Asian Food Festival

Some Chinese like it hot
It's really a year round festival of Asian food available in Melbourne. We have such a wealth of good Asian eating places that you could eat nothing else and do very well, thank you.

However the Festival which started yesterday offers more than food in many good restaurants, it's also about a Hawkers Food Market, celebrity dinners, a waiters race, a travel competition and -- cooking demonstrations using a three metre diameter Golden Wok.

Organisers say that this wok will be recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest and it will 'travel' around Chinatown, Melbourne Central, Myer Bourke Street, Chadstone Shopping Centre and the Crown Casino.

Meanwhile in most of the Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Malaysian and Thai restaurants participating in the Festival there will be special banquet menus for two or more at $40 and at $60. Both menus are priced for two persons and include a bottle of De Bortoli wine.

At the popular Tandoori Den in Camberwell there is a menu for two diners priced at $40 of three entrees -- Spicy Coconut Crab, Tandoori Chicken Salad and Elephant Ears (tropical yam leaves rolled with chick peas and spices then fried); a choice of four main courses with tandoori breads, rice, pappadums and chutneys and a dessert of terrine of mango, pistachio and coconut icecream served on a bed of strawberry coulis. This good value menu is available Sunday-Thursday during the Asian Food Festival, 31 August - September 21. The $60 menu for two is available at Bamboo House, Monday-Friday. It will include Steamed Oysters and Scallops in black bean and chilli; crisp Omelette roll; the famous Sichuan Tea-smoked Duck and dry fried Beef with Chinese greens.

At Choi's in Hawthorn the $60 menu for two will change weekly and in the first week dishes will be Lobster Roll, Spinach Salmon Log, Coconut milk Prawns, Venison on sizzling plate and pan-fried Barramundi plus a dessert of fried icecream. This menu will be available all week during the Festival as will those at Empress of China, Everest India, Fortuna Village, Haveli and Koh Samui.

At Fortuna Village on September 16 owner Jimmy Khong is presenting a Celebrity Dinner with Tony Tan, director of the Asian Food Festival. On that night some eight special dishes wil be matched with different winemakers' vinages for $78 per person. Space is limited for this dinner, so book early on 9663 3044.

It's always essential to book at Shark Fin House (9663 1555) for weekend Yum Cha. This Little Bourke Street restaurant is famous for its range of dim sum. The Head dim sum chef, Johnnie To has more than 160 dishes in his repertoire so that at any one sitting, customers get a choice from at least 80 different little dishes ranging from $2.90 -$12.00 (for suckling pig). Most of the dishes are around $2.90-4.90 and by the time you have had 5 dishes you will be very well fed. Each weekend sees queues of hundreds of hungry customers outside their doors. On Sundays alone around one thousand yum cha eaters will come to the two sittings at 11am and 1.30pm.

During the Asian Food Festival, Shark Fin House manager Gabriel Chan, is recommending two very special dishes -- the Golden Antarctic Crab which has recently been sourced in deep waters off the coast of Western Australia and the Tasmanian Green Lip Abalone. The crab is also known as Snow Crab as its shell is sometimes pure white and sometimes a light gold colour. Weighing anything from 1-4 kilos it is delicious steamed with Chinese rice wine. The Tasmanian abalone is a big and tender variety, according to Gabriel, and he suggests having it finely sliced in a steamboat with mushrooms and vegetables. Grain-fed beef can be added to the steamboat. Cantonese style home made dumplings of prawn and pork with fungus is the dish he recommends to eat whilst the steamboat is simmering.

There are many more delicious seafood dishes at Shark Fin House, particularly, of course the shark fin itself which gives the restaurants in the city, Burwood and Keysborough, their name.

published by Hardie Grant