Here’s my very quick reference on where to eat lunch. There’s a very big bias towards the Southern Cross end of the city because that’s where my work is.
Post Category → Melbourne
Great carbs of the Western Suburbs: Pandesal
The history of the colonisation of Asia is written in its bread. Pandesal, the national breakfast bread of the Philippines, was borne of Spanish colonial rule but processed by the USA. The bread came from the more Spanish pan de suelo, crusty “bread of the floor” cooked on the clay base of the oven from the 1600s, but as M. Paramita Lin writes:
Pan de suelo is likely the precursor to pandesal, which didn’t come about until the American colonial era; Americans objected to eating bread cooked on the oven floors and thus pandesal, baked on metal trays, was born. But even then, it didn’t look like the rolls that are sold now. (Food historian) Sta. Maria quoted Alice Fuller, who wrote Housekeeping: a Textbook for Girls in Public Intermediate Schools in the Philippines, writing in 1911 that pandesal was “[a] small oval-shaped loaf of bread very common in the Philippines. Prepared much the same as ordinary bread, but baked much harder. The loaf, when baked, is 9 to 15 centimeters long, 7 to 9 centimeters wide, and about 4 to 6 centimeters thick. Prior to baking the loaf is gashed longitudinally on top so that the baked loaf may be easily broken into halves.”
Over time, pandesal has moved from a loaf to a smaller, sweeter bun but more than 90% of the Philippines milling wheat imports still come from its more recent colonizer, the USA.
Outside of the western suburbs, there aren’t many other Filipino panaderia in Melbourne. There are two in Braybrook (Masarap and just around the corner, Papabear Bakehouse) and one in St Albans, (Manila’s Bread Bakery). Papabear is better for Filipino sweets and cakes, Masarap which has been in the small Churchill St shopping strip for about 20 years is more focused on yeasty provisions which they sell from the shopfront and distribute to other grocers around Melbourne.
Masarap is Tagalog for delicious. Their pandesal is delicious. They sell enough of it that it is warm whenever you get there, and generally, never on display in the front. The outside of the buns is rolled in breadcrumbs, a reminder that pandesal cannot exist without bread already existing before, inside is pillowy. It’s a sweet-savoury carb hit.
Masarap Bakery
178 Churchill Ave, Braybrook VIC 3019
Soyfoo Anh Long, Braybrook
Soyfoo Anh Long is a tofu shop on the vertiginous northern edge of Braybrook that drops into the Maribyrnong river valley, amongst the wrecking yards that advertise on hastily scrawled “Cash For Cars” signs stapled to a power pole. Their precast concrete panel factory was once neighboured by a business called “Hair Extension Online” who never seemed to be open to extend hair or have ever been in any way online.
This is the ne plus ultra of Melbourne Western suburbs food locations, if you ever want to weaponize a flawed sense of authenticity. Or you could just order it on doordash, like normal people. Treating anywhere like a “hidden treasure” ignores the economic reality of running a food business: cheap factory space will always be in the margins. You can find it by googling “soy near me”.
I ride my bike past it most days. It’s the end of the 20km loop that I ride than ends at the Lacy Street wall; a series of 11% gradient switchbacks that wind out of Cranwell Park. I try to climb it fast enough that I can’t talk afterwards. I roll past Soyfoo Anh Long in no state to eat tofu. I took today off.
They make: firm tofu (plain, fried in different convenient cuts, mushroom and vermicelli, lemongrass and chilli), soy milk and tau foo fah/đậu hũ đường, the refreshing silken tofu pudding dressed in a simple ginger syrup (above). The shop also fills its fridges with mock meats, has a selection of dry Vietnamese noodles and primarily vegetarian sauces.
The biggest payoff of getting to the factory in person is freshness. The fried mushroom and vermicelli tofu is warm from the fryer whenever you arrive, the strips of black wood ear fungus and noodle in it are the best textural counterpoint to the crispy exterior. You can just eat it straight or toss through sichuan pepper, salt and chili when you get home for more of a kick.
Location
Soyfoo Anh Long
24 Cranwell St
Braybrook VIC
Tofu is also stocked at many western suburbs grocers.
Footscray Market Opening Hours – Christmas 2015
I’ve now been blogging for 10 years. In that entire time the Footscray Market, one of Melbourne’s biggest wet markets, has never published their Christmas opening hours online. This post marks the 7th year of my Christmas vigil to celebrate it.
