Dosa Hut

Anyone remember "hit the hut" from Pizza Hut?

Growing up with one health freak and one culture freak for parents, hitting that particular hut was strictly verboten.  It therefore followed that as a child, it was all I ever wanted.  I remember on maybe my 12th birthday my dad saying I could go anywhere I liked for lunch - anywhere at all!  I know he wanted me to say Mask of China or wherever else was the "it" place in the early 90's.  I said - you guessed it - Pizza Hut.  He was horrified!

Something must have rubbed off, though, as I now have zero interest in unlimited quantities of bad chocolate mousse and every interest in this particular hut, which I recommend you hit with vigour.  Meet Dosa Hut.

Dosa Hut has been in Barkly Street for at least as long as I've lived in the area (9+ years).  Over that time they have expanded into the place next door, and continued to expand their menu into a greatest hits of South Indian cuisine.

One of the best-known South Indian staples is dosa - very light, impressively huge pancakes made from a lightly fermented (like sourdough) rice and lentil batter.  They have crisp, burnished bottoms and are unflipped, making their top layer capable of soaking up all manner of delicious juices.  This was a nontraditional but particularly awesome dosa "filled" with Chicken 65...

...which are battered chicken pieces in a sticky red sauce spiked with curry leaves.  It's an Indian spin on Chinese food, but instead of being dumbed down, it's amped up.  Spicy, rich, tangy - awesome.

If that all sounds a bit much, start with the classic masala dosa.  This one is filled with a dry-ish potato dish made with peeled potatoes fried with spices.

It's a classic and deservedly so.  The dosa come with a zesty, runny pickle, amazing coconut chutney and sambar.  If you like it a bit hotter, get the Mysore version, which has special chilli powder added.

Sambar is a South Indian soup of sorts made with onion and other vegies (here, carrots), lentils, spices and tomato.  You spoon mouthfuls in between bites of dosa.

Mango lassi are awesome.

Dosa Hut's menu is voluminous.  If you don't know what things are, just ask - the staff are very friendly.  A few things I can tell you is rava dosa is a dosa made from semolina; uttapham is like a very thick pancake with toppings cooked into the top (kind of like a pan-fried pizza); the spring roll dosa is rolled up tight, almost like a burrito!  I have not partaken of the "Lindt chocolate dosa", but that sounds like a particularly worthwhile ordering experiment - and just as good as an all-you-can-eat dessert bar!

Dosa Hut
604b Barkly Street, West Footscray
Check out the menu here (Tarneit store, but as far as I can tell, the same as the WeFo one)

Sweet India

If you go down to Hoppers today

You're sure of a big surprise,

If you go down to Hoppers today

You'd better close your eyes,

For every sweet that ever there is

From Gujurat, Bengal or Uttar Pradesh

Can be found right here at Sweet India's counter.

I wish I could tell you that I am in the habit of cruising lonely industrial estates in the outer suburbs (well, actually, I am glad that I cannot tell you that!) but this was a tip-off from my dear friend Sue.  She told me tales of how at festival times on the Indian calendar, the lines outside this Hoppers Crossing factory snake right down the block.

Sweet India make all their Indian sweets and savouries on the premises, just out the back.  To get served, you grab a deli-counter style ticket before picking and mixing the sweets you'd like.  Remember getting mixed lollies as a kid?  This is just as fun!

I am a big fan of Indian sweets wherever they might be, but Sweet India's really are at the next level.  It's hard to get good pictures through glass, but check out the beautiful, cassata-like "kaju bullets" rolled in edible silver...

...or the ones on the top right, like big chunks of sweet salami.

When I was writing this story, I had a great chat to Venkat Kollu, who is director of marketing at Sweet India.  He is very proud that all the sweets are made with whole milk that is reduced to the required consistency (a laborious process by all accounts) versus using shortcuts like condensed or evaporated milk.

Sweets in India have regional variations, and Sweet India aims to cater to all.  The south is represented by these laddoo, studded with raisins (on the left in the pic above), as well as Mysore pak, a fudgy variety made with ghee and lentil flour.

Venkat let me try some dhokla, a specialty from Gujurat in the west.  In this part of India, folks particularly enjoy the contrast of sweet and savoury flavours.

This is a cool, spongy, savoury cake made of chickpea flour, served in a sweet/tangy dressing and dusted with mustard seeds, green chillies, coriander and coconut.  Very different and very delicious!

Sweets from eastern India are a weekend-only affair at Sweet India.  This region likes its sweets very juicy and moist, which means they have a shorter shelf life than fudge-like burfi or Mysore pak.  I loved these katcha gola - don't they look like the most divine hors d'oeuvres, like little quail's eggs sprinkled with parsley?

