Hot Star Large Fried Chicken, Perth, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

In spite of being fairly frequent visitors to the Asian continent, Alissa and I have never tried Hot Star's famous Large Fried Chicken. There are branches of this famous Taiwanese chain in Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok, however limited time or the call of something else exciting has always meant that while we've been aware of Hot Star as a dining option, the stars have never aligned for us to visit one of their establishments overseas - or even over east for that matter. Given Perth's booming dining scene, we should have known it was only a matter of time before Hot Star would come to us. Opening in June this year, a lot of holidays and a busy work schedule delayed our visit to this fried chicken mecca, however a catch up with our friends Jason and Verity served as perfect excuse to finally dine at the Barrack St branch of this famous chain.

Mott 32, Central, Hong Kong (Alissa and Don Eat Asia)

In the lead up to our 2015 trip to Hong Kong, I happened to be walking through the local supermarket when I noticed the latest issue of Gourmet Traveller fortuitously featured an article about new restaurants in Hong Kong. The informative article featured a number of restaurants we had heard of and were considering booking tables for, with one in particular catching our eye. Named Mott 32 after the location of New York's first Chinese convenience store, the restaurant's eye popping interior design and the promise of unusual and luxe Dim Sum was enough to convince us to reserve a table for our visit, and it served as our last meal in Hong Kong before catching our flight back home to Australia.

Lung King Heen (Weekday Dim Sum Lunch), IFC, Hong Kong (Alissa and Don Eat Asia)

During our honeymoon, Alissa and I had the great pleasure of dining at Caprice, the then 3 Michelin Starred restaurant located in the Four Season Hotel in Hong Kong. Almost two years on, our dinner at Caprice remains one of the best meals of our lives, with the excellent standard of cooking equalled by some of the finest service we have ever experienced in a fine dining restaurant. With such fond memories of our meal at the Four Seasons, Alissa and I had often wondered about Lung King Heen - the hotel's 3 Michelin Starred Chinese restaurant - especially since it was the place where Mak Kwai Pui worked as a Dim Sum Chef before going on to open Tim Ho Wan. Particularly keen to try the restaurant's Dim Sum selection, Alissa and I made a lunch reservation at the first Cantonese restaurant to ever be awarded the top star rating.

Tim Ho Wan, Chatswood, New South Wales (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Okay, something that I've just got to get out of the way first - just because a certain restaurant in a chain has a Michelin star does not mean that by extension all branches of that restaurant are Michelin Starred. Some branches will invariable be better than others and even a chef as illustrious as Joel Robuchon - who has more Michelin Stars than any other chef in the world - cannot claim to have consistent 3 Star level restaurants in every territory with a Michelin Guide. Likewise, if a restaurant with Michelin stars has a branch in a territory without a Guide , it may well be Michelin Star quality cooking, but it is not by definition Michelin Starred cooking.

While Tim Ho Wan's ventures out of Hong Kong never outright claim to have stars for each outlet, they push the Michelin angle very, very hard as a selling point. However when not even all the branches in Hong Kong can claim stars, there is something disingenuous about people referring to it as Michelin Starred Dim Sum. Still, having actually eaten at the impressive Michelin starred branch in Sham Shui Po as well as the less incredible but still good Orchard Rd branch in Singapore, the idea of a Tim Ho Wan in Australia really excited Alissa and I, and we were very interested to see if the recently opened Tim Ho Wan in Chatswood would live up to the standard to which its marketing aspires.

Bateman Eating House, Bateman, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

After a long day's work, there are those nights when you just can't be bothered to cook, and driving into the Perth CBD or one of Perth's major eat streets seems like something that is not worth the time and effort. On these nights you want something a). good, b). quick and c). close, and in desperation a). is almost optional. Every suburb has its local flavour for these kind of nights, and living in Bateman we're gifted with a plethora of excellent Asian restaurants to choose from. Want killer Japanese, especially a steaming hot bowl of tonkotsu ramen? Kai's just 5 minutes from home, and is one of our favourites in Perth. Or how about an excellent bowl of authentic Kolo Mee or Hor Fun? Kitchen Inn has got us covered. Even vegan-friendly faux meat Asian is represented by Formosa Vegetarian Eating House, and it was a result of our meal there that I was given a list of even more places to check out in the Melville area. Trying to decide what to order, a customer at a nearby table recommended that we try the Spicy Hou Tou Mushrooms. Seeing me pull out a camera and take photos of our meal, he assumed that I was a blogger, and waited to see a post for Formosa appear on Urbanspoon. When it was published he got in touch with me, and kindly gave me a list of a few nearby places I hadn't tried yet, including more ramen joints to check out (always a welcome thing).

