A marvellous, mixed-up Footscray feed

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Time To Eat, 123 Nicholson Street, Footscray. Phone: 0405 526 729

For as long as I can remember, 123 Nicholson Street has been occupied by a chicken shop.

Has it ever been anything else?

In any case, these days it is something to behold.

Time To eat is run by husband-and-wife team Harera and Lageal Amea.

He boasts Lebanese heritage; she, Indian background.

Backgrounds of their staff members range through Lebanese, Nepalese and Fijiian.

On my visits here I have noted an equally diverse customers base that mirrors many of the eateries in the area, including those of the three ostensibly Turkish kebab houses.

The UN ain’t got nuthin’ on us!

 

 

The Time To Eat salad display features the expected gloopy coleslaw and seafood extender offering (familiar from chicken shops everywhere) – but also tabouli and a Greek salad.

 

 

Another cabinet boasts a handsome range of Lebanese-style pizzas and pies.

I take a spicy potato and a lamb pie home with me; they’re excellent.

At the front of the shop are Lebanese sweets.

 

 

The chicken here come in varieties such as lemon and herb and tandoori.

My half chook, tabouli and chips costs a top-notch $16 with a can of soft drink.

In truth, there is only the faintest whiff of tandoori flavour about my chicken, but it’s still pretty good – as is the tabouli.

I see my chips being doused with some sort of chicken salt variant, missing by a millisecond the opportunity to get them with plain salt.

But even that doesn’t phase, such a nice time am I having.

Otherwise the chips are hot and crisp.

 

180 thoughts on “A marvellous, mixed-up Footscray feed

  1. Most africans in footscray are ethiopian & sudanese,even though south sudanese is not same Khartoum now.they do on census knowledge these type of cover stories.ie can’t be included somali

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      • saaxil lets be honest,somalian footscray most are old style,the barbershop in arcade with exception those french st and the cafes are mostly old fashion,how do you expect food tours to take you serious!

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      • saaxil can you PM the west fooscray thing. brother the south sudanese restaurant is still going. check your Vp email i send you staff.

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      • South sudanese restaurant on paisley is amazing hidden cafe. But all my visits i was the only somali, its not mainstream also . good host

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      • But they have somali customers that south sudanese restaurants but on my visits i didn’t see any,its mainly south sudanese

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      • The tv on the corner with dancing sudanese traditional takes you back to that country,, great restaurant with smile always.the food is different to Khartoum around the corner.

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      • yes they are still a community cafe.a number of times i been i was the only non south sudanese,but i am somali but for non afro community its still a little out of their way. the man running the place and the nepalese cashier are wonderful they make you comfortable with music on screen tv.

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    • i know footscray is not flemington but we have fairly large somali community in footscray area ahmed if you are talking census population of african!

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      • there are 4 somali cafes in footscray,but all are unassuming.one is burger style,one is hidden in african mall,the other two can be assumed to be ethiopian. most people are not aware the somali presence in footscray,even thought half of businesses on paisley st ,nicholson st and french st are somali & 90% of businesses in footscray business hub are somali.we have strong presence in fooscray

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    • i don’t have issue west being pet shopping tour for the white community,they may not see such communities the hoods they are from but it can get drowning when you see often😊😊

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      • i am african there are white cuisine like burgers i like but there caucasian cafes that i don’t go not because the food is bad but i am simply not interested & its strange if i hire bus full of black people and start to fo tour on these caucasian cafes in footscray.

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    • Ha love that suggestion.but i hate to tell you but they will think we just landed on melbourne airport yesterday from Africa like real tourist, its only culturally appreciate for white community who are majority in this country to tour the “DIFFERENT strange little ones living in their country”. I like all cultural food and i do respect, i do like some Caucasian foods, particularly the English breakfast but there are many other dishes which i find hard to eat.i remember one time being served “just fruit” in the name of aussie breakfast, i like fruits later hours but early morning breakfast man it was hard,out of respect i eat it, it was popular breakfast dish .it was an experience its self.there was uncooked egg on top of it;,africans usually prefer cooked but things got worse for me as egg broke & covered every tiny think on my plate,if knew it was uncooked i could push aside and ignored but it was experience for me. But presentation looked absolutely amazing i have to give credit for that and service was perfect.

