Tag Archives: Melbourne

And a yummy time was had by all …

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Hyderabad Inn, 551 Barkly St, West Footscray. Phone: 9689 0998

What a nice time we all had at the Indian Feast co-sponsored by Hyderabad Inn and Consider The Sauce.

So first thanks go to chef Nagesh and his staff for so generously providing us with such a fine meal.

My own favourites were a spicy, creamy tomato soup with a garlic and ginger kick, and – somewhat surprisingly – the homely delights of a fabulous peas pulao and simple dal.

Mind you, we all loved the gulab jamun with insanely good pistachio ice cream as well!

Thanks, too, to CTS readers Russell, Loren and Brenton, Kat and Natasha, Ms Baklover of Footscray Food Blog fame and Bianca, Alastair and Michelle, and Kelly and Alison for attending.

So much fun to converse with so many westies with so many mutual and overlapping interests, pertaining to foodiness and much else besides.

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Bennie surprised and delighted all – including his dad – by firing off really good pen-and-paper caricatures of everyone present.

I knew my boy had some drawing skill, but this was something else.

Wow!

Where did that come from?

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The evening’s consisted of the following:

Soup

Cream of tomato soup

Appetizers

Spinach Pakora

Chilly prawns

Chicken tikka spring roll dosa

Chicken Manchurian

Mains

Paripu (South Indian & Srilankian style dal)

Vegetable Taka Tak

Chicken Do Payaaza

Lamb Kohlapuri

Rice

Basmati rice

Peas Pulao

Breads

Amritsari Kulcha (most famous in Punjab & nobody serve in Melbourne)

Mixed breads

Desserts

Gulab Jamun with Ice cream

See earlier Consider The Sauce stories on this restaurant here and here.

This gathering was a joint initiative of Hyderabad Inn and Consider The Sauce, the former of which devised the evening’s menu. Our guests did not pay for their meals.

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Mediterranean Keilor

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Rose Creek Estate open day, 2 Craig St, East Keilor. Phone: 9337 5471

At 2 Craig St, East Keilor, there’s a large, two-storey but otherwise unremarkable suburban home.

There’s also 300 olive trees surrounding a vineyard and much more besides.

Including, but in no way restricted to, a fabulous garden, all sorts of fruit trees and a superb chook family.

The whole set-up is so magnificent, we’re surprised we haven’t heard about it before – or the annual open days.

Then again, it’s situated in a suburb that seems part of the west but through which we travel only on occasion but rarely (never) have a reason to stop.

Regardless, we so enjoy our visit that even if it’s a long time until we return – perhaps for the next available open day – we feel a good deal better about the world just knowing this place is where it is and as it is.

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When we arrive, there seems to be a couple of hundred folks enjoying the day, with as many coming and going as we take it all in.

Indoors, there are wine and oilve oil tastings going on, and a long table replete with samples of olives, cheese and simple bruschetta of bread, parsley and oilve oil.

Before Bennie gets carried away by gorging himself on fare that is, after all, meant to be considered of the sample variety, we seek out more serious tucker.

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I’d been informed somewhere along the way that pizza is often the Rose Creek open-day go.

No pizza today – instead, there’s good-looking sausages being given the heat treatment over coals and served in bread rolls with leaves and brushed with a thyme branch dipped in herby oilive oil.

Yes please!

We’re a little taken aback at the asking price of $10 – the two apiece we have been contemplating could set us back $40.

But the proof is in the eating, and on that count we have no complaints at all, and one serve each is plenty.

The bread is fresh and wonderful, the snags even better.

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They’re made, I’m told, to order by a butcher to the estate’s specifications and using its pepper sauce and semillon. They’re rustically stuffed with gorgeously meaty, high-quality pork the like of which we never see in our usual pork sausages at home, regardless of where we source them.

From there, and before we score a very fine cafe latte and a hot chocolate, it’s a case of us city boys ambling all over, and up and down, sucking up what seems to us like a miraculous Mediterranean vibe in the midst of Melbourne suburbia.

Check out the Rose Creek website here.

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More room, pho sure

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Pho Hien Saigon, 3/284 Hampshire Rd, Sunshine. Phone: 9311 9532

Pho Hien Saigon has long been a great place.

A great place that delivers great food with service that is efficient and consistently prompt yet always friendly.

Unfortunately it’s because of the above factors that getting a seat or table here has often been tricky, especially during any of the joint’s many peak hours.

So it’s really neat to discover that these days there’s a whole lot more room – double, in fact, with the restaurant expanding to take in the adjoining property.

So now it’s double-fronted instead of single-fronted.

And all of it worthy of a quickie write-up.

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As previously noted, I usually visit this fine eatery to eat just a single dish.

For today’s impromptu, early, post-footy lunch, I mix it up by ordering a medium $9 bowl of pho.

It’s excellent in every way.

The broth is strong and flavoursome.

The sliced beef is far from raw and already pretty much cooked by the time my bowl is placed upon my table, yet it retains an overall pinkness I’ve never before seen in pho.

The  equal measure of brisket is fat-free – something also unusual in pho.

The herbiage, sprouts and fresh red chillis are all just right, too.

Shopping basket smugness

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How do your regular shopping baskets shape up?

When compared to your fellow shoppers?

I’ll admit it – I can be quite smug about ours.

Although I’m pretty sure the only person to whom such smugness is apparent is myself.

I hope so anyway.

After all, I don’t go mouthing off in a superior way about it. Or at least not at the cash register.

Though I do occasionally ask our checkout chicks or chaps if ours is the healthiest (most righteous) basket that has passed before them during their day.

The answer is almost always, after a moment’s reflection: “Yes.”

I do know this for sure – our shopping invariably seems to feature a whole lot more fresh fruit and vegetables than those we generally see around us.

When I do a mental count, I’m frankly surprised by how little serious meat we buy – things such as roasts, steaks or even chicken bits hardly ever, and never from a supermarket.

So consequently we very rarely have to dispense with any of those ghastly polystyrene trays.

We don’t do frozen stuff at all, really. Not vegetables or pizza bases or anything else.

OK, we do peas.

We don’t do snack foods, either.

Lollies we do do. And good-quality corn chips – not the hard-as-nail salt-free organic types, but not horrid, toxic Doritos either.

But we’re far from perfect.

