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

adventures in utopia, northbridge

I was only in Perth for five days, so it was hard to see everyone that I wanted to see. With that in mind, I organised a drop-in dinner at Utopia in Northbridge. I've posted about Utopia previously, and have mentioned before that people either love Utopia, or they hate it. It is all fake meats and deep-fried mushrooms, and karaoke, if you're in to that sort of thing. It's a very Taiwanese place, and everyone loves their bubble tea, though you should be wary of the milk in some of their tea products. And the whey in some of the beef products - to be on the safe side, I never order mock-beef at Utopia.

ANYWAY, Utopia. I used to go at least every second Monday with my friends Alex and Liz, and we'd order approximately the same things every time, and then Alex would proceed to eat everything in large quantities. As a result, I started ordering on reflex when I got to Utopia, even though Alex and Liz couldn't join us!

We all shared, of course, because that's the way you do Chinese food.

I started by ordering us a whole lot of salty fried 'chicken' and crispy fried mushrooms, because that's always my primary reason for eating at Utopia. The salty fried chicken is, well, salty and fried and crispy mock chicken pieces. They are sort of like the LotF nuggets, but a lot crispier and thinner. The crispy fried mushrooms are so soft and squishy when you bite in to them, coated in a crispy batter. It is my favourite, and Liz and I are both on a mission, from opposite sides of the country/planet from Utopia, to try and work out how they do it. Because it is the best.



Also the best: the spicy houtou mushrooms. The I love how spicy these mushrooms are, and I always fight over the cashews at the end because they're so delicious.



Other things we shared included more mushrooms, some bok choy, some curry, an assam 'fish,' and a laksa and a char kuay teow. The ckt is ok, but the laksa is pretty good, and it was fun to share. The laksa is a see-through-time sort, so be warned if you can't take it!



Oh Utopia, how I have missed your mushrooms and your crispy 'chicken.' You continue to be delicious. If slightly expensive. I worried for half a second that you had changed your menu, but my fear was for naught: I don't think you ever will.


utopia/formosa
utopia square
shop 14 (upstairs)
109 james street
northbridge

nyonya noms lotus sri melaka vegetarian restaurant, northbridge

I got off the plane, collected my luggage and my mother, and the first thing we did after leaving Perth Domestic Airport was head in to Northbridge and be Very Chinese.

We went to visit the aunties* at the Chinese grocers along William Street, where I had to say hello and 你好吗** and yes Melbourne is good and 四日***. I eyed off the Mister Potato Crisps and the mooncakes, but decided I could wait until I got back to Melbourne. I also wandered up and down the aisles whilst my mother did some shopping, lamenting the loss (to me) of my favourite Chinese-Malaysian grocer. As I have well documented, I have yet to find every Malaysian thing that I require from Melbourne.

We then moved on to be more Chinese-Malaysian, with lunch at Lotus.

Oh Lotus. I have loved you frequently and loved you long, as the only provider of vegan Nyonya noms in Perth (aside from my mum). I remain so sad that there is no equivalent to you in Melbourne. I used to visit you several times a month, to eat the comfort food I love; your 'beef' rendang and your laksa and your kapitan and your char kuay teow and your deliciousness. Oh yeah.

Danni's mum joined us, and we had a bit of a noodle extravaganza.

My mother went for the Penang Laksa (please forgive the overexposed shot).



This was very rich, as always, and filled with lots of beans, tofu, and mock char siu, and my mum had it with beehoon (rice) noodles. It was good, but not super spicy, and she didn't finish it all.



Danni's mum went for the Hokkien Mee. Hokkien mee is one of my favourite things to cook, it is quick and easy and delicious, and so must this one have been because she ate it all up (and did a stellar job with her chopsticks). This was filled with lots of vegies, which is just the way it is best.

