Sydney small guns

One thing I shall miss about Sydney is the variety and quality of their hole in the wall establishments – unfortunately we are not quite so blessed in London, probably because we do Asian food all so badly. As usual, it has been Albert and Michelle who have been ferrying me around the city to eat, and special hugs for them for showing me the following 2 places.

The main reason Albert dragged me to Kingsford Chinese in Kingsford (affectionately known as KFC by A&M) was to experience what apparently is the best salt and pepper squid in Sydney - plus I was craving Cantonese and MSG in general anyway. It is located on a strip full of Chinese restaurants, so it was a good sign that there was an enormous queue outside.

First up was the most disappointing dish of all (and my fault it was ordered) – braised e-noodles. Done well, this might eek into my top 10 dishes of all time, but the version here was swimming in soup, with the noodles completely overcooked. Obviously there is a reason why every other table seems to order the same few dishes.


So the famous squid…on pure crispiness, this is probably the best squid I’ve eaten in Sydney, but I’m coming to realise that I’m more of a fan of the slightly soggy but meatier variety (something that Bodega in Surry Hills does excellently). The seasoning was also a bit off tonight, with Frank and I simultaneously complaining that it was too salty/not salty enough.

Another dish appearing on every table is the san tong chicken (山東雞), something I must say I don’t remember eating before. This was by far my highlight of the evening – and reinforces the fact that us Chinese just know how to cook chicken. The skin was super crisp to the point of being flakey, but the flesh soft and juicy. We were all being far too polite to avoid fighting over the bones to gnaw on. It comes with a vinegary sugary garlicky sauce, but I think it actually works better without.

Also ordered were beef tendon and brisket hot pot (Frank’s favourite – not bad at all, although it could’ve stayed on the hob another hour to soften the meat even more) and braised tofu. All this came to under $40 altogether for 4 very stuffed people – ridiculous prices! Would definitely go back for the chicken alone.

The second on my hole in the wall adventures with A&M was to Ryo’s in Crow’s Nest for Japanese ramen. We actually already had an aborted attempt the week before when we drove all the way to North Sydney only to discover it was closed, after which we ended up at On Ramen in Chinatown. The ramen wasn’t great here, but at least they served frankfurters – my first frankfurters in Sydney! Oh how I miss those little sausages.

But anyway, Michelle mentioned to me that she considered moving to North Sydney just to be near Ryo’s, and I get why - it’s one of those local neighbourhood places which are comforting, serving the most comforting food. I loved the presentation of the place – there is a big blackboard listing the “Top 5 Selling Ramen”, and the walls are studded origami paper. I had to try the top selling ramen of all – soy flavoured with roast pork, nori, egg, and spring onion:

This was deeply, deeply satisfying. The noodles were bouncy, the soup was thick (although a little salty for my taste), and I liked the fact that their toppings are quite sparing, making the noodles the real star of the dish. Unfortunately, Albert and Michelle both decided to be adventurous and go for unfamiliar things on the menu (a spicy ramen which was slightly swimming in oil, and a pork ramen in fish soup which developed an unappealing skin throughout the meal), so probably best to stick to the boring stuff here.

One thing we liked was their ramen eating competition! It is all in Japanese, and Michelle and I managed to piece it together with our bad Chinese. Taped to the walls are the ramen eating champions, who each won the $100 price for beating the last guy or girl at eating a record number of bowls of ramen. From what we figured out, the male record stood at 9 bowls, and the female at 6. Even with my greedy tummy though, I was stuffed after just the one.