Saturday, 4 October 2014

Kampong Boy - Hurstville - Sydney, Australia

Kampong Boy



A Malaysian restaurant in the south of Sydney is a rare find as there aren't many around the area. Three years ago, when I found out that there was a Malaysian restaurant in Hurstville, I really wanted to go and try out the food. However, this has been delayed for years as we never found the opportunity to go. That was until I had a major craving for Hainan chicken rice a few weeks back. You would think I would be over eating chicken rice after consuming it numerous times in Singapore and once in Vietnam, but this hasn't been the case. If something is delicious, I can eat it very often.

Kampong Boy, a Malaysian restaurant located on the quieter end of Forest Road in Hurstville has been open for a number of years. The food must be decent for it to be open till now. I didn't set my expectations high as there isn't much to compare it against in the area.



On a Thursday night, there is a steady flow of customers, though not near full capacity as there are many tables unoccupied. The modern interior looks to have been recently renovated with wooden tables and traditional Malaysian style decorations around the dining room. There is a see through glass partition at the front of the restaurant where they do the grilling.



The menu offers a number of authentic Malaysian dishes such as Bak Kut Teh, Nasi Lemak, Hainan chicken rice etc. The menu looks to have been updated in recent times as it's different to what I've seen online and accordingly the prices have slightly increased too. We decide to stick with the safer options, items which we have tried before at other places.


The 'Nasi Goreng (($12.80)' is the Malaysian version of the fried rice topped with a fried egg. It contains sambal which gives it a spicy kick and unusual ingredients such as anchovies, which are not in the usual fried rice. It was cooked well and wasn't oily like the other dishes that followed.



The 'Fried Kway Teo ($13.80)' was made up of a combination of flat noodles, bean sprouts, prawns, fish cakes, egg and chives, which was unfortunately a letdown. It lacked the wok hei, tasted dry due to the lack of sauce and overall lacked flavour.





The dish that I anticipated and wanted to eat most was the 'Hainan Chicken Rice ($12.80)'. On the plate, everything was nicely presented and it was served with a chilli and dark soy dipping sauce. Even though they gave my favourite part of the chicken, the drumstick, it didn't make a difference as it was plain and dry. Unfortunately, the chicken rice was gluggy and soft. I probably wouldn't order this here again as it wasn't very good.


The 'Chicken Curry ($15.80)' was surprisingly a winner. It was spicy, well cooked and packed with a whole lot of flavour. As you can see from the layer of oil on top, it's extremely oily but what lies beneath is delicious. A very simple curry with chicken and potatoes but it sure won me over.




'Roti ($3.00)' is made fresh in house but I wasn't watching so whether it was made fresh on the day is not guaranteed. Crispy and flaky like how a roti should be but it was once again very oily and together with the oily curry, it didn't go very well together.



'Satay Sticks - 12 Sticks - Beef and Chicken ($16.00)' is grilled perfectly leaving a nice charcoal caramelised exterior, but leaning more towards the sweeter side in terms of taste. Together with a rich peanut sauce, it was delicious, but they could have been more generous with pieces of cucumber and red onion on the side.

Overall, half of what we ate was decent but half of the dishes weren't very good. I'm thankful that there is a Malaysian restaurant in the area that serves authentic food at reasonable prices but unfortunately my craving for Hainanese chicken rice wasn't satisfied. I would come again to try some other dishes but the food was mediocre on the day we went.

Where?
370 Forest Rd
Hurstville NSW 2220
Australia

Phone no: 02 8094 8409

Opening Hours
Tuesday to Friday
Lunch: 11:30am to 2:30pm
Dinner: 5:30pm  to 9:30pm
Saturday to Sunday
Lunch: 11:30am to 4:30pm
Dinner: 5:30pm to 9:30pm

Website
NA

KampongBoy on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Heng Heng Hainanese Chicken Rice - Chinatown - Singapore, Singapore

Heng Heng Hainanese Chicken Rice


This will be a much shorter post compared to 'Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice' as I've used up a lot of what I was going to say about Hainanese chicken rice in that post.

Heng Heng Hainanese Chicken Rice is very much similar to Tian Tian in terms of store appearance, food offerings and location. It has the same dark blue lit sign, serves Hainanese chicken rice and is located in Maxwell Food Centre. The only difference is there is no queue. Every tourist seems to have one thought in mind and that is to go to Tian Tian. Local Singaporeans seem to have a favourite and they tend to go to the same one as well. For this reason, it's not very busy.

On that particular day, I didn't feel like lining up, but felt like eating chicken rice. The queue for Tian Tian was going out through the door and this would have easily been a hour wait. There are a few places that offer chicken rice in Maxwell Road  Food Centre and the one that stuck out was Heng Heng. The chickens on display looked large, plump and juicy. It was literally calling my name.


This simple dish has become a staple in the Singaporean diet. I wouldn't mind eating it every week either if I had the chance to. As I had the chance to eat it again in Singapore, I immediately jumped at that opportunity, given the limited days we had there. To most, Hainanese chicken rice is served with steamed chicken. However, there is also the roast chicken option. I've never tried the roast version in Singapore so I thought I would give it a try.


This time I requested for the drumstick part and yay, they had it. 'Drumstick Roast Chicken Rice (SGD 3.50)' is nicely chopped and the meat is wonderfully succulent and tender. The Hainanese roast chicken is different to the usual supermarket roast chickens. It's less salty and is pleasing to eat as the layer of fat between the skin and meat has been cooked off. The generous mound of rice is cooked with an aromatic and fragrant taste.


Here they also provide the complimentary house chicken soup. The chicken soup isn't just your mediocre and diluted soup, but it's intense and rich in flavour.

Three sauces are on offer including the mandatory chilli sauce, ginger sauce and dark soya sauce. The make or fail of the chicken rice dish is the chilli sauce. The one here is good but it's not as good as Tian Tian as it seems to be lacking something but I don't know what. Although it's spicy, zesty and goes well with the roast chicken.

At SGD 3.00, it's a steal and you're getting the real deal. Couldn't find any faults and I will be sure to visit again next time. I was too quick to order and didn't notice the set meal that was available for SGD 4.50. If you like vegetables, this may be an option.

Overall the chicken rice at Heng Heng is delicious and do give it a visit if you're in Singapore. It's hard to compare the chicken to Tian Tian, as I had roast instead of the steamed. I'm such a human of habit as I tend to visit the same places over and over again, so that will be one of my goals next time, to try out more places. I hear Maxwell Hainanese Chicken Rice is pretty good as well.


A 'Coconut' to cool myself down in the heat. Unfortunately, it has matured and isn't sweet. Though, it contains heaps of juice.

Where?
Stall 44, Maxwell Road Hawker Centre
1 Kadayanallur Street
Singapore 069184
Singapore

Opening Hours
NA

Website
NA