Road Trip to SA - Hahndorf

I heard about Hahndorf from a friend who had done the same road trip to South Australia a couple of years before. I found it intriguing that there is an old fashioned German town in the Adelaide Hills. After our visit, I learned more information of how the town came to be. 

In 1838, German Lutherans were being persecuted by the King for practicing their religion. They were assisted by Pastor Kavel and a South Australian businessman who also provided monetary assistance for them to start anew in South Australia. Hahndorf is named after the captain of the ship that brought them to South Australia, Captain Dirk Hahn. 

During WW1 when anti German sentiments were high, Hahndorf was renamed Ambleside and remained so until 1935. I think Hahndorf holds a certain charm befitting the history of the town, don't you think? 

Today, the town thrives on tourism as well as farm produce and vineyards. Many of the businesses remain family owned and operated by the descendants of the original settlers. For instance, the Paech family who runs the Beerenberg family farm that is famous for their strawberry jams. 

We also visited the Hahndorf Hill Winery for wine tasting. The vines were still looking a little sad, lacking the customary green foliage but we were informed that they usually grow around October and growth is exponential from week to week such that one can come back in a week and find a totally different, lusher scenery to the one below. 

A famous resident of Hahndorf was the artist Hans Heysen. Both his and his daughter Nora Heysen's work are displayed in their property The Cedars. For $10 per person, we were able to tour his studio, and the gardens. A fully guided tour is available for $15 per person and this includes a tour of the house as well. It would have been nice to tour the house because the furniture have been left as is, but we missed the guided tour. But the garden was in bloom, and we enjoyed a meander through the large grounds.

While at The Cedars, we saw Heysen's caravan parked in the garage. He was among the first people who owned a caravan. It was custom made and made of wood. It contained two small single beds and a locker, just enough to sleep the night. What a vast difference with the modern day motor home! Heysen would tie the caravan to his car for overnight trips to locations where he can paint.

Hahndorf is only about half an hour away from Adelaide CBD. On the way to Adelaide, we stopped by Mount Lofty summit which is halfway between Hahndorf and the CBD. Besides a good view of the surrounding area, there are also several walking trails, a cafe and gift shop at the summit.

A parking fee of $4 per car applies. It doesn't come with free viewing of koalas, but we were lucky and spotted this cute mother koala and her little koala perched atop a tree in the carpark. It was probably the best view of the day, surpassing even the view from the summit of Adelaide CBD in the distance.

Road Trip to SA - Mt Gambier

Having a road trip is a real test of a relationship... Two people in a car in an extended period of time with nothing but music on repeat and the long road ahead. So many decisions, or should I say so many opportunities for arguments  - where to stop for a break, is the petrol enough to get to the next stop, which is the fastest way, didn't you see that pothole on the road! Trapped in a car together, there is no where to seek refuge should there be an argument on the way. 

Luckily, we managed to pull through and actually enjoyed our recent road trip to South Australia. This is a relief, since I harbour a dream to travel around Australia in a motor home one day. I have yet to convince Gaz but I'm sure he'll get there one day. Maybe he'll consent if I agree to empty the toilet at the end of each day...

We stopped at Mount Gambier on the first day of our road trip. Mount Gambier is home to the Blue Lake and Umpherston Sinkhole. It is also the second most populous city after Adelaide. Here are some fun facts: 

Population: around 30,000

450km away from Adelaide

17km from Victorian border

Mount Gambier is located on the slopes of a dormant volcano. Once upon a time when the volcano erupted, the rocks were thrown by the erupting volcano and formed craters when they landed forcefully on the ground thus creating the famous Blue Lake and several other lakes nearby such as the Leg of Mutton lake and Valley lake.

In summer, the colour of the lake turns vivid blue while in winter, it is a steely blue. On the sunny spring day we were there, it was dark blue. The water in the lake is so still, it reflects that clouds in the sky perfectly. It almost seemed like an extension of the sky. The water in the lake supplied to the city as drinking water.

There is a walking trail which is alongside the road for vehicles that is 3.6km long all around the lake. As the walk will take about about 3 and a half hours, we decided to stop at Hoo Hoo Lookout, then walked a short distance to Blue Lake Lookout. From lookout, we could also glimpse parts of the Valley Lake.

