Murchison Bakery and Tea Rooms, Murchison by Bureaucrat

To cap off the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival last month, I headed northwards to a little town called Murchison, which is located along the Goulburn River.  Why Murchison?  Well, it was hosting the Tomato Festa, and I'm always keen on checking out regional towns and their foodie scene.


Tomatoes galore!

It's a pretty little town with a great community vibe.  When we got there, I wanted to get a light lunch/snack. I didn't want a big meal, as I wanted to save room for tasting all the tomatoey goodness.


We made a beeline to the local bakery, Murchison Bakery and Tea Rooms, which has views of the riverbank. Inside, it was quite busy due to the Festa.  However, I got a feeling that MB&TR is a local favourite.  Inside, it's big and it's spread over two floors, with lots of seating for hungry families, locals and tourists.


There's quite a selection of sweet and savoury goodies. I went for the meat pie and some chips.  The pie was reasonably good - nice beefy flavour and gravy, however, I was a bit 'meh' about the texture of the beef, as it was a tad nubbly.  The pastry was light and flaky, though a tad bland.


To go with the pie, we got some chips.  Cooked in small batches meant that we got fresh chips that were crispy on the outside and piping hot on the inside.  Yum.

As postscript, I did sample (and buy!) a few foodie treats at the Festa that I want to share.  I'm normally not a big fan of hard cheese (I much prefer gooey bries and chewy mozzarellas), but I fell in love with the very morish cheddar from Vazzoler Cheese at Longleat.  Full of savoury, saltiness yumminess.  I bought a nice wedge of it home, which I polished off in a matter of days. My only regret was that I didn't buy more of it.

I also got a delicious and refreshing bottle of Mimi's basil cordial made in Murchison using a traditional Swiss recipe. And it goes without saying that I got a swag of sweet cherry tomatoes and a jar of 100% pure homemade passata.

Verdict
Food – 7
Service – 7.5
Ambience – 7
Price – 8

Overall
A nice country town bakehouse.  If I were ever back in Murchison (and there's a reasonable chance, as I would love to explore more of this beautiful town and get some more cheese!), I'd swing by to try out more baked goods.  I'm not sure whether it was because of the Tomato Festa, or whether they have this on the menu, but they were churning out these very nice thin crust pizzas.

Address
Murchison Bakery and Tea Rooms
39 Stevenson St
Murchison, Greater Shepparton 3630
Telephone: 03 5826 2336

Killiney Kopitiam, Melbourne CBD by Snooze

Last week I visited Killiney Kopitiam together with Miss Viaggio. Killiney is Miss Viaggio’s new “go to” place and I was keen to experience what draws Miss Viaggio. I hadn’t heard of this eatery before although I know a kopitiam is a Malaysian coffee shop. A little research, and assistance from Miss Viaggio, saw me educated to the Killeney chain of kopitiams in a range of cities and countries throughout Asia, including two in Melbourne. Interesting to know also, Killiney is named for Killiney Road in Singapore, with the first kopitiam opening there in 1919. They must be doing something right.

First impressions are good: the restaurant is large, clean and nicely fitted out. The service is also smooth and well co-ordinated, with a sign on entering that we need to wait to be seated. Within minutes we’re ushered to our seats. Fortunately Miss Viaggio understands the drill because there’s no table service and we have to order and pay for our meal at the counter and take a number.



At this stage in the review I need to put up my hand and admit to a lack of knowledge about, and to some extent enthusiasm for, Singaporean food. I started eating Malaysian and Singaporean food in the last 2-3 years, and I'm in no way an expert. I might even go so far as to claim I’m not a total convert. Many of the dishes are discordant to my tastes (Nasi Lemak comes to mind), and I’m one of those people who needs the chilli level toned down to a gentle level.

Miss Viaggio’s latest dish to try was the combination Laksa with Hainanese chicken. For some reason I expected these to be served separately, but they came together in the same bowl. Miss Viaggio thought the gravy was good and thick and nicely soaked up by the fried tofu, but she felt the delicate Hainanese chicken was overpowered by the Laksa.



