Food – Page 9 – ohdenny

Petaling Street Box Hill

February 6, 2015 Posted in Box Hill, Food Reviews, Malaysian, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Petaling Street Box Hill re-opened its doors last year after what seemed like years when it unexpectedly shut down. Today, the venue seats quite a large number of customers and marks a return of the Malaysian cuisine to the Box Hill food scene. Box Hill now offers a range of choices from what seemed like years of only Madam Kwong’s, with Straits of Malacca also having opened its doors last year.

The Box Hill outlet serves the same menu options as its other Melbourne counterparts, but where it differs as you’d find with most outlets of the same name that the standard of the food varies.

Their Ipoh Hor Fun is one of those differences unfortunately. The soup base lacks depth in flavour but general blandness in taste. I found myself in the situation where I needed to add soy sauce to the soup for taste. The chicken served also lacks flavour but at least it has a marinate. In most restaurants, the cut of chicken served would be a selection of cuts but mostly the tender and moist parts of the chicken with bones being mostly a small inconvenience. Maybe I’m just a bit lazy, but it’s something I often never seem to come across when I order a Ipoh Hor Fun.

The Dry Curry Noodles (Chicken), at least has great curry flavour and sauce. It’s rich, slightly creamy but still a tad spicy and goes well with the noodles. My only con is for a tiny bit more curry sauce to flavour the noodles as well.

As with the other Petaling Street restaurants, they also offer fish as a menu item. Steamed and Fried varieties. Their Steamed Fish was surprisingly decent, the sauce was flavourful, but the balance wasn’t quite perfect. The garnish of these fried pieces adds a bit of crunch and is most welcome.

Impressions
Overall, I found Petaling Street to be slightly underwhelming. The food standard here isn’t as high or as tasty as you may find in Glen Waverley but I only hope as time passes, it gets better with age.

Petaling Street Box Hill
600 Station St
Box Hill VIC 3128

Tom Toon Thai Noodle Cafe

January 23, 2015 Posted in Food Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, Richmond, Thai, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Tom Toon Thai Noodle Cafe is one of the now many Thai restaurants in Richmond, located just doors away from Ying Thai and walking distance from Jinda Thai, Jaidee Thai and iSpicy 2. You’re spoilt for choice in this particular part of town.

Tom Toon isn’t a large restaurant, but it does have this unique character about it. I always seem to lean towards the Thai Fried Rice and here flavour-wise it’s fantastic. Delicious, but just as a personal preference I prefer Fried Rice to be drier, but I’ve noticed that most Thai Fried Rice’s are like this as compared with the Chinese or Malaysian Fried Rice.

My favourite is still Jinda Thai, but the rest of the bunch aren’t too far behind in quality.

Tom Toon Thai Noodle Cafe
241 Victoria Parade
Abbotsford VIC 3067

Ki – Toronto Series

January 16, 2015 Posted in Canadian, Food Reviews, Japanese, Restaurant Reviews, TorontoLeave a comment

Ending my Toronto series with Ki Modern Japanese and Bar located on Brookfield Place Bay Street, in the Toronto CBD. Ki meshes the Western culture with Japanese cuisine in which you end up with dishes such as burgers but with a slight twist or sushi with spicy tomato salsa or mango.

For those looking for a more traditional Japanese meal, at Ki they do offer a variety of freshly made nigiri, sashimi and maki sushi rolls. As a modern Japanese restaurant, they also serve slightly different sushi rolls, some with bacon or sweet potato which make for interesting combinations and especially on your palette.

Impressions

Overall, the food quality here is fantastic. The sushi, tempura sushi and even the burgers are all delicious. However, I found the dishes leaning more towards Western style to have very minimal Japanese influences as such it would appear like eating it in any other upmarket cafe or the like.

Ki do Japanese well, although it comes at a price because the dishes here aren’t exactly cheap.

