Ma Brown Restaurant

Mouse is back on da blog (block)!

Thanks to my MM sister for up-keeping the blog for the past week while I regain my interest and love for blogging all things food! ^^ I certainly hope I am back to stay for a while - have been taking photos of food for the past few days! Hohoho.

Tonight's post features Ma Brown, a Chinese-Malaysian restaurant tucked away at Balwyn. It's a restaurant that you can't get to by public transport - need to drive, and thanks to San, we were all driven there this evening for the FOOD. We do love Ma Brown food, but it's so out of reach, we don't go there often.

Anyway, it's best that you call to reserve a seat AND food if you're planning on dining there, otherwise, it could be like a 2-hour wait. Slight exaggeration, but very slight. :D

Ma Brown's signature dish is...Spicy Quail. This is the dish that most people equate Ma Brown with and it is, to me and to everyone else - A MUST TRY.

YAAAAY QUAIL! (2 pieces = 1 quail)

Drooling yet? :P

The quail is really fantastic. The meat is juicy and tender and the sauce is yummy, spicy and fragrant. A bite of quail meat and the sauce with bits of chili is seriously yummy for the tummy. San thinks the quail is 'finger licking' and MM says it's 'good good' and also, she does not recommend licking your fingers because of germs.

By the way, I should mention that Alf is so in love with the quail that he could probably marry it or something. That's how good it is.

Another of my personal favorite is the Ma Po Tofu - an ordinary sort of dish by Chinese restaurant standards, but I like Ma Brown's variation.

Tofu in a dish

Their sauce is tangy and spicy, mixed with minced meat, mushrooms and mixed vegetables. They used button mushrooms for the dish, so I really like the big-ish bites of mushrooms with the soft tofu. It's really great when it's all hot and piping.

Alf also ordered another of their signatures, Beef Rendang.

Beef Rendang with beef

I really like the beef in the rendang - it's tender and soft and really well-cooked to complement the rendang sauce. I think their rendang is home-made and it's different from any other rendang I've tried before in Melbourne. I do think it could be more...hmmm...maybe a little bit more spicy? It could be more flavourful in my opinion, but I do like it. MM thinks it's ordinary though and San likes it.

For veggies, we had Stirfry Eggplant.

Eggplant: Blurry

Eggplant: Not so blurry closeup

Apologies for the blurry picture, didn't manage to get a good one. As far as eggplant goes, and I am not a big fan, thumbs up from me. Again their sauce is superior than most which makes the dish good. The eggplant is well-cooked in my opinion, and it's neither too mushy or too tough.

We also had Steamed Fish.

Fishy fish fish

Nothing super special about the way the fish is prepared but it is very good and very fresh fish - the fish meat is tender and soft. Yummy! I am a huge fan of steamed fish, though. :P

Overall, a good foodie experience - don't expect top service though. Because they are extremely busy and extremely understaffed, you may need a lot of patience for service. Or you could do what we did and helped ourselves to certain things like cutlery and napkins, or physically take the teapot to the counter for a tea refill. Haha. Make sure you have marginally a lot of time to spare for dinner at Ma Brown - definitely not somewhere for a quick meal.

The whole meal cost us approximately $AUD143.50, for 7 people. :)

But for the quail - it's worth the wait. Really. And remember - call to order how many quails you'll like, beforehand! For the record, the picture above shows 8 quails.

- Mouse (who is backkkk!)

p.s. check out MM sis's best of Hong Kong post below mine!

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Ma Brown Restaurant
Shop 6, 188-190 Belmore Road
Balwyn 3103
Phone: (03) 9816 3755

Lim's Nonya Hut

How far are we willing to go for Char Koay Teow? At least, how far am I willing to go for Char Koay Teow that all but promises to be similar to Penang Char Koay Teow?

I am willing to go very far...40-minute train journey to Syndal + a lot of stumbling around/getting lost/finally getting onto Blackburn Road + RAIN/STRONG WINDS = how "far" I went. To Lim's Nonya Hut, which has been recommended to me many times over for their Malaysian food. So on one RAINY afternoon (of all days to pick), me and San got our greedy butts all the way to Syndal for food. And oh, also to meet San's friend, JW.

