Tag Archives: Melbourne

La Parisienne Pates

2 Comments

290 Lygon St, Carlton. Phone: 9349 1852

Remember the Rainbow Warrior?

There was a time of several years in my life – and in the lives of just about every Kiwi around the world – when I’d sooner have gouged my eyes out than let anything French, liquid, solid or otherwise, pass my lips.

Thankfully, those days are long gone.

France is rehabilitated into the brotherhood of nations, even if it is no closer to sainthood than any of them.

Like several of its near neighbours and many others, France is up to its eyeballs in the wickedness of the arms industry.

The mock-solemn pronouncements of national leaders regarding the misbehaviour of tyrants in the Middle East and elsewhere deserve no more than snorts of derision.

From whence do the guns come?

Do they take us for fools? (Rhetorical question!)

And, of course, villains are far more likely to be of a transnational variety these days.

Corporations with tentacles in just about all countries who pay taxes in none.

Dangerous, stupid, ignorant ideas and the people who believe them also show complete disregard for nominal national boundaries.

And, no, I am not referring just to the usual terrorist bogey men! Christianist sharia law, anyone?

In any case, having briefly surveyed the surrounding Lygon St options and then engaging the staff in some pleasant chat, I am delighted to sit back, chill out and generally have a ball for an hour’s worth of lunch time at  La Parisienne Pates.

This is a splendid temple to all things French, with dazzling displays of lollie water, mustards, jams, pates, snags of many kinds, cheeses, sweeties and so on, including cassoulet that appears to be incredibly rich and fatty but a bit of a bargain at $25 a portion.

Most of the business seems to be of the take-out variety, though up the back there are a handful of marble tables where patrons can partake in the pleasures of a simple and affordable eat-in menu.

Being in a charcuterie, I do the smart thing and order the piggy platter of the same name.

Although never big consumers of cured meats, just lately we’ve backed away even more from having them around – been a long time since chorizo was a weekly event!

So it is with an easy heart and no guilt at all that I tuck into my lunch, which looks on the diminutive side for $16.

But as is so often the case, looks are deceiving – this is a filling repast and quite a bargain.

The OK baguette bread, of which I’m told there is plenty more should I require it, teams up with a handsome, juicy slab of pork and pistachio terrine. Wowee – it’s brilliant!

The other porky bits consist of a piece apiece of three different and very fine salamis and a rolled-up slice of ham.

The odd man out is a slice of pastrami, its coriander crust providing a flavour grenade.

Unmeaty variety is provided by a single chargrilled artichoke and a handful of sour and sublimely crunchy cornichons.

Such an unapologetically fatty meal renders the knob of butter surplus to requirements.

I eat much slower than is my usual habit, savouring every delicious mouthful.

Around me, other customers are getting stuck into one-man quiches and filled baguettes.

My cafe latte and the service are outstanding.

I leave with a caramelised onion tart and a small serve of swell-looking potato salad.

There’s heaps of good stuff to eat in and around Lygon St, but you’ve got to be smart about it – it’s all to easy to stumble into one of the many options that are of profound mediocrity.

In that context, La Parisienne Pates presents as an extremely handy and tranquil alternative. 

La Parisienne Pates on Urbanspoon

At 43

Leave a comment

43 Anderson St, Yarraville. Phone: 9687 1198

What was once Cafe Urbano – an establishment of no great distinction – is now At 34, cafe by day and Thai restaurant by night.

It’s been open for a while, and we’ve often wondered how it’s going. On week nights it’s seemed a little forlorn, unloved and sparsely populated.

At 6.30pm on this Saturday night, there seems no such problems. Two tables are already busy as we arrive, two more are quickly occupied soon after and by the time we split a table of seven has also taken up residence.

This outing is Bennie’s call and it’s an inspired one. Considering his dad has been plowing through the debilitating effects of glandular fever all week, a casual five-minute stroll around the corner is much preferable to a wild drive to the wilds of Deer Park and the unknown quantities of an Indian eatery on an industrial estate. Maybe next time!

We have a swell time.

We wonder why we took so long to drop by.

The service is delightful and the arrival of our tucker prompt.

If our meal is good rather than really dandy, we happily blame a couple of dud menu choices.

Incredibly, for all the countless times Bennie have been out on the fang, this is the first Thai meal we’ve shared.

We start with one of the specials – gai hoi bai toey (marinated chicken cooked in pandan leaf, $6.90).

This is just OK for us. The chicken pieces are smallish, making the price seem a little on the steep side. They’re juicy enough, but there’s little or no taste of the publicised marinade flavour.

The pork salad (naem sod, $11.50) is a different matter entirely.

This is just as zingy with lime/lemon, ginger, coriander and chilli as we could wish, all of it a super foil for the chewy pork mince. Although it is at the upper chilli limit at which Bennie can enjoy eating!

The pad kee mao (fried thick rice noodle with chilli, sweet basil, vegetables and tofu, $11.90) is very mild by comparison.

In reality, the noodles are restrained in number, making this more of a straight-up wok-fried mixed vegetable dish. It’s good and does the job of adding variety and colour to our meal.

Our last hurrah fills us up right good – siszzling beef ($16).

This, too, is nice enough – plenty of beef pieces, almost as many cashew nuts, pleasant gravy. The problem seems to us that it’s more of a Chinese-style dish than a Thai one!

So … a good meal that may have been made better had we not tried so hard to steer clear of the usual Thai suspects.

We regret, for instance, not ordering the red duck curry ($18) on the specials board.

At 43 on Urbanspoon

What We Eat At Home: Part 1

6 Comments

Bum Hummers pickled onions – spicy (but not too much), piquant and sour. I wonder why they’re called that?

Before it became an eventuality, it was initially presumed Consider The Sauce would be a compendium of eatery reviews and other stuff we get up to when out and about … AND stuff we get up to in our kitchen.

That has most certainly not turned out to be the case.

One reason for that is that we are daunted from doing so because of the number of high-quality blogs and websites around who do cover cooking at home.

Another reason is we reckon there is likely very little interest “out there” for any sort of ongoing rundown regarding our limited, rotating selection of meals, be they stews, soups, dals, salads or whatever.

We love what we do and eat at home, but certainly don’t expect anyone else to find it interesting.

