Tag Archives: Melbourne

CTS Feast No.4: Pho House

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NOTE: THIS FEAST IS NOW FULLY SUBSCRIBED! NO MORE APPLICATIONS, THANKS!

Meet Talina!

She’s the boss lady at Pho House, the lovely joint that is adding even more diversity to Racecourse Road in Flemington.

You’ll be unsurprised to learn, given the name of her restuarant, that she is proud of her pho.

Very proud.

And she wants CTS readers to try it!

So in conjunction with Consider The Sauce, Talina and her Pho House crew will host the fourth Consider The Sauce Feast.

Talina really, really does want you to try her pho.

But, OK, if you insist, the lucky punters who gain feast seats can opt for a laksa or rice dish.

As well, there will assorted Pho House entrees and soft drinks.

If you fancy a beer or wine, you will be expected to pay for them yourself.

Pretty much the same ground rules as applied for previous CTS Feasts …

  • No restrictions this time around on those who have attended previous CTS dinners.  
  • First in, first served.
  • There are 10 places only available.
  • Fellow food bloggers welcome to apply but they will not be given preference.
  • No more than two places to be claimed by any applicant, though “singles” will also be accepted.
  • There will be no charge for food or soft drinks, but guests will be expected to pay for their own alcohol.
  • Applications only to the email address posted elsewhere on this site. Attempts to gain a seat by commenting on this post will be ignored.

Consider The Sauce Feast No.4: Pho House,

318 Racecourse Road, Flemington. Phone: 9372 1426

Wednesday, Janurary 29, from 7pm.

Menu:

Assorted Pho House entrees and snacks.

Choice of pho, laksa or rice dish.

Soft drinks.

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See earlier story here and the Pho House Facebook page here.

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Ignoring the bratwurst option

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Wing Loong Restaurant, 512 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. Phone: 9663 1899

This wearing a beret in the heat and the sun is getting ridiculous.

Bennie and I have scoured many of the obvious spots for a dad hat for summer to no avail.

It’s not the prices so much – although there is that – but the fact we simply can’t find one to fit.

What to do?

“Vic Market,” says he.

He’s right.

But first, lunch.

We fancy revisiting one of the popular and reliable places on the stretch of Elizabeth just south of the market – maybe this one, or this one or that one.

But they’re all packed – not a seat to be had.

So we resort to a place we suspect is frequented by many people in the same situation.

Wing Loong should be hotspot, sited as it is right opposite the market and in slightly roomier and very slightly classier premises than its Elizabeth Street neighbours.

But the meal we have is on the down side of average.

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To be fair, Bennie gets the best of it.

He really enjoys his meat-laden, tasty pork congee and cleans the bowl in swift fashion.

I’m not so lucky.

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It can be hard to define what separates a super Chinese roast-meat-and-rice plate from a drab one.

Whatever it is, my plate doesn’t have “it”.

OK rice, bok choy, quite tender but dull on-the-bone chicken are all in attendance, but lacking the spark to make my lunch in any way memorable.

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Same goes for our quartet of steamed beef dumplings.

The place has been quite busy during our stay, and perhaps there’s some real winners on the longish and reasonably-priced menu.

But maybe we shoulda gone for a stand-up bratwurst across the road.

 

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Letting go bit by bit

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When I was Bennie’s age – actually, for quite a few years even before that – me, my sister and our various friends had the run of our city.

We moved freely all over a town of more than 100,00, sometimes by public transport, but more often by walking or bicycle.

During school holiday time that wasn’t taken up by family adventures in the countryside, we’d frequently disappear after breakfast and not return home until just before dinner.

During those wild, adventurous times – or so they seem to be in memory, although I also recall periods of utter boredom and tedium – our parents had little idea where we were, what we were up to and with whom.

But that was in another century and another country.

The environment in which my boy is on the very cusp of teenagedom and high school seems like a very different place.

How different?

Well that, to my mind, is a very interesting question, the answers to which are impossible to calculate as the issue is so very, very subjective.

Bennie is a worldly, savvy young man who is able to cope with and enjoy a wide variety of social settings and circumstances.

But for him, and pretty much every one of his mates AFAIK, out-of-school company has long been regulated by parents doing the phone rounds and delivering and picking up kids.

That seems unlikely to change even as the high school year starts and Bennie learns to get to and from using public transport.

Are the tight reigns on which parents keep their kids based on any reality at all?

I would argue that the colossal increase in road traffic, and in our area the thunderous trucks, warrant a high degree of caution.

But as for the rest – train station violence, Knifepoint, stranger danger, whatever other bogeymen you wish to name – well I just don’t know.

Hard to tell the difference between being an overly controlling parent and one who is simply being prudent.

In the meantime, Bennie’s parents are learning to deliberately, slowly loosen the binds that tie.

Walking a local friend home to his place.

Solo trips to the library.

Rudimentary shopping chores or gelati runs.

Goofing off in our local park with a school mate who is spending the day with us.

Doubtless such gestures may come to seem themselves as restrictive to our soon-to-be-teenager – just a few weeks away, really!

But at least it’s a start.

