The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally. All meals are independently paid for - the author has no conflicts of interest to disclose.
I treated myself to breakfast at Munoushee which is basically a Western Sydney restaurant in the Inner West following a Western Sydney night shift. I had the chili, meat and cheese wrap ($14), and had quite mixed thoughts about it. I thought the wrap was good, the bread was thin and the the entire unit was flavourful but sadly I really had a lot of difficulty identifying any meat.
Completely uncharacteristically of me (call it a post-nights loss of frontal function) I went and asked the man working the counter if I had been provided the right meal. I really couldn’t find the meat in this chili meat and cheese wrap but he told me that yes this was the right meal, they just can’t put as much meat in the wrap as they do in a pizza and that the meat in a wrap would need to be quite thin otherwise it would be soggy.
Given that the only meat I could macroscopically identify is circled in the above photo, I absolutely would not have minded a soggy wrap.
I guess this is what I get for trying to have Western Sydney food outside of Western Sydney.
One of the fellows I work with has never said no to some physically unhealthy but spiritually permitted fast food overnight. Though we mostly order from a few known locals, we do on occasion get to branch out.
The fried chicken pieces (3 for $11) were excellent – some of the best post-midnight fried chicken I’ve had in Western Sydney. It was perfectly crispy on the outside, and extremely juicy on the inside. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to get a photo of the meat inside, and my only complaint is that the spiciness of the spicy version could be a little spicier.
Unfortunately the chicken shawarma wrap ($13), which you would expect to be the restaurant’s specialty, was nowhere near as excellent. The wrap, though size-appropriate and chicken-filled, presented as dry, and could’ve used much more garlic sauce/toum than was provided. I’ve certainly had better in the vague local area, including Armani Restaurant in Parramatta, and Babylon Bakery in Fairfield Heights.
Walking to Havenstone from our place of work involves walking through the grounds of Cumberland Hospital, a heritage-listed sandstone building complex with a lovely set of grounds. Seeing people have their coffees in the courtyards as we attempted to stay awake following a 13-hour night shift really hammered home the concept of the road not taken, as I’m constantly reminded of the fact that I almost became a psychiatrist were it not for the influence of one particular senior early on in my working career. Thanks HWJ.
The Middle Eastern breakfast platter ($29) served inexplicably on a piece of wood rather than a more antibacterial medium such as a ceramic plate features plain pita bread, two fried eggs, a choice of Lebanese sausages or falafel (predictably I chose the Lebanese sausages) some labneh and hummus and a collection of multicoloured vegetables including pickled peppers, olives, very crispy radishes, cucumber and some cherry tomatoes. The plate was overall not bad, featuring a combination of ingredients and colours that made it feel like I was doing the right thing for my body and eating my traffic lights. Despite this however I just didn’t feel it was particularly special, especially compared to a local analogue which is the Phoenician Kafta Bowl at Little Miss Collins in Pamada which provides za’atar rather than just plain pita bread. I honestly wouldn’t even be offended if instead of plain pita they provided za’atar from a well-regarded local manoosh shop like Mina’s Bakery in Westmead. It would just add a little something extra to what is otherwise a somewhat unexciting mixed plate.
The Havenstack ($27) is a physically compact but surprisingly dense arrangement of a hash brown, wilted spinach, grilled portobello mushroom, smashed avocado, bacon topped with a poached egg, Lebanese sausage, halloumi and a layer of Hollandaise sauce. I really didn’t think that such a small footprint of food could make one full, but I was surprisingly wrong. The combination and variety of ingredients led to a pretty good meal, actually, and I guess the form factor did help each of the ingredients to maintain warmth, minimising radiative heat loss rather than it being spread out on a plate.
A fortnight ago I shared with you some memories of Kebabmia and Pizza on Liverpool Street in Sydney, which has been closed since 2015.
For today’s out-of-cycle low-effort post I bring to you a photo and some loose thoughts of a similar meal from Clayton Kebab House in Victoria, which is still open to this day.
I specifically remember that this kebab shop, and actually most kebab shops in Melbourne, had a realistic looking lamb option on the menu, something that has become rarer and rarer in Sydney over the last decade.
While the photo of this chicken meat plate with salad does not look particularly appealing, it’s probably reflects more the 2015 era smartphone camera than it does the food. It really can’t have been that bad, as I ate here a two digit number of times during my time in Victoria.
Clayton Kebab House 342A Clayton Rd, Clayton VIC 3168
I’ve cleared the backlog of reviews to write, and so here’s a blast from the past that I’ll post outside of the regular queue. Kebabmia & Pizza on Liverpool St used to be a go-to spot for me back in the mid 2010s (RIP, according to Google Maps Streetview, by October 2015 – the venue has since changed hands several times).
This was from an era before the halal snack pack had entered mainstream consciousness, (you will see from the photo of the board above that it does not exist on it), but I will take credit for being an early adopter of a kind of neo-halal snack pack. My order was usually a box of chicken meat with tabouli rather than chips, tabouli being in my opinion the most elite salad accompaniment to kebab meat, even if it’s not of authentically Turkish origin.
The meat was tasty, and from the photos, believably meat. The salad was fresh. I’m sure it was less than $10 at the time, as well.
