[Travel Melbourne] 茶记 HK Cafe Melbourne - HK Cha Chaan Teng

It was that time of the year again! Travel buddies gathered, planned and off we went to Melbourne in Sep 2024. Always grateful to have Hence, Tracy, Ivan and this year, Shermaine!

My first meal in Melbourne for this trip, was at the HK Cafe nearby our accommodation, Mantra on Russell Melbourne. Was super apologetic to Hence, Tracy and Ivan (and also Salina!) who waited for Shermaine and myself to arrive and by the time we were done with check-in, it was already 220pm. Thank you for waiting!

It was just a few minutes walk to the cafe after hotel check-in, so we didn't know it then but eventually we revisited the cafe once more as the menu had other things that we wanted to try.

Loved that their menu is on display outside of the shop, so one could decide what they want to eat even before stepping into the shop. For dining in, one could inform the staff the number of pax and they will look for a table for you. Might need to share table, but thus far, our party of 5 or 6 pax were big enough to warrant a table for ourselves.

There's a QR code on each table and once could view the online menu and place order. Payment is made online as well. Once submitted, the staff will bring out the beverages first and followed promptly with the food orders. At peak hours, some of the dishes may encounter a longer time to be ready. From our experience, all our food were served within 10-15 minutes of ordering.

Fried Spam and Three Eggs Rice @$15.80

Egg Sauce with Shallots and Shrimps Rice @$16.80

Super loved the 3 eggs with spam rice. Just simple soy on top of the eggs with runny yolk, and deliciously oily spam pieces. Yums!

Curry Fishballs (12 pcs) @$14.80

are you a fan?

HK Style French Toast with Maple Syrup @$8.80

there's peanut butter inside the french toast!

Sprite with Sour Plum @$6.80

Red Bean with Ice Cream @$8.80

First time trying the Red Bean with Ice Cream drink and it was better than expected. A dessert-drink and pretty filling!

On second visit, we ordered new things to try.

Spam with Double Eggs with Nissin Noodles Soup @$12.80

Ivan had the Nissin noodles and it took the longest to arrive. We had already finished half of ours when it arrived.

Baked Curry Beef Brisket Rice @$18.80

Satay Beef Rice @$15.80

Baked Pork Chop Rice @$18.80

The baked rice here was a good choice, especially the classic baked pork chop rice with the stringy melted cheese and as attested by Shermaine who was on her way in taking a bite before I stopped her for a photo. Oops!

nice and hot

The curry and satay sauce were of different flavours than what I am used to in Malaysia/Singapore. It is milder for the HK version and satay sauce was just in general, quite different.

But the beef here was nice and tender.

Chu Hou Paste Beef Brisket Noodles Soup @$14.80

my favourite noodles

I was very happy with my bowl of comforting beef brisket noodles soup. Chunks of tender beef with some tendons/fats, springy noodles and warm broth. Satisfied.

The ice-lemon tea can be requested to be sweetened or unsweetened. I prefer sweetened and it was just nice.

ice-lemon tea

All in all, the staff are generally friendly and efficient. We conversed in either Cantonese, English or Mandarin.

If you need additional customization to your dishes, do order and inform the staff at the counter.

茶记 HK Cafe Melbourne

Address: 171 Russell St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia

Website: http://hkcafe.com.au/

Contact: +61452391282

Business Hours:

Daily 11:30 am–9 pm

[Travel] What I ate at Petaling Street (Chinatown) during Lunar New Year Part 3 - Restoran Nasi Ayam Kam Kee

Final installment of what we ate at Petaling Street 2024. Read more about Part 1 and Part 2.

Lunch

Restoran Nasi Ayam Kam Kee

We were supposed to check out by 1230pm, so went over to this chicken rice shop that's just nearby to the famous Michelin Bib one, which we also tried before some years back.

My sis says Kam Kee is not bad, so here we are to have a quick lunch before we head back to our hometown.

shop front

menu

The shop seems to be specializing in kampong chicken, but we didn't order that because my parents (and myself too!) are getting on with age, and we prefer not to work our jaws that much.

