The quest for Oriental culinary perfection

Having had absolutely inedible Beef Fried Flat Noodles (Ngau Yuk Chow Hor) in Toowong, I was ever more determined to find the perfect Chinese food. Friends and family back in KL laugh their heads off hearing this - as my mum puts it, "You didn't eat Chinese food when it was in cheap abundance back home and now you crave it?"

So X and I headed off on the weekend to Sunnybank, which per several friends, was THE real Chinatown (The Valley doesn't count) of Brisbane.

On the way, we stopped at the IKEA at Logan for breakfast, which came recommended by X's friend. I lived across the largest IKEA in South East Asia for 5 years and had many happy meatball-related memories of the place. When we were poor students who couldn't afford to tete a tete at cafes, we'd sit around in cosy ambience of the showrooms, ignoring strange looks by legitimate customers.

It turned out to be Bogan Central. The place was crowded with red necks with about 15 children each and direct imports fighting for the $2 breakfast plates. It was horrible. X and I had the misfortune of lining up behind a tired-looking babysitter/ older sister straddled with two kids who couldn't stop running about. They refused to follow the queue and kept harassing everyone nearby. "They make me want to stab myself in the uterus", I whispered to X.

The food itself was nothing special. Milky scrambled eggs, greasy wieners and fatty bacon with tomato and oily hash browns. No wonder everyone there took up so much space. They probably ate this junk everyday!

After the unsatisfying meal, we wandered through the Marketplace to search for an elusive, uniquely shaped pillow X needs for his massage treatments. The quality of the items seemed even poorer than the ones back in Malaysia, which are generally relatively decent.

Disillusioned, we left for Sunnybank and stopped at Sunnybank Plaza. It had Chinese characters and heaps of Asians, so I guess we were at the right place. There was a massive crowd at a doorway, which turned out to be the entrance of Landmark Restaurant. I flipped through the menu, failing to notice the prices were for take away, and took a number.

My mum used to make an excellent vegetable soup, so I hunted for the ingredients at the local Asian market. Bought heaps of Indomie and some herbal soup mixes.

Indomie - most commonly seen at the airport customs, being pulled out of bags owned by sheepish Asian families

An hour later, our turn was up (yes, it was that crowded). The place was carpeted and chandeliered in the typical Chinese fashion (ubiquitous paintings of koi fish and bamboo included). There was a good mix of Chinese and non Chinese patrons. The dish du jour was dim sum, which I'm not too fond of. X got a plate of Siew Mai (steamed pork dumplings) as appetiser. We ordered Yeung Chow Fried Rice and Beef and Vegetable Flat Noodles.


This was absolutely scrumptious. The portion however, is not justified by the picture above. Even X was amazed at how large the serving was. It was sooooooo good. Shrimps, char siew (barbequed pork) bits and egg-y rice. We finished everything, doused liberally with soy sauce - I ♥ my sodium.



This looks good but failed to live up to expectations. I suspect the flavour was westernised. The beef was tender and the gravy was yummy, but the version of which I was after was the noodles stir fried. We pecked at the (admittedly tender) meat and left most of the noodles intact. Portion also ginormous.

Stuffed, we waddled out after paying the AUD40.80 bill. I tried to ignore the Malaysian in me screaming silently, You paid MYR100+ for street food?!! Are you nuts? That's enough to buy 25 plates of the stuff! This was later reiterated by every Malaysian I spoke to.

There were a few things I was unhappy about though:

a) The AUD4 "tea surcharge". What the heck is that? And why wasn't this fee explicitly displayed on the menu?

b) The lack of itemised billing. I wouldn't have known about the "tea surcharge" if I hadn't stood there (with about a hundred patrons behind me) and interrogated the cashier.

c) The wait staff's lacking communication skills. I tried speaking English. They didn't seem to understand. Then I tried Cantonese. Still non comprehendo. I tried Mandarin. It sorta went through but they still got our drinks wrong.

I suppose if I ever get a craving for Chinese food again, I'd return, though we'd avoid over-ordering this time. Hopefully in the mean time, we find somewhere cheaper and closer to home.