A Northern Adventure: Malaga

Yokey and I are contemplating moving to the 'burbs so, after returning to Hillarys Boat Harbour from a whale watching trip (recommended!), we decided to take a look at a house in Ballajura. Driving back towards town afterwards, it made sense to investigate the culinary options available in the area. We weren't expecting much, maybe a Nandos and a fish and chip shop, so it was a pleasant surprise to find a nondescript row of commercial boxes housing a few Asian eateries and a small continental deli at 11 Exchange Road, Malaga.

The continental deli turned out to be a Polish deli called Ludwik and Son. We're big fans of Polish meats so we stocked up on Krakowska, Smoked Lachsshinken, Schinkenwurst (Szynokwa), and Doubled Smoked Hunters Sausage:

Back in Adelaide we used to buy our Polish smallgoods from Standom. These Western Australian products are as good or better than anything Standom sells. Great stuff. I also picked up a huge jar of green tomatoes in brine for $1 - if anybody can tell me what to do with these it would be greatly appreciated!

A few doors up from Ludwik and Son we stopped at Phu Vinh Noodle House and shared a plate of Fried Fishcakes and a bowl of Combination Pho. Both were very good, if not outstanding. We were pleased to note that the each table set included the full range of condiments - some Perth Vietnamese restaurants forget to put the fish sauce out.

Impressed by the quality of the pho, and quite full (the serve was generous) we decided to pick up some take-away from the Best BBQ Seafood Restaurant, which looks to be run by some Hong Kong Chinese. The BBQ meats hanging in the cabinet looked good (not something you take for granted in Perth) so we ordered BBQ Combination (crispy skinned roast pork and roast duck) with Rice:

"Best BBQ" is stretching the truth a little here. The meat was tasty enough, texture was good, servings were reasonable but not exactly generous. All in all, pretty good, but there are some kick-arse BBQ joints out there. Best in Malaga? It just might be! We also ordered Noodles with Beef Brisket and Tendon, just because it's not something that every restauant serves:

This is quite an unusual dish, with the noodles fried until crispy and then served with a rich thick gravy and a reasonable (but, again, not generous) quantity of meaty chunks. The brisket was sensational, nearly falling apart without even chewing it, but the tendon was conspicuously absent. Still, the brisket was so good it nearly didn't matter.

There was also an Indian eatery in the complex but we had enough food by then. It smelt good, though. If we do have to make the move to the outer suburbs, it's great to know that options beyond McDonalds, KFC, Red Rooster, etc, etc do exist.