What is with all this single dishes? perhaps you are asking. Well, it is my fault, because I knew exactly what I wanted, and what I wanted was the wonton mee. Whilst I had a perfectly reasonable wonton noodles at Tinh Tam Chay in St Albans, it was not perfect, and what I really wanted, above all else, was the wonton mee soup at Lotus. It's not on the menu, but you can ask for it and oh yeah. Oh yeah.



LOOK AT THAT OIL. I drank that all up. Delicious. I picked this over all my other favourite dishes at Lotus, and it was totally worth it.

Finally, we ordered a kapitan + three roti to share.



The kapitan ('chicken' curry) was super spicy. My nose started running and my tongue was burning, but OH WOW. DELCIOUSNESS. Totally perfect, oh how I have missed it.

Oh Lotus. If only you were open on Mondays, I would have had lunch at you again yesterday. And I would have eaten the satay. And the fried wontons. And the Assam fish. And the char kuay teow. And and and.





Lotus Sri Melaka Vegetarian Restaurant
Unit 1, 220 James St
Northbridge

not open Mondays
GF dubiously available (need advance notice and have to order off menu)


*'auntie' here means, 'older Chinese lady who scolds but is not related to me.'
** sup?
*** 4 days

the moon, northbridge

I have been suffering some serious moon-burger longing this last week, so we went to Moon for lunch yesterday. It's been ages since I was at the Moon during the day, it's a lot easier to see and to get a seat, and it's certainly a lot less loud...



I went for the moon veggie burger (with no pesto). It was deliciousness, and the chips were great. The mushroom inside was especially tasty.



D ordered a weekend special, a grilled eggplant wrap (without the feta and pesto). D declared it delicious, though without the pesto it was a tiny bit dry.

We both ordered a mango fruit smoothie with soy milk and (sadly) ice instead of sorbet, and it was pretty good!

Oh the Moon, I love you and your late night pretension.

The Moon Cafe
2/323 William St
cnr Newcastle St
Northbridge

Yee Sang at Lotus

In further CNY news, went to Lotus last night where we finally had Yee Sang, it being our last opportunity for this CNY. Yee Sang has a funny taste when you're eating but the most delicious aftertaste, and it's crunchy and delicious. And tossing it is pretty fun.



Yee Sang is made on the table, a large plate of shredded vegetables (and, traditionally, shredded fish) in the centre as a variety of sauces and condiments are poured over the top. Everyone then uses their chopsticks (the use of chopsticks is non-optional, no hands, no forks) to toss the salad together. It is customary to toss as high as possible, because the higher you toss, the greater your fortunes will be, as you court abundance.



Following the yee sang we had some char kuay teow (hardly a CNY noodle) and an array of delicious mock meats, cha siew and kapitan and the Sichuan chicken, which had cashews and was quite tasty. D's new favourite appears to be the chicken satay entree, which we discovered last Saturday when we tried the small banquet, and D insisted on ordering again just four days later.


Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant
Unit 1, 220 James St
Northbridge

tak chee house, northbridge

Tak Chee House is all delicious Penang hawker style, from the plastic furniture to the muggy, tiny interior, and the menus using Hokkien and English. The menu is a mixture of hawker rice and noodles favourites; mee goreng, ha mee, kuay teow, rices, etc. My mum was so excited, the first thing she declared was that she'd be ordering ice kachang, and it was massive and allegedly delicious (and she would like to recommend it to all your non-vegan friends on these warm summer days). I would like to recommend the fresh lemon ice tea for these warm summer days, which is vegan and pretty cool (hah!).



D and I decided to order and share a char kuay teow and mee goreng.

The char kuay teow was fantastic! The wok hei was so tasty, and there were lots of fresh vegetables, the noodles were freshly cooked and it was really tasty. Sometimes when you order 'noodle dish x, strict vegetarian' you can get some pretty boring noodles, but this one they replaced all the meat with a multitude of delicious vegetables, and it had a really great flavour. A++ will definitely order again (and my mum was coveting it).



