Diverse Clayton Melbourne’s United Nations of food

IT’S the most internationally diverse suburb in Australia with a food strip to match. Welcome to Clayton, the United Nations of food.

Dainty Fish specialises in charcoal fish and meat skewers over coal. Picture Rebecca Michael.

ACCORDING to the most recent figures, Clayton in Melbourne’s south east is the most internationally diverse suburb in Australia. Its residents come from more than 110 countries, which means that people from more than half of all the world’s nations call this patch of the City of Monash home.

But you don’t need the Census to tell you that. Just take a stroll down Clayton Road. There you’ll see the smorgasbord of diversity, where Japanese bento boxes sit next to Taiwanese bubble teas, hot Aussie pies peddled along with Vietnamese.

There’s Indian and Italian and Indonesian, Turkish shawarmas and Greek sweets and lots of dumplings. So many dumplings. It truly is a United Nations of food.

“When the shop first opened about 14 years ago there weren’t any restaurants along here. This was the first or second. Now, it’s all about food,” says Marco Zeng of Jyu-Jyu Japanese, which does a roaring trade in bento boxes for the nearby office workers during the day, and attracts Monash Uni students on the way to, or from, lectures in the afternoon and early evening.

The octopus balls at Jyu-Jyu are a favourite of locals.

It’s the student population that drives much of the competition — and prices — along the strip between Centre Rd and the train line. And it’s not just restaurants catering to the hungry.

There are specialist supermarkets — Korean, Japanese, Indian — along with a huge Hong Kong supermarket and bustling fresh fruit market next to the discount stores and money lenders and parcel services serving a community that has ties around the globe.

It’s old-school strip shopping that’s becoming increasingly rare in our suburbs, and, given the large Chinese community who call Clayton home, you’ll find an astonishing array of produce in the local butchers: free range rooster and silky black chicken and corn-fed duck down one end, tripe and pork hearts and duck heads and beef trotters down the other.

Fancy a feed? Here are some top tastes of this deliciously diverse suburb to whet the appetite and that won’t break the bank.

Taste cover story: Foodies guide to Clayton. Christopher's Fish Shop, 371-373 Clayton Rd. Picture Rebecca Michael.

Go fishing

“We wanted to add something to the area, do something different,” says Mitchell Ng, whose family runs the bustling butcher outside the Hong Kong Supermarket and, for the past year, has also been serving up the best from the sea at Christopher’s Fine Seafood.

With live eels and Murray cod in the window, a huge array of whole fish glistening on ice — clear-eyed Japanese gurnard and line-caught bara, red emperor and octopus and many more — and a great selection of filleted fish at equally sharp prices, this really is one of Melbourne’s best fish shops. Cast a line.

Christopher’s Fine Seafood, 371 Clayton Rd

At about $10, it’s hard to beat a Jyu-Jyu bento box.

Boxing clever

Fast, tasty, filling — it’s easy to see why the bento boxes at Jyu-Jyu are such a hit with locals.

Choose from a range of toppings to go on the rice — eel, grilled salmon, fried mackerel or prawns — which are served next to a mound of tender teriyaki beef loaded with ginger, and a kewpie-squiggled salad to the side. For about 10 bucks, it’s hard to beat.

Grab a serve of the takoyaki — fried octopus balls — seasoned with bonito to snack on while you wait.

Jyu-Jyu, 339 Clayton Rd

Better off bread

With batons standing to attention and shelves laden with loaves, while The Grain Emporium delivers its organic stone-baked sourdough to restaurants and cafes across Melbourne, the same great bread is available to grab and go for home.

There’s also a good line in the sweet stuff, including buttery and flaky escargot, almond croissants and seasonal fruit danishes, along with a pie warmer full of flavours.

The Grain Emporium, 318 Clayton Rd

Rocking road

Dhaba is the name given to roadside restaurants and truck stops in India, where the food is fast, cheap and tasty and so it is at Anshumann da Dhaba, two of which line the Clayton Rd strip.

Serving up northern Indian fare in no-frills surrounds, the always busy restaurants are packed for their goat curry, lamb vindaloo and dal makhani among other hits. It’s where you’ll get both a full belly and change from a tenner.

Anshumann da Dhaba, 290 Clayton Rd (also 331 Clayton Rd)

Grilled fish at Dainty Fish.

A good grilling

Joining the tingly, spicy, chilli-and-pepper driven Dainty Sichuan family of restaurants across the city, Dainty Fish specialises whole fish, barbecued over coal in the huge custom-built dome at the back of the funky, handsome restaurant.

It’s a tick the box affair; choose your fish (live barramundi or fresh orange roughy), your flavour (chilli black bean or Ma Po tofu or the classic cumin, chilli and Sichuan pepper) and some sides (ox gizzards for the brave, oyster mushrooms for the less so) and a feast for the table quickly hits.

Skewers over hot coals are a feature at Dainty Fish.

There’s also a range of long metal skewers threaded with lamb or chicken wings (or pork feet, or duck heads) that are cooked over smoking coals. Grab a beer tower filled with cold brewski, a Tian Fu cola (that’s exclusive to the group) or a yumberry juice, a sweet-sour fruit that’s known as Chinese strawberry that tastes a bit like cranberry.

The neon on the wall says to Keep Calm and Grill On, and there’s no reason not to do just that.

Dainty Fish and Grill Co, 338 Clayton Rd

Yumplings

Ping’s is possibly the most famous restaurant on the strip, it’s certainly one of the busiest.

Packed to the rafters, it’s where Clayton comes for plates of handmade pan-fried pork or boiled beef dumplings and chicken and prawn pot-stickers.

Almost made to order by deft fingers out back, the pork mince comes studded with onion, garlic, ginger and chive wrapped in pasty that’s slippery and supple. While there are better XLB (xiao long bao) to be found elsewhere, the pan-fried plate of 15 dumplings for $10.80 can’t be beat.

Ping’s Dumpling Kitchen, 330 Clayton Rd

Inside the dumpling kitchen at Ping’s.

Noodling along

Specialising in the Indonesian wheat noodle called bakmi, this humble eatery serves up a range of authentic dishes including bihun ayam (rice noodle with chicken) and mie baba (noodles with BBQ pork) alongside the more familiar nasi goreng.

Pondok Bamboe Koening, 354 Clayton Rd

Raising the steaks

Confidently — and conclusively — staking its claim for Melbourne’s best steak sandwich (and not just for its great name) it’s worth heading a couple of blocks over to Centre Rd and hit For Heaven’s Steak for their signature steak roll.

“We have people come from all over, down from Bendigo, over from Williamstown even Werribee,” co-owner Paul di Genova says.

On a custom-baked, crunchy-on-the-outside, fluffy-inside roll, you’ll get a piece of the incredibly tender scotch fillet hot from the grill, pink and soft and full of flavour.

People come from far and wide for a Heaven’s Steaks steak sandwich. Picture Rebecca Michael.

It’s teamed with roasted capsicum, salami, provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato and a fried egg. A splash of the housemade hot sauce for those who ask finishes this classic Aussie dish with an Italian twist. It’s just $9.

There’s also a version with sausage meat seared on the hotplate, or double down and combine the two with the Italian Classic.

There are beers in the fridge and shakes for the kids and what this one-time internet cafe lacks in trendy style it makes up for with a steak roll that’s a classic for the ages. No wonder they come from afar.

For Heaven’s Steaks, 1463 Centre Rd

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