The Umpherston Sinkhole is named after James Umpherston who once owned the property. It is only a few minutes drive from Blue Lake. It was once a limestone cave then the roof collapsed. It was also once half filled with water but is now dry as water levels receded. A large working bee was organised a long time ago to plant a garden in the sinkhole which has made it the beautiful and mysterious garden that it is today. There are creepers hanging from the sides of the sinkhole and lush calla lily bushes are planted on the terrace. The council has provided BBQ facilities and benches in the garden. 

There is another smaller sinkhole in the city centre, which is also planted with various plants and shrubs to create a beautiful garden. There is a light show each night at 8pm in the garden. 

While visiting the city centre, we stopped by the local library and was very impressed by the services provided. The library was large, modern and had many different zones for the community - cafe area with opportunity for people to have a cuppa and read the library's magazines at the same time, kids activity area, and a quiet area. 

For lunch, we spotted a place with $8.90 lunch special and ordered the roast duck on egg noodles and beef panang curry with rice. 

Hunter and Barrel, Eastland Ringwood

Amid the swanky decor, good food awaits. We ordered the Hunter's Feast ($39 pp) at Hunter and Barrel which came with two pieces of pork belly with spicy sauce, roasted chicken, a piece of beef rump steak skewer and a piece of Wagyu beef sausage on a platter, thick cut chips, flat bread and salad. 

The meats were cooked to perfection. The chicken melted away in my mouth, the pork belly was crispy but the star was the beef which was tender, juicy and medium rare. The Wagyu sausage meat was tinted a strange red colour and was too salty but other than that, all the other meats tasted very delicious and was well cooked.

I would describe this place as a casual steak house but there are enough options on the menu for people who prefer something lighter, like a burger, salad or even a vegetarian burger.

Overall, we were quite impressed by the decor and the quality of the food. Delicious!

Barolo, Camberwell

The first thing that occurred to me when we entered this new restaurant is how familiar the location is. It turns out that we have been to this location before but that was when it was a Greek restaurant. Now, it is an Italian restaurant run by different owners. 

We ordered the antipasto plate, spaghetti marinara, beef and shiraz ragu and a coffee and baileys with ice cream. 

Beef and Shiraz Ragu with Mash

Spaghetti Marinara

Antipasto plate

Coffee and Baileys with Icecream

The beef was a real comfort food. I can totally imagine myself with a big bowl of this stuff, in front of the television in pyjamas, scoffing down mouthfuls of this while watching Sex and the City. 

I found the texture of the spaghetti very similar to half cooked Chinese wheat noodles. It was thick, felt a little uncooked and was not what I liked to eat. 

The best dish was the dessert. It came with a shot of strong coffee and baileys, both of which are to be poured into the martini glass containing two scoops of ice cream. The mixture then turns to be gooey, delicious coffee bailey sundae. Personally I think anything with coffee and Baileys is a winning combination. 

Sunset

The month of September has been quite eventful thus far. In the same weekend, we received two groups of overseas visitors which necessitated a flurry of cleaning activity within the house. Gaz transferred all his items that had accumulated in the spare room into temporary storage. Meanwhile, I was busy running around looking for gifts for these visitors. It was just crazy...

I don't want to sound like we haven't been cleaning the house for the last 2 years but there are things in the house that normally get micro cleaned in everyday cleaning such as the windows, ceilings, kitchen cabinets, and the garden. 

We enjoyed our guests visits and hopefully helped make their visit more memorable. It was nice having a clean and presentable house also. 

Sister of Soul, St Kilda

We ate at Sister of Soul on Acland Street, St Kilda recently and immediately had to share this restaurant with each and everyone I come across. This vegetarian restaurant has a large and varied mix of dishes including burgers, pasta, curries all of which are made from fresh vegetarian ingredients. 

We were impressed when we saw the menu, and how busy the restaurant was compared to the others on the strip. Fortunately we did not have to wait long at all for our food to arrive even though the restaurant was packed. 

Gaz ordered the Zen burger - panko crumbed eggplant, salad and kewpie mayo. The dish came with fries and mayo. Even though the burger was vegetarian, thanks for the eggplant slice I could believe I was eating a chicken schnitzel burger. It was crunchy, fragrant, and very fresh and healthy. 

