Huxtaburger... and Maedaya again!

Another day, another strike off the To Eat Hitlist.  Huxtaburger has been on my radar since Spuey and I walked past the shop when it had an 'Opening Soon' sign.  Located opposite Huxtable, this wasn't a coincidence.  Given my most favourable opinion of the mother restaurant, I was pretty keen on sampling whatever Huxtaburger was going to deliver.  The word 'burger' was a bonus.  

In the grand opening flurry, Huxtaburger underestimated the voracious appetite of the Hungry Hungry Hippo general public and in the early weeks of trade, found themselves selling out of their burgers faaaar too early in the day.  They're open 'til late' and that isn't really possible if all the burgers are gone by 6pm!  Too popular for their own good.  I'm happy to report that the supply is now meeting the demand.

Spu and I got to Huxtaburger at the reasonably early hour of 6.30pm to find all outdoor and indoor seating was taken.  It's a tiny place and only seats about 20 people all up.  Not to matter though.  Most diners are considerate and observe the unspoken rule of 'Finish your burger and vacate your seat'.  Two seats freed up while we were waiting.  Yay!

Huxtaburger sells essentially two things - hamburgers and chips.  There is a vegetarian salad but seriously, who the hell is coming for that?  It's merely an add-on for the vegetarians who have been dragged along by their carnivorous friends.  

For a child who watched a lot of 80s TV, the name of the burgers will instantly be recognised as characters from The Cosby Show which centred around Dr. Huxtable and his family.  Geddit?  Geddit?!?  Yeah, you do.

I settled on a Bills burger ($10).   Frigging yum. 

Spu had the Denise ($9), aka 'The Hot One'.  Yummo too. 

Bucket of large chips ($3).  Reminds me of childhood.  Chips are chips.  Yum.  Some complained the chips were dry, but our bucket was fine and just how I like them.  Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. 

The burgers aren't massive but they're a decent size and for thick, juicy wagyu beef patties, you can't really complain.  They're probably slightly smaller than Grill'd burgers and when you compare price, Huxtaburger is decent value.  

According to their Twitter feed (and I don't even use Twitter) the buns are from an Asian bakery.  That explains a lot.  The buns were light, fluffy and just melted in your mouth.  So much air and sugar, it was like fairy floss.  It was like there was no bun!  Kinda a good thing for as I don't like feeling full from bread consumption.  I suspect Snag Stand's fluffy brioche bun probably comes from a similar Asian bakery.  If anyone has ever had the mini burger from Breadtop ($2+?? me thinks), you'd be forgiven for mistaking them as miniature Huxtaburgers.

Right down to the glossy finish!  The meat patty is no wagyu Huxtaburger patty but still snack-able.  

Spu and I agreed with the majority.  These burgers were pretty darn good.  You could almost hear them say 'I just want to be an honest burger.  Nothing overly fancy, I just want to bring you burger goodness.'  After finishing our hanbaobaos, we were content but because I am a pig, I said, 'I think I can eat more.'  I considered ordering a second burger (?!) but then decided to make the most of being out and heading down to.... Maedaya!  Yes, I was only there a few days ago but Spuey really needed to have his shot in the Jap grill and I was honouring my promise of sampling more of the menu.  Also yakitori sticks are pretty light so we weren't going to be overly stuffed.

A note about Maedaya - it's a two level restaurant.  The ground floor offers the entire menu, whereas upstairs is designated as the BBQ grill level with a more limited selection.  I wasn't aware of that and was a little disappointed to see a shrunken version of Saturday night's menu.  It didn't matter too much because we were just after some tidbits anyway.

Your choice of calpico served with sake on the rocks.   

Table condiments include wasabi mayo, Jap BBQ sauce, some other mayo (chill?  I forgot) and sesame seeds.  A mortar and pestle is provided for your sesame seed crushing pleasure.   

Squid, scallop and chicken giblet skewers.  Soft shell crab.  Yum! 

Tuna sashimi salad.  Yum.  Gyoza.  As expected. 

See?  We didn't overdo it.  We just had dinner at two different places, that's all. 

Maedaya

After the tennis, I joined ##s (who just happened to be in town with a few of her friends) for some dinner at Maedaya Sake & Grill.  Each time Spu and I wanted to eat here, it was always a Sunday and they're not open on Sundays.  Sorry Spu - gotta eat one for the team.  

The name of restaurant includes the word 'grill' and yep, that's what you're mainly coming here for.  There is an extensive choice of yakitori skewers but for those who are not interested in the grill, then there are some other options. 

Salmon and lobster salad.  Pretty large serving.  Yums!  Grilled butter soy scallops with field mushrooms.  Yums!! 

Some of the skewers.  We had a mix plate so I can't remember what everything was.  The round ones were a bit bland though.  Not keen on ordering them again. 

Dessert.  Green teach mochi jelly dipped in honey.  

