Lok’s Kitchen in Thornlie

My in-law had been saying that shaumai at Lok’s Kitchen is nice, and I finally had a chance of going there for dim sum lunch.

Lok’s Kichen is located in the complex of Thornlie Square Shopping Centre in Thornlie.  It was Sunday and the place was pretty full when we got there.

We got quite lots of food on our table – shaumai, steamed prawn dumplings,  chicken feet, pork ribs, steamed tofu & prawn, fried squid tanticles, chili tofu, char siew pork buns, kailan with oyster sauce, and egg tartlets.

The shaumai was really nice. It was tasty and juicy.  I also loved fried squid tanticles. It was nicer than the one at Northbridge Chinese restaurant on Roe street. Chicks. Feet and steamed prawn dumplings are nicer in Northbridge restaurants though, I thought.

Chili tofu was nice too. I lives the crunchy skin. There was tofu and prawn inside. Although the name is chili tofu (I believe waitress said so) it wasn’t spicy at all.

Char siew pork bun was another my favorite. I’m sure they handmade them. They are smaller than usuall size, but the bun was chewy and fresh.  Custard tartlet was crispy outside and soft & fluffy inside.  Yum!

The staff was very friendly and I liked the place. Only one thing that I hesitate to go back there was that I saw a huge cockroach in the toilet….  It was a big turn-off  It was shame because the food was really good!

Lok’s Kitchen
Shop30, Thornlie Square Shopping Centre
Thornlie Ave, Thornlie WA 6108
(08) 9452 8488
Lunch:
Mon – Thu & Sun 10:30am – 2:30pm
Fri – Sat 10:00am – 3:00pm
Dinner:
Mon -Thu & Sun 5:00pm – 9:30pm
Fri – Sat 5:00 – 10:00pm

Chinese, Indonesian, and Japanese

I’ve been eating Chinese food again. While my in-laws are here in Perth my stomach gets filled with lots of Chinese food and Indonesian food…
These cuisine use lots of oil in cooking, so I really miss Japanese food.  Not those Japanese food that you find in Japanese restaurants here like karaage and tempura, but the real homy food like nimono and nitsuke.

Anyway, my stomach was filled with Chinese/Singapore food tonight at Bamboo in Willetton.  I wasn’t too hungry thanks to 1.5 hotdogs I had at IKEA afternoon, but my in-laws ordered 4 dishes for just 4 of us.  Pan-fried tooth fish, sambal spinach, Thai-style chicken in lemongrass sauce, and 1/2 roasted duck. It was quite a lot of food as in-laws don’t usually eat much.

I went outside to have a short stroll around Hi-Mart (Korean grocery shop) next door, and when I got back to the table two dishes had already been served.
The tooth-fish was great. Crispy fish in buttery sauce did match with plain steamed rice. I found sambal spinach was bit oily, but I guess that’s what it’s supposed to be.

Thai-style chicken was the one they ignite flame underneath the aluminum foil.  Roast duck had the beautiful colored crispy skin.  It’s just what people expect roast duck to be.

We couldn’t finish the food as I expected and ended up taking the roast duck home.  Eating this type of food once in awhile is fine, but now I’m longing for a bowl of simple ochazuke for tomorrow breakfast.

Han’s Cafe in Carousel

Han’s Cafe is a casual dining restaurant chain that you can find across Perth WA.  They serve Asian cuisine – mostly Malaysian, Singapore, and Vietnamese.

Actually, Han’s Cafe was the place where I had my first date with D!  It was Han’s Cafe Northbridge, and it was my first time to eat something Malay/Singapore/Vietnamese in Perth.  I remember we both ordered broken rice with pork chop. (I just ordered what he ordered as I had no idea what the food were like on the menu)  I could barely speak English at that time.

Despite the sweet memory, I have to say that not all the Han’s Cafe restaurants serve the same level of food…  I really don’t like the one in Willetton – every single visit I made in the past, I regret that I spent money on the food there.

Although Han’s Cafe is not really in my favorite restaurant list, I do go there sometimes when I feel like something Asian (non Japanese/Korean/Chinese).  Among over 20 locations across Perth, my favorite one is the one in Carousel shopping centre.