We haven’t figured out a way of buying milk and yogurt without also buying plastic.

Could be such is not at all possible anywhere in metropolitan Australia.

Our deli items and much else besides are likewise embraced in plastic of one sort or another.

Although I’m pretty sure that when it comes to dishwashing liquid and the like that there are more worthy and admirable ways of going about things.

Perhaps most reprehensibly of all, we still leave our places of shopping toting a handful of plastic bags, though they do get routinely re-used.

At least once, for school lunches, footy gear … that sort of thing.

One thing checkout folks have told me is that they’re regularly surprised by some of the items they see in their customers’ baskets.

As in: “Wow – I can’t believe anyone is actually buying that!”

So … how do your shopping baskets shape up?

A Jolly good time

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Jolly J’s, Port Phillip Arcade/232 Flinders St, Melbourne. Phone: 9650 9989

Jolly J’s is situated in Port Phillip Arcade, which is a lunchtime magnet.

It has a cheap and perennially busy multi-Asian joint, and Thai and Japanese places.

Further on – in Scott Alley, Bennie’s address for the first six weeks of his life – there’s a creperie.

At Jolly J’s, customer can order fish and chips, a steak sanger or even raisin toast.

But in all the years I’ve been eating here, I’ve never seen anyone eating any of those things – or anything like them.

Nope, just about everyone goes for a curry plate of one sort or another.

And everyone always includes a reassuringly high number of fellows of Sri Lanakan persuasion, usually a mixture of suited business types and younger, hipper students. Or folks who look like they could be students.

On this particular visit, though, I see several customers getting stuck into what looks like a pretty groovy Sri Lankan version of nasi goreng – bowl-mounded pile of rice, the same condiments that accompany the curry plates, hardboiled egg, papadam on the side.

And it’s only as I’m leaving that I realise after all this time that the restaurant actually has a menu, which features among many Sri Lankan and Western dishes kothu roti.

But that’s a maybe for next time.

Today, as it almost always is, it’s a wonderful plate of “rice with 3 veges & 2 meats” for $11.50.

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Once I’ve inhaled my papdam, I’m right into it …

Good lamb and chicken curries.

A nice dal studded with silverbeet and curry leaves.

A smooth, delicate mix of cashews and peas.

A rather fiery spud-and-onion concoction.

A tangy “coconut sambol” and raita much more substantial with cucumber and tomato than is normally the case in the sort of Sub-Continental places Consider The Sauce habitually haunts.

The heat level seems to rise as my meal proceeds, so in the end my brow is beaded.

But it’s all good. Really good, actually.

Though there is one puzzling aspect to my lunch – this is the first time I can recall eating here and not being served at least one dish that includes eggplant.

 

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Thali, burger and chips

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Sri Murugan, 27 Watton St, Werribee. Phone: 9741 9656

Sri Murugan is a first restaurant adventure for Rathi and Vellayan.

They’ve been up and running for about five weeks, bringing their native Sri Lankan food to the party and combining it with your regular fish and chips and burgers, the ins and outs of which the previous, Greek management imparted to them before splitting and leaving the lovely, friendly couple to their own devices.

Based on our swell Sunday lunch, we reckon they’re doing a pretty good job of handling both aspects.

The place unmistakably bears all the hallmarks of its origins as a genuine, old-school Aussie chippery and burger bar, yet the menu is also festooned with Sri Lankan dishes.

We have a four-way bash at quite a wide bunch of it.

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I’m happy to let Bennie have his way and the lad does real good with his burger pack of one with the lot, chips and a can of drink for $8.

Unlike our previous outing with this style of burger, this one is a glorious hands-on delight, with real beefy meat patty, gooey egg and all the bits and pieces you’d rightfully expect.

The chips are hot and OK in an average sort of way, but the burger is an outright winner.

As Courtney opines: “Sometimes it’s just got to be a fish and chip shop burger!”

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Two vadai (90 cents each) served with coconut chutney are a delight – softer and more moist than is often the case, they’re liberally studded with green chilli. The masala vadai ($1) doesn’t impress quite as much.

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Likewise, a three-piece serve of idli ($6) goes down well with the same chutney and a portion of thickish sambar/dal.

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Rice and curry turns out to be a lovely looking thali.

The star without doubt is the lamb curry, which is coconutty, rich and delicious.

The chick peas are good, too, and have a similarly hefty chilli whack.

The vegetable serves – one of cabbage, the other a mixed concoction of zucchini, beans and carrot – are way overcooked but suffice.

Still, at $8 – and especially if the vegetables were replaced with a dal of some sort – this is a bargain.

In admirably curious spirit, Courtney and James get busy thumbing their mobiles to find out about kothu rotti, and order a couple based on this Wikipedia entry.

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The first, lamb kothu rotti, is the darker and heavier of the pair.

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The second, egg kothu rotti, is both kinds of lighter.

But both are damn tasty, stuffed with all sorts of vegetables and chopped rotti, and with a whiff of wok hei about them.

They are a very satisfying feed, coming across as something like a superior Sri Lankan version of fried rice.

We’re all impressed with the food, service, our ability to enjoy such a wide-ranging meal and the sublime hipness of finding such a cool mixture in the west.

We’d actually started the day meeting up at a foodie pub up the road apiece, but have no regrets about adjourning – based on a CTS reader tip (thanks, Martin!) and mutual gut instinct – to this multi-approach joint.

We wish them well.

Werribee, we’re happy to reflect, is becoming a happy hunting ground for us.

 

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The Rolls Royce of bureks …

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Balkan Fresh Burek, 351 High Street, Preston. Phone: 9470 2433

All too often the bureks we see around the west look forlorn, past their use-by dates and/or like poor second cousins to other products – even including pies and the like.

Our expectations for Balkan Fresh Bureks are a good deal loftier.

After all, the place seems to have a proud manifesto encapsulated in its very name.

We’re not disappointed.

The place itself is a modest but pleasant cafe, already doing brisk business – both eat-in and take-away – even though it’s still before the noonish hour.

But so serious are they about their bureks and their freshness, that they’re not even on display – that honour sits with sweeties alone, such as bakalava and tulumbi, syrup-drenched doughnuts akin to rum baba or gulab jamun and of which we also grab a very delicious couple.

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There’s only three flavours of burek – cheese, spinach (with cheese) and meat (with onion).