Venkat insisted I try this ras malai - a cool, spongy cake in cardamom-flavoured, sweetened milk.  It was luscious.

Here was my haul!  On the left is ice-cream burfi, so called because it melts in your mouth like ice cream.  This burfi really is sublime - it alone is worth the drive.

How squee-worthy are these?!  They are made of cashew paste (like marzipan), painted with edible paints and have a clove for a stem.  They're actually quite plain in flavour, but aren't they just gorgeous to look at?

Sweet India do a range of savouries like spicy masala cashews, crunchy fried chickpeas and lentil flour twists, but the one thing I saw everyone leaving with was a bag of samosas.  Yes, the filling may not look that enticing, but these are fantastic samosas, with chunks of potato and cashew, entwined with fenugreek leaves.

Well, Sue, it took me about three years to act on your wonderful tip - but I made it, and Sweet India is 110% worth the drive!

Sweet India
Factory 9, 1-3 Kilmur Road, Hoppers Crossing
Phone:  9369 6694

Vanakkam

I first met Jagadish, the owner of Vanakkam, when I wrote a profile on him for my "Signature Dishes of Footscray" series, published on Footscray Life.  He is a humble and lovely man.  I was impressed by his commitment to quality, from-scratch cooking, as well as his generosity of spirit.  He talked about helping a friend open an Indian restaurant just down the road.  I asked if he was worried about losing business to new competitors.  He smiled and said, "If we do our best, we will always get regular customers".  After trying Vanakkam's specialties, I don't think Jagadish needs to fret too much about losing business.

This restaurant's first incarnation was in Nicholson Street, Footscray, in the strip of shops now cut off by the Regional Rail works.  Jagadish was advised that those works were taking place, and decided to relocate in advance to Barkly Street, just over Geelong Road.

Some folk do get a bit confused about what Vanakkam's specialty is.  The name is a Tamil word meaning "welcome", chosen not because Jagadish is Tamil but because he and his business partner simply liked the word.  He is proud to offer confident renditions of south and north Indian fare, plus Indian-Chinese specialties.

Ginger gobi, $13.50

I love Indian-Chinese food.  If you want the absolute real deal, you need to head to Golden Joy in Noble Park, which is run by Jimmy who is an Indian-born Chinese from Calcutta.  It is a real trip to be there among the waving cats and Chinese characters and order gobi Manchurian, battered cauli in sweet-ish soy-based sauce.  Jagadish's signature Indian-Chinese dish is ginger chicken, which starts with a sauce he makes himself by reducing lots of fresh ginger, garlic and soy to make a sticky sauce that hugs battered chicken.  We went for the cauliflower version and it was unreal.

Lamb shukka, $14

We weren't so mad with this second entree - from the menu notes it sounded like it would be drier, but it was quite wet - chunks of lamb in a thick, tangy sauce, with lots of onion on the side.  Nice but just not what we were after.

Murgh dum ki biryani, $12

But the main event, and what Vanakkam is best known for, is its authentic Hyderabadi-style biryani.  This is a delicate balancing act in which marinated chicken or goat is cooked with rice, spices and a very precise amount of water in a sealed pot.  It's hard to get right and not end up with gluggy rice and dry meat.

Vanakkam's biryani is simply gorgeous, the rice infused with whole spices and fragrant chicken flavour, and the chicken itself tender and delicious, still clinging to its marinade amid all the al dente white and yellow grains.  A tender boiled egg, the contrast of bitey raw and crisp fried onion, plus a bit of raita and Jagadish's special curry sauce - YUM.

Vanakkam has become my go-to spot for Indian eat in and take away.  The eat-in side could be a bit more atmospheric - it's often quiet and there's no music to fill in the gaps.  But it has a nice new coat of silver paint and the food is worth it.

While you're paying the bill, be sure to get some mukhwas, aka Indian breath freshener, made of sugar-coated fennel seeds and other goodies.  Just pour a spoonful into your palm and shoot it back.

Above Vanakkam's door is a sign that reads, "Cherish yesterday.  Dream tomorrow.  Live today".  I could be cute and say it's all about yesterday, tomorrow and today's biryani dinners, but no matter what you want to apply to it, I think it's a beautiful philosophy to bring to any moment - day, month or year.



Vanakkam
359 Barkly Street, Footscray
Phone: 9687 7224

Dumplings in West Footscray and more tasty tidbits from around the traps

Sorry for the super long time between drinks, folks!  I have been really busy, and there are only so many things a girl can eat.  Although I did have a chuckle at this - it's pretty much my life!

Heh heh heh!

