Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

Momotaro Rahmen is a small Japanese noodle bar on Bridge Road that is well known by the Richmond locals for serving up cheap, tasty and massive bowls of ramen. The cafe is not terribly big and I’m told it suffers from overcrowding at the peak dining periods but luckily, as a MOLWL (mummy of leisure who lunches) I have always managed to get there very late in the afternoon of a week day and never had trouble trying to fit a pram in there. The staff had also been very lovely at accomodating Mini Me.

I have already made a few visits to Momotaro Rahmen who, judging by their logo, seemed to be named after the famous Japanese folklore about a baby boy who was found floating down a river in a giant peach (and you thought Roald Dahl was being original when he wrote James and the Giant Peach) and kept going back for its serves of satisfying bowls of tonkotsu broth and their homemade noodles.

(Ramen with tonkotsu broth – a milky white broth made from pork bones – $13?)

Momotaro Rahmen’s menu consists of largely of ramen and a few Japanese favourites such as Japanese curries, teriyaki and salads. Momotaro offers their ramen in five different broths – shoyu (Japanese soy sauce), miso, shio (salt), tonkotsu (pork bones) and vegetarian with various selection of toppings such as vegetables, chashu (roast pork), boiled egg and seafood. But what is really special about Momotaro Rahmen is that they have a dedicated vegetarian menu and serve their ramen in vegetable broth when requested. Now we know how rare this is for Japanese cuisine where almost everything contains dashi, a stock made from dried fish and seaweed. This makes my vego friends very happy indeed.

(Vegetable ramen – $12?)

On this occasion, I arrived at Momotaro with Mini Me in tow to meet with my friend, Nat who I have previously introduced to Momotaro and has become a regular.

Nat orders her usual of vegetable ramen – I had a taste of the broth. It was lovely enough as far as a vegetarian broth goes. But let’s face it – if the folks at the Momofuku lab can’t make a great vegetarian broth, I can’t really expect it to be as good as my order of tonkotsu broth.

(The bowl is bigger than the baby! Okay, not really.)

Momotaro Rahmen’s rendition of this famous Japanese porky broth is rather light compared to the usual thick, gelatinious version served up everywhere in Japan. Which, to be perfectly honest, is just as well since the bowl is so eye poppingly big (and I am from the ‘you must finish the broth’ school). It comes with a large slice of roast pork which I found to have improved since my last visit (I didn’t like it very much the first few visits), half a boiled egg and lots of vegetables. The whole dish felt very healthy and rather light. Yes you will be rather full but it’s not that terrible sick feeling that you get after a very large bowl of traditional tonkotsu ramen. That’s not to say I don’t love the traditional tonkotsu ramen. I really do but I appreciate Momotaro Rahmen’s version despite its lack of traditional tonkotsu characteristics.

(Vegetarian gyoza – with a mixture of chick pea, cabbage, spinach, etc. – $7?)

The vegetarian gyoza on the other hand was just disappointing. The filling combo just simply didn’t work and neither of us enjoyed it. I think it’s safe to say no chick pea belongs in a gyoza.

Having visited Momotaro a few times, I have tried their miso and shoyu broths as well as curry and teriyaki. I have to say I have exceeding preference for their tonkotsu ramen and will happily go back for my ramen fill there. It is a nice little place for a hearty, healty large bowl of soups, if nothing else.

And let’s face it, if it’s noodle and it’s in a decent broth? I’m there.

Momotaro Rahmen
Address: 392 Bridge Rd Richmond VIC 3121 [ Google Map ]
Phone: (03) 9421 1661

I once met David Thompson at his Thai Street Food book launch in Melbourne a year or so ago. He spoke to me in heavily accented Thai upon finding out that I’m Thai and autographed my copy in heavily misspelled Thai.

David Thompson is a very sweet man. And I absolutely adore his books.

Our Nahm adventure began with a few mishaps of Bangkok’s horrendous traffic during my last holiday in Thailand a few of weeks ago (which explains my absence from this blog). Our rat pack included my childhood friend, Pat, my permanent dining companion and husband, Josh and me. Having heard lots of lovely things about Nahm from various Twitterfolk and Pat who has been to Nahm previously herself, we were very excited and could hardly wait.