Ki
181 Bay St
Toronto ON M5J2S1

Marché de la Villette – Montreal Series

January 9, 2015 Posted in Canadian, Food Reviews, French, Montreal, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Marche de la Villette was recommended by my sister because of their soupe à l’oignon (aka French Onion Soup) so we had to give it a try. Located in Old Montreal, this eatery is super popular. We travelled down to Old Montreal twice on our visit and even in the late afternoon, there was not a spare seat in sight. Having a little patience, we found a table.

Their French Onion Soup comes in this cute bowl, with the cheese oozing on the sides. The soup itself is rich and creamy, and very flavourful. I’m not fond of very creamy soups but sharing amongst the three of us it was just enough to go around.

We also ordered the Quiche Lorraine, the pastry is nice (although harder than I’m used to) but the filling was moist.

Keeping it a bit light, we also ordered Pate Sandwich, being in Montreal and all I had to order it. Coming in a baguette roll, the pate was delicious although I’d prefer if the bread was warm or toasted as it was a chilly day on our visit.

Impressions

To be honest, it wasn’t amazing but above average I would say but it definitely a lovely dining experience in Old Montreal.

Marché de la Villette (Menu)

Burch and Purchese

January 2, 2015 Posted in Australian, Desserts, Food Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, South YarraLeave a comment

Burch and Purchese had been high on my to do list (or to taste list) for quite sometime. Darren Purchese had previously been featured in Masterchef Australia and B&P’s dessert combinations are one of most enticing and creative desserts in Australia.

Finally I found time to travel to South Yarra to take a look-see, and was surprised at how close it was (near the Como Building) and was so closeby to my old high school.

Being someone who just has to try a bit of everything, and especially if there is nuts involved. We had to pick up this Peanut, Raspberry, Caramel and Chocolate dessert. Layered with peanut chocolate brownie, chocolate wafer, roasted peanut cream, raspberry compote, salted caramel, peanut
butter mousse and raspberry jelly. Raspberry and peanuts isn’t a combination I’ve tried before, and let me tell you it’s amazing. I love the nuttiness, with the tart raspberries and that rich and delectable salted caramel. Yum! This dessert also comes in a cake which will be my next ~~purchese~~ purchase.

B&P’s Explosive Raspberry Milk Chocolate cake is one of their more popular desserts, and who wouldn’t love popping candies in a dessert. It’s like being a kid all over again.

Layered with raspberry cream, raspberry marshmallows, raspberry compote, choc chip cookie crumb base, raspberry & milk chocolate mousse and chocolate popping candy. It has become one of my favourites. That choc chip cookie crumb base is incredibly delicious and again the light chocolate mousse with the tart raspberry flavour works well together and then you get this little popping on your tongue. Memorable for sure.

Impressions

Now I see why B&P is held in such high regard. You can also definitely see the amount of work that goes into making one of these desserts with so many layers and I would assume a plentiful of processes before it’s complete. B&P was well worth the trip down, and my only regret was not trying it sooner!

Burch and Purchese

Pearl HarbourFront – Toronto Series

December 19, 2014 Posted in Chinese, Food Reviews, Restaurant Reviews, TorontoLeave a comment

If you are seeking some Dim Sum (Yum Cha for us Aussies) in Toronto with scenic views, or as scenic as Toronto can get. Then Pearl HarbourFront caters to you. My sister took us here one morning and while it didn’t amaze it or anything, it was a pretty good meal all in all.

The carts come around frequently and there’s your usual dim sum, such as dumplings.

Or the more interesting sorts.

Your dim sum in bamboo steamers. A prawn dumpling steamed or fried usually is a winner for me, especially if it’s in that translucent pastry.

I never know what any of these dim sum are called, I just point and they provide but this beef one is one of my personal favourites. With a bit of chilli sauce it’s fantastic.

Chicken wings, because why not.

Chee Cheong Fun, wasn’t all that great to be honest and I’m not even a big fan of it and I could tell.

The steamed sticky rice in banana leaf was also a slight disappointment, lacking in flavour.

