Thai in Hawthorn at Bangkok Terrace

Bangkok Terrace
415 Riversdale Road, Hawthorn (map)
9882 5995
Open 7 nights


The open kitchen, sharp fitout and zippy black-clad staff calling out in Thai makes Bangkok Terrace feel more Haymarket than Hawthorn. I went there with my family the other week, my expectations raised because I'd heard that that one of the owners cheffed at Sailors Thai in Sydney for several years. Maybe Melbourne now had a Sydney Thai restaurant to call its own?


The highlight of the meal was the mouth-watering steak Laos ($18.90): Wagyu rump cap marinated, grilled rare, sliced and served with salad and nam jim jaew (a dipping sauce made from ground rice, roasted chillies, palm sugar, tamarind essence and tomatoes).


Also excellent was the roasted duck salad ($18.90) with coriander, mint and eschallots. Beautifully crisp lacquered skin.


My take on the other dishes was less enthusiastic: the salt and pepper calamari ($10.90) was pretty good, but the betel leaves with prawns and roe ($3 each) lacked the chilli kick I was hoping for. Both the Panang curry ($17.90) and Pad See Ewe ($18.90), in sorry Melbourne Thai restaurant tradition, were too sweet. I wish they wouldn't play it so safe, but instead dial up the sour and the chilli on some of the dishes, à la Chin Chin or Middle Fish.



There's the usual bitching about poor service on Bangkok Terrace's Urbanspoon entry, but we found the staff to be friendly and efficient despite the clamour of the full restaurant. I'd happily go back to Bangkok Terrace (the siren song of the steak Laos is calling), but I'd steer clear of the mild and sweet dishes. Reader recommendations for best Thai in Melbourne warmly received...


I haven't been to either yet, but if you're in the neighbourhood you might also like to check out Firechief pizzeria and adjoining cafe Goldilocks, two of the six businesses Melbourne chef Paul Mathis is opening this year.

Good times at Home Dining Room

Home Dining Room
601 Burwood Road, Hawthorn (map)
9819 5555


A few weeks ago I had a non-working Wednesday so I decided to trot down to Home Dining Room by myself for a spot of late brunch. You'll find it on Burwood Road Hawthorn, just near Auburn train station. It's a quiet neighbourhood with a sprinkling of shops (including a COMPLETELY fabulous-looking lights-and-neon-bedecked shop called The Seventh Art (573 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, 9818 6177)... as well as selling hard-to-find movies, movie collectibles and books on movies, art and design, The Seventh Art also rents out arthouse and hard-to-find movies. It's been open just a week - I haven't allowed myself in there yet because I know I'd spend my New York savings if I did, but the film geek in me is really looking forward to spending an afternoon there when I get back to Melbourne in July).


When I do arrive back in Melbourne and revisit Auburn Village, I'm also looking forward to returning to HDR to sample more of their menu - but I'll find it hard to go past ordering the same brunch again because it was SO GOOD: prosciutto, baked asparagus, parmesan and rocket topped with two poached eggs and dukkah ($14). Check it out: the asparagus was wonderfully fresh and the eggs had been poached perfectly. The slightly crispy prosciutto, nutty dukkah and dabs of balsamic reduction finished off a thoroughly delicious dish.



I was first introduced to HDR by my friends Gen and Andrew, as Glen McLeod (the owner and front-of-house man) previously worked for them at Auction Rooms before setting up his own place in January. Glen has a lovely quirky sense of humour, and takes great care of his customers. The venue itself has a warm, rustic vibe - loved the polished wooden table at the front - with a nice attention to detail and quality. The chef (the rather dishy Jeremy Fritchly, ex-Orange) is originally from New Zealand, as is Glen: and I noted with approval at brunch that music by the Kiwi band Sola Rosa was being played.


Poached quince, poached quince, poached quince. Seriously, is poached quince just the best thing ever, or what? 'Tis the season for poached quince and I adore it.

When I'd seen they had poached quince on the menu I'd deliberately chosen a brunch dish that was unaccompanied by bread, so that I'd have room for brunch dessert. Mmmm, brunch dessert...


