Eat Like Ushi

I was looking for something close to my hotel (Adelaide Rockford) to eat during a late Wednesday afternoon. Interestingly enough Zomato didn't have many options that were open, looked relatively fast and very decently rated. Funnily enough a souvlaki store down west past the university and away from all the other food places seemed to shine out.

Considering the Greek influence I became subjected to in Melbourne around the high school age of 16, I've valued a really great souvlaki. Over the past 4 years my favourites have changed from the supremely tasty and fatty Stalactites, to the wonderful authentic pork version in Bairaktaris and more recently the upmarket tender lamb version from Jimmy Grants. In Adelaide I had previously tried a place up north designated "home of the Ab" and found their meat to be reasonable but still lacking the intense herbed flavour I prefer.

Yianni's on Hindley had pretty good comments and there were plenty of workman ordering the enormous full sized yiros. In order to try 2 of the 3 meats on offer, I purchased 2 mini sizes. Each of those is very big on their own and could easily be a full meal (for $7!!). I ordered the lamb (as typical for yiro in Australia). In retrospect I should've made the other chicken for a bit of contrast, but the pork version from Athens weighed heavily in my mind. The lamb was nice, reasonable flavour, decent meat with some fatty bits. The pork version was a bit chewier and didn't really have much additional marinade flavour.

Next time I would order the chicken version to see how much flavour they can get out of it. Otherwise I'll settle quite happily for a mini yiro lamb.

Yiro or giro?

During my last trip to Adelaide in February I starred a lot of places around Rundle Mall. It was unexpected that the highest rated place on Urbanspoon was ULC - a lunch only Mexican place with remarkable reviews.

Finally on a hot 33C October afternoon I made it there walking through the sunny streets in a suit. Considering it would quite possibly be my last trip to Adelaide for a long time I had to ensure that the heat didn't affect my food choice, particularly when it came to adding the selection of spicy sauces.

- Elote (grilled corn on the cob with chipotle mayonesa, lime & dry cheese) $3.90 - my hybrid recipe using Thomasina Mier's, Melbourne's Mamasita and online recipes is still my overall favourite, but this was a nice version with juicy corn, salty cheese and a mild chilli mayo;
- Mexican Traffic (fried eggs with pork chipotle mince, fresh tortillas, cilantro pesto, rice, black beans, crema & salsa Mexicana) $14.90 - of all the menu items I think the reason I picked this was that the overall ingredients list appealed to me. I think in overall combination it is something I wouldn't usually have selected for myself. It was a nice meal of carbs soaking up the sauces and various condiments. It wasn't as (heat) hot as I expected for a rice dish and I ended up adding quite a lot of extra sauce to add the taste which I wanted. It was decent but not particularly special and I'd try a different dish next time.

Next time I would order Sloppy Jose, ULC Dog or Quesadilla and an added taco (probably fish) on the side. I'd wash it down with a Latin American flavoured soda also.

On my most recent trip to Adelaide, I stayed at the Adelaide Rockford Hotel. The location was selected due to its proximity to the Adelaide Convention Centre, but it seemed a short walk only to the main shopping and food area that I had starred in Google Maps from my previous visit. Due to the 30+ degree heat, I found myself often not really wanting to walk too far away so started looking at food options closeby. There was the restaurant located at the hotel (Asian, decent sounding menu, rather ordinary reviews for the prices), an Indian curry place across the road (didn't look too interesting from the outside, decent reviews online), a souvlaki place further away from town and a nearby highly rated cafe. It wasn't until my last night staying at the hotel that I noticed from the window of my hotel a girl standing outside the restaurant across the road advertising to people walking past.

Usually that's not a great sign of things - I specifically can mention Lygon Street and the restaurant street Rue de Bouchers in Brussels for this. Additionally I have to admit I found it unusual that pho was being touted by a non-Vietnamese (and more specifically non-Asian) person. Funnily enough the relative health safety of Vietnamese food (with the exclusion of banh mi that's been sitting in the sun), the minimal amount of distance to cover, and quite simply I had a hankering for decent Asian noodles brought me in.

I found out that this was day 10 of the restaurant's opening, and the owners/management were Vietnamese and very friendly. The fit out was modern and slightly edgy with a flair of traditional, similar to the new-age Asian restaurants that are the rage in various cities.

- 3 Colour Drink - if I had any particular recommendation for improvement, it would be on this. The best 3 Colour Drinks are made with finely shaved ice that melts easily when stirred into the coconut milk. Unfortunately this had thick chunks of ice that mean you spend a lot of time crunching through, with dilute flavours and having difficulty finding the elements;
- Wagyu Beef Pho - given the restaurant name, my pho craving that evening and the delicious wagyu pho from Bistro Nguyen, this was an easy choice. The noodles are well cooked and slightly uneven (this probably means they are fresh not dried, possibly handmade but you'd expect this to be advertised, or just unevenly machine cut). The meat was nicely soft and tender. The broth is very strong and full of the flavour of pho spices.

I was impressed that evening by the atmosphere, setting and general friendly vibe from the staff. Considering the location I ended up back the next day to try the other classic Vietnamese noodle soup. Actually I particularly wanted banh xeo, but they told me that was only on the dinner menu.