A final reason is that there’s no reason why a food blog has to do it all, so we don’t.

Nevertheless, just for fun, very much for our own entertainment and as a matter of record, here we start a look at our kitchen regulars that may – or may not – turn into a series.

Yes, there are hipper and more righteous yogurts around, but we go through heaps, so this is an affordable, dependable option for us. For breakfast, for dessert with strawberries or mango, for raita, for tzatsiki.

Kiwi Gold – one shared each morning for breakfast. Life’s too short for the bitterness of regulation kiwifruit!

Look, anyone can go out and buy salt-free and/or organic corn chips. Whether they’d want to actually eat them is another matter entirely. We find these have just enough salt for flavour purposes. We love em! The newly available Mission chips are a viable substitute, but – damn! – they’re hard on the jaw muscles!

Weetbix for him …

… muesli – rolled oats, crushed oats, white sultanas, roasted almonds – soaked in milk overnight for me.

Something new for us – Istra snags from The Village Store. There are cheaper options available, of course, but gosh these are good!

Also a relatively new thing for us – cookies and biscotti and nougat from Pace Biscuits.

Coffee – just about any reasonable quality vacuum-packed product will do me, especially if it’s on special.

We’re happy to pay for and experiment with really good, boutique virgin olive oils … but so often we find we have run out when the only viable option available is the reliable Cobram range from our local supermarket.

Bickford’s cordials … Bennie prefers lime juice, Kenny prefers bitter lemon – if he can find it!

Jam – we don’t use a lot, and find a good-quality local product does the job just as good as imports, either fancy and high-priced or of the budget variety.

ajitoya

2 Comments

82 Charles St, Seddon. Phone: 96871027

New review can be found here.

Adam and Maya have lived in Yarraville for five years, and for all of that time they’ve been thinking surely someone will get some Japanese action going in the neighbourhood in terms of eating out.

Nobody did … so they did!

They’ve been open for about a week when I visit and things are going good for them.

The concise yet astutely chosen Japanese grocery lines reflect Maya’s frustration about having to travel to Prahran, Moonee Ponds or Kyoto for the right products.

Adam tells me they were quite keen to do without selling the ubiquitous sushi rolls. But the fact they’re selling very briskly probably puts them in the category of things that simply can’t be avoided if you’re going into the Japanese eatery business.

For the time being,  they’re set up for providing quick, fine and affordable lunches and takeaway on a Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-7pm basis.

Adam tells me, though, that there’s space left in their musings and space on the premises, too, for a move towards more substantial dinner fare should things go well.

Adam’s background includes stints at Blue Train and Big Mouth while Maya has worked at Izakaya Den.

The ajitoya motto: “Does this train go to Osaka?” … that being something Adam was asked at least a gazillion times a day when he lived in Japan for three years.

Along with the rolls, the display cabinet holds four osozai, or salads. The soba noodles, coleslaw, salmon sashimi tataki and vegetables with sesame sauce dressing in shabu shabu style all look very lovely.

Being of robust appetite, I head straight for the menu section that details the bento meal combos.

They include karaage, agedashi tofu, sushi or a combination of three salads. With each comes rice, miso soup and a choice of one osozai, and mostly costing $16.

My miso soup is fine, of a good temperature and boasting a profusion of squishy tofu bits.

The coleslaw is everything I hope it will be, full of flavour from the sesame dressing and having that superb wilted crunchiness that only the Japanese and certain European cuisines seem capable of.

The fried chicken is little less tanned than is usually the case – maybe it was the first batch of the day? – but the coating is delicate and the chicken is just as juicy and flavoursome as I could want, beaut smeared with the dab of mayo on the side.

I suspect Adam and Maya are likely to find they were not alone in fervently wishing for a Japanese dining option in the neighbourhood, and certainly I’ll be returning very soon with Bennie – he’ll love the chook, but I reckon I’ll go for the clean and fresh salad combo.

Ms Baklover at Footscray Food Blog loves ajitoya, too, as you can discover by reading her review.

And check out the ajitoya Facebook page here.

Ajitoya on Urbanspoon

D’Lish Fish

3 Comments

105 Beach St, Port Melbourne. Phone 9646 0660

There’s the weekend product of an afternoon’s cooking in the form of a no-doubt tasty mixed legume and vegetable soup awaiting in the freezer.

There’s good Italian cheese, excellent sourdough bread and olive oil to make it sing even more sweetly.

But a lusty must-be-obeyed desire for fish and chips has stolen in and mugged me.

Trouble is, it’s Monday night, and I trust none of the usual suspects in either Williamstown or Moonee Ponds to be open, so it’s over the bridge I go.

The ritzed-up Port Melbourne neighbourhood around the ferry terminal has been around a long time now, but it still has an air of artificiality about it – a bit like the Docklands waterfront precinct closer to the CBD.

Melbourne and its bay? Not a relationship that ever seems to prosper and thrive, is it?

In any case, we’ve never had much use for Port Melbourne, despite it being so close, really, to our western suburbs base. Although we have some good meals at Waterfront Station Pier Restaurant, which is just adjacent D’Lish Fish.

I’m delighted, however, to find this fish and chippery not only open early on a Monday night but actually quite busy. The sun is shining across the bay from Williamstown, there’s grandparents and grandkids coming and going; cyclists and joggers, of course.

It so feels like much later in the week – a Friday night when work and school are over, perhaps, or a lazy Sunday evening – that the effect is quite disorienting.

I seem to recall from a previous visit that what is now D’Lish Fish once bore the name of a famous, mouthy member of the AFL community. I’m glad that’s no longer the case.

Despite the flash surrounds there’s nothing flashy about D’Lish Fish – it’s a straight-up fish and chip place, rudimentary seating available inside and out. If the prices are just a smidgeon higher than our usual suspects, then it’s by so little as to be of no account.

In fact, my lunch pack – chosen from the menu behind the ordering counter at the entrance – is a pretty good deal.

Flake, four calamari rings, one prawn cutlet, chips – $13.

Throw in  tartare sauce and a can of that Coca Cola stuff and the damage is $17.50 – a little more than I was planning on spending on my dinner, but it’s just the ticket.

