CTS Feast No.11: Pizza d’Asporto,Rifle Range Shopping Centre, 71 Kororoit Creek Road. Phone: 9397 2033. Sunday, February 15.
Pizza d’Asporto serves simple, wonderfully delicious and fresh Italian food.
It does so in a casual setting with loads of warmth, friendliness and charm.
All those attributes were in abundant evidence when Consider The Sauce and a dozen or so hungry friends descended on Williamstown for the 11th CTS Feast.
There was glorious antipasto, so good I’m sure I wasn’t alone in thinking this was the best you’d find in Melbourne, anywhere at any price.
There were salads such as the insalata di rucola with rocket, pear, parmesan and rustic bread crumbs still just-right crunchy after being imbued with olive oil.
There were two pasta dishes – a fabulous pork-laden ragu and orecchiette with pork sausage and broccolini.
There were family-picked backyard tomatoes.
And there were pizzas – lots of fabulous pizzas.
This was a small gathering by comparison with some of the CTS Feasts of 2014.
All those in attendance had been to one or more previous celebrations – or arrived with someone who had!
The exceptions were my very good pals, fellow blogger Caron and her hubby Gordon – so a big thanks to them for driving all the way from Berwick.
“D’Asporto” means takeaway in Italian, and that indicates just what the original aim of this establishment was – to provide affordable, excellent Italian food for locals.
Then a bench and stools were added for the waiting comfort of customers, then more benches and more stools – and now there are even outdoor tables, at which most Feast attndees got down to their gleeful eating business.
So, you see, in some ways Pizza d’Asporto is not meant to be operating as a bona fide “restaurant” at all – but we’d not change a thing about what Claudio and Antoinetta have going here.
With this story, the more formal, professional aspect of the CTS relationship with Pizza d’Asporto comes to an end – and now we’re very much looking forward to being just another couple of hungry, happy customers dropping in on friends.
Unfortunately, efforts to synchronise all three partners and myself to be in the same place at the same time for a photograph were bettered by busy schedules all round.
Oh well – it’s time for an update anyway, especially as opening night is almost upon us!
Here’s the details …
The restaurant will be known as Bax Food Co and will operate out of the former home Gravy Train at 83 Gamon Street.
Opening night will be this coming Friday, February 20, on which night there will be 6pm and 8pm sittings.
Bookings can be made via roderick@bossmanfood.com.au 0402 751 108.
The “bax” part of their name comes from a casual style of eating in Jamaica whereby instead of sit-down meals, customers get a “bax” (box) full of goodies.
Bax Food Co will, of course, serve their food this way, too, though Roderick assures me some of the sides will be presented regular style on regular plates!
At the time of going to press, the menu was still being completed … but Roderick did number off several dishes that will be available:
Jerk chicken.
Oxtail stew.
Goat curry.
Salted cod.
Rice ‘n’ peas.
BBQ ribs.
Casava chips.
Spicy jerk roast corn with coconut jerk mayo.
Fish will be in the form of whole snapper, which will be the top-priced item at about $30.
BeeeasT Burgers, 1 Alexandra Avenue, Tarneit. Phone: 9974 6971
It’s difficult to imagine a more whitebread upbringing than school life in particular and life in general than that experienced by CTS in the ’60s and ’70s.
There were occasional exotic influences and people – though not much in the way of exotic food – but by and large Maori people and culture in particular were something that happened in textbooks, the North Island or the All Blacks.
A later career move that found me living, and surfing, in Gisborne and, before and after, in Wellington brought a more homogenous New Zealand to my life.
Still, the Melbourne move when it came was made at least in part because of the desire not to simply slip into a Kiwi sub-culture in, say, Sydney or Brisbane.
I love my Kiwi brothers and sisters, whatever their genre, but I have no desire to be surrounded by them at the expense of all else.
But after almost 15 years in the west, there has been a change.
It started – or, rather, I started to notice it – at Bennie’s primary school, where one of his best pals was a young Maori lad.
It continued with the thoroughly Kiwi-infused vibe of the Footscray Bulldogs Rugby Union Club, for which Bennie played for a couple of seasons.
In more recent times, I have enjoyed monitoring the ups and downs of the Altona Roosters Rugby League Club, though I have yet to make it to a game.
As well, I am enjoying observing through Facebook the beaut work of Victoria Maori Wardens and their efforts to keep Maori and Islander youngsters from getting into big trouble. I will make it a point to meet them one day.
I even diary-marked a couple of Waitangi Day functions this year – one in Elsternwick, one in Altona – but sadly missed both.
Maori may not flow in my blood but it resides in my soul, and is capable of surprising me with the force and profundity with which it sometimes surfaces.
All these things are but a reflection of the fact the Maori and Islander population of Melbourne’s west has increased dramatically in the past decade or so, drawn like so many of us from around the world by housing prices but also, these days, no doubt by a sense of community as well.
Honey knows all about it.
