Categories
Chinese

Hong Kong Street Food – Rhodes NSW Restaurant Review

I almost didn’t go to Hong Kong Street Food after watching a negative review video from some online influencer. The Tiktok/Instagram people are notorious for singing the praises of literally any place in the hopes of getting a free meal, so I had erroneously assumed that any kind negative review would mean that the place would be truly very bad. Of course I didn’t take into account what kind of a review a place would garner if they refused to pay up.

I am indebted to my partner’s mother for making us give this Rhodes Central (to contrast to the similarly named restaurant around the corner) cha chaan teng a shot.

This is a milk tea ($4.50), strained probably over multiple runs through a silk stocking and mixed with evaporated milk from the Dutch. Ah, colonisation. Had by my partner’s mum and hence not me. Part of a set with food, so a bit cheaper than the listed price, but about $2-3 more than just the food dish by itself. Poured out onto the saucer, quickly replaced with an apology. Apparently it was not bad, but not memorable.

This ice bear lemon tea commands a $2 premium on top of the set meal, or $6.50 if purchased separately. It was fine. It was more than I would want to pay for it individually, but was more palatable as part of the meal deal. The novelty of a melting bear didn’t do anything in particular for me.

Alright here we go. The meat of the review. The stewed beef brisket with radish ($9.80) is a side dish that comes as a topping on some of the cart noodles, but not the right ones. They were pretty good, with a mixture of fatty and tendinous pieces as well as lean pieces. A good variety that allowed each diner to have what we wanted. I’m a lean beef brisket fan.

The four treasures Hong Kong cart noodles ($21.90 in a set with a drink and not available separately) was pretty good. It was a choice between this, with its chicken wings, salt and pepper pork chops (the best part), curry fish balls, and beef stomach, or the alternative Supreme Hong Kong cart noodles, with radish, beef brisket, red sausages and luncheon meat. I chose the four treasures, mainly because I was keen on some of that beef stomach, and because we could get the radish and brisket as a side. I’m also not such a fan of luncheon meat. Despite enjoying this dish, it did pale in comparison to the cart noodles at Hong Kong Bing Sutt in Burwood, which were seriously special.

The baked rice with black pepper chicken steak and cod fillets in creamy corn sauce ($21.90 in a set but also not available individually, even though a bunch of other baked rices are) was really good. I think anything with this amount of cream and cheese and meat and sodium and carb is going to taste good, but damn, delicious. Both the chicken and cod were good, and the fact that it was like a half half pizza was great for the decision-impaired. So creamy. So good.

OTHER THOUGHTS
The decor, with neon lights and sections representing hawker carts and the HK MTR was a nice touch. I thought it was a bit weird that there were ads posted up for real estate in Hong Kong, but guess it makes sense that if Australian real estate is being advertised in China, that Chinese real estate is being advertised in Australia too. Don’t @ me.

Hong Kong Street Food Rhodes
Shop 204/14 Walker St (Rhodes Central), Rhodes NSW 2138
0433 836 628

Categories
Café Chinese

Hong Kong Bing Sutt – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

I watched Lucas Sin’s cha chaan teng video for VICE at least three times over the last few months of lockdown here in Sydney, and have had a hankering for some Hong Kong Cafe style food ever since. Luckily the Instagram algorithm saw it fit to serve me photos of Hong Kong Bing Sutt’s delicious looking beef noodle soup over the same period of time, and while I was unable to order takeaway via the app (as I am illiterate) I took myself and my Cantonese-speaking girlfriend over there the first chance I could.

Hong Kong Bing Sutt’s milk tea ($5.30) is extremely rich and dark, likely owing to the traditional method of brewing Hong Kong milk tea which undergoes multiple prolonged steeps through a silk stocking filter to ensure deep extraction. While this is only imagined (the brewing of the tea was not witnessed by me), the rich and smooth flavour of the tea was directly confirmed. While the hot version served at the restaurant comes unsweetened with some sugar on the side, HKBS also sells bottled versions of its chilled pre-sweetened milk tea for $7 a bottle, which are also pretty good, if pricey.

The Mixed Beef Noodle ($15.80) was what drew me in initially, and was actually pretty great in reality. It comes default with thin egg noodles, stewed beef brisket, beef tripe, beef tendon, and beef tendon balls, though many of these elements can be customised to taste. The beef brisket was represented by both fatty and less fatty pieces, all of which were rich tasting and cooked to an extreme degree of tenderness. There was no skimping on any of the other components, including the deep soy marinated tendon and tripe, and even shared between the two of us we felt like we each had enough. The soup was flavoured with chu hou paste, which is a traditional sauce for Cantonese style beef brisket, and nice and warming. The noodles were not extraordinary, rather acting as a mere vehicle for the rest of the very good bowl.

I wasn’t such a huge fan of the BBQ Pork and Over Easy Eggs with Rice ($16.80), but my partner loved it. I felt that the big slabs of char siu were actually not as flavoured as I am used to, which was fine, but didn’t help to carry the bulk of the rice underneath as well as I would have liked. The over easy egg was very well done, extremely soft and runny in the centre. It was only at the bottom of the rice that we found some soy sauce. I think ultimately this was a dish that would have been more suited to being served in a claypot with a bit of thick soy sauce on top, and the bowl format just didn’t work as well.