The calamari is superb – so tender and unchewy. It tastes of the sea!

The prawn cutlet, unusual for me, is pretty good, too.

The fish is excellent, firm and flavoursome. I really appreciate the fact it doesn’t leak oil on to the chips below, as is so often the case. It’s a little over-salted, though.

The chips are just good rather than great, and a little under-salted.

All in all, a fine meal – a spur of the moment decision come good.

In fact, I am pleased to note on my way back over the bridge that my tummy feels contentedly like it’s enjoyed a regulation meal – as opposed to the “Oh my God – what did I do that for?” feeling that sometimes follows the impulsive consumption of fish and chips, pizza and the like.

D'Lish Fish on Urbanspoon

Gol gappe at Classic Curry

4 Comments

Shop 3, Clarke St, Sunshine. Phone: 9312 6766

Gol gappe is Indian street/snack food along the same lines as bhel puri.

Traditionally, it’s not meant to be part of a main meal, but that’s how I’m starting my lunch today.

The gols – seven for $5 – are egg-like spheres made from fried plain flour.

The top side is cracked open – just as with a boiled egg.

Into each one goes a heady mixture of boiled-but-still-crunchy channa dal, onion, diced potato and two tamarind-based sauces, one sour and one sweet.

Each gol is eaten whole, down the hatch, and I’m warned to get a move on as the clock is ticking. There’s no time to linger before the liquid innards render the bottoms soggy.

My last two gols do indeed collapse, but I love them just as much as their five predecessors.

Each one is a veritable mouthful of flavour explosion, all with a mild chilli hit.

They’re tangy magic of the highest order!

Also called pani puri, I can see these becoming a regular post-school snack for Bennie and I.

But a meal they do not make, so I resort to my trusty choice of chole bhatura ($7), which I was unaware Classic Curry produced a version of despite the frequency with which I’ve eaten here in recent years.

Oh God, this is outstanding – right up there with the recently sampled rendition at Sharma’s and the earlier experience at Bikanos in Werribee!

The breads are light, ungreasy and so fresh they emit steam when torn open.

The chick pea curry is mild with a more sophisticated gravy than is often the case.

The yogurt is creamy and a little salty in a delicious way.

On the side and joining sliced red onion is a dab of fresh chutney made with onions and boasting tremendous flavour from fresh mint.

As others have created blogs dedicated to, say, parmas and burgers, so does Consider The Sauce seem to be heading in a similar direction with chole bhatura.

But given its almost total invisibility on food blogs and in the broader foodie media – dosas, for instance, get much better coverage – it seems a job that requires doing!

Classic Curry (Sunshine) on Urbanspoon

The Pie & Pastry House

Leave a comment

166 Churchill Ave, Braybrook. Phone: 9311 3388

Gotta love an old-school pie shop – and it’s a delight that there’s so many in the western suburbs, happily holding their own amid the multicultural swirl.

The Pie & Pastry House, operating since 1952 according the its business card, certainly fits the bill right from the decor and screen door to the milkshake machine and technicolour display of doughnuts.

It lives in a Braybrook shopping strip that features a couple of Filipino places awaiting our further exploration and opposite a park and adventure playground at which we’ve attended many a birthday party.

I order my standard lunch in such places – a plain beef pie and a sausage roll.

The plastic cutlery is a bit of a downer, offset by the tomato sauce coming in squeeze bottle form rather than the a horrid sachet.

The pastry outer of my sausage roll is incredibly flaky, and soon the whole table is flecked with it. It’s just OK, tending towards blandness – as sausage rolls tend to do.

The pie, pastry not so flaky, is better, though in need of a seasoning boost by my way of thinking.

I like my lunch items, and I sense that they and the other lines the shop sells are perfectly suited for its loyal and long-term customers, quite a few of whom come and go as I am going about my lunch business.

The vanilla slices look scrumptious.

The ginormous family-size pasties, at $9.50, look like an outright bargain and destined soon for a test run on our dinner table. Visual appraisal suggests that with a bit of help from salad on the side, they’d feed two adults and two kids no problem

All I take away with me though are a single lemon tart ($1.25) and a single cream shortbread ($1).

The former is, fittingly, old-school, with a slightly chewy filling.

The latter is a sensational taste grenade – two pieces of light, fresh shortbread, joined by a smooth vanilla cream and dusted in icing sugar.

It’s not just the highlight of the day – it’s the best of the week.

Such a simple, affordable pleasure!

Gamekeepers Secret Country Inn

3 Comments

1555 Melton Hwy, Rockbank. Phone: 9747 1000

The Olde English thing has never worked for me.

I’d be hard pressed to tell authentic Olde English from faux Olde English.

In fact, I harbour suspicions that there is no such thing as authentic Olde English, even though I lived there for a few years a very long time ago.

But as I wander around the somewhat vast dining room of Gamekeepers Secret Country Inn, I rapidly warm to the place.

How can I not when its embracing of the gamey theme is done with such brazen, unapologetic and politically incorrect zeal?

There are formerly live things of the furred, feathered and scaled variety hanging from the ceilings and adorning the walls wherever I look. They’re now very much of the dead persuasion.

It was Keith of the venerable Heather Dell bakery in Yarraville from whom we got the tip about this place, but it’s a taken a year for me to find my way here.

With a drive on the Bacchus Marsh-Geelong road beckoning after lunch is done, I am finding the change of routine a tonic. I have an armful of newly-arrived CDs of the Tex-Mex and swamp pop variety, and even Hawaiian guitar recorded in Paris in the ’30s, to keep me very fine company. I love the internet!

Quite oddly the establishment’s food fare seems to be lacking any offerings of a game-based tucker equivalent of the overwhelming theme of the decor.

The food on the main menu and the cheapo lunch list that is the focus of myself, and presumably the handful of other tables in use for this midweek lunch, features a regular lineup of oysters, pasta, salads, ribs, steaks, a seafood platter, roast duck, garlic prawns and so on.

Typical country pub fare, in other words – its own kind of comfort food. This change of routine, too, can sometimes be a tonic and I’m looking forward to my lunch.

Having already perused the option at the inn’s website, I have my heart set on the corned beef from the lunch list, which also includes braised lamb shank, steak sandwich and beer-battered fish and chips – all for $14.50.

