Roti Road restaurant review

Malaysian restaurants have been popping up like mushrooms in Melbourne in the recent years. Roti Road which opened last year is one of them. It's my favorite Malaysian restaurant at the moment as they have a wide variety of Malaysian food ranging from hawker dishes, main dishes as well as roti and dim sum. It's fair to say that most of the food I tasted here are pretty good. 

Located on Barkly Street in Footscray, Roti Road is quite a big restaurant. Given the name of the restaurant, I supposed they got to serve good roti? Indeed, there's a roti chef showing off his roti flipping skill at the front window of the kitchen most of the time. 

I've returned to this restaurant multiple times now. However, not all the dishes were captured in photos. The following are the food that I managed to take photos during my visits to Roti Road.

The chicken satay has topped my list as the best Malaysian satay in Melbourne. The perfectly cooked satay meat was tender and juicy while the peanut sauce was great. 

The Roti Telur which was accompanied by curry, dahl and sambal was good. It's much better than The Mamak's in Melbourne CBD. Somehow, I'm just not a fan of The Mamak's.

The prawn noodles or Har Mee was quite authentic. The soup was full of flavour and the portion was enormous. 

The Hokkien noodles was average but decent. It was the thin noodles instead of the usual thick noodles which you can find in KL. Besides that, there weren't pork lard which most people would love to see in Hokkien noodles, except for me. 

Similar to the Hokkien noodles, the fried Kuay Teow was so-so but it wasn't bad. Well, I actually like Paparich QV's fried Kuay Teow the most. 

The chicken curry noodles was pretty good. The portion was huge and it was loaded with heaps of ingredients such as chicken slices, eggplant, fish cakes and tofu. It's brilliant to use mint leaves as a garnish as it enhanced the flavour of the curry. 

We had tried some main dishes to go with rice on a few occasions. The mixed vegetables with tofu was not bad. It was tasty. 

If you're into spicy fish, you must try the BBQ grilled fish. It was similar to those "Portugese grilled fish" you get from Malaysia. One of the best I would say. 

Overall, Roti Road is one of the best Malaysian restaurants I've found in Melbourne. Since they have a wide selection of food, there'll sure be something that's of your tastebuds. 

Airfry roasted pork belly (siu yuk) 烧肉 recipe

Roasted pork belly in Chinese style (aka siu yuk) is one of the food I’d love to make with my new Philips Airfryer. In fact, it was probably one of the reasons I bought an airfryer. Roasted pork belly is my all time favourite. Who doesn’t like the crackling skin? However, making them in an oven is quite messy which requires a lot of cleaning later on. I was hoping there would be less cleaning with an airfryer and taste as good if not better. 

The airfryer worked really well. The crackling pork belly was not only crispy on the skin but surprisingly juicy on the meat. So that’s a tick. However, I got to admit that it left a lot of oil and food residue in my airfryer after cooking. Besides that, due to the high fat content in the pork belly, the airfryer released a lot of smoke too when airfrying. Luckily, my airfryer was placed near the cooking hood. The ventilation fan was turned on all the time during the cooking. Otherwise, my house would smell like a BBQ pit. Overall, I think it’s still easier to clean an airfryer than an oven. Hence, I’d use it to make my yummy siu yuk again! 

Recipe:

1kg Pork belly

Vinegar (to brush on the skin) 

Coarse sea salt (enough to fully cover the skin)

Aluminium foil

Marinade: 

1 tablespoon shao xing cooking wine

1/4 teaspoon White pepper

1/2 tablespoon five spice powder

1 teaspoon salt

Note: The amount of marinade is estimated only. Adjust accordingly. 

1. Wash the pork belly with water and pat dry it with towel papers. 

2. Rub the shao xing cooking wine evenly on the meat of the pork belly only (strictly NOT on the skin). 

3. Repeat step #2 with white pepper, five spice powder and lastly salt. 

4. Place the pork belly skin side up on a plate and store it in the fridge overnight without any cover. This is a process to dry up the skin to achieve the cracking skin later on. 

5. Remove the pork belly from the fridge. Prick all over the surface of the pork belly skin with a sharp object (skewer/knife). Try to make as many small holes as possible but avoid pricking too deep into the meat. 

