Ella

Early this month, I had the pleasure of meeting the most wonderful little white dog, Ella. Ella is a well known dog around these Fremantle parts. She can be regularly seen strolling alongside her very kind and very gracious owner, who happens to get around on motor assisted transport.

Ella is a very old lady dog but she still has a cheeky puppy sparkle in her eye. I loved getting the chance to give this sweet little dog a pat and the opportunity to have a good chat with her lovely owner.

Nice to meet you Ella!

Stinger Shapiro, First Dog on the Blog!

Welcoming the very first hound of Chow Chow Hound! Hello Stinger Shapiro!

Well, What a dog! Not only does this happy blond get to hang out on most days in front of one of Freo’s tastiest (and prettiest) cafes, Wild Poppy, he also has his own face book page. And why not.

I have admired this little friend on and off for the last few years but I was lucky enough to be introduced formally today by Stinger’s charming owner (and owner of Wild Poppy). He can usually be seen lounging around in various states of comfort on the corner of Wray Ave. And as anyone who has met many Labrador types will know, generally loves to be in the door way so as to get amongst all the action, even when asleep!

Stinger was sleeping blissfully when I disturbed him for some happy snaps, they say let sleeping dogs remain that way, but I did not want to miss the opportunity to include him on my soon to be houndtastic blog.

A Big thanks to Stinger and his gracious owner for allowing me to take photos and indulge my love of dogs.

Do drop by Wild Poppy when you get a chance, the salmon bagel among other things is to die for.

The Darbar Indian Nepalese Restaurant – Mo Mo Delight.

Fremantle must love Indian food because over the past few months we have seen an explosion of new Indian eateries pop up along South Terrace, and they all seem to be doing ok. I was expecting a few of them to drop off. Just how many Indian restaurants can one street take?

It seems at least 5 that I know of.

We have, Copper Chimney (South Terrace), Haandi (Cappuccino Strip), Maya (Cappuccino Strip), Milan (South Terrace) and finally right at the end on Douro Road, The Darbar, an Indian/Nepalese mash up.
I have been to each of these eateries except for Haandi and Milan and I think the Darbar is emerging as a favourite. The inclusion of the Nepalese dishes gives it a kick over the line. I am a big dumpling fan and the Nepalese Mo Mo is just delish ($8.50 for 8). I have only tried the Chicken so far however the vegetarian option also looks great.

Big Fat Dumping’s with bright warm orange dipping sauce. Great for eating and watching movies!
Another stand out dish, which my limited knowledge marks as coming from the Indian side of the boarder is the Paneer Saag ($14.50), this dish contains spinach cooked with homemade cheese, and “herbs and spices” ambiguous description but, who cares, it tastes delicious.

The Chicken Madras ($15) is decent, very beautifully cooked chicken pieces, sweetish sauce, but to me not including the creaming coconut flavours described on the menu. Decent but something I would not trial again (though this is the second time I have ordered it because I forgot that I already tried it and got it again!)

The final hearty and addictive addition was the Dal Makhani ($13.50), this one is black lentils (YUM) tossed with butter and cream. You can’t go wrong with butter and cream as a rule and this dish is no exception. Very creamy, not a lot of texture but great sopped up with wholemeal like Tandoori Paratha ($4.90).

Given how pricey Indian take away can be, I think this place is pretty reasonable. I like that each dish varies so dramatically in flavour and is fresh in ingredients. I give this place 10 out of 10 fat steaming Mo Mos!

Opening Hours:
Lunch – 11.30am to 2.00pm
Dinner – 5.15pm to 10.00pm
9336 3600 or 0413 954 751 34 Douro Road, South Fremantle

More Chow Chow Hound, maybe now with real hounds…. and cake.

I started this blog because, A. I was bored, and B. I wanted to ping shiester eateries for ripping me off. I soon realised that we have Urban Spoon and other such online sites for such pinging antics. So this site soon developed into me just kind of yacking about food I eat when I am out (if you go by this site, I don’t eat out very often, this is not the case, I just don’t update very often).
I guess I don’t write about all of my eating experiences because, frankly, they are not that interesting and I get a bit weird about taking photos of food in restaurants and cafes. We have the Food Pornographer for this and gosh, she does a great job, I am a long term devotee.
A late notice new years resolution then, this blog will surely remain an unkempt diary of “Food in Freo, and Maybe Even Beyond!” but I plan on expanding into other areas. Things I am interested in writing about and photographing. My own home cooking for instance, the cooking of my friends, sights and smells (use your imagination) of Fremantle and of course, how can I forget, one of my favourite things in this life, hounds of the fluffy variety, Dogs. So let’s see if we can get more dogs on here, among other things.

