A Weekend of Three Restaurants

The Towon Restaurant in Chatswood, Sydney, is run by a Korean family who spent some considerable time in north-eastern China. The cuisine is primarily Chinese with a unique Korean accent. There is Chinese food from Malaysia, Singapore, California, the United Kingdom, Canada, Vietnam and Thailand - so I found it particularly interesting to try such a variation. Presentation from the Towon is outstanding. The serving staff wear a clean dark uniform - the neatness of the dishes presented is more than matched by the taste. At the table in the private dining room, we had Beijing duck with crispy skin so different from the usual fare of the China's capital. There was more than a strong hint of spices and chilli in Towon's creations.

The Metro in Wollongong CBD, New South Wales, offered what could be described as three-course Australian fare. For a mate's fortieth birthday, around 30 of us gathered to partake in the ritual of drinks, dining and birthday cake singing - we took up the street level floor of this one-shop front cozy restaurant that sits across Lorenzo's Diner, one of the regional township's best Italian restaurants. I had a perfect cut of a pork medallion, braised in the most delightful juices, for my mains. My entree of a light spaghetti pasta flavoured by prawn and chili was better than the dessert of tangy lemon tart lets. I could get home in under ten minutes by car.

Hong Fu in Parramatta is an unpretentious eatery run by a family from north-east China. It is neither Beijing nor Manchurian, and I suspect Shandung cuisine. Service is quick but bookings are necessary. Popular with ethnic Chinese, what they are doing right is exemplified by the quality of some of their signature dishes. I love the eggplants stir-fried with capsicum, light and tasty. Vehicle parking is easy on the street side within walking distance. There is no fuss in the ambiance and a good sense of belonging in a community. On a cool evening after some rain, Lin, Joe and I tried the fish and tofu soup, not heavily laden but refreshing with a stock that has foundation but not overwhelming. The dumplings are pretty standard but the vinegar laden cucumber salads stimulate the palate.

Some Things Do Not Change, and Others Do

I had been there countless times for lunch when I was based at the Advance Bank Australia in North Sydney. This was a venue for good memories, for good food and good company. Perched on the top of a slope before the road turns down towards the Sydney Harbour Bridge, depending on where a person approached, one had to climb up a gradient or just stroll on an even path. It must have been sixteen years or more since the owners started there, having moved from Milsons Point. The couple who ran this place now have grown up children, and the husband still maintains a youthful look, despite years of cooking inside the kitchen, for that was his primary job. I am amazed that many of the staff members remained loyal to Irene and her hubby after all these years. On the Saturday I visited aftre so many years, I found out that it was their last day of operation there. The place was crowded - we shared a common table with two radiographer British tourists, Daniel and Liz, who were brought there for lunch by a resident work mate, Lily.

Some things change and others do not. Later that afternoon, I was whisked off to what the Australian media would term an ethnic enclave. This was a mixed business and cultural suburb, with both Chinese and Indian varieties of retail available. I was fascinated by the Indian products and produce on sale, ranging from furniture to bags of basmati rice to festive cakes and freeze-dried sealed ready to eat meals. My mates and I were the only non-Indians in both shops we explored. On the Chinese side, we enjoyed freshly squeezed Queensland sugar cane juice and Taiwan-inspired cold drinks filled with bits of fruits like longans, lychees, jackfruit, palm sago and other such exotic stuff. Janie and I noticed the long queue at a Hong Kong-fashioned barbecue meats shop. We ran into Ming and his friends who had met up for a late afternoon snack. Jennifer went on a grocery shopping rampage, which included purchases from the seafood guys, the butcher shop, the grocery outlets and more. This dynamic suburb was exactly as I remembered it before I moved to Wollongong.

A vegetarian food fair attended by me on another day brought some surprises on how tasty such food can be, when provided with the right sauce, the right company, the right ingredients and the right spices to speak of. I did not find the concocted dishes bland or disheartening. One dish was served even more delicious than its non-vegetarian and original version. I expected to be extremely thirsty after partaking such dishes, half-suspecting that artificial food flavours must have played a part in their surprising tastiness. I did not suffer the post-eating pangs for thirst - to me it was a delightful surprise!

The Long And Winding Road

Between destinations, to and fro, I traversed a continuous road, without turning right or left, but kept on following the curves, bends and the straights.

First, there were passing showers. The drops came down, spot on the windscreen and the applied Rain-X did its work immediately. Upon impact, each sky drop broke into tiny bubbles that then religiously climbed up the glass surface in various splintered directions. The effect on me as the driver and on my passengers was both calming and inspiring. Molecules, components and atoms - these all came collectively to our conscious minds, while our eyes were transfixed on the natural, spontaneous display. We could not really hear the sound of the rain, for the car stereo was on, and the experience was like watching a silent movie in apparent slow motion.

