Eat Like Ushi

The Vietnamese noodles person's alternative to pho is BBH. Other than trying a famous version in Hue itself and making an excellent version from Luke Nguyen, most of my BBH has been from Victoria Street's Co Do. Footscray's equivalent is supposedly Dong Ba who also advertises their specialisation in BBH.

Interestingly they only serve only BBH dish - I suppose you could call this traditional rather than bastardised. This version includes pig blood and cartilage which many would probably not order. For $10 the medium bowl is ample for my appetite. The broth is actually very sweet, perhaps a marker of MSG? It takes a good addition of the sate lemongrass & chilli sauce and a bit of requested fresh chilli to bring some heat and a squeeze of lemon to bring out the complexity. The meat quality is very good and tender.

For some reason they were out of che ba mau and all combinations of these. I settled for basil seeds and grass jelly in coconut milk which was a fine alternative.

I think I like Co Do better. But I definitely like Luke Nguyen's recipe even more.

Even though Smith Street isn't far from Abbotsford, finding out about the more recent Church Street branch was great as it meant I could catch one tram rather than walking (or driving) to Smith Street. The best opportunity arose whilst deciding what to have for dinner coming back on a tram from Box Hill. It's been a long time but the thought of souvlaki always seems to excite me and I'm more enamoured with Jimmy's since my first visit (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/jimmy-grants-melbourne-01-2014).

The Richmond branch is larger and has more restaurant/cafe feel to it than the tiny Collingwood one. The food is identical and delicious. Mr. Papadopoulos has excellent tender meat and wrapped in thick pita. The grain salad isn't as good as what I remember from Hellenic Republic, perhaps due to less honey and no pomegranate. The chips with feta and garlic oil are nicely seasoned. Loukomades are sweet, crunchy and a good finish.

Although the prices seem to be going up but the size and quality still remains at least. I haven't been to Stalactites in years and with this around I don't think I need to.

There's always been 2 pho places in Victoria Street that I visited - Pho Chu The (one of my favourites but the longest walk) and Pho Hung Vuong 2. On Christmas Day there were always going to be limited eating options, but the reliable Asian work ethic means Victoria Street is as good as any (and apparently why the Jews in America all eat Chinese food for Christmas).

I saw I Love Pho 264 have many articles talking about how much people enjoyed their food - David Chang was a notable name in there. But for some reason the articles all stated Pho Chu The. It wasn't after a little reading that I discovered both these places are run by the same people. Why they have both of these restaurants a couple of doors down away with different names escapes me.

The pho is good, the articles admit using "just a bit" of MSG. The meat is fine and the brisket has very little fat which is great. The 3 colour drink is fine but there's probably too much ice even though at least it is shaved finely.

Best of all, they accept credit card - I'll be back.

I was looking up stops between Apollo Bay and Geelong. I considered having lunch in Lorne but having stayed there a few times in the past few years there wasn't anywhere that particularly interested me. One of the regular names appearing was A La Grecque, a one chef hat Greek place with excellent reviews and one of the few must stops in the area. The other option is Brae, but given the detour and the intention of enjoying the coastal route, I'll have to save that for another time.

Ever since the incredible Greece trip back in 2010, the only Greek places I've eaten at are Gazi and Hellenic Republic. There's been a few souvlaki stops too but the only one worth mentioning is Jimmy Grants. It felt like a great opportunity to break free from the Calombaris stronghold on Greek cuisine in my life.

I felt lucky to be able to book Sunday lunch on the day itself. There's a carpark for the restaurant although it seems most people (including myself) don't realise until walking into the restaurant and park on the street next to it.

- Grilled kephalograviera, chargrilled peach, almonds, pekmezi $18 - I remember asking the chef in Greece what this incredible cheese in a salad was and it's been my choice ever since. Forget about halloumi, kefalograviera is much better and this was an outstanding version served. Perfectly crisp with chewy squeaky heavily salty cheese with contrast from warm peaches, nuts and mint (I would have liked more of those given the amount of cheese). It was served on a piping hot plate meaning the cheese didn't go cold and hard;
- Roast spatchcock, hilopitas, garlic, chilli, basil, olives $34 - a beautifully cooked and seasoned bird served with pasta. Good flavour and texture;
- Slow roasted goat shoulder, red onion, parsley, radish, caper, za'atar $36 - it was a toss-up between the goat or pork shoulder. I'm more partial to goat on menus since I simply see it less often (and mostly in curries). For some reason I expected more of a roast with gravy. This was tasty, relatively tender and simple meat with salty za'atar and fresh salad. The lemon really helped break the salt and brought each element to balance;
- Roasted cauliflower, golden raisins, coriander, pinenuts $11 - an excellent combination of cauliflower, sweet raisins, a salty dressing and lots of pinenuts.

