tummyrumbles.com » Thai

Laksa Me

ElegantGourmand — Tue, 15 May 2007 05:06:00 +0000

Shop 1, Liverpool Street, Melbourne
Phone 03 9639 9885

Penang goes industrial. That’s the vibe at the concrete bunker that is Allen Woo’s new venture, Laksa Me (pun intended), newly opened today. It’s an unlikely space for Malaysian/South East Asian cuisine – all exposed pipes, aubergine brick wall, chrome seats, red columns and a slate concrete floor streaked with paint spots and Chinese calligraphy. But the place has pedigree, run by the team who brought us the popular but defunct Ah Mu, and who are now making a welcome return to the CBD. The small lunch menu takes a trip through Malaysia, Singapore and Thai hawker fare. Three laksa’s are offered – “skinny” veg laksa, assam (tamarind) laksa and the whimsically named Mum’s Laksa. A small drinks list boldly offers only beers, as the proprietors claim that beer suits this type of food far better than wine. Who can argue with that? If you must, however, BYO wine is an option.

A tofu starter ($7.50) was beautifully presented, arriving as two deep-fried tofu parcels reminiscent of beggars’ purse, neatly tied off at the top and prettily arranged on a bed of hot pink cabbage. The inside of the parcels were filled with a lovely combination of shredded marinated glass noodles, Chinese mushrooms and gingko nut. It was gorgeous to look at and absolutely delicious.

My main of Hainanese Chicken rice ($9) was a reverent and respectful treatment of this classic. White rice that had been delicately flavoured with chicken stock was accompanied by a gingery chicken broth and sublime stock-poached chicken that glistened with the light and was ever so tender in taste. Matched to this was one of the best chilli sauces that I’ve ever tasted, homemade with just the right amount of chopped ginger, black beans and chilli.

However, the winner was Mellie’s “My Mum’s Laksa” ($9.50) – a bowl of thin rice noodles (as per Allen Woo’s mother’s receipe), swimming in a fiery red broth, and studded with barbequed pork, tender chicken, prawns, bean sprouts and sliced chilli. I would have to say that the broth was one of the best that I’ve tasted – deliciously rich and coconutty, and further augmented by a small bowl of sambal that is served separately. Our only complaint was that there was not enough of the tasty broth!

Dinner has a more expanded menu that offers the unique option of entrees by the piece, that is, pay for one fish cake and that’s what you’ll get. Also included are Ah Mu’s specialities of red duck curry and Thai yam oysters.

Service was friendly and pleasant. It’s early days still but Laksa Me is very promising indeed. Exceptional flavours combine with eye candy presentation and great prices to provide a fantastic South East Asian option in the city.

UPDATE: Please read comments for an update on how Laksa Me is travelling. Things are not as they used to be…

Thai Culture and Food Festival

mellie — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:51:00 +0000

Melbourne is absolutely going off with a supurb range of events such as the Grand Prix, FINA World Swimming Championships, Avalon International Airshow and the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (all in the same week!). You would think these would be enough to satiate our craving for things to do – but with a heap of tourists in town, the Thai Culture and Food Festival was just one more distraction to add to the list.

In it’s fourth year, the day is dedicated to celebrating all things Thai (as well as celebrating the 80th birthday of the much revered His Majesty The King of Thailand). Now due this blogs’ bent, here is my celebration of all things Thai food. And with over twenty food stalls, this wasn’t too hard to accomplish.

Our first nibble for the day was a container load of lightly spiced fish cakes, squashed down and deep fried. They were doused in a sweet/sour/hot dressing and flecked with fresh coriander leaves, sliced red onion and cucumber. This was nothing too out of the box though – I think you can pick up these ready-made style of fish cakes in most Asian grocers.

Next up was an artery clogging serve of spiced pork stew (mmm…see all the gelatinous fat and skin?). The flavour was heady with five spice, and it was so unbelievably sweet as to almost taste like a dessert. To be honest, I couldn’t go the fatty goodness, despite the fact it was amazingly tender. My arteries doth protested too much!

These guys were cooking various chicken bits at the Singha beer tent. I didn’t sample their very nice smelling fare – there was too much other stuff to try.

Next up was a dish I don’t exactly know what to call. The menu posted on the tent was entirely in Thai (with no translation). So we pointed to a sign (in the red box above) and just hoped for the best. And seriously, this was the BEST. It was like a thick hearty coconutty soup, packed to the hilt with spices and chilli. Egg noodles bathed in the thick broth around the bottom of the container, and crunchy fried noodles topped it. A dirty great big chicken drumstick was wedged in the depths, along with sliced celery, coriander, and an extra dollop of chilli paste. Can anyone translate what this dish is? It rocked.

We also sampled some rather divine little chive dumplings, which were seared on a large BBQ (these things were selling like hotcakes, pardon the pun). Obviously the dumplings had split, releasing their uber green insides into the light soy dressing. Mmm…very good.

Then it was time for dessert no.1, fruit chunk ice-cream.

Thankfully my ice cream didn’t have chunks, but then I’d hate to find a lump of taro in my cup! On a side note, I am loving the taro flavour at the moment. I think it beats vanilla!

Then it was time for dessert no.2, Thai coconut juice. Your little container comes frozen, with straw and ice pick attached. You unwrap and unlid, and then attack the block of sweet coconut ice – slurping when you get some juice, hacking when you don’t.

As you keep drilling down, you unearth (unice?) wonderful slivers of fresh coconut. Mmmm. Soooooo goooooood. This little cup kept me occupied for near on half an hour!

Then it was time for a bit of foodie celebrity spotting. Look…over there…Matt Preston, food writer for Epicure (The Age). He was heartily enjoying his container of food (I wasn’t close enough to see what he is eating). But kudos to him, I usually see him at these foodie type events.

Your Thai Rice and Noodle Bar

mellie — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 21:24:00 +0000

255 Swanston Street, Melbourne
Phone 03 9663 8010

Another cheap as chips (or should that be curry?) lunch option in the Melbourne CBD.

Your Thai is a fairly recent addition to Swanston Street. It is colourful, snappy and offers a good variety of stuff on rice, stuff on noodles and just plain stuff. It sways away from standard Thai fare on occassion, and you’ll find a smattering of Chinese, Vietnamese, and Italian (uh huh, we’re talking pasta) style dishes also.

I so wanted to have the green curry after suffering olfactory order envy from the next table, but I had already ordered the Thai Beef Salad ($7.00), which actually turned out to be quite good. Crunchy and fresh, it was nicely doused in fish sauce, chilli, lime and coriander. The beef was tender, the range of vegetables impressive, and it was garnished with crushed peanuts and crispy fried shallots.

Those suffering Springvale road chicken/pork/meat/salad rolls cravings, well, looks like you can get a Your Thai version for an impressive $3.50. I will definitely try this on my next visit (well, the visit after I go the green curry).

One more thing. The mango smoothie absolutely rocks.