#25 Tran Tran (74 Victoria St)

Attendees: Beata, Craig, Steph, Kylie

I have passed this restuarant a few times thinking ‘whoa it’s bright’. Sure enough, inside it is hospital ward-white walls and tables - light reflecting off everything white! It is a stylish design with taffeta light shades and artistic wall hangings depicting rural scenes. They have some inspirational quotes about the role of cuisine and friendship. Even the menu is white. It's not until I get menu that I know we are in Tran Tran.

The quote on the menu reads "All cuisine is a reflection of the society from which it emanates. Cuisine is the result of culture..." It makes me feel a little fuzzy inside.

I am being quite inquisitive of the waiter. What is that flaming dish that just arrived on that table? Chilli beef. Is the rice noodle soup equal to pho? It's kind of like pho. They seem cheery and polite and read back our order to us.

For entree we have the usual rice paper rolls and spring rolls. The rice paper rolls are very good. The right balance of ingredients coming together nicely with a tasty dipping sauce. The spring rolls are fairly standard.

Number 27 is a combination egg noodle soup with thin egg noodles, BBQ pork, fish cake, prawns and assorted vegetables. The broth lacks any discernable flavours and is inoffensive. The beef rice noodle soup is not pho. It lacks the aromatic tang of pho and just tastes like plain old beef stock.

With a bit of a craving for seafood we order the seafood combination. It comes on a sizzling plate with that ubiquitious transparent sauce. It's a good mixture of seafood - squid, scallops, prawns, fish cake, white fish, along with veggies. Unfortunately, there is not much flavour to it.

What is it with the lack of specials down this end of Victoria St? We get the ‘Kylie special’ – vegetarian Singapore noodles. Another dish that fails to spark any excitement, it is little more than thin noodles with capscium and curry powder.

There is nothing much to stand out in my memory from this restaurant except perhaps whiteness.

Ratings

Rice paper rolls 8.3/10

Spring rolls 7.6/10

Beef rice noodle soup 6.2/10

#27 Combination egg noodle soup 7/10

Seafood combination 7/10

Singapore noodles (vegetarian) 6.3/10

#24 I Spicy 2 (80 Victoria St)

Attendees: Beata, Craig, Annabel, Chloe

We have hit our first Thai restaurant on the Chopstick Chowdown Challenge as we approach Hoddle St. The name is intriguing. I Spicy? Is there an “am” missing? Is it trying to tap into the Apple IPod, IPhone, IPad phenomenon? Should Apple be claiming royalties?

It’s another tight space, with the majority of downstairs taken over by an open kitchen, leaving room for only about 20 diners. It’s like a cooking demonstration is going in, as throughout our visit one of the chefs cooks an unending stream of coconut pancakes. At least that’s what I work out they are from a video on the plasma screen.

Alas! At I Spicy a key component of the Chopstick Chowdown Challenge is missing. Chopsticks! We make do with forks.

With Thai comes a new set of standards: satay sticks, green curry prawns and, of course, number 27 and a daily special. After some deliberation at the menu (which gives a description of each dish and its Thai name) along with a lack of any specials, we decide to cover all major meat groups.


We open with Thai spring rolls and satay sticks. The spring roll pastry is rather thick and filled with vermicelli and an unidentifiable mince. I can’t remember what the menu says it contained. The presentation of the satay skewers is pretty, though we are not sure what to do with the accompanying watery substance with cubes of cucumber and chilli.


Number 27 is a hot and sour chicken feet stew. Despite some opposition we stick with formula and take a plunge. The chicken feet are less than visually appealing (in fact they have a resemblance to wrinkled granny hands) but I find the broth addictive. It is clear and very spicy, reminding me of tom yum with its tangy hot and sour flavours. The scraps of meat we scrape off the chicken feet just taste like braised chicken.

As Chloe fights back watery eyes at her first ChChCh, she comments “someone should have warned me it was going to be spicy!” Maybe the name and the accompanying chilli graphic should have given that away!


The green curry is based around beans and eggplant and has a fragrant kick. The penang curry is a striking reddish-orange colour garnished with slices of fresh red chilli and a dollop of yoghurt. It is even more spicy and full of creamy flavour.

The hit of the night is the crispy pork with Chinese broccoli. The greens have been infused the smoky, BBQ flavour of the pork and have a good crunchiness.


The pork has a wonderful crispy skin and is supple inside. Even with streaks of fat it only takes a few bites before melting down your oesophagus. Here’s one dish without the spice.

When Annabel asks for the bill, the waitress quizzes her about what we thought of the chicken feet soup. When Annabel says we liked it, the waitress remains friendly but sceptical, “but there was so much left behind.” Unfortunately gnawing on chicken feet is not our cup of tea.

I Spicy lives up to its name. And with so many restaurant skimping on spice for a Western market, it great to have some Asian food full of heat and flavour.


