A hidden Hawker stall - Ashfield Cafe

The first time I heard of Ashfield cafe, my initial reaction was "There's no such place in Ashfield!!". I mean, I've only been a local for the last 20 odd years. However, after hearing about the cafe, I took a different route to the station and realised that OMG! There IS a Ashfield Cafe and OMG! They serve Malaysian/Singaporean food! WTH?!

Basically, what used to be a milk bar that sells BBQ chicken, chiko rolls and sandwiches got sold awhile back. The new owners didn't bother changing the exterior in any way. They sometimes still sell food in a hot box out the front to cater for all the school kids in the morning. However, if you actually go inside, the old fryers and grills are now gone. In its place are giant woks and jet flames to give the lovely breath of wok charred taste.


They've also used the old chalk boards to display their menu. From memory, they used to contain the price of various sandwich fillings and burgers. Now, sections of the boards contain differnet types of Laksas, noodle soups, stir fried noodles, rice and curries. Basically your typical Hawker food, in a VERY Australian Milk Bar setting.


Ashfield Cafe is also only open Monday to Saturdays. I NEVER walk past on a Saturday as its right next to the train station and I always drive on the weekends instead. After work, the shop is actually closed since they're not open for Dinner. I can't believe how many years its taken me to realise that there is a Malay/Singaporean cafe right on my door step!

I specially woke up earlier on Saturday and convinced a friend to go try out this place with me. Luckily we got there early, as the place only has limited seats and was completely packed out within 5mins of us arriving.

Chicken Laksa

First up, their Chicken Laksa.The bowl is deceptively small when it arrives. Its only when you start digging with your chopsticks that there is a heap of noodles and chicken all crammed into the small bowl. Aromatic and not too creamy, just the way I like it. I find the Ashfield Cafe Laksa a bit more "watery" compared to Malay Chinese, but considering how hot it was, I actually quite enjoyed it. I found the spiceiness just perfect for me, but my friend reckons what goes in hot is going to come out hot. *cough*

Less spicy bowl

Hokkien Mee

I was actually hoping for the Malaysian Black Hokkien Mee extra saucy version, but this was almost as good. Big juicy prawns, slippery charred noodles and heaps of other goodies.

Most of the meals average from $7-10. Definitely a good bargain for the quality of food coming out of a Milk Bar! hehe When we were there, big crowds of people ended up ordering take away since there were limited seats. From what I can see, the portions take away are as big if not bigger than eating in. Something to keep in mind when its packed!

Ashfield Cafe
2 Hercules St
Ashfield NSW 2131
Ph: (02) 9799 4539


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Harry's Singapore Chilli Crab...NOT.

Before I start, let me say that I went to Harry's a week ago. And it took me a week to write to post. Not because I didn't have time, but I needed a week to calm down and let the fury within me die down a bit. Anyone of my friends on facebook would've experience the wrath of my fury on Saturday night and I didn't want to unleash that to the rest of the world just yet.

I was so SO looking forward to going to Harry's Singapore Chilli crab ever since I found out about it a few years ago. Its around the corner from Spice I am and I've always wanted to go, but have always been tempted by thai more. When Amz said she was organising her birthday party there I did a little cheer inside me. Especially since PP had visited Harry's a few times and always said it was good and would invite me the next time.

We arrive at the restaurant and we're seated at a table for 10 even though there's 8 of us. Usually I wouldn't complain, but they didn't have a lazy susan on the table. Meaning we had to practically climb onto the table to get anything on the other side. This is also why I there's not many photos as it was impossible to get decent photos from the other side of the table.

Most of the people weren't huge crab eaters and only wanted 1-2 pieces to taste what Singapore chilli crab tastes like. We ordered 2 mud crabs at $64/kg. This is after I had to convince the waiter that no, we don't need 4 crabs. We want TWO crabs. TWO. NOT FOUR.

We ordered a few other dishes as well so the non-crab eaters didn't starve.

San Choy Bao - $5.20 each

This was.....disappointing. A good san choy bao should be dry and crunchy with a lovely breath of wok aroma. This was soggy and sloppy. The fried vermicelli noodles they added had turned to mush. They also put the filling onto a very wet piece of lettuce which basically watered down the whole dish and causing a huge mess when eating.

