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!

Bridge Garden Restaurant, Box Hill

Have you heard of the Crossing the Bridge story? No... Not the West Gate Bridge, or the Golden Gate Bridge... But since we have touched on this topic, did you know that the colour red strengthens the resolve to jump off bridges? Nope.. neither did I. 

The colour red is also evokes hunger, which is why many fast food restaurants has the colour red as the predominant colour in their logos. So that consumers will be hungry enough to enter through their doors and eat that delicious but naughty meal..

OK.. that's enough digressing for a post. The bridge story is where a Chinese scholar was busy studying for the annual civil servant exams. For some reason, he had decided to study on an island. Maybe so he can play XBox the whole day with no one nagging him, 'You should be studying, you know!!' His poor wife not only has to continue cooking his meals, she also had to bring it to him all the way from home. No guesses that she probably also does the cleaning of his temporary digs, and laundry.

Anyway, by the time the food reaches him, it was cold. So she had to think of a way to keep it warm in an era where a thermos would have saved her a lot of trouble, and oil. You see, she had discovered that by placing a layer of oil on the noodles she prepares for him, it keeps the soup and noodles warm. So that's how civil servants in those times end up with robust waistlines. 

In Box Hill, there is a restaurant Bridge Garden that serves Crossing the Bridge noodles. It looked good on the menu but what we ate there was anything but that. We had a Groupon deal that came with:

Stir fried beef with pepper and onions. It also came with a heap of dried chillies but not at all spicy, I appreciated that! This was delicious! I think it was deep fried before stir fried with onions, peppers and dried chilli. 

This was dessert - glutinuous rice with brown sugar syrup. It arrived on our table after the beef so that it can thaw... It is served cold and was very refreshing after the mildly spicy beef. But the bland glutinuous rice lump takes some effort to be accustomed to. 

Stir fried vegetables with garlic and oyster sauce. This was yummy, and had crispy garlic bits.

Crispy chicken Yunnan style. I am glad we tasted a Yunnan style dish when dining at a Yunnan restaurant, but I am not sure how this is Yunnan style. The chicken skin was not crispy despite the name of the dish. It had a slight milk powder smell to the chicken (But wouldn't this be just a generic Chinese style? Surely the  daigous who  ship milk powder to China do not ship only to Yunnan?). The dipping salt looked spicy and dangerous, but it was more sweet, if anything.

We also got a cup of soy milk which was very refreshing and a bowl of white rice each. I would say that this is a really good amount of good quality food for a Groupon deal $39 for two persons. The next time we visit this restaurant, I want to try the noodles! 

Chop Shop, Swanston St CBD

There is no cure like what food can do for your soul... Here, I will be responsible and offer the mantra 'Everything in moderation.. Omm... Everything in moderation.. Omm...' If only this applies to the life blood sucking leaches of the universe! They of all species, should take this to heart and try not to annoy other people too much. 

Now.. Onto a happier note, this is a picture of what we had for lunch at Chop Shop last weekend. Doesn't it make you happy!

We ordered the beef set which came with 4 banchans, 680g worth of beef short ribs and beef skirt steak and a choice and doenjang or kimchi stew. We picked the kimchi stew, it was a little average.

What was really delicious was the marinated beef short rib. It was delicious and would have been better if it came with lettuce so we can make some wraps. Oh, and garlic too for the wrap. I am in love with grilled or cooked garlic these days. They are anti bacterial and boosts the immune system. It is especially handy for the winter season when I can hear people coughing their lungs out within a feet of me in the train everyday these days.

It seems that Korean BBQ restaurants have been quite popular and nothing is more social than a group of friends gathering around an open fire burning food. What I dislike though is the seating in Chop Shop and also Sam Sam next door. Each table is a small circular barrel like structure, clad in aluminium so it is cold to the touch (very uncomfortable during winter). A large proportion of the table is taken up by the stove so when it is in use, we found ourselves constantly shuffling the many little plates of food, sauce drinks and so on around the limited space on the table. And there were only two of us!! Imagine if there were more diners...