Categories
Spanish

MoVida Next Door – Melbourne VIC Restaurant Review

I quite like NGV Melbourne, but as the ever giving partner I chose to order at Movida Next Door whilst my partner got to spend some additional time at the gallery before our flight (which, little did we know at the time, was to be delayed – thanks Rex.)

My partner has no interest, generally, in anchovy, so we ordered a single Anchoa ($6), described quite accurately in the menu as “hand-filleted Cantabrian Artisan Anchovy with Smoked Tomato Sorbet on Crouton”. It was as salty as you’d expect from anchovy, though the tomato did help to temper that. The crouton was quite long, and I probably would’ve described it more as a biscuit. I wouldn’t get it again, but I’m not sad that I did.

We had two of the Pez Real ($15.50 each), which were actually quite good. They are parcels of kingfish wrapped in Jamon Serrano, grilled and served on mojo verde (yet another green sauce I have to learn about). It was probably the highlight of the meal, with such a good texture of fish that I rarely see in cooked kingfish, and excellent smokiness imparted by the serrano.

The Bomba ($8), a choux pastry filled with duck liver parfait and persimmon was a pretty decadent affair. I don’t think it was particularly worse than the $18 Chicken liver Paris-Brest at Cafe Paci in Newtown NSW, but it did come in a pretty manageable portion size and therefore price, which I appreciated. I don’t really need to eat an entire meal of liver, and Movida understands this.

Our complimentary bread and oil finally came. Weird that the woman next to us got hers essentially upon sitting down. I’m not going to read into it. The salt is quite salty.

The anchova was not for my partner, but this Croqueta ($5.50) certainly was. She can’t walk away from a big deep fried ball of stuff, in this case manchego and zucchini, and though it’s not mentioned I feel like there has to be some potato in it as the base of it all. Not bad. Surprisingly oblong for a croquette.

The Bistec ($34) was actually very impressive. I’m not usually one to order steak from restaurants, as it’s something that I can cook reasonably well myself (thanks Breville Polyscience) but this grilled Sher Wagyu beef rump was really quite well done (that is to say, not well done), and the Jerusalem artichoke chips were extremely tasty. And to top it all off, it didn’t break the bank.

OTHER THOUGHTS
I quite enjoyed eating things that I don’t normally eat at MoVida Next Door. I like the extremely small portion sizes, which made it quite easy to share a meal with my partner after having eaten a large number of other meals together that day on our last day in Melbourne.

I also liked that the our waiter/bartender didn’t really try to talk to us, instead lavishing his attention on the middle-aged woman sitting next to us. He had a good sense of what we wanted (to be fed) and what she wanted (to have a general discussion about things, I guess) and I feel like this skill will take him far. Possibly as far as his colleague who was wearing a Rolex Submariner at work?

MoVida Next Door
164 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000
(03) 9663 3038

Categories
Vietnamese

My Hao – Winston Hills NSW Restaurant Review

I don’t generally have much occasion to visit Winston Hills, but having had Lee Chef’s (amazing) pho no less than six times in the four months that we were locked down it was time to try something new.

The Beef Pho (Large – $15.50) was looking weak both visually and on paper, but turned out surprisingly good. Featuring only beef brisket, rare beef, and beef balls, My Hao’s only beef pho offering leaves out the tendon and tripe that round out a full featured Phở Đặc Biệt. The soup is clear and sweeter than I’m generally what I’m used to, and the “rare beef” is actually cooked almost all the way through by the time the bowl reaches the table. Despite theses subjective and objective shortcomings, I enjoyed this bowl a surprising amount. I think the strength of this bowl of pho really comes down to My Hao’s great use of brisket, which is fatty and moist, but doesn’t go a nanometre past the sweet spot into being too fatty. Not all bowls of pho need to be homogenous, and all things considered the only thing I would change about this pho would be to be a bit more generous with the basil.

This was not the best Pork Roll ($6.50) I’ve ever reviewed on this blog, but it probably looks the best. I can’t believe it’s taken me over 300 reviews (these get queued for ages and the posting order gets switched up, so while this meal was eaten in October 2021 the review could be posted any time into the future – or past? spooky) to realise that people would probably prefer to see a nicely cut cross-section of a sandwich than my haphazard interpretation of such made with my teeth and mouth. I recently found an anaesthetic colleague’s croissant-based Instagram, and the beauty of cut croissants and the lack of wedge-shaped teeth marks in her photos struck me. My Hao expertly served this less-than-expert banh mi cut into halves and on a plate, but I don’t really know how I can emulate this in my usual practice, unless I carry a knife with me at all times. It turns out that’s exactly what she does. I can’t wait to explain this to the cops.

