Eating Out: Petaling Street Revisted (Afternoon Tea Special) [600 Station St, Box Hill]

Hungry after a day of orientation at uni K仔 and I decided to head down to Box Hill to try out the afternoon tea specials at Petaling Street. Twice we did this.
There are 10 dishes to choose from, all of which are $6.80. YES $6.80!!!!!!!!!!! May I add that includes Teh Tarik hot/cold OR a can of soft drink. But do go for the Teh Tarik, very frothy but sweet.

On the first visit we shared a Hainanese Chicken Rice. No picture because we were just too hungry to care. The skin was very springy. Only issue was the soya sauce underneath was quite salty. There was about 5 decent sized pieces of chicken.

The second time we went we both ordered separate dishes, at $6.80 why not?

Traditional Malaysian Roast Chicken with Rice

Likes: 

Whole maryland =] with super crispy skin

Moist chicken (I don't get how it can be so moist if the chicken is roasted, really raises suspicions.)

Chicken rice was quite chickeny

Dislikes:

Skin was extremely salty, like they dipped it in salt. 

Char Koay Teow
Likes:
Very generous serving.
Everything was there (crispy pork lard, fish cake, prawns, chinese sausage, egg, beansprouts, garlic chives and COCKLES)
Just right for chilliness (not for K仔, he added a massive dollop of sambal onto his share)
Dislikes:
Cockles tasted like the sea, sooooo fishy.

By the end we were both completely stuffed. Although this is their "afternoon tea" set we had it for lunch. I wonder how anyone could eat the much for afternoon tea.

Food: 8.5/10 The chicken dishes were average but the char kway teow was the best I've had all year.
Service/Environment:  8/10 Clean. Alright service, English is obviously not the waiter/waitresses first language but it is better than a lot of places in Box Hill.
Value: 9.5/10 Exceptional value. To get a 10 the dishes would have to be perfect, close but definitely not perfect.
Accessibility: Train, tram and bus.

Verdict? Wonder if I can try out all 10 dishes offered. 3 down 7 to go. Ipoh Hor fun sounds good, as does Petaling Street Style Short Rice Noodle in Claypot.

Cookbook Challenge: Caramel Popcorn [Week 4, Love]

Wow another late post. Not that I haven't made anything under the theme during the past fortnight, just that I haven't actually followed a recipe lately and I've forgotten to take a photo of whatever I have made. I attempted to make macaRONS for K仔 for Valentines Day. But having not made them in about 6 months and totally winging it I was destined to fail. Ended up with very dry and sweet sandwich flying disks. Luckily K仔 being the awesome boyfriend he is still ate them all up, giving him many sugar rushes during the day.

Which brings me to Caramel Popcorn. How does this reflect the theme? Let me set the scene. The sun is setting, the stars are coming out, sitting on a picnic rug with your boyfriend at the park, massive screen in front of you, movie is about to start and munching caramel popcorn. (Minus the mozzies constantly attacking you like there's no tomorrow)
There was one problem though, I don't have a recipe for Caramel Popcorn. Therefore I googled one.
Got this recipe off www.taste.com.au and it's actually from Super Food Ideas Magazine, August 2004.
Be warned, you'll probably be shocked at the amount of butter in this, but trust me it tastes amazing.


Caramel Popcorn

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used a popcorn machine so no oil, shocking how much fat is in this)
• 1/2 cup popping corn

• Caramel

• 125g butter, chopped
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons honey (I skipped this)
• 1 cup pecans, roughly chopped (Also left this out, not a fan of nuts)

Method

1. Line a tray with baking paper. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add 2 pieces of popping corn. If corn slowly turns around in a circle then oil is hot enough. (Or use popcorn machine according to instruction manual.)
2. Add remaining popping corn. Cover with a tight-fitting lid. When corn starts popping, shake saucepan gently. Remove from heat when corn stops popping. Transfer to a large bowl, discarding any unpopped corn. (POPCORN MACHINE)
3. Make caramel: Combine butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 to 7 minutes or until sugar has dissolved. Bring mixture to the boil. Boil, uncovered, without stirring, for 5 to 8 minutes or until light golden.
4. Remove from heat. Stir in pecans. Pour caramel mixture over popcorn and stir until popcorn is coated. Spread over prepared tray. Set aside to cool. Break into pieces. Serve.