How nice and quirky is it to be charged $14.50 for something – as opposed to, say, $13.99 or $14.99?

The vegetable component of my lunch is very good – they’re cooked through but still have a beaut element of crunch.

The mashed spuds aren’t a patch on the coarse skin-on version we rustle up at home with just olive oil, salt, pepper and parsley, but I like it anyway.

The sauce, using a seeded mustard, has sufficient tang to overwhelm my three medium-thick and very mildy-flavoured slices of corned beef.

Remember back a decade or more ago when corned beef became so very trendy around Melbourne? This is like that – I hanker for the heftier, saltier flavour whack that resides in memory of the corned beef served countless time to me during my upbringing by that most superb of cooks, Pauline Ethel Weir. (Hi Mum!)

Maybe it’s another trick of the mind.

In any case, I save my last slice of Gamekeepers corned beef to savour at the end of my meal, at which point the flavours do come through with a strongish whiff of cloves.

It’s all good and I enjoy my lunch. The bill of $14.50 seems pretty fair for this kind of food in this kind of place.

After eating, I embark on another stroll around, taking in more of the dead critters and the music room upstairs. The entertainment fare seems to be very much of the Kenny, Dolly, Big O and Neil variety.

After paying and exiting, I walk across to the neighbouring Galli winery, where I am knocked out by the gorgeous dining room and peruse their menus, which actually traverse very similar territory and price range as those of the inn I have just departed.

Another one for the hit list!

My first ever drive on the road from Bacchus Marsh to Geelong is pleasant but somewhat featureless, though I do see lots of parrot-type birds – of the live variety this time.

The soundtrack is fabulous.

Game Keepers Secret Country Inn on Urbanspoon

Pho Tam

9 Comments

 

 Shop 7-9, Leeds St, Footscray. Phone: 9687 2680

These days, when desiring to be out and about in Footscray central, we find it rewarding and less time consuming to park by the railways tracks, just around the corner from the Dancing Mutt.

In the days when we were still falling for the folly of attempting to park on the other side of the CED (Central Eating District), we often passed Pho Tam going elsewhere, mainly because it always seemed so crowded and busy.

I’ve spent an aimless day-off half-hour wandering between those two outer extremes of the CED with no particular place to go, as that zealous fan of multicultural food, Chuck Berry, once famously sung.

It’s Pho Tam or retrace my steps. I am happy to step through the doorway.

I like the plain wooden tables and chairs, the Viet pop at just the right volume and smiling, prompt service.

I especially like the symbolic artwork in the windows that links maps of Australia and Vietnam with a bowl and chopsticks. Pity it doesn’t photograph too well!

Customers are few, and for my most of lunch’s duration I am alone.

The menu is varied and full of interest.

I consider the mi Quang Bennie and I had tried the previous week at the brand new Braybrook place Quan Viet.

I finally decide on a dish I’ve never before seen in a Vietnamese eatery – goat curry (ca ri de). At $11, it’s a buck more than the chicken wing curry (ca ri ga) and the stewed beef (bo kho). Instead of noodles, I ask for the bread option.

I am surprised to get two crusty rolls with my bowl of intrigue. Asking if it’s mandatory to fully consume both, I am told that there’ll be no dessert for me unless I do.

As I expect, my curry is thin, mild and on the bone.

I like it  a lot.

The meat comes easily from the bone, though I thoroughly enjoy eating with zen-like deliberation in order to preserve teeth into which I have invested many thousands to the vast enrichment of my dentist.

Unlike many other experiences with cheaper, bone-in cuts of meat – both at home and eating out – there is little obvious fat, though for reasons both to do with squeamishness and healthiness I do set aside the bits of flabby goat hide.

There’s onions galore – thin slices and thicker chunks of the adult variety; chopped and segments of the young, green type.

But as with roti and Malaysian-style curry, in many ways the main event is the gravy/soup and the bread – and I’m surprised that I devour far more of my second, lovely role than I had expected.

Still, I do not quite finish it, so … no dessert for me!

The Footscray Food Blog review of Pho Tam is here.

Pho Tam on Urbanspoon

Chef Lagenda revisted

4 Comments

 

16 Pin Oak Crescent, Flemington. Phone: 9376 2668

Since out earlier visits to Chef Lagenda and its cheek-by-jowl neighbour Laksa King, our incessant orbiting has found us looking elsewhere for our jollies.

In the meantime, it’s been a bunch of fun reading myriad comments about both – comparing them, weighing up the various pluses and minuses, sometimes opining that one is superior to the other and even pondering the politics/relationship between the two.

We care nothing for that last point, and if we rate one above the other – and after today’s lunch, we most certainly do – it seems beyond dispute to us that whatever the rivalry between the Flemington neighbours, it is actually good for the business of both in the long-term.

A feature of the Chef Lagenda menu is the Meal Deal.

For $9.50, they offer a choice of two meats (steamed chicken, roast chicken, BBQ pork, soya duck), noodles or rice (flat rice noodles, hokkien noodles, vermicelli, egg noodles, chicken rice) and soup (clear chicken, laksa, tom yum, soya sauce (dry)).

Bennie goes BBQ pork, roast chicken, hokkien and tom yum and loves it, slurping and sipping with gusto.

As far as I’m aware this his first prolonged exposure to tom yum and it’s mild enough to be no problem, though it seems a little on the sweet side to me and he tires of it before the end.

The meats are in biggish chunks and, oddly, taste more like Western roasts than is usual in Asian eateries, and a little on the dry side, too. No matter – there’s plenty of moisture going on, including the bed of yummy wilted bean sprouts on which the meats reside.

The Meal Deal is a good deal, especially I suspect for kids.

I go for the straight-up bog standard curry laksa ($9.20) – and it’s a beauty.

At first glance, it lacks the devastating and lusty oomph of the laksa swooned over this year at Nasi Lemak House.

But it is of broader and deeper appeal.

Rather than usual couple of prawn tails, this rendition features something like half a dozen fat doozies full of flavour. Exceptional! (I’d already scarfed a couple before I realised this laksa’s prawn count was unusual, so cannot be more precise …)

Likewise, the fish cake is more thickly sliced than is the norm.

