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.

Quick Bite: A tasty little gem in the crown

Where can you get a bowl of chow for under 6 bucks? Actually, perhaps we should re-word that:

Where can you get a tasty and enjoyable bowl of chow for under 6 bucks and not be disappointed?

By complete chance, we stumbled across this offering at the East to West eatery, inside the Crown casino complex. Nothing special.

This blog post is NOT about the eatery itself, but just one dish it offers.

Here they had on offer a simple seafood salad with shrimp, calamari, pipis and octopus, mixed through a salad with wombok, capsicum, celery, carrot and vermicelli. Not to forget the mild sweet chilli kick, and some peanuts, and fried shallots for crunch and taste. Is that some wood-ear mushroom in there too? Think it might be.

And then there’s that price tag to make fast food outlets blush – at $5.95 there’s no need to battle your way through the food court crowds – if you've dragged yourself away from the Baccarat tables long enough to realise you're hungry – grab one of these little rippers... 

Just don't get caught out paying $15 for a pint of your favourite amber fluid!

Khe Sanh Seafood - (Springvale, VIC)

(degusted 24th August, 2011)

We stumbled across information about this little out-of-the way Vietnamese-Chinese inspired restaurant, but never followed up on it until it popped up on our radar while we were scanning Urbanspoon. It's in Springvale south, in a small shopping plaza.

I guess you can say a ‘perfect storm’ brewed up - through a combination of laziness, a craving for chilli and seafood, and a cold winter's night – together this all conspired to force us to head out mid-week on a school night. Tut tut!! Also, one of The Degusters has a not-so-secret penchant for singing Cold Chisel songs while driving (Saturday afternoons), and knows that 'the last plane out of Sydney is almost gone'. With that in mind, this restaurant was a must-try.. ;)

First impressions were of a fresh and clean dining area (thanks to a recent renovation)– and this was a pleasant contrast to our pre-conceptions of the place (based on their website). There are some nice big tables, it was kid-friendly, and there’s an outdoor area for the socially rejected (smokers). Service was excellent.

Fresh and modern dining room. Pleasantly unexpected.

In true gluttonous style, we had two serves of the famed calamari – one serve was done with salt and chilli, and the other Hong-Kong style. The calamari was everything you could want (soft, tender, tasty), and none of the bad things (not oily, not chewy). This would be an ideal bar-food and if you come here with a table full of mates, be sure to order a few of these plates. At around $10 for a generous serve, you'd be wise to order up big!!  The chilli was not really that hot however, and it was more of a salt and pepper calamari – the HK style was similar, with mild fried garlic, sugar, salt, and fried onion in the flavoursome crumbs on top. Both had a nice little spicy salsa with chilli, capsicum and spring onion.

Fried Calamari - both serving styles looked similar - this one is HK style (the crumbs on top).
At around $10 a plate, you can't miss this!

We tried the hot and sour soup, which had a great flavour – it was not overly 'sour', it was more spicy and slightly tangy. With tofu, BBQ pork, corn, egg and bamboo this was hearty and tasty. A surprise, actually.

Surprisingly good Hot and Sour soup.

One of the mains we degusted was the coconut king prawns. This was unlike anything else we've tried from any Chinese or Viet menus. We had expected the coconut would be dessicated and in bigger pieces, but in fact the crumb looked more like sand (thankfully though, it did not have any sort of gritty texture that a mouthful of St Kilda beach’s finest would typically provide). Flavours were quite delicate, the whole dish surprisingly light. Prawns were big and juicy with a nice pop when bitten. They were very more-ish, and while we wanted to love them, there was something about this dish that held us back –perhaps it was the want for more crunch, or more complexity of flavours and textures...  Granted, you could pair this with a plate of vegetables to get that variation, so this should not be a cause for complaint.

Coconut King Prawns. Looked like sand, but was soft and coconutty.

  (It seemed that shredded carrot and parsley was the standard garnish)

Fresh whole steamed Barramundi.

We wanted to try some fresh offerings, and while there were some large crabs in the tanks, we went for a steamed whole barramundi – fresh from the water to the plate. We didn’t have to wait long, as catching fish around here is like scooping fish from a tank… Actually, this is literally the case. The fish was done well, but the sauce was very sweet. The soy and ginger were the flavours we liked, but there was probably a bit much palm sugar in there. Apart from the sweetness, all other flavours were good, with shallots, ginger and coriander for good measure.

