The Sarapan and Victoria Park’s house of pop-up restaurants
Remember this address: 1 Leonard Street, Victoria Park. From the outside, it looks like any other character house in Vic Park, but depending on the day of the week and time of day, it becomes one of several pop-up restaurants.
On weekends, it’s breakfast/brunch at The Sarapan(‘sarapan’ means ‘breakfast’ in Malay). The menu is small, three Malaysian and three western dishes. Order and pay at the counter, cash only. We ordered three dishes to share with teh tarik (‘pulled tea‘), which was strong, sweet and frothy as it should be. A surprise was delivered to our table, compliments of the chef: colourful, sugar-dusted buttery shortbread cookie balls.
Compliments from the chef – buttery cookie balls. Other tables received cookie balls too.
Teh tarik (AU$4.50 each) – teh tarik traditionally comes a glass but I’m not a fan of these mason jars which so many bars and cafes are serving drinks in these days. Those rims are designed for lids, not lips. I hope it’s just a fad.The roti canai came with two sauces, dahl with sambal, and chicken curry. The crispy, fluffy roti is made in-house. You can add egg for 50 cents extra. We ignored the cutlery and tore at the roti with our fingers. I could drink that curry gravy… actually, I did!
Roti canai (AU$5)Jac especially enjoyed the nasi lemak. The Sarapan’s version included coconut basmati rice, sambal, ikan bilis (fried anchovies), peanuts, sliced fresh cucumber, half a hard-boiled egg and a juicy piece of fried chicken with a wonderfully crackly seasoned crust. No one makes nasi lemak with rice as ‘lemak’ as my mum’s, but I’d order this again without hesitation. The sambal, like the sauces that came with the curry, was flavoursome but not overly spicy.
Nasi lemak (AU$10)In the interest of research and food blogging, I couldn’t resist ordering a third dish to share. The mushrooms gremolata (AU$14) was a pretty dish with marinated mushrooms, soft slow-roasted tomatoes, curdy ricotta and a poached egg, all on toast which, incidentally, soaked up all the juices and quickly became soggy. Balsamic vinegar made every bite tangy, which I liked more than Jac did. The other western options were French toast with strawberry compote, marscapone and maple syrup (AU$14) and smoked salmon with avocado, poached egg, potato rosti and hollandaise sauce ($15), both very appealing, but when we return, I suspect it will be for Malaysian breakfast.
Mushrooms gremolata (AU$14)
Demolition begins!We’re stoked to have discovered another Malaysian weekend breakfast option that’s reasonably close to home and open early – we rocked up at 8am, had a good feed, and then tackled our Saturday errands, our full bellies making us smugly resistant to food shopping’s temptations. We didn’t need lunch.
We’re also thrilled to have discovered the secret of 1 Leonard Street – we’ve walked/driven past this corner countless times and never noticed this ordinary yet extraordinary house. Details of 1 Leonard Street’s pop-up restaurants (and links to their Facebook pages) are included at the end of this post. Pop-up restaurants are temporary by nature, so now we know about this, we plan to make the most of it while we can.
1 Leonard Street, Vic Park’s unassuming house of pop-up restaurants – you could easily walk/drive past without realising…1 Leonard Street, Victoria Park
The house of pop-up restaurants is around the corner from The Good Store, just off Albany Highway. For the most up-to-date information, it’s best to contact the pop-ups directly, or check their Facebook pages. We’ve only been to The Sarapan so far.
The Sarapan
Saturday and Sunday 8am to 2pm
Telephone: 0423 355 345
Breakfast/brunch – Malaysian and western dishes
JBento
Monday to Friday 11.30am to 2.30pm
Telephone: 0414 168 837
Menu includes teriyaki (chicken, steak, salmon), karaage chicken, bulgogi beef, spicy bulgogi pork and more
Wicked Satays
Monday, Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday 5pm to 9.30pm
Telehone: 0411 983 815
Menu includes chicken and beef satay (served with ketupat, cucumber, onions and sauce), mi rebus, mi goreng, crispy squid, fried rice, murtabak and more
BYO is $1 per person
Ka’ribbean Corner
Wednesday and Thursday 6pm to 9.30pm
Telephone: 0449 510 908
Menu includes Caribbean chicken, beef kebabs, fish, fritters, fire chicken wings, Ka’ribbean burgers, coconut sorbet and more
Note: According to their Facebook page, they are closed for a couple of weeks – check the Facebook page for updates
TFP on the radio
Speaking of Malaysian food, I was on the radio last week, interviewed in the studio by RTRFM 92.1 – I talked about Malaysian cuisine/restaurants in Perth for The Food Alternative segment during the Drivetime program. I had a limited time to speak (the segment was just over 7 minutes), so I hope you’ll forgive me if I didn’t mention your favourite dish/restaurant during the interview.
You can listen to my interview online: The Food Alternative #21 – Finding Malaysia