foodie.tv - For "Foodies"

Spicy Fish - Szechuan, Glen Waverley

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:36:59 +1000

A reminder at Saturday birthday dinner - Spicy Fish opened in Glen Waverley last week. Had been looking forward to trying it out :-)

Last night's menu:

Steamed dumplings
Spicy couple: cold appetiser of ox tongue & tripe
Chilli chitterlings: chitterlings dry fried with chilli, szechuan chilli & peanuts
Snow pea leaves in spring onion sauce

Definitely worth a second visit for the range of new dishes on offer.. VERY spicy (most dishes were half chilli by volume - if not more!) and rather oily (in the dishes we chose).. But, tasty. Also friendly, fun waiters and noticeably hospitable managers - quite unusual in Asian spots hehe..

Places I plan to go soon

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 19:36:16 +1000

Pacific Seafood & BBQ House (Toorak Rd, South Yarra) - hot tip on good roast duck from picky duck lover at birthday dinner on e..Saturday night. Must investigate hehe..

And it sure is funny when your blog entries generate google ads for restaurants that you end up investigating and deciding you need to visit hehe.... warunggudeg.com.au in Clayton for Indonesian food -including what sounds a lot like chicken satay with ketupat - sate ayam lontong..

Clayton Satay & Thosai

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:42:12 +1000

Singular outlet for Melbourne: Satay grilled over charcoal in the unusual lamb as well as the usual chicken - no beef. Halal. Ketupat at 50 cents a serve (although not gently fragranced with banana leaf). All this at $8 for 10 sticks (currently - however do not judge the serving sizes by the offerings at less authentic locations).

Delicious nasi ayam (chicken rice) in the Malay style - ie. fried chicken. Nasi briyani. And other yummy stuff. Run by Singaporean Malays - definitely worth a visit. Well, that's if you believe the crowds of Malay, Malaysian and other similar food lovers who visit as well.

Sri Lanka: Meals on the trip home

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 12:26:05 +1000

Well! Economy class airline meals aren't ever going to be a good benchmark of a cuisine - but picture this:

Air Lanka from Colombo to Kuala Lumpur & Singapore:
Breakfast: 3 plain roti with dhal, chicken curry & pol sambol, and tropical fruit salad (papaya, mango, canteloupe, pineapple)
Lunch: Dry curry fry of potato, pea & other assorted vegetables in a chewy bun

Qantas from Singapore to Melbourne:
Dinner: Grilled chicken breast with steamed green beans, whole roasted baby potatoes, green salad with vinaigrette dressing and fruit salad.

Sri Lanka: Dinner at home

Sat, 14 Apr 2007 12:02:40 +1000

Last meal in Sri Lanka :-( That's not counting the inflight meal on Air Lanka though...maybe all is not lost..yet.

Tonight's spread has been designed to fill in the corners of our short culinary tour. So far this week we've not had the traditional curry and rice. So :

Beetroot leaf mallung
Beetroot dry-fry
Curry pork
Katta sambol (or lunu miris? Think I might have the wrong name - help!)
Dhal
..with rice, and mango & strawberries to finish.

The strawberries are grown in the hill country and are the best perfumed & most flavoursome of their kind that I've ever had. They go well with sugar but...oops...didn't actually need it!

Sri Lanka: Shanmugas The Vegetarian Restaurant

Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:03:54 +1000

Vegetarian meal, fittingly, on the eve of the Tamil & Buddhist new year.

To start:
Ulundu vadai
Samosa
Chilli panneer dry
Sesame gobi fry (cauliflower!)

Meal:
Paper roast thosai
Masala thosai
Idly
Poori masala
(all with sambar, dhal & raita)

Dessert/drinks:
Masala tea
Salt lassi
sweets for take-away: Laddu & muscat

Fabulous place! Vadai fresh from the fryer with the lightest floaty-crisp shell and fluffy flavoursome flesh. Samosa fragrant with fresh spices. Panneer to make you forget meat. Cauliflower to wake children to the charm of vegetables. And that's just the starters.

Sri Lanka - Pillawoos

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 13:52:08 +1000

"You must try the cheese roti!" - advice from Chris' work friends about the addition to Pillawoos' (that local institution - pronounced "Pillaus") long-standing menu.