She and her family live in Point Cook, but Honey travels to Manor Lakes p-12 College for her regular gig as assistant principal.
Assistant principal of a western suburbs school of 1800 or so kids?
Oh yes, she knows very well the changing face of the west in general and its Maori/Islander face in particular.
Incredibly, Honey has another job – she is a co-owner and co-proprietor of BeeeasT Burgers in Tarneit.
And the BeeasT itself, which shares a small business precinct with the likes of branches of Briyani House and International Foods, is testament to the growing Maori/Islander community in the west.
The business has been up and running since November yet in that time it has amassed a staggering 9000-plus Facebook likes.
So it is with an easy smile that I front up for a chat and a feed.
In truth, aside from sweet potato chips on the menu (see below) and L&P in the fridge, there’s nowt that is particularly Kiwi about the fare here.
But there is no mistaking the nature of the management or the joint’s customers.
Many of the burgers listed are more complex and grandiose than fit my immediate needs, so I go for the Fair Dinkum ($10) – minus the pineapple.
All Beeeast burgers come with chips.
Those chips appear a tad nondescript but are really excellent and hot.
Similarly, my burger looks modest but goes down a treat.
It’s like a cross between an Aussie-style corner store burger and Grill’d, mostly because the very good patty has a real beefiness about it.
Rizq proprietor Abu maintains his restaurant is the only “authentic” Bangladeshi eatery in Australia.
I know of at least two that make claims to serving at least some Bangladeshi food but I reckon Abu is right.
I base this conclusion on the Rizq menu (see below).
There’s halim, a biryani and a “polao” – but those aside, the list is studded with dishes we’ve neither heard of nor seen before.
Of course, when you’re talking much rice and pulses and so on, what eventually arrives at our table is far from outlandishly different but still … we love the points of difference.
Rizq resides in the premises that formerly housed Indi Hots.
It’s a bare bones set-up but the our food is brought to us beautifully presented in earthenware bowls and our plates are similarly colourful and sturdy.
We love Abu’s keenness to explain the ins and outs of Bangladeshi food.
I usually go the fizzy route when it comes to spicy food, salty lassi maybe, mango lassie never!
So borhani ($3) delights.
To the yogurt base are added fresh mint and coriander, salt, a little sugar and enough of some kind of chilli to cause a nice, smooth heat burn in the back of my throat.
The name in this case may be fuchka ($5) but the dish is recognisably the same as pani puri or gol gappe.
The chick pea mix is a bit more of a mash than we’ve found in Indian versions but the real star here is the tangy, tamarind-based sauce.
Buna khichuri ($14.50) is familiar from the similar, Indian khichdi we’ve made at home.
I love the mix of rice and lentils.
The many bits of mutton found within the rice are on the bone but the meat is sweet and comes from away easily enough.
Mazbaan mangsho ($12.50 is, as far as we can tell, a beef curry along the lines of a beef vindaoloo but without the vinegary sourness.
The bones are few and the meat is delicious.
My friends love it to pieces but this dish is a reminder to me that I’m not overly fond of mustard oil, the flavour of which is quite strong.
The two flaky parathas are excellent.
Mutton “old Dhakaiya style katchi biryani” ($14.50) is a typically complex and spicy biryani and just fine.
There’s no raita or gravy as per most versions served in West Footscray and elsewhere, but there are potato bits, which makes a nice change.
Morog polao ($13.50) is the only chicken dish on the menu and we like it a lot.
It’s quite a contrast to the biryani – the seasoning is a lot more subtle and Abu tells us the dish is finished with ghee.
That seems to be more of a flavour enhancer than anything, as the dish is far from super-rich or oily.
The chicken component amounts to a single, substantial maryland that looks drab, tastes wonderful.
This dish strikes us, somewhat, as Bangladeshi version of Malaysian chicken rice!
Due to the preponderance of rice dishes on the menu, we suspect Rizq may not be a frequent regular for us.
But for a change from the Indian offerings we regularly sup on in the inner west, it does us fine.
CTS enjoyed chatting with this happy and livewire bunch of young women. They’re all from Malaysia, all friends, have all been studying – on scholarships – at Melbourne University since July. As such, they’re apartment dwellers but were very happy to have collectively made the train trip to Laverton for “a taste of home”.
MiHub Night Market, Laverton Multicultural Hub, 95-105 Railway Avenue, Laverton.
After its premises was sold under it, some doubt surrounded the future of the MiHub institution.
So it was a happy hoot to attend its latest incarnation – as a “night market” at Laverton Multicultural Hub.
Best of all, the new night market set-up will continue on a near-monthly basis for the rest of the year.
MiHub will operate on the following Saturdays:
March 21 May 2 June 6 August 1 September 5 October 3 November 7 December 5
CTS was delighted to run into several readers who had rocked up in response to our preview story earlier in the week as well as a number of other friendly faces.
However, gauging by the number of people story checking that story out online, I fear some may have turned up quite late in the day and after I had departed.
