Food – Page 23

Sue’z Delights

August 16, 2011 Posted in Clayton, Food, Food Reviews, Malaysian, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Sue’z Delights is a popular Clayton eatery on Dandenong Road because of it’s close proximity to Monash University. It also has nice food to boot.They serve a variety of Malaysian cuisines but their selection of dishes varies by day and by month so some dishes are only cooked on specific days or dates. Some dishes they cook are Mee Rebus, Char Hor Fun, Laksa, basically a big selection of the popular and sometimes not so common Malaysian dishes known in Australia today.

We ate there on a Sunday, the first Sunday of the month, and they had a couple of dishes on offer but I can’t remember the other ones. The one I ordered was their Nasi Briyani.

Their Nasi Briyani is a Indian/Malaysian dish served with salad, fried egg, fragrant rice, fried chicken and a sauce. Sue’z is run by a husband and wife team, and with the wife cooking most of these dishes so service and food delivery can be slow. Actually, it’s expected to be slow.

The Nasi Briyani is nice, it has all the flavours and added extras too, but the flavours aren’t as strong as I would have liked it to be. The rice didn’t pack a punch either but their runny egg was great. This dish is definitely cooked a different way then I am used to and there are many ways to cook Nasi Briyani so this is just one of them. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to order this but it’s still good.

Sue’z Delights also has a few snack boxes that you can order. These look like tiny curry puffs but they are filled with chopped peanuts and sugar. It was quite pleasant to eat, I might add.

Their also have a few drinks you can order, like Milo, but their Ice Cendol is what I was after. I would say their actual cendol was a bit hard, probably because it wasn’t freshly made and left in the fridge but it wasn’t bad. Also when had their cendol, their syrup mixture was too hot! So even with the ice, it was a mild room temperature dessert. With added ice, it would have been great. It had nice sweet flavours to it, and overall it was still something I would order again (provided I’m patient enough to wait)

Sue’z Delights serves authentic Malaysian cuisine and if you can stand the long wait, their food usually reaches expectations.

Sue’z Delights
1915 Dandenong Road
Clayton, VIC
3168
(03) 9548 8700

Kingsway Seafood Restaurant

August 9, 2011 Posted in Chinese, Food, Food Reviews, Glen Waverley, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Kingsway Seafood Restaurant is a recent entry to the heart of Glen Waverley. Opening earlier this year, if my memory serves me correctly. There aren’t that many Chinese restaurants where you can have a nice dinner on Kingsway or near the train station. Maybe, the Hakka Teahouse across from Glen Waverley train station but the more the merrier I suppose.

It also isn’t a bad thing that the prices are reasonable for what they serve and well the last Chinese dinner I had was at Eastern Palace in Rowville, and the bill left an unpleasant taste in our mouths.

We orderd a fish and tofu dish for dinner and it had a nice taste to it, with cooked but crunchy carrots, vegetables and mushrooms. Overall it was quite pleasant. Nothing really to run home about, it basically is the standard flavours you may find in your typical Chinese restaurant.
We also ordered another vegetable dish (Kai Lan with beef), and that was great but I didn’t managed to take a picture of it. Not that it was picture worthy anyway since it was quite simple, but I love kai lan so we had to order it.

However, this prawn dish was the standout. The prawns are covered in a salted egg batter and my golly was it something special. It had a great saltiness to the prawns, but the prawn flavour wasn’t overpowered by the salted egg batter. The batter thinly covered the whole prawn, and was light and crisp, and definitely not heavy that you feel you’re eating a great deal of oil. I think I would go back here just to order this delicious and surprisngly delightful dish again.

I would probably only come here on special occassions though since if you eat regularly here, it would take quite a big chunk out of your food budget!

Kingsway Seafood Restaurant
100 Kingsway
Glen Waverley, 3150
(03) 9562 2688

Khe Sanh

July 30, 2011 Posted in Chinese, Food Reviews, Malaysian, Restaurant Reviews, Springvale, Vietnamese1 Comment

Khe Sanh has recently had a management change and renewed some interest into this long standing restaurant.

Originally opened in 2001, it has changed hands I believe late last year and serves a variety of Vietnamese, Chinese and Malaysian style food.

Khe Sanh is located in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne and with so many eateries around Springvale, it definitely is hard to compete. Although, tastes are what matters.

I ordered the Nasi Lemak, and surprisingly it was quite nice. I recently became a Nasi Lemak fan after having it constantly when I vacationed in Malaysia. You’d think I’d get sick of it already, but interestingly enough I now keep wanting to try every restaurant’s Nasi Lemak.