The mee goreng had that classic tomato flavour, and I loved the addition of baby corn. I would probably order this again, it was pretty tasty.

Service was okay, our waitress was a bit bored disaffected youth, but that didn't stop the meals from coming out very quickly, piping hot and prompt. By the time we left there was a queue of people waiting for a free table. Dishes were about ten dollars. Not gluten-free friendly, but you can take your meat eating aunties and parents and whatever and they will love what they have but be jealous of what you have.


Tak Chee House
1364 William St
Northbridge

Closed on Mondays

utopia/formosa, northbridge

Utopia has been an old vego standard here in Perth town, with its delicious all-vegetarian foods and its great karaoke screens and its bubble tea, fuelling the sago obsession in this town.

Being long settled in Northbridge, it's a constant late-night haunt and, rarely being closed, it is ideal for those conventions that take you in to Northbridge for four days over long weekends, when no other restaurant is open. It is not fantastic, and it is not high cuisine, and it can be a little on the pricey side, but it is old faithful, and its mushrooms are delicious.



You grab yourself some tea and/or some water, some bowls and chopsticks, and a couple of menus. There are little forms and pens to use, and you write your the menu items down by number, before paying and ordering up at the counter. This makes dividing the bill pretty easy, but it also means you need to pay attention that you don't write down the wrong letter and end up with a steak and chips or something.



Vego restaurants are so thin on the ground in Perth, it's nice to go with a whole bunch of vego (or vego-friendly) friends and share a range of dishes, some new and some incredibly familiar.



The Hou Tou Mushrooms are one such old standard, deep fried spice mushrooms, and the attending cashews are delicious. Liz introduced us to this dish, and we order it quite often.



About a year ago there were rumblings that the fake-meats at Utopia (and also at Lotus) were not vegan, as they contained whey. Some research has given me confidence that so long as we stick to the "white meat" products, avoiding beef and pork, and also things like prawns, then we are okay. For vegan-safety, I'll probably check again when we hit twelve months, and keep doing so for so long as they keep stocking vegan-unfriendly mock meats amongst the stuff suitable for vegans.

I do, however, prefer the less mock-meaty dishes. Mock meat serves its purpose, but I continue to believe the best stuff is mock-meat free, just delicious fresh vegetables and tasty broths and wonderful spices.



On this particular visit, we had the tofu and vegetable curry, the char kuay teow, the hou tou mushrooms, the crispy fried mushrooms, the salty fried chicken and a chicken claypot. The tofu and vegetable curry suffers from the same problem as all of Utopia's curries, that is that it is exactly the same as all the other ones. The flavour of the gravy is just fine, but there is no change and that makes it a bit boring. The claypot was not great, clearly very thick with cornstarch and possibly a little msg. Utopia's kuay teow is servicable, the salty fried chicken was just fine, and the hou tou mushrooms and the crispy fried mushrooms are the reason why we go there so often, and they were exactly as we expect them to be.



utopia/formosa
utopia square
shop 14 (upstairs)
109 james street
northbridge

dusit thai, northbridge

Having heard such good things about Dusit Thai, but having never been, I crafted an opportunity on Sunday night to visit there.



The vegetarian menu is located in the back of the menu book, there are quite a few options and the waitstaff assured me that the noodles and things had no egg at all, which was grand. Still, I went with a hot green curry, hoping to stay healthy in the face of my very busy week to come (it was indeed very busy, and I did not fall ill, unlike D).

The curry was indeed quite hot, as advised, and I shared it and the popiah with Grahame in exchange for some of his noodles (which were tasty, too). The curry was fantastic, and I love a good fried popiah, though steamed are still the tastiest.

The items were a tad pricy, about $20.00 for the curry, but I was very happy with the meal and the service was pretty good. I can see why I have heard a lot about Dusit Thai.