Truth is, while the advertised ending time was 9pm, just about all the food had been sold and eaten by about 7pm.
Please keep in mind, this is a community initiative run by volunteers – not a professional, commercial festival or market that will cost you hefty admission fee or involve an hours’ worth of waiting in queue.
Aunty Nora has enthused to us that future 2015 MiHubs will be better and bigger and include music.
Turning up early is probably a good idea!
If all goes as tentatively planned, CTS will be on board as willing workers next time out in a dish-washing bid to introduce real crockery and cutlery to proceedings.
Among the attendees were dad Kelvin, mum Susan and boys Brendan and Ryan.
For this Tarneit family, the Laverton venue was the fourth at which they’d attended MiHub festivities.
I really enjoyed my superb, freshly-made murtabak with a slightly spice but very nice beef/vegetable stew.
And I loved, too, the delicate tuna patties, samosas and gulab jamun created and sold with a big smile by Masuma.
These tofu cubes had been stuffed with a garlicky mix of veg, bean sprouts and vermicelli then deep-dried to a crisp.
Full of tummy and hanging out with Aunty Nora and son Jake.
Saha Thai Cafe, 431 Macaulay Road, Kensington. Phone: 9913 3663
To the CTS way of thinking, Macaulay Road in Kensington is something of an under-achiever in the food stakes.
So we’re way happy to be tipped to the existence of this cool Thai joint by colleague David.
It’s not on the shopping strip but across the train tracks and down the hill where things get very commercial/industrial very fast.
Anyone who passes this way with any regularity know how nutty the traffic situation can be.
Macaulay Road seems to be a rat run avenue mid-way between the more usual arterials of Racecourse and Dynon roads.
Nevertheless, in two visits to Saha, there’s been ample parking available on the other side of the road from the cafe.
Saha is a superior version of your typical neighbourhood Thai restaurant – I bet the inhabitants of the residential backwaters around here are very happy about its arrival.
As far as I can see, there is nothing really unusual on the menu, but what there is comes out well done, at good prices and served with smiles.
One could take the view that this a basically a takeaway place that has some capacity to do eat-in.
On the other hand, with its handful of lovely dark-wood tables and white-enamelled chairs, far better to think of it as a casual and cool cafe.
I’m told the veggie curry puffs ($6) are made on the premises but as always it’s hard to actually tell for sure – maybe they mean cooked in-house?
In any case, with their flaky pastry and good fillings, these are beaut.
Yes, the fish cakes are rubbery but in a nice way.
They also boast a nice spice kick and a pronounced tang of coriander.
The sweet chilli sauce is, I think, store-bought but tarted up in-house.
Saha chicken salad ($13) finds a mildly-spiced and juicy chicken mince jumble atop supermarket leaves.
It’s all fresh and works good.
Massaman curry ($14.50) is the spiciest of our selections but not overly so.
The sauce is rich, dark, smooth and sticky, and the beef is beautifully cooked and of good quality.
The disappointments here are the spud chunks – they’re under-cooked.
It’s on the mend and she’s hobbling around in the manner of folks wearing moonboots.
But still, it means our catch-up lunch will, of necessity, be in the vicinity of her North Carlton pad.
Her place, the soon to re-open local pub?
Whatever …
But, of course, I scope the neighbourhood out on the magic maps and …
“I see you have an Egyptian place nearby,” I say to her.
“We do?” she replies.
You see, the name The Stuffed Pepper conjured up in her mind visions of, well, Italian food – so she’d not taken much notice.
But it’s not.
Italian, that is.
Instead, it is very, very Egyptian – and becoming more so.
Oh sure, there are non-Egyptian items on the menu, but the feedback the wonderful Giselle is getting from her customers is along the lines of “bring on the hardcore”.
So she is, with a love and passion for her food and recipes imbued to her by her mum and dad.
All this is, of course, is music to the ears of Consider The Sauce.
Even better, as of February 28, The Stuffed Pepper will be doing dinners as well as lunches.
Below I have published the Egyptian sections of menu.
Corinna chooses the hawashi (closed Egyptian pizza, $12.90), which consists of ground beef, onion, tomato and capsicum combined with Egyptian spices spread in Middle Eastern bread and grilled until toasted.
It’s spectacular and very different from every other Middle Eastern pie or pizza I’ve experienced.
The meat filling is quite deep and very juicy.
The pastry is anointed with yogurt and very good tabouleh.
Wowee!
I go for the kushari ($13.9), which is described as a delicious Egyptian vegetarian dish consisting of green lentils, rice and tomato-based sauce topped with macaroni and finished with a crispy onion garnish accompanied with a garden salad.
It looks like a simple, humble dish.
It is, but it’s also very sexy.
Giselle furnishes me with a separate bowl of mildly spicy and very good yet thin tomato sauce, which I duly pour over my dish.
I mix the salad in as I go, as instructed.
It’s perfect and just what I was feeling like consuming.