Makes 14 cups, trust me they'll disappear in no time.

YUMMY

Best night I've had for while I think. Keep in mind I have the worst memory ever so I have trouble recalling things.

Suzuki Night Market

Went to the Suzuki Night Market last Wednesday. Although I didn't eat much there since the food was quite expensive and the boy couldn't eat much since he had training later at night.

Finally tried the Twister Potato for $5, I haven't really seen it for cheaper anywhere. I have to be honest it was quite delicious. Fluffy potato, crispy outside. Good to try things at least once.

Since the potato was sooo salty we were desperate for a drink. Authentic lemonade of course!!! And since it was really hot and humid that night why not go for lemonade slushie for $6. Haven't had some decent lemonade in a while. Very refreshing.

The night market is only open for 2 more weeks to GET DOWN THERE on a Wednesday. It is a good experience. Although both the boy and I said "The walkways are not narrow enough for it to be a night market! And not enough people!" We are both too used to ASIAN night markets.

Yes it's on urbanspoon 0.0 and I'm the first to like.

Eating Out: Old Town Cafe [273 Swanston Street Melbourne, 3000]

Quick dinner with friends. Never would have thought of coming here, friends chose it. I like Old Town Kopitiam better, however these two places are completely different, they specialise in different cuisines. Took me a good 5-10 mins to decide on what I wanted since I couldn't see anything they specialised in.

Roast Duck Noodle Soup $8.90

Likes: Decent sized duck pieces

Lots of noodles

They give you a dish for bones

MSG Soup

Dislikes: Not a lot of duck

Duck kind of drowned in my soup, rather have it on the side.

Iced Soya Milk with Grass Jelly $2

Only $2 if you order a main meal, otherwise it's $3 something.

Likes: The combination

Dislikes: Crappy soya milk

Hard to eat grass jelly

Had to resort to putting my ice cubes into my soup just so I could get to the jelly

Coconut House's Soya Milk is much much better, freshly made is always better.

Black Bean Beef Rice $8.90

Seafood Noodle Soup $9.90

Fish Ball Noodle Soup $8.90

Vegetable Tom Yum Noodle Soup $8.90

Smelt delicious.

Sizzling Seafood Combination $11.50

Food: 7/10 Based on what I had. Not a great roast duck or drink.
Service/Environment: 8/10 We got squished into the corner although the place wasn't even remotely full. Waitresses were keen. My noodles come out pretty slow considering there were no other orders at the time...waitresses kept asking the kitchen where the noodles were.
Value: 7.5/10 Food is of average value considering quality and quantity. Drinks are cheap, however quality may be compromised.
Accessibility: In the heart of the city. Right next to Swanston/Lonsdale St Maccas.
No one has reviewed or clicked like or dislike on urbanspoon yet. It's not that new is it? I can't say I like or dislike it.

Cooking: Peking Duck

My family doesn't really celebrate Chinese New Year so for CNY eve this time round I decided to make some Peking Duck. Yes how very untraditional and what not but who cares. I didn't bother roasting my own duck, I just bought a roast duck from the Chinese BBQ shop for about $25. Remember to buy it whole/unchopped. Came home and made some pancakes accordning to Poh's recipe http://www.abc.net.au/tv/pohskitchen/stories/s2964593.htm. Sliced off all the duck skin with the meat and wrapped it up. I made double of Poh's recipe for pancakes and it was enough for 4 people. 7 pancakes each.
Completely stuffed in the end. Absolutely delicious =]

Don't forget the cucumber, spring onion and hoisin sauce.