6. Lay the pork belly skin side up on a large sheet of aluminium foil (sufficient to wrap the pork belly). Wrap the pork belly tightly with the aluminium foil around the sides with only the skin exposed. The sides of the aluminium foil should be slightly higher than the pork belly so that it can hold the coarse sea salt in the next step. 

7. Lightly brush the skin with vinegar. Cover the pork belly fully with coarse sea salt until you can't see the skin. 

8. Place it in the basket of the airfryer. Airfry for about 25-30mins in a pre-heated airfryer at 180c.

9. Remove the pork belly from the airfryer. Gently remove the aluminium foil and scrap off the layer of coarse sea salt. 

10. Increase the airfryer temperature to 200c. Return the pork belly into the airfryer. Airfry at 200c for another 10-15mins or until the skin is crackling. 

11. Cut the pork belly and serve. 

Note: Adjust the cooking time accordingly as the size and thickness of the pork belly is different. 

Refer to the following video for the steps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr6xswgiIyA

Rice dumpling (Zong zi / Bak zhang) 粽子 recipe

I did it! Haha. Yes, I successfully made rice dumplings or zong zi for the first time. Yay! 

Well, I really really love eating rice dumplings especially those made by my mum. Whenever I visit Malaysia, my mum would prepare these yummy rice dumplings for me regardless the time of the year. So I eat it for breakfast and tea break everyday until the stock is finished. As the dragon boat festival (that's when Chinese people eat rice dumplings or zong zi) is around the corner, I decided to make my own rice dumplings by following my mum's recipe simply because I can't find any nice rice dumplings around Melbourne! Yup, they actually sell them here (that's how multicultural Melbourne is) around this time but they aren't nice at all. Not to mention, they're expensive considering that there aren't much ingredients in the dumplings sold here!

There's no problem in getting all the ingredients I need to make the rice dumplings in Melbourne. In fact, you can get everything in an Asian grocer like Hometown Asian supermarket. However, the locally made fresh salted egg is really expensive and the quality is not as good as those you get in Malaysia. Somehow, the salted egg yolks from the fresh salted eggs aren't as solid and are a bit runny. Besides that, I'm not into cooked-salted-eggs from China. Luckily, there's this locally made frozen salted egg yolks (yup, egg yolks only. They removed the egg white and packed all the egg yolks in a box) available in the frozen department of Hometown Asian supermarket. It's not cheap (10 frozen egg yolks for AUD15), but at least it guarantees that I get these solid salted egg yolks for making my dumplings. So if you have time, do make your own salted eggs at home!

We're lucky to have fresh chestnut from the local produce. So I used fresh chestnuts instead of dried chestnuts. It's also worthwhile to mention that the bamboo leaves usually come with strings. However, the string snapped every time I tied the dumplings. Thank goodness I've a roll of cooking rope in my pantry for tying the dumplings. Hence, make sure you have some ropes around for backup if you decide to use the bamboo strings. Other than that, I must admit that it's a bit hard to wrap the dumplings at the beginning especially if the dumpling is big. However, after a few wraps, you'll get the hang of it when you gain more confidence. 

Overall, making rice dumplings is very time consuming. From my perspective, the time spent for preparation and wrapping the dumplings isn't too extensive. However, boiling the dumplings on the stove for 2-3 hours is really a long process. I came across some discussions in a forum where people shared their experience in using a pressure cooker for cooking rice dumplings. Apparently, the cooking time was reduced to only 15mins!! Well, I haven't tried that as I don't have a pressure cooker at the moment. I reckon it's worth trying if you have one. 

