Kylie Kwong’s restaurant was located in Surry Hills during this visit, nestled in near big names like Bill’s, and Marque. It has since relocated to Potts Point, a place I’m yet to visit in my numerous adventures. Her focus is on native cooking with an Asian twist, and has featured insects in her food. I really like the philosophy, and paid a visit the restaurant. I’ve done no research on the new location, however the old one was walk-ins only, which was good for me since I’m the kind of person who likes to be able to walk in at the spur of a moment.
First up, lightly steamed oysters. They were very tender, and I love the herbs and sauce that accompanied this. Unfortunately I don’t have any archived text records for this restaurant for some weird reason, so this post may be rather vague.
Ocean trout siu mai. Personally I like traditional pork siu mai better, but these were quite nice – with the trout just cooked. The flavour was delicate rather than heavy.
Pork belly with lemon and honeycomb with bush tomato. This dish was so delicious and stood out for me – I loved the honeycomb on top and gave the pork a delicious sweetness that perfectly balanced out the saltiness of the sauce, with a splash of lemon bringing the dish together. The honeycomb made such an impression on me that I then went on to make my own honey soy proteins topped with honeycomb!
Orange spiced duck with quandong – one of their signature dishes, and has some great looking garnish over blackened duck skin. Though duck is one of my favourite birds, it was the pork dish that stood out for me more, though my brother liked this one better.
Silken tofu topped with some fascinating, weave like sheets of what I remember to be kombu. It was a crazy looking dish, but that tofu was so soft and tasty! Do the grooves on the tofu remind you of something you get out of the plastic containers at Asian supermarkets? I’m very glad I ordered this dish.
And for dessert, poached pear with some heavy cream based side, and almond praline. This single dish was shared between four of us, which was good as it was actually quite rich and heavy.
We also ordered some fried wild greens – which were natives such as saltbush and warrigal greens, which was something I was quite happy to eat. This was certainly an interesting food experience as it was my first proper taste of some native food! It’s worth checking out if you’re interested in native Australian ingredients and an open mind for sustainable food – there’s a chance that insects will also be on the menu!