Revisiting Tong Kee Chicken Rice (東記雞飯)

I've been meaning to come back to Tong Kee (#01-25 Tanglin Halt Food Centre, 3A Commonwealth Drive) for quite some time to re-acquaint myself with their chicken rice which I remember enjoying. It's also a chance to better catalogue what specifically I liked about them. Never made it for reasons until recently.

I've previously mentioned that Tong Kee only does roasted/fried chicken. There's no white chicken to be had. We got ourselves a half chook. These guys have been making this one specific style of chicken for a long time so one can reasonably expect that they're pretty competent at what they do. Rice was good enough to eat on its own.

I had also previously mentioned their brown sauce. I used to get them with their hard boiled eggs but they were out of eggs already today. The owner then added that they still had the brown sauce if I wanted them. Couldn't say no. This sauce is a unique characteristic of this chicken rice stall. Do not judge it until you have tried them. The sweet caramelized flavours are much better tasting than appearances suggest

Tong Kee's chilli packs a bit of heat and also some zest from lime. Good stuff. 

A Grill Master burger from Hungry Jacks at Melbourne Airport

Hungry Jacks has a range of burgers which they group under Grill Masters. We assumed that these would be their premium burgers from how much they were charging and that how there were almost similar to the regular menu items but with allegedly better quality ingredients.

We tried a Angus, Bacon and Cheese burger. It was surprisingly not bad at all. Not Royal Stacks good but it's better than what one would normally expect from BK. The beef quality was definitely a notch up from what we could taste. The cheddar cheese tasted better than the regular one and it came with a brioche-y bun rather than the old sesame seed ones.

Compare with the regular "drier" looking Whopper - one can see how have the mighty fallen. Well, now we know what we'll be getting if we ever need to grab a bite at the transit area of the airport.

Briyani feat. The Crystal Method

This dum briyani was made with love by a friend who had been hosting us for the past week. Since none of you will ever get to taste how good it was, there's no point in me describing.

Thanks Crystal.

Asado, Southbank, Melbourne

This Argentinian/Spanish restaurant (Riverside Quay, Southbank, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 9088 8600) came by recommendation of friends. The menu consisted mostly of sharing plates and grilled meats and was pretty good. These guys have one of the better sangria I've had plus I'm of the opinion that they rivalled and likely outdid the experiences at Bochinche and Salta.

Taking lead with the small plates was some salted cod croquettes with pickled fennel, sour cream and dill.

Followed by empanadas stuffed generously with minced beef, olives and boiled eggs.

Their white fish ceviche was refreshingly flavoured.

Then came the lengua - thinly sliced grilled beef tongue topped with chimichurri.

Loved the salty provoleta which was topped with Oloroso soaked raisins.

Couldn't pass on those morcilla. Spiced blood sausages if anyone was wondering.

From the restaurant's asado, slow roasted Western Plains suckling pig of various cuts and very crispy skin. These were from pigs that were allegedly raised outdoors without artificial growth hormones on a primary diet of wheat and barley. It was a very delicious pork, nicely grilled and amazing with those jus that came with the serving.

They also had some pretty good quality and nicely grilled Rangers Valley grain fed flank here.

And for the obligatory greens - roasted Brussels sprouts with Manchego cream, raisins and hazelnuts. One should never mistaken obligatory with healthy. But this sure was tasty.

Starch was some fried russet potatoes which were essentially patatas bravas.

Getting food from South Melbourne Market

Last year, it was Dandenong Market. This year, it's the South Melbourne Market (Coventry St & Cecil Street, South Melbourne VIC 3205).

One of the things we were arrested by right at the start was the scent of oranges at the fruit stall.

Bought a litre bottle for $6. Lovely orange juice.

The stalls with seafood looked good. We hit this one for a start.

That was a lobster and potato salad with oranges. Not bad.

Followed by a unagi sushi, some scallops and kingfish sashimi.

And moved on to the fresh seafood stall for more stuff.

Like these really awesome St. Helen's oysters that were sweet, creamy and packed with that briny flavour.

Next stop was South Melbourne Seafoods.

Where we went through a tray of sashimi, some Smoky Bay oysters and a sea urchin.  Speaking of which, the sea urchin was unlike what I've had before. The floral element of the flavour was very strong. For some reasons, the whole of its flavours reminded me of lavender and pee. Yes, it was very strange. I'm not sure how I felt about it.

Followed up with some gozleme. These weren't as good as the ones that we had at Dough Works at Dandenong. 

We had thought that the pies from the market were warm but the display shelvings were actually the refrigeration type. That, we had only found out after buying the pies.

So we brought them cold pies back and put them into the oven.

Loved the pork pie. Was hearty and delicious. I detected a light rosemary in it. That was all I was able to identify from the flavouring.

Curry lamb pie was also pretty good.

Royal Stacks, Collins Street, Melbourne CBD

I read about Royal Stacks a while ago. What piqued my interest was that I had thought that their burgers sounded suspiciously similar to Shake Shack or Omakase Burger. Albeit one that was "made down under" if you got my drift. 100% Australian GMO free beef American styled burgers. They were even priced quite similarly.

These guys even have an app for their shop.

I got a Bacon Bacon which was basically a bacon double cheese burger with caramelized onions. This was a pretty nice burger. Crusty patty and salty yellow cheddar with bacon. The onions were delicious in a way that added to the burger rather than detracted from it. I'd rank it as one of the better fast food burgers I've had - up there with Burger Project. 

Their Nutella shake was sadly a waste of money. That shake had very little body just like melted ice cream and felt limp. I know it's not the best choice of words for a shake but this particular one was weak. I thought the flavour was a little peanut buttery and a little chocolate-y but not exactly Nutella-y. If that was any indication of their other flavours which I suspect to be the case, well.....