Chinese restaurants have been serving Chop Suey cuisine to their Australian customers for such a long time that it is extremely difficult to break through that barrier and convince them to acknowledge that there is a “more Chinese” menu and that you will enjoy the authentic food. In most cases they just insist that there is no other menu or if you do manage to obtain the “Chinese” menu they will try and talk you out of the dishes you’d like to order because “this is Chinese food, you won’t like this” It sometimes takes months and repeated visits to gain the trust of the host, but once you have managed it is a rewarding experience indeed.
Last night I was lucky enough to be invited by someone who was already “initiated’ and knew “the secret handshake” at the door. We had dinner in Chinatown in a small, upstairs restaurant that despite my years of eating out in Sydney I have never even noticed. The instructions were: Enter Chinatown from the bottom gates (near Paddy’s Market) and walk up the pedestrian Mall on the left hand side. Look out for a small doorway, leading upstairs. There will be predominantly Chinese character neon signs above the door but the words “YinLi” and “Sichuan” will be legible clearly there in blue neon.
Our host consulted Feng Laoban, the owner, and together they worked out a suitable banquet. What followed was the best northern Chinese food I have ever tasted. We had a Sichuan Home Soup No. 2, a wonderfully cleansing broth with Chinese greens, tofu and cucumber. The Gong Bao Ji Ding, a chicken dish with nuts tasted a little like the filling of a good San Choy Bow and the Spicy Green Bean Thread Noodle is a hand-shredded pasta with green bean powder, black vinegar, sesame seed oil and lots of roasted dried red chilli. The Ma Po Dofu turned out to be silken tofu in a slightly sweet chilli sauce with black beans and toasted Sichuan peppercorns and my favourite dish of the night, the Gan Bian Green Beans were simply the best green beans I have ever tasted, regardless of cuisine or cooking style. Now let me tell you about green beans and me. They are my measure of how well a chef can cook. I hate undercooked green beans with a passion and abhor overcooked, mushie green beans. It is not easy to get it right. Last night’s beans were first steamed then deep-fried, served with minced pork, deep-fried eschalots, sesame seed oil and butter and dried red chilli flakes. Absolutely heavenly! All in all there was an almost “Thai style” balance to the combination of dishes. We had complete harmony of Hot, Sour, Sweet and Salty and a great variety of textures as well.
An almost impossible cuisine to successfully match wine to, we drank Tsing Tao beer and Chinese tea.
Thanks to Mark Henry of Füritechnics who introduced me to this fabulous place and to Colin Feng for looking after us so beautifully. I will be back!
YinLi Chinese Restaurant
71 Dixon Street
Chinatown NSW 2000
Tel.: 02 9211 9590