400 Gradi at Rochford Winery, Yarra Valley

The recent trend these days are for the big names to open up shop in the Yarra Valley. There's Ezard, and now there's 400 Gradi at Rochford, right opposite where Ezard is located actually. 

I think it's a clever move because people want to dine at well known restaurants, and people driving all the way to the Yarra Valley won't be put off by paying some extra dollars for the occasion. 

The new joint is a big black steel and glass cube with views to a lake and the vast expanse of green grass. When you drive into the winery, be prepared to walk about 200m from the carpark to the restaurant. 

Loud music reverberates throughout the restaurant. There is minimal decor, they let the views outside be the decor since the scenery outside is beautiful - green slopes, the shimmering waters of a lake, blue skies... We went during the soft launch opening so there were a few teething issues. Especially with the ability to control the temperature and timing of the wood fire oven.

We ordered the meatballs ($17). Meatballs were hearty, but the tomato sauce lacks depth of taste. Bread was a little burnt, must have been because of the wood fire oven. We saw the chefs get their new pizza oven shovels just before cooking our lunch. 

Margherita pizza ($22) was complimentary during their soft launch weekend. Came from a wood fire oven and you can see the burnt crust on one side of the pizza as proof... Would have preferred less burn.

Clam Linguine ($27). Not what you would order at a winery, but clams were fresh. Lots of splashes of olive oil, linguine was OK but not great. The clams were fresh.

It was a beautiful day. It was a little cold with the wind blowing but otherwise clear skies. We took a walk around the vineyard and visited the gift shop at the winery.

Faraday's Cage, Fitzroy

On a sunny weekend, we went to Faraday's Cage for brunch. Here's what we had: 

House smoked salmon and sweet potato corn and quinoa fritters with poached egg ($21.50). The salmon was smoked with green tea and apple wood chips. To be honest, I don't know what apple wood smells like so I can't comment much on that. The smoked salmon is served cold, and is quite refreshing. It's not too salty or smoky, quite refreshing. The appearance of the fritters were not pleasing, it looked burnt, but it is not. Taste wise, it was quite bland but was alright when eaten with the spicy sauce on the side, or mixed with the rich yolk of the poached egg. Also, we added some hot sauce which we enjoyed immensely.

Big breakfast ($22.50) came with baked beans, bacon, chorizo sausage, 2 poached eggs, grilled tomato, toast and relish. Compared to the smoked salmon, this dish is probably better value for money. Bacon, eggs and beans on toast, just fancier. The baked beans are house made and tastes clean, not like the sugar laden canned ones.

The dishes were presented beautifully. I think the eyes eat first, then the stomach and it's certainly pleasing on the eyes. Though the wallet complains a little because of the price!

High Tea at Home

To commemorate Remembrance Day this weekend, we invited friends over for high tea. I made some tea cakes and sandwiches and arranged them on these double tier plates. They don't look much, but I thought there was good variety of food. 

For something savoury, I made chicken and avocado finger sandwiches, prawn and avocado pillows (the round sandwiches at the bottom rack) and mini quiche lorraine.

For sweets, there were mini muffins in assorted flavours: pandan, vanilla, almond, choc chip, matcha and earl grey.

I learnt a new dish for this high tea and that is the prawn and avocado pillows. It was super easy to make too.

Prawn and Avocado Pillows
8 slices of bread, cut into rounds using a cookie cutter
half an avocado, mashed
8 prawns, peeled, poached and chopped into little pieces
salt to season

Lightly butter each round of bread. There will be wastage once you've cut the bread into rounds. I used the offcuts to make the finger sandwiches, and gave the rest to my friend as feed for her chickens.

Mix the mashed avocado and prawn bits until blended together. Season with salt to taste. Put a dollop in the middle of a round of bread, top with another (buttered side down). Press around the edges to seal and voila, prawn and avocado pillows!

Go Green Consciously

It's Christmas time again! The stores have been displaying Christmas decorations since October, but this is the first week that the catalogues are showing Christmas recipe ideas, Christmas foodstuff, things to buy to celebrate Christmas like the host with the mostest...

I was flipping through a catalogue the other day, and noticed a big section on 'green things' to buy for your friends and family. Like reusable silicone lunch bags, silicone wraps for bowls, beeswax wraps, silicone keep cups. Although they all mean well I'm sure, they sound oddly like... just another form of plastic to me. And what makes it worse is that these are the plastics that take longer and are harder to break down. With our world's fast fashion attitude, how long will these last before they are thrown out? 2 months, 6 months, a year? Maybe you're thinking a year is not bad. But have a think about how long will these take to break down? Will they break down into safe particles?

