Ajisen Ramen, Knox

I was at the optometrist in the afternoon so I decided to venture out instead of cooking dinner. We went to Ajisen Ramen. This outlet have been at Knox for some time, but for some reason we have only tried it for the first time!

Compared to the other restaurants in Knox Ozone, I believe Ajisen Ramen is one of the best value restaurants on the strip. There were no pictures because my eyes were still stinging from the eye check earlier in the day. We ordered the Chashu Ramen $18 which came with 5 pieces of thickly cut, large tender slices of pork, wood ear mushrooms, spring onions, and onsen egg. The broth was just liquid gold for a rainy cold day! It was salty and full of umami taste. The noodles were slightly.. I don't know how to describe this but I think it smelt like the alkaline water that is used to make noodles bouncy and chewy. The smell was a tad too strong for me. The broth is obviously the drawcard and the restaurant knows it too, because the bowl was only half full with the broth but still plenty to go around. 

I ordered the Chicken Katsu Bento $17 which came with two pan fried pork gyozas, seaweed salad, wafu salad (cabbage, rocket, cherry tom with creamy dressing), a chicken yakitori skewer, chicken katsu and rice. Now this is really good value for the amount of protein and variety one gets with the meal for that price. The pork gyoza was delicious and Gaz liked the yakitori and chicken katsu too. I really enjoyed my bento box. 

We also ordered a grilled sanma (mackerel) $9.50. It was very well cooked - crispy skin and tender (as tender as mackerel can get!) flesh, served on a bed of sliced cabbage and a wedge of lemon to take away the fishiness. I felt quite healthy eating grilled fish with rice, if only that was all I had, forgetting the deep fried chicken katsu!

Chanel Exhibition

Coco Chanel or Gabrielle Chanel was ahead of her time with the timeless black minidress. I can't imagine if we still had to wear elaborate corsets and bustiers in women's everyday dressing, it would drive me nuts. 

The little black dress is one of the very first items I bought with my own money. I still have it hanging in its dry cleaning sheath at the back of my closet. These days with working from home and not going out very much for after work drinks, it doesn't get worn much any more. But I still love the way it falls, and the very ladylike feel it gives the wearer. 

Another thing that Chanel was famous for is its signature perfume No.5. This, I can't stand. It is not for me. I received a sample of Chanel's Verte perfume many years back and when I wanted to buy a full bottle, I just couldn't find the same fragrance any more. Isn't it just the case when you find something good, but it gets discontinued in the name of progress (but it isn't actually progress to you at all!) and development. 

Here are some pictures from Chanel's exhibition, which is on at the National Gallery of Victoria until 25th April 22. Lots of beautiful dresses, also displays of accessories, perfumes. I love going to these fashion exhibitions, and have been to Dior last. I prefer the range of dresses in Dior's exhibition. 

 

Laksa Village, Donvale

Laksa is quintesentially Malaysian. For me, a good laksa is one that is sweet, salty, spicy. Most of the laksa sold here is too creamy and sweet, modified for Western tastes. Or watery, because spices are expensive. That is why I usually just make my own. 

So while we ate at Laksa Village, we didn't order the laksa so I have no idea whether it ticks all my requirements. Instead, we ordered Claypot Tofu and Seafood in Egg Gravy $25. There are an abundance of seafood in this dish - pipies, squid, prawns which makes this a worthwhile dish to try. You will not find a seafood & tofu claypot dish in another restaurant with so many seafood for this price. The only shortfall is that there were no fish slices and plenty of squid which we are not a fan of. The tofu is deep fried white firm tofu (not egg tofu). This dish has all my favourite ingredients - seafood, tofu, veges and egg! The sauce makes it a great accompaniment to white rice.

Yam Basket with Kung Pao Chicken $29. This is one of the Chef's Specials and there is a dearth of restaurants serving yam baskets so we made sure to order this dish. It has been a long time since I last had this dish. It was tasty, but there is a lack of fluffiness or lightness to the taro. Perhaps there was not enough shortening in the dough. The chicken was average, but the star was really the taro. Despite the shortfall, we enjoyed this dish. 