Anyway, I thought I'd make you a nice concentrated missal of all the goodies I've been chowing down on in the last couple of months.  Firstly, a shoutout to Tien, proprietor of Dong Que, hands down one of my all-time Footscray faves.

Dong Que do awesome coleslaws, from a prawn and pork with lotus root to this 'un, beef jerky with green papaya.

Their signature dish is bun ca thang long or turmeric-marinated fish served with lots of dill.  It's a northern Vietnamese specialty, related to bun cha Ha Noi (more on that later).  It's so popular that when you step into Dong Que, the air is redolent with gorgeous floral dill almost all the time.  To eat, you make a little DIY salad with noodles, herbs and fish.  If the supplied stinky anchovy sauce is too much, don't be shy to ask for the standard nuoc cham mam!

Dong Que were one of the stops on this year's Rickshaw Run.  I volunteered over a few sessions, as did the indomitable Kenny and Bennie from Consider the Sauce, as well as a number of FFB readers (big shoutouts to Chris, Mark, Jenny, Carolyn and Eve!)  We even had an awesome couple who had moved into Footscray barely a week before and liked what they saw so much that they signed up to volunteer too.

This is Eve who writes Conversation with Jenny who, despite her sylphic frame, managed to haul my ever-expanding person around one evening.  Thanks Eve!!  Footscray got some star power that night too with HaiHa Lee (next to me in the rickshaw), a long-time local resident and actor with many credits including Bed of Roses and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.  Her and partner Pier's go-to Footscray joint?  Not usual suspects Hao Phong or Sapa Hills - it's Tra Vinh!  Instant cred!

In other news, one day whilst roaming about, I found this little gem on the "other" side of Sunshine (near Dragon Express).

They sell gorgeous Polish cakes (I think by the slice) and plum jam donuts, plus take-home meals just like Babcia used to make.  (I had a Polish friend at school and I remember her mother pinching the skin on my forehead and saying, "STILL ROOM FOR MORE PIEROGIS!"  I think that's where my problems started.)  You can read more about Roli Poli over here at Pretty Wak by Amie Batalibasi, founder of Footscray's Colour Box Studio.

And while we're on the subject of dumplings, West Footscray's newest eatery opened just a few days ago!  It's called Magic Momo Kafe and it's the baby of Ravi (above).  Given the name, the four momo varieties are only a tiny part of the menu, which ranges from a big breakfast, to burgers or calamari and chips.  Everything is well priced, especially kids' options - from memory, pancakes with ice cream are about $4.

These chicken momos were yummy, the mince inside juicy and spiked with herbs, ginger and onion.  They can come simmered, steamed or fried, and Ravi said the steamed option is the most traditional.  We didn't get so lucky with the vegie version, which had collapsed somewhat.  Kenny and Bennie had better luck - theirs looked a bit plumper.  But surely all sins should be forgiven in the first week of opening!  (Magic Momo are at 588 Barkly St, West Footscray.)

What Magic Momo Kafe also have is a dizzying display of Indian sweets including four varieties of one of my faves, cham cham, which is almost like an eclair with a lightly-cooked gulab jamun-like exterior and a fudgy filling.  (It's the pink one above.)  They're all $2 each.

In other West Footscray news, Rino at Vari's Fruit & Veg has started offering seasonal organic fruit and veg boxes.  There are two sizes, $35 and $60, and you need to order by Wednesday for Saturday pickup.  He read me what was in both sizes and it's a very impressive amount of fresh organic produce.  You can also get eggs, and while I was there, Josh (aka, "the boss") and mum from Seven Hills Organic Farm came to drop off that week's order.  Boxes can also include Sourdough Kitchen bread (which Vari's actually sell fresh every day) and organic juice.  Call 9689 1491 for more deets.

West Footscray was pretty devvo that Andres and Shannon of Besito decided to hang up the arepa press, for family reasons.  The old site of Besito is currently under construction and is going to be the third Melbourne branch of Chawla's Indian.  According to their website, "Chawla's cream chicken was born not to die".  Yum, I think?!

Indo-Chinese zaniness at Pandu's

You know those stories of ghost ships?  Not only spectral vessels like the Flying Dutchman, doomed to sail the sea for all eternity, but ships that are found drifting with their entire crew having vanished without a trace.  For a long time, Pandu's was my ghost ship.  It used to inhabit a bare-bones little spot in Buckley Street in the strip of shops now demolished for the rail link.  Mr Baklover would insist that it was a restaurant, that he had seen people inside eating, drinking and making merry.  Yet every time I drove past it would be empty, and though I craned my neck I could see no signs of life.  "You're going mad!" I told my long-suffering husband.  "There's no restaurant there!"