There was a time before plastic. It was not as convenient, but life went on. Maybe try covering your bowls with a plate, or saucer instead of silicone covers. Or cook just enough so you don't have to refrigerate any leftovers. Use ceramic cups. And when you do need to use plastics, buy good quality ones and commit to use those for years. I have very few plastic containers, only Pyrex containers with plastic lids that we've used for more than 10 years.

Sure, every little bit we can do to reduce single use plastics is good. But all these new plastic products that are coming into the market are arguably not required, and frankly just another way for the manufacturers to make money rather than saving the environment.

Abacus All Day, Eastland

This lady seems look exactly how I feel after waiting for our orders to arrive... We waited around 20 minutes for our food to arrive. 

Located at to the Town Centre area in Eastland, Abacus All Day is a casual fine dining restaurant. The chefs know what they're doing, the prices are not too high but the quality is really good and the portions are small. 

The interior of the restaurant did not feel warm to me. The tables are scattered to the sides of the establishment with no views to boast off  while the centre of the restaurant is dominated by a reception / coffee bar area, and directly at the back of that, a bar area/chef's menu area. We were seated next to a wall with nothing really to look at except each other, and the window to the kitchen far away at the back end of the restaurant. It was funny that the chefs clapped their hands to get the attention of the servers. Gaz and I got into a discussion whether clapping one's hand to get someone's attention is derogatory, or was it preferred to ringing a bell or something else? 

I had the Crispy Skin Trout, miso glaze and herbs. Yes, herbs is what it was... not salad. The trout was cooked beautifully! Crispy skin as promised on the menu, melt in your mouth flesh that is still pink inside. Gaz was irrevocably converted to loving trouts with the dish. There was not a single bone to be found in the fillet.

Gaz ordered the Roast Rump Cap of Lamb, carrot puree, garden veges, nasturtium oil and lamb jus. The lamb was cooked medium rare, which meant that the fat could not be fully rendered. I quite like it this way because it meant the lamb was tender, and it's easier to separate the fat from the meat. I don't like eating animal fats. The carrot puree was sweet and added some vibrancy to the dish.

We ordered Portobello Fries as this was new to us ($12). It came with pink salt and chardonnay vinegar. I liked the vinegar, the chardonnay added some sweetness. I don't think it really needed the salt, and it was quite difficult to dip into the salt because the fries were already crumbed so the salt did not stick even after dipping into the vinegar.

The fries were strips of portobello mushrooms, crumbed and deep fried. I would have preferred deep fried whole button caps which retains the softness and fragrance of mushrooms as one bit into the centre. With the mushroom strips, it felt like it had been deep fried to just dry crumbs and the mushroom taste was lost.

Overall, I think if you were wanting to go out to somewhere nice and quasi fine dining with impressive desserts (they come with dry ice for a wonderful presentation!) for a first date, this is the place to go. It's nice enough to make a good impression but it's also casual enough so that it's not stiff. And the wait between the courses will allow both of you to make enough conversation to get to know each other from childhood to adulthood in one dinner.

Update: This restaurant is now closed

Basilico, Glen Waverley

Recently a colleague who started in the company the same time as I did, resigned to go on a career sea change. He resigned without a concrete plan in mind, no job to go to and definitely with no plans to start looking for another one within the next 6 months. This is a real career break, man! A professional gap year. 

Anyway, he had been disillusioned with the industry and had been progressively losing his passion for work over the last few years. The objective of this career break will be to give him some time to do some fun stuff before figuring out what exactly makes him happy. 

For me, I would just go out for a big lunch of delicious food. 

We visited this neighbourhood restaurant recently. Basilico is an Italian restaurant and has a wood fire pizza oven. But I was keen to try out Italian food that is not of the usual pizza pasta genre. 

We ordered the Scallopini Al Funghi ($21.90). Tender veal topped with some mushrooms and lots of chips. 

Mix Fish Grill (22.90) - calamari, mussels, fish, chips and salad. This was quite dry but Gaz liked that the seafood was fresh.

The food was nice, but nothing really to shout about. Perhaps we should order the pizza next time.

OMI, The Glen

The Glen shopping centre is no longer the simple neighbourhood shopping centre I once knew. It's become much more glamorous after a multi million dollar renovation and expansion project. It has evolved into a mini Chadstone, which is not surprising because the owners of The Glen is also owners of Chadstone. 

The centre is still undergoing expansion to add more retail space. There will also be apartments on top of the shopping centre itself. This all means that there will be traffic jams and tight access while the centre juggles between the increased traffic from people who want to check out the new developed area, and the redevelopment that are happening in the other areas of the centre. 

It is not all negatives though. As part of the development, there have been some new tenants especially food tenants to fill the Food Gallery, a renewed focus of the centre. Chadstone has it's luxury consumer brands. The Glen is aiming towards food. Not a bad angle to draw in the food obsessed Asian population in the area. One only need to take a stroll down Kingsway on a Friday or weekend to see this. 