Ratings
Spring rolls 4.8/10
Satay skewers 6.9/10
#27 (hot and sour chicken feet stew) 5.9/10
Green curry prawns 7.4/10
Penang curry beef 8/10
BBQ pork with chinese brocolli 8.3/10

#23 Ha Long Bay (82 Victoria St)

Attendees: Beata, Steph, Craig, Annabel, Joe


Ha Long Bay translates to Descending Dragon Bay. In Vietnam it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in Melbourne it is one of the many Vietnamese restaurant on Victoria Street.

Ha Long Bay makes the most of its Vietnamese theme with its décor. Like a tourist brochure, the feature wall showcases large evocative canvas photographs of rice paddys and rickshaws. Bamboo stalks, green walls and colourful paper lanterns complete the picture.

It feels spacious, unlike the tightly packed interiors of many of the restaurants along this strip. Overall it is a pleasant dining environment. Unfortunately there is nothing much original about the menu.

We begin, as is customary, with spring rolls and rice paper rolls. Standard. I’d been tipped off during the week that rice paper roll dipping sauce is a combination of peanut butter and oyster sauce. Something doesn’t taste right about this one though.

Number 27 is crab meat and sweet corn soup. It’s OK but no taste sensation.

The beef pho is a much lighter colour than we are accustomed to, with thinner noodles. It is not particularly flavoursome but with the addition of condiments convinces me to go for seconds.

For mains we pick lemongrass chilli scallops and beef samba. Again standard. The scallops seem fresh and the sauce tastes as expected. We chose the beef samba to see if it would be doing a Brazilian dance. Not such luck. It turns out to be stir fried beef with a lightly chilli sauce. Celery must have been on special this week as it features in all our mains.

The most original thing we can find on the menu is pork spare ribs. By original I mean this is not usually on Vietnamese restaurant menus. It was, however, our staple food travelling across America.

I forget to order the ribs (the special component) the first time around. We persist in getting them and it’s lucky because they are the highlight of the night. The ribs come hacked up in a clay pot with a salty, lemongrass-flavoured sauce. The meat is soft (though not falling off the bone like some of the delicious ribs we had in America) and the sauce very tasty.

Food aside, it is the banter that makes our night on this occasion. Energetically covering topics from Japanese gameshows to violent children’s behaviour to mating habits of animals, dinner stretches for an enjoyable two hours until we are the last people left in the Descending Dragon Bay.


Ratings
Spring rolls 7/10
Rice paper rolls 6.4/10
Beef pho 6.4/10
#27 (crab and sweet corn soup) 6.6/10
Special (pork spare ribs) 7.9/10
Lemongrass and chilli scallops 6.7/10
Beef samba 6.6/10

#22 Saigon Rose (86 Victoria St)

Attendees: Beata, Steph, Craig

A newspaper article announces “laminate gone” and indeed Saigon Rose gives an upmarket impression. Tables are a dark wood, the back of the restaurant is carefully decorated with patterns of wine bottles and a large marble counter. Clean lines and strategically positioned lighting. Waiters take up their position and are ready to serve.

It’s all very clean, crisp and precise. But there’s a lack of atmosphere. One of the joys ChChCh has been the chaotic, no frills restaurants with their haphazard, bustling service. A few strains of contemporary music can be heard but no one in Saigon Rose seems very excited.

The specials board has rather floral descriptions. The soft shell crab is ‘flash fried’, the pork belly ‘comes on a bed’. The menu itself takes a minimalist approach, utilising white space and neatly categorising dishes, with a limited number in each category. I’m not sure what cuisine this is. Saigon implies Vietnamese but there is no pho and there are dishes on the menu with Cantonese sauce. I can only deduce it is Vietnamese/Chinese.

There are no numbers so we count down to 27 and come upon spinach soup with a choice of chicken or seafood. It comes out in a small Saigon Rose bowl (it’s all branded here) and seems to wobble. “Gelatinous”, I declare. But upon tasting it turns out to be better than expected. There are generous chunks of soft squid and scallops. It has a faintly grassy flavour but I find it’s gone before I know it.

The rice paper rolls are good, moist enough and slightly warmed. However the dipping sauce is rather bland.

From the specials we take the soft shell crab. It doesn’t have the crispness I would have liked and it lacking any distinctive seasoning. At entrée size, for $18, you only get two big pieces.

Intrigued by the banana chicken we order another entrée. Breaded, fried chicken is stuffed with melty banana and comes with a red dipping sauce. It looks great but on tasting I am again left wanting more seasoning. I don’t know if there is some aversion here to strong flavoured dishes in order to attract the Western audience.

Pick of the night is the sizzling duck with peking sauce from the house specialities section of the menu. It is a generous serve and the duck is tender, complemented by a sweet and spicy sauce that makes me want to keep eating.

While Saigon Rose is carefully manufactured and difficult to fault, its precision left me slightly cold.

Ratings

Rice paper rolls (pork and prawn) 7.6/10

#27 (spinach soup with seafood) 8/10

Daily special (soft shell crab) 7.2/10

Banana chicken 7.7/10
Sizzling duck 7.9/10