Eat Like Ushi

Looking at the Zomato reviews around Footscray, I didn't expect to find such a highly rated hotel. By hotel, it infers pub, and good pub is hard to find, great pub food is rare. Considering it was the day of the Lunar New Year festival (which I had attended for lunch), I didn't feel like going back as the food there didn't inspire me (other than the banana fritter which was excellent). The reviews seemed to summarise the food as vegan/vegetarian Mexican. Interesting and relatively healthy?

Walking into the Rev, I saw several band members leaving carrying their instruments. Unfortunately I'd missed the live music which seems to be in the mid and late afternoon.

There's a solid selection of chilli sauces, of which the MHS chipotle & cayenne was my favourite, followed by the smoke jalapeno. There's also the widely found El Yucateco red and green versions but I find them a bit too spicy for my enjoyment.

- Street Style Corn (chargrilled corn on the cob with creamy dressing, the Rev's spice mix & lime) $6 - nice juicy and slightly charred corn with a paprika spicing. I think I still prefer the excessive coatings from Mamasita or my own homemade Thomasina Miers-inspired version, but this was very good;
- Nudist Burrito (spinach, tomato & red onion salad dressed with chilli & lime with housemade mock "pork", served with guacamole, salsa, pepitas, crunchy tortilla strips & chipotle lime mayo) $18 - I was reminded why a non-vegetarian would ever eat mock pork instead of the real thing. There was effort put into making it look pulled but the texture and flavour was clearly vegetable and did not appeal to me. The tortilla strips were very nice though;
- Smoky Tofu Quesadilla (in a flour tortilla with refried pinto beans, cheese, corn salsa, spinach & homemade BBQ sauce, served with salad & the Rev's spicy fries) $16 - I don't quite remember what the tofu burrito at Trippy Taco was like, but this was quite excellent. The tofu wasn't very "smoky" at all, but the overall flavour of the quesadilla with good particularly topped with chipotle & cayenne sauce. The fries were hot and crisp with a strong smokey paprika coating. The salad of the day had radish, charred corn, Spanish onion and greens which complemented really well.

This meal enforced a few things for me - there's good quality vegetarian in Footscray that isn't African, I shouldn't waste my own meals on mock meat when the real thing (or tofu) is available, I'll definitely be coming back especially considering how close and away from central Footscray hustle it is.

Next time I would order anything I haven't tried yet with the exception of mock meat. The list include empanadas, mesquite fried chicken, nachos, fish or pork belly tacos, beef burrito or Mexican beef pizza (I wonder how hot the Napalm Chili Napoli sauce is). I'll also try to catch some live music although I'm unsure if it will really be my taste...

02-2016

Tuesday night is taco night at The Rev. It seemed like a great idea to avoid cooking for an evening. The place was bustling with everyone ordering their tacos and drinking cheap cans of beer.

I'm not sure if the Tuesday tacos are specifically different to usual, but they didn't have the ones I was most looking forward to - beer battered fish, tofu or slow cooked beef. Nonetheless there were 4 decent ones listed on this evening. My favourites were the mixed bean and pulled pork. I thought the chicken was ok but thought the sweet potato was very plain. Of course the MHS chipotle & cayenne lifted all the tacos but the mixed bean and pulled pork had the best overall tastes.

Once again the fries were very tasty and a good snack for contrast.

This could become a regular Tuesday event for me.

At the Victoria Street Lunar New Year festival last weekend, one of the foods on offer that caught my eye were burgers. This was for 3 reasons - almost all the rest of the food places are Asian, they had black bun sliders on offer, and they gave out samples of their quite tasty housemade onion rings. On the day I had one onion ring, but didn't have the stomach space to try the burgers.

It seemed that on one of my last Victoria Street trips for a while that I'd try this burger place to see how it stood in the world/Melbourne. I also wanted to know what was added to create a black bun (I thought I read charcoal but that can't be right...)