Neigbourly BBQ

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Hallah, 268 Victoria St, North Melbourne. Phone: 9329 4293

Our neighbour and mate Rob may be on the verge of moving to hipster Fitzroy, but he’s been on food adventures with us often enough to know our style.

So it phases him not at all that we park in the vicinity of Vic Market and then set about deciding where to eat.

The night market is rocking and the numbers are big.

Bennie pricks his ears up, but his two companions firmly nix that idea quick smart.

A couple of likely places are closed, so we end up stumbling into Hallah and enjoy a good Korean meal.

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Like everywhere around here on this night, it’s busy.

The staff cope well but the service is a little perfunctory.

That’s OK – we’re happy to eat and split, so the swiftness with which our food appears is appreciated.

As we’re right into catching up, covering a fascinating range of conversational topics and don’t want to pore over the menu, we quickly settle on the least expensive of the three set menus – the Hallah assorted BBQ set for two people ($56), and throw in another dish from the broader menu to make up for the fact we’re a threesome.

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Presumably the pork belly, beef short rib fillets and chicken thigh are meant to be the highlight of our meal.

The meat is fine, juicy and tender, and enjoyable with the three dipping sauces – one soy, one oil-salt-pepper, and another that seems to be a slightly spicy miso mash.

But I, at least, am a little underwhelmed. It’s at this point I’m thinking that ordering some of the more prosaic one-bowl dishes earlier in the menu may have been wiser.

But the bells and whistles that come with our meal impress much more and are much more fun.

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For me there is a breakthrough here.

I’ve always been indifferent or unswayed by the charms of kimchi, so am delighted to find this is the first – ever – I can say I truly enjoyed it.

The shredded cabbage and bean sprouts are plain and perhaps in need of more seasoning, but we all three pounce on the beautifully pickled onion.

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The seafood pancake is a delight – stuffed with seafood and greenery, its texture and flavour is far superior to the dry, starchy version we’ve often had as green onion pancake in Chinese places.

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“Soybean past soup” packs an intense flavour hit and is chockers with vegetableses and baby clams.

Our “extra” dish to complement the set menu is dragon cheese chicken ($16, top photograph).

Listed as spicy, it seems to us hardened chilli warriors anything but.

It IS very cheesy and strikes me as odd verging on weird.

But there you go.

The set menu option has served our purposes for this particular social outing.

But we reckon a closer, more discerning examination of the menu may reap fine dividends – it’s packed with many options.

The $28 plates of fried chicken we see sailing past us look especially hot.

The Hallah website is here.

 

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Gelati magic

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Hello Gelo, 15 Anderson St Yarraville. Phone: 90785696

As previously and recently noted, Hello Gelo in Yarraville is very much our go-to place for gelati.

Indeed, we love Scott and what he does, dig checking out his new flavours and can barely imagine life without our several-times-a-week visits to his Anderson Street emporium.

So we are excited to invited to witness him whipping up some of his gelati magic.

Scott has been running Hello Gelo here for about 4 1/2 years, having sold his Carlton cafe about three years ago.

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We have questions.

Is there a difference between gelati and ice cream?

The answer appears to be “no” but also a significant “yes”.

As I understand it, ice cream is higher in fat but has more air, while gelati is lower in fat but is a much denser product.

Fat-wise, this would seem to balance out.

But I’m also left in even less doubt that when it comes to ice cream/gelati, you get what you pay for.

Budget-priced supermarket brands cost what they do because of ingredients (“padding”) the details of which you may not want to know.

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As it is, our admiration for Scott and his products grows in leaps and bounds as we watch him in action and hear about how he goes about his work.

The attention to detail and solid determination to use only the best ingredients is fantastic!

Here is a man, for instance, who makes his own hokey pokey using golden syrup, castor sugar and bicarb.

You reckon that’s what you may be getting in your generic brand ice cream?

I don’t think so!

He uses fresh fruit where available, affordable and applicable.

For other flavours, he uses frozen fruit just because the flavour is better or, in the case of the gorgeous-smelling amarena cherrys, a premium imported product simply because it has to be that way.

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When we arrive, he has already prepared the bases of the four flavours he will be making – forest berry sorbet, raspberry ice cream, black cherry yogurt bubblegum.

The bases consist of dextrose, sugar, skim milk powder and natural vegetable gums.

Those bases are then poured into his Corema gelati machine along with full-fat milk and the fruit or flavourings.

For ripple gelatis, such as today’s black cherry yogurt or hokey pokey or anything involving solids such as nuts, Scott deftly uses a spatula to weave the goodies into the gelati as it exits the machine.

The gelati straight of the machine tastes delicious, of course, but has the consistency of soft-serve ice cream.

A couple of hours in Scott’s “shock freezer” fixes that up and then they’re ready to sell.

Scott tells us his most popular flavours are chocolate and salted caramel.

Quantities vary, but last summer found him making 300 litres in a two-day period.

And yes, in summer and on hot days, he sells way more of his dairy-free sorbets or ices.

 

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In tune in Yarraville

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Feedback Cafe, 31 Ballarat Street, Yarraville. Phone: 9689 1955

Bad impressions can linger.