Nonya Hut is a simple little restaurant on the corner, nothing fancy on the interior or exterior - similar to many Chinatown restaurants and maybe slightly dodgier (from looks). It is family-owned and family-run (I think), and claims to specialise in Kuih - which is our local Malaysian little 'cakes', per say.

We started off with Kuih Talam ($1.00) which is among my favourite kuih back home (although the price made me keel over and reel over but I digress).

Green and white and kuih.

Have to say that it was definitely good although not as authentic as the ones back home. The taste was there - the coconuty-santan layer for the white and the sweet pandan-ish taste for the green. But I find the texture a little lacking - a little too sticky and sticking to the roof of my mouth. Nevertheless, best I've eaten in Melbourne.

No prizes for guessing what I ordered - I'll be damned if I didn't have the Char Koay Teow ($7.80) - WITHOUT the evil that is beansprouts, of course.

Yummy yummy yummy!

Check out the big-ass prawn.

San had the same thing but she had the "evil" version.

San's Char Koay Teow with (ugh bleuh bleeeek) taugeh

When it was placed in front of us, it was already a good first impression because it smelt so GOOD and kinda Penang-like. Hahaha. San commented on the "wok hei" - definitely enough of that. On first bite? Mmmmm. Best I've had in Melbourne. By far. It was really really good!! Of course if I want to be picky and bitchy (in which I am), it's still not up to par to the my favourite stall back home (they used spring onion instead of chinese chives) - but omg so good all the same. Truly Malaysian style Char Koay Teow! The koay teow was fried just right and not all clumpy together. Nonya Hut was generous with prawns, we each got three huge prawns that tasted pretty fresh. They also used chunks of fried pig oil (which we didn't eat) which was why it smelt so good and so familiar. There was also generous bits of yummy fried egg and Chinese sausage (lap cheong) so all was very very good and there was a satisfied mouse.

Why does it have to be so #$% far away!? Sigh indeed.

We were also given complimentary Kuih Lapis which was rather good, quite yummy, me thinks.

Traditionally pink and white if I remember correctly.

We also ordered Chendol to finish up.

Bowl of ice and santan.

And green things underneath...not seaweed mind you.

Hmm, nothing really outstanding for this one. It was good the few gulps but it got a little too sweet towards the end with the gula melaka (we called it "gula Melaka" in Malaysia or palm sugar in English) syrup. Also, I was a little iffy with the texture of the chendol - tasted kind of frozen. San reckoned it'll taste much better if there was more ice in the dessert.

BUT THE CHAR KOAY TEOW.

Seriously, if Nonya Hut is next to my apartment I'll be eating Char Koay Teow until it starts coming out of my ears.

(And no, I don't live near to a Char Koay Teow stall back home or it'll be coming out of my ears)

- Mouse

Nonya Hut is closed on Mondays.


**Just like to mention here that "KUIH" is not really cakes in English. Cakes are cakes, such as cheesecakes or chocolate cakes. Maybe snack is a more appropriate word to use, but I personally feel is still not 100% right. But i guess u get the idea, those delicacies are called "KUIH" in Malaysia. ** San

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Lim's Nonya Hut
240 Blackburn Road
Glen Waverley 3150
Phone: (03) 98023763

Nasi Lemak House

Here's the promised post on a better laksa - in our opinion anyway.

Headed over to Nasi Lemak House on Sunday after a meeting, I forgot who had a craving but someone did anyway. Nasi Lemak House is not one of my favourite places if only I couldn't really stand the service there, especially the attitude of the Mrs.Boss. But undeniable though, the food there IS kinda good.

Small and hidden but very popular.

Anyway, San had a Laksa since she wasn't satisfied with hers from Laksa Me on Friday.

Laksa View #1.

Laksa View #2 Close Up.

Definitely a thumbs up from San - hot, spicy and full of flavours! It was enough spice and enough taste, and lots of ingredients, generous amount of chicken and tofu, an essential in San Laksa. A well-rounded dish in general. She was very satisfied with her laksa noodles and slurped that up within minutes. Yeah, she was hungry to begin with, we all were. :D

JK had the Nasi Goreng Pattaya with the level Spicy.

Pattaya with egg.

