Hakataya Noodle Shop
Shop27b, Sunnybank Plaza
Sunnybank Brisbane
http://www.hakatayanoodle.com/

Ok, so Brisbane is not quite Melbourne but both cities have a Southbank so there! :P MMM doesn't have to be about Melbourne, it can be about Melbourne foodies giving food from other cities a try :)

Hakataya, started in Gold Coast, has to be one of the best ramen shops I have ever eaten at. Not even the ones from Japan compare. So I may be exaggerating a bit but seriously, Hakataya wins over Momotaro, Ramen Ya, Ito's and Ajisen Ramen (full of msg) hands down. Don't even get me started on the over priced try hard ramen from Chocolate Buddha either.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but this little shop in Sunnybank Brisbane always has a line and if you go too late in the evening, you risk going home hungry because they can run out of soup and noodles. It's a tiny little shop with a few seats inside at a bar and 2 tables and a few more bar seats outside.

The soup is boiled for 39hours and the broth is milky and full of flavour. The noodles are perfectly hand made and doesn't remind me of wonton noodles at all. If you still have soup left over, you can ask for a free serve of noodles and additional serves are $1.80. You are also serve with a little dish of spicy pickled seaweed which reminded me of Chinese salty pickled vegetable. The addition of sesame seeds also enhances the flavour (check out the cute little sesame dispenser below).

Not as good as the ramen but I decided to try their tonmeshi since we were eating there the day after we had our first bowl of noodles. The tonmeshi is rice cooked in the pork bone broth, served with fresh chopped spring onions and pork. The flavour was subtle and the topping of spring onions and slightly sweet pork meat worked well together. It was even better when I topped up my rice with a bit of extra soup from M's ramen.

Apart from the classic pork soup base, you can also choose a spicy soup, and spicy miso soup. New to their menu is a spicy seafood soup base. Gyoza and rice balls can be ordered as well.

So if you are ever Brisbane or Gold Coast, go and try Hakataya. Also a big thanks to the friends who took us to eat this 2 days in a row. You guys have now made me not want to eat Melbourne ramen any more!

Garage Cafe
221 Berkeley St, Melbourne VIC 3000

www.garagecafe.com.au



When I was first heard of Garage Cafe, I thought it was a really cool concept. Close to Melbourne Uni, this is a cafe inside a big warehouse where on one side there are pool tables and a few car spaces whilst on the other, dark wooden outdoor tables and chairs are placed next to the bar. It's a nice place to hang out I suppose, except for when in winter, the cold wafts in and makes you wish you were curled up at home instead.

I was introduced to their deep fried chicken skin which is basically chicken skin deep fried - heart attack inducing stuff. It's not something I would order again, but if you like your chicken skin, then this is something you should try. I also find their Pisang Goreng Keju which is deep fried banana fritters and cheese with ice cream an interesting dessert. But aside from that, I am quite often disappointed whenever I go to eat there.

Their Soto Ayam is on the salty side, Ayam Bakar and Ayam Penyet too dry. I am always dousing mine with plenty of kecap manis. They tend to be stingy with the sides of vegie and the dishes are overall quite plain. And when ever I see someone order the Garage Full Penyet, I just shudder at how everything is deep fried and the big of cabbage, tomato and cucumber on the side just doesn't seem to offset the grease.

There are definitely better indonesian cafes/restaurants out there, but I am yet to try their noodle dishes at Garage Cafe so that would be an update for another time.

: Ratings :


Service: 8/10 - The owner is always welcoming and friendly and service is always quite fast, except the lose points for the time when they gave my order to somebody else who ate it.
Food: 6/10 - I didn't quite like the pork, but I really enjoyed the jelly so I'm a bit torn on grading this category. The food's not superb or anything, but it is decent, so it shall get a decent grading of 6.

Layout: 6/10 - Good spacious place for larger groups and as the area is quite large, it doesn't get too noisy. The heating is a bit lacking in winter and the toilet is definitely the biggest let down.
Overall: 6.5/10 - As mentioned, there are definitely better Indonesian cafes out there but if you are after a spacious cafe then this is the perfect place.

