Tag Archives: Malaysian food

China Bar

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10 Pratt St, Moonee Ponds. Phone: 9370 1188

Like Kuni’s, the China Bar in Russell St was a familiar and regular part of my routine when working and living in the CBD.

It was and is a popular place, its reputation seemingly built on consistency and late opening hours.

China Bar, is of course, something of a misnomer, as most customers at the outlets spread across Melbourne order food that has its origins in Malaysia or even Thailand.

In any case, the China Bar in Moonee Ponds has never caught our eye in the same way.

Maybe that’s just down to change or to some unsatisfactory experiences at the Highpoint China Bar.

But a few weeks back we stopped by the Ponds joint to grab some barbecue pork to takeaway, if only to save ourselves making another stop, in Footscray, on the way home.

While there, we saw some pretty keen-looking tucker being consumed and made a mental note.

A return for a Sunday lunch was a surprise that maybe shouldn’t have been a surprise at all.

One of the dishes I almost always ordered at Russell St was the achar, so I am pleased to see it still on the menu.

 The price has crept up ($6), though. Should I?

Curiosity wins out, and I’m ever so glad.

It’s got carrot, pineapple, cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber and sesame seeds.

It’s chilled, crunchy, only a little oily, with profound vinegar flavour but only a mild chilli hit.

It’s perfect in every way.

This augurs well for my main fare, another dish remembered with fondness from Russell St forays, one with which we’ve had hit and miss experience in the west – hainannese chicken rice ($10.80).

The soup is of perfect hotness, not too salty and tasty in a way that strongly suggests flavour enhancers. I care not.

The rice isn’t quite as super as I recall, but more than adequate.

The chicken is tender and flavoursome. I don’t mind chicken being bone-in, but if it’s bone-free I expect, demand that it be scrupulously so – as it is here.

There’s plenty of soy sauce-flavoured water under my chook to pour in the rice, along with an OK and mildish chili sauce and a lovely, coarse mash of spring onion, ginger and oil. The remnants of the soup also go on the rice.

It’s very, very good – even if just a smidgeon short of the achar’s outstandingness.

Maybe it just goes to show … nostalgia IS what it used to be and familiarity with the China Bar brand has bred some unjustified contempt.

On the basis of this visit, it seems the Moonee Ponds China Bar has the wood over those two much talked and blogged about Malaysian establishments in Flemington, Chef Lagenda and Laksa King.

If the achar and chicken rice are so good, there seems no reason why other Malay staples aren’t just as hot.

China Bar may not offer the same “eating out” vibe as those two Flemo places, but that’s of little concern to us.

I suspect we’ll be back soon.

China Bar - Noodle & Rice Bar on Urbanspoon

Nasi Lemak House

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115 Grattan St, Carlton. Phone: 9663 1555

Is there a difference between health food and healthy food?

For me, the former conjures up images of alfalfa sprouts and boringly earnest bean casseroles.

The latter, I guess, is anything we eats that’s good for us.

My $10.90 curry laksa is very definitely neither.

The curry gravy is creamy and oily.

There are egg noodles only; none of your rice noodles here.

The only trace of greenery are scarce segments of green onion.

Gad, the chunky chicken pieces are even fried!

But it’s the best laksa I’ve ever devoured.

Well, at least since the last time I had a best ever-laksa.

Nasi Lemak House is a wildly and deservedly popular place a block from Lygon St that sells straight-up Malaysian food widely revered for its authenticity.

Given its location at uni central, it’s a regular student hang-out.

Subsequently, it can get a bit mad at rush hour.

Which is why I figure dead on noon on a public holiday Monday is good time to front up, with a visit to the neat secondhand bookshop around the corner in Swanston St to follow.

I’m right, as things are a little less frantic than usual, though by 12.30 the place is pretty much full anyhow.

At a table across from me, a big group of young chow hounds do like me and photograph their food. Are they bloggers, photography students, merely food nuts? I don’t ask.

I bypass the obvious – there seems to be several dozen variations on the nasi lemak theme, ranging from the straightahead with fried chicken drumsticks to an array of vegetarian options.

As well there are noodles such as char kuay teow; and ban mien, which is two-plate affair of Shanghai noodles alongside a separate dish of fishballs, chicken and vegetables in a chicken soup. Pretty good deal for $9.80! That’s for me next time.

But today it’s the laksa, and not for the first time, either.

It really is mighty, having the pungency and kick for which laksa aficionados crave.

It’s topped with a couple of papadams, which are good either still crunchy or soaked in the soup. In and around them are the fried shallots.

Further down, in addition to big chunks of the bone-free and incredibly tender/chewy chicken, are a couple of fish balls, delightfully soggy tofu, bean sprouts and probably some stuff I forget.

I fail to finish the noodles or the soup on account of being full and not wanting to spoil a fine lunch.

Nasi Lemak House is a Melbourne cheap eats classic, but it pays to time your visit to periods of what passes here for slow.

The Nasi Lemak House website is very good, with the photos giving a real sense of what the food here looks like.

Nasi Lemak House on Urbanspoon


Chef Lagenda

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16 Pin Oak Crescent, Flemington. Phone: 9376 2668

New Chef Lagenda review here.

The Flemington foodie strip of Racecourse Rd/Pin Oak Cres has been a rare destination for us in the past year, where once it was quite the regular.

Maybe it’s to do with the demise of the wonderful Big Chopstix. What was once a cracking Chinese/Malaysian joint has been replaced by a mostly Sino place of much less distinction.

Or maybe it’s to do with the lingering memory of another Chinese place that replaced prawn dumplings still hard frozen in the centre with … more prawn dumplings still hard frozen in the centre.

In any case, it’s a bunch of fun to be taking my time taking in the sights and menus on this Thursday lunch time. It’s a day off, it’s pay day, the sun is shining and I’m in the mood.

It’s been a while since we visited the new-look, new premises Laksa King, but this time around I settle on its next door neighbour, Chef Lagenda.

It’s dead on noon, or thereabouts, but there’s several tables already taken – all by folks of the Asian persuasion. Which fact I take as a Good Sign.

The place is done out using recycled wood and brick, and looks very fine.

The crockery is even embossed with the restaurant’s logo.

It’s kind of pokey, though. There’s steps, stairs and inclines that no doubt are a stress factor for new waiting staff.


I’d entered with laksa on my mind, but surprise myself by ordering the Roti Canai Special.

I know I shouldn’t, but order a serve of achar as well.

My plates are of a type that means they’re both on my table within five minutes.

The achar ($4.90)  is less tangy and pickled than those I remember from earlier years and other places. Still, it’s a nice jumble of cabbage, cauliflower, onion, cucumber and carrot with a bit of chilli kick and sesame seeds. In a nice touch, it’s served on top of a bed of cucumber spaghetti, which gives the whole dish a really nice crunchy, healthy feel.

Like many of its kind, the curry and roti combo looks a means serving for $10.20. But I know from frequent practice that looks can be deceiving.

So it is in this case.

I know not if the bread is housemade or not, but it’s still good. It’s unoily, and stays moist and pliable until the last shred.

The bowl of beef rendang has four large pieces of wonderfully tender meat. But as aficionados of this dish know, it’s not the meat that counts – it’s the gravy, and delicious use thereof for mopping up with the roti.

On that basis, I’m on a winner here. The gravy is rich, mildly spicy and beautifully integrated. By that I mean that it may be really oily but doesn’t appear to be so. It’s delicious, especially once the meat starts falling apart and mixing in.

It’s a super good meal, so much so that I am unsurprised that the quantity of roti precisely matches that needed to wipe out the last of the curry with a final mouthful of bread.


Still, I’m just a tad regretful that I hadn’t ordered one of the dishes I see whizzing about me as the place fills up. The Hainanese chicken rice ($8.50) looks especially toothsome – something to look forward to. Everyone loves it, but really great versions are not that easy to find in Melbourne.

For me, and based on a single visit, Chef Lagenda has the edge on Laksa King.

Read more about Chef Lagenda, the source of its rotis and other speculation/opinions at Urbanspoon here.

Chef Lagenda on Urbanspoon


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