I remark that with its combination of pulses, tomato, pasta and fried onion, my kushari has been like a solid version of the Iraqi soup that has become a feature of CTS Headquarters home-cooking.
Giselle laughs, as that soup is a staple – with variations – right across the Middle East, so she knows exactly what I am talking about.
All the Egyptian food at The Stuffed Pepper comes her family’s store of recipes, and is mostly prepared by her, too.
She even makes her own turshi from scratch, while the falafels are of the green variety, being made with fava beans and herbs.
She does have a cook, Nick, who is helping her out.
She tells me he is of Indian background but is rapidly “becoming Egyptian”.
I really wish The Stuffed Pepper was in the west.
As of the dinner debut, CTS will return with as many pals as we can round up.
Corinna and I only have a small sample of the lunch menu, but’s it’s top rate-stuff.
My mind boggles at what the meat, fish and various ful dishes might be like and how good they might be.
And how about beleela, “a combination of cooked and barley”, which is offered by Giselle in two version?
Check out the Stuffed Pepper Website, including full menus, here.
Ahhh – a free-hearted romp up the highway to Melton.
Somewhere along the way, I’d learned that an African restaurant had been established in Melton.
My impromptu journey is aimed at checking it out.
This is a trip I’ve been wary of undertaking even just a few weeks earlier.
Since then, new tyres all round and a long overdue service had been booked and paid for, so I’m a happy chappy heading into the sunrise.
Especially with Millie Jackon, backed by the pride of Muscle Shoals, wailing at length about the woes of her love life.
Once parked in Melton’s High Street, I find Awel no problem.
The restaurant is a breezy, casual affair, with a different and bright tablecloth on each table.
A couple of those tables are occupied as I peruse the menu.
It’s a mix of Ethiopian dishes – there’s wats and tibs and the like – and dishes I suspect have a Sudanese flavour.
I go Ethiopian, though, with zilzil alicha ($12.90), which is described as diced lamb and seasoned vegetables slowly cooked in a green pepper sauce and seasoned with ginger and jalapenos.
It’s a typical Ethiopian meat dish, like a wet tibs.
The serve looks modest of size but is more than filling enough.
And best of all, it has a big chilli kick of the kind often promised by East African food but not always delivered.
The simple, crunchy salad, for which I am charged a little extra, is very good.
After my dinner, I chat for a good while with Amiol, who runs the restaurant with his wife, who happen to be in Africa catching up with the rellies.
Like her, Amiol is of Sudanese background.
He tells me Awel has been going for about five months and that the reaction of locals has been favourable.
But he is bemused by the outlook of some in the significant Melton East African community.
“In their heads, when it comes to food, they’re still back in Footscray,” her says. “They like our food but say, ‘Oh, if only you were in Footscray …'”
People can be so nutty!
Come on Meltonites – support this colourful and fine addition to your culinary line-up!
As I cruise on to the Western Highway home, Millie and the Swampers kick in to a funkified version of Feel Like Making Love.
D Asian, 68-82 Hopkins Street, Footscray. Phone: 8354 8387
By the time Bennie and I step through the doors of D Asia, it’s been open about six months.
Obviously, we haven’t been paying enough attention.
Though perhaps in this case, that’s something to do with the fact the restaurant isn’t on Hopkins Street proper, but rather looks out on the carpark and towards Franco Cozzo and Centrelink (into which dread office I most assuredly never wish to step foot again!).
D Asia is a typically warped idiosyncratic CTS experience.
The place is cavernous, complete with dance floor, bandstand and disco ball.
We are the only customers.
The menu is by a long way the longest I’ve ever seen – far too voluminous to photograph and publish here.
No customers, stupendously long menu?
Those are the sorts of things that normally see red flags hoisted.
But after visiting as a pair and then solo, and eating mostly well, I have to confess my curiosity about this abidingly strange and unlikely Indian restaurant remains high.
I will return to check out the many dishes of which I’ve never before heard.
With no pre-planned gameplan, Bennie and I find ourselves going happily all Indo-Chinese and all vegetarian.
The staff do the right thing by us by splitting our single serve of coriander lemon soup ($7.95) into two bowls.
It’s, um, super.
Mildly viscous in the familiar Chinese style, it’s refreshing and tangy, with tiny dice of vegetables providing crunch.
Golden fried potato ($12.95) is OK but is nothing more than battered potato stalks.
There is little or none of the advertised “marinated” factor.
This dish is, in our opinion, way over-priced.
Chilli baby corn is a much better deal at $11.95 – and a much better tasting one as well.
These are terrific flavour bombs, deep-fried and unoily.
There’s more than corn going on here, but it’s those kernals that provide the delightful “pop”.
Very, very yummy, they are.
Gobi manchurian ($10.95) is a good deal wetter than the rendition we’re familiar with from our favourite Indo-Chinese haunt.
It’s pleasant enough but no earth-shaker and is very oily.
