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

Revisit: Turkish @ Ahmet's, Brisbane

I haven't had many opportunities to eat Turkish food since we moved overseas from Australia 5 years ago. In fact, I am quite certain that the very few times I've eaten anything Turkish in the previous 5 years were on trips back to Australia (actually we ate Turkish once in Tokyo). I'm sure that there are plenty of good Turkish eating places in Hong Kong, and I must make a point to check them out because I like Turkish food. On our very final evening in Brisbane during our very short trip there in July, we had dinner at Ahmet's Turkish Restaurant prior heading out to the airport for our return flight to Hong Kong. This was after walking around the CBD of Brissy and then walking to and around the South Bank area, so we had worked up quite an appetite for dinner. This was our second time dining at Ahmet's, and we'd liked it so much last time that we requested to eat there again. We'd arrived just before 6pm on a Saturday evening, yet the whole restaurant was already brimming full of people. Thankfully there was one table available for our group, and even though it was outside in the cool winter air, the gas heater near our table kept us warm. Unlike last time, it was easy to get the attention of one of the waitstaff as we were positioned near the entrance and the waitstaff were constantly in and out to service the large number of tables on the patio.

Turkish bread with Beetroot, Hommus and Baba Ghanoush dips. Everyone at the table each liked different dips, and I kept going back for more baba ghanoush:

Falafel. I still remember the first time I ever had falafels, and that was in NYC (hm, now I think about it, the only times I'd eaten falafels had been in NYC). These ones at Ahmet's were good, but quite different to the ones we've eaten before:

We got the Kid-sized Pide (oven-baked Turkish "pizza") for the boy. He loved it so much that he ate most of the pide by himself. 'Twas a shame that he got a pretty bad reaction to dinner only 2 hours later at the airport (thank goodness I had some antihistamines to administer immediately, but we had such a scare as he had never reacted like that before). We were told that the kitchen used sesame in their bread, and that Zak's pide would be cooked in the same oven, but we decided to be less strict and risk it, as we often have done in the past when eating out with Zak. That night we learnt our lesson and will not be so careless next time, and definitely not just before a flight!

Kidz Pide with cheese and chicken, thumbs up from our toddler's tastebuds (but thumbs down from his immune system):

Hubby's Iskender - oven roasted lamb on Turkish bread with traditional Iskender sauce, yoghurt and rice. Nice meal for lamb-lovers, but I can't be the only person to think that there's just a bit too much carbs on one plate. Turkish bread AND rice? If the generous serving of lamb meat doesn't fill the tum, then the carbs will certainly do it:

My order of Pilic Sehrazat - slow-cooked chicken, sautéed spinach, mushroom sauce with beetroot and pumpkin dips. Flavourful and moist chicken pieces with a creamy mushroom sauce. Thank goodness this one didn't come with any rice or bread as it was already quite filling without any carbs:

The 2.75-year-old and I took a little break from eating to check out the kitchen. Here's the corner where his pide came from...:

... and this is where the rest of the food came from:

Everyone was eager to have some Turkish sweets to finish the meal with, so we ordered the Turkish Dessert Tasting Plate as well as Chocolava (chocolate and hazelnut baklava) and Kazan Dibi (caramalised milk pudding, described in the menu as Turkish crème caramel). Some of us ordered Turkish Apple Tea too. I always find Turkish desserts to be too sweet, and these were no exception. However the rest enjoyed the sweets quite a lot.

The Turkish crème caramel (kazan dibi):

The dessert tasting plate which included baklava, pishmaniye (described as Turkish fairy floss), traditional rosewater Turkish delight, and dried figs macerated in some sweet liquor. The plate of the chocolate & hazelnut baklava is in the background:

We were treated to some lovely belly-dancing too, and I have photos of the performance (and of my FIL getting pulled up by the belly dancer to dance in front of everyone with her), but I'm not comfortable with showing so much skin on my G-rated blog. You'll just have to take my word for it. Great place for Turkish food (although not recommended for those who have nut and sesame allergies).

Ahmet's Turkish Restaurant
10/164 Grey Street
South Brisbane QLD 4101
Australia
Tel. + 61 7 3846 6699

Casual Sydney eats: Curry Tiger, Asian Bakeries, Bánh mì & Kebab

Taking a break from writing about our restaurant eats during our trip to Australia, here are some of the food we ate on the go, on the streets and at a food court/cafe.