Pistachio icecream/gelato is my favourite and my benchmark for taste in all gelato places in the world. I was really excited to see a pistachio shake available and expected it to be essentially pistachio gelato blended with milk and hopefully some crushed or whole roasted pistachios in there. Unfortunately the shake tasted like vanilla with minimal nut flavour (and that's me trying to convince myself it was there). I wonder if they forgot what flavour I ordered (my receipt says pistachio) or if it really is that subtle...

- Housemade Onion Rings with On It Sauce $6.90 - seemingly grilled then fried in thick crisp batter and really quite nice. Sauce was a tangy, mildly spicy sriracha mayo to me. It was probably a bit too much batter for 1;
- Blackbeard (soft shell crab, sriracha, slaw, coriander, tangy hero sauce, black bun) $13.90 - quite a small crab with a reasonably creamy body but legs that were very hard, crunchy and seemingly well overfried. The black bun itself didn't really seem to taste of anything much, certainly nothing special.

I think I made a mistake of ordering the Blackbeard considering there aren't many soft shell crabs that impress me these days (especially when they are in burgers or buns/baos), and I limited my selection just wanting to try the black bun (ordering something just because it looks cool is also not the best idea). The onion rings were fine but too much for me. The lack of pistachio flavour in the shake means I wouldn't order it again, as disappointing as that is.

I'd still go back once more to try what I think would suit my tastes better: the Classic (to check their baseline) or Popping Jalapeno Patty burgers with fries and a different shake (green tea, chai tea or even macadamia).

02-2016

Armed with the knowledge of my previous post, I found myself back at On It. The noisy roadworks along Victoria Street made the entire area devoid of customers but noisier than ever.  Luckily it was partially drowned out by the ambient music, which reminded me of early 2000s Next Blue with Jay-Z, Beyonce and Shaggy amongst others.

- Popping Jalapeno burger (popping jalapeno beef patty, American cheese, red onion, lettuce, coriander, hero sauce, hit me hot sauce) $13.90 - this burger was infinitely more enjoyable than Blackbeard. The bun was soft and lightly grilled for additional texture and the other flavours came together well including the nice tang of jalapenos. The sauce wasn't particularly hot, but that's ok by me. I'm not sure what a "popping jalapeno" patty is - it was essentially a thin beef patty with sliced jalapenos and held together by a blanket of melted cheese. The patty isn't particularly thick which goes against the modern trend of fatter medium-rare patties;
- Garlic & Basil Fries $3.90 - really good fries with crunchy outsides and hot centres seasoned with what I assume is salt, garlic oil and crispy flakes of fresh basil;
- Small Green Tea Shake $4.90 - definite green tea flavour made a big difference over the pistachio disappointment. It was reasonably thick and sweet enough.

Looking at the remaining menu items, today's meal would probably be my choice for next time. I'm curious about the smashed patty and fried chicken burger though. I think I'm happy to forego testing other milkshake flavours.

I haven't actually eaten at Thanh Nga Nine before. Even after living in Abbotsford on & off for 4 years I've walked past countless times but never inside.

Other than Vietnam, before Pho Phu Quoc in Canberra (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/pho-phu-quoc-canberra-09-2014) I hadn't actually had a meal of shared dishes in a Vietnamese restaurant. But they changed this and I started to think about somewhere to go for this in Melbourne.

Recently Victoria Street had their annual lunar new year street festival and amongst the typical fare of bo la lot and the rice square dish with fried eggs was a little gem - spit-roasted pork with salad served on a roti. This was exceptional from the juicy flavoursome pork, the crunchy contrast of vegetable textures, the tart and salty sauce and the warm chewy roti.

I don't think they'll serve this on their restaurant menu but I'm going to have to try their shared dishes now and hope for the best.

It's been a long time since I've been to Vegie Bar. I remember a brief romance with their Mee Goreng starting back in 2000 under the influence of a girl who took me there. I never thought vegetarian could taste so good back in those days.

Fast forward 15 years later and the institution still stands, although much less niche and more standard. Because it was 330pm this day, a full meal was unnecessary, but a few snacks were ordered to tide things over before dinner later.