One of the new restaurants in the Food Gallery is OMI. Although located in the food court (to use the old jargon), it is definitely not of food court quality. If the price doesn't tell you that, the presentation does. Unlike the tell tale bain marie, heap it as much as you can on the plate signs of food court food (which I have no problems with), the presentation is more refined, the portions are smaller and the price is larger. 

We ordered the Singapore Chilli Crab ($15.90) which came with an onsen egg, pickles and endamame. While the soft shell crab was crispy, and it looks quite impressive presented as a whole crab in the bowl, there was next to no sauce! It was a little dry. Gaz was quite disappointed because we did not get to try the chilli crab in Singapore while we were there last month, and he couldn't satisfy his craving here either!

Next up was the Black Truffle Wagyu ($15.90). A little truffle salsa sprinkled on top some decent pieces of wagyu beef, an onsen egg, rice. The beef was tender, and the truffles in the dish made it so appetizing. Wish there was more rice to eat, it was not quite as filling enough.

We also ordered the salted egg fries ($6.90). Don't bother with this.. the salted egg doesn't really add much to the fries. Some melted cheese and gravy would have been nice. Maybe some kimchi or sriracha too, yumm...

If you want to be able to eat wagyu and truffles without breaking the bank, then head to OMI for some quality food.

Oongi Joongi, Kew

The flight of stairs leading up to this first floor restaurant only served to work up our appetite for the set dinner menu awaiting us. We were there to try out a set menu that encompass grilled spicy chicken in cheese fondue; grilled sweet soy pork neck, pork belly, spicy pork neck (all on the hot plate shown below); steamed egg; and fried chicken. Of course, the banchan dishes were also counted in the set menu as well. 

The grilled pork belly, spicy pork neck and sweet soy pork neck came in one sizzling plate. Because the sweet soy pork neck was the only non-spicy meat on the plate, it provided a good contrast to the other meats. For amateurs spicy food eaters, we also appreciated the non-spicy flavour. 

The most interesting dish of the day would have to go to the grilled spicy chicken in a melted pool of mozarella cheese. In Korea, people would have BBQ then dip their freshly grilled meats in cheese fondue. This is similar to that, but for convenience the meat has been grilled, and it is placed on top of the cheese. It is a cheese lover's idea of heaven! The combination is not as weird as you think, with the cheese providing a diluting action to the spiciness of the chicken, but also a richness to a lean meat such as chicken. The sweetness of the chicken also mix well with the cheese. And who doesn't like melted cheese!!

The banchan dishes were several types of kimchi, konjac and potatoes. The steamed eggs are also pictured here. Korean steamed eggs are quite different to the Japanese chawan mushi which uses stock mixed with the egg, and seafood is also used as the filling. The steamed eggs were are simply that - steamed eggs. As a result, the texture is not as smooth as chawan mushi and Chinese style steamed eggs (which uses water mixed with eggs). 

We saw many people order the fried chicken in this restaurant. Little wonder, because who can resist fried chicken? It came to our table piping hot. The batter was very crispy and the best thing is that the chicken pieces were boneless! The batter was like KFC's hot and spicy type batter (except it was unflavoured and definitely not spicy). No complains though because there were enough spicy meats on the menu already.

The service was good and prompt. We did not have to wait too long between each dish, which was wonderful because we were very hungry! But as hungry as we were, the cheese was a little too much and towards the end of the meal had congealed a little so it was difficult to finish it all.

I learnt a new dish from this restaurant, and that is the grilled chicken with cheese fondue. Perhaps I should try to make that at home one day!

Mid Autumn Festival

Lion dance at a Mid Autumn celebration... seems so strange to see lion dance at a Mid Autumn festival. Mooncakes yes, tea yes, family gathering yes, lanterns yes, but lion dance? Usually lion dances are only performed at Lunar New Year celebrations, or shop openings because they are there to 'chase away evil and bad luck'. 

As strange as it was, people enjoyed the lion dance. The clang of the symbals and beat of the drum, the lively lion head bobbing up and down the crowd and the spectacle of watching something so out of the ordinary was exciting. 

Kim n Chi, Boronia

Annyonghaseyo! Hello! Today we will be visiting a Korean restaurant, Kim n Chi in Boronia! This little place has a limited menu, but the food is hearty and honest. The owner is very friendly and she gave me the broadest smile when we walked into the restaurant. 

Guess what we ordered? Ha na... dul... set! We ordered the Beef Bone Soup ($14.90)

And the Pork Bibimbap ($14.90)

The beef bone soup was still on a rolling boil when it came to the table. Lots of meaty bef bones, potatoes, enoki mushrooms. It was perfect with bap / rice on a wet winter's night. I think this is one of my comfort foods. I also adore sundubu jigae with bap. The freshness and soft tofu, egg, and spicy soup goes so well with bap.