Back to the actual pork roll, I felt that it lost points for being too salty and too sweet and too wet. The bread also happened to be a bit too crusty and a bit too hard, and the restaurant being a full featured restaurant rather than a bakery I wonder if their baguettes are made on site or elsewhere. I was shocked and offended when the only other diners in the restaurant ordered banh mis without pate, but looking at the amount of pate I got in mine I’m not sure it would’ve made much of a difference.

UPDATE WINTER 2025

About three years after my visit to My Hao I had the opportunity to order lunch from them as part of what would be my last meal in this particular part of Western Sydney for some time. I had the bánh xèo (pork – $18) which was quite tasty, very clean, with an absolute lack of insects unlike one of the more recent bánh xèos I remember having at a different restaurant (now closed).

Unfortunately travel was not kind to this particular crispy pancake, rendering it relatively soggy, however the fact that the whole thing was soaked in oil which soaked through the bottom of the box and into the box underneath it gave me adequate evidence to suggest that it was once quite crispy. The fillings were generous and the flavour was good. I had overall no significant complaints, and I am sure that it would have been a delicious meal had I had it at the restaurant. During this meal I also had some pork spring rolls which were equally delicious and remained crispy throughout that trip. I have no photographic evidence of this.

COMMENTS
I think that if I’m after the kind of pho that I know I like whilst living in the Parramatta area, Lee Chef still has my patronage I think that if I want to subject myself to some sweeter pho that is outside of my comfort zone I’d continue to explore the rest of Sydney rather than come back to My Hao. I don’t hate them. It just is what it is.

My Hao
1E Caroline Chisholm Dr, Winston Hills NSW 2153
(02) 9688 7631

Categories
Chinese

1919 Lanzhou Beef Noodle – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

This is a review of 1919 Lanzhou Beef Noodle in Burwood NSW, and certainly not a review of the similarly named 1915 Lanzhou Beef Noodles, around 100 metres up the road.

There always seems to be a line outside 1919 Lanzhou Beef Noodle, and on our visit last weekend the waiting time happened to be around 15 minutes for a seat. I wonder if the bulk of the waiting time is due to patrons only deciding on what they want once they get into the restaurant, which is a bit silly as they have a very limited and focused menu, easily visible from the outside.

Forever a fan of the classics, I chose the Lanzhou Beef Noodles ($12.80 in small) with the thinner noodle option. I really enjoyed this bowl, and I can see how this simple noodle dish has become a staple not just in Lanzhou, but across China and Chinese diasporas. The clear noodle soup, flavoured with radish, coriander, and a little bit of chilli sauce just felt so clean and wholesome, not weighed down by any soy or fattiness. The lean beef had a light but aromatic flavour to them. The noodles were hand pulled in the store window, but to be honest were not more than a caloric vehicle for the rest of the bowl. I regret only getting a small size, as it seems that the extra $1 for the large gives you a lot more soup, which is truly the star of the show.

My dining partner and also romantic partner, forever the non-classic fool, ordered the Special Dry Beef Noodle ($13.80 in small) with wide noodles. This was probably just fine but didn’t live up to the standards set by their soup noodles. It had a bit of tomato flavour to it and a bit of stewed beef flavour as well. What ultimately brought it down was the fact that the sauce did not quite coat the noodles as a pasta sauce should, even though it kind of ate more as a pasta than a Chinese noodle dish. This meant that at a certain point you were kind of just eating really wide unflavoured pasta.

These pork and cabbage steamed dumplings (4 for $4.80) were alright.

1919 Lanzhou Beef Noodle Burwood
117 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
0499 041 919

Categories
Chinese Drinks

Machi Machi – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

This is not really a restaurant, and this is not really a review. It is more of a description of a vibe and a general sense of feeling that I get when I drink a small $9 flask of bubble tea.

I don’t think there’s really any argument about the quality of these drinks. They are tasty, they are inventive, and they actually have a number of elements not found elsewhere. The Grapefruit Green Tea Slush with Fruit Jelly ($8.50) is a good example of this, where these guys experimenting with new ideas, for example putting the jelly at the bottom of the cup and not throughout it, actually changes the experience. It tastes pretty good, but again I’m reminded that we just spent $8.50 on a bubble tea.