Yam baskets are called 'Fatt Put' in Cantonese which translates to 'god's pot'. It was conceived as a vegetarian dish - deep fried yam dough filled with stir fried vegetables, a dish full of complexity, beauty and taste to outshine the meat dishes. As if to ask 'Who says vegetarian food is boring and tasteless?', it has the final say. 

The food here reminds me of my neighbourhood Chinese restaurants in Malaysia. If we were sitting outdoors in humid heat and sweating bucketfuls and battling mosquitos while eating, it would totally have transported me back in time. The chef is Malaysian, which explains a lot. If you wish to be transported to your local zi char, then you will like this restaurant.

Niubi, Glen Waverley

When Niubi opened their new branch a few months ago in Glen Waverley, we visited this restaurant to try out their signature milk tea topped with a cute teddy bear made of milk tea ice which melted into the cup as the drinker drinks on. Later, I watched Luxe Listings on Prime and found that others also have used the same mold to make chilli oil into cute teddy bears! How ingenious. 

Teddy Bear Milk Tea $9 - this is a dollar more than the rest of the drinks on the menu, a cuteness premium you pay.

For entree, we ordered the Salted Egg Prawn Toast $16. The salted egg was delicious atop a bed of smashed prawns on crispy toast. The sauce of some kind of Thai sweet chilli with mayo which didn't really suit my taste. I think the prawn toasts were delicious enough on their own. Kewpie mayo or wasabi mayo might be nice with it too.

The main dishes on the menu were comparatively expensive so we did not order those. For example, mud crab with vermicelli was $168, Kam Heong pipies $34 and stir fried veges $25. We went the 'Solo' way, where one meal dishes like Roast Duck on Rice, Laksa noodles were $18 each. I ordered the Kung Fu Roast Duck $18, basically roast duck on rice. There were meaty pieces of duck but taste wise it was not as fragrant as the roast meats from HK restaurants. There is a difference between Malaysian or Singaporean in this case and Hong Kong style roast duck. The HK style roast duck has a sweeter, crispier skin whereas the Malaysian style is on the saltier spectrum with more five spice. 

This is the signature garlic black roast port with egg noodles $18. The pork was so tender and infused with garlic flavour. It is a tad too salty for my liking but probably the better dish of the two. 

There have been some negative reviews for Niubi on Google recently about the service, and some about the price. I don't take offence to the lack of service at restaurants because I am used to the typical Asian hospitality and for me, good food always wins over service. We were kept waiting without any acknowledgement, and staff seemed to be clueless but it may be teething issues with any new branch opening. 

The prices here are expensive, for those who like fusion food, instagrammable food presentation and nice decor. I'm glad we had the opportunity to try this restaurant when they had 22% discount (opening special).

Essendon Fields Centenary Celebration

The weather is beautiful these days. Blue clear skies, white fluffy clouds and sunny hot temperature reminds me of how lucky we are for such weather when there are floods in other parts of the country. 

We visited Essendon Fields to celebrate the centenary of the airport. The centenary celebrations was last year but postponed to Mar 22 due to Covid19. There were many events like classic car display, plane display, helicopter rides, food trucks and so on. 

We went on a short helicopter ride around the airport which was quite fun. It was my first time riding in a helicopter. A week later there was a tragic helicopter crash in Mount Disappointment which took the lives of 4 passengers and the pilot. 

Lifting off. It is really loud in the helicopter but the earphones helped to muffle the noise. Every bump was felt because there was limited padding in the helicopter, not much protection either! I sat in the middle and Gaz at the front where we got a bird's eye view of Essendon Fields. 

Another highlight of the day was getting to see many beautiful vintage cars beautifully and lovingly restored by their owners. Lindsay Fox's private collection was on display too but as it was getting late we didn't manage to make a stop. We didn't have to walk between attractions as the place was huge and there was a shuttle bus service so we only got a glance of the collection from the bus. 

Many people I spoke to about our helicopter ride had ridden on helicopters before. It seems like an ordinary, run of the mill type experience which I only got to enjoy very recently.