Star Restaurant, Footscray - Vietnamese BBQ

The same friend that introduced me to Ba Le brought me to Footscray on a cold winter's night to try the table top BBQ at this really old school restaurant, which came highly recommended from her Vietnamese friend. Usually Footscray isn't a suburb that I like to head to at night, but given the recommendation there was no stopping us...we were just praying for a parking lot close by to the restaurant so we wouldn't have to spend too much time on the street. And we got one just outside. Love the signs!

Unfortunately there were only 3 of us, so we couldn't order all the stuff that looked really interesting

It was a pretty empty night but apparently weekends are super packed

Next time we go we want to try this

We ordered the beef BBQ and some spring rolls to share. The BBQ came with sauce and rice paper rolls.

This was the marinated beef. It had leeks, onions, lime, lemongrass, sesame seeds and goodness knows what else was in the marinade. My friend's Vietnamese friend said she tried replicating the marinade at home, but was never successful. So yes, it's good.

All the stuff to accompany the BBQ as well, to go inside the rice paper rolls.

All good to go!

The rice vermicelli goes into the rice paper rolls too

The grill gets heated up, with oil dabbed on the hot plate

We ordered soursop drinks on the side. This was lovely.

And on went the beef!

Basically everything goes inside the rice paper roll, and you wrap it yourself with the beef right on top.

Just like this - and to be eaten with the dipping sauce.

The spring rolls were good too

What it looked like inside the roll.

This is the place, you can tell them you found it right here on this blog.

Steak Satou, Tsukiji, Tokyo

I had heard about this steak house from various internet forums and decided to give it a try one afternoon after feeling tired of raw fish. Thankfully it was pretty easy to find, and I made sure that I went there just about 11.45am to be sure of getting a seat for 1 during lunch, since I had no clue how to make reservations in Japanese. 

Thankfully they had an English menu - I suppose the prices during lunch were also a lot more reasonable compared to dinner.

This leaflet also landed on the table, and I managed to make out that it was a special menu for their 25th anniversary. Well, I wasn't going to head back there during my trip, so I decided to just go for it, and save the regular menu items for another visit back to Tokyo. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, except that I was pretty sure there had to be a steak in there somewhere in there. No clue about the cut or the weight!

 Then, in one gorgeous moment, this descended in front of me.

"Consomme...Uni" said the waiter. That was good enough for me. I was so excited and yet so upset that I was eating alone with no one to share that moment of exhilaration with. 

Solid fresh pieces of uni on top, with uni cream below. It was amazing, it was gorgeous, it was absolutely divine.

Then came these 3 slices of roast beef - they were all right but definitely not very exciting at all. Could have saved it for another day for a sandwich with mustard.

This salad was pretty normal too - nothing to complain or rave about.

Then when the sauces were placed in front of me, I started getting excited again at the prospect of the teppanyaki steak coming

Pepper and salt

And the dude cooked it like, far far away! I mean, aren't they supposed to slice everything with a flourish in front of you, and tossing up bottles and knives in the process?

Ah well. Can't complain that I didn't walk out smelling of fried beef. Anyhow, this landed in front of me.

A slice of beautifully fried tenderloin. It looked and smelt amazing.

Kinda between medium and medium-well. No complaints here. The beef was super tender, and I enjoyed every bite of the soft inside against the almost crisp surfaces. Probably one of the best teppanyaki meals ever.

Vanilla ice cream to end everything off. Just nice.

What it looks like from the outside, and....

The shop sign, and phone number if you want to make reservations. Or just rock up before 12noon like I did.

Chin Chin, Flinders Lane

As an Asian person living in Melbourne, it was initially difficult for me to understand the hype over Chin Chin - why would any good Asian who appreciated food patronise an Asian restaurant run by a non-Asian and frequented by everyone but Asians? Especially when Melbourne has no lack of good Asian restaurants. However, curiosity and the crowd got the better of us, and we decided to try our luck one weekday evening. Since it's a no reservations place, we headed to our favourite bar nearby for pre dinner drinks while waiting for them to call us when a table became available.

Finally made it inside, with these paper placemats cum menus on the table.

We ordered a jug of the Vietnamese Mint to start us off

It was an easy drink to gulp down...too easy perhaps

We went for the degustation which was around $60 per person, and started off with a serve of the salt and pepper squid served with Vietnamese mint leaves, chilli and nuoc cham, a fish sauce dip. Not a terribly complicated dish to prepare, and this was executed well. Thumbs up.

 

Next came the kingfish sashimi with coconut cream and lime. The last time I checked, I was pretty sure that kingfish sashimi wasn't a staple of Thai and Vietnamese cuisine. But this was brilliant, somewhat similar to the raw fish that one has with porridge in Singapore (minus the coconut cream).

 

Even though it was a weekday night, the place was packed solid. 

Stir fried green beans with coconut in a cashew sambal. Interesting - we'd never tasted anything quite like this before.

I have no idea what this curry was, but it wasn't memorable anyway. Not good, not bad. Just one of the courses that we felt went all right, but wouldn't order again next time.

This was my absolute favourite dish of the evening - the twice cooked short rib that came with a sweetish sticky sauce. I usually don't like meat that's too sweet, but the texture was fall-off-the-bone tender. Great with steamed rice, with a bit of fish sauce to offset the sweetness.

And to end it off, a mango and honeycomb dessert to share.

Love the bar decor - just simple mosaic but it works.

I went there again another day with another group, and tried the corn and coriander fritters - I wouldn't bother ordering this again. It was oily and heavy, classically overfried.

The Miang - betel leaves with braised lamb - was interesting, but this for $12 was kinda expensive.

The southern style yellow curry with mackeral and pineapple was pretty good, but on the sweet side. It was great with the roti.

Again, super crowded at lunch time.

I headed there again alone yet another day and sat at the bar at the far end, just next to the kitchen. It was a great seat cos I got to see them prepare the entrees.

A kingfish sashimi for myself

A salt and pepper squid for myself. And, not pictured, a beautiful cold glass of Pikes Riesling.

Got the photos I couldn't take previously during dinner - the light was great

And that's how they do it

I also had the pork and crab cake with a salted duck egg dip. This was pretty amazing.

Not sure how they made this salted egg sauce, but it was the best thing...I ate every drop up.

Super crispy crab cakes - definitely very happy that I ordered this.

It was messy to eat but I wouldn't have it any other way.

What it looks like on the outside.

Was I too judgmental at the beginning? I don't think so - the dishes I had were completely non traditional - short rib isn't a cut that Asians normally use, the salt and pepper squid is better known for being served at Cantonese restaurants instead of Indochinese or Thai places, and I've never seen sashimi served with coconut cream. However, whatever the chef is doing, it WORKS. It's tasty, it's yummy, it's not 100% authentic, but it doesn't matter. It's worth a go.

Website: http://www.chinchinrestaurant.com.au/