Happy Chinese New Year!
Yes i am aware that this was like last month… but I’ve been so busy with work and all I haven’t had much time to blog 
Usually for Chinese New Year, my entire extended family from my dad’s side would get together and eat a massive seafood based meal. NB: I’m not much of a seafood eater, hence I struggle a lot during these meals. This year, we didn’t go to the massive family get together, as we went up the coast, but when we got back we took Grandma to Hurstville Chinese Restaurant.
We were really lucky to get a table, if we had walked in 2 minutes later we would have been sent packing! lol They were really busy due to the continuing Chinese New Year festivities with all, but 2 tables, book out till 9pm. >__< The place was absolutely buzzing!!
Complementary peanuts
These were nice and soft, great for my – pretty much toothless – grandma! The peanuts were also salty which was a great way of starting the meal and getting the taste buds working.
Complementary Pork Bone and Wintermelon Soup
I was surprised to find a decent amount of pork in the soup and it wasn’t just fat but loads of meat!
Sweet and Sour Pork
Mmmmmm these massive chunks of meat were to die for. The sauce was just perfect and had a great balance of sweet and sour flavour. My only grip would be that I like my sweet and sour pork to be swimming in sauce (I know a lot of people hate that though…) but other than that PERFECT! The serving size may look small in the photo but it was actually quite decent.
Salt and Pepper Squid
Nothing can go wrong with salt and pepper squid, if it is cooked to perfection. And this certainly was! What more can I say? Not oily, awesome crunch sound when you bit into it and it made you keep wanting to eat more. YUM!
Stir-fry Assorted Mushrooms with Vegetables
I didn’t actually realise that this dish was a mushroom dish until I started to help myself to some and all I got was mushroom! LOL. There was every type of mushroom under the sun! Oyster, shiitaki, enoki and whole lot of others! (sorry I should have written them down…) I find that in Chinese cooking the sauce can be sometimes way too salty.. but this dish it actually tasted very refreshing! 
Chicken
Ok. This is going to sound a bit weird… but when I go to Hong Kong and eat their chicken there… there is actually a chicken taste. When I come back to Australia and eat chicken.. I feel as if it doesn’t have any taste, as in there is no chicken taste… Anyways… This chicken was the first chicken that i’ve eaten in a long while that actually had the chicken taste! It was so good that it was pretty much demolished within 10 minutes! The chicken was juicy and cooked to perfection! It think my mother said that the chicken was cooked in an ‘expensive’ master stock or something like that… lol
Complementary Fruit
Complementary Red Bean Soup
The red bean soup was extremely sweet – way to sweet for my liking. There was a wonderful hint of orange peel within the soup that made you just want to eat more and more and more… even though it was really sweet! (just drink loads of water after!)
Overall it was a lovely Chinese restaurant that I would be happy to revisit when needing an authentic and large meal! The restaurant also got Grandma’s tick of approval, so it is definitely a place worth trying!
Hurstville Chinese Restaurant
184 Forest Road (cnr of Park Street)
(02) 9586 0828