The bibimbap came with many different vegetables like carrots, cucumber, mushrooms, spinach, and egg strips. There was a spicy sauce that came with it, which blends all the ingredients and the rice together but was not that spicy.

This place is a keeper for the days when you crave for Korean food, and want to go to a place with a friendly face and good service. Annyeonghi gyeseyo until the next blog post!

Update: This restaurant is now closed.

Woodfired Kitchen, Glen Iris

Tucked away from the main retail strip of High Street, Glen Iris is Woodfired Kitchen. It occupies two shops combined into one incongruous restaurant. Although it located right next to the train station, there is no visibility to commuters. The only free marketing it might have is from cars banked up at the level crossing while waiting for the lights to turn. The restaurant is the only one on the strip it occupies that is lit up during the night. All the rest are retail shops that are only open during the day. A tough operating environment indeed. 

The staff try their hardest to entice, captivate and coax the patrons, and from what I can see, it may be working. The owner is very friendly and very eager to please. I think we must have gotten at least 5 'how is everything's throughout the night. 

We ordered the Herb and Garlic Pizza Flatbread ($9) - the flatbread was tasty and the Grana Padano cheese was delicious. I wished there was more garlic though. 

For mains, I ordered the Braised Free Range Beef Short Rib with Roasted Shallots, Kipfler Potatoes and natural jus ($32). Isn't it pretty? The potatoes were very crispy and well cooked. The shallots was sweet and complements the meaty beef short rib well. As for the short rib, it was tender but a little stringy.

Gaz ordered the Slow Cooked Free Range Lamb Shoulder with Honey Roasted Pumpkin, Toasted Hazelnuts and natural jus ($30). The lamb was very tender and well cooked. The pumpkin was not peeled but I didn't mind it at all. Isn't it more nutritious to eat peels as well? And look at the plate... isn't it beautiful?

We shared our mains, and wished we had ordered one red meat and one white, like a fish or something for variety.

Although we were already quite full, Gaz ordered the cheesecake to share. The pastries and cakes are not house made. It was a tad heavy for the big meal we just ate and nothing really to shout about.

What was exemplary was the staff's good service - they were always on their toes seeing if we needed anything, or if we wanted to order more food. As nice as the staff was, I couldn't wait to get out of my seat - the booth seat is way too shallow and high for me. I found myself slipping out of my seat and hitting my knees on the table, which was too low. Very uncomfortable!

The Bavarian, Knox Ozone

The Bavarian is a German themed pub and restaurant operated by the Rockpool group. There are many Bavarians around Melbourne and the one in Knox Ozone had been opened for at least 6 months before we decided to try it out for dinner one night. 

Across Melbourne, pubs are changing. Many of the historic buildings where they are housed have been sold to developers tearing them down to profit from building apartment buildings. Some have sold the air rights above the building to developers to extend upwards for apartments. Neither will retain the old world charm of what we used to know of pubs anymore. It is a shame that Melbourne does not do more to protect and conserve the beautiful old buildings that it has. 

One of the change I do approve is the quality of food in pubs these days. They are getting more refined, they are fresh and tasty. It's not all about drinking in pubs anymore. The food department is getting equal attention. This was a positive because I'm not a big drinker so being able to eat a decent meal while others drink is a big drawcard for me. 

Ordering in The Bavarian involves going to the counter, order and pay before settling down at your table with a buzzer with a number. The buzzer acts as a table number for the waitpersons so they can bring the plate to the table. 

I ordered the fish of the day which was barramundi with grenoble crusted potatoes, spinach and chive butter sauce ($29). The fish was cooked perfectly, the skin crispy. The potatoes, however they were cooked, were so yummy. It was crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. I think grenoble crust means dredging the potatoes in milk and flour and cooking them in butter? The sauce complements the fish and potatoes well. 

Munich Brewers Platter, designed for Two ($71). This is a meat lovers platter. It has chicken schnitzel, pork belly with crispy crackling, at least 4 types of sausages (of different meats and spiciness), sauerkraut, red cabbage, mashed potatoes. The meats were wonderfully tasty! I loved the pork belly with the delicious crackling and oh so moist meat. The chicken schnitzel was tender. The sausages were delicious except for one which tasted like hot dog sausages from a plastic packet. The red cabbage is sweet and delicious. There was an accompanying apple compote I could do without and a bier jus which tasted a little weird (Gaz described it as gravy mixed with kerosene) which I didn't like. I wished there was some real gravy to go with the heavenly array of meats.

