Eat Like Ushi

I've been targeting the London curry houses in the past month. Hoppers was one of my favourite meals from the June visit (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/hoppers-london-06-2016) and so naturally it was high on the list.

It's good to see the familiar items are on the menu and prices have increased by 10-20% in 6 months. The only other noticeable menu change since my last visit is that the buffalo biriani has been changed to short rib. I have to admit I was engaged in a lot of conversation so other than thinking the food was good, it is hard to recall too much specific details of the dishes.

- Lamb kothu roti £10;
- Duck heart chukka £6 - not as deep in flavour as I remember, but still delicious and chewy;
- Lotus root, cashew and ash plantain fry £3.5 - tasty crisp little chips;
- Short rib buriani, duck egg kari, yoghurt, brinjal moju £18.5.

I do have to return to properly reassess the buriani, try the Ceylonese chicken and a mutton roti. I only have the old favourite Dishoom and the untried Kricket left to go. Hopefully not too long.

It might sound very odd but I'm part of a ramen Facebook group. I was invited after a discussion with a mutual Bone Daddies fan. In essence the group just posts photos of ramen for voyeuristic pleasure.

I was surprised last year to find out this mutual friend thought Kanada-Ya may have surpassed Bone Daddies as his favourite. How very tempting that sounds. On the Sunday night after Sadiq Khan presented the powerful The Salesman in the cold and drizzle of Trafalgar Square, a warming bowl of broth beckoned. Luckily this popular place so near had no queue. Excellent.

The tonkotsu is good. The broth is extremely porky, like a pig had been blended. It's quite heavy and thick almost like a medium gravy. Very tasty but almost a little much. The only other real downside is the meat is served very cold which also means the broth (at the top at least) is not boiling hot.

I can see the yuzu version being a better option with the citrus balancing out the flavour. I wonder how it will compare to the other fluro green yuzu tonkotsu in my (previous) life - (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/ikkoryu-fukuoka-ramen-melbourne-12-2015).

After the meal I settled for a dessert of fried chicken. Light crisp textured batter, very tender chicken and a nice yuzu mayo. Definitely a gluttonous treat that I wouldn't opt for by myself again.

It's been a trying 2+ years since I last tasted the Bone Daddies broth. It was the most frequented food I had (other than my local curry house) before I left at the end of 2013, and in June 2016 I didn't make it in time to the soft launch of the Old Street branch to beat the queues and take advantage of the 50% special. But I found myself needing to go to Argos Old Street and that was the perfect opportunity.

Since then it's been a tumultuous ride of ramen places. My tastes have certainly evolved in this sphere. From reminiscing about my more green days when in Kyoto (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/ippudo-kyoto-02-2009), to what is probably Melbourne's best tonkotsu (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/hakata-gensuke-melbourne-11-2014), to discovering the black garlic and yuzu varieties that add edge (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/ikkoryu-fukuoka-ramen-melbourne-12-2015), to realising I like a nice thick chewy noodle but that could only be found in a non-tonkotsu venue (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/mensousai-mugen-ramen-melbourne-09-2015) and then to trying Singapore's best chain and having the Japan standard of unlimited boiled eggs (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/ramen-keisuke-tonkotsu-king-singapore-06-2016). That's a lot.

I'd also tried Kanada-Ya the night before as the moderator on my Facebook ramen group (yes, I'm in one) thought it might be better than even his beloved Bone Daddies.

Old Street served my ramen in record time - it literally took 2 minutes to serve. I guess they had noodles ready to go? I'm not sure. Similar to the previous night, the meat was cold and had to be dived under to warm up. The broth was nice and on the thicker side. Noodles and meat good. I didn't ask for shichimi this time just to embrace the broth. It's less flavoured and less thick than Kanda-Ya but probably easier to eat for that.

I followed it up with the spicy pig bones which was saltier/soy and less sweet than I remember, but again drenched lovingly in sauce. One of my ribs had no meat which was a shame...

I don't think I liked the dishes as much as I remember in Soho but maybe that's reflecting my ageing preferences and can't detract that the food remains very good. It's still a favourite nonetheless.

It's been a bit of a burger journey since my last stay in London. After the craze of MEATliquor and the final hurrah at Tommi's, my new favourite moved to a more gourmet and healthy Brodburger (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/brodburger-canberra-2014) which still does the world's best vegetarian burger. In Melbourne, the reasonable offerings of On It (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/on-it-burgers-melbourne-01-2016) and the better ones at 8bit (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/8bit-melbourne-12-2015) kept me going on those unhealthy occasions.

