Meet Lina.
She’ll do you a do or a haircut with a smile and skill.
Lina’s Hair Salon is at 1/7 Kinnear Street, Footscray.
What Lina cannot do is provide with you with a lunch or a dinner – or even a snack – of barbecue.
Which is quite at odds with a recent listing on Urbanspoon.
Whatever the origins of this mystery, Lina is being a good sport about.
She is, however, fielding phone calls from barbecue fans wishing to book tables.
But at least I know where to go to get my next haircut!
Brother Nancy escaped my radar right up to and past Erika’s marshmallow story.
Lately, though, it has become for me a very good road coffee alternative to my usual haunts – I love it that parking is such a breeze.
Today is just right for a Brother Nancy lunch.
I’ve been driving around somewhat aimlessly – to Sunshine and back, for gosh sake – without fixing on an eats decision.
You know what?
I realise that while driving I had been far from idle – I’ve actually been working on a blog post.
Really.
I suspect I’m far, far from alone in being a writer who, by the time I front the keyboard, has the whole story virtually complete “in my head”.
Including punctuation.
Anyway, now it’s time for lunch.
I love the Brother Nancy space and vibe.
And I love the menu – with its Francophile outlook, it has really strong and laudable points of difference with all other inner-west cafes.
My crisp polenta chick pea and warm vegetable salad ($13) is a pearler that eats every bit as good as it looks.
The chick peas are superb in their tomatoey sauce.
The plump polenta patty is crisp only on the exterior – inside it’s delicate, steaming and wonderfully homely.
All the bits and pieces are good, too, including peeled baby tomatoes!
Though the shaved fennel adds nothing by way of flavour.
It seems unlikely at this point that the possibility of about 200 apartments going up on the site of what is currently 501 Receptions will generate the same kind of uproar that greeted the developmental threat to the Dancing Dog building.
Still, doing a story about those plans has seen me engage in a number of interesting conversations about urban living and planning.
No one I’ve talked to is opposed to development – but that support usually comes with a proviso that new buildings be of high quality and intelligently designed.
There’s the rub …
One intensely interested West Footscray local also brought into focus for me the fact that the 501 Receptions proposal is just one of many changes taking place within a very small area.
I had been at least subliminally aware of most of them, unaware of others – but taken as a whole, they certainly signal a neighbourhood in transition.
What is driving these changes?
Is the demand really there for so many apartments and townhouses – or is there always an element of guesswork in such investments?
I wonder, too, if there is a cadre of long-time landlords and property owners who have been passive investors for decades but who are suddenly feeling the inclination to cash in.
If so, why?
On Barkly Street – between 501 Receptions and Dosa Hut/Dosa Corner, and amid much commercial activity of various kinds – there is a surprisingly high number of residential properties.
I wonder what their future is in a time of neighbourhood flux.
Likewise, how secure is the future for the old Barkly Street churches?
Opposite 540 On Barkly stands what can accurately be called a paddock.
It bears a “for lease” sign.
Further along, and opposite Ovest, is another vacant lot, this one not so big and without signage.
There’s another paddock on the corner of Clive and Russell streets, behind Dosa Corner.
What was once a funky ’60s-style church is now definitely earmarked for apartments, I’m told.
Further along, opoosite West Footscray Vet Clinic, stood for many decades a neighbourhood mechanic.
I’m told that one minute a few weeks back it was there and about 30 later it was gone, the land destined for … apartments and/or townhouses.
According to the vet clinic folks, “people who have been bringing their animals to us for years had been taking their cars there for years”.
Back in the village, the two shops between Dosa Hut and the paint shop are to become townhouses, six of the eight already sold, according to the sign.
According to a post on the Barkly Village Facebook page, the defaced property next to the laundrette is all set to become an amusement parlour – “primary use seems to be for billiards and games machines”.
Also in the village, GM Manchester is adorned with “closing down” signs.
The short-lived Akshaya Indian street food enterprise is giving way to a WeFo branch of Biryani House.
When I have a peek, they look like they’re just about ready to roll …
Saudagar has been a Footscray fixture for years.
I’ve had their cholle bhatura and tried some of their sweets.
But it’s never appealed as an obvious or attractive place in which to obtain a nice, cheap feed of Indian tucker.
