Good Egg

In Melbourne we have a lot of specialty cafes and restaurants, from BBQ to waffles to Thai breakfast. There is one more to add to the mix now, Good Egg. Located in South Melbourne, they celebrate their hero ingredient the egg in every dish. The yellow and white interior is a good example of how much they worship the egg. Since I was at the egg shop, I had to sample some of their offering.

Scotched egg. The outside was perfectly cook, the pork and fennel with panko crumb was just the perfect naughty treat. The egg inside still had a runny yolk, paired with the roasted tomato relish. Yes I went back for seconds! It was a steal too, at $5.50.

Gorgeous fresh backdrop of the shop, makes it a nice vibrant atmosphere to catch up with friends. Maybe catch up over The “Avo” with it's Mexican flavours, (sliced avo, egg, roast corn salsa, corn chips, jalapenos and lime aioli). The fresh, crisp, creamy, sweet and zesty flavours all come together in every mouthful. If you get greedy, you might ask for some extra corn chips too.

If you want to be more of an 'good egg' they also do an awesome miso soft boiled egg salad. It comes as a  watercrest, broccolini, tamari roasted nuts, red rice and spiced yoghurt salad. A nice non traditional approach to the egg salad.

If you are more on the hungry the B&;E and the Wagyu burger gets my vote. B&E is your classic bacon and eggs with swiss cheese,  house of parliament sauce and mayo. The wagyu burger is a wagyu patty bacon, egg, sharp cheddar, dill pickle lettuce, BBQ sauce and mayo. The patty is juicy perfection and definitely hits the hungry spot without the oily feeling.

Overall, I love the vibe and food Good Egg has to offer. I have since been back to visit a few times, I also learnt that they use local produce. Their eggs are from Real Eggs and their bread is from Woodfrog bakery.... Now it all makes sense on why I love their eggs and burgers so much!

Peko Peko

D loves Taiwanese food and one of his favourite place to get it from is Peko Peko in South Melbourne. So on a Friday when we were just after a simple date night, we headed towards South Melbourne so D could get his fix.

To start we got some small eats. I picked the Fomosa Soup, this is one of my favorite things to order when we get Taiwanese food. Peko Peko had theirs thick with meat balls and cubes of winter melon. It wasn't too salty and the thickness was just right. There was also crispy won ton skins on top which was a nice addition.

The other small eat we got was the 5 spice tofu. This came as small cubes of tofu, deep fried with a 5 spice batter. A spicy, sweet sauce came with it. This was a refined version of the popular street version, strong garlic flavors, crispy and not too dry.

For our mains D got the Singapore Noodles. Strands of perfectly cooked noodles with carrots, chicken and lettuce. This dish had a kick, even after mixing in the lettuce, the hotness factor didn't wear down. I happily took the heat but this dish didn't quite feel Taiwanese to me.

I got the Pop Chicken, cubes of deep fried batter chicken with a dusting of salt and pepper. It was drizzled with a sweet chili mayo. I would have prefer the mayo on the side as it made the chicken on the top slightly soggy, if you didn't get to it in time. The chicken was succulent and juicy, definitely one good cube of fried chicken.

To balance things out and to feel less guilty, we got a side of Sesame Broccoli Salad. This was a simple dish of broccoli with sesame dressing and almond flakes. I loved the simplicity of it, I loved it so much I went home and made it a few times (it's now a regular in my household).

For dessert we got the Salted Caramel Yoyo pancake to share. This was a small pancake, paired with salted caramel sauce with vanilla ice cream and caramel popcorn. It was simple and not the most creative dessert out there but it did hit the spot. It was the perfect sweetness to finish the meal.

Overall 17/20 I always enjoy eating at Peko Peko, there is a great range of selection on the menu. It does a good slight modern twist to a lot of the typical foo you will find at night markets in Taiwan. Don't come here for fancy out of this world food, come here for a good feed that leaves you satisfied.