The Famous Crispy Pork Knuckle (half - $28). It comes with sauerkraut, mash potatoes, apple compote and bier jus (remarkably, the bier jus on this plate was delicious - I'm not sure what went wrong the first time). The pork knuckle had a good crackling but like all pork knuckle the meat inside was just OK. There were lots of meat in the knuckle which was not too dry but not moist either. The joy of eating pork knuckle for me often stops at the crackling, and finding a tender piece of meat but most of the time it's about trying to get to the end when there's finally nothing left on the plate...

The Bavarian is a good place to visit if you are hungry for some hearty German food. They definitely do not skimp on the amount of food on the plate. There are a myriad selection of beer to choose from, and there is a juke box for free. There are specials for each day of the week - for example on Wednesdays there is a buy 1 get 1 schnitzel free offer. What else do you need?

Mugen Ramen, Bligh Place

The food scene has become so multicultural in Australia. There are plenty of different cuisines, different ingredients that are now available in Melbourne. People are trying out food from different cultures and talking about it. The path to world peace may some day be achieved through the shared love of food. On second thoughts, and my mind flashes back to Rendangate, maybe not. 

Rendangate refers to the incident at MasterChef UK where a judge criticised a contestant's rendang chicken dish for being inedible because the chicken skin was not crispy. It provoked the outrage of people in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei as the people who actually know what a rendang is, knows that chicken rendang is a braised dish so how can it have crispy skin? The incident certainly united the South Eastern region to talk about the food dear to their hearts. 

As I'd said, it's great to exchange ideas and recommendations about food. For without this exchange, I would not have tried out this place at a hidden laneway called Mugen Ramen. One of my non-Asian work colleagues suggested this place. It is open until 10pm so it's suitable for anyone who loves their supper. Or for drinkers. It is affiliated with Robot Bar opposite the restaurant on the same lane, which is a Japanese theme drinking bar. Mugen Ramen also has its own drinks and cocktails list but as the name suggests, it is better known for its ramen, and most interestingly Dipping Ramen. 

Because of the hours of cooking pork bones and fat until almost everything has dissolved, ramen broths are very creamy and rich. So I think it is a good idea to have a Dipping Ramen option for people who cannot stomach the richness but still want a taste of it. 

None of us on our table ordered the Dipping Ramen because we're all rich people (ahem) but it basically works like this: The broth is provided in a separate small bowl. The ramen is cooked separately with all the trimmings (like egg, bamboo shoots, chashu, seaweed) and you can then dip your ramen into the bowl to get the broth. It is up to you how much broth you want, it is all within your control unlike the conventional ramen where everything is immersed in the broth. 

I ordered the Miso Ramen which came with bamboo shoots, half egg, chashu (pork), seaweed in miso tinged broth. It came in two sizes $17 for small and $19 for large. The only difference is in the weight of the noodles: 200g for small and 350g for large size.

The broth was good but the real hero of this dish is the noodles. It has a good bite to it, and is just delicious. Now I know why they charge more for the noodles. Good as it was, I don't think I can finish the 350g portion, so the small size is good enough for me.

The place is small - a few stools at the bar at the ground floor, and a few more tables in the basement level, and very dark. They were going for the modern, minimalist industrial look so I think it succeeded. And dirt spots are less conspicuous in the dark (no problems with cleanliness here, the bowls and utensils are spotless, as far as I can see in the dark). There is a projector in the basement running old Japanese samurai movies but without sound for the modern Japanesey ambience. I think it would be perfect with a few vials of sake and small dishes.

Mugen has a wide selection of small dishes which are perfect for the late nighters, but we did not try it on this occasion.

Pondok Rempa, Elizabeth St

Pondok Rempa is an Indonesian restaurant on Elizabeth St, close to the Victoria Market end (than the Flinders St end). It does not seek to attract customers by a modern fitout, good ventilation or fancy dishware, but it is known for the good and cheap Indonesian food that it serves. Ironically, the owner of the restaurant is Cambodian. 

I asked my Indonesian friend who had been to every Indonesian restaurant in Melbourne and beyond, what she thought of the food at Pondok Rempa. She said it was OK. I have yet to get a really enthusiastic 'Great!' answer to my question. It must be difficult to rate Indonesian restaurants because she can cook the same thing in her own house, with recipes that had been in the family since the spice trade, so it's just ordinary food to her. 

I'm not a great connoisseur of Indonesian food but I enjoyed the food here. We ordered the Nasi Uduk Ayam Kresmes $11.80 - this is quite a mouthful but it translates to rice in coconut milk with fried chicken. It also comes with the fried bits, rather like the tempura batter bits for mouthfeel, fried tofu, fried tempeh and small bowl of chicken broth. Tempeh is natto, in slab form. Natto is an acquired taste because it is foul in taste, smell and texture. As you can probably guess, I am not a fan. But it does have great health benefits related to fermented foods and some people adore the stuff. Not me. 