So I am delighted – thrilled even! – to discover the place has been spruced up a bit with some new furniture and a much more welcoming look that says, “Come and eat here!”
Aside from the sweets, the prices – AFAIK – are the cheapest in the inner west: Vegetarian main courses all about $8, meat mains about $10, chicken biryanai $9.
I enjoy a vegetarian thali priced at $8.
Unbuttered naan – and that’s fine by me.
Excellent, uncreamy daal that has a nice hit of ginger and appears to be made of aduki beans.
Malai kofta – wonderfully delicate and toothsome potato and cheese balls in a creamy cashew nut sauce.
Fluffy rice, pickles, onion slices.
I love my Saudagar lunch but I’m not about to tell you that it’s exceptional in any way – and that’s a profound testament to just how rich we are in the west of terrific Indian food.
More than a year ago, I tried to sweet talk the proprietor of 501 Receptions in West Footscray into letting me do a story on his operation.
Specifically, I wanted to spend a Saturday night at 501 Receptions taking in the go-to-whoa of an event such as a wedding – taking in along the way the staff, the kitchen, the food, everything.
Nothing came of my idea – even after a mutual acquaintance, someone who is something of an elder statesman of western suburbs food, tried to ease the way with 501 Receptions on my behalf.
Now I find that, under plans before Maribyrnong council, the future of 50 Receptions is very much up in the air.
According to a story by my Star Weekly colleague Benjamin Millar – read it here – council is considering a development proposal that would see the property home to 198 units in twin five-storey blocks plus eight retail tenancies.
I am not automatically opposed to such a development but such a plan certainly raises many questions.
The plans show carparking spaces to the tune of 201 while, according to Ben’s story, council guidelines would require a minimum of 260 spaces.
According to Ben’s story …
“A traffic assessment by engineering consultant Cardno found ‘anticipated traffic volume … is expected to have no significant impact on the surrounding road network’.”
Hmmm … I wonder what data and/or methodology they used to reach such a conclusion?
As anyone knows who regularly drives on Barkly Street, West Footrscray, or on Rupert or Cross streets, which run parallel to the railways tracks, the traffic situation in the area can get quite intense even with the current housing/resident levels.
And it would seem the revamp of West Footscray station is rather timely – but are there, or should there be, limits?
I’m interested in hearing from anyone who regularly uses either West Footscray or Tottenham stations as to whether either is nearing or already at peak capacity, especially in peak hours.
And on top of Banbury Village, what would such an apartment block plan mean for the area more generally in terms of what is often referred to as “amenity”?
Bug Boxes are very clever self-watering, modular raised garden beds that uses wick technology to water plants from the bottom up.
Bug Boxes are built by a team of former refugee and Australian-born carpenters at the Footscray Maker Lab in West Footscray.
They are being created, using 100% recycled materials, under the auspices of BEAUT – Burmese Enterprise Association for Urban Trading.
As it says on the BEAUT website: “When you buy a Bug Box, you give an ex-refugee tradie a job.”
They are priced from $49 to $119, with delivery with seedlings to suburbs in the west costing $10.
To arrange a Bug Box purchase, visit the BEAUT Facebook store – but be warned: the Facebook store doesn’t load on mobile devices so you will need to order from a laptop or desktop.
Bennie and I felt very honoured indeed to be invited to the Bug Box party at Fooscray Makers Lab – but we did wonder how many, if any, people we would know there.
We need not have worried in that regard.
Among the cheerful throng were …
… Mia from West Welcome Wagon – you can read about the forthcoming WWW/CTS Greek feast fundraiser at Santorini here.
There are still tickets available but they WILL sell out.
Mia is the one with the very surprised look on her face.
On the right is Liana, one of the wonderful brains behind Footscray bar Littlefoot.
Consider The Sauce has taken its time about getting around to visiting Littlefoot but as it happens we had visited for dessert post-Pandu’s just a few nights before.
So I was happy to tell Liana that I consider Littlefoot’s “injera and hazelnut chocolate pinwheels with creamy coconut dipping sauce” a work of intense genius.
Frankly: We can’t wait to return to try out the entire menu.
Stay tuned!
Liana and her family were just some of the friends I’d made during the Dancing Dog building campaign who were in attendance at the Bug Box shindig.
