It is such a bore to dine alone.
Food can only be this good when one is alone because I feel that food tastes better when shared and even better when the person who is sharing that certain dish with you knows his or her food. However, for the past four weeks, I found myself thrown back into the experiences I had four years ago. Lucky number four.
Anyway, the self-wallowing would end here. My dining partner aka the girl with sensitive taste buds aka my sister is back in Melbourne, along with mooncakesfromShang Palace, my favourite restaurant in KL to go have dim sum aka yum cha, pile of cheap t-shirts from Zara (Zara, is still cheaper in KL) and goodies from Hokkaido. Albeit cooking a Momofuku and Just Bento inspired feast for her, we opted to eat out for her return was a special occasion.
And the place I've picked?Chin Chin. Just because both of us have Chin as our surnames. And double Chin symbolise our reunion.
No lah! Just kidding. The reason for my decision to bring my sister to Chin Chin is the hype surrounding it. I needed to know for myself whether Chin Chin is really that good because every single blogger who posted on Urbanspoon! likes i t.
And after my meal at Chin Chin, I did not like it... BUT LOVED IT.
Very old school
Menu
Spicy egg net rolls, Spanner Crab and Chili Jam (Serve 2 - 12 AUD)
Caramelised Sticky Pork with Sour Herb Salad and Chili Vinegar (24 AUD)
I love how the fatty bits can be removed without too much effort
Cucumber pickle (5 AUD) and rice (3 AUD)
Son in Law Eggs (3 eggs - 8 AUD)
A platter of little things to share ( 13 AUD )The old school decor was charming. I could not stop looking around, absorbing every bit of detail inside of me. This includes the intricate patterns on the high ceiling and the mosaic patterns that adorned the bar. Chin Chin oozes communal but I think they took it a little too serious because the chairs were placed too close to each other and basically, you can eavesdrop on what everyone is talking about. The ladies next to my table kept looking and pointing at our dishes.Noise levels can resemble the traditional kopitiam because every customer is trying to find their voice amidst the loud bistro music. It creates a vibrant and less tense environment but the amount of noise turned me into a frightened mice. I am to fault because I was overexposed to the subway noise of Boston and New York. So if noise is not your cup of tea, you might want to come in really early.
Our waiter is really friendly but as things spiralled down into chaos, our waiter is serving few tables at once. Not good. Service can be really slow when the entire restaurant is teeming with hungry customers. Every corner is a distraction. It can get really uncomfortable but the food, oh lord, the food will make me return to Chin Chin for seconds, thirds and fourths.
Yes, my dear readers, IT IS THAT GOOD.
Chin Chin, on Urbanspoon, is described as offering Vietnamese, Thai and Malaysian fares. I believe that none of their dishes are strictly confined to one cuisine and Chinese elements could be found too. When at Chin Chin, sharing is a must. You can choose not to share but it will take away! the fun of dining at Chin Chin because their aim is to allow customers to sample a range of Asian flavors. With this in mind, I had a long discussion with my sister on what to order. We ended up with Spicy Eggnet rolls, Caramelised sticky pork, Pickles and a bowl of rice. At some point, we added the Son in Law eggs because my sister says so!
The first to arrive was the spicy egg-net rolls. One first glance, it looked really humble. There were no brushstrokes of chili jam or that sort of stuff on the earth green serving plate. It was as it is. Upon closer scrutiny, one can see the intricate net designs of the egg net. It was fine work and I really appreciated that. My sister and I had a bite of our rolls. One bite and we were transported back into childhood.
When we were children, our parents would occasionally buy us assortedNyonyakuih. One of the kuihs would be pulut panggang, a kuih that consists of glutinous rice with a savoury centre that is wrapped in banana leaf. And the egg net rolls tasted just like pulut panggang. They had the signature flavours of the aforementioned Nyonya kuih: coconut, lemongrass, chilli, shrimp, and in the case of the rolls, crab. We were impressed. Never in Melbourne, I had been to a restaurant as such as had authentic Malaysian flavours delivered straight into my mouth. Again, I would like to say this. We were impressed.
And the caramelised sticky pork would only impress us more. The taste of the pork reminded me of the famous Chinese pork hock dish, which is commonly served with a sweet and sour dressing on the side. I do not quite remember the name but this dish usually appears in Chinese New Year banquets.
Although most of the pork is really moist and easily torn off, there were small parts of the caramelized sticky pork that were dry. However, this could be taken care of by bathing i! t in the sweet and sour dressing, which had this lovely aroma of fish sauce. I loved the addition of the coriander and other exotic herbs. I felt that they made the dish more exciting.
We had the pork with rice and pickles. My sister suspected that they used chicken stock to prepare the rice because it reminded her of the rice she had at a tauge ayam establishment in Ipoh. I suspected that there was hint of pandan in the rice. The rice was good with the pork and our son-in-law eggs. Man, speaking of the eggs, I felt that they were really addictive. Really oily thanks to the chilli jam but I know some versions of chilli jam are oily. So, I could not fault it. How could I fault it when the chilli jam tastes exactly like the same thing you can find in a good nasi lemak stall back in Malaysia?? I could not. My sister could not.
Pardon my French, but it's just so f***ing delicious. And spicy. The rice and pickles rescued the fire that was burning down the roof of our oral cavities. Haha.
Desserts were not too bad although I wished I ordered something else. We had the little things to share, which was not very little. My sister and I ended up arguing over who should eat more of what and what should be abandoned because it was not little at all. The platter comprised of ginger marshmallows coated with dark chocolate, white chocolate truffles with lemon-coconut filling, salted coconut candy and chocolate-hazelnut macarons. The marshmallows were a little too sweet although I enjoyed the ginger. The texture of the macarons were slightly off and the ganache numbed my teeth. However, the truffles were surprisingly good and addictive. We save the candied for our breakfast the following day and I have to say, it tastes like dodol, a sticky Malaysian dessert, except it is not as solid as dodol.
Our meal ended just there. We fought the noise, enjoyed mind-blowing dishes. I was tire! d. My si ster was tired. We all went home, thinking of the irony about how my sister just landed in Melbourne all the way from Kuala Lumpur, just to enjoy Malaysian inspired dishes, and wanting to return (in spite of the noise levels etc.)
Life is a funny thing.
Little things:
-Cuisine: Asian, Modern
-Ambience: Noise levels can get pretty intolerable and the place can get pretty cramped during peak hours on weekends.
-Service: Methinks that they should employ more waiting staff because I feel bad for the waiting staff during peak hours on weekends.
-Portions: Reasonable. Goldilocks perfect.
-Budget: Damage done. 76 AUD. Still water is really pricey here. :( 11 AUD per bottle!! Our meal costs us only 65 AUD.
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