Here are the opening hours as published on a photocopy on the door:
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Tuesday, 22 December 2015 | 7:00AM-6:00PM |
| Wednesday, 23 December 2015 | 7:00AM-6:00PM |
| Thursday, 24 December 2015 | 7:00AM-6:00PM |
| Friday, 25 December 2015 | CLOSED |
| Saturday, 26 December 2015 | CLOSED |
| Sunday, 27 December 2015 | CLOSED |
| Monday, 28 December 2015 | CLOSED |
| Tuesday, 29 December 2015 | 7:00AM-4:00PM |
| Wednesday, 30 December 2015 | 7:00AM-4:00PM |
| Thursday, 31 December 2015 | 7:00AM-6:00PM |
| Friday, 1 January 2016 | CLOSED |
| Saturday, 2 January 2016 | 7:00AM-5:00PM |
As for the regular Footscray Market trading hours, they are as follows:
Monday – Closed
Tuesday and Wednesday – 7:00am-4:00pm
Thursday – 7:00am-6:00pm
Friday – 7:00am-8:00pm
Saturday – 7:00am-4:00pm
Sunday – Closed
Update
It’s a Christmas miracle. The hours are now published on their website. Herein ends my vigil, unless they forget to update them next year.
Footscray Market Opening Hours – Christmas 2014
@phil_lees Nice. But when's the Footscray Market opening over Christmas this year?
— Pat Nourse (@patnourse) December 3, 2014
Welcome to Year 6 of my Christmas vigil to commemorate Footscray Market’s complete inability to publish their Christmas/New Year’s opening hours online. Here are the opening hours, this year presented by the special request of Pat Nourse.
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Saturday, 20 December 2014 | 7:00AM-5:00PM |
| Sunday, 21 December 2014 | CLOSED |
| Monday, 22 December 2014 | CLOSED |
| Tuesday, 23 December 2014 | 7:00AM-5:00PM |
| Wednesday, 24 December 2014 | 7:00AM-5:00PM |
| Thursday, 25 December 2014 | CLOSED |
| Friday, 26 December 2014 | CLOSED |
| Saturday, 27 December 2014 | 7:00AM-5:00PM |
| Sunday, 28 December 2014 | CLOSED |
| Monday, 29 December 2014 | CLOSED |
| Tuesday, 30 December 2014 | 7:00AM-5:00PM |
| Wednesday, 31 December 2014 | 7:00AM-4:00PM |
| Thursday, 1 January 2015 | CLOSED |
| Friday, 2 January 2015 | 7:00AM-7:00PM |
| Saturday, 3 January 2015 | 7:00AM-5:00PM |
As for the regular Footscray Market trading hours, they are as follows:
Monday – Closed
Tuesday and Wednesday – 7:00am-4:00pm
Thursday – 7:00am-6:00pm
Friday – 7:00am-8:00pm
Saturday – 7:00am-4:00pm
Sunday – Closed
Melbourne’s Oldest Restaurants
Melbourne’s oldest restaurant is Florentino (est.1928), if you count restaurants opened on the same site, serving the same cuisine under the same name. The oldest continuously running restaurant (as far as I could find) is Cuckoo Restaurant in Olinda (est.1958) which took over the site from Quamby (est.1914). Even though they’re important to local cuisine, I’m not counting pubs. The oldest is the Duke of Wellington (est.1853) but it’s unclear if it has had a kitchen for that long.
Can you make generalisations about who will last a quarter of a century in the restaurant business? Is there a recipe for success in Melbourne?
Name yourself Jim and serve any cuisine at all as Jim’s Greek Tavern, Jimmy Watson’s (Italian), Jim Wong (Chinese) all attest. As for location, get in on Lygon Street and serve affordable Italian food, or as close to Parliament House as possible. Public servants obviously like to eat.
As for what to serve, it doesn’t seem to matter a great deal. The quarter century industry survivors run the gamut from some the world’s finest dining to unmitigated shit. There’s not any clear pattern as to what price point or level of service guarantees longevity. What does guarantee it is that they’re almost all family-friendly. If you go to any of them for a weekend lunch, I’d bet there would be more than one high chair. This is a list of restaurants where people went as children and still return as adults.
Here’s the list from the map: all of Melbourne’s restaurants older than 25 years as of today. Huge thanks to eatnik, essjayeff, stickifingers, mysecondhelping and dananikanpour for all the suggestions.