Can you see the chili on the rice? (No I can't either)

I had a mouthful of that and let me say, as delicious as that was, it really was VERY VERY spicy! I can feel my tongue burn but then again, I'm never really good with hot and spicy food. The dish is a favourite of JK's so he really enjoyed that, especially with the egg topping the rice. Next time round, says he, he's gonna up that to EXTRA spicy. I'll be sure to report smoke coming out of his ears.

Sis aka MM had the Nasi Lemak Kelantan.

The chicken is from Kelantan, maybe?

There was a giant chicken drumstick for her to enjoy, much to her delight. In her own words, "It was good. I like it." Yeah, not so much with imaginative words, darling sister of mine. Haha. Anyway, she loved it. Didn't fall short of her expectations. She would prefer if the fried drumstick was without the curry sauce but it was great all the same, no complaints.

Me the Mouse had the Nasi Lemak Langkawai and I don't know what crack I was on to order that, that was super spicy.

The squid was fished from the Langkawi waters.

The fried calamari was yummy ~ I really like their batter. It wasn't just batter, I think it was spiced with something, as it was really different to other fried stuff batter. It's good nasi lemak but a little too hot for me (although my fault for ordering I KNOOOW) and I ditched all the sambal. Hahaha. Also, I thought the nasi lemak (as in the flavour of the rice) that day was a little lacking but all the same, it was still satisfying.

Really a good place to go to satisfy nasi lemak cravings, me feels. Although you really have to have patience to deal with Mrs.Boss, she blows hot and cold and in a word to describe her, she's just plain weird. But at least her food's not weird. :P

- Mousie

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Nasi Lemak House
113 Grattan Street
Carlton 3053
Phone: (03) 9663 1555

Laksa Me (# 2) for Lunch

This time for lunch, we don't have any particular place that we wanted to go and hence after having a "brainstorming" among the 3 of us, Laksa me it is since it is situated near from where we stay and MM has never been there. Me and Mouse have tried the food there once, (HERE is the first review) and I was pretty disappointed with the main attraction there ~ laksa (but entree & desserts were good). However, I have decided to give it a 2nd try as perhaps my first visit, I brought with myself too high expectations since Laksa Me got several glowing reviews from other food bloggers.

We arrived a little earlier (it opens at 12pm btw) and hence have walked into Laksa Me as soon as it opened. It didn't take too long and suddenly the whole restaurant was almost full! This place is quite popular, esp with the pppl working near it.

Here is Laksa Me with its floor, which has some chinese characters and sayings.

inside

We have ordered an entree to share:

Pandan Chicken,$7.00

Taking

Taken

Actually in the menu, this entree comes in 2 pcs, but we request it to come in 3 since there were 3 of us (I have read it in a review that we can request how many pcs of entree we would like to have). These pandan chicken are FRAGRANT and very flavourful! Really like this entree. Since there were only 3, so each of us can have only one =( Therefore, our complaint is its too small, almost only 1 bite to finish it off =P

OK, now its our main.

Mouse's noodle $11.90

Quite a bit of burnt noodles

Have sadly forgotten the name of the noodle and Mouse was dumb (Mouse herself wanna put this in) to misplace the receipt. This Thai-styled noodle is just delectable, with the just right amount of sauce and generous amount of well- marinated chicken. We were told that this is also in the laksa category. If I will go back again, I will order this dish =) The only thing is the noodle has quite some burnt bits and hence Mouse has to pick them all up (cos Mouse is anal like that).

MM's mum's laksa, $9.00

MM feels that the soup was OK, perhaps it could use a little more salt. She thought the noodle was over-cooked and was broken into pieces once she tried to pick them up with her chopsticks. Generally she didnt enjoy it and was very unhappy with the fact that there was nothing in the laksa except 2 small prawns n 2 (or 3) thin slices of char siu (roasted meat) while there was lots of (soggy) noodle. Besides, there is no tofu in sight too! *sigh* I personally also feel that besides the noodle, the ingredients (prawns n meats) accompanying it were pathetically too little. I had mum's laksa (here for my laksa's picture) as well when I first went and I definitely had more ingredients (prawn,tofu n meat) than MM's. Poor MM.

