Pabu, Collingwood

We made reservations bright and early for this restaurant, but we still got bar seats even though there were a couple of tables free.

Gaz thought the nine course banquet menu was a good way to taste the specialties of this restaurant. Indeed, it was recommended to us by our waitress as the ideal for two persons. The banquest costs $55 per person and includes two of their specials - tuna and salmon salad, and hachima slices.

The first few dishes came quickly. We were served miso soup and endamame, then the gyu tataki. It is thinly sliced seared beef topped with pickled ginger and spring onions with citrus soy. It was squiggled with mayo and drizzled with black sesame seeds. The beef was seared well, and the citrus had 'cooked' the thin beef slices somewhat so did not have the smooth texture normally associated with tataki. The mayo did not make the dish smoother.

In quick succession came the hamachi which were thinly sliced king fish topped with pickled ginger, pickled green chilli and spring onions in yuzu sauce. Again the acidity in the yuzu had cooked the fish somewhat so it is not the smooth texture associated with sashimi. When the dish arrived we thought that all it needed was a splash of coconut cream and it would have been a spin off from Chin Chin's kingfish sashimi dish! The pickled chilli and ginger did not add to the dish, but I may be biased because I am not a big fan of either.

Next came the maguro and salmon on rocket salad dressed with chef's secret spicy sauce and mayo. Erm.. The chef can keep the secret recipe to himself. The raw tuna and salmon chunks were fresh and delicious though.

After the salad, the restaurant became busier so the courses stopped for a long while. We could not help but stare at the window where the dishes were pushed out from the kitchen to guess which of the dishes would end up on our table. It did not help that for a time the kitchen was not completing any dishes and when they did the dishes sat at the window for some time waiting for someone to deliver them, or try to figure out where they should go.

It was a busy night indeed, and the volume meant there cannot be time wasted to re-do an order. So, when one of the skewers fell off a dish onto the counter, we saw the chef picking it and placed it back on the plate to be served.

Finally another dish appeared, this time the pork gyozas. There were four of them, which we devoured in quick four quick bites each (did I tell you this is a Jap tapas?). After another session of keeping an eye on the window, we received another dish. It was the nigiri dish, also four pieces in total. Two salmon, one ebi and one tuna, which we also devoured in four bites.

Another long wait followed, which gave us time to admire the lines of sake bottles at the bar. They don't call this place Pabu Grill and Sake for nothing! Many people ordered sake to go with their meals and there are pages and pages of varieties one could choose from. But what puzzled me is the 'grill' after the name... There was only one grill chef, and the taste of two of the skewers we received were not that great.

We were served the mixed grilled skewers next. As the waitperson was still learning, we did not find out what we were actually being served, except that they were chicken kitsune, chicken thighs, chicken and chicken. We ate them in the order they were presented. The kitsune were delicious, so much flavour! The chicken thighs were also very good, seasoned well and I could taste the smoked grill glavour. It was very nice. The last two were not chicken but pork, and beef, neither of which were seasoned nor grilled as well as the chicken thighs.

The waiting game began again. By this time we had been in the restaurant for nearly two hours and rather neglected. Thankfully by sitting at the bar there was always someone we could motion to, and we asked for more water. But they were too busy to take away the dishes piling on the counter.

The next dish was ebi karaage which was spicy marinated prawns. It was whole small unpeeled prawn deep fried to such crispiness you can eat it whole, head and all. The prawns were crispy and retained their crunch well.

The last dish we almost forgot because of the wait, but luckily did not, was thedessert which consisted of one scoop each of matcha, black sesame and yuzu sorbet. There was also half a melon mochi which tasted awesome.

I think we should have ordered individual dishes, perhaps five full dishes to get more food for money and less waiting time. Even though the waitperson who took our order assured us we would feel full with the menu, we still wanted more food, but would rather get fast food because of the wait involved.

It was good to have tried a new place, but this is not one where we would have to revisit.

Update: This restaurant is permanently closed. In 2015, the restaurant was fined $30,000 for unhygienic food practices.

Onde Onde

I made these onde onde two weeks ago, when I was craving for the sweet salty dessert and could not get them anywhere nearby.

 These little balls are a lot work to make. If they were freely available here, I would not have bothered to make them myself. Better to spend the morning lazing in bed..

 First, chop the gula melaka into tiny pieces and set aside. Then blend about 7-10 pandan leaves and mix with 250ml water. Strain the pandan juice from the pulp.

 Mix with 250gm of glutinous rice flour to form dough. Form small balls of about 10 gms each. Press some gula melaka into the balls and roll on the palms of the hand to cover.

 Drop the balls into boiling water until they float. Finally, drain and roll in dessicated coconut which had been mixed with a dash of table salt.

 The centre should be liquid sugar that bursts in the mouth. If they are not, I found a cheat's way to ensure that it happens... just microwave the onde onde for 15 seconds!