I’m sure that there are a large number missing: almost every suburban fish and chip shop will be 25 years old by now. It also omits chain restaurants. The first McDonalds opened in Melbourne (Glen Waverly) in 1973 and by 1982, there were 33. In the same year, there were 35 Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets. Burger King set foot in town in 1986. Also a word of caution about the opening years: they’re not necessarily exact. Quite a few were gleaned from reviews where they mention that a restaurant has “been open for more than 30 years” without mentioning an exact date.
If you know of any missing, comment below.
| Name | Established | Cuisine |
|---|---|---|
| Abla's | 1979 | |
| Alasya Restaurant | 1978 | Lebanese |
| Bedi's Indian Restaurant | 1980 | Indian |
| Brunetti - Carlton | 1985 | Italian |
| Cafe Di Stasio | 1989 | Italian |
| Caffe e Cucina | 1988 | Italian |
| Casa Del Gelato | 1980 | Italian |
| Cuckoo Restaurant | 1958 | German |
| Donnini's Pasta | 1981 | Italian |
| Domenico's Pizza | 1968 | Italian |
| Dragon Boat Restaurant | 1986 | Chinese |
| Dunyazad Lebanese Restaurant | Lebanese | |
| Flower Drum Restaurant | 1975 | Chinese |
| France-Soir | 1986 | French |
| Gaylord Indian Restaurant | 1985 | Indian |
| Golden Orchids Malaysian Restaurant | 1979 | Malaysian |
| Grossi Florentino | 1928 | Italian |
| Hanabishi Japanese Restaurant | 1988 | Japanese |
| Il Gambero | 1970 | Italian |
| Izakaya Chuji | 1989 | Japanese |
| Jim Wong Restaurant | 1968 | Chinese |
| Jimmy Watson's Wine Bar | 1935 | Italian |
| Jim's Greek Tavern | 1980 | Greek |
| Joe's Garage | Italian | |
| Kunis Japanese Restaurant | 1977 | Japanese |
| La Porchetta Carlton | 1985 | Italian |
| La Spaghettata Restaurant | 1984 | Italian |
| Lobster Cave | 1987 | Seafood |
| Marios | Italian | |
| Masani Italian Restaurant | 1984 | Italian |
| Paris Go Bistro | French | |
| Patee Thai - Fitzroy | 1983 | Thai |
| Pellegrini's Espresso Bar | 1954 | Italian |
| Penang Coffee House | 1976 | Malaysian |
| Poon's | Chinese | |
| Ricardo's Trattoria | Italian | |
| Shakahari Vegetarian Restaurant | 1972 | Vegetarian |
| Shark Fin Inn City | 1980 | Chinese |
| Spaghetti Tree | Italian | |
| Stokehouse | 1989 | Modern Australian |
| Stuzzichino Caffe Bar Spuntini | 1987 | Italian |
| Sukhothai Restaurant | 1989 | Thai |
| Supper Inn Chinese Restaurant | Chinese | |
| Tandoori Den Camberwell | 1981 | Indian |
| Isthmus of Kra | 1989 | Thai |
| The Old Paper Shop Deli | Caf | |
| The Olive Tree | 1971 | Italian |
| The Waiters Club | 1947 | Italian |
| THY THY Restaurant | Vietnamese | |
| Tiamo | Italian | |
| Toto's Pizza House | 1961 | Italian |
| University Cafe | 1953 | Italian |
| Vlado's Charcoal Grill | 1964 | Steak |
| Warung Agus | 1989 | Indonesian |
| Geppetto Trattoria | 1981 | Italian |
| Eastern Bell | 1989 | Chinese |
I want to eat here
1950s and 60s restaurant postcards via SwellMap. Click left and right on the photo to scroll. So many white people.
Footscray Market – Christmas Opening Hours 2013
Welcome to Year 5 of my Christmas vigil to commemorate Footscray Market’s inability to publish their Christmas/New Year’s opening hours online. Consider my annual dose of community service done. Here are the trading hours:
Monday 23 December: 7:00am-4:00pm
Tuesday 24 December (Christmas eve): 7:00am-4:00pm
25-26 December: Closed
Friday 27 December: 7:00am – 7:00pm
Saturday 28 December: 7:00am – 5:00pm
29 – 30 December: Closed
Tuesday 31 December: 7:00am-4:00pm
Wednesday 1 January (New Year’s Day 2014): Closed
The regular opening hours for Footscray Market are:
Tuesday and Wednesday – 7:00am-4:00pm
Thursday – 7:00am-6:00pm
Friday – 7:00am-8:00pm
Saturday – 7:00am-4:00pm