The Hungarian, Richmond

After our drinks at Der Raum the other night with WinWin, we decided to venture down the road to The Hungarian for dinner as Der Raum doesn't have any nibbles. I've never had Hungarian food before (apart from the occasional non-traditional orders of goulash at not so Hungarian cafes around Melbourne) so I thought this would be a nice experience.

My decision was also partly because of reading their online menu, not so much for the food but for the humour. I found it such an interesting read that I spent more time giggling than really deciding what I wanted to eat (both on the computer and in the restaurant). In my opinion, usually if the owners of a restaurant put a lot of effort in writing up a menu, then there would have been an equal amount of effort put into the food and the service. It also shows that the owners care about its patrons and I was right. Go and read the menu for yourself if you're interested.

A sneak peak at their menu:

"Hungarian Beef Goulash / Marhapörkölt $19,90
The authentic, traditional, world-famous, classic, unforged,
one-and-only, unforgettable, sensational, most popular,
most requested, etc., running out of adjectives here…,
the true Hungarian beef stew mixed into a saucy mess
with nokedli; cooked by a real Hungarian,
in real Hungarian spices, with real Hungarian ingredients,
from a really old, original, Hungarian recipe.
That’s it.
No! There’s still more!
Choice of hot or mild.
Now, that’s really it."

The decor of the restaurant was clearly very homey and warm. It's quite a small restaurant which fits roughly 30 people and bookings are highly recommended if you don't want to be disappointed. I should also mention that there are actually quite a few discount vouchers or special deals on their website (in the download section) which I only saw after we went to the restaurant! Shame because now I really want to try that free grappa. There are also interesting discounts such as Good Old Monday (receive % off your meal based on your age) and Crowd Control (person making a booking for 6 or more gets $10 off their meal). What fantastic ideas and good incentives to attract more customers.

They have a small but nice list of Hungarian and other European wines and spirits, although we didn't have any. I was quite dead from the 1.5 drinks I had at Der Raum already. I'm so shameful.

Instead of more alcohol, I opted for the interesting sounding Hungarian Peach Juice (375ml for $3.90). It didn't really taste like fresh peach juice, but rather somewhat like Nestle Peach Tea, except without the tea. If that makes sense. The juice also comes in a 1litre for $8.90 option.

As all the reviews online suggested the main meals were very large and we were both not that hungry, we thought we'd order 1 entree and 1 main to share. The entree we ordered was the Crumbed Cheese ($9.90) which is only available from Thursday to Sunday. It's a 'thick slice of cheese crumbed and seasoned, then snap-fried quickly and served while it's soft and melting inside, but crisp and crunchy on the outside. Served on a bed of lettuce.'

Indeed, the outside was very crunchy and when WinWin halved it, the melted cheese inside oozed out. I was impressed. The taste was fantastic. I love cheese and I love fried stuff so this was perfect. It's not cheap for the size that we got though.

The main we decided on was the 19th Century Lamb Goulash for $24.90. It's tender lamb cooked in dry red wine and fresh tomatoes, yellow capsicums and spices. It also came with parsleyed potatoes. I actually expected the meal to be bigger because if I was actually hungry, I could have eaten the whole thing by myself. The goulash was quite nice though. The meat was very tender (as to be expected from hours of cooking) and the flavours have deeply penetrated them. The parsleyed potatoes were very soft and filling and went well with the goulash.

The goulash also came with a mini salad. The one we chose (you get a choice between 4 types) was the Hungarian Cucumber Salad, which was more or less just pickled cucumbers. It went well with the goulash though as it added a bit of acidity to the otherwise quite meaty and heavy dish. I should have asked for sour cream but I forgot.

Der Raum, Richmond - exclusive bar with character

The last time I visited Der Raum (and also the first) was about 5 years ago for a friend's 21st birthday. I've never been nor am now a big alcohol drinker so bars had never really been my kind of thing. I remember back then, Der Raum's frontage was fully open and you could see into the bar from the street. Customers could enter freely and the bar was very busy.

