Thai Beef Salad

This flavour packed salad has a long list of ingredients but it’s easy to make. Add more or less of each ingredient depending on your own taste preferences.

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The Beef

Cover two topside beef steaks with some olive oil and a mix of salt, pepper, chilli flakes and ground corriander seeds. Cook in a frying pan until just cooked through then leave aside to cool. Once cool, slice the beef into the thinnest strips possible.

The Salad

Chop up a generous amount of spring onions, garlic, chives, corriander, mint and Thai basil. Add a bag of baby spinach. Chop half a red capcisum and half a yellow capsicum into thin strips. Grab half a punnet of cherry tomatos and cut them into quarters mix it all together.

The Dressing

Combine two tablespoonfuls of garlic infused olive oil, a tablespoon of fish sauce, a tablespoon of Thai chilli sauce, and the juice of a lime.

Mix the beef, salad and dressing together and serve

Neighbourhood Pizza

Near IGA Carpark in Mount Hawthorn

In Melbourne it’s not uncommon for people to tell you that they can’t tell you name of the favourite resturaunt or even how to get there. The city is littered with great eating establishments found behind unnamed doors, down secluded flights of stairs and in long forgotten alleyways.

Just like we’ve embraced small bars and alley redevelopment so too are we starting to see eating establishments that don’t rely on a big shopfront to get your attention. Instead news of their existance is spread through word of mouth and a good reputation.

Neighbourhood Pizza in Mount Hawthorn is a great find, if you can find it – but that’s part of the fun! Head around the back of IGA and look for a non-descript door with bright lights shining out from within.  

Inside is a large room filled with huge tables that encourage you to share the space with others, it’s laid back and unpretentious and best of all has a BYO liqour licence. After a quick wander down the street we aquired a couple of bottles of the new orange and ginger Rekorderlig Cider.

The menu is simple – they make great thin crust pizzas. We tried one with fennel sausage and another with peperoni and gorgonzola cheese, both were super tasty and quickly devoured. We can’t wait to go back and check out the sweet potato and chilli maple!

Swallow

198 Whatley Crescent, Maylands

After almost a year of teasing that they were coming soon Swallow has upon opening a few months ago become a favourite hang out of the Maylands community – and has a fairly prominent LGBT clientelle. Maylands which has a proliferation of cafe’s and a competitive cupcake and muffin scene has been crying out for a small bar – and Swallow is perfect.

Whether you’re dropping in for a few glasses of wine or a bite to eat this is a great place to hangout. It will be busy – Swallow is always busy, but negotiating your way from the bar to a table in its courtyard, is all part of its charm.

 The food is first rate, we tried the Gingin Beef fillet with Wine Merchants butter and green beans in a shallot vinagerete with frites – it was delicious to the last bite. The salad of sage roasted free range chicken thigh with bacon glazed in rasberry vinegar with blue cheese and crutons and cos lettuce was an adventure in taste.

Kuza

15/366 Albany Highway, Victoria Park

If you’ve started to think all Japanese resturaunts were basically the same take a trip to Kuza in Victoria Park. The service is super friendly and they have a great range of cocktails. We could drink lime and cranberry Tokyoramas to our heart’s content. We sampled the prawn tempura rolls, amazing salt and pepper squid which came with a spicy wasabi mayonaise and the chicken karaage was just explosions of taste in your mouth.