Saving the best for last is my all-time favourite dim sum dish that is ordered without fail, Lo Pak Ko (Surprise! I know another Dim Sum). A great Lo Pak Ko in my tastebuds is slightly crispy outside from the pan frying, and soft inside with a good mixture of Chinese sausage and turnips, with just enough salt to give it that something extra. Here it almost lives to my high expectations but I’m always happy to have it.

Impressions

Pearl Harbourfront doesn’t steer too far away from the norm, and its food also it’s something I would say was amazing. However, its array of Dim Sum I would say is above average on taste, but I do recall it being a bit pricier than I’m used to.

Pearl Harbourfront
207 Queens Quay W
Toronto ON Canada M5J2M6

Blue Glutinous Rice Cake (Pulut Tai Tai) with Kaya

December 12, 2014 Posted in Cooking, Desserts, Malaysian, RecipesLeave a comment

On my last trip to Malaysia, I purchased a couple of recipe books (as I usually do), one of these was Nyonya Kueh by Chef Ricky Ng. I love how cheap the books are over there and such delicious looking recipes too. Nyonya Kueh are one of my favourite Malaysian snacks, there is incredible variety with sweet and savoury delights, but I have a preference for the sweet varieties. On occasion we buy the blue glutinous rice cakes with pandan kaya from Madam Kwong’s in Box Hill but I love giving it a try and making everything from scratch. So here is my adapted recipe from Ricky Ng.

Blue Glutinous Rice Cake (Pulut Tai Tai)

Rice Cake
Ingredients
A
820g glutinous rice (soaked overnight)
12 bunga telang/clitoria flower (or a few drops of blue food colouring mixed with water)
a few pieces banana leaf

B
2 ¼ cups thick coconut milk
1 tsp salt
1 piece pandan leaf (knotted together) – Original recipe uses 3 pieces

C
3 tsp sugar (coconut sugar used)
a few drops pandan essence (optional)

Kaya

85g sugar (coconut sugar used)
35g brown sugar
3 duck eggs/eggs (chicken eggs can be used too)
1 tbsp custard powder
90ml thick coconut milk

Method
1. Pound bunga telang (blue flowers), mix with 4 tbsp of water well, and strain to get the blue colouring

2. Mix soaked glutinous rice with Ingredients B and let it rest for 5 minutes.

2. Steam the rice over high heat for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir well with chopsticks.

3. Add in Ingredients C and mix well. Steam mixture for another 10 minutes

4. Add in blue colouring to ½ portion of cooked rice, mix well and steam it for 5 minutes

5. Line a 19cm square tin with banana leaves. Spoon cooked blue rice and white rice alternatively into the tin. Cover the rice with banana leaf and place a heavy object on top to compress the rice.

If you don’t have a square tin and banana leaves, you can scoop all the mixture out and place it back into the tray so it’s all mixed up a bit but you’ll also need to compress the rice in the tray too. Set it aside to cool completely before cutting into pieces. Serve with Kaya (Recipe below)

Kaya
1. Mix all the ingredients well in a pot, and if need be strain the mix to rid of any lumps.

2. Place water in a pot to boil. Once the water is simmering, place a heat proof bowl on top of the pot (make sure the water does not touch the heat proof bowl) and cook until kaya mixture turns golden brown and thick. Be careful not to curdle the eggs. Stir constantly to prevent burning at the base of the pot.

Impressions

I bought some coconut sugar from Costco and thought it would be a good idea to use it in the glutinous rice as well as the kaya. Coconut sugar as a distinct taste (of coconut, duh!) but it also has this toasted coconut taste to it which might be a bit overpowering for some.

What I found was that if you soak the glutinous rice too long and/or leave the rice to steam for too long, the grains aren’t as defined. The rice appears to absorb too much of the coconut mixture or too much moisture from the steam. Flavour wise it’s great, but leaving it longer than just overnight might be overdoing it.

I also realised the colouring from the blue flowers didn’t seem to cover all the rice, so it might be good to make a bigger batch of the natural colouring mixture just in case or if you prefer a darker blue kueh.

