Super BBQ, Level 3 Food Court, Market City, Chinatown Sydney NSW

I had been tipped off by a family from the north-western corner of the greater Sydney area to try this outlet.


They always go for the roast duck.  Now this can be a tricky bird, as it naturally has lots of oily portions to keep the cold out.   I had eyed this Aussie guy smilingly collecting his noodles with the duck...it did look captivating.   So I had a test with the traditional mix - soy sauce stirred egg noodles, dumplings and roast duck.


I loved it and would return!   It also made me get takeaway boxes of the Char Siew and roast pork.   The former has a juicy tenderness and the latter has a crispy top over the succulent meat.    I can only compare with the barbequed meats at the Eight Modern Chinese Restaurant at market City Sydney Chinatown and with some of similar servings at Hawker. 


The roast duck has an oomph at this Super Chef BBQ.   Its outer skin is not dry and the meat inside has flavour.   Now there is no fancy orange and cherry stuffed inside here, it is just how the skin is hung so dry to capture the honey and other coatings done Cantonese style.





Super Chef BBQ visited is located at the Food Court, level 3, Market City, Haymarket Sydney NSW.


Opening hours are from 930am to 830am every day.
Contact +612  9211 3118

My impressions of the Super Chef BBQ are  focused on one thing - the luscious and tasty roast duck.   No Hong Kong styled goose though.....but prices charged charged are practical and service is fast at this takeaway.   The meats are not overly oily as found in other competitors.

Boma Restaurant Victoria Falls

Carving details on fruits welcome you to a dining experience you will not easily forget.  Diners have hands washed, are greeted by a drumming dance in which they can take part at the entrance and also are provided with local brew.

Grill central - in the centre of the restaurant, which provides both an outdoor atmosphere and covered seating.   Some of the eye opening items that caught my eye and palate are smoked crocodiles, the Mopane worm, game ostrich, Warthog fillet and Nyimo beans.

Guests are provided with an African themed fabric - Chitenges -  to wrap around and soak in the place.  Two languages - Shona and Ndebele - are spoken to greet customers.

Although emphasising barbecued meats, the Boma also has delightful desserts. 

I could not fill in all after a sumptuous feast .

Wander to the meat grilling section and you receive a friendly welcome as to what you want on your plate.
There is also soup from the camp fire and also a sad counter with lots of choices.

The spit and the quality on the outcome depends so much on the skills of the roster and the marinade utilised.

The Boma Restaurant is located as part of the 
Safari Lodge Resort in the town of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
Opening hours are from 7pm each evening.
Nightly entertainment is highlighted by the Amakwezi dancers, Amazulu drummers, a Sangoma (healer) and a traditional oral story teller.

Mike's Grill, Sylvania, NSW - Greek Night

What can I expect on a themed evening, and one that is attractively Greek? I have watched enough Hollywood made movies with the hype of breaking plates and all that at such functions.  Realistically, I knew it was going to be a meat night.  The air was still nippy and my group could not literally find parking  along the busy stretch of Princes Highway leading north and just before Tom Ugly's Bridge, a key landmark that separates Sutherland Shire ( 'the Shire") from the rest of greater Sydney.  And then we found a better spot for the car towards the water, that of the King Georges River, the main arterial waterway in Sydney's south.  We followed the rules and had to cross the overhead pedestrian bridge over the Highway.

Once we survived all that, plus the increasingly nippy air for the first week of September in the southern hemisphere, we were welcomed with already grilled bite sized lamb pieces from an experienced barbecue looking guy manning the front grill. Oh yes, the expected lamb on a spit.  It was already getting relaxed noisy inside Mike's Grill & Bar, with easy to read menus on the large wall and with more women diners than guys. We figured out there could be more than just one birthday party. There were easily a hundred diners in the restaurant.  The last time we were there we did not feel the sense of being in Mykonos or Santorini - tonight we were transported there, although I also thought we must have been in Slyvania.  The staff were quick to organise things, get us seated, commence the train of snacks and kindly allowed us the reds that we thought was okay to bring in. There was a mobile DJ, a small dance floor and tightly packed tables so close beside each other that you could easily start a conversation with strangers.

