Good times collective #9

Age must be getting to me because I'm finding this winter really, unbearably cold. But it's a good excuse to indulge in those rich, wintry comfort dishes, not that I need a reason. Let the good times roll, and when that's done, bring on spring, please.

Goat curry from Tan Viet Noodle House, Rowe Street, Eastwood

While I go to Tan Viet Noodle House for the crispy skinned chicken, I enjoy dining with people who can order something different, like the goat curry stew.

It's quite a spicy curry with lots of small pieces of mostly tender, skin-on, bone-in goat. The spice cancels out any potential gaminess although there's quite a bit of fat to contend with. Fresh Vietnamese herbs and egg noodles at the bottom of the bowl complete the huge bowl of a main meal.

Mixed olives from The Lobby Bar, Castlereagh Street, Sydney

I've never encountered a more ludicrously generous serving of olives than at The Lobby Bar, hidden in a ground floor Castlereagh Street building lobby, near the new ANZ building that borders city south.

A mix of Sicilian and Ligurian in sizes ranging from large and meaty to tiny and mostly a pip, it was a struggle to finish the dish between three. I suppose we ended up staying for more than our intended single drink, so perhaps there's method in the madness.

Morrocan lamb burger with fries from Kingston & Co, Westfield Eastgardens, Pagewood

I used to be very well acquainted with Westfield Eastgardens but now, there are new shops and entire sections every time I go. The new-ish food concept on the outer Banks Street end of the shopping centre is in line with Westfield's 'new' approach to food courts, and includes Kingston & Co - an interesting café/restaurant chain proposition.

I skipped over the various steaks on offer for the Morrocan lamb burger: a huge construction of a white sesame seed bun with a well flavoured lamb mince pattie, grilled eggplant, lettuce, tomato and a cumin-spiked yoghurt sauce. Fall-apart messy, it made for a spot-hitting dinner with excellent fries on the side.

Khao mok gai from Samosorn Thai Food Hall, Sydney Central Plaza, Sydney

I find it hard to not order the khao mok gai turmeric chicken and rice when I'm at Samosorn. With both chicken thigh and rice cooked in turmeric and five spice, the flavour matches the vivid yellow hue of the tender, juicy chicken, which is pretty amazing with the not-too-hot green chilli and garlic sauce on the side.

Charcuterie board from The Duck Inn Pub, Rose Street, Chippendale

The Duck Inn Pub in Chippendale has to be one of the cosiest pubs around. Just perfect for winter warmers and drinks with mates, it's also ideal for a late night drop in for food.

The generous antipasti board has grilled vegetables and salami covered, as well as house-cured specialties, rillettes and even a Scotch egg. Served with toasted sourdough, it's a generous share board best had with mates and a glass or two of wine.

Chocolate crepes from Passionflower, Anzac Parade, Kingsford

Passionflower (in Haymarket) was one of the venues of my youth. Ice cream and its location were the drawcards, but now the decadence continues in Kingsford, catering to the local university student population.

Their sundaes and waffles are legendary, and so too the rich chocolate on chocolate on chocolate crepes, with chocolate ice cream and molten liquid chocolate on a chocolate crepe with chopped strawberries for freshness.

At least it's never too cold for ice cream.

A quick Vietnamese bite at Madame Nhu

The proliferation of small, casual eateries throughout inner city suburbs can only be a good thing. An alternative to full-blown meals (and matching bills), a quick and light dinner at Madame Nhu was just the thing after several drinks in Surry Hills recently.

Grilled lemongrass Vietnamese pork sausages at Madame Nhu, Campbell Street, Surry Hills

From the same people behind Xage restaurant on Crown Street, Madame Nhu occupies a small, tiered space on the corner of Campbell and Foster Streets, directly opposite Bar H.

Despite an extensive pho noodle soup offering, of which I'll have to try next time, we elected a few lighter options like the Vietnamese pork sausages from the snacks menu.