Also as a warning, making the kaya even over steaming water that doesn’t touch the bowl can still be a dangerous affair. The eggs can cook extremely quickly if you’re not careful or if you leave the flame too high. If it does look like the eggs have cooked, one little trick is to use a hand blender and give it a good mix to break it up, that allows the kaya to form a smoother paste (taste-wise it’d be the same)

Using coconut sugar in the kaya also gives the kaya a very strong toasty taste, I’d probably just opt for caster sugar next time for that more authentic taste but that’s the good thing about cooking and experimenting, food is never the same.

Guu Sakabar – Toronto Series

December 5, 2014 Posted in Food Reviews, Japanese, Korean, Restaurant Reviews, TorontoLeave a comment

Guu Sakabar definitely has an interesting atmosphere and if you haven’t dined at one of Guu’s locations in Vancouver or in Toronto, you may be surprised as you walk in. For all guests that arrive, you are warmly greeted with cheers from the employees as well as when you exit. So it can get quite noisy on a busy night but that’s all part of the charm.

Guu offers a Japanese-tapas style menu some options having a bit of Korean influences. What I like about tapas menus is that it’s great for sharing and trying a bit of everything from the menu.

The Okonomiyaki here is deep fried with squid tonkatsu sauce and karashi mayonnaise. I haven’t tried a deep fried Japanese pancake before as I only have found the pan fried variation in Melbourne (Australia) before, however the pancake certainly left an impression on me.

Probably my favourite dish was Guu’s Kinoko Bibimbap in a stone pot.With mushrooms, cheese and a seaweed sauce, the combination of flavours worked a treat together. Packed full of flavour, can’t go wrong with it and even for me who would prefer not to have mushrooms in anything!

You can’t leave Guu without trying their drinks, however being a non-local and wanting to do a tapas drinks, we ordered the Sake Sampler that came with 6 different types of sake. As a non-expert in Sake, I can’t really offer my opinions on them but the cloudy ones were more memorable than the rest for sure.

Guu also offer Japanese Vodka, Beers, Wines and Cocktails and your non-alcoholic beverages as well.

Impressions

Guu is definitely for those seeking a good night out with friends and/or family and the atmosphere at Guu allows for that. Food-wise, most of what we tried was great, but on the smaller side of things. Though, I certainly hope a restaurant like this pops up in Melbourne to enjoy.

Guu – Sakabar

559 Bloor St W
Toronto ON M5S1Y6

PappaRich Knox

November 28, 2014 Posted in Food Reviews, Knox, Malaysian, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

The Knox venue is the latest PappaRich outlet to open in recent years. PappaRich remains one of the most popular Malaysian restaurants in Melbourne and you can see by the queues even after the stores have been opened for months or even years! PappaRich has opened in the foodies part of Knox, in the Westfield Knox O-Zone. Recently, I was graciously invited to dine there for the Knox launch with a few other local food bloggers.

The menu remains the same for all PappaRich establishments, but if unfamiliar the menu is extensive. Roti, Fried Noodles, Noodle soups, Rice dishes and a variety of desserts, drinks and small eats as well.

Most often I gravitate towards their Ipoh Koay Teow Soup with Steamed Chicken or with Prawn and Chicken slices, funnily enough my friend frequently orders the same dish too. One of the things I love about this noodle soup dish is it’s very fresh with its ingredients of the light (yet flavourful) soup, bean sprouts and the noodles. Complemented with the steamed chicken, it isn’t as rich or heavy as some other dishes because other than the fried shallots, nothing has been deep fried. According to my friend, it was a tad salty but given it’s only just recently opened it just needs a bit of refinement.

The Crispy Egg Noodles was something I haven’t actually ordered before from PappaRich. It’s interesting as it uses a different type of noodles that I’d normally associate with a Crispy Noodles Seafood Combination but of course these are slightly different dishes (as the Seafood combination tends to use an egg gravy which is more white in colour). The noodles aren’t as crispy but still retain a bit of bite to them. Other than the crispy noodles itself, the flavouring of the sauce is crucial to combine all the ingredients together. The gravy here is more subtle in taste than I’m used to but goes well with the tender chicken and prawns. It’s a substantial dish I must say, like most of the PappaRich dishes.