My choice was the Fried Kway Teoh. This is one Malaysian dish I like although the best I’ve tried so far is at Tidlom Thai in the CBD. Killeney’s version was super filling but not one of the best around. It was predominantly noodles, fortunately not very hot chilli wise, with only a few medium sized prawns and not enough bean shoots to suit me. The colour was good but with none of the oomph I expect from this dish. The best bit for me; there were plenty of those largish fish things (I think) I really like.



My favourite of the meal was my Teh Tarik. I love this stuff and would go back for this drink alone. Again not the best I’ve had, weaker in strength n the Chinese style and not as frothy as I like, but still good.

Overall
My impression is Killiney sounds like a touch of home for the Singaporean students in Melbourne, and given the lunchtime crowd this may well be the case. I liked its clean surroundings with quick service, generous serving size and low price. I’ll be going back to try a few more things including the Hainanese chicken rice, but unfortunately I won’t be expecting a balanced meal with vegetables.

It's kind of interesting to see and compare this Killiney with its first kopitiam opened in Carlton, that Big Fil visited in late 2011. It seems as though they've learnt a lot since then with many of the kinks ironed out since that time.

Verdict
Food – 6.5
Service – 8
Ambience – 7
Price – 7

Address
Shop 11, 108 Bourke St

Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: 03 9663 5818

Nhu Lan, Footscray by Big Fil

Bahn Mi are one of the world’s great sandwiches.  A mix of fresh Vietnamese flavours and French style pate and bread, you can find them all over town but where can you find the best?  I have a couple of favourite places, one in Springvale and the other in St Albans, both hopefully to be the subject of future blog posts.  We’d rarely had them in Footscray though, and it was time to try out Nhu Lan, reportedly the home of the best Bahn Mi in the west

.

We were a bit fortunate to find the place though, as of course I’d neglected to write down either the name or address of the bakery.  Searching around for the best part of twenty minutes to determine where the locals appeared to be heading eventually led to a fairly non-descript looking place, with the usual bakery out the back and already sliced meats and vegetables waiting to assembled together at the front.  Comparatively early in the morning it was still very quiet but the number of staff hanging around was an obvious indication it would get much busier later in the day.

For anyone who hasn’t had bahn mi before, think of a small white French bread loaf, crunchy on the outside and fluffy in the middle.  Add margarine, pate, several vegetables and choice of meat (usually grilled pork for me) and you have something which sounds very simple but which can have great depth of flavour, all for just a handful of coins. 

What were our bahn mi like at Nhu Lan?  To be honest good but not quite what either Snooze or myself had been hoping for.  That said they did have some good points.  The roll gave a satisfying crunch when bitten into, and the pate, sadly neglected in a lot of bahn mi, was creamy in texture and added much welcome bite.

On the other hand, there were a few things I thought could be improved.  While I liked my grilled pork Snooze felt like her chicken may have been sitting in the tray for a little while (possibly because they weren’t yet busy), and both could have been a bit more generous in terms of serving size.  My bun was a little crushed, and I always like a nice hit of coriander which I didn’t get here.  So I would have rated it as a good bahn mi, but not somewhere that would replace those places closest to my heart.

Overall

I know this place is very popular, and sometimes only visiting a place once means you don’t give it a fair go.  While I certainly think it’s better than any of the bahn mi available in the city, was it the best I’ve had in Melbourne?  No.  Where was better?  Well that revelation is yet to come!

Verdict

Food – 7.5

Service – 7.5

Ambience – 6

Price – 8

Address

116 Hopkins Street

Footscray VIC

Tel: (03) 9689 7296

Rice Queen, Fitzroy by Bureaucrat

For many years, I have wanted to dine at Rice Queen.  I first noticed RQ when it opened up under the Panama Dining Room in Fitzroy.  I knew nothing about it, except that I liked the name.


Skip forward many years, we made reservations at RQ, which now is located on Brunswick Street.


Outside, is sort of nondescript.  However, inside, it's a glorious riot of colours.  It's an eclectic mix of Asian styles, done up in a camp-ish sort of way.  Lots of faux flowers, the waitresses are decked out in cheong san, and there's a lot of warm mood lighting.