To kick things off, I have included some photos of a recent home cooking adventure, a Berry Clafouti which went a treat with the snappy musings of Sloane Crossely’s nifty book “I Was Told There Would Be Cake”.

The Beach Club Cottesloe, Wine, Food, Beach Views…

Mr Chow Hound and I scooted to the Beach Club in Cottesloe for a lunch date today, and I am glad we did. Mr Chow loves making an early arrival to every place we go so we were milling at the entrance at about 10 to 12. It seems he is not the only one, we joined at least 12 other fanging folks in line by the time we arrived. (Though I don’t think the Cott Set would like to be referred to as fanging folk, maybe famished felines, or food as an afterthought fashionable? Either way, they were there in droves and the place packed out moments upon opening)
Mr. and I got a great table for two along the balcony edge, ocean views. The revamp from the old beer garden to fancy club is really nice. Makes me wish I had a garden so I could steal all their décor dips, great coloured tiles, matching black and white mosaic table tops, simple light fittings, great high tables at the back for big groups, lounges for lounging, a fantastic back bar, so much seating! Almost all shaded, light, bright and breezy. It’s the Cover Girl of outdoor décor.
The food, a big yes and now I want to go back and try more. I had the Woodfired Portobello mushrooms, pearl barley and goat cheese salad, with Pedro Ximinez Vinaigrette ($24), this is some salad, so there was not a lot of pearl barley, included instead, stacks of mushrooms and so much goat cheese, I was glad for our side serve of Wood fired grilled flat bread with rosemary salt, it lapped up all my tasty cheese mix wonderfully. Delicious. It is a crime to call this a salad, but why not, I had a salad for lunch.
Mr. had a “salad” also, Warm wood fired pumpkin with smoky eggplant and pomegranate molasses ($22), oh so yummy, again great with the bread. The pumpkin was nice but took a back seat to the insanely tasty eggplant mix, this stuff is good. I took as many bites as I could get. So much smoky goodness.
Service, great, attentive and fast considering how many people they had to get through in the initial opening minutes, with even more lining up as we were all seated.
Only negatives – my water glass came with a lipstick stain, not clean. And they neglected to include the olive oil with our breads, though to be honest, it hardly needed the oil. These are small blips on an otherwise lovely meal in a great restaurant. Beach Club Bliss, will be back for the Hamburger, Grilled meats and the dessert menu.
Cottesloe Beach Hotel, 104 Marine Parade, Cottesloe, Western Australia, 6011. Phone: +61 (0)8 9383 1100 Email: reservations@cottesloebeachhotel.com.au

http://www.cottesloebeachhotel.com.au/

I Don’t Eat Animals, and They Don’t Eat Me (tonight anyway)

When asked how I felt about giving dinner a try at a wholly vego restaurant this Friday night, my text response was “I’ll take one for the team”.  So, super excited am I, to discover that the array of food offered by the folks at Lotus Vegetarian on James Street in Northbridge is soooo outrageously tasty.

Our group of five ordered the banquet (sadly the famous buffet was not available this weekend). We also ordered a serve of sizzling bean curd to go with it. For around $20 each we certainly got good value for money. The banquet consists of a shared entrée plate (chicken skewers, wontons, and spring rolls), sizzling lamb, sweet and sour fish, rice, and a serve of greens. When I first realised the place we were going to eat at described its dishes as “lamb” and “fish” I pictured packets of tofu fashioned into lamb and fish shaped chunks, covered in sauce and tasting much like… tofu. I was very pleased to discover how wrong I had been! The sizzling lamb was better than you can imagine. Maybe it does not taste like lamb exactly, but if you are the kind of person who feels like they need to have meat included in their dinner ingredients for it to be considered a real dinner – you would not be disappointed with this lamb substitute. Similarly with the fish (“fish”) they probably don’t really need to call it fish, it’s kind of unlike fish, and however, the texture is delightful and soaks up the awesome tamarind sweet/sour sauce so well, truly delish.

