Nuts Chan, Mount Waverley

Nuts Chan... Guess what this is? Is it a brand of peanuts? Or a man called Chan who is crazy? No... it's a restaurant name! Gaz suggested this place yesterday. I thought he was pulling my leg, but it really existed! OK, now guess what sort of food this restaurant serve..... it's Japanese!! Hmm...

At the restaurant, I ordered an oyako don, Gaz had their deluxe bento consisting of miso soup, beef stir fried with ginger sauce, 6 slices of sashimi, and katsu chicken. We ordered crab croquette as entree (deep fried mashed crab meat with potatoes). My food came taste challenged. I dumped half a bottle of the Japanese chilli pepper flakes on my dish, but it was still very bland. I ordered another entree sized sashimi instead. The fish slices came in generous thick slices, but there is a little fishy aftertaste with the salmon.

While we were having our dinner, a Japanese salaryman (Gaz's term, not mine) came and sat at the table next to ours. He ordered in Japanese, and we were awed that a Japanese had come to the restaurant. It means the food must be authentic and good right? (Except my oyako don was very the tasteless....) He got the royal treatment... he had a BIGger pot of tea than us (I bet he had more tea leaves in his pot too! We had barely any in ours), and he was soon brought a bowl of something which looked like sashimi and tofu on top of rice. We wondered if that was really what locals ate in Japan. We must be ordering the wrong thing!

Whatever he had, he looked like he enjoyed it so much. He slurped and finished the whole bowl of rice while I looked on and wondered what went wrong with mine.

Selamat Hari Raya!

Selamat Hari Raya! Maaf zahir dan batin...

Nursery Rhyme with a Difference

This is hilarious!!! Brings back good memories of growing up in a multicultural society. I probably watched as many Hindi & Tamil shows as English shows growing up, so I can appreciate the beats in this video.



Thanks Farizan for sending the vmw!

Pictures of Spring (except the last pic)

Shira Nui, Glen Waverley

Tonight, we went for Gaz's birthday celebration Part 2 at Shira Nui at Glen Waverley. It's a widely reviewed place, but we have not had a chance to visit the place until now.

I made a reservation for omakase (chef's selection - we sit at the counter and the chef delivers dishes made on the spot to us till we popped) about 3 weeks ago - that's the most organised I've been, and was lucky I made the reservation early because there were bus loads of people in the little place even though it is a Wednesday night.

So does it live up to the reviews? Let's take a look at the food we had tonight:

The first dish - snapper with lemon juice and salt. Nice tang to the tongue because of the lemon and salt.

Seared salmon seasoned with Japanese spices which had a little chilli, citrus and pepper. The salmon melted in our mouths... very yummy.

Another view of the salmon showing the two tones of the salmon - seared on top and raw at the bottom.

Mackerel with white seaweed sheet and sesame seeds. Very pretty. The seaweed sheet was very tasty.

Grilled wagyu beef - Beef was tender, sweet. We chatted with another guest as we were eating and he said that this dish is his favourite. It's not far from being ours too.

This was only so-so. Ark shell sushi. It was crunchy and didn't have much flavour.

Toro or tuna... this was my fave dish. Melted in my mouth, so delicious!

Tuna tartare with quail's egg on top, and the other one is okra tempura. I couldn't eat the quail's egg - I don't like raw eggs so Gaz slurped it away for me. We thought these two were so-so. The okra tempura was crisp, but I didn't like the bitter taste to it.

Kingfish. Doesn't it look nice? It's like a fish in itself!

One of the best dishes - lightly grilled oyster topped with mayo. Hmm... very nice and creamy.

Couldn't go past my unagi. It was on my request. Seared on both sides. It was only so-so, quite chewy. Which goes to show... leave it to the chef!

Complimentary dessert - crushed ice with syrup and fruit

The food was good, but I think we'll let the credit card rest for a bit now...

Update: This restaurant is permanently closed as at March 2025

Hakka Tea House, Glen Waverley

We went to Hakka Tea House at Glen Waverley for Gaz's birthday celebration with the family. Here are some of the dishes we had:

Tofu with bok choi and mushrooms.

The star of the show - mud crab with noodles. The noodles were delicious, enveloped with lots of sauce and the crab had plenty of roe.

Salted chicken. I miss the salted chicken sold in the local night market in M'sia where the chicken is wrapped in grease paper, and buried under a pile of coarse salt smoking in a wok. The flesh practically falls off the bone and smells wonderful!

Update: This restaurant is now closed

Pumpkin Bread Rolls

Look at my very first attempt at baking bread! Not bad huh?

This is my pumpkin bread roll, made with honey, part wholemeal flour, and pureed pumpkin. Very healthy... right? Natural sugar and wholemeal flour! The colour of the roll is a little orangey because of the pumpkin.