The food and cooking is outstanding. I would have liked to know what meat and seafood were local but the young waiter didn't know (other than assuming everything was Australian). There's so many other interesting dishes. I probably wouldn't order the goat again next time, and if ordering for 2 would opt for kefalograviera, the scallops with black pudding, flatbread with lamb, the pork shoulder and save a bit of space for dessert.

I'd heard a lot about Top Paddock for a while, as possibly being the new best cafe around town. The new cafe precinct of Church Street seemed to be largely driven by the queues for this place, and this particular Sunday was no different with people lying on the lawns outside waiting for seats.

There's a lot of breakfast items that sound enticing - eggs benedict with pork cheeks and yuzu, chilli scrambled eggs, spanner crab and the list goes on and on.

- White anchovies & Jamon Serrano (with fried eggs, padron peppers & manchego on toast) $19.5 - the first place I've seen with a real Spanish breakfast and the items took me back to a happier place over there. Tangy anchovies, beautifully cured serrano, grilled peppers and quality bread.

It took me a long time to make it there the first time and it probably will the second also. But I'll be looking forward to it.

I'm starting to explore South Yarra a little more as the site of my new workplace. I wandered for the first time through Prahran market which is unexpectedly shiny and not as ridiculously expensive as I thought. Despite the allure of the mussels and falafel stands, I instead crossed the road to find Third Wave and its good reputation for smoked meats and burgers.

The menu reads like a junk food dream - smoked ribs and chicken, unhealthy sounding burgers and shakes.

The lunch menu had good value meals including my choice of the Meat Lovers $16.5 - plain tasting brisket which was soft in parts and less so in others, nice smoked glazed chicken wings and delicious slightly chilli dry-spiced thick beef ribs. The Que You Spicy BBQ sauce had a deep sweet flavour and there was distinct horseradish in the mayo.

The blackforest shake (chocolate, cherries, vanilla) $10.9 sounded right up my alley but it wasn't as thick as advertised, didn't have any chunks (which I'd expect from real cherries blended) and was surprisingly light in colour (possibly mostly vanilla).

Next time I would order the Chicken Chicken set or Juicy Lucy or Oh Mamma burger for lunch. For dinner I'd try the pork ribs or lamb shoulder for dinner. I'd then be able to judge if I liked these over these more than the beef ribs. I'd wash it down by trying the Nutella or Bounty shakes.

There's a lot of good sounding cafes in Geelong. I think it's doubtful that I'll get to most of them but from what I've read a lot seem to be in West Geelong (such as the awarded King of the Castle). Since I was based in the central area I looked a little closer and came across a funky sounding Freckleduck (the others being Cafe Go and Launch Espresso).

It was surprisingly quiet at 745am on a Monday morning - maybe I expected more business people to be queuing for their morning coffees. Then again maybe they all don't work that early. In any case I like the ad of 3000 coffees educating a girl in the 3rd world for a year. 3000 coffees seems a lot so I wonder how many they sell per day to achieve this.

Hopefully my morning The Ducks Nuts smoothie $8 (with taste hints of each element of banana, peanut butter, honey and almond milk (and less so cacao) will also assist the cause. It's a sweet drink with texture similar to thick milk. It's nice but I'd probably try either their chai boy chai latte or the Bluebird smoothie next time.

- Confit Garlic & Cheddar Polenta (with honey roasted pumpkin, pickled pumpkin, kale chips, chorizo crumbs, smoked cheddar, poached egg, chilli oil) $18 - a colourful dish with slightly plain but smooth polenta, lovely pumpkin contrasted by the pickled raw slivers, very strong cheddar and bits of textural chorizo and kale. I couldn't detect any chilli;
- FD Bacon & Eggs (with jalapeno corn bread waffle, maple baked bacon, creamed corn & poached eggs) $16.5 - the waffle was nice and quite moist for corn bread although no jalapeno and the creamed corn and eggs were nice. The star was the very thick cuts of bacon, more tender than ever and with a sweet maple flavour. It wasn't the potent cured bomb of Pialligo Estate bacon, but excellent for its own properties. Some of the best I've had.

There's a good number of things to try next time if I get the chance - beetroot & mint rosti, lamb shoulder, Korean dog and the drinks. I'll have to get a side of maple bacon with any of them also.