Some of the teenagers attending were only too happy to display their social deftness.
Crowning the happy gathering was a really fine spread of Burmese tucker.
The lighting situation was challenging to say the least – suffice it to say the food was delicious, even if the photographs fail to convey that fact very well!
We haven’t eaten at Pandu’s for a good long while and we’re excited to be back.
Even more so because among our group of six are two people who have pretty much eaten the inner west dry but have yet to dine at this Footscray Indo-Chinese institution.
And there’s two others have never tried Indo-Chinese at all!
After we enter and a get a table, I realise there have been changes at Pandu’s.
There’s more people in the kitchen.
The prices have crept up – but not too much.
And there’s a new menu that considerably broadens Pandu’s previously hardcore Indo-Chinese line-up.
There’s biryanis, dosas and – oh yes! – cholle bhatrua and pooris with potato maslala.
Most of those will have to wait for another day, however, as we stick – with one exception – to Indo-Chinese.
One member of our group is quite taken with idea of nachos salad as spied on the online menu – as am I.
So we order two.
What we get is, well, weird.
Doritos drizzled with some yogurt and sprinkled with not a lot of cheese, onion and greenery.
It’s OK to nibble on before our more fully cooked goodies arrive.
But Doritos?
Ugh!
In quick time, arriving at our table are …
… vegetable manchurian …
… cauliflower 65 and …
… pepper fish.
By unanimous acclaim, the fish is our meal’s big winner.
Encased in a delicious but not particularly peppery coating are gorgeously tender and tasty chunks of white fish.
As Josh says: “I could eat these all night!”
The gobi and vegetable ball dishes – standard orders for Bennie and I at Pandu’s – are good, too, though a little wetter than we’ve had on previous occasions.
We bulk up our meal by ordering another standard for us …
… veggie hakka noodles as well as …
… veggie Singapore fried rice.
Both are simple but very good in that trans-national way that we usually expect more of the food from Malaysia or Singapore but which is right at home with Indo-Chinese.
Finally, we also enjoy a fine chicken biryani – which I forget to photograph!
Bennie and I reckon the portion sizes of non-carb Indo-Chinese selections may have been a bit smaller than on previous visits – but that could be because there’s so many pals with us tonight and the food disappears quickly.
As well, we note that the shredded cabbage is of a rougher cut that makes it less appealing to incorporate into our meal, and that the gobi, fish and vegetable balls are not adorned with the usual jumble of chillis, curry leaves, onion and capsicum.
But still, these are minor quibbles – Pandu’s remains our go-to place for Indo-Chinese.
I have not kept track of prices as I expect to just call up the Pandu’s website when I get home.
But now I discover the prices there are not up to date!
But here’s the biz – for all of the above food, and a fine meal, the six of us pay a few bucks over $90.
That is, about $15 each!
Fantastic!
Footscray Milking Station has been around for about three years now but never before covered in any way by Consider The Sauce.
We’ve dropped in for coffee or sanger on a few occasions but …
Recently it’s become a regular for me when seeking a nice place to have a quick lunch on one of my mid-week days off, after I have taken care of blogging and associated tasks at home.
I like it – a lot – that there always seems to be ample parking.
The place is always warm and inviting.
And the coffee is grand.
A few weeks back, I had – from the specials board – a fine panini of house-smoked salmon, creamed cheese, rocket and pickled shallots.
That board is always worth checking out – one of these days, I’ll have the soup.
Today I go for the salad bowl ($12).
Normally, roast vegetable salads are no-go territory for me as they invariably number pumpkin among the ingredients.
Not today – so I’m in.
Instead, there’s big, beefy chunks of succulent fennel, chick peas, lots of parsley and even – unadvertised! – pistachio nuts, all of them dressed with a masterful touch.
I mind not in the least the other salad also includes fennel.
In this case, it’s shaved so there’s a very cool contrast with the roast version.
In my second salad, there’s also cucumber, baby tomatoes, rocket, dill and black sesame seeds.
Again, the dressing is amazing – tangy and with just right amount of moisture to ensure ease of eating without sodden-ness.
It’s a superb, knockout lunch.
