street food

Sep 13, 2011 | Post by: Phil Lees 4 Comments

Sausage sizzle or popup charcuterie?

Photo Credit: Wooster Collective I worked in a food truck for a few months in 1996. The truck parked at automotive parts swap meets and out the front of the cow pavilion at the Royal Easter Show. I cooked hundreds of frozen hamburgers, industrial soy-beef patties defrosting on the grill

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Jun 10, 2011 | Post by: Phil Lees 7 Comments

Takoyaki

I don’t understand the attraction of takoyaki. They’re balls of octopus and gluten served fresh on the streets of Japan, coated in a three types of umami: mayonnaise, bonito flakes, and their own special barbecue sauce. They turn out of their aebleskiver-like pans with a gluey consistency, a barely formed

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Apr 30, 2011 | Post by: Phil Lees 2 Comments

Indentured Labour: Camy Shanghai Dumpling House’s secret, part 2

Last time that I mentioned Camy Shanghai Dumpling House, I conjectured that the popularity was due to its open secret status and cheapness. At least now we know where the cheapness comes from: not paying their staff. From the Herald-Sun: Mr Chang worked 13-hour days from 9.30am-10.30pm with only five-minute

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Nov 25, 2010 | Post by: Phil Lees 5 Comments

Alfajores in Maidstone

Melbourne’s west never ceases to dumbfound me when it comes to food. Maidstone is one of Melbourne’s least remarkable suburbs and thanks to the housing boom is making the direct transition from unremarkable council flats to unremarkable McMansions; rusting Camrys in the front yard making way for houses that touch

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Oct 08, 2010 | Post by: Phil Lees 1 Comments

The Shrimp Station, Kauai

Some of the best food in America comes in shacks, lean-tos, vans, makeshift structures cobbled together from plywood and tarpaulin and fryer grease. The American food that Americans aspire to eat and inspires the most column inches in this decade seems to sit either at the bottom or at the

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Feb 27, 2010 | Post by: Phil Lees No Comments

At least she didn’t mention the war.

What is the point of swallowing the last 10 years of Hanoi food writing from U.S. magazines, visiting said city for a holiday-come-assignment, talking to the self same people you’ve read about in those U.S. magazines and spewing 2,129 words of uninspired, unoriginal, factually inaccurate, poop out the orifice of

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Aug 10, 2009 | Post by: Phil Lees 6 Comments

Bánh Xèo from Đình Sơn

Yes, I’m going a bit nuts on the Vina diacritics. The equation that can’t be avoided when you travel for food is the one where you compare Third World prices to First World and try to account for the differences, offseting rent, ingredient quality and labour. It is a fun

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Jul 19, 2009 | Post by: Phil Lees 18 Comments

Phở Chu The, Footscray

I had grand plans to work my way through the phở of the Melbourne suburb of Footscray, bucket-sized bowls of beef soup every weekend, but never quite got there. There are no less than 20 phở establishments within easy walking distance but every time that I kick things off, I

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