Recipe: 

(make about 26 rice dumplings)

500g pork belly (without skin)

8 dried mushrooms (I used big dried mushrooms)

1kg glutinous rice

120g dried shrimps 

1 garlic (about 10 cloves)

20 shallots (can be more to give more flavor)

26 chestnuts

13 salted egg yolks 

60 bamboo leaves (2 leaves for each dumpling and extra for backup)

Bamboo strings/cooking rope (enough to tie all the dumplings)

3 tablespoons oil

Seasoning for glutinous rice:

1 tablespoon salt

Marinade for pork belly:

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons five spice powder

1 tablespoon dark (caramel) soya sauce

3 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 teaspoon Shao xing cooking wine

1 tablespoon light soya sauce

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Preparing the ingredients:

1. Cut pork belly into 2-3cm pieces, marinade and keep it overnight in the fridge. 

2. Soak bamboo leaves and strings in water overnight. Make sure that the water covers all the leaves. Clean each leave on the next day using a clean sponge and water. Drain the water and set the leaves aside. 

3. Soak dried mushrooms overnight and cut into thick slices. 

4. Soak glutinous rice for about 3 hours. Rinse and mix in salt. 

5. Cook fresh chestnuts in boiling water for 8mins and remove the shells. 

6. Soak dried shrimps for 15mins, rinse and pat dry with towel paper. 

7. Chop garlic and shallots. 

8. Cut salted egg yolks into half.

9. Heat oil in a frying pan, fry garlic and shallots until fragrant. 

10. Add in pork belly and the marinade. Briefly stir fry until the pork is half cooked. 

11. Remove the pork from the frying pan. 

12. Pour the remaining stir-fried garlic and shallots as well as the sauce onto the glutinous rice. Mix well. 

13. In the same frying pan, fry the dried shrimps until they're lightly brown and fragrant. Remove from the frying pan and set aside. 

14. Repeat step #13 with the mushrooms. 

Wrapping the rice dumplings: 

1. Stack 2 bamboo leaves with the smooth side facing up and form a cone shape. 

2. Add 1 tablespoon of glutinous rice, followed by 1 piece of pork belly, a slice of mushroom, a chestnut, 1 teaspoon of dried shrimps and 1 halved egg yolk. Cover it with another tablespoon of glutinous rice or more so that the cone is almost filled. 

3. Now, fold down the leaf to cover the brim of the cone and hold it into a triangular shape. You'd need to hold it tight. 

4. Fold the remaining leaves around the pouch by following the triangular shape. 

5. Tie the dumpling tightly with a string. It's important that the dumplings are nicely packed and tied to avoid any leakage when cooking them later.

6. Repeat step #1 to #5 until all the ingredients are used up. 

Cooking the rice dumplings:

1. Fill a large pot with 1/2 - 2/3 of water and add in some salt. Bring the water to boil. 

2. Gently place the rice dumplings into the boiling water. Make sure all the dumplings are submerged in the water. (Use more than a pot or cook the dumplings in batches if your pot is not big enough to cook all the dumplings.)

3. Boil the rice dumplings with the lid covered for about 2-3 hours. As water evaporates while boiling, add some boiling water into the pot whenever the water level goes down.

4. Remove a rice dumpling from the pot after 2.5 hours to check if it's been cooked to the right texture. 

5. Remove all the rice dumplings from the pot once they're cooked and place them in a colander/big strainer if not hanging them somewhere to drain the water. 

6. Serve when it's slightly cooled. I find that rice dumplings taste better after it's cooled. Somehow, it tastes even better on the next day onwards. 

Asian Gourmet Hut restaurant review

Pan mee or mee hoon kueh is my favourite Malaysian food as mentioned in my very first post. So far, the only good pan mee I can find in Melbourne is at Asian Gourmet Hut. I actually discovered this restaurant a few years back when I read the JOM magazine that featured a list of Malaysian restaurants that offered pan mee. After trying each of them, I concluded that Asian Gourmet Hut has the best pan mee of all.

Asian Gourmet Hut is located in Doncaster East which is quite a drive for me from the city. Well, the distance is a small huddle when one is hunting for good food! Since then, we have been visiting this restaurant whenever we feel like having a bowl of pan mee but were lazy to make it at home. If I'm not mistaken, the restaurant only serves pan mee for lunch. The dinner menu consists of the usual chinese dishes. So it's best to call the restaurant to confirm if pan mee is available to avoid disappointment.

How did Asian Gourmet Hut's pan mee top the list? Well, it boils down to 2 simple things - the thin pan mee noodles and the soup. Their pan mee noodles are manually torn into thin pieces. Besides that, the pan mee soup has a good balance of flavour. Having said that, I reckon their pan mee is lacking ingredients and I personally prefer more ikan bilis flavour in the soup. 