Curry tiger @ Harry's Cafe de Wheels, Haymarket

I first read about the place and the pie on Perth blogger's site, thefoodpornographer, and was surprised that I haven't yet encountered this Harry's Cafe de Wheels shop in the familiar territory of the Haymarket area in Sydney. However as we approached this little streetside eatery late one morning during our Sydney trip, I realised we had indeed walked by this pie shop many times on previous Sydney trips, but never had any reason to take notice of it. Until now, that is. Although meat pie is a very popular and even iconic Australian food, the concept of a savoury pastry pie is still foreign to the Japanese (and Americans, who make up the majority of the expat population in Japan), so we haven't had much opportunities to eat meat pies in the past 4 years. I wouldn't say I'm a pie person, but reading about it on TFP a few months ago during Tokyo's coldest spring in 41 years conjured up a craving for a hearty hot meat pie. As it turned out, our trip to Sydney was to be during its winter season, so a hot meat pie would be very welcomed.

We shared one Curry Tiger Pie between us because as there were many other food we still wanted to eat elsewhere. It is a bit of a sight to behold, with the pie sitting underneath a pile of mashed potatoes and mushy peas, complete with a pool of dark gravy. I wish I could have taken a shot of the pie centre, but it got pretty messy once we dug into the pie. I remember the meat filling to be peppery but that it did not taste much like curry. I liked the chunky pieces of beef, which is a nice change from the minced beef with gristly bits that is usual in meat pies. The curry tiger was tasty and very filling.

Asian Bakeries, Haymarket

There are a number of popular Chinese bakeries along the main street of Sydney's Chinatown (Dixon Street) selling delicious cakes, pastries and bread, but I like going to the bakery facing Sussex Street in the East Ocean Arcade, a little shopping alley that connects Dixon and Sussex. I don't even know what the bakery is called, but I do know that the baked goods are pretty good and a little cheaper than the bakeries on Dixon Street which can be a bit of a tourist trap. This little bakery is very popular with a pretty high turnover, so there's always something fresh from the oven. On this occasion, we got a couple of new seasonal items, a Chestnut-flavoured Crepe, and a Glutinous Rice Ball with Black Sesame.

We came across another Asian bakery on Sussex Street in Haymarket, called Barby's Bakery. This one looked more commercialised and had better presentation than the unnamed bakery in East Ocean Arcade, so it was not surprising to find that the baked goods were considerably more expensive. We got a Durian Tiger Roll and a pack of Mini Pandan Chiffon Cakes, which were quite tasty but the flavours were very subtle. It was hard to detect the durian and pandan flavours. Nevertheless, it made a lovely accompaniment to our afternoon coffee at Starbucks.

Bánh Mì @ Phuong inside Eating World Food Court at the top end of Dixon Street

Almost a decade ago, my eldest sister used to live in Haymarket when she first moved to Sydney (hence my familiarity with the Haymarket area). The first time we visited her, she introduced us to this delicious Vietnamese Sandwich from Phuong Special Vietnamese, a tiny shop hidden inside a food court at the upper end of Dixon Street in Chinatown. It was really cheap - around AU$2 at the time - and made for a filling snack for a couple of uni students on holiday (wow, that feels like half a lifetime ago!). Although we've been back to Sydney a few times since then, we had actually forgotten about that bánh mì until we started thinking about what we wanted to eat during our stay in Sydney. We went searching for this food court, wondering if that banh mi shop was still operating - fortunately for us it was still running, and popular as ever even though prices had hiked up in the last 7 or so years. There were a few options available, including chicken, vegetarian and meatballs, and I got a Shredded Pork Roll for a little over AU$4. It was really yummy, with crusty baguette, fresh vegetables, and the nicely seasoned shredded pork (skin?).

Kebab @ the Eastgardens Shopping Centre food court

We spent half of our final day in Sydney doing last minute shopping for supplies at Eastgardens Shopping Centre before our night flight back to Tokyo. The shopping centre was of course well-equipped with a food court, where we had lunch with my sisters, brother-in-law, nephew and niece. It was nice to get together one last time before we left Sydney. We all have such different tastes, and our meal choices ranged from a 12-piece bucket from KFC (my sister, who's breast-feeding her 4 month old baby, polished off 8 pieces of chicken on her own! I don't know where it goes because she's naturally very slim), to a rice bowl from a Japanese shop, to our doner kebab from a kebab place. Our Mixed Kebab (chicken and lamb) with sour cream and garlic sauce was simply delicious.

I still have a couple more posts about our Sydney eats before I'm done with writing about the trip, so stay tuned!