After a full-on lunch at the Thai restaurant at TransAsia, we hastily realised that dinner at Shanmuga's probably wasn't the best idea. So perhaps takeaway from Pillawoos instead to have that cheese roti finally? Also to experience the fine Pillawoos tradition - cars all parked Sri Lankan style on the main, major road outside Pillawoos either waiting for their order or waiting for the sharp-eyed staff to dash out to take the order. Fortunately it's past 9pm so the road is quiet - that is, until some van decides to stop in the one lane still available, to complete some mysterious task quite unrelated to Pillawoos' roaring business. Chaos ensures for 5 minutes as cars back up behind the two-pronged road block ...but it mercifully clears quickly enough to not attract the attention of the police...and we find a proper park as a happy customer departs with his piping hot load. What happens in peak hour traffic, we wonder? (Update from Chris - thanks!!! - they only open after peak hour :-) )

Green papaya pickle/achar

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 21:31:56 +1100

The last time I had this dish was at least 20 years ago - and I've probably only had it once or twice in my whole life (WOE!). A very rare dish even for Malaysians.

Now that I'm in Australia, I might never never have it again (made by someone who knows what they're doing *sob*)..

But...at least there's still a recipe and good instructions to follow. *hopeful glance in Mum's direction* heheh..

In Alice's wonderland

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 18:20:18 +1100

Lots of travelling lately - I don't think it would be inaccurate to say that I've been away about twice as much as I've been home.

Now, that could be a negative or a positive depending on how you spend your time of course. Usually with work and all, you hardly get an opportunity to check out good places while you're away.

That doesn't reckon with thoughtful rellies introducing you to their local favourite though. So it was that a few Saturdays ago I ventured to a little place call Alice's in Thornleigh, Sydney, in the company of a good sized family group (perfect, by the way, for any Malaysian meal).

Bookmark - Malaysia must-visit

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 19:03:23 +1000

Another EatingAsia post

Eating Asia must-read

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 21:55:34 +1000

No comment - just click, you won't be disappointed
(Well I lie - read the comments section to see my comment hehe)

Breakfast bar option

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 10:36:06 +1000

Found a dairy free potentially healthy snack. I was getting something at the newsagent on the ground floor of the office building when the box caught my eye.

"FREGGIE", it announced.

"1 serve of fruit and veggies in every bar"

Hmm...read ingredients list..no dairy ingredients, couple of different grains etc etc. Buy one (berry flavour).

Verdict: Delicious!

They have a website too. You can find out how much it coss to order 5 dozen bars if you like hehe..

www.wellnaturally.com.au

Cafe La - Sofitel Melbourne

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 10:44:34 +1000

Met up with Karissa on Friday after work. Initially we thought we'd use Entertainment Book vouchers so Karissa had pulled out two likely candidates from the book. We decided on Time Out at Federation Square.

Nothing on the menu appealed though..then Karissa suggested Cafe La. She's got an Advantage Club card that gives her a great discount off food at any restaurant in the Sofitel chain. (Details too much to go into but sounds very worthwhile - I'm waiting for my application form from Karissa!)

Anyway we wander up to Collins St and up to the 35th floor. You have to follow a corridor around from the lifts to finally end up at the entrance to Cafe La - I'm sure I'm not the first to mention this. Kind of reminds me of when Alex and I went hunting for the entrance to Yu-u, if you know what I mean.

Simple dinner party

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 22:04:37 +1000

I've been meaning to add a blog post on the dinner that we had on Sunday evening so that I remember to use the menu again.

The dinner centred around some pre-made curry pastes (yes, I can imagine the gasps of horror now *grin*) that Mum's been raving about and which I decided to try out the weekend before last.

The paste was so good that I bought it again plus its cousin.

Hence the following menu:

Rice paper rolls
Beef rendang
Prawn sambal
Stir fried chai sim with oyster sauce
Silken tofu with spicy braised chicken & mushroom sauce

Nasi Kandar at Kayu @ Box Hill

Thu, 25 May 2006 22:33:43 +1000

Uncle Leo & Aunty Mandy dropped by on the way back from Perth to Sydney which meant numerous excuses for family eats sessions, both at home and further afield.

Below is Uncle Leo catching Dad and Aunty Mandy in the serious business of assessing persimmons in Springvale. (To be followed not long after by one of aforementioned family eat sessions.) Dad gave me some specimens from his haul so this pic has lots of juicy and honey-sweet associations. Mmmm..persimmons...drool..