When Erika en
tered the CTS guest post contest, she hinted at “degrees of separation” links between she and I but wisely kept the details to herself. Turns out she is a fellow traveller with myself on the journalism/writer road and we have many overlapping professional and personal connections. I truly loved her contest-winning story and the subsequent review of her family’s prize lunch at Woven. And now that we’ve met face-to-face over lunch, I also know she and her husband (yes, the one that interviewed me for a job about a decade ago …) are determined and even forensic about exploring the many wonderful food options right on their Footscray front door step. So I am very happy to announce that Erika will be writing regularly for CTS. We don’t know quite how this is going to shake out yet – but we figure somewhere between once a week and once a month. I am excited about the contrast Erika will provide to my own ramblings and the small children perspective she will bring to CTS proceedings – that’s important now Bennie is a young man! I hope you enjoy her contributions as much as I know I will!
By Erika Jonsson
When my son Joe was younger I rarely had to pay for a ’cino.
I would drink my coffee and read the paper while Joe made a happy mess of his froth, a milk moustache always adorning his top lip at the end.
Over time, babycinos have become a happy habit for many families like mine – and the prices have gone up accordingly.
I made the mistake of ordering one without asking the price at a popular Footscray coffee stop and was gobsmacked to pay $2.
Since then I always check, and if it’s more than $1 Joe and I share a hot chocolate.
I have a collection of photos from our babycino dates that shows my son growing too quickly from a toddler into a boy.
In July last year, Joe became a big brother to Hugh.
It’s a role he cherishes and we have all settled into life as a family of four pretty well.
As Hugh has grown, Joe and I have found a chance for regular time together again on Thursday mornings at a garden in Maidstone.
One day a couple of months ago I noticed a café in Essex St, West Footscray, and pulled up without notice.
We headed inside Brother Nancy and I asked the price of a babycino.
“They’re free. And they come with a marshmallow.”
Since that day we’ve stopped almost every week for a decaf latte, a babycino and usually a yo-yo.
It’s a beautiful ritual that doesn’t break the bank.
Owner Leigh is passionate about his free babycinos – he has choice words perhaps not fit for publication about cafes that charge a premium for a bit of froth.
When he opened Brother Nancy six months ago, he wanted to create a place that families could visit regularly for restaurant-quality food in their own neighbourhood.
His chef had trialled at Vue de Monde and Atlantic but embraced the chance to create his own menu without limits in an inner-suburban setting.
At the moment nothing on the menu costs more than $16.50, and every dish I’ve seen is full of quality ingredients generously served.
But it’s the ’cinos and the warm service (and Proud Mary coffee) that keep us going back.
This week Hugh joined us for his first babycino.
Joe stole his marshmallow and most of his froth ended up on the floor, but Hugh wore his milk moustache with glee and a prized new memory was created.
Leigh, your café is the first where we’ve been regulars – and that’s not likely to change any time soon.
After the excitement of the Dancing Dog building auction, Bennie, Che and I are up for lunch – a late lunch by our standards.
Footscray Best Kebab House is a long-time fave of Consider The Sauce – see older story here.
The truth is, though, that my couple of visits in the past year or so have had me wondering if this great place has lost its edge.
My solo meals seemed to lack some sparkle and the serves seemed a little on the mean side.
But on this visit, we work out a way to make FBKH really sing again.
For the three of us we order a large lamb kebab meal ($16) and three stuffed vine leaves ($1.50 each).
The stuffed vine leaves are fine but slightly redundant to our purposes.
The ordering of a main kebab meal for the three of us turns out to be a masterstroke.
The chilli dip is as sensational as ever and the yogurt dip (spinach in this case) is also beaut.
The salad is the usual cool and very unique-to-this-place jumble of vegetables.
The lamb is sensational, especially mixed with judiciously with both dips.
But here’s the thing – this single large kebab plate does all three of us just fine.
Much, much more affordable than ordering a small plate apiece at $14 – and it makes much better use of the big serves of the fabulous fresh bread that are routine here.
Brilliant!
It is a wonderfully improvised approach that takes us to Footscray’s Croatian Club this chilly Friday night.
It’s the usual drill – get in the car and seek food with a handful of only vague locations rattling around in our minds.
We’ve enjoyed the food at Restaurant Katarina Zrinski several times but it’s been at least a couple of years since we visited.