There’s ample bits of chicken and chewy juicy tofu, and the soup/gravy is good, though on the mild side.

The crowning glory is the largish slice of eggplant sitting atop the lot – it’s slippery, delicious and Bennie gets none of it.  Ha!

We like the quirky crooked-house layout of Chef Lagenda, and the service is just as good as the food.

The Chef Lagenda website is here.

Chef Lagenda on Urbanspoon

Quan Viet

7 Comments

 

103 South Rd, Braybrook. Phone: 9312 1009

For many years, every time we drove past the slightly ramshackle yet high-potential shopping strip on South Rd, Braybrook, we would scan the shopfronts eagerly.

Why not? After all, it’s just the sort of precinct that regularly delivers us food gratification.

We have always been disappointed, though.

A locked-up premises going by the splendid name of Extreme Pizza & Kebab, a couple of beauty salons and groceries but little more to inspire us to explore further.

Until a few weeks’ back, when there it was – bingo! – right on the corner: A brand new Vietnamese eatery.

Our mid-week visit is our first, the place is companionably busy but the service is great.

The vibe is nice – about midway between your standard, tiled, formica-laden pho joint and some of the swisher joints in Footscray central.

We are first seated at a tiny table for two, but then invited to move a bigger option near the front window that affords us more room for all the bits and pieces, including Bennie’s lurid drink.

The menu seems to throw up few real surprises or points of difference.

There is pho, the usual rice dishes, spring and paper rolls, although there is also beef stew on rice or egg noodle (hu tieu/mi bo kho, $9) and crab meat fried rice (com chien cua, $11).

Despite that, we manage a combined order that is unusually innovative for us.

On the illustrated menu Bennie stabs a digit at the Quang style rice noodles (mi Quang, $9) and says: “I want that!”

This is very, very fine, though Bennie is put off slightly by the presence of two hard-boiled egg halves.

A popular dish from the provinces of Quang Nam and Da Nang in the south central coast of Vietnam, this is built on a hearty handful of very wide, slippery and delicious rice noodles coloured/flavoured with turmeric. The effect is just like the kind of sexy artisan pasta you might get in a posh Italian joint like Grossi Florentino – and pay about $30 or so for the privilege!

Also on board are a fish-based stock, chicken that seems to be stewed rather than steamed or fried, two fat prawns still in their crunchy shells, peanuts and strips of juicy, fatty pork, the lot topped by a couple of commercial prawn crackers and some mint.

It’s all good and I covet it. It’s a refreshing option to the many other soup/noodle options – a bit like Assam laksa is to its Malaysian soup/noodles colleagues.

Bennie likewise covets my order – Vietnamese pan-fried crepe (banh xeo, $11).

This has less stuffing than I’ve had at the likes of Pho Hien Saigon in Sunshine or Wild Rice in Williamstown. In some ways, this is no bad things as it allows the flavour of turmeric-tinged rice flour pancake to come through.

As Bennie memorably opines: “It’s fried and floppy at the same time!”

The filling of the same pork strips as in Bennie’s soup, fine small/medium shell-on prawn tails and bean sprouts is fine with the pancake, fish sauce/chilli dipping concoction and voluminous plate of leafy wonders and mint.

Halfway through our dinner, Bennie and I do swappsies, though I then discover the lad has slurped all the fangtastic noodles. No fair!

Quan Viet seems likely to prosper and thrive not only based on its fine food, which we’re keen to try again soonish.

Like Minh Hy, just up the road apiece in Sunshine, Quan Viet stands out for being the only outlet of its kind in the surrounding neighbourhood.

Check out a much more in-depth review at Footscray Food Blog here.

Quan Viet on Urbanspoon

KFC Signature Series burgers

5 Comments

Ready, steady … crook?

Well, actually – no.

Chef Darren Simpson, who we know of only from the odd time we used to watch Ready Steady Cook, has come in for a good deal of sometimes venomous stick for taking the KFC dosh and having his name and image affixed to the chain’s line of supposedly deluxe burgers.

Like just about everyone else, we sniggered.

Good luck to him, though.

Truth is, if I was in the same position as he or fellow foodie celebs such as Maeve O’Meara or Curtis Stone, I’d probably be doing exactly the same. Kids to put through school and hay to be made while the sun shines and all that.

As the barbs flew amid talk that Simpson had comprehensively trashed whatever reputation he had, he was moved to comment: “I’m not sure how many of these critics have actually tried my burgers, but I think they should do that before passing judgment.”

Well, now we have – and our judgment is … nowhere near as bad as we expected.

As we pull into the local Barkly St KFC outlet, Bennie is gobsmacked more than surprised or delighted.

We’ve talked about it for weeks, so he can’t quite believe his dad is really going to do this.

We order one apiece of the two burgers to share – smoked bacon and parmesan, and sweet BBQ and carelmised onion.

My expectations are below zero.

I warn Bennie that if this goes as badly as I expect, we’ll out of there pronto and up the road for a dosa.

I expect this food to be so awful as to be beyond redemption. And certainly I expect it to look nothing like the images conveyed by TV trickery.

The latter is certainly true.

These are diminutive sandwiches.

Nor does the chicken bulge out from under the “warm sourdough buns” as strongly suggested in the advertising. Big surprise, eh?

But the buns ARE superior to the normal unbread served by the major chains.

The other lauded protagonists – parmesan, real carmelised onion, BBQ sauce, chilli sauce, bacon – are in as short supply as is the chicken.

And the bacon is under-cooked.

There are only a few tantalising moments as that trademark KFC chicken flavour merges with the rest to deliver something approaching flavoursome.

Worse, as we drive away we agree that we struggled to tell the difference between the two – something confirmed when we get home and I can’t tell one from the other when I upload the photos.

Still, our burgers are edible in a way that I truly didn’t expect.

Far from memorable in either a good or a bad way – and that, indeed, does exceed my expectations.

And far from the “car crash” described in the only pertinent review I was able to find the previous night.

At $6.95 each, though, we can’t help but compare them very unfavourably with the similarly priced and truly memorable sandwiches we experienced recently at La Morentia.