There were a few more dishes but I forgot to photograph them.  Anyway despite not liking everything we ordered, my appetite has been whet because the dishes which I did like, I liked them a lot :D  Must return and try other stuff soon! 

More Green Balls

After Monday night's tennis watching, I decided 'Hmmm, yes I will become an Australian Open Member.  I want to buy finals tickets for next year.'  Whether or not I'll actually be able to attend the finals is another story.  Oh well, I'm sure there are people out there who would happily take my ticket.  

As a result of becoming a member, I was also given two 'free' ground passes.  Yes, they're 'free' but really, the costs have been covered by my membership fee.  With two ground passes at hand, what else but to make use of them!  

Being the middle weekend of the Open, many of the better matches would be on Centre Court or Hisense Arena.  Spuey and I made sure we got there reasonably early to park our butts on the unallocated seats of Margeret Court Arena to at least guarantee seeing some seeded players.  

Our view.

My very big hat.  Fanks Moo.

A legends match.  Henri Le Conte and Guy Forget versus Richard Fromberg and Darren Cahill.  Probably one of the most entertaining doubles matches I've seen.  Henri Le Conte is a cracker.  

Spu and I also saw Makarova defeat Zvonereva, Gasquet defeat Tipsarevic and Borat national and lookalike Kukushkin defeated a clearly injured Monfils.  As usual, the women's match was a snorefest.  Gasquest and Tipsarevic gave us some action and brought out the French chanting 'Alllllleeeeeeeeeezzz!!  ' and 'Gasquet fans in the stands.  If you can hear us claps your hands!'. *clap-clap, clapclapclap, clap-clap-clap, clapclap!* 

I was looking forward to watching the gangly Monfils, however the match was disappointing.  He obviously strained something very early on in the first set and was managing only pissy 140km serves.  This gave 90-something ranked Borat ample opportunity to win free points.  It was quite painful to watch a dejected seeded player facing off a not so polished opponent.  I really thought that he would lose in straight sets after losing the first two, but Monfils held out and lost in five.  *Applause* but still, Monfils should've given Borat a beating.  What was more entertaining were the crowd.  One asked Monfils to take the game seriously and ask who was his bookie.  Other spectators cheered 'GO BORAT!' and shouted 'Veli naiiiiice'-Borat style.  You gotta love the witty crowd.  

Despite the big hat and frequent sunscreen application, I still got sunburnt.

My ridiculous one arm tan.  The sun was beating down on my left side and as a result, I protected Spu from the sun!!  

Next year, hopefully I'll be posting about the finals!!!!

Kokoro Ramen & Watching Green Balls

It's that time of the year again where people enjoy watching little green balls fly back and forth between two weapon-welding individuals. Yes, the tennis!!  More specifically the Australian Open.  

But first, one must have dinner.  It was on my to-eat list so it was a good thing that Kahunas suggested Kokoro Ramen.  I had high hopes for Kokoro.  I REALLY wanted to like it.  I thought that it would be Melbourne's ramen salvation.  Homemade noodles, a promise of a tasty broth, Japanese spoken in the kitchen. (Real? Fake?  Who knows.  In all likelihood, this is not run by Japanese folk.)  

In short:  Big promise.  Failed to deliver.  

I had the tonkotsu shio ramen broth base with pork belly.  ($13-14??  Can't remember.)

The ramen came fast enough and the egg sure looked gooey and hanjuku-y.  We were able to stipulate the tenderness of the noodles which is an indication of authencity but that's where the positives end.

I have a number of criticisms.  The slice of pork belly was FAR too fatty.  I know it's a fatty cut but this was about 10% meat and 90% fat.  Gross and inedible.  Also where were the ancillary toppings?  Bamboo shoots, black fungus, narutomaki, maybe some bean shoots?  Zilch.  The broth didn't look like the typically milky white tonkotsu pork bone broth either.  The look of the broth didn't bother me as much - how it tastes is what matters.  I could forgo all the extra toppings if the broth made me dreamy.... but it didn't.  Their big claim is no MSG but this was the most bland stock I've tasted.  I've had tonkotsu instant noodles taste better than this.  If  you're gonna claim it has no MSG, make it tasty dammit.  

I'm willing to accept that Kokoro may have had a bad night and will probably give it another bash before panning it completely.  Judging from other reviews, it looks as though I'm not the only one who wasn't impressed.  My ramen search continues....  Somewhat unsatisfied with dinner, I picked up a char siu bao on the way down to the tennis.  

On Centre Court, we were treated to some pre-game entertainment.  Daryl Brathwaite opened Night 1 of the Open with 'One Summer'.  My age and childhood addiction to Video Hits is evident!  It remained a balmy 30 degrees at 8pm when the players stepped on the court and good for us, we were going to watch one of the great players Roger Federer.  Being Night 1, he was playing some Russian ranked 100-something.  