Last Friday, I had a drink there with Winwin and to my surprise, Der Raum has become completely exclusive! Even with Googlemaps, I had to question whether I was at the right place as the exterior was completely dark and there were no signs to be found, not even its name! It turns out that Der Raum has introduced a membership policy where you can join the limited and exclusive members list in exchange for $250 a year and you get a keypass where you can swipe yourself in freely during all trading hours. It also comes with benefits such as priority bookings for large bookings, a birthday treat (a signature punch bowl worth about 15 full size cocktails), discounted drinks on Monday nights, discounted spirits and many more. Sounds like a good deal for Der Raum fans. However, non-members do not fear as they still accept bookings although that's based on availability (obviously members come first).

Just remember to ring the intercom when you're at the door and a friendly waiter will open the door for you. Apparently if you haven't made a booking beforehand and you ring the doorbell, you will not be let in even if there is space.

It was nice to see that they still had all the hanging bottles at the bar counter which was a beautiful and fascinating sight to see. They do actually use these to make the drinks which shows that they have quite a comprehensive spirits list. My photo doesn't do the counter justice since the bottles hang all around it. The menu changes by the season and this is the current one.

As soon as we ordered our drinks, the waitress came up and offered us a small complimentary drink. What a nice little surprise and look how beautiful it was! I'm terrible at remember names, especially alcohol ingredients but I did catch lavender and Bianco (vermouth) with what I assume was dry ice vapour inside. The dark lighting made the drink even more mysterious. It was good that this drink didn't have too much alcohol in it since I can't take alcohol at all and even finishing the one drink I ordered would have been difficult.

I took the top one without lighting assistance but I wasn't sure how it would turn out so I got Winwin to turn on her iPhone 4G's back light for me. Silly me forgot to adjust the white balance back and the photo turned very blue. So blue that I actually quite like it so here it is! :)

I ordered a Zombie which includes pineapple, citrus, apricot, caramelised passionfruit, spices and of course Bacardi rum for $25. I couldn't really taste the individual fruits apart from the obvious passionfruit as there were many seeds and large pieces at the bottom of the drink. However, it was definitely fruity and has a non-overpowering but sweet flavour. The rum was at a bearable strength which I was glad about.

The drink was also topped with half a passionfruit shell which had caramelised sugar inside. The sugar can be added to the drink at the drinker's discretion depending on how sweet they like it to be. I found it to be about right so didn't need to add anymore sugar. Although I did add some in at the end just to test it out and see if it made any different. Maybe I was so drunk already but I couldn't really tell.

Winwin ordered the Latin Threesome for $22 and includes smoked fruits, sugarcane, grape, citrus, Sagatiba Pura Cachaca (a Brazilian rum), Pisco Control (Chile) and Havana Club Anejo Reserva(Cuba). I'm not certain whether these are the exact alcohols used but as they weren't listed anywhere, I took the liberty of searching it up online and came across afoodstory.com.au which I presume listed their old menu items. Latin Threesome is a classic and I believe stays on the menu while some others change with the season. It was quite a lot stronger in alcoholic taste compared to mine as the cup was smaller and the ice wasn't all that melted. I think I preferred mine more just because it wasn't as strong. Ok, alcohol experts, I admit I'm not good with drinking, but it's in my Asian blood and runs in the family. I seriously die with only 1-2 drinks. Life isn't fair!

Maedaya, Richmond - a Japanese Izakaya

Before I went to Japan at the beginning of this year I was for the most part an izakaya newbie. Basically I hadn't really had much experience in drinking beer/sake and enjoying skewers and other nibbles at Japanese styled sake bars. Yuye and I went to a few while we were there and totally loved them. The food were fantastic, the alcohols alluring and atmospheres were exciting. There was a sense of joy and festivity and relaxedness in the air with the constant chattering and glowing red faces around me. Izakayas are places where people go to rest after a long day at work and gossip about new things happening in their lives.

I will be blogging about our experiences at some izakayas in Japan in a later post.

When we came back to Melbourne, we decided to try more izakayas as there are so many around and some are quite popular, one of them being Maedaya in Richmond. Maedaya has a no bookings policy unless if you're booking for a larger group and as the place is quite small, most of the time you will have to fight with the eager crowds lining up at the door. But of course, the smaller the group (we went as just 2 people) the easier it is to get seats.

Maedaya has a nice selection of Japanese sakes, umeshus and other alcohols where the bottles are neatly lined up on the shelf behind the counter.

We were seated at the counter where the skewers were made and the smell was so tantalising. It was 8pm and I was hungry.