The lady boss is friendly with a sense of humor while the younger chap wears a more serious face and seldom interact with the customers except to accept payment when the meal is done.

We ordered roasted and steamed chicken drumsticks, one portion of charsiew and one portion of roasted pork. For vegetables, we chose the beansprouts. They have other things like curry mutton, beef soup (!) which are uncommon for a chicken rice shop, no?

Food was served a few minutes after we ordered.

food is here

chicken rice

The rice here is flavourful and not oily.

steamed chicken drumstick

roasted chicken drumstick

roasted pork

blanched beansprouts

char siew

We were pretty surprised by the texture of the chicken. We looked at one another and wondered why their normal chicken has similar chewy-ness as kampong chicken? Haha, not too tough but it wasn't exactly the 'normal' chicken that we were expecting. 

The best sauce award goes to the char siew. But health-wise, you might want to stay away from all the charred bits (which came up to quite a bit). But I liked these charred  bits...

The taugeh (beansprouts) looked nondescript but it was tasty! And juicy!

And, our meal was the most cost effective through-out our stay at Petaling Street as it came up to RM66 for all the food that we had and fed 5 adults comfortably.

Address: 42, Jalan Sultan, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Contact: +60176294188

Business Hours:

Closed on Wed.

Thu - Tue: 10 am to 3 pm

Kelim Dakdoritang (계림닭도리탕) @ Kensington Park (Serangoon Gardens)

Hence asked if I would like to join him and Tracy for lunch at Kelim Dakdoritang. I said "Ok" as I was curious on this dish loaded with mountain of minced garlic that I saw in instagram recently. Haven't tried any and didn't see much of it during previous travels to Seoul. Searched it up a bit and dakdoritang (닭도리탕) is essentially a spicy chicken stew. 

shop front

menu

We did not make any reservations (and from what I read online, seems like walk-ins are encouraged). Reached the place at about 12.45pm and there was a queue. Put up your name so that you are in queue. Staff will periodically scan this list (usually after the earlier table had left) and call out to the party or phone them. From what we saw, the staff will usually call more than once.

We waited for more than half hour and then it was finally our turn. It might be a longer wait if the person in front of our queue had turned up.

Orders were quickly placed as we were hungry. Opted for the Dakdoritang (small) as there were only 3 of us, and added the Jumeokbap (DIY Flying Fish Roe Seaweed Roll) and the Grilled Semi Dried Squid.

Jumeokbap 주먹밥 @$9.90

mix it yourself (cr: Tracy's hand)

Jumeokbap is literally translated as 'fist-rice', so am guessing you need to make one as big as a fist? Hmmm, kid's size fist will do for me!

tasty rice ball

Next up, I was curious about semi-dried squid. It looked like a regular dried squid and thankfully, not tough. It was still chewy and the squid was flavourful.

Grilled Semi Dried Squid @$20.90

rice ball with grilled squid toppings

And then, our stew arrived. Small is a good size for 3-pax. And indeed, there was a mountain of minced garlic in the stew. We added the King Oyster mushroom with a top-up of $5.

Dakdoritang @$36.90

The stew itself came with potato chunks, chicken (fresh chicken is used) and rice cake (ttokpokki). The MVP were the chicken and the potato!

let it boil up

enjoy!

We requested for one level up of spice for our stew when we ordered and the spiciness was not too strong. It was just a hint only.

The broth tasted good and appetising, chicken parts tender (even for the breast meat) and potatoes were so good! The chicken itself was flavourful and overall, this dish was somewhat comforting.

yummy

And then when you're done with the meat, just indicate to the staff that you'd like to have the handmade noodles. The stew comes with complimentary noodles but if you would like more, then it is also $5 per topping.

kalguksu added

The noodles takes a while to cook so just let it boil and you'll notice when the texture becomes softer.

not yet

noodles is ready

Unlike ramen when we could undercook it a little, the handmade noodles tasted doughy if you eat it before it is fully cooked. Unless, you like this texture... hahaa!

