Hibiscus Festival 2009

The August school break has come upon us again, bringing with it Suva's so-called 'mother of all festivals,' The Hibiscus Festival.


Unlike past years, the weather has been kind (so far) and instead of the usual mud-pool, Albert Park is instead doing a very good impression of a dust bowl. So dry was it, that there was some confusion amongst the Lunch in Suva delegation as to whether we had accidentally arrived at the Sugar Festival by mistake.

Where the weather may have changed, the prevalance of BBQ stalls has not. The vast majority of stalls offer up the same boring combination: a lamb chop, a sausage, a bit of casava, and a bit of shredded vegetable matter all liberally drowned in the cheapest tomato sauce known to the market. Most stalls now offer a chicken option as well.


For most, the only differentiating factor seems to be the club running each stall (for example the QVS stall pictured above). Association patrons, relatives, and obliged people buy from the stall to whom they owe allegiance. All others buy from the stall that seems cleanest, nearest, or most generous.

There are a few highlights: stalls that attempted something different. Enter the first specimen: Tandoori Barbeque


Still a bit of a safe play for unimaginative punters, but giving the rest of the field a much needed kick up the behind, The Taste of Indian Muglai has seen fit to drop a bit of lemon and spice on their lamb and chicken, call it 'tandoori' and they seem to be doing rather well out of it.

Here's a little video of the process. There's no tandoor in sight, but we mustn't allow that to detract from their achievement.

Also worth a try are the Bombay kebabs from Aashnas stall (who also offer the more traditional, non-bbq form of tandoori chicken).


The kebabs are cooked out the front of the stall, on metal rods, charcoal beneath and an unusually hot Suva sun above.


The kebabs are served in a paper cup and are topped with green mango chutney.


Kania Tiko believes these to be both spicey enough and oily enough to merit a pairing with beer.

Doner kebabs have also put in a token appearance.


The wrap was a thick roti. The only sauce available was tomato. The meat was unremarkable. The salad of no consequence. And at $6 a serve, this otherwise welcome deviation from the line of bbq stalls wanders too far off the price/performance curve to be worth your while.


The Bible Society burger stall has become somewhat of a fixture at the festival.


In the past these burgers have been very good. The first year, they seemed serious about passing the taste test: mustard, relish, mayo and good tomato sauce were all part of the burger.


This $4 burger has since fallen on hard times.


A bit of lettuce, a slice of tomato, a few slivers of onion and a Foods Pacific lamb patty do not a good burger make. Reduced to a shadow of it's former self, this may now well be the worst performer on the Hibiscus dining price/performance curve.

And now, a few general comments:

First, this 'flame' falls deep in 'WTF' territory. Lunch in Suva objects to this waste of good cooking gas.


Second, it's a sad day for Fiji when carnival ice-cream cones are more expensive than a McDonald's softserve.


Finally, we leave you with this strange piece of fiction, designed (we presume) to draw the attention of young children to the sweeties.


You can click on the photo to read the large version. The 'dialogue' on the side of the stall is as follows:

Monkey:
Hey Mowgli come into the festive mood and party with me

Mowgli:
Oh! I'd love to party with u
U've got all my favourite candy floss, pop corn, sno cone and oh u also have my favourite Juice

Pooh Bear:
I hope the monkey didnt notice I took his pop corn

Eyore:
Oh i love my sno cone
yummy

Rabbit:
Hey Piglet
Will Eyore exchange his sno cone with my Candy floss

Piglet:
Well I dont know about him but i know i love my tasty Juice

What more could you possibly say about the Hibiscus Festival?

Maya Dhaba at MHCC

If you are well-connected in the world of internet trivia you may have seen reference to a certain raunchy Burger King ad, allegedly tempting the usually staid people of Singapore.

The good people at The Atlantic have seen fit to address our questions about the efficacy of this sort of food advertising. "No!" they say, "sexy ads drown out the product, diminish brand recall, and often don't reap dividends" ... and then embed a plethora of examples to prove their point.

Just because Fiji is spared this sort of advertising, doesn't mean that we are off the hook when it comes to "food with sexual innuendo."