Full square and circle/scroll bureks lob in the mid-$20 range. Individual slices are $7 to eat in or $6 as takeaway.

As our party includes a grubby and barefoot boy straight from a rugby game, and as we’ve got some homeward driving to do before we can really relax into the weekend, we grab a couple of takeaway slices to join our doughnuts and hit the road.

At home, our slices are wrapped in foil and gently warmed in the oven before we split the goodies between us.

These are superb bureks.

The flaky pastry is rich and buttery, yet also supple and even elastic.

Bennie prefers the more robust flavour of the meat number, although his dad finds it rather plain and apparently lacking in the advertised onion.

The spinach number is, by contrast, too mild for Bennie but his dad digs the extra colours and textures of fresh spinach and smooth cheese. That’s cheese as in bland – this is your ricotta, so there’s none of the salty bite of fetta going on here.

And at $7 a slice, this is bargain territory – after our lunch we’re both fully full, despite eating only the equivalent of a single slice each.

Dang, we sure wish this place was closer to home and not a mere rugby stopover in a season soon to be ending.

 

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St George’s Theatre – there’s action opposite the station

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Watching Yarraville’s St George apartments get built was a lengthy process.

It went on for years and years … like watching paint grow, it was.

And all along we kept wondering what was to become of the cavernous ballroom/theatre space, the old-school and wonderful facade of which has been retained.

For a long time there was no action at the station … but this week all that changed, with unloading trucks ever-so-slighly messing with our normal school run.

So of course we checked it out …

The chippies on site were a little short on detail but they could tell us that the upstairs or mezzanine area of the space is destined to contain more apartments, while the ground floor will become what they referred to as a “cafe” area that will be built by the owner and then leased.

Whether “cafe” in this instance can mean cafe, restaurant, wine bar, bar, nightclub, live music venue or some mixture of all these we know not.

We’ll watch progress with interest.

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When a place goes bad – or at least a little off – do you want to know? No matter the cost and consequences?

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On Sunday night, Bennie and I visited an old favourite we hadn’t checked out for a while.

We’d heard there were new owners running the place.

Indeed, about the time this joint was on the market, our previous post on it received quite few visitors. Prospective buyers doing their research?

Would the food in particular and the experience as a whole be of the same excellent standard as previously?

Yes, there was a new crew running the place – and doing a grand job of it.

The service was tip-top, the smiles wides, with walk-ins being treated to the same standard of friendliness as the many phone-ins.

The phone barely stopped ringing the whole time we were in the house.

The food?

Well, on the one hand what we got was all anyone could rightfully expect of a pair of $5 burgers, bacon $1 extra, small serve of chips for $3.

But on the other hand, the chips were dull and quite a few of them were barely lukewarm.

The burgers seemed equally drab and a mite miserly, with the patties those cheapy kind that when cooked have texture and taste closer to meatloaf than a beefy burger.

It was an average meal but typical of the kind you’d expect from such an establishment. But it was notably less impressive than those we’d been served by the previous owners.

Were this a bigger business or a trendy one with plenty of supporters and fans and potential defenders, I’d be up for an explicit and honest review.

But … this is a lovely little “mom and pop” operation.

And as it stands – today, right now – I’m feeling squeamish about laying it all out. As well, it could be that other aspects of the food available – such as fish and chips – remain excellent.

So, dear readers, the question is: Do you want to know – no matter what, and no matter the cost and consequences, potentially quite damaging, to the businesses involved in such cases?

(To those of you really curious and who take the time to email me, I’ll spill the beans!)

A westie room with a killer view

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Lakehouse Restaurant, 55 Cumberland Drive, Edgewater. Phone: 9317 3649

Edgewater, a brand new suburb, is served at the top of its hill by a number of commercial enterprises, including a fish and chip shop of which we’re fond.

There’s eateries of the Malaysian and Thai persuasion, an Aldi outlet and a few other places we’re yet to sample.

Down the hill, at water’s edge so to speak, the feel is different.

Despite the many houses and apartments, the place seems to have a ghost-town vibe.

Where are all the people?

There’s a creperie and cafe/restaurant/deli, both of which we’ve hit for coffee without being tempted to go further.

But despite the slightly forlorn vibe, Bennie and I have taken to enjoying the undeniably gorgeous setting along the waterfront, quite often going for a ramble in the downtime between the school day ending and rugby practice starting across the road.

And when we’ve been hanging out here, we’ve always wondered about the large space at the river’s end of the main apartment building.

Obviously designed with a restaurant operation in mind, it perennially looked unloved and desolate.

In our minds, there seemed little chance of this neighbourhood having any kind of pizzazz while it remained so.

So we were delighted to hear from a local that the place was destined – in a few days’ time – for a new life as a living, breathing, operating restaurant.

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A few days later, during the week’s second footy practice, I take the opportunity to check the place out, in the process meeting manager George and maitre’d Lisa and snagging an invite to the coming Saturday night’s “soft launch” (full disclosure below).

Lit up and looking beaut on a chilly but windless winter night, the place is an eye magnet. Come spring time and summer, the outdoor seating on the Lakehouse balcony will surely become one of the great westie haunts.

I do worry, though, about the ability of this new enterprise to throw off the downbeat baggage of several year’s of inaction and non-use. Such things can take a while to overcome.

So I’m delighted to find that relatively early on a Saturday night the place has a cheerful buzz going, with about half the tables taken.

Lisa tells me some of the customers are friends or family of the Lakehouse crew, but plenty more are curious walk-ups or locals eager to check out this new arrival.

If I lived in this neighbourhood, I’d be hitting Lakehouse pronto, too!

The service and welcome are fine, and everyone seems to have a spring in their step.

The restaurant interior seems rather flash, yet on the other hand the are no airs and graces going on here.

The napkins are paper and there’s two wall-mounted TVs, one showing footy and the other cricket.

Likewise with the food offerings, represented by a shorter opening night list that will expand come the place’s official opening in a few days’ time, taking in the pizza oven offerings along the way.

Think solid bistro tucker with an Italian influence, the main course pricing of $22 to $34 seemingly pitched at getting the locals to think of the joint as a regular option rather than just as a swish night out.

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Crispy calamari served with a fennel, orange and cherry tomato salad ($15) is just fine.