Back to the entrée, everything here is deep fried to crispy perfection, the chicken skewers are crunchy and spongy and if didn’t know it wasn’t chicken… I think it just tasted like moist chicken. Yum. Wontons, decidedly sea foody – again so crunchy and fresh, spring rolls, large, crunchy, full of awesome veges. This all came with a whopping serve of satay dipping sauce and a sweeter styled dipping sauce. Really Good Stuff.

I feel as though a whole new world of eating has just been opened up to me! How cool is that.

If not for the Quarter Pounder I had for lunch, I could have slipped off to sleep feeling quite righteous that the animals of the world were safe from my ever present meat lust, well, for one night at least.

Lotus Vegetarian

08 9228 2882

2/220 James Street
Northbridge, WA 6003

yongcorp.com.au

The Attic and Tabella

Having read some great blogs lately (Little Piece of Pie, Opshopped and The Fremantle Doctor as well as the old fave Love Freo) I have decided it is time to kick start the lonely Chow Chow Hound. (Though one should never kick any kind of hound so let’s instead say I decided to lovingly pat the hound back to life)

I have so many food related items to discuss and I think, all without serious complaint…

Let’s start with the Attic 

George Street Bistro East Fremantle

It is strange to be a person who one day discovers that they are at a point where it has become ok to spend $186 on dinner. It was a birthday dinner, but really? $186? Should that ever be ok? When $200 used to be pretty close to my full weekly wage. Is it ok to say Yes to spending such an amount on a plate of tasty morsels, a tepid lamb chop and sweet, oh and don’t forget the wine…
George Street Bistro in East Fremantle is one of the” have to try” places to eat if you are kind of interested in that kind of thing. Being that Me and the fellow Chow hound are those who enjoy getting amongst the touted snacky places around Perth, we had to give George Street a bash. This is our second time round.
On a chilly darkened May night we arrived and were seated near the front window/door area. We decided to opt for the shared tasting plate for our starter. We both now fancy ourselves as duck liver pate connoisseurs so the inclusion of this item on the plate made it an easy choice for us.
The “Best Of” Tasting plate ($32 for two) consists of Duck Liver Pate, Goat Cheese Brulee and Sugar Cured Salmon. We also received a basket of tasty bread with a side of butter. Each item on the plate was delicious. The salmon was plump and rich and came with a creamy sauce, the Brulee was creamy and tangy but best of all was the Duck Liver Pate, so creamy, so smooth, the texture which almost produces its own temperature, a delight to which I say, more, more, more please?! The serving for two was generous and went down a treat with a glass of Murray Street Cab Sav ($12). If you are looking for a fantastic nibbler pre dinner, this is surely one of the yummiest.
For our main we both ordered the Rack of Lamb ($40). Upon ordering the waitress asked if we were happy to receive the dish as per the chef’s recommendation which is to serve it medium. We agreed and while I am happy with the choice I would have to say it is the rarest lamb I have eaten and I felt it lacked a little caremalisation. The lamb was to have a mustard bread crumb crust however the bread was soft and had not been crisped in the slightest. The lamb was very fresh and probably how lamb should be enjoyed however for my personal taste I like a little browning, more for the taste than the ick factor of rare meat. There was no bleed on the plate so the dish was served as we had agreed. We both enjoyed it but could not help but feel the sting at having shelled out $80 in total for some kind of soggy lamb chops.
Desert was a Crème Brulee ($13) for me and a Chocolate Pudding with vanilla ice cream ($13) (*note – recollection on exact price and ice cream flavour sketchy) for fellow Chow Hound. My Brulee was quite large and had a satisfying crack as I struck through the caramelised sugar. A fine Brulee! Fellow Chow hound however was not so impressed with his small pud which was a little dry inside and a bit small for the price and as it was not exactly rich in flavour, was a little disappointing.
My general impression of the Bistro is still positive and I would go back again. I do feel the menu is a tad over priced however we would have been smart to order a bottle wine rather than the four glasses we ordered in total which really added to the bill. The wine list is interesting however I would like to see more wine available by the glass. The next time we visit I will be tempted to partake in the set menu which comes with matched wines. I can’t say that the meal was not worth what was paid because the overall experience of sitting with fellow Chow Hound over what was a quality meal with a few glasses of wine really was a birthday treat.

