Thai Yim, Glen Waverley

Recently, I went to Thai Yim restaurant in Glen Waverley for dinner with Mr HSH. It was a very pleasant night, we had both had a hard day at work and ultimately did not want to get off our arses to cook dinner. Instead, we were happy to get off our arses and drive to Glen Waverley. Initially we planned on going to one of our tried and tested Korean restaurants in Glenny (the name escapes me today). Instead, I got confused. Thinking that Thai Yim was the same as Ying Thai (which had a good reputation as far as I knew) and also because I was craving some good authentic Thai food, we decided to dine at Thai Yim instead.

What a mistake.

Let's start with the pros. The restaurant was clean, tidy and modern looking. There were several wait staff working which meant that service was relatively swift. There were several other diners in the restaurant but I felt that the staff didn't really have a lot to do and were twiddling their thumbs. That's where the Pros end.

When I decided to go to Thai Yim I was hoping for some good old authentic Thai food. I wasn't looking for fine dining. I was just looking for a simple and tasty Pad Thai or an authentic curry. What I got was wait staff that generally wasn't Thai. There was one waitress who was perhaps from Thailand...not sure. Everybody else was of Asian decent but certainly not Thai. Perhaps that was why the food tasted bland. It tasted like a very non specific Asian meal, like it had sucked out a bit of every type of Asian cuisine and combined it in one dish. The vegetables were carelessly chopped and a lemon wedge was plonked on the side in an unsightly way. Although, I don't want to want to sound too harsh on the restaurant. What I said before applies mainly to the Pad Thai I had which didn't even try to be "Thai", it was just bland and boring-I could do much better at home. Mr HSH had the Tom Kar Gai and he said it tasted better than my Pad Thai but wasn't very good either.I also picked the Golden Bags for entree-that was probably the most pleasant part of our meal but was essentially very generic and uninspiring.

Also, there were very limited drinks on their drinks menu-mostly soft drinks. BORING!

Anyway, I guess I can't expect much from Thai Yim. It's unassuming and not pretending to be anything it's not (although, maybe it's pretending to be Thai when it's clearly not). If you're not fussy about the quality of your food, it's good enough for a quick and cheap meal.

Simon's Peiking Duck

Last Friday night, we had a relatively pleasant revisit to my favorite peking duck restaurant-Simon's Peiking duck in Box hill South. Having been to the once beloved Old Kingdom and now the new Simon's Peiking duck several times, I can only say that many things have changed, but the quality of the duck is still the same-it is ever so tasty and crispy. Having a relatively large stomach capacity, I can always have more however having three other girls (one of them pregnant) with me meant that I can only be frugal in how many pieces of duck I can have. Nonetheless, we still managed to have 3-4 pieces of peking duck between the four of us.

For those of you who don't know, the duck at Simon's are served in three courses to fully utilise the whole duck. There are two options. For $55, you can have Peking duck with 12 pieces of crepes and spring onion, cucumber and plum sauce as accompaniment. This is followed by stir fried bean sprouts with duck and duck soup. The 2nd option for $63 includes the Peking duck with 15 pieces of crepes etc, choice of noodles and duck soup. We choose the former.


When we arrived, the restaurant was buzzing with activity and we were promptly hurried to our seats. We were served quickly but couldn't help but feel that the waiters and managers didn't really have time for us. I remember when we visited Old Kingdom or Simon's when they first opened and Simon, the duck Nazi would always come to each table for a chat as well as carving and showing us how to position and fold her Peking duck. With the success of this new restaurant, it has become less personal and special touches like that have now been omitted. The Peking duck as I had previously said was perfect and very delicious. The crepes was thin and delicate, a perfect accompaniment. Cucumbers were cucumbers. The plum sauce was nothing special. I'm not a fan of spring onion but even my friends said the spring onions were cut too "chunky" and hence too "spicy" to taste. The stir fried bean shoots with duck was pedestrian although I quite enjoyed the duck soup. I like the idea of utilizing the whole animal so there is minimal wastage.

We also had the Sambal Belacan with four seasonal vegetables which was very tasty however, I felt the serving size was very small.

As far as I know, there are two seating in the evenings at Simon's. The first ends promptly at 8pm where you are "politely" ask to vacate the table. The latter, I guess starts at 8pm and finishes late. We were part of the first seating. One thing that made our dinner less enjoyable was at the end when we were in the process of paying the bill. It was about 7:55pm and we were vacating the table by 8pm for the next seating. We had asked for the bill, and was waiting for it to be picked up with the cash in it when staff asked us to vacate the table for the next seating. When we pointed out that we were just waiting for the bill to be finalized, they insisted that we got up and to go to the front counter to pay for our bill as they had to set the table. Now, I understand the pressure they may be under to serve the waiting customers, but I don't think that offending the previous customers will help to bring continuing business to them. I'm not expecting a fine dining experience but I think customer service is fundamental to any hospitality business. Not that I'm saying I won't return again, but it certainly left an unpleasant taste after a relatively enjoyable dinner. Overall, go there for the Peking duck but don't expect the other dishes to be fantastic.  

Fine dining in Japan

We went to some wonderful food destinations in Japan which really showcased the amazing food the country has to offer. As we're lovers of fine dining, we felt that trying "Kaiseki" in Kyoto was a must as it was known as the haute cuisine of Japanese food. From my understanding, it is sort of like the degustation type menu we have in the western world.