Enter the mighty dhosa: an lusty South Indian delicacy with unavoidable phallic connotations, the signature dish of Maya Dhaba at MHCC.



Undeniable shock and awe value. A tasty, hearty meal, the chicken dosa goes for $8.90; the (vegetarian) masala dorsa for $6.90. Each is served up with a side of coconut chutney and a bowl of sambar.



The biryani ($8.90 for chicken, Goat/Lamb for $1 extra) is also worthy of your attention. Both the biryani and the dorsa are cooked to order.



Tandoori chicken starts at $3.50 for a quarter of a bird. The food warmer offers a variety of meat and vegetable curries in various combinations (with rice and drink) ranging up to $8.50. The usual caveats about eating food with a dairy component from the food warmer apply. Plain and garlic naan are also available.



The ever present scourge of the food court, the coke fridge, offers up the usual range. But! for those of you who demand a more authentic experience, there is a choice of Sweet or Mango Lassi.

An extensive range of Indian sweets rounds out this offering.

For me, the success of this little food court outlet is that every time I eat here, it makes me want to eat at their parent restaurant on Victoria Parade ... though that is an experience better suited to dinner and a larger budget than is sensible for lunch.

Thumbs-up for bucking the boring food-court routine, staying affordable and offering one of Suva's most visually provocative dishes.

In Summary

Maya Dhaba

MHCC Food Court, Thomson Street, Suva

Opening Hours:

Mon - Sun: 9:00am - 9:00pm

Spend:

$3.50 - $13 per person

Rating:

Thumbs-up

Hop Hing Cafe

Hop Hing sits opposite the beer factory in Walu bay. It plies a regular trade with the brewery, warehouse, oil, and wharf workers in the area. They serve up your typical pseudo-chinese food, plus the usual morning tea items (cake, buns, tinned meat etc.)

We tried two fairly representative items on the menu, first the combination short soup.
Kania Tiko is somewhat of a connoisseur of the Combination Short Soup. It has diced chicken, roast pork and red pork (but no beef strangely enough). The broth is superior to that of Mrs. Yangs, and doesn't need chillying up (but I chilly it up anyway out of force of habit). My main objection is the paucity of vegetables, all we have a couple of carrots and small handful of cabbage. Its the lack of veges and vege-variety that prevent this from challenging Hot & Spicy's position at the top of the totem pole of Suva's Combination Short Soups. At $9 its only 50 cents cheaper than Hot & Spicy, so it can't really compete on the price-performance curve either.

This is chicken chow-mein. Its stir-fried chicken, cabbage, carrots, and onions with noodles. You've all eaten this before so there is no point in me crapping on about it. It is hot and freshly cooked and costs $6.

This is the menu. If you can read it, then I congratulate you. If you can't go to Walu bay and read the real one.

The following video has absolutely nothing to do this review. I just think it would be cool to have a robot bartender in ones house, and also I want to send a big "Fuck You" to the Associated Press, for this display of stupidity.

In Summary

Hop Hing

Foster Rd, Walu Bay, Suva

Opening Hours:

Monday - Saturday: 7am - 5pm

Spend

$4.00 - $9.00 per person

Kebab King

Suva finally has a kebab shop. How on earth a city with cosmopolitan pretensions could have survived this long without 'Turkish' food defies explanation. All this glorious city lacks now is a Subway franchise and some Mexican food. But back to the kebabs...

Kebab King attempts to be the full-service kebab shop in the style of migrant family-run shops found elsewhere on the Pacific Rim: döner kebabs, iskender kebab plates, kebab sandwiches on pide bread, falafel, tabouli, a variety of stuffed pide, and dolma all make it to the menu along with something passed off as 'Turkish pizza'.

Lamb and chicken are the meat choices on offer.


The cheapest option on the menu, the plain döner kebab, starts at $6.50 and is rather bland (lettuce, tomato, onion, meat, 1 sauce). The best way to enjoy your kebab is to take a $2 hit to the pocket and add hummus and extra tabouli. Top it off with garlic sauce (good with the chicken) or sweet chilli sauce (good with lamb) and the kebab is now a much tastier, albeit more expensive. The chicken tends toward being a little dry, so unless I see the cook slicing the chicken off the stack while I'm at the counter, I order the lamb.