Year of the Rabbit

Chinese New Year is almost upon us. In fact, there is only 2 weeks to go. Are many of you celebrating with family?

I love how multicultural Melbourne is. I have noticed that Chinese New Year is always a big event, with multiple locations throwing massive street festivals with food, drinks and entertainment. My favourites are Victoria Street in Richmond which is good for Vietnamese food, Box Hill for Taiwanese and Hong Kong food, and Crown's Riverside Hawker stalls which has a good mix of Asian fares to try.

Check out this page for a list of when each festival is on: http://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/melbourne_details.php?id=5912

Also a quick heads up. My mum is involved with a business that makes a lot of yummy Malaysian desserts and Nyonya goodies. Come and check out the R&S(Sue) stall at Crown Casino this year from 4th Feb to the 6th Feb and Glen Waverley on the 13th Feb this year.

Hope to see you there! :)

Update! - a new decade no longer the nought-ies

Happy New Year everyone!! I can't believe it is now 2011. I am still signing off 2010 at work and can't seem to adjust.

It's been so long since I have even looked our blog that I didn't even realise my fellow blogger Shopaholic has updated the look of the site.

It has indeed been a looong while as life has been incredibly busy. Since my last post, I have bought a house, got engaged - now a "Mrs", fell in love with cake decorating and baking, and now love to read other people's blogs about their food adventures. Their beautifully written articles and photos have inspired me to no end to get my act together.

With the aid of Facebook, I have occasionally shared my experiments and creations with friends and family. However, its not the same without extra the details and feelings that a proper posting allows.

Many a times when I have sampled something truly yummy...or not, or having made a dish that I've been proud of, I have wanted to tell the world. So I think it is time to really to do it properly.

It's been ages, but it's also time to revamp this blog.

Will have a think about the next steps in the coming weeks - hopefully will sort things out and reviews will start again by the end of Feb '10.

Until then!

I Scream for Ice Cream
Licketty Licks Shop 3, 372 Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd, Sassafras.

It was a beautiful Saturday. The sun was out and not a cloud was to be seen in the sky. Without a doubt, my one really free Saturday would be wasted if I just sat at home infront of the tv whilst there were so many things going on this weekend. In Box Hill stalls were set up to celebrate the Moon Festival, in Mt Dandenong the annual tulip festival is on, and my other "to-do" list includes the Pixar exhibition at the NGV.

Michael suggested a drive up to Mt Dandenong in his beloved wife aka Integra. I suggested afternoon tea at Miss Marple's but, Miss Marple's being extremely popular, had a loooong waiting time. As soon as we walked out though, any disappointment disappeared as my ice cream radar worked overtime. I'd sniffed out a woman who was walking past with the last bit of her waffle cone.

A few shops down the road, there was an ice cream shop called Licketty Licks selling the "world's best". We stepped inside to find an extremely welcoming and friendly shop owner who immediately made us try 2 types of vanilla ice cream. One was of the Mototo dairy and gluten free variety which wasn't very sweet or tasty. The other was a rich and creamy vanilla ice cream that made my mouth go "oooo i want more!!".

We sampled a few other flavours such as orange and cardamon, lemon, and walnut and honey. For me, the walnut and honey was an instant winner! We ended up buying a double waffle cone with 4 different flavours. We picked the vanilla, lemon and walnut and honey from the ice cream fridge plus one scoop of tiramisu from the gelato fridge. All up we paid $5.20.

Why am I raving about this place? Well, everything was made with natural ingredients. You can actually see little flecks of black vanilla, pieces of walnut, bits of preserved lemon skin, and other real ingredients in the ice creams being sold.

Compared with other gelati/ice cream places in Melbourne, Licketty Licks is definitely going up on my ice cream list as one of the best. Personally, the quality of ice cream at Licketty Licks is better than my other favourite, Il Dolce Freddo on Lygon St who does great durian and pandan ice creams like no where else.

Apart from ice creams and gelati, Licketty Licks also makes hot chocolate and chai lattes and sells yummy looking Belgium chocolate truffles, organic pies, hot dogs and donuts.