Cookbook Challenge: Hanoi Pork and Vermicelli Noodle Soup [Week 3, Rice/Noodles]

Another late entry. I obviously have problems with deadlines. To be honest I actually had made a few things under the theme of rice/noodles over the past fortnight which include tang yuan and char kway teow which I was going to post for the cookbook challenge, but then I realised I didn't use a recipe for either so it wouldn't classify.

I decided to choose a recipe out of Luke Nguyen's The Songs of Sapa. Something that I had really considered doing as I only borrowed his book to read the writing, not for the recipes, it was a very good book. Very detailed and hard to put down. Read 3/4 of the book on the afternoon of a 40 degree day. I still like Secrets of Red Lantern better, I think it's because I can somehow relate to it better. 

I wanted to choose something simple, good for a cold rainy day and not something that everyone knows.

Like usual, anything in (brackets) is not in the original recipe, it's what I did/my suggestions.

Luke Nguyen's Hanoi Pork and Vermicelli Noodle Soup

Ingredients: 3 dried wood ear mushrooms. 250g dried rice vermicelli noodles. 200g pork paste. 250ml vegetable oil. 2L chicken stock. 3tbs fish sauce. 2tsp sugar. 100g pork terrine sliced into batons. 100g fried pork terrine (cha que) thinly sliced. To serve: 2tsp garlic oil. 2tbs sliced spring onion green part only. 3tbs fried asian shallots. 1 large handful coriander leaves. 1 large handful mint leaves.  1 large handful Vietnamese mint leaves. 1 cup bean sprouts. Shrimp paste to taste (optional. 1 birds eye chilli, thinly sliced. 


Yes the list of ingredients is daunting but don't worry, I skipped half of them and still had a delicious dinner.


Method: 
1. Put the mushrooms in a bowl, cover with water and soak for 20 minutes, then drain and thinly slice. (Mum already had some sliced up ones in the freezer so I used those).
2. Put the rice vermicelli in a saucepan of boiling water and bring back to the boil. Cook for 5 mins turn off the heat and leave in the water for 5 mins. Drain and then rinse under cold water. Set aside.
3. In a bowl combine pork paste and mushrooms, then using hands knead well. Divide into two portions and set aside. 
4. (I completely skipped this step as I didn't want to fry stuff and have to clean it). Heat the oil in a saucepan over med heat. Form half the pork paste into small balls using oiled hands, then carefully drop the pork balls into the oil.  Fry for 2 mins, urning in the oil until brown, drain on paper towel. Set aside.
5. Bring the chicken stock to the boil in a large saucepan, add the fish sauce, sugar, 2 tsp salt (I found fish sauce to be enough) and 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper (also skipped this). Stir and then reduce heat to low simmer. Shape remaining pork paste into small balls and drop them into the simmering stock. When they rise to the surface they are cooked. Remove and set aside.
6. Divide vermicelli among serving bowls. Arrange pork terrine, fried pork terrine, fried pork balls and poached pork balls on top. Pour over stock to cover all ingredients. Drizzle with a little garlic oil(I found garlic oil added nothing to the soup) and garnish with spring onions, fried shallots and coriander. Serve with platter of fresh mint, Viet mint and bean sprouts. Add to soup as desired. (I only used fresh mint as that is all we have in our garden. I found it to be more than enough)
7. For a more intense flavour add 1/4 tsp of shrimp paste to each bowl and stir to dissolve. Serve with a small bowl of sliced chilli and fish sauce for dipping.


I found several shortcuts which I will use next time. Buy a loaf of the Vietnamese ham and slice it up like in my picture. Buy some frozen hot pot meat/pork balls instead of making them unless I can be bothered. Skip the garlic oil. Skip all the herbs and just use some mint from the garden. Easy and quick this way.

Eating Out: No picture reviews.