Pizza is best left alone. An unseemly fascination with cheese drowns out the few other toppings.

The kebab on pide is worth a mention: it is a good, solid sandwich, but will need some extras to keep it from being too dry.

Some unevenness in staff training and kebab construction: the hummus should be applied to the flat-bread (yufka) before the salad fillings are added, not drizzled over the lettuce. There also seems to be a large variance in how much time different servers think is necessary to toast the döner kebab.

The layout of the serving area was obviously done with no reference to the sales process. The drinks fridge is located at the opposite end of the counter to the cash register. Having shuffled you along the counter toward the cashier while filling your kebab, your server is then forced to fight their way back down the counter past all the other attendants to fill any drinks orders. This process can slow down service considerably during the lunch rush.


Whilst there's nothing wrong with a kebab shop in a food court, as Suva's only kebab offering they could have done better than than the second floor in MHCC. I humbly offer that the best location for this business would be in the old Air Nauru office opposite Bad Dog's on the corner of Victoria Parade and MacArthur Street. There, nestled in the bosom of Suva's nightlife zone, they would make a royal killing if they stayed open late and competed a little with the BBQ sellers for the attention of tipsy people looking for greasy food.

Despite piling on the good karma for bringing kebabs to the city, the relatively high price point, uneven service, and a boring signature kebab conspire against the awarding of a thumbs-up to Kebab King; but they're certainly no where near thumbs-down territory. So, go forth, mix and match, and tell us what you think is the best way to remix their kebabs.

NB. They're in Nadi too. Port Denarau Marina Complex. Same offerings.

In Summary

Kebab King

MHCC Food Court, Thomson Street, Suva

Port Denarau Marina, Nadi

Phone:

3100 167, 6750 375

Opening Hours:

Mon - Sun: 9:00am - 9:00pm

Spend:

$6.80 - $12 per person

Yang's Restaurant

Yang's Restaurant is on Pratt St., opposite Suva Central and next to the Hare Krishna. Prominent local media harlot Culden Kamea notes "that it's easy to spot because they hang their roast duck, chicken and pork in the front window". He also observes that their Combination Long and Short Soup is "world famous", and that is where this review starts:
The soup is both short (it has won tons) and it is long (it has noodles). The combination bit must come from the roast chicken, beef and roast pork. The lady (we'll call her Mrs. Yang) spoons out the broth, noodles, and won tons from three big pots. The meat and veges are cut with a pair of scissors and placed in the bowl - as far as I know no other short order cook in Suva that cooks with scissors.

We won't comment as to whether the soup is "world famous" but it is certainly Mrs. Yang's most popular order, and at $6.80 its great the value for money. If there is a negative point it is that the broth is rather bland, so chilli it up first.

Other highlights include the Red Pork, which comes with rice, cabbage, some sort of wierd black sauce, and a bowl of that same broth as the soup. With no tasty fillings to break the monotony the full blandness of the broth hits you, but you can probably use it as a dipping sauce. This is also $6.80. A simple dish done well.

If you are short of cash you can get fish/sausage and chips for $3.

There are seven tables, and the establishment can get quite warm, with only a lone oscillating fan struggling bravely against small room full of large sweaty island folk. In the back of the room there is a 'bar' that has long since ceased to serve alcohol and now serves as the washing up station.

In Summary

Yang's Restaurant

Pratt St, Suva
Opposite Suva Central

Opening Hours:

Monday - Saturday: 9am - 8pm

Spend

$3 - $6.80 per person

Verdict:

Thumbs-up

Dan's Fish & Chips

Whilst hardly Suva's first fish and chip shop, Dan's can probably take the credit for starting a renaissance of dedicated chippies in Suva.

Well-placed to take advantage of USP and the surrounding public sporting venues (Stadium, New Gym, Aquatic Centre, etc). This place has a steady stream of customers most of the time ... and is packed during sporting events.


