brown beef curry) is much, much better.

I’ve had this dish many times elsewhere, usually enjoying the mild but deep mix of peanut and coconut vibes with chunky meat and – always! – the potato pieces that sing with flavour, so tender they almost become part of the gravy.


The She’s Thai massaman curry ($12.50) is quite different – in fact, more like a goulash, so sticky and gooey is the gravy. The beef is chunky and tender. The coconut flavour is more restrained than I am expecting, though the peanut quotient is high thanks to the pleasing crunch of the many skinless half nuts on offer. They join the expected spuds, crinkle-cut carrots, heaps of pineapple and basil leaves in completing a rich and delicious dish.

A few nights later, I phone in a takeaway order for chicken pad thai ($11.50), which provides a lovely at-home meal of egg noodles, egg, bean sprouts and juicy chicken pieces.

She’s Thai doesn’t do home deliveries, but no matter for us – the place is so close that barely five minutes need pass between leaving and arriving home with the goodies.

And we’ll surely be returning to take in more of the menu on a dine-in basis – for sure something with a bit more colour and zing and spice from the stir fry and salad listings.

I’ll be excited to do so, as She’s Thai is a gem of a place.

Meanwhile, I’ve also had an insider’s thumbs up on At 43, the new Thai place in Yarraville that is Cafe Urbano by day!

She's Thai on Urbanspoon

Dosa Hut

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604 Barkly St, West Footscray. Phone: 9687 0171

Dosa Hut, as far as I’m aware, was the first to bring dosas and the like to our part of the world – and for that I’ll be forever grateful.

For the past year or so, it fell out of favour with us, and by then there were other places to get our dosa fix – most notably,  Vanakkam India.

The reasons we moved on from Dosa Hut were simple – in its earlier days the place had a makeshift ambiance that made us feel a little ill at ease. It was a bit like we felt we were sitting amid hurried preparations for an eatery that was soon to open – rather than enjoying one that was already up and running.

As well, the service had a sort of distracted air about it.

Following a Thursday night foray, I’m very happy to report that Dosa Hut has changed – for the better.

The place has had a low-key fit-out that makes it seem much more welcoming. There’s an extended menu that takes in not just dosas, idlys, vadas and biryani of various stripes, but also noodles, uttapam, omelettes, a range of snacks and even a modest list of Indo-Chinese dishes.

There’s even a display cabinet to one side of the servery filled with fine-looking Indian sweets.

As well, the service could not be more efficient or smiling. I wasn’t counting, but I reckon I received my dosa about five minutes after ordering.

Here and elsewhere I have experimented with various dosa types – variations including onion, cheese, egg, chick, lamb and so on.

But for me, and countless others no doubt, masala dosa is the king.

My Dosa Hut masala dosa ($7.50) was beaut.

Every element of it was fine – crispy pancake, potato stuffing laced with mustard seeds and curry leaves, sambar and two chutneys, one that seemed to be tomato/chilli-based and the other of creamy coconut.

A warning though: All three accompaniments had a degree of chilli hit about them, even the usually cooling coconut number. Nothing to worry most anyone used to eating out in the west, but their combined heat might be a little too incendiary for kids.

It’s real nice knowing Dosa Hut has become a place we’ll be returning to again.

In the meantime, things are changing in Barkly Village.

Opposite Dosa Hut, what used to be an old-style pizza/pasta joint is now a swish new thin-crust genuine Italian pizza place called Gusto On Barkly that is Very High on our “to do” list.

And a bit further down the road towards Footscray proper, what was once half a video rental establishment is soon to become another dosa/biryani outfit!

Oh happy day!

Salaam Namaste Dosa Hut on Urbanspoon