The Village Store – Yarraville

16 Comments

6 Anderson St, Yarraville. Phone: 9687 8375

Like its predecessor in these premises, it may still have the FoodWorks name and logo emblazoned on the exterior, but proprietor Marc Heine is adamant his new venture will be known as The Village Store.

The T-shirts worn by the staff agree with him.

Marc and his crew have only been open a week or so.

This is our first official visit, Bennie and I in this case joined once more by Rakha, who first joined us on blog duty for a visit to Yummie Hong Kong Dim Sum.

We are sporting a modest mid-week shopping list and are interested to see how we fare.

The Village Shop in some ways initially seems to be captive to space restrictions, making it on some levels pretty much your typical small suburban supermarket – quite a broad range but not a lot of depth.

The fruit/vegetable and meat sections are both smaller the those of the neighbouring IGA, though the quality is high.

Marc is interested to learn that we did our fresh produce business, as per usual, down the road apiece at Dominic’s because we were specifically after Kiwi Gold kiwifruit and the smaller size of Fuiji apples, among other things.

If, as one poster at the Village Shop Facebook page pointed out, the new place has yet to command a “point of difference”, we are nevertheless appreciative of some of the speciality lines Marc stocks and even more pleased to somewhat unexpectedly find a couple of our utilitarian regulars on the shelves.

My suggestion is that if you have a beef or a suggestion, for sure take it up with the boss – he’s all ears, so to speak.

Just inside the front doors, on the left, is the Hausfrau Coffee Counter, signalling a collaborative effort between the Village Shop and the stalwart coffee joint/bakery around corner. It’s open from 7.30am to 12.30pm, but only for takeaways.

Then follow the bread, fruit/vegetable and meat sections – and even an ATM! We’re unaware as yet whether it’s a $2 or a $2.50 contraption.

The mainstream biscuit/cookie range leaves us underwhelmed so it’s a pleasure to lay eyes on the range of Italian and more speciality styles further back towards to deli counter.

That deli counter is modest in size but seems to cover most of the expected bases.

Best of all, is finding that the Village Shop stocks three essentials of our household – our favourite brand of corn chips and Black & Gold rolled oats and crushed oats.

We don’t tick off every item on our list, but manage to do so for more than I expect.

The wine section will have to wait until next time.

Bennie and Rakha thoroughly fail the mission I had set them – to each find the most crazy, whacky item they could.

We finish our shopping at Dominic’s before adjourning to Barkley Johnson for a well-earned coffee, hot chocolates and light-as-a-feather Greek-style yoyo’s.

Sharma’s Indian Sweet & Curry House

4 Comments

Sharma’s Indian Sweet & Curry House, 4/350 Taylors Rd, Taylors Lakes. Phone: 9356 4400

Sharma’s has been open for about a year and is situated in a small shopping centre a few blocks from Watergardens Town Centre.

Outside and in it superficially looks like a simple suburban Indian takeaway joint.

It doesn’t take too much of a closer look, though, to discover this is emphatically not the case.

Sharma’s is some serious Indian foodery, let me tell you.

They have so many bases covered, at prices significantly below those of more formal Indian places, that I am excited about the prospects of returning with my co-blogger and various friends in coming months.

I am saddened that Sharma’s is not just around the corner.

I am frustrated that today’s weekend solo outing so restricts my ability to graze the menu.

On the extensive menu they list dosas, Punjabi breakfast fare and chat snacks such as bhel puri.

And instead of a single goat dish as featured at so many Indian places, Sharma’s lists five.

There’s an Indo-Chinese section, meat curries are about the $13 mark, vegetable curries about $10 and the bread listing is long.

At the counter there are fine-looking displays of lusciously rich sweets ($18-24 a kilogram) and salty, crunchy spicy snacks know as namkeen ($16 a kilogram). I buy two $2 bags of the latter to take home – one heavy with puffed rice and peanuts, the other with crunchy noodles.

They even list six soups – and it’s with one of those that I start my lunch. I regret, though, ordering the lentil number ($4) when seeing and tasting how they do mushroom soup may’ve been far more interesting.

Consisting of dals mung, masur and channa, and turmeric, salt and mustard seeds, this is about as straitlaced as Indian food gets. It’s fine in its own plain way, but may be better appreciated as part of a thali or Indian vego feast.

Next up, I simply can’t resist Sharma’s version of the irresistible thali spread of puris, chick pea curry, yogurt and condiments that is here called chana bhatura – despite the nagging feeling that I should be pursuing more variety on behalf of Consider The Sauce and its readers.

Hey, it’s my lunch, OK, and I’ll try to do better next time …

Seriously, though, I don’t think the bar can go much higher on this dish than what I am served here – it’s magnificent in every way:

Puris hot, fresh and no more oily than is acceptable.

Yogurt creamy, lightly perfumed with cumin and a little on the sweet side.

Chick peas very good with a mild chilli kick.

Commercial piquant hot pickle, a little dab of spicy mint chutney and crunchy red onion bits.

And the price – $7.50!

It’s perfect!

Sharma's Indian Sweet & Curry House on Urbanspoon

Sunday morning at Vic Market

4 Comments

Two weisswursts – one with sinus-blasting hot English, the other with Dijon.

A pricey ($4) but very good cafe latte at a serious coffee joint.

A small bar of organic chocolate to take home.

I dimly remember a time when the Vic market was pretty much moribund on Sundays. A few stalls in the food hall open, and far from all of them open in the wide open acres of general merchandise and clothing.

It’s all go these days – almost everything open, but with a pleasing drop in the sometimes fraught ambiance and crowded scenes that are the market on Saturday mornings.

Sometimes it’s where I like to go – even with a house chockers with food and no special shopping needs pressing.

Outside the food areas, it’s fun to pick out the genuine products and bargains, shining like diamonds amid vast spaces of general all-round tackiness.

Loving Earth chocolate uses agave syrup instead of cane sugar and is described as “essentially uncooked, unprocessed chocolate in its pure rich essential form”.

Market Lane Coffee, adjacent the market food hall, is a Serious Coffee Establishment. I like my cafe latte and I like the passion of their endeavours.

There’s one at Prahran Market, too.

Pace Biscuits

15 Comments

202 Mt Alexander Rd, Flemington. Phone: 9376-8539

Unless you live, work or study in area, there seems precious little reason to linger – let alone stop for a while – anywhere on the Flemington end of Mt Alexander Rd.