Tempted as I was by the quince special, instead I ordered the homemade banana bread with poached quince and spiced yoghurt. To accompany the brunch dessert, Glen suggested I try a teapot of Sukurambo Vert, a cherry-flavoured green tea from Lupicia. We then took turns saying the word "Sukurambo" to each other in dramatic, raspy voices. Try it, it's fun.


As well as being a great breakfast and lunch cafe, HDR is also open in the evenings. Gen and Andrew invited me and best-friend-K there a little while back for a fabulous degustation dinner. Not all of these dishes are on the current menu (and some have been modified), but these were our culinary highlights: first, a simple Caprese salad of buffalo mozzarella with baby roma tomatoes and basil; then home smoked ocean trout on a cauliflower puree with matchsticks of apple, truffle oil and "popcorn" capers.


We also had ras-el-hanout crusted barramundi on a bed of (achingly good) homemade baba ghanoush; then a filo parcel containing pumpkin, porcini and Meredith goats cheese risotto, on creamed spinach. Truth be told, I was a little dubious when the filo-wrapped risotto came out but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked.


Next was the confit duck leg with celeriac puree, roasted beetroot cubes and red wine jus. The first of the four (!!) desserts was a not-too-sweet coconut pannacotta with seared mango, taro chip and kiwi fruit gelato.


Getting back to the quinces, we had a deconstructed crumble with poached quince and cinnamon mascarpone, then were finished off by a wicked sliver of Rochebaron creamy blue and quince jelly on toasted gingerbread. Quince heaven!

Sorry Mum, no "pants on fire" pun

Liar Liar
6/769 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn (map)
9818 8864
Open 7 days for breakfast and lunch


Went to Liar Liar with Mum and Dad a few weekends ago - remember that crazy Saturday when it was sunny but there was a torrential downpour and then it stopped, and then it hailed? Actually, come to think of it, that's pretty normal by Melbourne standards...


Liar Liar is infinitely cooler than all of the cafes I used to walk past along Glenferrie Road every morning when I was a schoolgirl over a decade ago. We arrived at mid-morning prime time... the place was packed.


The guys at Liar Liar are very coffee-focussed: they use Five Senses coffee on a Clover machine (from before Clover sold out to Starbucks, natch). Alas I can't drink strong coffee, but I must say that Dad's macchiato looked fantastic.


Mum had the Liar Liar Scramble ($14), which does not have eggs but does have tomato, olives, feta, red onion, avocado, lemon and garlic oil scrambled together and served on five grain bread. If I hadn't had an unusually sweet tooth that morning I would definitely have ordered this - it's almost a puttanesca on toast!


I went for the Ricotta Hot Cakes with lemon curd and passion fruit ($15.50). As you can see, the hot cakes were monstrously big, but were fluffy and delicious. Great lemon curd too, but the passion fruit syrup was a bit overpowering - wish it had been a bit more subtle.


Dad had the Salmon Scramble ($12.50): scrambled egg with smoked salmon and goats cheese served on five grain bread. The scrambles were decadent (no doubt HIGHLY sinful) and tasted great with the goat.


For all the coolness of the cafe, our waitress was completely friendly and charming. She was from Perth and asked me lots of questions about my recent trip there - when I showed her the photos on my camera of Cott Beach, she got very homesick... and later on brought another Perth waitress over and asked whether she could see the photos too! :)

Ladies and gentlemen: Porgie & Mr Jones

Porgie & Mr Jones
291 Auburn Rd, Hawthorn (map)
9882 2955

Okay, so it's time for a confession: I have fallen in love. Head over heels in rapturous love with Porgie & Mr Jones, a little gem of a cafe in Auburn Road, Hawthorn.


Even before I'd tasted anything, P+MJ looked promising: artfully distressed brick walls and casually cute decor, loaves of Noisette bread for sale, a counter crammed with delicious-looking goodies, and really friendly staff cheerfully interacting with each other and the customers. On my second visit (a week after my first - I couldn't wait to get back), the kiwi gal at the till greeted me with a big hello and a "you're back, and you're wearing those gorgeous earrings again!"... and as I was leaving, the barista gave me an enthusiastic wave goodbye as though we were old friends.


