Strange name but this little restaurant easily sits approximately 40 people.  Not many Chinese restaurants along Burwood Highway but a few pizza eateries.  I spotted a Sri Lankan restaurant across Easy East.  This restaurant owner chef serves an exceptional braised duck.  You’ll need to pre-order the duck a day before.     Most of dishes were adequate servings, just right for 8 people.  Great food, well priced and excellent service; the Chef came out from his kitchen to ask how was the food.  Now, that’s service.

Braised Eight Treasure Duck

Braised Pork Belly with Taro

Deep Fried Flounder tossed with Spicy Salt

Braised Tianjin Cabbage with Seafood Combination

Easy East
26 Burwood Highway
Burwood 3125
Tel: 9808 3222

I will post the recipe soon. (*Eggplant known to some as Aubergine)

Another of my favorite spot… the Footscray Market.

The Footscray Market is a fresh produce and seafood market, catering particularly to the various ethnicities and local restaurants. Another large market in Footscray is Little Saigon, which opened in 1992 to cater to the growing Asian population, but now has customers from all backgrounds. Little Saigon is noisy and crowded, with a wide array of tropical fruits and Asian produce.

The weekends are fun too, even it is too noisy.

(without soup)

(with soup)

We wanted to try something different today for lunch.  Instead of the usual Pho that we normally have, this was more satisfying.  We had this noodle combination in Footscray (next to Footscray Market).  You can have it either with or without soup and your choice of egg or rice noodle.

Phu Vinh Restaurant
93 Hopkins Street
Footscray Vic 3011

There are many versions of Curry Mee.  This Penang Curry Mee or the Aussies call it Curry Laksa, used to be the signature dish at the hotel I used to work as a Chef. Apparently, regular guests and ex-colleagues still talk about it these days

I’ll post the recipe soon.

Foodbuzz has put together the September “24, 24, 24″ video… check it out! So, let’s keep on buzzing

Yambean (mungkuang) as shown above is vastly available in Australia from any Asian Grocery.  Though these yambean were small but they were cheap this Spring.  For this recipe, it is normally shredded with some carrots too.

This Nyonya dish is traditionally cooked during Chinese New Year.  You can have it with rice or as a starter.  I would normally serve with sambal belachan (chilli paste) and wrapped with lettuce (preferably Chinese Lettuce).

… more photos after the jump …

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I am re-posting this recipe as I didn’t like the previous photo.  Suz has taken another photo.  It was featured in an earlier post. (Otak Otak old pix).

Otak means brains in Malay and Indonesian.  It is also known as Otah Otah and the name of derived from the name of the dish is derived from the idea that the dish somewhat resembles brains, being on the soft and squishy side  (wiki).  Best eaten as a snack, or bread.  I prefer to have it with rice

Here’s the recipe:
500 grams fish fillet (cut into thin strips)
5 kaffir leaves (slice finely)
20 betel leaves (optional cos you can only get them in tropical climate)
4 big eggs
200mls thick coconut milk (can substitute with canned coconut milk)

Curry mixture:
1 Tablespoon chilly powder
30 grams mince lemon grass
5 grams of mince blue ginger
15 grams minced garlic
45 grams minced onion
15 grams of fresh tumeric (1 teaspoon dried tumeric)
15 grams shrimp paste
15 grams rice flour
6 grams pepper
10 grams salt
10 grams sugar

Mix all the curry mix together then stir in the kaffir leaves, coconut milk, eggs and sliced fish.

In Malaysia where we have banana leaves and betel leaves in abundance, we take the opportunity to wrap up like a small parcel which resembles a ‘hand bag’.

The other easier way of cooking the otak otak is to pour the curry mix into a 2 to 3 inch deep flat casserole with the sliced fish and steam it for 20 minutes.

Another nyonya kueh. This is steamed with glutinous rice paste with coconut filling and wrapped with banana leave (into a cone shape).

Foodbuzz Publisher Community

Congratulations Foodbuzz! Madam Kwong’s Kitchen is happy to be a featured publisher and part of the food bloggers community. I encourage all food bloggers to join. AND it’s free.

It’s here, it’s here! Foodbuzz, Inc. is unbelievably excited to announce the official launch of the Foodbuzz Publisher Community, which is comprised of more than 1,000 global food bloggers, our “Featured Publishers.”

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