- Raw Malaysian Curry (daikon, carrot capsicum & vegies tossed in lemongrass & coconut raw curry sauce, served with bloomed wild rice & currants, snowpea shoots, coriander & lime) $17.5 - essentially raw vegetables with satay sauce. I suppose I underestimated what "raw" meant in this dish but I know this is not the type of "curry" I like to eat;
- Samosa (filled with mild vegetable curry, served with tzatziki & fresh chilli sauce) $5 - nice, hot and crispy;
- Rice Balls (blend of brown rice & finely chopped mixed vegies, topped with peanut satay sauce) $7.5 - excellent firm outsides and delicious chewy textures centres.

I wasn't hungry enough to experience all Vegie Bar has to offer so will have to leave it for another time to test my memory of mee goreng.

01-2016

After moving house and not having a fridge or cooking facilities for a while, eating out becomes a little tedious and a bit of a chore. As vegetables tend to be the least value for money or (in many places) the least exciting dishes, one becomes quite devoid of vegetable nutrition. Enter us back into the dinner realms of Brunswick Street.

- Mee Goreng (hokkien noodles wok-tossed with vegies, tofu, sauteed potato in a lightly spiced peanut sauce) $17 - as excellent as I remember with thick noodles and sauce and solid ingredients;
- Moroccan Stew (rich tomato & chickpea stew with roasted eggplant, currant & almond couscous, mint yoghurt, marinated cucumber, hazelnut dukkah & fresh parsley, served with warm pita bread) $16 - the dish mainly tasted of tomato to me with hints of other middle Eastern elements;
- Vegan Nachos (oven baked corn chips topped with vegan cheese, Mexican black beans, tomato salsa, spring onion, guacamole, jalapenos & vegan cashew sour cream) $16.5 - a nice snack but not overly exciting to me especially given the price. I suppose the vegan part makes it more expensive and unique (and difficult to make);
- Crispy Green Salad (blanched snow peas & green beans, toasted hazelnuts, pomegranate seeds & snap-dried mandarine with an umaboshi, tahini & orange dressing) $12 - great combination of textures and flavours.

These 4 with a serve of rice balls were too much for a hungry 3. Interestingly Vegie Bar do not allow you to take away leftovers (however they seem to allow takeaway orders - not sure how that works...)

They've stood the test of time and even though not many other dishes appeal to me, I'll happily go back for the rice balls and mee goreng. I've been meaning to try Yong Green Food nearby but each time they've been closed.

Finding a relatively nice place for a birthday dinner around Footscray was actually quite difficult. There seems to be a couple of token Italian and Singaporean restaurants, some nicer looking Vietnamese places and a smokehouse I recently saw, but the choice is not nearly as much as what I'm used to around Abbotsford.

Thonglor Thai is a relatively expensive but nice looking Thai restaurant at Edgewater, which unusually divides its menu into different Thai regions. It actually makes ordering decisions a little difficult, but I suppose if you wanted to theme your dinner to one Thai region then it would help.

- Eggplant Salad (grilled eggplant, pork mince, prawns, boiled egg) $27;
- Deep fried whole barramundi (mixed herb sauce) $37 - excellent quality fish cooked well and topped with herbs;
- Larb Duck $27 - shredded duck with herbs and the occasional hit of chilli;
- Dessert of delicious coconut icecream, sweet potato and tapioca balls with a warm coconut milk syrup.

No photo:

- Khua Kling Nuer (stirfried beef mince with homemade chilli paste, lime & lemongrass) $23.90 - I thought it was a little bland and found out that they intentionally reduced the amount of chilli paste (so as to not make it too hot, even though we asked for it to be made at normal strength) and therefore the flavour was reduced;
- Beef Massaman Curry (with coconut milk, potatoes & peanuts) $19.9 - mild creamy curry;
- Roti with peanut sauce $8 - standard;
- Coconut rice $3.9 per person - a bit expensive to pay $20 for rice but it was good quality at least.