Home Thai

I was so happy to find out that Jarjar was in Sydney the same time as me for a project. It meant I got to pig out with her again! Since it was her birthday recently, it was more the reason to celebrate. There was 3 of us for dinner (Jarajar, SJ and me) so Thai felt the most appropriate to share, nibble and have a few giggles.

We went to the Home Thai on Sussex Street on a Monday night and lucky for us, the wait wasn't that awful.

Faced with a menu full of choice, the other 2 left the ordering to me and I gladly accepted the challenge. I am someone who hate leaving a restaurant not feeling full, so anybody who ever dines with me, will know to except a food baby at the end of their meal.

To start I ordered the seafood tom yum, it was a fairly cold day, warm soup was a great way to start. This was more on the spicy side, I loved it and could take the heat fine but I could see SJ struggling with the heat. The soup has a generous amount of prawns, mushroom and corriander.

Next was the soft shell crab mango salad. This came with a generous amount of soft shell crab, green mango, coriander, onion, shallots, kaffier leaves and chilli jam. The soft shell crab was deep fried and tasted great alone, l would have happily eaten the crab alone, it didn't really need the salad.

For mains we got the green curry with chicken. Strong coconut milk flavours came through, apple eggplant, chilli and basil leaves were also in the curry to enhance the curry.

To go with the green curry we also ordered some coconut rice. This also went nicely the stir fried broccoli with crispy pork. Normally the crispy pork would not be served on the side but they were accommodating since jaryar is vegetarian. This is one of my favourite dishes to order whenever we go to a Thai restaurant. Home Thai does it well With the pork being crispybut not dry. The oyster sauce is sweet but not too overpowering.

Pad thai is always a favourite, so we couldn't pass it up. Thin flat rice noodles with chicken and the usual goodies. I liked the side of nuts but didn't' feel the same away about the sugar. l found that the padthai already had enough taste and did't need anymore.

For dessert we really wanted the mango sticky rice but it was sold out. Instead we got the deep fried bread sticks, served with pandan coconut jam. It was a very heavy dessert. l reccomend you share this one.

The other dessert we got was the egg custard with sticky rice. The egg custard sat on top of the pandan scented sticky rice and finished with condense milk. It's very typical thai flavours, a bit on the heavy side but still a good sweetness to end the meal.

Overall 16.5/20 It's home-y Thai food that hits the spot. The menu has heaps of options, all the classics are there along with plenty of other new things to try.

Pho Hung Vuong 2

As promised I said I will review all 3 in this chain. So the second Hung Vuong is located in Richmond on Victoria Street, again they specialize in pho.

I visted with D this time, we both got a noodle soup each and spring rolls to share. I got my usual slice beef with tripe. This came with a very generous amount of slice beef and the thicker type of tripe. The soup was very intense in a home style way, it was a rich and flavoursome broth but it reminded me of my friend's home-cooking when she makes me pho.

D got the beef and chicken combination. As usual this came with heaps of ingredients like slice beef, chicken, beef ball, tripe, brisket. It had the same soup base. D said he preferred the soup base at Springvale and Footscray as he likes the huge hit in flavour.

The prawn spring rolls to share was the perfect final touch for me. I love something crispy with every meal. They fried it to a golden yellow, served with fish sauce and lettuce. My only complain is I wish they has used the softer part of the lettuce so it was easier to wrap around the spring roll.

Overall 15.5/20 it's a great cheap eat with heart warming noodle soup. Perfect lunch and dinner meal for the cold Melbourne winter.

   

Hung Vuong Saigon

Prior to Bear going back to Sydney, we did manage to squeeze in a pho date in the West. Pho is one of my favourite things to eat in the Melbourne winter. It's warm soup noodle and best of all, it's generally good, fast and cheap.

During a project with A, he introduced to me Hung Vuong calling it the best pho in Melbourne, he took me and he was right. I then told Bear, Miss P and Mario about it and they were all keen to try it so off we went to the west.

