Dickson Asian Noodle House

Dickson Asian Noodle house is a busy place that is well known for their laksa. They have a very extensive Asian menu with dishes from Thailand, Malaysia and Laos, Singapore and HK. It is a no nonsense place with laminated tables and chair where you wouldn’t really linger for after dinner drinks. But this place is definitely popular with the locals with the queue for tables are as long as the takeaway queue. The service is very efficient and you will get your steaming bowl of laksa in minutes. The laksa is touted as the best in Canberra and I must agree. I had one of those ‘dang this is freaking good’ moments after I had my spoonful. And with food, great first impressions on my tastebuds means its the real deal. The laksa is totally addicting.

Combination Laksa

 

Combination Laksa

Tom Yum Goong

Stir fry chicken

Beef mince

Crispy noodles

 

Rating   :  Love it

Food     :  Laksa

Summary : Really great authentic food and value for money. Entrees are around AUD 5.50 – 7, main courses AUD 9-14.
Definitely drop by this place when you’re in Canberra.

Dickson Asian Noodle House
29 Woolley Street
Canberra, ACT 2602
Tel : (02) 6247 6380

 

A KitKat moment

Red Bean KitKat

I’m having a KitKat moment…. Been taking a break this past month.

Need to get back into blogging. Not that easy to squeeze in blogging after moving to another country, taking a mini-holiday, transferring to another state, getting a new job plus doing all the household stuff that I normally don’t do back in Manila.

In the meantime, the restaurant posts have been piling up, so yes, I will try to make my KitKat moment short!!

Apple and Green Tea KitKat

Green Tea KitKat

Some very interesting KitKat flavors I have discovered in the Asian grocery in Melbourne. These chocolates have been manufactured for the Japanese market.  Aren’t they the coolest?!!

 

Vietnamese Grill Bar

Swanston Street in the Melbourne CBD is crammed with Asian restaurants which offer quick and cheap meals. We ducked into Vietnamese Grill Bar which looked rather new with clean and modern interiors. The menu is filled with the usual Pho dishes and rice toppings. We opted for the combos which would let us try a bit of everything.

 
Combo 1 Pork chop, broken rice, spring roll and ice longan drink $12.80

 
Combo 2 Grilled chicken on tomato rice and ice longan drink $12.80

Summary : I did say these places offered quick meals, but I didn’t expect food which not only tasted bland but also pre-cooked. The chicken was cold and the pork chop has the toughness which comes from being reheated too many times. My friend and I both agreed this was really bad Asian fast food. The only thing this place had going for it was its interiors.

Rating : One nighter
Food   : None

Vietnamese Grill Bar
305-307 Swanston St Melbourne 3000
Phone : +613 9650 0068

 

A slice of Vietnam – Thanh Ha

North Richmond is the ‘Little Saigon’ of Melbourne. You know you’re in North Richmond when you see Vietnamese words on all the signboards hanging. There’s also asian bakeries and groceries after every few shops. People visit this side of town for the cheap and satisfying bowls of pho and spring rolls from any of the rows of Vietnamese restaurants lining the road  down Victoria street with names like Tho Tho, Thy Thy and Minh Minh.

Thanh Ha is one of the more popular Vietnamese restaurants in the area. How do we know that? There’s Thanh Ha and Thanh Ha 2 a block away from each other and both are packed. We’re talking about laminated tables, large food pictures and food menus pasted on the wall here. Food is cheap, hearty and good. The menu is quite extensive and aside from the standard pho and rice rolls, try out something from the specialty part of the menu.

 
The Rice Paper Roll with pork and shrimp  $8.50 are made with the freshest ingredients. Large prawns and fillings which show the rolls bursting at the seams.

 
Thanh Ha is popular for their vietnamese pancakes ($13). It’s wafer thin, crispy and stuffed with beansprouts, meat and prawns. It comes with a plate of lettuce and mint leaves, with a small bowl of chilli dressing. You basically tear off a bit of the pancake, some mint, wrap it in the lettuce with dressing and take bites from it. Almost all the tables have a plate of this pancake which amusingly is larger than the plate it comes in!

  
Tomato Rice with Crispy Chicken Aud 9.50

Summary : Food is cheap and authentic. Surprisingly, vietnamese food I’ve tried in Australia are much better than what I had in Vietnam. A lot comes from using fresh and quality ingredients on the food.

Rating : Like It
Food   : Vietnamese pancakes

Thanh Ha
172 Victoria St
Richmond 3121 VIC
Phone :  (03) 9429 8130      

 

All Aboard Cathay Pacific – Manila to Melbourne

On my Manila to Melbourne flight, I got upgraded on the Manila – HK leg of my trip. Yey! Being a loyal CX frequent flier does come handy as it increases the chances for flight upgrades.

 

Sigh… the two hour HK trip seemed much shorter as I enjoyed my roomy seat. I enjoyed the dimsum platter for the in-flight breakfast.

 

On my HK – Melbourne leg… where are the ceramic plates!!! Back to reality and plasticware.

 

Noodles were better than my Pineapple Chicken dish for dinner.

Summary : Cathay Pacific’s meals are decent enough. Business class meals would of course be good since you’re paying top pesos for your seat. My experience with their economy class meals have been passable. Chinese dishes I have had would be prepared better than continental dishes like a generic chicken or fish dish. I normally would choose noodles and pile on the chili sauce to give flavor to my meal.

Here’s a related post on a Philippine Airlines flight I took. Share your plane food stories.