Chicken and vege with cashew nuts

We had a few other dishes that came out before this. Salt and pepper calamari was nice, but nothing to write home about. This however, is something to write home about. In blood. This was.......wrong. The vegetables, carrots and celery, was bitter. It also had a tough chewy texture which is usually the result of using old leftover veggies that have been sitting in the fridge for too long. The carrots weren't peeled and had a dark skin on it which further confirms my "bottom of the veggie bin" theory. This dish wasn't touched much. And if it wasn't $20 for this, I wouldn't have forced myself to eat it. I would actually rate this dish BELOW food court food which has been sitting in the bain marie for too long. BELOW.

"Singapore Chilli crab"

OK, this was the only decent photo of the crab I could get from my side of the table. Compare that "Singapore Chilli Crab" with the Singapore Chilli Crab I had in Singapore:


1. Notice the lack of sauce in Harry's
2. Harry's sauce contains NO tomato sauce

Not only was the sauce NOT Singapore Chilli crab sauce, it was OVERLY salted. There was 2 taste in the sauce. Salt and chilli. This was a huge disappointment, especially since we had invited people hoping they get to try authentic Singapore style chilli crab.

We had ordered 2 serves of Roti because they told me they had sold out of the Man tou that you use to dip into the Singapore Chilli Crab. And honestly, what place that serves real Singapore Chilli crab will sell out of Mantou at 7:30pm on a Saturday night?

The waiter convinced us to order the roti instead, which we did. $5 for 4 serves. Or rather, $5 for 2 pieces of roti cut in half. And it wasn't even fresh made roti. The roti, although crispy, was dense and compact. The exact same texture of the frozen roti we buy from the asian grocery store.

Ontop of this, we had ordered 5 bowls of boiled rice (As they only serve them per bowl) at $2.80 a bowl, thinking we wanted something to soak up all the sauce with.

1. there was no sauce.
2. they only gave us 3 bowls.

When I asked for the other 2 bowls, the waiter said he had already given me 5.

Me: "Errrrr.....no. You gave me 3 bowls."
Him: "No, I already gave you 5 bowls."
Me: "No. You gave me 3 bowls. 1. 2. 3." *pointing at the only bowls on the table

He gives me a look as if I had hidden the other 2 bowls. I was so close to screaming that he only gave me 3 bowls and I didn't shove the other 2 bowls down my top. My boobs really do look like that!

I was so angry by this stage I didn't even want dessert. ESPECIALLY when I saw that they were charging $9 for a fried ice cream. I basically had the mentality I didn't want to let them earn another dollar off me.

My friends went ahead and ordered fried ice creams and chocolate cake. The order was, 5 fried ice creams. 3 with caramel 2 with chocolate. What came out was 3.5 caramel and 1.5 chocolate. Yeh. They had put caramel onto the 4th order. And instead of going "oops! lets make another one or atleast scrape the caramel off", they proceeded to pour chocolate ONTOP of the caramel which resulted in topping overdose.

Then there was the ice cream. Or what we though was ice cream. It looked like a banana fritter, but when you cut into it, the whole thing collapses and starts oozing white stuff. The batter itself was incredibly doughy and chewy, almost like stale chinese fried dough sticks.


And just to make the night worse, the people eating the fried ice cream started digging up corn kernels.

Corn...in a fried ice cream!?

Chocolate cake

Our friend had ordered a chocolate cake, was starting to think he was the only one to get out unscathed. That is until he realised the $10 slice of chocolate cake he ordered was from Coles! It still has the ridges from where they peeled the baking paper away from the cake.

By the end of the night, most of the table was a ball of raging fury from being so openly ripped off. For 2 crabs, 4 main meals, 5 bowls of rice, roti, soft drink and dessert, we paid $420.50. And that is exactly what we paid. $420.50. No more, no less. I then wrote on the receipt that "THE ICE CREAM IS CRAP!!!" and handed it back to the waitress. I probably would've written a much harsher note had there been room on the receipt.

I can't remember the last time I have ever walked away from a restaurant feeling so angry and ripped off. If you think this post is harsh, you should've seen how I was saturday night and will understand why I didn't blog straight away.