Miss P got the BBH which had a nice rich broth and a soup loaded with topping.

Bear got the pork chop rice. It came with lemongrass scented pork chops, shredded meat load, cucumber, carrots served on a bed of broken rice and fish sauce on the side. The pork chop was well marinated and cooked till it was soft enough to be cut through with a spoon. Quite a satisfying meal.

Mario got the beef special. This is basically a pho version of 'burger with the lot', it had fresh beef, beef balls, tripe, beef sausage, blood and silky soft rice noodles. The broth was intense with flavour.

I got the fresh beef with tripe. This is my go to dish each time I go to pho. I prefer mine simple. There was plenty of beef and by the time I added in all the beanshoots, I was a happy camper. The intensity of the broth was just right.

Overall 17/20 I definitely agree with A, this is the best pho in Melbourne!

Time Square Diner

So what is an American experience without a visit to the diner? When I was last in NY, I did exactly that. I did my research and found that the Time Square Diner was one of the more iconic and long standing diners around the Time Square area, since it was a snowing Sunday morning, I used 'avoiding the snow' as an excuse to be a pig at the diner.

The thing that sucks most about traveling alone is dining alone. Options whittle down and you can't share with anyone and the worst thing is..... you look like a bit of a loner at some places where everyone is chatting to someone. Anyway this didn't stop me.

To start my American diner experience I got myself a hot chocolate to defrost. Big chocolately, frothed milk was before my eyes and I devoured the warmness very quickly.

It was hard to narrow it down so I got the loaded Time Square breakfast which was another word for a big breakfast. This came with the option of French toast or pancakes (I picked pancakes), eggs (any way you like), bacon, sausage, ham, hash brown and toast. The buttermilk pancake was fluffy and really hit the spot with maple syrup but it was so big, by the time I was 75% through the pancake I was already stuffed. At this point I haven't even touched the bacon, ham, eggs and toast yet. Hash brown is always good, but these were more of a fried potato hash and not a form single piece of hash brown. The streaky bacon was crispy. This is a lot of food and for $14.95 (USD) I found it to be very good value.

I really should have stopped when I couldn't finish the loaded breakfast but my curiousity got the better of me and I ordered the Time Square burger. This came with a huge juicy patty, mushrooms, relish and bacon. It was greasy but really good.

Overall 14.5/20 I think this place is good for the tourist diner experience. The staff were all very friendly and happy to chat. The menu had a huge selection and well rounded selection for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper.

Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen

There is a new addition to the Melbourne ramen scene and that's Ikkoryu Fukuoka. Ikkoryu isn't actually a complete new player though, they have been established in Japan since the 1970's and just called Melbourne one of the new babies in their family.

Mario and I got invited to their soft launch where it gave us an opportunity to sample their menu. To start we got to sample some of their appetizers that was floating around. Mario and I tried the gyoza, karrage and fried rice. We found all of them really enjoyable and got second and third servings of the gyoza and karrage.

For the ramen I couldn't say no to black garlic when I saw it on the menu. I had black garlic when I was in Tokyo and loved it to bits, and have been on the hunt for the best black garlic ramen in Australia ever since. Ikkoryu’s black garlic is done with a tonkotsu soup base. The intensity of the  garlic was just right. All other elements of the ramen is customised to your liking, so you get to pick how much ramen oil, garlic, soy sauce, noodle texture and the toppings. I am not very adventurous in that regard so I opted for normal garlic oil, noodle texture and  garlic for mine. The hero of this ramen was the black garlic broth, it wasn’t very heavy but just heavy enough. Personally I would prefer a thicker broth, but it wasn’t bad the way it was.

Mario opted for the original tonkotsu, as he thinks it's the only way you can truely taste if a ramen soup base is good. The tonkotsu soup was rich and punchy in flavour. The egg was perfectly runny and had good soy infusion into the white of the egg.