As are our vegetable hakka noodles ($11.95), but we’d expect nothing different in a wok-tossed Indian dish.
They are fine, though, with plenty of diced and well-cooked vegetables.
On my follow-up visit, I try another Indo-Chinese dish – cutmet aloo ($4.95), which is described as “boiled potato dressed with Indian spices and served with tamarind chutney”.
Again, this is nice enough but no great shakes.
Then, just for to see what D Asia does with plain, workaday Indian food, I get a serve of mutton curry with roti ($10.95).
The fresh-cooked roti is fine.
The mutton is on the bone, and seems even more fiddly than is usually the case.
This is one of the most oily curries I’ve ever experienced.
And it’s the saltiest curry I can recall eating.
I like it a lot, though, although others’ mileage may vary!
D Asia?
What an enigma!
And I don’t think it’s really possible to be uncharmed by an eatery that has seven kinds of dal.
Or one that serves goat fried rice.
Or one that has 12 different soups on offer, including chicken or mutton suraba.
Or one that has a deep-fried Indo-Chinese dish call botanic vegetable.
Or one that seasons its gongura mutton with rosella leaves.
Not too long before we noticed the assembling of a Jerry’s franchise branch in Kensington, our friend The Burger King dined at the Tullamarine shop.
His verdict?
He was and is dismissive.
More recently, another friend – for whom Kensington is neighbourhood territory – implied he and his had a much more satisfying time at the new place.
So I decided to find out for myself.
The Kensington jerry’s is a smallish operation, done out in typical fast-food franchise fashion.
The seating is limited and rudimentary.
I found the service to be good and the prices to be very low.
But there’s the rub – on the premise of “you get what you pay for”, your Jerry’s burger will most likely suffer by comparison with the more pricey likes of Grill’d and other ritzy burger places.
The range of sandwiches – and even salads – is very long (see below), ranging through beef, steak, pork, fish, vegetarian and breakfast items.
I went with the She Hot! burger with beef, bacon, cheese, red onion, Tabasco aioli, lettuce and jalapenos ($7.90) and a small serve of chips ($1.90).
My burger was just OK, and as hinted at above pretty much what you’d expect for cents under $8.
It wasn’t nearly as hot as the number of pepper slices included might suggest.
It was a sloppy meal, with the structural integrity lapsing totally by the end.
Worst of all, the meat patty was bereft of beefiness and redolent of sausage meat.
I wouldn’t go so far as draw a comparison with “pet food”, as one Urbanspoon contributor has done, but you get the picture …
The best part of my dinner were the chips, which were terrific and plentiful.
Le Bon Ton, 51 Gipps Street, Collingwood. Phone: 9416 4341
Are regular readers discerning a trend here?
Yes, it seems we’re methodically – without actually meaning to – checking out Melbourne’s outlets for BBQ and other things to do with the American South.
This is driven largely by besottedness with that part of the world in general.
I’d have to say, after several tremendous meals, my skepticism about what is possible and available in Melbourne in this regard is evaporating; Le Bon Ton continues that trend.
Our pursuit of this food is driven, too, by the simple fact we love it to pieces.
In this case, “we” refers to an extended CTS “A” Team that numbers six and involves Bennie, myself and four great pals who also love getting on the fang.
We wish another “A” Team member, the fabulous Nat Stockley, who would fit like a glove into this happy aggregation, was with us!
Le Bon Ton is in a former pub in the back blocks of Collingwood.
It’s a big place rather extravagantly set up, with a lot of time – and no doubt money – spent on creating a Southern aura.
It works.
The place rambles just like some old-school New Orleans restaurant, with many rooms and a beaut outdoor dining area out back.
We figured arriving relatively early on a Friday night would see us right in terms of snagging a table.
We are wrong.
The place is jumping and packed.
No matter – after a brief cocktail-and-chat interlude that actually seems just right, we are seated and thereafter very well taken care of.
Most of our group went with the $49 banquet set-up just a few weeks previously at Meatmaiden, and ended up being happy with the results.
At Le Bon Ton, we baulk at their comparative offering of the Southern Pride deal for $59, not so much because of the cost but because we simply doubt our combined capacity to eat that much food.
So we go our own ways, ordering a couple of dishes to share and getting sandwiches and a meat offering based individual preferences.
This turns out to be a winning approach for us – and allows us scope to go with a couple of pies at the end of our meal.
The original inspiration for our Bon Ton outing was fried chicken.
Here it’s served as an entree of “Southern style buttermilk soaked tenders with cracked pepper white gravy” for $16.
We get two serves that allow us one piece apiece of very good, beautifully seasoned and coated chook.
Based on a recent visit here by two of our party, we also go the chili cheese fries ($15).
As all our food arrives pretty much at the same time, the photographic situation is intense so this rather blurry photograph is all I’ve got to show you of these delicious, decadent pimped-up spuds.
We get two orders of these, too. One would’ve done.
