WEEKLY DIGEST 102 | 19 APR 2024

Last week was a quieter week of eating. This week will be a quiet weekend too. We're off to Swan Sushi this weekend (hoping that the quality is comparable to that of Kou Sushi, given the menu looks very, very similar) and will end the week with some pizza from Slow Dough.

This week we have:

Chicken on Charcoal Flame
Katen
Mama Mochi
2 Fat Indians (Carousel)

Visit count

Note travel related eats haven't been added in yet. There will be a handful to add from Singapore and we'll add a select few from Japan.

As of 16 April 2024:
First time visits: Katen & Chicken on Charcoal Flame (2)
Revisits: 2 Fat Indians & Mama Mochi (2)

First time visits: 10+2=12
Total revisits: 22+2=24
Total visits this year: 12+24=36

ICYMI 📱

‌‌If you have any new fantastic food finds, we'd love for you to let us know via DM or email. If you have different opinions to us on food, that's fine - let us know too! We love to chat all things food. ‌‌‌
‌‌‌‌‌‌
‌‌‌Eddy & Paige‌

‌‌The Best Thing We Ate ⭐️

Chicken on Charcoal Flame

The best thing we ate this week was the mixed platter from Chicken on Charcoal Flame - a new restaurant a friend introduced to me.

This $30 plate represented excellent value for money. The equivalent mixed platters at Middle Eastern competitors like Cairo Cafe ($30 ish) and On Fire Charcoal chicken ($37) offer only 2-3 different proteins where as Chicken on Charcoal Flame offers four, at similar price. A choice of "brown rice" (basmati rice cooked in stock) and biryani rice is available.

All the proteins were juicy and I left feeling very satisfied. Looking forward to returning!

What We Ate 🍴

Katen

Katen opened up earlier this year as Perth's first specialty katsu restaurant. The restaurant occupies what once was NeNe Chicken and continues to be owned by the same family which ran NeNe Chicken and Papparich.

If you read last week's issue, you'll know we recently dined at Katzu katzu.

So the verdict?

I prefer Katzu Katzu. A list of the criteria which my decision is based on includes:

• Bread crumb fluffiness
• Meat tenderness (ever so slightly fattier - though this could be due to minor variations with the cut in the serve I received)
• Cabbage salad consistency - Katzu Katzu's being sliced finer
• Rice - Katzu Katzu's was had starchier rice that paired better with the tonkatsu
• Rice and miso soup refills - not a deal breaker, but definitely something that larger eaters can appreciate
• Overall comfort - I did feel a little claustrophobic when dining inside of Katen.

Although it might seem that Katzu Katzu has a landslide victory, what I do think Katen does well is their variety of katsu available. This likely caused some friendly competition between both katsu specialty restaurants.

I'll give Katen respect for serving up menchikatsu (minced beef katsu), a dish you don't often see in Perth at all. This would be my pick, if I was dining at Katen again.

Mama Mochi

It didn't take us long to return to Mama Mochi.

This time around I tried their black sesame ice-cream mochi. The ice-cream had a punchy black sesame taste to it and the mochi was a nice textural addition. Mama Mochi's ice-cream mochi does make me wonder how Delicioso's ice-cream mochi offering fares, so that might be on the to try list next..

The wait during my Thursday night visit was 50 minutes.

2 Fat Indians (Carousel)

Paige was craving Indian - specifically tandoori chicken. So we went to our usual - 2 Fat Indians in Carousel. Between us, we've probably visited this place at least a dozen times over the past couple of years and are yet to have a bad meal here.

This time we got (we don't usually get the tandoori chicken):

Tandoori chicken $20.95 - Half chicken marinated in chef’s special tandoori blend of spices and yogurt
Palak paneer $24.95 - A blend of spinach and herbs with cottage cheese
Lamb korma $26.95 - Lamb cooked in Awadhi style with mild flavoured gravy with a hint of sweetness
Stuffed kulcha $7.95 - Cheese
Steam rice $6.5

And yes, we finished it and then got hit by a massive food coma after returning home 😂.