a hong kong interlude

Walking up and down the small streets not far off busy Nathan Road, I was pelted with icy rain from all directions. I was not dressed for the weather, on my feet were a pair of flimsy flats that quickly absorbed the muddy water. The pair of jeans I wore was slightly longer and was dragging on said muddy water. I repeat, I was not dressed for the weather.

pangsit mie a fuk, dine in or takeaway?

I can honestly say that this was my first time eating in an underground carpark of a Buddhist temple.

depot mie sawahan nasi goreng mawut

Nasi goreng mawut - Rp 18,000

If find it quite an interesting process researching the origins of indonesian dishes. Most of the time, the dishes will have a wikipedia entry showing extensive history of how it was created or how it was introduced to indonesia. Other times, when the dish is not very well known internationally, it will have articles in bahasa indonesia. But a small portion of the time, my search would come up with blanks, zilch, nada.

depot mie gadjah mada, noodles with soul

Homemade noodles & wontons, freshly made every day

The first restaurant I went to when I visited Malang, East Java after a long 5 years away was Depot Mie Gajah Mada. And there's a good reason for it.

pelangi bali crab fried rice

The trouble with living somewhere other than where you grew up is that you'd go through periods where you'd miss a certain type of food so intensely that you cannot think of anything else but.

thai gourmet cafe gai yang & som tum set

For us, there were more misses than hits with the Thai Gourmet Cafe. We headed off to Northbridge for an early lunch at the cafe one Saturday morning. The place wasn't that busy at 11am. The picture menu convinced me to order the BBQ chicken set (thai: gai yang & som tum). My sister ordered the chicken pineapple fried rice and my brother-in-law the pad thai.

viet hoa bò viên

Continuing on my recent foray into the Vietnamese pho, I visited Viet Hoa in Northbridge during a particularly ravenous state as I foolishly skipped breakfast that morning.

I was in the neighbourhood running some errands. When I finished getting the things I needed to get, my stomach was my next urgent priority. I carefully looked at a few restaurants before settling on Viet Hoa. About 7 years ago now, I went there with my parents, and we did not have a particularly good meal / experience, we never came back since. But I thought I should give it another try, seeing as 7 years is probably about enough for holding a grudge, not that I let go of my grudges very easily.

trà vinh phở bò viên

Trà Vinh is one of those places that I have been meaning to review but never got around to do it. So, here goes.

napa cabbage clear soup with prawns & vermicelli

When I was in Beijing, China for a year to learn mandarin, I went through a phase of eating lots and lots of napa cabbage, either fresh or in kimchi form. I don't eat as much of them now as I did then, but they are still my favourite vegetable.

So, why do I love this vegetable so much? Napa cabbage, or wombok, has this natural sweetness that I really like. Unlike other cabbages, the napa variety does not smell funny (normal cabbage), nor does it taste bitter (brussels sprout).

cafe asia stir fried chicken with fresh mushroom

Cafe Asia, or Asian Cafe as we like to call it, is a frequent hang-out, mainly because my parents and sister like this place so much. Personally, I can't see why.

Last night we went there again, the restaurant was almost at full capacity with all kinds of Northbridge riff raff. There was a multicultural family at one table, a quintessential Italian nonna and nonno at another, and there were asian students all abounds.

what the pho rice noodle soup with beef balls

A few weeks ago, my brother-in-law wanted to try out this newly opened Vietnamese noodle (Pho) shop in Northbridge. It’s funny that he couldn’t remember the name of the shop at first. I mean who could forget a witty name such as “What The Pho”.

arigataya chicken katsu ramen

The first time I heard about Arigataya was from my sister. She told me that she went there with her husband and had a great meal. She also told me that her husband cockily ordered the free extra noodle but couldn't finished it, but let's keep this just between you and me. My initial thought when she told me about this place was, "Yay! Finally a decent ramen place". So naturally, I was quite curious, but I couldn't seem to find the opportunity to go.