Feedback Cafe has been around for what seems like forever – certainly as long as we’ve been in the west and hanging out in the village, and certainly long before we’d ever heard about food blogs.

Management changed about five years ago but we’ve been slow to re-frequent the place.

We didn’t have what you’d call rotten times at Feedback back then, but a certain charmlessness in both food and service terms meant the place fell into the “prefer others” category.

Following more regular visits in recent times, a beaut lunch Bennie and I enjoy there has us wondering why we haven’t made Feedback Cafe our Yarraville home base all along.

The music really, really helps.

Those recent visits have mostly been made to a soundtrack of greasy, swinging, rocking old-school ’40s and ’50s rhythm and blues.

For our Monday lunch, Bennie and I are serenaded in a different way – by troubadour Michael Hurley.

Hurley is part of a brilliantly crazy musical tribe that also includes the Holy Modal Rounders and Jeffrey Frederick.

Fully embedded in American music traditions, but always standing slightly, hilariously, magically apart, this whacko crew also includes my good Kentucky pal Gary Sisco.

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During our lunch, I Facebook message Sisco to tell him we’re enjoying his mate Hurley while dining and that the music-crazed Feedback crew have even been known to enjoy a Holy Modal Rounders-themed week.

Now THAT’S cool.

Sisco had his own album, Sisco & Pals the End of the Trail, released through the Jeffrey Frederick website a few years back.

The album is still available there, as are heaps of other releases by these folks.

The site is chockers with memorable, incredibly funny hair-raising tales of the tribe’s history by Sisco and others.

And like Sisco, I reckon the 1976 album Have Moicy, featuring Hurley, Frederick and the Rounders, is an outright masterpiece that stands with the very best Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry or any other American genius you can think of has ever come up with.

OK, on with the food!

The feedback lunch menu (below) has a decided American south/south-west slant without getting too precious about it.

That’s a bit like the way the decor and general atmosphere go their own slightly scruffy, comfy lived-in way in a nice contrast to the increasing hipster-sheen of Yarraville and Seddon.

The staff, too, have that slightly scruffy, comfy, lived-in look. (Joke!)

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As I did on my previous visit, Bennie orders the pulled pork po’ boy with slaw and chipotle BBQ sauce ($10).

It’s fresh and crunchy, and he likes it, but hankers for a more robust BBQ flavour.

And he frankly, rudely ogles the popcorn chicken po’ boy a lovely gran is attacking at an adjacent table.

It DOES look real fine!

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My hillbilly chilli of chipotle, stout and puy lentils with corn chips and sour cream ($11) is unlike any chill I’ve ever had.

There’s no red beans, for starters!

But with the sour cream, a lesser amount of cheddar and some salsa, the beautifully cooked lentils make for a satisfying lunch.

The corn chips are the same quality brand we always have around home – that’s a good thing!

After a couple of stupendously fine cafe lattes, I remark to Bennie as we amble up Ballarat Street that my beverages have completely alleviated my back pain.

That’s not true, but they’ve sure made it more bearable!

(PS: I saw the Holy Modal Rounders live on Haight Street, San Francisco, in 1977!)

 

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Street food blow-out in St Albans

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Chinese New Year, Alfrieda Street, St Albans

Ahhh, a lazy Sunday.

One on which we resolve to behave like do-nothing home-bodies.

We’re getting good at this as it’s precisely what we’ve worked resolutely on for the past three weeks.

We’ve even pulled the plug on a cross-town trip to the Astor to see a Marx Brothers double bill.

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Our slacker routine does, however, come with a mandatory self-imposed stipulation of at least a single out-of-the-house excursion and we’re planning on making that a relaxed WeFo cafe lunch.

But then a pal emails us with the riveting information that it’s Chinese New year time in St Albans.

So off we go …

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We’re no strangers to Chinese New Year celebrations but this is our first in St Albans.

It’s a doozy.

The whole of the Alfrieda Street strip is pulsating … with distorted music, laughter, prancing dragons and much more.

And it smells terrific.

While there’s some overlap between the massive number of food stalls, there is a gratifyingly wide number of choices available, much of it on sticks.

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As we amble up and down and back up the street, we make big-time happy with:

  • Deep-fried calamari
  • Mini Vietnamese pancakes
  • Wonderful grilled sweet corn
  • Skewers of beef interspersed with onion and capsicum
  • Beef honey jerky.
  • A wonderfully crunchy, fresh, healthy (!) green papaya salad with jerky and peanuts that almost matches the one we enjoyed at this august occasion.

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As we are leaving, a dude asks if it’s OK for his girlfriend to take a photo of him and I.

As Bennie concludes, it’s probably all over FB or Twitter by now …

Maybe I should start charging for Mythbusters pictorial duties.

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Wayo wow in Flemo

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Wayo Japanese Dining, 286 Racecourse Road, Flemington. Phone: 9376 5484

Ahh, 286 Racecourse Road …

For many years it was the site of this site’s preferred charcoal chicken shop.

Its products were not in any way different or better than those of most similar places.

But when the mood for such trashy food was upon us, we always received a warm welcome there.

