Eat Like Ushi

Over a manly discussion about ribs (coincidentally at Porky's in Camden), my mate told me about some kind of bbq meat contest he went to in London earlier that year. Apparently for a small fee, ribs and alcohol were served at 10 different competitors, of which you were entitled to try all 10. Sounds like a great idea - I'm disappointed I missed it. His favourite was from Blue Boar, a smokehouse in a rather fancy Westminster hotel the InterContinental. It definitely wasn't the expected setting for some grimy ribs, but a birthday occasion and upmarket cocktails brought us there.

After a couple of hours sitting at the bar with a variety of £12 cocktails, we were ushered into the main dining room and their big cushy booths.

- The Blue Boar Ribs - served lovingly in a cup, they were crispy, meaty and finger-loving. More BBQ flavour than Pitt Cue Co. Not necessarily better, but different;
- Pulled Lamb Shoulder - lovely and soft although the flavour wasn't very strong. I probably liked the pickle the most on the tray.

It is a far way to go for ribs as the other dishes had trouble keeping up with them in terms of quality. Given the location (not the most convenient for a lot of people), the higher prices and such, you'd probably be better off going for ribs at Pitt (if they ever bring them back) or somewhere else. But if nicer mood and dirty food is on the cards, this place is probably the only one.

Afterwards you can wander through the hotel and see the absolutely incredible display of (what looks like) silvered toys, from X-men, Masters of the Universe, Transformers to Pixar.

Next time I would order ribs, ribs and more ribs. The main dishes were good, but everyone agreed they didn't compare to the ribs (including pulled pork, pulled lamb and the tiny serve of chicken main).

There isn't much finer dining choice around Beau Vallon (perhaps not so much around Mahe itself). When the Tripadvisor #1 coincides with being down a couple of streets from where you stay, and the old Frenchman tells you that they have the best food on the island you feel compelled to try it.

The restaurant doesn't look much during the day (it isn't open during this time). An empty carpark that looks like somewhere kids would hang out with their Commodores, a white walled building and a walkway to the entrance on the other side. But at night, the lights give it a smoother atmosphere, coupled with the fact it's on a relatively major road to and from the beach, and couples and locals wander in the barmy evening off into the darkness.

The staff are welcoming here. Reservations are necessary. The menu is noticeably more expensive and more catered to outsiders than everything else around. It's a mix of international/seafood/Creole with touches of Italian/French. One of the few times I was silly enough to forget a photo of the menu. A good amount of the seafood is local

- local fish soup SCR100
- octopus salad SCR160
- seafood platter with lobster SCR700

Everything was nice without being exceptional. You can go here for a nice date night and something different from the rest of town. Honestly there probably isn't that much around Beau Vallon to pick from if you were staying for a while without cooking facilities. I personally would prefer the market local food or buying freshly caught fish, but once in a while it's a relaxing change.

The day after returning to Melbourne from London, the first meal out was Chimac. It was sold as fusion Mexican-Korean with a fried chicken focus. That sounds alright doesn't it?

It seems the area behind Queen Vic Market has developed into a series of (mainly Korean) Asian restaurants. Maybe they've been here for a while but I'm just slow to catch up with the Korean street food movement. Maybe it's simply because I don't mind Queen Vic all that appealing, and there Wednesday evening summer markets have really ordinary festival-style food.

- Spicy Pork and Bulgogi Tacos - $15 for 2 tacos? Times are changing;
- Fried Dumpling - don't remember them to be honest. So presumably standard, not bad, not great;
- Chimac Chicken (bloody sweet and ultra crispy) - chicken is fine, the sauces are sticky and tasty. Comfort food.

It's social food. It's okay without being great. It's probably expensive for what you're getting. I think the marketing is probably capitalising on the reputation of the Kogi food truck in LA. But it's working and I wouldn't protest in coming back here.

Apparently Penny University refers to old coffee houses in London where people paid a penny for coffee. Anything London-related piques my interest these days, although London coffee is notoriously quite average (with the exception of a reputed few run by Australians). Local new cafes are always welcome, and on their second day of opening it certainly caught my attention as I walked past aimlessly.