Just a few blocks away, in the neighbourhood between Racecourse Rd and Mt Alexander Rd there are dozens of stunningly beautiful Victorian mansions and homes.

Yet this end of Mt Alexander Rd itself is far from salubrious.

There’s always a ceaseless stream of traffic, all of it busy going somewhere else.

Very, very happily a minor bingle sustained by my car the previous week necessitates a visit to the panelbeating operation just a few doors up the road, so for the first time ever I stop on this stretch of road and take the opportunity to look around.

So it is that I gaze up at the faded splendour of the Pace Biscuits exterior and step through the door …

Where I meet Leo Pace and get the rundown on a charming, fascinating and delicious slice of Melbourne food history.

Leo has been in the baking business for 37 years and at the Mt Alexander Rd premises since 1973.

He is Sicilian-born but was living in Rome when the idea of moving to Australia first took hold in the early ’60s.

His brother, already living down under, told him there was a demand for hairdressers, so maybe that was the way for Leo to go.

Leo started training for same in Italy and continued once in Melbourne.

He regales me with a very funny story of the robust encounter between his then rudimentary English and the 50-question exam he eventually had to confront.

Even funnier is his retelling of the excruciating experience of his hands-on test working with a living, breathing model with very, extremely straight hair. He was required to put in place curls using an iron – as one did in those days.

Becoming flustered and nervous, Leo pleaded illness and permission to return the next day to complete his curling examination.

Off he went – never to return!

He followed his brother’s lead and took up the baking game and has been at it ever since.

His brother, by the way, these days runs one of the famous Lygon St geletarias.

Pace Biscuits make all sorts of Italian cookies and cakes and a few other things besides, according to the company website.

While the name doesn’t strike a chord with me, I discover on the site that the company makes the yummy almond cake that we occasionally buy from the likes of Sims. The brand recognition may not be that high, but I reckon it’s a safe bet that just about everyone in Melbourne has bought one of Leo’s products at one time or another.

As with many other such operations, the shopfront sales constitute just a small part of Leo’s turnover, with most of his trade going to independent distributors, who in turn make sure the goodies get into supermarkets, continental delis and the like all over the city and country.  He is happy to keep what he calls the “the big operators” at arm’s length.

That said, the in-house prices are terrific – $3 for a 300g bag of Vanilla Choc Coated Cookies, for instance.

I leave with a bag of them, along with a package apiece of Almond Crumble and Tutti Frutti biscotti, the latter $1.50 for 250g!

As I gleefully discover when I return home, they’re all great – with the Almond Crumble turning out to be what most of us would call a chocolate-covered macaron, in this case with a very coconutty falvour and texture.

After a quick tour of the operation, I shake Leo’s flour-dusted hand and depart in the sure knowledge that Pace Biscuits is certain to become a regular stop for us.

La Morenita Latin Cuisine: New menu

4 Comments

 

67 Berkshire Rd, Sunshine North. Phone: 9311 2911

If La Morenita has fallen off our radar a little in terms of eating in since we first discovered the place, it remains a reliable regular for the odd coffee and sweetie and – even more so – take-out empanadas for the freezer and school/work lunch boxes.

We love those empanadas!

It was on a recent empanada run that we happily noticed that La Morenita’s in-house menu had grown with several new additions.

It’s time to check them out!

They include chorizo con huevos for a keenly priced $5, but we figure we’ll leave those for breakfast some time.

The rest of the new stuff is mostly South American sandwiches, but being robust of appetite we choose three of them to share.

We do a sort of reverse-Goldilocks, starting with the littlest, moving on to a bigger number and ending with the biggest.

First up is the arolloado ($5) of sliced pork, avocado and mayo.

It comes in a flatter roll than shown in the photo on the blackboard menu. The sliced pork seems to be more like some sort of pressed ham. Whatever the case, this is a tasty winner.

Next up … the chacarero ($5) of steak, cheese, tomato, mayo, greens beans and hot green chilli.

Now this different! As ever here the sliced beef is very tasty and nicely chewy. There’s a cool chilli undertow, but the best aspect is provided by the greens beans. They’re cooked but still have a little bite left in them, which delivers a most unsandwich-like texture. Another winner!

Rolling right along … we complete our increasingly enjoyable lunch with the chivito ($8), which comprises steak, bacon, ham, lettuce, tomato, tasty cheese, boiled egg, roast capsicum, black olives, onion mayo.

Wowee – what is this? A glorified steak sandwich? Well, yes, if you want to look at that way. It also bears comparison in terms of substance and price to the kind of ritzy burgers served up by Grill’d and Burger Edge.

As with the chacarero, though, there is something delectably different about it that makes it a sandwich to cherish.

And with the inclusion of olives, roast capsicum and cured meats, it strikes me as being a second cousin of the muffaletta, that famous sandwich of New Orleans.

I love it. Bennie likes it, too, but fastidiously picks out the egg and olive bits. Bad Bennie!

We love all our La Morenita sandwiches for their striking personalities.

Gooey with mayo, health food this is not; delicious it is.

With a couple of imported soft drinks the total damage is a fine $23.

Our earlier La Morenita post is here.

La Morenita Latin Cuisine on Urbanspoon

Footscray Best Kebab House revisited …

17 Comments

93 Nicholson St, Footscray. Phone: 9689 0777

When considering the pros and cons of running a food blog, it’s tempting to simply state: “It’s all good!”

And certainly, in terms of both expectations and unexpected delights and surprises, getting Consider The Sauce up and running has been an overwhelmingly enjoyable and satisfying experience.

But if there is one, albeit minor, downside it is this: Revisiting old and muchly favoured regulars, as well as new discoveries and finds that deserve to become so, has become just that little bit more difficult.

The pressure is on for the next blog post!

Through it all, however, we have retained Footscray Best Kebab House as a regular haunt, so highly do we dig the food – and even though it was covered in one of our very early pieces. 

In this case, fronting up is an especially enjoyable proposition as we are being joined by Ms Baklover of Footscray Food Blog fame and her girls, all of for whom this is a debut visit to FBKB.

