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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Monday 30 April 2012

Gourmet sandwiches @ EARL Canteen, Melbourne

There's a lot to love about the humble sandwich when it's made well: it contains protein, carbs, some vegetables, and you only need a pair of hands to eat it. It is easy to make your own (hubby reckons I make the best sandwiches) but there's a special place in my tummy for gourmet sandwiches that cost a little bit more than the usual ready-made ones, but taste so much better. EARL Canteen was opened up by a husband-and-wife team who were waiters at fancy restaurants, where they watched chefs make informal staff snacks using ingredients from the restaurant kitchens and two pieces of bread. The 'canteen' has a clean and minimalist design, and we got great service from a guy who was more than willing to help us with allergy enquiries. EARL is where you can get restaurant-quality sandwiches, like the Pork Belly Sandwich, Corned Wagyu Sandwich and Harissa Lamb Sandwich. There is also a range of takeaway sandwiches, wraps and salads, but we were there for the pricier made-to-order gourmet sandwiches.


Hubby's Duck Confit Sandwich - confit duck, caramelised fig, walnuts, onion jam, radicchio, watercress. The duck was so soft and tender, contrasted by the crunchy walnuts and crispy vegetables, and I loved the slight sweetness from the fig and onion jam:

I got the Ocean Trout Sandwich - poached ocean trout, artichoke, saffron braised fennel, baby spinach and dill vinaigrette. This one was easily my favourite of the two, and our 3-year-old heartily agreed:

The ocean trout sandwich cross-section, where you can see the fennel:

It was a quick lunch, but we were well-fueled for our tasks ahead that day.

EARL Canteen
500 Bourke Street (enter via Lt Bourke St)
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Australia
Tel. +61 3 9600 1995

EARL Canteen on Urbanspoon

Friday 27 April 2012

Spanish tapas @ Movida Aqui, Melbourne

It seems to me from our recent trip to Australia, that small plated tapas-style eating is in vogue in Melbourne, be it Japanese, Greek or Spanish (this post). Movida is one of Melbourne CBD's most popular restaurants, proven by how difficult it is to secure a table even when booking a few weeks in advance. The newer Movida Aqui is also popular, but it is also larger so it was easier to make reservations. Our third day in Melbourne saw poor hubby mostly bedridden from a nasty stomach bug, but he recovered enough to still honour our Monday night booking at Movida Aqui.

The view towards the kitchen upon entering the entrance to Movida:

The restaurant is sleek and spacious with a quirky design: the bar decorated with colourful milk crates and the walls covered with vintage posters. Movida Aqui seems great for both large groups and intimate company. The service we received was friendly yet professional, and our waitress was helpful with recommendations and allergy-related requests. The menu was not terribly long but it was nicely varied to allow for some quality sampling.

Sangria, in a large glass!

The complimentary bread basket and olive oil. The 3.5-year-old would've finished the whole basket if we'd let him:

Sardina - imported Spanish artisan 'Cuca' sardine with tomato on toast. Full of flavour and texture:

Bocadillo de Calamares - calamari sandwich with Basque guindilla and mayonnaise. Simple but delicious:

Empanadilla - braised beef brisket in sherry pastries. I loved the thick crunchy pastry! The beef was very tender too:

Gambas a la Sidra - prawns cooked in terracotta with garlic and cider. Also very yummy, and the prawn broth was so good with the bread:

Espinacas - sauteed spinach and chickpeas. The obligatory vegetable dish which turned out to be very good. My son wasn't convinced though:

A shot of the kitchen as I was making my way back to the table from the ladies' room:

The food was very tasty and of good quality. My only complaint would be the small serving size (I'm not sure if the glutton in me will get used to the idea of tapas and 'small plates' eating anytime soon). If not for hubby recovering from his tummy bug, we would have ordered many more dishes which would no doubt have put a much bigger dent on our credit card bill.