G'Fun Cafe, O'Connor, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

When talking about cheap eats, I think there's a distinction to be made between Cheap Eats and Super Cheap Eats. The Melbourne and Sydney Good Food Guide supplement for Cheap Eats draws the line at $30, and a place like Pinchos is a good example of that kind of restaurant; $30 for tapas is really good value (with drinks on top of that). At G'Fun in O'Connor, you can get an appetizer/snack, a main meal and a drink, and still get change from $10. And if you're not that hungry you can get change from a fiver just for a main meal. That's got to be one of the biggest bargains in town.























Located in what used to be an Italian Restaurant in the South St row of shops as a McDonald's and a Red Rooster, the oddly named G'Fun Cafe has been a regular haunt for my family, especially when my father and I used to work just 5 minutes away. Lunch run orders for up to 10 people were not unheard of since at prices this low its a pretty easy sell, and we still offhandedly refer to it simply as 'Cheap Chinese'. G'Fun is owned by a fairly enterprising family who have worked out that there is a profit to be made if you open up near a university and offer no-frills meals for dirt cheap prices. I used to frequent their older store in Nedlands during my UWA art school days, and recently discovered it has since been rebranded under the G'Fun name.

The interior is an odd, spartan combination of standard cafe tables and decor that seems like it came free with the store when it transitioned from Italian restaurant to feeding bargain hunters and hungry student masses.

Obviously too expensive to pull out, the old pizza oven remains, though I'm sure it has not been used for years now. Though keeping elements of the old store, G'Fun have recently renovated their counter space by moving the hot display cabinets closer to the kitchen and moving the condiment station further away - all good and logical moves to make the busy weekday lunchtime service as fluid as possible. Alissa and I came on a lazy Sunday afternoon, hence the emptiness in the photos above.

Usually we would get one or the other, but for the benefit of demonstration Alissa and I ordered two items each from their small snack selection - Stuffed Crab Claws and Spring Rolls. Both are fairly standard examples of the dishes that are probably frozen bulk buys quickly fried up for sale. Which is not to say we didn't enjoy them; the Crab meat (and probably filler) is sweet and deliciously tender, though having been in the food warmer lacks the crispness that it would have hot and fresh out of a fryer. The spring rolls are also tasty, but again suffer from a lack of crispness.

Being the noodle fiend that I am, I decided that the Dry Noodles with Roast Chicken was the way to go. The noodles were fairly standard for this type of dish, with the roast chicken being quite juicy in spite of being a piece of breast meat. The addition of some greenery helped make the dish have the semblance of healthiness and I enjoyed it for what it is and is something of a regular order for me. You're not going to be mistaking this for the handmade noodles of Kitchen Inn anytime soon, however when you're looking at paying around $6 (including a 50c dine in surcharge you can simply avoid by ordering it to go) you can't really complain.

For a point of difference, Alissa went with their Chicken Rice with Barbecue Chicken. Interestingly enough, G'Fun don't serve any pork dishes and thus make their char siu out of chicken. I've never quite understood why they do this since they make a beef curry and teriyaki fish, however I'd have to assume they must get some kind of amazing deal on bulk chicken due to the amount of food they sell during peak times, or they have religious views that preclude dining on swine. Their signage refers to their chicken rice as 'famous', and while this might be justified by G'Fun being renowned for being cheap, its definitely not the best chicken rice I've had. Chicken rice made the legit Hainanese way has a stronger, fattier flavour to the rice and a characteristic oiliness. This chicken rice is probably healthier, and has enough of the chicken flavour in the rice to be tasty by itself without any sauce. The char siu style chicken actually tastes fairly similar to real char siu, with a nice sweetness and the blackened edges signs of that smokey barbecue touch. As with the noodles, this is not going to be replacing your favourite chicken rice stall anytime soon but for $5 ($4.50 takeaway) its almost absurdly cheap.

The Verdict: Good
Okay, so its not the most exciting place to eat, but it fulfills the same role as Taka's Kitchen does for Japanese food by providing tasty Chinese at highly affordable rock bottom prices. This is not the kind of thing that is worth driving long distances for, but if you're living in the Melville area and are looking for a bargain you could do a lot worse than G'Fun Cafe. A word of warning though; Alissa and I have repeatedly made the mistake of driving to G'Fun for a weekend dinner only to find the place closed; they only do a lunch service on Saturdays and Sundays, and their opening hours are always a little off-kilter around public holidays.