The skewered portions of the sweet, porky sausage highlighted with fragrant lemongrass flavours would make for a great bar snack, wrapped in leaves of butter lettuce and dipped into the sweet nuoc mam style sauce with chilli.

Fruit soda (left) and young coconut juice (right)

With a decent range of non-alcoholic beverages, we got on to two winners in the house made, super sweet passionfruit soda, served with ice in a jar and garnished with a mint sprig, and the young coconut juice with coconut flesh.

The latter was a sweetened drink but so delightfully true to coconut flavour otherwise, unlike most commercial brands of coconut water.

Silken tofu with Sichuan pepper salt and chilli

A main dish, the salt and pepper tofu featured cubes of the soy bean curd in a crisp, crumbed coating that didn't quite have enough seasoning to justify its name. The chilli and coriander garnishes were entirely necessary help, as too a dunk in the dipping sauce.

Grilled Hội An-style squid papaya salad, five-spice soy dressing

We had a salad as another main, featuring lightly grilled rings of squid atop a shredded green papaya salad. There were plenty of peanuts, bean sprouts and little dried shrimp tossed through the salad as well as a generous and tender addition of five-spice and soy dressed squid.

Madame Nhu doesn't mess about for a quick Vietnamese bite. There's a modern, if not Westernised, touch to the food and menu, but it is Surry Hills after all, and I think the more quick, easy and reliable places around here, the better.

Tan Viet Noodle House: The cult of crispy skin chicken

It's been named the best of its breed. It elicits drooling at the mere sight, sound and particularly smell. It inspires pilgrimages out west to Cabramatta. The signature crispy skin chicken at Tan Viet Noodle House is a dish of cult status, and deservedly so.

Crispy skin chicken with tomato rice at Tan Viet Noodle House, John Street, Cabramatta

We've hit Tan Viet Noodle House for a late lunch post shopping in the fun and curiosity-filled arcades off John Street. It seems the way to go actually, because there were no waiting queues and many free tables at 3.30pm in the colourful and surprisingly spacious restaurant.

The menu isn't overwhelmingly huge, but with the crispy skin chicken options laid out on the first page, there's barely a need to go further.

Crispy skin chicken with egg noodles in soup

The crispness of the glistening, burnished chicken skin is something that makes you smile – it's paper thin and cracks audibly on bite. Its taste is pure chicken skin, with the fat layers often found on chicken thighs completely rendered.

And meanwhile, the chicken flesh beneath the glorious skin remains moist and juicy, enhanced by a dunk into the nuoc mam chilli dipping sauce on the side, and for me, a touch of hot English mustard.

The egg noodle option includes a huge bowl of thin, yellow noodles in soup with wilted lettuce and shallots, served with a pile of raw bean sprouts and fresh herbs, with chilli and hoisin sauces as condiments.

Crispy skin chicken with tomato rice and pickles

I opt to have my crispy skin chicken maryland with orange-red-hued tomato rice, with the set also coming with refreshing pickled cabbage and carrot, and a bowl of clear soup.

Black herbal duck with egg noodles

There are options aside from the crisp skin chicken, if you can resist the allure of that skin. The dramatic black herbal duck is a particularly enticing menu item, also offered as an egg noodle option.

The duck maryland is poached with dried shiitake mushrooms and a heady array of Asian herbs and spices, with the distinct flavour of anise. Fall-apart soft and quite rich, the duck sits atop a stack of dry egg noodles with fresh coriander, while a dark herbal broth, that has to be good for you, is served alongside.

With hordes of diners worshipping at the cult of crispy skin chicken, this is one ritual pilgrimage I can happily incorporate into my life.

Gia Hoi: Vietnamese in the 'burbs

Sydney is blessed with suburbs like Cabramatta, Bankstown and Marrickville for Vietnamese food and restaurant options. But it's almost as if Vietnamese restaurants are the new Thai restaurants, popping up in all sorts of suburban streets in recent years.

Crispy skin chicken with tomato rice from Gia Hoi, Chapel Road, Bankstown

With the plethora of options in Bankstown, we relied on someone in the know to lead us to the garishly magenta-lit insides of Gia Hoi, just off the main road.