How it has such a "good" reputation I don't understand. I guess being endorsed by The Veronicas might have something to do with that. And the wall of photos with celebrities visiting will probably contribute to that. But I can tell you, none of the celebrities were asian and must never have had an authentic Singapore Chilli crab. Because if they have, they would not endorse this place.

I will NEVER, EVER go back to this place. EVER.

Day 15 - Bike riding before going home

My niece had piano practice today, so me and my sister took the boys out for breakfast.

Bakuteh - Pork rib soup, preserved vegetables, pork hock and fried dough sticks

The boys on the phone with their dad


After breakfast, we drove to the local Bishan park for bike riding. We hired a bike each, with the exception of my sister. She's going to be running behind my youngest nephew again today. I went for a few kilometer ride around the park with my older nephew, whilst the youngest one learnt how to steer and brake. He actually did quite well by the end of the day. He stopped crash landing.

We went home to rest up afterwards. I did some last minute packing to make sure there's nothing I've forgotten and spent some time with the kids. When it was dinner time, we decided to go back to the Chicken Rice place we stopped by the other day.

A whole Hainese chicken

Boneless chicken feet and kidneys


Chilli bean sprouts


Lime juice

Since I don't appreciate plane food, I grabbed a box of chicken rice take away to eat on the flight. I was already really fully, but my brother in law wanted to have some strudel at the Applebee strudel shop that was next door. He went and ordered a durian strudel, but after one bite, I was full to bursting. And my coffee hasn't even arrived yet! And when it did, I thought I was supposed to wash my face in it. Look at the size of the cup! My hand doesn't even go half way around it!


We get back to my sister's place where I spend some time with the kids and have a quick shower. When it was time to leave, my nephews and niece gave me big hugs and even asked me not to leave. Its always hard saying goodbye to the kids.

I get to the airport in record time and check-in without any problems. Even though my suitcase was 27kgs. And my hand luggage was 17kgs. I was planning on doing duty free shopping, but because of the stupid liquid restrictions, I can only buy liquids an hour before departure. The reason is they need to seal the goods in a plastic bag and they will deliver it to the gate for you. Since there was only an hour left, they reckon they can't deliver to the gate so I miss out on my duty free shopping.

I get onto the plane and spot a row of 4 seats next to me empty. The minute they closed the cabin doors, I jumped seats and claimed all 4 to myself. And when the seatbelt signs went off, I raised all the arm rests and laid down for a good nights sleep. I even skipped breakfast since I knew I had my chicken rice.

It was a short 2 weeks, but I'm glad I took the time to go to Singapore and spend with the kids. Even though I had all the problems going on at work, I think it was probably good that I missed most of the tension in the office. And now, to diet and detox.

Day 14 - Good Friday gorging

Its Good Friday, and the whole family is off to church whilst I stay home to pack so I know how overweight my suitcase is. I duck downstairs to get a big breakfast to keep my energy up in dealing with my shopping:

Noodles with fish cakes and chicken wings

Shredded turnip dumplings

It took me a good 2 hours to pack my suitcase, which involved removing all wrapping and price tags from my goods and checking all the DVDs I got. By the time I had everything done, it was time to meet the rest of the family for lunch. I cab it to the church where I hop into a car with my brother in law to go to lunch.

A bunch of their friends came and we went to a Hakka Yong Tau Fu restaurant. We lined up for 3omins before we got a table. And to be honest, the food was pretty ordinary. I don't know why its so popular. Actually, my brother in law hated the food and went home to eat bread instead. Of course, their friends took us there, so we all had to be polite.

The original plan was to go back to East Coast for bike riding. But again, its storming. I spent the rest of the day lazing about, reading, watching tv and surfing the web. The rain dies down around dinner time, so we make a dash to a cheap seafood restaurant next to the Roti restaurant we went to yesterday.

Its nothing flash, plastic tables and chairs, but the food is GOOD. Plus, the price of seafood is half the price you would pay at the touristy places.

Sizzling beef stir fry

Prawn paste fried chicken wings

Sweet and sour pork

Steamed mantou (Plain buns)

Butter fried crab

Singapore Chilli Crab

The crab was good, but the sauce was better. I got a big bowl of rice and drenched it in the sauce. God that was good. Really good.