This is not one of those 'pick-your-fish' places, there's one sort of fish, no one knows what it is but that's just fine. Dan's signature $5.50 Fish and chips has 3 or 4 pieces of crisply battered fish, a lemon wedge and as many chillies as the counter staff think you can handle.

70 cents more will get you a can of soft drink as part of a 'combo pack'. Thankfully, they've put a stop to the earlier nonsense where a combo pack could only include a can of Coke (and not any of the other soft drinks).


The $4.50 Fish burger is also worth a mention: it's not the world's most brilliant burger, but it's a worthy way to put down some fried fish and salad. $6.50 with chips, $7.50 with chips and a drink.

Dan's has wandered beyond the fish options: a rotisserie graces the back wall and a great many chickens pass through it on their way to birdie heaven.

The chicken options start off at $4 for a sandwich, and then jump up to $6 for the obligatory quarter chicken and chips. Various other fractions of the chicken may also be procured, or you can take a whole bird back to the office for $12 (a good Fiji-style put-in lunch if ever there was one).

Salt, pepper, and vinegar (hallelujah!) are available at the counter for no extra cost. No tomato sauce is included, but there are 2 types of sachets that can be had for a bit extra. A little tub of coleslaw can be added for $1.80; and for the sweeth toothed among us, a small selection of 'desserts' from $2 - $3 (including something claiming to be a trifle).

The proprietors have done a good job of setting up the place, considering it's proximity to the service station. Clever use of some potted palms and rocks gives the outside eating area a bit of space for itself.


While we're talking about the proprietors, on one of his visits Kania Tiko noticed a poster up behind the counter proclaiming "God bless Management". Being office drones ourselves, this is a prayer we've often offered up (particularly now that Management is worried about The Recession); but we've never seen it quite so prominently displayed before, and regret not having photographed it. The shop is closed on Sundays, presumably so that staff can dedicate more time to offering up this supplication.

Parking can be tiresome ... there are enough cars trying to drive through a petrol station without you trying to park your car there; and the coming of Nando's has meant even more competition for space.

For breathing life into Suva's stale, brown-paper-bag-packed, oily-fish industry, for being clean, and for allowing us to choose Fanta with our combo pack, we give Dan's Fish and Chips a thumbs-up.

In Summary

Dan's Fish & Chips

Laucala Bay Road

Opening Hours:

10am - 6pm Monday to Saturday

Spend

$4 - $7.50 per person

The Daily Catch

Closed ... just like their predecessors. Kania Tiko believes there is a curse on the building: every business operating from this location seems to go under.

After being distinctly unimpressed with The Daily Catch in the first instance, many people suggested that they've pulled up their socks, are back in the game, and didn't deserve the panning they got in the first review.

So here we are again.

The concept remains the same: you pick the fish and they fry it up on the spot with a parcel of chips. The fish options range from $5 to $10. Mussels and other extras sometimes show up as well.


The serves are generous: 3 or 4 pieces of fish and slightly more chips than one person wants to eat. The fish in batter is good. The chips are soggy. A lemon wedge was included with each serve, but no tomato sauce: you can buy that separately. There were no chillies included in the serve or on offer at the counter.

Each meal was dropped into a white paper bag (no cardboard tray) that was soon damp, translucent from the oil, and broke open. Given that every other serious fish and chip shop in town has a takeaway box (which works well), there's no reason to disadvantage your customers with poor packaging.

Coke and Pepsi fridges in the shop offer the usual range of canned acid to wash down the oily remnants of your lunch.

On the day I visited there were several other things that stood out, none of them particularly worrying by themselves, but adding up to a negative impression.

The display fridge had condensation problems preventing a good viewing of the fish on offer. Understandable when you have a display fridge in a non-air-conditioned environment, but still annoying and unsightly.

The fryer vent hood was not working that day, so they had a desk fan blowing across the top of the fryers ... ensuring each new visitor to the shop got hit with the smell of hot oil as they came through the door.

Whilst I don't approve of aquariums in fish and chip shops (it seems rude to stare at the little fellows while you wait for their bigger cousins to get fried up for lunch) they don't bother me ... but this fish tank featured a couple of tough little fellows swimming in water that was vomit green.

