Dumpling Den @ Grattan St

Dumpling Den

Here comes the term break. So I have one week break and basically my plans for this holiday is to take this opportunity to study and catch up with my assignments. Oh, and of course I will spend some time food hunting as well haha. So tonight I tried 2 places with my friend. One of them is Dumpling Den, the chinese dumpling restaurant along Grattan St in Carlton, and after that we went for dessert at N2 Extreme Gelato in Brunswick St. Stay tuned I will make a review about N2 Extreme Gelato shortly after this post. So for now let's focus on some dumpling action!

So, the name tells it all - Dumpling Den, so we expect the signature dish here is dumplings, well to be precise, Chinese style dumplings. We decided not to have a heavy meal so as we dig in the menu, we decided to order 2 dishes to share among the 2 of us. Staff were friendly and quickly took our order of 1 Special Fried Rice and 1 serve of Steamed Pork Dumplings (12pcs). I normally don't put high expectations on chinese dumplings as I personally do no like their strong ginger taste and juicy filly, but however, never try never know, so give we gave it a try. The waiting time was quite long, took around 20 minutes if not mistaken until the Special Fried Rice was served.

Special Fried Rice

Firstly I would like to ask you guys about your opinion about this dish just by looking at it. What comes into your mind straight away? Well for both of us, our first thought was "WALAO!!!Got apa special about it??!!!" Yes the special fried rice doesn't look special at all and as I took a spoonful and tasted it, it proved us correct. There is seriously nothing special about it and it tasted just like what an average home cooked fried rice would taste like, and sometimes home cook fried rice taste even better. The ingredients used were barely simple like frozen vege, a TINY amount of shrimps, chinese sausage and eggs, and maybe some light soy sauce and MSG. I personally would think that if you are going to call your dish "Special Fried Rice", mate you better make an effort to at least make your dish taste special or at least not something we can easily cook at home. So definitely not worth it.

Steamed Pork Dumplings

The dumplings on the other hand took longer until it was served. By looking at it the skin reminded me of the "Har Gao" which is the local pork dumplings I had back home in Kuching. I took a bite of the pork dumpling and to my surprise, it was too juicy which is unlike those dumplings that will have juice oozing out of them as you bite them, and you end up making a mess because you've got the juice spraying all over your face and clothes. These ones are totally different. There's no juice in them and yet they are not dry at all. I love them and the ginger taste wasn't too strong for me. Definitely loving it! So that's a thumbs up for the steamed pork dumplings. Simple dinner that costed us $20. Stay tuned for review on N2 Extreme Gelato!

Photography by Canon EOS 7D with Sigma 30mm f/1.4

Spicy Beef Don @ Rakuzen Simple Japanese Melbourne

Spicy Beef Don

Rakuzen Simple Japanese located just next to Domino's Pizza on Grattan St is just the popular place for those who are craving for Japanese food and often hang around the Melbourne University area. Generally I've been there quite a lot of times and the food was above average. Just want to review the Spicy Beef Don I had today for my lunch. Just as the name mentions, it was really spicy for me and I actually liked it that way. The spiciness of the dish gave me a "damn shiokk" feeling and though it kind of made me sweat, I kept on wanting more of it. The only downside of this dish I would say is that the beef slices was lacking flavour and did not had the "char" or pan fried/grilled taste that we would get when eating pan fried food. Overall I will give it a 7/10.

Caramel Macchiato at Melbourne Law School

Photography by Samsung Galaxy Note II.

Craving for Malaysian Food Satisfied

So in craving for some good Malaysian food lately. To be specific, had been craving for Hainanese Chicken Rice and Wanton Mee these few days. So went to two different places to satisfy my craving today. Firstly, PapaRich at QV. I hardly go there as to be honest the food there is expensive yet tasted not that good. There's always an exception to everything, and it is the Papa Chicken Rice which is actually Hainanese Chicken Rice.

Teh C Peng Special (3 Color Milk Tea)

Before the main meal, to start with I had the Teh C Peng special. Normally this is what Malaysians miss as it is a very popular drink back home. The drink was alright I would like it thicker though.

Papa Chicken Rice

Now to the main attraction, normally this is what I will order and this only whenever I come to Papa Rich. Their chicken is the one that I can find which taste almost the same as what I can get back home, though there's still quite some difference, it is the best I can find here. One thing that I really like about it is that there's coriander on the chicken and coriander to me makes a big difference to the dish because of it's awesome fragrance. Besides that, the chilli sauce is very nice, just not spicy enough. For us Malaysians, chicken rice without good chilli sauce is not considered as chicken rice. That is how important the quality of the chilli sauce it. The chicken was nicely steamed and the skin was very chewy and slippery. The gravy was very appetising as well. Furthermore, the soup was very nice and yet it is not dead salty. So overall I love this dish!