(Katarina Zrinski is apparently considered “one of the greatest women in Croatian history” – see wikipedia entry here.)
It’s good to be back in this big, cheerful room.
As expected on a Friday night, the place is pretty much fully booked – not full yet but working on it.
But we’re early enough to snag one of the undressed table, joining another pair of walk-in non-Croatian types.
On previous visits here we’ve mostly loved the grills – things such as cevapcici and raznjici (grilled pork pieces), served with chips and utterly brilliant cabbage salad of the kind so often found in cuisines of eastern Europe.
Tonight, though, and perhaps feeling the onset of winter in our bones, we go big on old-school Croatian comfort food.
But not before tucking into a massive bowl of girice ($11) as found on the specials blackboard.
“You have got to be joking!” proclaims Bennie as our whitebait arrive at our table.
In New Zealand, I grew up regularly eating whitebait of a much smaller kind, usually mixed in a gloopy batter and fried as fritters.
These whitebait are much, much different – bigger, deep-fried, salty, crunchy and very fishy.
Despite his eye-popping surprise at being presented with so many fishes, Bennie likes them as much as I do.
There’s way too many of them for us, though – we don’t even eat half.
They come across to me as an ideal sort of snacky bar food along the same lines as beer nuts, though the staff tell me that is certainly not the intention.
From there we head into much more familiar and heart-warming territory …
Mains here hover around $18 for smaller serves and $25 for larger portions – more if you’re inclined to seafood.
But we’ve learnt from previous visits that the larger deals – especially of the non-grill meals – are humongously big.
So we get smart by ordering $17.50 serves of sarma (cabbage rolls) and “gulas”.
We do good as this turns out, on top of the whitebait, to be just right for two moderately hungry boys.
The cabbage rolls are both different from any I’ve enjoyed before and as good as any I’ve eaten.
The point of different comes from the filling being less rice and more meat, in this case a tangy mix of both pork and beef.
The dollop of mash belies its plain appearance by being an excellent foil for the meaty rolls.
Until recently, Bennie and his mum enjoyed both our mains as cooked by a now former neighbour of theirs named Draga.
Bennie announces with a lofty voice of authority: “There’s no doubt that Draga’s cabbage rolls are better than these!”
Man, Draga’s cabbage rolls must be to-die-for!
The gulas is a stunner – and very generous for a so-called smaller serve.
Atop gorgeously smooth mash, the beefy stew is rich and has heaps of tender meat.
As far as I can tell, it’s cooked with not much more than onion and seasoned with little more than salt and pepper – but that means it’s sublime in its simplicity and packed with earthy soul.
Free advice: Don’t order the large gulas unless you’re sharing!
I suspect that, for ourselves and many other inner-west residents, Restaurant Katarina Zrinski falls off the radar a little.
That’s a shame as the food is great, it’s a very family-friendly place and the service is fine.
Check out the Restaurant Katarina Zrinski here.
Barbers of European or Mediterranean extraction are not the only places to obtain a cheap, great and enjoyable haircut in the west.
Far from it.
In the Vietnamese precincts of Footscray and further west, the options are many.
When I enter one of these emporiums in, say, Sunshine or St Albans, my arrival is often greeted with an effusive bubbling of Vietnamese chatter.
This usually translates, I have learnt, as something along the lines of, “OMG check out this dude with the crazy moustache”.
This doesn’t happen at Mai in Footscray, however, on account of me going there so often for so long.
Mai is not a barbershop, of course.
They do all sorts of do’s here, male and female.
But for my purposes, it’s perfect.
A smile, a welcome, “how you want your hair?” is the usual routine.
“Zero, all gone, very shiny.”
No problem – $8 including eyebrows!
Brilliant.
Consider The Sauce may end up doing a more substantial write-up on Dosa Corner, the new Indian place opposite long-established Dosa Hut on Barkly Street in West Footscray – when there are a tableful of mouths to feed.
In the meantime, here’s the goss.
Dosa Corner has been open about a week, there’s incense burning, the place is bright and cheerful, and the service good considering this is a snack-type joint.
The menu is quite long and super cheap.
There’s dosas aplenty, of course.
But there’s also chaat, uthappams, quite a few Indo-Chinese dishes, biryanis and a trio of sweets.