(Complimentary amuse bouche – ma hor – pineapple topped with sweet pork, chicken and prawn paste)

Nahm’s menu was set out in different courses of canape, salad, relish, soup, curry, stir-fry, steam & grilled and dessert – typical Thai style. For those who dine alone or are new to Thai food, a set menu (B1,700+etc.) presents a tempting option as you are able to choose from each course to get a range of tastes. We decided against the set menu as it means you’re only able to choose, for example, one curry to share between the three of us and my mathematical gut feeling is such that ordering whatever we want, and however much we want, from the menu would surely be cheaper than the three menu sets. I was right. We had seven good-sized dishes plus their sides between the three of us and came off 2000 baht cheaper than three set menus.

(Southern grilled mussels)

Our first taste of Nahm started with the complimentary amuse bouche, ma hor (‘galloping horses’), bites of pineapple slices topped with mince pork, prawn and chicken and peanut in a thick, sweetly caramelised mixture. The sweet pineapple – which should have been tart – made it a little bit too sweet for my liking.

Our appetisers on the other hand proved to have a lot more of the wow factor. The southern-style grilled mussels arrived with the backdrop of green banana leaf and a pile of cucumber. They were plump and perfectly grilled with not a hint of rubberiness. The waiter keenly explained that the mussels came from a province in the South of Thailand that I could have sworn was landlocked but nevertheless I was happy that our local mussels have come a long way. The mussels were basted with coconut milk and spices often seen paired with Thai-style satay with a note of lemongrass. They were mild, smoky and all around lovely. Read the rest of this entry »

Terrific Vietnamese coffee. Very average pho. Lovely staff. That is all.

Maybe I should have just tweeted it. Ah well.

Green beans are one of the most underrated vegetables. They have become an all-year-around staple in supermarket here in Melbourne and have sold out its virtues of wonderful seasonal vegetables.

That’s not to say they aren’t good out of season. I know. You seasonal eaters will scream at me. We do live in a subtropical country afterall and we are blessed with vegetables all year around. Green beans, when cooked well are crisp and sweet, bursting with flavours. Of course, always buy the freshest green beans you can find.

We are starting to see new season’s green beans on the shelves now. Hoorah.

Stir-fried Green Beans and Prawns for Two

1. 200g green beans, trimmed and halved
2. 10 raw banana prawns, peeled with prawn butter reserved
3. 1 onion, slice lengthwise
4. 2 cloves garlic, chopped
5. 1 tbsp good oyster sauce
6. 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
7. 1/4 tsp sugar
8. 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

Add vegetable oil to a hot non-stick frying pan on highest heat possible for your frying pan. Add garlic and prawns and fry until the prawns start to change colour. Add green beans and onion. Cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar. Add water if necessary. Toss around for another 1-2 minutes until the beans are cooked but still crisp.

Serve with freshly cooked rice. Midweek dinner for the win!

Before we continue, have you seen my post about having had enough of hearing about famine in Africa and wanting to do something about it?

I have to admit I am such a sucker for sales. So when my local supermarket had lovely looking brown onions for $1.29/kg. I went crazy and bought 3 kg. I made A LOT of caramelised onions that day. They are so good in sandwiches and if you’re desperate enough, add some stock and voila: onion soup!

I know. It’s a bit embarassing. Now it’s a time to remind you that I am, after all, a suburban housewife.

Not only that, I also found a really sorry looking radicchio that I bought at the farmers’ market two markets ago (that’s two months, people) that I forgot about and was going to throw out anyway. Except as I peeled away the outer leaves I realised that the inner leaves were as good as fresh. You have to love cabbages. With all those layers, they tend to surprise you.

But wait, there is more! I happened to have a reduced Turkish pide that I picked up earlier for $1 that I planned to make toasted ham and cheese sandwich with. So at this point we have radicchio, pide and caramelised onion – together with a few of cheeses we usually have lying around the fridge anyway, I knew a fantastic but really easy pizza is on the way.