Turkish @ Istanbul, Tokyo

Many foodies would agree that some of the best dining experiences in the world can be had in Japan, and this is quite true, but it is no secret that the international cuisines are somewhat limitedly available here. With the exception of French, Italian, Indian and Korean cuisines (or a hybrid Japanised version of them) which are quite excellently represented in Japan, it would be hard to find restaurants that specialise in authentically prepared dishes from, say, Greece, any South-East Asian countries and Russia, just to name a few. Even Chinese food - though there are many Chinese restaurants and eateries around, it is a bit of a hit-and-miss game (mostly miss) to find a good one, even in a big city like Tokyo. We've had plenty of dining experiences in almost four years in Japan, but we've yet to eat any Middle-Eastern food. One of my sister's colleagues from Turkey brought her work mates to a Turkish restaurant in Shinjuku, Istanbul, and Honey gave a good report about the food, with the only complaint being that it was pretty pricey (~4000yen per person). Rob and I were overdue for a date, so two Sundays ago, we went to the restaurant branch in Ginza for a Turkish meal.

The restaurant is run by a Turkish lady with young Turkish waiters, who spoke only Turkish and Japanese, and we took this as a good sign. It's quite a nice restaurant, with separate areas suitable for a noisy group or an intimate meal, as well as bar seats. We ordered some Apple Tea, which was very apple-y, and Turkish Coffee, which packed a pretty strong punch for such a tiny cup.

To start with, we got a Kucuk Meze (a mixed appetisers plate of four different dips), and enjoyed Ekmek (Turkish pita bread) with Cerkez Tavuk (chicken and walnut dip), Humus (chickpeas and tahini dip), Acul Ezeme (an Anatolian spicy and herby vegetable paste) and Patlcan Tarama (fried eggplant and yogurt dip). They were all pretty nice, but we both liked the flavoursome red acul ezeme paste best. We also ordered Midye Dolmasi (mussels stuffed with pilaf) which was delicious.

For our mains, Rob ordered Beyti Kebab (ground lamb and beef kebab wrapped in lavash bread) and I got the Iskender Kebab (doner kebab with tomato sauce and yogurt). Apparently Iskender Kebab is a popular Turkish dish, but I have never had it before, and Rob thought it was something I ought to try. Both dishes were full of flavour and tasty.

We had two desserts: Incir Dolma (baked dried figs stuffed with walnuts and Turkish ice cream) and Cezerye (a truffle-like dessert made of carrot, ginger, coconut and cinammon). Both desserts were really good and not too rich, which is a fine way to finish a big meal. I favoured the stuffed fig whereas Rob preferred the truffles.

I had a good time, enjoying good Turkish food and lovely company with my wonderful hubby. We should really be going on dates more often while we still can.

Turkish @ Ahmet's, Brisbane (Australia)

A couple of weeks ago, we were in Brisbane for a few days to attend a wedding. On our first evening in Brisbane, Rob's dad and his then-bride-to-be, Liz, brought us, Tess (Rob's aunt) and Chris (Liz's son) to a gorgeously decorated Turkish restaurant called Ahmet's located in Southbank of Brisbane. This was where Rob's dad and his then-fiancee enjoyed their first date, so it was a pretty special place for them.

The interior of the restaurant is very colorful with lavish Turkish ornaments, table cloths and patterned cushions. It's no surprise then to see that Ahmet's won the "Best Themed Restaurant" award in the Brisbane Restaurant and Catering Queensland awards for three years in a row. This restaurant is quite large, which is good if you have a large group or if you want to hold functions at this restaurant. However, given its size, it would be necessary for the restaurant to be adequately staffed to ensure prompt and attentive service. Even though this was a week night, the restaurant had a good number of patrons and we found that sometimes it was difficult to get the attention of the busy waitstaff. However, the service was friendly and polite, which is always nice to have. The menu offered plenty of Turkish grub, mostly meat but also vegetarian options are available. There are soups for around AU$10, platters of meze (Turk finger food) ranging in price from AU$15 to $23, pide (open-baked Turkish bread with toppings aka Turkish pizza) around AU$20, guvec (Turkish casseroles) for around AU$22, and char-grilled items like lamb cutlets and shish between AU$24 and $30. Of course, the usual Turkish items like moussaka, iskender and kebabs are also available.

