Mom Dumpling House

Perth people LOVE to talk about food. So while I was meeting up with a friend over in Melbourne, at Chin Chin no less, we got to talking about dumplings in Perth. Well, more like the distinct lack of good dumplings Perth has to offer.

The dim sum is pretty fair over in Perth but what I am always looking for is straight up dumplings. I love them and every Chinese restaurant we go to, I always try one dumpling dish, usually xiǎo lóng bāo, and thus far I have been sorely disappointed.

So, during our animated conversation, my lovely friend offered up the answer to my dumpling prayers...Mom Dumpling House.

We hopped over the river one night and service was friendly straight away. It wasn't very busy, which concerned us a bit, but nice to not have to wait.

Ignoring the distinct lack of crowds, we focused on our priority. Dumplings! And there were a good few choices. But another dish caught out eye, the oxtongue salad. This may sound strange but the combination of the spicy sauce with the the cucumber, slivers of buttery cold tongue, topped with crunchy nuts is heavenly. The tongue is surprisingly tender and I would recommend this to anyone that wants to venture into the delights of offal.

And the dumplings? We chose the pan fried pork dumpling and the steamed chive, pork & shrimp dumpling, along with some vegetables to keep it extra healthy. They pretty much all came out together which meant we could enjoy them all at once allowing us to savour our favourites.

And there was much to savour. Aside from dim sum, most places in Perth serve up dumplings that are clearly from a freezer bag. The difference with Mom Dumpling House is that they taste as though they were made fresh, in the hands of an expert.

Try them and you will see what I mean ... and you will never go back to those freezer bag insults they call dumplings elsewhere!

Beaver's Tail Social Club

This place is the cutest little cafe I have ever laid eyes on. Found via Urban Spoon and it just called out to be written about.

Looking for a nice breakfast place in St Kilda, there were a whole heap of suggestions, with established institutions like Galleon. But there was something about Beaver's Tail that caught my interest so we decided to take a gamble.

It's small, but that is the centre of its charm, along with the lovely couple who own and run the place. Every detail is gorgeous, eclectic with a bit of quirky fun. I would want to steal very item in the shop, if the owners weren't so darn lovely.

I have difficulties with caffeine, so I stuck the hot chocolate, which was hands down the best one I've ever had outside of Poland. As a reluctant caffeine abstainer, I always envy the effort that is put into elaborate, heavenly looking coffee, so I was very pleased that Beaver's Tail treat hot chocolate with just as much care and attention.

Mr Pham had a toastie that was lovely and just a little bit fancy. I was overjoyed to see one of my favourite breakfasts, often neglected by many establishment, of boiled egg and soldiers on the menu. To me a soft boiled egg and buttery toast to dip into it are one of life's greatest and simplest of pleasures. The eggs were perfect, which the chef very sweetly checked with me once I had cracked them open.

There is something very special about Beaver's Tail Social Club. It felt like having a lovely breakfast cooked for you by a very dear friend. But I think its most endearing quality was the feeling of a very warm welcome. Not thrown in your face by over zealous staff but from the sense of joy and happiness that resonated in everything, from the décor, the owners and the food.

Chin Chin

After crowd sourcing Melbourne restaurant recommendations on Facebook, one place came out on top... Chin Chin. So our first meal in Melbourne, it had to be.

Lucky for us, we were meeting with a Melbonite friend, who wisely headed there half an hour early to get us on the list. Thank goodness, because by the time we were seated there was a four hour wait. Four hours? The food was good, but not that good.

There is , however, a reason for the near hysteria this place has created. Firstly, it looks really cool inside. The interiors are as flash and funky as their website. The staff are extremely clued up on the food they are serving you, from how many dishes you should order, how to balance your choices and in depth information on each of the dishes that arrived at our table. And most importantly, the food is excellent.

Following expert advice, we ordered five dishes. Two entrées, a salad, a noodle dish and a larger meat dish. There was a mixture of Viet, Thai, Indian, Sir Lankan, Malaysian and Chinese influences to name a few. That might seem a bit muddled but it was mostly a beautiful flow of some of the finest aspects of Asian cuisine.

The highlights of the meal were definitely the pork 'roll ups' and the Crispy barramundi and green apple salad with caramelised pork, although a special mention must be given to the excellent (if a little tardy) cocktails that came up from the bar below.

The barramundi salad was simply mind blowing and the roll ups were fragrant, fresh and balanced. Although this place sets the tone of adventurous dinning I get the feeling it would be hard to resist ordering the same things again, when you know they are so darn good! And a return visit is definitely a must.

Someone's got a favourite new sushi joint!

After failing to pick up some sushi for lunch from our newly discovered local sushi place (it was closed!) I was a bit grumpy at my lovely man when he turned up with a 'cooked chuck'. So after a long day of tearing out our oven, amongst other things, we decided to wash off the paint and head out for a quick dinner.

With Sushi still in my mind, we decided to check out the relatively new Mr Munchies on Beaufort St and it was freakin awesome!

I have been truly impressed by the standard of Japanese food here in Australia. Back in the UK I thought Japanese food, of all kinds, was nice but nothing to pee your pants over. Clearly I just hadn't had the good stuff.

Just your average little Japanese place here is better than fancy pants places over in the UK and Mr Munchies is a great example of that. We had a Chicken Lover Roll ( grilled Teriyaki chicken, avocado, tamagoyaki topped with mayo, spring onion & karraage), one of the special rolls and a Mr Munchies Roll (tiger prawn fritters with crab sticks, sweet eggs and avocado served with chilli mayo). The Mr Munchies Roll we made large and thank goodness! It was the most delicious out of three awesome choices.

The staff were super friendly and seemed jazzed to be working in such an great place. The food was fresh and super tasty but, most importantly, it was great value for money. Now, I am a huge fan of Aisuru on William St but I have to say that Mr Munchies could actually better as well as cheaper.

From now on, just call me Mrs Munchies.