My Laksa Lemak (lemak means oily in Malay), $10.00

My laksa's broth was similar to MM, just that it was slightly thicker and was well seasoned. It was not bad and definitely had more stuff than MM's besides the noodles. There were TOFU, egg, fish ball, beans sprout and fish cakes. However, although I can taste there were lots of spices used in the laksa soup, still the unique laksa smell/taste does not come through. It just somehow miss some flavours of laksa. Having said all these, for I have tasted both Laksa Lemak and Mum's Laksa, I would say I prefer Laksa Lemak because the broth was slightly thicker.

After our mains, time for dessert:

Pulut Hitam (Black Glutinous Rice)

This time we ordered the cold version of pulut hitam. It was good and we enjoyed it.

STILL not thoroughly satisfied with the laksa. We love the entree and desserts but the mains just weren't oomph enough. Argh. Anyway, the coming up review will feature a laksa that I think is definitely more superior. :P

Laksa San

Laksa Me
Shop 1, Liverpool Street
Melbourne 3000
Phone: (03) 9639 9885

Times like this

... I just misssssssss durian so much. Usually I will go back to Malaysia during my winter break. It's now fruit season in Malaysia where u can find all sorts of tropical fruits like durian (MY FAVOURITE - King of Fruits in Malaysia),mangosteen , rambutan, duku and many many more! And times like these, one will fall sick easily as most of the fruits are quite heaty (ie if u dun drink lots of water when u consume quite large amount of durian or rambutan, u might get a sorethroat/cold). I know some people just HATE durians very much, so much that they can't even stand to be in the same room/space as durians (esp. when someone is opening them up to eat them). The very strong odour is just killing them. Thats y the saying goes: either u love it or u hate it. Haha. Well, for me, I told my mum b4 that I wish I could have durians everyday. LOL.

So.....

I decided to try the frozen durians here. The reasons being:

1) I never tried those b4 and have been wanting to try them coz I wanna know how different are the taste of those as compared to the fresh ones back home

PLUS

2) I'm feeling pretty durian-deprived (n it gets worst) when I saw some durian posts from a couple of Malaysian foodbloggers. (here and here for other seasonal fruits in Malaysia)

Hence, last week I went to Laguna (Asian Grocery) at QV to get myself the frozen durians. Laguna sells 2 kinds of frozen durian - one imported from Thailand and another from Malaysia - the popular D24. D24 is one of the most popular and expensive durians in Malaysia because of its good quality. I never knew Melbourne has Malaysian durian (only 1 species ~D24) and thought there is only Thai's. Also, sometimes Safeway has got some whole durians (from Thai as well) there. I wanted to get Malaysia's D24 but it has been SOLD OUT... and I went back twice and was still no stock on it =( So, no choice, Thai durian then. About Thai durians, I've only tried it a few times when I was a younger, and from memory, they don't taste very good and it often has very huge flesh inside, hence a bit too much to even have 2 seeds of them. But heck, I MUST hav durians. LOL. So, here it is:

Frozen Durian (without seeds btw), $5.29

This is how they look like

As u can c, the durian has been wrapped and it doesn't look very appetizing... Neway, I have let it thaw by sitting on the table a few hours b4 I eat it.

the durian after I opened the wrapper

ooOOoo, I have had one bite b4 taking the last pic... so the edge of the durian I'm holding might probably look gross. Haha. Neway, they just stack 2 seeds, I think, and wrap them into 1. Therefore, tts very meaty esp since they have removed the durian's seeds. HOW do they taste like? Well, I can only say my memory did not fail me. However, I did feel blissful to be able to eat it here since I have been craving for it for the past month. And... because its so meaty, I only had 1 and left another one in the fridge (not freezer as I was thinking tt I don't have to unfreeze it again the next morning.) When I wanna eat it the next day, the durian bcome a bit watery and there IS actually some "water" in the tupperware and when i eat it, it tasted a little bit sour... I ate some and throw the rest... (I should have put them in freezer!)

I'm not sure I gonna buy this Thai frozen durians again as its inferior quality (comparatively) makes me miss the fresh Malaysian durians even more. Nonetheless, I probably will try the frozen D24 if I c it next time.

San

Laksa Me

Laksa Me (Malaysian-fusion restaurant) has been catching San's eye as of late, with glowing reviews in Tummy Rumbles, A Few Of My Favourite Things and etc company, including the Age. We trooped down there to try it two weeks ago (and I am blogging it now because? I am sick. Sick, mind you. Not lazy. :D) for a lunch, when I needed a break from staring at my books.