Get a load of the above-pictured pooris!
The freshly fried breads are a little smaller than usual but very good.
The gloopy dal/vegetable mix is excellent.
The other accompaniments are those that attend your typical dosas.
The price?
$5.
How’s that for a brilliant light lunch?
Consider The Sauce has been to Snow Tree once before when it was mostly a waffle/sweets place.
In the ensuing months I have been somewhat aware that the place has been evolving.
But it was only very recently that I noted that it now has a much more fetching interior and a much-extended menu.
Snow Tree has become a full-on Korean restaurant!
So it is that the same Team CTS of four rocks up for a feed.
Fried chicken is very much on our minds.
So at first we are shattered when we discover there is a big red cross drawn right through the fried chook section of the menu proper.
No problem – it’s all on its own laminated card.
But at Snow Tree, it has to be said, the fried chook list, the lunch menu and the menu proper are difficult to navigate, with a confusing range of “sets” and options.
Hard to know just how to do it for a group of four.
We settle on a whole chook to share and a main with condiments each.
Yep, we’re in over-order territory but not by much.
One of our mains is forgotten, but the boo-boo turnaround is admirably swift and in no way detracts from our dinner enjoyment.
Our whole chicken costs $29.
It’s just fine.
It comes with the requested “spicy” sauce and is festooned with chips.
Korean fried chicken has so rapidly become a bit of a craze that there seems to be heap of folks – bloggers and others – who are experts.
I am not one of them.
So I simply do not know if the chips and the masses of sticky sauce are traditional, normal or even acceptable.
For me, the chips seem redundant.
The sauce is spicy but makes for a supremely sticky – but not necessarily unenjoyable – eating experience.
The chicken itself?
Excellent.
My spicy beef “rip” stew ($14.50) is a bit of a mixed bag.
The gravy/soup is not terrifically spicy but has a tremendous depth of flavour.
I love the way it works with the vegetables and some rice.
There’s heaps of beef rib bits with sizable meat chunks (and fat). But the meat itself is chewy to the point of closing in on inedible.
Dang!
Bennie and Eliza both enjoy their “stone” bibimbap ($12), and I note with some envy that the rice bottom of Bennie’s dish is suitably brown and crunchy.
Josh goes for the spicy pork belly on rice ($10.50) and I hear no complaints from him.
The kimchee, slaw, bean sprouts and roast potato cubes (we think that’s what they are) that accompany all our dishes are OK without evincing much finesse.
The above-noted forgotten dish aside, the service is good and the wait times about right for the dishes we have ordered.
All minor quibbles aside, we enjoy our time at Snow Tree.
It strikes us as a winning Footscray spot for Korean food that can cater for a quick ten-buck solo lunch or for more relaxed meals for larger groups.
And the menu is comprehensive!
Entries for Consider The Sauce Guest Post Competition were slow in arriving but in the end we got a goodly number.
All were good.
A couple were longer and more detailed than the winner.
But in the end, the honours go to Erika Jonsson for her eloquent and soulful homage to Footscray.
Congratulations and we hope you enjoy your lunch at Woven.
And thanks to all who entered!
By Erika Jonsson
My four-year-old son’s fingertips are stained yellow.
He’s licked them clean but the turmeric always lingers in the beds of his nails for a day or two after an Ethiopian feast.
He loves eating with his hands, dipping tangy injera into brightly coloured stews or wrapping it around perfectly cooked meat.
Joe slides down from his seat and heads to the counter to pay – a responsibility he takes seriously.
“Don’t forget your manners,” I remind him as he walks away.
He proffers a $50 note and accepts his change.
“Amesegenallo,” he says.
The faces behind the counter light up – shock quickly becomes delight at the realisation a small, blond boy has just said thank you in Amharic, Ethiopia’s primary language.
“Thank you” is a powerful word in any language, but say it to someone in their native tongue when they are not expecting it and you can open up a conversation in an instant.
My son has spent the entirety of his short life in Footscray.
He loves to talk and he loves to make people happy.
So he says “cảm ơn” when he’s been eating pho; “terima kasih” at Roti Road; “shuk’ran” at Babylon (a favourite that
has now sadly closed); and “grazie” to Joe the barber for a handful of lollies after a hair cut.