This Black Milk Tea with Panna Cotta ($9) was also actually very good. Again a daring move from the mochi mochi team putting panna cotta at the bottom of the drink. Very tasty, and I think better than the option from Xing Fu Tang which incorporates panna cotta as a separate element. The price element comes out again though, even more in this case. One of the other things about these teas is that you’re actually not getting a large 700-800mL cup like you would normally. These are quite compact, slim, hip-flask like situations, so I think ultimately you’re paying around 3x the price for what you would pay for a standard milk tea a couple of years ago.

Whilst bubble tea has always been a discretionary spend Machi Machi certainly takes the idea of it as a luxury good to the next level. I don’t think your average public selective school student or university student really has access to buying and drinking these all the time, but there’s always the international student market.

UPDATE JANUARY 2023

We found ourselves back at Machi Machi, this time in Hurstville, about 14 months on for a $9.50 Grapefruit Mango Cream Smoothie with Kanten Jelly. It actually did taste very good, but looked nothing like the picture, and again I’m left wondering to myself – who is the target market for this product? Because it sure isn’t us.

machi machi Burwood
5/127-133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Asian Fusion Bakery Market Stall

Pantry Story – Wolli Creek NSW Restaurant Review

Pantry Story is one of those out-of-lockdown success stories where a person with the right combination of timing, skill, and social media knowhow is able to launch a brand straight out of their apartment and into an internet base of hungry gourmands. It’s a phenomenon well covered by New York’s Eater, but somewhat less common in the more suburban sprawl of Sydney.

Operating the odd market stall around Sydney’s suburbs and also doing the intermittent batch of pickup orders out of her apartment in Wolli Creek, Mutiara Putri Sucipto draws on her Indonesian heritage to create pan-Asian inspired baked treats of both the sweet and savoury varieties.

This 3 days kimcheese honey focaccia ($7) was really good. The bread was airy and spongy, with a good crispy top layer with a coating of cheese. The kimchi was flavourful but not too strong, and importantly spread not only over the top but throughout the entire loaf. The slight hint of honey added a bit of depth to the saltiness of the cheese and the funkiness of the kimchi without being overpoweringly sweet. Just a great piece of bread.

The 3 days chorizo with sake sauce focaccia ($7) is a newer addition to the menu, and while also good wasn’t as phenomenal as the kimcheese honey focaccia. The quality of the bread remains, this time flavoured with a spread of oven crispied chorizo slices and a light but appreciable sake sauce. Unlike the kimcheese honey focaccia, the flavourings of this one were more limited to the top layer rather than mixed in, hence having less of a lasting and permeating impact on the enjoyment of the whole loaf. Not bad, but second out of the two.

This pandan java cookie ($5.50), like most of Pantry Story’s other cookies is a combination between a cookie and mochi. I seriously enjoyed the soft and thick texture of the cookie, as well as the textural interest added by the layer of mochi within. The flavour was sweet but not too sweet, and ultimately quite pleasant. This was my favourite of the three sweet treats we tried.

The banana bread that started it all, the banana bread with cheesecake filling ($6) was soft, moist, and not too sweet, with a swirl of cream cheese through it. This was an alright banana bread, though not significantly better than the banana bread I’ve had from other places or even made by friends. If I’m being honest the cheesecake swirl did not leave a lasting impression, and perhaps there could have been more of it, or it could have been flavoured more strongly. I wonder if this would’ve been better heated up.

The strawberry milk brochi (brownie-mochi – $7) was the weakest of the bunch. For starters I felt like it was too sweet, both overall but particularly from the pieces of white chocolate spread throughout. The slab of mochi was a bit thicker in comparison to the brownie than it was in the cookie, and whilst that’s probably the point of the fusion item I thought the ratio was better in the cookie. This was also my partner’s least favourite of an otherwise good meal, though her additional complaint which I don’t completely agree with was that she couldn’t actually taste the strawberry in it.

OVERALL THOUGHTS Our haul from Pantry Story was mostly pretty good. The kimcheese honey focaccia and the pandan cookie were the standouts, but generally a strong showing for someone operating out of their apartment. I will watch her career with great interest.

Pantry Story
Various market stalls across Sydney
Pickup at 15 Guess Avenue, Wolli Creek, NSW