The calamari is low on crisp but as tender and flavoursome as calamari gets. The salad works, too, helped by a smooth dressing that is both creamy and light.

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My two handsome bones ($28) are everything lamb shanks should be – really pungent with sheepish flavour, generously meaty and with the flesh falling from the bones.

The garlic mash has a slightly bitter edge to it, but both it and broccolini play nice second fiddles to the tremendous shanks. A greater quantity of juice/gravy would’ve hit the spot with me, though I know that’s not bistro style.

I’ve enjoyed my meal heaps but wonder about how good a seafood pasta might be at such a place – and whether there’ll be a hamburger on the regular menu.

Lakehouse Restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner from Wednesday to Sunday and for breakfast from 8am at weekends.

Disclosure: Consider The Sauce was provided a meal without being required to pay by Lakehouse management, which did not know which dishes would be ordered. No editorial input was sought or given.

 

NOTE: The menus below represent the Lakehouse opening night offerings – the regular menu will be along the same lines but, I’m told, longer.

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A tasty retreat in the city

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Fo Guang Yuan Water Drop Vegetarian Tea House, 141 Queen St, Melbourne. Phone:  9642 2388

The restaurant for lunch is part of a broader set-up.

The dining room proper has a meditation hall right above it, while the outer dining area – in which I am sitting – has a gallery right next door.

They’re all part of a Buddhist centre tucked away in an old Queen St building.

I’m loving the vibe. It’s almost as if I’ve arrived plenty early just so I could spend some time sucking it up.

In a lifespan rapidly approaching the proverbial – or should that be Biblical? – three score, the time I spent as a fully paid-up card-carrying Buddhist seems a long time ago and very brief.

But there’s no doubting the influence Buddhism in general continues to have on my life.

Even if that first-hand experience was in another country and involved the traditions of yet another country and what is generally regarded as a much more complex and some might even say political branch of Buddhism.

It’s a pleasure just to sit, as they say, and rapidly regain my equilibrium in what has been – so far – a crazy week.

I think about the fun to be had in meeting another blogger, Katherine, who writes prolifically in her own pithy and fetching style at New International Students.

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The card motto on our table seems weirdly un-Buddhist to me – but I could well be wrong.

And I think, of course, about food on offer here.

It’s a hardcore vegetarian place, with mock meat prominently featured – something that still doesn’t grab me.

But there’s plenty of other action.

There’s daily specials that appear to be served in bento boxes with bowl of soup on the side that look like they play he same role as miso soup in Japanese box meals.

There’s quite a long list of $8 appetisers such rolls, puffs, dumplings and buns that would seem to offer scope for a nice vego yum cha sitting for two or more people.

And there’s stir frys and soup noodles of various kinds.

But I wonder if I’m soon about to wish we’d chosen somewhere with higher levels of salt, oil, spice and oomph.

And surely ordering laksa in such an establishment is an invitation to be presented with something watery, anaemic and comprehensively lacking in spice or heat levels – or any allure whatsoever.

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I order the laksa ($12).

I’m instantly surprised and delighted.

There’s three chunks of what I presume are mock beef. I eat one. It’s chewy, meaty but – to my mind – kind of creepy.

I wish they’d replace the mock meat with eggplant, but other than that my laksa is a winner.

The spice levels aren’t extreme but it’s identifiably an authentic laksa, denoted – if the taste, flavour and texture were not enough – with a great many curry leaves.

In addition to the regulation egg and rice noodles and bean sprouts, there’s broccoli, cauliflower, carrot, tofu and – most delightful of all – shredded cabbage.

I’d be happy to get such cabbage an any laksa – vegetarian or otherwise – anytime. It’s cheap, healthy and adds textural interest.

This is a beaut laksa – not as fine as, say, those from my favourite laksa joint, but much better than the listless, weak speciman Bennie and I shared the previous week at the new dumpling place at Highpoint.

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Curry puffs ($8) are excellent – grease-free with crisp short pastry outers and mildly spicy spud-based innards.

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Katherine likes her vermicelli with vegetarian dumplings in vegetarian minced pork sauce with soup on the side ($10.50).

It’s presented in a sort-of Korean/Japanese fashion and I’m pretty sure it tastes a whole lot better than it looks.

Certainly, my companion cleans her bowl so it gleams.

For all its charm, I wouldn’t want to visit here to too frequently. I reckon the prevalence of mock meat and certain sameness across the menu might lead to interest fatigue.

But as it’s a tranquil, affordable hideaway/retreat, if I was working in the CBD I would be a regular – even if it was of the sometime variety.

By the time we leave halfway through this mid-week lunch sitting, the place is doing brisk business.

Nice to meet you, Katherine!

 

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The way ahead …

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Consider The Sauce, three years old this month, remains a wild joy for myself, and for Bennie and I together.

Other people seem to like it, too!

Eating out at many and varied joints spread mostly across Melbourne’s west and then writing about them has been and will remain the core activity of CTS.

As well, we will continue to reflect and write on related subjects – and some not even close! – as the mood strikes.

But after three years and 500+ posts, I’m now both delighted and bemused to have this thing, the sum of which is way more than a domain name, a borrowed blogging platform and a bunch of restaurant reviews.

I’m of a mind to use it to do stuff, and hopefully to do good.

The signs have been there … in the Paella Party, and in the forthcoming Indian Feast at Hyderabad Inn.

I have no problem with setting up, or helping set up, one-off showcases for restaurants or other businesses, especially when I reckon a particular eating house is worthy of greater recognition.

There may be future events where CTS readers are invited to a feed for free, as the generosity of Hyderabad Inn has ensured.

Equally, there may be dinners or tastings for which a fee is charged.

And there may be events set up specifically for bloggers.

Somewhere along the way I will no doubt try to eke out some income for myself.

It all depends on the circumstances of any given situation or plan.

What else?

Suggestions anyone?

Frankly, I’m making it up as I go along!

Indian feast for lucky CTS readers

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Hyderabad Inn, 551 Barkly St, West Footscray. Phone: 9689 0998

PLEASE NOTE: ALL PLACES FOR THIS EVENT HAVE BEEN CLAIMED!!!

Consider The Sauce really likes Hyderabad Inn.

In fact, we’ve written about it three times – once early in its life, once as part of my ongoing search for crash-hot biryanis, and most recently to check out the dining room’s revamp.