Dusit Thai Restaurant
249 James Street
Northbridge

lotus vegetarian restaurant as caterers (food providers only)

The wedding banquet is filled with superstitions and is steeped in tradition. It is customary to serve shark's fin soup, to demonstrate wealth. It is usual to serve noodles for longevity, and a whole fish to indicate abundance, and duck and pork and sometimes there are eggs involved.

Being vegan, we could not take the usual Chinese in Australia option, which is to enlist one of a handful of local Chinese restaurants kitted out for the eight or ten course affair. Faced with the alternative of catering it ourselves, we elected to employ the services of Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant.

The owner is a well-meaning but eccentric older Chinese lady. My first attempt at discussing a menu with her did not end well, so a few days later I returned with my mother in tow. The subsequent conversation, where we explained "gluten-free," and there was some confusion over the concept of not using soy sauce (as it contains wheat), took place almost entirely in Cantonese, and resulted in the construction of the following menu:

• Yao Chao Guai and Prawn wrapped in tofu skin - a cold dish is a standard starter
  
• Vegetable and Tofu Soup (gluten-free) - this was in place of a 'shark fin' soup, traditionally served to indicate wealth.
  
• Sweet + Sour Fish - fish is traditionally served because 'fish' is a homophone for 'plenty'
  
• Fried Rice (gluten-free)
  
• Chicken Curry - a red chicken indicates 'good life'
  
• Mixed Vegetables (gluten-free)
  
• Char Siew Pork - pig is also traditional, though largely irrelevant nowdays
  
• Mee Hoon (gluten-free) - noodles indicate longevity

photo by Trev

Independent of the catering provided by Lotus, we also had fruit (as is traditional) for dessert, with wedding cupcakes, the recipe to which will follow in due course.

The quoted cost per head was $23.00, for an estimated 120 people, and we provided the tamari to be used as the soy sauce substitute.

A week before the wedding, there was some discussion that the mock meat being used in Perth might not be vegan. To avoid any confusion, my mother spoke to the owner, being very specific about whey being on the ingredient lists for any of the meats, and in the end was confident that the only mock meat being used for the wedding was vegan.

On the day, L and M went to collect the food, but due to a mix up no payment had been made. This problem in payment was perhaps our problem for not following it up in advance, but also the restaurant's problem, as they had known in advance that a third party would be collecting the food.

The noodles and the rice, which were supposed to be gluten free, turned up with fake meat in them, rendering them potentially harmful to coeliacs.

These technical hitches aside, the food was excellent, to the point that many omniverous and vego friends alike asked for the restaurant's details. The curry especially had a brilliant flavour, though it was very spicy. In hindsight, the dishes should have been reordered so the curry was followed by the rice.

Lotus provided the food only, serving etc was performed most excellently by L + M, and a few other acquaintances that we enlisted (and paid).

Overall, the food from Lotus, cooked to order, was excellent, but I would only recommend them as caterers if you speak Cantonese and remember to work it all out beforehand, or if you don't wish to change or substitute ingredients at all.

If you are going to the restaurant, I recommend ordering off the menu, rather than taking the buffet - it's always really tasty.


Lotus Vegetarian Restaurant
U1+2, 220 James Street
Northbridge

the moon, northbridge

The Moon has such a varied reputation in Perth. It's well-known as the late night munchie restaurant, and it's a bit smoky, and a bit skanky, whenever you pass on by.

At six, for an early evening meal, though, it's delightful. Last week a large group of us ventured in and sprawled out in the back room, taking up about half of that space. It was quite stifling, which was a bit uncomfortable, but the light was lovely and it was such a pleasant space to spend an hour of my evening.

The Moon's Vege Burger is a gigantic piece of work, piled high with vegetables and a delicious patty, spread across with pesto. The entire burger is vegan (or at least was last time I asked, and I assume it continues the same), and it's always too much for me to eat on my own.

The moon also does a tasty soy smoothie (not pictured).

There are not many other vegan things on the Moon's menu, but the burger, at the least, is worth it.




The Moon
2/323 William St
Northbridge