Maybe the secret to the happy staff is they're all high on berocca (which is on the menu for $3 a glass, original flavour) and tic tocs (40 cents each). :)


On my first visit I went with Mum and she had the smashed avocado with thyme buttered mushrooms and marinated fetta on toasted wholegrain bread ($14.90). It tasted lovely - the serving of avocado was very generous, and the fetta was creamy and yet had a sharpness that really cut through the dish. Highly recommended.


I was tempted by the all-day breakfast menu (none of that McDonalds-style "we stop serving breakfast at 11am" bullshit that I encountered at Pearl Cafe when I tried to breakfast there a few Sundays ago - more about that in a forthcoming post)... but it WAS after 2pm, so I went for something more overtly lunchy: the bruschetta of garlicky cannellini beans, slow roasted tomatoes, crispy prosciutto and vincotto ($13.90). This dish was also excellent - the addition of vincotto was inspired, as was the decision to make the prosciutto crispy.


I couldn't resist getting one of those golden vanilla cupcakes ($4.50). Moist and soft with sinfully thick icing! Incidentally, the cafe is named after two of its owners. Mr Jones himself was knocking back a coffee by the bar on my second visit...


I was in the area again on Saturday, so I dropped in for a second visit and a sample of the breakfast menu. I'd decided to eschew the Taste of Melbourne festival because I was singing that night in a concert and didn't want to be tired/cranky from shuffling around in crowds all afternoon - so what better option than a quiet brunch and a read of the weekend papers? Note the golden retriever outside that insisted on staring at me mournfully as I drank my chai latte... :)


This breakfast was what really sealed the deal for me vis-à-vis P+MJ. Toasted banana bread with maple syrup mascarpone, fresh banana, berry compote and crushed pistachio ($12.90). My fondness for banana bread has already been well documented, but THIS was in a whole new league.

Two thick squares of soft-but-then-toasted banana bread stacked on top of each other like a club sandwich, with a mortar of mascarpone and thin slices of fresh banana holding the two together. A drizzle of tart berries and syrup over the top, crowned with the crushed pistachio. It was a simply stunning dish, and I don't know how on earth I'll be able to convince myself to NOT order it again next time, despite my desire to steadily work my way through the P+MJ menu, one dish at a time...


I mean, it's not as though the banana bread isn't up against some pretty stiff competition, what with all the other fabulous-sounding items on the menu vying for attention: poached eggs on toasted grain bread with spinach, red pepper pesto and hazelnut dukkah, anyone? Salad of baby beetroot and stems, red onion, blood orange, Persian fetta and pistachio?? Toasted piadina with Casa Iberica chorizo, roast sweet potato, fetta and olive tapenade???

Sigh. I'm in love with Porgie & Mr Jones.

Another "bitsa" post

Given how hectic the last fortnight has been, I'm doing another "bitsa" post (bitsa this, bitsa that) to clear some of the blog backlog and write up a few places I've visited recently.

Cafe Latte - Cucina Pugliese
521 Malvern Rd, Toorak (map)
9826 5846


Met up with Mum down at Malvern Road the other Sunday because we'd heard Cranfields was closing down and I wanted to see whether they'd heavily reduced the price of the hand-stitched leather hippo I'd fallen in love with in their shop several years ago. Alas, he was still obscenely, prohibitively expensive. We decided to brunch at Cafe Latte ("Milk" cafe, not "caffe latte"), which is a place my Aussie grandmother used to take us to years ago. The layout of the place is unusual (the island bar/coffee machine is slap bang in the centre of the room, with tables circling it) and the menu proclaims a Pugliese influence.


It was 11:30am and Mum ordered nice but rather uninteresting spinach and mushies on toast. I was going to have something breakfasty too... but then I cast my eye over the lunch menu and saw zucchini flowers stuffed with goats cheese on a bed of salad. I honestly think that if I ever had to plan the menu for my final meal on earth, zucchini flowers stuffed with goat's cheese would be the entree, so I'm not a weirdo for ordering this dish before noon, right? Right?