We’ve never had anything less than a swell meal there.

Somehow, though, the lovely Nagesh and his crew seem to remain something of a “best kept secret”.

So we are very happy to embrace his offer of a one-off feast for Consider The Sauce readers and followers.

Numbers are extremely limited.

There will be no charge for the food but attendees will be expected to pay for their own drinks beyond water.

The dinner will be on Wednesday, August 28, from 7.30pm.

And while there’s no onus on our guests to do anything but enjoy, I’m sure Nagesh would be rapt if some punters felt sufficiently inspired to pen some nice words at Urbanspoon or comment on the subsequent CTS story!

Here are the rules:

  • First in, first served.
  • There are 10 places only available. If you miss out – and most, I’m sure, will … stay tuned
  • 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.

To grab your place, send me an email telling me whether you want one or to places. The address is elsewhere on this site. Applying by commenting on this post will not work.

Before he nutted out the menu, I made three strong recommendations to Nagesh – no butter chicken, no lamb rogan josh and no tandoori chook!

Here is the menu he has devised for us:

Soup

Cream of tomato soup

Appetizers

Spinach Pakora

Chilly prawns

Chicken tikka spring roll dosa

Chicken Manchurian

Mains

Paripu (South Indian & Srilankian style dal)

Vegetable Taka Tak

Chicken Do Payaaza

Lamb Kohlapuri

Rice

Basmati rice

Peas Pulao

Breads

Amritsari Kulcha (most famous in Punjab & nobody serve in Melbourne)

Mixed breads

Desserts

Gulab Jamun with Ice cream

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Pure delight on a Kensington back street

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La Tortilleria, 72 Stubbs St, Kensington. Phone: 9376 5577

Like so many other folks, we were knocked out to hear about a new Mexican joint in a Kensington back street, dedicated to churning out high-quality tortillas and serving lovely eat-in goodies, and doing both with wide smiles.

Knowing La Tortilleria was bound to be an immediate and surefire hit, we resolved to hold off doing a Consider The Sauce story on it until after the dust had settled.

Bennie and I visited for a nice, sunny Sunday lunch on the verandah soon after, but we – or, rather, I – blew it.

So intent were we on chowing down, we forgot about the all-important chilli sauces and salsa available inside.

So while we enjoyed our food, it’s true to say we found it rather rudimentary.

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Returning for a fab mid-week lunch and a somewhat overdue catch-up with very good CTS pal and neighbour Rob turns out to be a wonderful thing.

I enjoy the hell out of Rob’s evident surprise in finding such a brightly and funkily adorned establishment in such an unlikely setting.

It’s a fine but chilly day, so we’re rapt to snag one of the inside tables with no trouble at all, endowing us with a prime position to enjoy our lunch, its cooking and preparation, and the various other comings and goings.

For Rob, this is his first experience with the wonderful bubbles of Jarritos soft drinks.

He goes mandarin and is stoked; I go tamarind and wish I hadn’t.

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Consistency is vastly over-rated in my book.

So I’m delighted to report that our guacamole is both smoother and more lemony than the rendition Bennie and I had been served.

It’s delicious, though in this case I find the corn chips rather too gnarly and too much like hard work.

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The meatier side of our lunch is equally tasty.

A beef taco ($4.50) each, with the soft tortillas embracing simply beautiful beef still pink in the middle and topped with raw onion and coriander.

Loaded up with chilli sauce and salsa, they’re sublime.

To finish, a $6.50 gringas each.

These are sinfully sexy tortilla sandwiches of pork and gooey melted cheese.

Similarly dressed with the nearby condiments, these, too, get the big thumbs up from both of us.

Everything about La Tortilleria seems so right that we adore it without inhibition.

I’ve heard, though, of queues, so choosing your time to visit is worth some deliberation.

As far as we know, Ms Baklover scooped with the world with her Footscray Food Blog story about La Tortilletia – read it here.

 

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Shopping centre Malaysian – really good

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Nyonya House, Sanctuary Lakes Shopping Centre, 300 Point Cook Rd, Point Cook. Phone: 9394 8881

Nyonya House is in Sanctuary Lakes Shopping Centre, so we keep our expectations prudently in check.

No matter the ambitions, we fully expect the necessity of also serving coffee, cake, breakfast and more to compromise – perhaps seriously – the nature of the Malaysian food on offer.

We are dead wrong.

As becomes apparent as we scan the long, illustrated menu (see below), and as is confirmed when we enjoy a fine lunch.

This is some serious stuff going on here, the Malaysian menu seeming to have quite a notable Singaporean influence.

All the expected bases and dishes are covered, but there are a few unusual and intriguing items as well.

But with a couple of exceptions, we stick to standard dishes.

Our choices are served promptly and the service from a handful of different staff members is full of smiles and patience with our many questions.

The decor and ambiance are bog standard shopping centre, but the food vibe is of a much loftier standard.

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Char koay teow ($11.80) is average in a good way.

It’s less greasy than the norm and light on wok hei, but the spice level is a little higher than normal and the $2 extra we pay for inclusion of Chinese sausage is well spent.

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Jala are lace-like crepes – see recipe here.

They’re so delicate – eating them is akin to enjoying a meal of Sri Lankan hoppers.

We have them with chicken curry sauce for $6.80, but they’re also available as a full serve with chicken curry for $12.80. Maybe next time!

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Chicken nasi goreng ($12.80) is OK, but as ever seems to me just glorified fried rice with not much zing. Still, it suffices as a base for all else on our table.

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Achar ($6.80) is fantastic.

All Malaysian restaurants should serve this, but we don’t see it that often.

More to the point, this is a great version – sweet and sour, crunchy, and it’s a good-sized serving, too, with plenty to go round a table of four.

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Beef rendang ($16.80) is another big hit with everyone at our table.

Yet it’s unlike any previous rendang any of us have tried.

There’s no discernible coconut, for starters.

Instead, the rich, smooth gravy is heavy with black pepper, while the large chunks of beef are fat-free, firm and even a little crusty on some of the extremities.

It comes across as curried, Asian-style take on a hearty beef stew from Italy or central Europe.

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For company today we have Courtney and James.

We met them at the Paella Party, where they told me they routinely rely on Consider The Sauce and Footscray Food Blog to know where to go to eat.