Very happily I was proven wrong when Kenny checked out Pandu's, reporting an exciting Indian-Chinese menu at prices guaranteed to make even the saltiest sea dog grin from ear to ear.  It closed down and again thanks to Consider the Sauce, we learnt that Mr Pandu would be taking up new deluxe digs where the old Western Mart had been on "Upper Barkly" (if you like).

It was a long time coming but Pandu's is finally open.  It's quite quirky inside, with pimpin' cream lounge suites almost levitating on tinted wooden blocks instead of legs.

There are lots of little nooks and kind of "private rooms".  I can totally see a Bollywood dance scene happening in here, with the star crooning on the table while big wok flames jump out of the kitchen and a flash mob of bodacious Indian babes start grooving seductively.  As it stands, though, the only sound is the hum of the kitchen extraction fan, and the lack of colour makes it feel a bit like a bunker.  With some art or other decoration on the walls and a banging sound system, there's great potential here for a very cool hang-out spot.

Indian Chinese is the result of Chinese restauranteurs in India adapting their cuisine for local tastes.  According to this quite authoritative article from CNN Go, the Chinese Hakka community has been resident in Calcutta since the 1700s.  Thus began the authenticity acrobatics which see migrant communities all over the world begin to adapt traditional recipes for local palates.  As author Sanjiv Khamgaonkar puts it, "Quick to figure out that Indians love spicy, oily preparations, the Chinese merely masala-fied and greased their cuisine into a glutinous, winning combination".

Source:  www.chingssecret.com

That's extremely matter of fact (and rather unappealing) but it's essentially Indian Chinese in a nutshell - take (sometimes vaguely) Chinese recipes like battered chicken and fried rice and add Indian flavours like curry leaves, spices, tomato, chilli, plus a generous helping of soy sauce.

An example at Chilli India, CBD

Oh, put those eyebrows down!  I know it sounds horrible, but I am a big fan.  Aangan in West Footscray do great Indian Chinese like gobi Manchurian - battered cauliflower florets in a dark, almost sticky sauce with onion and green capsicum, and Chicken 65 - battered chicken tossed with an intense, spicy red sauce, cashews and glistening green curry leaves.  Aangan are known for their Indian Chinese and it's what you'll see many Indian customers enjoying, rather than what we might see as "the classics" like butter chicken and Rogan Josh.

Cashew milk, $3.95

But anyway - onto Pandu's!   A liquor licence is in the works, so while waiting we imbibed this homemade cashew milk.  Holy Bolly(wood), this was delicious.  The honey drizzled down the sides mixed with the cardamom-scented, slightly frothy milk for a cooling taste sensation.

Szechwan chicken, $10.95

Just after we ordered, the sweet waitress came back and asked if we wanted our dishes "with sauce".  "Well, yes," we replied, thinking without sauce we might just receive a plate of battered chicken, not unlike KFC opposite.  This was a big mistake as instead of those wonderful intense, reduced sauces I'm used to, our Indian Chinese morsels came in a lake of glutinous sauce.  This Szechwan chicken was quite nice but the sauce - very thick tomato - was overpowering.

Cauliflower Manchurian, $8.95

Likewise the gobi Manchurian, battered cauli in a moat of sweet brown sauce, lacked that intense flavour punch I covet.  Moral - make sure you have your choices "dry" or "without sauce".  Check out Kenny's more successful visit for how your dishes should look.

$11.95

Sometimes I want something but I can't order it because I can't bear to say the words.  The very hip "magic" falls into this category - it's a double ristretto in a 3/4 cup and is quite a lovely drink (especially for single origins) but every time I try to say, "I'll have a magic, please", the hipsterese jams in my throat.  Likewise, don't you sometimes see things on a menu and have such a giggle that you simply have to have them?  Ladies and germs, I give you SEVEN JEWELS OF PANDU'S.  This Indian-style fried rice was delicious, each separate grain dusted with turmeric and other spices, and nestling amongst them crunchy almonds, fresh pops of colourful capsicum, juicy egg and nutty nuggets of well-fried chicken.  Yummo.

So unfortunately our Pandu's experience wasn't as good as it could have been, but that was probably our fault for not investigating what "sauce" entailed (it's probably served like that because they figured we were having rice and wanted to have lots of sauce to wet the rice - a really southern Indian thing to do).  "Indian barbecue" is coming soon, plus the liquor licence.  Good on you, Captain Pandu, and looking forward to climbing aboard your love boat again soon!



Pandu's Indo-Chinese Restaurant
351 Barkly Street, Footscray
Phone:  0468 378 789


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