Eel is not eww

Time for me to be a little evangelical here - please people, eat more eel. It is hugely in abundance (even in the River Thames!), it is delicious, and I'm led to believe it is very good for you. People complain they are ugly, but most fish are ugly!!

Second foodie trip in the 'burbs of Sydney was at Hoong Cheong in Punchbowl - the only Chinese in a strip dominated by Lebanese foodshops and restaurants, and immediately you know it's the kind of place that Chinese families congregate not really caring about service. The speciality here is seafood, in particular eel.

We had two contrasting ways with eel - first off, eel in a salt and pepper and chilli batter. A thousand times yummier than salt and pepper squid (zzzz!), and very good here - very light batter, not at all greasy, and most miraculously, manages to maintain its crispness even when cold (instead of descending into a greasy, soggy mess):


God bless whoever it was who boned it all out!

Eel number two was more interesting, and to my taste, even better. This one was steamed with a garlic and dried mandarin peel - really brought out the sweetness in the fish (and you can see how ridiculously big the portions are too):

We supplemented this with more fish. I love tofu, and living on my own rarely get the chance to gorge out on it, so we had tofu with 石斑 (grouper fish):

Accompanied by 四季豆 (four season beans) with fermented beancurd, what a perfectly yummy meal. Such a shame it is so far out of the city, would love to return before I leave Sydney...