Kimchi Hut - Part 3

185 Coleman Pde
Glen Waverley, VIC 3150
Ph:9574 8383

Kimchi Hut has been one of my favourite Korean cheap eats since it opened more than two years ago. There is nothing particularly innovative about the food, just that it's done better than at other Korean restaurants. I go there so often that I never think about reblogging it again as my last review on it was over two years ago. So I've decided to post my most recent visit there.

In the two years that it's been open, they haven't tweaked the menu at all and equally the quality hasn't dropped. The prices have gone up about a dollar a dish but I think it still presents excellent value for money. On this particular night, our group of 6 enjoyed our usual selections of dishes. The Mild Beef soup is one of my favourites. A clean soup gets infused with flavours from the vegetables, beef and rice cakes. There is a dipping sauce for the beef which consists of soy, mustard and a raw egg which coats the beef to make it smooth and also give it a slight kick. I love it.



The other mains we had are the Beef Bulgogi (above left), Jap Chae, Spicy Pork and Beef Ribs. It's quite meat heavy but we all love our sizzling meats. The bulgogi is one of the better ones in Melbourne, with the right amount of sweetness. I'm not a massive fan of Jap Chae at any time, and I think this one is ok too. The others liked it a lot more than me. I do however, love their Spicy Pork and Beef Ribs. The spicy pork used here is slightly more fatty and I'm a fan of that. I should also make a mention of their banchan, which I really like. Their kimchi is one of my favourites and I like the sweet potato as well. The jelly with the sweet soy is not bad either.



Desserts at Asian restaurants always seem to be an after-thought, and it's not different here. The standard fare of ice cream and ice cream with canned fruits are on offer. Sometimes I'll go with the mixed ice cream (green tea, sesame, red bean) and sometimes I'll pass. Why don't you put more thought into your desserts all you Asian restaurant owners out there? I beg of you to please improve them. We don't want just ice cream and fried bananas every time.

Besides the lack of dessert, everything else is to my liking. The family that runs the restaurant are really nice people and do a good job with service. The hired staff are equally friendly and efficient. It's constantly full in the restaurant so book ahead and be prepared for lots of noise. It's not too loud that you can't hear each other but a good level of buzz. I would definitely recommend eating here with a larger group, as you can share dishes as some of the soups and table meat cooking require more people.

Overall Rating: 15/20, Great simple food at very good prices.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

D.O.C. Pizza and Mozzarella Bar

295 Drummond St
Carlton, VIC 3053
Ph:93472998

D.O.C Pizza and Mozzarella Bar has been on my radar for a while now. I'm not sure where I first heard about it but I know that I always say I will visit it when I'm in the Lygon area but inevitably forgot. I'm glad that I finally tried it as I will be a returning customer for sure. Unlike some of the other supposed Italian places along Lygon, the pizzas here are stunningly simple and delicious, tasting like the thin crust pizzas that I had in Italy on my holidays recently.


We had the Assortment of Cured Meat Platter to start. A large wooden board help an assortment of prosciuttos, bresaola, salami and ham were accompanied by a beautiful mozzarella. I really liked all the cured meats and the salty meats went perfectly with the creamy mozzarella.


A simple Porcini Mushroom Pizza was elevated with some truffle oil. The crisp base was a highlight, in contrast to some soggy bases of pizzas from other places.


My favourite part of every meal, dessert, was a major highlight. The Goats Cheese Tiramisu sounds strange but was extremely delicious. It was so smooth and creamy and one of the best Tiramisu I've eaten.


The service was simple and relaxed, with the waiters giving their most Italian service, constantly saying "prego". The ambiance was equally relaxed, with convivial diners enjoying their night. I would definitely be returning to sample some of the other pizzas as they all looked extremely delicious.

Here are some other bloggers reviews:
Sarah Cooks
Half Eaten

Peko Peko

190 wells
South Melbourne, VIC 3205
Ph: 96861109

I was invited to attend a bloggers lunch at Peko Peko by Sarah and Vanessa from Nuffnang. I arrived on the day to find Michele, Billy and Gem and Tristan as well.

Peko Peko is located in South Melbourne and was where Vanessa used to work. I also later found out another friend used to work there as well. Small world. Vanessa showed us her photo on the wall of fame. She also invited us to look around at the art work done by Jack, the owner and an ex-graphic designer.



