Categories
Chinese

Wok N BBQ – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

I had two things from Wok N BBQ tonight, purchased on the way home from visiting a friend and with the express intention of eating it slowly over the next few days. “Groceries”.

The crispy pork ($42/kg) had a good crisp to its crackling skin and a good mixture of fat and lean meat, as well as some soft bones which my partner would’ve enjoyed had she been around, however I felt it was unfortunately oversalted.

The soy chicken ($17 for half) was conversely undersalted, even when fully dipped into the sauce, though this was made up for but not balanced by the quite salty ginger and shallot mix. The texture was tender and silky, which is a plus.

Overall I did not feel that Wok N BBQ provided an exemplary experience and will hesitate to go back given multiple other superior options in the vicinity.

WOK N BBQ
174 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Bakery Spanish

La Colmena – South Yarra VIC Restaurant Review

I really wanted to go back to Agathe a couple of weeks ago when I was in Melbourne for a quiz, but between cramming, spiralling, and Agathé’s rather tight opening hours I sadly wasn’t able to. Spanish bakery La Colmena is where my (local) friend and I settled with in the end, after taking into consideration my bakery desires, our relative starting locations, and the limited time I had before flying out (flight was delayed 2 hours, but I didn’t know this at the time).

The basque cheesecake ($14) we shared was pretty good, although sweeter than I would’ve liked. The texture was very nice, probably the best I’ve had, with a creaminess on the outer layers and a very gooey centre, although I think weighing up the strengths and weaknesses I probably still prefer one I’ve had at a Korean bakery in Sydney that offers a less sweet option for the Asian palate.

The flor manchega ($6) was extremely whatever – essentially thin, multilayered crispy pastry, dusted with sugar and with a bit of an aniseed/liquorice flavour. It is apparently culturally significant, but there are definitely other pastries out there that both have a rich history and taste interesting.

Maybe we just didn’t order the right things?

La Colmena
Prahan Market, 163 Commercial Rd, South Yarra VIC 3141

Categories
Chinese Groceries

Ruyee Steamed Bun with Shepherd’s Purse and Egg 如意纸皮包子 荠菜鸡蛋味 – Grocery Review

These shepherd’s purse and egg buns came recommended by a reader, though I actually already had them in my freezer by the time the comment came through.

They are part of the ‘paper skin’ line, which is an accurate description given the superb filling to skin ratio as seen on the cross-sectional image provided. The skin, despite its thinness, was extremely strong, bouncy, and held up well to steaming.

My wife and I were less impressed by the filling, however, and felt that the taste was a bit bland. This was easily corrected with a bit of chilli crisp and vinegar, but having to add flavour to a prepackaged frozen bun isn’t exactly my dream.

I wouldn’t get these again, but I do like some of Ruyee’s other offerings.

Ruyee Steamed Bun with Shepherd’s Purse and Egg 如意纸皮包子 荠菜鸡蛋味
EAN 9309000476008

Categories
Middle Eastern

Granville Kebab House – Granville NSW Restaurant Review

I sat out on the first order from Granville Kebab House on our run of nights, but after letting my colleagues test the waters on night one, I took part on night two.

Contrary to the opinions of my colleagues, I did not feel that this lamb kebab ($17.50) was the best. I would rate it in the bottom quartile of lamb kebabs I’ve had, purely because of the quality of the meat was lacking. While it’s usually nice to find a kebab with something resembling actual meat as opposed to mystery meat, I found the meat in this kebab to be unpleasantly chewy and gristly, with at least a couple of mouthfuls where the meat was impossible to chew to a small enough particle size to swallow, and had to be discreetly spat out instead. Factors counting in favour of this kebab however include its huge size, though another factor detracting is the $1 surcharge for tabouli. Perhaps a mystery-meat and chicken mix kebab would be a bit better.

I had only a single soggy bottom chip from this large snack pack ($22), but I wanted to add this photo to show just how huge and heaped it was. The concave upper lid was packed to the absolute max. I appreciate the effort, but would appreciate it more if the portion sizes and prices were both smaller.

Granville Kebab House
17 South St, Granville NSW 2142
0410 801 801

Categories
Café European

Schmucks Bagels – Melbourne VIC Restaurant Review

I was fresh off the plane, with my luggage at Southern Cross, looking for some viennoiserie at 2:30PM. Sadly there were no obvious nearby locations available, and I settled on an acceptable alternative within a short walk.

The first of two bagels I had was this absolutely loaded Salt ‘N Sauer ($15), packed with an unreasonable quantity of salted beef, a mountain of saukerkraut, and a small amount of dijon mustard on a sesame seed topped rye bagel. This was truly quite filling for something relatively compact in two-dimensional space, though true to its name was quite flavourful, erring on the edge of being too salty (but not too sauer).

After eating half of the above bagel, I then turned my attentions to the Miss U Lox ($16.50), a classical kind of smoked salmon bagel with cream cheese, pickled red onion, and cress, again on rye. This bagel was more expensive but much smaller than the other, reflecting recent increases in price across all brands for smoked salmon products. The filling was simple but clean feeling and tasty, though this did tend to mean that certain bites leant the other way into having inadequate flavour. The sweet pickles came in handy in dealing with the excess bread.

Overall I had a pretty enjoyable meal, but it turns out I was the schmuck, because I went to a bagel shop looking for ‘classical’ bagels, not realising that it was run by Asians and thus missing out on a likely good quality Asian-fusion menu. Maybe I’d try a miso tuna.

Schmucks Bagels (Collins St)
Tenancy 9/567 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000