With the arrival of the brisket (half a pound of grain-fed Riverina Angus beef for $21) we wonder just how Melbourne’s BBQ emporiums who sell their smoked meats by weight go about maintaining consistent portion sizes.
Surely there’s not someone in the kitchen weighing up individual orders?
In this case, the serve seems very, wonderfully generous, so much so that the person whose meal it ostensibly is happily shares it with rest of the table.
Thanks, Eliza!
It’s very, very fine.
The Le Bon Ton cheeseburger of “150g Wagyu beef patty & crispy bacon w/ onion, lettuce, tomato, pickles, spicy ketchup & aioli” comes with a price tag of $16 and disappears down the gob of its owner in a flash.
Two of us select the brisket sandwich of “pit smoked chopped brisket with damn good BBQ sauce & slaw” ($16) – and what a sloppy, tangy, spicy joy it is.
Mine certainly eats bigger than the photo seems to suggest.
The “debris” of meats and dressings that tumble from my sandwich are far from being the least of the pleasure had.
Through our BBQ explorations, Bennie has developed a profound fondness for pulled pork.
He devours the Le Bon Ton version – “pit-smoked pulled pork with white onion, jalapeno, sharp cheddar & special sauce” ($16) – with relish.
It, too, is bigger and more hearty than first appears to be the case.
With a view to dessert, the Pie Mistress in our midst goes for the lighter delights of Gulf-style crab cakes with streaky bacon, bell peppers, celery and Old Bay aioli ($16.5).
She reckons they’re good and crabby. The sample I am afforded tastes lovely with a herbal blush that is familiar yet mysterious.
With such an amazing spread laid out before us, the otherwise fine buttermilk biscuits ($8.50 for three and served with chipotle and honey butter) seem something like bridesmaids.
Then it’s pie time!
What to choose, what to choose?
The Le Bon Ton pies are individually baked items that cost $12.
We collectively find the …
… chocolate and peanut butter mousse pie and …
… the banana cream pie to be utterly wonderful, though in truth the former seems a little on the bitter side to me.
We’ve made pigs of ourselves.
The food and the service have been grand.
The financial damage?
The $35 per person we pay is outstanding value.
Eschewing the temptations of hanging out all night in cocktail mode, we waddle into the night.
I skip breakfast before getting down to writing this story.
Check out the Le Bon Ton website, including menu, here.
In a lovely piece of serendipity, just before departing for Collingwood I had unwrapped a new CD arrival that has this tune as its first track:
Hellenic Flavours On Puckle, 25 Puckle Street Moonee Ponds. Phone: 93757064
Vicolo, 28-30 Young Street, Moonee Ponds. Phone: 9372 9500
There’s been a number of eatery openings in and around Puckle Street lately and we’re up for trying one of them for lunch.
We know Hellenic Flavours will be a kebab shop that will also do hamburgers.
But we suspect that it may also be one of those nifty places that does a nice job of taking care of the fast-food requirements but one that also offers more substantial Greek food at prices way below those found in more formal Greek restaurant settings.
That’s just what we discover.
The place is done out in the expected mix of take-away and restaurant with plenty of seating and scenic photos from the Mediterranean adorning the walls.
A big work group sitting next to us is tucking with glee into $15 plates of various kebab meats (some of it on sticks), pita, salad, chips and tzatiki.
Cool!
There’s also available the likes of mousaka, pastitsio, stuffed vegetables and grills such as steaks.
We both go for the traditional lamb souvlaki ($11) and are happy with our choices.
Our wraps are encased in the usual, thickish Greek-style pita we suspect may have come from this venerable Braybrook institution.
There’s just the right amount of salad and sauce.
And the meat is crunchy crusted, salty, hot and delicious.
Next stop – dessert!
Not since a flurry of visits to the classic Italian of Vicolo – culminating in a beaut CTS Feast – have we been back.
Today we’ve been enticed through the Young Street doors by a Facebook item in which Marie spruiks her white chocolate risotto with hazelnuts.
It’s the biz at a very generously proportioned $12 serve – thank heavens Bennie and I share.
“Mmmmm – it’s good,” says I.
“Yes, and so healthy,” quips Bennie.
Haha!
It’s nothing of the sort, of course.
But nor is eating this glorified rice pudding quite exactly like the decadent, silky and out-there experience of consuming a panna cotta, creme brulee or even a pavlova.
The al dente rice gives it a bit more substance and chewiness than that.
Consider The Sauce may have views on the varying food, service and even the social media hubris of West Footscray’s Indian restaurants, but right from the start we’ve considered them a community asset.
Still, as much as we love our Indian tucker, we also dig the heck out of diversity – so we’re delighted to see something very exciting happening in one of the neighbourhood’s landmark buildings.
The double-storey building at 572 Barkly Street has been vacant and unused, so far as we are aware, for several years.
Its history includes time spent as an ANZ bank branch and as home for a Serbian Social Services And Support group.