I ordered the gnocchi in napoli sauce with roast pumpkin, basil oil and almond feta. I love the almond feta - it was absolutely delicious! It tasted like real feta, but without the bloating effect that came with consuming dairy products for me. The gnocchi melted in my mouth, and the roast pumpkin pieces added a firm texture to the dish.

For meat lovers, it is difficult to substitute meat in a vegetarian dish and that is why the popularity of mock meats in chinese vegetarian dishes. These mock meats can be tofu 'fish', 'chicken' and so on but they are usually made from gluten and deep fried prior to steaming, braising etc so apart from consuming unnecessary amounts of gluten, it will also increase one's intake of oil as well.

The two dishes above demonstrate that plant based ingredients and the way they are cooked e.g. roast pumpkin with a bit of firm texture, almond feta, panko crumbed thick slab of eggplant make convincing and healthy meat substitutes.

Kobe Jones, South Wharf

Luckily our second visit to Kobe Jones was a reasonable success... Our first visit years ago flopped flat on its face even though a reservation was made in advance. It left us angry and hungry, vowing never to return. 

Fast forward years later, lured by a limited time half priced dining promotion, we returned. This time, they did not forget our reservation but I have to deduct some points for the seating arrangement. The seating was arranged in such a way that we were seated at right angles instead of seated opposite each other at the table. My seat faced the wall. How romantic for a dinner date!!

We ordered the Kobe's 10 Set Menu ($79 per person) which consists of Endamame beans, Seafood Poke, Hot Mushroom Salad, Volcano Roll, Prawn and Vegetable Tempura, Chicken Yakitori, Crab Slider, Beef Tenderloin Amiyaki, Miso soup and Green Tea Icecream. 

Mushrooms with pine nuts

The Hot Mushroom Salad was our favourite. It was filled with umami goodness, buttery smooth, and packs an extra crunch from the pine nuts scattered across the top of the dish. We wished we had some kind of rice, or carb to sop up the leftover sauce, it was so good!

California roll with scallops

Poke

The Hawaiian Poke of salmon cubes was also delicious. It was light, had a good mouthfeel aided by crispy fried noodle bits, and salmon caviar. 

The same cannot be said for the Volcano Roll... although it was described as oven baked scallops layered on a crab salad avocado roll, with special cream sauce, we struggled to find the scallops! What scallops we could find were in little pieces. In contrast, there was a plentiful amount of rich cream sauce. It was cloying, and we had a difficult time digesting the rest of the meal because of it.

Soft shell crab slider

Chicken teriyaki skewers

Vege and prawn tempura

The chicken teriyaki skewers were well cooked and had a wonderful aroma of perfectly grilled meat. Intersected between baby leeks, the chicken was very tasty and juicy.

But... the tempura was a big letdown. The batter was neither crispy nor light. It was gluggy and soaked with oil. This dish was... not good to say the least.

Nothing notable about the soft shell crab sliders except that the soft shell crabs were beautifully fried - crispy, not a hint of frozen or fishy smell.

Tenderloin Amiyaki

Green tea ice cream

After the consumption of multiple high cholestorol, cloying dairy products and oil during the meal, we were quite full by this time. So when the Tenderloin Amiyaki arrived, we were already looking incredulously at each other wondering how we would fare.

But the juicy and well cooked tenderloin cooed to us to finish it up, and finish with a gusto we did!

The restaurant staff gave us a long break before serving us the final course of the Set Menu, during which time we willed the food to go down and stay down. When the two scoops of green tea ice cream came, it was a welcome refreshment.

The Green Tea Icecream tasted surprisingly different, perhaps it was made from soy milk rather than cow's milk because it was not as creamy or rich as what normal ice cream would taste. It was a little icy, but we did not mind it.

If you expect a light Japanese meal, Kobe Jones is not the place for you. It is a fusion Japanese restaurant and their style is in the strong and heavy flavours mixed with Japanese food. It can be overwhelming but good different when eaten in moderation.

Beware of the 15% weekend surcharge though... it added $23 to our bill which is quite a hefty charge. That said, the house was full on the day we were there so obviously people did not mind the charge at all!

