Perth Highlights

Feeling rather lazy with posting here so I'll just write about the culinary highlights of our Perth trip. We actually didn't get to try as many things as we wanted because of time constraint. Also, having a father in law who's not keen on walking or taking a taxi and staying in a city that shuts down at 5:30 PM rather limited our choices.

My friend Maru was a student in Perth and she gave us some really awesome suggestions. We were able to check out two of the places. First is the Korean BBQ place Arirang at 91-93 Barrack Street in CBD. Wid and I went there two nights straight. First time we tried the kalbi with sliced onions that came on one of those sizzling hot plates as well as chapchi. Chapchi had nice mushroomy, meaty flavor and the noodles were cooked to perfection. The kalbi had good flavor, but it was too oily and some of the meat was still uncooked. Later in our trip we returned and decided to order enough meats so we can use the bbq. That turned out to be an excellent decision. We were able to cook it to the way we liked. The kalbi was fantastic and so was the bulgogi. The sets came with ample vegetable dishes as well as rice and soup. We also tried the chocolate fondue. The dessert tasted good but I was hoping the chocolate was less watery.

We also checked out Saigon Cafe and Noodle Restaurant on 101 James Street in Northbridge. The setting reminded me of Pho Pasteur in Boston Chinatown, but the food was just as lovely. We both ordered the vermicelli with grilled meat and spring roll. The dish was really fresh and refreshing. While it's not as awesome as vermicelli from Pho Pasteur, it's still much better than anything we can ever find in Bali. Next day for lunch we brought Wid's parents and Wid's mom's distant relatives to the place. Unfortunately the relatives aren't much of food lovers but we managed to enjoy ourselves. The stir-fried dishes (fried rice and peppered beef) reminded me more of Chinese food, but it tasted pretty good. The pho was lovely. I love the mung bean milkshake. I think it has a hint of coconut, but it wasn't too much to be too distracting. The owner or manager came over and talked with us. He invited us to come to the restaurant again and he'll cook Indonesian specials. Haha. We didn't have a change to try out another Korean restaurant that my friend recommended. It was Seoul on Williams Street. Maybe next time if we ever go back again.

There were tons of Korean and Vietnamese restaurants and some of them were super packed every night. One we checked out was Little Seoul at 536 Hay Street. We ordered a bibimbap for Wid's parents to take back to the hotel. I wonder what they thought of the dish.

We wanted to check out fish and chips in Freemantle but because of the really bad planning of the group, the only fish and chips I got was from some random stall in the Freemantle Market. It was nice and fresh but I wanted more tartar sauce. The deep fried shrimp fillet was awesome, according to Wid though.

The purpose of our trip was going to a distant relative's wedding. The western food wasn't bad, but the beef was too salty. The service was too slow. About one hour lapsed between starter and main course. The appetizers kind of sucked too because they tasted old. Desert (Jamaican chocolate ice cream with meringue) was nice though. Wines and beer were free flowing so that was awesome. Too bad no one at our table took advantage of it.

That night the bride's parents took the whole family to a fine dining Chinese restaurant. That was definitely one of the best and refined Chinese food I've had. Unfortunately, I forgot the name and location of the place, and I seemed to have misplaced the business card. The Peking duck wrapped in lotus leaf crepe was nice and I thought the use of a slightly sour sauce instead of hoisin sauce was interesting. The scallops were awesome. Fried shrimp was a hit. I loved the corn chowder with chicken and pork.