The last time I went to the Australian Open it was 2005.  We witnessed an absolutely epic, four and a half hour, nail-biting semi-final when Safin defeated Federer.

2005 SF Safin def. Federer - match highlights.  Man, I still talk about this match being one of the greatest.  It was so stressful! 

The audio isn't great but a very good on-court interview.  We sang Safin happy birthday!!

Enough about past, onto tonight's matches.

Our view.  Yay! 

Federer serving. 

Three sets later.  Federer with Courier for the on-court interview.  Gracious as usual.

I was also impressed by a spidery camera contraption they had set up on Centre Court.  Aaaaah now I understand how they obtain those awesome panoramic shots and amazing TV angles.  

The women's match was pretty boring.  A woman undeserving of her rank, number 1 Caroline Wozniacki played an Aussie (wildcard?) and it was just a yawn fest.  We ended up leaving after the first set.  What was more entertaining were the actions of a fellow spectactor sitting in the row in front of us.  She dropped her Magnum ice cream on the ground but then picked it up and continued to eat it.  At least peel off the chocolate layer!  

Something else more entertaining than the women's match......

.... what is that on her back??? 

GROSS!  A giant moth!!!!!!! 

Oh well, that's what you get for a balmy Summer's night at the Open.

Chin Chin

Off the plane from Rad-City and it's straight to the CBD for some Pooey and Spuey eating time.  Chin Chin has been the latest 'It' restaurant in town for the past few months and we were gonna strike it off our Hitlist.  It's widely known that the wait for a table here can be up to 2.5 hours.  Seriously?  I doubt any restaurant is worth that much time.  But being 2pm on Sunday, we were given a table immediately.  Still, the restaurant was almost full.  Let's see what the fuss is all about.  

Oh yeah, it's a funky bit of space.  We are pushing into Hipster-ville though.

Spu contemplates the menu.  

The cuisine served here is best described as Pan-Asian with a heavy South-East Asian influence.  Each time I think I'm coming to terms with 'expensive' Asian food, I'm quickly reminded that I will struggle to fully convert.  In this instance, I baulked today at Chin Chin's $15 price tag for steamed kai lan with sesame oil and oyster sauce.  I will have to take into consideration that the price tag includes a bit of coolness, sitting in a clean environment, more reliably disinfected patron toilets and a kitchen whereby food hygiene standards are more likely to be enforced.  

The alcohol list is quite extensive but I should lay off the booze.  I settled on mocktail ($10??).  Some sort of fresh coconut, pineapple juice concoction.  I can't remember.  It was refreshing.  

Now for the food:

Omelette of Coffin Bay oysters with chilli and garlic sauce ($13).  Crispy barramundi and green apple salad with caramelised pork, chilli and lemongrass ($26). 

First of all, it was very obvious that the garnishes were fresh.  The omelette itself was ok.  I felt that too much sriracha chilli sauce was doused on it which destroyed my tastebuds and drowned out the flavour of everything else.  Spu thought it was ok.  Maybe the sriracha wasn't evenly distributed and I got a big mouthful.  The barramundi salad was a bit unexpected.  I didn't expect the fish to be mashed up and mixed within the salad leaves.  The fish was crispy but I felt it was overfried to the point that resulted in tough texture.  The pork was nice though.  The flavours individually were good but... so far neither of these dishes were going to be ordered again.  

Twice cooked Hopkins River beef short rib with coriander and prik nahm pla ($27).  Son in law eggs with chilli jam ($8).  

The rib was impressive because I am pleased when meat falls off the bone and melts in your mouth.  The treacle-like prik nahm pla complemented well - much like how nuoc mam makes a Viet happy.  The son in law eggs were cooked just how I like them - with a runny yolk.  In hindsight, we had egg overload and shouldn't have ordered the oyster omelette.  

The verdict?  Well, Spu and I both agreed that there was nothing deserving a huge amount of criticism.  Service was pleasant enough and while (especially the first two dishes) didn't blow us away, the food was good overall.    The rave reviews set your expectations high and this is probably the reason why I left feeling a bit ho-hum.

The flavours were certainly nothing new but the quaility of produce is what gives it an edge over your local Thai/South East Asian restaurant.  I've put it on the books for a return trip but there's no urgency.  Bearing everything in mind, Chin Chin definitely is NOT worth a 2.5 hour wait.  I'd give 30 minutes at most.  

Things You Eat When You're Alone Part XIV

Just a short-ish stint in Rad-City this time but it marks the return of Eating Alone.

Haigh's handmade chocolate bars.  ($9.40 per pack of four).  Chai flavoured on the left and cherry flavoured on the right.

Did I really need eight?  No.  But Rad-City brings the depressed eating machine out of me.  They were nice but essentially the cherry flavoured ones were just very expensive Cherry Ripe bars.