Melbourne - Lygon Lair

A lair is a hideaway, a resting place and a den - and perhaps nothing fits more on a Melbourne evening than for a casual getaway after a hard day's wheeling and dealing, than to head to Carlton and its iconic street, Lygon. Whether one speaks fluent Italian or not (a restaurant staff member said "Ni hao" to me) does not matter - all it takes is an appreciation of the good life and la dolce vita. Above, beef ala Italia.

Dolci awaits and rewards one who has finished the secondi. Above a selection of favourite sugar fillers - tiramisu (foreground) , lemon tart and a half eaten chocolate-laden cannoli. All desserts from the Brunetti Cafe.

Above, Dave, Sonja and Shane (left to right).

Below, Kev, Dave and Sonja (left to right) with their unique paper bags containing served spaghetti marinara, a signature dish of the Little Lygon. Bon appetit!

(Above image credit - Shane Campbell)

Above and below, impressions from the Brunetti Cafe along Faraday Street in Carlton on a Monday evening in a photograph from the past.  Please note that Brunetti has moved kits Carlton premises to 380 Lygon Street. 

http://www.lygonstreetcarlton.com.au/brunetti/index.htm

Penang - Street Side Curry Mee

Street side pavements and food stalls hark back to the past two centuries on Penang Island, Malayisa.

I was recommended a terrific and worthy dish of curry mee noodles ala Penang style if I went early to Air Itam Markets by dawn on a Saturday morning in February 2011. Penang's curry mee offers a unique taste in the soup that you cannot get elsewhere - neither Sydney, Kuala Lumpur nor Singapore. I found my delight, beside a bridge, where eager customers waited right in front of the elderly ladies

preparing the stuff. (above)

What's so special, you may ask? The dish is not overly rich, only with hints of dried shrimp paste (belacan), a dash of palm sugar, prawn and/or chicken stock and light coconut milk, but gentle with a kick of flavour. The garnishings are also important - for this stall, it is the marinated dried cuttlefish (jee hu in Hokkien) that obviously stands out. Also tasty ingredients are deboned chicken breast cuts, cockles, deep fried tofu squares and chicken blood clots. The last mentioned ingredient may be a shock for the uninitiated, but you have to try this at least once. You can choose just to have the yellow Hokkien noodles, or white rice vermicelli, or a combination of both, cooked with the soup.

Elderly lady (above and below) is apparently the mainstay of this stall for a few decades. With two other women, she patiently prepares the garnishings and ingredients that are served with the soup and noodles. Ah, the soup, made as an art with a blend of juice from blended prawn head shells, a sprinkling of shallots, a touch of peppercorns, a sharp kick from cut lemongrass stalks and a toss of coriander powder.

Notice that charcoal (above) is used for the cooking, and this may be the critical factor that enhances the flavours of curry mee from this particular stall.

The customer-focused lady (above) also sells stir fry rice vermicelli, but she stands out in having a nice word with every customer, no matter how busy she is. Her piece de resistance, I reckon, is the

pan roasted chili condiment, a necessity to complement the soup. Garlic, chili paste, dried shrimps are pounded by mortar and pestle to a fine consistency, before being deep fried with vegetable oil and an inch square of dried shrimp paste.

Home Made Breakfasts

Ah, the glory and joy of an easy morning meal, when I wake up with no commitments and just look forward to how the day flows along. I like slurpy egg yolk meandering through a textured bread slice, carrying with it the infused aroma of freshly cracked pepper, a hint of light soy sauce and with a dollop of olive spread below.

Then there's Dairy Farmers Thick and Creamy country vanilla yogurt - not too much, but just enough to savour them with blue berries (above). This combination refreshes and is such an appetizer. No streaky bacon, no overcooked mushrooms, just plain and easy.

And I won't forget getting the navel orange slices being crushed through the juicer.

Bon appetit!

Penang Street Foods - A Sampling

With names like poh pniah, lam mee, chee chong fun, tom yam mee and more, the labels on the variety of street food on the island of Penang, Malaysia can be simply bewildering. Above, the food court in New World Park, along Burmah Road in Georgetown. The variety available is astounding - and even if servings can be relatively small in the perception of the Australian, American or British visitor, the price asked for is only a fraction of what is required back in the Western countries. The dishes are an evolving result of the fusion of different cooking styles, traditions and ingredients - when they all meet up on the island. The trick is not to over indulge, go for the widest choices and take a break of at least three hours before starting to snack again. Most of these dishes come served with various sauces and condiments to enhance the experience.

Deep fried yellow-striped scad (above), or black pomfret, with the insides stuffed with spicy mixes, are a feature of Malay and Straits Chinese based family cooking. The fish are rubbed with yellow ground tumeric, a dash of salt and given a light batter of flour before they go into a thoroughly cleaned and oil heated wok. The idea is to turn over the fish only once for a perfect finish. Another marinade choice is tamarind juice.

Such prepared fish are normally eaten with nasi lemak, the coconut milk flavoured savoury steamed white rice that are a favourite at breakfast time.

Ice kacang, what more can be said (above). On a humid, sweating afternoon, the ice shavings are soaked with syrup, accompanied by nuts, beans, fruit slices, mashed corn, black jelly bits and palm sago - whatever you fancy, really! Then you have a choice to top up with the ice cream flavour of your preference, over all this heaving and delicious cooling stuff. Who cares if it is thirty degrees Celsius outside?

Kaya spread is put over the Straits Chinese glutinous rice cakes (above, also known as pulut tai tai) slightly coloured by the aqueous extract of the vivid blue telang flower. (Clitoria ternatea ).