Hometown's Kitchen, Parkwood, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

My work colleagues always seem a little bemused when I talk passionately about food, or predictably respond with 'dinner plans' when I'm asked what I'm doing this weekend. For some its the fact that I'm 'mad' enough to pay fine dining prices for a meal, while others think of food in such utilitarian concepts that even just using Urbanspoon to find good places to eat nearby is a strange, alien concept. Still, as much as they think me a little odd, they can be quite supportive. Knowing I'm always on the lookout for new places to try, one colleague handed me a menu to a Malaysian Chinese restaurant called Hometown's Kitchen, located in the middle of suburbia in Parkwood. He hadn't eaten there himself, but  he grabbed a pamphlet as a hot tip for me to follow up on since they claimed to have the best Laksa in Perth according to SBS. I don't go out for Laksa very much as my mother makes a killer version of the dish that is far better than most I've tried, but such a major claim as 'Best Laksa in Perth' had to be investigated.

The restaurant is a fairly large, deep space with the middle and left side of the room filled with large round tables...

...while the right side is populated with two-seater tables. Note the funky green chairs.

We ended up visiting Hometown's Kitchen twice before writing this post, and on both occasions we went with a starter of Chinese-style Salt and Pepper Squid. A dish commonly found  in Chinese 'Combination Plate' eateries either hard and dry from being in a food warmer, or soggy and lacking crispness due to sweating from being covered in a food warmer, Home Town's version was delightfully crunchy and fresh tasting, with a nice saltiness. One thing I find with badly made Salt and Pepper Squid is that it can be outrageously oily, but thankfully this version did not suffer from this problem. The garlic, chilli and spring onions tossed with the squid was addictively tasty, leading Alissa to ask; 'why is it so nice?'

For our first visit, we decided to go with a bowl of the Laksa each. There are a lot of really weak Laksa's in Perth with a feeble yellow colour and watery consistency, so its was heartening to see Hometown Kitchen's version was a fiery orange-red. Tasting the Laksa gravy, I was happy to find that it was indeed a very good, very hot Laksa; having a good balance of coconut and prawniness, and brimming with prawns, chicken and sliced fish cake. Though I consider the thick Laksa mee to be the most authentic noodles, as a fan of yellow mee I was happy with the yellow mee and bee hoon combination served. What I did think was missing from the dish was a decent garnish of daun kesum, something I have fond memories of my father liberally piling onto his bowl. I mean, its use is so synonymous with this dish that its even known simply as laksa leaf, so its omission was a little disappointing. 

We were pretty full by this stage, so we decided to share a Red Bean Pancake with Ice Cream for dessert. This was excellent; better than a similar dish we had eaten when we went for Xiao Long Bao in Singapore. The pancake was nice and crispy on the outside but had that nice chewy texture on the inside, with a lovely red bean filling on the inside. As with the Salt and Pepper Squid, it wasn't super oily tasting either. Served here with a simple but effective scoop of vanilla ice cream, Alissa and I were both very satisfied with our meal.

So much so, we decided to come back for a second visit to try their main dishes. For our entree we again had the Salt and Pepper Squid, with the first main being a sizzling plate of Spicy Pork Belly from their 'Hometown's Special' menu. This was reminiscent of the Pork Spare Ribs in House Black Vinegar Sauce that we had at Monogamous Chinese in Hong Kong, though less vinegary. The pork belly slices were deliciously unctuous as expected, and we both liked the thick, treacly sauce and the abundance of dried whole chillis in the dish. It was a nice enough dish, however it was a little heavy-handed in the onion department; a typical Chinese restaurant bulking technique that I'm not a huge fan of. In the end, Alissa and I agreed that while we liked this dish, the Pork Spare Ribs from Monogamous Chinese was a better variation on this basic idea.

Alissa and I are fanatical about Sizzling Tofu with Chicken and Salted Fish, so we decided to try the Beancurd-Tofu, a dish of Japanese tofu served with spicy chicken mince with homemade sauce. As with everything we've had here, Hometown did not hold back on the chilli content, making for another hot dish. As with the previous dish, there was a lot to recommend it - the tofu had a nice crispy outer coating that gave way as soon as you even moved it, and the chicken mince was tasty - but in comparison to the usual Sizzling Tofu with Chicken and Salted Fish we had to admit it just was not as good.