Second, there was this restaurant that we passed by and had a crowd waiting patiently to be seated and served a meal. Maybe it was opening night. Seafood was involved, and it was just after Easter. There was a real sense of buzz and eagerness, even apparent to me just watching while waiting for the set of lights. The food served must be really good, or were the potential customers just acting on word-of-mouth perceptions or hearsay expectations?

Third, there was this route between forests. I did wonder if there were animals, big or small, just waiting to cross the highway or merely eyeing the vehicular traffic from a safe distance. The night sky seemed clearest here, away from the artificial lights made by human beings - and the resulting realization that we were just like ants on a revolving ball hurling through infinite space, like across a field. Everything began to be all relative, just like the relationship in physics between time and distance. Does it matter what each of us does? The cumulative effects appear to be overwhelming, but can dissipate into nothingness as they may cross each other out - good versus bad, small versus big - in the final summation of the ultimate dimension. Stars formed a pattern and the full moon was partly covered by clouds, but it was all a matter of where we were and how fast or slow we were travelling relative to the spin of the planet.

On certain parts of the road, I could see a trail of vehicular tail lights. Like the stars strewn across out corner of the galaxy. Or more so like the seemingly random spread of the water drops on the windscreen as the car climbed up mountain slopes.Or the line of customers waiting eagerly to be fed. Is life structured like the road I was travelling with my fellow companions, or also spontaneous like the sudden down pour from the heavens? Who knows, I just follow my long and winding road, or so it seems.

Penang Island circa 2008

Perth-originated coffee chain DOME operates an outlet in the shipliner shaped Queensbay Mall.


Diverse fresh and dried herbs on sale in an open air Sunday market.





































Handsomely restored front of Pernanakan terrace from the early 20th century.


Romantic getaway in bungalow perched over the seaside near Mouse Isle.


Biscuit varieties on display in traditional storage jars at Belissa Row grocer.

The Equinox

Equal daylight, equal night hours. Whether you are in the north or south, there is a feeling of environmental equity. In Wollongong, the rather warm weather persists, with summer-like harshness of sunlight at noon and at daybreak. The full moon on an equinox evening adds to the alignment of the heavens, earth and the calendar. Catholic and Protestant Easter falling on March 21st this year meant the start of the long weekend in Western countries. I subconsciously await for signs of fall, but only see, with delight, mandarins and Tahitian limes sprouting fruit in my garden.

Autumn normally flags a cooler time, perhaps suited doing the inevitable chore of clothes ironing, but not so far. People do send their laundry to be crisply ironed for a fee, but I secretly enjoy the motion and mindlessness of such a house task. I sip in the rather calming effect of unique tea blends called Morning Flower and Stockholm ( do they grow tea in Sweden?). With more discretionary time, I dabble in a frenzy of cooking, ranging from stir-fried hokkien noodles accompanied by oyster chicken bites to trying new marinade mixtures on meat roasts. I can assume another existence in another world, away from the regime of paid employment and feel like the flora still boisterously growing in my yard.

It may be the supposed season of reconciliation, but I am reminded of the opposite.
A paid subscription to the Sydney Morning Herald sees its delivery cancelled by Fairfax for unbeknown reasons. A sales woman in an aquarium shop in the battler suburb of Warrawong treats me as if I do not exist, even as I was intently looking at some beautiful fishes. However, I view these as minor transgressions, for the overworked check out lady at Woolworths Shellharbour can still manage a smile, a stranger in the queue can chat easily with me ( and I love his Italian accent) and the sales guys at my local Supa Cheap Auto take initiative to ask what I am looking for.

As time whittles away the earlier prospect of five nights and four days on a long weekend, I bury myself with the detail of cleaning the wheel chrome of my car, a current obsession of mine after an advice from a good mate - "never let the dirt grow and nip it in the bud". There is time to catch up on sleep debt and sink into magazines waiting for my attention in the lounge. To underline the significance of cyberspace and computers, I fretted for days on end when my home desktop refused to fire up, but on one miraculous night, the monitor and the cpu decided to come back from holiday.

The evening before the equinox, I had driven to Burwood in Sydney's inner west to attend a birthday party. It was good to start the holidays with friends, and two of them announced an engagement. The Sydney traffic on holiday eve was horrendous to go through, especially with this Australian habit of imposing double demerit points to deduct from your driving license on top of the monetary fines for road offences. However, there was no breath analyser test along Tom Ugly's Bridge on the way back to Wollongong, despite a strong police presence only a week ago. On the night of the equinox, a home cooked dinner spread awaited the fortunate few invited to my Carlingford cousin's home - food galore with lively chats and reunited friends. Like a pause in otherwise ordinary routine, we enjoyed this moment, when the Earth itself as a planet was not tilting as it otherwise does.