That latter was still active when we were living just around the corner, many years before CTS.
My very strong visual recall is that “social service and support” meant, in this instance, a very blokey spot for coffee and gossip!
That’s the (potted) history.
The future is … Ovest.
The new eatery, at this point scheduled to be unveiled to the eating and coffee-slurping public in February, is the baby of Ben Sisley, his wife Stephanie and Alex and Kate from Seddon’s Sourdough Kitchen.
Ben has a long history in Melbourne’s hospitality industry, including more recently stints food styling in the corporate world and, before that, time with Mr Wolf in St Kilda and, before that, with Madame Joe Joe, also in St Kilda.
Ben tells me Ovest (it means “west” in Italian) will offer food that will be based around the joint’s pizza oven – think pizzas and the likes of seafood and steak dishes using the same cooking apparatus.
Ben talks enticingly, for instance, of whole snapper lightly crusted/dusted with flour, seasoned, pan-fried and then quickly grilled in the pizza oven.
“We will be tightly focused in terms of opening hours and menu at the start, and then we’ll see where the public takes,” he says.
“This is a great location and we think the area is ready for something like this.
“We see us catering to everyone from people grabbing an after-work drink right through to young families.”
What that means is … no pasta, no breakfast, dinner and maybe lunch on selected days.
Nor will there be entertainment offered – the open kitchen will play that role.
“The food is the entertainment,” Ben says.
And, thanks to a liberal licence being secured, there is the possibility of 1am finishes on Saturdays and Sundays.
“But we won’t be sitting around chewing up money on wages if there’s no customers around,” Ben quips.
Significant renovations are underway on the ground floor of the old bank building.
But in some ways it appears to be almost purpose-built for the likes of Ovest.
The classic ’60s/’70s style bar is cool as!
The area around the entrance will be for more casual, drop-in customers, with the rear area offering dining of a more formal variety.
Consider The Sauce has received a good deal of medical advice in the past six months or so.
Some of it was about food.
“We really like Siam Kitchen in Newport,” the doctor said. “The wok dishes and salads – not so much the curries.”
That’s the kind of advice – medical or otherwise – we’re happy to follow!
Truth is, Siam Kitchen has been on our radar for a long time.
The restaurant occupies the same strip as the recently covered Odd Spot Cafe.
We are expecting a modest, typical suburban Thai eatery.
So we’re surprised and delighted to discover within a really love room dominated by dark wood and tastefully decorated.
We’re happy to report that by and large the service and food reflect those good first impressions.
This place is a handy and classy notch or two better than the phrase “suburban Thai eatery” implies.
It’s early in the week but the place is busy, with a good half of the tables occupied and a constant stream of takeaway customers coming and going.
There’s only one front-of-house staff member at hand and she’s working very hard indeed, though some kitchen folk help out by bringing full dishes out and taking empty ones back in.
It’s Bennie and I only tonight so we keep it simple by choosing two entrees and two mains plus rice.
The entrees satisfy rather than thrill us.
We whip through two roti breads served with satay sauce ($5) in quick time though it’s all rather nondescript and the sauce lacks punch and is too sweet for us.
Crispy golden bags(tang tong) of marinated pork mince with garlic, spicy onion and herbs served with sweet chilli sauce ($6.90) are way better and much more interesting than your average won tons.
The chilli sauce, too, is a flavour hit, boasting more zip and depth of flavour than your typical commercial version.
I cannot tell if this one of those commercial brands tarted up in the kitchen or one made from scratch – either way, very nice!
Seafood pad cha of – “traditional” stir fry with peppercorn, ginger, eggplant and mixed vegetables ($14.90) – is my selection based on the eggplant component.
As it turns out, the eggplant is pretty much the least of it.
There’s plenty of seafood that tastes very fresh – I slurp up the mussels as Bennie is uninterested, and the scallops have terrific flavour.
Best of all, there’s nothing tame about the seasoning levels here – it’s a spicy blast.
Crispy chicken salad with herbs and chilli topped with peanuts ($13.90) is Bennie’s choice and the outright highlight of our meal.
The chicken bits really are crisp, and delicious to boot. And we love the crunch of the peanuts.
There’s a significant chilli hit here, too, and real tang thanks to coriander, mint and lemon juice.
Unlike some people we could mention, we’re by no means Thai food experts – but for what it’s worth, the Siam Kitchen menu appears to have no really unusual dishes or surprises.
That said, this is the best Thai food we’ve had in the west.
Check out the Siam kitchen website, including menu, here.
So here’s Consider The Sauce thinking it had a pretty good handle on the places across the west that purvey Lebanese pies and pizzas … when reader Carolyn comes up with a new one for us to try in Altona Meadows.
Babylon Bakery, just around the corner from a small neighbourhood shopping centre, has been in business for about four years.
Three of us rock up for Saturday lunch and have a fabulous time.
After we occupy one of the outside tables, boss man Diya moves the big umbrella so it covers us, the table and our food in pleasant shade.