He takes diversity for granted.
“How good does Kebab Surra smell?” he exclaims from across the road as he catches a whiff of charcoal and spice emanating from his favourite restaurant. “Can we have Kebab Surra for dinner please, please, please?”
I grew up in a household with plenty of culinary variety, but nothing like the world of choices Joe has on offer within a kilometre of our central Footscray apartment.
When we moved to Footscray, when I was pregnant with Joe, my friends and family were aghast.
Occasionally they still express concerns about safety or doubts over our inner-urban lifestyle.
I just laugh.
I’ve never regretted our decision to move to Footscray.
Every now and then I wish for more space, but the trade-off isn’t worth it.
Joe and I walk everywhere.
We eat out when we feel like it, and a family meal for three plus an increasingly hungry nine-month-old rarely costs more than $40.
We have a world of food right outside our door, and it opens up a world of possibilities when it comes to travel, friendship and cultural awareness.
Life tastes good in Footscray.
The dinner hour for CTS and, we suspect, many other bloggers and foodies is somewhere between 6pm and 7pm.
For some, this is the legacy of having – or having had – very young children.
Perhaps “available light” has something to do with it.
I’ve even heard of bloggers who only do lunch for that very reason!
But a big part of it for us is … we’re hungry for food, hungry for adventure.
So 8pm seems way too late, especially on a work/school night.
The Mediterranean post-sietsa 9pm or later?
Unimaginable!
Early evening dining also means missing rush hour and always getting a seat.
In the case of tiny Ebi in West Footcray, that latter point is no small thing.
Entering by myself and taking a seat at the bar, I go through the usual routine … look at the display cabinet, consult the blackboard menu, peruse the regular menu, before saying …
“I’ll have fish and chips thanks, John – large!”
John: “How did I know you were going to say that?!”
Me: “Hmmpf! You must have other regulars who always order the same thing?”
The genial, chrome-domed Ebi host the proceeds to count off a long list of regulars with whom he is on first-name terms and their invariable choices – “fish three ways”, vegetable balls, udon, bento and so it goes.
Everyone gets their own groove on at Ebi …
The perpetual blog-driven need for the new and interesting can mean old reliables are overlooked.
But as it happens, this very mid-week lunchtime I am in the mood for Indian snacky stuff.
And I am in Footscray.
So I step through the doorway of Kitchen Samrat (36 Leeds Street) for the first time in years.
I am surprised and delighted to find the place has gone from shabby to somewhat chic.
It looks like a proper Indian restaurant now.
There’s even real cloth napkins, the classy effect of which are rather diminished by there being some dried food crud on the bench seat I initially choose.
The menu is longer and also more proper, and includes a number of good-looking banquet options.
Perhaps a lingering and wide-ranging CTS meal here is warranted.
But I spy with delight that the quick lunch items such as cholle bhatrua at Amritsari kulcha ($12) are still in the house.
The latter is just lovely – chick peas, butter knobs, pickle, onion and two wonderful breads stuffed with potato, coriander and spices.
Changes are afoot in Nicholson Street, Footscray.
Pho Ta (above) and …
… Babylon have both closed.
Asking around, the best I could discover in terms of reasons was along the lines of “problems with landlord”.
These closures are a shame as both joints added diversity to a colourful part of Footscray.
Over in Hopkins, Snow Tree has set itself up for soon-come visit by the CTS team by the agency of a much more attractive fit-out and a much longer menu – including fried chicken!
The Dancing Dog building will be auctioned on Saturday, April 18, at 1pm.
There is a meeting being held tonight (Wednesday, March 25) with a view to making a stab at keeping the property out of the hands of developers.
For more details, check out the Permaculture Out West Facebook page.
Meanwhile, up in West Footscray, what was once Gusto will soon become Dosa Corner.
According to the always reliable Barkly Village Facebook page: “Gusto will be replaced by a South Indian Style Restaurant. Ex chef from Dosa Hut across the road.”
We wonder if there will be any point of difference between the new place, Dosa Hut and the neighbourhood’s other Indian eateries.
Truth is, though, Dosa Hut is usually busy so maybe it’s not an issue.
Dosa Hut itself is growing, with the opening of a branch in Tarneit at the Wyndham Village Shopping Centre.