Yuye ordered a regular Kirin Draught ($7.50) while I ordered a cooler Choya Blush ($7.50) which was fruity and sweet. Due to the ice and size of the drink, it wasn't as alcoholic which was a good thing for me. You can't go wrong with a pink drink!

The first dish of the night was the Kawari Tuna Sashimi ($12.80). To my surprise, it was actually a very large plate full of fresh and slightly scorched tuna pieces drenched in sesame oil and wasabi mayo and topped with a good amount of grated daikon. A bit too oily for Yuye and myself, but the taste was so good I ate all my share and part of Yuye's anyway. The tuna literally melted in my mouth which the flavours of the sauce and natural sweetness of the fish came flooding onto my tongue. I loved it together with the daikon as it was flavoured with a citrusy sauce (most likely ponzu). It was a most fitting start to the meal.

The next dish, something we order without fail if available on the menu, was the soft-shell crab. It came with 2 crabs which were very crispy and tasty but yet not that oily. Yuye and I chowed down the soft-shell crabs in a matter of seconds.

After the soft-shell crabs came all the skewers. It was a nice experience enjoying our skewers while watching the waiter behind the counter make them. The first skewer that we had was the beef skewer (gyu kushi) for $3.80. It was a tiny bit tough but very tasty. Yuye liked this one.

The next skewer was the chicken skewer or yakitori ($2.50). It was quite average and I noticed why. The chicken skewers were actually pre-cooked, most likely boiled, and then reheated on the grill and then dipped in yakitori sauce. When chicken is pre-cooking and then reheated, it tends to become a bit more dry and bland. Yuye and I both didn't like this one too much.

Three different skewers came on one plate after the chicken and they were (from bottom up) chicken skin (kawa - $2.50), pork belly (buta kushi - $3.80) and chicken & spring onion (negi tori - $2.50). Some people (in fact many girls I know) refuse to eat chicken skin. The notion of ordering a skewer with JUST chicken skin on it might be utterly unthinkable. However, I'm an avid lover of chicken skin and I loved this skewer. It was a bit crunchy and a tiny bit oily but definitely delicious. If you like chicken wings and eat chicken skin, I suggest trying this skewer. The pork belly was not bad although a tiny on the tough side but I liked the chunky salt on it and the chicken with spring onion was quite average as well.

One of my favourite skewers of the night was the next one - pork asparagus ($3.50). It was a slender long asparagus wrapped in a thin layer of pork and grilled. The asparagus was juicy and tender, the pork was salty which gave the whole skewer a balanced flavour.

We contemplated whether we wanted to order more dishes since we were mostly satisfied but could fit in a few more things. It was a bad decision really. We ended up ordering 2 more fried dishes, the first one being agedashi tofu. It was a bit different to the usual way of making it. Maedaya's version was very saucy and was topped with vegetables instead of grated daikon. I liked the sauce because it was sour and flavourful, but it was something that Yuye can make at home. The tofu batter was not that crunchy, partly due to them being soaked in the sauce. The major thing that I noticed with this dish though was the badly cut veggies. The carrot pieces were unevenly cut with some large and some small. If this happened on Masterchef as part of a challenge, it would not have fared too well for the contestant. Overall it was still a tasty dish but it didn't wow me.

The second fried dish we ordered was the veggie tempura. This was an even bigger mistake. I should have noticed the couple next to us ordering the same dish and stopped at that but I was too slow. As you can probably tell, the batter on the tempura was thick, oily and not at all good. It was like the batter on fish and chips. The batter should have been airy and light, a very important element in making good tempura. We ended up taking the whole outer layer off the bigger pieces and just ate the inside. They also didn't serve the tempura with a dipping sauce which may have helped ease the oiliness a bit in my opinion.

Although the last two dishes didn't leave such a good impression, we were still keen on trying a dessert. A separate dessert menu was provided and we chose the Matcha Warabimochi ($5.50) which is a chilled green tea mochi dish. It was very chilled indeed and was quite a nice end to the meal. The dessert came with honey to dip the mochi as by itself there would have not been any sweetness at all. Although I enjoyed this dessert, I did think it needed a bit more green tea flavour or a bit more bitterness since the honey really overpowers whatever flavour was in the mochi.