Satu Produk Durian - Midcity Arcade, CBD

This cafe confused me a little.  The name suggests Malaysian or Indonesian origins but this is a franchise from Macau?  I didn't think Macau was famous for durians..

The cafe serves mainly durian or mango desserts. We ordered one of each just to be safe. The verdict?  Durian mille crepe wins hands down for me! After eating the mille crepe, the mango pancake was tasteless to me.

Portions are small for the price paid but I am happy with the amount of durian in the mille crepe. When I burped later in the evening, I could smell durian and relive the experience!

Shandong Mama - Midcity Arcade, CBD

I have heard so much about Shandong Mama that I just had to try it out. Last weekend, I invited a girlfriend for lunch at the restaurant. 

We ordered the famed mackerel dumplings and Daryl noodles. 

If it was not described in the menu, I would not have guessed they were mackerel.  I guess I expected more mackerel and less flour in the filling. It was a bit salty as well. On the other hand, the filling is original and not fishy.

Daryl noodles is a dish of wheat noodles with a sauce of potato cubes, little prawns, and veges. It was a tad salty, and not as special as the dumplings.

There are some unique dumpling fillings being served in the restaurant like salmon, lamb, and tofu. It is definitely good for a change from the usual pork and prawn dumplings.

Paco's Tacos - Eastland Ringwood

We visited Paco's Tacos on it's opening night last week. Even though Eastland was busy as, and throngs of people were roaming around looking for food, Paco's Tacos looked unfazed. In fact, they coped quite well in the face of the crowd. 

Except for running out of some dishes and some staff not knowing the food they are serving,  everything else seemed to run smoothly. 

We ordered chicken enchilada, which paled in comparison to some of the awesome tacos we had.

We ordered three types of tacos (at Paco's Tacos these are soft corn tortillas) - Crumbed blue grenadier, calamari and beef.

The fish and beef tacos were amazing. Strong flavours, good texture, and oh so tasty. But the calamari did not match up. There were not many calamari in the taco and it felt like I was eating salad rather than calamari taco.

One thing about the tortilla skins, they are not soft. I am not sure why but I prefer softer tortilla skins.

At $6.50 a pop, they are quite reasonably priced, although I will need more than 2 to fill me up.