Rice Paper Scissors

I'm excited to share this one with you. The weekend before last Wil and I snuck away for a long weekend in Melbourne. We ate, we drank, we ate and we drank some more, but this first meal is still one of the highlights of the trip. 

On a mission to find Her Majesty's Theatre where Linda and I were going to be enjoying Les Miserables, we took a turn through a Chinatown alley and all but stumbled past this, our first stop in Melbourne. From outside it looked quirky and cute, with a bent towards South East Asia and with some damn fine smells emanating from the kitchen.  One look at the sign and Wil was sold - a coworker had recommended Rice Paper Scissors to him and we saw it as a sign that we had stumbled across it so early in our journey.

We took a nice sunny seat by the window and got stuck in. The beer list is small, but adequately formed with the usual suspects of Asian beer to match the cuisine, and a couple of local craft offerings which is what we went with: Barrow Boys Pedlars Pale Ale which was a moderately flavoured, lightly hopped brew, easy drinking and perfect for the first of the (early) afternoon. The cocktail menu looked divine, but with several hours in theatre seat ahead I didn't fancy a wobbly head or the many trips to the bathroom that heading down that garden path would entail.

The menu proved more challenging. I wanted it all. From the son-in-law eggs and betel leaf roll-ups to the duck laab and steamed pork buns, every item on the menu was calling my name. But my belly is finally starting to catch up to my eyes (at the ripe old age of almost 32) and choices had to be made.  In the end I had to go with one of my all time favourite dishes: som dtam.  This fragrant Thai salad is made with young papaya, embellished with long beans, peanuts and chilli. It was fresh and spicy and took me straight back to the back streets of Bangkok where I first tried it, waiting for the river ferry. 

Thankfully, Wil chose different dishes and got the fried chicken, hot and crispy, and marinated in the Thai triumvirate of galangal, chilli and coriander. It was punchy. It was hot. It was very hard not to take a second piece. He also chose the BBQ pork neck which was sticky, rich and delicious. It took a little longer to arrive than our other dishes, but man was it worth it! 

A table across the way from ours ordered dessert and the green monster in my belly reared its head (not the papaya). I can't say how it tasted, but given how it looked and the smiles on the faces of those lucky diners, I'd suggest you take the plunge if you can. There were so many other delicious adventures to be had in Melbourne and I'll tell you about those soon, but know that if I found myself back in Chinatown, Rice Paper Scissors would be my first stop!

Rice Paper Scissors
19 Liverpool Street
Melbourne
Victoria, 3000
Australia