Movida Aqui
Level 1
500 Bourke Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia
(entrance also accessible via stairs from Little William St)
Tel. +61 3 9663 3038

MoVida Aqui and Terraza on Urbanspoon

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Peking Duck @ Cuisine Cuisine (The Mira), Hong Kong

Last Wednesday night, we celebrated not one birthday, not two birthdays, but three birthdays! Hubby's (twin) aunts held their joint 50th a few days prior in Perth, and we were terribly disappointed to have missed it by one lousy day (we flew back to Hong Kong the day before the party). Our flights had been booked and paid for a couple of months before these aunts announced their party plans, and it proved difficult and very expensive to change our flight bookings. So we told them we'd take them out to dinner when they were in HK again. It turned out that the hubby of one of the aunts had his birthday on the following day, and it was quite a treat having a triple birthday celebration dinner. Our original plan to bring them to a swish French restaurant fell through as that restaurant had a no-child-under-8 policy, so instead we booked at Cuisine Cuisine at The Mira, a 2-Michelin-starred restaurant serving modern Cantonese food. We'd been there before, so we knew it was not going to disappoint (I really dig the high chair that our boy got to sit on). We got excellent service (all the staff were informed of our son's allergies so I didn't need to repeat myself), and the food was delicious. Since we had a bigger group than last time, we took the opportunity to try out one of Cuisine Cuisine's signature dish, the Peking duck, which had to be ordered at least one day in advance. The Peking duck courses didn't fail to impress everyone at the table, and our well-travelled aunts declared it to be one of the best they've had so far.

A special trolley was wheeled to near our table, and the waitress brought the whole roasted duck to show it to us:

The roasted duck was then returned to the trolley, where the chef carved up the crispy skin and flesh:

These slices of roast duck were the best we've yet encountered (and we've had a lot in several different cities!), better than Spring Deer, better than the one we had at the famed Quanjude in Beijing itself. Perfectly crispy skin and succulent tender flesh:

We enjoyed the duck with three different kinds of pancakes, which were presented in three tiers of bamboo steamers:

The vegetable sticks to go with the duck inside the pancakes (see here for an image of how I typically assemble the duck and vegetables on the pancake):

There were a couple of options for the second course of the Peking duck, and we chose Sang Choy Bao. Flavourful minced duck with lettuce cups just visible in the background:

Fried Red Rice with Scallops and Seafood, enjoyed by everyone:

Deep-fried Mashed Taro Ring, which I loved last time and couldn't resist ordering again that night. It was quite a novel dish for our relatives who'd never seen this dish before:

Deep-fried King Prawns with a honey chilli sauce. Succulent and juicy prawns with crispy lotus root - yummy!

The restaurant provided a complimentary birthday cake, which was a deliciously light mango mousse cake, perfectly enjoyable even after a big dinner:

We all had a great time savouring good food and enjoying wonderful company, and we all stayed out far too late for a school night. And our boy was such a well-behaved angel which made the night all the more successful.

Cuisine Cuisine at The Mira
3/F, The Mira Hong Kong
118 Nathan Road
Tsimshatsui, Kowloon
Tel. +85 2 2315 5222

Monday 23 April 2012

Mod Greek, Turkish and Middle Eastern @ St. Katherine's, Victoria (Australia)

On our second night in Melbourne, only a few hours after our lunch feast on Malaysian food, we feasted on Greek food with some friends of mine. Two of them are girlfriends who went to primary school together with me back in Perth - which I just realised was almost 20 years ago! Incidentally, both of my friends married a couple of guys I went to university with, so that night's gathering was a bit of a reunion party! My friends are long-time Melbourne residents, and they recommended St. Katherine's in the eastern suburbs not too far away from central Melbourne. This is one of the restaurants opened up by the highly acclaimed George Calombaris, and it serves modern Greek, Turkish and Middle Eastern food. Dinner was a casual affair, and the dishes are meant to be shared. Service was pretty good, and we were well-informed on which dishes were safe for our allergic son to enjoy. We had a lot of food on the table that night that it felt like we'd ordered everything on the menu!

KFC - Katherine's fried chicken with BBQ sauce and Japanese mayonnaise. A favourite amongst the boys, including the 3-year-old:

Bastilla with pumpkin, cinnamon, Maltese pork sausage and almonds. It didn't look like the traditional bastilla, but it was thoroughly enjoyable:

Lebanese Lamb Sausage, with lemon, hummus and thyme:

One of the pides (Turkish pizza) with Maltese pork sausage, onion rings, tomato, kasar and mustard mayo. Yum!

The only vegetarian dish: Leaves - with hazelnuts, dehydrated shankleesh, sunflower seeds and pomegranate. Ironically, in spite of the dish's name, it wasn't very leafy (aside from some torn herbs). It was delicious, and I really enjoyed the nutty flavour and the crunchy texture:

Another pide with torn basturma, mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes and basil. Another yummy one:

Cinnamon Rubbed Pork Belly with roast peanut sauce. Delicious crackling:

"Off the rotisserie" - slow-roasted lamb and chicken were on that day's menu. Very tasty, but at this point I was starting to feel very full!

