Chinatown - every city saves a pocket of land for it. It's home to a mixture of tourist-luring…read moreshacks masquerading as restaurants and food joints that only the locals would eat at. Walking in Sydney's Chinatown strip, you are eternally pestered by human placards highlighting the best they have to offer. But venture a little further, and you'll find this little gem with no cajoling called Old Town Hong Kong Cuisine.
Looking around, you definitely know this isn't part of the old guard - you know what I'm talking about: pink covers, white tablecloths, red lanterns, cheap ornate statues, dank maroon carpet... For a place that's called "Old Town", it's refreshingly chic!
For a Chinese restaurant, this place has service that even rivals its higher-end cousins like Din Tai Fung and Chefs Gallery. The staff is friendly - our waitress today is a lovely grandma who happily seats us inside and hands us two menus. She speaks Cantonese to everyone that looks remotely Asian. Love it!
Among the surprisingly number of non-Hong Kong dishes, I unwittingly opted for the Curry Beef Brisket with Rice (A tasty Mecanese dish) and the Pan-Fried Pork Dumplings in Birds Nest (A northern Chinese specialty). What have I done?
When the Curry Beef Brisket with Rice came out, I was salivating. The aroma that emits from it proved to be intoxicating to the senses, with its mix of curry, beef, chicken skin and potatoes. My first bite transported me right back to Macau: the melt-in-your-mouth meat chunks offered beefy flavours that added a delicious sweetness that melded so well with the piquant of the curry powder and mysterious cocktail of herbs and spices. Blending into the curry is the chicken skin that's so soft you can literally swallow it. Slightly charred were the potatoes that tried to elude my ever-searching spoon offering a little bite to contrast the soft meats. This was heavenly!
Next up, Pan-Fried Pork Dumplings in Birds Nest: a chef recommendation with a picture looking like a pancake. The thin pancake layer with delicate bubbles sits atop hiding the morsels of dumplings underneath its fried canopy. One bite and I was hooked as the dumplings' pastry is doughy and at the right thickness while the meat inside is flavored just right. The fusion of meat and its outer casing is akin to marriage: 'til death do us part. But the fun doesn't stop there, that Birds Nest is for eating and adds an entertaining smoky crunch to the dumplings.
As I approach the end of my meal, I desperately wanted to eat more and make room in my stomach. But alas, it was not to be. When it came for me to pay the bill, I saw the satay chilli oil flakes that tempt me to come back for the yum cha (and I will). This is the kind of Chinese restaurant that every other Chinese restaurant in Sydney should aspire to be: cheerful, cheap, and satisfying like childhood memories of yore.
~ Jambon Cochon
