Monthly Archives: April 2021

Street wise

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Chai n Dosa, 310 Ballarat Road, Braybrook. Phone: 0420 262 274

“Street food”?

Ugh.

That term has been soiled and sullied into meaningless submission, perhaps by too many “lifestyle influencers” and perhaps also too many careless and glib mentions in various media outlets.

Of course, at the point this kind of coverage in those kinds of places of that kind food springs forth, there’s almost certainly little that is “street” about the “food”.

Here in the mighty western suburbs of Melbourne, we all have regular access to real-deal street food.

At Chai n Dosa that availability runs to seven days a week.

OK, OK – if you want to get all technical on me, Chai n Dosa is not actually on any street.

Instead, it’s on what used to be on a used car lot.

Used car lot?

Anyone who has been up and/or down this particular stretch of Ballarat Road will know exactly what I mean when I say … it’s the one with the wagon wheel!

But in every other way, Chai n Dosa is the epitome of street food.

Low prices.

Rudimentary eat-in facilities. Just a handful of chairs, actually. Though there are a handwash basin and plenty of paper napkins on hand.

You’ll find those napkins handy as you’ll want to do what all the other customers do – ignore the plastic cutlery and eat with your hands.

And do so while sitting on one of the chairs – or squatting or standing; or maybe using your car bonnet or boot lid as a picnic table.

We use the boulders embedded in the adjacent nature strip – and for sure we aren’t the first to do so!

The menus (see below) are mostly vegetarian and mostly familiar.

The Chai n Dosa crew serve up the likes of chicken pulao later in the week, but for the rest it’s all about carbs.

We like the look of the bonda!

But for our Sunday lunch, we stick to the familiarity of masala dosa ($8.50) and …

… idly and vada ($8.50).

The food is all excellent – and the vada are particularly noteworthy.

They’re a little crunchy on the outside and fluffy inside – and that’s a far cry from the the doughy doughnuts sometimes served up elsewhere.

The accompaniments – sambar and chutney – are likewise exemplary.

And you know what?

It’s all very subjective, but we reckon the food tastes better and we enjoy our meal more for it being had from such a funky street food set-up.

Vietnamese thriller

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Hu Tieu Go Ong Map, 2/203 Ballarat Road (actually on Gordon Street), Footscray. Phone: 9077 7099

How lovely it is to see the oft-times gloomy and unlovely group of shops on Gordon Street, as it meets Ballarat Road, finally hosting some food businesses that are surviving instead of lasting just a few months or weeks.

The latest addition – Hu Tieu Ong Map – is doing more than surviving.

It is positively thriving.

Our long-time buddy and fellow eats nut, Juz, spotted it and tells us every time he passes, it is brimming with happy customers.

When we finally get there ourselves – for two Saturday lunches – we find it equally packed with happiness.

The food quality is high and the service cheerful.

But what sets Hu Tieu Og Map apart is its menu (see below).

Here you’ll find many dishes that are otherwise unseen – as far as we know – in Footscray, Sunshine or St Albans.

They include quite a few featuring the likes of snails and clams.

The noodles are house-made – as is, I suspect, just about everything else.

We are encouraged to try the house signature “knock” noodles ($12).

They can be had as soup or dry with the soup on the side.

Bennie goes all porky with his.

While mine is all about sliced pork and prawns.

In both cases, our soups boast a meaty bone and the dipping sauce has a depth of flavour and lustre rarely seen in Vietnamese restaurants. We attempt to discovers its ingredients, but that mission gets lost amid paying and laughter.

We very much enjoy our knock noodles – the overall vibe is a bit like a cross between more familiar hu tieu dishes and pho.

Deep-fried prawn gyoza ($8 for five) are crunchy taste bombs.

The prawny innards are immersed in a mix that we find is akin to the gingery/oily/garlicky mash usually served with Hainan chicken rice.

It’s only upon revisiting the menu that I realise my curry chicken noodles ($13) we most likely meant to be served with a side dish of sprouts and greenery.

No matter at all because I love all of this.

It’s very mild in the Vietnamese way and has carrot chunks in addition to the chicken. Like poultry bo kho!

This is the familiar grilled chicken vermicelli ($13.50).

Except in several ways it is not familiar at all – the Hu Tieu Ong Map version explodes with more flavour and texture and joy than just about any other rendition we have come across in the greater western suburbs.

It’s fantastic in every way.

And there’s a stack of roasted peanuts.

We love that.