Dessert at Sho Noodle Bar, Crown

Sho Noodle Bar
Crown Casino Complex, Southbank
03 9292 6885

You can see this restaurant has been designed with particular emphasis on a sleek and classy ambience, the kitchen is fully on show and enclosed by the bar seats. Reminds me of the decor/setup of L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Paris. With this association, I just don’t feel the decor matches well with the South East Asian menu at Sho. However, it is expected to appear lavish since it is, after all, a part of the Casino complex, which also means it is out of bounds for under 18s. The restaurant has an open design where you can still feel and see the atmosphere of the gaming floor, with flashing lights, ding ding noises, and all.

We had walked over to Crown after dinner purposely to try the Sago Gula Malacca that my friend was raving on about. They have an International-Guest-Friendly menu with English, Chinese and Vietnamese. Expensive place. $30, three small desserts and a bottle of Pellegrino later, I had still not tasted the Sago Gula Malacca. Because they had ran out. I am having so much luck with food lately, the dishes I order somehow are always “sold out”.

Sticky Rice with pandan kaya $6.50

I ended up with the sticky rice with pandan kaya (coconut jam) and drizzled with golden syrup. Two pieces of 4cm squares were presented on a plate.  The bland sticky rice flavour mixed with the sweetness of the jam and syrup makes a palatable combination, until about the fifth spoonful.  Interesting to try but not something I would have again, unless I am in Asia. No sane Asian person would pay $6.50AUD for that. Seriously.

Black Sticky Rice with Coconut. $6.50

The menu should clearly state it is a soup because the name easily makes me assume it’s a solid. This was only lightly sweetened with black sticky rice floating around. The third mystery dessert was a Mango Pudding, which looked extremely refreshing but I did not have a chance to try.

I don’t think I can make much of a judgement of Sho since I did not go through the full dining experience there. The savoury dishes, I have been told are quite nice, so perhaps I shall come back here on the rare chance I find myself in the gambling area of Crown again.

Co Do

Co Do
196 Victoria St, Richmond
03 9421 2418

A catch up with gorgeous bestie led us to the inner city equivalent of Springvale, where she took me to her fav restaurant for pho. When it comes to good tasty pho, I have the assumption it can only be found in the scungiest of places (I am imagining a white tiled room, a la the original SAW movie).  My memory of the most delicious pho of all time was in a white tiled store front on Phu Quoc Island in 2008. Naturally, the first thing I asked was “Is this place scungy looking?” to which she replied with a “no”.

Prepared for standard Vietnamese fare, we walked into the decently packed Co Do and was greeted with organised chaos. The man was shouting over the noise to seat the few groups that had tried to squash themselves in the narrow entrance path. The place was painted a warm maroon with a continuous panel of mirrors along each wall, and with furniture native to cheap, no fuss eateries. We were seated right up at the back next to the till where everyone goes up to pay. Our explicit conversations would have to be toned down.

They had a huge menu to suit whatever tastebud it seems but our choices did not stray from the first page. Initially deciding on two bowls of pho, pork spring rolls, prawn rice paper rolls, the roasted quail and my four colour drink, we had come to the rational decision that it may be too much for the two of us.  So cancel the prawn rice paper rolls, thanks.

Roasted Quail

Food came out relatively quickly, though when one is busy with gossip, wait time is a non issue. My four colour drink was different to other watered down versions I’ve had in the past as I actually made a conscious note about being able to taste the coconut milk, rather than melted ice. The spring rolls was freshly fried, crunchy on the outside and hot on the inside, none of that soggy crap you sometimes get. The roasted quail was the favaourite dish of the night, with a spicy savoury sweetness to it. I love quail, and I love quail eggs, but my mother has warned of the high cholesterol content of both. Boo.

Pho

Our pho came out topped with a sufficient amount of meat and a delicate broth that wasn’t too salty.  I normally mix in a generous amount of Hoi Sin sauce (seafood sauce) provided on the table to give it a sweeter taste.  Service was acceptable and they promptly came over after I had knocked over my cup of tea, they did not bother us much after that which is perfectly fine with me. Overall, no complaints with anything except for the lack of chilli paste on our table and tea refill.  But kudos to the Roasted Quail dish!! Standard it was not!

Total came to just below $40. Not bad at all for the amount of food we had. I was completely stuffed at the end of the night.

The European: Brunch Time

The European
161 Spring St, Melbourne
9654 0811

Since we couldn’t make it to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D  due to that freakish tropical weather on Saturday night, we rescheduled to the Sunday arvo session — another opportunity to eat out! It felt like more of a chore, even though I WAS looking forward to Alice, having to drag my ass out of bed early on a Sunday morning. But the thought of brunch after the movie was motivation enough.

I’ve been to The European for dinner and late night dessert but not for brunch(the meal that is most raved about there). It was a very busy Sunday afternoon when we walked in at 2.30pm but the crowd cleared out soon after.  Sunday brunch is available until 4pm! Breakfast for me is normally scrambled eggs on toast with mushrooms, but that day, I had a curiosity to try something I had NEVER EVER tried before — Eggs Benedict.

Eggs Atlantic

Out came a plate of Eggs Atlantic, which is Eggs Benedict with salmon instead of ham. The noise of the restaurant drowned out with my first bite, and all I could hear were the voices of heaven. The hollandaise sauce felt like such a guilty pleasure.  Eggs Atlantic, where have you been all my life!!

I had a taste of my companion’s scrambled eggs and it was a little too soggy for my liking. Wasn’t a fan. But The European still remains one of my staples for quality food and a cozy bistro atmosphere, even though they took my favourite dessert off the menu!! — The Creme Catalana.

Now to the movie — Alice in Wonderland complete with its dark undertones, was a thoroughly enjoyable movie. I did read the shocking review from that UK critic who observed that Alice looked like she was on drugs, and Johnny Depp’s Scottish accent kept dropping out. His sheer ignorance amuses me. Did he overlook the fact that it may have been part of the movie? Don’t expect a rendition of Disney’s Alice, because this is a Tim Burton film.

SOUQ Kitchen & Bar

SOUQ Kitchen & Bar
194 Commercial Road, Toorak
03 9510 3654

After a week of work and uni, my brain was absolutely fried. So I was pleasantly surprised when my friend happily took the executive decision making out of my hands this time around. How we ended up at this gem of a restaurant was literally random luck — he had imported my list of 50 ‘To Try’ restaurants into Excel and created a random generator spreadsheet. All you had to do was press one button. So thank you, ‘F9’.

SOUQ is a relatively new restaurant on Commercial Road, opened some time in the second half of 2009. The same strip is also home to the second Hutong Dumpling Bar (which is supposedly an institution), which I was tempted to walk into instead of SOUQ. Reason? It was 7.30pm and SOUQ was empty, whilst Hutong was bustling. Maybe it is just me, but I get a little awkward walking into an empty restaurant. It makes me feel like I am making the biggest mistake of my life being there.

Lucky we did nothing of that sort! F9 had spoken, and must be obeyed

SOUQ is a fusion between Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and North African food. The place was decked out with Morrocan style furnishings, very warm, earthy and comfortable. The waitress was very helpful and made me a pretty decent lychee mocktail — yes, non alcoholic drinks is how I roll.

Lychee mocktail (not on the menu)