Miss Chu's Melbourne

The wonderful memories of my night out at Miss Chu's in Sydney with Sydney Shop Girl, Sandradee and Kristy make me smile and so when I found out there was a Miss Chu's in Melbourne, I was so keen to eat there. So, last Tuesday night Heidi and I went to Miss Chu's (297 Exhibition St Melbourne). She brought her fiance Ben along and it was lovely to meet him.

 

It was an indoor/outdoor restaurant, unlike the street food arrangement in Sydney. The decor was cute - lanterns, pineapples and beautiful rice bowls made into lampshades.

Heidi and I both got these amazing drinks - frozen young coconut with lychees, cucumber and mint. I am not a fan of young coconut juice, or cucumber come to think about it, but with the lychees, it tasted so exotic. Heidi said it tasted like Vietnam. I will definitely try making these at home. So so yummy!

 

We ordered an array of food from the tuckshop menu.

Roast duck and banana flower ricepaper rolls. So plump. More filling than your average ricepaper roll.

 Prawn dumplings. They were very generous with the prawns. The dumplings were juicy. The sauce was so spicy.

Duck pancake. I seriously could have just eaten these all night. I think I said I could eat 17. The duck was tender, covered in hoisin sauce. Yummy times a million. We ordered another serve.

 Papaya salad. I wasn't keen on it. It was very spicy and the crunchy beans felt a bit out of place.

Crab eggnet vermicilli salad. This salad was fantastic! The crab eggnets were an interesting texture and the dressing was delicious. Still spicy but not overpowering like the previous salad.

 More dumplings. Pork I think. Juicy and delicious.

And this was a steamed custard bun! It wasn't keen on being papped. Oh. My. God. So good. I don't think I've had one of these before and I am so glad I got to know steamed custard buns better. And at $3 a pop, my dress size better watch out.

Overall the food was as great as I had in Sydney. It was delicious, complex flavours yet simple ingredients. Service was quick, but we were overcharged significantly, which was rectified quickly. Dress size, you have been warned. I will eat at Miss Chu's again, very soon.

Girls night out at Miss Chu's + The Victoria Room

Friday night in Sydney was a girls night out. It was so much fun. I dressed up in my St Frock dress :) How beautiful is it?! The purple and the beading and the blush is so special. And it has a special place in my heart as Sandradee kindly gave it to me.

Sydney Shop Girl, Kristy and Sandradee and I dined at Miss Chu's, a Sydney streetfood institution. It was lovely seeing my friends become friends :) And Kristy is a big fan of Sydney Shop Girl's blog.

Sydney Shop Girl took this picture. Isn't it quirky?

I loved the shuttlecocks and bamboo steamers hanging from the roof hanging over the pavement.

 And the bananas. Such an expensive decoration!

We sat on milk crates, watching Sydney Shop Girl brave the long queue, filled with pretty, stylish young things (including YOU, SSG). Girls wore corporate casual with style - high waisted skirts, pearls, funky dresses and sky high heels. We admired.

The menu is fresh and tasty Asian. So cheap too.

Water came in plastic bottles resembling hip flasks. I loved the look. We wished we'd gone to one of the many bottle-os along William Street for some wine.

 We were served food in paper bags.

 

 We ordered heaps! Twice.

Chicken rice paper rolls (they'd run out of duck and banana flower ones) - so fresh and cool. Peking duck pancakes - rich and warming. Eggnet crab spring rolls - not greasy, nice and seafoody.

 Scallop dumplings and Shanghai dumplings - fat and juicy with spicy sauce.

 On our second order, Kristy and I ordered Wagyu pho. Spicy, lemony, slurpy goodness. Wow.

And we also ordered more pancakes. Yum yum yum.

We were all so impressed with Miss Chu's and I was excited to learn there's one in Melbourne. Must. Go. Soon.

We then walked up a large hill to the upmarket Darlinghurst bar, The Victoria Room.

Sydney Shop Girl had a Cinderella moment and changed her amazing sky high shoes to sensible yet stylish flats.

We saw two more Cinderella moments - this carriage at a lavish Russian home decor (??) store.

We lamented that Kate Middleton won't be having a horse drawn carriage at her wedding, and I remembered Kirsti from Melbourne on My Mind went to school with Kate Middleton when she was known as Catherine.

The third Cinderella moment was more bogan, more relatable. A nearly empty bottle of beer and one shoe. I hope she found her prince.

Once we braved the hill, we had cocktails at The Victoria Room. I found it hard to choose. I chose rose and lychee.

 I felt so grown up at The Victoria Room. So plush and posh.

We shared dessert - I had the privilege of choosing them. A divine rose pannecotta with strawberries. So light and creamy, and just sweet enough. It was my favourite of the two.