And they served their in-house food on real plates with real cutlery.

But now it’s the home of a chic new Japanese eatery.

It looks good, and we enjoy the service and the promptness with which our food is delivered to us.

And on the basis of our first lunch there, we reckon that if Wayo was situated in, say, the CBD, Fitzroy or Prahran, the queues would already be forming.

There’s a few sushi rolls in the display cabinet, but mostly the menu sticks to some basic yet enticing bowls and grills.

The entree list numbers 12 – order all or most of them and you’d have a mighty spread of Japanese-style tapas for a table of four or so punters.

From that list we choose charcoal grilled vegetables (large serve, $13.50) as a shared starter.

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The vegetables – wonderfully including fennel – are beautifully cooked, taste as good and go great with the dark, lusty sesame sauce.

The only quibble we have is with what seems to be a rather steep price.

Bennie chooses a simple bowl of curry with rice ($10; the same meal is available with chicken cutlet for $14).

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The lad is a little underwhlemed.

He reckons the beef quotient is neither here nor there.

But it tastes good to me, the gravy being a rich brown, deep of flavour and – of course – of only mild spiciness.

Maybe he’s outright envious of his dad’s meal.

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Charcoal grilled chicken ($13) with yakiniku BBQ sauce is a delight.

The miso soup appears as if it may be quite a class above that served in most cheap Japanese places, stuffed as it is with onion chunks and more.

But we both find it a tad flavourless.

I suspect this style of miso soup is supposed to look and taste just as we have been provided, but we miss that miso tang nevertheless.

The thigh pieces are much better – only lightly grilled, they boast splendid chook flavour.

That flavour is quite subtle, though, so I may have been better off choosing one of the other, less robust sauces available.

Quite apart from our meals and experience in general, it’s the attention to detail at Wayo that really impresses.

It would be easy to bluntly dismiss, for instance, my serve of potato salad as just a pile cold mashed spud.

But that would be to ignore the skill with which the potato has been cooked and dressed to be fully tender yet maintain such a wonderful, grainy texture.

Likewise with the green salad provided with both our meals – the ingredients are super fresh, well-balanced and dressed with a delicacy seldom seen in such contexts.

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We like, too, the rustic wooden tables.

Blogger note of appreciation: They are non-reflective!

Even the handsome wooden chop sticks and soup spoons add their own touch of joy and class to the Wayo experience.

We suggest the Wayo crew might want to place a sign somewhere that says something along the lines of:

“1. Please order at counter.

 2. Please pay when ordering.

 3. Cash only.

 4. Thank you!”

That way any potential confusion, embarrassment or disappointment may be avoided!

Even with the minor caveats expressed above, we are very eager to return.

 

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Ponds gelati scoop

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Mio Dolce, 89 Puckle St, Moonee Ponds. Phone: 9326 0402

Our post about gelati in the western suburbs brought forth a number of responses, both here and on Facebook.

Thanks to those comments we have at least one solid lead to follow-up.

But several things seem plain …

There are people in the western suburbs who love gelati.

There is gelati in the western suburbs for them to thrill over.

But the western suburbs will never be Carlton or even the CBD.

And thank heavens for that!

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In the meantime, having gelati on our minds leads to us checking out a beaut Puckle St business past which we must have walked a gazillion times without taking much notice.

Puckle St is a bit like that …

But Mio Dolce turns out to be a cosy, homespun and old-school Italian bakery and gelateria.

Sure, they do sandwiches and a few hot things, but the heart of this place are gelati and biscotti.

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We like it that they only do half a dozen or so gelati flavours, with none of them being unusual or particularly exotic.

I enjoy my very big $4.40 cup of caramel, Bennie digs his cone of donatella … sounds like a turtle to me but it’s apparently a mix of chocolate and hazelnut.

My cafe latte, too, is fine.

But Bennie finds his banana milkshake too sweet to handle. Could be a sign this lad is maturing, eh?

We ogle the range of biscotti, slices and other sweet treats.

We see, among others, crostata, almond bread, almond crescents, ameretti, vienesse, romanini and florentines.

We grab a bag of “mini-romanini” to take home.

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As you can see, the $5 price makes this a pretty good deal when compared with the prices of similar products at our local supermarket haunts.

 

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Sudanese in Sunshine

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THIS RESTAURANT IS NO LONGER OPEN

Home Town Sudanese And African Cuisine, 231 Hampshire Road, Sunshine. Phone: 9364 8154

Sunshine has long been a favoured hunting ground with us.

The arrival Home Town hot on the heels of Afghan Master Kebab and Westie winner Xuan Banh Cuon just enhances our appreciation of the neighbourhood.

Home Town is, as far as we are aware, only Sunshine’s second African restaurant and is of Sudanese nature, as opposed to the more familiar Ethiopian of Footscray town.

Based on enjoyable experiences at Ascot Vale’s Safari, another Westie winner, that’s right fine by us!

Bennie and I arrive in a good mood for a rendezvous with our good pal Nat Stockley, enjoy our meals and also talking with the Home Town crew about their food and eatery afterwards.