Our waitress was exemplary - she very politely and kindly informed us that we should order soon, as there is a time limit on our table (we arrived late and we were too engrossed in a gab fest to realise that we hadn't ordered).  It was a wonderful example where delivering an awkward message with tact, humour and diplomacy makes a world of difference for the dining experience.

After a bit of deliberation, we ordered the four mains to share.  The menu is a mix of Asian cuisines with slight twist to them.  Mostly the dishes are Korean, Thai, Japanese, Singaporean and Malaysian-based.


First up, the papaya salad w snake beans, cherry toms, peanuts, crispy shallots w a lime and soy dressing.  This was perhaps the least impressive dish of the night. I don't know much about papaya salad and I wasn't really sure whether I could taste the green papaya. The dressing was quite bland.  Overall, it just tasted like a regular salad.


The next few dishes came out quickly.  The Korean taco - slow roasted Korean style pork served w rice, kim chi, butter lettuce and two sauces. This was quite fun. The pork was very tender and had a mild spiciness to it.  I would say this was more like a Korean san choy bao, as opposed a taco.


Next was probably everyone's favourite dish of the night - KFC (aka Korean Fried Chicken). Lovely, juicy and tender fried chicken ribs.  The flavour is kinda like salt and pepper squid, but with a more depth to it.  Despite the presence of the chillies, this was quite mild. I could easily finish a whole plate of this!


Last but not least was the Assam seafood curry w prawns, rockling, squid in an okra and tamarind soup base, which comes served with a bowl of rice.  This was a lovely, fresh curry.  I loved the tart flavour from the fresh tomatoes and tamarind. There was a reasonable amount of fresh (not frozen) seafood, but I would have preferred more of it.  The okra was cooked perfectly, as it was nice and crunchy and not at all slimy. This would be my second favourite dish.


As we wanted dessert (and we spent too much time gas-bagging at the start), our waitress suggested that she move us over to the bar area for dessert.  We happily complied.  So situated in a our new table behind the resident DJ, we could see that RQ is definitely popular place to dine.  The place was packed with lots of glammed up hipsters.

There's only three choices for dessert, all of which contain coconut.  I know Asian cuisine aren't known for desserts, but I would have thought they could offer other desserts that didn't include coconut.  We chose two of the desserts to share.


The first was the pandan sago w coconut sorbet w treacle and "crowned" in lime syrup. I preferred this dessert, as I like almost anything with sago.  The sago had a gentle twang of pandan flavour. The treacle was quite deep in caramelly flavour and it wasn't in-your-face sweet, while the lime syrup help cut through the richness.


The second was the coconut lime cheese cake w mango.  I think none of us expected the cheesecake to look like this... it looks like a pastry dish, like a quiche.  However, the cheesecake was rich in texture without being too claggy.  The roasted coconut and mango gave an otherwise 'meh' cheesecake some oomph to the flavour and texture.

Verdict
Food – 7.5
Ambience – 9

Service – 9

Price – 7

Overall
The food is pretty good and it's nice that RQ does it with a twist. The service is, as I mentioned, exemplary   While clearing our table, our waitress accidently dropped a fork into my cider.  She apologised profusely and got me a complementary glass of new cider.

Inside, it's a great vibe, especially at night. It's busy but the staff are prompt.  It's buzzing without being deafening and or difficult to hold a conversation. Definitely a place to be seen but without being pretentious about it.  It's the sort of place where, if you were walking outside, you'd think "I want to go inside and see what's happening!".

Address
Rice Queen
389 Brunswick St
Fitzroy 3065
Telephone: 9419 6624

WonderBao, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

To the tune of Bali Ha’i:

WonderBao may call you
Any night, any day
In your heart, you’ll hear it call you:
“Come eat me... come eat me”

WonderBao will whisper
Steaming now, it’s ready:
“Here am I, braised pork bao!
Custard bao, come to me!”

(With apologies to messieurs Rodgers and Hammerstein)

I’ve been relatively slow at jumping on the bao wagon.   So when Melbourne exploded with bao places, I wasn’t exactly in a rush to try them.  And when I did try them (refer Big Fil’s review of Bao Now in Sept 2012), I wasn’t impressed.