Other than pan mee, they also serve various double boiled soup and steamed dishes on rice in addition to the usual Malaysian noodles and rice dishes. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the double boiled soup and the steamed dishes on rice but I reckon they are quite good and it's something you don't usually get from other Malaysian restaurants in Melbourne. 

I've tried their wat tan hor too given that I'm a wat tan hor fan. However, I think their wat tan hor is just average and not as good as Laksa King's.

If you're longing for a bowl of pan mee in Melbourne, you must give Asian Gourmet Hut a try! Otherwise, you could always make your own at home by following the pan mee recipe. It's quite easy! :)

Bak Kwa 肉干 recipe

I have still not gotten over Christmas & New Year and now Chinese New Year is around the corner! How time flies!? Well, it's time to get busy again. I bet a number of you who celebrate Chinese New Year might be busy cleaning, shopping, baking cookies as well as making yummy food such as Bak Kwa. 

Bak Kwa also known as "rou gan" in Chinese is a type of BBQ dried meat. It is easily available from some of the popular chains like Bee Cheng Hiang in Malaysia and Singapore. However, it's not commonly sold in Melbourne as compared to Malaysia. Although a few shops over here do sell Bak Kwa but I somehow never had the desire to try them. 

Well, when food is not easily available, you just create your own! So I made my own Bak Kwa. It's quite easy to make bak kwa at home. There are a lot of recipes on the Internet and I found that most of them are quite similar with slight difference in the portion of the seasoning. Hence, I just picked a recipe from Nasi Lemak Lover and adjusted the seasoning based on my own preference. The only tricky part for me is to evenly spread the minced meat on the baking tray. To me it's hard to make the layer thin, so my bak kwa ended up slightly on the thick side. Having said that, they are still yummy!

Recipe: 

500g Minced pork

100g sugar

1 teaspoon dark caramel sauce

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine

1/2 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

2 tablespoons honey

1/8 teaspoon five spice powder

Salt to taste

A few dashes of white pepper

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl until the mixture is gluey. The gluey texture is important, otherwise the meat won't stick together. Store the meat in the fridge for several hours or overnight. 

2. Spread the marinated minced pork thinly and evenly on the baking tray. Some suggested to use a roller over a layer of cling wrap but I found that it's quite hard to apply the same pressure on the roller when spreading the meat across the baking tray. It ended up thinner on one side and thicker on the other. Besides that, the gluey meat tend to stick to the cling wrap when the cling wrap was being removed which was quite annoying. In the end, I literally used a metal spoon to touch up the surface. 

3. Bake in pre-heated oven at 160C for about 15mins. Remove the meat from the oven and increase the oven temperature to 220c.

4. When the meat on the baking tray is slightly cooled, cut them into your preferred size by using a scissors/knife/pizza cutter. Arrange the pieces back on the baking tray. 

5. Bake at grill mode (top heat only) at 220c for about 7mins or until it's brown.

6. Flip and grill on the other side for 5-7 mins at 220c. The timing and temperature setting vary depending on your oven. The rule of thumb is to bake/grill until the meat is brown (and with burnt bits if that's to your liking).

7. Remove it from the oven, let it cool and serve! (I find that the bak kwa tasted better on the following day after baking.)

Note: Adjust the oven temperature and timing accordingly as each oven is different. You might also be using different oven modes such as conventional, fan-forced or grill. Hence, the timing would be slightly different.   

Easy pork patty recipe

Christmas season is a great time for family reunion. I'm glad that my family was able to spend time with me in Melbourne this time. I'm even happier that I could enjoy some of my mum's home cooked meals at home ;) Thus, I took this opportunity to note down some of the easy recipes such as this easy pork patty recipe.

This is a Chinese version of pork patty but I reckon it would go well with fresh salads and buns in addition to rice. Feel free to modify the amount of seasoning according to your taste buds.