Spam Mail

There are definitely some crazy products out there... military grade flashlights? Why on earth would I need it and why are spam mails being sent to me for it? Is there anything that a normal flashlight cannot do that I need a military grade flashlight for? Can it shine through bones like an x-ray? Can it find the truth among the clutter of life? What can it do? 

By the way, this is not a post soliciting for more spam mails about flashlights or any other products. Merely bemoaning the state of my junk mailbox...

Cat Pictures

Alert... alert... cute cat pictures! Look at how fluffy this cat is.. we spotted it prowling around on the street trying to find a warm bonnet to laze on. It even came up to me and brushed itself against my legs. I thought it was trying to be playful but no... it was just trying to scratch an itch I guess!

My black pants covered with white cat fur, I retreated with a wounded heart to the car...

MODU, Clayton

Some pictures from our recent visit to MODU in Clayton for an All-You-Can-Eat dumpling feast.

We had prawn and pork spring rolls, wontons in chilli oil, wontons in soup, steamed pork dumplings (white skin), pan fried fish and seafood dumplings (yellow skin), pan fried prawn and pork dumplings (pink skin).

We had everything on the menu, except for the vegetarian dumplings. The highlightes are: the chilli oil for the wontons was delicious - spicy, a hint of peanut paste. The soup in the wonton broth was also delicious. The dumpling skins were thin and not doughy.

I think we managed to pace ourselves quite well and did not eat any more than we should. This is perhaps something all AYCE restaurants would love to hear. Wastage is a big problem.

I thought that the dumpling fillings were not standouts which were pretty essential for a dumpling restaurant. Fortunately MODU is a lot more than just dumplings. There are some street food on the menu like dumplings and noodles but on the balance the decor, the service and prices points to an upmarket restaurant serving sophisticated dishes. And perhaps that's what it needs to focus on becoming.

Schwerkolt Cottage

Open House Melbourne is in it's 10th year of operation this year and is still going strong. There are now more buildings open to the public for the Open House weekend than ever. The crowds show no sign of abating instead, they are catching on to this wonderful initiative in bigger numbers than ever.

Open House has proved so popular that the organisers have introduced a ticket booking system with a small charge for certain buildings.

We were lucky to have participated in Open House since 2009 and have visited many, many buildings which are not usually open to the public, or are open to the public but for a fee. We have been able to learn the history of these buildings, admire their architecture, hear the stories of the people who work and upkeep these buildings, all for free. It made us feel very special indeed.

More buildings are open now than ever, especially outside of the CBD. For Open House Melbourne 2017, we visited Schwerkolt Cottage on Deep Creek Road, Mitcham. If not for Open House, we would not have known about this gem in our backyard.

Dining and Kitchen

Children's bedroom

Schwerkolt Cottage and Museum is open every weekend and public holidays except for Christmas and Good Friday. This property was built by German immigrants to Australia, August and Paulina Schwerkolt in 1861. They had 9 children together and when Paulina passed away in 1884, August remarried. His new wife added 3 daughters to his family and together they had another 3 children including a pair of twins.

The 63 acre property is just enough room for his large family. There is a stone cottage, wine cellar, smithy, smokehouse, barn, orchard shed which he and his family built from materials found on his land. Today, these buildings have been restored or reconstructed by the Whitehorse Council.

The stone cottage and surrounding 5.5 acres of the property was left to August Schwerkolt's youngest daughter Mary while the rest of the land was left to his eldest son Louis Schwerkolt. The family had many businesses including fruit growing, dairy, winery and Louis continued with the family business. Mary Schwerkolt migrated to the United States with her mother. Eventually, the property was purchased by the Council for public parkland.

There is something magical exploring and imagining the lifestyle of the Schwerkolts through the reconstructed cottage and buildings.

The complex is close to the Mullum Mullum trail. From there, we can see the big air extractor vent for the Mullum Mullum tunnel on the Eastlink. The old, and the modern... together side by side.

Animated Art

I first heard of Marc-O-Matic in the Provocare Festival held two weekends ago in Prahran. A few of his works were exhibited in the Artboy Gallery and boy, were they mind blowing!

