Malaysian hawker food in Australia

[Niall]

if you like malaysian food, to's in north sydney is

You mentioned a Malaysian restaurant in North Sydney but didn’t give the name.

Its either called Toh's or To's. I think its on Miller St on the right hand side as you walk down from the junction of the pacific highway to Berry St. They do a good assam laksa.

[PCL]

I've always had a feeling that Sydney does better Malaysian-Chinese than Melbourne. This is a sensational thread.

My own experience is derived from the best har-mee/nasi lemak/rendang/ipoh hor fun i've ever had in this country, and they are all from a small little place in the Hunter Arcade in the city. If you look hard, you can't miss it. Come in off Pitt St, down the escalator, hard left.

[whisks]

i had a laksa there the other day - i mustn't have been paying attention to how good it was....i think i'll have to do a proper taste test and compare it with the one in king st, to's in north sydney and istana. to be honest, i think i'm happy just to have laksa, as long as it isn't that horrible stuff they try and pass off as laksa at non malaysian/singaporean places.....

one thing i will say about the place in hunter arcade, i seem to remember the prices were pretty reasonable.....must find an opportunity to go there again.

also mustn't forget to include the laksa at temasek.....

[PCL]

laksa at temasek..

address and details please..... laksa monster here.....

[Dim Sim]

laksa at temasek..

address and details please..... laksa monster here.....

←

Hi PCL, have you try the Laksa at Chilli Padi, in Melbourne Central, (at the corner of a lane and Little Lonsdale St .) the people there (I was told) used to operate Chilli Padi on Bridge Rd. Richmond, which I used to frequent about 10 years ago. I enjoyed the Laksa there.

Sorry, I know this is meant to be about Sydney, over and out.

[whisks]

ugh .....pcl....u ask a difficult question....it's in parramatta (out west) in a sort of arcade (not a street frontage). it might be george st parramatta......i'm pretty sure i've spelt "temasek" correctly tho....

there's a toss up btwn the hainan kai fun there and at istana.....my personal favourite is istana, but really, i love going to both. temasek has a more malaysian feel. both are very excellent.

[PCL]

how's a bout the address for Istana then??? I'll look up Temasek, and you did spell it correctly!

[whisks]

honestly, pcl, i can't win with you!!!! i don't know the addee for istana either. it is in the apricot pink complex in between pennant hills road and another road parallel to it. if you go along the commenarra parkway heading to thornleigh, go across pennant hills road, turn first right past pennant hills road, it's a little way along.... this is getting complicated......it's upstairs next to video ezy...if u get to maccas, you've gone too far.....just tell me where u will be coming from when u r next in sydney n i'll give u better direction....

[PCL]

LOL

Bloody funny!

[whisks]

went to to's today with my cousin, who's more in touch with all things malaysian than i am. told her if i had been more organised today, i would have done the place in castlereagh st or king st, to try out their laksa. her opinion was that to's was better n the reason why some ppl like the ones in castlereagh n king sts is because they r cheaper, n to's charges more n yadda yadda yadda. methinks that her reasoning is valid, but to be fair, i still think i shoud give the other 2 places a whirl just to make sure.

anyone else with an opinion? if i ever get the opportunity, i would love to line them all up to taste test them.....

btw, pcl....which is the post that is "bloody funny"?

[PCL]

your post before mine, #23... i am tickled by directions...

but do keep the dialogue going. i'm very interested in the sydney malaysian scene, although to be fair, we need to think about the crux of the matter in this thread...

is there a can't miss, fuck off type mean chinese restaurant in sydney??

[PCL]

This thread feels better now...

So, I'll kick off the Melbourne scene in terms of Malaysian Hawker food.

In the city, we have the following:

Changi Nasi Lemak - Latrobe St, opp. Melbourne Central probably the best nasi lemak in town.

Nasi Lemak House - Grattan St, Carlton: Good selection of soup noodles and chinese hawker favourites. They even have cockles in their laksa!!!

Target Centre, Bourke St: Grand Asia in the food court. Roast pork, char siu, yong-tow-foo.

There are others as well, like Blue Chilli in Fitzroy, Chinta Ria in St Kilda, but then again, we're talking higher end 'jazz inspired' yuppy haunts. Can be fun though in the right circumstances.

[Shiewie]

Does Malaysia Restaurant over in Melbourne's Doncaster East (part bordering Templestowe) still exist? It used to have pretty decent friend Hokkien Mee but that was yonks ago.

[Shinboners]

Over on the eastern side of Melbourne, we've got a few good options.

There's the Penang Coffee House (395 Burwood Road, Hawthorn). The smell of fish sauce, garlic, and chilli that hits you when you enter this place tells you all you need to know. It's wonderful.

About ten minutes away from where I live, there's a few places all within a couple of minutes walk of each other. The best is probablys Nyonya Hut on 240 Blackburn Road, Glen Waverley. A block or so down is (the shockingly named) Nudel N Wraps. I've heard that the chef there used to work at the Penang Coffe House. Across the road is this building that has a food court (and nothing else) inside. The court is host to a number of stands that sell food like Indian, Malay, vegetarian etc. It's not bad, but the other two places are better.

Finally, I do like the Old Raffles Place on 70 Johnston Street, Collingwood (right opposite the Tote Hotel). A couple of drinks and a platter of entrees isn't a bad way to spend the early hours of the evening.

[Taubear]

For those of you who have a set top box and can tune into ABC2 they have a half hour cooking show. Might be worth checking out.

