Ah, Spice Temple. That venerated institution of Chinese cuisine hidden behind a door disguised as an LCD screen on the side of a building buried deep within Sydney's legal quarter. Dark, intimate and hushed, it is not your usual Chinese food joint.
Once you enter and descend the dark, moody stairs, you leave behind your daily worries and concentrate on the delicious, amazing dishes of China's lesser known culinary regions, including Guangxi and Xinjiang.
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| Chicken and black fungi dumplings, $16 |
These crystal clear pastry (is pastry the right word?) are very, very hard to get right. They are very glutinous, very sticky - yet not so sticky that they get stuck in your teeth; they must be meltingly soft, yet not so soft as to fall apart before their delicious contents could be transported into your mouth. Getting these right is worthy of respect, and Spice Temple does not disappoint. The flavour of the chicken mince and black fungus are mild and clean, neither reliant on the sauce sauce and hot sauce for flavour, nor overwhelmingly salty and blunt. Balance at its finest.
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| Belt Noodles with pork and fermented chilli |
Belt noodles are distinctive to the Western parts of China - extra room to carry all that flavour. The belt noodle is one of Spice Temple's special dishes, and packs quite a bit of heat - but don't worry, it is nothing like the kind of tongue-numbing, tear-jerking heat in some Chinese cuisine. I would say that if you have some tolerance for heat, you should certainly give this a go. The pork mince and fermented chilli are salty, flavourful, silky and moreish; with the salt and the grease cut by some clean, fresh cucumber slices. Highly recommended.
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| Fried noodles with chicken |
Another wonderfully flavourful noodle - slightly smokey from the wok, the meat torn into bite-sized pieces so every chopstick-full is the perfect combination of noodle and topping.
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| Noodles with lamb and cumin |
Reminiscent of the sizzling beef dish that is often the show stopper at the suburban Chinese restaurant (the waiter pouring the beef and onions onto a piping hot griddle with flare, oil spitting everywhere, excitement growing), this noodle is like that, but all grown up and elegant. The flavours are strong but also well-balanced so that you never feel it's too salty, or too sweet, or too oniony, or too meaty - everything just in perfect, subtle balance.
Score: 4/5
Cost: usually a $100 per person affair, if you walk in during workday lunch time, you might get these bowls of noodles for $15. Shhh...don't tell anyone.
Address: 10 Bligh St, Sydney NSW 2000
Website: http://www.spicetemple.com.au/
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