And we are not done yet, there's one more portion of rice after you're done with the noodles. Staff will scoop up the excess stew and place them in a separate bowl and leave just enough liquid to do the fried rice in the same pot.

fried rice in-progress

mix it around

flatten it

done

let's eat!

Depending on the staff that did the table-side fried rice,  the end outcome might be slightly different. For ours that day, the rice didn't achieve the desired slight crisp at its bottom but that's ok too. I enjoyed the meal, though the place tend to be crowded during weekends.

The meal fed all 3 of us sufficiently, and more. It was rather filling with the potatoes, noodles and rice and we also had jumeokbap, so double double of that rice. Expect to spend about $35 per pax without alcohol for a hearty meal.

Kelim Dakdoritang (계림닭도리탕)

Address: 14B Kensington Park Road Singapore 557265

Website: https://www.kelimdakdoritang.com.sg/

Contact: 6241 4241

Business Hours:

Daily:

11:30 am - 2:30 pm (last order)

5:30pm - 10:00pm (last order)

Yi Zun Noodle 伊尊老字号拉面 @ Joo Chiat

Was doing a staycation nearby, so suggested to the Easties to try Yi Zun for lunch. It's about 12 to 15 minutes walk from the hotel. With weather soaring, it was nice to have a meal in an airconditioned place. The interior of the restaurant was lovely. It wasn't busy yet on a Saturday afternoon as people seemed to be congregating more towards cafes and the newly opened Banh Mi places.

interior

we were seated at the round table

nice decoration

Staff was super casual and friendly. He informed us that we could order via the QR code on the table or just call him over when we are ready.

First things first, we ordered a jug of the sour prune juice (酸梅汤) to quench our thirst.

Sour Prune Juice @$5++

refreshing!

We ordered appetisers, a bowl of signature beef noodles and some skewers to try. Staff informed that the skewers need longer time to prepare hence, it is better to order it early.

Pickled Cucumber 酱黄瓜 @$4.80++

Chilled Shredded Beancurd Skin 凉拌干张丝 @$3.80++

Chilled Pickled Black Fungus 凉拌木耳 @$3.80++

Spicy Beef Tripe 香辣凉拌牛肚 @$7.80++

My favourite appetisers would be the pickled cucumber and the spicy beef tripe. Both are so yums! Black fungus was good too but the cucumber was best.

Signature Beef Noodles 伊尊牛肉面 @$10.80++

thin lean beef slices

scissors to cut the noodles

We chose the thick noodles as the wide noodles either sold out or not available. It was a good choice. The beef broth was clear and flavourful. Mild and not overly seasoned. The noodles were QQ and lovely to eat. If you're used to fattier cuts of meat, then the slices here will be overly lean. However, it provides a good mild taste to the overall dish. 

Can add some chili oil provided on the table, to elevate the flavours up a notch.

chili oil

I was impressed when the skewers were served to the table. Such big skewers! We ordered a variety of skewers; chicken, beef, mutton and lamb chop.

assorted skewers

The best skewer was the mutton skewer. Well grilled, juicy meat and adequate seasoning on the meat. Very good! Must order. 

Mutton Skewer 红柳羊肉串 @$3.50++ (per skewer)

If you prefer something fattier, then go for the lamb chop.

Lamb Chop 羊排串 @$6++

Overall, the signature noodle was a comforting flavourful bowl if you prefer something soupy. The chilled appetisers were good too, especially the pickled stuffs. For skewers, my must eat would be the mutton skewer. So good.

Price is rather reasonable too. 

Yi Zun Noodle 伊尊老字号拉面

Address: 60 Joo Chiat Rd, #01-08/09, Singapore 427726

Website: https://www.yizunnoodle.com/menu/joo-chiat

Contact: 6909 9287

Business Hours: 

Daily: 11 am–9:30 pm