Khe Sanh seafood restaurant seems to have everything you could want, and we will probably head back there to try out a number of (non-seafood) items, including the lobster and the crispy skin chicken that we’ve read some good reviews about.  The menu covers a real variety of dishes –  many of which you won't find elsewhere. Like jelly fish and pork hock, or wasabi duck feet with jellyfish. There's game, too – like venison and crocodile, then there's all the usual suspects – beef, chicken, poultry. A range of hot-pots (including sea cucumber, abalone, and others) round off the varied menu.

A good enjoyable meal can be had here, although our fathers would probably complain about the cost (for asian meals in Springvale).

Rating:  Nom(x1)

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

Done and Degusted @ Khe Sanh Seafood

Salt and Chilli Calamari

Hong-Kong style Calamari

Hot and Sour Soup

Coconut King Prawns

Whole steamed Barramundi with soy and ginger sauce

QUICK BITE: Peko Peko - Cafe/Restaurant

Peko Peko for Lunch

   (degusted 28/5/2011)
 

We came to this cute little Taiwanese/Japanese fusion restaurant (more Taiwanese I guess), after the very fortunate shake of the Urbanspoon spinners*, and this little gem spun its way onto our lunchtime radar.
Typically difficult to find (aren't all the good ones hidden?) Peko Peko is not much to look at - just one of a strip of mundane looking shops, near the commercial realestate offices of Lemon Baxter. 

The address says Southbank, but gee whiz the town planners were liberal in the area names... There's nothing "bank" about this place - its closer to Albert Park Lake than to the bank of the Yarra (for me, "Southbank" ends at City road).

Just Popping in for lunch.

The menu hints at giving a little bit of something for whatever you might be craving... our glimpse across the menu revealed at least 15 items that we'd like have a crack at in the next proper sitting when we go back, and the range extends through all the asian staples - from spring rolls, noodle soups, to dumplings and rices... but the hit - according to all the other blogs is the Pop Chicken (forget Maccas and FKC (sic) - can't compete with this one). One of those for me, thanks waitress. The small piece of tofu was delicious, and on the basis of the morsel I got with this bento, next time I'd order a tofu-based meal to have more of it.

If I could get this Pop chicken to eat with my beers when I'm down at the local, I fear that I would seldom be anywhere else!

Pop chicken bento. Remarkably, the tofu was an unexpected highlight.

The other items tasted were the chilli chicken bento (fear not the chilli) and the Ocean Peko, which was a little tasting plate of fishy goodness.. The Chilli Chicken was delicious - sweet and salty and chilli - just right (they warned us it would be "hot" but it seems some people should be ashamed of their lack of heat tolerance..).  If you can handle a jalopeno on your subway footlong, then this dish is a walk in the Albert Park. This is a dish I would easily get food envy from, if someone else was eating it and not sharing; so tasty, and the sauce perfect to drop in the plain rice and soak it all up.  On the Ocean Peko plate, the winner was the wasabi mayo on the prawns with a piece of pineapple - genius. Also, those beautifully wrapped parcels looked just too good to eat (but weren't, and were eaten with very little problems at all) and the scallops - YUM.

Chilli Chicken Bento. Same good tofu with this one.

Ocean Peko - seafood tasting plate.
Prawns with wasabi mayo and pineapple were top notch.

Sipping away...

I was disappointed with the espresso, which was neither short nor black enough - although it would probably suffice for most punters, or those who prefer to ruin good coffee with milk and that other nasty stuff... oh yes, sugar. Easier to grab a bottle of iced tea and just enjoy the food - although the spicy and crunchy food here would be a perfect accompaniment to a few fine ales.

Rating:  Nom (x3)  out of the scale:

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

NB: While rated 3xnoms, we will definitely go back. Probably many times in the near future.

Done and Degusted @ Peko Peko…
Pop Chicken bento
Chilli Chicken bento
Ocean Peko

(....and looking forward to sampling at least another 10 or 15 dishes soon...)

Peko Peko  (03) 9686 1109; 181 Wells St, Southbank

*One final note. The urbanspoon application was on an Android device. *rasberry* to iOS users.... :P