According to Wiki (the source of all worldly information), Kaiseki is a type of art form that balances the taste, texture, appearance and colors of the food. Usually only fresh local and seasonal ingredients are used and the finished dishes are presented on plates that were chosen to enhance the appearance and seasonal theme (Autumn for us) of the meal.

Anyway, I cannot remember the name of the amazing restaurant we go to. I know it was one that we stumbled upon after a tiring day exploring the temples of Kyoto. We were a late booking so we were not able to secure the traditional Japanese style seating, but were seated at the bar which ended up being a great experience as well as we got to interact with the chef and watch them plate up some of the dishes.

We had a fantastic time. Each and every dish was spectacular in it's presentation and they tasted wonderful with all types of different texture flavors. The deserts were interesting and very Japanese but we still love the more indulgent counterparts available to us in Australia more.

When we were in Japan, we also chose to visit mystical Mount Koya, which is known as the world headquarters of the Koyasan Shingon sect of Japanese Buddhism. Whilst there, we stayed in one of Mount Koya's 120  temple overnight and experienced the quiet lifestyle of the monks. We have the most magical time up in our temple. Although lodging and the dinner and breakfast provided wasn't cheap, it certainly wasn't an expensive venture either and we had the most gorgeous room with beautiful views on the Japanese garden below us.

Our dinner was also one of the most spectacular we've had in Japan and was equivalent to a traditional Japanese vegetarian meal.

I just love the way everything was presented. To the foreigner in me, everything was interesting. I loved how there were vegetables and mushrooms cooking in a make shift pot made out of paper over a burning candle, the tempura was wonderfully tasty and the ginger soup we had incredibly was heart warming. I'm sure there were many other elements of the meal that I can no longer recall in detail but overall, I had a very memorable diner indeed.

Lastly, we had another great meal in Miyajima, which is an island off the coast of Hiroshima. Miyajima was gorgeous and obviously a tourist magnet which made our time their a little less enjoyable just because of the sheer amount of people there. Nonetheless, we stayed overnight at an Inn on Miyajima and had a very good meal indeed. Although not as spectacular or memorable as the other two meals mentioned above, we still thoroughly enjoyed the fine food offered to us.

Urbanspoon rocks

Urbanspoon rocks

Tim Ho Wan, Hong Kong-My first Michelin star restaurant experience

We visited Hong Kong in November last year and felt it was only sensible to visit our first Michelin star restaurant, and a cheap one at that! Since I am Cantonese and a lover of good food, it made sense that we combined the two! We took a taxi to Tim Ho Wan and easily found the place as it seemed like everyone in HK knew it. We went to the original one in Mong Kok but I hear they've got a much bigger and newer restaurant in Sham Shui Po now. However, I heard the dim sum there aren't to the same quality of the one in Monk Kok. Perhaps because of the sheer volume of food being churned out, the head chef isn't able to monitor every dish that goes out to customers?

Anyway, when we arrived, it was approximately 10am in the morning and already there is a small crowd gathering outside. Just seeing the crowd there increased my level of excitement-I mean, surely people will only wait for something worth waiting for, right? We joined the line and using my Cantonese, I managed to get number on a meal ticket. I was told there would be a 45 minute wait. Mr HSH and I then went and explored other parts of HK before arriving back at Tim Ho Wan about 35-40 mins later. We promptly realised that our number had already been called when the waitress shouted loudly in Cantonese "Is number XX back yet"
I shouted that we were back and excitedly made our way to the front of the line. I realised then that we hadn't picked our dishes on the menu yet! We had been given a paper menu to choose from before Panicked, I asked whether anyone had some recommendations as I had no time to study the menu and didn't know what was good or recommended! I got lots of helpful recommendations from the other people waiting and the waitress, at her discretion, also ordered some extra dishes of her recommendations.

The dining room was small and cramped, but somehow, everything seem to have a process. Everyone worked efficiently and the dim sums were delivered to us quickly. There was a very quick turnover of customers in the restaurants.

Something funny and unfortunate happened to MR HSH at Tim Ho Wan. We were seated next to the cashier. As the tables were so cramped together, there was only a very small space for her to squeeze through. Our "rice noodle roll" or Cheong fun was placed very precariously near the edge of the table. I was just thinking to myself about how precarious it's placement was, when the check out chick attempted to squeeze through again and promptly dumped the whole plate of Cheong fun onto Mr HSH's lap-soya sauce and all! The check out lady immediately said "SOLLY, SOLLY!" to MR HSH. MR HSH, bless his soul, was very kind and didn't give them a hard time at all. As they were cleaning, I heard them say in cantonese "Good thing it was a foreigner "Gui Lo", otherwise we would be in trouble" (meaning, foreigners are more forgiving than the average HK person). LOL

Their signature dish-Baked bun with barbeque pork. Gorgeous, crispy coat on the outside with delicious BBQ pork filling.

Fresh Shrimp roll

Steamed fresh shrimp dumping

Steamed dumpling in Chiu Chow style

Replacement of the "dumped" cheong fun

Siu Mai

Lotus flower dessert

Overall, a very very good Yum Cha experience and authentic HK experience, all for a measley 164 HK dollars-about 23 AUD. I found a lot of their dishes to be to the standard of the best type of Yum Cha one could have, but did not find most of their dish refreshing or surprising in what it had to offer. Their signature Char Chiu Bun was probably the stand out. I hope to visit again upon my next trip to HK.