This rice noodle roll was fine, but too vegetarian for me. The rice noodles themselves were soft and not too oily, coated in a sauce of sesame seeds, hoisin, and probably peanut butter. The sauce wasn’t overpowering, but I just like my chang fen with a bit of prawn or meat in it.

The scrambled eggs and beef satay sandwich was pretty yum. This, the rice noodle roll, and the hot signature milk tea came to a combo total of $13.80, which is pretty decent. The satay beef was good, as was the very light and soft scrambled eggs. The bread was mostly de-crusted, although some edges still had a bit of unfortunate crust.

SECOND VISIT

These are the chicken wings in house made Swiss sauce ($8.80). I’ve recently been trying to lower my carb intake, so sadly many of the items on the menu at HKBS were mildly off limits to me on my second visit. The Swiss sauce in this dish is similar to the Swiss made stamp on my Chinese-made “Rolex” “Submariner”. More of an abstract vibe than a statement of origin, Swiss sauces are a purely Chinese based invention, a mixture of sugar, dark soy sauce, and shaoxing cooking wine. Classically boiled and shocked in an ice bath, these wings exhibited a good tender texture with a firm skin, however I must admit that after a couple of wings the strong shaoxing cooking wine flavour put me off having any more.

The beef brisket with special curry sauce and rice ($14.80) was a really good value, large meal of a classic Hong Kong style curry, big chunks of beef brisket, and potato served alongside a ball of rice. I appreciated that the curry and rice were served separately, minimising mess and also the desire to eat all of the rice. The beef brisket was tasty, though in my opinion could have been cooked to a higher degree of tenderness. The flavour of the curry was good overall, with the sauce highly compatible with the supplied rice.

The crispy pork belly with red beancurd sauce ($13.80) was really quite nice. The exterior batter is extremely crispy and made with fermented red bean curd (jiang dou fu 酱豆腐), which imparts a slightly salty, slightly sweet, and quite funky taste to the pork, almost similar to marmite pork ribs. The meat encased in the super crispy batter was moist, tender and fatty pork which tasted great on first eating, especially with the red sauce that neither my partner nor I could pinpoint as sweet-and-sour or sweet-chilli. Unfortunately as with many deep fried dishes this dish was a victim of entropy, and as our meal progressed on the loss of heat to the environment dulled its shine.

VERDICT
Overall I enjoyed, though I think charging $7 for a small bottle of milk tea is a bit absurd.

Hong Kong Bing Sutt
Shop 8/11-15 Deane St, Burwood NSW
(02) 8387 1820

Categories
Chinese

Canton 煮意 – Eastwood NSW Restaurant Review

I have no recollection of the first and second times I ate at Canton in Eastwood (according to Google they were 12/12/2015 and 10/12/2016), but let me tell you about the third.

We ate at Canton, one of Eastwood’s two Hong Kong style cafes, following an off-day teaching session on intracranial pressure management. With a narrow facade but surprisingly deep interior, Canton’s fitout boasts clever acoustic design, with my colleague KSEL pointing out that background noise was at a very minor din despite the restaurant being at full capacity, facilitating easy conversation at our table.

The half roast duck ($18.80) was perfectly adequate, if tepid in temperature. The skin was pleasantly crispy, with well developed musculature of the bird providing meaty bites. I also enjoyed the non-standard dipping sauce, which paired well with the duck with its mild sweetness and tanginess. Despite these good qualities I wish that the duck had not been served at room temperature, as a little bit of warmth can go a long way in opening up flavours and diffusing aromas.

Canton’s roasted pork belly ($18.80) was pretty good, if unusually fatty. Similar to the duck, the skin of the pig had a good crispiness to it, with the rest of the meat and fat melting easily into the mouth. I liked that this pork belly was not too oversalted and therefore more suitable to eat without rice compared to Parramatta competitor Sun Ming. I just wish it weren’t so fatty (but understand it’s a give and take).

The Special Noodles with Soup ($14.80), optioned with braised beef brisket and curry fish balls was quite good. The beef brisket was tasty, soft and tender, and I appreciated the inclusion of tendon along with it. The fish balls seemed like they were just a touch above the usual supermarket freezer stuff, though I wonder if I’ve just been cheaping out at Tong Li. They even gave us five fish balls between the five of us, though I don’t know if this was by accident or by design. An overall good noodle dish which would make a nice solo lunch.

I’ve been craving Hong Kong style claypot rice ever since watching this Goldthread YouTube video, and this was my time to finally have some. We chose the Cantonese Hot Pot Rice with Cured Meat & Chinese Sausage ($16.80). Whilst the rice was good with its crispy edges, I unfortunately thought that the salty toppings and addition of the traditional soy sauce on top made this too salty a dish. I’d probably have this again with some different toppings (love me some lap cheong though), and less of the soy sauce on top.

The Baked Pork Chop with tomato sauce and rice ($16.80) was really good. A generous serving of pork chop, with lots of cheese and mild flavoured housemade tomato sauce. The last time I had Hong Kong style baked rice was back in 2015 in Box Hill, Victoria, and I think this was much better than that time.

I wasn’t a big fan of the curry-flavoured Moroccan Chicken Wings (5 for $7.30), but KSEL liked it so much he ordered it twice in one week.

VERDICT
There aren’t that many Hong Kong cafes out there, and I’m a big fan of this one. Can recommend a visit.

CANTON 煮意 Eastwood
127 Rowe St, Eastwood NSW 2122
(02) 9874 2226

Diners: JW, KSEL, ACHT, KS, MJC