What do you do at 3.30pm, on a relatively warm and windy day?
When you only have half an hour to walk around?
With no one to go around with?

. . . . *thinks thinks thinks* . . . .

You go out and try snacks and drinks from other countries of course! So off I went into one of the many Asian Groceries in the city and got myself this:

I must admit I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was worried I might have to toss it out after a sip or two...

Verdict: The "Sweet Taro" in the drink was exactly the same as Yam-flavoured Bubble Tea; or more precisely - the same as Malaysian/Singaporean yam-flavoured ice-cream. The milk tea also tasted similar to Lipton's Boxed Milk Tea (which I will put up a pic of once I find it!), making the drink sweet and thirst quenching! Mmm.. Priced at $1.40 a box, I have a feeling I'm going to get addicted to this drink very soon..
Repeat Factor: 9/10 - Can't wait to try it again!

Korean Deep Fried Corn (drizzled with Honey) Snack

The first thing to note is that this snack is oily. Beware. You have been warned.

Verdict: Aside from that, the snack itself is pretty good in my opinion. It starts off salty but when you start crunching, you end up biting the honey drizzles, leaving a sweet after-taste. The only downside to this snack would be that it's so oily you might feel a bit queasy after a few pieces. Make sure you have access to water/tea/drinkable liquid when you eat this one!
Repeat Factor: 6/10 - An occasional indulgence that is not so great on the cholesterol levels.

Note: Comments on this new 'Snacks + Drinks' section would be very much appreciated!

Ten Ren's Tea Time
146 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Tel: 9653 3268

After reading Iron Eater's post on TenRen, I decided to head there for lunch with Andy.I was tempted to just go for their snacks, but my greediness hunger got the better of me, and I ended up with one of their lunch sets.

The ambiance of the place was pretty casual as the layout was pretty simple. The front of the shop was dedicated to tea-goods and the restaurant was a few steps behind. I was seated facing the kitchen, and noticed the chef repeatedly coming out from the kitchen to scoop rice from the rice cooker located outside the kitchen. I found it amusing that after he scooped the rice into the bowl, he had to go back into the kitchen to ring the bell indicating that the food was ready to be served.

This is what my lunch set looks like -

The extra side dishes were a pleasant surprise, and the egg and mixed vege combination wasn't all too bad.

The chinese cabbage tasted as how stir-fried chinese cabbages would normally taste. The tofu/preserved vege combination was a strange one though. The tofu didn't quite taste like tofu and when I asked Andy what did he think the dish actually was, he told me that maybe I should just to stop eating it. haha. That was probably the only odd dish in the whole set.

The pork in itself was quite hard to chew, and quite salty. To their credit, they did try to ease up the biting challenge by cutting up the pork into chewable sizes. Taste-wise I have a feeling it may have been marinated with fermented beancurd, which probably explains the saltiness.

I almost forgot about the jelly till they placed it on the table.It was tea jelly with honey drizzled on top. It reminded me of the Pasar Malam "Taiwanese Healthy Jelly" (I think it's called "Ai Yu Ping" Jelly) they sell back home. The jelly on its own was pretty tasteless, so the honey complemented it well. I have been having jelly cravings; so I was very satisfied with the dessert.
: Ratings :

• Service: 7/10 - The drinks came pretty much 3-5 minutes after we ordered, and the food didn't take too long to come either. The best part was probably when the waiter smiled and said "Thank you, have a nice day!" when we paid. Either he was really nice, or he perhaps, fancied Andy... haha XD


• Food: 6/10 - I didn't quite like the pork, but I really enjoyed the jelly so I'm a bit torn on grading this category. The food's not superb or anything, but it is decent, so it shall get a decent grading of 6.


• Layout: 6/10 - As mentioned, the place is pretty casual, and there's nothing too fancy about it aside from the numerous tea products you get to browse at the front of the store.


• Overall: 6.5/10 - I'm sure Ten Ren has more potential that I'm grading it for, and with the relatively low prices, it makes a pretty decent eating destination.
  

p.s: A BIG Thank You to Andy for paying for lunch!