But after the first London meal being Needoo (how could I resist), the first new place I ended up in was Bleecker St. Burger. Spitalfields market has changed since 2013 with much of the trinket and wares stalls being replaced by a much more financial model in gourmet street food. On this Tuesday at 1:30pm the place was still busy with people queueing and seated randomly at tables having lunch. They've done well for themselves these financially-intelligent Spitalfieldians.

There are so many reviews on Zomato for Bleecker St. in Spitalfields that exalt it as the best burger in London and possibly the world. After this visit, it is difficult to disagree.

- Bleecker Black £10 - it's not a healthy burger. It's 2 very medium-rare patties (I did tell them I would be fine with rare, but they said the rarest they could do is medium rare) with the juices exuding into the bun as you pick it up. The seasoning is provided by the crisp black pudding. I am a sucker for black pudding and I've never had it in the burger before; genius innovation there. The cheese, bun and sauce finish the dish with its other necessary flavours and textures. The burger is automatically served sliced in half which is smart to check the meat is not overcooked and for diners to see what they are getting themselves in to;
- Angry Fries £4 - white and sweet potato fries topped with a mild hot sauce and melted blue cheese. An excellent combination reminiscent of MEATliquor's hot wings recipe (hot sauce/butter wings with Gorgonzola dip).

Damn that was good (and unhealthy). That's all I can say. I'm glad I don't live too close to here.

It seemed like groundhog day walking along the Windsor part of Chapel Street at 930pm on a Friday night. After a long work shift, dinner was calling. However just like the last time I tried this (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/amok-melbourne-08-2016) all the places that were first choice had 45-120min waits attached - Mr. Miyagi, Hawker Hall etc.

That meant a return to Amok and not that I was complaining in the end, because this place does excellent food. Although I did want to try another place in the area, it just wasn't to be.

The lightning was particularly dark on our table that evening.

An amok-tale (mint, green mango, pineapple, pomegranate) $10 was refreshing albeit expensive for a mocktail.

- Fresh shucked oyster, mango boba, Kampot black pepper, truffle oil $3.50 each - really excellent and I savoured every textural and flavour contrast. One of the best (and cheapest) I've had;
- Zucchini flower, toasted peanuts, pomelo, pomegranate, honey yoghurt $7.9 - a little expensive for one flower albeit on top a blob of very good accompaniments;
- Crispy school prawn salad, nim flower, green mango, grilled pork belly, Cambodian dry fish $18.9;
- Fish amok (Tasmanian salmon) $28.9 - a wonderfully cooked piece of salmon in a curry sauce that was much more spiced and less sweet than many modern Asian version. I really liked it.

I was so tempted to order more oysters at the end, but had to save some room for Pidapipo. Next time.

It's been a good few years since I'd been to a North Melbourne cafe as I'd had satisfying enough ones in Canberra and Footscray/Seddon/Yarraville. But with a temporary home in Travancore, North Melbourne was closer and more appealing than ever. There's a short couple of blocks where a good 4 or 5 cafes are all well rated and located. This was the first of a spate of 3 that week.

The food was washed with a nice matcha latte (wasn't too sweet but should have asked for the honey to be on the side as personal taste) and coffee.

- Tempura cauliflower (with tahini yoghurt, fennel & mint salad & roasted dukkah) $17 - really nice spiced and crisp cauli with the accompaniments;
- Smoked salmon (with potato rosti, dill aioli, kale chips, poached egg & horseradish dressed salmon on toasted rye) $21 - medium thickness slices of mild salmon with delicious seasoned baked kale and good quality rye. The potato rosti were balls rather than the standard flats, which I would probably have preferred due to the higher crisp surface area.

Overall a satisfying meal to enjoy the very minimal warm of this Melbourne's summer. The backyard is definitely the nicest and more pleasant ones of the cafes around.

The award of most obscure alleyway in Footscray (that you'd actually want to visit in the evening) has to be the one behind Conway, where halfway down a doorway leads you to a pizza place and a bar above it. There's no sign from either end of the street - you have to brave your way down and hope for the best, or wade through the smoke of people outdoor polluting the air.

