Should I visit Kylie Kwong's restaurant in Sydney

[Blue]

I usually avoid eating at Asian restuarants when I visit non-Asian countries. Part of the reason is from my experience in group tours.

In a Taiwanese tour of a non-Asian country, up to 50% of the meals could be served at a Chinese restaurant of all places! The reason is that based on their surveys, many Taiwanese just can't simply get used to one week full of non-Chinese food never mind the fact that there's so many Burger Kings, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, etc. in Taiwan.

In a more international Contiki tour, there was this fellow tourist from the US who kept on wanting to eat at McDonalds regardless we were in Italy or France. I kept on rolling my eyes, but somehow I ended up eating with that tourist at a McDonalds in Paris. There were also Singaporeans tourists in our tour group and I told them "over my dead body" if we were to eat at a Chinese restaurant in Rome.

I usually roll my eyes when visitors from the US end up going to a Japanese restaurant in Taiwan. And I may have offended somebody when I declined to eat at a Japanese restaurant in London (but perhaps I should have reminded myself that British cuisine wasn't much to begin . . . . . . . with the exception of pies, smash, fish n chips, and scones, maybe one should enjoy Japanese or Spanish food in London).

Anyway, I'm going to Sydney, and I think I'll break my rule by visiting Kylie Kwong's restaurant www.kyliekwong.org/BillyKwongs.aspx

Basically she's a fifth generation Chinese Hakka Australian who appears in a cook show that appears in one of Discovery channel's networks such as Discovery Travel and Living. I also roll my eyes at what she cooks (as do my relatives), but at least I could claim that I visited her restaurant. Has anyone in this forum tried that place?

[edcat7]

I have a distain for food celebraties, especially those who've never worked in a restaurant. Take for example a certain food writer who had a promotion at a certain hotel in HK.

She made one, yes one stuffed oyster and when the sous chefs asked her how to make 200 she replied ' you're the chefs!'

After eating Polish food in Poland I was glad to see a McDonalds

[Blue]

Went to Billy Kwong restaurant (owned by celebrity chef Kylie Kwong). Debated between
"Dry-Fried Biodynamic Hokkien Noodles with Chinese Cabbage, Homemade XO & Grained Kombu (100% Natural) 27 AUD" and

"Freshly-Made Flat Egg Noodles, Shredded Chicken, Organic Warrigal Greens, Nasturtiums, Lebanese Cress & Chilli 23 AUD".

Ending up trying the Biodynamic Hokkien Noodles because felt that the second option was a fancier version of 7-Eleven cold noodles ubiquitous in Taiwan and because I never tried Hokkien Noodles. (I thought that the more south you go in China, the thinner the noodles, but looks like this is an exception.)

In any case: expensive and overrated (or in Hokkien: Hiat ni gui!).

And I was the only Asian customer in that restaurant! The waiters were white and the cooks were Asian. They must have looked at me, trying to figure out if I was some sort of epicure trying to judge Kylie's cooking style. They gave me Kylie's cookbook to browse where I found recipes that a horrible cook like me can do. Maybe I should repackage my mother into a celebrity chef.

[rappelz]

She made one, yes one stuffed oyster and when the sous chefs asked her how to make 200 she replied ' you're the chefs!'

[rappelz]

:)I like eat snack food.

[dragona]

I usually roll my eyes when visitors from the US end up going to a Japanese restaurant in Taiwan.

[davidmdahl]

We had Indian food in London years ago, and it was the best dinner on the trip. The bowl of chili at the Tex-Mex restaurant was a bad choice, however. Not a big surprise there though.

On a trip in a strange place after a long day of looking around, sometimes you want to eat something familiar and comfortable. For some people, maybe that is Japanese food. I bet in a cosmopolitan place like Taiwan (Taipei?), a visitor can find just about any kind of food done well. I think though, I would look for something other than Tex-Mex.

Best wishes,

David

[edcat7]

Yes, there are some excellent Indian restaurants in the UK. Hindi seems to be London's second language Fish and chips or if you really want to be a local, eel pie and mash. What were you doing in London? I think I'd rather be in Portland.