My immediate thought on being told that was: “Stuff that! Time to rope these guys into helping us do some of the heavy lifting!”

Turns out they’re definitely not your passive blog readers, are in fact zealous and adventurous in pursuit of mostly cheap but always funky foodiness, and are thoroughly hip to and appreciative of Malaysian food.

Even better, as the four of us chow down it becomes clear that we have more than food in common, with the conversation zooming from science fiction and fantasy writing to anime and manga, various football codes, politics, travel, films, comics and more.

I even come away from our meal with a short but enticing list of books titles to explore.

Meeting them was a gas; having lunch with them has been even better.

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James and I mostly leave the “ooh-ing” and “aah-ing” over our desserts to Bennie and Courtney.

Sago pudding ($2) is quite firm but very nice, with the caramelised sugar adding a lusty touch.

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Iced kachang ($5.80) is all about Bennie, with no comment from his dad necessary.

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Muar chee ($5.80) are cute, bursty, gnocchi-like dumplings made from glutinous rice and coated with finely chopped peanuts and sugar and sesame seeds.

Courtney loves them; I’ll sit on the fence.

What a find Nyonya House is – it strikes me as easily the equal or better of anything thing in Flemington, or Melbourne generally.

There’s plenty of scope to be more adventurous on future visits.

I’m keen to try out some of the one-for-lunch dishes such as laksa, chicken rice or the aforementioned jala with chicken curry.

And I wonder how crash-hot the $13.80 lobak or the $4.80 wonton soup might be …

 

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Consider The Sauce goes ape … but the monkey doesn’t sing

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Crazy Wings, 177 Russell Street, Melbourne. Phone: 9663 6555
Brunetti, 214 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. Phone: 9663 8085

Career has become a very relative term in our household.

Plain old work is probably a better way of putting it.

And, financial imperatives aside, lack of work presents its own joys, space and opportunities to further pursue what I now see as my “real career”, that being principally father and blogger.

Still, a work situation that has very suddenly gone to three and now four days a week is cause for relief and celebration; it’s a situation that could last for a month or maybe the rest of the year.

But it means the “real career” pursuits can continue.

It means a multi-hundreds electricity bill will not cause an anxiety meltdown.

It means the car will be serviced.

And, yes, it’s worthy of celebration.

Truth is, though, we wouldn’t be heading for this Friday night’s King Kong at the Regent had I not snagged a couple of very excellent but full-price stalls seats.

So off we go … heavy traffic negotiated with ease, $7 parking sorted, we have plenty of time to wander further into the CBD than we expected.

We pass many eating places as we amble without feeling inclined to rise to their various baits.

And then we’re in Russell Street and there it is, the famous – perhaps notorious is a better word – Crazy Wings.

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It seems like a typical, busy low-price Chinatown joint except the air is headily perfumed with barbecue aromas, cumin to the fore.

We are pointed to a table and proceed to familiarise ourselves with the ordering process, which entails ticking off items on a long list resembling a yum cha sheet that is then taken for processing/cooking by the staff.

We play a straight bat to the many items of an exotic (for us) or weird nature, and studiously avoid the eponymous crazy wings.

And then the fun begins.

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A double serve of the standard original taste wing ($2 per skewer) turns into a double double serve as it’s the Friday special, and we’re really happy about that.

They’re marvellous, tender and redolent with – yes – cumin.

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Likewise for the lamb meat skewers ($1.50 each) … but then things start getting a little screwy.

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Ox tongue ($2 each) has the sort of silky tenderness I’ve been expecting but there’s something almost, um, petrochemical about the seasoning.

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As we move into our vegetable selections, including BBQ eggplant ($2.50, above), we are starting to weary some of the sameness in the seasonings.

And as with all our subsequent non-meat skewers – cucumber ($2.50), enoki mushrooms ($4.50) and even honey BBQ steamed bread $1.50) – there seems, to us, to be a disconnect between what’s threaded on the skewers and what’s been used for seasoning.

There doesn’t seem to be any cohesion and not much point. We’d prefer a salad.

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The same holds true for chewy and enjoyable BBQ squid ($1.50).

Still we ARE having a ball.

We love the vibe.

We love the way the many orders are hustled by the staff from kitchen to tables not on platters but as fistfuls of smoking skewers. At the tables, they are placed on wooden trays and right on top of already discarded skewers.

As with every other table, our wooden tray starts to resemble a greasy, charred game of pickup sticks or a mini-bonfire in the making.

We’re having such a good time, we get a bit reckless and order more – including a serve of the crazy wings.

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Whatever our issues or bemusement with our food up to this point, they are instantly rendered small fry, for this is where we part company with the Crazy Wings’ ethos completely and forever.

Bennie and I eat no more than the equivalent of a teaspoon each.

In more than three decades of eating spicy food, this is the hottest food I’ve ever tried – by a very, very wide margin.

And there’s no slow burn here – the heat is virtually instant, as is the unpleasant burning of lips and mouth.

Worse, the little we do eat is not just spicy but tastes plain bad – metallic, nasty, industrial.

Hard as we find it to figure, we suppose there may be people who may enjoy such ridiculously seasoned food.

But for us, there seems nothing macho or admirable about doing so.

It just seems a waste – of food, effort, money and appetite.

As well, I wonder about the health aspects of such insanity – for older and younger people in particular. Could there be allergy issues at play here as well?

Should we return to Crazy Wings, we’ll play it even straighter, stick with the plain meats and seafood, and maybe go for some of the handful of rice or noodle dishes.

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So well organised are we that we have ample time for lovely, leisurely coffee, hot chocolate, pistachio biscotti and chocolate panzarotti at Brunetti’s in the city square.

The CBD branch seems to divide opinions just the way the Lygon Street HQ does, but we like it.

We feel relaxed and comfortable – and even warm on a cold night, thanks to the outdoor heaters.

And King Kong?

Well musical theatre is never going to be my fave thing, but there’s a brilliant light show, loud music, lots of dancing, generous nods to Broadway tradition … but not, to my mind, much by way of genuine emotion or soul.

Still, as Bennie’s first such experience, and as part of a swell boys’ night out in the CBD, it could hardly be bettered.

