Now that Makan @ Alice’s is finally open for dinners, I’ve managed to make it to this little Malaysian food mecca to have a meal with mom, who raves about this place frequently.

Alice’s started out as a shopfront run by a husband and wife team, Alice and Paul Tan, specialising in Malaysian hawker and Nonya food. Alice’s famous Kuihs, bite-sized sweets made with typical ingredients such as coconut cream and tapioca flour, have even been featured on SBS’s Food Lovers’ Guide series. They have since expanded to include a seated dining area, which is where we are headed, to satisfy our hawker food cravings.

The dining area is quite simply fitted out. It reminds me somewhat of the Malaysian coffee shops of my childhood – somewhat perfunctory spaces filled with wonderful wafting smells, and customers, intent on the food in front of them. What you don’t get from the atmosphere of the place, is made up tenfold by the warm and friendly service, and the amazing food that fills your nostrils and stays in your mind (and probably your clothes) for days to come.

Even before we’re seated, mom and I are pawing at the take-away containers of pork sweetmeats (Bah Kwa) displayed at the front counter. Having not eaten this for years, I’ve actually been missing it a lot. Mom says every time she buys a container, it disappears too quickly. Dangerous stuff, this is. I have a feeling I’m going to regret leaving with only one container!

Once we’re seated, it doesn’t take long for us to decide what to order. Sambal Eggplant, of course, and a prawn curry, and lastly a dish previously unknown to me, Cincaluk Pork; an original recipe by the chef. To accompany these dishes, crispy and fluffy Roti Chanai for B, and rice for the rest of us. The prawn curry is the first to arrive – a spicy, sourish curry with plump prawns and a smattering of vegetables – eggplant, capsicum and lady’s fingers. Next, the Cincaluk Pork – my dish of the week, maybe even the month. It consists of stir fried pieces of pork and vegetables in a very tasty sauce made from tiny preserved pink shrimp. There’s a reason why pork and seafood go so well together (pork belly and scallops, for example) – and I’m not here to tell you what the reason is because I don’t know it myself, except to say that it just tastes sooo good! The shrimp contributed to the overall saltiness and umami-ness of the dish. Not only that, the eggplant dish arrived soon after and it was devastatingly rich, silky, spicy and utterly delicious, fulfilling all expectations of what an eggplant dish should be. Mind you, it was nothing like Sambal’s Belachan Eggplant which I actually quite like because of the contrasting textures, but this was just as good and I’d happily eat either version any day of the week.

If you haven’t been to Makan @ Alice’s, make sure you visit soon. But ignore the tiny stack of takeaway containers at the front counter. Especially the ones filled with sweetmeats. You won’t like them. They are dry and incredibly tasteless. Just leave it to me to give them a good home………….

Makan @ Alice’s
Shop 3, 262-264 Pennant Hills Rd
(Cnr Pennant Hills Rd & Bellevue St )
Thornleigh 2120

Gardening, I’ve decided, is a fickle beast. Just as the oregano I’ve been keeping a careful, nurturing eye on withers under my gaze, and I’m resigned to the fate of forever struggling with nature, I discover a singular blooming radish in an almost-forgotten pot in the corner of the balcony. Next to them, a respectable gathering of mache (or Lamb’s tongue) and something else unidentifiable. The product of a scattered seed mix, many months ago.

Radish. Raphanus sativus. Or more specifically, the red round radish (Cherry Belle, Scarlet Globe, Red Boy and Comet being some of the attractive names associated with this variety), as there are many other types, including the french breakfast radish and the daikon radish. It is a proud member of the mustard or cabbage family; a family I’m incredibly fond of (brussel sprouts and broccoli being two of my favourite vegetables), I might add.

The flavour of the radish is, to quote Jimbo Jones of the Simpsons, “.. like an apple did it with an onion”. Along with their equally edible leaves, crisp and peppery radishes are great sliced raw and added to salads. I love the contrast in colour between the bright red outter skin and the white inner flesh, with a pale pink hue segueing between the two. So highly prized was it centuries ago, (and I don’t know how true this is, but..) it was apparently even used as payment during the building of the pyramids in ancient Egypt.

Pyramids notwithstanding, I prize my singular radish for it’s ability to thrive rather unexpectedly. The ultimate compliment for such unacknowledged work would be to eat it. Freeing it from it’s potted home, the decision was now down to, should it go into a small radish and fennel salad (a la Jamie Oliver) or a sandwich as per Stephanie Alexander’s recomendation. Stephanie won this round, mostly because the filling involved a generous amount of butter, slices of radish and strips of anchovy, along with some mache I threw in for good measure. A singularly simple and satisfying snack. Even the Fraggles might have approved.

The task of hosting this week’s WHB returns to it’s founder, the wonderful Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen. Check her roundup for other great WHB related ideas and recipes.