Mamak, Sydney

Well back in the big smoke, well actually these days it kinda feels like the “not so big smoke”. More and more when I return to the places I used to live, I marvel at how big and sophisticated they felt; now I look around amazed at how little they’ve changed, or how much I have. Restaurants that used to dazzle now pale in comparison to street side stalls and markets, the bustle of a busy street is nothing after you’ve experienced Tokyo or New York at rush hour, most of all it makes me laugh at how big and important I thought my tiny little part of the world was.
But I digress; we were back in Sydney and looking for something tasty and soulful to begin what we hoped would be a fantastic gastronomic couple of weeks (little did we know). Had heard a rumour this little place down on the edge of Chinatown was supposed to be throwing down the real taste of Malaysia, and after 7 months in Japan we were in dire need of those sorts of flavours.
From what we had heard Mamak down on Goulburn street was small, casual and super authentic, sweet! We took a stroll down George St (haven’t missed that) and hit Mamak bang on opening. Just as well we did within minutes there was a good size queue standing at the door wishing they had arrived earlier.



We order a few things to share starting off with the rojak; a salad we first experienced in Singapore. It arrives piled high with a great mix of crispy tofu and prawn cake, fresh cucumber and pineapple as well as a boiled egg, usually the salad is covered in a spicy sour sweet sauce, in this case the sauce was pooled under the salad but the flavours were oh so there.



The next dish to arrive was Roti telur bawang, egg and onion sandwiched between two roti sheets served with two curry sauces and sambal, it’s really hard to describe how amazing the flavours were after so long without.



Then a nasi lemak, usually for breakfast, but it’s always breakfast somewhere right? The plate piled with rendang, sambal prawns, peanuts, cucumber, egg, crispy fish and balanced on the top of the coconut rice a fantastic fried chicken leg. We tried hard not to wolf it all down, but, well, y’know.



Now that we had decided we were full, but not so full we couldn’t manage half a dozen satay sticks. We ordered some up much to the dismay of those still standing in the doorway waiting. The sticks arrived a huge bowl of satay sauce balanced on the satays some cucumber and red onion.
First mouthful and it was instant transportation back to the streets of Jakarta (yes I know it's not Malaysia but thats where it took me), minus the traffic and street dogs but that’s all just atmosphere, smoky, spicy and with a touch of chilli and lemon grass. Oh so good.
When we finally rolled out past the green eyed monster stares of the masses, I was so happy that our former small world still had some big food.

Mamak
15 Goulburn St,
Haymarket, Sydney
Open 7 daysLunch: 1130am to 3pmDinner: 530pm to late

Golden Mile Food Centre, Singapore

Our first visit to Golden Mile Food Centre we were on the hunt for some of the famous Soup Tulang. We first sniffed out the stand with Roti John, Adimann Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice ... this Muslim stall is known to do a mean Roti John with loads of minced mutton and egg topped with a little mayonnaise and chili sauce. The Roti John is a Singaporean creation of onions and eggs spread on a split French loaf and grilled. This one was awesome! it had just the right amount of chili sauce and mayonnaise, heaps of flavour from the mutton, slightly crunchy onions and all in a bizarre soft of French Toast / Omelet roll way ....

.. and then noticed Haji Kadir & M. Baharudeen Soup Tulang was right next door. After ordering our Roti John we placed an order. This is all they do, you just specify how much you want on your plate e.g $5, $6, $8, $10

Soup Tulang is a wicked mutton marrow bone dish. The bones braised in an addictive bright red tomato & chili broth served with chunks of French Bread, to mop it all up.

There's no polite way to eat it, you just need to get in there, fingers, hands and all. The little plastic spoon you're giving works well when reversed and the handle used to poke the last little bits of marrow through ... The soup here is very robust, sweet, spicy, thick & a little gamey with a good amount of meat left on the bone to gnaw on as you slurp through the marrow. What an experience!

We still had a little more room and a few more places on our list. On the top floor we found Chong Cheng Chilly Mee, Prawn Mee, Laksa a renowned hawker of chili noodles. A fragrant and fiery dish of egg noodle, pork slices, pork ribs, prawns, hard-boiled egg all topped with a smack-your-lips chili sauce. A small bowl of soup on the side, and all for S$3. How good is that?

Not able to fit it all in on one trip, we returned again later in the week. We were here to check out Mansaku, a hawker stall busting out traditional Japanese in the midst of all things Singaporean.

Here you have a choice of 6 sets including katsu, terriyaki, unagi and a couple of dons. Being very unimaginative we both went for the terriyaki chicken. In all fairness, it was the only set that came with the chawanmushi that we were both eyeing off ....

The chicken itself was a beautiful piece of thigh, still with the skin on. It was so tender inside, like it had been steamed. But with delicious crispy skin all laden in a glistening terriyaki sauce.. there was the standard shredded cabbage with chili mayo garnish. A great little chawanmushi with chunks of chicken and shitake mushroom sunk in the bottom. Miso soup. Rice and a wedge of fresh cut watermelon.

All this was served from a bustling little stall, with just 2 men doing the lot. Seriously, this place was so busy, we never saw the line less than 10 deep and constantly moving. Superb! and at S$4.80 a set, Amazing!

Golden Mile Food Centre

(not to be confused with the Golden Mile Food Complex)

505 Beach Rd

Adimann Hainanese Boneless Chicken Rice, for Roti John

#B1 - 14

11am - 11:30pm

Haji Kadir & M. Baharudeen Soup Tulang

#B1 - 13/14/15

11:30am - 1:30am

Chong Cheng Chilly Mee, Prawn Mee, Laksa

#01 - 59

9am - 8pm

Mansaku

#01 - 93

11am - 4:30pm

Closed Monday