I've been a few times and tried several things. It's great for the daytime (odd-hour employed) people who want somewhere to sit, somewhere to eat, relaxing atmosphere and to wifi their laptops.

It isn't cheap, and I'm not especially fond of Sunday, public holiday and credit card surcharges. But what can you do.

I've had coffee here once (I'm not a coffee drinker) and it was exceptionally bitter. If you ask me that usually means it's burnt, but I'm certainly not an expert. Maybe it's just a unique type of bean. The soy chai latte is average standard too (for outside Melbourne) - creamy, sweet and quite a lot of cinnamon. On the other hand, the mixed berry smoothie is great - sour yoghurt, lots of blended berries and topped with pistachios. I definitely approve.

- Cazuela (soft poached eggs, spicy harissa baked beans, greens, pistachios, dukkah, labneh) - simple dish, very tomato flavoured, nice;
- Magic Mushroom (pan tossed salad of truffled mushrooms, olive oil poached potato, baby chard, asparagus, chevre with leek & parmesan pancake) - I think too much white truffle oil is lathered across which overpowers the flavours;
- Mr Penny (breakfast burger of fluffy cheddar scrambles, streaky pialligo smoked bacon, spinach, penny's tomato salsa) - burger version of a big breakfast;
- Croissant French Toast (with caramelised banana, cinnamon, mascarpone & maple syrup) - enormous serve of heavily sweet and buttery components. It's very nice but trying to finish it is an exercise in overindulgence;
- Eggs Your Way (free-range poached) with side of Breakfast Pudding (black sticky rice, coconut, grilled mango, nut brittle) - given the supposed London connection, I thought I'd ask if they did black pudding. The waitress asked the chef who said yes, and came back with this. Miscommunication. Lesson learnt. Nonetheless the pudding is nice, not much coconut milk/flavour as you'd expect after having black sticky rice in Asian desserts. I suppose it's meant to be the healthy option.

The atmosphere is nice, the food is good (without being great) and it's somewhere local in Kingston to meet up and hangout.

Next time I would order things I haven't eaten there yet - Avo Dish or Miso-Cured Snapper for breakfast or Twice-Cooked Beef Rib for lunch. Washed down with a berry smoothie.

PappaRich is a Malaysia-cuisine based chain of restaurants. It posed a conundrum to me. My friend frequently went to one of the restaurants in Melbourne without hesitation. A family member of mine said it was not authentic and overpriced for what it was, but not terrible. Urbanspoon ratings for Melbourne and Sydney vary between 50-65%. Yet the recently opened Canberra one is rated 85% and has very frequent queues. I suppose you can explain the frequent queues being that there isn't anything like that around Civic (that I know of) and probably nothing that good. You could also say the higher rating is because locals here probably don't know any better, although I do find Dickson Noodle House to be good and better than some of the Chinatown standards (eg. China Bar). It won't reach the cheap prices of other cities' Asia restaurants, but it's certainly cheaper than those around Canberra.

PappaRich in Canberra is full of all sorts. Young, older, Asian, white, Indian... everybody comes and by 12pm on a Sunday there is a small mob outside waiting to get in. On a 40deg day, the place inside the Canberra Centre is remarkably well cooled. Not your typical Malaysia hot humid experience whilst eating chilli food.

The picture menu is very reminiscent of Chinese restaurants in Australia and some in Asia too, with big enticing pictures for the assumption that a lot of their clientele won't know what many of the dishes actually are or look like. They actually do have a nice range of drinks, mains and desserts and seem to cover all three bases quite well.

The ordering system requires you to write the menu item on a piece of paper and press a buzzer for a waiter to collect. The staff are friendly and happily answer questions about the dishes. Some people don't like the ordering system. Go somewhere else then.