George Street Bistro
(08) 9339 6352
Fremantle
73 George St
Perth, 6158
http://www.george-street.com.au

Char Char Bull for a Chow Chow Hound

A few years ago Rich and I booked for a Valentine’s Day dinner at Lyrebird, now The View. The overall experience was so bad we walked out half way through. We have never been back however I have been thinking about paying them another visit.

Having left the View late into the evening on Valentine’s Day we figured our only remaining option of a romantic dinner out would be fish and chips or McDonalds on Fishing Boat Harbour (R.I.P. my good Friend) – we decided to try out luck at Char Char Bull and we were happy to discover that they had a free table.  We had such good service on the night that ever since then I have always had a soft spot for Char Char.

I have since been back with family and it has always been a great all purpose winner – great food, great wine and pretty views. It will be interesting to see what happens down in this little area of Freo when the ISAF Sailing World Championships hit town in December of this year.

With this in mind the fam, Rich and I decided to book in for a dinner on Saturday night to celebrate my Grandma’s 79^th Birthday.

I think it would be safe to say that we are a family of big eaters, we like our food and we like plenty of it.   

We decided to order some garlic bread $6 (for my Mum and Uncle) and Trio of Dips $16 for the table, this was in addition to two serves of Chicken Soup $12 for Dad and Rich and a  Crispy tart, with seared Japanese scallops, fennel, caramelised onion, bacon, apple dressing $21 for me.

The breads were great, hot and fresh and almost in a damper style. I sipped the soup and it was clear, clean and fresh. My entree was delicious, the scallops were plump and moist and the apple dressing was tart and sweet so it cut through the heaviness of the puff pastry.

We ordered a bottle of Fonty’s Pool to have with dinner, you gotta have a red with a steak!

For our mains we pretty much covered all areas of the menu . Rich and I both had the Scotch Fillet, 300 grams with caramelised onion, green peppercorn sauce $39 – which also came with mash potato – we both loved our steak. Mine was served medium and was easy to pull apart along the grain; the sauce was savoury and complemented the subtly sweet meat. Great use of meat.

 Mum had the 200 gram Fillet Steak (which the staff were happy to alter slightly to Mum’s liking – making a mushroom jus styled gravy instead of the regular sundried tomatoe butter the steak usually comes with)

My uncle had the Supremo Pizza – pepperoni, bacon, roasted capsicum, mushrooms, pineapple, onions & parsley $23 which he said was as good as any pizza he had ever had including some Lygon street classic’s – pretty big call but coming from  a pizza buff, who knows? Maybe I’ll get pizza next time.

Dad had the Linley Valley Pork Rib Eye (270 gms), on the bone, spiced carrot puree, charred peach & pear chutney, orange vincotto & red wine jus $36 – it looked fantastic and came with a nice bit of pork crackle on top (which Dad gave to Mum – he’s one of those weirdos that does not enjoy crisped up animal fat).

 Grandma had the North West barramundi fillet, with prawn & potato cake, apple & pear remoulade & chilled zucchini salad $38 which she said was the best example of Barra she has had in ages – it looked juicy and fresh – Grandma also loved the prawn and potato cake.

For dessert I opted for the Sticky Date Pudding, with hot French caramel sauce & vanilla bean icecream $12 – the pudding it’s self was a tad dry however this was countered by the lashings of the most delicious caramel sauce, I don’t know exactly what made it French as described on the menu but it was super yummy and I would like to eat it more often! Rich ended up helping me out with my dessert and he loved the sauce also.

Rich ordered the Layered Blackberry & Creme Brulee Cheesecake, with fresh cream & blackberry sauce $12, while he enjoyed it well enough, he prefers his cheese cake to be dense with cheese, cheese and more cheese so would probably get something else next time however he did like it.

Mum never goes past the Pav so had the soft baked Pavlova $12 with raspberry coulis, creme anglaise & passionfruit cream, while not keen on the crème anglaise, really liked the raspberry coulis. Though mum clarified her order twice with our waitress who by this time of the night was looking a bit frayed, she was still served the profiteroles, though they were sent out in error I almost leapt across the table to claim them as they looked sooooo good. Sadly, they were returned to the kitchen and Mum’s rightful dish was served.