Add to that the blaring serenade of a Christian radio station being piped into a room with bare concrete walls ... and I don't ever want to go back.

No matter what your opinion of The Daily Catch, you can't help but miss the old Cakaudrove Fish.

In Summary

The Daily Catch

11 Bureta St, Samabula

Opening Hours:

Monday - Saturday: Lunch

Spend

$5 - $10 per person

Verdict:

Thumbs-down

Merchant Curry House

Unless you are accompanied by a regular, your first visit to Merchant Curry House may be a little strange. This small eatery is tucked away at the back of the Merchant Club parking garage, beneath the Purple Haze nighclub.


The menu board has no prices, and little relation to what's available. The food warmers are perpetually empty. A large cardboard cut-out of a mutant iguana oversees all proceedings. Don't let any of this put you off: you are very close to a good Fiji-style curry.


The best approach is to ask what's available. Our visit coincided with the availability of the chicken and lamb curries, and these were ordered with a vegetable curry side, dhal and roti.


The lamb curry (above) was a little on the bland side, but tender. A good meal.


This excellent chicken curry deserves a bit of explanation. The picture above is the 'live' chicken curry (as opposed to the 'frozen' chicken curry). The 'live' curry is $1 dearer and is prepared from freshly slaughtered free-range chicken (junglee murgi). The Hindustani swear that these make better curries than the 'soft', commercially farmed chickens. They also reckon that meat curry is tasteless without the bones.

We have heard good reports about the goat and various seafood curries but haven't had the occasion to try them yet. Let us know if you have.

You're expected to eat with your fingers (as God intended) but spoons are provided.

The proprietors seem quite flexible with requests: less roti, more roti, swap this for that and give me more of the other ... we heard all of these, and all were accommodated.

The members from the Merchant Club next door occasionally shout orders through the window: the curry house doubles up as the club kitchen and provider of 'curry chasers'.

Should you chose to eat in, be prepared to make conversation with the squash players passing on their way to the squash courts via the stairs ... you will also have to ignore your conscience as these masters of lunchtime exercise survey your artery clogging endeavours.


On that note, as is our tradition when reviewing curry houses, here are the oily remains of the meal. What can we say? Good Fiji curry always seems to carry a cholesterol tax.


Merchants Curry House accepts phone orders and (according to their sign) offer some catering services.

In Summary

Merchant Curry House

Merchant Club,
Cnr of Butt St and MacArthur St

Phone:

9229 457

Opening Hours:

Mon - Sat: All day

Spend:

$3 - $7.50 per person

Chinese fast food at the Handicraft Centre

How in the name of all that is tasty does one review an eatery with no name?

Casting around for inspiration, I wandered off to This Is Why You're Fat, a website dedicated to photographically documenting strange American foods that are hard to name, and even harder to explain.

While staring at The Sandwich of Knowledge it became clear to me that inspiration would not strike; so here I am again, reviewing a Chinese fast food hole-in-the-wall located behind the stairs, under the carpark, at the Suva Handicraft Centre.


The Lunch in Suva crew usually just refer to it as "The Handicraft Centre".

"Steak and Eggs at the Handicraft Centre?" someone will ask; and given that there's only one place at the Handicraft Centre selling food, everyone knows what he's talking about.

And now you do too.


The aforementioned steak and eggs is the signature dish. Several slabs of dalo and a good serving of thinly-sliced, marinated steak make up the base. Add to that the better part of a whole onion (fried up in the same soy sauce marinade as the steak) and top the whole plate off with 2 sunny-side-up eggs ... and a lettuce leaf.

This steak will not win awards; but at $7, it is generous, tasty, and hits the spot if you're hungry.


The chop suey is usually served quite hot in large amounts. The chicken (pictured above) and beef versions are par for the course. Unless you're running close to broke, you will want to steer clear of the sausage chop suey ... and likewise the combination (beef, chicken and sausage).

The soup must be mentioned: I haven't tried it -- and therefore can't recommend it -- but a large number of patrons seem to give it their full attention.


