Nine Elephants Thai restaurant review

We'd been dining at a few restaurants in Docklands lately after spending time at a nearby children playground. There aren't too many choices actually, as most of the restaurants closer to the office side of Docklands are closed for business on the weekends. Nine Elephants Thai restaurant is one of those restaurants which opens on Saturday for dinner. It's located on a quieter street especially on the weekends. If it wasn't for a friend's recommendation, I won't be looking for a restaurant on this street. It's a small restaurant with nice decor and ambiance. They don't have a baby high chair but they do provide a booster seat which is good enough. 

There's quite a wide selection of food from the menu. All are the standard Thai food that you get from a Thai restaurant. For most of the meals, there are four levels of spiciness namely mild, medium, spicy and Thai spicy to choose from. However, I got to warn you - do let them know if you can't take spicy food. The mild spiciness on certain dishes can be quite spicy for some (I'm serious).

Here are some dishes we've ordered over the last two Saturdays:

First, we had the entree size, clear soup version of seafood tom yum with medium spiciness. Looks can be deceiving. It was actually quite spicy but nice. One of the best tom yum soups I've had in Melbourne. 

Whenever I dine in a Thai restaurant, I must order a Pad Thai at least once. There's no exception here as well. I ordered a medium spiciness Pad Thai with crispy pork. I was told that a mild version will be served with additional chilli on the side so that I can control how spicy I want. The Pad Thai was really good. I especially love the crispy pork. It was tasty but not overly sweet and oily. However, the mild version wasn't spicy enough for me so I sprinkled the chilli flakes/powder generously on it. Mind you, the chilli flakes/powder was quite spicy! 

The mild version of stir fried Chinese broccoli with chicken was extremely spicy due to the chopped chilli. I'd certainly ask them to tone down the spiciness if I were to order it again. 

I ordered a non-spicy fried rice which was not in the menu for my little one. It was average but tasty.

The satay was surprisingly good. The meat was tender and juicy. Note that the dish actually came with 4 sticks of satay. As you can see, I was too eager to taste it before taking a photo!

Lastly, the medium spiciness seafood kuay teow tom yam. It's interesting that the tom yam was served with a half hard-boiled egg. The kuay teow tom yam was loaded with button mushrooms and seafood. Needless to say, it was superb!

The food in Nine Elephants was excellent with reasonable price. It's certainly the best Thai restaurant in Docklands, if not Melbourne.

Fai Thai restaurant at San Remo review

Christmas Day is the quietest day in Melbourne where most of the businesses are closed. Hence, my family and I decided to go on a short trip to Phillip Island to enjoy the sunshine at some beaches. Knowing that it's a rest day for most of the businesses, finding lunch would be challenging. Luckily, Fai Thai restaurant at San Remo was opened for business on that day. I reckon it was one of the few restaurants in that area that was opened. 

Fai Thai is a Thai restaurant located at San Remo just before the bridge to Philip Island. I had been to this restaurant probably 2-3 years ago during Christmas too. It's a small restaurant with less than 10 tables which offers dine-in and takeaway. Maybe because it was one of the few restaurants that opened on Christmas day, it was very busy and a reservation was recommended to avoid a long wait. 

Similar to other Thai restaurants, there is quite a selection from the menu. We ordered a mixed starter, a single serve of prawns tom yum soup for tasting, prawns pad thai, stir fried vegetables and a fried trout with spicy sauce. 

The mixed starter which cost $9.90 merely consisted of one spring roll, one fish cake, one curry puff, one prawn fritter and a calamari ring. All in all, this was rather pricey. Taste wise, they were just average. 

The prawns tom yum soup was quite diluted. It tasted like the soup from the tom yum instant noodles which wasn't good. 

The prawns pad thai was quite nice. However, the portion was a tad small. It's definitely not value for money as it was about $16-17 based on my vague memory.

The stir fried vegetables was not bad although there's room for improvement. 

