Four weeks, 80 restaurants & 15,000 words later...

1. EGYPT » Mizraim, Camberwell

“If you come to me and say I want a mixed grill, you can get that anywhere, but if you say, ‘I want something else no one else does in Melbourne, or no one else in Australia,’ then I’m really keen,” says Mizraim owner Nick Nicola.With just 24 hours’ notice, he can arrange hamam (squab), mombar (meat and rice sausages), whole freekeh-stuffed duck, a filled flatbread called feteer (which people travel from Ballarat and Bendigo to Camberwell for outside lockdown) and kaware3, a gelatinous cow's foot dish where the “3” is pronounced kind of like you're telling someone off and stubbing your toe simultaneously.Nick opened Mizraim in an old charcoal chicken shop three weeks before dine-in was cancelled. Eighty per cent of his revenue comes from familiar dishes, like laffa bread wrapped around kebabs and dips, but it’s the 20 per cent – those dishes you can’t find anywhere else – that make this place so special. Call to arrange delivery; the shop’s driver will travel far and wide if you put in a decent-sized order.541 Riversdale Road, Camberwell, 0419 982 984, mizraim.com.au

2. WEST INDIA » Raju Omlet Centre, Hawthorn

3. SINGAPORE & MALAYSIA » Malaya Inn, Doncaster

The menu at this no-frills suburban restaurant reads like a lap around Singapore’s Maxwell Hawker centre: fried oyster omelette, carrot cake, fresh popiah spring rolls, laksa, fish ball mee hoon noodle soup, braised duck noodles, etc. Then there are dishes you’ll want to dig into with others, such as the signature pork hock or the yam ring, a fried yam basket filled with stir-fry. Check Facebook every Tuesday for weekly COVID specials that encourage pick-up by offering free pulut hitam (black glutinous rice porridge with coconut milk and palm sugar) upon request. Past dishes include braised chicken feet with mushrooms and noodles, and family-style dishes such as whole Assam fish, half Hainanese chicken and fried chayote (aka choko, a type of gourd) with egg.25 Village Avenue, Doncaster, 0433 227 931, facebook.com/malayainn

4. CENTRAL CHINA » Xi'an Famous Food, Burwood

Xi'an Famous Foods is a family-owned chain of noodle restaurants serving dishes from western China. It has a cult following in the States and has featured on a number of TV shows, including Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. The original Xi'an Famous Foods shops are in New York, but noodle shops the world over illegally borrow the name for instant cred. Cue this Burwood restaurant, which offers cumin lamb bao "burgers" and flat biang biang noodles, as well as pao mo, a Shaanxi specialty where bits of steamed bread are cooked in lamb soup. There are also dumplings (steamed or in soup), rice dishes and a menu section dedicated to chicken wings. Look for the small door that shares a shopfront with a Taiwanese dessert store.251/255 Burwood Highway, Burwood, 03 9943 7063

5. INDONESIA » Famili Ria, Surrey Hills

6. KOREA » Chan Korean Kitchen, Camberwell

Korean cuisine is superior to other cuisines because it has banchan, which are the side dishes that come with a main meal. The most famous is kimchi, but the possibilities are endless. Chan in Camberwell specialises in banchan, and recently opened a takeaway grocer in Carnegie to sell their homemade sides, too. There’s namul (greens and vegetables, perhaps sweet potato, bean sprouts, spinach, taro or watercress), pickled squid, lotus root, braised tofu, dried pickle radish and bellflower root salad, to name a few.If man can't live on banchan alone (he totally can), there are nibbles such as gimpab Korean sushi rolls, jeon (Korean pancakes), mandu dumplings and tteokbokki stir-fried rice cake. Bulgogi and bibimbap are familiar mains, but I'd order gangjeong (sweet fried chicken battered with rice flour) or galbi jjim (spicy beef rib stew with rice). Delivery is available within 10km of Camberwell and is free for orders of $100+, order a couple of days in advance by emailing them.383-385 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, 03 9813 2308, chan-korean-cuisine-best-chan.business.site

7. MALAYSIA » Bak Kut Teh King, Box Hill

Thanks for the snaps, Paul Hermes.

8. TAIWAN » Taipei Delight, Balwyn North

This family-run cafe makes traditional buns, breads and Taiwanese sausages in-house for pre-order, as well as noodle soups and other meals (you’ll need to be able to read Mandarin or Google translate it). Place an order by joining the private Facebook group listed on the page’s posts. After lockdown, visit for the regular menu of Taiwanese classics, from beef noodles and pork mince on rice to marinated offal and breakfast sets featuring pork floss on pancakes or egg toast, fried radish cake and giam mue (congee) – all served with coffee or milk tea.296 Doncaster Road, Balwyn North, 0491 986 666, Facebook

9. NORTHWEST CHINA » Dolan On Silk Road, Box Hill

10. MALAYSIA » Colonial Coffee Cafe, Doncaster

You can stop looking for Melbourne’s best-value traditional Malaysian food – it’s right here. Usually a Malaysian grab-and-go cafe inside Colonial Fresh supermarket in Westfield Doncaster, COVID has been the catalyst for a far-reaching, $5 Sunday delivery service when you pre-order Wednesday to Friday (check Facebook for suburbs and menu). Heat-and-eat dishes start at $5.50 and cap out at $9.50, so you’d be sangat gila not to stock up. They include banana leaf-wrapped nasi lemak bungkus (try one with petai stink bean and prawn or blue butterfly pea rice), Nyonya-style filled sticky rice dumplings in bamboo leaf, nasi goreng kampung (fried chicken with ikan bilis and a hard-boiled egg), curry or assam laksa, mee rebus, lobak five-spiced meat rolls in bean curd, Nyonya kueh desserts and so many more.Westfield Doncaster, 619 Doncaster Road, Doncaster, 0401 862 638, Facebook

 See something you like? Forward this dispatch to someone you'd like to #EatCuriously with post-lockdown! ♥