Indonesian Meatball Noodle Soup (Mie Bakso)

Savouring Mie Bakso Once Again

This post is just a brief introduction to one of Indonesia's most popular noodle soup, Mie Bakso. Mie Bakso (Meatball Noodle Soup) is an ubiquitous street food in Indonesia. Even tough, it is considered a cheap eat, this noodle soup can be found everywhere from street-side stalls to restaurants in shopping mall. However, this bowl of flavoursome noddle is no where to be found in Sydney (or I haven't found one yet). Luckily for me, I get to taste this wonderful noodle soup once again, all thanks to my mum who visited me last week. Mum knows how much I like to eat Mie Bakso, so at 4am Monday morning she rolled up her sleeve to prepare this bowl of delicious noodle soup ready for me when I wake up. Life couldn't be better than this!

(Unfortunately, I don't have the recipe as mum brought the homemade paste for the soup from Indonesia)

Shredded fried chicken

 Chopped celery leaves

This is not a complicated bowl of noodle. It consists of only meatballs (usually beef), shredded fried chicken, crispy fried shallots and celery leaves. However, the peppery and aromatic soup is made from a combination of different kind of Indonesian spices that create the signature flavour.

The usual way to enjoy this bowl of noodle is to add in lots of hot chilli paste and sweet soya sauce enough to make you puffing and sweating, at the same time racing for a glass of cold water to soothe the burning mouth.

Homemade chilli paste mixed with sweet soya sauce

Before adding in the soup

with soup

 Add in the Chilli Paste

Mix well and see you in culinary heaven

Pho Bac Hai Duong, Marrickville

 

Satisfying My Friday Crave at Marrickville

Today is the day where I really crave for a bowl of nice hot Pho and I recalled that Marrickville has a good reputation for their Vietnamese food, so I browsed online to find which restaurant is worth the visit, but I couldn't really decide on one, so my husband used his iphone's 'Urbanspoon' app (it randomly pick a restaurant based on cuisine and location) and Pho Bac Hai Duong came up. There was 91% favourable review on this restaurant too, so we trusted the rating and made our way there.

There is a newspaper cut on the glass window, it's an article on the best Pho in Sydney and this restaurant is on the list. The restaurant has a deem light, it's spacious and pretty clean compared to other pho restaurants I've been. 

We went through the menu, of course I decided on the pho. My husband was contemplating between the lemongrass pork and the Vietnamese traditional style pork in hot pot. We asked the waiter which one is more popular but he said both are popular dishes in the restaurant and they both tasted very different, however he commented that every kid in Vietnam grow up eating the traditional style pork in hot pot. That inspired my husband to give it a try.

The soup was pleasingly tasty, sweet and rich in flavour, the rice noodle is slippery. This bowl of noodle successfully satisfied my crave. I usually don't finish the soup when I have Pho, but this time I just couldn't stop.

 Pho rice noodle soup with medium rare beef & chicken combination $9 (reg)

Large size available for $12

My husband's Vietnamese traditional style pork in hot pot tasted similar like the Chinese Braised pork in soya sauce, but this is one of the better ones that I've tried. Full of flavour with a killer sauce. No wonder every kid in Vietnam grow up with this dish. When I had my first mouth I knew straight away my husband will surely come back again for this.

Vietnamese Traditional Style Pork in Hot Pot $13

We ordered the seafood omelette too, it's a simple dish of  fried egg top with onions and little pieces of seafood.

Seafood Omelette $14

Thanks to Urbanspoon, we had a satisfying dinner today!

Pho Bac Hai Duong

304 Illawarra Rd
Marrickville NSW 2204

Ph: (02) 9559 5078  
Opening hours: Mon to Sun 10am - 9:30pm 

Lee's Malaysian Prawn Mee, Sydney CBD

“Do not be afraid to talk about food. Food which is worth eating is worth discussing. And there is the occult power of words which somehow will develop its qualities.” (X. Marcel Boulestin, chef, food writer , 1878-1943)

Could this be the best Prawn Mee in Sydney?

Prawn Mee (also known as Har Mee) is a local malaysia hawker food made famous by Penang (known as Hokkien Mee in Penang), it's originated from  Fujian Province, China.

The most important thing in Prawn Mee is definitley the broth. A good prawn mee should be filled with the flavourful essence and sweetness of prawn and pork ribs. Lee's Malaysian certainly got it right. You find generous amount of crunchy halved prawns, deliciously marinated slices pork, egg and crunchy kangkung (chinese spinach), probably the most generous prawn mee you could find in Sydney and not to mention the soup is so prawn pungently good. Add you own dosage of chilli paste to get that desired kick to keep you going, until you reach the climax! 

Prawn Mee (Har Mee) $9.00

This bowl of noodle will bring you thrilling sensation, make sure you have some tissues and a glass of ice-cold water handy, as you will probably ended up in sweat. So far this is the best prawn mee I have tasted in Sydney, but my friend has been recommending me to David's Kitchen in the city, will definitely give it a try to compare.

Pavilion Food Court

580 George Street

Sydney 2000

(02) 9262 7771

Buck-Me Jellicoe Noodle, Kingsford

 
I personally think that Buck-Me Jellicoe Noodle in Kingsford served the best Indonesian noodle in Sydney. Over the past 8 years this shop has closed and re opened for the 4th times. However, it has always been very popular among the Indonesian community. I'm not sure why they have closed so many times but I believed they always re opened due to the high demand by the Indonesian community. I was really thrilled when I found out that they were reopening in Kingsford few months back. I really hope this time they won't close it again.

 Jellicoe special minced pork noodle ($9.00).

 Jellicoe special chicken noodle ($8.50)

Both served with choice of noodle, soya egg, soya giblet, wonton and vege served with clear soup.

I really like their signature minced pork and chicken egg noodle, it has a very nice texture and the flavour of their soya broth is really authentic. If you are feeling extra hungry you can even upsize for an extra $3.00.

  Deep Fried meat ball. ($1.50)

This is definitely my favourite noodle restaurant in Sydney!

522 Anzac Parade
Kingsford, NSW 2032
Ph: (02) 9662 0007
www.jellicoenoodle.com