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      • But the white people near me seem to love it, now i learned to say please don’t toast my bread and please cooked egg thank you ha. People there appreciated the dryness of these dishes, almost like eating dry weathbix with friuts. they prefer toasted bread with fruits leafs nuts and uncooked egg was suppose to do the moisture job. I respect peoples cultural food.the regulars was enjoying 100% more importantly

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      • they say minority food is different,yes sometimes it can like goat dishes or eating with hands but i think food from white community can be more scary to try,and its not because we never seen avacados or sandwich or nuts ,its just how they combine items in one dish can be scary for minorities. they only say minoriyy is different because its food politic, and food from majority groups should be attractive and norm

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    • Vegimate,ok i tried and i was happy that i tried in my private home and not in public or on tv because i didn’t swallow it.i don’t what they were thinking of those invented.

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  2. i think if you practice you can get your head around to it these Caucasian eateries, some of them do have like sausages, and you can avoid other so called scary mixes, they do avoid some of our scary dishes like goat,camel or food that requires you to get your hand dirty.but i understand the options can be limited in those Caucasian cafes,but you can find that ONE plate if you try hard

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    • the white communities are not known for “spicy”. its eastern world thing culturally. they will put little seasoning on steak and they are happy.what we consider plane taste, for them its delicious.their tongue is adopted to it so its what you grow up with.cultural difference cooking style. for eg; even little thing like try caucasian soup,its pumpkin and just tastes hot pumpkin.

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      • but i am adopted to some of these caucasian way of cooking,i can eat steak potatoes without saying did you forgot spices.ptactice makes perpfect

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      • Yeh for white community plane food means i can not see many ingredients on the plate but for eastern world plane foos is i can’t taste many spices ie lacks spices.

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  3. i like baked egg/tomato shakshuka seved with slice bread,not toasted one but i could eat breaky and lunch.we africans should give it ago,i know sometimes these cafes can appear as if they grabed nuts and leafs from tree and throw it on top if the slice bread but if you look hard their menu you can find something to taste it.& why not african tour in toorak ,who cares about food politic ☺

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    • that dish is so similar to somalian bread/tips curry.you are not being brave girl hahaha. you need to try leafs on slice to take you serious

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      • their dinner dishes is not so scary as breaky,i am down with a giant junk of steak for perfect aussie dinner,now that is 2 hours sport in resraurant.. any other african keen to join 😀

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  4. you all fail to mention the muffins/coffee for their breakfast ,its just perfect combination,its like sambusa /tea ,they get that one right i recon. i like wheat strawbery fruity staf but with milk can like wheatbix can be fine but how they eat in their cafes with dry dry stone like toast i can’t.but every culture you can find things hard to bite

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  5. I wouldn’t compare somali camel dish to Caucasian breakfast, the name of animal(exotic ) scares them not actually taste or looks ,for most part if they are not its camel they will eat like beef, but i find scary the Caucasian breaky not because of name but actually the combination . The interesting version is the slice bread under the other staf is actually originated from the bread curry versions we have in east, but interesting part is how they formed their version, it revolves around not getin your hands dirty,instead dipping the bread in curry uisng hands they created in a form where you can eat with knive and fork, slice bread under the rest lot ..

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      • Ha😁 if you give Somali breakfast chapati liver curry to a white person, 99% they will eat like toasted slice breakfast, chapati sits bottom liver curry on to and start eating with knife and fork if they use their imagination.

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  6. now i am confused , i really need bus tour to toorak,actually caucasuan breakfast is as diverse as it can be, the british particularly english breakfast is less scary.

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  7. guys its better to stick to topic, considerthesauce i think they are talking about “shah post”, they are replying to his post it looks!

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  8. the pasta is italian too but you don’t need to review it but its commonly available in all somali eatries , most food reviewers generally they don’t include it.but its popular with somalis.

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      • ok its different to italian,not many aussies eat somali pasta but somalis they eat alot.but their pizza and burger is just aussie/italian. there is good pizza in footscray ,i like encore pizza in corner barkly st/french st, for good burgers 8bit droops is good

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      • somali pasta is sahras kitchen or safari restaurant in ascot vale but but the one aussies eat is like new somali kitchen but that is version is not what normally eat home.somalis they like it oily and dry version.but maistream ones generally not dry

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  9. safari restaurant is good somalian eatery in ascot vale,not many somalis live there but enough to support safari restaurant.in union rd

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      • Yes, Acsot Vale is west as far as we’re concerned. Safari was actually the first Somalian restaurant we started eating in. There are several reviews if you want to search for them. It’s been a while since we’ve been there. I said to Bennie last week, we should get back there soon.

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  10. huxataburger upholds australian value,politics shouldn’t be used. i don’t like burgers but huxta has the market it needs.making happy aussie tummies daily.

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