I enjoyed the fresh salads most of all.  The breads, whether in Turkish, olive-flavoured or unleavened pita traditions, got us going - but hey, we were already having our lamb first!  I did find the calamari fritti rather on the damp side, but they were more than made up by the slow roasted chicken pieces in a gravy of spices, red wine and tomato.  Tasted more Italian, I reckoned. Of course, black and green olives were everywhere.  The spanakopita, a baked pastry with spinach fillings and fetta cheese inside, were easy to cuddle up to.  I did not warm up to the baked pastitsio, a baked pasta dish utilising ground beef and bechamel sauce.    Grilled hulloumi cheese with a slice of lemon was the iconic Greek that evening in the sumptous course.  Hulloumi has origins in Cyprus and is unripened but brined cheese similar to the mozarella, utilising both the milk of goats and sheep.

This was the kind of meal  that one sits with family, mates and the special one, but mind you, they are all there at the same table.   And the souvlaki with tzatziki (cucumber and  yogurt dips) had to make an appearance, at the end, when I was getting full and Franco had to get some clear hard liquor. 
Souvlaki hails from the days of the philosopher Aristotle, offering bite-sized cuts instead of steak portions.

Next it got more merry and groggy. The Greek necked bowl lute, the bouzouki, made an appearance and  started some very cultural tunes and it finally led to a parade of fifty or more ladies dancing happily not just in the restaurant, but out along the streets of Slyvania. What a sight, passing motorists should be lucky to see all this and not endure the eleven hour air flight to Athens. I then further realised dining in a Greek setting was more than eating, it was a communal get together, letting go of one's hair and re-affirming the bonds of friendships and relationships.  The diners at Mike's Grill that evening clapped easily, spontaneously and with a musical flair.

Mike's runs three separate restaurants, at the Royal Hotel in Sutherland, NSW; this joint I went to; and across the Princes Highway, all with their own unique menus.  If it was not Greek night, the north bound outlet just before Tom Ugly's offers a variety of seafood, Italian pastas and wood fired pizzas.  Think of the pork set of ribs, five spiced king prawns and Portuguese styled chicken skewers as stand outs.  Greek Night is held on the first Friday evening of each month at the north bound restaurant.

Would I return?  A definite yes. Thanks , Andy, for driving us back that night, you were our Plan B, so in Australian Motor Registry speak.  We each felt like waking up on some beach the next day, like Wollongong, to recover from an eye opening experience.  Maybe it is more necessary to cycle or have a run, for the women have had their dance at Mike's Grill, whilst most of the men just sat around. Good to catch up with Tez, good to discover an innovative eating and social experience.  It was better than Greek yumcha!

Hong Kong Barbecued Meats

Eastwood, Chatswood, Ultimo, Hurstville in the greater Sydney area.  Doncaster, Richmond, Glen Waverley, Little Bourke Street in Melbourne.  Frisco, Dallas, New York or Chicago in the USA. Vancouver or Toronto in Canada. Soho in London or Chinatown in Amsterdam. Scenes replicated in South-east Asia and Auckland's Dominion Road.  The first wave of emigration out of China was mainly form the southern Chinese provinces, where roasted, barbecued and charbroiled meats were essentially part of the menu and have matured to an art. Glistening, dripping and crunchy. They do look oily.  They can be soy sauced chicken, roast pork, goose or duck, always served whole, replete with neck, claws, buttocks and beaks.  May be it has to do with the Chinese penchant for wholesomeness and intactness.  People line up to buy them whole or cut up in more palatable bite size pieces.  Do note that Chinese styled stuffed sausages and marinated spare ribs are also available in such restaurants.  Above photograph, from left to right: roast pork (siew yoke in Cantonese); whole soy sauced chicken; and whole roast duck.

Seafood grilled and served (picture above), which are often less oily than sheer meats.

As the meats are consumed with steamed white rice (and Lebanese cucumber slices or tomato cuts), it is necessary to also prepare braising sauces to enhance the flavours of such barbecued servings.  Such sauces utilise a combination of light and dark soy sauces, added with touches and dashes of pepper, rock sugar, Shaoxing wine and Chinese rose wine.  It is preferable not to microwave such meats; instead it is better to heat them in the oven or use leftovers as additions to a fresh stir-fry.

Another variation is the compressed, dried and cured duck as shown above.  Originating from winter conditions, it provides a completely different sensation from the barbecued versions.  I am reminded of smoked hams.