- Bun Bo Hue - the broth was flavoursome and not overly spicy and lightened with lemon. The large size is quite hefty such that I had difficulty finishing it along with my jackfruit smoothie (maybe too much liquid overall). The thick rice noodle was unfortunately slightly overcooked and so was quite soft rather than the characteristic slight firmness of this noodle.
- Jackfruit smoothie - not sure why I ordered this since it usually is made from canned jackfruit marinated in sugar syrup. However this one wasn't very sweet and a little dilute of jackfruit flavour.

Overall the food was very tasty with strongly flavoured stocks and I would be happy to eat either the pho or bun bo hue again. To my taste I think the drinks could use a bit of improvement. Perhaps I'll try the freshly squeezed sugar cane juice or avocado smoothie next time.

The Entertainment Book allows a nice discounted seafood dinner along the foreshore. At full price some of the dishes seem expensive (although this is Canberra and it is along the ever expanding foreshore).

The dishes were nice and the calamari and fish well cooked. A satisfying meal altogether without being spectacular.

Melbourne's first 24 hour ramen place is certainly a welcome addition to the overnight dining scene. Even at 1130pm on a Thursday night there was a 15min wait for a seat. How remarkable.

The menu is small and actually impressively stuck onto the walls (for those of us who can read). The ramen bowls come with two slices of decent (but quite fatty) chashu which are also grilled on one side (haven't seen that before). There is also half a boiled egg and some token vegetables. The ramen itself is probably slightly overcooked so it loses the slightly stiff chewy texture. The standard ramen soup has mild tonkotsu flavour but could be a little thicker. The karakuchi version adds a stiff presence of chilli. The difference between the two bowls in the photos is the 2nd bowl was the karakuchi and was ordered with an extra serve of noodles (and probably extra broth). It's quite a big difference in satiety for $2.

I didn't find any shichimi, grindable sesame seeds nor crushable garlic on the table to add, which I usually prefer.

I think the ramen down the road at Hakata Gensuke is more preferred, but options are more limited and will be adequate satisfying for the late or overnight craving.

Mee's is probably one of the busiest sushi places I've ever seen. Each weekday lunchtime, the queue extends well past the next few shops. It's quite incredible considering it is sushi (albeit the only sushi in the area probably).

They also serve some meals such as the prawn tempura udon. The prawn tempura is good, but unfortunately served in the soup where the crisp exterior is quickly lost. The noodles themselves and the dashi soup are nice and warming. It's very good for lunch on a cold day.

The main staff are Korean, not Japanese, and explains why they also serve bibimbap. It's quite an unauthentic version and only served with a tiny amount of gochujang sauce, so will avoid it next time.

I've heard from several (Malaysian) people over the past 1-2 years that Coconut House has the best laksa in Melbourne. I must admit I do like the Laksa King version which is quite coconutty also.

I ordered the Hawker Curry Laksa complete with a full chicken drumstick and a fried egg (which is a little odd I suppose). The ingredients are ok without being special. The soup is rich and coconutty, chicken stock base and really quite spicy. Overall it was good - but I did have to listen to my parents complain the whole time that the serving size had reduced by 30-40% over the past 5 months. Who knows.

The hot fresh soy milk probably has a touch too much sugar added but tastes real.

Next time I would order the Hawker Curry Laksa again or House Laksa Special or try the har mee (Prawn Noodles).

I used to think designer chocolatiers were simply overpriced snooty versions of supermarket block chocolate. This opinion changed over the years after a few good experiences in Belgium and Spain. Now I can officially admit I can't resist walking into a chocolatier and smelling the goodness in the air and seeing the great creations.

Similarly in Leura I couldn't help but wander into Josophan's. I immediately looked around for dark chocolate (the only chocolate) and found some nice blocks with nuts, one with turkish delight, some finger squares (including an award winning lime and basil) and a revelation that attracted me the most.

Dark chocolate rocky road filled a few baskets. The winterfruit version interested me for the ingredients - date, apricot, coconut, marshmallow and mixed nuts. However after discussion with the host, I ended up with the orange version - with dark and orange chocolate, coconut, marshmallows, macadamia and hazelnuts from Orange. The host said the orange version was her favourite and the orange pieces and peel added an extra texture and moisture.

It's sitting on my bench at home. I look forward to it.

There were two bakeries in the Blue Mountains that I came across in my research - Hominy in Katoomba for sourdough and Bakehouse On Wentworth because it was meant to be good and happened to be conveniently located close to the accommodation in Blackheath.

The Bakehouse was the first food stop of the trip after arriving and it didn't disappoint. The pies have a nice thick crust with rolled up sides that were a pleasure to chew through last. The kangaroo filling was slightly gamey and quite nice. Next time I'd probably try something more standard like the beef and guinness. The mini sausage roll was a nice filler to complement the pie.

Other than the pies, they advertise an excellent sourdough that I wasn't able to try.

A zomato rating of 4.9?? Wow this must be some serious sourdough. How could I not go and see what it was all about? My all time favourite sourdough still remains from the seafood chowder at Boudin in San Francisco. Canberra's Autolyse does an excellent version too, but I still prefer something stronger and tangy-er.

I only purchased a pumpkin sourdough from Hominy. In retrospect I probably should've bought an extra loaf and even a croissant to make use of my being all the way in the mountains. This became more apparent after I tried the sourdough. The pumpkin sourdough is soft in native form, and is completely enhanced with a firm crust and springy texture with light toasting. It could use a little more tang but is still excellent. I'm a bit unclear where the pumpkin part comes in - I assume it has juice added to the dough mix to add more flavour and colour?

Who knows. It's damn good.