41 Dixon St. Haymarket, Sydney 2000
First things first: I'm a congee virgin, or, was until a recent trip to Super Bowl Restaurant in the heart of Sydney's Chinatown. I've heard about it, read about it, and generally felt impassive about what can essentially be referred to as a form of gruel... or rice porridge to put it more lightly.
Well, my recent obsession with Chinese food, particularly the mountainous quantities in which it is served, coupled with the enthusiasm of my gruel-loving (read: rice porridge-loving and all around fantastically awesome) partner led us straight to the 'Bowl to dive into the first of what will surely be many bowls of Congee to follow.
I've heard many 'a mixed opinion about Super Bowl and it's sister restaurant Super Meal around the corner, so it was time to find out which team I'd be bandwagoning for after the game. After a lengthy wait for an outdoor table we were finally seated by the friendly "hosts" and welcomed with a large pot of tea. We already knew that most of our meal would consist of a piping hot bowl of congee, but what about something to wipe it all up... fried bread? Yes please! And what's a trip to Chinatown without an order of the fantastically stereotypical "Shanghai Fried Noodles with Chilli and Beef" you say? An indifferent one? I disagree my friend.
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| Fried bread: the best food group in the world meet the best cooking method in the world. |
The fried bread is of course as good as it looks: crunchy, oily and all so savoury. I find it uncomfortably hard to resist while we wait for the bowl of congee to arrive. At $3 and 3 minutes of waiting a plate, who really cares if it's finished before the waiter can even say "more tea?"
Well lucky for us, it doesn't take much longer for the two dishes to arrive whilst I still have a few morsels of bread left on the plate. And how they arrived! Like that Dilophosaurus must have felt after seeing a plump Wayne Knight tumble down the slippery slope to his eventual doom, the bowl of congee drew my eyes wide open and sent my stomach into a grumbling fury. It's massive! Didn't we order a small? And that plate of noodles, it's bigger than Newman's head!
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| Small congee with chicken... |
Unlike the dinosaur however there was no spitting involved here, at least not in anger, as the congee was quite delicious. That being said, the next time around I'll definitely be ordering something a little more adventurous, as the chicken variety wasn't too out there in flavour. It reminded me of a thickened porridge version of a good chicken soup. Oh and the noodles? On the plus side they were hot, laced with chilli and flavoursome spices, but on the downside they were oily. Next time I'd definitely go with a more textured dish and complimentary dish, or stick entirely to a heartier bowl of congee.
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| Shanghai Style Fried Noodles with Chilli & Beef |
Super Bowl strikes me as the kind of place where you can duck out of the frantic loop and relax as the flurry of a busy nighttime Haymarket passes you by. The food isn't out-of-this-world by any stretch, but the way it differentiates itself from most of what's on offer on the Chinatown strip is good enough for me. It's open late, invites you to BYO and the menu screams out "take your time", even if the queue is growing larger and more impatient by the minute. The congee is sizeable and perfect sustenance for whatever lies ahead. I can't wait to find myself settling down at a table in the cold months of June and July, Tsingtao in hand and a giant bowl of congee to ale my winter woes, can you?
Super Bowl Chinese Restaurant - Map & Directions
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