So this is how it works with Marc Ryan's art on display that day - you look at a 2D drawing of a house on the wall and you think 'Yeah ok, that's nice'. But once you download his app on your phone or iPad and hold it to the drawing, a 3D image of the same house pops up on the screen. Before you can say 'What in the world is happening', the house would also have grown legs, and and pranced around the screen.

You can hold the screen up close and see the top of the house, the bottom of the house, zoom in to see the different layers of the drawing. How cool is that! There are so many more ways to see one single drawing!

Apparently this genre of art has been around for some time. Gaz tells me that some comic books have incorporated this in their books so you can see a 'mini movie' of an action scene, for example. But this is the first time I have seen something like this and it has been a totally awesome experience for me.

For more of Marc Ryan's work, refer link: www.marcomatic.com

Pancake Parlour

I am in love with pancakes, especially the awesomely fattening but oh so delicious buttermilk pancakes from Pancake Parlour!

It is also handy that Pancake Parlour is running a winter promotion called Winter Parlour where customers only pay what the temperature at the time is. For example, we only paid $8 each for our dishes below. This is a savings of 60%!

My dish of buttermilk pancakes with strawberries was yummy. The strawberries make me feel better about consuming all that fat and sugar but the ice cream cancelled all that out. The pancakes were just too fragrant, fluffy and good to comment. Normal price would have been $20

Gaz's dish of a medley of pancakes including hot buttered almonds, chocolate and strawberries were a delightful way to sample the many different flavours available at the Pancake Parlour.

We saw quite a number of customers enjoying their pancakes with bacon, scrambled eggs and hash browns. They look so peaceful reading the newspaper, enjoying a cup of tea and savoury pancakes on a Sunday morning. Just the stuff weekends are made of!

The Hare and the Hatter, Bayswater

There is a new cafe in Bayswater called The Hare and the Hatter. On the weekends, it is so busy that it is best to go before lunch time to beat the crowd and actually get a parking spot from the very small parking lot, and to get a decent seat in the cafe.

What I love about this place is the long glass case near the cashier counter that displays all the colourful and interesting looking individually sized cakes. I am sure the cakes would have tasted great as well. If only we had the stomach space for desserts after our brunch.

I ordered the Jabberwocky's Tale $18.50- slow poached salmon and poached egg,  seaweed crisps (seaweed coated with tapioca flour then fried), endamame, and seaweed salad on the side. The seaweed crisps try to add some texture to the dish but some of them were already soft - perhaps an airproof container for these would come in handy). Besides that, the salmon was poached and soft, the egg was poached and soft and rich and nothing really was on the plate to cut through the richness and add texture to the soft on the dish.

 

Gaz's dish Benedictine Adventure $19- poached eggs with hash brown, Korean pulled pork and pickled daikon. I believe most dishes on the menu had some kind of Asian ingredient element to them. The house made hash brown was interesting - it had shredded daikon as well as potatoes. I found the daikon shreds a bit raw for my tasted. The hash was thick and so didn't have the right crispy and soft balance that I enjoy and look forward to with hash browns. The pulled pork was stringy (that is something I find common with pulled pork. Sorry pulled pork, it's me, not you) but Gaz enjoyed the flavours.

 

 

I think the next time we visit this place it would be to try their large array of cakes and sweets. They do look very exotic and different from the other places. I'm sure these are all made on the premises rather than being carted in each morning from a wholesaler. But, we'll have to visit again to try it out.

Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen, Russell St CBD

Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen is located in the basement of 27 Russell St in the CBD. It is perhaps busier during the nights and during office lunch hours as it is one of the few ramen shops in the city that is open late until 10pm and 12am on the weekends.

So when we arrived on a cold Sunday afternoon for lunch, we found ourselves having most of the dining room to ourselves bar one other table.

The ordering system is quite interesting, in that each diner gets a big piece of the menu where they can each tick the type of soup base they would like, intensity of the soup base, texture of the noodles (normal to hard), toppings etc.

We ordered black garlic ramen, miso tonkotsu ramen and chicken karaage to share.

This was my dish - the black garlic ramen. It came with an onsen egg, black fungus, two pieces of pork slices and spring onions. The first I've heard of black garlic was through a colleague whose mother in law makes her own black garlic. Black garlic is 'caramelised' garlic, touted to have significantly higher health benefits than normal untreated garlic. Garlic is kept heated at a constant temperature for a certain time, until it becomes 'caramelised'. Although I like garlic very much, I have no intention to make this because it looks like a pain in the bottom to make!