The team includes Shafie, his wife Nora, mum Maryam and Juma.

We find their welcome and service also very enjoyable.

All three of us order meals that are of the stew or braise variety, which means we miss out on major aspects of Home Town thing – ranging from foul presented in different ways to pasta and meats grilled and served with rice and salad.

Most meals cost in the $10 to $12 range, with spiced prawns and the Khartoum mixed grill topping $20.

Our bain marie meals are barely warm, but we don’t let that get in the way of our eating pleasure.

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Nat enjoys his meaty, handsome lamb shank, while the serve of okra stew he gets on the side taste real good to me.

The rice that accompanies all three of our selections is quite different from that served at Safari – it’s turmeric-tinged but still studded with cardamoms.

The salady aspects are pretty good, too, fresh and crunchy.

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Bennie orders malokhia, named after the vegetable of same name.

He loves the lamb chunks, rice and salad, but is rather less enamoured of the gravy’s viscous, okra-like consistency.

One man’s delight is another boy’s slime, I guess!

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I order chicken curry fully expecting it will no more be like an Indian curry than the lamb “curry” recently enjoyed at a Footscray eatery with similar food – Khartoum Centre.

In truth, it IS somewhat like an Indian chicken curry but still boasts a distinctive African flavour.

This is achieved, Juma tells me, by combining a commercial butter chicken sauce with dill, peanut butter, onion and capsicum, salt and pepper.

I like it, and like my two companions I pretty much clean my plate of the sticky gravy.

The use of a commercial, pre-made sauce sparked an interesting conversation when Nat posted a pic of our meal on Facebook.

One of his friends opined that such a move was somewhat “iffy”.

I understand where she is coming from, but OTOH I’m not going to get hung up on notions of authenticity.

As I pointed out, without condensed milk there would be little by way of Indian sweets, the Vietnamese have long made French baguettes part of their cooking traditions, and the Thais – so I’m told – make frequent use of pre-made curry sauces.

I get two dips with my meal – a rather stodgy and bland hummous and lemony, tangy mix of grated vegetables and yogurt that is wonderful.

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Somewhere along the way, Bennie has requested injera.

No injera here, he’s told, but they do have kissra – the Sudanese equivalent.

It’s very similar but thinner than injera, house-made and really fine.

As already stated, it could be that in ordering the dishes we have, we may have missed a big part of what Home Town is all about.

Its arrival is of sufficient import for us, that we’ll happily do follow-up story on their BBQ goodies and the likes of foul or pasta.

 

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Turning to mush on NYE

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The Little Mushroom Company, New Year’s Eve @ Footscray Park

Part way through the fireworks ‘n’ music jamboree at Footscray Park, we heard a rumour that Maribyrnong council had resolved to repeat the debut event if a 1000 or so people turned up or the debut.

Well, by our reckoning there were at least five times that many in attendance, so a repeat would seem to be guaranteed.

It was a swell party with a really nice vibe.

But the council may want tweak a few detail here and there, including a closer finessing of the car-parking situation.

We parked in the VU car park but it still took us a while to escape – and that was while the final band, Bjorn Again, was still thumping away with that fat, boring ’80s Euro-pop sound.

As well, the council will be well advised to seriously look at exhorting more food trucks to cater to the masses.

As it was, the half-dozen or so trucks at the party – including the Curry Truck and Mr Burger – struggled to cope.

The lines were very long!

We rather regretted not investing in Footscray rice paper rolls or Vietnamese coleslaw. Next time for sure!

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But we certainly don’t regret partaking of the Little Mushroom Company fare, even if the mushie crew was slow getting moving and we had to wait a while.

We ordered one apiece of the Mexican and Greek mushroom burgers at $10, although we found there to be little that was Greek or Mexican about either.

There was no doubting the quality, though.

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These were really nice sandwiches, the dressings were just right, the rocket was fresh-as and the buns a delight.

I reckoned the mushrooms themselves were a little slight in terms of robust mushie flavour, but they sure were big, meaty and juicy.

Some may quibble at the prices, but $10 seems to us in line with food truck standards and those of festival catering – and a short festival was what this bash very much resembled.

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Music was not high on our list of party priorities, but we really enjoyed the The Public Opinion Afro Orchestra.

We threw frisbee.

It was a hoot meeting a number of CTS pals, including Mr Footy Maths Institute, just as we were all about go “ooohh” and “aaahh” over the fireworks.

And it was fine, too, to hang out with a number of nice young ladies even if I am, for them, not Kenny but merely “Bennie’s dad”.

Best way to ascertain what the Little Mushies are up to is likely to be through their Facebook page.

 

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2013 in review

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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

The busiest day of the year – with 2573 views – was when Nina Rousseau’s story on “Zone 2 dining” ran in the Epicure section of The Age. As a precaution against being ribbed over being a western suburbs blogger who just happened to write about non-western suburbs subjects, I posted “Westies abroad …”!

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 200,000 times in 2013. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 9 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Where do you go for a gelati fix?

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On Christmas Day, after we’d had our fill of super-spicy food at Dosa Hut, a strong gelati lust came upon us.