However, I have heard lots about WonderBao being the place for bao – Big Fil and Snooze reviewed the place within days of it opening and had good things to say about it (refer his post in Aug 2012); I’ve seen it trending on Urbanspoon; and Big Fil’s review of WonderBao is the most read post we have on our blog!

So about two months ago, I was given WonderBao custard egg bao as a present from two lovely gentlemen (both who herald from the US but work and live in HK and China).  Given that these guys are likely to have eaten their fair share of baos and they thought WonderBao was good, I thought I’d give them a try.  And omg, I love WonderBao!


As such, I organised a team lunch at WonderBao.  It was kinda hard to find, despite having instructions from Big Fil.  However, once you know where it’s located, it’s quite easy to get there.  For me, the easiest way is to head down Swanston St (as if you’re heading towards RMIT), turn into Lt LaTrobe St (where the FoodWorks is) and then turn left into Literature Lane and Bob is your uncle.  Don’t try getting there via A’Beckett St because you can’t see Wonderbao and it’s not obvious where the laneways are (this is what we originally did and got lost).

It’s a tiny shop that’s surrounded with street art, with friendly hipsters standing at the ready to serve you some killer bao.


Top to bottom: nai wong bao (aka custard egg bao), fried silky tofu gua bao, braised pork belly gua bao. 

For most of us, we got the braised pork bao. This was the winner. There was dead silence was we all wolfed down the braised pork bao. The pork is melt-in-your-mouth tender, with a great fat-to-meat ratio. It’s possibly the best braised pork I’ve ever eaten. It’s flavoursome with the savoury aroma of soy sauce and star anise, and it’s topped with roasted peanuts, coriander and pickled Asian mustard greens. The bao itself is light and fluffy and not at all dense and dry (like so many other baos).  But beware – it’s waaay more filling that you think!  Despite looking small, I was really struggling to finish two savoury baos and a custard bao (and I was particularly hungry that day, too).


Left to right: custard egg bao, braised pork belly gua bao.

The custard egg bao... wow, this is the best I’ve had.  A very pleasing custard-to-bao ratio (there’s more custard than bao, which is a good thing in my books!).  The custard is fluffy, perfectly sweet and creamy textured.  I wanted to take a photo of what it looked like on the inside, but I was too busy stuffing my face to put the bao down and get my camera... :D  I’m quite proud that I’ve gotten some custard egg bao newbies hooked on this at work!

I have also tried the BBQ pork bao.  This was good but it wasn’t as impressive as the other two baos.  The same sentiment also goes for the Da Chicken Bao.  However, a few team members have tried the vegetarian ones (fried silky bao and choi bao) and have quite liked them.

Verdict
Food – 9
Ambience – 7.5
Service – 9.5
Price – 10

Overall
Love the baos.  WonderBao deserves its reputation.  Great price too – lunch under a tenner and with change!

What also appeals to me is that WonderBao isn’t some dodgy Chinese restaurant that’s flogging baos with god-knows-what mystery meat.  I’m impressed with the freshness of the ingredients and the cleanliness of the place.

Despite want to try the entire range (there are 10 baos in total), I’m totally in love with the braised pork bao and the custard bao and probably won’t order anything else!

Great service and always with a smile.  Extra propz to the staff who’ve willingly took on unexpected large-ish orders from me at peak lunch time (complete with individual packaging and writing names on each package) and getting it done so quickly!

Address
WonderBao
Literature Lane
Melbourne VIC 3000
Tel: (03) 9654 7887

Penny Farthing Espresso, Northcote by Big Fil

It’s been more than a decade since I used to live in Northcote. Back then, before Northcote become one of Melbourne’s more desirable locations, it was pretty much a dining free zone, with hardly a decent cafe or restaurant to be found. Now though like the proverbial ugly duckling Northcote and nearby Thornbury have transformed into beautiful swans, offering the local hipsters and families a huge variety of taste sensations from all across the world.