This Nasi Lemak had all the ingredients, the egg, peanuts, anchovies, sambal, beef curry and coconut rice. What I was surprised by was the preserved vegetable which although I’ve been served before, I didn’t intend on eating it. This time, I gave it a try and it was actually decent but I’m not a big fan of cold vegetables so I wouldn’t be annoyed if it wasn’t on my plate.

The combination of flavours worked quite well together, and the curry whilst a tad too sweet, was flavourful and slightly spicy so it did its job.

Overall, for the price, it was actually a pleasant meal and I have nothing really bad to say about it.

My parents ate these two wonderful looking dishes, Chicken stir-fry and the Crispy chicken (or pork, I can’t remember). Try the crispy chicken, or whatever it was called, it had a really nice taste to it.

I would definitely come back to Khe Sanh if I was wanting to eat around Springvale, but I don’t regularly eat there since Glen Waverley’s variety of restaurants satisfies me. I give it my thumbs up!

Khe Sanh
792 – 806 Heatherton Road
Springvale South
(03) 9540 3017

Sambal Kampung

June 12, 2011 Posted in Food Reviews, Malaysian, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Sambal Kampung is located in the heart of Melbourne’s Chinatown. It is one of the few Malaysian restaurants that have opened up in recent years on Little Bourke St. It’s probably my most visited Malaysian restaurant in the CBD as there aren’t many Malaysian restaurants to choose from in the city.

I believe there have been changes in menu and cooking over the years though so it can be a bit inconsistent and well, I went there a couple weeks ago and it definitely wasn’t as good as before.

The image on top is of their variation of the Mee Goreng, and to be honest, it was actually quite good. I’m not a big fan of the sweet and strong tomato tasting Mee Goreng’s, and in this dish it isn’t overpowering. It also has hints of chilli with it too, so that’s a plus. Squeezing some lemon juice on top also gives this dish an added layer of freshness over the slightly oiled noodles so overall it’s a balanced Mee Goreng.

We ordered a Tom Yum Nasi Goreng, with seafood. I expected it to have a a really fake tom yum taste but again I was pleasantly surprised with how it tasted. It wasn’t too overpowering but you could definitely taste that it was tom yum and it had a great balance between the spicy, sweet and sour elements of tom yum. Matched with the nicelycooked seafood, it was quite a nice dish.

Their satay snack dish is one of their newer menu items and it was again, surprisingly tasty with loads of flavour.

The few negatives I would say about this was the actual meat was overcooked and a tad dry, and since there wasn’t really enough satay sauce to dip into, parts of the meat went without sauce and it didn’t taste as good.

Also the fresh cucumber was soft when it should be crunchy with some bite to it. You could tell it was probably not at its peak ripeness.

However, the satay sauce was the hero of the dish. It was packed with flavour. It had a strong nutty flavour, slightly sweet balanced against a great nutty and slightly viscous texture.

I was a bit disappointed with their drinks menu. The black jelly drink had no sweetness to it at all, and was just ladled with ice so you didn’t really get your monies worth.

Same goes for the Three Colours drink, which had red bean, cendol, syrup and ice. It didn’t have the sweetness to make it nice, as the red bean and cendol aren’t sweet at all. The loads of shaved ice also made this a difficult drink to well…drink. It just made what sweetness was existent disappear when the ice melts and so it was just kinda bland.

As mentioned before, we ate here again and it was disappointing to see that their dishes just lacked the flavour that it used to have.

Sambal Kampung

234 Little Bourke Street
Melbourne, 3000

(03) 9663 2666

ABC Cafe

June 7, 2011 Posted in Food Reviews, Glen Waverley, Malaysian, Restaurant Reviews2 Comments

Update: ABC Cafe has closed its doors and I believe a Vietnamese eatery will take its place.

ABC Cafe is situated in the heart of Glen Waverley, on the popular Kingsway street, right next to Petaling Street.

It isn’t a very big eatery, and it doesn’t serve that many people but if you want good Malaysian food for a decent price it’s here.

What differentiates ABC Cafe from the other Malaysian restaurants is that it serves Mee Rebus on the menu. Not very many eateries cook Mee Rebus. As I don’t think it’s as commonly known and I think the many Australian Australians’ just don’t know what it is so restaurants don’t bother serving it and just stick with the Char Kway Teows’, Nasi Gorengs’ etc.