But I thoroughly enjoyed the rich soup that is my black garlic ramen broth. It was so tasty and needed none of the condiments on the table (unlike Bankara Ramen!). I can imagine the many kilos of pork bones to brew such a delightfully rich broth. I would have like the film of oil on both bowls skimmed off though. Coupled with the rich yolks of the onsen eggs, I felt a little sick towards the end with the richness of the broth.

But that did not stop me from enjoying this dish as well. The miso tonkotsu tasted a little bland compared to the black garlic broth, but it was still very good. The toppings were standard and was the same as the ones in the black garlic ramen. I really enjoyed the texture of the ramen which is firm, springy and had a good 'mouth feel' in my opinion.

  

The chicken karaage was made of nice, big pieces of succulent chicken. There are five pieces in a standard dish (we were too fast for the camera!). Gaz thought that they should be smaller pieces so that there would be more crispy bits but I thought they were crispy enough and I quite enjoyed a juicy chicken piece than a hard crispy chicken bit.

 

I must say that $17 per ramen dish (prices start from $15) is quite expensive. We were lucky enough to enjoy a good meal deal where the two ramens and chicken karaage (total $44) cost us $35 in total. It is too bad that the offer has since expired!

Van Gogh Exhibition at NGV Melbourne

The Van Gogh exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria has the record of the best selling exhibition in the whole of Australia. This is not surprising seeing the lines that snake around the hall to the ticket booth and back again towards the entrance of the exhibition each day. 

Last weekend, we waited nearly two hours to get into the exhibition. It was dizzying, not to mention the crowd in the exhibition. It was an hour to queue up to the get the tickets and another to get into the exhibition. 

I was undecided whether or not the exhibition was worth the two hour queue...  As we entered the exhibition, there was a big screen of information on the artist. It was informational and provided a good feel to how the paintings in the exhibition were arranged - according to nature's seasons.

In the first section, there were quite a number of unrelated paintings, sketches and art block works that served as inspiration to the artist but not actually painted byVan Gogh. Most of us skipped past these stocking fillers and went straight to the Christmas present.. In Winter, most paintings were brown, sombre, of wheatfields and peasants. Slowly, as we progressed through the seasons, and Van Gogh accepted the idea of lightening his palate in line with the rest of the Impressionists of the time, the paintings became brighter.

I felt that many of the paintings in this exhibition were of his earlier works when he was still experimenting and finding his own style. Not many of his signature style paintings like Starry Night appeared in the exhibition. So, both Gaz and I were felt a little let down.

The exhibition has another 11 days to run to the 12 July. For those who wish to beat the queue, consider pre purchasing the tickets online ($4.50 transaction fee applies) but you would still have to queue up to enter the exhibition. NGV members get express entry so if you are one, then flaunt it! There is the opportunity to join as member on the day but you would still have to queue up to join and buy tickets plus paying some $90 extra per couple... If you were going to the exhibition with a friend, you could queue up for the tickets and join your friend in the entry queue once you've got the tickets. Could save you some time if you are really keen...

Workshop Brothers, Glen Waverley

Workshop Brothers is a new addition to the ever changing dining scenery on Kingsway, Glen Waverley. This strip has been very fluid over the last few years and the competition is fierce. It is not uncommon to visit Glen Waverley after a month to find the landscape changed (again). Most restaurants on the strip serves Asian food so Workshop Brothers is not deviating too much by offering Asian Fusion.

The restaurant has made some changes to the layout of the restaurant previously occupied by Spicy Fish and somehow made it feel tight and cramped. We were seated at a table on high bar stools which we unfortunately found to be very uncomfortable - perhaps an indication we need more padding on the bottom!

Entree was scallops on betel leaf ($6 per serve) which were delicious. The scallops were drizzled with a sweet sour tamarind sauce and finely chopped red onions. It was a good combination but all gone in two mouthfuls. This is my first time tasting betel leave and found it hard to chew and has a raw taste. I am not sure why the addiction of betel leaves and chalk!