Knowing places that sell gelati that were even vaguely local were bound to be closed, we headed cheerfully headed to Lygon Street …

… where we figured, Christmas Day or not, somebody would be selling gelati.

Nope.

Upper Lygon, lower Lygon and even Brunswick Street – we were luckless.

OK, OK – Christmas Day and all, but … COME ON!

Seriously, had it been any sort of normal day we would for sure have hit Hello Gelo right in Yarraville Village.

We’re first-name regulars and enjoy at-least weekly visits.

We love checking what new flavours Scott has dreamed up and really like one of his latest – gingerbread!

Outside of Hello Gelo and taking in the broader west?

Well, there’s actually four gelati and/or ice-cream emporiums on Nelson Place in Williamstown.

We’ve been customers at all four at one time or another over the years.

But we’ve not warmed to any of them.

Outside of those options, I can’t for the life of me think of any other good gelati joints in the west.

Tips anyone?

Hot Fish @ Conways

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Hot Fish @ Conways, 11-21 Wingfield St, Footscray. Phone: 9689 3400

Fish and chips and other seafood to eat right away at Conway’s?

Seems so obvious, we’re surprised it’s taken this long to eventuate!

But we’ve taken our time to check out the freshly-cooked fare at the famed seafood outlet near the river.

We’re particularly interested to see how things are shaking in regards to a couple of issues raised by the otherwise warm picture painted by the review at Footscray Food Blog and subsequent Facebook discussions.

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First up, the eat-right-here situation has been well and truly fixed thanks to the addition of four nice long bench tables and equally long seats right outside the Conway’s shop proper and another seating set-up further along under an umbrella.

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Secondly, the chips – about which some misgivings had been voiced.

Our brought-in chips are crunchy, well-cooked and hot.

But, oh, the salt!

I’m a big fan of salt when it comes to F&C, but this level is almost too much for me – and Bennie finds it goes a fair way to spoiling his lunch.

The fish (hake) that comes with our twin Classic Fish & Chip packs ($9) seems a little light-on at first, but proves to be meaty, delicious and filling.

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No surprise our serve of coleslaw ($4.50) is dressed with commercial mayo, but it’s good.

The vegetables are fresh and hand-cut, and we both like the resultant salad a lot.

With its fine, under-cover seating and ease of parking, Hot Fish will certainly be a magnet for those in the greater neighbourhood seeking a fish and chip fix.

But best to request a restrained hand when it comes to the salt shaker!

 

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Seddon banh mi

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waldies21

Waldies Bakery, 168 Victoria Street, Seddon. Phone: 9689 3806

Seddon, it could be argued, is becoming a little too cluttered with cafes.

So we reckon it’s cool there’s an alternative at hand.

Not that it looks like a new arrival – Waldies Bakery looks pretty much the same as it ever has.

As does the line-up of pies and cakes and so on

But there’s new management.

New management that’s offering banh mi.

So it is that Sara whips us up a couple of Viet sangers.

It’s real soon after Christmas, so instead of the advertised half-dozen fillings, we have a choice of only two – grilled chicken and grilled pork.

So we get one of each.

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The rolls are less crusty that you’ll routinely get in Footscray central and have a mottled outer that is referred to by a certain franchise bakery chain as “Tiger bread”.

But they’re fresh-as and taste good.

The fillings are of a regulation, good banh mi variety.

We enjoy our rolls, but immediately notice the absence of fresh chilli.

Some is brought to our outdoor table by Sara and there’s no such problem with the third roll we order to split.

We reckon Waldie’s banh mi offerings will likely get better as the holiday season recedes and range available expands beyond what greeted us this week.

Banh mi is, after all, one of those things that thrive on high turnover.

As well, the new management folks may come to understand that while they’ve moved into a well-known cafe strip, there are plenty of people around who will want – and demand – the full-blown banh mi experience.

Chillis and all …

The Waldies price is $5 – more than you’ll pay in Footscray or Sunshine but less than for a sandwich just about anywhere in Seddon.

Getting Roll’d at Highpoint

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Roll’d, Highpoint, Maribyrnong

We’ve only observed the unrolling of the Roll’d phenomena through the media, but it’s been easy to be impressed.

Here’s some brilliant entrepreneurial spirit at work packaging genuine Vietnamese tucker into the template of the sort of franchise concept that is proving good food and fast food don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

But now there’s a branch office installed in one of the Highpoint food courts, the matter is no longer an abstraction.

We approach with an open mind but resolve to cut this mob absolutely no slack whatsoever when drawing comparisons with what’s available on the real Vietnamese streets of Footscray or Sunshine.

We order a bowl of mixed chicken and beef “Uncle Pho” ($9.90) for me and the “Street Elite” combo ($11.90) of a cup of mixed pho, a BBQ chicken banh mi and an iced tea for him.

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THE HALF EMPTY VIEW

All the implements and containers – chopsticks, spoons, bowl, mug, sauce tubs and (of course) the serviettes – are disposable.

There’s not a thing that’s reusable about our lunches.

The bread roll used in creating Bennie’s banh mi is OK but also a tad on the doughy and squishy side.

