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/

Diandin Leluk Reprise

We headed back to Diandin Leluk one weekday evening for dinner, and decided to try some different dishes that we had never ordered there. The som tum was pretty good and we were so glad we asked for it to be less spicy.

The husband really enjoyed the pandan leaf chicken, since it was slightly sweet. Lovely with white rice.

We really loved this omelette with minced pork - especially with some chilli dip.

We wanted a soup but didn't want tom yum, so we settled on this mixed beef soup. The soup was pretty authentic, tasting like the boat soup or kway tiau rua. The beefballs weren't great.

Phuket - A short getaway

The husband and I got a discounted weekend stay at the Marriot Vacation Club in Phuket, and decided to bring the mother along as well, since the room had 2 bedrooms. It's a lovely resort that's near the airport, but absolutely cut off from all the action near Patong and Surin. So we decided not to take up the package.
We didn't eat in the resort at all since we rented a car, after reading all the Trip Advisor reviews about how ulu the resort was. But we had breakfast at the cafe outside the resort, with exhorbitant tourist prices too. Breakfast the first morning was khao tom muu. I love Thai porridge with the fried garlic bits.

We drove to Patong to spend a day there but there wasn't much to see or do. I did end up buying durians and sneaking them into the hotel triple-bagged : )
We ate dinner at a little restaurant just next to the beach near the hotel. When you're in an unfamiliar place, the safest thing to do is to look for a place with people.
We guessed that the place was run by Muslims, since they didn't serve pork and there weren't any spirit houses around.
We had the curry crab - this was superb, especially with white rice. The crabs weren't huge, but they were fresh and sweet.

The som tum was pretty good too. Good balance of sweet, sour and salty

We had a tom kha gai.
They were very generous with the chicken pieces.
And a larb gai too. This was pretty good!
The green curry was a bit thin, and came with some weird melon. This was just okay.
We had this baked seafood thing that was something like otak - pieces of different types of seafood baked in a curry-like coconutty mixture with egg. We were quite pleasantly surprised by this.
And breakfast again at the same cafe - phad thai
And khao tom goong.
And just before take off, at the Thai Airways cafeteria at the airport. Khao niaw mak muang : )

Diandin Leluk

Diandin Leluk has to be my favourite affordable Thai restaurant in Singapore (my favourite being Than Ying at Amara but I wouldn't define that as affordable). The food is good, the atmosphere akin to being in a dodgy Thai shopping centre and the sights, sounds and smells all seriously authentic.

The prawn cakes were light, fluffy and crispy. Great with sweet chilli sauce.

Phad kaprow using beef. It was good. I can totally imagine how good their phad kaprow gai sai khai dao on a plate of hot steaming rice is.

Fried kangkong - boring.
The crab vermicelli was a surprise - not too oily, and tasty too.
Between the cha yen and naam manao, the latter was the one that did it for me. Although it's less salty than what you get in Muang Thai.
Larb muu without any innards. This was seriously good. The only thing missing was khaw niaw.
Tom yum talaay....terribly spicy.
But with very fresh seafood.
Gaeng khiaw wan gai. The husband loved this. It was rich without being too creamy, and spicy without being too hot.

The oyster omelette was seriously delicious too. It had just the right mix of starch and egg, fried enough so that it was a little crispy yet still chewy.
So good I had to post another photo.
We've never been able to taste their red rubies since they're always sold out. Chendol is not too bad.

5001 Beach Road, Golden Mile Complex #01-67/68/69. Tel: 6293 5101