I suspect our Tarneit readers are doing cartwheels.
Ovest has been open a while by the time Team CTS visits.
Every time I’ve passed by in recent weeks when the place has been open, it’s been jumping.
So our hopes are high – especially those of my friends, who live just a black away and for whom this shapes as a welcome local of the non-Indian variety.
Our hopes are fulfilled, and in terms of the food well exceeded.
Here’s the bottom line – we have one entree, one side, one pizza, two mains, one dessert, two glasses of wine and a soft drink.
The bill comes to just cents above $40 each.
What an absolute ripping bargain!
We’ve booked at 6pm on a Sunday night – which may have been a mistake as it’s family rush hour, the joint is very noisy and the service is a little scrappy, but not enough to cause any alarm.
When I amble back to my car, post-dinner and after having picked up a wonderful loaf of freshly baked bread from my companions’ place, Ovest is a lot more placid.
The dining room looks a treat and it’s a wonderful thing that this old bank is playing host to such vibrant life.
Coleslaw of cabbage, pear, radish, lemon and parmesan ($12) is a real big serve of yum.
At first, I wish for a little more salt and flavour bite, but by the end I come to love the rather perfumey flavours.
Saganaki kefalograviera, sherry vinegar-soaked currants and pickled onions appears modest of portion but is so rich that three of us are happy.
The cheese has a marvellously toasted and salty crust.
A mushroom pizza with taleggio, caramelised onion and fior de latte ($20) is very, very good, its many fungus chunks having a real meatiness about them.
Tuna nicoise ($26) is a stunner and very generous to boot.
Underneath that handsome slab of fish lie spud discs and heaps of superbly creamy mayo.
My roast of the day (top photo, $25.50) is a simple but good-sized snapper stuffed with lemon.
The fish is lovely but it’s the accompanying salad/salsa that makes this dish sing – the clever addition of pickled chilli discs adds not just random exclamations of heat but also a just-right tartness.
The good, hot chips are served in such quantity that there’s more than enough for us all to share – but then, that’s true of everything we’ve enjoyed.
By the time dessert selections are to be made, we’re stuffed.
So to speak.
So two becomes one with three spoons.
Panna cotta of yogurt, vanilla and strawberry jelly ($10) is just the sort creamy dream you’d expect and lasts all of about, oh, five seconds.
The jelly is a delicately-flavoured delight.
My pals are stoked.
So would I be if this “local” had just opened a minute from my front door!
O’Grill is a new fast-food chicken place tucked into the service road just a block or so up from the Plough.
We like the idea of this sort of place in this sort of location – there’s pretty good parking capacity for one thing.
The menu is mostly chicken-based, well-priced and ostensibly of a Tex-Mex bent.
(See menu and prices below.)
The meal four of us have there is OK – but we for sure reckon some tweaking here and there could make it an outright winner.
By common acclaim, the hit of the night is this black bean salad.
Doesn’t look too tempting, hey?
But it is delicious!
Underneath the beans is a generous jumble of red onion, tomatoes and coriander, all of it liberally dressed with a really good green tomato salsa.
Chips?
OK but could definitely be crisper.
Corn?
OK but not much sight of the lime chilli dressing.
Chicken wings?
Not “buffalo wings” – and thanks to one of my buddies for deepening my understanding of exactly what that means (deep-fried for starters) – but quite nice anyway.
My two companions who go the burger route note a mismatch between the large buns and the less-so chicken.
Basically, too much bread!
My other companion goes, as I do, for a half chicken and like the burger eaters comments that the breast meat was a tad dry.
Yes, we know it’s hard getting that right.
And while me and my pals might prefer thigh meat in just about all applications, I’ve been told frequently by restaurant folks that there are a significant amount of customers for eating outlets of all kinds that demand breast meat … no matter what.
I have no such problem with my half chook though there is little by way of the spiciness or smoky chipotle vibe I have been expecting.
Perhaps most of all we’d recommend some greater delineation between the various chicken options and an understanding that the people who come here looking for a feed are almost certainly well used to food that is super-charged in the flavour department.
But we’d also recommend giving this place a go – there’s a heap of other stuff on the menu.
Try the black bean salad when you do.
consider the sauce 