El Sabor - North Melbourne

Every so often, we pig out and eat till we can't fit another morsel of food in our mouths. Luckily it does not happen to often because even though it is a joy to have a good appetite, it is torture to eat till the stomach is almost to bursting point and still resist the urge to vomit.

We visited a new restaurant El Sabor on Victoria St in North Melbourne. We had bought one of their 9 course degustation sets for $59 per couple. These are 8 of the 9 dishes we ate, with the most memorable being the beef cigars (crispy!) and churros (the melted chocolate was just awesome).

We really liked the friendly service from the lovely waitresses who spoke Spanish and the delicious food. Some of the dishes did have recurring ingredients which I got a little tired of, but cannot complain because the restaurant needs to turn out dishes as quickly as possible for these types of deals. For example, corn chips made two appearances first on its own with dips then as nachos topped with guacamole, melted cheese and sour cream. And guacamole and tomato salsa made many an appearance either on top of a dish or on the side as dip.

This is a restaurant where the food was good, and we certainly ate till we were about to burst! 

Blue and white corn chips with dips

Grilled corn on the cob

Grilled chicken wings

Chicken tamales

Beef cigars

Churros with melted chocolate

Fish taco

Beef Empanada

Cloudehill - Olinda

Spring and I have a love hate relationship. I love the flowers that that blooms during spring but I don't like the hay fever that comes with it. I used to brag about how immune I was to hay fever. Not any more.

So when Gaz and I visited the Spring Festival at Cloudehill Gardens, Olinda last weekend for some flower gazing, I made sure to bring lots of tissues to cope with my runny nose.

Cloudehill is a private garden, and entry fee is $10 per visit to the gardens or restaurans. Or you can join as member at $49 per annum and get free entry to the garden all year round in addition to discounts to products, free gardening advice, some free seeds and club magazine every two months. But if you have a non-member friend you'll like to go with, they'll have to pay or join as member too unless you bought them a gift membership for the same price, or if it is a family member, a family membership for $18 as long as they live at the same address.

We saw many unique plants at the gardens. There were flowers that look like little polystyrene balls, dark maroon tulips, and peonies. If you wanted heirloom plants, or unique plants then this is one of the places to get them. The Diggers Club which provides seeds and plants for sale in the garden sells many plants which are not available at the mainstream stores like Bunnings.

Flowers were grew at Cloudehill for the florist trade in the 1920s by the Woolrich family who first bought the land in 1890. In those days, the flowers you buy for your home were whatever flowers were in season. These days, with more sophisticated growing methods and imports, one can get almost all types of flowers all year round.

One of the main attractions in the garden was two Japanese weeping maple trees. They were brought from Japan, and may have been growing for a thousand years.

Peonies are also grown in the garden. We met a specialist grower at the festival who shared his tips of growing peonies with us. Peonies may grow wild by the roadside in China where it originated from, but in Australia there is not enough lime in the soil for the flowers to grow. So, in order to grow peonies one must add a thick layer of lime and once the roots are established in around two years, the flowers will follow.

We bought lunch at the deck, where there were only two options - hot dogs with gourmet sausages for $10 or paella for $12. We got one of each and went very hungry because there was only one small scoop of paella. Look at the picture below... The rice didn't even fill half of the bowl.

Nevertheless, we had a great time at the garden, saw many unique plants, broadened our knowledge of gardening (did you know there are such things as $5 seeds, yes one seed for $5, and F1 seeds?) and enjoyed the sun while doing so. But next time if we do return, we will pack a picnic.

O' Town - Glen Waverley

There are a few things that differentiates O Town and the rest of the Malaysian / Asian eateries in Glen Waverley as we discovered last week. O Town is the only restaurant in the Glen Waverley Kingsway area and its immediate surroundings that serves Teochew dishes such as kueh chap and teochew braised duck rice. Teochew is one of the Chinese clans with their own dialect and cuisine. Li Ka Shing, the richest man of Chinese descent in the world is of Teochew heritage.

 The location of the restaurant is not ideal, being located away from the main street and the heavy pedestrian traffic on Kingsway. But on the bright side, it is easier to get a park near the restaurant and I did not have to work up my stomach acids being upset at drivers hogging Kingsway while waiting for the elusive car spot.

 We ordered the Teochew braised duck rice which had fine strips of duck and dried tofu, a hard boiled egg braised in five spice braising liquid.

There was not much duck on the plate, and likewise for the tofu. Now, I understand that pictures in the menu are for illustrative purposes etc etc but when I compared my dish with the menu picture of chunks of duck meat and beautifully arranged braised tofu on the side, I was sorely disappointed.

The serving sizes are also smaller than the other restaurants, so I was not full either.

We ordered the fried noodles O Town style which different in that it had pippies as one of the ingredient. The deshelled pippies together with prawns, chinese sausage, egg, bean sprouts and chives are fried with the noodles. The flavour was on the sweet side, but tasted good. My main gripe is that the serving size was smaller than the other places, yet the price is about the same.

I suspect this restaurant may appeal to Teochew people wanting to get a taste of home, but the small servings certainly does not appeal to me.