- Matcha Rocks (green tea soya, red bean, green tea icecream) - lovely cold slush of lightly flavoured green tea milk and icecream. Kudos for not adding ridiculous amounts of sugar;
- Iced Red Bean - another simple drink presumably combining red bean icecream, red beans and milk;
- Roti Chanai with Tandoori Chicken - roti is a freshly cooked piece with a very mildly crisp outside and a thicker doughy inside. It's very good and I preferred it to the very thin flaky ones other places have. Tandoori was an odd combination (not my choice) but it was reasonable. The sambal sauce it came with was a little spicy. Next time curry beef will be the go for this;
- Pappa Special Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken & Sambal Prawns - it came out ridiculously fast, after about 3 mins. Like all nasi lemaks the ingredients are probably in trays ready to serve. I don't mind - it's how it is usually done. Coconut rice was good, chicken curry tender and tasty, sambal prawns a bit average and soft, sambal sauce good, salty ikan bilis great, roast peanuts topped it off. I'd prefer extra sauce and ikan bilis, but I won't complain. It was a good version.

There's a lot to pick from on the menu that I'd be willing to try to see how well they do. Assam laksa, curry laksa, har mee, wat dan hor, char kuey teow and of course ice kacang. I'll go back.

Dumplings - one of the simplest things to eat, one of the most satisfying, definitely one of the most social, and yet also quite annoying to make yourself (well any more than one variety at a time). Leave them to the experts - Asian usuallly, and I'd also recommend Russian pelmeni if you ever find yourself there.

A small chain I'd never heard of before with a name I'd probably usually stay away from. But in Flemington it seemed like a reasonable idea on a freakishly hot January day.

- Pan-Fried Vegetarian Dumplings - I wouldn't ordinarily go for vegetarian, but there was enough pork ordered also. These were slightly chewy/crispy skins (which is good) and simple vegetarian filling. Nothing special, nothing bad;
- Shao-Long Bao - quite tasy Shanghai dumplings although a couple were torn so lost the liquid inside, and the liquid wasn't searingly hot as it usually is. Vinegar made it all the better;
- Deep-Fried Lamb Spare Ribs with Homemade Sauce - my ribs craze continued here with a wonderful dish of succulent soft rack of lamb ribs topped with a medium spicy chilli sauce.

Next time I would order pan-fried pork dumplings (as I prefer pan-fried over pure steamed) or if you want steamed the ones with Sichuan chilli sauce sound interesting. Naturally a serve of Lamb Ribs also - need you wonder?

Tom Phat has been on the breakfast to-do list for a very long time. Maybe times and tastes have changed, but the roti omelette was one of the breakfast items of the year back in 2007 (although to be fair I didn't read about it until probably 2009). In any case, waiting 4+ years for something that really isn't that far away, and considering how many breakfasts I've had in between, meant that the occasion finally appeared when two people would meet halfway from respective homes which seemed to be Brunswick.

South-East Asian flavour fusion is still (I think) quite new to breakfast. In Asia I'm used to congee, pho, cheong fun etc, but I can only remember one other Asian-inspired breakfast, being the roti (surprise surprise) at De Clieu.

On a near empty Monday morning, I read the menu to see if anything else would appeal to me more. Uncle Ho's Brekky sounds like Vietnamese broken rice. Black Sticky Rice sounds like a standard dessert in Asia (and now courtesy of Dessert Story). Yunnan-Baked Eggs actually sounds delicious and may be what I come for next time. But for a first visit, your hand is forced by the signature memory of 2007.

- Roti-Omelette (wok-tossed free range eggs & roti, bacon, chives, roasted tomato salsa) - it was a nice combination and certainly different from the usual bacon/eggs/sourdough. I think it gets more merit from being creative and fusion than ground-breaking taste. I still think curry can't be matched when it comes to pairing with roti;
- Sweet Corn Fritters (with poached egg, smoked salmon, avocado-salsa, baby spinach & harissa mayo) - nicely assembled stack with fried shallots and a generous pile of coriander and mild spicy sauce. Tasted as it sounds - good.

They also have a lunch/dinner menu that sounds like a combo of South-East Asia (Viet, Thai, Malay). 

I'd still recommend coming to try breakfast - it's at least a change from the other Melbourne cafes all of which have roughly the same menu.

