miscellaneous perth foods

Sometimes I go to Perth and eat things:



Tell me where you go for your favourite dosais! My favourite is at Mela Indian Sweets, in Northbridge. I always get the masala dosai, the potato in the masala starts to mush together and it's filled with fresh chillis, and caramalised onion, and cashews. Cashews! They are a delicious addition. The dosai at Mela is always served with a rasam and tiny little side dishes of coconut and tomato. $15 well spent every time!



My favourite flavour combination at the Junction Icecreamery is always ALWAYS passionfruit and chocolate. There are a few other soya flavours but they are the best!



Ended up at the Swan Valley Cafe again with my parents and my sister, this time for lunch. The lunch menu is not as exciting as the dinner menu (though there are some pizzas on the take away menu which I might try for next time), and I opted for the burger with a tomato chutney. This is a perfectly serviceably burger, but it does noticeably require the chutney, as it is not exploding with flavour. My sister had a tart (not vegan) with salad, and the quinoa salad was terrible, it clearly hadn't been washed enough times. Still happy to go back, especially as it's the closest vegetarian restaurant to my parents' house, but it was a little disappointing.

I still didn't make it to the new Indian vego restaurant in Midland! (I tried, but it was closed)

Mela Indian Sweets and Eats
428 William St
Northbridge

The Junction Ice Creamery
Corner of Great Eastern Highway and Morrison Road
Midland

Swan Valley Cafe
990 Great Northern Highway
Millendon

previous visit

chatters cafe, midland

I've been to Chatters once before, in Morley. It was a perfectly serviceable visit, though nothing special: Australianised vegetables, a reasonable char kuay teow, terrible spring rolls.

So as it turns out, on weekends you can get a moderately sized yumcha menu at Chatters.



Having just had a fabulous and gigantic brunch, I was not especially hungry, so as I joined my mum and my sister for a late lunch I slowly perused the menu. And broke a glass.

I managed to get four dishes, three on the menu and one off, and this was more than enough food for me, even with my mum sampling everything. In fact, I had to take some home, for breakfast the next morning! It's okay, this was no great hardship.



From the menu, I ordered the vegetable bao and the mushroom dumpling. My mum decided to order the lotus paste bao, because she loves lotus paste. These required no mods, being already vegan.

My sister was eyeing off a meaty chee cheong fun, so I convinced the staff to do one for me, animal free. The staff were very helpful, but they did advise they'd never done one animal free before, so it was going to be very experimental.

The best of these four dishes was the vegetable bao. The bao itself was light and fluffy, and the filling was warm, fresh and tasty. I accidentally ate the paper on one of them (yucckkk). A rookie mistake. The mushrooms were also pretty good, and crunchy with water chestnuts. The lotus paste was ok.

The chee cheong fun was heavy. My mum did a comparison taste test, and the noodles of the meaty cheong fun were definitely lighter, which was odd. The vegetables were cut too thick, so didn't cook all the way, and you don't want crispiness in the middle of the chee cheong fun! Still, points for effort. Maybe they could work on it, or something.

Anyway, not the greatest yum cha ever, but nice to have something to eat.


Chatters Cafe and Restaurant
ShpT58
Midland Gate (cnr The Crescent and Cale Street)
Midland

strawberries from the swan valley

A present from my mum - less than ten dollars for the lot! <3

I believe these came from the Midland Farmer's Market, which has always been my favourite.

namaste indian restaurant

My family loves talking about food, and I am no exception to this. We love talking about restaurants we’ve visited since last we spoke, food we’ve bought and food we’ve made and it’s such an important part of our lives.



My parents like to talk about this Indian restaurant, it’s tiny and rarely very busy. The chef is an accountant by day, and a chef by night. His three children wander about the restaurant working as waitstaff. My mum says to him, you would get more business if you advertised at all! but he protests. He likes it this way, it’s a hobby. He catered for my father’s birthday this year, and when my parents didn’t visit for three weeks the chef started to fret, assumed that we must have been disappointed.



Last night we visited and drastically over ordered. We ordered a mixed vegetable curry, a palak aloo and a chana masala (I thought of you, SJ). My parents also ordered some meaty dishes, hence the over ordering. We had some breads, too: the roti was a bit whatever, but my sister liked the naan and the chana came with bhatura, which our waiter described as naan bread that’s been covered in oil and fried instead of baked tandoor. It was so tasty, really great, it was kind of like a donut and so oily and crisp. After I got home I googled for a bit, and I’m now concerned that it might have had yoghurt (some recipes do, some recipes don’t), so my recommendation for the bhatura is cautious due to that, but I’ll ask next time and we’ll see. I didn’t think to ask this time because he described it as naan batter.



The palak aloo was also pretty fantastic, combining two of my favourite things (potatoes and spinach) into one creamy, tasty dish.

The service is very laidback (the chef's son argued with me about both what time we'd booked and how many we'd booked for in a very 'whatever' sort of way), but it is very fast, and they're super helpful and friendly.

Namaste Indian Restaurant
1/305 Great Eastern Hwy
Midland

the junction ice creamery, midland

Growing up in the hills, and going to high school at old Governor Stirling, the Junction Ice Creamery has long been a big part of my life. My friends worked there, and there was that desperately long six months where we didn't go because one of my friends was let go from there, and no matter what anyone says it's the best ice cream around. It has won awards both within the state and nationally, and their flavours are traditional with the occasional experimental success, like apple pie or black forest. Alas, apple pie and black forest are not vegan, but I will always remember them fondly.

Fortunately, the Junction Ice Creamery has a range of tasty sorbets and soy icecreams, most of which are vegan. My favourite is the passionfruit soya, though I do enjoy the slightly bitter taste of the chocolate soya.

The Junction Ice Creamery
Corner of Great Eastern Highway and Morrison Road
Midland