*


Bouzy Rouge
470 Bridge Rd, Richmond (map)
9429 4348

That Sunday evening, I was meeting M for dinner in Richmond and was really excited about visiting Momotaro Ramen (after my tasty Ramen experience in Sydney, stickyfingers had suggested I try Momotaro). But hell's bells, it turned out to be closed on a Sunday and I hadn't ascertained this in advance - rookie mistake, I know. While casting about for a alternative (Djakarta, my favourite restaurant on Bridge Rd, was likewise closed), M suggested we try newish gastropub Bouzy Rouge, formerly the Dover Castle.

Bouzy Rouge opened late last year and is run by Sandra and Jose De Oliveira, who have steered at the helm of many popular pubs. Tony Leonard of 3AW gave the pub a slavishly favourable review and named it 3AW 2007 Pub of the Year. Unlike Tony (whose constant AFL name-dropping I find really annoying, btw), I really wasn't down with the decor of the place - I mean, zebra-skin chairs, stag heads and crossed swords on the walls?! I felt like I should have entered wearing a tweed jacket AND a kilt, followed by "natives" carrying the gazelle I shot that afternoon...



Okay, maybe I'm overreacting. Despite my interior design qualms, I liked the tapas dishes well enough. We had grilled sardines with capsicum, sherry vinegar and chilli relish ($11), fried soft shell crab with coriander and lime salad ($8.50), roast capsicum with goats cheese, basil and sticky balsamic ($8) and steak tartare (eye fillet, Dijon, capers and parsley) with fries ($16).

*


Monk & Me
9 Evans Pl, Hawthorn East (map)
9813 3261

It may be called Monk & Me, but I always think of it as Monk & Mee, because I love their Indian Mee Goreng so damn much. Monk & Me is an extended relative of the Chinta Ria family of Malaysian restaurants, originally started some 20 years ago by Simon Goh, the "Chinta Godfather". There's Chinta Ria Jazz opposite the Prahran market, Chinta Ria Soul in Acland Street St Kilda, Chinta Blues up the other end of Acland St near Fitzroy St (and there used to be a Chinta Ria R 'n B, playing old rhythm and blues music up in North Melbourne or Carlton, I forget which), then Chinta Ria Temple of Love at Cockle Bay Wharf in Sydney. As a kid, Chinta Ria introduced me to the delights of two things I love, Malaysian food and jazz (I always coveted Simon Goh's recipe book Hot Food, Cool Jazz - with accompanying jazz cd!), so I'll always have a soft spot for these restaurants... :)


Monk & Me has the same basic menu as the Chinta Ria restaurants and a similar slick and simple aesthetic. It's a great pre-movie-at-the-Rivoli option (read a lovely feature on the Rivoli Cinema architectural refurbishment here). I went there last Saturday with CJ before we saw There Will Be Blood and we shared the excellent Mee Goreng Indian Style ($13.50) and the not-as-good-but-not-bad Daging Pedas: slices of beef fillets wok tossed in a blend of spices, fresh ginger root, carrot slices, snow peas and dried chilli ($20.50).

*


D.O.C. Pizza and Mozzarella Bar
295 Drummond Street, Carlton (map)
9347 2998

And speaking of pre-cinema dining venues, the other Monday I went with best-friend-K and Schatzi to D.O.C. for pizze prior to going to the Nova to see Margot at the Wedding (which was GOD-AWFUL, by the way - nobody should have to watch botoxed alien Nicole Kidman masturbate unhappily and mope about her character's upper middle class ego-centricism for what seems an eternity). But moving on to more pleasant subject matter, it was great to revisit D.O.C. and to enjoy it as much as I did the first time.


This time, we wanted to try pizze rosse instead of bianche, so we ordered the Capricciosa with ham, artichokes, olives and mushrooms, and the Soppressa with tomato, mozzarella, salame, provolone, pesto di casa & olives. Again, the pizze were delicious: as b-f-K remarked, the crust itself is so good that even devoid of toppings, it's a pleasure to munch on! :)