It’s just because of the atmosphere.  The place has many tables inside, and there are sofa seats with screen where you can place and check your order without leaving the seat.

On my last visit, I had pad thai and D had char kway teow.  The place wasn’t busy at that time, so the food came out really quickly.

The foods there are not really special, but it fills me up when I want an easy, quick, reasonably-priced food.

Sunday Lunch and Heartburn from Oily Food

This is one of my favorite lunch - bihun sup ayam (rice noodle soup with chicken).  Mother-in-law makes lunch on every Sundays and it has been this family’s tradition (?) for a long time -since my husband was a baby.  Sometimes the food is chicken porridge, sometimes it’s egg noodle soup, but I like this bihun sup ayam the best.

If someone asks me what noodle I like, I would say “bihun”.  I don’t hate egg noodles, I just prefer rice noodle.  I also like kway teow noodle.  Some rice noodle is thick – like those you get at Vietnamese noodle house.    I’m not really a big fun of the thick rice noodle as it’s easy to break (different to udon noodle which is supposed to be chewy).  Rice vermicelli noodles doesn’t fill my big stomach enough, but I like eating it as snack.

Still now, oily food (e.g. deep-fried food) and garlic make me feel sick.  I don’t think it will go away while I’m pregnant！  It’s one of the things that I feel uncomfortable about living with in-laws, as they like eating Chinese food very much (everyday) and you know Chinese foods often contain lots of oil.  Besides the fact that I am Japanese who loves plain Japanese food, I’m an extreme on-oily food lover.  (tempura, karaage, only once a month!)  I really appreciate D’s mum cooking every day as I don’t feel like cooking at all these days, but she cooks deep-fried stuff almost everyday and if the food is in front of me I’d eat anything.  Afterwords I suffer from heavy heartburn. (*_*)

Hearty rice noodle soup is what I crave for quite often.  As I don’t cook myself much now and eat Chinese food often (e.g. chicken stock based soup, not udon soup), I’m thinking my baby may like Chinese food when he grow older!  There is a saying that what you eat during pregnancy could be baby’s favorite food.  I’m not sure if it’s true, but 85% of what I eat is Chinese food now so I’m guessing it could be true! (@_@)

Mood for Beauty

My friend recently had eyelash extension and she kept saying that she now loves looking at her face (eyes) in the mirror.  She had the extension by a Japanese lady – friend gave me the information about the lady but I’m not sure if I ever get eyelash extension.  It sounds very interesting, but I’m not sure if it’s 100% safe, and it is also pricy and not permanent.

But, after hearing from the friend I looked at my eyelash and realized that my eyelash has been falling off quite a lot!  I believe I had more eyelash when I was younger (>0<).  I never cared (I should…) about these things, and now I think I should do something about it.  

I bought L’Oreal Lash Boosting Serum to help my eyelash grow! L’Oreal brand seems to be quite popular among Japanese girls too.  Let’s see how it goes… 

I’ve been wearing the serum on my eyelash for 2 weeks now, twice a day.  I haven’t worn mascara for the last two weeks, and I think that my eyelash has became stronger –  less failing.

By the way, one of my friend in Japan is also pregnant (around 3 months) and they are having the wedding party on January next year.  She is already married to her husband, but they didn’t do any party or ceremony. (which is quite common thing in Japan these days)  They chose the following dress:

… yes, not white.  Wine color!  These days people in Japan don’t really care the color of the wedding dress much…  I’ve seen many brides wearing pink, blur or red dress in their wedding, not white.  I really like the dress and I think she will look great in this dress

These days my appetite has been strange.  I feel hungry, but don’t know what I feel like eating.  And, I get heartburn very often now.  If I eat a lot in the morning, I can’t eat anything until late night.  So, I just eat light food or snack little by little during the day.  

But, yesterday I really really wanted to eat chicken rice!  I couldn’t do anything but thinking about it.  It was around 3 PM, and D and I headed to Ten Ten.

I ordered Hainanese chicken rice, and D ordered roasted chicken rice.  We must have had looked like two starved little kids….   I ate it up all and so did he (^^).  It was very satisfying afternoon!

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