Jungle curry beef cheeks ($30) was served next. This dish came with a caution of three 'hot's with exclamation marks on the menu. It may well have needed some skulls and crosses too because it sure was spicy!

We very nearly get to taste the true flavours of this dish because the first time it landed on the table, the meat was not heated through and was below room temperature. We could not also taste any spiciness as warned in the menu. Being a little puzzled whether or not the chef had meant to serve the dish as is, so we decided to clarify.

Luckily, the server was most polite and replaced the dish, no questions asked.  This is one of the competitive edge that this restaurant has over many of the others on the strip - great customer service. He even asked us if we would like more rice to go with the replacement dish. Talk about putting the customer first! Both the replacement dish and the extra rice was on the house.


We also ordered the sticky lamb ribs ($24) in sticky star anise and chilli infused soy sauce. This was sweet and savoury and the meat was so tender. There was not much sauce but the ribs were moist enough. Lamb ribs have got to be my favorite cut of meat at the moment!

Both dishes came with loads of fresh herbs and were comfort foods but with a new fresh clean edge to them. But what we were really impressed with was the service here!

Popiah Lunch at Home

I picked up some soy fillets from the supermarket on the weekend. Soy fillets are vegetarian chicken fillets. They are meant to taste like chicken breast fillet but no animals were harmed in the process of making it! I must say though, they do not taste like chicken very much at all. They taste a little like turkey Spam so I guess it does have a little poultry twang to it, just not chicken.

I decided to have a simple meal for lunch on the weekend using the soy fillets. That's where popiah fits in... each person does their own roll however they like. For the popiah filling, the stir fried jicama and carrot with oyster sauce is a must. Next is some kind of protein - usually prawns cut into small pieces and fried. And fried tofu strips. For these two fillings, I used the soy fillets - they're both tofu and protein blend! Kills two birds withone stone... Next, something crispy... the traditional Hokkien popiah recipe calls for peanuts grounded into little pieces but I've made crispy fried garlic instead just because I like garlic and it's also good for the immune system. To add to the abundance of vegetables we're already consuming, there is also lettuce. The lettuce is good as a buffer layer between the wet jicama and carrot filling, and sauce with the delicate popiah skin. Sometimes I like to add strips of egg omelette but decided not to go the extra distance this time.

To make a popiah roll, I took the shortcut way and purchased spring roll skins from the Asian grocer (they are also available from the mainstream supermarket these days). Put a piece of lettuce on the popiah skin, some sauce (like chilli sauce or hoisin sauce), some jicama and carrot, the soy fillet and sprinkle a bit of garlic chips on top and roll!

They were so yummy and best of all, contained loads of vegetables. It was not an entirely vegetarian lunch but it is not difficult to convert it to so - just substitute the oyster sauce with vegetarian oyster sauce!

Grandma Noodles, Little Bourke St CBD

Love, love, love these spicy noodles! We stumbled upon Grandma Noodles in Chinatown on a cold winter's day when all the other establishments were full and decided to give this a try. Incidentally there were no queues here at the time we got there but most of the items on the menu had already sold out. We ordered the noodles in spicy soup:

Noodles with pork knuckles

Noodles with beef brisket

 The soup was just great! So full of spices, but not crazy spicy that I needed gallons of water to cool the tongue. But it still brought instantaneous reaction - my mouth formed two blood bubbles even before I finished eating the noodles. I see it as a sign that the soup is really 'heaty'. Still, it tasted so good that I will come back for another try, and perhaps get to try the other items on the menu too. They have steamed meats in bamboo steamers (they were all sold out except for the vegetarian option). 

What I was disappointed with though was the lack of meat or protein in the noodle dishes. For $12.80, I expected more meat pieces. The pork knuckles in my dish was mostly fat and skin while there were only a few pieces of beef brisket in the other noodle dish. Perhaps the cost of the dish went towards the various spices that were used to create the superb soup.

This place is really popular and is an addition to the Chongqing noodle scene in Melbourne. There is usually a queue to get into the restaurant, and also a queue to pay at the register. But the service is fast and polite, the wait persons even wears a mouth guard like the ones we have seen in Japan for hygiene purposes.

Good place to go to when one is craving for spicy noodle soups!