Monthly Archives: March 2012

Abbout Falafel House

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Falafel plate at Abbout Falafel House in Sydney Rd, Coburg.

 

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.

Abbout Falafel House on Urbanspoon

World’s longest lunch

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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 …

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UPDATE (July 29, 2012): Review of the new Pandu’s is HERE.

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.

A sister blog for Consider The Sauce

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FIND IT HERE

Originally, I envisaged Consider The Sauce might combine both the foodie themes for which it is now famed AND my musical loves.

However, as I climbed the steep incline of learning about blogging and its dynamics, I realised that would be muddying the waters.

As well, it seems – perhaps for the first in my life and perhaps only in the short-term – I am all “written out” when it comes to music.

For more than a decade now, it’s been part of my routine, upon rolling out of bed, to feverishly log on to the likes of the now defunct Blue Note bulletin board and forums at places such as Jazz Corner and Organissimo for endless, often fiery and frequently hilarious talk on all manner of music, along with politics, sport, religion and food. And, not infrequently, all at the same time!

The pleasure, enlightenment, wisdom and friendship I have been blessed with by being part of these conversations has enriched my life immeasurably.

Yet, as with others, the need is less pressing these days – indeed, as of today, it’s been about two weeks since I checked into the big O.

At the same time, though, doing Consider The Sauce has not only heightened my awareness of the food culture of the Melbourne’s greater western suburbs – it has done likewise for the western suburbs in general.

This, of course, is a very fine thing.

But along the way Bennie and I are coming across things, people, places and scenes that tickle our fancy, make us think and reflect or burst out laughing that simply don’t fit within the Consider The Sauce framework.

Of course, some of them have been getting a run here anyway – a car atop a shipping container in Tottenham, some apologetic graffiti in Sunshine and the like.

But now it’s time for these snippets of western suburbs life to have their own home at a sister blog to Consider The Sauce.

Called Snap West, its aim will be to post a photo a day of some of aspect of western suburbs life that has caught our eyes or turned our heads.

A photo a day doesn’t sound like a lot, but I’m sure there’ll be times when it’ll the last thing on our minds and quite a hassle.

Yet oddly enough, I have a hunch that it’s the snaps taken in those sort of circumstances that may end up being the most evocative.

Perhaps unlike Consider The Sauce, there will be no great ambitions for this new blog.

Hopefully, it’ll just simply unfold and evolve.

If folks visit and comment, that’ll be very cool.

If not, well that’ll be OK, too!

PS: I reckon the Vertigo theme of Snap West is gorgeous! How about it for Consider The Sauce?

Peko Peko

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Pop culture shrine, Japan-Taiwan-style, at Peko Peko in South Melbourne.

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.

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.

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.

Peko Peko on Urbanspoon

Tasty CBD icon embraces nightclub-style crowd control …

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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!

Golden Grill Turkish Restaurant

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Felafel plate at Golden Grill Turkish Restaurant in Werribee.

Felafel plate at Golden Grill Turkish Restaurant in Werribee.

Golden Grill Turkish Restaurant,  38 Station St, Werribee. Phone: 9741 7101

A dry argument, dry like wine?

Neither, but this is a story of dryness.

Golden Grill in Werribee had been on the radar for a while.

Somehow, I’d picked up the vibe that this was more than just a quickie kebab joint.

But every time, for quite a while there, I was in the vicinity, it was closed.

Today I’m in luck.

A bunch of uniformed chaps are bustling through the fag end of the lunch hour.

The marinated meats in the display at the front look succulent, as do the displayed sweets.

Out the back, Golden Gill becomes a real-deal Turkish eatery.

There’s lovely wooden furniture of a certain age – not antique, but not shiny new either.

There’s travel posters of Turkey – a couple of which I even recognise from them playing a similar role in our beloved Footscray Best Kebab House.

Also adorning the walls are newspaper clippings about the restaurant and photos of staff posing with happy customers.

It’s all good, it’s all familiar and it all augurs well.

So, as you can see, I am most favourably inclined towards Golden Grill.

So what goes wrong?

I order the felafel plate ($15.90).

Before then, however, I indulge in one of the place’s stuffed vine leaves ($2.50).

This is big and hard – making me think that for once it may have been better to have my dolma cigar heated through.

But all is fine once I’m into the eating of it – the tomato-infused rice has that distinctive, familiar tang. It’s delicious!

The felafel plate price is quite high, but I figure the gauge will be in the results.

The felafal balls themselves are large and also quite hard. The flavour is fine. But – oh dear – they are so dry that eating them becomes a jaw-taxing chore.

Perhaps my eggplant dip, which has no smokiness but a nice garlic/lemon thing going on, will help ease the way?

Nope.

Claggy is the word.

If it’s possible for a dip to be dry, then this is dry.

I turn for help to the salad bits and pieces – which include some tabouli.

All is crispy, crunchy and fresh – but unadorned to the point of austerity.

My meal cries out for some moistness – specifically a generous hand with the olive oil and lemon juice.

Maybe next time the gorgeous-looking marinated meats spied on the way in!

Golden Grill Turkish Restaurant on Urbanspoon