 

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A welcome return

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Yim Yam Thai Laos, 40 Ballarat St, Yarraville. Phone: 9687 8585

So scarifying was our last visit to Yim Yam in Yarraville that it has taken more than five years to return.

On that occasion, on a busy Friday night, the place was uncomfortably cramped and the staff seemed harried to distraction.

At that time, a much younger Bennie was very much unused to spicy food, so we made a point of choosing one dish by adhering to the restaurant’s chilli grading system.

But our “one chilli” choice was so unbearably hot that even I could eat only a few mouthfuls.

When I tried to raise this matter with the staff member who seemed to be in charge, I was blown off with a dismissive wave of the hand.

It was a long time ago – and certainly before the arrival of Consider The Sauce.

But, yes, it has remained in memory a vivid experience for both of us.

Returning for a mid-week dinner, we find much – perhaps even everything – has changed.

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The place has expanded, with a lovely dining room now adjoining the original, smaller eating and kitchen space.

The staff are happy, obliging and on the ball.

With this sense of expansiveness, what might have previously been viewed as an imposition – being seated at the window bench right next to the door – is just fine by us.

We navigate a dauntingly long menu of dishes mostly unfamiliar to use with aplomb, ending up with just the sort of meal we desired, even if our picks are a little on the unadventurous side.

Even better, by going without our usual soft drinks and appetisers of the snacky variety, the bill clocks in at just a tick over $40, which we hold to be excellent value considering the quality of the food.

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Vegetarian pad thai ($12.90) is a fine foundation for our dinner.

It’s quite wet and mildly spiced, yet has a good lemony tang and a profusion of lovely vegetables, sprouts and tofu.

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Vientiane salad ($12.90) is Bennie’s choice and it’s a good one.

This one, too, has a bold lemon quotient, but we pretty much inhale the “white noodles with shredded green papaya, tomato, peanuts and herbs with a lemon flavoured dressing”.

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Our protein hit comes courtesy of guy yang gup jaow mark kham – “marinated grilled chicken with chilli tamarind dip” ($15.90).

It’s good but doesn’t transport us to delight as our previous, vegetable-based choices did.

That’s down to the chicken being a little on the bland side and also being very like the Vietnamese grilled chook we’ve eaten so often.

The sticky tamarind chilli sauce is terrific, though.

If anything, the best part of this dish is scooping up the mess of carrots, coriander, spring onion and peanuts imbued with the chicken/marinade cooking juices.

Tonight’s Yarraville adventure has come about because I’d had quite enough of driving for the day, so somewhere, anywhere in our immediate backyard has been the go.

Walking around Anderson and Ballarat streets leads us to acknowledge just how many Yarraville village eateries we have yet to visit and/or write about, even if quite a few of them fall into the “special occasion” category for us.

Still, it’s been a happy outing in that we’ll be more than glad to return to Yim Yam where previously we have stayed away.

Test drive for a hip new food truck

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lil nomnoms’ opening launch party, Rubix @ Tetris Studios, 36 Phoenix St, Brunswick

There’s some good and even very fine tucker to be had from Melbourne’s food trucks.

There’s some medicore and crap food to be had, too.

But food is just part of what is going on here.

As we found during last summer, grabbing some choice goodies from one of these mobile vendors and then adjourning to the parks adjacent to which they’ve parked is a sublime delight.

Yet even in mid-winter the many food trucks are hard at it.

The mostly youngish entrepreneurs behind all this activity know it’s about more than food, too.

It’s about creating a buzz, a vibe, a sense of occasion; it’s about branding and hipster-style marketing.

And it’s about creating a sense of anticipation.

It’s routine these days for a new food truck enterprise to start spreading the word weeks and even months before actually hitting the road.

I’ll happily admit to be as engaged with this process as anyone, even if I do wonder at times if yet another shiny new food van/truck blinds me to the fact that better and cheaper fare can often be had at real bricks-and-mortar eateries.

I didn’t, however, find out about Lil’ NomNoms through Facebook.

Rather, I received an email inviting me to their Saturday arvo launch party at a suitably grungy inner-urban venue down a Brunswick dead-end.

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The 100 or so guests who front up on a chilly and wet day seems to be a mix of friends of the business, punters only too happy to get in on the ground floor and enjoy a seven-course feed for $15, and a handful of bloggers invited on a complementary basis, of which Consider The Sauce is one.

Roping in Nat Stockley for “plus one” duty is a no-brainer – he loves this stuff just as much as he digs hamburgers!

Given the venue, I am half expecting the meal to be a sit-down affair.

But no, the food is dispensed from the nicely-liveried Mercedes van and distributed to guests canape-style.

It seems clear after a while that the Lil’ NomNoms’ crew has under-estimated the challenge posed by feeding this many people … at the same time.

They’re working very hard, but the various courses are slow in eventuating.

As well, due to a technical hitch, there will be no pho today.

No matter – it’s a happy occasion, and in the end I try four of the seven courses promised.

So how is the food?

Well, even taking in to consideration this a showcase event and trial run, and that portions sizes, pricing and quality may vary when the van goes public … this is very good food.

In fact, it’s as good as any food truck fare I’ve yet enjoyed in Melbourne – and far, far better than most.

The key is the terrific freshness of the produce used.

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Item: Goi cuong cha gio (rice paper roll with vegetarian spring roll, lettuce, Vietnamese mint, coriander and perilla). Fresh as can be and with spring roll crunch and texture that is as much about sound and sensation as flavour. Wonderfully tightly bound so they stay intact right up to the last mouthful.

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Item: Banh hoi thit nuon (roast pork belly on a bed of cos lettuce, rice noodles, cucumber, coriander and mint). Oh, wow – a vividly fresh and brilliantly textured flavour bomb. Cursing that I only get one of these!

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Item: Goi ga nuong (Vietnamese BBQ chicken salad). Lovely, tender and flavoursome chook over rustically chunky and beautifully dressed vegetables. Again, the freshness is noteworthy.

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Item: Banh mi ga nuong (banh mi slider filled with grilled lemongrass chicken, cucumber, spring onions, pickled carrot/daikon, coriander, truck-made mayo and chicken liver pate). These are good without reaching the heights of the previous three courses we’ve been offered. The filling seems very similar with the ingredients of the chicken salad. Here’s one case where comparisons with any of your local banh mi joints are unavoidable.