The fried trout is usually served with the spicy sauce on top. However, I requested for the sauce to be separated just in case it was too spicy for my family. The fish was nicely fried as the meat was still juicy and the sauce was good. The only problem was that there wasn't enough sauce.  

Overall, the food at Fai Thai was okay although it's a bit pricey for the portion of food you get. However, given its touristy location and the time of the year, I have no complaints at all. 

Easy green curry recipe

Green curry is my favorite Thai curry among the various Thai curries. Green curry is a popular dish that can be found in any Thai restaurant in Melbourne. However, most of the time the spiciness has been significantly toned down to suit the local taste buds. 

It's easy to make your own green curry at home by using the ready made green curry paste. However, I found that most of the ready made green curry pastes sold in the supermarket weren't great until I was introduced to Marion's Kitchen Thai green curry! It is full of flavour and I reckon it is as good as you could get from an authentic Thai restaurant. 

Marion's Kitchen is a collection of Asian ingredient kits based on the traditional recipes created by Marion Grasby who is a Thai-Australian cook and was one of the favourites in MasterChef Australia, Season 2. These products can be found in major supermarkets such as Coles and Woolworths. 

Marion's Kitchen Thai green curry kit comes with an easy step-by-step guide as well as the ingredients such as the green curry paste, coconut milk, dried herbs/spices, fish sauce and bamboo shoots. Each sachet is numbered and labelled which is very handy. What you need to do is to add in the meat, seafood and vegetables based on your preference. 

Recipe: 

(4 servings)

1 Marion's Kitchen Thai green curry kit

1-2 tablespoons oil

1 cup water

500g Sliced chicken and prawn cutlets (you can use any meat and or seafood)

A handful of green beans (you can use any vegetables that go well with green curry)

1 sliced carrot

1. Heat oil over medium heat and stir fry the green curry paste for about a minute or until you can smell the aroma.

2. Pour in the coconut milk and water.

3. Add in dried herbs and chillies, follow by fish sauce. Cook until the curry starts to simmer. 

4. Add chicken and cook until tender.*

5. Drain the liquid from the bamboo shoots. Add in bamboo shoots, prawn cutlets, green beans and carrot. Simmer for about 5 minutes and until the prawns and the vegetables are cooked. 

6. Serve while it's hot. 

* It depends on what texture you like for the meat you use. Feel free to modify the timing as you like. You can add the meat together with the bamboo shoots and vegetables as per the instruction on the box. To me, I prefer my chicken to be tender soft and the prawns to be just cooked :)

Easy Thai basil chicken (Gai Pad Grapow) recipe

Thai basil chicken a.k.a Gai Pad Grapow is a common dish in Thai restaurants. It is a dish where chicken is stir-fried with Thai basil leaves. I love this dish particularly the aroma of the Thai basil leaves. Please note that Thai basil is different from the usual basil. It is stronger and more distinctive in flavour. Thai basil is not hard to find in Melbourne. You can literally get it from Woolworths supermarket.

Well, this is another quick dish you can cook when you’re too busy to serve up a feast! Just serve it with rice and some salad vegies and you’re done – quick and easy!

Recipe: 

(3-4 servings)

450-500g of minced chicken

5 cloves garlic

3 shallots

6 bird eye chillies

A bunch of Thai basil leaves

2-3 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon fish sauce

3/4 tablespoon Indonesian sweet soy sauce (kecap manis)

3/4 tablespoon oyster sauce

Salt and pepper 

1. Chop garlic and shallots finely. Cut the chillies.

2. Heat oil in a frying pan or wok. Add garlic and shallots. Stir fry until lightly brown.

3. Add in chillies. Briefly mix.

4. Add in minced chicken; follow by fish sauce, sweet soy sauce and oyster sauce. Stir fry and mix thoroughly.

5. When the chicken is almost cooked, add in Thai basil leaves and stir fry until the Thai basil leaves are cooked.

6. Add salt and pepper to taste.

7. Serve with rice.