I had booked accommodation in the central area of Geelong. What I didn't realise before this was that most of the cafes and restaurants seem to be in West Geelong and I was too lazy to drive.

After a walk to Eastern beach and along the harbour side, I had two options for dinner. One was Jack & Jill whose mini-course mains sound great but unfortunately they were fully booked this Valentine's Day. My fallback option was There There however I didn't realise until going in that they stopped serving meal food and are now a bar with snacks only (albeit decent sounding ones like wings, bao and sliders).

The lack of other reputed options in the area lead to a zomato search which showed up Shiraaz nearby. I must admit it's an odd name for an Indian restaurant especially one where the menu seems quite standard in terms of offerings. If a place was "innovative" I would expect something similar to Varq (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/varq-delhi-01-2015).

The inside was filled with reddy-pink Helium balloons and tables adorned with roses for the occasion. I like how the menus state approximately how hot the dishes are, to prevent unexpected lack or over heat. Mango lassi was sweet but not syrupy which was great - next time I'll probably ask for less sugar or to at least withhold the rose syrup that is added.

- Veg Mix Platter $18.5 - 2 very green but fresh-tasting paneer tikka, an outstanding extra crispy piping hot samosa with chunky spiced potato filling, a reasonably tasty aloo tikki potato patty and 2 extra juicy mushrooms coated in Tandoori paste;
- Garlic Naan $3.5 each - nice and chewy, reasonable size and some chunks of garlic. I'd prefer extra extra garlic personally;
- Okra Bhindi Masala $14 - a dry dish with some heat and savoury spice;
- Prawn Curry $18.5 - a delicious tomato based spiced curry which by its appearance I expected to be sweet but pleasantly surprised that it wasn't. 6 quality prawns were found;
- Lamb Biryani $15 - the rice was tasty but very mildly spiced. The lamb was very tender and didn't seem spiced at all. It was nice but I prefer heavier flavour (maybe that's just my memories from Needoo).

Although the menu didn't seem particularly different, the dishes were all good and cooked very well. It was definitely some of the better versions of classic Indian food that I've had and satisfying. The prices are reasonable also. There's other naan, icecreams, handi lamb and bhutwaa beef for me to try next time.

There's aren't too many reputed food stops between Lorne and Apollo Bay. One of the few is the Wye River General Store which I was hoping would be a potential source of local products now that I'd discovered Wickens Deli in Apollo Bay had closed forever before I could ever make it there.

Wye itself seems like a lovely place to stay. There's camping ground, the ocean and the general store all very close together and its possible that it may remain quieter due to the bigger reputations of Lorne and Apollo Bay.

I didn't have the opportunity to eat a meal there but that will be for next time. The local store sold me their last white sourdough of the day, which had a firm crust nicely dusted and a soft spongy inside. It had a bit of tang to it but I could always use more. Apparently there are some specialty loaves in the works soon to be released. Unfortunately the rest of the deli section didn't have much local products, with a high amount from Coldstream and the Yarra Valley for some reason.

For a nice meal in Apollo Bay the most prominent option is Chris's Beacon Point Restaurant. Unfortunately they were booked out so I stayed in town. The two remaining options were La Bimba and Vista. Both have good and bad reviews and it was a tough decision choosing between them. What drove me toward La Bimba in the end was two things - there are more La Bimba reviews and recommendations, the website for Vista leads to some Japanese website and also when I tried to call Vista to book they didn't answer. That seems enough reasons. Funnily on the night I walked past and the place looks nice, there is a good amount of seafood there including a (rather expensive sounding) $190 fresh seafood platter with mash (no fried food and no fries they advertised to me).

La Bimba has a nice location above the bakery and there is a view of the ocean albeit quite obstructed by trees.

- Farmer's plate $28 - Apollo Bay Bakery brioche (soft and buttery), pulled duck (soft and fatty with mild taste), cured beef (very strong flavour), local moderate strength blue cheese, chutney (may have been dates I think), beautifully spiced cauliflower and taramasalata (an odd tasting pink dip made from fish eggs);
- Pumpkin, tahini, almonds & parsley $12 - some of the best roast pumpkin I've eaten with firm skin and soft flesh and topped by flavours and textures;
- Snapper with chimmichuri $37 - a slightly plain but decently cooked fish;
- Blue eye, mussels, chorizo, green sauce $38 - a nice meaty fillet, well cooked with some small mussels, peas and salty sauce.

The food and cooking was very good overall and there's some other seafood items I'd like to try in the future - smoked eel, snapper tartare and the (slightly expensive) seafood paella for 2 for $79.