Recipe:

(3-4 servings)

500g pork mince

A handful of chopped spring onions

1 egg yolk

Oil ( sufficient to pan-fry the patty)

Marinade:

1 teaspoon corn flour

1 1/3 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon light soya sauce

A few dashes of white pepper

1 tablespoon shaoxing wine

1/2 teaspoon five spice powder

3/4 teaspoon sesame oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Combine pork mince, spring onions, egg yolk and the marinade in a bowl and mix well.

2. Take a small scoop of the pork mixture, roll into a ball and gently flatten it into a round patty. Transform all the pork mixture into patties by repeating this step.

3. Heat oil in a frying pan. Pan fry the pork patties until they're cooked and turn brown.

4. Serve while it's hot.

Suggestion: Serve the pork patties with Kewpie mayonnaise.

China Spice restaurant review

China Spice is a new Chinese restaurant offering Sichuan style dishes. It is located at the ground floor of the new Melbourne Star apartment. What a convenient dining place for the new tenants! Well, after passing by this restaurant a couple of times seeing scrumptious dishes on the tables, we decided to check it out on a Saturday night. We arrived at 6:30pm and were seated straight away. However, the queue started to build up at around 7pm.

The decor and lighting of the restaurant is quite pleasant. It's a common design where the kitchen can be seen via windows. However, the chairs and tables are pretty basic and the design of the menu is very ordinary too.

We ordered spicy grilled fish and seafood tofu with 2 bowls of rice. For the fish, we requested it to be less spicy. The fish was served quite quickly. The dish looked pretty and very spicy! Rather than grilled, I reckon the fish was fried before immersed in the spicy sauce. Well, it tasted great anyway and it was no doubt quite spicy. I was glad that we had asked for reduced spiciness. By looking at the other tables, the fish seems to be a popular dish in this restaurant.

Next came the seafood tofu. The tofu was silky soft and the sauce was nice. The only comment is that there weren't much seafood. In fact, there were only prawns, fish balls and crab sticks. I don't consider fish balls and crab sticks as seafood though. It could be better if there were actual fresh seafood such as squids and probably fish fillets other than just prawns.

Overall, the dishes were good and the portions were big. I was particularly impressed that brown rice was served instead of white rice. I will certainly return for more when I'm craving for spicy Sichuan food!

Homemade char siew or BBQ pork recipe

Char siew aka BBQ pork can easily be found at any chicken rice and wonton noodles stalls in Malaysia. There are even some restaurants specialising in making char siew as their signature dish. However, over in Melbourne, I can hardly find char siew from the Malaysian restaurants. Here, char siew appears to be more commonly found in Hong Kong and Chinese restaurants.

Anyway, I decided to make my own char siew by asking the recipe from my mother in law. Apparently my hubby's late grandma made the best char siew. I was a little bit disappointed to find that the recipe doesn't come with the exact portion of each ingredient except that the rose wine (Mui Kuai Lou) is a must. Looks like the secret recipe didn't pass down precisely to the next generation. Oh well, that means I have to follow my instincts and taste buds, again! Because of that, I actually modified the recipe by adding honey as my instinct was calling for honey. Haha, just like Pooh bear!

By the way, rose wine can be found in a well stocked Asian supermarket in Melbourne. I bought mine from Hometown Asian supermarket on Elizabeth St.

Well, the result turned out quite nice although I'm sure it can't beat grandma's! If you like to follow the recipe below, feel free to modify the portion of each ingredients according to your liking, you could even omit the honey. If you ever find the secret combination, don't forget to share with me ;)

Recipe:

500g pork rasher/pork belly strips without the skin
1 tablespoon oil
Oil to brush the pork

Marinade:

1 1/2 tablespoons light soya sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon dark caramel sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 2/3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon rose wine (Mui Kuai Lou)*

* Mandatory ingredient

1. Marinate pork rasher/pork belly with the marinade in a zip lock bag. Store in the fridge overnight.

2. Scrape off the marinade from the pork rasher strips and keep it for later use. Brush each pork rasher strip with oil.

3. Line the pork rasher strips on an elevated rack on a tray.

4. Grill in a pre heated oven at 200c for 8-10mins. Flip to the other side and grill for another 3-5mins. Note that the cooking time depends on how thick the meat is, so you need to adjust accordingly. Over grill would result in dry and hard meat.

