When I migrated to Melbourne about thirteen years ago and first settled in the suburb of Glen Waverley, I did not realised that this suburb has such a large population of Malaysians (comparatively to all other suburbs in Melbourne). It is by chance that we ended up living in this area because we found a house that is comfortable and was in a convenient location.
Many Malaysians who came over to do their tertiary studies in Monash University naturally ended up settling in and around the suburb close to the campus. Therefore it is here you find a large concentration of Malaysian restaurants and grocery stores. Many have asked us if we miss the food in Malaysia. Well, living at this end of the town, the answer is ‘No’.
One of my favourite restaurant here is Lim’s Nyonya Hut. They are located closed to the Syndal Station on Blackburn Rd.
This restaurant serves Malaysian hawker food and traditional cakes.
Typical Malaysian cuisines served here are Nasi Lemak - rice cooked with coconut milk accompanied by anchovies cooked with chilli and prawn paste (photo above), three variation of Laksa, i.e. Assam Laksa, Thai Laksa (photo below) and Curry Laksa. This is probably the only place as far as I know, which serves authentic Penang Assam Laksa.
They also served Char Koay Teow, which is rice flat-noodles fried with garlic, bean sprouts, prawns, fish sauce and eggs.
Among the hawker’s food, I like their laksas and the Char Koay Teow. I tried their Hor Fun (flat rice noodles with eggs, prawns and pork cooked with starchy sauce) and their Hokkien Noodle (yellow wheat noodles cooked in dark soya sauce) and found not quite meeting my expectations. For the latter two dishes, the Palms restaurant across the road (will write-up on this place soon) cooks them better.
Hey HK. The Malaysian food looks authentic! Any hum in the laksa? The pictures are making me so hungry at the moment.
ReplyDeleteBTW You seem to know how to take a good picture.
Wai
Wai
ReplyDeleteIt cannot get any more authentic than this. The picture is the Thai Laksa, almost the same ingredient with Penang Assam except for the coconut milk added in. You get the shredded fish in the broth. No 'hum' (cockles) for Thai Laksa, not in their curry laksa. I don't miss it, even in Malaysia I rather not have it. The cockles are harvested for the polluted river estuaries, you can guess what has gone into the shellfish.
Thanks for the compliments on the photos.
Yumm... it's like Laksa Lemak? The Thai Khanom Jeem has more vegetables like long beans, fish meat (or is it anchovies)? As most of the times, the gravy's like Laksa Putih (Malay style White Laksa), mushy unlike Penang Assam Laksa. served with extra fish piece), beansprouts,etc.
ReplyDeleteAsian food stockists can be found easily in Australia compared to Europe except in London. It's darn difficiult to find one Malaysian restaurant or Malaysian mini mart! :-| Majority are Asian eateries are Thai, Chinese and the least Indian & Indonesian accordingly.
Well, I guessed since Malaysia's cuisine are all the above, we can survive ya? :-D Problem for me is to find the ingredients. Once I had to wait 2 weeks for Pandan all the way from Thailand via Paris just to cook Black Glutinous Rice. Imagined all that waiting and from a Vietnamese mini market! The major importer is so clever to cut the roots off from the Pandan stalks if you know what I meant! Worst I had to buy the 2 large stalks!
I say you're lucky! :-)