As usual, Rob and his dad have eyes that are bigger than their stomachs, and they went for the Ahmet's Sultan (Prince) Feast (AU$37pp) (dad-in-law actually wanted the Kiral (King) Feast, but somehow we managed to talk him out of it). The 'feast' required at least four people ordering it, so Liz and Tess were roped into partaking the banquet and I got away with getting to order what I wanted (I had a taste of everything in the banquet so it wasn't like I missed out). For starters in the 'feast', Turkish bread and dips were served. There were four dips: olive, jajik (a yoghurt/cucumber mixture much like the Indian raita), hot & spicy beetroot and avocado. The avocado dip was rich, tasty and no doubt my favourite of the four. The jajik dip was my second favourite: cool, refreshing and a nice contrast to the avocado dip. And the Turkish bread was so good, reminding me of the times (when we were still living in Perth) when Rob and I would go to the nearest Turkish diner to grab a fresh and hot Turkish bread and hommus for an afternoon snack. Ah the simple things in life..

Around the same time, my order of Karidesli (Prawn) Pide (AU$21) arrived, and toppings included prawns, rocket, garlic, basil, tomato and a lemon butter glaze. Of course, I asked for the optional chilli to be included. The pide was tasty - like an Italian pizza sans cheese - albeit a tad greasy which I assume was due to the lemon butter.

Turkish Bread with 4 dips; and Karidesli Pide:


Next for the banquet were the Lamb Guvec and Chicken Guvec (slow-cooked claypot casseroles) were served with Turkish-style rice. The guvec contained the respective meat and vegetables like eggplant, zucchini, onion, carrot, potatoes and mushrooms. It was nice, even the lamb one, considering that I don't really enjoy eating lamb meat. The slow-cooking method did well to tenderise the lamb meat and remove the strong characteristic 'lambey' odor that I dislike.

The next part of the Sultan Feast was a platter of Chicken Skewers, Lamb Skewers, Lamb Cutlets and Adana (skewers of ground meat). The lamb cutlets were juicy and tender, the skewered meat were gloriously spicy, and the adana tasted just like sausages. We had this platter with Coban Salatsi, a salad with tomatoes, Spanish onion, cucumber, parsley, olives, lemon dressing and fetta cheese.

Lamb and Chicken Guvec; and the platter of meat:


The final part of the feast was the ubiquitous Turkish Delight with tea and coffee. The delights were extremely sweet - too sweet, actually - however everyone else but Rob and I seem to appreciate it. Perhaps our threshold for sweetness is a lot lower than most people's sweet tooth.

Turkish Delights for dessert:


It was a good meal with good company. It had been awhile since we ate good Turkish food, and this is another reason why we love multiculturalism in Australia.

Sydney Dine-outs - Jap, M'sian, Turk

Fujiya Japanese Restaurant, Haymarket

On the eve of Chinese New Year, my sister took us to Fujiya Japanese Restaurant on George Street nearby her apartment in Haymarket. We decided that going for a non-Chinese restaurant would ensure that it wouldn't be packed for this festive occasion. I thought the menu was reasonably priced - neither cheap like Taka nor pricey like Tsunami. There were lots to choose from, ranging from the usual sushi, sashimi, rice and udon to the more un-normal stuff like soft-shelled crabs and crumbed oysters.

Octopus balls (takoyaki) are quite popular in Sydney and Melbourne - there are stalls in shopping malls and in the open market areas selling just this stuff. We ordered takoyaki and soft-shelled crab as entree to share between the three of us.

Takoyaki:


Soft-shelled crab:


For mains, Rob ordered the katsudon set and I went for the sushi udon set.

Katsu:


Sushi udon:


From memory, the total of our meals came to around $54 for the three of us. The restaurant's interior was nice and spacious with wooden floors and furnitures. There are bigger tables on the perimeter of the floor next to the windows (the restaurant is on the first floor) and smaller tables with partitions for more intimate setting towards the middle of the restaurant. Japanese waitresses are always polite, so you can be assured of a good service - just be prepared for the language barrier. Fujiya's worth a visit if you happen to be in the area.


Makoto Sushi Bar, Chatswood

One of my friends live in the suburbs near Chatswood, which is about a 1/2hr train ride north from Central Station. Oh man, catching the train at Central Station is quite an experience but that's another story altogether. Anyway she suggested this Japanese place called Makoto which has a sushi train which she says is the best she's had. She reckons that the sushi trains we have in Perth (like Jaws) don't even come close to comparing the stuff you can get here.

