Last Sunday I was drifting through China Town looking for a late lunch and decided to give Nonya a try.
A eager waitress standing on the street was keen to show me a menu and usher me inside. However, once seated the service was much less obliging. The lunchtime trade was dying down and there were quite a lot of staff, but somehow I was Mr Invisible. It took me three attempts to flag someone down to take my order.
When I did order, the first dish I chose was the ngoh hiang. Parcels of five spice flavoured pork with chopped water chestnuts and a fried skin of crispy bean curd. The crispy bean curd and crunchy water chestnuts contrasted well with the tender pork mince. Definitely the better of my two choices, however, they were nothing standout. The small thimble of kap manis on the side was only enough for one of the ngoh hiang.
The less said about the char kway teow the better. It was missing the trademark smokiness from a hot work and sufficient prawns or Chinese sausage. I think I've cooked a better CKT following the recipe in my Poh's Kitchen cookbook. That should be deeply worrying for the kitchen.
P.S. The photos were taken on my phone, hence the dodgy quality!
Nonya by Ginger and Spice
Level 1, 1 Dixon St
China Town
Sydney
2000
WOW, I didn't know you could make yourself invisible ;-). Sometimes i can be invisible too although not good when in a restaurant as I've also discovered — especially when hungry. The colour of the char kway teow looks ok from what i can tell but the smokiness is most important plus the ingredients it should have. i'm assuming no clams in this version which Petaling actually include.
ReplyDeleteSimon - neither did I. Especially not without a Harry Potter style cloak. The colour of the CKT looked perfect, but the smokiness and clams were both missing.
ReplyDeleteI think when I was there one guy wanted us to be invisible. As in "aren't you finished yet and gone" invisible
ReplyDelete