We arrived there nice and early, in fact, we were the first customers for lunch!! Talk about greedy!

To start off with, we ordered drinks, of course. And I will put a picture of the green tea this post, not because it is Laksa Green Tea, it's normal green tea but I just feel like it, so hah. San had Little Creatures' Pale Ale to go with her anticipated spicy food.

My friend is an alcoholic, bwahahaha.

And I am a green-tea-holic. Not as bad cos that doesn't require rehab.

We ordered the Vegetarian Triangle ($6.80) to share, since it has been recommended by many food bloggers. (By the way, I was joking about San being an alcoholic, just in case people thought I am serious :D)

Sooo appetizingly yummy looking!

It did not disappoint, I really liked it! The covering was super crispy and there's enough filling in there - combination of veggies - to make the triangles very tasty. The sweet sauce (kecap manis?) served with it also added to the taste, making it yummy indeed.

San had the much-touted My Mum's Laksa ($9.50).

MY mum doesn't know how to make laksa, FYI.

San demanded this picture be blogged. Still the Mum's Laksa.

In her own words, much to her disappointment, she didn't feel that it lived up to expectations (and she had very high ones indeed). She thought it was just mediocre and not very fragrant. The spiciness to her, was a bit overbearing as she can taste the spiciness alone without the combination of the laksa soup (althought she didn't find it to be extremely hot). Chilli Padi did a better job, she recalled.

I had the Cheong-Fun with Fish Dumplings and Fried Pork Crackling ($10.00).

Don't ever say that backwards (Cheong-Fun) in Chinatown, unless you have a penchant for getting kicked.

First of all, the chef made his own Cheong-Fun rather than buying it off Chinatown stores, which earns a point in my book. However, it was all falling apart when it was served to me, hence it didn't look like Cheong-Fun anymore, more like thick rice noodles. There was fish cakes and fish balls along with bits of fried pork with it, which made it very fragrant combination. I have to say that the fried pork, fish and noodles went very well together as a whole, but something's missing in the broth. It's too coconut-y in my opinion and it could be spicier (as in more spices). More spices will add to its fragrance and taste, definitely. I did like it, but I thought it could be better.

Dessert was not stated on the menu, luckily we had the sense to ask the waiter whether there is dessert served. :P (Yeah, we were greedy and hungry). So if you want dessert, just ask the waiter! Desserts were all freshly made from scratch by the chef, hence it took a little while to come.

San picked the Pulut Hitam ($8.00).

Hitam and Orange.

It was very aromatic, we can already smell the coconut and pulut hitam even before it was set down before San. She tucked in with gusto and she really liked it - the sweetened coconut milk really mixed well with the pulut hitam. Pulut hitam, by the way is glutinous rice, also a Malaysian-esque favourite.

I picked the Tang Yuan (Tong Yuen) ($8.00).

Four is actually a lot, even if doesn't look so.

Yum, freshly made and none of those frozen Chinatown stuff. Tang yuan is a Chinese dessert made of floury dough with filling inside - traditionally red bean paste but there has been variations of black sesame and peanut. The one above was red bean filling. I love it - San reckoned there wasn't enough ginger in the soup but as I am not a big fan of ginger, I wasn't complaining. The tang yuan was tangy and nice, and the chef was generous with the filling. Yummy!

Overall - we found Laksa Me to be average on its mains, if only because we had read so many glowing reviews and went there with very high expectations. Too high, maybe. I should add here that I am from Penang (Island), Malaysia, the place of Mother of Hawker Food/Hawker Heaven hence I am VERY picky over hawker food. Very VERY very, I'm elitist and snobby like that. San has been to Penang and had our Penang laksa plus Malaysian laksa back in her own hometown, so I guess we're just extremely picky about finding laksa that is authentic. I guess it's not easy to get it here in Melbourne.

By the way, if anyone has any idea where I can get Penang-like Char Koay Teow in Melbourne, PLEASE tell me. I've been searching for five whole years and while there's good Char Koay Teow I've come across, none of them are PENANG Char Koay Teow. :(

- Picky Mouse

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Laksa Me
Shop 1, Liverpool Street
Melbourne 3000
Phone: (03) 9639 9885