My whole family loves PappaRich so no surprises my brother & writer Jason put his and my mum’s hand up to go eat on my behalf when PappaRich opened their Joondalup restaurant. Keep scrolling for his blog post and PappaRich must eats…
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I’ve been big fan of PappaRich since the Northbridge branch first opened its doors last August (check out Michelle’s blog post about it here), so I was even more excited to hear that they’ve now opened a store in Lakeside Shopping Centre Joondalup. My mum lives in the area so when I make the trek to visit her, I have a hit list of goto places while I’m in the vicinity of Whitfords/Joondalup, which coincidentally serve mainly desserts or sweets.
Currently my goto spots are:
- Krispy Kremes
- Max Brenner
- La Crepe de Paris – you might of seen their to die for cronuts at the Twilight Night Markets and it was also featured in Michelle’s New Perth Bars & Restaurants Round Up after I delivered her one
And now I’m excited to add PappaRich in as the savoury piece of the puzzle
To start, we got a Beef and Chicken Satay stick combo to share. I think PappaRich makes a mean satay… the marinade on the meat and the accompanying sauce was on point. I recently did a food tasting for my wedding in Bali which also included Satay Chicken and Beef, PappaRich’s Malaysian Satays were of the same if not better quality and authenticity than their Balinese counterpart.
For drinks, I got the Iced Pappa Mocha, a drink that is part malaysian coffee, part milo and finished off with my favourite type of milk… condensed. I’m huge fan of the different variants of coffee you find in South East Asia that are paired with condensed milk and this drink brought me back to when I’m in KL or Singapore (check out Michelle’s favourite Favourite Singapore Eats here).
My mum got the Iced Red Bean drink, which I’m not a fan of. The flavour and grainy texture of Red Bean is an acquired taste and I happen to be one of the few ABCs (Australian Born Chinese) that hasn’t acquired it. So unless you’re adventurous or born with it, I would recommend going for one of the other drinks on the menu that are more suited to the Western palate.
On this said day, I decided to try the Chilli Pan Mee, a noodle dish consisting of flavoured mince, a yolky egg, anchovies and a generous dollop of sambal that you need to mix together like a Spaghetti Bolognese.
Here’s what it looks like mixed together. The dish is quite spicy and the flavours were nice, but I think it could of done with a bit more of a salty punch to counteract the flavour neutralising effect of mixing the yolk through the noodles. This used to happen me all the time when I cooked 2-minute mi goreng noodles and mixed a sunny side egg through it, so I’d add more ABC sweet soy sauce to balance it out.
I’ve been to PappaRich quite a few times and usually I would order one of the Nasi Lemaks or the Hainan Chicken Chop from their rice selection for my main. My fiancé and Perth food blogger Little Miss Bacon calls me a wild card because depending on how I feel on a certain day, I will either go for my usual favs or go left of field and try something completely new, which if its a winner, will become part of my list of usual favs. On this occasion, I stuck to my Nasi Lemaks and Hainan Chicken Chop.
My mum ordered the Fish head beehoon noodle soup, a traditional dish that originated either in Singapore or Malaysia.
A word of warning, this dish is not for the faint hearted… it comes with a whole deep fried fish head which some peeps would proceed to naw at and even eat the eye ball (not me)
It was quite a hot day and I was sweating bullets after eating all that spicy noodles and soup, so I ordered Mango Mania Ice Blend. It’s a refreshing drink perfect for every mango lover with bits of jelly, a mango nectar like consistency and topped off with lychees…
Even though it was time for dessert, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get some Roti Canai, an indian-influenced flatbread commonly found in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It was everything you’d want in a Roti… warm, crispy and soft on the inside and served with two types of curry sauce and a sambal for dipping. This makes me miss KL where roti joints are open 24/7. On one occasion when I was in KL for training, I intoxicatedly stumbled into a roti joint at 2am and ordered a fried chicken fried rice with a side of roti, it was heavenly and saved me from a hangover the next day.
My mum and I also shared a Pappa ABC Special with black sesame ice cream a Malaysian dessert that is also known as an Ais/Ice Kacang and also one of my favourite desserts. It consists of shaved ice with red beans, peanuts, grass jelly and sweet corn, so each bite is different from the last and is the perfect and cooling ending to a spicy meal.
If you live around the Joondalup area and crave real Malaysian food, look no further than PappaRich. Most of the time when I take my mum out to eat, like most Asian/Chinese mums she complains about how expensive it is or how she can easily cook the same dishes at home. We’ve been to the Northbridge branch quite a few times and PappaRich is one of the few places that she doesn’t complain about because the prices are very reasonable and the food is authentic.
About Jason
I’m Michelle’s brother and also an IT geek that loves to eat. Together with my bacon loving partner in crime Little Miss Bacon, we are always exploring and on the search for food that gives us that flavour explosion and hits the high notes.
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Disclaimer: foodie cravings was provided complimentary meals by PappaRich Joondalup. See foodie cravings disclosure policy for more details.