The Deep Fried Chicken Skins seems to be a popular choice among my friends, the pieces were quite large to just pop one piece in your mouth and crunch but it can be addictive!

Pictured above is their Soya Milk with Jelly and the Teh C special. Teh C is one of the more interesting Malaysian drinks, with its distinct layers of tea, evaporated milk and gula melaka syrup (sugar syrup). It’s similar in some sense to a Teh Tarik but the gula melaka does add a unique flavour to it that I quite enjoy.

Of course we had to try their desserts too! The Sago Pudding and Egg Sago Pudding pictured above is served with coconut milk. The Sago Pudding is topped with Red Beans, it’s a tasty dessert but I love sago (In cold desserts, hot or even as Kueh). The Egg Sago Pudding, however, was probably my favourite dish of the day. The Egg Pudding was silky smooth and just enough sweetness. Combined with the creamy coconut milk and sago it just makes for a delicious treat.

Impressions

While PappaRich Knox hasn’t reached the highs of their Chadstone store for me, yet, in terms of their noodle dishes. It certainly is early days yet, however what you can’t go wrong with is their desserts and drinks. So for the upcoming summer, it’s great to just sit out with a cooling drink after watching a movie or after a hard days work shopping and just relax.

PappaRich Knox
425 Burwood Highway
Wantirna South VIC 3152

O’Town

November 14, 2014 Posted in Food Reviews, Glen Waverley, Malaysian, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

O’Town in Glen Waverley replaced Hakka Tea House this year. O’Town specialises in Penang cuisine, many of my favourite Malaysian dishes have origins in Penang such as Char Kueh Teow, Har Mee and Mee Rebus but of course you can find many of these dishes elsewhere in Malaysia but it’s telling that there are eateries in Kuala Lumpur/Selangor that prides itself on Penang dishes.

O’Town’s decor is very reminiscent of the streets of Penang, with its British influence and Penang’s famous street art replicated on the walls.

O’Town’s Hakka Kon Loh is served with fishball soup and taste wise it was oddly familiar, like a drier Pan Mee because of the mushrooms and crunchy anchovies. It’s subtle in flavour as I did require some sliced chilli to go with it but I was happy with the flavours nonetheless. The soup is pretty much your typical Asian stock soup so nothing really out of the ordinary.

The Chicken Satay’s here aren’t grilled, instead its deep fried. So it has this crispiness to it, however it isn’t quite the same as the smokiness of a grilled satay stick. The peanut sauce is pleasant, with a wonderful nutty aroma I preferred it to the actual satay to be honest. That’s not to say it’s a bad satay dish, just different.

O’Town’s Nasi Lemak comes with a very tasty Chicken Curry. I loved the creaminess of it, yet not overpowering with the spices. A good balance of ingredients. The sambal is nothing really to run home about but definitely above average.

When ordering the Assam Laksa we were worried they would use sardines instead of other fish, luckily our worries were squashed as they use small fishes but definitely not sardines. Sardines give off a very strong fishy flavour which, more often than not, overpowers the Laksa flavours. Here the Assam Laksa has a lighter soup base taste but it’s one of the better Assam Laksa’s around.

The Ice Teh Tarik is not bad a bit light as I actually prefer a stronger “Teh” flavour. When talking to one of the staff, it appears that initially the Teh Tarik here did indeed have a stronger tea taste to it but people complained (what!). In any case, the staff mentioned you can request for a stronger Teh Tarik if that’s to your liking.

Impressions
O’Town makes a mark in Glen Waverley, adding to the Malaysian restaurant scene and yet all have slightly different styles of Malaysian dishes due to their local origins (e.g Penang, Malacca, KL, Sarawak). The food here is on average pretty good, but nothing came across as amazing from the dishes we tried.

O’Town
19 Railway Parade N
Glen Waverley VIC 3150