The food is good, the flavours are nice, and my only criticism (other than the high cost) is that the first three dishes all had very very similar dressings - fish sauce, sugar, lime. I didn't get the chance to order my standard setters of tom kha or red curry duck, but I'll be sure to try those next time and see.

It's been a long time since I went to Samurai on Glenferrie Road, possibly the last would have been around 2006 or 2007. My first time there was probably around 2003 (I don't even know when they first opened) and one of the places I particularly started enjoying salmon sashimi. Back then the Samurai noodle soup for around $6 was a delicious meal of noodles packed with chicken on top and in a dense thick soup.

Fast forward to a time in 2016 looking for delicious affordable Japanese food. They apparently renovated last year and the decoration is now whiter, flashier and more modern. There is a back area or upstairs (I think) and the clientele remains the attractive private school students (albeit more trendy fashion these days) with some smatterings of others. I am proud to say I was there before (almost) everyone there.

The menu has expanded quite a bit too.

Firstly the green tea milkshake is exceptional. Very nice strong green tea flavour seemingly from a combination of icecream and milk. Probably the best version I've tasted.

- Takoyaki - not overly crisp but quite nice and with visible pieces of octopus;
- Tempura Soba $9.5 - nice chewy soba in tasty broth. Tempura served separately is a nice touch (as it should be to preserve the crisp batter) but the one prawn and odd vegetable medley were a bit average;
- Samurai Egg Noodles (fried chicken, egg noodles in miso base) $9 - the bowl has increased in size quite a lot since 10 years ago. The chicken is ridiculously tender and the noodles are perfectly cooked with some residual bounce. The broth is more watery and less rich than I remember.

The food isn't as exciting as I remember, but it's still very good. For the price and location (with relative ease of parking) it still can't be beaten for cheap Japanese food. Ocha-To-Go is another nearby one but my last visit 5 years ago was quite pricey and not as enjoyable.

I'm starting to explore my new neighbourhood and discovered the suburb of Seddon. A. Bongiovanni & Son was a nice local organic grocer that I'm sure I'll spend more time in. But the first cafe visited (and there certainly seem to be a few) was Seddon Deadly Sins complete with devil-looking images throughout. Funnily enough the menus are handed out in children's books and the dishes named after sins. The breakfast menu looked more interesting than lunch even though I went in at 3pm.

Coffee was reportedly decent and strong. Chai tea with milk was served in a pot with a squeezer of honey. The chai was nice but only very mildly spiced.

- Beer Battered Haloumi (with onion, fig & chilli jam, on baby spinach with bacon & two poached eggs) $17.5 - beer battered haloumi?? I can't say I've seen it before, but the haloumi is deepfried in advance, refrigerated, then re-fried for 3-4mins on order. The result is a very tasty crisp batter and soft cheese inside. The outside reminded me of the Chinese fried mantou bread (which is delicious). The rest of the dish fills space but the haloumi is the star;
- Sloth (housemade flourless chilli corn loaf with crispy bacon, guacamole & spicy baked beans) $16.5 - a local rendition of Irish cornbread with a hint of chilli and not dry like I've had elsewhere was excellent and I hoped there would be more. The guacamole is served cold and the baked beans could have used a little more seasoning but complete the dish.

Bacon overall was crisp and flavoursome, but I still have (Australia's best) Pialligo Estate bacon fresh in mind.

I was impressed with what I had and the Wrath (Spanish eggs), sweet potato latkes (whatever they are) and Envy (green eggs) will certainly be eaten at some point.

After 4 years away I was finally returning to Melbourne. Whereas I'd previously lived in Abbotsford, my new haunt was going to be Footscray. In the midst of December summer heat and the tedium of rental hunting, I was glad there was a reputed burger joint in the area. Considering the burger craze of everywhere 1st world, it wasn't surprising someone had brought it to the western market.