Grilled Quail with cumin, smoked eggplant, tahini and pumpkin seeds:

I was stuffed at this point, but everyone else's tummies still had room for dessert.

Peanut Butter Parfait with chocolate sorbet, baklava crumbs and orange blossom foam. The soft creamy parfait was nicely contrasted with the crunchy coating. The chocolate sorbet was chocolatey but not too rich. I wasn't sure what to do with the foam:

One of my friends ordered the Walnut Cake with figs, yoghurt jelly and lemon sorbet, which I did not try, but I loved the presentation so I couldn't resist taking a shot:

We enjoyed good food and great company with old friends. St. Kat's is a pretty popular restaurant, and I am inclined to say that reservations are recommended.

St. Katherine's
26 Cotham Road
Kew VIC 3101
Australia
Tel. +61 3 9207 7477

St Katherine's on Urbanspoon

Friday 20 April 2012

Chocolate heaven @ Max Brenner Chocolate Bar (QV), Melbourne

After the yummy Malaysian lunch with my Melburnian cousins at the QV, we headed across the green over to Max Brenner for dessert and coffee. I recall our first (and only other) experience at Max Brenner during hubby's first trip to Melbourne, and the specially designed hug mug was the cutest object I'd ever encountered at a cafe. I was pleased to see how much the menu has expanded since then (as I expect should happen over six years), but not as pleased to see that it had become even more expensive! We didn't complain though, because it was all very yummy, and we liked having the choice of dark, milk or white chocolate.

Hubby got the Suckao with dark chocolate, which is basically a DIY hot chocolate. There's hot milk kept warm in a holder that resembled a fondue pot, dark chocolate chips, and additional milk. Hubby could make his hot chocolate as chocolaty or milky as he wanted. The metal spoon doubled as a straw too:

I had trouble deciding which of the nine varieties of hot chocolate to have, and the Chocolate with Crunchy Waffle Balls was recommended by the girl taking my order. This turned out to be a delight to drink, crunching on tiny spheres of chocolaty waffle balls floating with every sip of the hot chocolate drink. I was told that the balls had a special coating that kept them from melting and getting soggy. I like the American Max Brenner's name for this drink - Choco Pops Hot Chocolate:

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar (QV)
25-27 Red Cape Lane
Level 2, QV Square
210 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne VIC 3000
Australia
Tel. +61 3 9663 6000

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Malaysian @ PappaRich (QV), Melbourne

One of the foodie things I was looking forward to during our trip to Australia was eating lots of good Malaysian food. Hong Kong is great in general for dining opportunities, but one thing HK lacks is the availability of good Malaysian restaurants. On our second day in Melbourne, we were supposed to meet up with my cousins and their spouses at a café in the QV for Sunday brunch, but said café wasn't open for business that day. We had nothing to worry because my cousins had a back-up plan, and we traipsed over to the newly opened PappaRich - which was fitting for our group as my cousins and I are Malaysian-born. PappaRich is a Malaysian restaurant franchise that already has 50 outlets in Malaysia, and this restaurant at the QV is the first international franchise. We got there just before the lunch rush, but the restaurant was already filled to the brim (and it's not small).

PappaRich at the QV:

The kitchens adjacent near the entrance. One kitchen space for show, with three stations: toast (out of frame to the left), satay grill and roti workspace. Another kitchen out the back where everything else gets prepared:

The roti guy working the prata:

The restaurant space is quite nice, and waitstaff were pleasant enough, but I found the service to be a little patchy. Cousin D's boiled egg took ages to arrive, long after his toast had grown cold. The kitchen had run out of barley so we couldn't get our barley drinks. However the food was delicious which made up for the patchy service. The menu was quite extensive with so much to choose from, but it didn't take us long to choose a rice dish, a noodle plate and a roti dish.