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Early on in the piece, Nat and I choose between rubbing shoulders with the gathered masses in the slightly warmer interior or hanging out at the venue entrance, getting cold but having first dibs on the food as it exits the van.

We choose the latter, and meet some fine folks in the process.

They include Henry and Mai, from Roxborough Park, paying guests and foodies to their cores.

These are my kind of food hounds. Why buy a kebab from a kebab shop when insisting on a sit-down plate of meats, salads, dips and more is so much more satisfying? Why get takeaway F&C when eating in helps ensure a repast of far greater excellence?

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And we meet a couple of high-spirited types in the form of Stacy, who I take it is part of the extended Lil’ NomNoms family, and Lil, Point Cook resident and soon-to-be food blogger.

Good luck!

The Lil’ NomNoms’ truck is scheduled to be hitting the streets in a couple of weeks, with engagements at Brunswick Bowls Club among the plans and Maribyrnong one of three municipalities on the radar.

Check out their Facebook page here.

And check out Nat’s handy guide to Melbourne’s food trucks at Urbanspoon here.

Our meal was provided free of charge by the owners. The Lil’ NomNoms crew neither sought nor was given any editorial control of this post.

 

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These foulish things in Altona

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Seaside Flatbread Cafe, 34 Borrack Square, Altona North. Phone: 9391 6655

It’s a lovely Friday but dad’s not working; nor is son at school.

He’s smashed his right foot something dreadful at school, to the extent we’ve had to get X-rays done.

But the news is all good – no fracture, no further treatment needed than the course of time and the natural healing process. And no need for spending the rest of the day in hospital, waiting to have a cast applied.

Still, he’s earned a nickname for the day – “Hoppy”!

Time for a well-earned lunch break at one of our favourite places.

Since rumour mongering about its imminent arrival and then writing about Seaside Flatbread Cafe and its food, several pertinent things have occurred.

For starters. we’ve become regulars. Not once a day or even once a week regulars, but often enough to satisfy our cravings for Lebanese goodness.

Then both Consider The Sauce and Seaside Flatbread Cafe scored generous, righteous mentions in a story by Nina Rousseau in The Age.

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Along the way, yours truly helped the business – for a small fee – in getting its Facebook page up and running.

That particular avenue of a career-like future generated by this blog is proving more tricky than anticipated.

I still think a lot of western suburbs eateries really, really need help with social media.

But convincing them of that fact – and that it’s worth paying some cash for – is something else entirely!

In any case, Seaside Flatbread Cafe seems to doing a fine FB job all on its own these days … and besides, we love Rouba, her family, their food and their business so much we’d do what we’ve done for free!

And with any suggestion of conflict of interest dispensed with, we can go back to telling you how much we dig the place.

The week previous to the foot injury, we’d visited with another youngster in tow for a fine lunch of pizzas, including divine Nutella pizzas for Bennie and his wee mate.

In the process, though, we noticed a couple of Lebanese blokes chowing down for another kind of lunch entirely, one we did not even know SFC was purveying.

So we’re back today with for the foul.

First, though, some of our usual faves …

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Tremendous stuffed vine leaves, this time – oh yes! – topped with slices of luscious, lemony potato I’m pretty sure have been part of the cooking process.

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Kibbeh ($2 each) tasty and tender, with the delicate lamb and onion mince so liberally studded with pine nuts.

Then it’s foul time …

Rouba tells us that normally she prepares her own fava beans, but as it’s Ramadan, the foul ($8) she whips up for us will be made using canned beans.

We don’t mind that at all.

And if anything, we seem to benefit from having a serve of foul specially prepared for us – the mix of beans, olive oil, garlic and tiny tomato pieces warmed through but not cooked is wonderful and more like a salad than a mashy stew.

On hand are pickles of the turnip, cucumber and very mild pickle variety.

But the real stars of our show are the one, then two terrific breads we are provided straight out of the pizza oven.

They’re big, round and inflated.

But unlike those of a similar bent we enjoy on Sydney Road, these are thin and crisp on top, thicker and moister on their bottoms.

This is a first for Bennie and he just loves the way the rotund breads emit steam when punctured!

Despite it being Ramadan, one other table is enjoying a foul meal.

So I ask Rouba why this dish is not listed on the printed or wall menus.

She tells me “our people” – meaning the Lebanese community – know foul is available without having to be told, and her family has been unsure whether such fare would be enjoyed or even desired by the wider community.

My sense of the situation is that Seaside Flatbread Cafe is feeling its way with what might work and that Rouba and her crew need encouragement to provide broader eat-in food than their very fine pizzas and pies.

In any case, asking what’s available beyond what is listed or otherwise obvious would seem to be a cluey way to proceed at this Altona gem!

One reader who commented on Nina’s story in The Age opined that making a song and dance about a Lebanese cafe in Altona was silly as the western suburbs were rich in Lebanese foodiness.

Well, that’s not my understanding of the situation at all.

Apart from SFC, there’s bakeries in Newport and Altona – and that’s it

If anyone knows otherwise, we’re all ears …

As ever, Bennie finishes with a Nutella pizza ($4).

Despite my skepticism, these really do work, the earthiness of the plain yet wonderful bread working hand in hand with the creamy richness of the saucey spread.

Lovely things in Yarraville

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Invite Me, 66 Anderson St, Yarraville, Phone: 9318 933

At first glance it may seem that Invite Me is much like your typical home and party wares shop.

But it doesn’t take a much more serious look to see there’s something lovely and different going on here.

The in-house stock is relatively small but obviously chosen with care and sublime taste.

Some of the goodies are designed and otherwise created by boss lady Simone herself, but everything in her newish retail concern displays a unity of style and panache that is pleasing to the eye.

The shop has been open for about three months and is the outward manifestation of a successful online operation that has been going for eight years or so.

The shop is housed in a wonderful old Yarraville premises at the less retail-heavy end of Anderson St.

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The old-school rooms suit the merchandise perfectly, especially in cases where Simone’s retro penchant is given free rein.

Simone tells me that among her most popular lines are personalised stationery, cake stands and candy jars that many customers use for desserts.

Opening the shop has been a logical move away from operating out of her home and is already attracting new customers, as well as online regulars from all over the city pleased to have a bricks-and-mortar place to frequent.

The Invite Me website is here and it Facebook page is here.

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