You can't make a booking at this place. It works on a similar principle as many dimsum/yumcha places do - you write your name down on the sheet of paper and the number of people, and your number is called when there are seats available for you. She suggests we meet at 8pm for dinner, the reason for which is that there's usually a wait for a seat and she was hoping that the line wouldn't be as long if we had a late-ish dinner. And boy, did we wait - we waited 40minutes for our seats! We were absolutely starving by the time we sat down (heh, and probably contributes to why we think the food tastes so good too). There's a policy that you get a free sushi plate if you wait for more than 30minutes for a seat.

The food was fresh and very nice - although I think if we came in closer to dinner time, we would have more variety to choose from. I think our favourite was this grilled fish sushi where the fish was 'grilled' using a blow torch - Rob said it tasted like Hungry Jack's trademarked flame-grilled meats. Yummy. Nihon no tabemono ga totemo sukidesu (I hope that makes sense). We had maybe 16 plates between Rob and myself, and I think that came to about $45. I can understand why this is a very popular place.








Chinta Ria Restaurant, Darling Harbour

We wanted to take Lynn out to a nice dinner as a thank you for showing us around and letting us stay at her place. She highly recommended a Malaysian restaurant called Chinta Ria at Cockle Bay Wharf, Darling Harbour. She loves the coconut rice and the Hot and Sour soup (aka Szechuan soup).

Chinta Ria is definitely marketted to the more well-off. Whilst the food taste authentic enough, it's definitely targetted at the non-Malaysian people because us Malaysians know that good Malaysian food don't cost that much! But it's a nice place for a treat :).

There's a huge buddha statue to greet you when you step in the doorway. The waiters are from Malaysia or Singapore which contributes to the authenticity of the food I suppose. Service is faultless, and it's a nicely decorated restaurant. If you're lucky enough, you can choose to have a table outside with a view of the river or enjoy the atmosphere and music inside the restaurant.



After much musing over the menu, we decided to have the following (descriptions taken from their menu available online:

Ella's Wrap ($9) - prawns stuffed with minced prawns, herbs and vegetables sealed in a fine pastry and snap fried. I only had a tiny taste due to my phobia of greasy foods causing my stomach problems. It was nice and not at all greasy like I expected it to be. Nice and crispy.



Hot 'n' Sour soup ($8) - tofu, shredded black fungus, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and preserved cabbage in a spicy egg-blend soup. This soup was served in a large bowl, so it was worth the $8. I like Szechuan soups and Chinta Ria did this soup well so this gets my thumbs up.



Sambal Fish ($24) - Rockling fillets in a light chilli paste with onion and tomato. Not sambal as we know it - i.e. not very spicy at all. Real sambal fish (especially my mum's) has a real bite to it. This one was even almost sweet. I guess if this place wishes to attract mainly non-Asian diners, it can't serve super spicy foods.



Beef Rendang ($20.80) - beef, curry paste and coconut milk. Lynn and I agree that this is not beef rendang. Beef rendang is quite a dry curry and the meat is cooked until it is tender and almost in shreds. The beef rendang at Chinta Ria had a lot more liquid to it. It's just not the same as the traditional rendang, but it was still nice.



Coconut rice ($3pp). Much like the rice served with nasi lemak. This is served per head, not per bowl much to Rob's delight. Rob loves nasi lemak :)

All up we paid around $72 for the three of us, which is reasonable but I know we can get a lot of these food for much cheaper elsewhere.


Efes Turkish Pizzas & Kebabs, Newtown

One of Rob's friends live in Newtown, and took us around King Street. We were in search of a nice place to eat, but most of the places she recommended were not open for lunch. There were many other restaurants to choose from - Thai, Vietnamese, cafe-style food, kebabs and Japanese just to name a few. So after much deliberation over what to have we settled on what was in front of us (mostly because we were already starving!), which happened to be Efes (although, if I had my way, we'd probably end up in another Japanese restaurant ;P). Quite a cozy little cafe, mainly catering for take-aways I think. Efes has a selection of pides (turkish pizzas) and kebabs to choose from. And apparently Apple Tea is a Turkish specialty too - I certainly didn't know that. Obviously we had to try it. It was so sweet! I guess I didn't expect the sweetness to hit me (I was expecting some sort of herbal tea). To give an idea of the taste, I think it would taste quite similar to clarified apple juice if you heat up the juice.



We ordered one chicken kebab with the lot ($7) and one vegetarian pide made with potatoes and egg ($10) to share between the three of us. The kebab tastes pretty much like most kebabs we've had, but we loved the pide. The pide was served folded, similar to the calzone pizzas you find in Italian diners.