Penny Farthing Espresso is possible the most popular cafe in the area. Word of mouth (and food guide books) have always been very positive, but with so many places to try and just so many calories to be imbibed it'd taken us a while to finally visit. Was it worth the wait? I thought so, but in an unusual turn of events I seemed to have formed a more positive impression than Snooze. Not that one of us hated it and the other loved it, more that Snooze liked it whereas I thought it was one of the better cafes we have been to.





The room we sat in at the back is done up in typical modern Melbourne chic. You know the style, the places that try to show their individuality by adopting the same communal wooden table, retro style lighting, quirky wall decorations, sometimes feeling like they're trying very hard to come across as not trying very hard. When it doesn’t feel put on though I do like it, even if I'ld like more variety in our inner-city cafes. Fortunately I thought it was done well, cosy without being cramped, a comfortable place to sit while we read the paper and ate some pretty good breakfast dishes.





When perusing the menu we thought there were a few interesting options without anything being a must try. After careful consideration Snooze chose the vegetarian version of the baked eggs, with sweet potato, bocconcini, spinach and tarragon crumble. I’d been interested in trying this myself and enjoyed my taste. I love sweet potato and thought it brought enough flavour to what I was concerned could be a slightly bland dish, and the crumble gave the dish texture. In an unusual twist the bread came not fully sliced but more like the end of the loaf and dripping with garlic butter – with every man and his dog doing baked eggs these days it pays to try to do something a little different just to distinguish your version.



I had a hankering for the corn fritters, with capsicum relish, wood smoked bacon, a poached egg, rocket and mayonnaise. I thought these were done a little different to how I normally prefer them, not as ‘corny’, and my bacon preference would have been for something a little crisper. On the other hand, the dish as a whole had a soft mellowness to it that was nice, and it soon disappeared from the plate.



Overall
Just one of those places where everything hit the mark without anything that made me go ‘wow’. The food was good and was interestingly presented, I found the staff friendly, liked the whole vibe of the cafe and thought prices were reasonable. Nothing felt revolutionary or I hadn’t seen it before, but the execution was a step above most similar cafes.
Verdict
Food – 8
Ambience – 8
Service – 8
Price – 7

Address
206 High Street
Northcote VIC 3070
Tel: (03) 9482 2246

Ernest V, Elsternwick by Big Fil

For what was a fairly dead end area not too many years ago there are now a whole swag of decent eateries down the Elsternwick end of Glen Huntly Road. One of the better ones is Ernest V, offering a middle eastern slant to weekend breakfasts.

First impressions when you enter are promising. The set up is a little different to your typical Melbourne cafe with lots of earthy colours and one wall completely covered by tiles. While personally not quite my thing the affect was warm and welcoming, complemented by some of the friendliest and most helpful waitresses I've come across in a while.

 
I have trouble passing anything over that includes haloumi, my favourite squeaky cheese. This combined with the promise of middle eastern influenced flavours lead to the dukkah eggs, with the aforementioned haloumi, and a rocket, avocado and preserved lemon oil salad on the side. The eggs were nicely poached, although one was reaching its cooking limit, the dukkah gave the dish texture and the haloumi was nicely squeaky and a good match for the egg. The salad had a bit of a tang and its freshness complemented the egg and cheese combo well. Overall a nice dish.

What I was really interested in though was my pancakes. Banana pancakes with maple butter, candied walnuts and topped with Persian fairy floss. Nice sweetness from the maple, the pancakes not overly dense and heavy, but to me the winner was the fairy floss. It's nowhere near as sweet as you get at the show, it initially adds texture to the dish but then just melts in your mouth. Love eating it on top of pancakes or even just by itself as a dessert or snack.

Overall
If you want to try somewhere a little different it's well worth checking out Ernest V. It's warm, it's friendly, the food is good and there is just so much smashed avocado on toast you can eat before searching for something different. Melbourne is a fabulously multi-cultural city and while this is well reflected in the cafes on the north side of town, not so much in most of the Southside. Ernest V and a couple of the newer cafes (such as Manakish and Spout) are taking the area in a new and welcome direction.

Verdict
Food - 8
Ambience - 7.5
Service - 8
Price - 7

Address
432 Glenhuntly Road
Elsternwick VIC 3185
Tel: (03) 9532 4322

Pinewood Chicken Bar, Mount Waverley by Bureaucrat

On a drizzly late afternoon, we were running late and needed to get an early dinner on the go.  As such, we made a pit stop at Pinewood Chicken Bar.


