Bites: Deevine @ Victoria Park.

The peeps are still very busy with their exams.  Xin Ling is still on her 3 till 4 routine every night.  The guys, still busy, but that has not dampen their spirits for Starcraft.  Never a day without their daily dose of computer games haha.  I on the other hand, have finished the new Call of Duty: Black Ops game :D!  After finishing the game, I headed over to my sister’s house.  Could not decide where to go for dinner.  Therefore, instead of going to the same place all the time, I suggested that we try somewhere new.  A restaurant from the Entertainment book.  We ended up choosing a place called Deevine Cafe near the Ford Dealer on Albany Highway.  The place was simple in decoration.  Very neat, with a simple outcome and a clean feel to it.  But that did not matter to me.  My brains were not functioning.  Felt as if everything were moving too slow.  Must have been the hardcore speed of the games I have played!!  After flipping through the pages front and back, analysing top to bottom, I went for the Crumbled Veal with Aglio Olio pasta and creamy prawns. (Sorry for the picture, they are IPhone material!)

My dinner for the night.  Loved the crumbled veal, hated the Aglio Olio.  It was super dry to begin with.  The Aglio Olio was cooked with sausages and finely cut chilli, but it did not feel so.  It felt as though the taste was separated into many different parts.  Chilli.  Sausages.  And no Aglio Olio.  No garlicky taste or oil coating.  Totally dry!! :( !!  That is really saddening!  Nonetheless, the slices of crumbled veal was lovely.  Thin, and yummy.  The creamy garlic sauce from the prawns was super delicious too!  I would recommend this dish if the pasta was not so dry.  And mind you, this pasta is half of what the plate is.  If it is not even half edible, then its a situation!! :P!!

My sister on the other hand, opted for the scotch fillet on a bed of mash!

A slab of hearty steak.   The way my sister like it is Medium Rare.  She has increased her tolerance towards raw meat I guess @.@!  My preference is still medium ahaha.  I tried a slice of her steak and thought that it was like all other steak.  Not the best neither is it the worst but there was nothing to shout about.  It was a slice of steak well cooked.  If the sauce had more taste, it would be lovely!  Kevin had the Penne Bolognaise and he said it was OK only ahah.  Oh and the most epic thing was the appetizer, which was the garlic bread.

The garlic bread was so god damn freaking FLAT… and HARD.  Edible but should have been LOADS better.  I honestly thing someone accidentally flattened the sandwich maker or something. FAIL. 

By the way, notice the issue with the picture?   That’s the problem I have with the IPhone at the moment. The middle turns out blue-ish while the sides are just covered with warmth.  WTH is happening?!!!

This will be all for now.  Looking forward to the Albany trip in a weeks time :)!

WenY

The Weekends: Breakfast people!

As usual, the weekends passes by in a fly.  Regardless of the time you push yourself to wake up to and start doing work, it always goes.   Nonetheless, there are always a few good ways to have a good start to the weekend.  This in particular if you’re a Malaysian who missed the last flight home in Winter :D!  Time to be mesmerised by the good Malaysian breakfast Perth has to offer!

The mornings of my recent two weekends have been fed by two familiar food found in Malaysia.  I’ve officially declared them, the loves of my morning hunger since young. Mom knows it better than ever and I’ve always had these for brekkie in the mornings ahah.

Mamak styled Nasi Lemak @ Gopi’s.  Actual picture shown here hoho!

Where to get them?

Gopi Curry leaf house @ Willeton

Shop 4, Rostrata Shopping Centre, corner of Rostrata and Glenmoy Ave
Willetton WA 6155
Saturday and Sunday breakfast special
7:30am -2:00pm

Check the FoodPornographer’s blog for more coverage although I’d personally not recommend Gopis Roti Canai/Prata.

Next up is the best Roti Canai/Prata I have ever tasted in Australia.  Seriously!!