I think every blogger hits a point where they feel like blogging is a chore. In particular food bloggers-reviewers, they feel the need to take a break, not because they have eaten too much good food, but because eating out has lost it's meaning. Having said that there is always that voice in the back of your head that goes, you should be blogging this when you're just trying to have a good meal with company. Lately I have tried a few new places and did not take pictures, tried not to think about the food but mainly about who I was with, what I was celebrating and just treasuring the moment. Except I have also discovered that once you decide to be a food blogger, you always search for ways for improvements, what should be done differently.
Also my SD card has recently screwed up and I have lost some pictures for some restaurants (before I hit the eating out has changed mindset).


Dakao Hoang [17 Balmoral Ave Springvale, 3171]
Likes: Cleanish. Honest viet food. Generous serving.
Dislikes: Unsqueezable lemon pieces (not wedges). Fail air con.
8/10

Da Hu Peking Duck Restaurant [171 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne 3000 (Chinatown)]
Likes: Generous amount of peking duck. Carved super efficiently. Get both skin and meat.
Dislikes: The duck was a little dry. Not enough fat. Other dishes were pretty average. Expected a lot better.
Major Dislike: THE SERVICE. Waitress purposely looking away until another waiter attended to us.
5/10


Nhu Lan [152 Victoria Street, Richmond, 3121]
Likes: Clean.
Dislikes: Smaller bun than usual at a higher price. Lady completely forgot that I requested no soya sauce but was very very willing to make me a new one, no matter how many times I said it's okay, she still did. How nice =]
7/10

Random place in Springvale Shopping Centre (I think) on the corner
Awesome $5 deal of Viet Roll AND Bubble Tea with Pearls. Although the bun is a little smaller than usual everything was delicious inside and the roll is the crustiest I have ever had. I will be back.

Menya [437 Elizabeth St, Melbourne 3000]
Likes: Big serving size. Delicious. I got the Ginseng Pork Bone Ramen. Didn't taste ginseng. Got three massive pork bones, one slab of pork and bamboo slices. CLEAN. Egg was nice and soft and soya sauce browned on the outside.
Dislikes: It looked like tonkotsu soup base in the picture, came out as shoyu =[ They had the superbowl on and all the guys were glued to it.
8.5/10 Will be back

Kun Ming Restaurant [212 Little Bourke St, Melbourne, 3000]
Likes: Quality chinese food. Clean. Honest food. Reasonable prices
Dislikes: Some serving sizes.
8.5/10

Eating Out: Coconut House Revisited [449 Elizabeth St Melbourne, 3000]

After spending the day out in the city celebrating CNY with K仔 we decided to stay out and have dinner. We hadn't had dinner together in....have we even had dinner alone before? Had some epic lamb skewers at one of the stalls in Chinatown for lunch, I asked the lady for chilli and she rolls the skewers in a tray of crushed dried chilli, set my mouth and lips on fire. Anyways back to dinner, it was K仔's turn to pick a restaurant and after trying to find something Korean and failing we ended up at Coconut House. Seriously can't go wrong (unless you're pretty hungry).

Cold Soya Milk $2.50or80 冻豆奶

Likes: Perfectly sweet.

No sediment.

Great to oppose the sambal

Relatively large cup (I'm guessing 300-350ml)

Dislikes: Price (I can get a whole bottle from the asian grocery store at that price)

Curry Cheong Fun  $6.50

(topped with mushroom and minced pork)

Likes: Interesting concept.

Curry had curry flavour

Decent amount of pork

Dislikes: Curry was quite watery

Mushrooms had no mushroom flavour

Nasi Lemak $8something

Likes: Flavoursome chicken

Presentation

Insane amount of sambal

Dislikes: Not enough cucumber to counter sambal.

Sambal so chilli that you cannot taste coconut rice

Food: 8.5/10 Still high quality Malay food.

