China Kitchen

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Incendiary eats: Sliced basa fillet in hot chilli oil.

Photography by Mark Cranitch
The China Kitchen interior.

Fire up the senses in Toowong with a serve of heat that stays true to its heritage. Lizzie Loel reports.

Recent High Street changes in Toowong have seen mod-Oz bistro Blue Frog become the Ceylon Inn, one of several dotted around Brisbane, while the very popular Bamboo Shoot modern Chinese restaurant up the road has morphed into a serious new Szechuan temple that features rustic, authentic, regional dishes – and plenty of them.

The decor has also changed. Replacing the formal, highbacked, red wood chairs and panelled bar is a larger, more open space, painted ruby red with black furniture and upholstered couches that seat two pulled up to rectangular tables along one wall.

The restaurant was already half full when we arrived and the strain was showing on the one waitress.

At several tables, diners were hunched over what looked like a big salad bowl of hot oil – chilli oil, judging by the colour.

Owner Jack Li later told me that nearly every table orders it except ours. I was about to embark on a week’s stay at a health retreat the day following our visit, however, and something about a bucket bowl of oil seemed defeatist.

Not so the hot pot of seafood dotted with tofu swimming in a deliciously savoury broth. Carrots and broccoli surrounded the slices of fish; prawns and the odd scallop were piled into an earthenware pot along with the lovely, sweet-savoury soup.

Butterflied spicy quail was just that, laden with sauteed onion and chilli, a tad bony, but full-flavoured. It was the spicy chicken with chilli that packed the king hit, though. Tiny joints of chicken wings had been sauteed with a dizzying amount of Szechuan pepper and fried, dried, whole chillies.

Basically a dry stir-fry, this is the second-hottest dish I’ve ever tasted (the hottest being in a Szechuan restaurant in Hong Kong 10 years ago that still makes me hiccup when I think of it). I want to say I loved it but the truth is that after the third mouthful, I could have been eating the sole of my shoe – all sensation below the eyes had gone and a raging bushfire had commenced in my mouth. I felt like I’d had collagen pumped into my lips and my nose became a river.

Neither of us spoke for a bit but a competition over the water and wine bottles ensued.

China Kitchen offers a small selection of anglicised Chinese dishes like dim sims, prawn toast and chicken with vegetables; but it’s the other end of the menu that provides the point of difference.

Chicken giblets in special sauce, braised and deep-fried intestines, Yu-shaing style eggplant, black fungus omelettes and pumpkin and salty egg yolks provide plenty of entertainment for the adventurous diner. And then there’s that salad bowl of chilli oil, which turns out to be piping hot and filled with basa fillets.

There are several duck dishes, including Peking and Eight Treasures – we tried it crisp-skinned with a pepper sauce (thankfully, before the spicy chicken).

The wine list is a pictorial number and highly commercial. I’d recommend you take advantage of the reasonable BYO policy instead.

Dessert involves sweet potato, taro and pumpkin and reads more like side orders than sweets. There’s also a cold section that has those hackneyed favourites – lychee and ice cream, deep-fried ice cream and ice cream on its own. Our waitress was run off her feet but remained composed and pleasant.

While speciality entrails and gizzards aren’t for everyone, many of these dishes are well worth trying and it is gratifying to see regional integrity winning over cultural homogenisation.

How it rated

The food: 14/20
The staff: 5/10
The drink: 2/5
The X factor: 3/5
The value: 6/10

Total out of 50 - 30

China Kitchen details
Address: 58 High St, Toowong; ph (07) 3871 1688
Food: Szechuan
Drink: Licensed & BYO, corkage $9.80 a table
Hours: 12pm-2.30pm Thu-Sun; 5pm-late 7 days
Chef: Hu Cai
Owner: Jack Li
Wheelchair access: Full amenities
Parking: Under building
Price Guide: Entrees: $5.50 - $18.90; Mains: $15.90 - $26.90; Desserts: $6.90 - $13.90

Snapshot: Chilli junkies have a new spot on the radar; the regional specialties are authentically prepared and delicious. A Teflon tongue might also help.

Information in this article is correct as of 23 February 2010

Lizzie Loel reviews Queensland restaurants for the taste section every Tuesday in The Courier-Mail.

Source
Taste.com.au - The Courier-Mail - February 2010

Author
Lizzie Loel