Service is prompt. Pay at your table when the food is delivered. The place is a little on the rough side, but busy enough. I usually eat at the concrete tables outside the establishment (the space inside is small and stuffy). Takeaway is a popular option, particularly if the weather is bad.

In Summary

'Hole in the Wall' at the Suva Handicraft Centre

Stinson Parade

Opening Hours:

Mon - Sat: Lunch

Spend:

$5 - $7 per person

Kimbab 153 at Kundan Singh Supermarket

Kimbab 153 is not a restaurant; not even a shop ... it seems to exist mainly as a wooden table inside the front of Kundan Singh's Supermarket, adorned with the merchandise and a small sign; a small stall run by a small group of Korean women.

Kimbab (or gimbap, or kimbap, depending on who you listen to) is a great little Korean lunch or snack: a variety of fillings with steamed rice in a dried seaweed roll (similar to the Japanese makizushi).

There are 5 different offerings from Kimbab 153: Vegetable, Original, Tuna, Chicken and Kimchi. Kimchi is my personal preference: it has a delightful chilli bite to it. Prices range from $4.99 to $5.99



These tasty little lunches are well packaged. Each serve comes in a clear plastic takeaway container, complete with a small dose of soy dipping sauce. Major points for a nice label that lists all the ingredients at a readable size.

Obtaining a kimbab pack has become a little more difficult since the US Embassy construction project started ... so get in early if you want a selection of fillings to choose from. Turning up after 12:30 means you're going to get left with a choice of the less interesting ones (tuna and chicken) or nothing at all.

Occasionally, the ladies make the rolls on-site ... and sometimes they offer free samples.

Update [Picky Eater - 28 Feb 2009]: Someone's been reading Kania Tiko's comment below (or his mind). A trip past the Kimbab 153 stall today revealed the usual selection of kimbab ... and small tubs of kimchi at $5 each. Excellent!


By way of warning for those who haven't tried kimchi before, the 'small' tub should last you a few days: you're not going to want to eat it all in one sitting. Pop the leftovers in the fridge, use it as a condiment for your meals, and enjoy the health benefits & some extra peace of mind

In Summary

Kimbab 153

Kundan Singh's Supermarket,
Prince's Road,
Tamavua

Opening Hours:

Mon - Sat: 10:00am - 2:00pm

Spend:

$5 - $6 per person

Verdict:

Thumbs-up

Soup Works

Soup Works does not fit neatly into any of the usual categories of lunching establishments: it does not have it's own premises; it does not reside in a food court; it does not offer eat-in service.

Soup Works exists behind a counter in MH Superfresh, Tamavua. It is inside the supermarket, squeezed in between the cheese fridge and the delicatessen.


The place is clean, neat, simple, and has a substantial menu ... consisting exclusively of soups (over 40 at last count). There is a significant bias toward the Asian soups, but these are widely sourced: Laksa from Malaysia, Tom Yum from Thailand, and all the favourites from China; alongside a selection of European cream-of-vegetable and minestrone variations.

My favourite is the Tom yum Seafood, pictured below.


The general idea with Soup Works is that you place your order, and then spend the waiting time (between 10 to 15 minutes) wandering the aisles of MH, collecting the various necessaries listed on the shopping list which you have kept handily in your pocket for just such a a moment as this.

All soups are cooked on the spot and to order, so you have the opportunity to specify variations to the house recipe.

Your soup comes handily packaged for the road. A warning however: the soup is hot! If you're planning on driving away with it, it's best to have a side-kick along to keep the soup containers upright while you navigate the potholes.

For excellent soup -- and a simple, well-executed catering concept -- Lunch In Suva give Soup Works a big thumbs up.

In Summary

Soup Works

MH Superfresh Shopping Centre, Tamavua

Phone:

3623 362, 9290 088, 9355 679

Opening Hours:

Mon - Thu: 9:00am - 8:00pm

Fri - Sat: 9:00am - 9:00pm

Sun: 9:00am - 2:00pm

Spend:

$5.50 - $9.00 per person

Verdict:

Thumbs-up

Photos by abuke_2004