What makes Mee Rebus so good, and ABC Cafe’s is the sauce. The sauce is everything, it is like a viscous soup, and with the noodles, tofu, bean sprouts, prawns and garnish. It just makes a perfect combination. I probably don’t know what an ‘authentic’ Malaysian Mee Rebus is, as I’ve only eaten it a couple of times when I went back but it sure tastes good and that should be all that matters really.

Their Curry Laksa is also no too shabby, it packs the flavour, spiciness and slight creaminess that makes a Laksa appetising. Also, a great Laksa includes both the Hokkien Noodles and Bee Hoon Noodles which ABC Cafe do include.

Portion size is also quite decent, as is with the Mee Rebus.

Their Ice Kacang is also a winner, although it doesn’t have peanuts in there. The flavour and syrups used are just what it should be, just a word of caution even on a cooler day it melts quickly. I think it’s due to their fine ice shavings as opposed to larger ice shavings which seem to stay cooler, longer, and hence hold its form.

I would put the ABC Cafe’s Ice Kacang above Petaling Street and The Grand Tofu’s offerings. It just happens to tick the most boxes when it comes to flavour and the ingredients they used. Definitely like what I had in Malaysia.

I’m pretty happy to dine at ABC Cafe, I’m just not quite sure why it’s not as popular as the other Malaysian restaurants in the same area as some of their dishes taste better then the others.

ABC Cafe

109 Kingsway

Glen Waverley, 3150

(03) 9561 6888

Seafood Risotto

May 25, 2011 Posted in Cooking, ItalianLeave a comment

Every time I go to an Italian restaurant or even just a cafe that has risotto, I just have to order it. My first taste experience was at Sofia’s Restaurant in Ferntree Gully, and well I found it to be delicious. I don’t think Sofia’s is an example of true authentic Italian food but it tastes quite good and I can’t argue with that.

So I’ve wanted to cook risotto for some time too, just something that seemed fun to do since we hardly go to Italian restaurants so it was just another way to eat it.

I found a couple of recipes on the internet but I needed one that had a seafood mix (Scallops, prawns, mussells, fish, squid rings) since we bought the frozen type at the supermarket and some of the risotto recipes get you to buy different types of seafood for the stock so it wasn’t any use to me.

I finally decided on the Taste.com.au’s recipe, and just bought some fresh mussels to use for the stock as the mussels in the mix were already opened. I made a couple of tweaks to the recipe though.

At first I couldn’t find Fish stock, so I bought some Ikan Bilis stock cubes from my Asian Grocer, and then I found a small carton of Fish stock at my local supermarket so I mixed them both to make my fish stock.

For my dry white wine, I used Somerton 2010 Semillon – Chardonnay, one of the cheapest dry white wines I could find at Dan Murphy’s actually.

I didn’t have enough prawns in my mix, and forgot to buy extra prawns but it didn’t impact upon taste really. It’s just a matter of what seafood you prefer.

I really like the recipe but one thing I forgot to do was to add more passata into it after I added another half cup of arborio rice so it was a bit drier then I would like but the taste and flavours were all still there. With my fresh parsley straight from my herb garden, chilli flakes and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese, my Seafood Risotto came out pretty well I thought.

I also pretty much used all the stock available because I added more rice, so it wasn’t as wet as what you might get in a restaurant but still moist enough.

If I made this again, I would probably use less mussels and more prawns, just because of preference and there were probably too many mussels in there and slightly overwhelmed everything else. Other than that, I really enjoyed making it and the end result was great too.

Seafood Risotto (Taste.com.au)
Ingredients (serves 4)
1 1/4 cup (310ml) dry white wine
500g black mussels, scrubbed, debearded
1.25L good-quality gluten-free fish stock (see note)
1/4 tsp saffron threads
40g unsalted butter
2 tbs olive oil
500g prawns, peeled (tails intact), deveined
2 squid tubes, cut into rings
8 scallops
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 cups (440g) arborio rice
1/2 cup tomato passata (see note) or roasted-tomato sugo (see related recipe)
2 tbs chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves, plus extra to garnish
Chilli flakes
Grated parmesan cheese

Method
1. Place wine in a wide pan over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer, then add mussels and cover. Cook, shaking the pan occasionally, for 3 minutes until almost all shells have opened (discard any mussels that remain unopen after this time). Strain, reserving liquid, then remove mussels from shells and set aside. Place reserved liquid, fish stock and saffron in a pan and keep at a simmer over low heat.