Beef and Chicken Mix Satay

Haha just something that caught our eye when looking through the menu. Long time I hadn't been eating any satay, even when I was back in Malaysia for semester breaks, I can't recall having any satay. The satay at Papa Rich was alright, not the best ones I tried but was quite good. The satay sauce was okay as well however I would once again prefer it to taste thicker and more spicy.

So that was lunch. Dinner today was at Shophouse Kitchen also at QV. I ordered the BBQ Pork and Fried Wantan Noodles with Sichuan Sauce Base.

BBQ Pork and Fried Wantan Noodles

So called "Wantan Mee" is a typical west Malaysian hawker dish. Since I'm from East Malaysia I hardly ever eat something like this back home, it is just not mee. However as I was watching some hawker food show on YouTube last night, I craved for it and the only place that I can think of to satisfy my craving is Shophouse Kitchen. I've been there a lot of times but I never ordered this dish before, so today I was "brave" enough to try it out. When I ordered it, in my mind it went like "I will never order something like this again here if it turned out to be bad". To my surprise, I really really loved it. I chosen the Sichuan Spicy sauce base and it went well with the noodles and everything. The noodles was not lumped and did not stick together which is a very important aspect to this dish. The noodles had a good taste too. I tried a few similar dishes where to noodles was just tasteless. The BBQ pork had a nice "BBQed" taste and was not too sweet. Now for the fried wantan or fried pork dumplings, usually I get sick of them after 1 or 2 because those I tried mostly were just plain oily and tasteless. However today it was really awesome. I can feel the meat inside and I was surprised there were prawns in there too. After having the 3 fried wantans I literally wanted for more. Just an awesome dish.

Photography by Samsung Galaxy Note II.

Quick Dinner at Coconut House, Melbourne CBD

Fried Chicken Chop Mee Pok

Went in to Coconut House on Elizabeth St this evening to get some quick dinner after a long day. One of the most popular dish there was the Fried Chicken Chop Mee Pok, so I ordered it. It's kind of like the Malaysian "Pan Mee" type of dish. Many people loved it however for me, it was just so so and I kind of got bored and turned off by the taste after eating quite an amount of it. The minced pork was tasteless to be honest and nothing special about the fried chicken. However, I ordered an extra pork ball soup and I liked it. The pork ball had a good texture and the soup was light and refreshing. I'm normally not a fan of Coconut House so I guess I won't be visiting it much. Worth a try? Tell me what do you think.

Pork Ball Soup

Photography by Samsung Galaxy Note 2.

SugarBun @ Melbourne (Russel St)

Shop Front

Soooo fellow Sarawakians, you will be very familiar with this shop. That's right its SugarBun! Our childhood fast food shop! Not KFC, not Burger King but our very own Sarawakian Sugar Bun! The grand opening was last week however I only came and try it out today. My friend and I actually arrived around 11 20am but the only open at 11 30am. So we were forced to wait for awhile while they set up. So while waiting, we studied the menu. While in Sarawak it is a fast food restaurant where they operate just like KFC style where you have to order at the counter etc. However here in Melbourne, it is table service. The menu is a fusion of other local Malaysian dishes such as Sarawak Laksa and Bak Kut teh, however their signature dishes are also available, and that is what we were aiming for today.

Menu at the Door

Finally they were ready for service and we were the first customers of the day. Staff was really really friendly and looked after us well as we sat down. He immediately asked if he could get us some drinks to start with while we decide on what to eat. So we asked for some water. We were also presented with the beverage and food menu.

Menu

Flipping through the menu once again we decided not to order any drinks. So basically we made up our mind. We will have the fish fillet with savoury rice, 2 pieces broasted chicken with "Kano" Sauce for each of us, and a plate of Chickies to share. The waiter kindly took our order and we settled in and waited for our food to be served.

The Familiar Logo

The waiting time was quite long perhaps because we were the first customers and they had to get everything started from scratch. While waiting I told my friend who is from West Malaysia more about the background of SugarBun in my hometown. Finally, the fish fillet with savoury rice was served first.

Fish Fillet with Savoury Rice and Appe Hancer ($9)

This is my childhood favourite since I first had SugarBun. I remember those times where I was so happy when my parents takeaway this from SugarBun for me when I was a child. So I was very eager to try out how it tasted here in Melbourne, far away from homeland. The dish comes with a piece of deep fried crumbled fish fillet with SugarBun's signature savoury rice. I loved the savoury rice when I was a child I could just order only the savoury rice and enjoyed my meal. Apart from that, there's a piece of lemon to go with the fish and "Appe Hancer" which is their pickled cucumber and pineapple with carrot shreds. I started eating and to my surprise, every thing tasted 100% exactly the same as it tasted back in Sarawak. The savoury rice had just enough flavouring and the Appe Hancer as refeshing. Not to mention the fish had its signature taste. Definitely loving it and able to satisfy my craving for SugarBun.