Secret Recipes

Singapore

9:15pm Friday, February 3, 2006

Jacques Reymond lifts the lid on the traditional recipes Australians use in their kitchens every day. In this episode he prepares Nonya food, a combination of both Chinese and Malaysian cuisine, with Queenie Aikenhead.

[Dim Sim]

Been going to this little tucked away place in Tivoli Arcade, just off Bourke street between Swanston and Russell Street, called ChatterBox. Decent laksa lemak, dirt cheap too . They have bak ku teh on the menu too.

Chilli Padi, Melbourne Central, entrance through a lane just opposite St. Francis church, very good laksa. There seems to be someone who cares a great deal about food that comes out of the kitchen here. I always feel that I can't order anything wrong here, I am sure whatever I order would be nice. bak ku teh on the menu too.

Laksa King ( Racecourse Rd, Flemington, in a Arcade , in the main shopping strip , sorry PCL for being so Vague about the direction ) this is my local hawker food place, if I don't feel like hopping in a car, this is the place I can walk to, I have had very good to quite bad food here ( like the mushy Rendang, and overboiled laksa) but most of the time they are really good, they have Ipoh combination Hor fun, nasi lemak, roti canai with rendang or chicken curry, thick dark luscious Hokkien mee.

and of course , changi nasi lemak, and the place in Grattan Street, in carlton that PCL has mentioned, and Raffles, and Penang House from Shin (btw Penang House has closed the old premises and moving up the road a bit, away from the cbd)

I was just emailing my brother the other day, mentioning how different it is now for the homesick Malaysian overseas students. just remember when we were here in the early 1980s. the cbd was a ghost town after 5.oopm and there were only a handful of Malaysian restaurants. Malaya is one of them, just opposite what is now Becco, and later on Little Malaysia in liverpool lane on the top of bourke st. my brother and I have lots of memories of this place, lost count of those endless balacan kang kong, laksa and char kueh tuey , the owner there Eric used to look after us really well. Nyonya in market lane just opposite Flower Drum ( that was when they used to do yumcha, no trolly though waitress used to carry tray of goodies, true Flower Drum style). And I still remember having my first bowl of laksa (at Malaya restaurant) after being deprived for a few years and how lucky these new OS students are nowaday, most living in apartments in the CBD, have hundreds of eating places to choose from.

[Tae.Lee]

Adelaide:

Penang Hawker's Corner in the mansion's arcade, off pulteney st near rundle mall, good and cheap..

Wok's Happening on Hutt St is apparently very good, though i haven't eaten there yet, it has the same chef from the old Twain's that used to be on Rundle st, which used to be fantastic..

there is another place on gouger where i had a good rendang once but the name escapes me for the moment..

Edited February 10, 2006 by Tae.Lee (log)

[piazzola]

In Melbourne you have to chase the little take away food joints not all the time owned by ethnic Chinese but Indians sometimes and you won't be dissapointed. I used to go to a little known off Ltittle burke street one of the side lanes now closed for some years it used to have one of the best Penang's hawkers foods and I learned one of my signature dishes Mee Goreng there whose the owner kindly passed the recipe to me upon his return to Penang

Edited February 10, 2006 by piazzola (log)

[whisks]

a few years ago when i was in melbourne, i visited a little malaysian/singaporean place on lygon st. the chui kwei was nice and delicate. i don't know if it is still there, but it's worth a try if it is still there.

talking about chui kwei, does anyone have any recipes for malaysian/singaporean food to share? (i don't think chui kwei would be too difficult to replicate, although getting a topping that is "just right" might be a challenge)

[PCL]

I'm kind of stumped as to what 'chui-kwei' might be... drunken chicken?

[whisks]

it's hokkien - literal translation is water cake (kwei - the malaysian cake made with rice flour). i had heard so much abt them, n melbourne of all places was the first place i ever got to try them.

i think it is one of those things that is rarely seen out of malaysia.

as an aside, has anyone tried the north sydney noodle markets on friday night - i've heard that there is a malaysian lady who cooks noodles there, but i don't know how authentic it is. any comments from anyone?

Edited February 13, 2006 by whisks (log)

[PCL]

A picture would be great, i'm still having trouble visualising it... i never saw it in Malaysia...

[whisks]

hmmm....can only describe it - it's white and steamed; it looks like it was steamed in little chinese tea cups. abt 1 1/2cm/1/2" thick. the topping has chai por (r u hokkien?....or choi poh - cantonese). the white bit is virtually tasteless n the topping is slightly spicy n i think there was chilli sauce to dip it in. definitely a hokkien thing cos the name is hokkien. it may well be a singapore thing cos there are hokkiens there, otherwise, a penang thing....dunno.

the texture is quite light as far as a rice cake can go - i guess that's why is it called chui kwei. a "chui" texture, almost a tou foo far texture, but very clean. an interesting texture of bland and smooth with spicy and crunchy/chewy. a good justaposition.

my friend says there's a great har mee place in winter garden in pitt st. will check that out the next time i stay in the city cos it sounds like it is somewhere i pass everytime i walk back to circular quay from the city.

[whisks]

there's piccy of chui kuei on this link:

http://lava_erupting.tripod.com/moments/24...imewithkev.html

[Shiewie]

PCL - chui kueh is known as savoury woon jai go in KL Cantonese if that helps (there are also the sweet pandan or gula melaka flavoured ones). You can get it at markets (day or night) at the stalls that sell keuh.

Edited February 14, 2006 by Shiewie (log)