The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
I took myself to Peko Peko, around the corner from my hotel whilst I was in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago for a workplace based exam. I found this restaurant through a combination of Google Maps but also upon reading a blog post at Sweet and Sour Fork, a new website to me, which seems to fulfil a very similar niche to this one, but with better execution and better results.
On this particular Tuesday evening there was a varied mix of couples and single Chinese adults eating alone. Food was served rapidly, as was my consumption of it, with the order to food arrival time approximately 5 minutes and the food arrival to payment time approximately 15 minutes.
It’s not usual for me to just order a whole thing of fried rice, however Peko Peko’s sausage fried rice ($20) had particularly good reviews online and I was quite keen to try it. This fried rice had a strong copmonent of wok hei within it with lots of umami from the luncheon meat, shallot, and generous quantity of beaten eggs. Quite unusually this fried rice was also topped wiht these fried wisps of batter that added an extra crunch and textural interest to the meal. While I find that fried rice is often just a commodity stomach filler, Peko Peko really managed to make it something special and worthy of a dish by itself.
I was, of course, not crazy enough to just have fried rice alone, and my giant bowl of fried rice was supplemented with this chili chicken ($21), which was really more like a slightly spicy sweet and sour chicken The actual depth and strength of spiciness was not very much, and I think it could have been more, with the whole chilies included really adding more of a fragrance than a spice itself. The sweetness and sourness was slightly unlike your regular bright-red dyed sweet and sour chicken, and probably had a bit more of a zhejiang vinegar kind of sourness to it. The batter was extremely crunchy despite the whole dish being doused in sauce, and remained crunchy throughout the meal.
I was unable to finish all of my food for the low price that was charged, and packed up my leftovers in complimentary takeaway boxes, though I did eat a bit more of it the moment I got home, because it was just so yummy. The restauranteurs said “see you next time” as I was leaving, and while it’s unlikely that I’ll come back due to it being not where I live, I honestly wouldn’t rule it out. The whole meal was quite good.
2021 was a peak food ordering time for me, and as a year probably set us back significantly in terms of our finances and ability to purchase a house. To this day I am still finding photos from delivery meals that we ordered and consumed in our little apartment in Wentworthville 2145. It’s quite strange that whilst I often forget the quality of meals eaten some months back, I seem to still remember the taste and mouthfeel of these particular items that I will briefly describe below. The pricing is going to reflect 2021 prices (pre-post-COVID inflation, but inclusive of delivery app markups).
I can’t believe I literally just said I could still remember the taste and mouthfeel of this meal, because I really don’t have anything memorable for the BBQ Pork with Sticky Rice ($19.90).
Luckily I do remember these Potato Prawn ($10.90), which were all eaten by me because my girlfriend at the time was not a prawn fan. I thought that they were crispy, though underflavoured, with the ratio of potato to prawn too high. The sweet chilli sauce was an absolute neccessity here in helping the potato go down. I think these were even worse the following day.
I love a net spring roll ($9.90), and these were no exception.
I actually really enjoyed this pineapple fried rice ($19.90), even though it was served in a plastic takeaway container and not a half pineapple. The balance of lightly spicy curry powder and sweet pineapple flavour was just right, and I’m craving some more now. Man food is yellow, and it’s delicious.
For a place so close to work, I’m surprised I’ve never been in person. And now that I’ve found these photos and written this post, I’ll probably never have to.
KINX was one of our favourite vaguely local cafes when we lived in the Canterbury-Bankstown area, and we were sad to hear of it changing hands at the start of this year.
I started seeing teasers of KINX ex-owners Duc and Tina’s new venture, Saigon Things, on social media a couple of weeks ago, but it was only when someone let slip an external shot with a photo of the phone number of the massage parlour next door that I was able to pinpoint the (conveniently very local) location and imbibe in a soft-opening feast.
First things first, that it was a soft opening can’t be stated enough. Apart from a couple of social media posts not mentioning the location, there was really not much to go on to know what to expect. There was no menu online, and not even a Google Maps entry for the business – how exciting.