2. Melt 30g butter with 1 tbs oil in a large, heavy-based frypan over medium heat. Add prawns and cook for 2-3 minutes, turning, until cooked through. Remove to a bowl and set aside. Increase heat to high. Add squid and scallops. Cook, turning, for 1-2 minutes until just opaque and almost cooked through. Set aside with prawns.

3. Reduce heat to medium and melt remaining 10g butter with remaining 1 tbs oil. Cook the onion, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until softened. Add garlic and rice and stir for 1-2 minutes to coat the grains. Add a ladleful of hot stock and stir until absorbed. Continue adding stock, 1 ladleful at a time, stirring and making sure each is absorbed before adding the next, until rice is al dente. This will take about 20 minutes. (You may not need all the stock.) Stir in the seafood, passata or sugo and parsley. Season and cook for 1 minute until heated through. Serve garnished with parsley, chilli flakes and parmesan.

Spudbar

May 14, 2011 Posted in Australian, Doncaster, Food, Food Reviews, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

My love of potatoes knows no bounds. I’ll eat it mashed, grilled, fried, boiled, cut up into wedges or fries and then deep fried or oven baked. I don’t think I’ve stopped loving potatoes and their versatility. So when a baked potato store opened, my sister (Also a potato head) found it and got me to try it. It was just simply perfection.

The name of the store is Spudbar, and it’s been a firm favourite ever since I went there a couple of years ago.

They have a number of stores around Victoria, and when I went to get my Macbook replaced in Doncaster Shopping Centre, I just had to go back there.

On this occasion, I tried their Tuna Melt Spud, there are plentiful dishes you can order and you can also make your own spud selection but just for convenience sake I chose the Tuna one. They used to have one called ‘Hot Stuff’ which included, kidney beans, a nice spicy sauce and vegetables but over the years I guess people weren’t interested in it.

The Tuna Melt Spud, is quite tasty. I doubt anyone can ruin potatoes for me, anyway. The only downside was that the dressing and tuna are cold, and well it makes the warm spud just a bit too cold for my liking. Nonetheless, it was still delicious. I added some chilli flakes, and tabasco sauce just for some added kick and it was great.

The mixture of the cheese, peas, carrots, corn, dressing, tuna and of course the potato all worked really well together and it’s really filling so you know you got a good meal out of it.

If you love all things potatoes, this is the dining experience you’ll not want to miss.

Spudbar

Westfield Doncaster Shopping Center
619 Doncaster Rd,
Doncaster VIC
Phone: 03 9840 2007
Fax: 03 9840 2007
Email : doncaster@spudbar.com.au
Open 9am – 5pm Sat – Wed
Open 9am – 9pm Thurs – Fri

Casey-Berwick Farmers’ Market

May 7, 2011 Posted in Attractions, Berwick, FoodLeave a comment

On every fourth Saturday of the month, the Casey Farmers’ Association (Berwick Rotary Club) hold their monthly Farmers’ Market for Casey residents and well anybody that wants to support local farmers’, grocers and the local community in general.
It’s also a place to get fresh food and produce or just to try the different foods on offer.

It’s located in Berwick at the Old Cheese Factory, and with many merchants and things to try while you’re there and even though we arrived at around 9am, it was surprisingly busy already.

It costs a few dollars to enter but supporting the Farmers’ in your area, it’s nothing to complain about.

At the front, near the car park, they sell large quantities of fruit and once you enter there are a variety of berries on offer too.

On the left of this image, they sell a variety of breads from sour bread to wholemeal. It’s all reasonably priced too.

The merchants on the left sell fresh seafood, while the one on the right sells a great selection of wines.

Homemade sauces are sold here, quick a few might I add.

Fresh garlic from Dannic Garlic. Chemical free, and grown on the Mornington Peninsula.

Quite a wide selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, all packed to store in their freshness, straight from the back of their van. Hehe

Our second purchase of the morning, the first being some nice sourdough bread, was Spicy Venison sausages. We cooked them at home, it’s quite lean and with a hint of spice. It wasn’t too bad actually, might try their other Venison cuts next time.

Mornington Peninsula Ice cream, it looked really nice but wasn’t in the mood for it. Looking back, I would have gotten a tub.

More fresh food, if you look closely you can see the prices. It’s probably more than you’d pay at your local supermarket but I feel the money goes straight to the farmers and not split between farmers and the conglomerate.

The smell of sausages in the morning is quite an appealing thing. So by the smell we were lead to the Alloway Buffalo stall and just had to purchase a roll.

Here it is, in all it’s glory. Buffalo meat. A buffalo hot dog with a really tasty sauce. It had a hint of spice and was just nicely cooked, as was the sausage.

