Welcome To Thornbury

Welcome To Thornbury
520 High Street
Northcote 3070


Welcome to Thornbury is actually in Northcote for those who are a bit pedantic about these things!  A car manufacturing factory in its previous life it is now a bar and food truck venue which can accommodate up to 700 people!  I went on a sunny Saturday afternoon and the place was packed and buzzing.  The crowd was mixed with all ages represented and a lot of people with young children and dogs.

View from the food trucks

There are 6 food trucks on site most days and these change daily. There is a schedule on their website if you want to check out who is going to be there before you go. After getting some drinks (my sauvignon blanc was $7.50 a glass) my friend and I spent a bit of time checking out what was available and then went different ways.  

View from the indoor bar area looking towards the food trucks

I went with the Digging For Fire BBQ Kitchen and had the 12 hour pulled pork, Israeli couscous, pineapple/chilli relish and lime mayonnaise in a bowl for $13. You can also get it in a roll for $10.

This dish was delicious and full of flavour. The salad was fresh and the pork beautifully tender.

My friend had Lamb Souvlaki "The Bahh" $10 and Chips with Oregano $5 from the Greek Street Food truck.  She really enjoyed her meal but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the souvlaki. I can vouch that the chips were delicious!

The Greek Street Food truck was very popular.

Welcome To Thornbury manages to be cool yet family friendly. We were there from around 4pm on a Saturday afternoon and it was packed and I imagine that is only going to get worse as the weather improves. Their opening hours are on their website but on the weekend it is noon until 10pm.

Other vans there on Saturday were selling Vietnamese food, burgers, pizza and there was a mushroom/vegetarian option! There really was something for everyone.

I'm looking forward to returning.

Spicy Corner's Hoppers

Spicy Corner
49 Dawson Street
Tullamarine 3043

Spicy Corner is an unassuming Sri Lankan restaurant in suburban Tullamarine.  I went there late last year with a Sri Lankan friend and her family.  We went for one reason - to have the traditional Sri Lankan street food, hoppers.  My first time.  In fact, I hadn't even heard of hoppers before this meal!

Spicy Corner's menu describes hoppers as bowl shaped crispy crepes with soft centres made of rice flour.  Basically, edible bowls.  By all accounts they are not easy to make and you need a special pan.

Our Hopper meal consisted of plain hoppers, egg hoppers which had a fried egg cooked into it, a choice of chicken, beef or lamb curry and spicy sambol.

In this picture the egg hopper is sitting nestled in a plain hopper.  To eat you just break off bits of hopper and scoop up your curry and sambol.  I loved the hoppers.  Light and tasty, almost wafer thin. The egg hopper was my favourite though. This can be a messy process as you just use your hands, but that is part of the fun of the experience!

The curries and sambol were served in bowls to share. We had beef and lamb.  The curry was fine but the hoppers were the star of the meal.

I believe we had two sambols, onion and chill. A tip from my friends - if the sambol is too hot, (which, in this case, it was for me), mix a small amount of butter with it.  Sounds strange but works - the taste of the sambol still comes through but without the intense heat!

I definitely want to return to Spicy Corner and try more of the very reasonably priced menu.  I am fascinated by the sweets menu - Love Cake?  Potato Toffee?  As for the Milk Toffee.. well that's a bargain! ;)  I was intrigued by Wattalappan - a google search revealed that it is a coconut custard pudding.

If you are interested in the Hopper meal it is probably best to ring first as I believe it is not always available.  

Pud Thai vs Pho

Shop 4, 60 Siddeley St
Docklands, VIC 3008

This small Thai/Vietnamese restaurant is a lovely little hidden gem.

Located in the WTC (World Trade Centre) Wharf precinct on the north bank it is just a few steps away from the Seafarers Bridge which links to the South Wharf restaurant/shopping precinct. 

I have dined here a number of times but I must admit I have not tried their Pud Thai or Pho!

Rice Paper Roll - $5 each

The prawn rice paper rolls were delicious.  Full of fresh vegetables and herbs. I love the translucency of the rice paper.

Dumplings - $5

The steamed prawn dumplings with a soy dipping sauce were very moreish little morsels.

Spring Rolls

And .. Spring Rolls

Now I didn't have the spring rolls but according to my friend who ordered them, she definitely ordered spring rolls on two different occasions, but as you can see they arrived looking quite different!  Maybe different chefs on different days?  Either way she enjoyed both versions.  Neither of us can remember what she was charged but the online menu says $5 per serve.

Thai Beef Salad - $12.90

I have had this Thai beef salad a few times and love it.  Its light, has lots of beautiful fresh salad and herbs and a very spicy dressing.

Lemongrass Beef - $11.90

I also really enjoyed this lemongrass beef dish.  The sauce was delicious and you add as much as you like to the bowl.  Fragrant and tasty.

BBQ Pork - Flame grilled marinated pork neck - $15.90

My friend had this pork dish which was served with sweet chilli sauce and jasmine rice.  She really enjoyed it and said she would order it again.  I thought it looked a bit dry but I think that is more to do with my average photography skills than the actual dish!

Tom Yum Noodle - $10.90

 
And finally on a cool day I ordered the Tom Yum Noodle which is described as soup noodles with vegetables, tomato, lime leaf and chicken (you can also chose beef or seafood). This was my least favourite dish though there was nothing wrong with it - it just wasn't quite what I was expecting.  But having said that it was a very generous serve and great value for money.  I struggled to finish the bowl and it was packed full of noodles and vegetables.  I just felt the flavour of the broth was missing something. 

Maybe I should have ordered the Pho!!

Co Do

Co Do
196 Victoria Street
Richmond 3121

A cold, wet Melbourne Monday night.  My friend and I wanted a quick, cheap, filling meal.  I also wanted something that wouldn't derail my diet and had been craving chicken soup.  So we headed to Richmond where we knew we would be spoilt for choice.  Co Do fit the bill perfectly.

  
Wine and tea to begin the warming process!


We shared the prawn rice paper rolls to start.  My friend who has eaten at many of the Vietnamese restaurants along this strip declared them not the best he'd had but they were still very fresh and tasty and a very generous size.  

We both had the soup with rice noodles. 

Chicken

Bean shoots, fresh mint, lemon and an array of chilli sauces to add to the soup.

Chicken and Beef

The soup was lovely.  The broth flavourful, heaps of yummy noodles and the chicken and beef beautifully cooked.  A very generous serve.

Our total bill was just $24.50.  Excellent value and exactly what we wanted.  We left very full and warm from the inside out!