Service/Environment: 6/10 Cramped. Service ain't particularly friendly. NO TEH TARIK? Because the boiler was broken? wtf is a stove and pot for? Do it the old fashioned way. Malay place without Teh Tarik = serious problems.

Value: 7/10 I have to lower this as the serving size has seemed to have shrunk. Enough for a lunch. Watched another diner polish of a hainanese chicken rice in minutes including every drop of the soup. Yummy or just not enough? I think both.

Accessibilty: Tram on Elizabeth St. A few minutes walk from Melbourne Central.

Eating Out: Teru Teru Japanese Cafe Revisited [578 Station St Box Hill, 3128]

Came back here to try out their udon. I still love this place. Next time I'm feeling under the weather and it's winter I should probably come here for udon.
Sorry about the camera quality, taken with phone as I left my camera at home that day.

Tonkatsu Udon $10

If it's a weekday $10 will also get you a drink. 

Likes: Springy not mushy udon

Seaweed

Naruto (fishcake slices) 

Dashi broth, nice and light.

Dislikes: Tonkatsu came submerged in the soup =[

Not suitable for a hot summers day.

Eating Out: Singapore Chom Chom [188 Bourke St Melbourne, 3000]

Update: Singapore Chom Chom is actually closed due to rent issues. I believe I may have read something about $80,000 of rent not paid over 4 months or something similar. How sad =[

According to Urbanspoon Singapore Chom Chom is now closed?!?! I went a few weeks ago...must check it out next time I'm in the city. I really wanted to go back and try out some more dishes, especially the Nasi Lemak. You get to choose which type of noodles you want to go with your noodle soup.

Nasi Lemak $8.80

Likes: You get curry chicken and fried chicken.

Dislikes: This wasn't my dish, it was my friends. 

Soya Chicken on Dry Noodles $8.50

Likes: Enormous serving

Skin still on chicken

Dislikes: Noodles all stuck together

Salty

Lack of vegies

Seafood Noodle Soup $12.80

Tom Yum Vegetable Noodle Soup $9.30

Food: 8/10 A little on the salty side for my dish.

Service/Environment: 6.5/10 I wonder if they closed due to hygiene reasons, because I wouldn't be surprised. Also had language barrier problems with staff.

Value: 8/10 Average priced. Nasi Lemak is good value though.

Accessibility. Along tram line. Within walking distance of train station and bus stop. Might be hard to find parking.

Verdict? I want to come back but I don't think that's possible 

Eating Out: RaRamen [114 Kings Way Glen Waverley, 3150]

I wished I lived in Glen Waverley, in particular near Kings Way. Food heaven =] Going to keep this short and sweet.

Lanzhou Noodles $9ish 兰州拉面

Likes: The fatty braised beef.

Meaty flavour.

Fresh noodles.

Serving size.

Dislikes: Uneven noodle sizes, some noodles perfect some mushy.

Not enough vegies to make you feel somewhat better from the fatty meat.

Pan Fried Dumplings $8ish 锅贴

Likes: Super crispy

Big filling

Dislikes: A little too oily

Food: 8.5/10 Noodles were really good, especially the beef accompanying it. The dumplings weren't bad. 

Service/Environment: 7.5/10 Seemed to be only 2 waitresses when I was there. They are very quick and efficient. I guess because drinks are help yourself. It's relatively clean.

Value: 9/10 Portions are large. $17 something for 2 and ended up doggy bagging and having it for lunch the next day. Oh and there's free unlimited slurpee

Accessibility: Train and bus. 

Eating Out: China Red [Shop 6, 206 Bourke St Melbourne, 3000]

Am I the last to visit this place? Came here after my friends and I got out Uni offers =O yes this post is beyond late. We managed to get the room to ourselves all night since it was Monday, however I was surprised at how filled he restaurant was on a Monday night. Service is quick but not without it's issues. Our first dish arrived before we had even finished ordering. I don't remember exact names of dishes or prices. Most dishes were around the $20 mark and the dumplings under $10.