There were also quite a few meat sellers, and places to buy fresh juices and drinks too.

Check it out, it’s quite a nice experience. Or check out your local Farmers’ market instead, it’s worth it.

Casey-Berwick Farmers’ Market

8am to 12.30pm

The Old Cheese Factory

34 Homestead Rd

Berwick

Victoria

(The next one in May is on the 28th, June on the 25th)

Pie In The Sky

May 2, 2011 Posted in Australian, Baking, Food Reviews, Olinda, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Pie In The Sky is one of Victoria’s premium Pie restaurants. Famous for it’s award winning pies and their ‘Pie In The Sky’, a pie floating on top of a soup. It is quite a tourist attraction in itself.

Located in Olinda, it’s nestled away near The Dandenongs and for a small regional town it surprisingly brings many people from all around Victoria and possibly Australia here. I guess it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise if you have had the chance to eat here. The food speaks for itself really.

Having a great variety of pies, from your customary Meat Pie, to the more adventurous Curry Pies and their gourmet Guinness and Steak Pies. It truly is hard to pick what to eat and with a wide selection of sides, such as salads, chips, and your very English mash, peas and gravy. You can always have a different meal experience every time you visit.

After a very lengthy time deciding, I finally chose the Guinness Pie with Mash Potatoes, Gravy and Peas. It’s reasonably price too for what you get and tastes great too. I don’t think I really have anything bad to say about the pie, the pastry was light and crispy and the Guinness flavoured steak was delectable and just cooked nicely.

The ‘Pie In The Sky’ looked interesting too but as I’m not a big fan of celery flavoured soup I don’t think I would have enjoyed it as much. It certainly has a great ‘home cooked’ aroma too it though. It’s definitely worth a try.

Pie In The Sky also serves desserts and teas, with many varieties of cakes and another English classic, Devonshire Tea. I think I mentioned before the scones here are really tasty, light and fluffy as they should be. The second time we tried them, it just wasn’t as good but maybe it was just an off day.

You don’t necessarily have to dine in to try it out, they also sell many of the pies ‘to go’ and as I mentioned in my Stay Fresh Scones post, they sell a really good Raspberry Jam part of the Mornington Peninsula association I believe, they also sell Strawberry Jams too but I’m more of a raspberry fan nowadays.

Pie In The Sky is well worth the drive over, and it’s a great way to support our local communities too. If you ever come down this area, check out the candy store which has a great selection of lollies from the UK and the US, and also the chilli store with their famous death sauce.

You can check out their website below and peruse their menu, that way, when you arrive you can order straight away without having to take ages to decide!

Pie In The Sky

43 Olinda – Monbulk Rd,

Olinda 3788,

Victoria, Australia

Petaling Street

April 27, 2011 Posted in Food, Food Reviews, Malaysian, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Petaling Street is one of the newer entries to Kingsway, Glen Waverley. Replacing the Kowloon Cafe, a Hong Kong style eatery. When they first opened, it was shockingly terrible. Horrible service and the food wasn’t too flash either. I believe a year and a half later, they are doing fine. One of the more popular places because of it’s variety of dishes, cheaper prices and great portions. It has turned itself around.

I believe they have another store in Hawthorn but according to some friends, it’s not as good. The image above is of a Crispy Noodle Combination, it’s actually pretty good. Maybe just as good as The Grand Tofu’s offerings.
I always come back here for their Nasi Goreng Pattaya, it looks pretty cool and well it tastes good too. Here it is below. The sweet chilli sauce and the really thin egg layer gives this Nasi Goreng some added flavour and texture.

Below are some other dishes they have. I think the first one is a Combination Hor Fun and I can’t remember what the second one is, maybe a Spare Rib Noodles or something but it wasn’t that great.

Even on weekdays, Petaling Street at around lunch time can get full. People always come back for more and you can see why, the food is good and their portions are reasonable. The only real negative is that the service is still kinda lacking. Sometimes they are quick but most of the time you have to go out of your way to get them to take your order and the wait for your food is a whole other issue. If you do want to try it out, probably it’s your best bet to try it ‘off peak’ either before 12pm or after around 2pm.

Petaling Street

111 Kingsway
Glen Waverley VIC 3150
(03) 9561 1388

ohdenny

Category: Food

Sue’z Delights

Kingsway Seafood Restaurant

Khe Sanh

Sambal Kampung

ABC Cafe

Seafood Risotto

Spudbar

Casey-Berwick Farmers’ Market

Pie In The Sky

Petaling Street