Dinner @ Billy Kwong

After catching a glimpse of Kylie Kwong at Greenhouse by Joost on the preview of the Masterchef episode to be aired tonight, I thought it was about time I posted some of the pictures from my last dinner* at her two hatted restaurant Billy Kwong. 

For all you Kylie Kwong fans out there, Organic Expo & Green Show has a signed copy of Kylie's latest book 'It Tastes Better' up for grabs. Entries close on June 30th so click, click, click away and get those entries in! Luckily for you, I already have a copy or I'd be keeping this one all to myself! :)

  

My friends and I are lucky enough to get a table at 6:30pm on a Wednesday night without the infamous wait. Complimentary homemade Chinese pickles are sent out while we peruse the menu. The banquet is recommended and we advise the waitress what our must-have dishes are so they can be incorporated into the super special menu prepared by Head Chef, Mat Lindsay.

Freshly shucked oysters steamed with ginger and shallots are delicately scented with sesame and coriander. Gently steamed, the oysters are provided with a little more substance and texture.

Sashimi of ocean trout and hiramasa kingfish are coupled with thin slivers of raw cucumber, pickled celery, radish sprouts and a redolent dashi-based dressing. The dish has changed over the years but this version is no doubt my absolute favourite. The flavours meld and diverge with every mouthful. It's fresh, fragrant, peppery, crisp and just a tad acidic to counter the luxuriously fatty ocean trout flesh.

Mat's garlic chive dumplings are a playful rendition of prawn har gow. The steamed dumplings are filled with nothing but Australian-caught prawns and they're incredibly sweet. The translucent wrappers are a light green from chlorophyll captured by steeping garlic chives.

Rice noodles filled with biodynamic beef brisket and black bean sauce is one of my favourite dishes. Beef brisket is braised for hours and caramelised with shiitake mushrooms, before filling sheets of rice noodles. Each rice noodle roll is shallow-fried in the wok to give it the beautifully crisp exterior to contrast with the soft and robust filling. Black beans give the sauce a good kick in the pants while the celery sprouts scattered over the top pair inextricably well with the beef and meaty mushrooms.

Steamed pancakes with Saskia Beer's black Berkshire pig isn't available today and I curse silently but Mat supplies us with something just as good, if not better - pancakes with roast duck, cucumber, shallot and spicy sesame seeds; and a salad of duck, fresh figs and celery.

Fried biodynamic eggs with tamari and homemade XO sauce was the standout dish during my last visit and they're just as I remembered. Warm and runny yolks nestled among crisp and feathery whites, all doused with a generous helping of sweet and meaty XO, sliced chillies, tamari and shallots. I don't usually eat much chilli but I'll always concede for these irresistible fried eggs.

Steamed bass groper with ginger and shallots, silken tofu with roasted tomatoes and dashi, steamed choy sum with organic tamari, and crispy Sichuan-peppered duck with blood plum sauce are followed by a platter of organic pineapple, passionfruit and a small saucer of dark Fairtrade chocolate.

I'm absolutely stuffed. I'm amazed that we're still able to stand up and my jeans aren't bursting at the seams.

Other recommendations: pork sung choi bao, white-cooked chicken, stir-fried South Australian vongole, steamed whole snapper, dry-fried green beans with miso and sesame.

* These comments are in no way biased ..I may have spent two years working for Kylie Kwong who also happens to be the most awesome boss in the whole world but that has absolutely no influence on my opinion of the food in any way whatsoever.

Billy Kwong
Shop 3, 355 Crown Street
Surry Hills, NSW

Australia 2010
ph: (02) 9332 3300

Winter in suburbia

There are only four days remaining before my very first semester at uni is officially over. These last few months seem to have surged by at an unimaginable speed. My old life ended just yesterday but already it's almost incomprehensible to envision returning to the past.

For a short while I considered picking up work during the semester break or volunteering at a permaculture institute somewhere far away (Patagonia perhaps?) but heck.. I like being able to sleep in on weekdays and maybe I might actually be able to fix my bike and get through the pile of books that I've amassed on food security, vermiculture, manure and biodynamic principles.

An edible garden is such a beautiful thing. What was once an unassuming corner of the front yard has become an invaluable place to wander through when work becomes overwhelming, when I need to refocus, take my mind off all of the many things require urgent attention or are ridiculously stressful ..like cramming 32 chapters of biology for my final exam on Tuesday morning, or trying to forget that I almost died when an old bat tried to run me over at a pedestrian crossing in full daylight. 

There is an immense satisfaction in knowing that my hands have created something that will provide endless pleasure from the ingredients that can be plucked at a whim only a few steps from the front door. Even in the dead of winter there are herbs flowing from every crevice, rhubarb sending out crimson red stalks, chillies so heavily laden that their lanky limbs are almost pressed to the ground, and a myriad of insects that are just waiting to be poked and prodded with mild bemusement.

I invited some new additions into the garden this month - sour morello cherry, gooseberry, marionberry and blueberry. They're not giving away any clues as to how they're doing (I suppose they've all hit their dormant state). Around them, garlic cloves are shooting, elderflower buds are bursting, basil flowers are setting seed, purple cabbages are growing at a snail's pace, giant yukomo snow peas are attempting to topple their bamboo trellis and a single spud is hopefully making its way to my letterbox all the way from Melbourne.

Milkwood Permaculture will be running a mushroom growing workshop later this month at Alexandria Park Community Centre which I'm looking forward to. I can't wait actually. I love mushrooms grilled with garlic butter and herbs or combined with snails and puff pastry in an escargot en croute. Learning how to grow exotic mushrooms at home under the bed will be another awesome project to attempt once this final exam is over and done with.

Hmm who knows.. Maybe all this crap I'm learning about dikaryotic mycelium and pilobolus sporangia will actually come in handy...