Billy Kwong, Surry Hills

I was having quite a day on Monday, that feeling of being overwhelmed for no reason, bad luck and silly mistakes happening left, right and centre, and you just wished you could duck back under your covers.  I couldn't be happier when dinner time was around the corner, and I was meeting my friend K for dinner at Longrain.  It had been a while and everything was starting to look better,  as I was dreaming of cocktails and dessert platters.  Unfortunately, when I got to Longrain it was closed for a private function.  You can't book, especially for two, but when you get there you become stranded.  Note to self, just call next time and make sure there is no private function, lesson learnt.

Unbelievable, my day was just getting worse, as I was looking up other restaurants of interest and one after another was closed on Monday.  K mentioned Italian and something hearty, so Pizza e Birra sprung to mind and a call confirmed that they were opened.  K was driving down Crown Street, and I noticed Billy Kwong and a tiny queue outside.  I remembered an article written by Terry Durack from a while back on 'the 50 things every Sydney food lover should try', and on that list was was the fried egg dish at Billy Kwong's.  I had to know if the fried egg dish compared to my grandmother's, so a convinced K was willing to give it a go, especially when she got a glimpse of Kylie Kwong in the kitchen, so that's how we ended up at Billy Kwong's.

Now, you would think that everything was hunky dorky after getting a table, but it wasn't.  However, it was my own doing as my compact camera and the dim lighting wouldn't agree with each other and my cold tired hands that night.  It was decided that the best resort for the food photos that night, would be my BlackBerry Torch.

They didn't have the exact fried egg dish that was listed by Terry Durack, but close enough.  Even better as I prefer XO sauce over oyster sauce.  Our first dish of the homestyle fried biodynamic eggs with organic tamari and housemade XO came out.  Sometimes with rice, there is nothing better then crisp puffy fried eggs with a runny yolk and a dash of soy sauce.  This is a dish that definitely makes me thing of my grandma, but her soy sauce of choice is still Maggi to this day.  The fried eggs at Billy Kwong's is a much more refined version, with the XO sauce, chillies and shallots really coming through.  I just think it needed a touch more seasoning to really shine.  However, K's never had anything like this texturally and she really enjoyed it.

Homestyle fried biodynamic eggs with organic tamari and housemade XO, $19

I was thankful the friendly staff told us what was on the special menu.  Otherwise, K and I would have missed out on the steamed savoury pancakes with cumin beef and housemade sauce, as we couldn't make out the writing on the handwritten specials menu provided to us.  The shredded beef with cumin was lovely, especially with the sweet housemade sauce that really accentuated the flavours of the beef.  The sauce really bought this dish together, once you wrapped up the pancakes with the cucumbers and shallots as well.  There was plenty of beef left over after the Peking duck style pancakes were demolished, so we happily ate the beef with our rice and spoonfuls of housemade sauce on top.

Steamed savoury pancakes with cumin beef and housemade sauce, $32

There's a bit of a wait between courses, and we're starting to get full.  It's not a good situation as we're still waiting for our two mains.  I was praying that the main portions sizes would be on the smaller side.  However, our chicken main of crispy-skin free-range chicken with organic brown rice vinegar dressing came out and it was huge, and we're laughing about over ordering again.  We chose this over the duck with mandarin sauce special, as we  had already ordered the pork belly special and didn't want another overly rich dish.  However, I think we may have regretted that choice, as the chicken skin was far from crispy, and as succulent as the chicken was, the vinegar dressing was slightly bland.  This dish didn't quite have that kick or crispness we were expecting, it felt more like a poached chicken dish.

Crispy-skin free-range chicken with organic brown rice vinegar dressing, $48

While we were listening to the specials, we also heard pork belly and decided to go with it, as the dishes have super long names here and it had been a long day.  This was our favourite dish of the night, and it's been a while since I enjoyed a pork belly dish as much as this one.

When I usually have pork belly, I feel that it's quite heavy going down.  However, I didn't have an issue with the caramelised, but soft pork belly here.  I also find a lot of the time that grapes aren't use properly in savoury dishes and act more like a garnish, but not this time either.  The grapes were actually slightly cooked, so when you bit into the plump grape, the sweet warm grape juice exploded in your mouth and acted as the perfect foil against the fattiness of sweet pork belly, making it so easy to go down.  The addition of the crisp pieces of celery and cabbage were perfect texturally, and helped balance out the sweetness of the sauce.

Caramelised pork belly, $47

K and I ended up clutching our stomachs and looking at our half chicken and half dish of pork belly still on the table.  As we have gotten older, we really don't eat as much as we use to.  As we were reminiscing about this and how much we use to eat, an angel of a waiter came over to save us from all the unconsumed food by offering to pack them away for us.

The dishes were packed in some small, but cute BioPaks.  This is how Cheesecake Boy got a fabulous take away dinner after uni on Monday night too.  After a long day of work and study, I guess nothing's better than a pork belly and rice dinner to recharge the batteries, and Cheesecake Boy contently agreed too.  By the way, the flavours of the chicken got better the next day too, as the vinegar was sharper and came through in the chicken more.

BioPak takeaway dinner waiting for Cheesecake Boy

I love the concept and the philosophy that Billy Kwong stands by, and it's good to see a celebrity chef work hard in their own kitchen.  I don't normally harp about service, but it's been a while that I've been to a place where the staff are so lovely.  When we got out it was freezing and raining, but good food, friends and take away BioPaks start to make you look forward to a good night's rest and the next day.  That is until you get to the the next day, and then you burn your finger by toasting yourself a sugary blueberry bagel for breakfast and reward yourself with two blisters, sigh.  Nothing that half a bottle of good wine won't fix later, right?

Happy dining, Dumpling Girl.

Billy Kwong
Shop 3
355 Crown Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010

Ph: (02) 9332 3300

http://www.kyliekwong.org/Home.aspx