Never one to be satisfied with just fantastic, however, I went digging around in the freezer. And sure enough I discovered some gorgeous duck a l’Orange sausages that we bought from the farmers’ market that I had almost forgotten about.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how tightarse Tuesday is being rocked by this suburban housewife. Impromptu pizza. Yes.

Caramelised Onion

1. 4 onion, thinly sliced lengthwise
2. 30 g. butter
3. a few twists of salt and pepper
4. 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
5. 1 tsp brown sugar

Melt butter in a non-stick frying pan on medium heat. Add the onions and fry for 5 minutes until soften but don’t let the onion colour too much. Turn the heat down to low and keep stirring the onion for another five minutes. Add sugar, salt, pepper and vinegar. Cook on low heat for another five minutes.

I personally like the onions to retain a little of a chew to them but if you prefer jammy gooey onions, by all means, continue to cook for another ten or twenty minutes, adding a little of water if you need to.

Radicchio, Caramelised Onion and  Sausage Pizza

1. 1 large Turkish pide, split
2. 1 large good quality sausage
3. 4 tbsp caramelised onion
4. 1/2 head of radicchio, leaves picked and washed
5. A few fresh sage leaves (mine were a bit pathetic. Thanks, Winter)
6. mozarella cheese
7. gruyere cheese

Squeeze sausage meat from casing into little balls. Fry them in a saucepan until browned on the outside. Set aside.

Line up slices of mozarella cheese on the pide. Top with caramelised onion, radicchio, sausage balls and sage. Grate gruyere on top.

Bake in very hot oven (240′c) for 10 minutes or until the cheese melts.

Spatula, Spoon and Saturday – rocking your suburban housewife role since 2010.

This time last year I made: Wagyu, Baby!

I have had enough and I am going to do something about it.

There is a famine in Somalia at the moment. There is a draught in the horn of Africa and millions are affected. There is no food.

How can there be no food in this day and age?

When we continually eat in excess and yet there are people who starve. We are talking about people who watch their children die one by one because there is no food to feed them. We are talking about people who walk for weeks with their young and old families in hope of somewhere where there is aid and lose half of their family members in that walk.

Can you imagine not having anything to eat? This is not the ‘too lazy to go food shopping and eating toasts for dinner’ kind of not having anything to eat. This is much worse. No? I can’t either.

That’s because we are lucky.

There is no better time to highlight the important of sustainable food production.

We need to do something about the food production crisis in Africa. We need to create a sustainable giving to help this happen.

Please. Let’s do something. Now.

One of the perks about being a food blogger, the most important one for me anyway, is the ability to connect with like-minded, food enthusiasts. So I would like to use my blog, and friendships with other bloggers, to drive this efforts. I would like to promote an organisation called Kiva.

What is Kiva?

Kiva is an microfinance organsation that allows people from all over the world to lend moneyto various enterpreneurs or community groups.

Basically, you lend a person, or a community group, in a very low-income country as little as US$25 so that they can finance their business. This money is then repaid back to you if all things go to plan. You can then use the money that was repaid to finance another business.

If you have never heard of Kiva at all, the Kiva website explains what they do better than I can.

If you have heard of them before and have wanted to do something about it for a while like I have, do it now.

What I would love for you to do.

1. Join Kiva and lend money to food production-related businesses in Africa – whether this would be helping a sheep farmer to buy more livestock, a yam farmer to buy a new equipment, a general store trader to buy more stock.
2. Talk about this to your friends, family, co-workers and social networks. Write about it on your blog. Tweet about it. Anything.
3. Join the lending team I have created.

I will update you on this page about our progress every few months or so and hopefully we can do something realistic to help people.

I would also like you to consider to donating to relief efforts to tackle the ‘here and now’ issue of famine in Somalia.

Don’t want to do any of that?

That’s okay too. But at least have a think about what you would be comfortable in doing to help the situation. Start by caring. That’s all I really want to get through to you.