It’s not crusty like a banh mi roll should be.

It more resembles the sort of bread rolls served up by the Subway branch right next door.

What’s more, had it been purchased on its own, it would’ve cost us $7.20 – in other words, about twice the amount the same order would cost in ‘Scray central.

The meat in my pho is drab and there’s no accompanying plate of bean sprouts and herbs, while the dish as a whole lacks zing.

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THE HALF FULL VIEW

On the other hand … the proof here is in the seeing, smelling and tasting.

Cracking Bennie’s baby open, we discover the banh mi looks the part, smells the part and tastes wonderful.

This is real-deal banh mi of surprisingly high quality – and the uncrusty bread and price be damned.

The same goes, with somewhat lesser impact, with my pho.

Most importantly, the broth is dinkum although a little on the sweetish side for me.

But nevertheless, this really is pho – albeit at the average-tending-to-medicore end of the pho scale.

And at $9.90, it’s priced somewhat closer to ‘Scray than Bennie’s banh mi.

Bennie’s mug of pho is of a pretty decent size for soup that’s part of a combo deal.

THE VERDICT

It’s all about perspective, about – literally – where you’re coming from.

In this instance, we headed to Highpoint specifically to eat at Roll’d.

We’ll not be doing so again.

Why would we, when the same food done so much better and cheaper is easily available?

Ahhh, but if we happen to be at Highpoint on other business and food is desired … we’ll be happy to sup at Roll’d once more.

Because it’s better than everything else that surrounds it in the shopping centre’s “atrium” food court and is right up there with Dumplings Plus as the best available at Highpoint in general.

The full Roll’d menu and pricing can be viewed at both the company’s website and Facebook page.

 

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Post-midnight Braybrook kebab

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Tasty Toasted Kebabs @ Fun Galore, 234 Ballarat Road, Braybrook

Funny, eh, how almost all the palaver about Melbourne’s food trucks seem to imply they’re some cool, NEW thing,

That’s simply not the case – vehicular food delivery systems go way back in Australia, I’m guessing as far back as the horse-drawn variety as opposed to those mounted on internal combustion or steam engine vehicles.

And then there’s Mr Whippy and the kebab shacks that are festooned across the city.

Perhaps in the case of the latter it’s a matter of out of time, out of mind – the kebab shacks don’t come into their own until after midnight.

They’re far from our usual routine, but we’re on hols so the rule book is out the window.

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Our sleep requirements have expanded to fit the extra time available, and – perversely – late nights are perfectly acceptable.

After his father has done with televised sport for the night, Bennie has glommed on to a screening of the 1955 flick The Tender Trap.

We don’t from whence does the lad’s penchant for vintage comics, cars, clothes, movies and so on come.

Sure, his dad and his mum are so inclined, but it hasn’t been forced down his throat.

Yet he’d happily prefer Louis Armstrong over the latest teeny bopper any day, and can equally happily disappear into old-school song-and-dance movies.

So I’m happy to let him suck up an hour or so of creepily sexist Frank Sinatra sparring with husband-chasing Debbie Reynolds – and even rise from the sofa for the occasion when he calls my bluff and quickly proffers an eager “Yes!” to the suggestion of a post-midnight snack.

Then off we go …

We reject one Ballarat Road, ahem, establishment on the grounds it looks rather forlorn and lacks even the most rudimentary seating, ahem, facilities.

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And thus we front at Fun Galore and the kebab shack run by a friendly fellow named Abdul.

He’s been tending this particular patch for six years and runs other shacks on Sydney Road and Flinders Street.

In those six years, he tells us, there have been only a couple of instances of rowdy, drunken or abusive behaviour.

“People are looking for something good to eat so are nearly always polite and friendly,” he says.

That’s certainly the case on the night we visit, with about 20 or so customers coming and going in the 20 minutes we’re hanging around.

These folks keep mostly to themselves.

What surprises somewhat is that in being outright Caucasian, Bennie and I are in a small minority, with most punters being of Asian persuasion, including the Sub-Continental variety, with some representation from Pacific and African parts of the world.

Why should this surprise? This is the western suburbs, this is Braybrook – what the hell did I expect?

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Our chicken kebabs cost $8 and are tasty.

Thankfully, Abdul uses Lebanese-style pita bread, so our snacks are without the significantly greater weightiness that would come with Greek-style pita or Turkish bread.

Our kebabs have been toasted so the bread is quite pleasingly crisp, yet the salad bits inside retain their crispness.

The chicken meat, for mine, gets lost among its fellow ingredients, including plenty of garlic and chilli sauces.

But perhaps that’s no bad thing.

Then it’s home and bed for us.

 

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My camera done died

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For the more than 600 posts on Consider The Sauce, I have uploaded more than 3800 photographs to the wordpress blogging platform.

I’ve had some help in that regard.

But overwhelmingly, the CTS photographs have been taken by the above pictured compact camera.

And those uploaded would, I’m guessing, be less than half of those taken.

I’ve been well pleased with the results and the camera’s ease of use and durability.

But now that durability has reached its limit and my camera has died.

The problem is purely mechanical, which means it’s not worth fixing … as far as I am aware.