The Roti in Jewel of the Park is the best I’ve ever tasted.  It feels like the real one although it actually is considering how the good lads at the restaurant has a Sri Lankan whom work experience hails from the Mamak stalls in Malaysia.  Definitely a blast for the hungry people.  Malaysians looking for cheap and good deals would love this to bits.  Get 2 LARGE Pieces and a small cup of teh tarik for $5.90.  Deal done!  The curry only gets a credit though.  The sambal and dhal gets my marks. 

Jewel of the Park Indian Restaurant.

765 Albany Highway
East Victoria Park, Perth. 6101
Sat - Sun Breakfast - 8am to 10.30am

;-)! Yes and breakfast is important.   With these two in work for morning sessions, Makan Makan on Victoria Park is a disguised victor looming about in failure.  On the other hand, in the night, its super sweet and cheap teh tarik might help it gain its lost recognition.

On a side note: Great meet up yesterday as I have not seen Yvonne for like a gazillion years.  Korean barbecue at Tong 86 FTW.

WenY

Bites: Pancho’s Mexican Villa @ Victoria Park

The exam week is gone and I have never felt this good for the year.  At least not yet :D!  After an early Saturday with my relative for dim sum, I headed home for a good lazy evening rolling all over my bed.  Oh god, that was such a good activity I must insist.  It’s been a long time since I had a chance to do so!  Mmm the feeling of rolling rolling rolling =D!  That is totally awesome!  Dinner time soon came and hohohoho! I told the guys we should have something different.  Not Chinese, not Indian, not Malay, not Korean, not Italian, not Western, and definitely no Japanese.  I guess you get what I’m trying to say.  So we decided to try anything that catches our eye on Vic Park!  It did not take us long to decide really. We ended up eating in a Mexican restaurant within the first few clicks of the Cannington entrance to Victoria Park.

Upon entrance to the restaurant we were greeted by a lady only to be told  “oh god, you’re here without a booking?”  That definitely caught us by surprise as we did not expect the place to be full.  Luckily enough the manager managed to squeeze us in before a customer booking was to be satisfied.  We had the whole hour to ourselves and that is quite sufficient :)!

Oh yeah people.  Vote for Pedro!  They say this place has been running for 20years +!  That is wicked!

We first started with a Supreme Nachos @$18.00 to share!  Asked for spicy and we sure got we wanted.  Not a killer to be honest.   But it came quite expectedly because most Caucasians simply cannot eat really spicy food!  (Sorry for the lack of pictures! I only have one good picture of my main :D!)

This is my err beef taco with chicken and cheese enchiladas @ $22!  Kelvin had something similar to mine while my sister and yh had the Grande!  A wholesome Mexican coverage with 4-5 dishes!

Overall this place is OK.  But I personally felt like dying due to the cheese overload.  Cannot imagine how my sister and yh felt considering they are not big cheese fan ahaha.  I guess Mexican fare really is not our kind of food :)!  But I have to say, the mains were quite yummy! I particularly love the crispy skin beef taco!  Nothing that I cant make though =X!

Oh but on a side note, the Nachos were not at its best that night.  It was soggy and felt like biting into a biscuit that has lost its crispiness.  Quite disgusting :(!

Nonetheless, it was good that I had something different to eat.  Not the common Asian or Western fare which we do so well at home yet we opt to pay tens of dollars having it outside!

WenY! 

Bites: Toto @ Victoria Park

Yessh!! The semester finally ends today and its time to celebrateeeeeeeee!  Time to go clubbing, movies and just do nothing xD! :P Okla I would be lying if I said I’m in the celebration mood T.T!  The end of the semester signals the start of a very limited 1 week study break.  Nonetheless the mind does not work well with a hungry tummy.  Before dinner we did some grocery in Broadway, and the uncle at the oriental shop told me that Korean instant noodles stimulate the brain which is good for studies =.=”!  Not that its true or anything but I did buy 1 packet of it ahaha. After doing the essential groceries we went home to have some rest before getting Jim and Kelvin for dinner.  We ordered dishes this time instead of the usual noodles because my sister told us they had some pretty good dishes to go with rice!

