Melba's Brasserie @ Langham Hotel Southbank

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

My elasticised waisted pants got another airing today when I gorged at the buffet at Melba Brasserie situated within the Langham Hotel.  Needless to say it was dining in a very opulent setting.  You get to work up a wee appetite just by going up the meandering staircase to the restaurant replete with the sounds of a waterfall.  We had the week day lunch buffet which worked out to be $57 per head.

The preamble

To give you an idea of what is on offer, here are a few gratuitous food shots:

Prawns

A selection of sushi and sashimi

Made to order pasta station 

A looong row of carvery and accompaniments

The ubiquitous chocolate fountain and associated candy

A selection of dainty sized desserts - so you can feast on more than just one

 As far as week day lunches go, this is considered very decadent.  A few things in particular which stands out at Melba Brasserie are:

• there is all you can eat Peking Duck.  Seriously, I can just stop here.  
• the desserts are miniature sized which allow you to sample endless (!) amounts.
• the view onto the Yarra is spectacular.  
• the sushi and sashimi are really really fresh.
• if you have a Gold Entertainment card, you can get a discount.  Bonus!

Until next time...

Claypot King

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

Kiddo and I have a love for Century Old Eggs which border onto an obsession.  They are duck eggs preserved in a mixture of salt, ash and quicklime.  The resulting taste is a mix of ammonia and sulphur (ok, so it doesn't sound so yum in writing but trust me, once hooked, you would be hooked for life).  The appearance is how I have always imagined a Khaleesi Dragon egg - a yoke of concentric green/black rings and a gooey centre;  what used to be the whites, a translucent dark green black with occasional smatterings of white crystalline snowflakes suspended within.  It's like a rare gemstone or a mutant alien sprog.

Which leads me to our ongoing quest for good century old egg congee.  The best congee is Mum-Made.  However sometimes, it's good to have a commercial source for that quickie fix.  We recently sampled the century old egg congee with pork at Claypot King as a take away.

It would be left in the dust if you compared it to a Mum-Made version of the same congee.  However for a fast food equivalent at a Chinese food outlet, I was surprised that the Claypot King congee had a reasonable amount of century old egg.  The pork was also lean and the rice creamy. It also did taste too MSG-sy, meaning I could not detect it which does not necessarily mean that it was MSG-free.  It was just not MSG-obvious.  We also got the Chinese donuts to go with it - deep fried awesomeness.

Since I anticipated Kiddo to steal most of the congee, I ordered another dish so that I was not left with crumbs.  I got the Char Kway Teow which is a Malaysian styled rice noodles.  I was a bit disappointed that it looked or tasted nothing like the authentic Malaysian style version.  It was weirdly a bit sweet and lacked the chilli kick.  Also the traditional elements of fish cake, Chinese sausage appear to be lacking.  

The Claypot King is akin to food court food but the congee exceeded expectations.  I would probably go back for the congee alone with perhaps a couple of sticks of Chinese donuts to dunk in it and give their noodles a miss.

Until next time...

PappaRich

Hello Fellow Nom Seekers!

The PappaRich chain of restaurants is as close to a Malaysian Hawker stall experience you can get in Melbourne.  There are a few kopitiam rivals peppered around town however PappaRich stands out from the rest because a) they make their roti from scratch in front of you and b) their satays are grilled to obtain the proper smokiness instead of the cop out method of deep frying.

Being creatures of habit, we tend to order the same things.  The following tried and true dishes are:

Ipoh Kway Teow Soup.  This is a lovely delicate chicken and prawn broth with rice noodles, garlic chives, bean sprouts and fresh chillis.  It is a highly recommended comfort food.

Nasi Lemak with Beef Rendang.  It's a staple and guaranteed to leave you feeling full.  The coconut rice is very filling.  There is a decent amount of beef rendang to go with it.  Lovely contrast with the sweet sambal, salty anchovies and peanuts.  I also like the boiled egg which is de rigeur with any Nasi Lemak.

Roti.  Hey, when in Rome, do as the Romans...how could I not order a serve of roti when I see the guy artfully flipping them in front of me?  So crispy and light and soooo fresh.

Pappa Rich Bryani Special.  This is a bryani dish with three side dishes of fried chicken (what's there not to love?), sambal prawns and sambal eggplant.  It comes with a pappadum the size of an umbrella.

The only drawback of the Pappa Rich are the queues!  We arrived around noon and waited for about 15 minutes for a table.  This is not unusual.  It is slightly anxiety provoking because you never know just how long the wait would be and the only way around it is to arrive an hour or so before normal eating hours and have a really early meal.

The deets:

Location:
Pappa Rich
Shop F029
1341 Princes Hwy, Chadstone VIC 3148
ph: 03 9568 3323

Costs:
Between $12 - $15 per dish.

Ambience:
Casual dining

Nom Again:
Most definitely.



Until next time,
Nom Seeker, Glutt