Blue Chillies

(degusted 24/9/2011)


You know that feeling you get when you find a restaurant that you think that you simply MUST come back to the same place the next day or at the latest next week?.. That excitement and anticipation of thinking about how you’ll try out all the rest of their dishes when you come back, and thinking of all the people you’ll be able to invite to come out to dinner with you to that place… Well, we got that feeling after eating here at Blue Chillies, on the iconic Brunswick Street in Fitzroy. Actually, it was more like that feeling had smacked us over the head, dunked us into the barrel of whisked happiness and rolled us in a crumb of satisfaction… Yeah, that was it, and we loved every minute of it.

In the past, when we’ve felt like Malaysian food, we have oft' popped into one of our favourites in Camberwell – Monk & Me – for a delicious feed, and it has served us remarkably well over the years. Steve says: “I’m a sucker for the simple stuff and tucking into a nice Beef Rending with some Roti is where I find my happy place”. Monk & Me have been the supplier of choice, but now we’ve got another vendor in the picture…

Beef Rendang at Blue Chillies. One of our favourite dishes.

Shocolate - Fitzroy

(degusted 24/9/11)

Chocolate, white choc macarons, ice-cream & chocolate sauce.
The matched wine at least made us feel a bit like grown-ups,
even if the sweeties made us feel like children again!

When you’re trying to balance healthy living, exercise, and a hobby that involves the food intake equivalent of a rugby league half-back, it is quite an indulgence to then add to the intake by means of a dessert degustation (a chocolate-based degustation, to be accurate). However, with the unending torrent of temptations that fly past every day - and the opportunity to save over 50% thanks to a scoopon to which we just couldn’t say no, well, we folded and found ourselves in possession of a voucher exchangeable for a sugar rush the likes of which the world had never seen… (well, perhaps not since Augustus Gloop fell rather unceremoniously into the chocolate river in Charlie’s Chocolate Factory)…

The day after our meal at Lucky Chan's (do you feel lucky, punk?) We moseyed on down to Shocolate in Fitzroy on a cold Saturday afternoon. It’s a beautiful looking shop – high ceilings, French-provincial styling we guess – a comfortable air about the place. We noticed the ‘no photographs’ sign on the display cabinet that housed their range of macarons and delicious-looking chocolate morsels. It’s a shame that photography was not appreciated, as the items on display made fantastic subjects – but we concede it would get a bit annoying having snap-happy passers-by popping in all day long to take a pic and not buy anything. In this regard, we respected their request… sort of ...(a couple of sneaky (read: poor quality) android phone snaps simply did not do the place or the food any justice - so we shall leave them out). Pictures of molded chocolate are not that interesting, anyway, and so for once the pictures are really not necessary (unlike our previous post on the dessert degustation at Cafe Rosamonde!).

First up was a tasting plate with 6 different chocolates – each with something unique. We were blown away by the Vegemite chocolate, which was remarkably good – even for one of us who hates vegemite alone. So good was the vegemite chocolate in fact, that the “usual favourite” of salted caramel was outshone.
There, we said it: Vegemite wins over caramel. Wow.

The white chocolate macarons were as macarons should be – crisp shell, chewy inside, flavoured nicely (and not just a mouthful of sugar). These were yum to be sure, and we ordered more of other flavours to take away – which were equally good.

A vanilla bean icecream with molten couverture chocolate (made with lots of cocoa butter) was the finale, and it was like being a kid all over again. We had allowed the ice-cream to melt slightly to that soft consistency that makes the flavours and creaminess shine through. Then, giggling with the sugar rush from the preceding items, and prodding at the ice-cream to make small craters with our spoons, we slowly poured the molten chocolate into the ice-cream.. Then, before it completely solidified we took a scoop and sunk back into the seat, enjoying the pleasure that ensued.  Ahhh... Chocolately vanillary bliss.

For a truly decadent afternoon delight, you can’t pass up the opportunity to stuff yourself with some fine chocolate, and quaff a matched wine.  Send an invitation by telegram to your pancreas well in advance though, because it will need to be working hard to deal with the sugar-high that ensues.



Rating:  Nom(x3) - Perfect for a chocolate fix!

Meh                      It’ll Do                   Nom(x3)                              Must go back!

Ask yourself a question: Do I feel Lucky, Chan?

Lucky Chan @ Crown Casino
(degusted 23/9/2011 )

Wagyu rolls - a standout -
but at $50 a plate don't fill up on these.
See below for more...

We had planned to do some cooking ourselves over at the Wooga Korean grill on Victoria street, but we found out – at 6pm on a Friday - that it was fully booked. So instead, we had to quickly find something else to satisfy our spicy cravings, on one of the busiest nights... At the recommendation of our dining friends, we decided to give Lucky Chan’s a run for our money (of which we had plenty, just as well), and they had a table available!

Lucky Chan’s used to be located on the corner of the Crown Casino near Jeff’s shed for some time, but recently moved to a more central position along in the Casino complex – still river side.. With a number of lack-lustre reviews on the ‘old’ location, we wondered if the move to the new digs would change anything…

As we have previously mentioned (and careful readers will recall) we don’t normally pay much attention to the prices of foods – instead letting the ‘vibe’ of the place and the quality of the food dictate whether we enjoyed it or not. Here we did sneak a peek at some prices, and we were amazed at some of the asking prices. The prices may be fair compared to the likes of the premium dining destinations at Crown (for example, the nearby Nobu, Silks, or Koko’s), but it’s an apples and oranges case – you can’t just directly compare them. Chan’s is listed as one of the “casual” dining places in the Crown website, and one would expect prices to reflect that distinction. Relatively small servings put the sting into the tail of these prices, which are at the high end of normal, if not perhaps more than most people would expect to pay for a meal. Looking at other blogs and reviews, it seems that the peeps definitely consider these prices too high. From our perspective, all we can say is that when we ignored the price-tag, we thought some of the food was top-notch..   But not everything was good.

The Robert Burns Hotel - Spanish food vs Scottish Poet

(degusted 19/9/2011)

Outside the RBH - Smith St. by night

"An unassumingly-named pub with Spanish food is a good twist, and serving tapas in a bar is a sensible pairing against which few would argue. As long as the quality and consistency of food stays high, this face-lifted Spaniard with the name of a Scottish poet might just do alright".

If you were to be asked –off the top of your head - what Spanish names come immediately to mind? What do you come up with –
Antonio Banderas…sure. 
Penelope Cruz… ahh yes. 
Salvador Dali… oh yeah, that “melted clock” bloke. 
Robert Burns? Excuse me – who was that last one?

The name associates more with a Scottish poet than with a tapas bar - perhaps that's why it took considerably longer for us to register that the Robert Burns Hotel (RBH) specialises in Spanish fare. Fear not, however, for if ever there was
a match made in that figment of peoples' imagination they call Heaven, it must be the serving of tapas and the (responsible) service of alcohol at the same location. And so it goes, from this day forth, the Robert Burns Hotel will, to us, now be duly known as the Spanish tapas pub on Smith street, in Collingwood, 'till death or cirrhosis do they part. We hope it will be a long and loving relationship.