Burgers - all the rage. Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide seem to have picked it up the last few years. Although I don't think any have yet been able to recreate the same sense of fulfilment as London's MEATliquor and Tommi's, I'll keep trying to see if I find one.

Burgastronomy is one of Adelaide's contenders for their burger crown. It's in North Adelaide which makes it potentially a little further away from the hustle? Nonetheless I'm sure it's popular at peak drinking times.

One of the nice interior touches is the grungy cartoon/graffiti on the walls. It adds colour and I'm sure in the evenings creates a different atmosphere or focus while you line up to order. I was a bit hungry and maybe ordered more than I should. Oh well, I don't think I'll be returning to (North) Adelaide for a while...

- The Hot One (Hot) - beef, lettuce, cheese, chipotle BBQ & mayonnaise. The meat is decent quality but probably cooked a little more than I'd like. It's nice and the burger doesn't fall apart. The Hot rating is about right for me. A little chilli burn but nothing painful or that slows me down in eating;
- Sweet Potato Chips - everyone seems to comment on how inventive these are. Granted they are good, but it also made me think some of these people probably haven't been around much. Nonetheless these ones were very nice, sweet and served piping hot with a salty outside. It had some crisp to it too which is great;
- Southern Fried Chicken - succulent chicken, crispy outside, not overly salty. I liked it.

When I ordered I asked "how hot is hot?" They answered 8.5-9/10. Useless information. How does it compare to Nando's Hot? Don't know. Well that isn't useful either. Sitting down eating and realising that my hot burger was probably about the same as Nando's hot gave me the idea of an app that allows you to rate the heat of dishes around the world so you know what to order for yourself if you ever go. I still think it's a good idea (although not really money making), but I'd use it.

Next time I would order a Southern Fried Chicken burger (probably Hot Bacon Bird). The chicken was great, and the table near me where everyone had that (and the cook was a family member, so I assume he knows what's best) made me wish I had too. Otherwise the free standing chicken is good too.

After a few short evenings of work in North Adelaide, it seemed appropriate to find a reasonable breakfast before flying out. I'm not sure what the standards of things were around here (probably similar to an Australian country town I'm thinking), but regardless if people are giving a 96% (85 votes) rating on Urbanspoon, it can't be all that bad.

After a 15minute walk east, I came just in time for the 10am opening. As the first and only customer thusfar, I got first pick of tables and food. The room has some lovely cute homewares, although the only thing I picked up was a delightful birthday card that reminded me of someone in London.

- Cherry tomatoes, fresh basil + feta bruschetta - tomatoes were good, feta was good, bruschetta was good and balsamic salad nice contrast. But the basil was surprising - they used Thai basil! I've never had that before. It was such a different flavour and so unexpected. Such a simple dish, but worthy of adding to my list of things to recreate at home when I'm out of ideas.

The soy chai latte was ok. There wasn't much gingerness detected, but it was nice and the cinnamon was carefully added and not caked on like many places outside Melbourne seem to do.

There's some granola, fruits, breads, bagels and salads to pick from. The menu isn't extensive nor sound unusual, but there was a twist in my dish so you never know...

My dad is a sucker for Scoopon vouchers for meals. Ever since I donated him one I couldn't use for a breakfast near Bridge Road, he sets out to research each offer to determine if it's a good deal or not. After about 2 months of constant reminders, we settled on a breakfast day in Northcote. 2 breakfasts + drinks for $29. It's not a bad deal considering you'll pay $40-45 in Melbourne generally for somewhere nice.

Over The Road is a cafe which also doubles as a store for antiques, homewares and general crap. Don't get me wrong, some of the items, particularly the wall clocks, are quite nice. Over the road from the cafe is a nursery, for which you can get a discount on plants if you eat at the cafe. It's not a bad setup and gives you somewhere to relax, eat and be interested in your surroundings.

Luckily the food isn't bad either. I wouldn't say the breakfast was anything incredible, but I'd be happy to go back. Preferably with a Scoopon.

- Fried eggs, hash brown, mushrooms, sausages, bacon, spinach
- Halloumi, poached egg, chorizo, sourdough and rocket