Lim's Nyonya Hut, Glen Waverley

The appreciation of food comes from our innate love for it which is nurtured and honed by the society and culture that we grew up in. Most of Yuye's friends are Malaysian and I find that every single Malaysian I know are crazy about food. They all somehow fit into the word 'foodie' in one way or another and all love taking photos of both food in restaurants and in the home. Chinese people are similar I suppose but definitely not to such an extent. My Malaysian friends will argue with me for hours about how a certain food should taste or be cooked and I find it fun to do so as it gives me a deeper insight into the lovely cuisine.

I've had so much Malaysian food in the past few weeks it's unbelievable. We made har mee (prawn noodle soup) and curry laksa at home and eaten out at Malaysian restaurants for both lunch and dinner 4 times this week. This makes me feel like I'm actually in Malaysia! The reason being I recently came across a little Malaysian restaurant that serves authentic hawker food just 2 blocks away from Yuye's house called Lim's Nyonya Hut which featured in The Age Cheap Eats Guide 2011 and for the past many years as well. Why oh why have we not noticed the place earlier, I could have been eating delicious assam laksa at just a stone's throw away! The 4 outings were also due to another restaurant in Glen Waverley which will feature in a later post.

The first time at Lim's Nyonya Hut was for lunch last week. Upon entering, I noticed the very minimalist but intriguing decorations. I couldn't help but strain my eyes to read the writing under those articles on the wall and admiring the framed clothing. I must say it goes well with the purple walls.

They have a fantastic selection of Malaysian desserts as we found out, but it might be helpful to either ask about them or look them up on your phone (that's what I did) because most are not very self explanatory for non-Malaysians. I love the green ticks for 'available' so one would always know which one is in stock and can be ordered.

Lunch

I ordered a longan drink while Yuye ordered some boring soft drink. I know it's strange but I like lychee and longan flavoured drinks or desserts, however I don't actually like eating the fruits. While I ordered this drink, it was more like Yuye's since he ate all of the longans.

I was instantly in love after my first experience with assam laksa at batasan's house, cooked by the wonderfully talented home cook bata-mum just last year. The tangy sourness provided by the assam and subtle fishiness from the dried mackerel are beautifully aromatic and oh so yummy. I absolutely adore sour and chilli flavours and assam laksa has now overtaken Thai tom yum on my favourite foods list. I almost jumped out of my seat with joy when I saw that Lim's had assam laksa on the menu and, you guessed it, I ordered it instantly. Lim's assam laksa was quite strong in fish flavour as they used a lot of dried fish. I may have liked mine with a little less because it was slightly overpowering, however, it was definitely still delicious. I loved the mint leaves and onion shreds in the soup which added that extra dimension to the dish.

Yuye's eyes were completely glued to the pandan nasi lemak for $11.80 which is advertised here as 'first of a kind in Australia'. It was a pandan flavoured coconut rice served with cucumber, ikan bilis (anchovies & peanuts with medium spiced chilli sauce) and assam squid. Yes the rice was green! It was very coconutty and we both loved it. The ikan bilis gave the dish beautiful textures and flavours.

Mocha Jo's, Glen Waverley

Since a number of years ago, a unique food culture has gathered in the heart of Glen Waverley. The mix of Asian and cafe influences has seen many new restaurant openings and causing a sharp increase in foodies flocking to the area, along with it an unfortunate decrease in parking availability. The restaurants on the main food strip, Kingsway, such as Mocha Jo's are always busy regardless of the time and day. This is also one of the few suburbs where many of the restaurants are open till late.

I've lived in Glen Waverley for over 15 years but amazingly I have never set foot inside Mocha Jo's until now. We decided to (finally!) try this place out last week for dinner because we didn't feel like cooking. Mocha Jo's opened its doors to the Glen Waverley public more than 10 years ago and today is one of the suburb's favourite hangout spots. I liked the distinct wooden decor and their young, trendy atmosphere. The menu is reasonably extensive and spells out cafe style food - a bit of everything, including soups, salads, pastas, mains, desserts and of course, coffee.

Frenchy's Bistro, Glen Waverley

This will be the last post that's related to my birthday I promise. So since I had celebrated with my friends and boyfriend (Yuye), my parents wanted a share of the festivity as well (at my expense of course…doh).

I decided to go to Frenchy's in Glen Waverley because I've been there many times before (so it should be reasonably safe) and they're on the Entertainment Book so it won't be as much strain on my wallet.

Circuz, Glen Waverley

About a week ago, W and I went to Circuz Japanese Noodle Bar and Grill in Glen Waverley for our combined birthday dinner. I wanted to try this place not because of its popularity but merely because I was intrigued by the change of food type and the mixed reviews on the internet. Some of you might know, Circuz used to be a Modern Italian restaurant, in fact, it's still in The Age Good Food Guide as just that. After speaking with the waiter, I found out that the ownership did not change (thus the restaurant name remained the same) but food changed from Italian to Japanese at the beginning of this year.

Food for thought & GAS Hair Studio Cafe

A recent visit to a restaurant sparked a thought that I wanted to share with all of you (rather, I'm posting this more for my own sake because probably not many people will be reading this).

It's common knowledge that there has been an outbreak of food blogs in recent years, giving birth to many self-proclaimed 'foodies' and wannabe food critics (like myself). But it is also true that anything and everything we post (food reviews especially) are individual experiences and are bound by personal taste/preference, special occurrences on the day as well as many other elements combined. Everything you read should be taken with a grain of salt, especially the extremely positive or negative comments and places that have mixed reviews. Be your own judge and actually visit some of those restaurants rather than just taking the word of some stranger on the internet.