Well, a lot of my friend said that Melbourne has some good Curry Laksa & Assam Laksa. So let's check it out ! I went on a eating trip, no sight seeing just eat and eat.
Approximately 7hrs ++ or 8hrs,..I think, we reached the First Stop...breakfast
They say this restaurant is quite famous for it fast food. Opened 24hrs.
American breakfast ! Bacon, sausages, eggs. Price $6.99
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Australian Steak Burger. Just beef & egg. Price $5.99
Simple light breakfast, taste good maybe we were hungry after the 8 hrs journey
Next stop ! Thai restaurant ?
They mentioned Thai restaurant but they serve practically everything, Thai food, Malaysian food, Vietnamese food, Japanese food....etc
We tried the Pho Bo for a start,.....at that time it wasn't even 10am.
Very tasty, aroma of the basil leaf & well prepared with the beef slice medium rare. Never expect to have such tasty Pho in Australia. Even better than the few stalls that I've tried in Vietnam. Price $8
What's next......
Need a Beer to wash down the food. We walked down south to the Yarra River.
Beautiful ambience with nice view. Well, come to think of it still something is missing....where's all the topless ??? Erh....not in the city of course. Mmm.
Can't have everything in one place.
As time goes by, one beer after another....it's time to check out some of the food again. We walked back to Spencer Street to some of the famous Penang, Nyonya Malaysian food.
We tried Curry Laksa in one of the food court near to a college. Rated so called the top in Melbourne. The taste is sweet, creamy & the curry smell not so strong. This is how the westerners like their Curry Laksa. We do not expect to have pungent & spicy like the one in Malaysia but just to understand how is their taste like when they say it's good.
That afternoon we had visited 6 Curry Laksa stalls, and we tried 3 different version, cooked & prepared either by Singaporean, Malaysian (To be exact,...Ipoh mari punya) or Vietnamese
The Singaporean version are much tastier than the rest ! It has more aroma and the paste is much stronger yet acceptable to the locals. Price $8
Enough of eating for the next 4 hrs,....we should continue what we do best....
Xplore more of the Australian beers ! We had 6 different brands, Crown was good but....
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...after a few beers,...we lost count. Erh,....which...is which !!???? They all taste the same. Ha ! That goes our survey,...down the drain ! We should have more gluttons with us rather than merely 2.
Next stop....purely Malaysia food.....Assam Laksa & Lobak
We patronized the Penang/Malaysian restaurant in China Town.
It doesn't look like Assam Laksa, taste a bit alike, but the preparation was out. They used can sardine, don't know what happen to the vegy.....soggy !
The Lobak has been pre deep fried, put in the fridge, and deep fried again. Resulting the texture is tough. Not good at all.
Price: Assam Laksa $9 and Lobak $11
The next day...(Part II)
A friend of mine just threw a turkey drumstick in my car and said to me, cook it !
It's not even Christmas ! Well, I don't like to waste food,..but again...Turkey !? From it's character has not much taste, besides being tough.
Well, let's Xplore....
Finally, I remember one of my friend used to run a cafe called Turkey Delight,...just by selling turkey rice ! ??? Something different...right ? His version was East meets West, or more a less West meets East....check out the recipe
Huge thing ! Marinate overnight with salt, pepper, garlic, oyster sauce, all spice herbs & the secret is.....fermented beancurd.
Add some oil and fry the marinated turkey for 5 - 10 minutes, add in the chicken stock just slightly covering the turkey. Then throw in the rest, bay leaf, carrot, potato, onion & shitake mushroom, boil it for 15 minutes.
Turn down the heat and let it simmer for another 1 hr or till the turkey is tender. By then the stock will be reduced to half.
Add in salt & ground black pepper, to taste
That's how it looks like...cheers & Merry Christmas !
Serving for 2 paxs
Ingredients
400g Turkey drumstick
100g USA White Potato
60g Carrot
40g Onion
20g Garlic
10g Shitake Mushroom
1pc Fermented Beancurd
1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper
300ml Chicken Stock
2 pc Bay Leaf
1/2 tsp All spice herbs
2 tbsp Oyster Sauce
1 tsp Salt / Pepper, or to taste
If you are lazy and just want to have simple+sour+spicy
that will stir up your appetite...try this
Taste almost like assam laksa but less work
Wash and clean the Mackerel Fish (I prefer Terubuk Fish). Blend all the spices together; Dried Chilli, Lemongrass, Shallots, Turmeric, Garlic & Belachan
Mix tamarind pulp with water and strained the juice. Add it the tamarind juice and spice paste then bring to a boil.
Throw in the pineapple, onions, 1 stalk of Lemongrass bruised & Galangal (lengkuas) let it cooked for 10 minutes, then add it the Mackeral fish & boil till cooked, approximately 3-5 minutes.
Add in the salt & sugar, to taste.
Garnish with ginger flower and mint leave...Done !
Serve with rice,...or you can add it rice noodle and treat it like assam laksa...
with "Har Ko".....Of course.
Serving for 4paxs
Ingredients
Ground paste
20g Dried chilli, soaked
15g Lemongrass
15g Turmeric
180g Shallot
20g Garlic
20g Belachan
20g Ginger Flower, finely sliced
100g Onion, cut into chunks
200g Pineapple, cut into chunks
1kg Mackerel Fish
20g Lemongrass, bruised
20g Galangal, bruised
1/2tbsp Salt, or to taste
1tbsp, Sugar, or to taste
100g Tamarind pulp
1.5L Water