While the tempeh gets nibbled on, the rest of the food on the plate disappeared pretty quickly. The rice was very flavourful, having been cooked in coconut cream. Fried chicken was crispy, the fried batter bits were definitely crispy. 

I also ordered Sup Buntut (ox tail soup) $14.80 which is a clear soup with pieces of ox tail bone, and carrots with rice. The soup was very flavourful and warmed us right up after a long day of walking in the rain. You might think that $15 is expensive for just soup with bones, but there were some pretty meaty bits in the bones and because it was cooked on the bone, the meat was especially tender. Ox tail bones are quite expensive - it figures because there can only be one tail per animal!

The layout of this restaurant is rather different in that the open kitchen is at the entrance. The bar area takes up another chunk of area at the back of the restaurant. The chefs do a good job in using the heavy duty rangehood while cooking and the ever swinging front door provides some extra air circulation (cold and crisp in winter) but do expect to leave with food smell lingering in your clothes. This place is good for a quick bite, but don't expect to get too comfortable.

Groove Train, Burwood

Groove Train is a chain restaurant that serves modern Australian fast food in a hip and young setting. Modern Australian fast food? I hear you scratching your head. Modern because it's a little more refined and fast food because the food is fast and lots of chips are involved.

As an aside, I think Australia is obsessed with chips. No one can bypass the bucket of hot chips at a garden show, sporting venue, birthday party, restaurant, concert hall etc. They are everywhere. They come in all sizes and shapes and sold all over the place from fancy restaurants to the petrol station-side kebab shops. 

There are eggplant chips, diamond cut chips, chips with chicken salt, shoe string fries, fat chips, sweet potato chips. They are served with salad (bah!), rice (double carb), steaks, on the side, on its own in a fatty bucket, in a bag. 

Even though it has its roots in America, I think Australia has truly laid claim on the humble chips and made it its own national food. 

In Groove Train, the chips are served with salad in this Moroccan Lamb with Cous Cous and Salad. The lamb was juicy and there was a lot on the plate. We saw tables of leftover food, mainly chips because there was too much food. But as always, we polished off our food out of respect for the chef who had laboured over the preparation of our meal.. and also because our stomach capacity is quite large (getting larger by the week)

I ordered the Spaghetti Pascatore which came with loads of seafood in a light sauce. The pasta was well cooked. The seafood was nothing special, it reminds me of marinara mix but it was fresh enough and I enjoyed the dish.

The service was good even though it is a big restaurant for the waitpersons to cover. The food was served piping hot and as I'd mentioned, in big portions. There are plenty of car parks out at the front where the Burwood 1 Shopping Centre is (although it is a little annoying because of 'reserved' car parks for the adjoining liquor shop - difficult to spot which is reserved and which is not at night).

I do think that the price is a little steep for an ordinary meal. The price range is around $25 to $30 for main dishes like the one we ordered. As newer mod Aus fast food places pop up in the burbs, Groove Train will have to up the standard and reduce the price to compete with these other joints. 

HWKR, A'Beckett St

Melbourne is such a difficult city to have a diet in. At every corner, in every alley there is a nice restaurant that you just gotta try out. Can you believe that there are even restaurants in car parks?? (see: Soi 38).

So, you get the picture.. there are restaurants and cafe everywhere you look in Melbourne. Sometimes, there are multiple restaurants in one place! HWKR is a new concept akin to food courts in Asian countries. The restaurants in HWKR would change every few months or so to make sure that there is always something new for customers to try out.

In our last visit to HWKR, Chanteen (Diana Chan, winner of Masterchef 2017's restaurant), Rice Paper Scissors, Reynald's desserts (Masterchef finalist) were among the few restaurants there.

We ordered the grilled barramundi with sambal from Rice Paper Scissors, char kuay teow from Chanteen and matcha dessert from Reynald's.

Generous portion of grilled barramundi on rice. The sauce topping was delicious. I just wish it was ikan pari or stingray grilled on charcoal, served hot on banana leaf just like how it's done in Malaysia. But in the absence of stingrays (I have not seen it sold anywhere), and charcoal fire, this dish is good enough.

Chanteen's CKT. There is chai poh (preserved turnip) in this CKT, so it's not exactly authentic (by my standards) but it tasted quite nice. There is the breath of wok in this dish and I saw Diana Chan personally cooking this plate for us. I actually didn't know who she was until my friend pointed her out to me, but don't tell her that!

Reynald's desserts - somehow they look much nicer on Masterchef?? These ones look quite ordinary, but they are expensive.

