Friendship Attics – strange name, great place for a special birthday

Steamed egg in tomato

Cantonese restaurants are everywhere in Sydney.  And the standard of most of them are pretty damn good.  So what is it that makes one more of a favourite for me than others ?

My dad recently turned 70, and my mum organised a surprise birthday bash with 70 of his oldest and closest friends.  And she organised it at Friendship Attics.  From Singapore, I was left wondering what on earth is Friendship Attics, and why there ? When I got to Sydney that week and we went to recee the place, so we knew how to set up etc, I found out why.

1) It’s not an enormous restaurant that can seat 700 guests.  It comfortably fit all of my dad’s friends and we got to book out the entire restaurant, keeping it cosy and intimate.

2) The staff were so helpful and so friendly and truly made having the event there a breeze

3) The food !  Typical Cantonese fare, but mum selected the menu and boy did she choose well.

First course of cold cuts

We started with the traditional banquet first course of a selection of cold starters: jellyfish, various cold cuts of pork and of course, crispy suckling pig.

broccoli with crab meat

The rest of the meal just seemed to be endless dish after dish, but the standouts for me were the lobster with ginger and shallots, the green green broccoli with crab meat (made eating greens a breeze), fish cooked two ways (deep fried head and tail with stir fried fillets, and steamed egg in tomato.  Sounds weird, looks weird, tastes terrific.

Of course there was “longevity noodles” – long strands of ee-fu noodles which are meant to signify long life.

Friendship Attics’ location is close enough to Darling Park on Sussex Street that there is no real need to make the trek to Chinatown to fight for carspace or the crowds to get a great yum cha as well.

Friendship Attics Chinese Restaurant
321 Sussex Street, Sydney
Tel: 9261 2177

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A very short trip to Hong Kong

Crispy skin chicken

My mum, sister and I have been planning a girls weekend together for a while now.  With them living in Sydney and me in Singapore it was always going to be a bit of a challenge but a random opportunity meant that it managed to happen much sooner than we thought.  Destination: Hong Kong.

In between the manic shopping, being in Hong Kong, of course, we ate.

I grew up with Cantonese food in Sydney – it being the predominant Asian cuisine before Thai, Malaysia, Beijing and Shanghainese restaurants started to spring up around ten years ago.

In Singapore, Cantonese cuisine is either very good and high-end, or average and cheap.  I miss the rowdiness at the likes of East Ocean or Golden Century in Sydney where it’s casual and the food top-notch.  Here good Cantonese food (including yum cha) is ordered from the menu rather than just going in and ordering what you like or what is recommended.  It’s just so…formal.  Maybe that’s actually a good thing, but old habits die hard for me.

Problem is, with only 2 1/2 days, it’s hard to visit all the places you want to, with popular restaurants fully booked days ahead, and the appeal of somewhere local where we can refuel before heading back out to the dizzying array of shops was sometimes too great to travel far (or at all).

Won ton noodles “kon loh”

We ate “kon loh” wonton noodles, where the noodles are thinner than you can get here in Singapore and cooked perfectly al dente, simply served with some oyster sauce and the most tender kailan, accompanied with a delicious soup with soft pillowy wontons, topped with fried onions and fresh shallots.

Other typically Cantonese cafe food was one which I used to eat regularly for lunch with my friends back in Sydney.  It’s a calorie-buster – and takes a while to make – fried rice, topped with a deep fried pork chop, covered in a tomato-based sauce with fresh tomatoes, then baked.  I don’t know why it works so much better than ordering a plate of fried rice served with sweet and sour-like pork but when that casserole dish turned up, a big smile was on my face, not just happy that I was going to eat something yummy, but the fond memories of the three girls I used to eat this dish with.

Both of these were at a very busy, popular-with-the-locals, typical Hong Kong cafe in Causeway Bay – Tsui Wah.  Be prepared to wait a while for a free table during peak times, but it’s worth it.

Tsui Wah Restaurant
G/F, 493-495 Jaffe Road, Causeway Bay

Steamed whole garoupa with soya sauce

For dinner we went  just across the road from our hotel, on the 12th floor of the World Trade Centre, at the Dragon King Restaurant.  The evening we went we were treated to a less-hazy day, so we had a spectacular view of Kowloon (specifically Tsim Tsa Tsui) from our window seat.  We had wanted to go to Tsui Hang Village Restaurant for roast meats, but they were fully booked the entire time we were in Hong Kong.  Dragon King luckily still managed to hit the spot nicely.  Unfortunately we did go slightly later – 8.30pm – and the suckling pig AND the roasted pork had both sold out.  We ended up ordering crispy skin chicken – something we probably haven’t eaten in years, bean sprouts with egg and dried compoy, and steamed whole garoupa with soya sauce, a classic dish.

All three dishes were perfectly executed – not overly seasoned, MSG-free, the chicken skin crispy while the meat was moist, and the fish fresh and firm.  We even got chatting to the maitre-D who very kindly offered us a course of double-boiled soup to start the meal, and a jelly-dessert to end the meal.  All this surrounded by Cantonese families all having their Sunday dinners.  It’s not fancy for them – I guess because space is such a luxury in Hong Kong, small apartments mean that once a week the family get together to eat in restaurants.  So the vibe is friendly and happy with a good amount of chatter in the background.

Dragon King Restaurant
12/F, World Trade Center, 280 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay
Tel: 2895 2288

Espresso custard tart from Lord Stow’s bakery

As Hong Kong is a bit of a late starter, we were often up and ready before anything was open.  Luckily for us, on the ground floor of our hotel was cafe EXpresso, that is the exclusive distributor for Lord Stow’s patisseries in Hong Kong.  You can read the history of his bakeries in Asia from the link.  Delicious classics like croissants and portuguese custard tarts were enjoyed on the first morning, and the next we went for wholemeal croissant and the best best best one, espresso custard tarts.  The custard not too sweet with a strong punchy coffee flavour and the tart pastry didn’t completely fall apart and crumble like a butter pastry.  It had layers with substance yet managed to be light as air.  The wholemeal croissant tasted surprisingly almost just like a normal croissant – delicious.

EXpresso Cafe
The Excelsior Hotel
281 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

All in all, the trip managed to satisfy most of my Cantonese food cravings, although I am looking forward to yum cha with friends on Sunday and on a mission to get some good three layer roast pork.  Any good recommendations in Singapore ?

The night we ate ourselves stupid at Jing

On a Monday night, no less ! Be warned that the banquet at Jing comes with enormous portions which left us gasping for breath at the end of the meal. A lot of the meal went wasted, actually. And the food was, well, not GREAT. Good, just not great. Which was a little disappointing, but tells me to stick to the greats like Crystal Jade or Peach Blossom for good Cantonese food.

First dish was what seemed like crumbed and fried foie gras, steamed oyster, wasabi prawn (which I think was the winner) and crab with caviar.  This was followed by an extremely heavy hot and sour soup, followed by an absolutely enormous fried fillet of fish which was actually deliciously light, just huge.  That was followed by smaller (by request) portions of the pepper beef, and then lobster noodle and then dessert.  I think I am still digesting my dinner from last night !