Norsiah's Kitchen, Carlton by Bureaucrat

Lately, a few of us at Eat and Be Merry Crew have been feeling like "one of those days" has turned into a never-ending series of "one of those days".  When every day feels the same and you yearn for times gone past when things were fun and carefree.  In an attempt to mix things up a bit from our dreary work days and feeling the need to eat something comforting, I rambled along with Big Fil, heading towards Melbourne Uni.

He promised there was going to be good food at Norsiah's Kitchen, which is a cheap eats place that dishes out a range of Indo-Malay cuisine.  It's popular among the uni students that study and live nearby and also office workers.  There's a range of traditional style, home-cooked dishes all ready in the bain maries, which is dished out by presumably members of Norsiah's family.  I forget exactly what the prices are but they are cheap.  Even with extra serves of meat, you're still looking at a meal that's less than $10.  By memory, a plate of rice with two types of dishes is $7.50.  If you want three types of dishes, it goes up to about $8.50.

I think Big Fil got beef curry and the chicken curry.  I got to the a little bit of the beef curry which was melt-in-your-mouth tender and had a deliciously deep gravy that had lovely aromatics from the lime leaves.

As some of the dishes looked too spicy for me, I also chose the chicken curry, fish balls and a side of ikan bilis (fried salted anchovies) and toasted peanuts.  The food is simple but tasty.  The serves are reasonable given that you're paying $7-8 dollars.  The thing I liked most about the food was that it was all home cooked.

Big Fil got a frothy glass of teh tarik and I went for a custard apple soda.

Verdict: we liked it a lot

Overall
A really nice cheap and cheerful place.  It's not too far from the edge of the CBD.  Given that service is quick (and friendly), it is possible to walk there for lunch and get back within the hour. Also have a gander at Big Fil's review back in 2010 when he tried some of the a la carte dishes for dinner.