Don't leave your card at home, as only cards are accepted and I don't mean your business card. One is expected to get a place to sit, order your food at the counter and pay but the stalls will deliver the food to your table. It'll be interesting to see what the next wave of restaurants would be at HWKR.

Avenger Station, The Paddock Federation Square

All the crazy Avengers fans out there, know that there is an Avengers Station interactive exhibition happening at the Paddock, Federation Square!

To get to the Paddock, walk along the Yarra River towards Birrarrung Mar Park. Entry to the exhibition is not cheap, at $38 per person (weekdays). 

We saw many excited kids and parents alike who just could not wait to get their turn at going into the exhibition. There was a queue out front at the entry because they could only admit a certain number of people at any one time to ensure that everyone gets enough space to explore the exhibition at their own leisure. We took about 1 hour to go through everything in the exhibition. 

The first thing that greeted us was an 'induction' into the Avengers team. Staff were on hand directing us to Agent Maria Hill speaking to us from a big screen. After that, there were rooms of exhibits showcasing costumes from the movie sets, props, interactive games, panels of information (there were too many of such panels - too much reading!). 

The final part of the exhibition is a game where you get to be Iron Man and blast the baddies out of the way! Only 3 players can participate at any one time, so there is a queue to play. 

After the exhibition, we went to the Midtown Diner where we got some food and cocktails. Gaz got a serve of chicken shwarma (something that Iron Man ate at the end of the first Avengers movie). It was just a chicken kebab, by the way!

Rice Paper Scissors, Liverpool St

Waiting for Gaz to arrive at Liverpool Street so we can go into the restaurant together (they would not give entry unless everyone in the group is present), my heart is racing and there are butterflies in my stomach. Thoughts racing through my mind, 'Will the Lamb Ribs still be on the menu?', 'Will there be 5 dishes I would like to eat on the menu?' and importantly, 'Will the second time be as good as the first?'. 

The last time I tried Rice Paper Scissors was during a weekday lunch time. Rushing though we were, I had a really nice time devouring all their signature dishes like the Lamb Ribs. I still love those meltingly soft lamb ribs and the flavours are intoxicating. 

This time, we ordered the same lamb ribs, chargrilled beef with mustard leaf wraps, whole fried snapper, soft shell crab baguette and sticky pork belly.

Lamb Ribs

Char Grilled Beef Mustard Leaf Wraps

Fried Whole Snapper

Pork Belly

Soft Shell Crab Banh Mi

My favourite dish is the lamb ribs - they were just so flavourful, and tender. Eating it, I felt like a Neanderthal savaging the meat while holding onto the end of the bone. I could even make Neanderthal noises while eating it, they were so good. But I think that would just look too weird...

The best value dish is the fried whole snapper. We love to eat fish and the whole fish with eyes staring back at us did not deter us. The snapper tasted good with the spicy chilli dressing on the side.

My least favourite dish is probably the soft shell crab baguette. The ratio of soft shell crab and bun was wrong - mine had too much bun and not enough soft shell to go around each mouthful.

The feed me menu costs $59 per couple for a selection of 5 dishes. 

Street Art in Frankston

Street art is fast gaining popularity in Melbourne so much so that city councils are no longer painting over street art (see: Melbourne City Council accidentally painting over Banksy's stencil of a rat in Hosier Lane in 2010) but instead is spending funds in curating street art. 

Frankston City Council is spending up to $165,000 over 3 years to transform the city centre's walls and laneways. We braved the rain and wind to go on a guided tour of the new pieces being completed for the council in March and saw some awesome pieces in their last stages of completion. 

I have included pictures of some of the pieces that I like (maybe I should refer to them as 'walls of art', rather than 'pieces'!). There were some abstract ones, but as you can see, I prefer ones with people and animals. I think I relate better to these ones rather than to abstract pieces. 

I learnt on the guided tour that the artists may have a brief idea of what they plan to paint, but unlike painting on a canvas, walls are much trickier to paint on. Everything from the surrounding shops, the way the sun sets on the wall, any windows on the wall etc impacts on the position and what is painted on the walls. 

One of the biggest highlight was seeing Smug's art. Smug is an Australian but internationally based street artist. He painted a picture of a skeleton holding a bird - it was unfinished at the time of viewing so I have not taken a picture of it. Another reason to go back and view all the finished pieces on a sunnier day!!

Most of these pieces have their own messages, up to the viewer's interpretation. For Smug's piece, perhaps it meant that everyone under their skin is the same. We did see him around the site while on the guided tour, but as he did not stop to speak to us, I will never know for sure..