That’s OK – I have been thinking of an upgrade anyway.

Anyone got any tips for a classy compact camera under $500?

Superb spicy Chinese

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hon4

Hon’s Kitchen, 228 Union Road, Ascot Vale. Phone: 9041 4680

At first blush it would be easy to conclude the arrival of Hon’s Kitchen on Union Road is merely a case of one nondescript, generic noodle bar replacing another.

But a solo visit by yours truly – during which a rather fine beef noodle soup, a bit like pho but without the more pronounced seasoning in the broth, was enjoyed – has us thinking Hon’s Kitchen has hidden depths and riches.

Specifically, we have hunch that while black bean beef or sweet ‘n’ sour whatever may be the stock in trade here, careful menu selection may result in the sort of wonderful, top-class yet affordable Cantonese tucker we get from Dragon Express.

We love following our hunches – especially when they come good as spectacularly as they do tonight.

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Special combination fried rice ($9) is good. But really, considering the richnes of our other choices, we should have gone with the identically-priced vego version or just plain rice.

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Spicy chicken ($12.90) … truly superb!

Unlike versions we’ve had elsewhere that involve ribbettes and their bones, this dish is built around boneless chicken pieces deep-fried, with the resulting globules being delicious and marvellously crisp and dry.

Of course, the real prize here is the spicy, dry jumble of goodies that accompanies.

This includes three types of onion – crunchy brown fried shallots, green onion discs and slivers of fresh white onion.

It also includes two types of chilli – crunchy crushed numbers and evil-looking black-red bullets.

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Spicy eggplant ($12.90) is every bit as good and equally chilli-hit, albeit in quite a different way.

This number gets there through deep-frying the raw eggplant chunks and then whipping them into a sauce with chilli, vinegar and some tofu bits.

This dish was started from scratch for us – we saw the eggplant being peeled and chopped.

That such a fine dish resulted so quickly is some sort of magic, the eggplant itself displaying a deluxe lusciousness that beats even Japanese-style eggplant with miso or the slippery big pieces found in laksas.

Perhaps there’s been a mono-dimensional aspect to our meal – chillies rampant in both dishes, both of which have been deep-fried.

But the spiciness has been by no means close to our outer limits and both dishes have been ungreasy.

And while we suspect our selections are most likely among the least frequently ordered at Hon’s Kitchen, their outright excellence just adds weight to our belief that when it comes to Chinese food, some smart ordering at a humble suburban eatery can deliver eats every bit as great as anything to be found in your high-priced CBD palaces.

 

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REAL old-school in Altona

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Alex Take Away Food, 11 Ford Rd, Altona. Phone: 9398 4267

“If you aren’t paying for a product, you ARE the product.”

Such is the charge often levelled at Facebook

We’re not blind to the creepier aspects of the social media behemoth.

But while keeping them in mind, we find it almost impossible to remain unmoved by the connectedness it can foster.

Take the Altona, I lived there FB page for instance.

In its short life, it has quickly racked up more than 2500 members and become a lively, entertaining focal point for all sorts of stories, photos and reminiscences about Altona.

And it’s how we found out about Alex Take Away Food.

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The address has nothing to do with what most of us non-Altonians think of when we think of Grieve Parade – the freeway exit after the Millers Road one.

Nope, this part of Grieve Parade requires taking the Millers Road exit, heading right down past the refinery, turning right on to Civic Parade and THEN  turning right on to suburban – as opposed to industrial – Grieve Parade.

On the early week night we visit, the place is mad busy.

There’s a heap of customers in-house and there seems to be just as many phone orders coming in.

Everyone but us is a regular. We feel like strangers gatecrashing an intimate gathering of friends and families.

Certainly, the pace is sufficiently frantic to preclude any chit chat and inquiries about just how long this community asset has been doing business right here.

But judging by the funky decor, I’m guessing at least since some time in the 1970s.

We’re in no hurry though, so happily enjoy the vibe until our order is taken.

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There are zero tables or chairs, inside or out.

And unlike almost all the other customers, we can’t simply whisk our goodies home – and even the beach, while reasonably close by, seems a stretch that will ruin our dinner.

So we prop on the footpath right outside the shop, get stuck in and make small talk with some local youngsters while we’re at it.

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Bennie loves his “with the lot” ($7.50).

He’s enough of a burger maven to understand and appreciate that there’s a difference between more American-style burgers and the Aussie variety – and that there’s a time and a place for both.

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My calamari rings ($1) are the of the surimi variety and just OK.

My deep-fried snapper ($7.50) is much better and a real classy piece of work.

The batter is crisp and deep brown, and adheres to the fish pretty good.

The snapper itself is a huge chunk of seafood and has juicy depth of the sort we’ve rarely encountered.

Our chips orders ($4) got lost in the hubbub somewhere, so we end up with some that appear to have been sitting for a while – they’re barely warm and a bit leathery.

But as we saw heaps of chips of what appeared to be excellent quality and appearance be prepared as we waited for our food, we wouldn’t let this minor lapse deter us from returning to this amazing and obviously much-loved neighbourhood joint.

 

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