Broasted Chicken with Kano Sauce ($7)

This is the most famous dish in SugarBun. Broasted chicken served with their signature Kano sauce, which tasted like sambal and with a pinch of lemon grass taste. Unlike KFC's tasteless chicken, the broasted chicken broasted with their own herbs and spices. It was juicy and goes perfect with the Kano Sauce. I remember my friend saying "I feel in love with the Kano sauce". This dish is served with the Appe Hancer salad too!

Chickies ($6)

Now chickies is like chicken fingers. Basically chicken breast cut into strips and deep fried. I remember we used to call them "Chicky Twix" back home in Sarawak. It was first targeted at children and I used to had them for lunch once in awhile back home. For this dish, though it's chicken breast, it was still juicy and tasted well with the sauce it came with!

Satisfied

So we had a satisfying lunch, great food, great company, and most importantly, it brings back awesome memories of Sarawak. Definitely coming again in the future! 

Just a little add on to this post, today I tried out the red-velvet cupcake at cupcake central. Since there's a lot of good review about it. I decided to give it a go.

Red Velvet Cupakes ($4 each)

The thing I like about it is that it is not very sweet. The cream had a buttery and cheesy taste which I like and the cake was moist. My friend and I had one each where the amount is just nice.

Photography by Samsung Galaxy Note 2.

Luke's Eatery @ Highpoint Shopping Centre (Quick Post)

Menu

Just a quick post today, went to Highpoint Shopping mall this afternoon to get some stuff done. Stopped by Luke's Eatery to have some brunch to start the day. Interesting thing to notice here is that they used "UNO" numbered cards as their table number, something really unique. Both of us ordered the "Brekkie Burger set with Tea". 

Brekkie Burger with Tea

Tea came first in a small pot and there was a little cup of milk to go with it. Inside the brekkie burger was bacon, eggs and melted cheese with BBQ sauce, and a piece of hash brown on the side to go with the burger. Generous portion and satisfying breakfast/brunch. $15 for each set.

Photography by Fujifilm XF1.

Dukes Coffee Roasters @ Chapel Street, Windsor

Dukes Coffee Roasters

There are two of these outlets of Dukes Coffee Roasters, one located at Flinders Lane in Melbourne CBD, and the one that I went to was at Chapel Street, a walking distance from Windsor Train Station. Around 11am, the shop was already full of crowds enjoying their breakfast or brunch for some people like me.

Interior

By the time we reached the cafe, we were very lucky and blessed to have only one table left for us. It was so crowded at that it was a bit hard to walk around inside. First thing I realized when I sat down was the ambience. The lighting was kind of warm and there was not a lot of natural light. Good thing today I brought along my Canon EOS 7D with a fast f1.4 lens. The staff there was not very friendly though, maybe it was because they were really busy, but in my opinion customer service should not be compromised. Having a look at their menu, it was quite limited for breakfast which is served up to 12pm noon. So to start with, we ordered hot chocolate and a coffee.

Hot Chocolate and Coffee

Once again, great coffee art and the taste of both drinks were very satisfying. The hot chocolate was not too sweet and rich with the right amount of chocolate. The coffee on the other hand was very aromatic. For our main meals, I ordered the "Baguette with Scrambled Eggs, Crispy Pancetta and Hollandaise Sauce". I was actually aiming for the Egg Benedicts however I did not come across them. Mom had the  "Hummus Avocado Toast with Poached Eggs & Candied Honey Bacon Bits".

Baguette with Scrambled Eggs, Crispy Pancetta and Hollandaise Sauce

I did not expect the dish to look like this but I was really impressed with the presentation when it was served. By just looking at it, it was able to stir up my appetite. The baguette was nicely toasted while the scrambled eggs had a great buttery taste. I had experiences where scrambled eggs was tasteless but this is just the total opposite. The texture was just nice and blended perfectly with the crispy pancetta and hollandaise sauce. 

Hummus Avocado Toast with Poached Eggs & Candied Honey Bacon Bits

I'm not a big fan of avocado but the hummus sauce really brought out a good taste together with the toast. Refreshing salad to go with as well. The main highlight of this dish for me was the Candied Honey Bacon Bits. It tasted like honey glazed pork meat. If you know what is "bak gua" or "肉干", it had the texture of bak gua and lightly glazed with honey.

Counter

All together we were really satisfied with our breakfast today. Altogether it costed around $40. Honestly aussie breakfasts are really expensive compared to Asian food. I guess it's because of the labour cost as well. Anyway, a good place to try out if you are out for some Aussie food!

Photography by Canon EOS 7D