I was pretty full by this stage, however Alissa was feeling greedy for dessert and wanted to try the cold Bobo Cha Cha as she had not had it before, and has a deep-seated fear of missing out on something that could be amazing. I'm not a fan of Bobo Cha Cha so didn't try any of it, however as much as Alissa liked it she said she would have preferred the Chendol that would have been her second choice.

The Verdict: Very Good
I'm not sure if I would call Hometown's Kitchen's Laksa the best in Perth as I haven't ever had a bowl that I find quite as satisfying as what my mother makes, however it definitely is one of the better Laksas in town - especially when you consider how many place serve up terrible, watery versions of this dish. Their Red Bean Pancake and Salt and Pepper Squid were amongst the best versions of each dish that we've had, however while the main dishes we ordered during our second visit were very good and satisfying in their own right, they were simply outclassed by similar dishes Alissa and I have had elsewhere. Still, in spite of these lesser dishes, there was enough good here for us to come back with a larger group to try something else from the extensive menu, as well as a repeat of our first Salt and Pepper Squid, Curry Laksa and Red Bean Pancake meal.

Daisy's Cafe, Jandakot, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Working in the Cockburn Central area has its perks. Driving down the freeway against the flow of traffic is one of them, as is being able to bring my bike on the train for the same reason. Nevertheless, I can't help feel a little jealous of CBD workers knowing I could be eating Dosukoi or Nao everyday or popping in for a banh mi at City Provisions. With less choices immediately available you've really got to search harder to find interesting places to eat in Cockburn Central, and Daisy's Cafe is one of my favourite finds in the area.

Located east of the Freeway on Berrigan Drive near Glen Iris Golf Course, Daisy's Cafe is in the middle of nowhere even by Cockburn standards. Its name and appearance give away very little about what kind of food they serve, and I'd bet there are many locals who have no clue its a Chinese restaurant. The plain and slightly cluttered interior does little to suggest it is anything other that a regular suburban Chinese, however with a menu that includes such interesting items such as 'Typhoon Shelter King Prawn' and 'Yam Duck', I had to try them out. 

Being a work lunch break, the more interesting items were going to have to wait for another visit with Alissa. I instead went with the Combination Hor Fun. Immediately, I was impressed with the amount of meat included, as it was similar to what I would expect from a home cooked version of the dish, not the usually stingy quantity given in many Chinese restaurants. 

Tipping it into a bowl so I could stir it up, I discovered the added bonus of juicy prawns buried beneath the surface! Tastewise, this was a very good hor fun - far better than the disappointing version served to us at Two Chefs in Singapore, with a good egg to noodle ratio. The egg was still saucy and not set in spite of it having been driven back to the office in a plastic container. The noodles were cooked expertly, having that nice char taste of being cooked in a wok and the seasoning and sauces used were in perfect balance.

Two weeks later, Alissa and I visited Daisy's together. Alissa was a bit hangry (hungry and angry) from a long, frustrating peak hour drive from North Perth and because our initial plan to drive to Fremantle for dinner at Run Amuk was thwarted by my forgetting the camera, us having to double back and then having to choose somewhere a bit closer as a result.  

We ordered a serve of Fried Wontons as our entree. This was of a very good standard; nice juicy wontons of a decent size fried nice and crispy. They were about what I would expect for this dish, neither surprisingly good or a disappointment. 

One of my biggest regrets regarding our time in Hong Kong was that we didn't get to eat the Yam Duck my cousin found so addictive that he ate it repeatedly when he was there. As such, I was very happy to discover a place so close to home that made this dish. As with the hor fun I had tried before, this was a generous serve of duck. I've long loved the dim sum deep fried yam, and combining that flavour with duck made for an inspired dish. Crispy coating and duck, served with a sweet and tangy chilli sauce - what is not to like? My only criticism would be that some slices were more yam than duck and as such tasted a bit floury, but with a serve this generous there are bound to be sections less duck-filled than others. 

The Typhoon Shelter Kings Prawns were even better. What struck us immediately was how generous the serving size of prawns was. Tasting it we were greeted by juicy, perfectly cooked prawns in a salty/spicy batter, served with the crispy garlic and spicy salt. Alissa and I have had similar versions of this dish with squid or tofu instead of prawns, and there is always something magical about that garlic and spicy salt combination. The use of prawns here made it even more delicious. This was an addictively good dish, definitely something to order again. 