Even though it still feels like summer we all finished our meal with a hot drink – Mum ordered a pot of English Breakfast Tea while the rest of us opted for Irish coffee (whisky infused) and French coffee (Grand Marnier infused) – they were sweet and heavenly.

I need to go out and get some Grand Marnier for the house and I don’t mean a big sailor!

I love Char Char Bull.

char char bull
44b mews rd
fishing boat harbour
fremantle wa
ph: 9 335 7666

Whisper Wine Bar

I reckon we Perth people are a lazy bunch of merdes. We make a lot of time for complaining and procrastinating but we are sometimes a bit slow on the seeking and the doing. The point I am skirting around is the “Pert so boring” phenomena (if you are not into random pop culture reference this will just look like a typo to you – if you are into random pop culture reference and also a closet fan of one Ms. Rose Lang – Hancock – Porteous – you will know exactly which tree I am barking up)
It’s not bloody Perth that is so boring; it’s some of its bloody citizens. Every mother flipping city is boring IF you are a lazy merde who cannot be bothered to hop off Mr. couch and actually step outside and see what’s shaking in the real world (thank you Mr. Butler). This is not the part of the story where I start to make like a journalist from the Sunday Times Magazine and proceed to list things on a scale of what is now hot in Perth and what is now not in Perth. This is also not the part in the story where I start talking about how Melbourne we now are (Cause we are not, ok? And we are not ever going to be. Melbourne is Melbourne, Perth is Perth, celebrate the difference or fuck off. It’s getting a bit embarrassing)
This is the part where I talk about how freaking awesome Whisper Wine Bar is. Yes, it’s in Freo not the actual city of Perth but given how close everything is to everything here and how ridiculously easy it is to get from the city to Freo, it’s all a bit of muchness.
I have lived in Freo for almost three years and only got around to visiting Whisper a week or so ago, because I am a lazy merde. On the day that my BF and I tried the wine bar the temperature was up around the 100 degree mark yet we still chose to sit outside on the very high but very comfy outdoor chairs. I have a major crush on almost all things French and having been to France twice now, I like to consider myself a bit of an expert on the country (I do try to avoid sarcasm in print usually but I thought I’d just go for it here) Whisper Bar is the kind of place that always freaks me out a bit, because it’s just so Frenchy so chic, I hear they import baguette dough from gay Paris and cook it here in town –yikes! AND because these kinds of places are sometimes staffed by art wank arseholes that get high off of their own excellence and super expensive hair product. Not so here! Our host, who I think may have been the friendly owner, was indeed French, however there were no art wank antics to be found, he was a genuinely nice chap, happy to serve a pair of sweltering, sweating customers some great wine and some great cheese.
Up until very recently I have been an adamant red wine only kind of person, I don’t know exactly what has happened but ever since Rich and I took a wine tour of the Swan Valley, during which I sampled many a fine white, it’s been on like donkey kong for me and the white’s of the world. On this day, Rich and I shared a bottle of Marsane Grenache Blanc from Rhône France (around $30) and it was delicious, I am still to learn how to describe white wine with any kind of eloquence however, I will say this, wedding days and soft sugar- while not overdoing it. That means it’s good.
In accompaniment, we enjoyed The Three Cheese Platter, which turned out to be The Four Cheese Platter – you are speaking my language when you offer me an extra variety of cheese for no additional cost.
There was a soft cheese which was on its way to be becoming a spread what with the oven like heat we were experiencing, a goat cheese (my personal fave), a hard cheese and a pepper corn filled cheese. Really each one was as good as the next, a small salad in the middle of the plate acted as a decoy to the large amounts of saturated fat and calories in the cheese. Also of note is the way our host would lavish us with baguette, basket after basket – He treated the sharing of the bread almost as if it were not a crime to give a customer a top up of something without asking them to pay more or add it to the menu as a “side” and charge extra for something that should clearly come with the meal. The combination of friendly service, great wine and cheese and very pretty lay out means that I will be going back to Whisper Wine Bar again. It is a small example of something not trying too hard and I think in this state, this is to be celebrated and rewarded with repeat custom.

www.whisperwinebar.com.au

1/15 Essex Street
Fremantle WA 6160
(08) 9335 7632