The second time I heard about it was when I finally went there to eat with Maru. It was almost lunch time and she told me that we should try this new ramen place that's been generating a lot of buzz. I was so hungry at that point that we quickly ordered as soon as we got there. I ordered the chicken katsu ramen and Maru ordered the kitsune udon.

pak loh chiu chow express noodle with pork ball in soup

Although I have been eating non-stop during my flight from one continent to another, I was still hungry as I touched down in Hong Kong. I think it's because the meals in the plane, eventhough they were frequent, they're not very big portion-wise. This was my quest in search of my next meal.

That's when I stumbled upon Pak Loh Chiu Chow Express. I queued up, which didn't take me that long to get to the front, and ordered the noodle with pork ball in soup. I ordered it because the dish on the picture menu looked mild but appetising, just the right thing for my upset but hungry stomach.

man doo hyang yukgaejang

The title of this post may seem a bit nonsensical to you, like a jumble of random Korean words I pulled out of a hat, but it's not. Let me explain. Man Doo Hyang is a Korean restaurant in Mississauga, Ontario. And yukgaejang is Korean for spicy beef soup, which was what I ordered when I was in said restaurant.

You might have remembered that I previously raved about another Korean restaurant in Ontario. Man Doo Hyang is somehow of a different calibre to that one. Man Doo Hyang is more of a family oriented restaurant. When we were having dinner in the early afternoon, it was filled to the brim with Korean families, with lots of kids running around and such. But service was by no means inattentive, of course the waiter bell on the tables did help to move service along.

wonton noodle

OK, this may be a cheat version of wonton noodle (pangsit mie), but I can't help but to love it. I had such a nostalgic craving for a bowl of this noodle one day, I decided to reconstruct it. Obviously nothing can beat the original, but this was the closest I can get to the one I usually eat in my local noodle shop back in my hometown. I have to warn you this recipe uses store-bought wontons and noodle.

stir-fry chicken & noodle with egg sauce

This stir-fry chicken is originally supposed to be served with rice. But, I modified it to my liking by serving it with noodle and adding the egg sauce, and voila! For those of you who has rightly said that I am way too much of a carnivore, this one is for you. There are more vegetables than meat in this dish, so it's super healthy.

kunitoraya ténpura-udon

Ténpura-udon - €13

What could be better than a bowl of udon with hearty soup to warm you up when it's bloody freezing outside that you couldn't feel your toes, all your joints ached, your ears felt like ice blocks and your nose could pass off as Rudolph's nose? That's exactly the question I asked myself while we were freezing our butts off outside the louvre. So, we went and searched for, apparently, one of the best udon in Paris.

taurus hawker combination hor fun in egg sauce

The last time we went to Taurus, my brother-in-law told me that this was his most favourite place during his uni days for affordable, honest-to-god good Malaysian food. It's not because he's a sentimental bloke that he kept going there every so often even after graduating more than 5 years ago.

I've got to warn you, the restaurant is nothing fancy, it's hawker style after all, so no fancy decor, no fancy table and chairs. Just fast service, delicious food and it can be a bit rowdy during lunch time so get in early or have it for take away.

1. Snacks
3. Combination laksa
4. Combination hor fun in egg sauce

I always get the silky smooth combination hor fun in egg sauce, my sister the mi pok and my brother-in-law the combination laksa. But other than the great food, they also have Malaysian/Indonesian/Singaporean snacks, but you gotta be there early, they sell like hotcakes (I always wonder about this phrase, why hotcakes? Why not gummi bears or chocolate cakes?).


Taurus Hawker Foods
Shop 10, 113 Collins Road
Willetton WA
Open Tuesday-Sunday 11am-9pm

chop-chop fried noodles

Continuing on my speedy recipe series, today I will introduce you to my chop-chop fried noodles. What I sometimes do when I can`t be bothered cooking is buy a whole roast chicken from Coles. I eat the thighs & drumsticks with rice. But I hate eating the breast meat, so I usually let someone else eat it. More often than not, though, I ended up making it into my chop-chop fried noodles.

1. Wokka thin egg style noodle
2. Whole roast chicken
3. You choy
4. Chop-chop fried noodles