Seafood Vermicelli Hot Pot 海鲜粉丝煲

Likes: Variety of seafood.

Dislikes: Don't remember anything bad.

Crispy Skin Chicken 炸子鸡

Likes: Serious crispy skin

Dislikes: Portion size given price

Chicken meat was a little dry

Pumpkin Stir Fried in Salted Egg Yolk

Likes: Strong salted egg yolk flavour

Good with rice or by itself

Dislikes: PRICE $17 =.="

Oily

Not crispy

Beef Slices cooked in Chilli Broth 水煮牛

Likes: Serving size

Lots of aromatics

Chilliness

The serving spoon

Dislikes: Flavourless beef

Boiled Beijing Dumplings 12pcs

Likes: Lots of filling

Fresh skin

Dislikes: A bit plain on their own

Vegetable Dumplings

Don't remember the taste

Likes: Presentation

Dislikes: Don't remember

Food: 8.5/10 The food here is of pretty high level. I guess slightly above average chinese food.

Service/Environment: 8/10 Service was a bit of a let down as we had to ask for water about 3 times before someone actually got us some. Also communication problems so we had to resort to speaking in Chinese, which was still a bit of a problem as some waitresses spoke Mando and some Canto. But hey, there was at least one of us who could speak either or both of those languanges. Environment is very good, room to ourselves, only complaint would be the crappy music that makes you feel as though you are in the bathroom.

Value: 8/10 Some dishes overprices but since it's in the city it is acceptable. 

Accessibility: 9/10 In the city, maybe a little hard to find for those unfamiliar to Chinatown and surroundings.

Verdict? I'm a poor student. And you can get the food offered there a little closer to home.

Eating Out: Wong's Lucky Bar 旺旺幸运吧 Revisted [921 Whitehorse Road Box Hill, 3128]

Going to try a new format for reviews. I'm pretty sure you're sick of my rambling and my horrible writing style.

Came here for lunch a few weeks ago. It's starting to become one of my favourite places in Box Hill.

Hainanese Chicken Rice $7.50 (I think)

Likes: Comes with everything it should in a decent sized serving. 

The price.

Dislikes: They raised the price in 2011 from $6.90.

Chicken part of the Chicken Rice

This is what I come here for.

Likes: Boneless

That they actually submerged into icy water straight after to make the springy skin.

The soy sauce which isn't too salty.

The garlicky chilli sauce.

The special something in the spring onion sauce. Chicken Powder?

Dislikes: People pinching my chicken because it's good.

Wong's Laksa King $8.80

Likes: Tonnes of chicken and toppings.

Dislikes: Broth, not enough spices in it.

Combination Crispy Fried Noodle $8.90

Likes: Super Crispy Noodles which are NOT burnt.

Variety of toppings

Dislikes: Hard to pull apart and share.

Stir Fried Clams $14something

Not on the menu and some waiters do not know that they have this dish.

Likes: It's hot.

The youtiao (chinese donut) bits in the bottom to soak up the sauce.

Dislikes: Serving portion given price.

Not fresh. 

Some shells did not have any meat in them.

Food: 8/10 Average chinese food. Decent chicken rice.

Service/Environment: 7/10 Cramped and not the cleanest place around. Staff aren't very cheery.

Value: 8.5/10 Chicken rice excellent value. Clams definitely overpriced. Everything else is reasonable.

Accessibility: 9/10 Train, tram and bus. Extremely convenient. Only problem is you might miss it, not a super obvious place. 

Verdict? Read previous post on this place. If I want chicken rice, I will come here for my fix.

The cafe part joined to the restaurant is also part of the restaurant. The milk tea with pearls there is only $3 compared to $3.50 at Bubble Cup. The cup is slightly smaller here I think but seriously all that milk tea isn't good for you anyways. Also a little sweeter with a hint of coffee and stronger tea flavour (for some reason) than Bubble Cup.