All the favourite Vietnamese dishes are here and I couldn't resist the crispy skin chicken, served with salad and a yellow-red hued tomato rice.

The rice wasn't spectacular but the insanely crisp shattering skin of the chicken, with moist, tender flesh beneath, made up for any rice regrets.

Grilled pork chop

Another easy choice is the grilled pork chop, which comes with a choice of noodle or rice sides. The slightly (and nicely) fatty pork is incredibly tender and full of hours of marinated flavour.

Noodles on the side

The dry noodles served with the pork chop were obscured by a range of generous toppings: fresh and fried shallots, bean sprouts, raw onion and more, with a sweet dipping sauce on the side.

Fillings for rice paper rolls

The most exciting dish this time round was the mixed platter of fillings that arrived with a bowl of water, for fresh rolled rice paper rolls.

Watching and learning, the round rice paper gets a light dip into the bowl of water before being laid on a plate and filled with vermicelli noodles, fresh vegetables and herbs and one of the protein fillings: spring rolls, sugarcane prawns, grilled pork and beef slices.

They're then delicately rolled up and consumed immediately with more dipping sauce. It's not the most simple of dishes but certainly easy to polish off a platter among three.

So here's a trend prediction: the continuing popularisation of Vietnamese cuisine, especially out in the 'burbs where casual eateries like Gia Hoi thrive by doing what they've always done.

Smells like... Asian food: Huong Huong

I normally steer clear of places that do all sorts of cuisines as I struggle to think how they can perfect one cuisine, let alone three. In Marrickville Huong Huong was doing a brisk lunch trade the Saturday I visited – in, it appears, its Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai cuisine offerings.

Inside Huong Huong, Marrickville Road, Marrickville

Having stumbled in from the outside humidity, I was getting even more flustered flipping through the pages of the menu of 400+ items, starting with a page of Thai options followed by the rest in protein and carbohydrate categories.

Iced lemon tea (left) and iced sweet coffee (right)

With drinks first, an iced sweet coffee and a lemon iced tea, I was looking for the Vietnamese section, which oddly didn’t really eventuate, though Vietnamese dishes dominated the noodles section.

It was too hot for pho, though I’m sure that’s not how the Vietnamese might see it, and the scarily large bowl size would be too much as it was supposed to be a light lunch.

Crispy skin chicken with tomato rice

Seeing a neighbouring table’s delightful meal, I followed suit and ordered the crispy skin chicken with tomato rice. It was a beautiful dish that arrived with a reddened and chopped chicken maryland showing obvious signs of crispness.

There was also an abundance of tomato rice, in a pile that covered the entire plate, and garnish of a tomato wedge, some cucumber slices and a leaf of iceberg lettuce.

Crispy chicken skin

The chicken skin was faultless, thin, crunchy and flavoursome, but the flesh was a little less tasty and desperately needed the dipping sauce to lift it. Once dipped, the perfectly cooked chicken reached a level of deliciousness that warranted picking up with fingers.

The tomato rice, while red, was a little less tomatoe-y than I’d expected, and a little on the oily side too. It made for a filling dish with the leftovers for the next day just as good.

Grilled pork salad

For the something light, the salads section proffered many delectable combinations, and the grilled pork version arrived looking fabulous, served with perfectly round prawn crackers.

The grilled pork was fairly lean and tender, while the mint leaves, Spanish onion and crunchy, shredded raw cabbage made for great partners in the salty, sweet and sour dressing topped with a tumble of crushed peanuts.

Prawn crackers that come with the salad

Though not a fan of raw onion, I had no problems with the Spanish onion here nor the plentiful chopped peanuts. I preferred eating the salad on its own then crunching into the crackers, rather than putting the salad on the cracker, for fear of soggy prawn crackers.

With leftovers to go as well, Huong Huong’s quick pan-Asian tour proved that perhaps three cuisines in one isn’t all that unusual after all.