For a quick snack, try the "carrot cake" (below), which is not a cake at all, but a quick stir fried concoction of radish based cubes, bean sprouts and omelette eggs, best eaten hot with a dash of pepper.

A satisfying entree is the shrimp fritters, doused with hot chili sauce and complemented by cooling cucumber slices (above). Dough with fillings are prepared in a hot boiling pot (below) to result in sesame seed crunchy and crispy snack balls (last picture in this write-up).

A delicate stew of the Fujian inspired sweet and savoury peanut soup (above).

For a quick reference, poh pniah (meaning "thin biscuit") are Fujian based cylindrical shaped spring rolls that have fresh and cooked ingredients wrapped inside the delicate skins - firm soya bean cake strips, small cooked prawns, crab meat, julieanned cucumber, shallots, sliced green French beans, cooked belly pork bits, chopped carrot cubes and the necessary item of bangkwang ( yambean ).

Lam mee are braised yellow noodles traditionally served to mark key birthdays, with garnishings of crab meat, pink dyed omelette egg strips, chicken strips and a really rich stock of a gravy.

Chee chong fun can be peculiar to Penang and normally are available at yum cha restaurants or cafes - and they are flat rice rolls served without nothing more than a few tasty sauces. Their Hong Kong cousins have fillings inside and doused only with a light marinade.

Tom yam mee comes from Thailand, where the prawn and shrimp paste are utilised to flavour noodles, not just in soups but also come stir fried.

Three Cities, Many Hearts

Note: Due to some unresolved technical issues, the following blog posting, from a past year, has suddenly decided to re-park itself as a 16 March 2011 entry.

It was a truly happy greeting me from Happy coming for me, my nephew Chet and Karen at the pool area in a Yishun condominium. The not quite four year old had a most delighted surprise on her face, as if to recall that I promised to see her in person in Singapore, if I could at the next opportunity. Then she settled into a demeanour that she would enjoy my visit to her parents' home and to see her younger brother Stuart as well.  She naturally chatted away, played with every one of us and even sat at the dining table joining me to partake in the Lunar New Year treats.  Stuart sat on my lap, and even if only a year old, sent me strong communicative vibes through his expressive eyes.

Karen later that evening got us my fav Katong laksa and otak otak (that heavenly combination of steamed egg, fish fillet and aromatic leaves of the daun gaduh) that only the Straits Chinese can conjure up. I was in the heartland of the baba and nyonya in Singapore.  My associations with this island state go back many years, with memories of well done Mandarin commercials and subtitles on television, well organised and super clean food courts, hostel stays at the Nanyang University, long and enjoyable shopping excursions, drop bys at cousin Eu Lan's residence and much more.  How this island state has changed from my very first encounter on a university sports exchange trip - as I stood recently in front of the Zegna lcd display at ION shopping centre along the still vibrant Orchard Road, I sub-consciously acknowledged the effort, forward thinking and grassroots support to continually propel Singapore as more than a viable entity.

Kishore and I had found ourselves in the rather unusual quiet of Changi Airport, Singapore in the wee hours between the arrival and departure of most flights. In any of the expansive surrounds of the three component terminals, despite the rather late closing of some outlets at 1am, we seemed to have an exclusive walking around of the facility, and enjoyed the Belgian chocolate coffee cafe before turning in. Kishore's mates in trendy jackets and blokey motor cycle helmets sent him off earlier at Sydney's Kingsford-Smith. Just like Sean Tan, whom I caught up later at the Canberra Centre on a crispy moderate early autumn day a few weeks later, Kishore was doing a post-grad degree in one of the many Australian universities. Both Kishore and Sean are at the cusp of new possible beginnings, possibilties and frontiers, a consequence of a series of apparently unremarkable decisions and steps, but these have now led

The waiters at this seemingly tucked away corner of Transfer Road in Georgetown, Penang Island, were amazingly too fair-skinned for the tropical heat and sunny aspect of the place, but I concluded it must have been the Fujian genes of their immigrant forefathers.  They worked at a fast and focussed pace, taking orders diligently and bringing out the dishes as soon as they were ready. The spinach were stir-fried with belachan chilli condiment and readily accompanied the fish head curry inspired from Chennai.  It was a family business called Tai Kong Hooi, had unpretentious coffee shop styled tables and chairs but the food served was good and tasty.  Bob always had the knack of taking me to these gems of foodie congregation in  my hometown.

It was tremendous to have this opportunity earlier this year as well of re-meeting Kean Guan, a classmate of mine from our mutual primary school of Francis Light.  Here he was, at a small gathering of school mates and people I grew up with, in a restaurant in what was once Georgetown's premier urban development. The years past had seen each of us take different paths. Guan is now the head of inspectors of schools whilst I had moved to another country and another profession. Our eyes looked at each other, perhaps reflecting on forgotten episodes and memories with the freshness of being in class together, while we chatted.  He shouted the lunch, I was fascinated with how he held an audience and how the whole group of mates were apparently back at school.

Some weeks out of my South-east Asian sojourn,  I bumped intoWendy with the purple hair and had an al fresco dinner with Marta, who loves steamed fish Chinese style more than she expected. This was in Wollongong, a far cry and many moons removed from the diversity and energy of Singapore and the family comfort of Penang. Still, with long time friendships with Wendy and Marta, there was spontaneous laughter, easy discourse of conversation and a lightness in our exchange - not very different from the many hearts I came across in the other two cities.