The Verdict: Very Good

Daisy's Cafe may be in the middle of nowhere, but its definitely a cut above the average local Chinese restaurant. The people who run this place seem like genuinely nice people, with the woman in charge of front of house being very friendly and the chef occasionally singing as he cooks. Serving sizes are generous, and they don't do the usual bulking up with excessive quantities of onions many lesser Chinese restaurants are guilty of. In spite of being amongst the more expensive Chef Specialty dishes, both or mains were $18.50 each; very reasonable for the quality of food served. With many other excellent sounding items on their menu for us to try, Alissa and I will definitely be back.

Crystal Jade, Changi Terminal 2, Singapore (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 6, Part 2)

We arrived back in Singapore from Hong Kong in the mid afternoon, and given our last meal was at 8am and that it was late for lunch time we were ravenous. Having missed out on dim sum in Disneyland and Tim Ho Wan for breakfast, we headed up the stairs in Terminal 2 for a meal at Crystal Jade. Crystal Jade is a well regarded dim sum chain founded in Singapore, which has now opened branches throughout Asia, including Hong Kong. I'd had an enjoyable meal at one of their other restaurants in Singapore, so this meal would be a safe bet. We filled out our order form and waited for our dim sum to arrive.

I'll do the usual blow by blow but in writing this post I've realised most what I want to say can be summed up fairly succinctly; for the most part if there was a direct comparison with Tim Ho Wan, Crystal Jade's dim sum was simply outclassed.

Har Gao? Crystal Jade's is larger from my recollection, but it was about the same standard as Tim Ho Wan's in terms of flavour. Both were excellent.

By now we've had Teo Chew Dumplings a few times so I feel a bit more able to comment. Crystal Jade's is good, seeming to hit every required flavour (the pork, the shrimp, the peanut etc) but the version at Tim Ho Wan did it better.

Fried Yam – I've had better in Australia. Seemed a bit too oily... maybe it had sat for far too long but its flavour was overpowered by the oiliness. This could well be our fault considering we came so late in the afternoon.

Fried Wantons – these were very good, about what I would expect from a juicy fried wanton with a generous prawn filling.

Barbecue Pork Chee Cheong Fun – lighter than the pig liver option at Tim Ho Wan. Not necessarily better or worse – an excellent chee cheong fun in its ow right.

Char Siu Bao – chalk and cheese of course, but after Tim Ho Wan pork buns I can never go back to the usual bao without feeling like I'm missing out. So yes; Tim Ho Wan did it better. In a like for like comparison to the usual char siu bao, though this was a very good example of tried and true classic.

Steamed Custard and Pine Nut Bun in Piggy Shape – Alissa liked it, mostly amused about eating a tasty pig. She can't remember the flavour as much, but it definitely was a successful dish visually.

Siu Mei – sure, this had generous slivers of shiitake mushrooms as well, but the pork and prawns didn't seem to be melded together in flavour compared to the variety at Tim Ho Wan, even seeming to separate a bit as we picked them up with chopsticks. So again, Tim Ho Wan's trumped the Crystal Jade version.

I was surprised by this chicken feet. It had an overpoweringly strong flavour of cinnamon, and while I like cinnamon this should not be the most forward flavour in chicken feet – I would argue the black bean and chilli should be closer to the fore. As with the other dishes, this was better at Tim Ho Wan.

The Verdict: Very Good

Look, I don't mean to be disparaging of Crystal Jade. The service was beyond reproach, much better than the utilitarian 'eat and leave' attitude of Hong Kong dim sum joints, including Tim Ho Wan. Crystal Jade is very good quality dim sum, no doubt about it, and getting a feed this good at an airport is something you'll find in only a few places in the world. So I'm really appreciative. However, considering the price of Crystal Jade was close to twice what we paid at the Michelin Starred Tim Ho Wan just a few days ago it simply is not at the same level, nor can it be said to be good value for money.  

Yat Lok, Central, Hong Kong (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 4, Part 2)

"Now I like pork, and I know I talk about it a lot and how it’s like the best thing ever.

But in fact, the best thing ever is actually goose" - Anthony Bourdain

Before we departed for Hong Kong, my Uncle Keiron implored that I absolutely had to have roast goose everyday. With so many items on our 'to eat' list, it was inevitable that daily goose eating was simply not going to be on the cards. However, it has to be said that no omnivorous food tour of Hong Kong can be complete without trying roast duck's even more delicious big brother.

The Monogamous Chinese, Hong Kong (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 2, Part 4)

Planning an eating excursion to some of the more popular places in a country requires a lot of forward planning. Of course there are a lot of places you can just kinda wander into without a problem,but if its got a Michelin Guide recommendation (especially a Bib Gourmand or a star rating) its a bit riskier leaving it up to chance.