The art work was extremely interesting, if at times a bit macabre in a fun type of way, if that's possible. I liked the drawing below of the birds taking what they needed and also the "man-period" drawing. Lots of cute little ornaments surround the counter area and give diners lots of visual stimulus.



Sarah was running late so we did what all good bloggers did, we started eating without her. We had an assortment of entrees to start with. The Silky Egg Tofu with Tempura Sprinkles was a simple dish but I loved it. Notice my photo of the dish with only half the dish cropped, it's my duplication of the Michele/Donna Hay style photography. Other entrees included Wasabi Mayo Prawn, Peko Sausages, Salt and Chilli Calamari and Pepper Squid Ball. Each was very delicious, with my favourite being the crisp and tender calamari. I was most interested in the Peko Sausage, as it was a Taiwanese type of sausage which I had never tried before. It was like a sweet pork sausage, and once we had it was the raw garlic, was a great dish.



The mains contained Pop Chicken, Crispy Honey Beef, Mince Mince, Chilli Calamari and Taiwan Sausage. Sides of vegetables were also served. The Pop Chicken was my favourite of the dishes. How can you not love fried chicken right? I found the Crispy Honey Beef to be quite nice, although a bit too salty. It needed to go with more rice but I was already quite full. The mince is comfort food that my mum makes, with pork and eggs stewed in soy. Finally, the chilli calamari again was good but a tad salty. I loved the crispness of the vegetables and Michele and I were wondering what the delicious sauce was. We were commenting that it's on all Japanese type salad. We have since found out that it is Roasted Sesame dressing.



Finally, my favourite part of dessert did not disappoint. There was quite a few options on the menu and Michele and I were quite greedy and ordered three of them to try between the two of us. The Cheese Cake Duo contained a fluffy Japanese style cheese cake, which I have made previously. It's sinfully delicious as it's totally deceptive. It tastes so light but is actually laced with cream cheese, cream, eggs and sugar, love it. The Yoyo Pancake was a warm cake enveloping a smooth custard. It was served with ice cream drenched with syrup, how can you go wrong. Finally, the Earl Grey Pannacotta was the perfect texture and laced with the flavour of tea. It went beautifully with the sesame ice cream.




That rounded out an extremely satisfying meal with my fellow food bloggers. I really enjoyed the food here and would come back if I was in the area. The restaurant was filled with many locals all happily enjoying a relaxing lunch in a comfortable surrounding, which must be a good sign.

Thanks to Jack from Peko Peko and Nuffnang for my complimentary meal.

My Favourite Post For 2010

This month's Nuffnang Christmas Bloggers Challenge is to pick our favourite blog post for the year and explain why that is so. The prize for the winning entry is an iPad, that magical device that will revolutionise the world. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit and showing that I'm an Apple fanboy, but it is an extremely beautiful device that I would love to get my hands on and play with. So here is my entry for the competition with my favourite blog post and why I thought it was the best.

Joy To The World
Joy to the world, the iPad is come!
Let earth receive her bling;
Let every heart prepare Apple room,
And geeks and housewives sing,
And geeks and housewives sing,
The iPad, is the, most beautiful thing.

Joy to the world, the iPad reigns!
Let me win this new toy;
With my blogging, I've racked my brains,
Thinking of my best post,
Thinking of my best post,
I have, found my, real mccoy.

My favourite post, was not about Poh,
Nor how Heston astounds;
Instead, it was, related to gateaux
The land where this chef was found,
The land where this chef was found,
France was, Nic Poelaert's, home town.

My interview with Nic had truth and grace,
And showed his passion and groove,
Discussions of Nic's restaurant Embrasse,
And all the food Nic loves,
And all the food Nic loves,
Made this post, my favourite, of the year.

Izakaya Den

114 Russell Street
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Ph:9654 2977
Website:Izakaya Den

It started with a tweet. That seems to be a recurring theme nowadays. I must say that I was anti-Twitter at the start, got Twitter addiction a month into it, weaned myself off cold turkey and now using it in a more moderate way. I still don't think it's the best tool for in depth discussion, but it does have its uses, such as finding out about interesting events/info and organising real life food blogger meetups. See our previous example of Cuttlefish and Dried Mango Tasting. This time Naomi and I were tweeting about Simon Denton's new Good Food Guide restaurant of the year Izakaya Den. We decided that we would go and check it out, and very quickly I-Hua, Penny,Suzanne and finally Agnes got on board the Izakaya train. Some brought partners and we had a merry group of 10 eagerly anticipating the much hyped food at Melbourne's latest sweetheart.