What I like is the nerdy-geeky old school gaming feel. There's even an arcade machine in the corner (that may be decorative - I didn't get close enough to look). What I also like is the open kitchen, watching the staff hard at work cooking and assembling and also mildly concerned (or amused) at the pool of black grease hanging off the ceiling...

- 8bit with Cheese (beef, tomato, lettuce, red onion, pickles, mustard, cheese, ketchup, 8bit sauce) $9.50 - I had to try the namesake standard burger for a comparator. It was quite nice however to me the patty was too thin. Considering they advertised medium-rare (did they advertise this or was I just hoping/expecting this?), it was too cooked for my liking and I can see with a thin patty how easy this is to do;
- 1 Up Mushroom Burger (crumbed mushroom, cheese, tomato, red onion, green tomato relish, lettuce, mustard, 8bit sauce) $10.00 - the vegetarian burger offering had a lot to live up to considering the incredible BrodVeg (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/brodburger-canberra-2014). There's no way it could've compared given the ingredients (essentially the same as the beef burgers but with mushroom) but having said that the burger overall was good quality and tasty;
- Chilli Cheese Fries (beer battered fries, chilli beef, cheese sauce, jalapenos, spring onions) $8.50 - ever since MEATliquor (http://eatlikeushi.posthaven.com/meatliquor-london-03-2012) Chili Fries I've had to order these every opportunity I get. Good on 8bit for an offering. I haven't found one that gives me the same feeling, including using the one from the MEATliquor Chronicles cookbook, but 8bit had a good solid attempt with a strong cheese sauce. It's not a replacement but for now it'll definitely do.

I'll be back, not just because I'm now going to be local, but because I want to.

Next time I would order the After Burner (beef with chilli) or Golden Axe (fried chicken) burgers, the Fatal Fury hotdog (topped with chilli beef reminiscent of my best ever dog at MEATmarket), chilli cheese fries or the excessive looking Loaded fries, and wash it down with an unhealthy sounding Strawberry Cheesecake milkshake.

02-2016

I decided to have a second run at 8bit after wandering through Footscray deciding what pho I should have.

After re-reading my earlier post, I settled on the After Burner and the Loaded fries.

After Burner $10.50 was definitely a more enjoyable burger for me than the 8bit. The brioche bun was particularly soft with crunchy edges on the flat side adding nice texture. The beef was once again thin and more cooked than the advertised medium rare. The collation of tomato, red onion, lettuce, jalapeno and the fused sauces of chilli, chipotle and mustard worked well. I think the cheese made it too much for me and toward the end it was the dominant flavour.

Loaded Fries $10 was excessive. The first few bites were great, of potato gems with crispy salty coatings, chilli beef, cheese sauce, salty bacon and some pickles, cucumber, jalapenos and onions for contrast. Toward the end, the saltiness of the gems and bacon and cheese got too much for me and I couldn't finish it (I suppose it wouldn't be expected for one person to finish an entire serve though). I think the gems were nicer than the fries from last my visit, but I'd have to think hard whether it would be worth ordering the Loaded over Chilli Fries just for that.

After all the saltiness as I stood to leave I asked for a cup of tap water. It was refused and I was told "we don't serve tap water". I'm expected to buy a bottle of water or another drink? Sorry, but that's crap.

06-2016

I couldn't decide what to eat for a birthday lunch. Of all things, I looked to the internet and various "what is my favourite food" surveys and their incredible inaccuracy and bias toward food types of the commoners. Not that common foods are bad, but I doubt these surveys were designed with the connoisseur of any food in mind.

Nonetheless with an indecisive mind and no other guidance, the three common themes were fried chicken, burgers and 40% junk food (which really isn't that much). I decided a fat treat of 8bit seemed to fit.

The Golden Axe burger has a thick fried chicken patty a bit of slaw and some token cheese. The chicken had decent texture and some crisp coating but the flavour seemed very mild and didn't really have a strong "chicken" presence. What stood out the most was an intense slightly buttery flavour from the bun and possibly the chicken, as well as some kind of burnt sensation from the chicken coat. The butter taste was much too strong for me and I'm surprised how it even got there at high levels.

The potato gems reinforced themselves as delicious salted parts ruffled to maximise fried surface area, crisp and good. Even the small serve was too much for me to finish on my own but that doesn't detract from how good they are.

I'll stick to the After Burner burger (with or without cheese) and some gems (loaded or naked) to share from now on. The dog does intrigue me still so perhaps give that a go.

I've been craving good Japanese food for a while. I wax and wane between this - after 6 trips there, I sometimes find it difficult to justify the price difference here and there, particularly for quality sashimi/nigiri. Considering you can almost get a return flight to Tokyo now for close to the same price as a Melbourne omakase menu makes it even more likely I might shun the local places in preference for those overseas. Canberra seriously lacks any kind of good traditional-type Japanese restaurant. Lilotang has outstanding food and Akiba has more comforting bar food, but neither have the same kind of elegance nor classic feel to them which I have missed.

After a quick read through the chef hats and reviews (and because Minamishima as the other competitor wasn't open), I ended up at Kappo for the celebratory meal between Christmas and New Year. The menu is intriguing - essentially an omakase of varying numbers of courses (naturally I selected the odoroki 9 course for $150 per head) and a listing of the ingredients that would feature (in order to remove ones that don't sit with you).

There's some autonomy in selecting your chopsticks from the presentation case and similarly sake sets to drink Okuharima from. Then comes the food, bit by bit...

- Miso tofu with daikon yuzu;
- Coffin Bay oyster with caviar (very creamy with a hint of tartness), vegetables with a delicious walnut satay sauce, fig with puffed rice, deep-fried juicy quail;
- Buckwheat tofu, dashi, ginger & daikon - umami soup and my first experience with the lovely buckwheat tofu;
- The Ocean - lobster, salmon, scallop, salmon roe, black rice, seaweed, sea grapes served separately then mixed together;
- Mustard leaves, kaki tempura, balsamic reduction
- Nigiri course - Toro with black garlic, King George whiting with ginger, Tasmanian salmon with daikon & chilli;
- Chawanmushi - sweet corn, crunchy "par" (?) meat which was some kind of delicious mollusc (texture reminds me of what they call arkshell in Japan but with a clam flavour). An outstanding combination;
- Puff rice tempura, scampi, zucchini flower topped with this incredible creation of wasabi ice;
- Wagyu sirloin with black salt, hoisin, peppers & sour peach
- Ume rice tsukemono

Desserts
- Yuzu & honey sorbet;
- Chocolate cigar, Japanese donut, apricot jelly with azuki beans;
- Creme brulee.

Roasted green tea was served to finish off the evening. An exceptional meal with modern twists on the traditional kaiseki. Yes, it is quite expensive. I can't wait to return to Japan.

On Christmas morning I was surprised so many cafes and restaurants remained open. When I say so many, that really wasn't many at all, but given the day I expected almost complete shutdown. After a night of excessive ham and celebratory meats, the mood was for vegetarian to give much needed assistance to digestion.

Vegie Bar was an obvious choice, however after arriving to a queue both inside and outside, it seemed more prudent to search elsewhere. Long on my list is Yong Green Food but they were doing the expected thing and having a holiday on the holiday. After a short walk, Radhey appeared with its self-promotion of chai and all things natural. The queue included some real hippie types (not hipsters) with the unusually placed piercings, colourful clothes and headwear.

- A lunch plate of Thai vegetable curry with roti (roti was more like a chapati, mild curry), sweet potato shepherd's pie (sweet potato mash and lentil base), arancini ball (fresh fried and delicious rice middle);
- Tandoori tofu wrap (pan-seared marinated tofu & salad in a toasted spinach flatbread with homemade tandoori mayo) $12
- Raw brownie - delicious, not too sweet, base of dates and topped with thick chocolate and walnut.

The soy chai and iced soy chai were both delicious, well spiced with good notes of ginger. I'll happily come back here even when there are other vegetarian options nearby.