Nonetheless it's pizza and drinks. With a Spice Girls theme.

Wannabe Warrick (napoli, shaved ham, mozzarella, artichoke hearts, olives, mushrooms, baby capers & oregano) $13 reads well but the flavours were quite mild. The crust is crisp like flat bread and could use a bit more thickness and chew. The ingredients were also skewed so one side had clearly more than the other - I wonder if this is because a large one was made then split between several orders.

More interesting (and disappointing) was the tabouleh $12 which I expected to have a large amount of parsley to turn it into the salad accompaniment. Instead it was filled with bulgur wheat and mixed with a few things but no (or barely any) discernible parsley. It was confusing.

Overall I don't think I had the best food experience here. If I were to go back, I'd try the Zig A Zag Ah with salami, fired peppers, chilli flakes and jalapeños (why didn't I get that this first time?)

A friend of a friend opened this place whilst also owning a Vietnamese restaurant in Paris. I suppose that doesn't necessarily mean it's good (there are many substandard pho places around the world and the Viet restaurant in Geneva left a lot to be desired...) but given the French influence on Vietnam (read Indochine for more), they must have at least a partially discerning palate.

It's difficult to compete with all the cheap similar clones on Victoria Street, so good on them for being a bit different and having more Northern and Middle/Hue dishes.

The highlights for me were these three:

Four treasure salad $14 - green papaya with grilled prawns, mango salad with grilled fish, grilled apple salad with grilled beef, grilled chicken with shredded cabbage. There's so much variety here to easily be a full meal.

Beef campfire/bo quanh lua hong $24 - overcooked beef but made up for by the lemongrass marinade and combined with other ingredients to wrap in mini rice paper.

Lau Canh Chua & Ca Kho To $65 - I expected a big sized canh chua ca (catfish usually or in this case barramundi cooked in a sour tamarind soup) but it also came with claypot grilled fish, a classic savoury Vietnamese fish dish. The combination of the two is well enough to feed several on its own.

The cut up rice paper rolls were a waste. The signature Dac San Bonjour Vietnam of prawn tempura, zucchini and crab or fried bread crumb squid was ok. The grilled rockling with dill is a Vietnamese/French staple and quite good although the fish was very thin and so heavily cooked. The fried noodles were rice noodles rather than expected egg noodles and the dish wasn't that good.

I would stick with the top 3 for next time. Order carefully - it's easy to over-order.

After the closing of Nahm, I think London has really missed modern Asian food. Yes there are a few ones around but I can't yet think they are that great. Maybe in my 3 year absence things have changed a lot. But I doubt it. At least I'm pretty sure they won't have something as memorable as Nahm must have been in its heyday or Longrain remains now (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/longrain-melbourne-10-2012).

After so many years, the menu has barely changed, but each time I go the flavours still wow me. All washed down with a Red Dragon cocktail (chilli infused Ketel One vodka, peach liqueur, raspberries, coriander, cranberry) which combines berry flavours with an afterglow of chilli burn - fantastic.

- Betel leaf with pomelo, green papaya, peanuts & coconut $5 - so many flavours and textures rolled into one leaf;
- Chargrilled cuttlefish with a roasted shallot & prawn relish $26 - haven't tried this before. Very tender pieces served with a pungent shrimp paste sauce;
- Caramelised pork hock with five spice & chilli vinegar $23.5 entree ($33.5 main) - still incredible. Nothing else to say;
- special of deep fried soft shell crab - crisp outsides surrounding soft juicy crab meat and topped with an exceptional herbed salad;
- Salt & pepper silken tofu with fried eschalots & sweet soy $10 entree ($16 main).

I seem to order the same things each time although I resisted the red curry on this occasion.

Still my favourite. I'll see you when I return.

Who has heard of Travancore? Most Melbournians wouldn't have either. It's a small area next to Flemington and has it's own cafe culture building up (not the mention apartments too, lots and lots of apartments...)

This place has apparently been there for a while and I hope the influx of hipsters and apartment dwellers really picks up its business, although I think there is a little way to go before it can compete with the ultracool cafes in the surrounding suburbs.

I had The Miner $15 - two very solidly baked eggs with an underseasoned red lentil dhal served with a green yoghurt dressing. I wanted feta but they hadn't received their morning supply and the dish really missed that hit of salt and powerful flavour emphasis.