At Doubleview Bowling Club, Jacob D’Vauz’s ever changing menu redefines club fare, keeping locals on their toes. When he’s not behind the grill, you can find him exploring Perth’s diverse food scene. From hidden Burmese gems to Balinese flavours and the best nasi lemak in town, D’Vauz has a penchant for uncovering the city’s most authentic eats. Here’s where he eats and drinks in Perth, in his own words.
Regional Burmese for Breakfast
There’s a Burmese place called Blue Box that I love going to for breakfast. It’s a lunch bar in Wangara, and it’s a little hidden gem. It packs out on the weekends with Burmese people who go for the regional dishes. My go-to is mohinga, a rice noodle soup with fish gravy, chicken, banana blossom and crisp pea chips. There’s also a great version of ohn no khao swè, the Burmese version of khao soi. The lady behind the counter always asks if I want dishes prepared and seasoned like they do in Rangoon (more dry than soupy), because they know that’s where my family is from, which is pretty special. Burmese food is typically salty, sweet, funky, and sour. And everything is very textural. There’s lots of fermentation, pickles, and raw ingredients. You see this in dishes like tohu thoke, a Burmese tofu salad that Blue Box does really well. It uses a type of tofu made from chickpeas rather than soybeans. It’s really smooth and creamy. The tofu is tossed with crunchy vegetables, roasted peanuts, fried garlic, fresh herbs, fish sauce, chilli and lime juice. It’s so good.
My Favourite Indonesian Restaurants
My family has dinner at Bintang Cafe every week, and we usually get the same order. My wife always has the mie ayam jamur, a brothy egg noodle dish with chicken dumplings, braised chicken, mushrooms, and sometimes chicken balls. And I usually get barbecued short ribs with peanut sauce, iga bakar. For sides, it’s always gado gado and sambal kangkung. Kangkung is a type of water spinach, which is grilled and served with sauce that’s heavy on dried shrimp: it’s salty, a little bit sweet, tangy and pretty spicy. Sometimes we finish with ice campur, which is an Indonesian dessert of crushed ice, rose water, coconut jelly, grass jelly, corn and red beans.
Suku is another Indonesian restaurant that I love. It’s not easy to find authentic Balinese food in Perth, but I think Suku has nailed it – even better than some spots in Bali. The nasi Bali is really on point. There are specials every week, and really regional dishes like fruit rujak. It’s basically a fruit salad of pineapple, cucumber and rose apple jambu with a savoury caramel sauce made with a sweet, black fermented shrimp paste. I miss the food of Bali, and this really takes me back.
My go-to nasi lemak spot is Cili Padi Catering by Aunty Muni. I think it’s the best in Perth. Everything’s super flavourful. The sambal is really good. It’s cooked slowly until it’s sweet, salty and jammy. It’s everything a good sambal should be, which takes time to do. The chicken and beef rendang is always on point, too. It’s super homely.
An Australiana Deli Serving up Top Notch Sandwiches and Doughnuts
I’ve become a bit of a regular at Strollio’s Luncheonette. Baker, Nathan Alexander, who runs Strollio’s with his partner Hannah Budge, used to be at North Street Store and Bagel O’s. He’s branched out to do his take on an Australian deli. He works in this shoebox of a bakery, baking fresh bread every day. I’m a sucker for white-tin loaf, and he makes the best white bread and focaccia in town. My regular order is the curried egg sando on white bread, which I add a tin of tuna to. There’s also a great salad sandwich. Nathan always fries a fresh batch of doughnuts for the kids when we come through in the afternoon. And the vanilla custard in the custard doughnut is done properly with fresh eggs. There’s a little bodega situation there too, so you can grab things like La Delizia Latticini cheese, and sometimes Goldstreet Dairy cheese from chef Colin Wood. It’s no frills, it’s nostalgic, and everything is top quality.
For Something Special
If I’m going to treat myself, I’m going to Besk. I’m a big fan of chef Tom Harper. He doesn’t hold back when it comes to flavour. I first tried his food when he was the opening head chef at Indigo Oscar. You can see a bit of that South American influence in his food at Besk, but really, he’s cooking food that people want to eat. One of the dishes that sticks in my mind is a butterflied blue mackerel that he cooked over fire and served with buttermilk and rhubarb. It was amazing. I really like the prawn tacos, too. We take the kids and sit in the downstairs area so they can have a run around and not disturb anyone. And they’re also covered: my daughter smashed a fried-fish sandwich the last time we were there. It’s great that it’s not intimidating to be there with a family, and you don’t feel pressured to drink even though you’re in a pub. There are great non-alc options. My go-to is the Basil Brush, a cocktail, or mocktail I guess, with basil, chilli, pineapple, lime and chilli salt.
A Great Weekend Activity for the Kids
We like to go up to Keller’s Farm in the Swan Valley. It’s a wood fired bakery, and there are also animals on the farm. My daughter loves it. Everything is baked through the wood fired oven: pastries, sourdough bread. I always go for the canelés. It’s really homely. It’s a little bit out of town, but it’s a great family spot.