We are a tad early, so being sans either my usual book or newspaper, it’s supremely pleasurable to just sit for a quiet moment. I contemplate a lazy, relaxing day ahead with my son. I consider the changeless surrounds of Footscray Best Kebab House. Like other institutions around the city – Pellegrini’s is an oft-quoted example – the prices have crept up but all else is just as it ever was.

Or so it seems. It may be a trick of the mind, but it’s one I’m happy to go along with.

As ever, the bread is fresh and warm, with some of the pieces having a nice crustiness to them. It’s a nice pacifier, too, for young children restless with food on their minds.

Bennie and I start with a couple of stuffed vine leaves, cold thanks. In the end, I end up eating both, Bennie being far too distracted by the juicy meats, dips and salads to come. The dolmades are good, but not as memorable as some I recall from previous visits.

We feel like something a little different from our usual instant-gratification trip of chicken and lamb from the spit, so go for the large adana kebab meal to share ($13.50).

It’s all present and accounted for:

Superb rice on to and into which the meat juices and dips seep.

A crunchy, lemony and ultra-fresh salad of finely diced bits and pieces that Ms Baklover suspects is sprinkled with sumac. I’m not sure about that. It’s the same topping we’ve always had here. Maybe it’s the Turkish equivalent?

A small serve, by request, of the reliably oily and delicious potato salad.

Dips in the form of cacik (cucumber and yogurt) and chilli dip. There’s two other kebab joints within a few minutes walk who do their own chilli dips, as does the very good Flemo kebab establishment. But none of them come even slightly close to this masterpiece of crunch and tang.

The only disappointment – and it’s only a slight one – is the adana kebab meat. It’s just as we like our kebab meaty bits – crusty, a little chewy, a little salty, but – in this case – a little too much on the dry side.

We earlier demurred in regards to the large shish kebab meal on the basis of price – it’s up to $17.50 these days.

That turns out to be a mistake. Ms Baklover orders it for her and her kids, and we’re jealous.

It’s just the right size for one big mouth and three little ones. Let me try that another way … It’s just the right size for mum and her three girls.

Ms Baklover seems to share our high esteem for the chilli dip and just loves the big and luxuriously tender chunks of marinated lamb and chicken.

The girls partake of all, sometimes in the face of maternal determination that it be so, but in the end show a marked preference for … the wonderful Turkish bread.

In terms of our eating-out habits, this food seems just below the top-of-the-class leaner, cleaner range of Viet options in terms of nutrition and healthiness. And the damage for Bennie and I – two stuffed vine leaves, two soft drinks, large meat/dips/salad/rice meal – is an excellent $20.

We adjourn for a somewhat chaotic but nevertheless enjoyable coffee and baklava at Babylon just down the road.

Footscray Best Kebab House – long may it reign as one of our very favourite places!

And thanks to the Baklovers for the company!

Footscray Best Kebab House on Urbanspoon

Photograph: BENNIE WEIR

Hien Vuong 1

5 Comments

37 Leeds St, Footscray. Phone: 9687 1470

Expert assessment of my Saturday shopping list suggests Footscray Market is the best bet for ease and pricing.

I may struggle with the hambone, ham hock or bacon bones for the next day’s red beans and rice, and a visit to the market’s supermarket just for milk is probably unwarranted – but other than that it should be a sweet experience.

So it is I head up the ramps for the extremely cheap market parking, ending up – for the first time ever – on the roof. Great views!

First things first, though – never shop, especially in a cool market, on an empty stomach.

I’ve been a visitor to Hien Vuong 1 a few times previous, though with little or no recollection of taste sensations. Maybe pretty good pho and bo kho (beef casserole).

Nevertheless, after a nerve-jangling week I find the tiled floor, chromed furniture and Viet pop enormously comforting. This, today, right now, is where I belong.

It’s a hardcore pho joint that offers a little more variety than most.

Thus it is that I order the special chicken rice with chicken (com ga hai nam).

This is a gamble, no doubt. As the Vietnamese title denotes, this is a Viet twist on hainanese chicken rice of Malaysian derivation.

My strike rate at ordering this dish at non-Malay places is pretty much zero – ranging from utterly lame to the outright bizarre (the otherwise exemplary Carlton Chinese Noodle Cafe in Rathdowne St, review forthcoming).

I need not have worried, as my lunch is beaut.

There’s no soup, but all the other bells and whistles – so important for this dish – are present.

The chilli/carrot/fish sauce concoction on the side gets into the spirit of the occasion by coming with mashed ginger.

The rice is OK, but has no discernible chicken flavour. It’s studded with egg, slivers of fried onion and little crunchy grenades of crackly pork.

There’s three cucumber slices, two of tomato, a handful of elongated pickled carrot, and more similarly pickled carrot that is shredded and part of jumble with lettuce and mint.

The chicken is well-cooked, tender and – yes! – easily removed from the bone.

Best of all, all these components are in exactly the right proportions, with the last of each of them disappearing with the last mouthful. This is something that rates really highly with me.

Well-satisfied, I head into the market on my grocery mission just as the music situation takes a surreal turn with a cheesy cocktail bar Viet version of House Of  The Rising Sun.

A tip for semi-regular users of Footscray Market, as we are: The market has instituted a pay-station method of paying for parking. There is no pay station on the roof, so I make more use of the market’s lumbering elevators than anticipated.

Ms Baklover at Footscray Food Blog was in a particularly meditative mood when she had pho here.

Hien Vuong 1 on Urbanspoon

New Seddon supermarket …

Leave a comment

It’s open – see a rundown of our first visit here.

Hot on the heels of news concerning a new supermarket in Yarraville comes another Consider The Sauce scoop – a new supermarket in Seddon!

It’s going to be in the premises of what has been for our entire western sojourn a rather unlovely and profoundly unbusy furniture store – two doors along from Sourdough Kitchen and right next door to greenie household goods outfit LoveLuvo.

The lovely lady in LoveLuvo tells me that …

*As far as she’s aware the new business will have no franchise affiliation with any of the supermarket chains.

*It will have a Mediterranean feel with an accent on fresh produce.

*It harbours some ambition to be something like a smaller-scale version of La Manna at Essendon Airport, though presumably with a proper deli counter/section.