The restaurant was a short walk from free parking in Strathfield Plaza, through a street lined with very active and bustling Korean and Vietnamese restaurants, that on any other day would’ve tempted us away from an as-yet unproven Saigon Things, but we had a destination and a plan and would not be swayed. We pushed through a door sign in Korean, a remnant from the restaurant’s previous tenants, into a restaurant with only one other group seated, but we given KINX’s track record, we knew that this was just due to it being undiscovered, rather than unpopular.
The first thing that we were told when we sat down was that no less than five of the menu options were unavailable that night. Such soft opening vibes! As we made our orders, we were told that one of the components of one of the dishes that was available was not available and would have to be substituted. Unpreparedness! Soft opening!
Our drink came rapidly, but food seemed to come table by table – the other table present had three or four things served by the time we had our first, but we’re going to take that as yet another soft opening thing. The yakult mocktail ($11), which I will attempt to describe without a copy of the drinks menu on hand (something I expect won’t be available online for some time), was good in some way but could’ve been better in others. First things first, it was very sweet, full of tropical flavours, strong on the pineapple and with hints of some mango as well. An element of interest were these salty (preserved?) white flowers, that were crunchy and provided a welcome and interesting contrast to the too-sweet drink. Given it was my wife’s order, I didn’t actually know it was meant to be yakult based, and could not pick this as a flavour or component that was meant to be presented – I think it would’ve been better described as a pineapple tropical mocktail.
After what felt like a considerable wait (though as evidenced by timestamps really only 14 minutes from drink to food service), we received our first food item, the Bamboo Platter/ Cham Cuon – Bánh Ướt Chả & Thịt Nướng/beef, pork, noodle sheet ($50.80). The idea was to roll our own rice paper rolls, with the variety of ingredients presented – grilled Angus intercostal, steamed pork sausage, rice noodle sheets, rice noodle rolls, fresh and pickled vegetables, herbs, and toppings. The rice noodle rolls that we were told they had run out of (at 6PM – the restaurant’s opening time) made a miraculous appearance. Did having to go get these from a nearby Asian grocer delay service? Or did they just manage to find them in the fridge? Either way the whole concept of having rice within rice reminded me of that Xzibit meme – yo dawg, I heard you like rice so we put rice in your rice.
Some other guy’s wife made him a very beautiful looking roll, but mine neglected to, and this is the best that we got. Our complete inability to roll any semblance of a rice paper roll aside, this was a really good tasting dish. I’m one to load my pho up with all of the Vietnamese basil available, and have never said no to pickle carrots, so the variety of fresh and pickled flavours was excellent for me, though I thought the half full little bowl of chilli and garlic was a bit of a let down (was more on offer if we had asked?). The beef , though having some sinewy bits, was grilled to a good level of smokiness, though I thought that the steam pork roll could’ve been greater in quantity to match that of the beef.
This Cơm Chiên / Saigon Fried Rice ($22) is the second best fried rice I’ve had in the five years I’ve been writing this blog (the first goes to a great fried rice at Peko Peko in South Melbourne that you are likely to hear about next month.
The rice presents with a low to medium degree of wok hei scent, which could’ve been stronger but is still near the top of its class. Each individual grain of rice was coated in oil and well separated, evidence of a good quality stir frying technique. The chilli crisp added nice crunch but not much spice to the dish, and inspired us to get some non-lao gan ma chilli crisp from an Asian grocer (bridging the gap hopefully between a $4 jar and a $20 made in Australia jar) on the way home. Perhaps the best part was the little pieces of deep fried pork lard, crispy and melty, something that’s previously made an appearance in Hokkien Kia’s exemplary char kway teow, but not something I had seen elsewhere apart from that. The lap cheong was a little different to what I’ve had before, larger in diameter and sweeter than the usual, but different in a pleasant way that distinguished itself from being a stock standard Chinese fried rice. The pickled mustard greens mentioned on the menu were not identifiable, but there was the surprise inclusion of corn kernels, which did not detract from the experience.