And this, an apple tart tatin, which I adored only a millimetre less than the pannecotta. SSG and Sandradee loved it! It was warm and rich, and had a sticky sweet caramel sauce.

Friday night in Sydney was the perfect end to a perfect day. Here's to my friends becoming new friends. You can read Sydney Shop Girl's blog about the girls night out here.

Dinner at Tom Phat in Brunswick

Last night my gorgeous friend Jess and I had dinner at Tom Phat in Brunswick.

It was lovely to catch up - we covered a lot of topics. She is very stylish so clothes were a big topic of conversation.

I have eaten at Tom Phat many times previously and it's one of my favourite restaurants in Melbourne. It's well priced, really tasty modern Asian.

Maybe it was because the food became secondary to our conversation - it'd been ages since we'd seen each other - but I was not as impressed with the food as I usually am.

We shared an entree of rotii with satay sauce - my favourite dish of the night. Tom Phat's roti is impressive.

We also shared corn cakes which were deep fried and crispy. We don't think they were vegetarian - they tasted seafood like - crab perhaps?

My pear cider - very nice.

I had twice cooked duck with Asian greens and mandarin and caramel sauce. It was really tasty and the duck was tender and juicy, but it was so difficult to eat. Te caramel sauce was a lot like toffee, and my cutlery often became caked with balls of this sticky toffee. My teeth were coated with toffee too, so I had to drink water between each mouthful. It took me ages to eat - a combination of the amount of talking I was doing, and also the toffee. I didn't finish my meal, which is unusual for me, and Jess worried I'd be hungry.

This is Jess's pumpkin and tofu curry. She did eat it all so I guess it was nice (and easier to eat than mine!).

Tom Phat is a great place to eat at, so please don't let this review deter you from eating there. In the past I've had fish, curries and pork belly which have all been delicious and encouraged me to return. Definitely give it a go.

Baan Sabai Jai Thai restaurant - Albury

Albury isn't exactly the food capital of the universe. Unless you go to my parents' place where you may be served roast lamb from the paddock and vegies from the garden one night and South African biryani the next. Sometimes I go to Albury and all I want is a Vietnamese rice paper roll, but they're very rare in Albury. Though I hear there is a chain of sushi stores who now serve rice paper rolls! Hurrah!

However, food isn't all doom and gloom there. There are some cool cafes, a few pubs that do great counter meals, a fantastic new Chinese cafe, some good Indian and Thai places, and if you drive to Rutherglen and Beechworth you'll find some top notch fine dining restaurants.

One of my favourite places to eat at in Albury is Baan Sabai Jai Thai restaurant. I call it the 'Thai Trolley'. I go there once or twice a trip. It's unique, fresh, cheap and tasty. I guess it's a bit of a novelty for a country town, but also a sign of the fantastic multicultural influence.

It used to be just a cooking trolley outside of a massage shop, but in recent years it's moved to a bigger premises with both the outdoor cooking trolley on the footpath and an indoor kitchen, plus indoor and outdoor seating.

Stir fries and soupy noodles are cooked in the wok on the outdoor trolley.  It's very quick.

My Dad treated us to a meal there for Mum's birthday  a couple of weeks back. We each chose a dish and shared it. Green tea was complimentary.

Our medium serve of rice ($5.00) came in an expensive looking plastic turin. I want one!

Mum chose the basil seafood ($18) which had crunchy vegetables and plenty of seafood: squid, mussels, prawns and fish.

Dad picked cashew chicken ($14.90) which had cauliflower, broccoli, snow peas, carrots, chicken and cashews, with a bite of chilli. While it was too spicy for me (I love hot food but it stings my mouth) it was tasty. Dad said he enjoyed the cashews.

Sticking sort of to tradition (I usually get the red duck curry) I chose the BBQ duck ($18.90) which I enjoyed the most out of the three dishes. The duck was rich and stewy, covered in dried shallots and served on a salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber and red onion. The salad was refreshing against the richness of the duck.

Service was quick (we got there an hour before the movie started and we finished our meal with 20 minutes to spare) , the servings were generous (we took doggy bags home) and the owner are really friendly (they let me take photos and write about the restaurant. It's authentic Thai food, and as Dad said, such a treat because we couldn't make it as good at home as they do there.

I returned to the Thai Trolley the next day before I saw Love and other Drugs. I didn't have much time before the movie (been shopping!) but again the service was really quick. I ordered the Pad See Ew with king prawns ($14.90) and this came from the outdoor wok in less than five minutes. It had slippery noodles, about 10 juicy prawns and beautiful honey and sesame flavours. Plus it was topped with bean shoots which I love!

If you are in Albury and looking for a great meal, I definitely recommend Baan Sabai Jai Thai restaurant (459 Smollett Street Albury).