PCB was the place to go, since it was literally on the way and I knew we could just grab the food and go.  Plus, it's kind of a 'thing' for the Lawyer and I to (somehow) end up eating a takeaway roast chicken sans cutlery in our car, as we rush around running errands.  Over the years, I've only been here a few times. And each time, it hasn't left a memorable impression.


So without further ado, I present to you, a quarter chicken and chips.  The chicken was a tad burnished and dry in places (mostly the wing).  Although the actual meat was reasonable it was let down by the fact that it was overly salty.  The chips were also reasonable.  Nice crunch but not as fluffy on the inside as I would preferred.  On balance, the chicken and the chips weren't as good as I had remembered them to be.

Verdict

Food – 6
Service – 7
Ambience – 6.5
Price – 8

Overall
Rather average chicken and chips.  But the price is pretty good. For me, I think if they didn't over-salt the chicken and chips I would have liked this much more.

I probably won't go there again unless we're in a rush again. Otherwise, I'd take the longer route and swing past Red Rooster (as another reviewer on Urbanspoon also suggested) instead.

Address
Pinewood Chicken Bar
409 Blackburn Road
Mount Waverley 3149
Telephone: 9803 7490

Olinda Cafe, Olinda by Bureaucrat

For me, going up to Mt Dandenong means going to Pie In The Sky for lunch.  It’s only on rare occasions that I don’t eat there or get a pie to go (or, to borrow a phrase from Bubba Chuck, eat one pie now, and take two pies home).


Recently, it happened to be one of those rare occasions.  I went driving up the mountain looking for buttermilk pancakes (with the exception of crepes, pancakes are only worth eating if they’re made with buttermilk).  The closest I could find to buttermilk pancakes were your run-of-the-mill pikelets.

 
Given that buttermilk pancakes were not to be, I perused the menu of Olinda Cafe.  The OC (ha!) is one of the more popular cafes in Olinda.  Over the years, I’ve been there a few times.  The food is reasonable and unobjectionable.  The place used to be half restaurant and half foodie shop (think Yarra Valley produce and products, eg, chutneys, jams, etc).  Nowadays, the place is all restaurant, which I think works better.  I like how they’ve decorated it – wooden furniture, artwork, Tiffany lamps, and it always has a nice hum to the place from locals, day trippers and tourists enjoying a cuppa or a meal.  It has a busy, but not frazzled, atmosphere.

The welcoming staff led me to a nice table, but I opted for a front window seat.  Despite wanting to treat myself to pancakes, I ended up ordering a warm beef salad (one of the specials of the day) instead.  After paying for the meal at the counter, I only had to wait a short while before my meal came out.


For $14 I reckon this was pretty good value.  Tender strips of beef (skirt steak, I think) with lots of fresh, al dente string beans and sesame seeds (which I would have liked it if were toasted). Lots of roasted peanuts and crispy noodle bits gave the salad crunch and texture.  The dressing was ginger and lemon, however, as I'm a ginger fanatic, I would have liked more of a ginger kick.  Nonetheless, I felt full, replete and healthy.

Verdict
Food – 7
Service – 7
Ambience – 7.5
Price – 7 (for the special. If I was ordering off the regular menu, I'd rate it 6.5)

Overall
For me, it's a nice cafe.  It's not trying to be anything grand.  It does its job.

There’s a few negative reviews of the place, especially about the service.  I think you’ve got to bear mind that the OC is located in a tourist area.  There’s enough variety on the menu to please most people (salads, steak sangers, fish and chips, potato wedges, pasta, etc).  The menu isn’t going to win awards for creativity but when you’re trying to appeal to a wide demographic, you gotta offer the safe/popular options.   The quality of the food is reasonable and the price is fair-ish (given that it’s in a tourist area) and every time that I’ve been here the service is friendly and prompt.

Address
Olinda Cafe
17 Olinda-Monbulk Rd
Olinda 3788
Telephone: 9751 0466