Sarah cuts all our oven-baked choices into three for sharing ease and brings the plates to our table.
We feel like kings of the world sitting on an Altona Meadows nature strip.
As we’re sharing, we have the za’atar with vegatables done in open pizza style rather than as a wrap. It costs $5.
It’s very good.
As are our lemon-spinach-onion, chicken and spinach-cheese pies, all of which cost a simply fabulous $3.50.
Our nutella pie (top picture, $5.50) is brought to our table looking like a work of art
Studded with plump, hot, oven-roasted sultanas, it’s a wonderful thing, thinner and less doughy than many we’ve had.
Inspired by this mind-blowingly interesting job advert, Consider The Sauce has tried phone, email and Facebook message in a bid to nail the details – so far to no avail.
Here’s what we know thus far …
A Jamaican restaurant will soon be opening in Yarraville.
It will be housed in the Gamon Street premises that for many, many years hosted Gravy Train and which are currently undergoing renovations.
The people behind the restaurant are those who run Boss Man Food – see website here and Facebook page here.
With that sort of pedigree, I reckon we’re all fully entitled to hope for something amazing.
How about that for something to look forward to?
Another Gamon Street gem, the good ship Advieh, is staying right where it is.
But in about a month those fine folks will be bringing their wonderful Middle East-inspired food to Yarraville village.
Little Advieh will operate out of a prime spot on Ballarat Street and not too far from the now-permanent park.
Wonderful news, we reckon!
Meanwhile, plans to fill the ground floor space of the old St George’s Theatre with a hospitality industry business appear to be taking time to come to fruition.
Under The Sea Fish & Chips, 49 Anderson Street, Yarraville. Phone: 9687 6912
Consider The Sauce has long held a preference for fish and chip joints that offer more than paper-wrapped bundles.
We like our F&C and accoutrements fresh-as and eaten at restaurant-provided seating – even if it is of the most rudimentary kind.
We like it, too, when proper cutlery and crockery are part of the deal.
So we’ve never gotten around to trying our very popular local fish and chippery.
But with Bennie being a happy fish eater these days, he’s several times recent in months declared his preparedness to troop around the corner and bring our dinner home.
So off he goes … and back he comes with a meal I find OK in some regards but disappointing in others.
Low expectations met?
Yes.
The chips are hot but on the dull side for me.
Ordering instructions had been for a small so naturally the medium Bennie gets is excess to our requirements.
The calamari rings are of the reconstituted surimi variety, so are automatically graded “OK”.
Fish of the day is blue grenadier and it’s real good.
What’s more, we receive three generously sized pieces instead of two, so we eat really well.
But the batter of one of them is stuck to the paper and is only messily removed.
It’s been good fare, especially as the whole lot cost something under $20.
But I won’t be in a hurry to return.
And with dinner?
Bickford’s, of course.
We go through at least a bottle of this stuff a week – lemon or lemon barley now that the bitter lemon variety seems permanently unavailable.
But tonight at the IGA we spied a new flavour – apple and cinnamon.
I detect only the faintest of spice undertones but Bennie reckons it’s the best of the lot.
I Love Dumplings, 311 Racecourse Road, Flemington. Phone: 9372 5218
The restaurant also known as Chinese Spicy and Barbie Kitchen appears to have bowed to the obvious and inevitable by embracing I Love Dumplings as its major name.
It’s also moved a few doors up the road – into what was once a bank building.
On the outside, it’s drab, box-like appearance still reeks of financial sector.
Inside, and after a no-doubt expensive and extensive makeover, it looks like, well, a Chinese restaurant.
With a happy, big mid–week lunch crowd in attendance and a vinegary tang in the air, it sounds and smells like one, too.
Team CTS is today two robust appetites and one not so much.
We order smartly and stick solely to dumplings – or almost – in celebration of the management’s embracing of the dumpling love mantra.
The lunch menu (see below), mind you, has a lot of very well priced and interesting non-dumpling dishes about the $10 mark that will make this a lunch hot spot for sure.
We spend about $10 per head and eat like kings.
Pan-fried chicken corn dumplings ($9.80 for 15) are extreme in terms of plainness but taste beaut, the lovely chicken meat having enough corn kernels to provide flavour and texture lifts.
Steamed pork and spring onion buns ($11.80 for six) are, we are assured, quite different from the regular BBQ pork buns.
We don’t find that to be the case, but they’re a hit anyway – quite delicate, and with enough moistness in the filling to offset the doughy exteriors.
Steamed vegetarian dumplings in Sichuan chili sauce ($9.80 for 15) are our best dish.
The soy-based, thin sauce has enough of a spice kick to make the already fab dumplings really sing.
The parcels are packed with all sorts of goodies that make the absence of any sort of animal protein an irrelevance.
Do dogs dig dumplings?
The guide dog trainers of two lovely labs that have been in the house for lunch-time assure us they would if they could!
consider the sauce 