Overall 16/20 I found all the things we tried to be very appetizing and it's a place that I have visited again since then.

8bit burger

So I finally hit up 8 bit burger with the usual burger gang after months of talking about it. Miss P and Bear recently helped Mario paint the house while I was away in the States, so as a thank you I saw it was only fitting that I fed them burgers. 8 bit is located in Droop street Footscray, it has been a popular local burger joint for awhile now.

It was a Saturday when we visited, we got there around 7pm and there was already a line out the door, but lucky for us, most people were buying take away so it wasn't a long wait to get a table. As usual, we went all out when it came to ordering.

When it came to ordering I go straight down to business. I ordered the Instagram famous Double Dragon, this came with a double beef patty, double cheese, double bacon, pickles, mustard, lettuce and 8 bit sauce. This was one massive burger, and I probably didn't need double of everything but YOLO (and I guess the same theory goes for a lethal heart attack hahaha). The patties were cooked to a perfect tender state with just enough juiciness but also a good bite. The cheese and bacon gave it that extra fatty goodness.

Mario decided to be very sensilble and got the 8 bit with cheese. This is their version of a classic cheeseburger; it came with the usual beef, cheese, tomato, lettuce, onions, pickles, mustard and 8 bit sauce. If you can't decide when you visit, this is a fail proof choice. The fillings were in perfect ratios and the taste was what you expect in a well made cheeseburger. We all agreed that Mario's safe choice was the best choice of the night.

Bear picked the Altered Beast. This was beef, bacon, cheese, bbq sauce, lettuce, 8 bit sauce and onion combo. It was similar to the Double Dragon, except with less bacon and beef and substituted the mustard with bbq sauce. This packed a very intense flavour, the 8 bit sauce with the BBQ sauce together with the flavours in the patty, it was burger flavour galore. Only down side was, this burger got very messy towards the end. Think there was a bit too much sauce in it. Otherwise it was lip smacking good.

Miss P loves her mushroom burgers, so there was no way she could pass up the 1 up mushroom burger. It came with a big crumbed Portobello mushroom and all the usual burger fillings (tomato, cheese, onion, 8 bit sauce and lettuces). That juicy mushroom, is actually a good substitute for those who aren't feeling very meaty.

Who goes to a burger place and not order fries? To my disappointment, there was no potato gems left, so we got 2 lots of fries to share.

First one was the chilli cheese fries. This came loaded with chill beef, cheese sauce, jalapenos and spring onions. Don't let the name scare you, this was not spicy at all. The beef only had the smallest kick and the jalapenos were quite mild.

Second fries was the cheese and bacon fries. The beer battered potato goodness came covered in bacon and cheese sauce. Good for my weight and diet? NO. But did it taste good? HELL YEAH! I don't think the spring onions were really required but Mario seemed to enjoy them.

We each got a milkshake to wash it all down. Since there was 4 of us and 4 milk shakes on the menu, we tried them all. The salted caramel was thick, dense and just the right amount of saltiness. The strawberry cheesecake was more on the sweeter side; it had a good cheesiness through the shake to balance out the sweetness in the strawberry syrup. The chocolate bar is perfect for those wanting the classic chocolate milky taste. The intensity of the chocolate coincide well with a burger, but if you have it alone, you might want a stronger chocolate hit, to me it was perfect alongside a burger. Lastly was the peanut butter shake. I don't know when but in my mind I consider this a classic flavour now. I love the nutty, saltiness mixed with sweetness. I liked all the milkshakes and when asked, we all had a different favourite. If I was alone and had to narrow it down to one, I would pick the salted caramel.

Overall 16.5/20 it was a bit of a drive for us to get there but it was worth it. I can appreciate and understand why there is a line at the door. It was a more 'oily, greasy' burger but it never claimed to be healthy and otherwise. The burger offering is nothing that no one else hasn't tried to put together before, but it is well executed and that's all that matters to me at the end of the day.