I was getting quite full by the time the Sườn Heo Nướng Mắm Ruốc/ Fermented Shrimp Pork Ribs ($48), but managed to happily enjoy them. The flavour was prawny and interesting, though what separated this dish from the others was that I didn’t feel like it was miles ahead of what my wife makes at home on a regular basis. I would have significant difficulty trying to replicate the rice paper platter or even the perfection of the fried rice in my home kitchen, but my wife has gotten very good at putting pork ribs in the oven over the past few years, and I can imagine a world in which we’d get probably 80% of the way there with the cooking of the pork, and 70% of the way there with the fermented prawn flavour.
What I don’t think we could accomplish at home, however, was actually the salad that was served with the ribs. The julienned pieces of carrot, apple and onion were so bright and crunchy, with extra crunch from the peanut and fried shallot toppers, that I feel like the salad was more special than the pork itself. The acidity of the apple and the dressing cut through the (slight) fattiness of the pork ribs very well, and made for an excellent pairing overall.
Other thoughts Wow! Soft opening! We saw the owner hand beers to and hug a couple of of different people they knew throughout the night, and though they still have some kinx to iron out, it really did feel like we were experiencing the start of something special, for friends and family and random guys off the street who googled the number of the massage parlour next door.
I saw one such random guy eat a very tasty looking pho so that will be on my mind next time.
Saigon Things 28/45-47 The Boulevarde, Strathfield NSW 2135
In March 2024 we looked a few times at a little terrace in Waterloo, recently renovated, that had exchanged hands 3 times (now 4) in the previous 6 years, mostly in circumstances of relationship breakdown (according to the medical student neighbour). It was nice but felt a bit cramped inside, and though its location was very transit-centric due to the upcoming Metro development, the area just didn’t feel as safe for a couple entering their thirties. This is the story of the meal that we ate afterwards.
The traditional fried sticky rice ($23.80) was quite good. I had never had anything like this before, which seems odd to me since I had thought that I had eaten most types of fried rice by my fourth decade in life. There was plenty of umami little shrimp and bits of sausage inside, and the stickiness helped it to achieve a crispy char on most of the rice. Actually delicious.
The sizzling bean curd beef brisket ($33.80) would’ve been good with some normal steamed white rice, rather than just the already-tasty fried sticky rice. It was a bit expensive in comparison to other restaurants, though the size and flavour was good. The beef came complete with a lot of tendon, and the texture of the meat was soft and juicy as well. I will note that the bean curd it came with was not what I had expected (I had thought it would be fried soft tofu), but ultimately did match well with the rest of the dish.
We ultimately ended up paying about $100,000 more on a place that was more or less just as crowded as the one we looked at. At least the nearby streets feel safer. It is what it is.
Nathan Road Hong Kong Cafe 832 Bourke St, Waterloo NSW 2017 (02) 9194 3770
I’ve been watching The Brothers Sun, part of a recent (and welcome) push by Netflix to get more Asian-American content on screen, and one of the jokes that they made early on was about a restaurant named the “#1 Seafood Restaurant,” which may or may not be the number 1 seafood restaurant of their local area. Named in a similar vein, Delicious Chinese Restaurant just happens to also be quite as delicious as it is advertised to be.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a combination bean curd hot pot (?$25) that I’ve not liked. It’s just one of the best things ever – so warm and comforting, always with such soft fried tofu and an assortment of meats and vegetables. This one was a bit heavier on the garlic than I’m used to, but still good overall. Good with rice.
The Hokkien Fried Rice was also very good. Great with combination bean curd hot pot once you’re done with the topping it comes with.
I think the salt and pepper pork chops were a bit more floury than they absolutely had to be, but they tasted good, and that’s what was important to my partner. I would’ve liked just a little bit less batter, but what can you do?
Overall a good option for a succulent sit down Chinese meal, in a formal restaurant that’s also fine catering to couples or solo diners, Chinese or otherwise. I think the next step for Chinese restaurant dominance would be to have actual photos on their menus.