When you walk in, you definitely feel a sense of awe with the unusually long space having maximum impact. I didn't know where to look for a while and was absorbing the various decor and the smells emanating from the kitchen. Diners were seated at the extremely long bar counter and on high bench style tables that sat 4 people. The restaurant doesn't really cater for large groups, with only a couple of larger marble tables seating groups. The 10 of us were seated very closely ("stop touching me Penny") shoulder to shoulder at one half of one large table. We perused thorough the cute scroll menu and picked a huge variety of dishes to share.



We ordered sake to share, while I-Hua and I also go Sake Mojitos. I love mojitos and sake mojitos are fantastic as well. It had a smoother flavour and was totally delicious. The first sake we ordered (which of course I'm sure no one remembers the name of) was super smooth and went down a treat. The second one was harsher and most of the others didn't like it, but I really enjoyed it too.



Then it was onto the food, glorious food. In the top photo you see the Kingfish Sashimi. Kingfish is always one of my favourite fish for sashimi and this one was fresh and went beautifully with the light dressing. The Den Fried Chicken may as well have been called the "Den Crack" as it was so addictive, better than any Karaage you'll taste elsewhere. Even the Grilled Eggplant was quite nice (thanks I-Hua for the moody red pre-flash lighting of my photo). We all thought the Black Fried Rice would be interesting, and it was a bit different but wasn't mind blowing. What was mind blowing was the Lamb Ribs with red miso, which we ordered so many serves of. You should have seen everyone just deadly silent nibbling on these ribs. They were my favourite dish of the night amongst many great dishes.



The next dish up was the Tuna Tataki, which many had tasted and raved about at this year's Taste of Melbourne festival. Look at those beautiful maroon discs (can you still call a flat square-ish piece a disc?). We polished them off and indeed they were extremely fresh and sweet. The sweet corn "kaki-age" was again at the Taste of Melbourne and were balls of sweet fried goodness. I'm always a fan of any form of octopus and the Octopus with Pickled Cucumber was quite nice, with the tanginess of the dressing working with the octopus. The Ox Tongue and Grilled Chicken Ribs were still quite good with their charred flavour, but not at the standard of the other dishes I thought.



The Wagyu Tataki looked and tasted sensational. Fatty thin (yet more oxymorons although you all know I meant fat infused meat cut into thin slices) slices of slightly seared beef were served with a soy dressing and wasabi mayo. I loved it.


After so much food, what do we do? Of course we all shout for dessert. It's with a heavy heart that I have to report that although all the food was excellent, the desserts were not. Not only were they not great, they were actually bad. They sounded so good on paper and for me as a massive dessert fan, I was really disappointed when I tasted them. The Apple Millefeullie had the look of a tiny Christmas tree and wowed us all, but it was like mixing apple with sorbet, neither here nor there in terms of any defining flavours. The Ginger Creme Brulee was actually ruined by the ginger, which just didn't work with the creme brulee. The only dish that tasted at least good was the White Sesame Mousse with Tapioca, the soft mousse giving way to a sweet filling.



Lastly, the Dark Chocolate and Yuzu Fondue was just a massive fail. The yuzu were embedded inside gelatinous balls which you dip into the chocolate. The balls didn't really have much flavour and were such a wrong texture for me to go with melted chocolate.


The service throughout the night was very good, with waiters on the ball and making sure they refilled our water and came round to take orders (even when we kept changing it) and take away plates. The ambiance was really good inside the industrial type setting. The noise didn't get too intolerable and maintained a level of buzz and excitement that I really liked.

I absolutely enjoyed the food and would definitely go back for more. It's Japanese food that is a familiar yet different, and done at a much better level than most. I only hope they will fix their dessert menu so that it will be a great overall experience in terms of the food. Even boring old green tea ice cream will be a good option.

Overall Rating: 15/20, Great savoury dishes unfortunately let down by bad desserts.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

For other reviews, check out what some other food bloggers think.
It Pleases Us
Mel Hot or Not
Bear Head Soup
I'm So Hungree
Niche
The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua