A Sydney food blog celebrating the world's great culinary underbelly. We are ham-fisted enthusiasts who dig traditional foods, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and international supermarkets of mystery.
28 August 2010
Silk Road Halal Chinese Restaurant ~ Chinatown
We take a punt on Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant on Thomas Street Chinatown, it's a winner.
[CLOSED - OCTOBER 2012 -Sniff, sniff]
Sydney's Chinatown is a fun place to be on a Friday night, the markets on Dixon Street are packed and the queue at Mamak stretches all the way to Kuala Lumpur. Once again Miss Chicken and I have two beers too many at the Covent Garden Hotel, Sydney's finest people watching pub, and our restaurant of choice is closed by the time we arrive. We wander around and find Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant is still open. Joy.
Cucumber salad. Around $7, lightly spiced and deliciously different. We are starting to think that a cucumber salad is essential with any Northern style Chinese feed, it perfectly cuts lard and stodge.
Shredded Blackbean Slice with Beef Pancake $13.80. Beef in black bean sauce with shredded shallots...
...with diy wrap-up in pancakes. It's delicious but why do they never give you enough pancakes in these joints? There's six pancakes but enough filling for twelve. It's a tough life eh?
Fried Kidney Beans (Spicy) $8.50. This dish was outstanding. Superbly cooked with fresh smokey wok flavours, roasted chili and big hunks of garlic to keep the vampires away. It was quite salty but my god it works.
Chinese Egg Soup $6. Miss Chicken ordered this out of curiosity and it blew our fragile little minds, this is a new favourite. It was like a plain, savoury egg custard in a light sauce with flavours of dark soy. It may sound unusual but the taste and texture was sublime. We imagine this is somebody's favourite comfort food.
BACK AGAIN IN JANUARY 2011
We sidestep the enforced merriment of new year's eve with a walk into Chinatown and a feed at the wonderful Silk Road Halal Chinese Restaurant.
New years eve is a fine night for dining. We expected restaurants to be packed but we barely pass a soul as we walk from Newtown to Chinatown. Most restaurants are near empty, some are shut. Silk Road in Chinatown is open and busy and it seems like the perfect time to try a dish I've been eyeing off for months...
Stewed Beef with Nang Bread - $22. Slow cooked meat (we thought it was mutton but the menu says beef) on top of round flat, thick-ish bread. The sauce has a Malaysian curry tang to it and is delicious soaked into the thick bread. The meat falls off the bone and must have been cooked for hours. The dish probably originates from a way to use up old bread. No rice required with this stodge\protein fest on your table. Very happy.
Cucumber, tomato and capsicum salad - around $7, counters the stodge of the stewed beef with nang bread. We order this or just plain cucumber every visit.
Fried kidney beans $8.50 - another favourite, perfectly cooked, smokey, with a mild chili hit, quite a salty dish by design. The large hunks of garlic are perfect vampire repellent.
BACK AGAIN IN SEPTEMBER 2012
We drop in for a quick feed on a quiet Tuesday night.
Condiment set...
We order Fragrant Lamb Chop with Nang ($16.50) because it has a funny name. Little sections of lamb rib coated in cumin with capsicum and fried bread. The fried bread pieces are crisp and crunchy and could be mistaken for potato wedges. Highly recommended.
The lamb must be slow cooked because it falls off the bone.
Fried noodles in homely sauce ($10) with egg (or chicken, beef, lamb, veggie or leek) is chosen also for it's slightly wacky name. The 'homely' sauces tastes of vinegar and and garlic, it's light and fairly subtle, letting the lovely, chewy handmade noodles speak for themselves. Highly recommended. The noodles and the lamb dish above are an excellent two-dish combo.
Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant is at 2/203 Thomas Street Chinatown, open till late. It's a great late option if the food courts have closed. See our other visit and full menu here.
This is probably my favourite Chinese restaurant in town at the moment, everything we have eaten here has been top notch, and there's a lots more dishes we have never seen and are busting to try. Double yum.
Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant Menu - click to enlarge.
Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant Menu - click to enlarge.
Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant Menu - click to enlarge.
Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant Menu - click to enlarge.
Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant Menu - click to enlarge.
Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant Menu - click to enlarge.
Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant Menu - click to enlarge.
Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant is at 2/203 Thomas Street Chinatown, open till late.
5 comments:
Thanks for your comment joy - please keep your musings happy - if you want to complain about a restaurant please do it on a restaurant review site (or your own blog) - we're all about celebrating cultural diversity and the great eats that come along with it :-)
Our ethics: We pay for all our own meals and travel (though sometimes Mum shouts us).
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Yeah I quite like this place and now I have another reason to rush back. That Chinese egg soup! Looks damn fine
ReplyDeleteThe pancake shortage seems to be a common affliction with Asian restaurants. Steamed egg custard is always a winner - something about the silky texture and subtle flavour that feels like a hug on the inside :)
ReplyDeletedo they have crispy roast duck with plum sauce? i can't seem to find anywhere that does it halal
ReplyDeleteHowdy, I can't be sure but I don't remember seeing it - you can have a look through the menu included on this post. I haven't seen a halal crispy duck anywhere, I'll keep an eye out :-)
ReplyDeletehum the chinese egg soup sounds interesting... can't quite get my head around it but may just try it to see what you mean
ReplyDelete