It’s been a while since my last southside lunchings post. I’ve been mostly revisiting favourites in the area, but I’ve also tried some other places along Chapel St. Last week I had an excellent chicky chicky parm parm at The Wolf and I. It’s also been positively reviewed by Culinary pleasures.

It had previously been a mediocre pub and had one of the quickest makeovers I’ve ever seen. The chicken fillet was moist and tasty, the crumb crisp and thin and the tomato sauce and ham could all be individually tasted – it wasn’t the usual slab that tastes mainly like oil. The fries were nicely salted and the salad fresh. Well worth $22.

Further north I had good nasi lemak from Straits of Malacca. It’s a chain. This location has better reviews than its other suburban venues, and it has also taken over the former Petaling St on Swanston St.

This version of nasi lemak has a small serve of beef curry, two pieces of fried fish, a portion of pickled cabbage and carrot that I’ve not seen served with this dish before, a modest amount of peanuts and dried anchovies, and a fried egg on the rice. This is good enough to warrant a return visit.

One day I had kangaroo loin with sichuan pepper and onion jus at Tusk. The meat was incredibly tender, but there was no hint of sichuan pepper and the sweet potato crisps were like pieces of cardboard. I wouldn’t recommend it.