The boy chose fried rice, Nasi Goreng, with fried egg and fried chicken. Tasty with a decent smattering of mixed vegetables:

Hubby went for one of his favourite Malaysian noodles, Char Kuey Teow. It came with see-ham (cockles)! The char kuey teow was a tasty winner:

I ordered the Roti Prata with curry, and the two roti came served with dal, chicken curry and sweet chutney. The handmade prata was just like the ones in Malaysia:

Cousin J ordered a large plate of Satay to share, and it was yummy! The beef one was tastier than the chicken, which is strange coming from someone who usually prefers white meat over red:

This was a yummy lunch, and it was fantastic catching up with my cousins who I haven't seen in years! (And it was lovely meeting cousin D's bride-to-be.)

The queue for PappaRich after we left the restaurant:

PappaRich QV
Level 2, shop 11
QV Square
210 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Australia
Tel. +61 3 9654 2682

PappaRich Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Monday 16 April 2012

Japanese @ Izakaya Den, Melbourne

After 2 weeks in the land of Oz, we're back in Hong Kong! One thing is for sure: a trip back home is never a vacation, with so many family and friends to see. It was great to catch up with familiar faces from our pre-expat days, and we got to eat good food too! We took the red-eye flight to Melbourne, arriving in the wee hours of the morning, and we spent most of the first day trying to catch up on lost sleep. For dinner that first night, I deliberately chose somewhere that didn't take bookings so that we could be flexible on whether or not we go out for dinner. Izakaya Den is quite highly reviewed, and I was feeling 'homesick' for some good Japanese food so it was a no-brainer choice. I'd read online that finding the izakaya would be difficult, but I did my research so in spite of the lack of signage, I knew to look for it at the basement level when we got to the address. It is an izakaya, so I was a little concerned about having our 3-year-old tagging along to this hip and happening 'drinking' establishment on a Saturday night, but the owner was perfectly fine with it and showed no concern of our underaged dining companion.

Down a flight of stairs, past some curtains, and there we were in Izakaya Den. The queue began with those people sitting down by the jut in the wall. Lighting was dark and dim, so photography was a bit of a challenge:

When we arrived, Izakaya Den was already full and buzzing, with a not-so-short queue. We waited perhaps 20 minutes, but during that time, we were given the drinks menu, our drink orders taken and served, which probably helped increase our patience during the waiting period. We were then informed that some space in the bar had become available, should we choose to take it; there was a 45-minute to 1-hour wait for a table. We briefly wondered if having our meal at the bar was a good idea for our 3-year-old boy, but we also weren't prepared to wait so long for a table. We had nothing to worry about, as the bar space was actually quite comfortable.

At the bar, right next to the wooden box which held the sake:

We were also quite pleased to note that the Japanese owner had employed a Japanese staff, and hubby jumped at the opportunity to peruse his Japanese language skills. The service was signature of Japanese-style service - excellent and efficient. The staff are certainly well-trained to handle such crowd every night, and in spite of the busyness, our waitress took the time to help us to order dishes that are safe for our son who has multiple food allergies. The menu was fairly small but well-balanced, so there's something for every tastebuds. As typical of any izakaya, serving sizes are small (meant for snacking to accompany the drinks), so we got to try out a nice range of dishes.

Den Fried Chicken aka karaage, for the boy, who loved the accompanying mayonnaise more than the chicken! It was very tasty and very crispy, not unlike the ones we used to get in Japan:

Char-grilled Harvey Bay Scallops with Garlic Butter Soy Sauce, which was nothing short of beautiful. The scallops were tender and juicy, and the flavours were enhanced with a lightly charred surface:

Nashi & Broccolini 'Shira-ae'. This was surprisingly good! The crispy pear added a lovely contrast in texture to the crunchy broccolini, and the pear's subtle sweetness offset the creamy tofu dressing quite nicely:

Zucchini & Pickled Ginger Tempura - another great vegetable dish which our boy ate with gusto once it was cool enough to consume. The ginger flavour was present but only in a subtle and complementing manner:

Apple Millefeuille, which was beautifully presented with several layers of apple sorbet alternating with apple slices that appeared to have been roasted or grilled. Hubby and I reckon that the sorbet had been made with frozen puréed Fuji apples - those beautiful big super-sweet ones we used to get in Japan:

We quite enjoyed our first dining experience in Melbourne, in spite of the wait at the beginning. It is a little pricey to dine here (those little dishes do add up!), but we received good service and ate fine food, so we felt it was worth it. Izakaya Den is a very popular spot in Melbourne, and for good reasons!

Izakaya Den
Basement Level
114 Russell St
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Australia
Tel. +61 3 9654 2977
Izakaya Den on Urbanspoon