Day 13 - Pampering ourselves with Indo food

We were going to go shopping today, but to be honest, my suitcase is bursting at the seams. And I haven't even packed everything into the suitcase yet. So I asked my sister to book us a facial, except we couldn't find a decent place for a facial. So we opted for a full body massage instead. Since I was going to be kneaded like bread, we went for a light breakfast:

Hot coffee in a bag

Noodles with vegetables

Chwee Kueh - Steamed rice cakes with preserved veggies

We arrive at the salon only to find that we don't have a booking. Looks like my sister called their new branch instead of the original store. We still managed to squeeze into one of their slots. The next hour was.....amusing. The woman's English wasn't that great and I didn't speak Mandarin. When I screamed out in pain, she's like "its ok......I'll use one thumb only" and then proceeded to bruise me.

She also climbed onto the massage bed and straddled me for awhile. Whilst that was uncomfortable, it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as her whipping the sheet off my chest to give me a.....errrrrr...massage. *cough*

I walked out of there feeling like a tenderised piece of meat. I limp to the car where we go pick up my nephews and niece from school. Before we picked them up, we stopped by a really nice Chicken rice shop and got a take away pack that the both of us shared whilst in the car. It was going to be at least another 1.5hrs before lunch. We took the kids, and one of their friends to a sushi train for lunch:

Chawamushi

Agedashi Tofu

We took all the kids to go watch Spiderwick after lunch. I actually enjoyed the movie, but my youngest nephew had his eyes covered for most of the movie! hehe

After the movie, we decided to go for dinner since my Brother in law will be staying back late at work. My sister drove to a local Indonesian restaurant where we played charades and pointed at random stuff for dinner.

Lime juice

BBQ Pepper chicken

Assam sting ray

Grilled squid

Stir fried french beans

Sambal fish

Fried potato cakes

Beef rendang

Gado Gado

Bean sprouts with tofu

Oxtail soup

The star of the night had to be the oxtail soup. I've never had such a flavoursome soup before. Its almost like the Pho soup, but with added vegetables to lighten the whole dish up. I was bursting before the soup came out, but we all ended up fighting over the soup anyway. I can't wait to learn how to make this!!

Day 12 - More shopping and my favourite Bugis

All the kids are at school today. So me and my sister headed off for some shopping. Not before breakfast at her favourite Roti house:

Kopi

Mutton Murtabak and chicken curry

Roti Prata with curry sauce

Nasi goreng

We drove to Sim Lim square where I was hoping to buy a new camera lens, tripod and other accessories. But the prices were way more expensive compared to me ordering it from New York. Instead, I went and bought a new digital camera for the kids. Just a little cheapie for them to go play with and take on excursions. We also grabbed a few blood pressure monitors to use at home.

After that, we went across the road to OG where I ended up buying a wallet that cost more than my camera bags, which cost more than any handbag I've ever owned!! We ducked across the road after an hour to grab a quick lunch:

Hawker centre

Fish head noodle soup

Fish fillet noodle soup

After lunch, we quickly drive to my niece's school to pick her up. In Singapore, they start at 7am and finish at 1pm. We swung by to pick up my nephew before sending him off to Violin practice. It was at this time that it started storming. I'm not talking about just rain. I'm talking lighting and thunder, the type that makes you drop your glass and rattle your window.

Luckily, the plan was to stay home for the night and I helped my sister make BBQ pork for dinner:

The rain died down, so I grabbed a quick bite and ran off to the MRT to go to my favourite shopping centre, Bugis. Don't ask me why I like the shopping centre, I just do. I think its one of the first few I used to go to all the time whenever I visited Singapore. Its more sentimental value than actually good shopping I think. Didn't stop me spending up a fortune though.

My sister has also been raving on and on about the MOS fish burger and how its better than the maccas fillet-o-fish. Since I only had a light dinner, I ordered myself a fish burger and a piece of chicken:

MmMmm cheesy......

This was a whole chicken breast!

I was expecting a chicken strip or something small, little did I know it was going to be a whole piece of chicken breast. It was also incredibly moist. I bit into it and it squirted chicken juice everywhere! I also saw a stall making fresh cut potato chips. They literally cut the potato up in front of you and then fry it. I just had to get myself a small cup, which they drenched with wasabi mayo. Can anyone spell tears?