For more information of the street art in Frankston, refer to the following link: 

http://www.frankston.vic.gov.au/Things_To_Do/Frankston_City_Public_Art/Street_Art

Kyoto Cafe, Eastland Ringwood

It is autumn and the days are getting shorter. The sun still sleeps when I get up to get ready for work these days. Lately, Gaz had the reason to travel together with me to work when usually, he would go on his own much later. He was surprised at how early it felt (oh, he knew exactly what time it was, but his body struggled to accept it!). Thankfully the nights are still warm and the sun sets only at around 7pm. 

We went to Kyoto Cafe in Eastland Ringwood for dinner a couple of months ago. Because it was a very warm summer's night, the outdoor precinct where Kyoto Cafe is located was buzzing. There were diners spilling out from each restaurant onto the outdoor eating area, and people were generally soaking in the warmth before it evaporates when winter approaches. 

Too hot to cook, we decided to eat out and enjoy the air conditioning facilities of a restaurant. 

Gaz ordered the dinner special - wagyu beef set which came with a salad and dessert (not pictured). Wagyu beef slices and veges on a sizzling hot plate accompanied with miso soup and rice. There was a big bowl of salad which was very refreshing. The beef was tender and I like how the diner can control how rare or cooked he/she wants the beef to be. If you wanted the beef to be rare, take it off the hot plate and if you are like me and like your meat well cooked then leave it on for longer!

I decided to splurge and ordered the Black Pork Katsu + Sashimi Set ($31.80). The sashimi costs $5.80 extra to add to the bento. I think I would stick to the normal order next time. Besides, there is enough variety in the bento box to keep me happy and interested.

There was steamed egg / chawan mushi, prawn and vege tempura, the pork katsu, sushi rolls, a young umeboshi, lotus root chips, tamago roll, a salad rice paper roll and various condiments and sauces.

The pork katsu was tender and tasted clean and light. I think this is the difference in taste between Kurobota black pork and the ordinary pork. I also enjoyed the sweet young peach (the green fruit at the bottom right of the picture). I have not tasted one before this - it was sweet, juicy and slightly tangy. Very refreshing.

The prices here may be a bit steeper but the quality and variety of the food is better. They also have a selection of matcha drinks and matcha desserts.

The Lobster Cave, Beaumaris

Friends are great - they answer the phone when you call, they listen to your whinging, they don't judge you and they get you what you like! Knowing how much of a foodie Gaz is, one of his friends gave him a $99 voucher to Lobster Cave Restaurant in Beaumaris. 

Lobster Cave was mentioned in several big news stories in the press last year as the venue for Opposition Leader Matthew Guy's meeting with an alleged Mafia boss. So I was half expecting to see some famous people there when we got there but was disappointed... not really. We were there to try out the food and was impressed with the quality and quantity of the food and the great service. 

Our waitperson was very good at explaining how it all works (our voucher did not entitle us to the Set Lunch Menu) and made sure our glasses were topped up and we were looked after. 

The thick carpets of the restaurant absorbed all noise, there was an aquarium running the length of the wall, it was dark, heavy and intimate within the restaurant. 

To start, we received complimentary corn fritters. I'm actually not sure how this whets the appetite for the large courses to come and the fritters stuck to our palate but it was nice of the restaurant to provide complimentary entrees for their diners. 

Complimentary Corn fritters

We ordered fried mushrooms in butter as a side. This is not a great picture as the button mushrooms and black fungus do not show nicely on the black plate but it was a nice dish.

Fried mushrooms

For mains, I ordered the fish while Gaz had ravioli with lobster tails. The  blue eye fillet was perfectly cooked. The skin was crispy and the flesh was still moist. It was a very generous serve of fish and asparagus and cherry tomatoes. The sauce was an anchovy butter which was very buttery but no real anchovy taste. Still, I thought this dish was well cooked and was probably enough for two meals for me!

Blue eye fillet with anchovy butter, cherry tomatoes and asparagus

Gaz ordered the pasta with lobster tails. It may seem like only five or six ravioli parcels but they were very filling. The butter sauce was rich and the mushrooms were fragrant. The lobster tails... mamamia! There were 5 lobster tail halves on the plate! We had a great time eating those lobster tails. It felt so luxurious eating this dish for lunch...

House made Beef Cheek Ravioli with Lobster Tails and Duxelle Mushrooms

Because we ordered a side dish, the restaurant also gave us some complimentary sweet potato chips. It was served with creamy aioli dipping sauce. I think sweet potato chips may be a healthier substitute for plain potato chips, but they are not my preferred choice of chips because it is very difficult to get them crispy on the outside and moist on the inside; and they get burnt, or look burnt easily because of the sugar content. 

There was so much sweet potato chips on that plate that as much as we loathe to waste food, we just had to leave some chips on the plate. 

Complimentary sweet potato chips

I hope they were put to good use, maybe it would make a healthy feast for the seagulls by the Beaumaris foreshore?