Petaling Street Malaysian Hawker Food

Location: 600 Station Street, Box Hill, VIC
Phone: (03) 9890 0972
Cuisine: Malaysian, Hawker

One of the things I miss most about Melbourne is the hawker style food you get in Box Hill. So when we found out that the place we were heading to was shut, we popped into this place.

The setup of the restaurant was done quite nicely. They managed to renovate the open kitchen to show off the chefs at work (it used to be La Porchetta) and the tables have a cute little drawer were they place serviettes in.

Chicken nasi lemak 

My theory generally is that if you walk into a restaurant which specialises in a particular cuisine, it would be silly to not order something of that cuisine. Hence the nasi lemak - coconut rice with chicken sambal and ikan bilis (dried fish). Can't say much for the ikan bilis as I'm not a huge fan, but it was crispy and tasted like it should. The coconut rice was amazing and went superbly with the chicken sambal which was bursting with flavour and just spicy enough for my liking.

Ipoh horfun 

The Ipoh horfun was also quite good, although I was a little disappointed in the lack of 'things' in the noodle soup. The steamed chicken was tender and full of flavour, although it seemed very much like Hainanese chicken - even the dipping sauce was the same. Was not very impressed when I found a piece of chicken skin which had not been cleaned properly.

Pork ribs claypot rice 

When they warned us that this dish would take longer, I certainly did not expect it to arrive after we had nearly demolished the other two dishes. And it wasn't all that worth the wait. The ribs were well flavoured, but were quite dry and a little on the overcooked side. The rice was the biggest let down though. Claypot rice usually means you get nice bits of crispy rice from the base. In this case, we got slabs of overly sticky and semi-crispy bits of rice. I couldn't work out whether it was caused by the pot it was served in or the method they had cooked it in, but I won't be going back for more claypot rice - we'll leave that for Claypot King!

 Ice kachang

Following on the theme of Malaysian foods, we finished off the meal with a bowl of ice kachang, a generous serve of shaved ice with coconut milk, red bean, grass jelly and various other Malaysian treats. Amazing flavours and the only fault I could find was the fact that they buried all the 'goodies' underneath a tower of ice that kept falling onto the table when we dug into it. 

Service was reasonably fast given how busy they were, and the food was rather impressive (and each dish was less than $10!). Will be going back to try some more of their Malaysian fare next time I'm back in Melbourne!

Overall Impression: 8.5/10

Gingerboy

Location: 27-29 Crossley Street, Melbourne
Link: www.gingerboy.com.au
Cuisine: South East Asian, Hawker

This was my second trip to Gingerboy. Having thoroughly enjoyed my first trip to Gingerboy (unreviewed), I was surprised that they managed to outperform my expectations from the last time.

Gingerboy is a hidden gem - it is tucked away in a small dingy alleyway you wouldn't really venture down unless you were in the know. The bright signage doesn't really reflect the interiors or the menu, but for that we're glad. The inside is contrastingly clean and classy looking. The downstairs sports a dining area and a bar, the upstairs has a few more tables, another bar, and a small lounge area.

We booked a table in the upstairs part of the restaurant, which turned out to be a good choice. Upstairs was quieter, perfect for a quiet dinner catch-up. We also had the near-exclusive attention of the barman (who doubled as our waiter for the night).

The food was amazing. Our first pick was the son-in-law eggs. Fellow food blog tummyrumbles recommended these eggs, which I tried on my first visit and love with them. They are a Gingerboy must-have. Nice and crisp on the outside, and smooth, creamy and gooey on the inside. The rule is that you load the eggs with the chilli jam and put the entire thing in your mouth. (Feel free to not do this, but at risk of the egg yolk exploding all over the place). This is heaven in one mouthful.

Son in law eggs, chilli jam and Asian herbs

Our other selection from the 'small dishes' list was the soy cured ocean trout. Not being a fan of raw fish in general (smoked salmon being an exception), this turned out to be almost as good as the eggs! The trout was sliced thinly, and heavily infused with a sweet soy flavour. The coconut caramel was beautiful. Light and coconutty, it was almost like a very mild Thai curry sauce, but cold. The pickled daikon and bean shoots added a nice contrasting crunch to the dish. By the end of this dish, we were practically drinking the sauce.

Soy cured ocean trout, tumeric, coconut caramel and pickled daikon

From the 'main dish' selection, we ordered the fried baby snapper and the pork belly (which I had previously ordered before).

Fried baby snapper, lime and red chilli bean sauce, lychee salad

The snapper was done quite well. The fish was well cooked - the skin was crispy and the flesh was soft. One of the waitresses even deboned the fish for us. The sauce again had the authentic south-east Asian flavours. Sweet, tangy and a little spicy. The lychee salad was an interesting but complimenting add to the dish.

Sweet and sour bangalow pork belly, cherry tomatoes and Thai basil

The pork belly dish had an amazing balance of flavours and textures. The pork belly itself, however, was a bit of a let down - the crackling was a little overcooked and that little bit too chewy and there was too much excess fat left on the pork. What should probably have been slow-cooked tasted more like it had been hurriedly cooking in a frying pan. The sauce rescued the dish with a beautiful sweet and sour sauce.

We are always excited about what the dessert menu contains, and we were extremely excited by the looks of the dessert share platter. This platter contained six samples of different desserts (of which, only five were shown on the dessert menu).

Gingerboy Dessert Share Plate (from left to right): steamed apple and vanilla buns with coconut custard; cinnamon sugared battered banana fritters with five spice ice-cream; tofu cheese cake, pandan jelly and black sesame base

The steam apple and vanilla buns were interesting, however, should probably have been renamed 'dumpling' instead of 'bun'. The wrapping was soggy and quite thin compared to what would be expected for a bun. The filling was softened apples, much like what would be found in an apple pie. The fresh slice of apple on the 'bun' did not really add much to the dish though and could probably left out.

The banana fritters were delicious though. Who doesn't like deep-fried sweet gooey goodness? The ice-cream wasn't too outstanding in that it tasted pretty much like cinnamon mixed into vanilla ice-cream and not very 'five spice' like.

The tofu cheesecake was odd. The flavours were new to us and somewhat strange tasting, but it was surprisingly nice. The black sesame base was sweet and crunchy and the pandan jelly complemented the composition well.

Gingerboy Dessert Share Plate (from left to right) : raspberry and passionfruit splice with with mint jelly; coconut sorbet; lemon pudding

The splice was again an interesting concoction and was almost like a cross between a slurpee and ice-cream. The raspberry flavour was sweet but not very overt, but the passionfruit flavours came through.

The coconut sorbet was absolutely amazing. The presentation was a little dull, but there was a strong infusion of coconut flavour. The only drawback was that the shot glass it was served in had an opening which was smaller than the spoons we were given to eat it with!

We also quite enjoyed the lemon pudding, which tasted a bit like the creamed rice at Bopha Devi but with a nice citric tang.

All in all, it was an enjoyable night. The service was pleasant, the decor was simple and classy (although high stools are not the most comfortable seating arrangements) and the food was pretty much, on the whole, amazing.

Overall Impression: 9/10