5. Cut the char siew or BBQ pork into slices when it's cooled.

6. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add in the marinade and simmer until the sauce is thickened.

7. Pour the sauce over the char siew or BBQ pork and serve.

Suggestions: char siew goes well with rice or you could use it for wonton noodles/egg noodles. It would be just as nice if you have it with a bowl of green salad!

Little Chef @ Wills Street, Melbourne review

It has been a while since I last went to Wills Street and so I was surprised to see a new Chinese restaurant named Little Chef. Looks like the former Japanese cafe - Hashi has closed down and Little Chef has taken over the place.

Little Chef is a small restaurant offering Chinese food like dumplings as well as Chinese dishes and noodles. It has a better seating arrangement and it actually looks quite cozy and more pleasant than before. I was just hoping that they serve decent food so I could add them to my list of take away restaurants during busy workdays.

Pan fried pork dumplings

Pork dumplings in chilli oil soup

On my first visit, I took away pan fried pork dumplings, pork dumplings in chilli oil soup as well as mapo tofu with rice. Both the dumplings tasted almost the same. The skin was thick and they were a bit salty and oily to me. The dumplings were just not to my liking.

Mapo tofu rice

The mapo tofu tasted a bit weird too, probably due to the chilli oil that they used. Besides that, there were hardly any minced meat in the dish but only tofu. I thought there should be minced pork in mapo tofu dish?

Anyway, I thought of giving it a second chance as its location is really convenient for me to grab a quick meal. This time, I ordered sweet and sour pork with rice and Kung pao chicken with rice.

Sweet and sour pork rice

The sweet and sour pork wasn't great and it literally only consisted of pork, onions and probably a slice of red capsicum and carrot.

Kung pao chicken rice

The Kung pao chicken was worse. It didn't taste like the Kung pao chicken dish I used to have at all. Perhaps it's a different style?

Oh well, looks like Little Chef didn't make it to my list of take away restaurants.

New Shanghai restaurant (Emporium Melbourne) review

I was so excited that I wanted to blog about New Shanghai restaurant immediately after the meal. It was super awesome! A must try if you're into Shanghai cuisine such as xiao long bao (steamed mini pork buns) and dumplings.

Located at Emporium Melbourne, New Shanghai is a modern Chinese restaurant serving Shanghai style cuisine. They have a chain of restaurants in NSW but this is the only restaurant in Melbourne for now. I'm glad that we were early. Although there was a queue, we were seated not long after a short wait. The decor of the restaurant is modern yet full of Chinese character. It is vibrant with cozy lighting. I was quite surprised to find out that it is actually a big restaurant despite the entrance looking like it is just part of the food court.

There were so many tempting choices that at the first glance of the menu, I found it hard to decide my order. We finally settled with New Shanghai xiao long bao, pan fried pork dumplings as well as stir fried Chinese rice cake with XO sauce and shredded pork. The food came amazingly quick especially for the xiao long bao.

The xiao long bao looked really good with thin skin. You can almost see the broth through the 'semi transparent' skin! It was indeed perfect on the first bite. The scrumptious broth was tasty with a balance of flavours that a xiao long bao should have. The pork was soft and tender with just right amount in each xiao long bao.

Next came the pan fried pork dumplings. They were actually quite big as compare with those from the normal dumplings shops. The pork dumplings were pan fried so evenly that every pieces looked almost the same. Guess what? There's actually broth in the dumplings too! This was the first pan fried dumpling I have had with hot broth inside. It was again so yum. The pork was as tender as the xiao long bao's and the thickness of the skin was just right.

Lastly, our stir fried Chinese rice cake arrived not too long after the first two dishes. It was quite unique as it wasn't the traditional style but with XO sauce. Needless to say, it was good. I was particularly impressed that they actually used fried shallot in this dish. It's not usual to see fried shallot used in traditional Chinese restaurants but it is widely used in Malaysian restaurants.

Well, overall the food was two thumbs up and the price was pretty good for such a location. New Shanghai has overtaken Hutong Dumplings Bar to top my list of xiao long bao/dumplings restaurants.

Website: http://www.newshanghai.com.au/