And that is well hmmm, partly true?  Luckily enough, 3 of the 5 dishes were worthy of being put up on here:

The crispy fish with ToTo’s fish sauce.  Not sure what its name is but I do know there is a picture of it ahaha. Oh yeah and the sauce is clear by the way :P  Fishman’s dream come true.  He hasn’t had his fish for ages now..!

Butter Prawns.  While its name and picture on the menu portrays all the characteristic of a classic liquid-y butter prawn, be fooled not.  Its really something different.  There is a lingering fragrant of butter all over this dish but its does not taste like it should.  Not as nice as the classic if you’d asked me =X!

Jim’s fav and probably my favourite as well.  The mayonnaise spare ribs were killer stuff.  With the exception of its serving.  Pretty small :(!  I think I had two pieces, Jim had two and the rest only had 1 :(!  But it tasted nice although the sauce was not as thick as the normal Peking ribs coated with mayonnaise.  It was the best of the lot :)!!

Overall, Toto is a good place to eat if you come knowing what you’re looking for. I came here and tried 5 dishes only to find 3 are OK and the other 2.. disastrous.  Horrendous horrendous.  Their sizzling supreme chicken is disgusting and all their stir-fry vegetables are nothing more than a bad joke.  Really a put off seeing the way those two dishes were done.  If you’re here for noodles, I’ve tried the beef hor fun, and the pork & prawn noodles soup which is OK only.  I would have preferred Viet Nosh @ Hampden Road and Tra Vinh @ Northbridge if it was nooodles soup that I wanted.

Ok enough of food talk now. 10 days to exam. 1 month to Melbourne.  Now we’re talking. It’s countdown.

WenY

Bites: Bintang Cafe @ Victoria Park

This little Indonesian diner located in a small square in Victoria Park along Albany highway just a kilometre or two from the Cannington side entrance has been one of my usual in my 3rd year.  Even then, it was until today that I decided to give it a modest thought.   No camera no thoughts, so yeah I definitely remembered to bring my trusty companion of 2 years with me!

From what I recall, they used to occupy two shop lots but today I see a different place altogether.  It seems like they’ve reduced their restaurant by at least half! Aikzz!  Next to it is some burger cafe called V burger.

Bintang revamped its interior but its nothing shout about really.  Still reeks of a bad odour from god knows what.  But fortunately, they have a few decent seats outside the cafe.  My staple diet here was the Nasi Goreng Special Extra Spicy.

Priced at $8.80 its a pretty cheap eat.  It has quite a fair bit of food that comes with the fried rice!

Looks pretty good doesn’t it ahah.  Most of the time, all would good except that I hated green peas as my tummy would feel hell weird after eating those peas(fresh peas fits my preference better).  Other times bad things that could happen includes not cooking the dish to order.  It wasn’t even spicy today :(! Being Malaysian, I feel its a let down when the food you expect to have some kick in it doesn’t have any at all. bahhhhh!  But overall it was still edible.  And you could add some chilli if you wanted to.  But in Malaysia the chilli would be “tumis-ed” before being fried with the rice and that makes a whole lot of difference.

Another thing my sister and I ordered today is the Kangkung Belacan:

Mmm this was yums.  Probably one of the better ones in town!!  But being kangkung, there isn’t always enough of the yummy leaf.  Always all those vegetable stalk only! Ackkk @,@!!

Overall Bintang is an “ok la” place to eat.  Nothing to shout about. Mediocre!!  And with it being Indo/Malay food, I’ve experienced countless of times where the food cooked always lacked consistency.  And this practically applies to all Indo/Malay food I eat.  Either I’m just out of luck or god knows what else.  And it seems like I’m not the only one with such comments out there. ahah Oh wait hmm Manise@ Northbridge is not like that ahaha.  Ok exception made.

Wen