Breakfast at Dandenong Market

We were down at Dandenong Market (Clow St & Cleeland St, Dandenong, Melbourne) so the first thing we did when we arrived was to get some breakfast in our bellies. 

I had almost discounted this Ink-redible Calamari stall but for some reasons decided to dip into the sample tray to see if they were really inkredible.

Those calamari turned out to be outrageously tender. I mean like fish cake tender with the smooth texture and flavour of squid. I've never been so impressed with calamari before. So breakfast began with a cone of those.

One of the cooked food vendor was Dough Works. A Turkish stall selling kebabs and gozleme - the latter a griddled flatbread with stuffings.

We got the ones with spinach, feta and lamb. The gozleme were being churned out so quickly for the turn around that pretty much everything was made on order. And yes, it was the carbohydrated salt and fat and lamb-y goodness that we needed for the morning. 

There was also a delicious goat briyani from PiqNiq Hut. Saffron basmati rice stir fried upon order with onions and some vegetables that came with tender curried goat, a deep fried hard boiled egg and some fruit chutney on the side. Spicy and savoury from both the rice and goat along with a sweetness from the chutney. This was pretty impressive.

Some fried seafood from Funkfish

So here's some fried fish, scallops, calamari and chips from the chippy stall Funkfish in Victoria Market (somewhere near the junction of Victoria and Elizabeth Street). These were better than I had imagined. The scallops had a thin and light batter that reminded me of Yorkshire pudding while the fish was fresh tasting, thick and flakey without an excessively thick batter. The only thing that wasn't good were those calamari. Rubbery things.

Pho No. 1, Springvale, Melbourne

Yeap, we did have some pho while we were in Melbourne. This shop (17-19 Buckingham Avenue, Springvale, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 9546 9528) was a recommendation from some friends.

The portions were pretty big. Here's a medium sized pho tai gau - a combination of sliced beef and fat with nice slurpy rice noodles. It looks a little gross from the yellowed bits of fat but there was actually some flavour to be had from chewing them. Soup had a light beefy flavour but also a little sweet. That's not bad at all, but given a choice I still prefer the all savoury version which O Banh Mi does. 

That's a soda sữa hột gà, also known as egg soda. It has milk and egg typically but this particular one also has orange. It doesn't taste weird if that's what you're wondering. Couldn't taste the egg in the drink. The milk and orange combination is pretty much what one is getting from the Sunrise at Coffee Bean, no? Well, Sunrise has got vanilla. But still it's a little like Yakult right? With a little bubbly. Not strange at all.

A Halal Snack Pack and chicken salt chips from Wot A Kebab

Here's a Halal Snack Pack to go from Wot A Kebab (20 Linden Tree Way, Cranbourne, Melbourne). Something for the late nights or post drinks in the form of a salted flavour bomb that will stick in the stomach.

But it wasn't a late night nor had we been drinking. It was the middle of the day and we just wanted to give their Halal Snack Pack a go. We went with mixed shaven lamb and chicken over salty cheese and chips with garlic and chilli sauce.

The portions were Australian sized. Haha. While I was initially a little worried about their chilli, it turned out kinda nice. Sriracha kind of nice. I surprised myself by finishing up the most of this box.

Their chicken salt chips was surprisingly addictive. We were popping chip after chip even though we were stuffed from the HSP. Damn, these were dangerous.

After The Tears, Elsternwick, Melbourne

We’ve never had Polish food before. Eastern/Central European food has never been in easy access from this part of the world we live in, so besides the short lived Dracula and Kaiserhaus, I don’t think we’ve had much from that part of the world. While it’s not very different to the rest of European food, it’s not exactly the same too.

We eased into the meal with some chilli lemon vodka because After The Tears (9B Gordon Street, Elsternwick, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 8592 4642) was also a vodka bar with more brands than one has teeth.

One of what's not the same about Polish food are pierogis. While they're recognizeable in form as some sort of dumpling with stuffings, they're insistent that these are Polish dumplings that aren't ravioli. Who would we be to say otherwise? These ones stuffed with minced roasted duck and apple, topped with cooked sour cherry were delicious!

While the Greeks have their lahanodolmades, the Polish have gołąbki - boiled cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and meat amongst other things. This meat used in this particular one was veal. The whole of which topped with a paprika laced roasted tomato sauce. Even though I generally avoid tomato based sauces, I'd have to admit that this was tasty in a very rustic homely kind of way which I enjoyed. 

We had some crispy rice balls aren't so different from the Italian arancini. Bread crumbed and fried, these rice balls had bits of artichoke and are well flavoured with Parmesan cheese. Tasted a lot better than the looks suggested. Those pink stuff are beetroot aioli by the way. 

Couldn't pass on their kaszanka which I had spied on the menu; blood sausages/black pudding by another name. These ones had stuffings that included buckwheat groats. Served with mashed potatoes, mustard and an apple & onion slaw. The latter a foil for all the richness of the dish. Again, delicious.

The restaurant also did a delicious pan seared barramundi. Yes, I'm aware that I've used the word delicious a number of times already. Crispy skinned barramundi that came with sautéed potatoes, beans and spinach. And delicious capers that were not overly salty. Savoury and hearty would be good words here.

What do we have here? More pierogi! This one was stuffed with sauerkraut and porcini, sautéed with brown butter and sage and topped with a little dab of cranberry horseradish. Pretty tasty stuff too though the earlier one with the duck tops this.

Their sticky BBQ ribs with red wine and honey were a little sweet at this point of the dinner where we were definitely encountering diminishing returns from each bite. The flavour was almost peculiar. Almost like Chinese lor bak (braised pork) minus the spices. Unanimously agreed upon that it would be something that none of us would be ordering again.

We finished up with a poppyseed cake with Maraschino cherries and cream, drizzled with a spiced coulis.

Burger Project, St. Collins Lane, Melbourne CBD

We were looking for a place where we could get a no-nonsense quality burger in Melbourne and were recommended Burger Project (The Aviary Level 2, St. Collins Lane, 260 Collins Street) by a friend (cheers Crystal!); which from what I've read is an offshoot from the Rockpool Dining Group.

Was it good? Yeah, I think so. It's a joint that seemed focused on the quality of the ingredients - especially the beef, than trying to be unnecessarily fanciful. The only place from back home I could compare them to is Omakase Burger. I see and taste parallels in their burgers.

Burger Project has buns that held up better from the juices though. Their chips (fries) were thick cut, nicely crusted and addictive - hence, better too.

The meat was of medium doneness, properly salted and had a good crust on the exterior. The only thing that I would change in a revisit would probably be to omit their sauce. Not a fan of their special sauce or rose mayonnaise. I didn't think those helped much. I have no qualms revisiting them though. 

There's a thick shake on the menu which comes in Valrhona chocolate which was pretty good.